Hello home!
Well, I just logged on to
my e-mail to see 22 new messages in my inbox, all error messages telling me
that the photos I sent you last week didn't make it through. Dang it, the
internet has some serious problems here.
Well, I'm doin' pretty good
these days. I can't believe how close I am to being home. But, the weird thing
is, I'm a lot less excited about going home now than I used to be. The closer
it gets, the sadder I am that this is all about to end. It's so unreal. But
don't get me wrong, I'm ridiculously excited to see you guys again! I'm just a
little bummed that my only chance to be a representative of my Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ is almost over. This has been the hardest, and most stressful,
most frustrating thing I've ever done in my entire life. And the best thing
I've ever done. I wish that somehow I could go back and see you guys and still
be a missionary at the same time...
Well, I'll tell you some
stuff I guess...
We've been focusing a lot
more on visiting members ever since that transmission from Salt Lake the other
week. I can already see and feel a huge difference in the ward and the members
here. We're gaining their trust and their friendship a lot more. They're
getting more excited about participating in missionary work. It's pretty
awesome. I feel like ever since that transmission the way we work has totally
changed. The way I'm working now is so different than the way I've been working
for the past two years. I like it. I'm excited to see how this new
member-focused work style is going to help this work go forward for years to
come.
Fun part of the week:
Elder Meza came to visit! Brother Meza, actually. He finished his mish in
December. His last area was this one, and so he came the other day to visit
with another elder who recently finished too, Elder Cabrera. Way fun to see
them again! Elder Meza is one of the most awesomest missionaries I've ever met.
Super cool guy. Super fun to see him again. He told me that my Spanish has
gotten way better. I can't tell. All I know is that my English has gotten
worse. He's now teaching English at a Catholic school in Lima. It's not that
weird, this is a Catholic country...
We visited a less active
family this week. The Zapana Cordova family. The mom, Judith, went to live and
work in Salt Lake City for three years, and met the missionaries and got
baptized there. Seriously, why are there even missionaries in Salt Lake City if
everyone is already Mormon? Hehe, just kidding. Anyway we talked to her and her
daughter about the importance of reading the scriptures. She told us that when
she was in Utah she read the entire Book of Mormon and she loved it. She felt
so blessed when she was reading frequently and active in the Church in Utah.
Her whole life had changed. Now that she's back in Peru she's sort of fallen
away from all of that, and she misses it. She misses Salt Lake too. She loved
how calm and clean it us compared to Peru. She wants to go back. And she wants
to start reading her scriptures again to let that light that she used to have
back into her life. Pretty cool. Hopefully we can help this family. But, her
husband and oldest daughter are not members. She's now working in a karaoke-bar
owned by her husband, and her busiest days are Friday and Saturday nights, all
night. So, going to Church is hard. We'll see what we can do.
Something a little
not-so-normal is that I taught one lesson this week sitting in the street.
Haha. It’s a recently paved street and cars still aren't driving on it. We got
a referral to go visit this 18 year old kid named Luis who's a member, and his
two friends he lives with named Manuel and Reynaldo, who are 16 and 14. They
don't have seats in their house, so we just sat down in the middle of the
street and talked to them. Kinda different. Luis is a less active member. He
used to live in an orphanage and the director of the orphanage was a member of
the Church. The missionaries came and visited and a lot of the kids there got
baptized. But then they got a new director who's Catholic who no longer let
them go to Church or let the missionaries come visit (we're still not allowed
in there), so he and the rest of the member kids stopped going to Church. When
the kids turn 18, they leave the orphanage, and Luis showed up at Church on
Sunday with Reynaldo. Pretty cool kids. The next day we went back to visit
again and Manuel and Reynaldo accepted the invitation to be baptized. But, we
can't set a date because they need permission first. They came to a Church
activity with us after that. But, for some reason they didn't come back to
Church on Sunday. Eh. We've only visited them twice. We'll help them out
s'more.
I interviewed another kid
this week for baptism. The interview lasted forever because the kid loved to
talk! But he was awesome. Nine years old. No problems. Got baptized on
Saturday. He, like basically every kid here (basically every person actually)
was freaked out about the water, but he got baptized real quick without
problems. I don't think he held his breath though because he came up gasping
for breath. Hehe. Swimming lessons basically don't exist here, which probably
explains everyone's fear of water. But, I still don't understand everyone's
fear of cold drinks!! And I never will.
One thing that makes me
mad is that people here keep trying to make my companion feel bad about his
long hair. Especially people who think they know something about the
scriptures. "What does the Bible say about men with long hair?" They
yell at us North Americans in the street, and they stare and make rude comments
about my companion. And when the smart alecs who try to use the Bible to tell
my comp he shouldn't have long hair start talking, I just want to pull out a
picture of Christ and be like "do you know who this is?" And they'll
obviously be like "that's Jesus Christ." To which I'd respond
"Yeah, it's Christ. Go tell Christ his long hair is a sin too." And
some Christians here have the strangest beliefs ever. Dancing is a sin,
non-gospel music is a sin, girls wearing pants instead of skirts or a dress is
a sin, going to parties is a sin, having long hair is a sin, etc... But being mean
to anyone who is different is not a sin. It seriously drives me insane.
Cajamarca is cold, and
when heated houses don't exist, that makes showering a pretty unpleasant
experience. We have a water heater, but it doesn't heat up the water very much.
I still shiver every time I shower. I don't shower every day, because I can't
handle it. Yesterday morning I took a shower. The electric water heater doesn't
heat up the water very much. And if you put your hand up by the nozzle where
the water comes out, the water shocks you because it's charged with
electricity. Scary! Well, yesterday it was even worse, because while I was
showering the water heater exploded!! I heard a pop and saw a flash of light and
then I looked up and the water heater was busted and smoking. Kinda freaky. I
got out of the shower pretty quickly after that. And now we don't have warm
water to shower with. I'm going to have to borrow the other shower downstairs
that isn't ours because if I don't I will never shower because it's freezing!
Last night we went to
Hermano Casanova's house. He was my teacher in the Lima MTC. We went with the
ZLs for dinner. We ate pizza and talked with his family. He's way cool, and
really funny. So cool that I get to finish my mission in his ward! Had fun
visiting them. They invited us back over on Wednesday for dessert. Yum!
Got yer mail, from like a
month ago. And got yer first batch of e-mails! 22 months in, and I just got the
first batch of e-mails from you guys. Haha. Cool. I'm so jealous that you're in
Park City! Not fair!! But, no Tyler, no Mitchell, and no me?! Seems
pretty lame to me. Hehe. And Jacque went to EFY?! Seriously I miss EFY so
much, it was like the funnest thing I ever did. That's why I went back even
after I graduated high school. Hehe, I had so much fun that year with James. We
are silly.
Alright, I gotta get
going. Have some FHE's to go to tonight. I will see you so soon! I can't
believe it!!
Elder Hemsley
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