¿Quieres Jugar Partido?

So this week was amazing.  We saw a miracle happen this week as three more youth were baptized.  They all have such strong testimonies and I am so proud of everyone.  I have seen this Young Men's program grow so much in my time here.  One of the youth said that the reason he joined the church just started with a small question.  "¿Quieres jugar partido?"  It is amazing how much a simple invitation can open up the heart.

I did feel like this whole week I was in Chiclayo.  I was there 4 times this week, generally for meetings.  Meetings are fun sometimes, but I like using my time visiting family.  I always enjoy visiting people here and talking about the gospel.

I had pizza this week in one of the meetings.  President Risso got Pizza hut for all of us in the meeting and it was fantastic.  I haven't had pizza (real pizza) in so long.  I love the food here, but man I miss a good burger.

I love this area, I love this work, I love the Lord.  I hope that everyone can one day realize how much the Lords loves us.

Elder Perryman

Otra semana en Paraiso

Hola familia,

This week was the baptism of Alberto.  We basically just work with the Young Men's program here and it helps a lot.  I love the picture below with his friend Max.  They are both super great young men and Max will soon follow the example of his friend and be baptized.

This week we visited the cemetery of Ferreñafe.  It is fantastic.  There are statues of the Twelve along the main road and it is all decorated well.  Peruvians have a high regard for there ancestors.

So the sun is super strong here.  Before the mission I thought the climate would be perfect.  But I was unaware of how rare air conditioning is here.  Every night I have the fan on right next to my face.  But luckily fall is coming soon.  It is weird to think that fall is close.

Its super cool to here that Matthew will be joining me in the ranks of Spanish speaking missionaries.  There is a missionary from my zone who is from Chihuahua, Mexico.  I hear that the area is nice and that they keep the missionaries away from any danger.

I am already super excited for conference.  I cannot wait to hear the prophet speak and help me see what I need to do as a missionary. I love being able to tell people, to let them know, that there is a prophet in the world today.  How great of a message.

Love
Elder Perryman

ahì agua? Ahì luz?

So this week was quite interesting and fun.  This week I taught Kevin and after the lesson his girlfriend Claudia told us about his desire to be baptized.  We talked and put a date for his baptism and he gave me a high five.  He told us two weeks ago that baptism was what worried him because he said that he had a rough past and he is afraid of ever going back.  He has changed his life and I cannot wait to see him dressed in all white for baptism.

So my area is called the land of double faiths.  Partly is because of the witchcraft or Bruajria.  The other day one of the kids picked up a stray kitten and when his mom saw him she spoke in super fast Spanish telling him to put it out and wash his hands of it.  Later my companion explained to me the people use kittens and cuy blanco for "witchcraft" and that's why his mom was so upset.

The other day we went to a members house to eat.  We had mountains of rice and chicken liver with french fries.  It was actually pretty good, but it was huge!  The whole time my companion was saying "ayudame [help me]" and he is Peruvian.  When I almost finished the sister came in and served us each a big bowl of soup.  I just started laughing because I couldn't cry.  But the soup was really good.  And I finished it all, but it was one of my hardest times eating everything.  You cannot be a picky eater on the mission.

Spanish classes are maybe my favorite part of the week.  They are always so much fun and we meet a lot of new people.  I put Raul on my shoulders after English class as we walked home.  Raul is a little 6 year old who lives across the street from us and went to class this week with his older cousin.  The whole time he was yelling "I have four arms".

Friday we came into the room and the roof was leaking.  It looked like it was raining inside.  It turns out that Hna Lucha (our pension) was washing a carpet on the roof and the water seeped through the roof.  On the bright side we used the water to mop our floor this week.

I love the mission.  This week was fast and testimony meeting.  I went up and I was just filled with love as I looked out into the congregation.  I love this ward so much and I could feel the spirit strong in the chapel.  I know that this work is the work of spreading joy.

Love,
Elder Perryman

ps.  One of the photos was when the power went off (it happens a lot here) and I showed my companion the glow sticks and he loved them.

Classes de Spanglish

Wow this week went by fast.  The last zone meeting the personal secretary , Elder Brunis, and one of the assistants came.  Elder Brunis forgot something in the office so I went with him to get it.  Elder Brunis is in my group and I have always fallen good with him.  It was funny because he is learning English so he would talk to me in English and I would speak in Spanglish.  I seriously love talking with Latinos in English because their manner to say things is so funny.

Speaking of that, this week I we started our classes of English.  It was a lot of fun and we had a good mix of members and investigators there.  I teach with Elder Riddle which is fun because he is super animated about everything.  We are hoping to have even more people in the next class.

I love this ward.  We are always working with the youth here and trying get them excited for missions. This week we have plans to leave with 6 of the young men in the ward.  We always joke with them and try and get everyone to know that the gospel is about joy; it is THE path to happiness.

So I read the thing Aunt Jeanie put about teaching how to make pie.  That is a great idea.  I miss pie, but it reminds me of a cultural thing here.  No one here uses ovens to cook.  I have seen it done once.  What is more common is that if someone happens to have an oven they will just use the stove top and use the oven for storage.  It is actually really smart because the inside of an oven is the best place to store things if you will never use it.

In my first area we almost always contacted.  We went from farm to farm and it was always an adventure.  Now we are working closely with members and always have something on the list.  I love the diversity of missionary work.  We are really here to serve.  One day we can be digging holes or painting houses and in the afternoon be talking to the alcalde (like mayor) about church events and how the gospel of Christ will better the community.  Albaron, an youth in our ward, pointed out that Christ would use a variety of methods to meet and teach, and as representatives of His church, we must do the same.

Love,
Elder Perryman

PS  Mom I am sorry that there are no photos in this one, I will make it up to you with more next week.

Happy President's Day!¿!

So I forgot that it was president day.  The only holidays that are really big here are new years and all the random Peruvian holidays which I don't exactly understand yet.  I also forgot all about the Olympics until I saw my pension watching it on here TV.  I seriously feel like I'm in a different world sometimes, but I like that.

So this week we had lunch at Hna Yasmin's house.  She is not a member, but she is the nicest lady ever. She made us lunch and we talked with her for a good time.  She even offered to take letters back home for me.  Then we talked about religion with her and her sister.  Both are Catholics culturally, but have a couple of different beliefs, but both have a grand testimony of God.  Her sister said something that was super interesting to me, she said "always teach that Our Heavenly Father is Loving, no matter what".  I love this because the first principal of the first lesson is that we have a loving Heavenly Father. Sometimes we think that He has forgotten about us or even people say that he has rejected them, but that is never true, like the story of the Prodigal son the Father is always waiting with open arms.

Thursday was such a great day.  First we made tacos with Lugi and his family, so far Luigi is the only member of his family, so we wanted a way to gain confidence with everyone in their family.  And there is no better way to make friends than through food and the gospel of Christ.  What a combo!  Anyway after that we worked with the missionaries from Tarapcá and we went on splits with two of the young men in the ward.  It was such a great experience.  The young men are now excited to go out and teach with us and we have someone coming out with us everyday next week.

Today we decided to go to Chili's to eat lunch.  Yes I know I can hear dad asking "Chili's?!? Why Chili's when you are in Peru."  But this has to do with the things can be backwards here.  In Chiclayo Chili's isn't where you take you 4 screaming kids, it is a fancy place to take a date.  Also we were all missing food from the states.

This week we worked so hard, but we never touched a single door.  We just went out and talked to people who seemed interested, or talked with people on the street.  There are all people in the street. But my favorite lesson that I taught was to three teenagers this week.  So every Friday we have sports night in the church and we always go to set appointments and bond with the ward.  We started playing a bit and then realized that there were a couple youth who we didn't know so we decided to teach them. We taught them about the reason the gospel is important in our lives, especially as youth.  How if we truly want to accomplish things in life, we must do it through The Great Mediator of all things.  Through Christ we can accomplish everything, but we must trust him first.

Love,
Elder Perryman

Happy Valentine’s Day

This week has been fantastic.  I am starting to get along super well with my companion and it just makes everyday feel like fun.  The other day we were walking down the street and a kid started yelling "HELLO" to me.  It is common for gringos to have everyone want to test their English out with them.  I told my companion that the next person who attempts to speak English to me I will contact (I enjoy speaking with everyone), teach, and invite to baptism.  Literally one block later an lady yelled "Hello" and I went to speak English to her.  I was shocked when she replied back (with a thick accent).  It turns out that she is from Ferreñafe, but married someone from Idaho (Idaho Falls to be exact) and she is just down here for a couple of weeks.  We kept talking for a little bit, in Spanish, and we are going to her house Tuesday to eat dinner.


I have see so many great things on my mission.  This week one of our less active members called us in the morning Saturday inviting us to his grill out (yes I know I am getting fat).  We went over, ate, taught a small lesson, and he told us that he knows he needs to come back to church.  He told us of how his pride stopped him form progressing and now he will try and change everything.  This was a complete change of heart for him, a mini miracle.  Really its the best miracle, because it is the change of heart.

On the topic of food this week was the first time I have had "causa" or "causa ferreñafana."  It is a smorgasbord of everything you can find in a Peruvian dish except for rice.  To be precise it had banana, sweet potato, yucca (the potato of South America), corn, fish, potato, and other questionable substances.  It was strange, but so delicious.

Sacrament meeting this week was incredible.  Fasting=miracles.  There were a couple funny things like my companion had the last talk and the bishop never told him until the last minute or one of the many dogs in this country came into the chapel.  But what was incredible was that we had 11 or 12 investigators in the chapel.  I was worried at first because certain investigators weren't there and then we started to sing "Called to Serve" and about three or four investigators entered the chapel.  I love that song.

Love,
Elder Perryman

Las montañas

This week was wonderful.  So here in Peru it is a whole different world.  And some times the patriotic American side of me misses something good and American.  This week I was exploring Chiclayo with my companion and I found a place that sells Oreo milkshakes.  This to me was a tender mercy.  I love speaking about the food of Peru, but they don't sell drinks with ice here, let alone milkshakes.  We are constantly warned here that drinking cold drinks will give us a cold, is that even remotely true?

I love my job.  It really isn't a job, more of a privilege and gift.  I get to use my day visiting families and serving ward members.  But my favorite part is teaching kids.  It doesn't really matter to me if they are 2 or 12 years old, but they are always more willing to accept Christ into there life.  Luigi, our recent convert who is only 12, walked to church by himself last Sunday and passed the sacrament.  It amazes me when younger people love coming unto Christ.

Speaking of youth, this week was EFY (or FSY) for all the youth in our mission.  This Sunday every youth that went bore there testimonies together.  Afterwards all of their parents went up a spoke about the changes in their children.  That word, CHANGE, is the reason why we are here, or more specifically "everlasting change through the atonement of Jesus Christ."

So this week was "festival de la calendaría" which basically (to me) is just another excuse for us Peruvians to have another huge party.  Whenever there are holidays here, people just celebrate in the middle of the street.  I will send some pictures of this in the next weeks email.  But there were a few traditions that were strange to me.  One of which is the "Vaca Loca" which is when people parade around and a few where these cardboard cow costumes.  Another (which is super strange for me) is that they burn huge painted tree trunks in the middle of the street.  Though I imagine that Peruvians would think that super bowl Sunday traditions are strange too.

Anyway the photos I put up are from a hike we took as a zone.  The reason I am in my missionary attire is because I had to go to Chiclayo directly afterward (and a mission rule is that we need to ware missionary clothes).  But at this point all my pants are dusty or dirty because there aren't paved roads everywhere.

Con bastante amor
Elder Perryman