"Anyway, something different about this week is that it's been raining a ton!..And it's a problem, because the streets here are all made of dirt, and so when it rains, it turns into deep mud, and it makes getting around difficult."

Ooh boy am I tired!

Well, another tough week in ol' Picsi. Not so bad though. Just a ton of appointments falling through all the time! The people here just don't understand how to keep commitments, and it's a little bit hard for me to understand such a strange cultural difference. If people tell me they're going to do something, I believe them, and the fact that they never do what they tell us they're going to do is something I can't quite adjust to or wrap my head around. But eh, just gotta deal with it.

Anyway, something different about this week is that it's been raining a ton! Lots and lots of rain! Well, compared to Oregon, not that much rain. But still, for here, lots. And it's a problem, because the streets here are all made of dirt, and so when it rains, it turns into deep mud, and it makes getting around difficult. The streets sometimes are more like rivers than streets. Another big problem is that the houses here are not built for rain. Which, honestly, I don't understand at all, because it’s not like it never rains in Peru. It’s really bad though, because if it rains a lot, some people are in huge trouble because their adobe houses will fall down and they'll be left without a home. Why don't they build water resistant houses? Because it’s cheaper I guess. But is it really worth saving a few bucks (err... soles...) when the next time it rains hard your house will fall down? Ouch the mosquitoes are biting my ankles!!

This week we had what we call an "ataque de distrito" here in Picsi, which is where the whole district comes to a certain area to go tracting to find new investigators for the missionaries in that area. Kinda neat. We got a lot of names of people that we need to go visit now. Kewl.

Ugh, this computer is causing me problems right now. I'm not sure how much I'm actually gonna get to write to you guys... I'll do what I can!

Another fun thing about this week was that I ate guinea pig for the second time! Woo!! It’s actually pretty darn tasty. I don't know how true it is, but everyone here always tells us that it's one of the healthiest foods there is. However, these are also the people who say that drinking cold water is deadly, so, I don't really know when to believe people here on health issues, but still. It was tasty. Guinea pig is like a special treat for people to eat here. It’s one of those meals that everyone gets way excited about to eat. So, that was fun.

As far as appointments falling through, my journal does a good job of explaining what it was like:

03/15/13

Today was a little frustrating because of the four hour block of time in which every appointment we had fell through. Had fixed appointments at 3:00, at 4:00, at 5:00, at 6:00, and at 7:00. At 3:00, the people were getting drunk in the street in front of their house. At 4:00, the people were getting drunk inside their house. At 5:00, the lady was "doing her things." We said "but hermana, you told us to come at this time," and she replied "yeah, but I'm doing my things." Worst excuse ever. At 6:00, the people we were supposed to visit were in Chiclayo. And finally, at 7:00, Melissa was at home and we had a pretty good lesson with her.

03/16/13

It’s kind of sad how many appointments are falling through. More are falling through than aren't. Bleh. Frustrating.

Sigh, that's how it’s been. It's not just Picsi though, this has happened in every single one of my areas. It’s this country's culture. I don't get it.

Another thing I've been enjoying is that I've started reading the BoM a lot more again. I finished Jesus the Christ, and now I'm reading through the Book of Mormon again from start to finish. Wanna finish it one more time before I go home. En inglés though. No Spanish. I started it from the beginning a super long time ago in Olmos, but I was taking my time to mark and highlight every little thing that grabbed my attention, which was a ton of things! It was really slowing me down. I was basically spending more time coloring my Book of Mormon than reading it. But, this week, I got tired of that, and I put my highlighters down, and just started reading straight through without marking anything, and it's going a heck of a lot faster and I'm enjoying it a lot more. Got through Mosiah real fast. Now I'm starting Alma, which always discourages me because it's like 312987235807 chapters long, but whatever. Having some fun reading the scriptures. Also, Elder Arèvalo and I are still finding tons of great scriptures to use in our lessons during our companionship study. The other day we were looking up scriptures on prayer, but it ended up turning into us looking up scriptures about idolatry because too many people here worship and pray to idols! Found a ton.

Church is kinda chaotic on Sundays. First of all, it normally starts anywhere from 30-60 minutes late, because everyone shows up super late!! For the past two weeks in a row, the first counselor of the bishopric has pulled us aside after church to tell us about how worried the bishop is about this group, because it's just not progressing! Here's the jern entry:

03/17/13

Hermano Miguel, the first counselor in the bishopric, pulled us aside after church to "interview" us, and for the second week in a row he told us about how the bishopric is really concerned because the family group in Picsi is not progressing. It’s regressing even. Lots of problems. I want to help strengthen this group so badly, but it’s next to impossible when the members are unwilling to do their part. We really, really need to do all that we can to strengthen these members.

Yikes. He told us that if things don't get better they might have to close the group and all the members would have to go to church in Chiclayo.

However, there was one good thing about Sunday! Ten investigators came to church again!! Wow! Well, really eight. Eight people we're teaching came, but two of them brought friends! Way cool! So, that made us happy at least. Ten is a lot of investigators.

Shoot!! The computer has not been friendly to me this time!! I gotta go!! I still didn't get mail, but I'll get it tomorrow. Dangit, I wanna hear from you guys!

Anyways, I gotta get outta here. Talk to you next week! Miss you all!

Elder Hemsley