To Make Room for the Tuna

December 28, 2015

Well there's not a lot of new stuff to tell since Friday. I'll do my best though.

We found a new investigator. His name is Elvis. He's an Alcoholic. He's 31 and he's been addicted to alcohol since he was 13. Pretty rough. He has a very strong desire to be clean and stop drinking. It's going to take a lot but with God everything is possible.

We've been working with an elderly lady named Alicia. Elder Arias and Elder Day had been teaching her for a while before. She accepts pretty much everything but she has an issue with the fact that she can't worship saints. We talked about it once with little success so we just decided to kind of leave it for a while and come back to it when her testimony of the BOM and Joseph Smith are a little stronger. She came to church yesterday for the first time! Or second. I'm not sure. But either way she came! We tried to set a baptismal date but she didn't 100 percent accept. She said she's think about it and then we'll see. Hopefully church was a good experience for her.

We weren't able to have an appointment with Earth, Wind, and Fire last week but hopefully this week we'll track her down and be able to teach something.

Church yesterday was sweet. Apparently the chapel where we attend is one of the most central chapels in the city, so there's always lots of tourists there. yesterday there were like 20 tourists in our ward. A bunch of them came up and talked to me. Some lady took a picture of me with a bunch of little kids and was like "I'm gonna send it to your mom when we get back" and stuff like that. It was funny.

That's about it. Love seeing you all on Christmas. I have the best family ever. Lots of love! 

Word to your mother,

Elder Tate

You'll Shoot Your Eye Out

December 21, 2015

Feliz Navidad a todos!

Well changes went smoothly and I have adjusted to my new sector and things are cool. It's kind of an interesting place. Crowded, lots of tourists and traffic. Kinda like Juliaca only a little less crazy and a lot cleaner and prettier. Cusco is the most beautiful city, for real. It's like a big bowl made out of mountains. It's awesome. And we're in such a high altitude that when it rains the clouds touch the tips of the mountains. It's really pretty. I'll take some pictures this week. The altitude here is actually about a thousand feet less than Puno, so I've been feeling fantastic. The other day we were walking up some hills and my companion was getting tired and I hardly felt anything. It was awesome. I can only imagine what it must be like to drop like 10,000 feet in altitude. I'm going to be frickin' marathon man.

My pensionista is Yomira (jo-meer-uh). She cooks very well. I think she cooks healthier than any of my other pensionistas. She makes breakfast lunch and dinner and does our laundry. It's awesome. She has two sons that are 16 and 14 years old and they're fun. Things with my companion, Elder Arias, are going well. We've been getting along just fine. He's 24 years old. He was baptized like two and a half years ago. He's from Santa Cruz. He's a cool guy. We won't be having any baptisms on Christmas, but I think we'll have one or two this change. We found a new investigator this week. A member was doing visits with us and he took us to her house. Her name is Sol Mar y Cielo. That means Sun Sea and Sky. That is literally her name. I call her Earth Wind and Fire because I can never remember what her actual name is. She's cool though. I think she'll progress.

I've already been playing the piano a lot here. I was asked to play for the stake choir in an activity, as well as a bunch of primary choirs (didn't know about those ones. Good thing my sight-reading has improved!). I'm also going to play for a missionary choir in the mission Christmas dinner this week. Lots of fun. The stake choir did a good job in the activity. They sang one song in English and every time they said forever they pronounced it foreber with a b because they can't pronounce the v very well. It was cute haha.

The elder that I replaced here was Elder Day, Trevor's seminary student. He's going to Andahuaylas as a zone leader. He and I decided that we want to visit the mission together because we've been in the exact same areas our whole mission. Andahuaylas, Juliaca, Puno and Cusco. Kinda funny. Elder Day is a stud and has become a good friend of mine.

Well that's all for now. Love you all and I hope you have the best Christmas ever! Remember to make room for Jesus this Christmas and every other day of  the year. I know that He lives.

Loves,

Elder Tate

Changes

December 14, 2015

Why can't dinosaurs talk? Because they're all dead

Well I'm heading out of Puno. I got a change to... (drumroll....................) CUSCO. I'm going to a be a zone leader in Cusco. My new companion is Elder Arias. I met him a while back and he's a good friend of mine. He's from Bolivia like Elder Flores. Elder Flores' new companion is his trainer haha. I'm really bummed to be leaving Puno, but I think I'll like Cusco. There's some good work left unfinished for Elder Flores and Elder Asay. I'm super bummed that I won't be here for Christmas to see the baptisms that are going to happen, but hopefully they send me the picture. We went and stopped by Milagros' house (the older one) to tell her the news and she cried really hard. I felt kinda bad for pretty much ruining her whole day. She'll get over it though. Today I'll say goodbye to a few other people and pack my bags. Woopie.

I sent a recording with everything else. I love you all and hope you have the best week of your lives!

Loves,

Elder Tate