Week 7

This first week has been overwhelming like none other! where the fetch am i? this place is fetching insane. sorry if i scared you guys with that first email i just have never seen anything like this before. we have like 8 progressing investigators and we made like 30 contacts this week all thanks to my trainer. he is master teacher but a really weird dude. he knows all of these strange sayings in english that he likes to say and it gets pretty annoying. he loves to sing and is terrible and we are late to absolutely everything. Latino time is 20 minutes late even to sacrament. so it can be frustrating but i will get used to it. he also thinks we are like best friends and he is just like that guy that you would never normally associate with because he tries to be so cool. he is kinda lazy too. 

we live on the third floor of the most ghetto apartment. i will send pics. but compared to some of the houses we have taught in, we are rich. one families house was literally separated into rooms with blankets and they lived on a dirt floor with no windows and a single bulb on the ceiling. the streets here are dirty with garbage and James (Laura's Husband) would love it because there are so many doggies here. They collect the garbage in piles and eat it --- weird. 

i forgot to take a pic of the streets so i will send one next week. I cant imagine what i look like to these people here. A lot of the teenage peruvian girls freak out and start yelling A Gringo when they see me and my comp told me they love gringos. especially because i am blonde and blue eyed and well dressed and clean haha. i think it has helped get into some houses too because people are so curious and they love how tall i am. people just stare in awe when we walk by. We were contacting and this ladies two sons kept yelling un gigante! and touching my hands because they were so huge lol. It pretty cold here most days. i have been wearing all of my sweaters lol. i sleep with like 3 blankets and it is nice and warm. my abs have come back lol. i think i have lost wieght but idk for sure. The workouts in the morning are pretty good. that pilates book DR. B gave me is bomb. 

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I sure feel alone here though. there is a companionship that lives on the floor above us and we eat together and hang out but they are latino too. i am learning and beginning to understand but people here speak so fast. also i would've fit right in if i hadn't got my dental implants because everyone is missing teeth and that makes it even harder to understand. They all compliment me on how much spanish i do know though and how i dont have a gringo accent lol. 

the traffic here is absolutely unreal. the only they stop for is speed bumps and they only slow down and honk for people. We rode the buses and they are so short and if you didn't hold on you would fall out over the turns. There are literally no rules. They go as fast as they please and turn left whenever and cut cars off and whatnot. 

it has actually been pretty fun though. i am really trying to adjust and see the good. it is a new adventure here everyday haha. something weird happens everyday. 

we have a pentionist who lives just down the street that feeds us every meal. they eat tons of rice and chicken which is fine by me. Lots of fruit and veggies too. i think i will do alright. They drink a lot of weird fruit drinks and tons of Inka Cola, the golden drink, as well. We had fake coffee the other day too haha. 

church was super difficult. we had 8 investigators come and i didn't understand a word. it is pretty ghetto. our ward is Andahuaylas idk what more its called. we will probably have a couple baptisms next week. 

 

pdays are monday and we have an hour and a half to email and i think it is at 11 each week. there are 2 other gringo elders, the zone leaders, and 2 gringo hermanas in our zone. they are nice. i am just trying to get through this training and i think i will do alright. 

also, i wrote it down in my planner but i forgot it. on facebook if you search my missionary package or my missionary courier i think. there is a sister that travels to the US each month and will take packages and mail. If you don't find her phone number or email i will give it to you next week. 

We are allowed to listen to classical music too which is nice. or anything with hymn words or that invites the spirit. my comp thought it was only hymns but its too late for him because he leaves to home after this transfer. 

lol i faked sick this morning as well. my comp thinks he is an athlete and for some reason they wanted to play soccer this morning at 530 so i got up at 5 and told him i had diarrhea and went back to sleep lololol. We played volleyball the other morning at 530 as well and it wasn't fun being awake and it wasn't fun because i dominated. i want to learn to play soccer so i can have a challenge here.

this sure is better than the mtc though. at least we have real people to teach and i can actually learn spanish because i peaked in the mtc. it is nice to have real food as well. it will take some real getting used to but i think i can do it. its not that bad. we dont get out of the apartment until like 2 and most people are pretty receptive. i dont think i will lose any english because they want us to teach the latinos because they all are required to study english while they are in the field. 

Much Love,

Elder Mortenson