Wednesday, July 27, 2016

MTC - Week 2

Segunda Semana

Que tal!

So I guess I'll start with… I switched districts and have a new companion.  So Elder Anderson (the one we met at the airport going to Lima South) was supposed to be in the 3 week program, but some mistake was made and he was put in the six week program.  For some reason it took 2 weeks for them to figure it out and put him in the 3 week program.  Because I was in a trio I took his companion.  President Moore interviewed our whole district to see who he should switch over.

My companion is Elder Hunsaker from Oregon, he's a cool guy.  I don’t really know much about him because I switched over this morning.  So, yeah its kind of sad because I was pretty close with my district before.  Now I have to adjust to a bunch of new people and teachers, but I know some of them so it's okay.  I'm glad to be out of a trio though.

Last P-day we went to the temple right after I emailed and it was so cool.  They bused us over there and we almost wrecked like four times.  The people drive so crazy in Lima.  But to be honest the streets and stuff remind me a lot of Europe.  Narrow streets and small cars.  But we are in La Molina which is like the nice part of the city, like there are lots of normal nice cars.

But the temple was cool, the room was so tiny though, probably like 20 seats.  It was in English
thankfully, but the coolest part was we were all sitting in there (my district) waiting for it to start and then President and Hermana Moore walk in and they presided over the session! It was so cool. Because, I mean he was a temple president in Spain, so it was awesome.

President Moore did this class on Sunday for us where he talked about the Creation, the Fall, and the Atonement, and I swear I've never learned so much in one hour of class.

We're technically only allowed to take pictures on Pday so that’s why I don’t have a ton of pics.

So a little more about the food.  The yogurt here is so good, but it's different because it's like more
liquidy, but I love it.  They also have this liquid oatmeal drink that’s hot, and at first I hated it, but now I have it every morning; it's delicious.  We had pizza the other day and it was so good, Peruvian
style.  But to be honest, anything other than chicken and rice is good.

So a little more about the layout of the campus. For physical activity they have one grass volleyball court, one sand volleyball court, a few ping pong tables, and some foosball tables (we never use
them).  There's also an outdoor basketball court but it kind of sucks because the cement is super slick and there's no net and it's small. We played basketball one day but halfway through I left to go play
futbol.

My new district only plays sand volleyball for every physical activity and I would much rather be playing soccer haha.  But it's fine, if I really want to then I can play soccer because its right next to the soccer field.  They also have all these outdoor exercise machines that no one uses except for the Hermanas.

My old roommates were really clean and orderly which was a real blessing, but I have yet to find out if my new roommates will be haha.  My new room is only down the hall from my old one so it wasn’t that far.

The minimum goal the MTC wants us to accomplish is to memorize 25 words and 5 phrases every day and like 3 scriptures a week.  I used my little notebook to write down words so I'm glad I brought it.

You might be curious where my teachers served their missions.  Hermano Quispitupac served in Colombia and Hermana Riviera served in Mexico City.  They learned English only by studying which is really amazing,  but their English isn’t perfect.  But it doesn’t matter they only speak in Spanish any way haha.

At church this week Elder Fife played a musical number on the piano.  It was If You Could Hie to Kolob and it was the piano guys version and it reminded me so much of mom and Abby, when you used to always play it and I teared up a little.

We also went to Interpol (international police) this week to apply for our visas I think…idk.  But they took us in this van and drove into Central Lima.  Some parts are really nice.  Like we passed a BMW and a Porshe dealership.  But they just like took finger prints, took a picture, and checked our teeth. It was weird, but fun to get outside the walls.

All the Latinos here wear their consecrated oil on their belt loop.  It's kinda weird haha.

Happy birthday mom! I love you!

Elder Harris

Nuevo compañero Elder Hunsaker
On the bus to the temple. Elder Abbott to my left.  Elder Oleson in the gray suit. 
Back row left to right:E. Drake, E. Bumstead, E. Probert, H. Farer, H. Hardcastle, H. Tyacke, E. Abbott, E. Parker Front row left to right: E. Rassmusen, E. Cheney, E. Bates, Elder Harris 

Temple with Distrito 



Volleyball this morning with the new district

Mis Placas


Wednesday, July 20, 2016

MTC - Week 1

Hola Familia! 

This week has been so crazy I don't know where to start.  So on the flight to the Peru CCM there were 42 elders and 6 or 7 sisters.  The majority of them are going to Trujillo North or Lima West.  They told us this group was the largest group of North Americans this year so that’s exciting.  The group before us had like 20 total and the group before that had 4 total…so they were pretty excited to have us.  So the 20 that have been here for 3 weeks already have been a huge help with answering our questions and what not. 

So out of our group that flew down together there are 4 districts.  All of my district is going to Lima West except for 3 sisters who are going to Trujillo North.  I am in a trio and my companions are Elder Probert and Elder Parker, from Orem and West Jordan.  My whole district is from Utah except for 2 from Arizona.  

How the MTC is set up is there are 3 buildings.  One has our district rooms and dorms upstairs.  One is the office building for president, the managers and staff.  And one has the cafeteria downstairs and an auditorium upstairs.  It’s a really nice campus.  All of the rooms have woodwork and trim that’s similar to a church building.  The bathroom countertops are granite, so it's definitely super nice.  It feels more like a sanctuary than a prison. 

There are almost constantly sirens screaming from outside the walls.  They actually woke us up this morning at like 6 haha.  President and Hermana Moore are amazing. They personally greeted all of us and gave us our name badges the morning after we got here.  It's cool being at such a small MTC because we get to have a lot of interaction with the president.  He's always walking around and asking
us how we are and stuff.   Sunday was really cool because it was all in English which was so nice to actually understand.  Anyway he did a presentation on temple preparation and it was so good. 

Also we have a branch presidency, they are all Americans working at the area office (I think its called that) right next to the CCM.  One is Austraulian and he is the area doctor for the South America Northwest Area (I think its called).  It includes Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, and Venezuela and Bolivia. So he's like the head medical guy, it's pretty cool.  And his wife is the choir director and its so funny listening to her speak Spanish in an Australian accent haha.

Our district has 2 teachers, one in the morning - Hermano Quispitupac, and one in the evening - Hermana Rivera.  They are native Peruvians and they're so good, but they speak Spanish 90 percent of the time which is really confusing sometimes.  President told us that last week they had 2 teaching positions open and they had 120 applications. So that tells you how good the teachers must be and how strong the church is here.

We play soccer every day after lunch for physical activity.  They have a nice turf soccer field.  They switch up the schedule so sometimes we play against the Latinos and other times not.  Some of them are so good but most are average.  

There are elders here from all over South America: Uruguay, Argentina, Ecuador, but a lot from Peru too.  Everyone that goes to a mission in Peru or Bolivia comes here I think.

We taught our first lesson in Spanish on Friday.  It was so hard haha.  We basically just read our notes.  But they have these "Casitas" which are litte buildings on the campus where we go and teach. We teach "Sonia" who is actually really Hermana Rivera.  We teach a lesson almost everyday.  

The Latinos are really funny.  They always ask me if I'm Calvin Harris (the DJ) haha.  And one called me Martin Harris as well.  One experience I had talking to the Latinos.... one said something and
I didn’t understand what he said because he said it so fast and so I tried to say repita (repeat) but I accidentally said arrepentir which means repent.  The group of latinos laughed so hard, it was fun.

The food here is so good.  For breakfast there is always yogurt (raspberry) and other stuff, usually always eggs.  For lunch and dinner there is always always always rice.  Arroz arroz arroz.  And most of the time potatoes with the rice.  Haha it’s a lot of carbs.  And chicken a lot, but also beef.  One time we had lasagna which was exciting.  But it had potatoes in it, I don’t think that’s normal.

We had a devotional last night which some guy, I don't know who he was because it was all in Spanish, they had headphones and a translator but it was still hard to understand.  But the choir sang at it.  We sang Love One Another in Spanish.

It rained the other night which was really surprising because I thought it never rained here.

Anyways that’s about all I have, ask me some questions! Love you all, see you next week.

-Elder Harris

Mis companeros





My District
Front row left to right: Elder Cheney, Elder Bumstead, Hermana Hardcastle, Elder Probert, Elder Rasmussen.  Back row left to right: Elder Abbott, Elder Bates, Hermana Tike, Elder Drake, Hermana Farer, Elder Harris, Elder Parker.
Airport


District Elders at the Open Bay Window




Cafeteria







Sunday, July 17, 2016

Day One! July 13, 2016

Hola Familia
Hey guys! haha.  They're kind of strict right now just letting me send one quick email, but I'm doing great!  We didn't go to sleep until 4 am last night even though we landed at like midnight.  I love this CCM (MTC) so much already!  

I saw Elder Black!  It was crazy.  Literally as soon as we walked off the plane there were some windows and a bunch of missionaries were on the other side.  And there he was!  We couldn't
talk unfortunately, but yeah he was waiting to fly home on the same plane I came on. 


My companion is...well I think I'm in a trio. Elder Parker from Salt Lake valley somewhere and Elder Probert from Orem.


On our first flight there were probably 30 missionaries going to Atlanta. About half were going to Colombia and half to Peru. And a few were going to the Johannesburg MTC heading to Kenya.  


The MTC here is really nice.  On the plane I sat by Elder Cheney and Elder Drake; they are like my bestfriends now haha.  Today we're just doing registration stuff I think.  They gave us our language learning materials and we've been filling out immigration documents and stuff.  For breakfast we had scrambled eggs and yogurt and a weird oatmeal milk stuff.  Anyways I will email you later.  


Love you all!  

Drop off at the Airport - July 12, 2016






Set Apart as Missionary by President Swanson - July 11, 2016











Farewell Luncheon - July 10, 2016