Week in Review Dec 1, 2014 - Dec 7, 2014

'The Lego Guy' performing a little service....

Hello All!  I hope that you are still enjoying my emails and the small pieces of information I am able to send home!  I am still doing great here in Peru, [Andrew told me he had trouble sending pictures and that we may get some next week.] more and more I am feeling accustomed to how things are here.... I will tell you, being in the States, California, and living in Peru in South America... The Culture is totally different, the food, everything... That is probably one of the hardest things I have had to overcome here... And that includes the Language.  So, thank you and enjoy!

Dec 1st, 2014

Whoa, its December!  Looking back, yes things were quick at times, but at others the time was very slow. It can testify that overall time is moving faster because I am understanding much, much more.  I won't lie, there are difficulties in my companionship at times, but let's be honest, is anyone perfect?  I don't think so, and I am very grateful for the companionship inventory we have every week where we discuss each others strong points and then after discuss what each other can better in their characteristics, attitude, habits, and whatever basically is a deterrent for our companionship that makes it difficult for us to work fully together.

These are usually on Fridays, but you can have them whenever you feel is necessary.  Anyways, onto the fun stuff.

Today is P-Day and we had the opportunity, Elder Gonzales, and his companion, Elder Whitaker, and Elder Chapeton, and I to go to Kotosh, a national historical site which is basically centered around a mini temple structure which contains a bust of crossed arms and hands. Around the temple was also other smaller interesting things, and all in all, it was a good day.  I think I remember learning about this in AP World History but I'm not sure. It is to bad the real one is in Lima, and we only saw the replica.  I also bought some trinkets, and am beginning a small collection of things for my family, but have a fear it won't make it home.

So far... now... we wait.

Dec 2nd, 2014

Ok, I promised I would take you through a normal day of a missionary.  Aside form the fact we were on divisions *my companion, Elder Chapeton is a district leader and was visiting another area, so I had another companion* but everything else is normal.  So here we go...

6 Wake Up, Exercise, shower, get dressed, prepare for day
7-8 Breakfast at our Pension [Remember, he has a cook]
8-9 Personal Study Time
9-10 Companion Study Time
10-11 Divisions [In the states we call them 'split's'. It is where missionary companionships change up companions for a day.]
11-12 Contacting and we found a potential investigator
12-1 Language Study
1-2 Lunch at our Pension
2-3 New Missionaries Training
3 Investigator Lessons
4 Little Service and Less Active Family Lesson about Temple Covenants
5 Family Teaching Lessons to strengthen the family
6:20 Less Active Member lesson about Repentance and Need to go to church to continue
7:15 Verify Appointment for tomorrow
7:20 Family Home Evening and Blessing of Health
8-9 Dinner with our Pension
9-9:30 Planning for tomorrow with my companion
9:30-10:30 Preparation time for tomorrow, Write, Read, Clean, etc...
10:30 Lights out and sleep!

December 3rd, 2014

100 Days as a Missionary!  No celebration or anything, but it is fun to say that It has been 100 days since I entered the Missionary Training Center in Lima Peru!

December 4th, 2014

Woo hoo!  I just got a letter!  Actually, 11 letters... Dear Elder.. Yea!  And yes, there are all from home and all say from Jill Holmes, and yes everyone teased that it is from Mom, but really.... Who cares?  I have some reading material for a while!  Some of these letters are from September, but I think the letters have found their way to me. [I finally realized that Andrew can't always print the emails we send him. So I decided to use www.dearelder.com to send pouch mail to him. Totally free and easy. I just take the email I send him on Sunday's and then copy/paste that email to Dear Elder and then he gets a paper copy in a few weeks. Not trip to the post office either. Score!!] Also, we have had some more lessons today after District meeting, one of which was 3 long hours!  I wish I could say that they are progressing, but it is difficult when they only believe in 4 books in the Bible... First, we need them to believe all the Bible, then we can continue... I'm pretty sure he is a pastor, so we will see how this goes...

December 5th, 2014

Weekly Planning and normal day, not much to report.

December 6th, 2014

Today we had our district service project at a house in our Area San Luis.  I have sent 5 photos home of us and would like most of them in the blog since they have other elders too.  Since it is all concrete, the *Paint* we made was more of a base layer to make it possible to paint at a later date.  Bunch of fun, and a bunch of mess when you bring a bunch of missionaries together with water and paint... Hahahaha.. Later in the day we had district attach which is when all the missionaries in our district and area work all focused in one area for a bit. I will tell you, it was fun to be in a different area, even for a bit.

Elder's Holmes and Whitaker

Elder Holmes and his companion Elder Chapeton

December 7th, 2014

Well, no Church today because we had another round of elections.  So, basically today was a normal day except for an *emergency meeting* with our Bishops and all missionaries in the stake center.  Basically they are worried about how the members are doing and would like us to restore the attendance to what it was. so, for San Luis, we are to in the next 3 months bring the numbers from approx 80 to 120.  This will be fun....

Elder Holmes
San Luis - Huanuco, Peru