Week 17

LETTER FROM JORDAN - WEEK 17 (9/29/14)

And that ends week 17 on my mission here in Perú.

I'm going to start off talking about last P-day because I think it beats the one before, although there were no bee attacks :).

So last P-day, we, (including my companion and I and our district leaders) went to the beach which, is not even a half hour from my area. When we got there, we saw some thing close to the water. When we walked down to it, we found out that it was a sea lion (I think) and it was still alive!

Sick sea lion

We saw that it was in a great amount of pain, so we called the local authority, but they didn't really do anything because I guess it's a regular occurence, and they don't have sea life sanctuaries like we would in the states.

Well after that, we went to go what we came to do. We had heard about this small rock hill that was fun to climb so we went over to do that.

Cool climbing rock that became an island at high tide

When we got there, we found out that at the hour we were there, it was surrounded by water, and it is a mission rule that we are not allowed to go in water. So we had to abandon that and decided to climb a big mountain right next to it.

It was really big and had some steep and unsafe inclines, but it was still a lot of fun, and we practically ran up it. When we got up, it was extremely windy and really cool.

Climbed taller mountain instead. You can see the small rock we were going to climb way down below.

And the mountain that we had planned to climb up is the small hill off on the left of the picture was tiny compared to what we climbed.

Elder Terry, his companion and his district leaders on p-day

It was a really great P-day for all of us.

Let's see, other than that, there was a relief society activity on Friday where each of the wards and branches had to prepare a song to sing having to do with the creation. We had a composer come in who was friends with our branch president and write us a song for us to sing. I got to play the keyboard part which was the chords in the backround that you can do on keyboards along with some improvisation harmonies. We were the only ward that had live music and it was a lot of fun for everyone.

Well that will do it for this week, and now is time to spend the last P-day with my companion. Talk back next week!

Elder Terry

Week 16

LETTER FROM JORDAN - WEEK 16 (9/22/14)

And that ends week 16 of my mission.

Again, not too much to report on, but I wanted to talk a little about my P-day last week. After emailing, we went with our district to a tiny town right next to a hill to go climb it. It wasn't huge but it was a lot of fun. But our fun ended when my companion went on the other side of the hill and woke up a swarm of bees. He led them all to the top of the hill where everyone else was and they all started attacking us. The swarm went from head to head of each missionary and we were all sent running back down the hill. It was hilarious. I miraculously escaped without a single sting, but one of the missionaries ended up with 16. Best P-day yet!

Elder Terry and companion before attack by bees

On Wednesday, we had another opportunity to listen to another general authority. We got to hear from Elder Uceda, member of the 70 and the area president. It was great. The way that he talks is just great. He would be talking like normal and then out of nowhere, he would raise his voice as if he were yelling to get his point across. The way he spoke to us was extremely direct and exactly what we as missionaries needed.

Zona Casa Grande

Other than that, there's not much else to report on. Our baptism fell through and my companion only has 2 weeks until he's back in Bolivia. And that will do it for this week. Talk back soon!

Elder Terry

Week 15

LETTER FROM JORDAN - WEEK 15 (9/15/14)

And that ends week 15 of my mission and 3 weeks until my companion heads back home to Bolivia.

This week was relatively uneventful, and time just keeps flying by.

Saturday our stake had a dance festival, where each of the wards performed a dance number, and our ward (branch) because it was so small, had 2 people, one of which was the branch president, that just went up on the spot and danced. It was hilarious. Also all of the missionaries in our zone put together a musical number. Okay, so Perú has some tribes that are in the Cuzco area and they speak a tribal language that is called Quechua (Kechua), so the song that se sang was in that language which was really cool and a lot of fun. It's called Ananau if you want to look it up.

I need new shoes. I don't know how this happens, but it did. The leather outer just peeled off, probably from like bending them and using them.

Let's see, there's not much else to report on this week, so I'm going to end it here. Until next week!

Elder Terry

Week 14

LETTER FROM JORDAN - WEEK 14 (9/8/14)

This week was pretty uneventful, other than on Tuesday, we had interviews with the mission president, Presidente Marler. So I guess I'm the official pianist for the mission. Every Christmas our mission does this huge Christmas program where all of the missionaries get to participate with their talents, and I get to be the pianist for all of the numbers. When I met with the mission president, he told me that they were going to send me a personal keyboard to practice for the program, so I am super excited for that.

Also, a huge importance is being placed on family history with the new temple being completed within a year. We are being asked to fill out all of our family history online and in the "My Family" pamphlet that we were given, and then use this pamphlet in our teaching. I think this is great because all of the members are going to be able to find out about their ancestors and be able to do temple work for them.

I'm sure we are going to have the baptism this week. We have to go to a specific church building that is able to have hot water in the font so that he can be baptized. I'm really looking forward to it!
My Spanish is going pretty good. I feel like I can say what I need to say, but I have trouble understanding what the locals say. I think that is because I studied Spanish in school for three years, so I understand the grammar and how to write it. But I didn't have a lot of practice speaking it before and never heard a native speak Spanish, so that was new for me.

During the next change my companion, Elder Fernandez, dies (goes home), so it is most likely that I am going to stay in Chocope and get a new companion. Of course it's all up to the mission president, but I hope that I am not senior companion any time soon, ha ha
And that will do it for this week, talk to you soon!

Élder Terry

Week 13

LETTER FROM JORDAN - WEEK 13 (9/1/14)

Wow these weeks really fly by, I feel like I was just writing home.

Well this week, I got to meet the new missionaries that came into our zone, and they are all really cool. We also had another 3 Alma rescatadas that got back into activity!

The baptism that we had planned for Saturday didn't turn out. Hermano Segundo had his baptismal interview, and we determined that we would do it this week instead. So we'll see how that goes. I'm looking forward to my first baptism in the field.

That will just about do it for this week. There's not much to update on, just keeping busy doing the Lord's work.

I'll talk back soon!

Elder Terry

By the way, here is a picture of our branch meeting house where we hold Sunday services. It's not much compared to the chapels back home, but the spirit is strong and the members are like one big family.