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