[Elder Holmes let us know this past week the day he is coming home.... keep reading to find out when!]
Well, luckily less out of the normal events have happened this week which was a benefit to my soul. So I will just briefly review some of the stuff that went on this week.
District Leaders Council
So, about every 3 months we have a Meeting with all the 27 District Leaders in our Mission and have a training you could say. Normally a bunch of problems arise when we have Leadership councils, just because there is a lot of things to do with little time, and the inability to just separate ourselves and do our stuff, we always have to be with a companion... And the harder part of that too is that many times your companion or other missionaries also have many things to do... So it is increasingly difficult to divide ourselves up. The 25 Large Family Size Pizzas showed up a bit late for the training, but the Burger King Whopper Tejana Hamburgers for lunch showed up at a good time. It was also fun to see the practice that President Henderson did with the District Leaders of how to conduct a baptismal interview well, and not explode on the investigator when there is an issue with Question 4, how to make them actually leave from the interview feeling uplifted and not drained. It was really a good training.
Bus Problem - I can talk about it...
Oh gosh. Where do I start. So a while back there was a contracted bus in our mission, full of missionaries heading down from Tarma, Peru to La Merced, Peru for a Multi-Zone Conference. Well, as luck has it, this bus found itself in a stick situation when it turned a corner, and took out a drunk pedestrian coming around that corner. And when I say took out, I mean it. Bus was covered in blood and that guy was kinda just... well, not responding. Police arrived and took reports and then sent the bus on their way to the Multi-Zone, as which the missionaries where a bit shocked with all that had happened.
Well, with time I had a feeling that incident would find its way back to my office... And it did. I received a call from the Zone Leaders in Tarma stating that the company would now like to take a list of all the missionaries that were on the bus and their immigration documentation (passport, foreigner cards, etc) because they had forgotten to do it before (usually they don't even do it on this type of bus) - I told the Zone Leaders directly that they were unable to do it... And put myself in contact with the Legal Department of the Church here in Perú. Made some new friends, and found out that the church has a wide system of legal advisers and a very set system for problems like this. We began doing some of the paperwork on our end with the Legal department, but received a notification from the Bus Company that they were just going to put other individuals names (that weren't even on the bus) on the passenger manifest, and they were just going to put to rest the battle because we weren't budging. Obviously there are more details that I have not included to share, but that is the jist of it. Lots of things that are odd come through the office like this, and it requires that I make new phone calls that I have never made before, but at the same time make a lot of new friends!
New Initiative - Real Video
So, also this week we handed out copies of the New Initiative for the missionaries for this Easter. I think there was some confusion from last week. The video we are sharing with the world is not the video of the virtual choir. It is the following. All the discs are done, and distributed to the areas. yea!
Egg Sandwich in the Microwave
As a heads up. I found out that you can microwave eggs once you have prepared them to be scrambled and they will actually come out! But when they are in the microwave they will expand exponentially, something that kinda reminded me of the oblec project in elementary school. Just a heads up when you are in the office and get a bit hungry.
Multi-Zone for Huancayo Area
Yesterday here in Huancayo was the Multi-zone for the 4 zones that are stationed here in Huancayo. It was really nice to be able to just sit down (for the majority) of the multi-zone and just enjoy that. As you all know my personality, I cannot just sit down for much time without doing something. I usually need to be part of something or other or else I might go crazy. So, I helped out with the brownie preparation. ehehhehe. I might have also imposed my brownie scooping tax. :)
New House Arrangements - New Contact, New Landlady
This last Monday I took the Henderson's over to one of our potential houses and gave them the tour with the owner of the home. Once the Henderson's saw the house and also encountered that this house has a steady supply of water, of electricity, fits everyone, was built in 2014, fits everybody, has more ambient lighting, solar water heaters, no pool (our current house has a pool) and costs half of what we are ridiculously paying for our current house. They gave us the green light and said go for it! Now Elder Compton and I are working on the contract for the new house, figuring out payments, and what else we will be doing to that house (we want them to add on one more additional room for a little more in rent each month, so we have storage room. But it looks like all will work out well for that house. The official, unofficial move in date is April 9th. And for that, it looks like we will require the services of 3 Zones of Huancayo to help us move out the current owner, move our stuff out of our house, and move stuff into the new house. Many bunk beds, washers, driers, etc... Should be fun!
Plane Tickets - My Flights Home
One of the odd duties that I have here in the office is that I am in charge of all travel to and from the mission. And as standing policy it is suggested that we purchase tickets with a window of at least 3-6 months tickets purchased ahead of time. Well, that put me within my own responsibility to purchase tickets. Yup, I received my tickets this week. Mom, you received an email stating that the tickets were processed and sent to your email. [HE COMES HOME ON AUGUST 3rd, 2016 - WOO HOO!] Yes, those are official, and technically all the other moms up until August should have received an email with their tickets as well. (except a select few which are requiring additional work for special ticket needs) - So yes, those are real. But don't freak out, still a good amount of time awaits until I can use those tickets.
Trip to Ingenio, Fish Farms, and Climbed a Mountain...
Today for P-Day we just did it as just us two. Elder Compton and I. So, we first went over to haircut land and Elder Compton got his cut for a few soles, and off we went in a Combee. About 40 minutes later, and after talking to a few just lovely little ladies that were about 78 years old, and just couldn't get over how ¨cute¨we were.... ha-ha. We get to Ingenio, had a Cordon Blue Fish meal, which was probably one of the best meals I have had here, or ever. Just really good food.
After we finished our food, with a touch of BBQ Sauce... We decided to go to the fish farm. Here in this part of Huancayo is where they grow all of their rainbow trout. I have included a picture which explains the story, but basically what it is is that Gringos came a long time ago, and brought California Trout from Sacramento and began to grow them in various parts here in the main center region. And it worked! And it is doing very well to this day! This was over 80 years ago!
Once we finished with the enormous fish farm we found a guy who sold Honeycomb. I finally ate it! It has been on my bucket list for such a long time to eat Honeycomb straight from the hive! 3 soles! Nothing! Was so good!
After we finished our adventures over there we decided to climb the mountain. Yes, the large mountain next to us. We maxed out at 12,600 feet and made it back in time for ice creams. I have included photos of the trip, the cholitas in the background, sheep poop, rocks, and great views.
The day is not complete until you go to the Milk Center of Huancayo and buy ice creams. We passed by one of the main processing plants of Boxed Milk here in Peru. Gloria!
Hope you guys all like the pictures!
-Elder Holmes
Misión Peru Huancayo
