Well hello there! Hmmm...my enter key doesn't seem to want to work. That's the pits. Oh well. I´m sorry that you didn't get my email. I had sent one the day that I got here, but the internet was doing all kinds of weird things, being horribly slow, and just generally terrible, so I guess the message didn't send. Man. Now I have to fit two emails into one in 24 minutes! Gah! Okay, here goes.
Getting here to Peru wasn't bad at all. I spent a long time on the flights dozing, never really sleeping though. Once we got to the CCM, I found that someone had decided to sleep in my bed that night, so I had to find a bed in a different room. That's okay, it was a little adventure. I didn't actually meet my companion until bed time on Thursday night. His name is Elder Barrera, he's from Chile, and he is a wonderfuly patient elder, and he has two hearing aids. That, coupled with him being Chilean, gives him a very interesting and difficult accent. It's very difficult for me to understand him, but I'm much better now than I was the first day.
The first day, Thursday, was pretty good. It was mostly just us North Americans together figuring out what to do and such, so that was kinda nice. We got to play a little bit on the futbol field that night, and Elder Cochrane, one of the elders that was in my district in Provo, tripped on the ball and broke his wrist, so he had to fly home on Friday. I felt really bad for him, and I didn't even get to say goodbye to him. Sigh. Oh well. Oh, also, Elder Johnson, Elder Cochrane's companion, who was supposed to come here with us, didn't get his visa, so he'll be coming in two weeks. So I'm the only one here from my district. Luckily, I'm still doing okay.
The food is my biggest struggle. It tastes fine for the most part, but it's very different, and my body is now figuring that out. I have to be careful about how much of the juice (jugo) I drink, which has been none for the past two days. Every meal involves meat and rice and some kind of starchy vegetable, like yuca or peruvian potatoes. It doesn't taste bad at all, but it's the same every single day. It's all good though.
P days are going to be Wednesdays, and I would give you an address to write to me, but it turns out that it's really long, and I forgot it. Here, let's see. / will represent a new line. Elder Andrew Schomburg / CCM Lima / Uv. Campo Blanco #159 / La Madina, Lima-12 / Peru. Okay, try that. I won't get mail for about 8 days after you send it, and that includes Dear Elders. We don't know why Dear Elders are so slow, but they are. That's just a little heads up.
Hmm...oh, okay. So, Thursday was good, but Friday was probably the hardest day of my life. Completely new environement, everyone speaking a language that, it turns out, I didn't learn at all, and I was kinda feeling alone and very frustrated with myself. I was frustrated that I couldn't understand anyone, and frustrated that I couldn't say anything at all. Things just got worse and worse until about 3ish, when I almost had a slight meltdown. I just had to remind myself that Heavenly Father didn't call me to fail, and that helped me a lot. I just buckled down and got to work.
I'm learning a lot now. I can actually understand a lot of what's being said if it's not being said too quickly, and sometimes I can even respond! It's insane! I've learned more in one day here than I did all three weeks at Provo. Provo seemed to be the place to learn how to teach the gospel, and here is where you learn the language. That's okay with me though. This is the best environment possible to learn the language. I still wish that I could learn it faster, but I am learning more and more every day. It's very nice. I can't hardly believe that a whole week has gone by since I got here, and I've been on my mission for a full 4 weeks now. It's amazing how fast the time is passing by now. In two weeks I'll be getting a new companion, and there will be new North Americans that are going to look to me for help. I just hope that I'll be at the point that I can help them.
Today was P-day, so we got to go shopping and go to the temple. The Lima Temple is pretty amazing. It's very gorgeous, but it doesn't seem to be run quite as smoothly as other temples in the states. It was an amazing experience though, and it felt so good to go there and recharge. After that we went to the Peruvian equivalent of Wal-Mart, and I forgot its name haha. Anyway, I got some candy and Gatorade there, because I need to keep hydrated here, and I needed something other than rice and meat to eat. Then I got back and played futbol for awhile. About the only thing anyone ever does for actividad fisica is futbol, so I've been playing a lot of that. I really like playing it, and today I scored my first and second goals! I'm only the second North American to score since I've been here haha, and one of them was a header. It was pretty awesome.
I really love it here. The people are all so friendly and all are super patient. It's really funny to watch the Latins try to pronounce my name, because they just can't do it. They stand there, look at my name, and say "cho...chom...chombur." My name gets a lot of attention.
I love all of you guys.
Oh, I've been told to tell you to not send me any packages here. Customs and such cost a ton, and it could cost me $50 to pick up a package. So please send my packages to my mission address, which Michelle will be getting in a couple of days. Sorry, I can only send a couple of letters a week. Keep writing me though! I can't wait to hear from all of you guys! I love you so much.
Ciao!For those who have already sent packages (since his birthday is next week) we will try to figure out how to get him some money to pick them up when they arrive if at all possible. Please e-mail me and let me know if you've sent him something so we can figure that out. It's all a learning experience - some lessons are more costly than others.
Thank you for supporting our Elder!
No comments:
Post a Comment