Week 82

LETTER FROM JORDAN - WEEK 82 (12/28/15)

Merry Christmas to all!

Well this was an amazing week especially to be here in the mission. Although it is always hard to be away from home for the Christmas season, these feelings were filled with all of the love that we received here in the mission.

I would also like to apologize for the lack of pictures due to my camara getting misplaced, but I will try to make up for it with some nice descriptions! haha

Well to start off the Christmas season, we set up our Christmas tree (the same one as last year passed by my companion) to lighten our room with the Christmas Spirit. On Christmas Eve, we were invitied to a huge Christmas dinner put on by the zone leaders for our zone of missionaries. We started the night watching Polar Express (with permission from the mission office) and were then treated to an amazing dinner, which consisted of a lot of turkey, french fries, and salad, accompanied with soda and an amazing peruvian fruit smoothie. After we were all full, we did a little Secret Santa gift exchange and had a lot of fun.

We then started Christmas day traveling down to Trujillo to have a devotional and a talent show with our President and the office. There we heard from Presidente and Hermana Marler and afterward had a talent show put on by the missionaries in all of the mission. Our zone did an act with a cake eating competition while all of us sang Christmas songs to root them on. After this activity, we head back to our areas to go talk with our friends and family. I got to see all of my family and a few of my friends who I have not seen in many months. It was amazing and it made me feel like Christmas back at home.

Here is a video of part of the Skype call where my parents had me speak Spanish.

Well that's all to report for this week, and may you all have a happy New Year 2016!

Elder Terry

Week 81

LETTER FROM JORDAN - WEEK 81 (12/21/15)

Well this was an amazing week here in the Peru Trujillo North Mission.

This week we had our huge annual Christmas Program in the Town Square in Trujillo so we had to do a lot of preparation and we had a pretty crazy schedule too.

So the program was for two nights, on Friday 18th and Saturday 19th, which I was able to participate in both days because the special numbers were played both nights.

So on Friday, we traveled down at around 11a and practiced until the show at 7p. It ended around 10p and we weren't able to go to bed until about 1a. It was super fun because we also had a temple session the next day at 7:30a so we had to get up at 6a to make it on time. Then afterward, we had more practice and the next show at 7p. After the show, we bused back to our area and made it back at about 12:30a. So let's just say Sunday was really difficult. haha.

So for the program, I was able to participate in many numbers. I played the piano for most of the choir numbers, and also played piano for a duet of Silent Night/Still Still Still with Hermana Pineda and Hermana Smith. I was also part of 2 small a capella group's that sang pentatonix's Mary Did You Know and Carol of the Bells:

But the coolest number that I was able to do was a tenor sax/piano duet on O Tannenbaum from Charlie Brown. It turned out awesome and the crowd and missionaries loved it.

I would have a lot more and some cooler pictures, but I lost my camara in the crazyness and am still searching for it, so there might not be many pictures in the coming weeks.

To see read and see more pictures about the concert, click on our mission blog here.

Well I'm really looking forward to this Christmas, and especially the Skype call home that I get to talk "face to face" with my friends and family. I wish all of you a happy holiday season and especially this time to remember Jesus' birth and everything that we have because he was born.

MERRY CHRISTMAS :)
from Elder Jordan Terry

Week 80

LETTER FROM JORDAN - WEEK 80 (12/14/15)

Well there goes another amazing week in the mission, and maybe one of the most memorable weeks I have ever had!

Ok so I found out a little while ago that my first converts, Brenda and Necker, had planned on getting sealed on December 12! Just over a year ago, on November 12, 2014, Elder Cuevas and I helped both of them get married and on November 14, Hermana Brenda was baptized and we helped Necker become active again. Of course doing all of that was all with the temple in mind, but I didn't imagine that the time would come so fast!

But with this news, there came some bad news. I really wanted to go, but there was a really important practice for the Missionary Christmas Program that we have for this week, so Hermana Marler told me that I wasn't going to be able to go to their sealing. It was also sad because that same day we planned to go down with our branch and our convert to go do temple baptisms for the first time.

We don't know why, but all of the sudden this Christmas practice was cancelled, and we were able to travel down with our branch to go see the temple sealing and to help our convert Victor do a baptism for his dad. It was probably the happiest day of my whole life, and I think the happiest day in their lives too!
The Cipirán Family:

 The Cipirán Chávez Family:

 The new sealed family (Necker, Brenda, and Camila):

 Victor Guanilo, who even with knee problems did baptisms in the temple:

 Also here is my companion, Elder Alles:

He is from Argentina and he only has 5 months in the mission. It is still his first area here in San Pedro and he is super cool. He is 20 years old, and a convert of only 2 years. It is super awesome to have a convert testimony so he can really relate to all of the people here.

Well that's all I have time here for this week, and until the next!

Elder Terry

Week 79

LETTER FROM JORDAN - WEEK 79 (12/7/15)

Well that was an awesome week here in San Pedro, getting to know my new area and meeting all of the good people here.

San Pedro de Lloc is in the Guadalupe Zone which is one of the zones that was added on to the mission with the big mission split. Our area consists of a small city with also a few other little towns close by. This zone reminds me a lot of my first area Chocope, with all of the cities separated from each other, except this area is a little bigger than Chocope and way more beautiful. Over in Chocope they grow sugar cane, while over here all of the cities are surrounded by rice farms and everything is just a little more green. The area isn't super poor but there are a few more humble places too.
It has some more city type places:

But it is also super nice on the outer parts of the city:

And it is all surrounded by the rice fields:

Our branch is also pretty cool. We share the area with a companionship of hermanas, Hermana South and Hermana Canizales, both of them having been in my districts before. Our branch normally has an attendance of around 80 people and there are so many less-active members here. All of the members are super cool and our branch president is a really strong member and really good at directing the branch. But one of the cool parts about the branch is how awesome our church is. It is all hidden behind a wall with just a large wooden door:

 But once you go in it is super nice!

 And here is the back patio:

Well there is definitely a lot of work to do here and I'm super excited for all of the things we have planned for this week!

Elder Terry