Well the first two weeks in the field have gone by super fast!! The city I am in is called Huanaco! and i am in the primavera 1 district! Huanaco is at the top of my mission! Huanaco is nice in the morning and then hot at aroung 2 then the sandstorms come in at around 4 (which is terrible to walk in) and then around 7 its cold! so each day i pack for two climates before we leave for proseyting! We walk everywhere we go except for far away things or homes we take a moto which is basically a bumper car in my opinion and if we were to get hit it would be destroyed but they are cheap so we use em. I stay warm at nights so its ok! I bought an adapter this morning so i will send pictures after this. It is hard understanding people right now. I cant really reply to people yet, i just plan what i say before lessons for now. But i am sure it will be better.
So, Elder Lopez and I had two baptisms for this saturday but it might have to get pushed back, we arent for sure, because we dont know if they will be ready or not completely but we are looking forward to the baptism! They are both 12 years old, they are cousins named Benjamin and Luis. They are always happy to see us unless soccer is another option which is rough.
Today is perus independence day! The streets are crowded and i heard people partying all night last night!
So here the town is basically in a valley of tall mountains, theres the city and then theres the slums and farms which is my area! We are literally in the clouds when ever we are out in the farms on mountains. Its pretty high up but i dont have a problem yet.
We drink a lot of canchita, which is a purple corn drink, it soumds and looks nasty.. but its actually really good! The water is not safe, so i buy bottled water basically every day or an inca cola, its only like 2 soles which is like 60 cents so its pretty good. The family i live with is awesome! Familia Morales! She makes pretty good food! For breakfast its usually fried egg, rice, and potatoes. for lunch its always chicken, rice, potatoes. and for dinner its usually hot chocolate or juice with bread and cheese or some type of meat that you dont really know what it is but i just eat it anyways. its not bad!
We only eat with members for lunch on sundays. And this is the really adventurous part. Our Mission Presdident said they wont cook anything they arent allowed but theres other stuff and its gross, I ate cuy.. (Guinea Pig) I was hesitant at first but i closed my eyes and ate it with potatoes and rice. They cook it in the ground its interesting. I will send pictures of it!
I havent gotten really sick yet buti am adjusting so ya... Butya everything is great so far! Love ya tons!!Tell Austin to email me, i dont have his email!
With love and Llamas (and guinea pigs),
-Elder Thatcher
Entonces, Estoy aqui en Huanaco, mi primera area!!! It is soooo windy here! My shirts are yellow by the time i am done with the day! Entonces, myy new companions name is Elder Lopez, from Santa Cruz Bolivia! he is awesome! He is the district leader. Our district is primavera! I absolutely love missionary work! it is so cool! Its hard work.. but let me tell ya... I love it! I can understand people usualamente, but it is hard for me to respond to people. But that is ok it is my first week! My penstanistra is Hermana Morales and her and her family are so funny! So we actually live with them for now, for at least 4 more weeks until we get a new place to stay (so we will be moving again). They are so nice, and funny. Hermono morales reminds me of dad a little bit. he is just so witty and always making jokes its funny! (its funny cause he thinks its funny.. JAJAJA). The food isnt bad until sundays, because sundays we eat with members.. i had no clue what i ate for lunch yesterday.. it was gross... but i ate it somehow.. they wanted me to eat the bones too.. but i couldnt so in my pocket it went.. and out when we were done with the visit haha.. i was sooo not gonna even try to eat the bones.. Anyways.. the missionary work is awesome.. we have 6 investigators and 4 are around cadens age.. they love talking to us. i asked one of them to get baptized.. and he was a little hesitant so i told him he should on august 2 because its my moms birthday, and he was like YESSSS!!! we were so happy, and i was able to talk to him and everything and ask him.. ughh it was awesome!!! Entoncess, the spanish is coming along but i want it to progress more, so if Chris has any advice.. YESS PLEASE. It isnt cold here until around 8 at night, its sunny and windy everyday.. i get stuff in my eyes all the time! it is annoying but its not too bad. There are dogs just everywhere! Elder Lopez and i have been chased by a countless amount of dogs..
I miss all the kids! the boys look great!! I cant believe it has almost been two months i have been gone!
So this is usually my schedule for every day:
6:30 wake up and exercise
7 shower and get ready
7:30 desayuno
8 personal study
9 companionship study
10 idioma ( i teach english to elder lopez every other day and he teaches me spanish)
11 plan for lessons
12 companioship inventory
1 almuerzo
2 lessons or contact
8 cena
9 planificar for menana
9:30 get ready for bed
10:30 bed
Thats my everyday life!! And i absolutely love it!
With much love,
Elder Thatcher
P.S. and with many llamas
Im here in Huancayo! Santa Baca!!!! What a trip here!!! It was such an adventure! Up that mountains.. it was crazy! And long!!! its cold too!! We get our assignments in the morning and our companions. i only have 5 minutes to email today so i apologize.. i dont have much time to talk! but my p day will be on monday and i will tell you where i am at on monday and what zone im in! i miss you guys... and wooooow... let me tell ya.. when i got off the bus... the air was soooo thin! i will talk to you guys on lunes!!!
Love Elder Thatcher!!
well its my last p day here in the mtc, and im not gonna lie... I am pumped for huancayo!!! My spanish is getting better, the only problem is it isnt where i wish it was right now but thats ok i guess, it will get better i hope. i am way excited to leave on tuesday morning at 3 in the morning for a 8-10 hour bus ride... sign me up!!! Tuesday will be an adventure, i still dont know details yet.
I love you dallin!!!! And i love you samuel!!!! welcome to the crazy big family!!!! i cant believe they were the same wieght and length! i love them so much.. i bet the kids are just having a blast with everyone!! i miss the kids!
Well ryan got a hernia in the provo mtc so he has to stay in the mtc for another month before he leaves, and he was about to leave for mexico so thats sad, but for good cause i suppose. tell Austin to email me so i have his address please, i dont have it.
this week was long but probably just cause there are ton of missionaries here! i feel like a senior again here. everyone looks up to the missionaries who are about to leave! they switched our p days because there are 3 zones now in the ccm so they have 3 p days. lot of missionaries!
Everyday is adventure with food, it is some weird meat that you have to chew for like two minutes each bite before you can swallow. and you never know what meat it is, unless its chicken.
too be honest, not much happened this week, just going to classes and firesides, oh i finished marking and tabing my scriptures, i have over 200 scriptures marked. all on the 5 lessons in preach my gospel. so i am pretty excited about that!
Oh for the 4th, we had "american" food, it was the funniest thing ever. they decorated the cafeteria and had american food. it was super cool. the meal consisted of: turkey, weird colored potatoes, rice (yes they still managed to put rice in it somehow) and applesauce.. thats about as american as it gets.. haha, it was good though, at least we knew what we were eating this time. it was cool how everything was decorated!
So brazil lost.. and that was a big deal to peruvians here so i cant even imagine what it is like in brazil, but argentina is still in so thats cool!
the cacewan language is super hard, one of the latinoes knows it and is trying to help me learn some each night before bed, its hard stuff.
Tell everyone i love them so much and that imiss them!
shopping on p-day!
I love Samuel!!!!!! tell him that for me will ya?!? I just absolutely love my new nephew, and look forward to to seeing my next nephew! This week was a long week i felt like. We went prosyliting again on saturday! it is such a good experience and great practice for my spanish! I got to give a blessing in spanish to an older lady when we went. It was hard, but i was able to do it. Its so weird, im able to speak spanish to real peruvians out when we are contacting, but i feel like my spanish is not that great in the mtc. once we were done contacting we taught lessons to less actives. Which was also amazing! I just love how everyone here believes in Christ whether they are lds or not!
So me and my companion commited both our fake investigators to baptism on saturday which is awesome, because they said that at first our lessons were speratic but that we got it working pretty effectively and now we are teaching better together. It was hard at first because my companion knew a lot more spanish than i did, so it was hard for me to get engaged so they werent commiting to the commitments but now we got it all fixed out and its going a lot better now.
Today is my last day as an intermediate, after this im advanced! Then im off to huancayo!!!!!! It feels like ive been here awhile some days, then other days i feel like time has just passed. Today was also P-day (of course) and we went to the temple and i just felt the spirit stronger than ever today and it testified to me that spanish is only going to be hard if i let it discourage me. I was troubled before hand, and the temple just makes everything better. I hope you like all the stuff i got, i think its pretty cool. I got a cacewa (if thats how you spell it) book of mormon. It looks so weird inside. You should look it up on the lds site and try to read it, it is cool.
I was not able to find a sleeping bag. I also would like some more black gold toe socks just some regular ones. by the time of september its not that cold in huancayo anymore is what the teachers are telling me.
My teachers think its so cool that i have a ton of nephews and nieces! They like seeing pics of them and hearing all the stories about them. I really miss them a ton. And wish that there was a way i could hold that cutebaby while still on my mission. But as long as you guys tell him about me lots when hes older i will be fine.
I decided to start commiting you guys to a task each week like my investigators, last week was the studying the scriptures outside, this week will you show your savior by testifying about him on sunday, by exercising your faith? That is what i am looking forward to is strengthening my testimony on christ. I have been studying so much about his life and i really enjoy it. So ya that is it. report back to me next tuesday or wednesday. They might switch it to wednesday next week because 35 latinos and 36 americans arrive this week so they are making two p days and might switch ours.
So my first time going on prosyliting i was scared and nervous and Elder Farias, (aka Rocky balboa) noticed i was a little shaken up so he shared me this quote before he left for his mission, and i really like it... "Believe in anything you want to believe in, but keep God at the top of it, with him life can be a beautiful experience, without him..well your just biting time." -John Wayne, he told me basically that the people here love Christ, they put them as there savior, and that our job is to bring them closer to Christ. It made me realize that these people really need missionaries, not just the latino ones, but the amicanoes as well.
I asked myself why does missionary work have to be so hard?? Why??
and this was the answer i recieved.. Missionary work is not easy, because salvation was never easy, this is the church of jesus christ, this is the truth, he is our great eternal head. How could we believe that it would possibly be easy for us, when it was never easy for him. When we struggle.. when we are rejected...when we are spit on.. or cast out, or made a hiss and a by word, you are taking place and stand with the best life has ever known.. we have reason to stand tall..As missionaries we are proud to say we are disiciples of christ, and we are! But that means we have to be prepared to walk something of the path he walked, feel some pain he felt, shed a tear that he shed, It is only a token we can pay, But i believe it has to be paid.. I wasnt the first person to ask "Why is this so hard" Its not easy, and im ok with that, Christ never told me it was going to be when i signed those papers, i didnt expect him too.
this is my favorite quote of the week.. "wherefore, now let every man learn his duty, and to act in the office in which he is appointed in all diligence. He that is slothful shall not be counted worthy to stand, and he that learns not his duty and shows himself not approved shall not be counted worthy to stand. Even so Amen. We are to learn our duty from the Lord, and then we are to act in all diligence, never being lazy or slothful. The pattern is simple but not easy to follow. We are so easily distracted. Studying the daily news can appear more interesting than the priesthood lesson manual. Sitting down to rest can be more attractive than making appointments to visit those who need our priesthood service. When i find myself drawn away from my priesthood duties by other interests and when my body begs for rest, I give to myself this rallying cry...Remember him!, The Lord is our perfect example of diligence in priesthood service. He is our captain. He called us. He ges before us. He chose us to follow him and to bring others with us. Whenever i am tempted to feel that I have finished some hard task in his service and deserve rest, I Remember Him!" -President Eyring
Christ was the best missionary, before his soul left his body he told the thieves next to him that he will see them in paradise after he taught them.. He was dying.. and he gave them a promise he would teach them, how amazing is that. I believe that through Christ we can all be able to tell people our message. If we get embarrasedd or even spit on... oh well.. we can stand taller if done so. But even if we arent called missionaries, we can still embark on somewhat of a journey Christs journey was like. And teach to all people. He is the perfect example, And to honor the savior we must follow. Perfect honor is emulation.
Well ciao!! Tell everybody I love them!!! Follow up with the commitment, and tell me everyone who commited! I will also be doing the commitments as well!
With many llamas and much love,
Elder Thatcher
me with Elder Rodriguez
with my district in front of the temple - our teacher is in the middle
we look cool in our jersey's!!!!
