So I received a little packet of letters today, that included
some from the MTC, so some are late and mixed up, but here is the gyst:
-From the MTC the last week:
“I am so ready to leave! It is weird saying bye to these guys though, I
feel like I helped them, and they helped me and I have gotten used to seeing
the same people. I do not feel ready with Spanish, so I hope I get enough help. As for this week, this guy called a girl a
“b*tch” to her face, and I overheard, and then saw her get sad right before
devotional. I still don’t deal with
things like that well, so I had to get up and walk across the room and I
couldn’t help it but I picked him up out of his chair by his shirt collar and
tie and told him how he was not a man if he thought that was how it is okay to
treat women. I stopped myself from
hitting him, and when he wouldn’t respond I sat him down, but later he told me
that I changed his life. Granted, it was
about a week later, he was not happy about being embarrassed at the time. I can’t stand when women don’t get the
respect they deserve. Also, I got
ringworm! But it is almost gone! I am so excited to get to Peru and teach!!!”
From Peru:
“Wow writing in English is getting harder than I thought,
because I guess I have started to think in Spanish more than I thought. Peru is CRAZY! I have eaten the same thing
everyday! Chicken, rice and potatoes! I even had it for breakfast! The rice
makes up like 90% of every meal too! I also had to eat 4 lunches one day, so
that made me want to barf! They eat so much! My companion who is from Peru
actually asked for more! I had to walk 4 miles to get a razor at the store, and
then we were able to take the bus back.
I am way too tall for the bus.
Actually, I am way too tall for Peru.
I hit my head on doors if I don’t bend down, and squish on buses, and
tower over people. Also, I had to squat
in the shower this morning. The shower
doesn’t seem like it would be a big deal. But it is, because they have electric
heaters here, and if you turn the shower on after you have already turned the
electricity on then you get shocked and it is bad!! Then if you adjust the heat
at all while you are showering you get shocked again! I have been shocked so
many times and it takes a little while to recover! Getting shocked was better than the day we
woke up with no water though. I smelled
pretty bad, but I guess it doesn’t matter when you are teaching at flea
infested houses where they keep the chickens inside haha. I had to buy flip-flops too because you are
not supposed to even be barefoot in the house! Haha But I was able to get them
for only 6 dollars, because two women who were both selling them on the side of
the street starting arguing over the cheapest price trying to convince me to
buy them! Hahaha I got my pensionista too.
She is the woman who cooks for us, and does all of our laundry etc. She is a super nice old woman, but I have to
say that the best part is she has a dog! There are a ton of dogs here! But I
get to play with hers sometimes. The
houses here are complete dumps compared to anything in the states, but the
people are so amazing and happy even though their floors are dirt, and sometimes
their walls are just cardboard, or stacked rocks or anything they find. At one of the houses we teach at, there is a
little girl who fell in love with me.
She tries to give me all of her toys.
I seriously just love the people here.
Since my companion
is the district leader I had to go on splits with another guy today, and he
didn’t speak any English at all, so it was hard to figure out what each other
were trying to say. We figured it out
though.
As far as
teaching goes… We set daily goals, and then we have gone over them
everyday. Today we contacted 12
people. One of them spoke perfect
English and he wanted to be taught so bad so we talked to him, but he is from
another area, so we had to give him as a referral it sucked! Then another day our goal was 20 contacts,
and we got 28, with 6 appointments, so that was good! Apparently that is a lot
more than the other companionships here! Then another day I invited 5 people to
be baptized right in the street after they learned, and we have return
appointments with all of them! I love it! Contacting is my favorite part of
being on a mission. Our mission
President asked us to focus on families, and men over 18, so that is what we
have been doing, so I have been talking to every man that I see in the street
who will respond. The people are super
nice here though. Everyone is catholic!
One of the people we are teaching is going to be baptized the 9th on
February! Then today we got two new investigators. One of them seems super interested and sincere,
but one of them is obsessed with me being white and attempting to speak in
English and talk about the states. The
things he says in English never make sense.
The people
here try to speak English to me a lot! I am supposed to try to teach my companion,
Elder Delgado, English too, but when they talk they say things like “Hello Dog
Cat I am 35 Car Apple Sun,” and think that it is a sentence. It is hilarious. My companion is sometimes like a puppy, and
won’t stop talking to me. He takes my
photos and makes me explain each person, and tries to get me to get American
girls to write him. I had to yell at him
today, because he says the F word so much, because he doesn’t understand how
bad it is actually is, and he thinks it is funny. I told him to quit it and then he was quiet
for a long time. After that he wanted to
go home, because we had reached our daily goal, even though it wasn’t 9
yet. He was pissed because I wouldn’t
let him because then I got more mad because I told him that if I wanted to hang
out I would be at home hanging out with my girlfriend and getting married
instead of busting my butt, so he can suck it up until 9 when we are supposed
to stop. It drives me nuts when he is
lazy. If I am going to be here, I am
going to do my best, not sit around.
There is a family in the ward where the man is a taxi driver and he
takes us a lot of places, and they are a way sweet family, but Elder Delgado
always wants to just hang out at their house! I stayed for an hour one time,
because he had bought us lunch and I felt bad leaving, but I do not like
sitting around when we could have spent that hour contacting. Now my companion always wants to stop by
there and take breaks, and he gets really mad when I won’t let him. By the way this is random but I realized that
no one smokes here. I think it might be
because they can’t afford it. They are
super super poor, but they are way happy.
I just thought that was interesting.
I have been
told that I am the best Spanish speaking gringo here! I guess I pick up accents
really easily, because I think I already have one. It doesn’t affect my English Accent though,
so I guess I just have an accent in both.
There are some weird customs here! Everyone loves us and they try to
kiss us, so I have to dodge them! Hahaha Good thing I learned how to dodge
kisses from you when you dodged me the first time I tried to kiss you!! They
also all give us this drink, I forget what it is called but I hate it and we
always have to drink it. It has like
fruit and cinnamon and milk and other stuff.
I don’t know but it is gross. I
am sunburned too! Oh my and it takes so long to find addresses! Hahaha We found
3 today but unless you meet people in the street it is really hard to find them
again. The homeless people love me
though. Sometimes they follow me and try
to offer me really dirty food, but they are nice! I think they just love me
because I am white and have blue eyes.
Ummm. Oh yeah and my only job is
to be key master and keep the keys to our apartment with me and make sure it is
locked, so that is exciting hahaha. I am
so useful. Not. Hahaha Just kidding, but really that is my
job.
Oh also
Elder Delgado is crazy and he always asks me about girls and he asked me how
many girls I have kissed in my life, so I told him I didn’t know and now he
calls me “Elder Shackaro” which I guess is like ladies man or something
haha. He is ridiculous.
-Another
day: “So we taught two lessons. One to a
man named Alfredo who we taught the restoration and I got to use the first
vision of Joseph Smith and the spirit was super strong and then when we prayed
at the end he put his hands in the air and was like muttering some evangelist
prayer it was weird but I guess everything ere is weird and hen we taught Gina
about the plan of Salvation and it was good! We invited both to be baptized,
but only Gina said yes. Alfredo said he
would pray about it.”
Overall, Elder Burleson is doing super well, and he said
that time is starting to go faster and fly by! So I think he is pretty happy!
(: I will keep everyone posted!
