Well… I hope no one actually expected much of me as district leader, because I’m not doing great… I mean, I guess I like being DL, but you get tired of being scolded by your Zone Leaders every day for not doing the stuff you didn’t know you were supposed to do, and then this week was REALLY busy and we didn’t do very well, so I had to listen to 15 minutes of THAT…

Yeahhh………

I suppose it would be better if I wasn’t basically doing everything on my own– my companion still doesn’t know the area or the people, so he doesn’t help me plan for the day… or the week… or contact people… or start lessons… or end lessons on time… So I’m just kind of doing everything solo, but I admit I kind of like the responsibility because at least I feel useful, and I get to do some pretty cool stuff, like teaching my district and practicing how to teach well. It’s true what my last companion said: You learn a lot more when you’re forced to do it (As long as you don’t give up, that is…). But at least my companion’s cool! He’s a little weird, but he’s pretty funny and he’ll help me a lot.

This week was really just a really crazy way to start being DL and leading my area for several reasons. First, we went and finally got everything ready for a wedding — we married a family so that we could baptize the wife, Flor.

So that was cool, but it took so much time to do all of it! We had to take an hour-long bus ride to get there, and we went there and back three times in two days! And I’ll tell you: It was a pain in the butt to try and organize all of the changes with other missionaries, because, as with everything else, I basically had to do all of it! But it was worth it because we baptized her the next day.

And if I thought the water was cold in my first baptism, I learned pretty quick to appreciate even slightly-heated-by-the-hot-air water, because it’s better than refrigerated-by-the-night water! Poor Flor was so cold that she was shivering like a chihuahua– she couldn’t even keep her hands still long enough to plug her nose, so she swallowed a bit of water! When we posed for the photo after the baptism she looked so ridiculously cold that I made a face.

But at least we’re all good now!

Well, that’s all I’ve got to report this week, aside from a few problems with interviews (I do the interviews for baptisms now, as a DL, and I TOTALLY bombed two of them! Augggh!), losing the rest of my district (The Sisters got off at the wrong bus stop and none of us knew it until 5 minutes later!), and other things like that. But at least it keeps life interesting!

¡Chao!
— Elder Schroeder

Check out this juice box they have here! I first saw it and I thought, “Mom needs to see this!” So here it is:

Well, this is the end of my 5th transfer in the mission field, but my companion isn’t the only thing that’s changed this week, either! I’m still going to be here in Villa Hermosa, but Elder Rodriguez is being transferred back to Canto Grande, where I started in Machu Picchu and he was my zone leader! We’re both disappointed about that because he really doesn’t want to leave this area the way it is; it’s a branch that doesn’t have a lot of active church-goers because a whole bunch went inactive all at once and REALLY needs some help! He trusts that I can help it and things like that, but I understand how he feels because you want to be right there just to be sure! Then we’re both disappointed because we had a really good time as companions — he’s pretty much the only companion I’ve had so far that was a really good friend, and after this he’s going to finish and it’s likely that we’re not going to be able to see each other again because, well, he lives in Chile! We had a lot of fun as companions, but he’s needed somewhere else to help out another weak branch, so it’s all good! We still have Facebook and stuff!

Oh, and this change is also going to be a little different because I’m going to be a district leader! I’m not entirely sure who’s in my district because they got changed around a little, but I know I’m going to be in charge of one of the companionships of sister missionaries (Which, honestly, I’d rather not have because I’ve heard that sister missionaries complain a LOT (Because they’re women and are more open in what they say, not because they’re bad or anything! Us guys just kind of keep it to ourselves, so it’s a little easier! I don’t want to offend anyone! Seriously!)) But yeah, there’s that, too.

As for this week, we’ve just been working hard and trying to help everyone we can around here, and when we have some free time we do kind-of-dumb stuff like share martial arts stuff we know and have a practice fight (I have a bruise on my knee that I thought was dirt because it covers ALL of it a dark purple!). It’s really cool some of the stuff my companion learned!

We also tried to make videos of us running around our apartment as if it was a first-pèrson shooter video game, like HALO or Call of Duty. Mine didn’t really work out so well because I put it a little too low, but Elder Rodriguez turned out looking like some sort of cyborg:

Or maybe a blue ninja cyclops:

So that was fun!

The only other thing different that happened is that we had some really weird circumstances in our district and had to do some strange companionships to make sure we visited all the appointments the six of us had. I worked with Elder Ortega, a new missionary who’s only been in the mission a few months, so I was senior companion for a day! It wasn’t as hard as I expected because Elder Ortega is awesome — he actually knows how to teach and stuff!

Well, not much else to share this week, but this next week I’ll have a little bit more to share about being district leader and having a new companion! ¡Chao!

— Elder Schroeder

WHY DID YOU HAVE TO LISTEN TO THE PRESIDENT, ELDER RODRIGUEZ?!?!

This past week, our mission president taught us that the Gift of Prophecy is not only for prophets and apostles — every person can prophesy if they do it through the guidance of the Spirit! That’s really cool, but of course my companion accidentally used it to trash our week a little bit! On Tuesday we went and died during our workout with the nutritionist (The excercises we do are so hard!) and afterward Elder Rodriguez said to me: “Siento que va a pasar algo hoy. Algo diferente” (“I feel like something is going to happen today. Something different”). Then we rode in a convee to our cuarto and when we got there we realized we didn’t have the keys! At first we figured we’d just left them in the house — as you know from some of my previous emails, we’ve needed to break in a few times because we’ve forgotten them before — but we couldn’t break in because there wasn’t an open window! Eventually we got in by climbing up a ladder to the window without glass that looks to the inside of the landlady’s house:

That was sketchy because the top of the ladder was about 4 feet away from the window, so we had to grab the bottom and jump up! (And, of course, this was after we’d just done a bunch of arm, leg, and core excersises and we were DEAD!)

Then we had a work visit from one of our leaders later, so we knew we had to do something to get the door opened. The problem was we hadn’t forgotten the keys: they’d fallen out of my companion’s pocket while we were in the convee and were long gone! So my companion tried to open the door by brute force and brains: Removing the hinges and pushing the door.

That didn’t really work, so we put the hinges back and when our zone leader came over we just climbed through the window again.

Then on Wednesday we lost the cell phone! So this week was a little more difficult than usual…

But it was still pretty good because at least it was interesting!

— Elder Schroeder

Well, before I talk about this week, I promised photos from my companion’s birthday last Sunday, so I’ll include them here:

We started the day making pancakes for breakfast in a member’s house (And no, we weren’t being lazy or anything by not working until after lunch! It was a holiday because everyone needed to go and vote for the next president of Peru, so everyone was forbidden to have any sort of political or religious meetings, so we were told to NOT do anything!)

After lunch came the first of FOUR cakes that we ate. We still don’t know what animal is supposed to be on top. I think it’s a bear, the member that gave it to us thinks it’s a lion, and my companion thinks it’s a pig — to help you remember to not eat TOO much!

Funny story: We have a member who’s a nutritionist and has been training us HARD in the morning because everyone in my district is fat (Except for me — we measured and I’m only 14% fat in total! The problem is it’s all in my stomach, so I look fat even if I’m not 🙁  ) Anyway, we thought it would be funny if we gave the rest of the cake we had to her… and she ate a fourth of it while we were talking to her after the workout!

… I don’t know what this picture is. Let’s never mention it again.

Later, the ward (actually a branch) threw a little party for my companion! Something else funny: the cake the Relief Society president bought was coffee flavored! I think it’s kind of funny that a bunch of Mormons celebrated with coffee-flavored cake, but I hope we didn’t sin by doing it! (Note: Cake #2!)

Cake #3…

… And then Cake #4! Man, I didn’t want to even LOOK at cake for a week after this! (OK, not true; this cake was so good that we came over the following two nights to finish it!)

So I’d say my companion had a pretty good birthday! I just had a really good day!

One-third of my mission complete!

This week was pretty good but it started out being really difficult because of my companion. We’ve never fought or argued or anything like that because we’re both really good friends and think a lot alike, but this week he was a little depressed because he’s had a lot of problems in his mission and it’s been kind of tough. He doesn’t normally act like it all bothers him, but really he’s struggling a little to be motivated, especially because he think’s he’s cursed to have sad birthdays — It’s happened for almost 4 years in a row — and since his birthday was the 5th he expected a bad week.

… He really shouldn’t have because he (And I, too!) got a smack upside the head from life! On Wednesday we ran into this guy on the street (Rather, this guy ran after us!) and asked us to come visit him the next day. It was a little weird because it came from nowhere and he acted a little sketchy — kind of like a guy on a date when he first meets his date’s dad: talking really fast, acting like he didn’t know what to do with his hands, and answering questions with short, respectful phrases like, “Yes, sir” and, “No, sir”! Then we learned he lived in an area that’s a little sketchy and we got a little more curious — not exactly worried because we both practiced martial arts and it would be in broad daylight — but it was certainly strange.

So we went to visit him on Thursday and the first thing we noticed about the house is that it was at a 45-degree angle! When his mom, Emilia, invited us in we had to bend over to pass through the door, and we found out it was because the front wall was falling over and she couldn’t fix it! It turns out that was just the beginning of her tale of woe: Her 18-year-old son that asked us to pass by is a drug addict, her two middle kids had trouble in school and are now studying in a special school that costs a lot (“But at least they’ll get an education,” she says!), and her youngest kid is Autistic and lives with his abusive dad, who left Emilia to care for the other three by herself. Her house is made of scrap wood and metal that she could scavenge and is destroying itself, but she doesn’t have the strength to fix it herself, her TV broke and she traded it for a tiny, less-broken radio to entertain her kids, and she works 2 hours away and makes only about 10 Sols every day (For a reference, it costs about 1 Sol to take an hour-long bus ride). Soooo… her life is really sad

… And she’s one of the happiest people I’ve ever taught! I don’t know how she does it, but she’s constantly laughing about how bad everything is and she doesn’t let any of it bother her! I know she really is worried about all of it, but she knows that it will all work out in the end! That’s some impressive faith! We’re both hoping she progresses quickly!

Well, this week I’m also a little short on time so I can’t send any of the photos from Elder Rodriguez’s birthday parties (Yes, plural!) but I’ll send them next week!

— Elder Schroeder