April 13, 2015

So this week was pretty good. We went to a place called Quinua for p day and that was pretty neat. It was an hour ride to get there in something that's called a convy. It like a small bus but a lot smaller. Also the trip there is extremely windy. Like, back and forth the whole time. Those kinds of things don't really go over well with me and I knew it would be bad so I took 2 Dramamine before the ride. The ride was fine, didn't get sick or anything. We got there and took a bunch of pictures and there were some tourist shops and stuff so I bought some hats. An hour before we left I decided I still didn't want to get sick so I took another Dramamine because you know, you can't get too careful. I started getting really tired on the bus home for some reason. I ended up sleeping the whole time even though it was super noisy, uncomfortable and like 5 o clock in the afternoon. That was weird.

Then I got back and realized that I was absolutely exhausted. I wanted to lay down in the street and take a nap. I came to a spontanious realization that (SURPRISE!!!) Dramamine makes you really tired! So I spend the whole night dragging my feet. I took a nap while my companion got his haircut for like 30 minutes. I was SO TIRED. I was like WHYYYYY DID I DOOO THIIISS.... but it was okay. We found a family to teach and they're good. All new investigators. The dad is all about the Bible so that's fun.

So something else, I want some recipes for stuff I can cook! There's a big market near where we live and I walked past and they have a toooon of fish and they had like shrimp and crab and I was like "I want to buy this stuff and eat it" but I don't know how. ._.

So if you could give me some instruction on how to cook crab, maybe like chinese noodles with the shrimp or something would be chill. I have access to soy sauce and probably whatever I need to cook it. Also I want to make hamburgers sometime. I can buy the ground beef but I don't know what to do with it. Do I need to clean it? A recipe for good hamburger meat would be amazing. I remember you making really good hamburgers with like.... soy sauce... and I don't know but they were really good and I want to try to do that.

Some investigators spent like a whole day digging up potatoes and we went to visit them the night right after they got back and they gave us a big bag of fresh out of the ground potatoes! So my companion was trying to boil them and I just skinned them, cut them into pieces and fried them and ate them with salt and ketchup. It was good. Worth it.

We also found a new restaurant to eat at that was approved by the stake president. It's called the monastary. We went there on Saturday. We like showed up and it was kinda fancy idk and we just kinda stood around like super awkward because we're 2 kids in peru until someone told us to sit down. Turns out they were serving something good here that's called lomos saltado, which is like rice and meat and tomatos and onions and french fries all mixed together. I asked them how much it was and they said 10 soles so I was like flip yes give me that. Turns out it was like a whole meal. First they brought out this seafood soup (with like muscles or something?) Which was super good and they brought out a popular drink here called Chicha morrada. I clarified to make sure it wasn't wine.

Then they brought out the other food and it was all like way good. It only costed 10 soles so I was down with that. That's the equivilent of a little more than 3 dollars, so I think we'll be going back.

We had an interchange with the zone leaders this week and I stayed in my area so we were totally lost. Also I was with another white kid from colorado so we were a gringo companionship for a day, which is weird. Turns out he was pretty sick and we walked for like 4 hours nonstop so I felt bad for him. I've been speaking english to my companion on accident after the interchange because I got used to speaking english I don't even know. just fyi he doesn't know any english.

We had 8 investigators with a baptismal date that went to church yesterday which was the best thing ever. I had a cold for all of last week so we never went running but we went again this morning. We wake up at 6 am to go running sometimes and we run like freakin' 3 miles and it totally kills me. I've lost a lot of weight. Like a lot a lot. I weighed myself in Pachacamac and I knew I was getting fat, which was correct because I weighed 85 kilograms which is like 187 pounds. I weighed myself again a few weeks ago and it said 80, which is like 175 or something so I lost over 10 pounds. I feel even skinnier now and it's weird for me to take off my shirt because I not obese any more :D I'll have to weigh myself again soon.

ALSO a story I forgot to tell you that was super awkward. Back in Pachacamac we went to a kfc one time. I ordered the food and the lady asked if I wanted a drink, I said yes and she asked what I wanted. I looked at the fountain behind her and saw that they had 7up. So I was like whatever so I translated it and said "siete oop" like with an attempted accent. She looked at me like I was a freakin' idiot and said "seven up?" And that was probably the most humiliating thing ever in my life because turns out they don't translate things like that.

Things are going really well. My companion is way chill. He tells me I'm very serious but maybe he doesn't understand my sarcasm when I tell him weird jokes.

That's pretty much everything that happened this week. I'm feeling pretty good. I think the president is going to fly down here this next week, so that's happening.

I love you guys!

Elder Mitchell