Pachacutec - Week 2

La Vida de Pachacutec

This week has been awesome. I'm starting to understand what people are saying, so yeah, miracles do happen. Spanish is starting to feel like English. But not always, there are still people that don't speak clear at all and it's really hard to understand. But I'm speaking more in our lessons so all is well.

Our apartment is in Block (manzana) H of Los Cedros of Pachacutec.  I'm not sure the lot number, but I doubt you can google maps it. It's a few blocks east of the chapel though. We are fortunate to have the chapel in our area, because there is a ward called Yoshiyama and a branch called Los Cedros in Pachacutec, and both go to this chapel. All of my district is in Pachacutec, so there are three companionships in Yoshiyama and two in Cedros. 

The only other white guy is Elder Queane (pronunced Kane) from England and he goes home this transfer. I'm the only North American in this city. Oh and Elder Mamani and Elder Sanabria moved out this week because I guess it was just a temporary thing until they found new living quarters in their area, so it's just me and Elder Chalampuento now. I made him pray in English today for language study haha it was actually really good. He knows more than I thought he did. 

Anyway we had zone meeting this week in Ventanilla, which is like 20 or 30 minutes away via a tiny bus the size of a van. It usually costs 1 sol per time, so like 30 cents. We also go there for District meeting every week. Besides Elder Quean there are 3 other Americans in my zone and they were all in my MTC group, oh and there is one Hermana from Minnesota.  So yeah I'm pretty sure most of the mission is Latinos which is awesome. 

We had stake conference this last Sunday and it was live stream from the stake center in Ventanilla to our chapel. But of course there were technical problems so we didn't get to watch it. But we had 2 of our investigators in church which is really good. They are two old men, Santos and Wilford. They were both references from a recent convert in the ward, Guillermo. He is a great guy because he reads the Book of Mormon with Santos, because Hermano Santos can't read or wright. We are also teaching two young families with little kids. 

From what I've heard from members and stuff, Pachacutec hardly existed 20 years ago, and now it's huge. Probably 100,000 or 200,000 people live in this area. Our goal with the branch is to get it converted to a ward and it's almost there. And also, Ventanilla is the biggest stake in our mission with 7 wards and 2 branches. Our goal is to split the stake and have a Pachacutec stake because our chapel is designed to be a stake center. 

Also, my Pensionista, Hermana Teresa apparently is one of the best in the mission (according to my companion) but I believe him. The food here is way better than the CCM. I had crab soup the other day and it was so so good. She's the best. 

We hiked to the top of the hill this p-day to get some pictures. So yeah, till next week, love you all.

Elder Harris

My companion and roomates

Us 4 in our apartment. Makes me look tall haha.

Looking out my apartment window

Another picture of my area

Me at the top of the hill. You can't see much in this pic because of the fog, but there is a city down there.

Elder Chalampuento at the top of the hill over looking Pachacutec

My Desk

This fruit is called granadilla, it looks like fish eggs but it's actually not bad. Kind of crunchy. We eat them a lot.

On the First Day at the Beach

My companion and I that first training day. It was cool, they had us walk in to the chapel while all the trainers were singing Called to Serve. And then they had a power point up on the screen and it showed pictures of our trainers and then of us and everyone clapped and cheered as they announced every companionship. It was cool.

At the MTC

At the MTC