"Life is sweet here."

I don"t know what maca is called in English, but people keep asking me if we have it in my country. I don't believe so. Its very popular here. This week, after a lesson, a lady gave us something she called maca-water. It was the nastiest thing I have drank in all my life, I believe. And with it, she fed us potato-bread and it smelled like a porta-potty. And she told us we have to eat us and if we don't, God will punish us. That was my worst experience this week. Aside from that, we were contacting one house, but they shut the door in our face, but the problem is I had leaned against the doorway and the lady had shut my sleeve in the door. So we knocked, but she wouldn't open the door, so we just stood there for like five more minutes until, thank goodness, somebody opened the door, but they weren't expecting to find me there and I frightened the poor old lady half to death, because I was just leaning in her doorway, smiling because I didn't wish to cause her alarm. And aside from that, I stubbed my toe and lost half my nail. (photos to come) But life is sweet here, and its looking like were going to baptize a lot this June. I just hope I get to stick around one more transfer to see the fruits of our work.

Chicken foot, anyone?    

Everything is going great here! Ill be sure to snap a picture on my birthday! So crazy! One more year, and I can drink! hahahahaha just kidding!

Much love,

Elder Alexander

Lepidium meyenii, known commonly as maca, is an herbaceous biennial plant of the crucifer family native to the high Andes of Peru around Lake Junin.^[1] It is grown for its fleshyhypocotyl (a fused hypocotyl and taproot), which is used as a root vegetable, a medicinal herb, and a supposed aphrodisiac. Its Spanish and Quechua names include maca-maca,maino, ayak chichira, and ayak willku

The Lord works in His own ways.

So, basically, we randomly had transfers this week. My new companion is from Bolivia. He was in the Venezuela mission for almost a year, but they just sent him here due to all the problems they´re having over there. He´s an incredible missionary. He arrived yesterday, and we already have three new families with baptismal dates! The first lesson we taught together, we both cried. And the investigator, as well! I feel like we´re going to do some great work together this transfer and the next. Me and one of the zone leaders did some inspired contacting last week in Cerro. We were out visiting families, when we both felt like we should go knock a door of some random house in the distance. So, we did it. And they told us they´re Catholics and they´re never home and don´t want us to visit them. So, we left. A little discouraged and confused. And nothing happened. Until this week. The zone leaders were walking down some street, and a lady ran up to them, crying. She said her husband had just left her, and she wanted some council. She was the lady from the house. They walked to her house and taught her. Now she wants to get baptized. I think it´s important to remember that the Lord works in His own ways. But He certainly does work. And I do certainly love the work here that He does every day.

My health is great! My bday package came! I haven´t opened it yet, don´t worry! Everything is going great here. I love you all!

Much love,

Elder Alexander

This is me and my new companion! We´re nuts! 

"But then we had to come back to Cerro, which was not quite as nice."

I don't have much to say, haha, after talking to you guys already, yesterday. It was so nice to see your faces, even if you couldn't see mine all that well. I wish I had got to talk to each of you more. I'm sure we could go on for hours, if we could! Not too much has changed this week. Not much new. We had a zone conference in Huanuco, and it was super hot there, which was nice. But then we had to come back to Cerro, which was not quite as nice. In the conference, the President emphasized the importance of daily excercize.... even for those in the Cerro de Pasco. Then we watched a video he made with the assistants, making up excercizes to do in the snow, and it was very very funny. It still snows about once a week, but not too much anymore. It is rather difficult to find the energy to do excercizing in the morning, sometimes. But I usually put on the Masters Hand song, and it gets me a little more pumped. I love having the 32gb flash. I have a collection of all the music of all the elders in my district. And everybody is always borrowing my flash because I basically have everything. Thanks dad! :)

I love you all so much! Take great care of yourselves. Remember to send pictures!

Much love,

Elder Alexander

"One of the most frightening moments of my life."

Sorry. There was no internet yesterday. Apparently in all of Peru. Thanks, Anonymous. Things are normal, here. I'm not really sure what holiday is going on at this point. It´s like every week that they have a different parade, but this one is my least favorite. The people in the black masks are the "negritos", or "little black people", and the ones in the white masks are the rich slave-owners. I find the both of them rather frightening. Although, I do have much respect for the local culture, and I´m sure they have a lot of fun celebrating whatever it may be. One slave owner tried to grab my coat and it was one of the most frightening moments of my life. Aside from that, it was a great week. I´m super super excited to talk to all of you Sunday.

 I love you all so much!

Much love,

Elder Alexander