Zone Conferences and Packages

Hey Dad, thanks for helping me with the blog. So you wanted to know about where to send packages and where my zone conferences are held? Here's the scoop:

Our Zone Conferences are held at different locations every time, and the number of zones vary every time. I recently attended one last Thursday (Sep 10) at Chincha which is an hour and a half away south of Mala. There we got to hear Elder Nash, a member of the Seventy and the area authority of Perú and Bolivia, talk about his experiences of the earthquake that demolished Pisco in August 2007. He also talked about how we can improve our teaching as missionaries. As far as when the zone conferences occur, I am not sure because we get informed a week before they happen during our zone meetings.

If you want to send me a package, just mail it to that address I sent you last time. What happens is that your package will arrive at the mission office in Lima, and then every week they distribute the mail to the zone leaders, who will then give the mail to us during our zone meeting, which is held every week on Tuesday for us.

Now because we are in Mala and are the furthest away, my district has to take a bus south to Cañete every Tuesday at about 7am (which means we wake up at around 5:30am to leave our home by 6:40am) to arrive on time at the chapel in Cañete. There, all of the districts in our zone hold meetings and talk about our progress, and the zone leaders Elder Tanuvasa and Elder Saalvedra give out our mail.

Yes, contrary to popular belief, you can send food. Elder Boulton who is in my district gets packages of cereal, chips, and snacks. I'm not sure what types of food you can't send, but I believe anything that will survive the trip to Perú is fine. I recommend putting Jesus stickers on the package, and not having it larger than a shoebox. I hear it helps lower the chance of getting robbed.

As far as the list you provided me, I don't need the deodorant. They sell it here way cheap. However, send me some flour and corn tortillas! Peruvians do not sell them here at all and I am dying for them! If you can, please send Jack Links Original flavored Beef Jerky, cereal (like cheerios, wheaties, or smacks), peanut butter and maple syrup (they don't have that either). We basically are always responsible for our breakfast, and I discovered that the meals I could make for breakfast included a lot of ingredients they don't have here in Mala because it's such a small town. Don't worry about me having to use my card to buy a steak, we have restaurants here that have good food and are cheap.

Well that's about all I have to say. I'm glad to know that you can send food, which means you can send the salsa from Little Diner too, and the chicharrones (if the salsa will survive). Just remember to send it to that address and follow my consejo, and I'll receive it. If I remember more types of food to send, I'll pass the word. Thanks for your care, and I'll talk to you again next week!

Emiliano

Flashback of Perú MTC and on to Mala

These past six weeks in Lima flew by really quickly. The Perú MTC ( also CCM) is way smaller than the one in Provo, and not nearly as many people. There were probably only about 47 missionaries total. My first compañero was Elder Zárate, who was from Huancayo, Peru. I quickly learned that everyone at the CCM spoke Spanish with the exception of President Groeberg, who was in charge of the CCM. Fun fact about President Groeberg; his brother wrote the book The Other Side of Heaven. It turns out that the movie was based off of his book, and President Groeberg’s brother was the actual missionary who went to Tonga, and the movie was about his experiences. All of that was possible because Pres. Groeberg brother published the writings in his journal and made it into a book, which became a movie.
Well, enough about movies. Every day at the CCM we would eat chicken and rice every day, which got old fast. My first latino companion, Elder Zárate, was the only member in his family, but he knew a lot about the gospel and had a strong testimony. In the CCM, we did many “enseñanzas” where we taught other companionships in a pretend situation, and the teachers would listen and teach us on what we can improve on. When we weren’t doing enseñanzas, of playing football with the latinos, the latino missionaries and North American Missionaries would split into different classes. My district with Elder Timothy, Allen, VanDuyn, and Schofield would have Spanish classes every day, while our latino companions would learn the missionary principles and lessons. Every day was rather monotonous, but also fun because we learned so much Spanish with great teachers.
The most intense part of the CCM was on Saturdays where all the Elders would go to different church stakes and go teach the inactive families. This was Proseletismo, and was scary at first, but eventually got the hang of it. Every time my companion, Elder Zárate, and I went out to visit the families, I had to rely on him because the families spoke so fast, and I barely understood what they were talking about. I was nervous too because I was afraid I would say something silly or offend someone. It turned out not to be so bad after all, even though we were only outside Proselytizing for 5 hours. The rest of the time was spent inside the CCM sitting down learning Spanish and teaching pretend families.
My second companion was Elder Silva, and was part of the second group of missionaries that arrived. Every 3 weeks a new set of Elders arrive at the CCM, while the North Americans wait 6 weeks, so they get two sets of companionships.
I’m out of time again, but that’s pretty much my experience at the CCM. Today I enter the mission field in Mala, Perú with 3 other missionaries. My newest companion, Elder Juárez, tells me the place is a small agricultural city, and we have a lot of people to help because the church over there is rather small.

Emiliano

Doing Fine in Mala

Everything is going just fine over here in Mala. I was going to upload my photos over here in the Internet Cafe, but my companion Elder Jorge Juárez tried doing the same thing with his USB and a lot of his photos were deleted. He thinks the computer had a virus or was corrupted because before he tried uploading photos, everything was fine... and now he lost about half of his photos. It looks like I'll upload from the home, or find another way that's quicker.

Great news though, I have the mission address where you can send me letters or packages. The mail for the mission is actually pretty reliable because Elder Boulton always got his packages. The address is:

Elder Emiliano León
Misión Perú Lima Sur
Av. Jorge Basadre 592 Of. 604 "A"
Edificio Torre Azul
San Isidro, Lima Csa. 14-0293
Perú


Almost forgot, the names of the other Elders are Nick Boulton, Tyler McAllister, and Jorge Juárez. Last Saturday we had a baptism for a boy named Dantol in the beach, it was at sunset, and the water was freezing. The other 3 missionaries went into the ocean, and I was the one taking photos. Dantol is a rascal, and is always causing trouble wherever he goes. He's a good kid though. Thank goodness for Advil for the headaches he's caused me. I promise when I get the chance to get my photos up I will. Just give me time, and next week I will post more on what has been going on in Mala, Peru.

Emiliano

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