I´m excited for another year of the best thing I´ve ever done.

This week was pretty nice. We had district-leader training, and now I know things I didn´t know before, have papers I didn´t have before, ate food I didn´t eat before, and got a stomach ache I didn´t have before. during the meeting, everyone decided to call me, but it´s okay because I ignored them, except for one call I recieved from an unknown number I felt like I should answer. So, I did, and it turned out to be a very important call. One of the families´daughters that we´re teaching was in bad shape and needed a blessing quickly. Just a reminder that those strange little feelings we get are important, and often times urgent.

We baptized a young man this week. He´s a super kid, and he has a great testimony already. We´re teaching his mom, now. His grandma´s another story, though. She always tries to kick us out of their house. When we were waiting outside, during his baptismal interview, she stuck her head out of the window and let out the loudest belch, without a hint of shame. But her scare-tactics don´t phase me.

Then, we went to the pentionista and we celebrated my 1-year-anniversary. As expected, they smashed eggs and flour in my hair and shoved my face in the cake.

I got told by a drunk man this morning. He asked me what Noah did, then without giving me time to answer, told me that he "saved the animals". He, then, pointed to a pack of dogs in the street, digging through some trash. Then, he looked at me. "Then, why do you do nothing?" Which kind of hit me. So, I´m kind of worried about the dogs right now.

That´s great that the first thing you want me to do, getting home, is fall down the stairs. You´ll be happy to know that´s not something that´s changed about me. The other day I did just that, climbing the stairs in the most public part of our area and some 87 people laughed.

I love you all and I´m excited for another year of the best thing I´ve ever done.

Much love,

Elder Alexander

The best chocolate cake I have ever tried in my life

My high this week was that we went to visit our investigator on her birthday and we got talking with her dad and ended up laughing and chatting for two hours. And when we left, she suggested that we say a prayer, on our knees, and her dad joined us, which was genial! But its's looking like the baptism is going to happen THIS week, if all goes right. Also, we ate the best chocolate cake I have ever tried in my life. Just look at how succulent it is!

  

 My low is that we went to the zoo and a monkey threw a rock at my leg. Ouch! Also, I bumped my head in a doorway and now I remember all the words to the Hello Kitty theme-song. But, I guess that's not really a low...

The teaching and all is going fantastically. We've got some fantastic people we're teaching right now!

Much love, Elder Alexander

Elder Uceda

This week was pretty great because Elder Uceda came and gave us a multi-zone training to all the missionaries in Huancayo. In total the training lasted 9 hours, including the essential Sister-Henderson-Brownies and  KFC breaks. He addressed many topics, but mostly he spoke about the recent changes in missionary work. That the Presidency needs us to focus less on baptizing and more on converting, helping transition to member-life, and strengthening the ward's families. The Spirit's presence was very strong in the meeting, and we all left with a new energy for the work. The thing he said that stood our to me the most, was that we should look to the Apostles and Presidency as our example in how we teach. I've made it a goal of mine to study and apply the way Richard G. Scott teaches to my own teaching. He has recently become one of my favorite speakers.

Last P-day, me and  my companion walked around all day in the downtown area.

We discovered that banana-chocolate-chip ice cream is the absolute best of flavors.

We also discovered that all the cool stores are in the mall that is against mission rules to enter. Phooey. Nevertheless I found Ranch dressing and I am happy about that.

Also, I gave a talk on missionary work yesterday. It went well. it reminded me of how thankful and fortunate I am to have seen some good friends of mine make the choice to be baptized (Maggie and Alisia). I think it's given me a special perspective and more personal connection and appreciation for this work.

Scripture of the week: 1 Cor. 1:10-27 (God's wisdom is infinitely greater than our own)

This is a cow that I found flying through Tambo the other day.

Proselytizing again in a short-sleeve shirt. Whoo!

I do say, I like being here in Huancayo quite a bit. Proselytizing  again in a short-sleeve shirt. Whoo! The only problem is, I feel as if I´ve forgotten how to socialize with normalish-like persons. After all, the culture is a complete contrast to my previous area. Perhaps I spent a little too long, living in the mountains. More than anything, I love the people here. The members always give us stuff. I have already received two bracelets, a necklace, a bookmark, two pens, two cards, a scroll, stickers, and a beaded key-chain dog named Mantito (little Manti). The town isn´t called Manti. Just the ward. I think it´s a name from the BoM or something. The town is called El Tambo, but El Tambo is already a different ward. Anyway, the primary source of these gifts is a 7-year old girl (who has plans to come to my country and marry Elijah (sorry, Elijah). She turns 8 on Sept. 19, and wants to get baptized on her birthday, but she couldn´t because her father was very against it. He won´t even greet us, let alone talk to us, so we gave his wife (member) a baptismal permission slip and then prayed like crazy all week that he would sign it. In the end, he told her that he "doesn´t approve", but "will sign the permission". I suppose that´s good enough for now. I´ve never seen anyone so excited to get baptized, though. Thanks for all your prayers! The district meetings are Tuesday, it turns out, but everything went great anyways. You´re in my thoughts and prayers and I hope that your days are filled with

Much love,

Elder Alexander

                                Me and my companion. He´s half a year older than me, actually.
                                    Fun fact: my record is 600 steps on this rail without falling.

                                      The pention got us whoppers for dinner the other night!

One Colgate costs six cents more than other Colgate, without reason. Slightly larger Colgate finds this amusing.

I now live in Huancayo

I moved!!!! Whooo!!! I now live in Huancayo. My area is called El Tambo. It´s on the outskirts, but it´s still modern. There aren´t many stores, but that´s a good thing. It´s like suburb. But it´s all dirt! All the time! And there´s wind! And the dirt takes flight and attacks you from all angles! But I´ll get used to it, I figure. My companion is pretty cool. His name is Elder Guzman, and he´s from Bolivia. He kind of looks like a latino George Harrison. But we get along super well. Every time we leave the bedroom, we play this peruvian patty-cake-style game that´s really just for school-girls, but it´s so cool that we adapted it. 

Also, the pensionista is soooooper nice. Every day she asks us what we want, and if she doesn´t know how to make it, she cooks while watching how-to videos on youtube. She makes us all kinds of stuff like american pancakes, chow mein with stir-fry, tortilla soup, and all sorts of things that she didn´t even know existed until some missionary requested it. She also has two daughters who are probably the smartest kids I have ever met. They tour the country doing math competitions and both have ridiculous collections of metals. They made me bet 50 cents that they couldn't guess my name, but what I didn´t know was that they had searched my bag and found my drivers license. And then they went and found my facebook, so if I get random requests and messages from peruvian children, that is why. 

Oh yeah, I´m a district leader now. That means that I have to take numbers three times a week and give an hour training to my district every week. But most importantly, I have a cool cellphone. Oh! And Huancayo is the only place in the mission with KFC, Pizza Hut, Burger King, and various other north-american chains! And the city-center is only 10 minutes away! That means my personal fund won´t last as long as it should here. haha. I´m sorry to hear that Elijah wiped out. But I´m sure he looks pretty tough with all those cuts, which is always a good impression when school starts. The ward here is big, and looks almost like a ward back home. The members are super membery. We've even already got some great references and investigators. Did you know that Huancayo is the place that drinks more alcohol than any other part of Peru? Well, now I do! This morning some kids invited me to have a cup of beer, in the street. And, last night someone tried to sell us drugs. .......Maybe I need another haircut or something, because I don´t think they´re getting the right impression. Thanks for the scriptures you guys send, and also the pictures! I love you all so much! Please pray that I can be a good district leader and help my district! :)

Elder Alexander