Hey there! First off, no packages yet and the Internet is HORRIBLE, so sorry if it the message is garbled, and incomplete, I will try to make it better next week... [I have Elder Holmes keeping me up to date on his packages since we have sent him very specific items that he has requested. There are 3 packages still waiting to arrive to him, just the latest being sent last week. But the first of the 3 being sent just after Thanksgiving.... love international mailings.]
SO. A BUNCH happened in the last week. We had emergency transfers, **I'm still in Satipo, but I live in a different house** So, I am now with Elder Inkley from California which lives close to Disneyland... [For those that don't know, Elder Holmes family lives about 90 minutes from Disneyland, if traffic is good. lol So that is great to have someone else from his hometown with him. No native companion either.] Funny note about the transfers... I think there is only about 8 missionaries out of all the 220 that are from California, and 4 of them are in here in our Ward in Satipo. Yup. We all know where each others houses are and it is great! 2 Sisters from California, and us 2... In our Total district *also all the missionaries from our ward* we are 5 North Americans, and 1 Latino form Argentina. So yea, its great here! hahahhaa...
No Jaguars or Piranhas yet. Fruit we have Mangoes huge, avocados that are huge, All different types of Bananas *look them up* and we also have coconuts... wooo!! [We asked him about these.]
As far as water goes, we do NOT have hot water, and we don't even have water at this point.... we are collecting rainwater and using that to shower and clean and flush the toilet manually. :) I remember waking up in the middle of the night because it was raining super hard So I put out all of our containers that we have so we could catch all the water that came down. [We also asked him about his water situation because we had heard from friends different ways that they get hot water. I wasn't expecting his answer, but anyone that says, 'it's not a big deal to become an Eagle Scout or even to participate in scouting....' I would think again. He even uses a sleeping bag to sleep in. And he has several types of water filters with him, including the ones they gave him at the missionary training center. He will be fine. Another note: We looked up online and this week alone, the weather in Satipo, Peru, is rain, rain and more rain, every single day with the average high in the 80's and about 1/2 to 1 inch of rain daily. I guess that is why the jungle is so green.]
Also, we have a 3 day party that is RIGHT NEXT to our room. 2 days ago there was fireworks DIRECTLY above without a clearance our house... Yup, that scared the crap out of me..... So many drunk people,. we counted on one day 1600 beer bottles! 2 more days to go! I will fill you in on the next week!
12 January 2015
Woah, Today was loaded! P-Day in the Jungle means a trip to one of the many waterfalls. [If you type in 'waterfalls in Satipo, Peru' in Google Images, there are so so many beautiful waterfalls. Amazing pictures.] Don't ask me what it is because our guide got a bit lost. But whatever, it was great, we ate wild mangoes, and our path was blazed by a machete. Don't worry, I took a bunch of photos, but it might be a while before I can send them! Tonight was a different story though. We received a call that my companion Elder Mamani is being transferred to Chilca in Huancayo, and I am receiving a new companion Elder Inkley and we will be doing this transfer tomorrow. This is not a normal transfer as I am sure that you know, so this will be interesting... We also will be receiving two sister missionaries which are the first ones here in Satipo for over 10 years. Woah! Time to pack, because we are also changing my Pension, and where I live... This should be a fun few days...
13 January 2015
Today we had our Emergency transfers, said goodbye to Elder Mamani, turned into a trio with Elder Malave, and Elder Rassmussen until My Companion got here around 5 PM. Welcome to Elder Inkley, who is from California too... So awesome!
14 January 2015
We moved out of our old room today and into our new room. Our New room does not have water **Side note it still doesn't have water, and it hasn't had water since at least 3 weeks ago, so we collect rain water, because this house does not have a storage tank for water like all the other houses do...**** Anyways, yup,. we have killed a few fun jungle bugs in our room, and more or less we are adapting and getting ready for what is to come in the next few weeks... [Jungle Bugs?? Love that. The biggest bug we have had in our home in the mountains, was a Wolf Spider. Look it up. It was on the wall in Elder Holmes wall and they ONLY way I could kill it was using the vacuum hose. It was that BIG. Don't look under your bed tonight. lol]
15 January 2015
We went to Mazamari today which was fun because neither I or my companion new much about the area, so we brought a member from our ward and bought him lunch and paid for his passage fair so we could not get lost today... Pretty good day, and we had a mini miracle with that. I wanted to get a map printed out of the city so we went and found the Town Hall type government center and tried and tried and nobody wanted to help us even if we wanted to pay for it... We eventually ran into a member there who we don't even know, and she filled out all the information that we needed, and got us free copies of the city map, even printed out on a plotter machine for a large huge copy for our room. Really nice, because we technically have 2 areas, so the faster we can learn them, the better....
16 January 2015
Weekly planning, Baptism preparation for one of our investigators, and by the way I am baptizing him tomorrow, so I have a bunch of photos, and super sorry for the shorthanded email this week, but I am trying to send everything in it right now.... I fixed the font so now it will drain water, because before it wouldn't... Long story there too.... Once we filled the [Baptismal] font, it was filled with yellowish green water because the day before it rained here in the jungle and when it rains heavy duty they turn off the water, so the water we got today was nice and lovely... haha.
17 January 2015
[Update 2/2/2015; received pictures of his first baptism.]
We had a baptism Today! Woo hoo!! It was my first baptism, and my 3rd convert here in the mission and I didn't screw it up! Woo hoo! I did however write the name on my finger because he has like 5 names.... But all the other stuff was fine , even in Spanish. Woo hoo! We are now teaching his parents, and have some optimistic hopes for them as well!
Elder Holmes
Satipo, Peru
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