Mitchell, Ryan PT

Highlights: Another Transfer Basilia's Baptism Double-Headed Dragon Living Like a COVID Missionary A Concert??? Monday Pretty chill. We didn't meet up as a district today, so we just shopped, cleaned, and took naps. The highlight was definitely virtually tuning in for Luke's engagement. Let's go! Tuesday In the morning, we received transfer news aaaaand... nothing changes. Like, literally, I'm pretty sure President ran outta time for this one because, across the whole mission, lots of people are staying. I'm hyped for another go with Elder Hone, though. The rest of the day was chill and filled with meetings. That night, we met up at the church with Basilia and our DL for her interview. While that was going down, Elder Hone and I got invited to help in an English class that was being taught. I just sat at a table with a bunch of kids, and they tested how much Peruvian slang I know. Just gotta say, I passed with flying colors. And so did Basilia with her baptismal...

Monday Lots of fun. We spent the morning filling up five different buckets of water balloons. The games we played with them started civil, and then war ensued. Pretty normal pattern that happens with water balloons, but it was tons of fun. The only other exciting thing is remembering hearing about the Mr. Beast games finale drops (or has dropped) this week. I'm glad I'm on the mission, but very jealous that I can't watch it. Tuesday Today was wild because, at district council, the mission each received two phones for every companionship. Kinda wild that our mission was one of the very last to do so, but I can guarantee that whoever says one phone isn't enough to do work efficiently is lying. But two is a lot more convenient. The day ran pretty slow. At night, a giant group of kids came up to us because we're white. I just handed them Jesus cards, wrote a phrase in English for them, and passed out candy. I kinda realized that when I hear the phrase "Don't ta...

Monday Gotta say it was the most boring P-day I had yet. The other Elders had to go to the offices, so we were just stuck inside figuring out what to do. Well... the answer is nothing besides eating junk and lots of sleeping. When we got out proselyting, we had this lesson with this bro named Cesar, who got really upset at us for having to cancel our last lesson with him. So we scheduled a very firm lesson with him this night, and well, he ended up not being home haha. Tuesday We had district council, but all the churches were closed, so we had it in this park and rode some see-saws until the district showed up. Apparently, we weren't supposed to be riding them though (whoops). We then had this lesson with this girl named Brigit, and we brought a member named Hermelinda there. It's interesting because we kind of need to start from the very beginning, explaining who Jesus even is. Honestly, a great opportunity to reflect on my personal testimony as well. We finished the lesson, ...

Monday Good Pday, I'm happy that we're moving away from soccer and over to spikeball because it's finally something different. Other than that, it was just the normal thing. We went with the other Elders to El Olivar and spilled some lore before our mission. Always a vibe. After Pday ended, we just had a little Family Home Evening with some members and got to play Uno. It was awesome. Tuesday We spent a good amount of the day searching for this reference that we got from Bishop in an area that's very undeveloped in our phone. We explored most of it and organized the map on our way. We couldn't find the reference but had some other really good contacts we're looking forward to. Also, kinda crazy, but I saw rain for the first time here in like 4 months! That night we met with the Borja family, which is always super fun. The kids now are saying that they want to be missionaries when they grow up. LET'S GO! Wednesday We've been getting lots of references fro...

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...