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