I'm pretty sure that Tarzan is a lie.
That part where he teaches Jane how to speak gorilla? I'm pretty sure
that's all Spanish vowel sounds. A E I O U, but instead it's just U E I
O U. Tyson can explain it to you guys if you don't get it.
My district is the bomb shizzle! Seriously these guys are
awesome and hilarious and it's a new adventure every day. Even though
we've only known each other for two weeks we already know each other so
well because we're pretty much forced to be around each other 24/7.
Their names (in companionships) are Elders Powell and Whitlock, Asay
(pronounced A.C.) and Bodily, Henderson and Webb, Jeffery and Day,
Luster and Steele, and of course Pearce and Black. We call ourselves
Cuscotopia because we're all going to Cusco! Crazy stuff. We're the only
district that has everyone going to the same place. Our motto is Solo
Sonrie, which means only laughing (kind of). Our night teacher Hermano
Velasquez came up with it. Our theme song is Come Thou Font because
we've heard that song a bunch for some reason. Elder Black and I are still
getting along swimmingly.Ilast night a bunch of other Elders and I in
my district buzzed our heads. It was a grand old time.
So our district has two teachers. Hermano Ruiz in the
morning, and Hermano Velasquez in the evening. I love them both. They
both speak hardly any English, but somehow we still all learn from them.
Hermano Velasquez is the coolest guy I've ever met. He's like 24 and
he's from Lima. He's actually really tall for a Peruvian. He's like 6
feet tall. Anyways, he helped me out a lot during the first few days.
Whenever I would get discouraged or impatient he would always say
something super spiritual and uplifting that would make me feel better.
He's so encouraging and I love it. And him. Ruiz is cool too. He's just a
goofy little Peruvian from Chiclaillo. I think that's how you spell it.
So crazy story. Here in the CCM we teach a lot of mock
investigators. The teachers like have whole characters with background stories
and everything and we have to get to know them and stuff. It's super
fun. Each one of them has something in their life that we need to find
out and help them with. Anyways, so a couple nights ago Elder Black and
I were asked to teach a new investigator on short notice. We asked what
to teach and Velasquez just said, I dunno, so we decided to say a quick
prayer. We started working on a lesson and we were both leaning towards
the plan of salvation, but then Hermano Velasquez told us we only had
five minutes. We didn't know how to teach the lesson in Spanish so we
just decided to teach the first vision because we had done it before. So
we go in and start talking to her and asking her questions and then ask
her about her family and she tells us that her "brother" just died of
Leukemia and that the Catholic church couldn't answer her question of
where he was going and what was there after this life. So at that moment
we decided to wing a quick lesson on the plan of salvation. Elder Black
drew her a picture and I had her read Alma 28:12 and then we both just
testified that we knew that God had a plan for her and that she would
see her brother again, etc. It ended up being a way cool lesson and a
testimony builder for the both of us that the spirit really is very much
involved in our lives and that when we feel a prompting we need to have
the faith to follow it. So cool stuff.
Apparently every Sunday we have to write a talk in
Spanish and in sacrament meeting they just randomly call out
missionaries from the crowd to speak. Kinda scary. I just thought of
that.
So last Saturday We got to go proselyting. That was the coolest
thing. It made me realize that the MTC isn't really you're mission. Well
kinda but not really (like Trevor said). They paired all the beginners
with advanced missionaries and then split us up into areas and we
visited less active members, knocked on doors, and did street
contacting. My companion and I were assigned to a pretty poor part of
town. Very dirty. People just pee in the street and dump whatever they
want. It's gross. It was kinda scary at first but once we got going it
was awesome. The people are so friendly and anyone will listen to you.
We handed out a bunch of pamphlets. Knocking on doors proved to be kind
of hard because literally every single building in Lima has a metal
gate around it with some sort of pointy thing on the top. The rich
people have electric wires, less rich have metal spikes, and the poor
people just poor cement on top of a brick wall and put shards of glass
in the cement. It's pretty scary looking. Like haunted house, horror
movie stuff. So it was kind of hard to get to the doors to knock on
them. And a lot of the places we went were like apartment complexes so
the door was like the front door to 12 other houses so no one answered.
It was still fun though! We did get a few doors and we talked to a bunch
of people on the street. At the less active members home their grandma
wouldn't let us leave until we drank a pint of Inca Cola. All those
rumors about people getting offended if you don't eat their food are so
true it's ridiculous.
The language is coming poco a poco. I just got to
remember not to mix up my hombres with my hombros and hambres, and my
ohos with my rohos LOL. Right now I know enough to hold small
conversations with the Latinos, to explain about a pamphlet, to bear my
testimony, and to pray. We learned how to pray and bear testimony on
like our second and third day. Crazy shiz. I'm also to the point where I
can understand probably a little more than half of what my teachers are
saying, but outside of the CCM I can't really understand much. It'll
come though. I've got four more weeks and I definitely know way more
than what I came with. There's one elder in our district that is
struggling a little with the language and was getting really frustrated
with himself and getting kinda depressed. The other night he asked me to
give him a blessing. I wasn't really sure why he asked me in particular
but I was honored to do it. It was cool to feel the spirit giving me
words to say in that blessing. It was a neat experience.
I've had a few opportunities to play the piano since
I've been here. In the CCM they only want us to play hymns, but when we
went proselyting and were waiting in a church for our assignments one of
our instructors let me play whatever I wanted on the piano. He was
loving it and kept asking me to play fast songs and stuff. I told all
the missionaries in my district (and a few other missionaries) that I
would play at their weddings. I'm pretty sure Elder Powell is going to
get married like a month after his mission. Elder Powell and I sing
together a lot. He did a bunch of theater and choir and stuff in high
school. One day we sang You Raise Me Up while Elder Black and Elder
Bodily did an interpretive dance. It was hilarious.
Well that's all for now. I love you all. Keep me posted
with all the junk going on at home! The church is true! I hope Jake
knows how lucky Atlanta is! I'm excited for the rest of the crew to get
out there! And good luck with the new baby coming up pretty soon! I pray
for you all every night. Keep it real. Until next time.
Love,
Elder Tate
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