Panettone: the (fruit) cake of the devil.

                Panettone: the (fruit) cake of the devil.  Widely discovered throughout South American countries, such as Perù. In some occasions used as a torture instrument on north Americans. Panettone is fed to the north Americans in every place and every moment, until they have no choice but the leave and never return or die a terribly unhealthy death. The day of Christmas, we were fed panettone in almost every meeting. That night, after skype, the mission leader sent us home with a slice of panettone each. Then we had more panettone with dinner and then after breakfast (with panettone) someone gave us a whole panettone, and thus the pattern has continued. But aside from that, things are grand here. My companion knows all the words to Angels and Devils. He has impeccable taste in music. He´s a huge fan of Soda Stereo. Remind me to look them up in two years. I could not get a picture, but there´s this great store sign on one of the little shops here. It´s old and faded, but it reads: “Dental care, laundry, and clothe-mending”. They wash and repair all types of clothes…. And teeth, I guess. But be sure to let Uncle Dan know that I found work for him down here. Or the rest of that side of the family, for that matter. They could have “Haws Dentistry and Spicy Mustard”. Just throwing ideas around, ya know. But I´m loving it here. Just soaking in the beauty. Ill try to attach some pictures.

That´s so cool that dad´s in Japan! How exciting! We vistited all of our families on Christmas and wished them merry Christmases all day. haha. I was wrong about the fireworks. They didn't stop until 4am.

Much love,

Elder Alexander

Feliz Navidad!

Well, it has been another week in the promised land. Tons of great experiences. I ate cow foot in the form of a soup. It tasted how you would expect a cow´s foot to taste. We taught a lot of Christmas messages, which I love doing. We went to Tarma for a couple days for a zone conference. I've been oxygen-spoiled down here. Man, it was hard to breath when we first left. Why don´t we eat duck more? Ducks are everywhere and they don’t taste bad. They eat ducks here. But the ducks here are a little bigger, and they wag their tails like puppies. If I had a tail, I´d give thought to wagging it now, because I´m excited for Christmas. Christmas is like any other day for us, but it´ll at least be fun to go around wishing people a Feliz Navidad. I´m going to try to do the picture thing, finally.

Me with the natives.

The jungle

Here we have the baptism of two awesome young girls and some people from the sister missionaries,

 and me flouting to the hills.

"Wilbur Alexander"

I've had nutcracker songs stuck in my head a lot recently. I guess my brain knows it's that time of year. haha. Im sending my letter today, to Grandma's address. Its usually a little more than a week before it arrives. 

Life is good here. Interesting, as always. It's always good entertainment, simply greeting people on the streets because we get such mixed reactions. I've come to realize that we really look exceptionally odd. One gringo, one latino, young men, dressed really fancy for something, walking around town all day, every day. We usually say something like "buenas tardes, Hermano/Hermana" to which they usually at least mumble a little "buenas" in our direction. They probably would say more, but they often times forget the time of day. (We get a lot of "good morning"s at night, and viceversa.) Also, they're never sure what to call us. We're known to most as the "Hermanos". Close enough. They can't really say Elder, anyways. Today, sombody called my companion Wilbur. Meh, that works. Wilbur Alexander has a nice ring, actually. 

We aslo just met an old lady who is 114 years old. And she still cooks, even though it takes her 5 hours. Lots of super old people here. Its really admirable, amist all the greasy foods, diseases and tocosh. Oh, and car crashes. People drive like children here. Possibly because a lot of drivers are children. Dang kids these days. Always getting into trouble, playing marbles for keeps, and driving taxies. 

Remember that tie Brother Sevy gave me that's covered in flowers? Well, whenever I wear it, everybody tells me how beautiful it is, including guys. One girl started naming all the different flowers, and her name was Margarita, which means Daisy, so I guess the people here just really like flowers a lot. I love showing families the picture book you sent with me. The one comment that everyone always makes is how beautiful Emmaline is. And last night somebody asked me if you were my little sister (mom). And I always tell everyone that the picture with Abby and Harmony and Kylan and Malorey are all my girlfriends. haha. But anyways. Im excited to see you all via internet soon! Love you much much much!

Much love,

Elder Alexander

*Note from Shelly (mom): For those of you who, like myself, do not know what tocosh is this is what Wikipedia had to say...

Tocosh (also known as Togosh) is a traditional Quechua food prepared from fermented potato pulp (corn is less common). It is often prepared for celebration events and has a strong odor and flavor. Tocosh can be used as a natural antibiotic because penicillin is produced during the fermentation process.^[1] Medicinally it is used for the common cold, gastric ulcers, pneumonia, and altitude sickness among others. The Incas believed it was a gift from Inti for preservation of the body.

The fermentation process of creating tocosh was discovered by the Incas (or possibly one of the many tribes in their empire). A pool of water with a current is found or dug on the banks of a stream. The potatoes or corn are then placed in a mesh bag of grass, covered with stones, and left undisturbed for six to twelve months. The current flows through the stones to wash away bacteria during fermentation. Once fermentation has occurred, the tocosh is dried in the sun and stored for future use.

The most common preparation in the Huánuco region of Peru is to make a mazamorra or jelly-like dessert.

Ummm...... Yum? 

"In your country??"

Mother, you know I love you, and I know your a little confused about technology since I left, but you cannot email letters. Emma will have to send it through the postal service. I did get another package, though! It had Ensign and lollipops and coins and love. Ive enjoyed reading the english and spanish Liahona side by side. And I love those lollipops but I fear Ive given quite a few away to children who think theyre the coolest thing on earth. One kid told me hes coming to the US to find more of them. The peppermint bark is a great idea. Me and the pentionista are going to make it and we can give some to investigator families. I think that"s a great idea for YW. Did you see the adress last night? It was great. I cant believe its so cold there and Im sweating buckets right now! haha. peruvians celebrate christmas basically the same. Not so many decorations, but lots of houses have plastic pine trees with ornaments, etc. For missionary night last week, we made christmas cards. But to help the kids, we made some outlines to color in on the cards. One outline I drew for a card was of santa clause making a snow angel. It was a fantastic drawing. Except I didnt realize that people dont know what snow angels are here. The child who used it colored the angel part orange and red, and it just looked really weird. But he was proud of it, so its all good.

 My health is doing much better. I figure people must be praying for me. Also, the language is much better from when I started. Im beginning to have conversations. But I can only understand specific people. Some people speak way too lazy. And its very easy to use the wrong word, because they all kind of sound the same. Last night, I was helping a member with her english homework, and I told her that next time, Im going to charge. But I used the wrong word for charge, and used a very formal way of saying that I am going to poop. I havent tried cui yet. The best cui is at the end of the month, the locals say, so we shall wait. But we get chifa a lot, which is chinese food. Lots of chinese and native american culture here. Apparently the oringinal inhabitants here were a native american tribe, and then the spanish, who brought chinese slaves. Thus, the funky culture. But I love it. I keep trying to convert english jokes to spanish, but it doesnt work. I asked one kid where you find a turtle with no arms and no legs. With a very fascinated look on his face he asked "In your country??". The answer was "where you left it." But I still try. Monday, Im going to command the letter to you. I havent had a lot of time to write, lo siento, so it took a while. How did your finals go? Hows the fam? Hows the dog? Hows the fish?

I love you much,

Elder Alexander

There is not a greater gift that man can give, than a bunch of beautiful Peruvian bananas.

Well, I've had an interesting week. Ive been serenaded by catholics, yelled at by evangelists, and I ate a cow stomache. Not necessarily in that order. I've seen monkys, very colorful birds, and ducks that squeak instead of quack. And the snails here are bigger than my fist, so I think they count as animals too.

 The people here in San Ramon seem to all think they live in the greatest town in the world, and I may be beginning to subscribe to that idea. I love it here so much, Im already beginning to dread leaving. I'll most likely be here another transfer to finish my training, and then one more transfer to train someone else in the area (as the jr companion).

 I would like to take a moment to habla about food, if that's alright. They have lots of food here, because most people work in the chakra, and have trees and plants, and chickens, or cows, or sheep, or guinea pigs or all of the above. All the food you get is local, because there isnt really a place to buy corporate foods. The fruit here is very rich with flavor. And the people love fruit. It's funny to watch kids get excited about an app'e or a pear. People keep giving us fruit as gifts. Yesterday we received Papayas and bananas, but weve also recieved many mangos and apples. And let me tell you¨, there is not a greater gift that man can give, than a bunch of beautiful Peruvian bananas.

Another thing is that we eat a ton of fruit cake here. Its called paneton. And its a little gross. And now I understand why Minnie Mouse wasn't excited about receiving one for Christmas. Although, I still don't understand why it was so heavy. I'm still working on that one..  I have yet to try the cui, but Im going to today, for lunch. Every p day we go out for lunch. Last week, we ate at a restaurant where, literally, the only option was rice and chicken, and the seats were tree trunks, and they played the entire Bob Marley, One Love album. A lot of people actually use tree trunks as chairs in their houses. Its cool. It feels like you're camping, but the way a lot of the houses are here, you are basically camping anyways. One house we visited the other day had no door. Just a thick bush you have to push your way through to get inside. Its a nice concept, but we had nowhere to knock, so we had to stand outside awkwardly yelling "good morning" for a few minutes. Its starting to rain a lot. And when it rains, there is no more air. It is replaced with H2O. You could prabably stand in the rain for no more than one second, and be drenched. But its not cold. Its nice.

 Questions? Fine. =)

1. Did you get your Christmas packages? (A big yellow envelope from me and a box from Grandma?) I will be sooo sad if you have no gift for Christmas. :(

I got the candy and the peppermint bark package. They take about a month to get from the US to me. Unless they were sent to the CCM, or not addressed to the president.

2. how is your health?

Much better.Crazy, right? Miracles happen, once in a while.

3. How does your outlet converter work? And blankets/towels etc? Is there anything that you need?

Outlet works great! I dont use blankets, its like a thousand degrees you nut. =) Nada mas que necesito. Soy un hombre de necesidades simples.

4. What can you tell me about the Christmas Phone call? or can you skype?

We get a phone call, for 45 minutes. Skype is too much for the silly computers here.

I love you all so much, and miss you!

Much love,

Elder Alexander