August 17, 2015

So, I guess nothing really happened this week.

Actually it was probably the most uneventful week ever. The proselyting went alright. We had a lot of lessons but not a whole ton of progress. Today we´re really focusing on a family that needs to get their papers done so they can get married in a few weeks because the dad is leaving on a business trip on Wednesday so we have to finish everything before then.

Elder Bednar is coming next week and I´ve been studying every talk I can find by him in preparation, so that´s super exciting.

I´m pretty sure I´m gaining a lot of weight because I eat like a ton every day. I make a sandwich from eggs, ham, mayonaisse and grilled onion for breakfast and dinner every day so I´m probably just getting obese... but it´s a kinda happy obese :D But seriously I eat a ton of eggs like I bought another kilo this morning (like 16 eggs) and I drink a good 3 liters of milk every week so I hope that helps for something but maybe not.

I feel like the time is going really quick, weeks pass quickly and every night I go to bed realizing how fast that day went. I feel like I´m used to everything in my life now. There´s not really any suprises as far as just mission life goes. I get along with my companion and I´ve gotten good at putting goals and working towards them and just trying to always have continual progress as a person and as a missionary. Yep.

I´m friends with a kid here and he keeps coming over to me saying "haf life haf life" because he wants me to play videogames with him and I´m just like "noooo immm sorrryyyyy" lolololol

We´re going to a barbeque today with our zone and distict leaders so that´s going to be fun I guess. Then we´re going to play volleyball. Then I´m going to go to a huge walmart like store place to see if I can find stuff to make oreo balls just because why not.

So yeah. Go read your scriptures. Pray with real intent and very often. Seek to constantly enjoy the influence of the spirit.

We like to go running and stuff in the morning so here are some pictures from some places we´ve gone.

I LOVE YOU, TEAM!

Elder Mitchell

Ausust 10, 2015

So this was a good week. I guess nothing super special happened. It was Elder P's birthday so I made him pancakes for breakfast. Our pensions are both amazing and we have 2 so I never cook any more.

Yesterday there were like sandstorms because I´m in the desert now. Like nobody was outside and it was hard to see and when we got back to the apartment that night I realized that we had left a window open and there was sand on literally everything. So that happened.

Last week we went to the zoo and it was neat but not super exciting.

You need to call the mission office to tell them you moved to Texas to change your address if you haven´t already.

I still look for nice pens and I decided I want a fountain pen. So if you could find time to send that eventually that would be great :D If not then i´ll just go see if I could find one in the center of this town place.

We found a new family last week and they came to church so we´re super excited. Also another family of all  less actives came for the first time in 30 years so that was exciting too. Elder Bednar is coming this month so we´re all basically the most excited group of missionaries ever.

Everything is great. Everything is awesome. Everything is good when you´re part of a team. Just I don´t want to go home to texas so if you could just move to Switzerland that would be great even though I´m going to be living out of missionary suitcases either way like what the heck. At least I´ll have church clothes.

Read your scriptures. Pray always. 

I love you, team! Thanks for the emails :D

Elder Mitchell

July 28, 2015

So as you read in the subject, I GOT TRANSFERRED, so that´s totally happening. The zone I am in now is called Ica. On Sunday night I had to take a bus at 9pm from Ayacucho to Lima where we arrived at Canete. Then from there we took a taxi (with all of the luggage) to the other bus station, where we bought tickets to a place south of lima called cañete. From there we bought ANOTHER bus ticket to anther city even further south called Pisco. Then we got off again and bought ANOTHER bus ticket to Ica! Every time we stopped we had to get off, look for the missionaries and then buy more tickets and put all of the luggage back onto another bus with whatever other missionaries were also traveling further south. In total in the bus we spent at least 5 hours, not counting the time in between, and there was a lot of traffic so I don´t know exactly how long, but in total I was traveling nonstop for at least 19 hours.. I arrived in Ica yesterday at like 4pm, and even that was 3 hours faster than the mission secretaries were expecting.

So yeah... I guess not very much happened last week that I can even remember. We were teaching a guy named Duber that was absolutely astounding. He´s going to be getting baptized very soon. We visited Alex and his wife and mom again. His mom had casually finished first nephi and we were all astounded. She refused to be baptized though so my companion will have to keep working with her.

For service last week we carried buckets of dirt and rocks long distances and I was super sore and bruised afterwards but that´s okay.

Sunday I said goodbye to everyone at church, Im putting all the pictures from that on the email. The people were super amazing and I´m going to miss them. The families that were baptized last transfer were crying and it was super sad. Fermin and his family gave me a picture of their family and a way super neat shirt from Ayacucho. I went to go visit alex also but he was drunk so that´s why he looks kinda silly in the picture, but whatever.

Yesterday I met a family that we´re teaching here in Ica and they´re super amazing. It was a very spiritual experience and we´re super excited for them to get married here soon.

Also I SAW JAIRO WHEN I GOT TO THE TRANSFER HOUSE!!!! Jairo is the one who got married right after I got transferred out of Pachacamac and when we saw each other it was super presh and we were like hugging and stuff I basically cried. I touched his ring and told him good job and he said everyone was awesome. Turns out he got a calling and now he´s the young mens president in the ward like whaaaaaaattttt AWESOME OMGOSH I WAS SO HAPPY!!!!

Then I got to see a bunch of other missionaries and I was so happy, then I got to start traveling south and I just got to meet more missionaries and they were all awesome and it was the greatest thing of my life. I ate some sandwiches that some lady brought to sell on the bus that were like packaged idk but they were delicious and I was so happy because I hadn´t eaten in like 25 hours omgosh. Then I got to Ica and met my companion and he is SO AWESOME I haven´t had a companion with a decent amount of time in the mission for so long it was GREAT to have a companion who is experienced omgosh it´s the best. We get along really well but I guess we´ve only been together for like 1 day but it´s still great. Also we have like the best room in the mission it even HAS A URINAL LIKE WHAT THE HECK HOW GREAT IS THAT!?!? Plus the kitchen is big even though we have like 2 plates and 2 spoons and some pans so I´ll have to buy a spatula today but that´s okay.

Plus we got to internet today and I was "monitoring" my companions monitor while I was waiting for him to finish and I started talking to the kid next to me. His name is Javier and holy cow he speaks spanish so fast. He was practicing his english with me and he knows a whole ton of english holy cow we were just talking in english for like an hour and he invited me to play half life with him (videogame) but I had to tell him no because missionary ._. He even offered to pay for me to play but still. I got his address and cell phone number instead and we´re going to go visit him on Saturday so that´s super exciting.

The members here are super great and Ih ear the pension is super delish so basically I´m just excited for everything! Yesterday I ate lunch at like 5 pm so we went to go grab food real quick and I ate lomo saltado which was the best thing I had ever put in my mouth for my whole life and I was so happy.

Anyways, everything is great, just everyone keep calm. Ica is awesome, it´s like way far in the desert only a few hours away from Nasca and there´s like sand dunes and I hear the sun will kill you but it must be worst for Nancy on the equatorial line :D The center of the city is a legit oasis so I´m excited to visit that also. Also there is a papa johns here so imma be getting in on that like asap even though it´ll probably be different but like 25% the price so worth it. Also pizza.

Anyways, I think that´s everything from this week. Have a great time in Texas! :D Don´t get that much stressed out, be grateful for hard things. I love you! Hit the 11 month mark yesterday so I´ll be back in like a year, rapidito no mas, yeah?

Loves,

Elder Mitchell

July 20, 2015

So I guess this week wasn't like super incredibly exciting. Still some weird stuff happened.

So Monday we went to the zoo. They advertized like 85 different species of animals but like 80 were just birds and the rest was a bear, mountain lions, 2 lions (kinda dying) and some monkeys. I guess birds are neat. The funnest part was at the end when we were messing around with a llama because the llama would chase you and it was super freaky while we were trying to distract it by throwing plants and then running away while it was eating but it didn't really work at all.

On thursday I was in the bathroom and I decided to try to fix the toilet because the container thing on the back doesn't fill up. So I touched the rod thing that floats like JUST TOUCHED IT and the whole thing like came off. Turns out after a lot of years the metal deteriorated and it was just broken. I was like "oh flip" but whatever. Nothing happened still but there was like a hole on the bottom where it had come off and I was like "isn't water supposed to come from this?" So I started poking at it and turns out that years of mineral build up had clogged it and when i touched it, it got unclogged, but turns out those things are under like incredible amounts of pressure so water just came out like smashing into my face. I put my finger on it even though I hardly could because it was basically a geiser from yellowstone and called my companion. So my companion comes over to the bathroom and just sees his companion with his hand in the back of the toilet and his face is all covered in weird black stuff and water with water all over the walls and everything everything. I told him to go turn off the water and a member is coming to fix it tonight so we can have water in the room again.

Then yesterday (Sunday) after church I had prepared to cook some stuff. In spanish it's called pescado sudado and in english that's sweaty fish but it's not sweaty fish so I don't know what to call it. But it was fish. So I started cooking, I made some rice and stuff and the pension told me to put something called yellow pepper with the fish. Like, to cook it with vegetables. So turns out yellow pepper is kinda spicy, but really not that much. She told me to just take out the seeds and to rinse it off really good so it won't be spicy. So I did that and finished cooking it. Then I sat down to start eating but I noticed that there was like small spot next to my eye where the skin was burning like crazy. I was super hungry so I kept eating but it started getting really painful so I went into the bathroom to like put cold water on it and to wash it off. So I did that but then the whole right side of my face just started burning like crazy. So I grabbed some soap and tried using that to wash off my face because I didn't know what the heck was going on just that my face was on fire like ohmygosh. But then I tried to open my eyes too fast and I got soap in my eyes and then my eyes were burning. So I looked into the mirror and my face is starting to get kinda swollen and it's all super red and felt like hell itself had established itself on my facial skin. So I was basically freaking out so I kept trying to wash it off but I still didn't know what was happening. Then I covered it all in vaseline just to see if that would help and it didn't really, but there wasn't anything else I could do so I just kinda left it and ate the rest of the lunch that I couldn't even taste because my face was burning while rubbing a jar of jam on my face so that it wouldn't hurt so much. After like an hour it was less red and less painful so we left to proselyte.

i assume that was I did was touch my face after washing  the peppers and that just started the whole thing. I think I'm going to take some cooking classes when I get back because I keep having to learn everything the hard way and I would like somebody to warn me about this stuff a little bit beforehand. So yeah.

That's pretty much everything. Alex didn't drink this week so that was neat but the weird alien kid told us "he's been getting tired and wants us to not contact him for 2 weeks" so idk what to do about that.

Anyways, that's basically everything. I get along really well with my companion. We work a lot and I'm happy, just trying to do better at everything.

Transfers are on Saturday, so no email until Tuesday next week. Probably going to finish my year with 6 companions and 2 areas, so whatever.

Gonna go buy a ton of chocolate milk because I basically just eat manderines with cereal and chocolate milk nowadays because cooking has been more painful than expected.

Everything is awesome! Everything is cook when you're part of a team! :D

Loves,

Elder Mitchell

July 13, 2015

Alright, so to start off with another story.

Last week I totally didn't read your email at all. I like opened it, and then skimmed it a little bit and then forgot about it. I remembered about it before leaving internet so I just copied it to a word document and saved it to my flash drive real quick so I could print it out later. That same day we went to Quinua again (another story later) and when we got back I went in a trio with another area because I still didn't have a companion. SO, later on on Tuesday I was walking down like a mountain in the hills of a hidden-in-the-hills city in Peru with a Bolivian and a Peruvian when we walked past an internet place. The peruvian said that he wanted to buy something and I remembered that I had that email from you that I hadn't read. SO I printed it out and started reading it while we were walking in the dark while I was just trying not to trip.

As I'm sure you can imagine I was doing that when I read that my family was moving to TEXAS LIKE WHAT THE HECK. Plus not just that but they're only going to be living there for 1 year and then THEY'RE MOVING TO SWITZERLAND LIKE DOUBLE WHAT THE HECK!!!!!! I HAD TO GET THE BOLIVIAN KID TO SHOW ME WHERE THAT EVEN IS ON THE MAP!! Like what language do they even speak there? Like german/french/english combination or what? But I mean I guess that's ok just you should leave me dads car that would be great.

Also you're going to have to pay for me to come visit you some time because I want to go to Switzerland too :( Plus, so you don't know if I'm even going to be coming back from the mission to Texas or Switzerland? I'll be coming back sometime toward the beginning of August but idk if that helps anything. Also what are you going to do with my things? Are you just going to leave them at grandpas or what. Also be careful with my computer. Also my longboard. And if you could let me keep some monitors that would be great. 

I guess that's everyone on that for this week.

So like I said, last week we went to Quinua for p day. Quinua is an hour away on a very turny road that gradually increases in elevation until we get to Quinua at 11000 feet. Also like 3700 meters above sea level. We got there and one of the other missionaries pulls out a frisbee and we're all just like "Flip yes let's go play frisbee on this like mountain thing. So we started trying but it didn't really work very well because we couldn't like... breathe.. at all. So we were all like dying when we were like "Well, this isn't working so let's play capture the flag" (notice the genius missionary logic)

So we started playing capture the flag. The thing is that none of us are like incredible athletes, but none of us are like fat at all either. There was one missionary who used to play a lot of soccer and I'm pretty sure that he runs every morning, so it was pretty funny to watch him run from the line, to the flag and then back as fast as he could (Like the length of a small basketball court) and then fall on the ground trying to get more oxygen because the air all the way up there is like super thin. So that was silly.

Then that night one of the assistants called me and told me that I had to pack up all of my companions stuff to send to lima and that my new companion would be getting here on Wednesday morning. So Elder Averanga is still in Lima and he's not coming back. My new companions name is Elder Vera. He's pretty new in the mission. He's pretty chill and we get along pretty well. No complaints no problems. He teaches well and I guess he was baptized like 17 months ago and he's the only member in his family so that's amazing that's he's here.

I've been thinking a lot about talking to people in the street and I've decided that Peruvians in the street are like bears, in the sense that they're just as afraid of me as I am of them. Like, imagine that you're just some nice, unmarried peruvian family with your 19 year old wife and 2 kids walking down the street shopping or whatever and then this massive, whiter than the sun person comes bounding over to you with whatevencoloristhat hair to try to give you some pamphlet and talks about some book that's just their version of the bible and he wants your address and phone number. Just imagine if an extraterrestrial came over and started talking to you in the street, it's basically the same.

So yesterday a guy named Josue came to church. He's pretty amazing and wants to get baptized. He's kinda weird, I think I told you about him and his group for people who have had encounters with extraterrestrials but whatever.

Yesterday we walked around all day but we ended up finding Alex the alcoholic again, but we got to teach his wife and mom. His wife was running late so we watched the talk from president ballard about addictions with Alex and his mom and then when his wife got there we taught the restoration, but when we switched from talking about the great apostacy to joseph smith we just watched the Joseph Smith video. Alex' wife was crying and it was a super spiritual experience and they showed a lot of interest in getting married. Alex is super great and everyone loves him, just when he doesn't drink for a while he gets REALLY REALLY cranky and just started punching everything and yelling. so if he can just get over that addiction that would be great. We're going to visit them again tomorrow and if alex can not drink for a few days then they'll all come to church with us on sunday.

So that was neat.

If you could send me a recipe to make tortillas, that would be great. Like flour tortillas. We all know I'm mexican at heart and I haven't eaten anything but rice and potatoes for like a year so some tortillas would be nice. Also a recipe for donuts that I can fry, so I can do that and fill them with vanilla pudding because I just want to eat something that tastes good because I haven't had that for so long.

also send me masons email plz and tell him to check it next week, thanks.

Gonna hit a year in the mission next month so that's weird. Sorry to 1 up your 2 months, Nancy :D

I love you guys! Tell me what's going on! Are you moving to Texas this month? When are you moving to switzerland after that? Is it like a specific day  or just like in 1 year general?

Also we're going to the zoo today but I hear it's just a bunch of old and dying animals. will give report next week.

I love you, team!

Elder Mitchell

p.s. the pension is going to help me find kidney beans to make that soup but idk if they exist here (cries silently)