Week 24

so interesting and unexpected week.

Christmas and all that was sick, not much more to say.

First thing first, our fecha for last Saturday fell through. The guy decided to start drinking again so that stinks.

We went to see an old investigator and when we went inside there was this white dude there that started talking to us in English. Turns out he was from Tucson, AZ and his wife is the sister of the guy we were visiting. so ya we got to talk to him for a while, which was cool.

So Saturday night we found out our changes, super unexpected. Elder Parry had been in Ciudad Nueva for 3 changes and that was my first change. So we thought I might stay in the area while he would get transferred but ya we both bounced. E. Parry went down to Tacna and I got sent to Pedregal, which is like an hour from La Joya, my first area.  Pedregal is basically La Joya except like 5 times as big. It's so huge but its better than La Joya. There are actually people here to contact and we have a decent pensionista. Also, I am in a threesome rn with Elder Chase from my group that came out together and Elder Fulcher from the group ahead of us. E. Chase wasn't in my ccm district like E. Parry was but he is from my group. Who would've thought I'd be comps with multiple people from my group???  They are both super chill and cool. There are also two other elders that live in the room next to us, one of them went home for like 5 months for back problems and just barely got back out like 2 weeks ago. He is training this  Elder from Colorado that just barely got here like 2 hours ago hahahhah.

But ya on our way over here we saw two dogs that were stuck together, I kid you not they were literally stuck together. I took a video and will try to send that with this.

Okay, well I typed that and then tried to plug my camera in but this computer doesn't have a USB port for some reason, it is literally missing the whole plug-in thing! 

Next week I'll try to send all the vlogs I took with Elder Parry lol

Peace!

eLdER mOrtEnSoN

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