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