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Christmas didn’t happen

So I’ve decided that Christmas
didn’t actually happen. We had a holiday here on the 25th of December with
Christmas trees and lights and Santa, but it was just a Peruvian holiday
they call ‘Navidad,’ not Christmas. Christmas isn’t Christmas if there
isn’t chips and salsa, gingerbread houses, taco soup, Samuel the Lamanite,
Adam Sandler’s Hanukkah song, Lucky Nuts, stockings, and a long car ride to
Grandma’s house early in the morning. I’m looking forward to Christmas in
2016 because that’s when it’ll Continue reading

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Christmas in Peru

So this week we had a bunch of
Christmas activities! On Wednesday, we met with our mission president and 4
other Zones to have a ‘Christmas Devotional.’ It wasn’t a party. It was a
‘devotional.’ We played games; watched a slideshow of pictures from around
the mission; ate really good chicken, fries, salad, jello, and actual
Dunkin Donuts; and performed skits. One of the games we played was to dress
someone up as Santa. They gave us red and white paper, cotton strips, and
tape. We had 20 minutes. Continue reading

Christmas will be in Hunter

Things are going great here!
We didn’t have the baptism that we had planned for this week because she
didn’t come to Church, but we have another date set for her on the 27. We
should be having a couple baptisms that day. ‘Should’ being the operative
word.

Transfers happened this week! Elder Mananita and I thought that one of us
would be getting transfered, probably me, but we’re both still here in
Hunter for the holidays! We’re both really happy because 1) we didn’t need
to pack up all of our stuff Continue reading

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We’re now in December

I now understand why everyone says
that the mission flys by. (Is that the write ‘by’? I know it doesn’t ‘fly
buy’ and I don’t think it ‘flys bye’ but it could. Oh, well. I need to
focus on my Spanish right now, not my English).

So last week for P-Day we had a lot of fun. We went to the Plaza de Armas
and printed some photos of the baptisms we’ve had to give to our recent
converts. Then we went to the mall. It was an actual mall! It had 2 floors,
escalators, normal shops like Adidas and Billabong, Continue reading

Update from Peru

I’m glad that I don’t have any homework assignments right now. All I have to do is wake up, exercise, shower, eat, get dressed, study, walk around a lot, talk in Spanish, eat again, walk again, talk in Spanish again, eat again, sleep, and repeat. Pretty easy life. Plus, I have the help of the Lord, so it’s even easier.

I don’t think I could get a package from Lima. It turns out we won’t be going with the ward because the family that we were going to be witnesses for isn’t going to the Temple in December but later with their friends. It’s a real bummer because it would’ve been really neat to go with the ward and visit the Temple again, but oh well. We’ll stay here and work, I think. Our pensionista is leaving, the Bishop is leaving with his counselors, our lavanderia is leaving, and basically the whole ward is leaving. We’ll see what happens…

Warm gingerbread would be so delicious right now. It doesn’t feel like the holidays, though. It’s warm here and there’s no snow, no rain, no decorations, and very little talk of the holidays.

Scientology: I was thinking this week, and I don’t understand why not all of the scientists in the world are members. They find truth based on science experiments, and for an experiment to be valid it needs to be documented and repeatable by others. That’s exactly what the Church is. Here is more or less a experiment that all of them should try.
Objective/Hypothesis: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true.
Materials: Book of Mormon, faith in Jesus Christ, sincere heart, real intent
Process:
1) Take the Book of Mormon and read it.
2) Ponder what you read.
3) Ask God, with faith, a sincere heart, and real intent, if the things you read are true.
4) Wait for an answer to your heart or mind. It will likely come as a feeling of peace and a desire to learn and read more.

That’s it. It has been tested, repeated, and documented by over 15 million people in the world. If it worked for them, it can work for you, too. Sure the required materials might be a little difficult to come by (such as faith or real intent) but they’re available to everyone.

Thanksgiving was great. The food was awesome and it felt and tasted like home. We also had another baptism this week. #5 of my mission! I baptized her and then Elder Mananita confirmed her the same day because we had Stake Conference this weekend. We should be baptizing her mom and 2 others on the 13th!

I still have my latin companion, but probably only for 2 more weeks. I was on splits for Thanksgiving so that the gringos could celebrate our traditions together.

Girl Baptism Bulletin Board

Girl Baptism with Hunter

Hunter at Thanksgiving

Hunter at Thanksgiving II

Thanksgiving Feast

Thanksgiving plate