Hello!

I am alive in Arequipa and all is well! I got my package right when I arrived, and it’s sitting in my room waiting to be opened on the 3rd. I read all of your questions, but don’t remember all of them, so I’m just going to talk.

Leaving the MTC was fine. I was able to pack my bags up alright. I borrowed a vaccum from the cleaning closet and shrunk my blanket. We left for the airport at 4:45 Tuesday morning. We got there, checked our bags, and flew for an hour to Arequipa. President Zobrist was at the airport waiting for us. We got on a bus and drove around the city a little bit. Then we went to the Arequipa Temple site. They just finished purchasing the 7 parcels of land from 28 owners, so the ground breaking will be soon. If we’re here in Arequpia, I’m pretty sure we’ll get to go. The temple will take like 3 years to construct, though. Then we went to a stake center, had a presentation, ate lunch, got our new companions, and split off to our areas. There are 7 zones in Arequipa and 8 zones outside of Arequipa. I am in Arequipa, Zone Hunter! It’s fun, and a little weird, to see my name all over town on signs and stuff.

My companion is Elder Mananita. He is 22 and from Iquitos, Peru. He has 16 months in the mission and doesn’t know English. It’s weird always talking in Spanish and never being able to use English like I could in the MTC. I am able to understand most of what people say, but there are some times that I don’t understand. I can talk better than I can understand, though, so I do alright when teaching lessons and stuff.

Cool story about a lesson we taught yesterday. We went into this lady’s house and started talking with her. We asked if her husband was home, and she said he was, but that he didn’t want to come out and listen. She said that many missionaries had come by and he never wanted to listen. My companion tried to encourage her to call him out, but she wouldn’t, so he asked what his name was and yelled to him himself. Surprisingly, he came out and agreed to listen to a lesson. We talked for a bit and got to know him, then we taught the Plan of Salvation. He was engaged and paying attention during the lesson. We gave him the folleto (pamphlet) to read and even joked about having “homework to do,” so he seemed happy to learn more. My companion invited him to pray with his family to ask if the church is true, and he agreed to that. Then I was prompted to invite him to be baptized. I asked him if when he recieved the answer that the church is true, if he’d follow the example of Jesus Christ (Jesucristo) and be baptized, and he nodded his head yes! It was awesome! We have another appointment with him tomorrow.

My pensionista is great. We live with her and she is a member of the Church. I have a photo of my room that I will try to send. We have bread and something to drink in the mornings, sometimes eggs. Then for lunch we have rice and something. Usually chicken. Then for dinner we have the same thing as lunch. The food has been good for the most part. None of it has been bad, but some of it wasn’t great.

Thank you for the birthday package! During the welcome presentation, they said that USPS is the best way to send packages here. They said don’t use FedEx or UPS because it is a hassle and usually doesn’t make it here. I probably won’t be sending packages home because it’s usually 100 Soles. And individual letters are about 9 Soles, so we’ll see if those happen or not. Probably not.

Here are some photos. I didn’t take a lot because I usually didn’t have my camera, but I will try to take some more.

The first few are from Lima [It was actually only one he sent]. Then my room and my companero and me.

[Hunter finished the MTC this week. We did not receive an email from him, because of the timing of his MTC preparation day, and his preparation day in the field. We anticipate receiving the next email on Monday, September 29th. Below is the email we received from his Mission President.]

September 24, 2014

Dear Brother and Sister Kehoe

We are pleased to inform you that your son, Elder Kehoe, has arrived safely here in the mission. The enclosed picture was taken at the mission home the day he arrived.

Please accept our appreciation for raising such a fine son with good qualities and talents that will bless the people of Peru. My wife and I feel he will be a dedicated and hard working missionary. We are committed to his health and well-being, and consider it an honor and privilege to serve with him here in Peru.

As president of the mission, I am happy to answer your question at any time. . . To help maintain the spiritually and focus of the missionaries, we ask you not to call your son directly except for Christmas and Mothers Day. Your son will indicate how to make these calls. To send regular mail and packages please use the following address:

Elder, Kehoe Hunter Muir
Peru Arequipa, Mission
Casilla 1884
Arequipa, Perú

We hope that you will write to your son as often as possible, only the positive things of the family so he does not lose sight of the purpose of this mission. He should write home once a week and we hope you will reply to his letters.

We appreciate your dedication in preparing your son for his mission. We pray that you will continue to enjoy the Lords choicest blessings.

Sincerely,

Richard Zobrist
President
Peru Arequipa Mission

My final week here in the MTC has come. It has gone by really quick. It’s weird to think that I have already completed 1/24 months of my mission.

Things have gone pretty well here. Learning lots of Spanish still. Eating lots of rice still. Giving priesthood blessings still… My companion sprained his ankle this week playing volleyball. He went up to spike it and landed on the tire that the pole is supported by. It was really swollen and purple after a day and a half, so they took him to the hospital to get x-rays. It isn’t broken, but they put a cast on it to heal it quicker. After he got back from the hospital, he asked me, his companion, for a priesthood blessing. It was another great experience to be able to use the power of God to help someone I love and care about.
We are going proselyting again this week, but sadly my companion can’t come because of his cast. I am going to be the “senior” companion this week with a 2 week “principiante” Elder as my companion. Hopefully it all goes well. I’m excited to go out and teach people again, but I’m a little concerned about my Spanish ability. I’m sure it will go alright, though.

The Church is true, everyone. It is simple, too.
Have faith in Christ,
Repent alright,
And be baptized like him.
The Holy Ghost will come to you,
And always be your friend.
Then as you endure to the end,
You’ll get to live with your Father again.

(If that makes sense as a rhymn, then it’s a rhymn. If not, then it’s a paragraph with really bad grammer)
Have a great week everyone!

-Elder Kehoe

Not much has happened this week. We are still as busy as ever learning Spanish.

We went out proselyting this week was a good experience. I didn’t have many opportunities to talk to people, but those that we did talk to seemed to like our message. We didn’t get into any houses again and only talked to a few people on the streets, but it was good. The area we went to this time wasn’t as poor as the other area, so it was nice to see another section of the city. I was paired with a native speaker this time, so it was harder to communicate and plan what we were going to say and teach, but the conversations we had with people went well.

I like playing soccer now! We have an hour of gym time everyday and I’ve been playing soccer with my district during that time.

I know that this gospel can bless lives. It has changed mine, and it can change everyone’s for not only this life, but for the eternities.

Also, this week I was able to see the power of the priesthood in my life.
I am the district leader in my district, and one of the Hermanas (Sister Missionaries) in our group hurt her leg while playing soccer. We were going out proselyting and were going to be walking around a lot, so she asked for a blessing that it wouldn’t hurt while she was proselyting. Since I’m the district leader, I’m in charge of giving blessings to the Hermanas. I did, and I blessed her that she would be okay and that her leg wouldn’t affect her proselyting. We left and came back, and I never heard anything from her. But then I heard from some of the Hermana leaders that she said her leg didn’t hurt at all while she was teaching and only started to hurt again when we got back to the CCM (MTC). So that was cool. It was a neat experience to see the immediate results of a priesthood blessing.

I’d love to hear from everyone! Thank you for your prayers!

-Elder Kehoe

We are so busy here. We have 16 hour days everyday, and every hour of that time is used being busy. We are always learning Spanish or practicing in Spanish or reading in Spanish or eating Spanish food. It’s great, though, because I love Spanish.

The Spirit is so strong here, and we’re able to feel it everyday. We are praying all the time and asking God for help constantly because we need it so badly to learn a new language, and He is blessing us. We have learned so much so quickly, and we keep learning more. On Saturday, we’re going out to teach people what we have learned. It’s a little bit intimidating going out to teach people that we don’t know in a language we don’t really know. However, I do know the Gospel, at least some of it, and I know without a doubt that it is true. I want to convey that to the people I teach. I know this is true and that it can change lives.

I don’t have much time this week to write, and I still can’t post pictures, but know that God loves you and that He will always help you when you ask for it!

-Elder Kehoe