Noche de postres!

Wow this time is flying!  I feel like the weeks here are days. Because I was asked, I live about 15 from Cajamarca and almost all the missionaries are in the center of Caja.  Cajamarca feels more developed then Chiclayo because there are more cars (less motos) and it has 2 malls (both malls have KFC).  But my area is huge.  I live near the center of Baños but we are always teaching far away in the hills.  So usually after lunch we take a combi or a bus to Puylucana or el Inca and spend the day teaching there.

Speaking of teaching far away, one of my favorite families here is the Vargas family.  They are great and despite living far away they walk to church.  The parents are not members but are faithful coming to church and are super receptive.  We gave there father a health blessing when I first came to this area, because he couldn't even get out of bed.  But now he is hiking to church.  The one problem is he is not married, and the marriage process is a big ugly monster here in Peru, but we are doing everything to help.

This week we had a dessert night.  I made an apple pie with my companion and my pensionista.  I attached a photo of us with the pensionista and her mom.  What I have learned is when there is food at a church event everyone comes.

Heiner Yancan was baptized this week!  He is the best, but his name is hard to say.  He is a convert of the sisters but I got to interview him.  I talked with him for about an hour and a half (the longest interview that I have had) but I felt the spirit so strong.  He had so many questions for me, but also knew so much.

The last picture is of Bernardo Cusma.  He is fantastic, and has a lot of cool historical things in his house.  But that is not why he is fantastic.  He has a super strong testimony and walks about 2 miles to get to church (he lives on top of a hill too).  We have plans to baptize his grandson, Richard, soon.  Richard also is sweet and he told us that he wants to go on a mission.  It makes me soooo happy when youth say that they are preparing for the mission.  I really do not count how many baptism I have had in the mission, I count how many youth I help prepare for the mission.

Sunday we went to visit a less active member and he invited us into a tent like thing (a bunch of sticks with a tarp covering it) and it turned out to be a"church".  It was an interesting experience, because they were using the "True to the Faith" manual to teach.  The pastor invited me to speak and I shared the story of Apollos from the Bible.  I invited them all to pray for themselves to know what is the truth and then we left.  It was nice because the lady who lives there invited us to come back just to talk with her and her son.

Anyway today is the independence day of Peru so I will have a bunch of photos next week.

I love you all, the church is true.  I know it.  I love this work because I know it is the work of my Savior.

Love
Elder Perryman

Feliz dia de pollo a la Brasa!

Mom I am sorry that I do not write more, the weeks now are flying by am I am starting forget what happened three days ago.  But I do know that this week was great/stressful.

One thing that I love about his mission is that we work a lot in reactivation.  Two of the men that we helped come back to church went to Lima for two months for FUNDET.  FUNDET is a program here that helps members of the church receive career training.  Cliever, one of the men who left, put us in charge of teaching his family the gospel, because he is the only member in his family.  He has two boys, Marlon (10) and Bryan (12), who are super great.  They have a white board in their house, so we always draw to teach.  While teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ we drew a temple and ice cream for "endure till the end".  It was super funny because when we asked "why must we be baptized" Marlon said "to return to God and eat ice cream."  I wish that every adult has as much excitement for the gospel as do little children.

My companion takes more pictures then me, so I will get his photos after the mission, but I still take a few.  One of the photos is just to show how sometimes when there is no running water we have to shower with a bucket, which is actually not as bad as it sounds.  One picture is of a bunch of model planes that an investigator has.  It made reminded me a lot of dads office.  And the last photo is of my companion and I sharing a love for fried chicken.

The saddest part of this are for me, and the part that I want to change, is that the Young Men's program is weak.  So we are doing everything possible to help.  My largest goal in the mission is to see youth who I worked with go on the mission, because I know how much it can help every single one of them.  We have sports night and my companion and I are going to start giving mission prep classes.  I love this mission because it is so much more than "touching doors" it is really working to strengthen a whole ward.

Love
Elder Perryman

7 Cathedrals of Cajamarca

So Cajamarca is known for its 7 cathedrals so today we decided to take a tour of some of them.  I love the architecture, but it doesn't feel the same as the chapels.  I understand more and more when people say that they feel something different inside of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

This week I met an old friend that I met in Ferreñafe.  His name is Harry and I found out that he lives in my area.  We are starting to teach him, but it is sad because his daughter recently passed away, so he finds a lot of comfort in the doctrine of the church.  This week he also came to an activity that we had and we gave him a tour of the chapel.  He said that his favorite painting was of Moroni, because of the strength him must have had.

We are starting to leave as a ward every Saturday at 7 in the morning to visit less actives and it is fantastic.  Even though we have to wake up a bit more early to leave it is a great experience because it helps strengthen the ward.

Also I am starting to forget certain things in English.  Because I always say my prayers in Spanish (including personal prayers) it is tough for me to not speak Spanish automatically.  For example a Sister in my ward asked for a blessing in English and I was struggling to not speak Spanish.  I feel like when I come home I will need to take English classes.

I feel so blessed to be able to have the Bishop and his wife as my pension.  The Bishop here is super loving and helps us so much.  He is a convert of about the same time as dad and I can see a lot of similarities in there testimonies.

Love,
Elder Perryman

President Williams is the best!

President Williams is the best!  I got on today to write him and I saw that he responded in English.  Now I don't know if I should write him in Spanish or English, because English is easier to write, but Spanish is easier to spell.  The meeting with President Williams was great.  He is super funny, but extremely organized.  Also it is interesting because his wife doesn't speak Spanish, so he helps translate a lot of things for her.  But it made me remember my first weeks, when I new about nothing.  But President Williams speaks with a lot of confidence, and it is obvious that this will be a great year.

My companion is also doing well.  He is one of my favorite companions so far.  And probably the hardest working.  Everyone in the zone asks if we just party everyday because we are both very extroverted.  We don't party (of course we are missionaries) but we love working together, and I think we do a good job too.

Today we left to explore Cajamarca.  We went to a town that makes guitars here in Peru and we went to a couple cool rock faces.  Also we went to a part of my area (which I was unaware of) which has a cave and a bunch of ancient paintings.  In the next week we are I am thinking about going to La Colpa, which is a field that has the "named cows" with Elder Lalli (the tall guy in one of the photos) and his district.  They say it has  "named cows" because every cow responds to its name and acts like a dog almost.

This area is great, but right now one of my favorite investigators is Danny.  He is thirteen and comes to church by himself, he also lives far away.  He parents are less active, but has such a strong testimony.  He even bore his testimony Sunday and he wants to everything possible to be baptized and help strengthen his family.  Sometimes its is the smallest children who teach the parents.

Love,
Elder Perryman

Magdalena

Family!

Another week in paradise.  And I am forgetting how to spell in English...

We have a new [Mission] President and he is coming up to Cajamarca this week, so I am super excited to meet him.  But from what I have heard he is a great guy.

One of my zone leaders hurt his foot playing soccer so I have been helping in their area because they are part of my district.  Also my companion went to Lima this week finalize his visa.  It was fun working in Cajamarca, but Baños is the best area in the mission so I missed it in my time away.  I also went to Magdalena to retrieve birth certificates for a marriage.  Getting married is a whole mess of paper work here so most people just don't get married.  Anyway Magdalena is about 2 hours away from Cajamarca and the trip to get there is beautiful (I attached a picture).  But the town is super tiny and it is in the middle of the nowhere.  But I enjoy traveling to new places so it was fun.

Also this week we went to El Inca to visit member and we saw an old lady with a tank of gas.  We offered to take it to her house for her and when we asked her where she lived she told us "just around the corner", which I later found out is code here for 2 miles away up hill.  We turned the corner and found no houses, after asking for a bit more directions she told us that her house was on top of a huge hill.  When we finally got to the top (half an hour later) we taught her about the restoration.  It was a unique moment to teach about how there is a prophet on the earth while you are overlooking a whole city.  Also Elder Gomez is the best because he always teaches with a surety, even though he only has 3 years as a members.

Also I talked about Brother PPC last week so I attached a picture with him.  He has an OSU hat, which makes me happy.

Love,
Elder Perryman

One more thing...A youth in my last ward wrote me this and it made my day :)

Elder Perryman. Such as this. Well I guess ....
Well I am writing to inform you that I am very well, the young people you taught are active.  Now I am no longer the YM Secretary  and I was relieved with the whole presidency.  And my call now occupies my best friend Gerson, and the twins are the 1st and 2nd counselors and MARCO President.  I am now authorized representative of YSA with Sister Estefhanya.  I also want to thank you for being my friend, thanks for your help, thank you for giving me the opportunity to go out with you teaching.  I am very grateful to my Heavenly Father to get to know you in these days.  Ahh well I Saturday 28 there will be a Mini MTC in the stake and I will be there with, Brother Luis Antonio, Brother Jesus Alberto, Brother Yimy, Sister Estefhanya, Brother Miguel Chavesta . Good ... I bid you  farewell Elder Perryman, we love you and I miss you personally . I will be writing and also tell you where I have to serve, as soon as I reach my calling ... I love this photo:)  (it is the photo of the baptism of Gerson)