Mitchell, Ryan PT

Highlights: Trying to marry everyone we're teaching Hiking through mountains of sand Learning about Lizard People Drunk man encounter (1 of many) Monday Another basic Pday in the books. Well, instead of playing soccer, we threw down some spikeball (thanks mom!) and it was lit! The ZL's pulled up too, and they're a trio that consists of an American, a Brit, and an Argentinian, so they're a fun group. We also played some basketball, too, which I'm not great at, but I can get away with playing because I'm about a foot taller than everyone here. Then, like normal, we just ate at El Olivar, which is always good stuff. Tuesday Today we met with Ranses (recent convert), Marco (baptismal date), and Pilar (working for a date). We had a solid lesson about eternal families, which went really well, and we're hoping that'll get hermana Pilar feeling ready for a date here pretty soon. That night, we also met with the Borja family, who we baptized last week. We're ...

Wow, it's actually been a wild week. I'm still getting used to the new transfer, but it's been so fun. Anyways, I forgot to write in my journal this week, so we'll see where that takes me in this email... Monday Same P-day, different area. We got up, cleaned for a bit, then went to play soccer with the district. I kinda miss the fields we played at in Deporte, but it was still a lot of fun. And then the miracle of the day was realizing that our area has EL OLIVAR! I was so hyped to find that out because I love that place. It reminds you a bit of what it's like to not eat chicken, rice, and French fries (it's wings and French fries instead). I think it's kind of random how common French fries are here, but I'm not complaining. Tuesday Pretty basic day. We had the opportunity to meet with some people on date and had Andy come out with us. He's been a recent convert for about 10 months but probably already knows more about the Gospel than me with about ...

Monday Transfer news dropped, and I found out that I'd be finally leaving my hometown, Deporte, and moving on to another area, finishing training another gringo comp. The rest of P-day was normal with soccer and El Olivar for lunch, which was bussin like usual. Tuesday More than anything, it was just full of goodbyes to the people that I connected with the most over the last six months. It honestly didn't hit me that I was actually going to leave the area. I feel like just when I got to the point of being able to express myself clearly, I had to leave, haha. But we had awesome visits with members and recent converts, and they all gave me good advice and wished me luck for the next transfer. Wednesday We got to transfers, and that's always a blast seeing all of the other missionaries. I got to meet my comp, Elder Hone, who is from South Jordan and only a little shorter than I am. We got to the area, and it's so different! One thing I heard before I left on the mission is...

Kinda wild, I'll never touch American soil in the year 2025, but I couldn't be more excited about it. Transfer news dropped, and next Wednesday I'm heading to Los Cedros finishing training a gringo named Elder Hone. I don't know anything about him or the area, so that will be for another email. Anyways, here's the week... Monday Soccer was fun because we had lots of people pull up. We definitely got destroyed by 14-year-olds, but that's alright. After was just usual P-day things. I've been grinding the books my parents got me for Christmas, which has been lit. We finished the night going to our pensionista's house, but we visited her son and his family who live upstairs. We had a good Family Home Evening, and they're super fun. At the end, I got to learn how to play "Black Music" because he's a very musical guy, so we just formed our little mini band and grooved to Black Music for the night. Tuesday Last day of 2024. We got surprise int...

Holy cow, this week was busy, but before I get started... BIRTHDAY SHOUTOUT TO ETHAN MITCHELL RAWWWW Thanks for being an awesome brother to look up to, but before I finish... BIRTHDAY SHOUTOUT TO MCKINLEY TOO RAWWWWW Ok, on to the week... Monday Today we got permission from the APs to visit the museum in the Lima Central mission. Our only reason, honestly, was so that we could go eat at Chili's, but once we arrived, we thought that we might as well go in. It was interesting, but the most exciting part was running into other Americans. It honestly felt so weird talking to strangers in English without having to think of every sentence before I spoke. Then we went to Chili's, and it was bussin. When we got back, we barely had enough time to prepare for a gift exchange the day after before we got back to proselyting again. Tuesday We had a big ol' meeting with the mission before having a 2-hour district council, but the last hour was meant for a little party. All we did was hav...

Monday Very basic P-day. Back to the usual soccer and El Olivar. The ZLs told us they were going to pull up to play with us, but they never did, so there ended up not being a lot of people there, which was kind of a bummer. We ended up having lunch with them, which usually is the highlight anyway. After naps and calling family, we had a family home evening with one of the families in our ward, and they invited two friends who aren't members. It went super well! Tuesday Right after district counsel, Elder Estela and I had to pack up and get ready for exchanges with the ZLs. I got paired with Elder Liendo, who's a native. He's a phenomenal guy but definitely very trunky because this is his last transfer. It was just a day of contacts, but as we were walking, we saw huge fumes of smoke rising in the air. We were already on our way in that direction to contact someone when suddenly we saw this house completely in flames! There were already firemen trying to put it out and a hug...

Monday We're back to regular soccer-filled Pdays, but this time it was actually way fun. I think I'm improving a little. I'm still awful, but there's improvement! Then we ate at El Olivar, and it was bussin. After that, it was regular naps and calls home. When we got back to work, this family of members gave us a list of this giant part-member family that lives close to us that we've been trying to visit, so that was awesome. Tuesday Today I officially hit 6 months and started my mission as a sister missionary, which is kinda wild to think about. I don't remember much from today other than grabbing mega conos after district council, which was awesome. We also had a lesson with Leanor and John, which went smoothly. Leanor is awesome, and I'm excited for her as she gets ready to be baptized. Other than that, it's just wild that I already made it 1/4 of the way through the mission. Wednesday Exchanges with Elder Loose! It would be my first time leading my a...