Week 23

We had a good week, certainly not as eventful as yours probably was with the wedding and all! hahahhaa.

I got the package you sent me...holy fetch it is so massive! Our district leader called us and was like, "Elder Mortenson we have a package for you that is super-duper big!" So ya, he brought it over. hahah

The other day we were contacting and then we got a phone call from some random area that I didn't recognize, so I answered it and it turned out to be Elder Means and Nichols from our MTC District.  They are comps right now in Arequipa and were just calling all the numbers in their phone cause they didn't know what a lot of them were. So we talked to them for a bit, which was cool.

We fasted again on Saturday for our investigator that has the drinking problem. He and his family fasted with us and also our pension fasted. I am thinking we are gonna be able to baptize this man on Saturday, so that would be sick!

Oh, also today we had a huge water balloon fight with the other elders in Ilo. Then we went to the plaza to buy tons of snacks and stuff cause they are all coming over to our room to sleepover.  That's gonna be sweet. Also tonight we are going to one of the big plazas in the other area to sing Christmas Carols.

Me and Elder Parry have been doing a series of vlogs for the past couple days because we haven't taken too many pics, so yeah they are sick. I need to download all of them for you still.

Talk to you tomorrow!

Peace,

Elder Mortenson

Week 22

props if you recognize my subject.

We had a super chill week as expected, not a ton really happened. We had a couple groups of girls from the nearby school start following us and using google translate to tell us that we were super handsome and then they were all yelling "cásense con mi hermana" and stuff like that hahahha, that just means marry my sister lol.  

We did a cool secret Santa thing for a couple of the more poor families.  We got a couple of these kids in our ward and went and bought some stuff and then we went out and left it on people's porches. We only ran into one problem...so we went to this member's house and left the stuff we had bought on the step and knocked and stuff, but they wouldn't open the door cause when they would look out the window they couldn't see anyone. So we kept knocking and stuff and then eventually, after like 20 minutes, we finally started yelling that it was a service. Then they thought we were just being annoying and trying to pull a prank. Eventually they yelled that they were going to call the police. Turns out it wasn't the right house hahahhahahahha!!!

We decided to fast on Saturday for one of our investigators. The one who had a date for the 15th. So we did, and then on Sunday we talked to his wife and she said that he didn't drink the entire day before cause he said he wanted to get baptized. That was a little miracle. Now we are going to try and visit him twice a day these next two weeks and see if we can actually get him baptized and confirmed!

That's pretty much it. I'll talk to you guys literally next week.

Love,

 Elder Mortenson

Week 21

We had a  pretty decent week, obviously. I'll just start off by saying that last p-day we decided to take a nap at 3 and we didn't set an alarm cause we figured we would wake-up. Well, the next thing I know Elder Parry wakes me up and is like "Elder Mortenson....its 6:00!" then I was like wait what????  So yeah, we slept for 3 hours, which was awesome!

Not a ton happened this week. We did have two amazing breakfasts though. Literally we had donuts and cereal and juice and then later we ate these taquito things with guac and it was amazing. I almost cried.

Last Wednesday there was emergency transfers with a companionship in another part of Ilo. So one of the elders came and stayed with us until Saturday morning when he got a new companion. It was really nice to have someone that actually knew Spanish with us hahaha.

We got a sick Christmas tree in our room this week, cause our pension bought a new one so she let us have her old one. It has lights and everything!

Saturday morning we woke up to a bunch of calls and texts from all these women saying we needed to go give a blessing to this one lady. So we go over there and come to find out this woman, who has a broken foot so she takes pills for the pain, "overdosed" on her meds. She was high as all get out, no joke, it was kinda scary. But yeah, that was my first blessing I gave in Spanish (like first actual blessing). Afterwards, she calmed way down. We think she actually tried to kill herself.

Also, we made brownies yesterday and they tasted like I was on a luxurious cruise or something, they were amazing! Before we made them, our friends looked up a video on how to make brownies. They clicked on a How-To-Basic video since they had never had brownies before.  I decided not to say anything about it and just let them watch and learn.  They were super surprised they were so delicious, so that was funny!

That's pretty much it. Peace!

Elder Mortenson

Week 20

So I don't have much time...

Super good week though, Elder Parry and I are just owning down here!

Also, I found out that a kid that we challenged to baptism in La Joya actually went through with it, so ya I'm definitely counting that as a baptism! It's super cool though I'm kinda disappointed I didn't get to baptize him cause he got baptized the Saturday after I left.

All the members we talk to all say that my Spanish is way good so that is always super encouraging! Speaking of Spanish, one of the Latinos in my district told me I already have an Arequipeñan accent hahaha so I mean I guess that's good?

There is an insanely rich area above us, so we decided to go up there cause an old investigator lives there. I almost died when we walked into her house, she had a pool in her backyard....which is unheard of!!! 

Also, yesterday we were contacting and and went to contact this lady and all the sudden she says "I speak English" and we thought she was just doing what everyone else does here, trying to practice English with us cause we are two white guys. So we greeted her in Spanish anyways and then she was like, "No seriously, I know English." Then I realized that she had a heavy accent...turns out she was from Britain hahah. We talked for like 20 minutes with her, it was super funny. Apparently, she is a profesora here. But ya, she didn't want to learn about the church but she was down to talk if we ever ran into her again.

Also, we moved our baptismal date up to the 15th with this guy! It used to be on the 22nd but we had a dope lesson and he was happy to change it.

Also, my comp loves Diary of a Wimpy Kid, so that's always fun!

Thanks for the support

Peace,

Elder Mortenson

Week 19

Super sick week! Definitely the best out of the whole mish. It flew by cause we were having so much fun. My companion is super sick. He is from St George and we have a lot in common so it is super dope. His Spanish isn't great cause he never studied his big Spanish grammar book that they gave us in the ccm. He understands fine but his grammar isn't good. Thank goodness all I studied for 12 weeks of training was grammar so my grammar is actually pretty fire. So we set some Spanish goals and we got permission from the zone leaders to have a full hour of language study every day instead of just 30 minutes cause we don't know Spanish hahahaha so we set a goal to study that book for the hour basically, so yeah his grammar is already getting better.

This area is a lot different than La Joya. It's like the richest part of all of Ilo. There aren't really any motos here (3 wheeled cars) and there's hardly anyone on the streets cause everyone owns their own car. So it's a lot more difficult to contact. Our room is way nicer than my old one, too. We actually have a door on our bathroom! We live above our pension and we have the best pensionista in Ilo. she is so amazing. Sometimes we get cereal for breakfast!  She never gives us the normal "3 breads" for breakfast like our old pension did every day. She makes super good food, and she usually gives us Coca-Cola with our dinner so that is super sick. AND she washes our clothes for us, but she doesn't only wash them...she makes them perfect! Literally all my button ups looked like crap from all the sweat back in La Joya and because our old pension's washing machine sucked. So I gave her a lot of my shirts last week and she gave them back to me and they look brand new!!! Oh, and she irons our shirts for us too. She is so much better than our last one.

The ocean is super sick. It makes me always want to swim though. We had a service activity on the beach (normally we aren't allowed on the beach) so that was fun!

So, not much happened besides just 2 white guys in Peru owning people with broken Spanish hahaha. Let's just hope we don't run into someone that wants to try and bible bash cause we would get owned for sure! 

This area is sweet, but there's no Papa John's here so that's a shame.

That's pretty much it though. Sorry this email is kinda long. Pray for the gift of tongues for us!

Love,

Elder Mortenson

Week 18

We had transfers today! Finally out of training, never thought the day would come. I got transferred down to the coast in a place called Ilo right next to the ocean. My comp is Elder Parry from my CCM district hahhaha. I don't know who thought it'd be a good idea to put us together? We still don't know Spanish, so yeah this will be interesting.... we are gonna have to use the extra study time every single day. Elder Parry has been here for his whole training. The bad news is that there isn't a Papa John's here, but they are constructing a mall right now that is supposedly super sick and is supposed to finish in like January so I will most likely still be here then, so that will be cool.

Last Tuesday we had migrations and splits. Migrations wasn't as cool as I thought it was gonna be, apparently I just lacked a signature that they needed.  It was funny though while we were there, there was this little niña that was probs like 5 years old that looked like she was American. and her dad looked American. and she had this bag of candy and she was telling everyone all the colors in Spanish and English. so when she pulled some out I told her the colors in English and then I said something to her. She got all amazed and then ran over to her dad to tell him that I spoke English hahaha she was so pumped. But yeah, she spoke better Spanish than me.

We had splits Tuesday. I went with our Zone Leader from South Jordan. It was super fun. The next day we went back to La Joya and brought the other elders in our district with us to do divisions, so that was chill.

Thursday we invited everyone to the chapel to come watch the Peru vs Ecuador game. But then no one showed up except for 2 members.

Friday we had to go back to Arequipa for a leader meeting with the zone leaders. then after we went and got shakes.

Event of the week: so we were coming back from the leadership meeting and like 40 minutes into the trip we had to stop and turn around and go back cause there was this semi-truck that was burning to the ground a couple of miles ahead of us  it was so sick, the fire was insane!

Also, I have a brother now! hahaha Elder Lozano is training again so ya, I have a brother! idk where he is from yet or who he is.

The bus ride down to my new area was 4 hours. It was chill though cause I didn't have a comp while I was on the bus so I was actually alone for 4 hours! it was so nice to chill.

Peace!

Elder Mortenson

Week 17

One more week of training, I'm almost there! Never thought I'd make it through training. It's weird to think that after next week I will have spent 18 weeks in training which is almost 1/5 of my mission and I still don't know Spanish. 

I will probably end up staying here for the next transfer cause this is E. Lozano's 3rd transfer here.

So our baptism that we had set fell through, which is too bad. We were supposed to visit with her and her mom so we could talk about it and get a signature and stuff but every time we called and/or went over she was never there...but yeah, we will see what happens. we have a lot of good investigators, it's just hard to get some of them to commit to baptism.

This week we found this cool couple that we are teaching. The guy is 22 and the girl is 19 lol and they have a little daughter. They aren't married so we are trying to get them married. 

My companion does "switchback" up stairs. You know, like what you do if you're hiking you go back and forth so that its "easier"? Well yeah, he does that when we walk about these super big stair cases that they have on these big hills. and its so dumb and funny cause he thinks it helps for some reason, but it doesn't do anything cause every step is the same height no matter and you're just wasting energy going back and forth, in my opinion!

Other random news, I found this soda here called Cola Escocesa and it is made in Arequipa and only sold there. I was introduced to it and bought some last time we were there and it is soooo good!!!

E. Lozano ripped his pants the other day on this sharp object that was sticking out in the hallway of our apartment building hahhaa it tore his pants from his thigh to his shin! Maybe we'll have to burn those!

So event of the week: yesterday we were out trying to get people to come to church and when we were walking back there was this big hill that we had to go down. Right before we started down it these 2 drunk guys came sprinting out from behind a car and started down the hill in a full sprint. The one in the back stumbled a bit and then fell and got an entire face full of asphalt hahhaha it was the funniest thing I've ever seen! Then he like rolled over and laid there for a second then got up and started sprinting again and just about got another face full of asphalt.

That's about it. Tomorrow is gonna be super sick because we have to go to migrations again and all the guys from my group will be there. And then for the rest of the day we are doing splits with the zone leaders and they are super cool. Then on Wednesday 2 other elders in our district are coming to La Joya to do splits with us.

So that's about it! Have fun planning Bryce's wedding everybody!

Love,

Elder Mortenson

Week 16

So yeah decent week! 

Tuesday we had our district meeting. One of the zone leaders (from South Jordan) had to go talk to the other district during our district meeting so he took me with him so it was super fun to chill with him, he is super cool. we actually have splits with them next Tuesday so that should be super sick.

After our meeting we had to stay in Arequipa cause we had to meet with the zone leaders (cause E. Lozano is the district leader) and then we had to stay for a leader meeting with all the leaders in the mission. We didn't get back to La Joya until like 9:30 at night.

Halloween was on Wednesday (I think). They actually do celebrate it here, kind of, except its super weird cause everyone thinks it's like the day of the devil and that it's super bad to dress up (even if you dress up as a princess or whatever) so yeah that is weird. I would tell everyone that everyone celebrates it in the US cause it's from the US and everyone was horrified cause they would ask if all the kids dressed up as like vampires and stuff and I was like, yeah obviously.

El Dia de los Muertos was on Thursday. We fetching couldn't get any appointments or teach anyone cause literally EVERYONE was going or was already at the cemetery. Our pensionista went to the cemetery and took a video and showed us and it was insane, literally the entire town was there just partying and getting drunk hahhaha.

So we placed 2 (kind of 3) baptismal dates this last week! Two of them are 2 brothers named Miguel, who is 17 and Luis, who is 13. They are super cool. We finally had the baptismal interview for one of our good investigators who was supposed to get baptized like a month ago so we put her new date for the 17th.

I only had 2 people try to touch my blonde hair this week hahahaha.

Saturday night there was a fiesta de disfraces which is just a costume party. It was actually pretty fun.  Elder Lozano and I just went to a shop nearby and bought Star Wars masks for 9 soles hahha. But yeah we had games and music and stuff and food so it was chill.

Talk to you guys next week

Elder Mortenson

I will try to send those videos rn...

Week 15

 I'm trying to upload some videos right now to send you but I don't think they will finish before I have to go. I forgot to tell you guys but like a week and a half ago we burnt Elder Lozano's shirt for his 1 year mark hahhaha. And then last Wednesday some other elders came down to do splits and one has the same amount of time as E. Lozano but he hadn't burned his shirt yet. So E. Lozano grabbed another shirt and we went up to the top of the apartment and they both burned their shirts!  So that was sick.

We have a couple of super good investigators. Hopefully we can get this 18-year old named Alexander baptized this week. He is super cool. And maybe the week after if we can get the other good investigators to attend church and hopefully set their dates for the Saturday after this one, we will see.

Like I said, we did splits last Wednesday which was pretty good and something super cool happened. We were in a lesson with this girl and I started talking and all the sudden I had the gift of tongues for like 2 - 3 minutes, it was amazing! I started talking and all the sudden the Spanish just started coming out without me trying and I didn't even have to try to think about what I was saying. I was even using some complex grammar, like imperfect subjunctive, and tons of other  grammar without even trying, so yeah that was super amazing! I'm pretty sure my Spanish was perfect during those 3 minutes and the only explanation I have is that the Spirit must have blessed me because after that the rest of the day it was normal haha but yeah that was sweet.

So we were getting out of a taxi right when this tall Peruvian dude was walking by, so he walked right past me and like stopped for a sec to look at me cause I was his same height, then he gave me a sup nod then kept walking, lol so that was funny.

Another cool thing is that I ate peanut butter sandwiches! We brought a lot of bread back to our room cause we didn't have time for dinner and I got out my jar of peanut butter and we made peanut butter sandwiches, they were amazing.

Also, I had a great a idea: I figure since Trish is reading the Book of Mormon in Spanish to relearn Spanish while fulfilling the Prophet's admonition to the women of the church. Blake should read the Book of Mormon in Tongan so he can relearn Tongan and study the BoM, too. It would also make it so he could actually talk with the USU Polynesian coaches properly, instead of just saying fukamuna (not sure how to spell it) 20 times hahaha but seriously that'd be cool.

So I have been trying to learn how to play the piano so that I can play it in Sacrament Meeting because no one here knows how to play. Hopefully, I can learn even though I don't have much time at all to practice. It sure would be super nice to have the piano when we sing! 

That's about it. I'll talk to you next week!

Love Elder Mortenson

-no hablo español

Week 14

I finally hit the 3 month "forget mark" that Brett told me about, where everyone forgets about you for the most part lol.

I got the package you sent, so super thanks for that, it has everything!

Also, I don't know if I was confusing in what I said or what but I meant that I wanted a mini hymn book in English because I already have one in Spanish. But it's chill, now I have an extra.

So here's the event of the week: We were walking down this street when all of the sudden I heard this massive crash behind me, so I look back and like 30-40 feet away I see one of the little motos (little 3 wheeled taxis) rolling backwards out of this driveway but there wasn't a driver in it, so I was super confused. Everyone here has big metal doors that they use for their house doors/garage doors. So I look over a little and I see one of those and it is bent half-way out and I can see the back of this car crushed against it...Apparently, someone must have floored it in reverse without opening the garage door and just destroyed everything!

Also, another event. So we contacted this lady and while we were talking to her, her son climbed in the window (probs like 9 years old) with no pants on. So then we got an appointment with her for the next day and we go back and the same kid comes to the door once again with the same problem!!! lol so that was weird!

Also, a couple days ago I hit 2 years from when I broke my foot the first time!

My companion and I decided last week to start really trading-off in lessons like normal companionship's do so that I can improve more, so that has been good for me.

Anyways, this week was good. we had zone conference on Tuesday, and then Saturday we went to Arequipa and had lunch with one of Elder Lozano's old converts and then went to the conference Pres. Nelson had from Lima with the missionaries.  Later we came back and watched the second conference with Pres. Nelson, which was for all the members. 

The baptism we had planned didn't come through because the man wasn't able to get the info. we needed to fill-out the paperwork, so hopefully this week we can baptize him.

Also, while we were in Arequipa we saw this white couple that said hi to me and I accidentally replied to them in Spanish. haha cool nonetheless.

Also, we met a super good investigator that has a broken foot and looks exactly like I did, except that he has crutches, poor guy.

That's pretty much it I think. Spanish is fine lol just gotta keep studying!

Papa bless!

Elder Mortenson

Week 13

I don't have a ton of time so this is gonna be super quick.

This week was pretty average. I forgot to say that transfers were last Monday. I didn't get changed or anything, but we got a couple new people in our district.

We went to Papa John's today so that was super fun and then came back and got a haircut. At Papa John's this new elder came that got here last week and it made me realize how much my Spanish actually has improved cause he didn't understand a word!

 

We have a baptismal date for this Satuday. We would've had two but the little girl couldn't come to church and she needs to attend once more, so that one will be next week.

Yeah, that's about it, things are chill...Spanish is...whatever...

Love,

Elder Mortenson

Week 12

This is gonna be kinda short cause i don't have much time and the wifi here is so bad cause there's a million kids in here.

So first off, great news! they lifted the rule on our zone about only being able to go to Arequipa every other p-day. so today we are gonna hustle down there to grab some Papa John's hahaha so that is super nice.

Also it "rained" for the first time the other day! more like just a sprinkle but it was amazing nonetheless.

Wednesday evening we went to Arequipa because Thursday we had migraciones (transfers). We slept over at our zone leaders place. Migrations were super sick cause a ton of the kids from my mtc district and my group were there, so we got to chill and talk and hangout for like 4 hours hahaha it was so fun.

I can't wait till it is November or December cause that's when the rainy season is. and hopefully I'm in Arequipa during that time cause that's where most of the rain is.

We have a few good investigators. We have this 9 year old girl scheduled for the 21st so that will probs happen. We are gonna try and get this other 13 year old scheduled for the 21st as well so we will see how that goes.

But yeah that's about it. My Spanish still lacks lol. I can tell it's gotten a lot better but it is still really hard to understand people and whatnot. I suspect these next 6-12 weeks I will see a ton of progress.

Anyways peace yo.

Love,

Elder Mortenson

Week 11

So first and foremost...we had a surprise baptism! we had been teaching this little group of kids since i got here and there is one little girl that is eight, she loves going to church and hearing our lessons. so last week we committed her for the Saturday and she chose me to baptize her! It was so cool! there isn't a baptismal font here so we went to the community pool for the baptism hahahhaa. we got there at like 2:55 and the baptism was at 3:00. so i hurried and changed and then we came out and NO ONE was there hahahaha lol. so we waited and waited and made some calls and whatnot. Finally, the branch pres showed up at like 3:45 and then Cinthia (the girl i baptized) and her mom and the other kids she lives with finally showed up at like 4:00 hahaha. we went to this little kiddie-pool section on the side and then did the baptism. It was super sick. lol idk why she picked me to do the baptism cause i haven't even talked to her that much due to my limited spanish. probs cause I'm Gringo hahha. but yeah it was a super cool experience!

Afterwards we went to the chapel and had refreshments and watched some short videos and then we had her bear her testimony and it was so awesome.

Not a ton else happened last week. only thing i can thing of is that this crazy preacher dude came up behind us during a lesson and started preaching during our whole lesson. then we left and he started preaching to the gate hahaha he was crazy.

but yeah tha's about it!

Peace, Love E. Mortenson

Week 10

So, my companion, Elder Lozano, always wants to run in the mornings and it is not even hard cause we don't even run that far and i hate running ever since the Spartan Race we did.

This week was pretty nice though, we spent most of the week in Arequipa, so that is probs why!?! haha We spent all p-day there, then came back Tuesday for district meeting, then we did splits with the other elders that are in Arequipa, so we stayed over at their place for the night. Then, we didn't get back to La Joya until like 4 on Wednesday, so that was super chill. Then Thursday morning we had to travel back again cause we had zone conference. It was super fun. There were a couple guys there from the MTC that i got to chill with so that was sick.

I would've exchanged my camera last week but i forgot the stupid box. so we are for sure changing it today cause we got permission from the zone leaders to go do it hahaha. so next week there will for sure be pics, 100%

Here are more characteristics of Elder Lozano that remind me of Blake (dad)....

He always asks if I'm ready even when I'm clearly not ready. 

His fetching watch alarm goes off at 5:30 so he will wake up and just sit there, then at 6:00 he will start playing music.  I just wanna kill myself.

hahahha lol, um lets see. Everyone here eats out of the same salad bowl and they will lick the spoons  and then put them back in whatever it came from, and ya it is just terrible!!! hahahaha.

Also, I weighed yesterday and I'm exactly 200 lbs. still so that is good. I actually lost a couple pounds since the MTC.

Today has been super sick, we woke up early to come to Arequipa. Then we played soccer with our district in Congata. Then we split up and went to the market to get a bunch of ingredients for what we were gonna make for lunch. I went with one of the zone leaders who is from cali so that was super sick. I got to talk to him in English and ask him questions about Spanish and stuff so that was super chill. I got to be with him for a couple hours while we went and got ingredients and did some other stuff.

Then we had this super good lunch with like hot dogs (kind of ) and guacamole and other stuff and it was so good.

oh yeahhhhhh, also they fetching had Kit Kats at the market so I got a couple of those, best Kit Kats I've ever had!!! hahaha.

And tonight we are having roasted chicken so that is gonna be sick!

oh yeah i almost forgot....

so we had a family that was progressing super super well and we thought for sure we were gonna get them baptized. but yesterday we did splits with the pensionista's sons and I went with the one who is a returned missionary. and then the parents started talking to him about all this stuff. I'm not sure exactly what the problem is cause the Spanish was way above my comprehension hahhahaha but I think I know what it is and its pretty serious. so yeah that stinks.

but we have a lot of kids that are doing super well and I think we are gonna commit these two 13 year old girls this week that are super chevere.

but yeah that's about it!

see you next week lol.

papa bless, Elder Mortenson

Week 9

Next week i should have all the pics

So pretty decent week.

Last tuesday we made pizza after our district meeting so that was sick to finally have pizza.

I read one of the talks by joseph smith that was in the folder that bryce gave me and it blew my mind lol. i cant remember the name of it.

I found a way to get a cold drink every now and then. the pensionista has a fridge so whenever i can i will buy a cold Inca Cola or Sprite out of there if there are any. so that is super nice.

Everyday i realize that Elder Lozano is more and more like Blake (dad). he will chill in his garments when we get back to the apartment. and there are elections going on and this one guy has this theme song that is always blaring everywhere that says la espiga which is like a wheat spike or something. and E. Lozano figured out that it means that, so all the time he will randomly just staring saying spike just like how Blake does with certain words and phrases. he does it with tons of other stuff too hahaha.

So i am like the most popular guy down in la joya cause im basically the only gringo and i have blonde hair and blue eyes.

We are in Arequipa right now. it is soooo much better than la joya. its so lit here. we went to this massive 3 story mall and they had everything, and an H&M. we went to mcdonalds in this other huge mall so that was the best thing every tbh. they have everything here in Arequipa; pizza hut, papa johns (papa bless), and tgi fridays, chilis, burger king, and whatever else. there's nothing in la joya haha. they also have mtn dew here. but not in the mall that we were in, maybe next time i can get some mtn dewsky!

Its pretty sick in la joya cause there's not a ton of pollution so you can see the stars super well.

Also, we had two earthquakes hahaha so that was sick. I woke up in the middle of the night and my bed was shaking and I was like what the fetch?? hahahaha. Then i woke up in the morning and thought that it had been a dream but immediately after that we had another one, exactly the same hahhahaa.

Another good things is that im gonna have super good posture from my backpack always pulling me up lol.

Also, I'm 2 for 3 on number of breast feedings to number of weeks hahahhaa. the first week i was here some lady started breastfeeding during a lesson, and like 4 days ago we were teaching this woman in her shop and then she started breastfeeding her baby, so that was super weird, like 4 feet away.

E. Lozano had a nice bible bash with this one guy that thought he was super smart haha. it was for a fetching hour and the guy kept asking all these questions that he thought were smart and quoting scriptures but Lozano just kept owning him and finally pulled out a scripture from the Book of Mormon and destroyed him. afterwards the guy didn't know what to say so he said he had to go hahha.

lol I finally realized how important it is to have the spirit with us always hahaha cause we usually teach lesson 1 which is the Restoration. And if you think about it it sounds pretty weird. like some kid said a prayer and God and Christ appeared to him then he got some golden plates and whatnot. Definitely need the spirit to testify to them about it!

I'ts super gross, people here LOVE salt. they literally put the most insane amount of salt on everything including salad. Actually no... especially salad hahahaa its so gross i cant even eat it!

Also, everyone here is so bad at singing and they all love to sing. like I'm not good at singing, but they are awful, it makes my ears bleed. and its even worse in sacrament meeting cause no one can play the piano so everyone is off tune and it is so bad.

We did splits yesterday. i went with the pensionista's son who is an RM and Lozano went with this other guy, so that was chill. we found this guy that loved the idea of preaching the gospel and stuff. then we talked about the Book of Mormon and how it's about the ancient Americas and all that. then he asked where i was from so i told him the United States. then he started talking about how the U.S. is the chosen land and stuff and said all this stuff about how good America is and i was like yeah, you are 100% right the U.S. is the best!!!

I had to give a talk yesterday in church so that was pretty awful hahahaha.

Also, i finally realized what cafe rio and cafe sabor actually mean hahahaha so that's cool.

That's really about it. the weeks are getting better! After we finish writing we are going to the Plaza de Almas or something. I'm not sure exactly what its called. but its supposed to be super sick and E. Lozano said that there are usually other gringos there so that will be exciting. Oh, also at the mall we ran into some other missionaries and one of them was Elder Nichols that was in my district in the MTC so that was sick hahaha.

Anyways, peace.

Love, Elder Mortenson

Week 8

Yo whaddup?

This week was a lot better than the first week hahaha, still don't understand anything though.

I got a new camera but the sim cards that I brought with me don't work in it. We can only go to Arequipa every other Monday for stuff like that. So next Monday I'm gonna go back to the guy and switch it for the camera that is exactly like the one that I had before lol, idk why I didn't just buy that one in the first place haha but oh well. We put my sim card in E. Lozanos camera to take some b-day pics so don't worry.

Let's see...so in the van last week, like 3 Macklemore songs came on so that was lit hahaha.

Also, one of the sons of our pensionista was telling me that he has a classmate named something Garate.  I remember Bryce telling me that he had a companion named Garate, from this area who was "the man" or whatever so that is cool. Hopefully, one day I will meet him.

During breakfast one day E. Lozano plugged in a speaker with the pensionistas son's USB and it had normal decently good English songs on it, so that was sick hahaha music is amazing!!!

So, they have this thing here called queso helado (cheese ice-cream???). idk if
Bryce ever had it or if it's just an Arequipa thing, but it is freaking good!

lol So all the kids here have to wear uniforms and there are a few different schools so there're a bunch of different uniforms. I asked E. Lozano why they had to wear uniforms and he said to tell the school apart or something. Then he asked why American schools don't have to wear uniforms and the first thing that came to mind was FREEDOM!!! lol so I told him,"cause the United States is free" hahaha he just laughed. Also last week in Arequipa I saw some guy on the street wearing American flag shorts so that was sick.

Also it is super dumb because the pensionista, who cooks our meals, owns like 97 cats. jk but like 4 and they run around the little house, so every time we go eat I sneeze a bunch, so that's kind of annoying.

It is super well-irrigated here in La Joya so it's greener than most places. They have endless fields of these plants called "Tunas"(Prickly Pear Cactus) that make this stuff called Cochinilla (a wood larva used for dying fabric). Also, there is this Main Plaza that is pretty nice with trees and lots of shade and stuff to see.

Okay, so my water bottle somehow started leaking and idk how. Maybe in the next package you could send me a new super good water bottle? Also, if you do you could like put my ipod in it with some good mission music haha for reals though, I need that ipod with like as many songs as possible!

Also, could you send me a mini hymn book and a mini Book Of Mormon in English? That would be sweet!

But yeah, that's about it. Peace yo,

Elder Mortenson

Week 7

whaddup???  So ya long time no see.

There's not much to say about the last week in the ccm. Same as all the others. We got our haircuts on the Monday night before we left. That Monday was super chill lol we didn't really do anything.

So we left Tuesday morning at like 3 a.m. One of my bags was heavy so I had to stand in a different line in order to pay for it for like 40 minutes. Then our flight left at like 5 or 6 or something and I slept a bit on the plane.

We got to Arequipa at like 7 or 8. While we were waiting for our bags, I left my stuff by Elder Walker cause he still had one bag he was waiting for. Everyone else had already gotten their bags. So I left my bags and backpack by him while I went to the bathroom, and I guess the next flight's bags started coming out so he left to go talk to someone about him not getting one of his bags. But yeah, I think that someone stole my camera during that time. I'm gonna go get a new camera today or tomorrow.

We got on a bus and drove to the church to meet the Mission President and all the trainers. lol They gave out the packages that had been sent there and they gave me both of the birthday packages you sent and everybody was like "I wanna be his companion!!" lol. Thanks for the packages. I opened one so that I could wear the hat and the slippers but I'm saving the rest for Friday (Brock's b-day). I loved the hat 'cause the sun roasts you here but come to find out we aren't allowed to wear hats like that. They have to be kind of like fedoras or however you spell that.

Anyways, then we had these initiation things for our new companions. My new comp. is Elder Lozano from Ecuador. He speaks zero English so you can imagine how that is...then we ate lunch and left for our areas.

The area I'm in is called La Joya. It's about 2 hours west of Arequipa. Every Tuesday we have to drive up to Arequipa for a district meeting so that's a bonus 4 hours of nap/study time lol. We spend a lot of the time in a smaller town a little above La Joya called Los Milagros, it's a super poor town.

It gets decently hot here during the day but as soon as the sun goes down it cools down quite a bit and it is perfect! The "anoche ser" (sunsets) here are awesome, I'll take some pics when I get a camera lol.

So, I haven't been able to understand a word that anyone has said this whole week. Every lesson E. Lozano just gives it and I just stand/sit there awkwardly cause I have no idea what they are saying. Everyone talks so fast. E. Lozano forgets all the time that a don't know Spanish and he will talk to me fast, then I'll tell him to say it slower so then he will say it again in what he thinks is slow but its still way fast! So yeah, it is super hard to communicate.

Saturday we played soccer in the morning and there was this one 22-year-old guy there that is a member and he spoke a decent amount of English. He was the first person I had had an actual convo with since we left for our areas last Tuesday, so that was sick.

Sunday was chill, just church and then lunch. Not much else. But dinner was sick cause the guy that knows a bit of English brought us food from a chicken place so we had good chicken and fries and Inca Cola. 

This is titled "never-ending rice" because that is what we eat everyday. The pensionista gives us so much fetching rice, and it isn't even that good! It's so hard to eat all of it and if you do manage to eat it all, then you feel sick afterwards, so yeah that sucks lol.

Let's see, oh on the first day I was here, Elder Lozano committed a guy named Rodrigo to baptism on the 15th, so hopefully that follows through. Plus, he already has this family scheduled for baptism on the 8th, so hopefully that works!

I can't wait till I can understand people. It's so annoying cause I have no idea what is going on all the time. 

Do you think that Bryce could get my old old old white ipod that is just for music and download tons of Motab and other music on it and sent it to  me in the next package (with the charger)?  That would be helpful lol cause I miss music so much!!!

Me and E. Lozano are gonna go to Arequipa in a couple of minutes so that I can get my watch adjusted and get a new camera while I'm there as well hahaha.

Also, I know somewhat how dad feels now about never having a cold drink on the mission. No drinks here are ever cold!!! 

Also, tons of the people that we talk to say "tiene ojos muy bonitos" (you have very beautiful eyes) cause most of them have never seen blue eyes before.

When I get home in 22 months the first thing I want is a cold Baja Blast btw. Literally, the only thing I want!

I'm pretty sure that's all now.

Peace yooo,

Love, Elder Mortenson

Week 5

What's up hahaha this week was decent. It was literally the same as every other week except this time there was more sun! It's awesome cause its basically Spring here, so the sun has actually been coming out!

Let's see...so last Saturday we had our proselyting activity. It was super fun. sooo much better than class. hahaha So we all got on a bus and they bused us over to this super poor area that was in the Lima East Mission (Bryce's mission). then we stopped at the church building and met in there and talked for a while. Most of the elders that were there to welcome us recognized me as Bryce's brother lol. So we were sitting there and each of the seasoned elders got to choose what elders they wanted, and this one guy told everyone that he "calls Mortenson" lol. So me, my comp, and two other elders went with him. His name is Elder Madruga and he was one of Bryce's comps like back in February. Apparently, he and Bryce were tight hahaha he was so dope. He told me his side of the story about when he and Bryce killed a dog idk if you guys remember that hahaha but it was so funny. He was so happy that I was there, he said it was like deja vu cause me and Bryce are the same person basically. Also, I told him that Bryce got hurt by the big boys lol and he was like "I told him to take it easy when he got back!" Anyway, so all we did was basic contacting and stuff. They gave us all a Book of Mormon that we had to hand out. So we were just walking around and mElder Madruga and two of the other elders went and started talking to these people. So me and another Elder decided to go talk to these two guys just chilling. So we went and talked to them in my best Spanish lolol. Then they saw the BoM that we had and they asked what it was so we just gave a brief explanation about it and bore our testimonies and gave it to them. They seemed genuinely interested unlike every other person that we talked to.

Also, I had my first experience with the wild dogs here hahaha. Elder Madruga showed me how to handle all the different dog scenarios. We almost had to throw rocks at some dogs cause they started to chase us a little bit hahaha it was sick.

lol so "dank" in Spanish is "frío y húmedo" hahaha so we started saying that in class and our hermana teacher was wondering why we were saying that. So then we told her that it meant "dank" in English and that dank means like cool in the United States. hahaha so then we got her to say dank, it was so funny!

So we leave next Tuesday (Aug.28th) at like 2ish in the morning, not exactly sure.  I'm pretty sure Mondays are prep-days for Arequipa so idk when I'll be able to email next. So we will see how it goes... haha I'm sooo excited to get there. The only bad thing there is that we are with our trainer for 12 weeks, no one ever told me that until like 2 weeks ago. So that's gonna fetching hurt if I get a dumb trainer.

That's about it!

Love Elder Mortenson

Week 4

I finally know why Bryce wanted me to send him music so bad all the time. 'Cause we don't get any music except for the hymns we sing on Sundays. Literally the best thing is going into one of the piano rooms by our class and listening to one of the Elders in our district play music that isn't hymns. hahaha One of the elders is having his friends send him tons of sheet music for him to print cause one of the elders in our district is gonna major in piano or whatever and he can play literally any sheet music you give him, so that is gonna be sick.

So instead of our regular time, on Wednesday, I'm on today cause all the kids that were 3 weeks ahead and the kids on the 3 week program left for their assignments. All of the new missionaries arrive here tonight. So yeah lol, sorry I didn't tell you I'd be on early last week. I actually didn't even know they were changing it until today. But don't worry, my regular Prep-day will be Wednesday for the rest of the time.

We went to the temple this morning. The temple is always good lol it's way better than class. 

My Spanish still sucks haha we still all suck at Spanish. Our instructors are always like, "You guys need to study harder and stuff, cause you will be out in the field in 3 weeks!" and we are all like, "Dude, we've had 3 weeks of Spanish, what do you expect?"

Last week actually, right after we emailed and had lunch, we saw a bunch of actual Elders in the administration building. So we walked by and one of them came out and said "hi".  I asked him what mission he was from and for how long he had been out. He said Lima East and 22 months. So then I asked if he knew Bryce and then he freaked out and was like, "No way your his brother??!" Then we talked for a sec and then his companion came out and he knew Bryce too. Then I looked up at the second floor window that was above us and there were like 6 elders up there looking at me and then one of them yelled out the window "Elder Mortenson?" I said "Yeah that's my brother." Then they all freaked out, too and came running out to talk and they were all so pumped to see me!  They all said I looked exactly like theskybison and stuff. The names I wrote down that I remembered were Elders Ianni, Call, Whitby, Burley, and then some others. so ya Bryce can probs tell you about all of them.

Last week I said "que vaina" in the hall cause that was one of the phrases that Bryce told me to say. One of the maestras turned and like gasped and said "Elder!" hahahaha So yesterday, at dinner, I went over and talked to Paulo ,(Bryce's bff) and told him about it and asked him what the exact translation was cause Bryce had told me it meant "what the fetch".  Paulo said it is basically saying, "what the hell" hahahaha lol so that was super funny.

Week 3

So this week we did exactly the same thing that we did the past 3 weeks before hahahha.

I finally got my influenza shot when all the new kids got here so that is good lol

Also, my comp got sick last week. He had diarrhea and was throwing up so that sucked for him. We talked to the health lady and she gave him some meds and then told him to sleep all day, so I just joined a different companionship in my district. He is fine now though.

 I finally found my fetching nail kit and Mio and stuff. I hadn't opened the bag that had all the pills and vitamins and stuff in it until last week cause I figured I should probably take a vitamin. Then, for some reason, my nail kit and the Mio were in there as well, so that is cool.

I still haven't gotten the package you sent. I've heard that they don't like when people send packages here to the MTC so maybe they have it and are just chilling with it or something idk.

I'm super pumped for this Saturday cause we have a prosoliting activity with missionaries from the Lima East Mission. So I will most likely get paired with some guys that know Bryce. Only bad thing is that my Spanish is still awful and as soon as we leave the MTC for the temple and stuff I cant understand anyone. but yeah I'm super excited to get out of the walls for a bit and talk to some real people haha.

Also I hit 1 month on Friday! I guess that's cool hahaha lol. 

Anyways, that's about it not much else to report.

Love, Elder Mortenson

Week 1

first week got better as time went on. first 3 or 4 days were rough. but the last couple have been pretty good.

Yeah when i first got here all of the instructors recognized me as Bryce's brother and they were all asking about him and stuff.

um I think you forgot the Mio cause i cant find any in my bags. hopefully you put some in the package you sent me hahaha. 

My comp is Elder Walker from Gilbert Arizona. He is pretty cool and normal. My whole district is super sick cause we have 12 people and we are all guys. its super fun.

The flight sucked lol, there were like 40 missionaries on our flight to Atlanta and then like 30 missionaries on the flight to Peru.

I found the cookies you made for me but not the note.

Week 2

So this week was pretty decent haha. idk it's basically like my sophomore year of high school all over again. i have class all day, spanish, seminary, and then all the teachers recognize me from Bryce haha.

Everyday its basically just wake up, breakfast, study, class, eat, study, work out, study, dinner, class. so yeah its super exciting as you can see. some days are better than others. It seems like this last week flew by. so that's good haha. 

Yesterday we had a service activity. so we were all waiting outside for the guy to give us instruction when all the sudden i just hear "Mortenson! Elder Mortenson! si? Elder Mortenson si?" so i look over at was like who the fetch is yelling at me. then i see this white looking dude that i didn't recognize so then i was super confused, and he had a weird accent. so then i just said yes si I'm elder Mortenson. then he comes over to me and is super happy and gives me a hug. then he starts talking about Bryce and stuff and i am still so confused. then i finally look at his name-tag and see that it is Pres. Amato, Bryce's Mission President! So then i was like ohhhhhh lol that explains it. Then he is like "here here we have to take a picture for me to send to Bryce right now!" so then we took a selfie together and idk if he sent it to Bryce or not. Then he said how Bryce told him I was coming and stuff and ya, so that was interesting. All of the other missionaries out there were super confused at what was happening, so that was cool.

Also today at the temple, after i came out of the celestial room this white dude that was a temple worker came up to me and asked what my name was, so i told him and then he said i looked familiar. so then i told him how Bryce had been there just a couple months ago and then told him Bryce was super tall and then he was like "yeah yeah i know, you look just like him!". lol so yeah that was interesting as well.

In my district there is a kid from Ridgeline that plays baseball and is actually good friends with Shawn Triplett. His name is Jaxon Nichols. He is pretty cool. also there is a kid from Logan and a kid from Mtn Crest here but they are 3 weeks ahead of us.

lol so i came into the MTC with pretty low expectations because of Bryce, Brett and Burger hahaha and i think that helped, because it's actually been above my expectations! hahahaha.

Also, the most amazing thing happened on Monday and today; the sun came out!! idk if Bryce ever told any of you this but in the winter the sun never comes out cause of the clouds and the fog and stuff haha. But yeah, on Monday it came out for like 3 whole hours it was amazing. And then today as we were walking over to the computer labs the sun came out for a bit haha it's so nice. I hadn't seen the sun for 12 days until it came out on Monday hahaha.

Anyways yeah next week all the new kids will be getting here so that'll be fun. Isn't cake from basketball coming here? I think he is, that would be dope. 

Also i still haven't gotten your package. 

But yeah that is pretty much it. its going well!

Love, Elder Mortenson