Zack asked for some llama “selfies”, so here are some photos of llamas:
¡Feliz Navidad a todos!
Not a whole lot to report this week. The baptisms didn’t happen (AGAIN!) (*sigh*) and our lessons have been pretty normal. We’re having trouble getting new investigators because people are willing to listen for 5 minutes when we contact them in the street, but they don’t really want to listen beyond that. It doesn’t help that Elder Terrones has to do almost all the talking because I’m HORRIBLE at small talk, especially in Spanish! Who knew it would be so important to be able to talk about nothing for a while!
I discovered something really cool and really weird the other day while I was on companion exchanges with another elder, Elder Condori. About a week before he’d met a young man, 14 or 15, who had been sitting alone during a ward gathering on one of the many Peruvian microholidays. He’d talked to the young man, but he wasn’t really open and didn’t say much. One of the only things Elder Condori could get out of him was the name of his less-active aunt who lived nearby. While I was with him, we went and visited this woman and found that she didn’t have a nephew, or any relative, with the name of the young man! The only one that would fit the description had died several years ago and was the reason this woman became inactive in the Church! We think it was a ghost or an angel or something that knew this woman needed the Gospel in her life again! Crazy!
Well, not much else to report. This week’s been pretty slow, and we’re not really having a whole lot of success. We’re going to try to turn it around this week, but with Navidad who knows if we’ll have many people who want to listen with the holiday so close. Wish us luck!
A couple of random thoughts: South American movies are really weird; using actual paper for toilet paper is not a great experience; I’m not sure if telling a fan it’s a child of God during a practice lesson is false doctrine; and epileptic people can’t teach at night here.
Now to explain:
Last P-Day we watched an Argentinian movie with a really strange plot: A guy is really good at foosball and beats a jerk who doesn’t like to lose. So Jerk Guy comes back many years later, now a professional soccer player, and is still angry about losing. So he does the natural thing: buys the town and steals the girl friend of Foosball Guy. So Foosball Guy has to go save her and then beat Jerk Guy and his professional soccer team at soccer with the help of tiny living foosball players. Is that weird or what?!
Not sure I really need to explain the TP thing. We were out of toilet paper and, well… yeah.
With the fan, we were practicing teaching an investigator about their divine lineage as a child of God. But our “investigator” was a fan and we told it it was a child of God. I don’t think that’s a sin, but it IS false doctrine…
Epileptic people, beware Peru at night during Christmastime. Every house has flashing Christmas lights (that play songs, too) that make my head hurt if I look for too long. Part of that could be because the music these lights play repeat indefinitely and EVERY set of lights plays the exact same songs!…
Well, that’s all I’ve got for now. I’ll let you know when something interesting happens, but you’ll have to wait until next week! ¡Quédese!
— Elder Schroeder
Hey all–
I now have one month in the mission field! That’s not really a huge milestone, but I’m down 2.5 months now!
Brother Renken, if you get this, thanks for the earplugs! I might not get them for a while, but I REALLY will need them because not only does my companion snore, but the people that live in the apartment above us have a freaking ROOSTER and I keep waking up at 5:00 AM because it starts to crow and doesn’t stop until around 6:00! Who decided keeping a rooster in their apartment was a good idea?!
I have mixed feelings about this week. Monday was really awesome: We did the sketchiest service project yet — Lifting couches to the third story via ropes while standing on the roof! (I took pictures!) — and also had the best lesson yet! The baptism for Magaly and Marisol didn’t happen 🙁 because Magaly had some problems (and Marisol is only 10, so she’s kind of just following Magaly). So we went and met with them and I was really surprised. When we started the lesson, one of the first things Magaly said was she didn’t want to be baptized and my thought was, “Oh, no. This is exactly what I feared.” See, I thought that Magaly didn’t really have a testimony and was just getting baptized because she felt like it, and now she was going to change her mind.
But I was really surprised — And EXTREMELY happy! — to find that she didn’t want to be baptized because she didn’t feel worthy. It turns out she has a VERY strong testimony and actually understands the commitment she’ll make by being baptized, and she didn’t want to get baptized without knowing the stuff she needed to and changing the things she needed to. That’s how I knew she WAS ready, because she really understood. We resolved her concerns about being ready and then spent another TWO HOURS answering her questions about what she needed to change. She was willing to change just about everything in her life to be prepared — her clothes, her friends, her language, her boyfirend — and I was stunned by how much she was willing to change. Changing all of those for me would be HUGE (Yes, I know I’ve never had a boyfriend OR a girlfriend!), but she was willing to do it!
IT… WAS… AWESOME!!!
…Then came Thursday. I was dreading Thursday because it was the day Elder Terrones was going to go to the temple with some recent converts and I would be left with people from the ward to teach the lessons. And, since I can’t really understand or speak the language and the people don’t know our investigators very well or know how to teach the lessons, I was seriously worried. But I had enough confidence in myself that I was pretty sure I could do it.
… and THEN Elder Chamorro was my companion for the day. At first I thought, “Yay! He’s actually an elder and not just a member!” He’s serving a mission here too… but he’s got an interesting situation, as I learned. He’s living with his family, he’s only been here two months — same as me — and his mission is in Institute. I don’t know why, but I think a part of it is he’s… different and doesn’t speak very well, and the only lessons he really teaches are in Sunday School. He’s really great and can understand well, but that didn’t really help when I couldn’t understand him! I didn’t learn any of this until during our first lesson.
At first I was trying to converse with the investigator, Luisa, and Elder Chamorro said nothing, which I thought was strange, and then during the lesson when I asked him to share an experience he hadn’t been paying attention (CRUD!) and didn’t really bear testimony (He said about 20 words!)! I had asked him before the lesson if he knew how to teach the lessons and he said he did, but when I asked specifics… yeah, he didn’t really teach much other than Tithing and the Plan of Salvation (And pretty much all our investigators are learning Lesson 1, the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ…).
Soooooo… yeah, we had to have an emergency training for Elder Chamorro and afterwards he STILL didn’t talk much, but… yeah, it was tough to teach basically the whole lesson by myself while struggling to understand what the people were saying. I actually did pretty well, though!
On Friday, we contacted four drunks, soooo… that was interesting! One of them, Victor, actually accepted our message and we talked with him the next day. He really has a strong faith in God and REALLY prays with sincerity, so he has potential!
I don’t have a lot else to report except that the baptisms for Magaly and Marisol ARE happening this Saturday (without unforseen problems, which always seem to come up)!
I’m still looking for recipes you can make in a frying pan. The ingredients I have to work with are veggies, maybe meat (we don’t really have a freezer…), rice (Of course!), and things like butter, eggs, and wheat. Pancake recipes, egg recipes, and stir-fry recipes are my focus, but I want whatever else I can get, too!
Oh, and the Word of the Week: “dragonear”: “to flirt”! (Now you know why we Elders call teenage girls “dragons”!
¡Chao!
Elder Schroeder
¡Buenas tardes!
Well, this week was pretty normal, so I’ll try and include more about the lessons we’ve been teaching and our investigators. I’ll admit I don’t really know much because I don’t understand everything they’re saying, but I’ll try and share what I know!
First, the crazy stuff that happened this week. Well, not really much happened, but Tuesday marked my 2nd month in my mission! Only 22 left! On Wednesday I don’t know what happened, but ¡estuve en fuego! I was doing really well — talking to people on the street, following the guidance of the Spirit, teaching with power — it was awesome!… Then it ended 🙁 No, just kidding! I’ve been doing much better this week and am able to understand more, too!
Service this week was much more fun than the last: I got to destroy old furniture with an axe! I’ll try and include a picture if I can.
To celebrate Elder Terrones’s birthday (December 4) we bought Peruvian pizza, and it was ridiculous! We took a picture because it was at least an inch tall! They really pile ingredients on their pizzas! Unfortunately it made Elder Terrones sick, but it was good while it lasted! For his birthday he got new glasses and a cologne that I took a picture of because I thought it was funny. I’d better watch out for when he’s coming! But we also had a crisis on Friday because Elder Terrones wanted to use the Emergency Fund we’re given from Presidente to buy his glasses. We’re not supposed to use the fund without express permission, so I had to be hard and refused to leave our cuarto until he put the money back in the envelope. It was hard because he IS the Senior Companion, but he finally put it back. That was a little stressful.
Something cool I found out: Some people know that I talk in my sleep, and apparently I’m beginning to sleeptalk in Spanish! I was on exchanges with Elder Toth and he said I was talking in Spanish in my sleep! Unfortunately, I haven’t been getting much sleep because Elder Terrones snores like you wouldn’t believe and I lost my earplugs!
Well, that’s all I’ve really got to mention this week. I still don’t know what area in the mission I’m in — I’ll try to ask someone who speaks English to explain, because I don’t know a lot of location words in Spanish! Oh, and the Spanish Word of the Week: “zullar”: “to have a bowel movement”! You’d be surprised how often you need to use it, especially after eating Peruvian pizza!
On that note, onto more spiritual stuff! This week I realized just how grateful I am for the missionaries we had in our ward while I was growing up, because they’ve really influenced a lot of what I want to be like as a missionary myself. If it wasn’t for them, I think I would be like Elder Terrones. He’s not a bad missionary, but he doesn’t have a lot of drive to do a lot and kind of does the minimum he needs to. Hopefully I can change that in the next 9 weeks or so. So if you have good missionaries, give them a “thank you” from me!
We’ve been having a bit of trouble getting baptisms here because we have to focus a lot on member retention. After they’re baptized, the new members tend to stop coming to church and become less-active, so we’re trying to balance finding new people and teaching them and visting less-active members. It’s not easy, especially since we’ll find a new investigator and then Elder Terrones decides we shouldn’t spend too much time on them because they aren’t really dedicated to changing. I understand why we shouldn’t focus on people who don’t care and that I can’t actually tell what the investigators say a lot of the time, but I feel like he gives up too soon.
However, we have two baptismal dates! These girls, sisters, named Magaly and Marisol, ages 17 and 10, have agreed to be baptized on December 12! Their older sister also agreed to be baptized but we’re going to delay her date because she has a lot of doubts about it — if you think about it, baptism is a big commitment: it means attending church every Sunday and reading the scriptures and praying every day for the rest of your life! But the benefits are SOOO worth it! I realized while we were teaching them about the Holy Ghost that I really take the Gift of the Holy Ghost for granted. I didn’t really think about how much I rely on the guidance of the Spirit to know what to do!
We also have two new investigators with a lot of potential. One of them is named Kelly, and she is a golden investigator: she wants to listen, she wants to change, and she has been praying and reading! She can’t always meet with us, but she is actively trying! It’s really awesome! The other investigator is Johnathan. He was an investigator many years ago and actually attended church for at least a year before the missionaries lost him. We found him because he was home — he used to work all day, all week, and thus couldn’t meet the missionaries or go to church (Sounds like a hint from God, no?!) — and he wants to resume the lessons, so we’ve got two really good opportunities for baptisms!
Well, that’s all for this week. For those of you who want gifts, I’m afraid I can’t get llama ties or other decent Peruvian stuff for a little while because I can’t go to the store where I bought them until I can go to the temple. For those who want ties, what color would you like? They have just about every color, and for anyone else who wants something let me know. They have a lot of stuff, and don’t feel shy!
One final request: We recently got a little stove for cooking and I want some recipes. We’ve got a pot and a frying pan (I’ve included a picture of my toast this morning) but I need some more variety. If you know some cheap and simple recipes, please share because I’m kind of tired of sandwiches and apples!
Well, ¡Hasta la próxima semana!
Elder Schroeder
¡Hola! ¿Cómo están?
I’ve almost finished a full 2 weeks in the Campo Missional! This past week was really difficult because I’ve been having a lot of trouble understanding everything that’s going on, because we’re really busy. I went on 2 exchanges this week and learned quite a bit about how to survive Peru, but Peru is not easy for a missionary to survive in — I’m always hungry because I never can get enough good food to eat, there are a lot of angry dogs and stairs (yes, angry stairs, too), and I constantly feel like I’m failing my Heavenly Father by not talking enough. And then yesterday a cat got into our cuarto and pooped and peed on the floor! I’m good, but up until Friday it was really difficult.
What did I learn on the exchanges? Well, I learned that I was right, for one thing: Peruvian food isn’t great. Elder Sepulveda, who I was with on Tuesday, introduced me to Aji-no-men, the Peruvian Ramen equivalent (That, I discovered after eating, is carcinogenic! Thanks, Elder Sepulveda!) On Friday, while I was with Elder Toth, I learned a lot more because he spoke English. He didn’t really have a whole lot of other food suggestions, except for a really good bread tienda near the church building. I’m going to have to eat there more often because it’s delicious!
This week I’ve been paying for everything because Elder Terrones is all out of money. I don’t know how he only managed to have 50 centimos left when I had 50 Soles, but if I had any problems with sharing my stuff before, well, I had to drop them. I’m fine with sharing my stuff because mi compañero has given me a lot, but I hope this doesn’t become a reoccuring thing.
Service is really hard here. If I thought it was bad to move someone’s stuff into a truck and then into their new house, I hadn’t seen anything until Wednesday. All the missionaries in this zone helped move a family out of a tiny apartment building (Have you ever tried carrying a refrigerator down stairs designed to barely accomodate a person?! (And then back up, because apparently we weren’t supposed to move it. Oops!)). Then we loaded it all into a truck and moved into their new home. And I thought the apartment was bad! Their new house wasn’t even close to the road, so we had to carry everything up a hill and then up almost 50 steps AND THEN up a LADDER! It was brutal!
Well, I don’t have a whole lot more to talk about. The only thing I want is for people to tell me what they want for Christmas. Anyone want a llama tie, a Peruvian coin purse, Peruvian scripture holders, bookmarks, nice HLJ (Spanish CTR) rings… they’ve got a lot here. I’m not sure I’ll send it in time for this Christmas (I don’t know if I’ll have time until I actually figure out what to do to get it to the US), but they’ve got some cool stuff and it’s REALLY cheap. Just send me an email and I’ll try and get it for you.
For anyone who wants to know a new Spanish word I learned this week: “resbalavisa” (“slippery”)! It still doesn’t beat my favorite Spanish word: “golosinear” (“to go around eating candy”)! So, next Halloween, say, “estoy golosineando” (“I am going around eating candy”)! Or if you’re going around eating candy right now you can use it, too. ¡Hasta Lunes!
Elder Schroeder
P.S.: I included a picture of the poop just for you, Dad. There’s a LOT of dogs around here! The other pictures are to give you an idea of what Machu Picchu looks like. It’s so ghetto!
Hey everyone! My P-Day is now Monday, if anyone cares to know!
I’m not going to have much time to write this week. Usually I try to send at least one personal email to somebody and have been rotating through people, but this week I’m short on time so I won’t be able to do that or mention much about the field.
How is it, you ask? Really, I’m surprised at how much I love it. I have no clue where I am in the mission, but it has a lot of mountains (They’re short mountains, but hiking to the top every day to teach investigators is really difficult! There are muchas escaleras and they are really steep!). The name of the area is Machu Picchu (Not actually Machu Picchu — I wish!) and I’m totally in the ghetto of Lima. One of the families we teach doesn’t have electricity — or at least doesn’t use it — and so I’m glad the flashlight I have is so strong because reading scriptures in Spanish in the dark causes a lot of problems for me! Most places do have electricity — mi cuarto does — but it’s sometimes infrequent, like the hot water. Showering is really sketchy; there are wires everywhere in the bathroom (for heating the water) and I discovered if you touch the shower head after turning on the hot water you get electrocuted! It’s not a lot of electricity; just a tingling sensation in your arm. The switch to turn on the hot water is a different matter. My compañero told me I need to wrap my hand in a towel before I touch it!
Other than this, mi cuarto is nice: tile floors, iron doors, plenty of space for two people, a dresser and closet for my stuff, and a working toilet (I’ll include a picture or two). Depending on what room you’re in, it either smells like cat pee, cat, unidentified, dirt, or laundry soap, so that keeps things interesting (And, no, we don’t have a cat. They just use the landing outside our apartment as a toilet and the window is a little broken, so the smell comes in).
My compañero is Elder Terrones — obviously Latino — and is really awesome. Because he’s in charge of training me he calls me “hijo mio” (“my son”) which should give you an idea of what he’s like. He obviously speaks Spanish fluently, is from an area from Peru called Trujillo, has been on his mission for 10 months (Yikes! I’m a little nervous about this!), and is really fun, loving, and happy. He’s been teaching the lessons because my Spanish isn’t very good, but he understands this and is willing to work with me and has been a huge help in developing my Spanish. I’m glad he speaks Spanish with enough emphasis on each word that I can understand him, because otherwise I would be hosed! I’ll include a picture of him (Picture 5038)
My Spanish… stinks. I can understand a lot of what is said now (unless they talk really fast, slur words, or use words I don’t know) but my speaking is awful. I have a lot of trouble with conjugation and knowing words because I speak Gospel Spanish (I only really know words related to church stuff) and conjugation in Spanish is MUCH different than in English. I’ve never thought about language so much than when I’m trying to learn another! One of the most recent thoughts I had was, “How do I understand what people are saying in English? In Spanish I translate the words into English and THEN know what they mean, but then… how do I know what they mean in English? Do I think of a picture in my mind or feel what they’re talking about or…! I had this thought in church on Sunday and nearly blew my own mind! Something cool I’m starting to notice, though: I’m beginning to associate Spanish words with things the way I do in English! I realized I could understand people if I stopped thinking about the English translation of what they said! I don’t know how, but maybe Spanish is starting to click!
I miss you all! I don’t think I’ve said that in many previous emails because, well, I haven’t really missed you (Don’t take that the wrong way! I just mean I wasn’t homesick or anything!). Then I had a dream yesterday that I came home and I realized how much I miss everything. I’m still OK but I think it finally sank in that I’m going to be here for another 22.5 months. Crazy! Well, gotta wrap up; ¡Hasta lunes!
Elder Schroeder
[The mission president sent these photos of Elder Schroeder with his district]
¡Hola, todos! ¿Què tal?
Not much has happened this week (outside of the norm, I mean). I just had my last P-Day with my CCM district (*sniff*) because we’re all going to our missions next Tuesday! I’ll be sad to see a lot of them go, but I found out just about everyone is planning to go to BYU Provo for school when they finish their mission, so if I end up going there I might see them again! (The odds aren’t very good, but that’s OK!)
Yesterday marked 700-days-left on the mission — still a ways off, but again: not really much happened this week so it felt like a milestone.
Well, I’m off to continue my P-Day and relax a little bit! If anyone has any questions, feel free to send me an email and I’ll get back to you (And yes, Mom, I AM taking my vitamins and oils!). And if anyone wants some cool Peruvian stuff, let me know and I’ll try and get it for you — everything is really cheap down here! Llama ties are $5! Any guy knows you can’t get a good tie that cheap in the States! Anyway, ¡hasta luego! (And watch out while you sleep, as Elder Parker discovered!)
Elder Schroeder
Hey all!
Not much to report here – unless you count three earthquakes, inventing a new Spanish word, granades, proselyting, and lots of ninjas.
I’ll start with the earthquakes. Earthquakes are supposed to be really common around here, and they weren’t lying – three in one week is impressive! The earthquakes, on the other hand… really boring. The first one I completely missed because of the ninjas (I’ll explain later). The second one was so slight only people who were standing up felt anything, and unfortunately I was sitting in class at the time… And the third one shook the house I was teaching my maestra (teacher, female) in. Of course, the houses are so thin you can’t knock on the door too hard or the house will fall over, so… still not impressive. At least I felt it! (Everyone in my family knows what quote goes here!)
In Spanish class with Hermano Flores, we invented the word “fiestar”: to party. We asked him what “to party” was in Spanish and he told us there wasn’t one. Then pure genius happened and Elder Willard decided he would use “fiestar”, creating the newest Spanish word! It actually works with most, if not all, of the Spanish rules we’ve learned about, and thus we are on a quest to educate everyone we can about “fiestar”! Sorry, typo up there: I meant “granadillas”. I told Kyra about these in my email to her, so I’m just going to quote my description of this fruit here:
“Halloween was the day I ate a granadilla. I don’t know if they have them outside of Perù, but I recommend trying it at least once because it is an unforgettable experience. A granadilla tastes pretty good – kind of like an orange mixed with pomegranate – but it is “the single most unappetizing fruit I have ever had,” to quote myself when I had finished it. It looks like an orange with a point on one end, but once you peel off the rind it’s basically a sac of seeds and juice. Then you’re supposed to poke a hole in the sac, scoop around the inside with a spoon to loosen the seeds, and then use the spoon to dig out the seeds (make sure not to bite them). The reason this is so disgusting is because the juice inside has the exact same consistency as snot, so it feels like eating a spoonful of snot and seeds… and the seeds-juice-sac combo looks like eating an eggsac. I ate it as a dare, but it’s really not that bad once you get past the looks. The problem was everyone at the table was so disgusted that I ate it, meaning their faces were HILARIOUS, which, of course, made me laugh while a strand of snot juice hung from my mouth and made them more disgusted and made me laugh harder… Good times! Seriously, if you do ever find one and decide to try it, make sure you get a video of everyone’s reactions when they first see it and when they try to eat it because it is seriously disgusting! (The funny part is the granadilla tasted better than the other cafeteria food!)”
Halloween was also the day we went proselyting. We left for a section of Lima East around noon and when we got there were paired with another Elder from the CCM and an Elder from Lima East. I was paired with an Elder (whose name escapes me at the moment) who didn’t speak much English – he’s a Latino – and the first hour was really difficult because I couldn’t understand ANYONE except Elder Alder, who I was also paired with. Then I guess I got used to the speed – or developed the Gift of the Interpretation of Tongues for a few hours – because at the end I could actually understand almost every sentence that was spoken! It was a really awesome experience, especially because I didn’t hyave to say much. We just walked around to every house, gave the person a pass-along card, and asked if they wanted to have the missionaries come by sometime next week. I think it was the best way to improve my Spanish because I could just focus on understanding rather than how to say what I want!
Lima East is an interesting place. I was told it was “the nicest mission in Lima” and if that’s true… I’m in serious trouble! Either that or we went to the most ghetto part in all of Lima East, because it was an actual shantytown. Most of the houses were wooden-plank walls with a tin roof built on a dirt road along the side of a mountain! It was such a bizarre – yet interesting – sight that I was constantly looking around at everything! I wish I could have gotten a picture because I simply cannot describe it in words. I’ll probably get plenty of pictures of shantytowns like that one in Lima North!
The ninjas came on Halloween night. A few people decided to go trick-or-treating along the hallway, but that got old pretty fast because no one had any candy to give away. Around 11:00 PM, however, everyone in the district planned a quest to retrieve the janitor’s
keys Elder Willard had seen a few days earlier. They were hanging in a closet on the first floor, and everyone dressed up as ninjas (wrapped a T-shirt around our heads) to go retrieve them. We basically creeped downstairs and then walked down the hallway, opened the closet, took the keys, and then used them to unlock the padlock on my closet (I’d lost my keys and couldn’t get it to open). It wasn’t very exciting, but now I know how to make a ninja hood! I’ll include a picture of me wearing it and a few others of the Lima Temple and the CCM.
Hasta luego!
Elder Schroeder
Me with the ninja hood:
From left to right: Elders Pierce, Bly, Willard, and Alder in ninja attire:
The goal of our mission:
And our shared room:
