Once again I get the opportunity to write another blog entry. Here's the situation in Mala, where I am currently at: After having left the CCM in Lima, I arrived here in Mala with my new companion Elder Juárez at night. I discovered that we lived inside of a member's home upstairs with our own bedrooms. Not only that, but her home was also the chapel for Mala. There are only two other missionaries here along with my companion and I. Their names are Elder McAllister and Elder Boulton. Here in Mala, the amount of members is rather small, so we have a branch instead of a ward here in Mala. On top of that, Elder McAllister is the branch president, so we have no bishop nor other member to take the place of Elder McAllister as branch president. In short, us missionaries here are pretty much starting up the church here in Mala, with our small chapel inside of a member's home. It's a new experience because this is the first time I've been with a branch this small.
Our whole membership here is about around 230 people, but 80 of them attend regularly. As I said, it's rather small, and we're part of the zone Cañete. Here in Mala, there are dirt roads up in the small mountains where we reside, and paved roads down below. It's a nice small little town, and not many cars either. However there are a ton of mototaxistas, which are basically three-wheeled motorcycles with a cabin for two people. As far as food and things to buy, because it's such a small town, there are no American places like McDonald's or American products to buy here. That's all in the capital of Lima, and in the larger cities. Every person here in Mala works, and almost every home has a store at their bottom floor where they sell common items like you would find at a 7-11.
We eat our lunch and dinner at our pensionista's house. The pensionista's name is Luisa, and she gets paid to cook food for us missionaries. However, we are responsible for our breakfast. Right now I'm getting accustomed to living here in the small town of Mala, and us Elders are always working to gain more members so that we can have a chapel built here in Mala, because they really need it. Out of time again, so I will continue next week with more info.
I have finally left the Missionary Training Center, (aka Centro de Capacitacion Misional) in Lima after 6 weeks. Also, because I'm out in the field, us missionaries get 1 hour to email and write home instead of 30 minutes. Another cool fact is that the internet cafe doesn't have the restrictions on the computers like the CCM did, so I can now update the blogs myself instead of burdening my parents with the responsibility, and possibly upload photos.
I had sent an entry to my parents about my experiences in the CCM for everyone to read, but they haven't received it yet. I have asked them to post it when they receive it, but right now I'll update everyone on what my situation is right now.
I had left the CCM on Wednesday, August 19, and arrived at the Lima South Mission Office to meet with my mission president for the 3rd time. There were a total of twelve of us Elders going to the Lima South Mission. During our orientation in the office, we had interviews with the president and discovered our first areas, and what to expect when on the mission. After the quick orientation we walked to his apartment and had some spaghetti and vegetables which was amazing for all of us missionaries becuase we've been eating chicken and rice almost every day at the CCM. After our meal we got to meet our companions, and soon after a quick talk about the mission we headed back to the office to get our luggage. I did not enjoy carrying my 3 bags of luggage at all.
When we all collected our stuff, we all separated and left the Mission Office to go our separate ways. My first area is a place called Mala, Peru. The journey on bus took about 2 hours because of traffic, so my companion, Elder Juarez, and I arrived at night. It turns out us Elders sleep inside of one of the member's home, whose name is Rosa, in separate bedrooms. Her house is also the chapel for all of Mala. I wish I could describe more details at this moment, but my hour is about to run out. Next week I will talk more about my first impressions in Mala. Google up Mala to see what it looks like. Take care!
Emiliano
When our travel group of elders arrived in Atlanta, we immediately grabbed some Panda Express because we figured there wouldn't be any more Pand Express in Peru. When we finished eating, we decided to call our parents using the airport phones since the MTC told us we were allowed to talk to them. After a brief talk with my mom and dad for 20 minutes, I had to hang up and head to my gate to depart for Peru. All of us were cramped in one huge line trying to get inside of the plane, and this next plane ride was going to be 7 hours instead of 5.
When we got inside of the plane, I was surprised at how large it was inside. There were 3 columns of seats inside the plane, which meant two walkways inside to relieve our legs. Us Elders didn't get to sit all next to each other, but we were relatively close. It was nice trying out my first international flight to a different country. Flying Delta International surprised me because they had complementary meals and drinks, which meant I didn't have to spend a dollar to eat. The only downside was having to sit inside of a plane for nearly 7 hours as we flew over Florida, the Pacific Ocean, Cuba, Mexico, and Ecuador. I had thought that our trip to Peru would be easy and without grabbing attention, but it just so happened we were seated next to a large convoy of Baptist members going on a mission trip to Peru for 2 weeks. They were nice, but they just wanted to keep poking at us nearly the whole 7 hours, and contend with us missionaries why we believe in the Book of Mormon, and try to prove us wrong. Good times.
When we finally arrived at the airport in Lima, we got off of the plane and had to haul our carry-ons through the airport, and attempt to decipher all the signs and commands spoken in Spanish to exit the place. It was HOT inside of that airport wearing our suitcoats and hauling luggage, but we all were glad to leave that airplane. When we got past the line of people getting through the first checkpoint, about 10 minutes had passed, and we then ended up waiting another 45 minutes for our heavy duty luggage to arrive on the conveyor belts. When all of us missionaries finally got our luggage and passed through customs, and found our ride to depart, another 20 minutes passed by. Add on to that the 45 minute drive to the CCM, and ridiculous amounts of time had passed. I don't recall how long everything took, but I do remember that we had arrived in Lima at about 10:50, and arrived at the CCM at about 2am. We were greeted by the older North American missionaries at the front gate, and they helped us carry our luggage, and get settled. I was just glad to finally get some sleep, even though it was 2am, and we were scheduled to wake up at 6:30am.
The next morning us new missionaries from the US had orientation meeting after meeting. Luckily our CCM President Groeberg allowed us to just unpack and settle down for the rest of the day. I quickly discovered that here in the Peru CCM, things were a lot more relaxed here because there weren't as many missionaries here compared to Provo. Here in Peru it's under 100, but Provo was easily over 2,000. I had met my first latino companion Elder Zárate, who replaced my old companion Elder VanDuyn. Long story short, he was a bit shy and timid, but he was an awesome companion because he knew a lot about the gospel and how to teach.
Three minutes left to type, so I´ll sum up a few weeks worth in this last paragraph. All we basically do here is learn how to speak Spanish correctly, and how to teach the Gospel lessons to people. We get 1 hour of sports time, which means soccer, soccer and more soccer. Every meal here was basically chicken and rice disguised in many different forms, which got old fast. A lot of the new missionaries had diaherria for the first week when they arrived, including myself. We also went to go visit families who were inactive in the church on Saturdays and go proselyting and teach real people in the streets, which helped me learn a lot. 30 seconds left, so I will tell more about my new companion and what has passed since then next time.
Emiliano
