Chapter 1

Oh my gosh, I don't even know where to begin with this email; so much has happened! We're just going to see where this takes us...

Tuesday

I woke up as usual, except there was only me and one other Elder left, and since he was sick, I was alone. I grinded through packing because I procrastinate, and by the time I was done, it was time for me to go. At 9:30 a.m., I grabbed my bags to go to the travel office where I finally met the rest of my Peru Lima West homies. One of them, Elder Monson, I was really close to, and he introduced me to Elder Newton, who is super sick; so for the next 24 hours, I designated them as my comps.

Traveling consisted of: walking to the bus, driving to the FrontRunner, taking the FrontRunner to Salt Lake, running into Jerry Butler (my sister-in-law's dad), and taking a smaller train to the airport. At the SLC airport, we ran into South America-serving missionaries who were just coming home. It was wild to see what the other side looked like. Then I had my last American burger at Shake Shack before taking off to Georgia. On the flight, all I did was talk with Elder Monson, and we became so tight, so I'm excited to see him around on the mission.

During the flight, though, I started having coughing fits, which wasn’t good because I think I was picking up the same fever my district had. We landed in Georgia, and my mind was absolutely lost. I was so light-headed, headachy, and tired that I don’t even remember what happened. We didn’t wait long in Georgia before we took off to Peru at 11:00 p.m. Thankfully, it was the most comfortable plane I've ever seen! I tried getting lots of rest. Elder Monson was laughing at me because my mind was so gone that I looked like I was drugged, just staring off into space...

Wednesday

I probably got an hour or two of plane sleep on that flight before we landed in Peru at 5:00 a.m. Though I was sick and exhausted, more than anything I was just hyped to be there. We went through the normal airport process until we got to luggage claim. We were all so excited, but after waiting for an hour, none of us found any of our luggage, and we were a group of about 15. Then, what made it a nightmare was when they announced THAT WAS ALL OF THE LUGGAGE! So none of us had any of our stuff. Suddenly, the sickness and exhaustion started to hit again. The Elders who could speak Spanish asked the help desk what was up, and they told us that our stuff was still in the States and flying on a different plane. They told us our luggage wouldn’t get to the airport until later that night.

It took about two and a half hours to get out of the airport because of that, and a lot of the time I was just sitting down, trying to close my eyes. Thankfully, it was going to be taken care of eventually (or so we thought). We met some of our mission leaders, the Blacks, and they're super cool. They picked us up to go to the mission office and were explaining the country to us. I was listening but also trying to just rest.

We got to the mission office and met native greenies, older missionaries, and the rest of the mission leaders, including the president. President Falabella is a super cool guy with a strong spirit (and he’s my neighbor’s nephew, super cool)! The other missionaries are cool too. I got assigned my comp, Elder Wilkens, and he’s awesome. He’s white, which is comforting because I won’t be totally lost all the time, but that means I need to challenge myself with Spanish. President said that the Americans could rest because we've been up for so long without much sleep, but Elder Wilkens had us just go straight at it—he seriously works like an ox. I was feeling too many things to focus on being sick.

It was so weird actually going out and teaching people—it’s not like the MTC at all. The entire day was just contacting people because none of our lessons went through. Elder Wilkens is actually a super helpful trainer because he forces me, in the moment, to share my thoughts and teach in the little Spanish I know in just a couple of sentences to practice. He definitely carries the contacting, though. By the end of the day, I don’t think I’ve ever felt more physically drained in my life. My mind was gone. We got back, and he let me go to bed at 9:00 p.m. when we usually sleep at 11:30 p.m., but I had been up for around 36 hours with only a couple of hours of sleep, so I just crashed.

Thursday

I woke up feeling rested, which was good. Unfortunately, I still had no word about my luggage, so I was stuck with the same suit pants, shirt, and garments. Thankfully, I had a change of two sweaters I could wear because it's winter in Peru.

Highlights for Thursday were that we had a dog follow us during some of our contacting! There are dogs everywhere here, just roaming around—it’s crazy. We named him Jophes, and we loved him until he left us. More contacting. I also got some cough drops from this lady who owns a shop and is kind of insane but also hilarious. She’s super nice.

We also taught this 10-year-old kid named Andre, who was set for baptism this Sunday! We just taught him the last couple of principles, practiced the interview, and then practiced being baptized. I didn’t really say anything during the lesson, but before I left the MTC, one of my teachers, Hermana Mask, gave us a pen that erases with heat, and it made for a really cool object lesson about being clean from sin.

Friday

Still no luggage, and at this point, I’m starting to look and smell homeless, especially as the scruffy beard has started to say hello. Today, we had a lesson with this lady we contacted on Wednesday. We taught faith, repentance, and baptism, and then Wilkens just asked her if she wanted to be baptized. He’s very forward with baptism and actually gets a lot of people on date. She started to get a little emotional but said she wasn’t sure yet. She has a strong faith, though, so I’m excited to keep giving her lessons.

We also ran into this crazy guy who told us stories for like 10 minutes about how he predicted Trump’s assassination, COVID, and some random thing in Africa because he received visions from God. Weird dude, but we gave him a hug and prayed with him, so I’ll take it.

The day was a rollercoaster. It was easy to tell that Wilkens was upset because he felt like he wasn’t doing a good enough job, and I think he was stressed over District Leader stuff. We were pretty low for a couple of hours that day and dealt with tough rejections. Right after one of those rejections, we had a lesson scheduled, but Wilkens said something was telling him that we should go back to a house we dropped the day before. I had a feeling something was up, so obviously, I followed.

We went the other way to this house and had to squeeze past a car that was in the middle of the alley. We knocked on the door, and the lady came out, giving the same excuse as before, but we noticed people coming out of the car we passed. We helped them carry some things into their house, and the mom explained that they were getting back from the hospital because their daughter has a deformity in her brain where only half of it functions, and lately, she’s been having scary episodes of who knows what. The MRI at the hospital said that the healthy half also had some scary-looking stuff in it. Wilkens explained that we were missionaries of Jesus Christ and said we could offer her a priesthood blessing. The mom and daughter, named Eve, said that’s something they wanted. It was super powerful and a spirit I’ll never forget. We’ll be meeting with them again this week, which I’m excited for.

Saturday

In the morning, the power went out, and my luggage was still nowhere to be seen. Bendiciones. We went to this restaurant Wilkens had always wanted to visit, but the food was disappointing. At least that’s what he said. I honestly still don’t have much to compare it to, but I have eaten a lot of rice and chicken since I got here. Also, they have Taki’s in Peru! You have no idea how happy that made me. I’ve been buying about one pack a day.

More contacting but also some lessons today. Sometimes I felt actually so good about what I said in Spanish for where I’m at, and then at other times, I couldn’t even think of what to say. Wilkens says he’s impressed with what I know, which I appreciate. We also had a couple of lessons today that went well! One was with some members, but since I’m still sick, they asked me if I had bronchitis. It was kind of funny, but I am ready for this to pass, especially since I’ll be getting sick a lot more during this mission.

In another lesson, we got a date for baptism! And then our last lesson was with really cool people named Bryan and Pamela. They’re dating, but Bryan won’t marry her unless she gets converted so they can be sealed. When I met them for the first time, Wilkens was on the phone, and I was talking with Bryan. He’s nice. We had a conversation in Spanish, and he was very patient and helpful, so I like him a lot.

Our lesson was on temples, and all I really did was give my testimony on them, but it was one that I actually felt really good about, and Bryan gave me a thumbs up and said it was powerful. I love validation. Then we went to drop off Inca Fresca to this lady who makes us lunch every day because it was her birthday, and that was cool.

Sunday

Crazy rollercoaster. The power was still out, and I was going on day 5 in the same clothes. It is not a good feeling, let me tell you. Our phone died, so we went to the church early to charge it and also check if the font was filled for Andre’s baptism. Once people started arriving, we welcomed them, but unfortunately, none of the people we invited showed up, but está bien. Finally, I got a call from Elder Black telling me that one of my bags arrived, and it was the one with all of my clothes! I was so excited that I didn’t even question why the other bag wasn’t there too.

Sacrament meeting was good, but my Spanish wasn’t locked in, and I was tired, so I was just trying to make an effort to stay awake (not really). It’s also Independence Day here, so we sang the national anthem. I didn’t know if it was disrespectful for me to sing it, being here for 5 days and probably blocking the flag from the 5’2” Peruvians behind me, but it was still cool. Afterward, we had Elders Quorum and then the baptism!

The baptism was super cool but also chaotic because not everything was quite prepared, and we were also getting calls from both my luggage person and the people working on the power at our house. That was stressful for Wilkens, but we got through everything, and Andre and her mom were so happy after the baptism—it was so cool. We then ate lunch at some members’ house with other missionaries, and Bryan showed up again, so it was cool to talk to him again.

We had to leave early because they said my bag arrived, so we got back to the house, and the power was on, my bag was back, and it was a good day. I never felt cleaner in my life than when I put on a new pair of garments. It changed me. After unpacking, we went tracting, but Wilkens started feeling so deathly ill that we had to go back so he could rest. It was so random. He’s doing better now, so that’s good. At night, we just ordered pizza, Pepsi, and finished our day.

TLDR: New country, new language, new comp, tracting, dogs, baptism, crazy people, homies, exhaustion, sickness, blessings, miracles, looking and smelling like a homeless man for 5 days, and much, much more.

Photos:

First day with the mission leaders

Me, Wilkens, and Jophes

Baptism!