Week 25

LETTER FROM JORDAN - WEEK 25 (11/24/14)

Just another ordinary week in the life of Elder Terry

Hmm... let me think...
Well that was a pretty good week for me and my companion here in Chocope.

Oh something pretty cool happened yesterday. We had the highest church attendance that I have seen in our branch, with a whole 36 people (the record had been 35)! I can honestly feel that the members are opening up more to us and having more trust because of the work that they have seen from us, and I feel like Chocope is destined for great things.

Well last week were the changes in the mission, but there isn't too much to announce about. We did get a new Zone Leader, and one of the hermanas in our district just finished her 12 week training and was assigned to be the trainer of a new missionary. If that would have happened for me, I wouldn't have believed it. So this change is officially the change of Christmas, with the change ending December 29, in between Christmas and New Years. So it looks like I'll be spending a Chocope Christmas!

On Friday, we did our first interchange in our district, where I got to go to Ascope and be with Elder Quispe, who is a Peruvian who just started the mission. So with that, I got to take the role of the Senior companion, and it was nice to see how much I had improved since I got out of training the last month.

Panoramic picture of Ascope

So thanksgiving is this week and I think we have planned to have a really nice dinner, making a Peruvian thanksgiving.

Well I think that's about it for this week, so I will write back the next!

Elder Terry

Week 24

LETTER FROM JORDAN - WEEK 24 (11/17/14)

Well this was the week that I was waiting for since I got in the field: My first Baptism!!!!

So we had a couple in our branch where the guy, Necker, was a less-active member and the girl, Brenda, wasn't a member. About a month ago, they had a baby girl, before they were able to get married. So out of nowhere, about 3 weeks ago, Brenda shows up at church and tells a member that she wants to get baptized. So the member calls us up and tells her that we need to teach her right away.

On a slight side note, this month of November is the 70th anniversary of the creation of Chocope, so there are a huge amount of festivities going on, with concerts like every other day, fireworks all the time, stores selling random items, and trampolines and jumper slides throughout the plaza.

With the festivities of Chocope, there was a day called "Matrimonio Masivo" where they marry a whole bunch of couples for free. So we took the opportunity to use that day to get them married to meet with the requirement to get baptized. But the problem was it was Friday and the marriage was on Wednesday and all of the city offices are closed on Saturday and Sunday. Through a few miracles, we were able to get all of the papers in by Tuesday (a day late) and we were ready for the wedding on Wednesday.

So everything turned out perfect with the wedding and the couple was really happy with everything, so now it was time to prepare for the baptism on Saturday.

We were visiting that family at least once a day to get Brenda ready for her baptism, and the day finally came where I was able to baptize her. It only took two dunks, but it all turned out great.

Elder Terry, Brenda holding her daughter, and Elder Cuevas

Brenda's Family

Everyone who attended the baptism

The next day, my companion was able to confirm her as a member of the church and give her the gift of the Holy Ghost, which he had never done before. Also throughout all of this, Necker was also reactivated back in the church.

My companion and I have been able to see all of the blessings that they have just started to receive by making this wonderful choice. Their family has grown way closer together and they have all gotten closer to God.

Here is a picture of my finger and how it is progressing.

Well that's about it for this week, and let the work keep on progressing!

Elder Terry

Week 23

LETTER FROM JORDAN - WEEK 23 (11/10/14)

Well that was a very exciting and interesting week, and Mom, you might want to skip over this email... (you'll see)

Well something huge happened this week that hasn't happened in our zone for almost 50 years. We had a lightning storm! It was hilarious because that same day is a holiday for Catholics where they have Jesus on a cross and parade him around our city. So we started seeing the lightning flashes around 6, but we thought they were just fireworks. But by 7 it was raining, and it rained hard! Probably more hard than I've seen in a while. By this time, all of the Catholics were running around screaming, and some of them praying thinking it was the end of the world (because most had never seen a thunder storm) and my companion and I were just laughing the whole time.

The problem with the storm was that Peruvian houses weren't made for that, with their houses made out of only concrete bricks. So our room got a little water leakage and got a little bit of our stuff wet. So I thought it would be a good idea to use a fan to dry it off and when I was moving the fan, my finger got caught in the blade, and I got a few cuts and a bruised nail.

The day I smash my finger in a spinning fan

A few days later

It didn't hurt too bad the moment of, but after about an hour, there was this constant pain, and I couldn't sleep at all that night. But I took some Ibuprofen and it went away. We made sure to keep it from getting infected, so I'm not going to loose the finger, but I am going to lose the nail. That is probably the most serious injury I've had that I can remember. But you don't need to worry, the nail looks like it will fall off within the next week, and it hasn't stopped me from serving the Lord.

Other than that, we are planning on having an important week, with a marriage on Wednesday and her baptism on Saturday, which might be my first baptism!

Today for P-day, our zone went over to El Museo de Cao, which is a museum that is located in our proselyting area and has a mummy of the Señora de Cao, which was one of the worlds first woman leaders.

Well that was pretty much it for this week, I will talk back next week and hope I don't get any more injuries.

Elder Terry

Week 22

LETTER FROM JORDAN - WEEK 22 (11/3/14)

Week 22 over, and today marks exactly 5 months from flying over here to Peru! It definitely does not feel like that much time has past!

Well this week was really interesting.

Last P-day, we went over to Ascope, where the rest of our district is, and toured an abandoned cemetery. Yup we dug up a few graves, found a bunch of bones, and smashed every bottle we found. But afterward, we all went to go play pool in a really sketchy looking pool hall with graffiti on the walls and dents in the shape of pool balls, but it was a lot of fun.

Ok let's get to the good stuff! So we decided that we needed to move rooms because my old companion with his old companion got robbed when they were there, so we felt it unsafe to live there. We spent the whole week packing and preparing for the move, which we did on Friday. Here are some pics of what went down:

Old room emptied out

All our stuff waiting to be moved

My companion and I on the 3rd floor 

Moving it all of our stuff on a Peruvian tricycle

Our new room all set up

It was great! We had a total of 7 people to help us and a member that helped us find the room and got us the tricycle to move everything. Our new room is better in almost every way. It's a lot bigger, it's safer, and we are a lot closer to everything.

On Saturday, we went proselyting in Casa Grande (we go to a different area about every Saturday morning) and my companion found a nice graffiti:

Cool graffiti

Also, I was in the mission home today because apparently we are in the cleanest zone in the mission and we had a whole bunch of Papa John's pizza which was really great. Afterward, all of the sisters in the mission came over and I met Hermana Smith who you were talking about before. (Sister Smith's father, Charlie, and my dad grew up together in HB and even served their missions at the same time and were in the MTC together. Darin went to Taiwan and Charlie went to Italy).

Elder Terry and Sister Smith (middle) in the mission home

Well I'm out of time for this week. I'll talk back soon!

Elder Terry