I always have plenty to eat, my companion is great and we’re always laughing, and the teaching experiences are there.

They have huge bags of rice here. 50 kgs, which according to my calculations, is about 110 lbs. Crazy. I haven’t tried lifting one yet, but I don’t think I could hold it for long. I’m not sure how they get them from wherever in the world they buy it to their house.

My electric razor has been working great, and after not charging it since home, finally died this week. So apparently it has about a 3 month battery life with everyday use. And the outlets here are like the ones in the US, so I didn’t need to use the converter and the razor can use 220V so it charged fine when I need to charge it.

Our area is really big. There is a look out tower in town (Mirador of Sachaca) that I will try to climb sometime and take pictures of most of Arequipa. You can see basically everything from there, and I will point out my area. We walk a lot, but we also take the cambis and taxis occasionally. I agree that a bike would be nice, but as far as I know we’re not allowed to have them.

We have hot showers. The other water is all cold. And the showers are hot because there is an attachment on the nozzle/spout that I think, like Brother Riddle said, electrifies the water and heats it up. We also have a lot of hot drinks. The water is all impure here, so they have to boil everything, and then they drink it while it’s hot. I’m not a huge fan, but I’m growing to like them.

We do have a ward mission leader, but I met him for the first time last week. I think he works away from town or something, so he isn’t usually around to help out. We also have an assistant ward mission leader, which is interesting. I haven’t seen us do anything that would help back home, but I have been thinking about it. Haha, it’s weird to be filling out the same progress reports that the Sisters would bring you Saturday nights.

I tried making German Pancakes in our solar oven this week, but it didn’t work. It didn’t get hot enough to cook them. Then my pensionista moved the pan to the electric oven, which I didn’t know we had, and it worked great. They rose and they freaked out because it was growing taller than the pan. This happened while we were out proselyting, though, so I couldn’t explain to them that that’s supposed to happen and that you eat it when it’s fresh and fluffy. When we got home and looked at it, it was not fluffy, super dense, and did not smell good. We’ll be trying again sometime soon and eating them fresh.

I didn’t really take pictures of what you asked, but I have some pictures of the farms I walk by and cows.

Also, we had 2 baptisms this weekend! 2 little girls from a family of investigators were baptized. One 12 year old and one 8 year old. I baptized the 8 year old. It was a great experience. Not many people were at the baptismal service, but there were enough there to make it a spiritual experience for them and a nice welcome into the church. Their parents aren’t married, so they can’t be baptized yet, but we have done all the paperwork and everything so that they can be married on November 22 and then baptized. The work of the Lord is moving forward! And before the baptism we (actually my companion) baked a cake. My companion apparently worked in a bakery for some time before the mission. When he was making it, he was just throwing a bunch of stuff in a bowl and mixing it with his hands. I didn’t think it would work at all. But we put it in a pan, put it in the oven of the lady that washes our clothes (which is really conveniente, by the way) and waited. And it turned out great! Except for the one corner that burned on the bottom. We scraped off the crispy part, put some caramel on top with some sprinkles, and it was good! We brought it to the baptism and ate it along with some juice after the baptism.

For the baptism, the family lives far away from the chapel, so we went in a taxi to pick them up. There are 5 of them in the family. So we squeezed 8 people and a baby into a car the size of the Pickle [Hyundai Accent]. That was fun.

I just have one picture this week. It’s of a river that runs through the city with the volcano Misti in the background.

We had a good week this week. We got to study more this week, which we don’t usually have time for, so that was nice. I got to read more in the Book of Mormon in Spanish, we practiced teaching some lessons, watched some videos about how to improve as missionaries, and I helped my companion with his English.

My Spanish continues to improve. I can understand a lot, usually even when they speak quickly. I am getting better at talking, too. I need to look up more words in my dictionary so I can increase my vocabulary and use different verbs, but it’s going well. We might be starting an English class for my ward that I will be teaching. Don’t know what I’ll teach, but we’ll see what happens.

As far as my personal supplies go, I’m doing alright. The big bottle of shampoo and hand sanitizer and hair gel have all lasted so far. I have sun screen. My first space pen ink cartridge ran out this week, so I replaced it with the extra one I brought. My waterproof notebooks are working great. I always have it on me, along with my space pen, my flashlight, my wallet, money, my Missionary Agenda, my Missionary Manual, and as soon as I get the paracord, I will make a lanyard that I carry as well.

I got a calling in my Zone. I am the piano player… I only play the right hand, because I haven’t practiced enough to play with both, but I can play just about any hymn with just the right hand, so that’s good. I’m surprised no one else knows how to play. I play every Tuesday and Thursday during our Zone and District meetings. During Sacrament Meeting, we sing along with the recorded hymns on CD because our chapel is tiny and doesn’t have a piano.

I had to teach Gospel Principles this week, in Spanish, without my companion. My first time ever being in that class, and I’m teaching it, in a foreign language. That was interesting. I think they understood what I was trying to teach. We talked about lesson 6, the Fall of Adam and Eve.

Everyone here has backpacks and not shoulder bags, so I think I’ll look for a backpack somewhere and keep my shoulder bag to use in college when I get home.

We had a good week! We were able to watch Conference this weekend, and they set up a room for us to listen to it in English, so that was great. The first native Spanish speaker we listened to in Spanish, but it was hard to follow and understand everything he was saying, so I’m glad the whole thing wasn’t like that. I learned a lot. And the 10 hours passed by really quick. We didn’t have many lessons those days because we were traveling to and from the Stake Center and the Conferenece was a lot of the day.

We have a current investigator that has a lot of religious questions, so I like to teach her and help her understand more. We taught the Word of Wisdom (haha, I wanted to write Palabra de Sabiduría) and also why there are so many different churches (the Restoration). We wanted to give her a Book of Mormon to read because she said that she wanted to know if it was true or not. We didn’t have one on us, so I said we’d return to our room, grab one, and bring it back. And I was willing to do that even though there are, literally, over 160 stairs to get up to her house. We walked down them, back to our room, back to the stairs, up the stairs, and to her house, and gave her the book. She seemed really happy to have it. One of the scriptures that I shared with her that I think might’ve helped her understand a little bit more why we have the Book of Mormon and the Bible was Mormon 7:8-9. It talks about the record of the Jews (the Bible) and this record (the Book of Mormon). And it clearly says, if you believe that record (the Bible) you will believe this record (the Book of Mormon). The two book work together perfectly and testify of each other. And through both books, we can come closer to Christ.

For P-Day last week we went to the Plaza de Armas. We happened to run into a bunch of the other missionaries that were with me in the MTC, so it was fun to see and talk to them. We also went to basically a flea market with tons of little shops and walked around. You can buy just about anything here for pretty cheap. Today I think we are going to stay here in Hunter and do something as a zone.

Elder Kehoe

These photos are of my pensionista in our little kitchen and of the street outside my house. Any more requests?

So little to do and so much time. Stop. Scratch that. Reverse it. On we go! (I hope someone gets that reference)

Everyone wants to know what we did for General Conference. The answer is: nothing. There were elections in all of Peru yesterday, and it’s illegal or something to have public meetings on election day, so we couldn’t meet together to watch Conference. We will be watching it as a Stake next weekend, though.

There are supposedly a bunch of earthquakes here in Peru, but I haven’t felt one yet. I want one to happen sometime because I think they’re fun, but I hope it doesn’t like destroy a building or anything.

My birthday was great! The package was fine. Everything was intact. Based on the date stamps that were on it, it looks like it got here in only about a week, just for future reference. The balloons rubbed off a little, but I could read them. The traditions here are different… I got my head smashed into 3 different cakes and had eggs and flour squished into my head… I have some pictures of it below. One of the Sisters in the ward made delicious chicken wings for us. The man in the last picture is the husband of our pensionista. He works in a funeral home and was telling us a bunch of scary stories last night about working there. Hearing footsteps upstairs when there is nobody there, children giggling in the next room, seeing things, etc. Crazy.

Last week there weren’t many pictures because the resolution was too high on my camera, and I can only email so many, but now the resolution is lower, so I can send more. Please send me photo requests, because I have no idea what to take pictures of.

As far as life in Peru goes, it’s great. The weather is about 70-75 all day everyday, which is great. It is a little bit warm sometimes because we walk around so much, but sitting in the shade of a member’s/investigator’s tin roof is enough to cool us down. The “cambis” are a lot of fun. They are basically taxis that are vans. I am always suprised by how many people we can fit in them. I always laugh at myself when we get on them. They aren’t very tall, because Peruvians aren’t very tall, so I get on and am standing with my head bent and shoulders touching the roof. Then we get to a stop and all the seats are full, there are a few people standing in the space available, and then like 6 or 7 more people get on. And somehow they always fit! Yes, you are being squished between 2 or 3 different people, but we all fit. And then someone from the back of the cambi needs to get off, so everyone squishes even tighter to make room for them to leave. It’s always an adventure. I’d take a picture one time, but I don’t have enough space to move my arms to take a good picture.

And the following is a miracle we had this week. We had an appointment with an investigator that lives a ways away. We wanted to take a taxi, but there were elections going on yesterday, so the streets were crazy. We could’ve walked, but we would’ve had to leave right when we got there because we had another appointment to go to. We had faith that we’d be able to find a car to take, and as soon as we turned the corner, lo and behold, our investigator and his wife are walking up the street towards us. What are the odds of that? Apparently 1/1! That was really neat. We were able to talk to them, and they were on their way somewhere else, but it saved us a long trip all the way over to their house, saved us worrying about how we were going to get there, and we made another appointment with them. I know that this is the Lord’s work, and He is watching over us and blessing us every day.

Thanks for all your wishes and prayers!

-Elder Kehoe