Feliz año Nuevo!!!

Wow!  The time is starting to fly.  It is already 2014!  I will be 20 in a matter of days!  And there is still so much to be done.

New Years' was great.  We bunkered down with some other missionaries and celebrated in the house of the pension.  New Years' is crazy here.  Everyone drinks from New Years' Eve (in the morning) until the 2nd (or 3rd) of January.  It would have been impossible to sleep in our room because they set up a huge speaker system in the street and blared music for two days straight.  Luckily the pension of the other missionaries has extra beds.  We were given permission to be out in the streets until 11pm and after that I wouldn't want to be away from a members home.  This is one of their biggest holidays here.  As a tradition people make human sized dolls and burn them in the middle of the street and set off a ton of fireworks.  Basically the streets were on fire.

Despite the fiestas we actually had a pretty good week.  I love working hard, I don know why but it brings me so much joy and when we are stuck in our room for holidays I get antsy.  I have a picture of Luigi and us doing service in his house.  I love this kid and his whole family.  His mom is super nice and wants to be baptized too, but she can't because of her blog.  We had 6 investigators in the chapel and our agendas are filled with appointments.  I have seen how much the members help us here.  It so true that the work of salvation only happens when the missionaries and members work in unity.

It has been fun with Elder Carranza and now I am looking forward as to what lies ahead.  Elder Carranza says that I am going to train, but I think he is joking, because I still feel so new  [Elder Carranza goes home from his mission next week and James will get a new companion].

Love, 

Elder Perryman

 

Feliz Año Nuevo

Happy New Year!!  So for new year our days have been really weird.  We worked so hard Monday (normally our P-day) and our Zone meeting also got pushed back.  Also the hours of P-day are weird.  I miss having a normal day-to-day schedule where the weeks are the same.

So I have like a thousand pictures and even more stories from the past couple weeks.  Also I feel like I haven't emailed in forever.  The spirit of Christmas was strong here, even though it didn't feel like the traditional Christmas.

We did a lot of service and because it was hard to go out and teach in these times.  During one of our service opportunities a neighbor came over and talked with my companion and wanted us to visit her home.  It is so great to see how people want the missionaries in their home when they see us do good.

Though many people had problems for Christmas and New Year's.  Here the two holidays are big times for drinking, this is why our P-day is today and we have a [Zone] meeting tomorrow.  It was sad to enter houses and to have people say that because of alcohol their Christmas was ruined.  But there is always more joy than gloom.  One of the houses we went to an investigator gave us a doll to give away for Christmas.  We knew exactly who to give it to.  It was just something small but the light in the eyes of this little girl was something special when we gave it to her.  It makes me so sad to see many children in need, I always wish I could do more.

I love my mission.  I really am starting to realize it is the best thing I have done with my life.  This holiday time was weird for me because even though I loved Skyping my family and everything we did for P-day, I didn't feel completely full of joy.  I only starting feeling that constant joy again when I went back to serving.  I love when I can just visit families and talk of Christ.  There is no greater joy in the world.

I will send more pictures because I have a bunch, but the ones in this email are all of our New Years' Eve afternoon as a Zone.

Te Amo

Elder Perryman

New Mission Mailing Address

Elder Perryman has a new mailing address:

Elder James Perryman
Peru Chiclayo Mission

Calle Los Alamos #128

Urbanizacion, Santa Victoria
Chiclayo, Lambayeque
PERU

His email address stayed the same:  jperryman@myldsmail.net

Feliz Navidad!

So I am calling [home] this week so I will make this short and send a bunch of photos.

So here I am cooking Ceviche and Papa Rellena with my companion.  I actually did this twice the past week.  I want to make this plate all the time when I get back.  Our bishops wife taught us how to make it.  I love our bishop here and his family.  He is short but super funny, and spiritual when needed.  He is the opposite of my branch president of my last area.  He always tells us that his house is our house.  He is super humble (his door is cardboard), but I love his family.  His son is preparing for a mission and comes out with us and we are always joking with his family.  I basically love all the families here.

I will be calling tomorrow, so that is all for now.

Hope you love the photos.

Elder Perryman

So these photos are when we went to the museum of Sipan in Lambayeque.  I love museums.  We took a cambi to get there as a zone so I took a photo to show how cramped cambis can be.  The museum was fun and Pedro, a member of my ward, gave us the tour.  Pedro is super smart, and he comes out with a lot when he isn't working at the museum.  He wants to learn at least 10 languages in his life.  He knows English, but we always talk in Spanish with each other because it is easier. He explained a lot of the culture and artifacts the ancient Lamanites, and because he knows doctrine he was able to tie things back into the history of Lehi and his decedents.  It was super cool and enhanced my testimony that their is evidence of the gospel everywhere.

So I have a lot of fun with my companion.  That being said we work hard too.  We had a mission night where everyone brought gifts to give away.  It was great and the members danced until 11 (we stayed only until 9 of course).

The young guy between my companion and me is Marlo.  He has a rough background and is always working selling sketchy propane.  He is so funny, and I hope that the gospel will change his life, because he has so much potential.

 

Eating Peru

So This week was great (again).  I have sweet photos but my adapter is not working so I will send them in the following week.  But the reason I put "Eating Peru" as the tile is because this week I learned how to make one of my favorite dishes, Papa Rellena with ceviche. Papa Rellena basically consists of a fried potato filled with meat and tomato. Ceviche is something that Dad and Sam would love, it is like Peruvian Sushi.  It is raw fish cooked in lime juice and served with purple onion and a bit of aji (spice).  It was all super good.

To answer some questions: The last person we baptised was Jesus Alberto, he is 18 years old.  He looks super young, but it the coolest guy. He also has a twin, Luis, they both wan to serve missions.  Christmas isn't the same here.  People don't go all out with the lights like the do in the States.  It is sad, but they do eat Paneton (fruit bread stuff) a lot this time of year.  All the missionaries say that Christmas in Peru is tough because it is so different and so humble.  But we plan on doing a lot of service to over look the lack of Christmas decorations and focus on the true Christmas Spirit.  Yes there are hairless dogs here, basically Peru has changed how I look at dogs.  My companion really is a gentle giant, but like all of my companions so far, he doesn't know any English :)  Which is fine by me because I feel comfortable with the language now and Latinos are generally more friendly than gringos ;p  But he does want to learn Italian so I might study a bit with him this transfer.

This week we had a devotional with President Risso in Pueblo Nuevo.  It was awesome.  The ward had a choir and I played the piano, I was so nervous to play for President.  One of the recent converts in our ward bore her testimony and it was so strong.  President spoke a lot about temples and the sacrifice that he made with his wife to be married inside the temple.  They had to sell almost everything to travel to the USA to be married in the DC temple.  He spoke about his and his wives conversion (they are both converts) and I know all of our investigators who were there felt the Spirit.

I love the kids here.  They all give my companion and I hugs and some of them call me Elder Superman because they can't say Perryman.  It helps me understand how Christ would always focus and give special attention to the children.  It is so true that they are without sin, I know that theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.

Te Amo

Elder Perryman

 

 

Nuevo Pueblo Nuevo

So I got my transfer from Pueblo Nuevo to Pueblo Nuevo.  It is pretty funny that there are two areas with the same name, but I love my new area.  I did not realize how far away I was from civilization until this change.  I am now in a ward in the province of Ferreñafe, which is about a half an hour away from Chiclayo.

I love my companion, Elder Carranza.  He is a big Argentina, who is super out going.  He is from Cordova Argentina and is about to finish his mission (I'm his last companion).  All the members here love him and some of the older missionaries and his family call him Gordo for his size.  This week a family in the ward asked to take a picture between us because we are both giants in Peru.

The members here are so nice.  Every house we visit gives us something to eat or drink.  We had a noche misional and there were a lot of people in the chapel.  The chapel is huge, it is for two wards, and is two stories.  During the noche misional some kid gave me a huge hug and kept calling me uncle.  If the people here are friendly, the kids are extremely friendly.

Our Pension is a super nice older lady who we live with too.  Her food is so good, but we usually just eat a huge lunch and have a small breakfast with fruit for dinner.  The first day my pension said she couldn't say my name so she would just start calling me Elder Gringo.

There is a dog here that follows us whenever he sees us.  His name is Kisor and he used to be the ex-bishops dog.  It is so funny to see him waiting outside our door sometimes.

So I'm starting to feel more confident about my Spanish, I still can't speak perfectly, but I can almost understand everything perfectly.  This week I was asked if I was from Argentina, which just made me laugh.

There is a brand new Elder here.  His name is Elder Riddle and he is from North Carolina.  He says that he knows the Elders that Sam trained.  It was funny to see his fresh perspective on Peru.  He seemed shocked by the culture and language, it was funny for me to remember when I was like that.  I helped him a bit with the language and explained a bit about how the mission works this week; he had a lot of questions.

We have a member here named Pedro, who is stellar.  He knows a bit of English so we speak in Spanglish together.  He came with us teaching this week and his testimonies were so powerful.  That is what I love about the mission.  We can use any scripture to persuade a man to the gospel, but when some one hears a sincere testimony of Christ they know what the truth is, they just need to act.  The simple testimony of a humble member is and will always be more impactful than a large and cunning discussion.  It is through small and simple things the Lord will confuse the wise.

Te Amo

Elder Perryman

Hasta luego Pueblo Nuevo

I have a cambio [transfer] this week!  I don't know where I am going, but the exchange meeting is at 8AM in Chiclayo, so I will have to get up really really early tomorrow.  I am excited to see new areas, but I will miss this small town, especially my pension and my companion.  It was super fun working with Elder Flores this change and he helped me so much with my teaching and my Spanish.

Last week I wrote home with a fever, so I am not sure how well put together the letter was.  I do remember that I ended up with a fever of 102 in the night.  The next day I went to the clinic in Chepen and he told me that I had an intestinal infection.  The Peruvian food is good, but it takes a toll on my health.  After the clinic I was with one of the zone leaders and he wanted to go work with me and I told him that he was crazy.  We ended up going to a couple of appointments and then I crashed.  The next day we went to Chiclayo for training and by the end of the day I felt completely better.  Our training was by an Area Seventy and it was super good, but 4 hours long so I have a lot of notes.

So the power went out this Friday and my companion had a fever so we were in the room together for most of the day.  Luckily we had candles and lights so that I could study.  When people here get sick the members always want to give us manzania tea.  I never liked it before my mission, but now when ever someone offers it to me I gladly accept.  Also my pension says that masamora (purple goop) and avena (watered down oatmeal) are good for the stomach, [but] I don't believe it.  Some doctors, like medical professionals, here say that drinking cold drinks is bad for our health.  I love Peru.

I completely forgot about Thanksgiving until I read emails.  I seriously don't know what time of year it is.  We are starting to see Christmas stuff being sold in the street and it is throwing me off because I haven't seen a drop of snow.  Luckily Peru has there own Christmas traditions, like everyone here eats Paneton this time of year.  Paneton is like this Peruvian sweet bread which is super good.

I am excited to change areas, but I am not excited to leave my families.  I want to come back for the baptism of Martina and her family.  I can't count the number of times I helped one or all of her kids with homework while Elder Flores or Palacios taught a small gospel principal or vise versa.  We are starting to see real change in Pacanga and I just want to work more in this area that we have focusing on.  Two members in this area just got back from going to the temple for the first time and we have a baptismal date with Sabastian there too.  I don't feel ready to leave, but I can leave happy.  I have seen changes in families here through the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Last Sunday Isabel (one of my converts) stood up and bore a strong testimony about how the gospel of Christ changed her life, with tears in her eyes, and I could not help but feel so much joy in my soul.  I know this gospel helps people.  This gospel is true, because the fruits are always good.  I have seen nothing but joy when people live according to the standards of the gospel.  When we grow closer to Christ he changes our lives.

Te Amo
Elder Perryman