Flowers in your ears

It´s been a really great week! One of those weeks when you wake up every night with flowers in your ears. Let me expand on that. Aparently with the cold and the wind here, it´s pretty common to get air in your ears. Like what happens when you´re driving in the mountains, but it doesn´t go away so easy. And one night it kept me up, because it´s not a comfortable feeling. So the next day, my pentionista gave me a handfull of daisies. She said to put six on my forehead, and eight underneath while I sleep. I did it and I think it helped a little. The next night, she lit some mint on fire, rubbed it all over my face, tucked it behind my ears, gave me another handful of little daisies and sent me off. I´m not much into witchcraft, but I´m all better now!

 My companion ended up staying in Carhuamayo with me, so we get another transfer together, which is great news! That´s exciting for Emma! She´ll be professional by the time I get back, I´m sure! Elijah as well! But I´ll be able to kick his butt, because we play futbol like 3 times a week here. Not much aside from that. Man, internet is slow here. I suppose it´s because of the cold.

I love you all so much!

Cuidense!

Much love,

Elder Alexander

"We´ve been busy. We´ve been happy.'

 We´ve been busy. We´ve been happy. We have transfers tomorrow and my companion´s leaving. I´m staying, it looks like. I´m going to miss the guy a ton. We´ve become good buddys. We have a stash of hand warmers, left by previous missionaries, which is super cool. Whenever a missionary finishes his mission he leaves stuff in the room. So, there´s always collections of movies, hangers, gloves, ties, pants, stuff like that.

Here they have something called Semana Santa. It means Holy Week. And every day, they eat pachumunca and drink a ton. One night,the Catholic church had a parade, carrying a giant porcelin Jesus Christ, chanting prayers and stuff. It was pretty. They stopped in front of our room, and we came out and listened to them sing a while. Then everyone shook our hands and thanked us for our service to God. That was pretty special. I don´t know if I´ve said it before, but all the churches here have a big problem with us. Except for the Catholics. They´re really great people. We had a pretty relaxed week. A drunk man kissed me on the cheek. I can laugh about it now, but at the time, it was terrible.

Excited for the transfers! Love you all!

Much love,

Elder Alexander

Obedience brings blessings

Hey! Things are going great in the area! We had a baptism this week! Finally! He´s  70 year old man, but he´s got an incredible testimony. He asked us if we do tithes in our church because he has 2000 soles he want to donate. It´s not like he has a lot of money, though, of course. Super inspiring to have the experience of baptizing someone so ready to receive God in his life. 

 I´m pleased to say that I´m not sure I´ve seen a single bug since I came to Cerro. Needless to say, I believe the bug spray would be a little unneccesary in these parts. This week was pretty relaxed. Not too much has happened aside from that. 

Sunday, we were walking on our way to an appointment, when in the window of a restaurant, a block away, we saw a flash of bright red hair. We, naturally, followed it, and found that it belonged to the President´s assistent, Elder Burgie. He was there eating Pachamunca with the President, his wife, and secretary. We chatted a while, and headed on our way. We were just glad that we hadn´t had time to change out of our suits yet, so we looked nice and fancy.

This week, I´ve learned quite a bit how obedience brings blessings and in-exact obedience brings reminders to be more obedient. We left early this morning for Cerro, to do internet, with the intention of chilling a little bit before hand. So, naturally, on the way here, the little girl sitting next to my companion threw up all over him. I don´t know if it was a sign or not, but I´m sure that my companion wont be leaving for internet early for a long time. Actually, personal study has been one of my favorite parts of my day lately. It´s so faith building to discover the needs of other people and how you can help them while doing nothing more than reading whatever feels relevant. God really speaks through the scriptures often.

I love you all. Cuidense!

Much love,

Elder Alexander

Dishwalla in Peru

We had a fantastic week! 

General conference was incredible! We got our own room for the gringos, and we got to watch it in English. And we got to have English conversations, too, which was cool. Every time, we would start speaking in Spanish, and someone would say "Hey. Guys. We don´t have to speak Spanish." And after conference we went to a super nice restaurant and ate super delicious steak. Maybe the best I´ve ever had.

 Cerro de Pasco is actually super cool. Every now and then. This morning, I was trying to study, but the man who lives in the room above us was blasting Give, by Dishwalla. And then two more Dishwalla songs after that. So, I went up and knocked on his door, and he was super siked that I know the band, and he wanted to take pictures with me and that was kind of weird. But he was listening to a Dishwalla Live tape from 2001, fairly loudly.

 Today we´re going to some rock sculptures or something. I heard the elephant is amazing. I´m not sure what to expect. But such is my life these days.

I love you all so much!

Much love,

Elder Alexander