Week 11

So this week was actually the best yet i think! i went on a division with elder grover our zone leader and it was the most fun that i have had. i learned a ton and i had to direct the area which was a little scary but when Cruz leaves i will have to anyway haha. The story to go along with this is no one was home or had time to be taught so i was like yo there are these girls that we contacted forever ago right here and we could visit them. so we got a member to come with us and went in to teach. Anyway it was going well and i was teaching well but when i looked over at grover he had a super nervous look on his face and kept touching his nose and his ear. i found out later that that is the signal meaning ir nos -like we need to go. haha the chick had been drawing hearts in her notebook and looking over at him telling him how she needed to learn english and if he was going to come back to visit peru. turns out she had been like stroking his leg with her foot. anyway when we left she did the hand tickle handshake thing to him and he told me that i am never allowed to go back there ahhahaha. 

anyway he also showed me how to get our shower super hot so that is awesome because i had been showering in lukewarm stuff. it runs electricity through the water so you just have to use a super small amount of water. 

i was talking to the zone leaders about how grateful i am that they aren't pharisees like brett said so many were. They told me that i would definitely have some but they just tried to be as chill as possible. 

yesterday we did service for our landlord. he had us sweep the dust off the steps and the garage area and the roof of the apartment. lol i thought cleaning mom and dad's garage was bad. i have never seen so much dust in my life and they told me that compared to some areas it was nothing. i thought about how kelly harmon told me when we were hometeaching the last time that i would miss things like cleaning the garage and boy did he know what he was talking about lol. 

so i thought about how in the ccm elder nordfelt told us about his barn analogy with the mission. The first 6 months are straight up the wall, the next are just sloped upward on the roof, and then the next 6 are sloped down and the last 6 are just a drop off. haha i am still going straight up but i think that i am adjusting well. 

i popped my package open this morning and it sure was a spirit lifter. it was almost like christmas. haha you guys made my life so much easier here with all of that so thanks. and thanks for all of the birthday wishes too! i was thinking about how this isn't so bad. i will only be 20 when i get home. one of the elders here just turned 25 so i got off lucky. 

last pday we went to Grau which is in central zone. holy fetch i have never seen anything like it. they have blocks of stores just for like shoes and whatnot. and everything is fake nike and stuff but it is like alright quality and looks real so i think i will be buying some good stuff. I have never seen so many people in one place either. they say that central zone is one of the sickest zones because there are huge buildings and malls like that and also that it can be sketch too which would be cool. All i know is that from hearing the stories from the elders in my zone, i will have some aboslutely insane stories to tell haha and some that i might never want to tell.

--

Much Love,

Elder Mortenson

Week 10

so this week was much better than the last! i think that i am starting to get the hang of things here. like it sucks being away from home and working all day everyday but this is pretty cool. there is never a dull day here because it is so crazy and there are so many people to teach. 

so i saw a dog get drilled by a bus this week on the main road by our house. it is like a 3 lane each way street with a grass median and the 

dog got hit and a lady ran out with a giant rice bag and picked it up while it was still twitching and ran away with it. haha i asked cruz if they were going to eat it and he just nodded and didn't say anything lol. 

i found out that my good pal from the ccm went home on tuesday, elder magee. i am actually pretty pissed that he gave out on us and left us here alone. i hope that i dont give out.

something that i noticed in conference as i have been going back over my notes was that James 1:5 was mentioned like 5 times during conference. i think that is an important thing to realize, that the brethren want us to find out for ourselves. that is all we can do out here in the mish is invite people to find out for themselves because they cant go off of our testimonies. 

i had a thought while reading the book of mormon this week as well. president boswell challenged us to read it again during our training and i am in alma right now. but i was reading mosiah chp 3 about the atonement and also chp 4:9-10 about believing in christ and also what i

t says in jacob chp 8. i dont remember exactly my thoughts haha but i thought that we cannot reject the scriptures or jesus. because he will be our judge and like it says in 2 nep 29:11 out of the scriptures he will judge us. shouldnt we know their teaching a little better then? its like a test that we have been given but we know exactly everything we will be tested on before. we have been given the outline. something we do here to reactivate inactives becaus there are sooooo many haha is encourage them to read for only 10 minutes a day and if they cant, at least 5 verses. who doesnt have time for that? 

so some stories about my comp real quick haha. he wears spf 50 sunscreen everyday even though the sun rarely comes out and he is one of the darkest peruvians that i have seen. idk haha. and so there is this burn mark on the floor of our room and i asked him about it and he told me that his last comps gf broke up with him and so he burned all of her pics on the floor lol. 

we committed Marco, a kid who speaks english and who i taught my first day here, to baptism on my birthday. i hope he keeps his commitment. he has a real problem with the law of chastity that i wont go into but i think he will do well. i will let you know. 

we were contacting last night and here in peru it is almost like church row in Page at lake powell. there are different little churches in garages everywhere. anyway we walked past this one and this lady had a microphone and was just screaming this spanish into it and all of the people were down on their knees just bawling. it was so frightening. i thank god everyday that i was born into the only true church. 

i am doing much better. i am starting to speak and cruz thinks that by next transfer i will be fine. i just have to take it day by day here. 

venga lo que sea,

elder mortenson

--

Much Love,

Elder Mortenson

Bryce asked me to post some addresses:

Email Address: bryce.mortenson@myldsmail.net

Mission Address, for letters and packages:

Elder Bryce Cameron Mortenson
Peru Lima East Mission
Calle Los Agrologos 268
Urbanizacion Las Acacias De Monterrico
La Molina
Lima 12
Peru

Peru Courier Services:

El Inka Envios
1604 S Prospect St.
Salt Lake City, UT 84101
(801) 548-0561

or

LDSXPRESS

http://www.ldsxpress.com/

Week 9

It feels good to be at least more than a month in now haha. This week has been much better than the last two! Stuff actually happened.

so Monday we were playing soccer and my comp kicked the ball at the same time as our zone leader and dislocated his big toe hahaha. he sat in the room for 3 days while i went out in a trio with the companionship in the area nearby. He has been going out with me since Friday but it is so hard for him haha and i think his toe will be screwed up forever because of it. he goes home in 3 weeks and couldn't bear the thought of going home early so he is trying. He wakes up and works out really hard for an hour but doesn't really do anything because he doesn't know how to work out. I asked him why and he told me its because he has gained 40 lbs in the mission and wants to lose it before he goes home hahaha. I can see why, because he buys bread and cake on every corner lol! . 

So we get to visit the temple here in Lima ever 3 months and we can get permission to go to it with our investigators so that is cool. I think we are going next month. 

I started studying the dictionary in order to expand my vocabulary to see what I can do. I have just been focusing on learning like 5 new words a day and it has been helping a lot. but i am still very far behind. Cruz had to watch a session of conference in English with me because I didn't have any other companion and he was complaining that he didn't understand a thing and so I told him, welcome to my life. I think it kinda shed some light for him on what I am experiencing. 

I got a haircut on Monday and it was so fresh. They whip a straight razor and shave your whole head all around the corners it was the best haircut I have ever gotten, and it was only 6 soles and ones in America are like 14 dollars lol. 

Not a ton happened this week but it was much better than the last. we had to go to migrations this week so I got to spend a full day with all my homies from the ccm. they took a print of every one of our fingers twice haha and gave us a dental check and whatnot. It was kinda sketch but it was nice. 

Also, I had to go to the hospital with my comp for a checkup and it was pretty ghetto. it was probably one of the cleaner ones and the nicer ones but the zone leaders warned me that i might see someone die haha. 

General Conference was the highlight of the week. it was so nice to hear some English again, i had forgotten that English and white people existed. We didn't have to do any work and just got to be spiritually enlightened. I think my favorite talk was Elder Uchtdorf's first one. He said "I have confidence that we will be satisfied with the judgment of Christ, but I think we will also be astonished and overwhelmed at the mercy and grace of our Savior." It is such an interesting thought to think that we will know that his judgment will be just and we will know what we have done. I know that we absolutely cannot earn our salvation on our own, for we are saved by grace, after all we can do. he then talked about how we teach the answers to questions that philosophers have searched for their whole lives for to 3-year-olds in sunbeams and how perfect the plan of salvation is. Do we take for granted the knowledge we have? I know that I took a lot of things for granted before I got here. We need to try harder not to be too accustomed to the gospel and be more grateful. I also loved his thing about the flag that he saw that said "what shall we give in return for so much?" that quote sure hit me hard right now. What am i willing to give? 2 years? my life? it makes me also think of a talk by Elder Holland in which he talks about how salvation never was easy. it wasn't easy for Christ so how could it be for us?  

We need to give just a little bit more and try just a little bit harder to be grateful and how great will be our reward. this gospel is awesome. it is the same here in Peru in Spanish as it is in the states at home. 

--

Much Love,

Elder Mortenson

Week 8

So this week has been difficult. It sure is hard to adjust to this brand new lifestyle. It really is baptism by fire and by immersion because i am drowning. I will get used to it sooner or later though. The fast yesterday sure helped me out. As soon as i can speak and understand i will be fine. 

Anyway i am doing well other than that. It is nice to forget about things when i go to work. I saw my first breast feed here. just on a bus with a ton of people like its no big deal. Dragonball Z is huge down here and everyone watches it so that is comforting hahaha. 

I forgot to tell you that the pentionists arent allowed to serve us pork etc. and they only cook with bottled water and we can only eat things that are in bottles or packages so i dont think i have to worry super bad. the food down here is really good. 

Some lady while we were walking down the street started yelling at me, "the Gringo" saying "American Gringo Gringo silla" but turned out to be C.I.A. va a morir (C.I.A. is going to die). i just told her i was australian and kept walking lol. haha she thought i was from the cia and was like spying or something. why would the USA want to know about this fetching country? There is nothing here! lol. 

next week should be good. the gringos are getting together and we are gonna watch conference in English and get snacks and stuff so i am excited to hear some english again. i had my first interview with the pres and he is such a good guy. he made me cry with the prayer he gave because it was so powerful. i have felt all of you guyses prayers in this last week so thank you. 

idk what the price is for that shipping but i would like/need some things. First, a lot of love haha. but really i need some dri fit socks, my long sleeve usu shirt, there is this nice Gold Bond lotion and baby powder if you can. There is no lotion here. If you could send me some lyrics in spanish to like if i could Hie to Kolob and savior redeemer of my soul so i can print them out that would be awesome. Idk what else. Can you find out the date that i am scheduled to leave haha? Can you send me a multitool as well? and some glasses cleaner with a rag and like another pair of my old shorts, and maybe just like some snack and other necessities you think i may need. 

anyway not much happened this week. We stayed out late last night trying to contact because we were missing a lot to reach our weekly goal of 50. it was actually fun and i am getting much more confident in contacting. 

like all of our investigators fell out on church this week which was unfortunate. we will have to do better in two weeks. 

i think my companion has ADD lol because he can never stop moving or clapping or making those weird noises with his mouth. idk. 

a lot of dust here. i saw the huge mountains for the first time. you wouldve thought we were in the middle of nowhere with how much fog and smog there is but it cleared up one afternoon and it sure made me miss our beautiful rockies and the smell of pine to that of smog. 

--

Much Love,

Elder Mortenson

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. 

 ​

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

Peru Day 1

hey guys so i made it! the flight was so fetching long and we got here at like 6:30 in the morning and got through customs and whatnot. it is the most bizarre experience of my life. we had meetings at the mission home all day about the rules and whatnot and then we got our trainers and got in taxis and left to our areas. my trainer is elder cruz pronounce cruss and he has been out in the field for 22 months now so he will leave after he trains me. he is from some city in peru but he has learned english on the mish so that is nice because we can actually talk. i havent even had time to unpack and move in to the apartment. today we set a goal and i have to contact 5 people. i am super nervous. the traffic here is unlike anything you could imagine, even worse than mexico city. our district is Andahuaylas and our zone is santa anita and it is pretty ghetto. i think ive already counted lke 4 dogs with rabies and we have seen like 20. it is super dirty here and i took a bunch of pics but i will have to send them next pday because we are in this weird internet cafe and idk how to hook up my camera. i met our pentionist and her family and they seem really nice. it was really sad leaving all of my ccm homies at the mission home. the mission president is almost as tall as me and is a really really nice guy. except he wants everyone here in the mish to be equal so to use my debit card i have to get it approved through the financial secretary. i am so terrified of this place haha after looking forward to getting here for so long. it so unlike anything i have ever seen. one of the other white elders told me that it took him almost a year to get used to things as they are here but hopefully i can adjust much faster than that. please pray for me. 

 

--

Much Love,

Elder Mortenson