All Roads Lead to Mala

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.