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