Monday, August 25, 2014

First off, no pictures this week.  Don't have any and I don't have a lot of time to upload any.  Sounds like you all had a fun week.  I can't believe everyone is starting school.  Weird to think you all still have lives.  You don't just pause yours too??  Weird.  Haha  And this kid is reading my e-mails right behind me but I know he doesn't speak English so it is ok hahaha.  Now he called over his friends so this is weird.   They are asking me if I am a teacher of English and no.  Well, sort of, we teach classes of English to anybody who wants to come in the church.  Now I have about 6 kids around me.  This is interesting.  

Anyway...  This past week was good.  Just a lot of work and a bunch of walking around in our little area.  We had a lot of appointments fall through this past week.  But it is ok because then we have opportunities to contact people and meet new people and introduce ourselves.  This past week I had to teach a class in Sunday school for five minutes in English don't know why, then I had to say all that I said in Spanish.  It was interesting.  

We wake up at 630 and then we have personal study at 8.  Then at 9 companion study and language and others until 11.  Then we go and have appointments for an hour.  Then because of the schedule of Peruvians we go back at 12 and have another hour of study.  Then after that we have lunch at 130.  After lunch we are out in the streets until 8.  We don't eat dinner at a normal time because of the culture here.  We have an hour for dinner from 8 until 9.  Then at 9 it is back in the room, planning, carpeta de area, and other things then bed at 1030.  That is a normal day.  The oreos are oreos but they aren't the same.  And I don't think the milk comes from a cow.  I think it is a llama and another kid thinks it is from a yak so who knows.  

It is about 60-ish I think.  I don't know, the temperature units aren't the same here and I haven't seen a thermometer since I have been here.  But it is always cloudy and a little breezy.  Today was the first time I have seen the sun since Mexico.  No joke.  And it was hot.  Apparently in the summer it is really hot everyone says.  For a baptism I played the piano with one hand because we were sick of the...  I don't know how to spell it, singing without instruments.  

The people are short.  I am really tall.  Well, I feel really tall.  When I say I from the US people get really excited and shake my hand and do not let go.  But I feel like it is pretty obvious before I tell them so I don't know why I get so surprised.  We were in downtown Lima today because my companion needed new glasses and we walk around and all these people yell que lindo at me and my companion is like be careful.    Other than that, we teach a lot of people and most people are nice.  At least I think probably because I don't understand any of the bad things people say but hey I will keep it that way.  All the ward members like me.  And the whole One Direction thing ... there is a member here who his wife just got baptized and he is really funny and I love him. Anyway, it started with his like 10 year old daughter.  He was like Abril, Elder Baker is in One Direction.  Take a picture, get an autograph.  Then for everyone else he started telling them get his picture, autograph, One Direction.  So some people call me One Direction.  It is funny.  

That is all I really have for this week.  Every week I feel like I am in a race on the computer especially when our time is cut short because I have so much to write but so little time.  Anyway, I love you all.  Keep working hard.  Good luck in school, work, everything that you do.  

August 18, 2014

Hola familia.  This past week was good.  I am starting to understand a lot more but still have a long way to go.  Anyway, your questions. In members houses we eat rice with potatoes and a little meat or fish.  Or soups which those are hard to choke down sometimes.  Bunch of chicken bunch of rice.  In the room we eat a lot of oreos with milk.  I taught Elder Apaza how to dip the oreos in the milk with the fork.  We normally buy food at night to eat for dinner.  Or the past couple of nights I have made scrambled eggs and it was Elder Apaza´s first time eating scrambled eggs.  

We don't have a kitchen.  It's just a room and we have our beds, place to hang our clothes, a table to study at and a couple dressers.  We have a mini fridge and a microwave and a pan on top of a burner.  It's pretty cozy.  haha.  I have a bed, it is two mattresses on top of each other on top of a bed frame.  

This past week we had another baptism.  It was awesome.  And the kid (14) wanted me to do it.  So, Saturday morning, I take a step in the font and I was like ya the water isn't too bad.  Then another step.  WOW freezing.  And by freezing I mean FREEZING.  Like I am surprised that there was not ice in the water.  The kid was shaking so bad, I kind of felt bad.  But we did the baptism and after he was bearing his testimony and he said he was freezing but when he came up he felt hot, it was awesome.  Another cool experience.  This past week I said a prayer that the next day we would find a family or a family would find us that we could teach.  We were talking to this teenage girl in the street that we had contacted last week and right as we were about to leave her mom gets dropped off in a car and we talk to her and BAM she invites us back for another lesson.  God is listening to our prayers.  

August 11, 2014

No tengo mucho tiempo esta semana.  We just got back from the "beach".  We went and played volleyball with our zone.  And we have to go and teach at 6.  This past week was a lot more difficult.  It feels like nobody was receptive to us.  A lot of appointments we had fell through.  I get so sad everytime because this is salvation.  I want people to know that.  I know this church is true and I want everyone to feel that happiness.  

Last p day we went on a bus ride tour of Lima and went to the top of this "mountain"  and it is incredible.  Lima is HUGE.  There are 3 million people in the mission and 14 million in all of Lima.  It was truly incredible.  One cool story from this past week was we went to a house that we were referred to and the grandma answered and kept and said her daughter wasn't there and was very stubborn.  We asked if we could share a message with her and everything she just kept saying soy católico.  Over and over again.  We were about to leave and then we asked if we could help her with anything.  She asked us a question and BAM changed.  Changed right before our eyes.  We came to common ground with her on the Bible and she was receptive.  Anyways, she said she would read the Book of Mormon and pray and we are going back tonight to check up on her.  It is incredible.  Lessons are getting easier as Spanish is getting better but I still have a long way to go.  All I want is to have the spirit with me and I can feel it and I pray constantly that those I teach are feeling it to and that it will touch their hearts.  

The food is still great.  Haven't had anything that I have needed to choke down yet.  So that is good.  Our apartment... You go through a big metal door, there are rooms but you then go up stairs.  Then you go through another door and then there are more doors to rooms.  We go through a balsa wood door that I feel like if I lean on I am going to go right through it.  Then our bathroom is to the right then you go through another door to our room.  4 different keys.  It was hard to remember but I think I got it.  

Yes, it is definitely different from America.  I get on a bus and have to duck walking because if not my head would be through the roof.  Generally I am taller than most people which is weird because I am average in the states. And Kristina, the dogs are nice for the most part.  You just walk past them.  None have tried to attack me, minus the one behind a fence that wanted to kill me.  And also, one was running at me barking but stopped but other than that they are fine.  

Mom and dad...  thank you for raising me so well and in the church.  The church is so true and it can bless the lives of everyone.  

August 4, 2014 - First e-mail from Peru!

Hola from Perù!  The field is so much better than the CCM.  The CCM was great and all but so much better in the field.  The language in the CCM is not the same.  I honestly feel like people are speaking Mandarin sometimes.  Oh well.  I am already starting to understand more.  When we got to Perù we had orientation stuff and breakfast and lunch until 2.  At 2 we had a meeting with the entire mission and the new missionaries sat up in the front and there was a slideshow and it showed us our companions then we got up, gave them a hug and then sat with them.  My companion is Elder Apaza.  He is awesome.  He is from Cochabamba, Bolivia.  He has been in the mission for 18 months and speaks about as much English as I do Spanish.  Maybe less.  But we get along great and have fun, he is the district leader.  I hope that I am with him for a long time because I like him.  

The food is really good.  The first thing I ate was a big mac from McDonalds.  But since then, all Peruvian.  Normally we just have some bread for breakfast with cheese or deli meat or something.  Every day for lunch we have lunch with members.  The first day, Wednesday, I will just say I was terrified.  It was the first time I have ever eaten something that was looking back at me.  It was shrimp and potato and peas and a clam and a crab in a soup.  We would rip off the head of the shrimp and then suck out the contents.  Nothing I have eaten has tasted bad.  It is all good.  My favorite thing to eat is CHIFA.  in the 1800s there was a huge Chinese Immigration to Perù and so there is Peruvian chinese food and it is so good.  President and Sister Pratt from the CCM lived in Peru and Hong Kong and they said that the Chinese food in Peru is better than the Chinese food in China.  

The weather is nice.  We wear sweaters all day long.  It is chilly in the mornings and at night.  The biggest change is all the houses have dirt or cement floors and everything is dirty all the time.  It is definitely humbling.  Another humbling thing... THE SHOWER.  First of all, a ton of door ways I am taller than so I have to duck.  I am taller than our shower.  Also, It is difficult because the water is one tiny tiny tiny tiny tiny tiny tiny stream of water that is freezing.  We have a thermal heater for the water but it doesn't do anything.  It is really cold.   I also really miss carpet.  I just want to lay down on carpet.  

We had two baptisms this week.  Well there were three but two were from our sector.  I am in sector Bello Horizonte.  Zona Palao.  in the city cercado de Lima. There are dogs everywhere.  

I will tell you about last night.  We randomly found these grandparents and their grandson one day.  Invited them to church and we went to walk with them to church on Sunday morning but they were not there.  Last night we were walking by the house and the grandpa was sitting outside his house and we started talking.  We asked if there was a time we could teach him and he said I have work all during the week and so we asked what about now?  He invited us in and we had a really good lesson.  He committed to be baptized August 30 so hopefully he keeps his committments and prepares.  That would be awesome.  Investigators have to go to church 3 times in Perù to be baptized.  

That is all from this first week. I love you all. 

Love, Elder Baker