Week 28

So this week has been just another week haha. We went to the temple this morning and had to be there at six-thirty so we ended up waking up at four-thirty to get there on time. But it was alright because we got in and out and had all of our pday to chill. I bought a small quad because my scriptures are enormous and hurt to carry around all day.

We had a family home evening last night with a super super rich family in our ward. It was dope. We thought we were gonna share a lesson and everything but they invited the family that we live with over, we chilled in their backyard and he just talked about how phones are killing the young people these days. Haha and then they gave us Papa John's Pizza which was pretty sweet.

On Wednesday the senior couple in our mission came to our room to help us clean and make it better. Hahahaha he was trying to fix the shower and idk what happened but he blew out the power and almost started a fire in our room. Nothing huge happened. But we didn't have power for a day and it ended up knocking out the power to the whole house where 3 other families live hahahaha. But they got it all fixed and we didn't end up proselyting until like 6 that night hahaha.

I have to get my suit jacket cleaned sometime this week because my comp opened up the drawer to his desk and a cockroach jumped out and started running so i grabbed my slipper and splattered it because we have competitions every night to see who can kill more, and it ended up splatter juices all over my suit coat so that is just great. But anyway, i usually end up winning the competitions like 11-5 or so if you were wondering.

I didn't really mean to this week but i kinda burned my comp on learning English because he just kept complaining and complaining about how i didn't teach him and stuff. Lets just say that he never studies and his family wants him to learn super bad but i had had enough and whipped the scriptures out on him. I felt a little bad afterward haha.

Haha we were asking some investigators if we could go visit them today in the night and they were like "For real, it's Valentine's Day!  You guys aren't gonna be doing anything special?" We both looked at each and busted out laughing and ended up telling our investigators that actually yes we were planning on taking each other out to dinner and whatnot. It was so funny but i guess they don't understand that we are always with each other and that we don't have relationships...or maybe they were referring to the fact that we're "companions". Who knows????

I'll send you guys some pics of Elder Peterson and me from today. He is from my group and he and Elder Hunt are probably my favorites out of my group. He is from Brighton...and yes knows Simi. But this is us in a store near the temple.

​

Ya so that is about it for this week. Happy Valentines from my love, Elder Peterson, and I.

-

Much Love,

Elder Mortenson

Week 27

On Mon, Feb 6, 2017 

Don't feel any different and the goal still seems far away but its hard to believe i have 6 months already in the mish haha. To celebrate we burned a tie but the video is super boring so i won't send it to you, it's just 7 minutes of us standing there. We also went to Pizza Hut again because that is like one of the only places i like here haha and they had a good deal going on. I wanted to go to Chili's but it's super expensive and i felt weird among so many people as a missionary. 

Anyway, this week has gone pretty well! Our family that is going to be baptized freaked out the other day because she saw some pics of a kid's baptism in our ward and they threw like a whole party for him and so she thought she would have to do the same and she doesn't have any money because she is a teacher and they are on vacation rn. But its all good we moved her date to the 18th and they will be fine to be baptized then so i am excited! they had us over for dinner last night and she made us salchipapas which is just fries with hot dog but i really liked it...i do miss eating hot dogs roasted over the fire up in the mountains with the boys. 

 

I have now seen the glory of God while in my youth and it was amazing... My comp burned a Jehovah's Witness yesterday without even doing anything. I now know we have the truth. Somehow my companion got a hold of their bible in one of his other areas. So what happened was i told him just to give the true doctrine to this like 70 year old man like we are supposed to do, not burn him but just teach as Jesus would since the truth "pierces" the hearts of the wicked. So anyway they were talking and whatnot and he got riled up as Jehovah's Witnesses sometimes do and my comp told him to turn to some random scripture in John. Turns out they are missing tons of random scriptures in the bible and the dude knew it and didn't have it and didn't know what to say. My comp said, "When you have this scripture in your bible we can talk!" and we walked away. You actually had to be there to see the hurt but it was pretty sic. 

They put all of the schedule changes in this week so we are waking up at seven and we do our comp and language study after lunch rn. I really like it tbh. Being out in the sun at 2 in the afternoon is the worst, i just want to die everyday! They say the radiation from the sun here is really bad too so i am using tons of sunscreen. 

I started Studying Jesus the Christ this week and am making progress. The book is amazing and holds so much doctrine. Haha i have learned soo much in only 6 months. It is absolutely amazing what you can learn when you read the scriptures every day and are helping people with their problems and have to live in a way to have the spirit constantly with you. 

Nothing much really happened this week. It has been just one of those weeks. I think we had like 3 lessons and just contacted and contacted and i just want to die sometimes. Haha we asked our ward mission leader what we could do and he just told us to keep on going. hahaha we both laughed at how easily he said it but its true you just gotta keep knocking on doors and teaching. 

To sum up my mission so far i would have to say that it has been the absolute weirdest thing i have ever done. I always saw the missionaries as a kid like they were Angels but actually being a missionary i feel very differently. It has been super weird and difficult to leave my old life behind, from just chilling, playing ball every day and whatnot to talking with everyone we see. I have been so humbled just seeing the way others live and being able to live in the same circumstances. I think one of the coolest things is though, that the church is the same here in our humble 100 member ward as it is there with the 3 wards of like 500 that attend our chapel in North Logan haha. But ya anyway that's about it... 

 

--

Much Love,

Elder Mortenson

Week 26

Ya so this week has been pretty good. Our family with a baptismal date is progressing very well and will be baptized on the 11th and they are hyped. Church was pretty good with them yesterday, only thing is her 10 year old son gets a little confused sometimes because he goes to a catholic school and then we teach him the real doctrine so we gotta get that straightened out. 

This week we had the worldwide training which was crazy. The brethren are going to change everything in all of the missions. From now on we are only going to have 4 key indicators, and we are going to be allowed to move around our study time throughout the day and we will return to our room at 10 and wake up at 7. Also our Pdays will start at 8 in the morning instead of 11 so that is pretty cool. We will see what other changes pres. does. 

We have interviews and conference this Wednesday with president. And not next pday but the pday after we will probably go to the temple again on Tuesday just so you know. 

I just want to tell dad sorry that I blew a ton of money this morning in Wong, I ran out of food and so I went and bought a ton more haha we are gonna whip up some pancakes sometime this week and finally eat that bacon you guys sent me. 

The water went out this week on Thursday (due to heavy flooding and debris in the Rimac River, Lima's main source of potable water) and so we didn't shower that day which was pretty nasty because it was super super hot, but ya oh well, I return everyday to the room soaking wet because it's so hot and humid. lol 

I forgot to tell you guys that I got a haircut last week and the barber took away my agency and just shaved my head practically. I have never had my hair that short before but right now I look a little more normal after a week of growth. I will see if I have any pics. She was like this world famous hair cutter that owns this huge salon and you have to schedule a full month before to get in with her and she did ours for free and it def was like a free haircut because I wouldn't have paid for it. 

So they told me this week that nutella is cancerous? there is some kind of oil in it that can be cancerous...if you guys know anything please tell me because i have been eating so much nutella here. well, its like the great value no brand that mom always bought at home but ya it's nutella more or less. 

We took the elders from the ccm (the Peruvian MTC) out on Saturday again and it was pretty cool. Haha they let me go alone with a noob and he was so lost and I felt kinda bad for him. He was headed to Piura where it is soooo fetching hot. Elder Juarez came from Piura and he told me all about it...poor kid. So ya anyway that's about it. I am the zone English teacher which is alright I guess. I have to keep track of all the Latinos and their progress in learning English so its chill.

--

Much Love,

Elder Mortenson

Week 25

So this week has been pretty good! I'm just creeping up on the 6 month mark as the days keep passing and they are passing fast. Every day is a struggle but i am learning how to look at the good things and handle the stress and whatnot. I found out the exercise was what i was missing...like back in the day, and so i have been getting up a little earlier and i have some of those motivational video sound clips on my USB and i go hard and it has been really helping. 

So this week, I found mtn dew! the stores here are kinda wack and just kinda get what they get but we found tons of mtn dew and i loaded up on it because you don't find that here, so i am pretty hyped! 

On saturday we had the opportunity to go to the CCM (The Lima MTC) and listen to Elder Cook talk to us and have a Q-A session with him! it was pretty cool to see a bro from the hometown. Something crazy that he told us is that he and Elder Holland were companions in the mission in England!!! how crazy that they are comps again in the quorum of the 12! 

We have a family of 3 with baptismal dates! The mom, Rocio, and her sons, Alvaron and Adrian. They are ancient investigators but she just recently kicked her X husband out and now they are progressing and will be baptized the tenth of Feb!!! We are super excited for them. Oscar is having some trouble but we will see how he does. We are working hard with them. The family is super nice though and even invited us over to eat KFC ahah. It is super different here, it is actually good lol. 

I am suffering in this heat. It is hot and humid but whatever, sometimes life sucks. We just got done playing ultimate frisbee with a football. It made me think back to the good times because I haven't handled the pigskin in so long. We also just played dodgeball with taped rolls of toilet paper and watched Finding Nemo so that is sweet. 

My comp hits a year on thursday so we are gonna burn one of his shirts and go somewhere nice to eat idk where yet. 

So the craziest thing happened when we went to listen to Edler Cook, I found a friend! Elder Brooksby is serving here in my mission from SV and just barely got here this transfer! How crazy is that!? 

Anyway that is my week for you guys, my spiritual thought that isn't so spiritual is "obsession is necessary if you want to be great" there you go be obsessed with whatever it is that you want to do. 

peace

--

Much Love,

Elder Mortenson

Week 24

Ya so today were the transfers for real and we are sticking together. It should be a fun transfer my comp is super super funny and loves to have fun. But he also works hard and is helping me out and teaching me along the way. He hits a year in two weeks which will be a fun celebration. 

This week nothing new really has happened. We are still contacting hard and looking for people to teach and whatnot. We have another part-member family we are teaching, a guy named Oscar who is progressing really well and will probably get baptized. We set the date for Feb 4. I hope all goes well, please pray for him. 

Yesterday was pretty crazy, we ate lunch with The Hurtados and he is so sic. He told me all about the new Star Wars Movie because he and his son are huge fans. He told us the apartment he lives in now is worth like 320K dollars, apparently, he is super rich. He laughed with us talking about how rough the mission was but how cool it was too. 

We went to the hospital yesterday and gave a blessing to a 25 year old dude who has been in a coma for like 15 days. It was super cool because he had just barely woken up right before we came in and we gave him a blessing and he was starting to respond so that was crazy. 

We cleaned our room today because it was so nasty. It took us like 2 hours. I have found a new love in killing cockroaches. Idk if i already told you guys this but i didn't know cockroaches could fly. Oscar told us something very inspiring the other day,"We are all men...until the cockroaches start to fly" hahahah which is sad but so true. They are so huge here it is crazy. 

Anyway i am out of time so i will talk to you next week. I will start writing the group emails first so i can tell you everything!

--

Much Love,

Elder Mortenson

Week 23

Hey so ya we had emergency transfers today ahha. An elder is going home a week early and i think he kinda screwed everything up and tons of people got transferred so my comp left this morning and went to go train in a new area and i just received Elder Garcia my new comp from Honduras. I will send pics next week and you will see why i laugh when i see him hahahahaha. He is super funny and whatnot so i think it will be fun this transfer. 

This week i received a letter from the Morrison´s it was their Christmas card and it made me really happy. It sure was nice to see some familiar faces even though Ckev is still pretty ugly lol. Zack is asking me if we can come to his mission one pday so we can meet up but we can't. Maybe when our new president gets here he will let us because that would be really cool to see Zack out here. 

We had dinner yesterday with Hermano Hooker who has been a mission president and area seventy. He and his wife were so nice and spoke really good English. Haha they gave me a banana split and talked about really cool doctrine and whatnot and served us pachamanca(i think that's how its spelled) which was really good. 

Nothing much has happened this week. I am super nervous to be directing our area because it is absolutely huge and we don't have tons of investigators but we will see how it goes i hope we can find some new ones and the ones we do have can progress. 

I have really been struggling this week just trying to learn the lessons and what i could say in Spanish. It is really frustrating at times when things that i have been taught since i was 5, i cant even share with someone but i hope i will get there someday. I am just waiting for the time when i start enjoying this and time starts rolling by. Time goes fast but every day is a struggle. It does feel good to finally be under the 20 month mark though. 

I don't know if you guys know Jordan Larson the son of the dude that owns the sports academy but i was told he served here as well as Colton Pearson that i think went to SV as well. There seems to be a ton of people from Logan that have served here in this mish so that is pretty cool. 

Ya nothing much more to say only that i am struggling along everyday. Sometimes i look at all there is to learn and how much i need to grow and just get overwhelmed and idk where to start so there is that. Anyway, I will keep going on and keep struggling through! 

--

Much Love,

Elder Mortenson

Week 22

On Mon, Jan 2, 2017 at 3:58 PM, Bryce Cameron Mortenson <bryce.mortenson@myldsmail.net> wrote:

So this week was pretty good. The Peruvians celebrate New Year´s here pretty crazily haha. They wear everything yellow(idk why) and they burn dolls to pass on the dead and hit piñatas that look like people to take out their anger lol and shoot off a billion fireworks and projectiles. We weren't allowed to stay out and i was super tired so i just went to bed haha luckily i am a heavy sleeper and i have earplugs. It was cool though, I took my comp to Pizza Hut to celebrate on Saturday night and we got a huge meatlovers pizza!

This week we finally found some new people to teach! We have been searching and searching contacting all of the members we have on our registry and we found a mom of 7 who isn't a member but all of her kids are and they have even served missions too! I think she should progress. We also found another mom whose son is studying to become a priest haha and we had a lesson with them both. luckily he doesn't know much and didn't want to argue so we will see how they go. 

I found a Dunkin´ Doughnuts here in one of the grocery stores and it is the exact same as in the States, so we have gone there a couple of times. My comp has never tried any of this stuff so i let him try it. the grocery store is also connected to a mall that we arent supposed to go in but they didnt have bathrooms anywhere else...super weird. I realized that we are so disconnected from the world haha. 

I have found out a couple of things in my time here. First, that like at Lake Powell, the sun just saps my energy and I tan super easy. And second, that I literally know nothing about the gospel or how to teach people. So ya that's about where i am at right now. I've got a lot of reading and practicing to do. I just read the Book of Mormon over again in Spanish and i am going to read the New Testament afterwards and then the missionary library. It is super hard because people expect me to know everything because i have gone to church since i was born. 

but ya anyway this week has been pretty normal. Everyday is a grind to contact people and find them. I am hitting plateaus in the language which isn't good. We started the new mission rule of speaking english in the apartment so Elder Juarez is learning a lot. I finally got under the 20 month mark today so that is pretty cool! 

-- 

Much Love,

Elder Mortenson

Bryce and Elder Juarez 17 Stories up

--

Much Love,

Elder Mortenson