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

New Picture Site !

Click here for Emiliano's Gallery !

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.

New Ball Game

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

Blog 5: Reflection of flight to Peru

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