So the culture here in Peru is a little different than that in the US for the Christmas season. They have adopted most of our traditions as their own however. Here it is summer right now. Which means it is very humid. It is so gross. If any part of your body touches any part of another person´s body it is going to be wet. It is not always sweat it is just wet. I have no idea how to explain it. Anyway, it is hot here, but they drink hot chocolate and eat paneton or as we know it, fruit cake. Yes the one thing we do not like to eat for Christmas they love. They also do Christmas lights and sing jingles. However, they celebrate with cuetes or fireworks. That is a tradition very much South American.
There is also
something that I am still getting used to. The bubble between people. In the
states we all have our personal bubbles in which we do not want other people in.
Mine was always a little bigger than the norm too, however, here it does not
exist. They, all Latinos, are very close and personal. My companion too is a
little bit close and personal. When we are walking down the street he is always
shoulder to shoulder with me. As companions we are always pretty close to one
another but I have never had a companion who walks this close to me. Sometimes
when we are in an abandoned street I point out to him that there is enough
street to share. So, when I come home and I talk to you right in your face just
know that that is what living in South America will do to you. Hey, it might be
a good thing though. Maybe I will finally be someone who expresses his love for
everyone. We all know that that is something I need to work on.
For Thanksgiving the three gringos went and bought food like you already know. We could not find anything of nutritional value so we just went with all the junk food we could find. It ended up being a good Thanksgiving. Oh yeah, and Spencer Lee emailed me today. They are Face book missionaries and he saw that picture on Face book and downloaded it to their ipad. He told me it just makes him happy to see me stupid face every once in a while. I have such good friends.
So I was actually having a hard time last week. We are working so hard and with very little success. We are not seeing results right now and we are getting rejected a lot. Then mom´s package came in with an ensign. There was one article I read that helped me a ton. I then went to the scriptures and Preach my Gospel for some more help. I found so many things that helped me feel better and know what to do in this area. It was one of the best personal studies I have had so far in the mission. To end I decided to read my patriarchal blessing. It is amazing to me how many times that blessing has helped me in the mission. It always says something that I need to read. At times the mission is going to be hard and it is going to test our faith, but when it does, that is when we need to act more strongly in our faith. The mission gives us the privilege of understanding the Atonement of Jesus Christ just a little more. The things we learn help us better understand exactly what He want through for us. The pain we feel for the investigators is the pain he felt for us. When we do not understand why someone won´t accept the Gospel we have to remind ourselves how hard it must be for Him. We are here to help other find salvation. It cannot be an easy task for us because it was not an easy task for Him. How lucky we are to have a Savior who loves us and knows us. What a blessing it is to have challenges in life so that we learn, grown, and have to rely on our brother and Saviour Jesus Christ.
President Archibald spoke to us this last week. He let us know that December will be the hardest month in the year. First, we will miss our families more and we will think about them. Satan will use this to discourage us. Second, our families and investigators will be going on vacations this month. The work is going to be slow and the baptisms will almost come to a stop. We have to keep working through it and not let the hard times get the best of us. He, by the way is a very strict president, told us to work extra hard the first two weeks because the last two weeks not much is going to happen and he understands that we are not going to get a lot of work done. He also told us that we could call home any day the week of Christmas. I am going to call on Christmas. I just figure it is more fun that way.
The other
night something fun happened. We were walking past a flat bed trailer. I was
closer to the trailer and my companion was closer to the street. It was so dark
and we could not see much. As we were walking a dog attacked me from under the
trailer. I do not know how I managed to do it but I dodged the dog. We were next
to a huge group of people and they all saw. I walked away like I was a stud
because I did not react badly, but I was thinking to myself the whole time thank
goodness I did not scream because that would have been embarrassing."
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