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...