Week 95

LETTER FROM JORDAN - WEEK 95 (3/26/16)
Well this was a pretty crazy week here! We didn't have a whole bunch of time specifically for proselyting, but it was amazing!

Well to start off this week, we had another baptism on Wednesday! Another 9 year old girl whose name is Ariana.

We have been teaching their whole family and strengthening them and helping them get to the temple. Here they are:

David and Teresa, with their kids Estefany and Ariana

Our goal with these last two baptisms was to make sure that their dad was able to baptize them and not just have us do it, so we had spent a lot of time focusing on the dads to make sure they were ready to baptize their kids. One of our big focuses in missionary work, especially here, is our focus too on strengthening the members that don't go to church all of the time, and we have found a lot of success working with them.

Also this week we were able to go down to Trujillo for a few things. Friday, we had a huge multi-zone meeting, where our zone met up with the Caja Marca zone and the Sierra zone to learn from our mission president and his wife, and from the assistants. We do these about once every 3 or 4 months and get to meet up with a few different zones every time. I also got to meet up with one of my last companions, Elder Simper.

So after this multi-zone, we went over to the temple grounds and got to spend the night in the albergue (hostel) of the temple, which was probably one of the best rooms that I had stayed at in all of Peru. Then early this morning (Saturday) we got to do a session in the temple with all of the missionaries in our zone and with our mission president. It is such a blessing to have a temple this close and inside the limits of our mission!

Then we got back to our area and had a photo shoot of some of the cool places in our zone,
Pacasmayo, a famous beach city close to our area:

A few signs in the entrance of our area:

This has also been Easter weekend, and here Easter is celebrated really differently. They actually celebrate the whole week and it is called Semana Santa (Holy Week). They celebrate each day and remember what Jesus did on each of these days. And also they don't eat meat all week, just fish. But the biggest celebration for them is on Friday, which is kind of sad having them forget one of the most important parts which is Christ's resurrection on Sunday. They also do not hide easter eggs or anything of the sort, but it is a time dedicated to remember everything that Jesus has done for us. But with all of this, it is amazing to see how religion is just part of the culture here and almost everyone acknowledges his loving sacrifice.

Well, that's about it for this week, and we are really looking forward to these sessions of conference next weekend! I guess it will be until next Monday (April 4) before I write again, so have a good Easter Sunday!

Elder Terry

Week 94

LETTER FROM JORDAN - WEEK 94 (3/21/16)

Wow that week just flew by! Here we are in San Pedro and adapting to the transfers and getting to know the area and the people even more!

Well this email looks like it will just have a lot of photos, so here we go!

Last Monday after writing we were able to go to a pretty sweet lookout place with our district in the close city of Pacasmayo. Pacasmayo is an industrial beach city and is really beautiful and has a lot of tourists that come for the beach. We walked up a hill to a Christ statue that they have looking over all of Pacasmayo and the beach:

Also right next to the statue is a nice cemetery and a lookout of the beach:

Pretty cool picture spot!

Also this week we were able to do a service for some of the members in our branch. They work making adobe bricks passing the rice fields in the outer parts of San Pedro. I don't know how much we helped them but it was an amazing experience.

We had to walk through the rice field to get there:

The bricks are literally just made out of mud and part of the rice plant to make the mud stick better, so we got to break up some of the dirt and mix up some mud:

We also got to help them out in making some bricks by filling up the molds with the mud and taking out the mold. Pretty simple:

Well that's what they do every day as their job, just getting to play in the mud all day. haha

Also on Saturday, we had a baptism!

Her name was Yazurith and she had turned 9 without being baptized, so we helped them out with her conversion. We were also able to help her dad, Orlando, be prepared to baptize his daughter:

I know she's only 9, but she had learned a lot and also invited all of her best friends from school to go to her baptism:

Well that's all I got for this week and it looks like we have another coming baptism soon and we are also planning to go to the temple this Saturday as missionaries.

Until next week!

Elder Terry

Week 93

LETTER FROM JORDAN - WEEK 93 (3/14/16)

Well surprise!! It looks like we got some emergency transfers!!!

Well Elder Gubler and I were doing amazing here in San Pedro, but Wednesday night we get a random call from our mission President. He talked to my companion and called him to be a zone leader back in Trujillo and that he would leave San Pedro the next day. We did not see that coming!! Apparently a zone leader in Trujillo had a medical emergency and had to go home for a quick operation and my companion was called to take his place. Need I remind you that we had transfers only 2 weeks ago and this is definitely not a normal thing. We were both super shocked and really sad to have to change, but willing to adjust to what the Lord has for us now.

So over here, I am now with Elder Connelly, a missionary that only has 3 months less than me from Arizona. In fact, he started his mission in my same first zone, so we had already met. They had to close his last area to have enough missionaries to go around so we were both pretty unprepared for this emergency transfer. That also makes it my fourth companion in the same area, with Elder Alles, Elder Chacon, Elder Gubler, and now Elder Connelly. That's not too common.

We took some pictures today in San Pedro's plaza:

Well that's pretty much it. But we are also planning on having at least one baptism this week, so we are looking forward to that! More information to come.

Also there is a restaurant here that's called "Mi Terry" which is pretty legit.

Well, with just a little bit of time left, we're working hard to do the Lord's will. Until next week!

Elder Terry

Week 92

LETTER FROM JORDAN - WEEK 92 (3/7/16)

Well this truly has been an amazing week! This week I completed 21 months in the mission and I also turned 21 years old! Strange coincidence.

The work here in San Pedro is amazing right now! I don't think I've had so much success throughout my whole mission. We are working really hard and our efforts are really being shown. We also have a few people committed for baptism this month and a trip to the temple with our branch planned too.

Well I got some really interesting pictures for this week.
First off, I was able to get a pic with my new companion, Elder Gubler:

Also, we have another wonderful sunset after a rainy day in San Pedro.

Also here in Peru they have this very interesting Ritz style crackers called Kraps, and here we found Mini-Kraps:

Also, one day when we were proselyting, we heard this random shout from a house in our area in English, which was really strange to here. The voice said "Elders! You should visit this house!" and we immediately turned and talked to them. It turns out a few latino members were visiting their grandparents in Peru all the way from Orem, Utah. Just a really interesting find. Here's one of them:

Also, I celebrated an amazing cumpleaños. I realized there was no better place to be to celebrate a birthday than serving the Lord in a foreign country, and not only that, but also in church to participate in our fast and testimony meeting. It was good that fasting here starts after lunch Saturday and finishes with lunch Sunday.

Earlier in the week I had gotten a package from home and also a gift from the mission:

But I waited until my birthday to open it:

A whole bunch of candy, just in time to snack on during general conference :). Thanks family and also the Smith family for getting it here to Peru!

Also a less-active member in our branch gave us a nice cake to celebrate the day:

The people in Peru are so amazing!

I feel so old though. 21 years old. I guess I'm not a child anymore. :)

Also today, we celebrated our P-day with the mission office and the Casa Grande Zone (where I started) inside of our zone, and we played a lot of games together. I also got to see Elder Smith and Elder Alles, the missionaries in San Pedro when I just got there:

Thanks to all who wished me a happy birthday and I just want to let you know that there is no better place to be right now than where I am.

Elder Terry