We were sore afraid!

We spent Christmas with our Bishop and his family. We made Hawaiian pizza together, which was super fun, and then ate it! Then we went to bed and slept until midnight, when suddenly all of Huancayo lit up with fireworks. We were sore afraid! The first thought that crossed my mind was that there must be war! And EVERYONE we know called us for the rest of the night. Apparently that´s how they celebrate Christmas here. Everyone gets one single present and they open it at midnight, before they go to bed. A little different. But I tell you. I have never seen so many fireworks in my life. To a Peruvian, the fireworks are basically the most important part of Christmas. They love their fireworks. They say new-years is even better, so that should be fun to see if we can sleep at all. After that, we were only able to teach for a couple days and not many people were at home. We brought 10 investigators to church, though. Mostly one family, the which will be very hard to leave this Tuesday (assuming I have transfers). This  family are about 27 people who live on this big patch of land with their cows and all. They´re super great and are progressing smoothly. I´ve come to love them very much. I don´t figure I´ll ever forget them, or the simply inspired way we came to find them and teach them. Wish me someplace warm for these transfers! Love you tons, and I hope you have a great holiday season!
Much love,
Elder Alexander

This is the bishop and his family with our Hawaiian pizza.

I´ve been cast as Cindy Lou Who.

This week was super cool because our investigator is progressing sooo well! They all came to church and he´s been reading and it´s just been a blessing to see these changes in his life. I´m excited for Christmas! We´re going to be spending Christmas Eve with the bishop and his family. We´re going to cook and sing and it should be fun. Everyone wants us to come over for Christmas. Our Christmas day and eve are already filled with appointments. It´s nice to know that so many people consider us as family. Peruvians are very loving people. We have our multi-zone Christmas conference tomorrow. Our zone is performing the story of the Grinch. I´ve been cast as Cindy Lou Who. So there´s that. I´m super excited for our Christmas call! It looks like we´ll be doing it in our pentionista´s house. I would like Grandpa to be there, too, so he can translate whatever she says (and the things I accidentally say in Spanish).

Last night, I made a nativity with some fruit people have given us.

They have an Incan ampatheater, where the Incas used to do performances and ancient stuff.

"Lo voy a poder hacer."

We had an awesome week! This week, we gained a stronger testimony of the power of fasting. Last week, I wrote about the investigator who was having trouble with his drinking addiction. Well, he´s been feeling a bit hopeless, so we fasted for him this Sunday. And, he came to church with all of his family, and told us, upon his arrival, "Lo voy a poder hacer." Or, "I´m going to be able to do it". I know he is, too. The Lord is doing great things in his life. 


We made the lemon bars! It was super fun, especially for the pentionistas kids. However, it turned out more like lemon jam. We ate it all anyway.

Translation: "turned out very ugly and Alexander did it"

It´s been raining a lot. Every day, at about 3:00 it starts raining, but before that, it´s all sunny and hot. Even when the skies are clear, we always have to carry a jacket with us. Sometimes the sun shines and it pours rain at the same time, which is odd.


I love you all very much, and hope you´re enjoying the Christmas season and sharing the "Dádiva"!
Much love,
Elder Alexander

Here in Perú, we eat our Kraps with our Fanny.

All is calm, all is bright (dang Peruvian sunburns)

All is calm, all is bright (dang Peruvian sunburns), here in Huancayo. We had an interesting week, I suppose. We felt like we should visit a member who is actually active and doing well, but when we got there we found that he was not doing so well. His son had recently left on the mission and they have no way of communicating with him because they don´t have email or even know how email works. Anyway, we helped him and he told us his conversion story and how he was an addict to alcohol all his life basically. Which was incredible because just that morning, we had been racking our brains trying to find someone to help one of our investigators with his alcohol addiction. So, he came with us to our appointment. The person we wanted to help wasn´t present because he happened to be drunk, but the member shared his testimony of the atonement with the family and the Spirit was undeniably present. We have another appointment with the both of them tonight, which I´m excited for. We also printed him a wallet-sized picture of his family to carry with him to look at whenever he feels tempted to drink. I´ll attach that picture, I suppose.


Something else that happened this week is that we met someone from Holland and someone from Germany, living in a humble little house in our area. They had just been visiting their friend who´s studying here. They both spoke perfect English and we shared a bit about the church and our testimonies with them. They weren´t interested but it was awesome to get to know them and hear about their culture. They say they don´t like America and our culture. Understandable, I suppose.


I´m digging the Christmas season here. Everyone has their decorations, even though they may be humble. We only know two people so far that have a Christmas tree. And they´re both fake, of course. But nonetheless it´s undeniably Christmas, here. I need to find a new excuse to reject the panneton.
Much love,
Elder Alexander

Making peppermint bark in Veronica(member)´s house!

Sprinkling the bark like the professionals we are.

Don´t worry about the dog bite. It wasn´t even deep. The health secretary just had me keep an eye on the dog for ten days to make sure it´s not sick or anything. And it´s all good. The dog came up behind me and I didn´t even see him unil after he had bitten me. The dog dazer couldn´t have helped much. :(
Thanks for your love and worries.

Pachamunca!

Hope you´re enjoying the Christmas season!

It´s funny how you titled your email "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!" Here, it just seems to be getting hotter, as if Summer were just recently approaching. The work is marching well here, in El Tambo! We had the baptism of a young man, this week. His mom is now an activated member and his father is to be baptized in January, because of work. Also, we started teaching the Pentionista´s aunt, this week. We didn´t even know she was her aunt at first, her being simply a contact. Our pention´s father was, at one point, the Stake President, and the Pentionista has a strong belief that he, having passed away, is having a strong influence on her family´s conversion, now.

My favorite memory, aside from the baptism, this week, was yesterday, as we were prostiliting. We were knocking on the door of an appointment, when an old man, slightly drunk, came up to us and started thanking us for our service. He was very nice, and he said the missionaries used to teach him, when he was younger. He then sang to us an old traditional Peruvian song, looking deep into the eyes of each one of us, but I could not for the life of me make eye contact with this man for fear of laughing. The oddest part is that it was a rather romantic song, and he seemed to be singing it with such passion to us. So, we invited him to church, of course. The member we had accompanying us was not even phased. Did I ever tell you about the drunk man that kissed me on the cheek in Carhuamayo?

I love you all so much and hope you´re enjoying the Christmas season!

Much love,

Elder Alexander

My companion is LOCO.

The neighbor's dog finally bit me! (Don't worry, He's not diseased. Just a jerk.)