Week #2 in CCM Earthquake

Hey Family and Friends!

Things are great here in Peru! The weather has been nice, and I am finally getting into a schedule. We do just about the same thing everyday. We have lots of language classes, and Study time. My spanish is getting better, but still has a long way! The only thing that happened different this week, was we got to go Prosylting!!!! They took us on buses from La Molina which is where the CCM is (Its the nice part of Lima, and is part of the Lima East Mission) and they took us to Lima North Mission to a really poor area. The Streets were dirt, and there were stray dogs everywhere!!!!!! We had to hike up the sides of the mountain to get to some homes. We went on splits, and I got to got with three latinos who did not know a word of English! It was an interesting experience! We focused on less actives. i was able to bear my Testimony to one family about Families in Spanish. it was truely amazing and I know the Lord helped me, because my spanish still is not that good. After that appointment, the Father asked me to say the closing pray! Once again I was super nervous, but the Elders I went with said I did a great job. That was such an amazing day, and It was so humbling. Other then that everything is pretty good. I am feeling a lot better this week! Classes are good.  It seems to be a lot of the same stuff all the time. I got a new companion, because his companion went home. His name is Elder Eppereson. He is from Louisana. He was in our district so I all ready know him. And I am still District leader. I do not know if I am district leader for all 6 weeks or if they switch ever. I guess I will find out. There was an earthquake the other day. It was not big, but it lasted a long time. It was some peoples first earthquake. Okay well sorry this is a short email! Love everyone! Keep writing!

Love

Elder Peabody

Flags of the Missionaries countries

MTC

Week One in the CCM! Guess who is the District Leader?

Hey Family and Friends!

I do not even know where to start. Things have been pretty awesome. I will try sending pictures next week. We are only able to take picturs on Pday which is today, and it has to be outside only. I will start where I left off, on the last email. So as I said I am in a trio. My companions Elder Jarman and Elder Ruiz are both from California. Elder Jarman is really good at spanish, but Elder Ruiz has literaly speaks zero spanish, but he is learning just like me. My small background in spanish kinda helped. It is a constant effort to learn spanish.Oh yah I got called to be the District Leader! It was not something I was hoping for, but I am doing my best. It is a lot of extra tasks I have to do. I am basially in charge of our District, 9 Elders and 2 Hermanas (Sisters). I start classes, check the mail, make sure everyone is doing okay, and report back to President Cardon, the CCM (MTC) President. I think we have a good group and we are growing united as a district. Showers are crazy. I have to wake up at  so I do not have to wait in line. Also the showers are bipolar. You finally get them to the right temerature, and while you are standing in them, the either turn to freezing water, or burning hot water, and you have to jump out really quick. There are a lot of Latinos here from all over that do not really speak English. It is interesting sometimes to talk to them. Our roomates are not Latinos but they have been in the CCM for 5 weeks now and know more spanish. I think it would be interesting to have Latino Roomates once our roomates now leave. Most of our meetings as a whole CCM the North Americans get headphones and a translater. Sometimes the Translaters are really good, and sometimes I think they do not even know English.

I pray so much here in the CCM. We all just pray so much. I pray really hard for help in learning spanish. Food is not bad. Every now and then you get a suprise. Once I grabbed Lasagna and thought it was going to be great, but my first bite tasted like the ocean, so I looked outside and it had different sea foods inside including octupus. But the rule here in the CCM is you have to eat everything you take. I like these wierd fruits called Grana Dias (I do not think I spelt that right) but it is like an orange but when you open it it is filled with these seeds that are covered kinda like grapes, and kinda looks like alien eggs. They taste great though. We get ice cream every now and then which is great. We have the same thing for breakfast every day! Eggs, yougurt, cearal, and bread. Lunches seem to be the best. We eat rice for Lunch and Dinner every day!!! I love rice, but I do not know if I want it everyday for two years! Atleast the rice is good! I heard when the Latinos leave every two weeks, the North americans get an american night, and they make hamburgers and stuff. I am looking forward to that!

Thanks for everyone who sent me emails! It makes my day! Especially after a hard week. I am sending out some letters on monday, but it might take awhile for people to get them. I would love anyone to write me too! Only one Hermana has gotten mail so far. We have a couple homesick Elders in our District. One might be going home, and then my trio will not be a trio anymore. We get an hour of physical activity every day. I have played Soccer and Volleyball. Soccer is crazy especially when you play with the Latinos. I pretty much do my best not to get in the way, and make sure the ball goes to the other side of the field. I love volleyball a little better. It reminds me of the night volleyball we would do in the YSA. It is fun, and once we had Latinos join in! Hermana Mack one of the Sisters likes to lead us in Abe workouts. I actually feel a little sore after them. Even though I get 8 hours of sleep I still feel really tired, more tired then when I was in college and only got 4 hrs of sleep. I guess it is because we are just really busy. We never really have free time. We are constantly going to class, or studying. Sundays are great. I guess because they are different then all of the other days. It is a little bit more relaxed but we still have full schedules. On Sunday all of Peru actually had there Stake Conference. They got a broadcast from Salt Lake, and we got to watch it. We heard from Elder Bednar which was cool becasue he spoke in English. It was cool, I learned that the first Stake in Peru was established in Febuary of 1970, and this year in June the 100th stake was established. The Gospel is being spread here in Peru, and I am so grateful to be a part of it. We also heard form Elder Scott of the quorum of the 12 but is was wierd because he spoke Spanish! I got a little sick this week. I got a sore throat, and then the next day, a stuffy nose, and sinus problems, and today i have a runny nose. But it is not that bad, and I have not had to miss anything.

We got our first fake investigator. His name is Juan. He lives with his brother but his brother is always working. He seems pretty interested, but does not understand the difference between his church and ours. He has been to Catholic churces and others. He accepted a book of Mormon and said he would come to church on Sunday. I know it is not real but it still feels good. He tried offering us bear or coffee and I told him we do not drink those things. So our next lesson he wants to know more about that. But I think we really need to get him to feel the spirit. It is hard though because our lessons are mostly in Spanish. We speak very little English. Sometimes when we try talking english he tells us he does not understand. All of our teachers are Latino, mostly from Peru, and speak very little English, but enough for us to learn and ask questions. The Hermanas in our district and My companions and I got the chance to be taught by the Latinos. It was so hard. They knew zero English. But it was such a Testimony builder, because despite the fact that I had trouble talking to them, I could feel the spirit of there message. It just confirms to me that our message to the world is true, and even if I can not speak the language fully yet, they can still feal the spirit of the message just like I did. I get to to my first Prozeliting this Saturday. They pair us up with a Latino and then drop us off in a neighborhood, and we do that for a few hours. That will be exciting and give me the oppurnity to use some of the Spanish I have learned. I can talk to someone at their door, pray, and bear my Testimony.

 Well it is nice finally emailing. I have had a great Pday. The temple was amazing and yes in spanish. We got headphones, but we still had to do all the talking in spanish. We did not even leave the CCM until today, so it was nice to get out. I got a Peru Jersey. I have pictures but I forgot my cord in my room to add pictures. maybe next week. We went to the local market place, and that was cool. Peru is awesome. The Church is true!

Love,

Elder Peabody

My new companions: Elder Jarman Elder Ruiz both from California

Templo de Lima Peru 

Missionary Training Center

MTC Group

Ryley Made it to Peru!!!!

Whoo-Hoo!!! Today is September 12th and Ryley has made it to Peru. After a long flight he landed today : ) He said that he flew on the first leg of his flight with Jessica Hilton from the Butterfield Stage ward and on the second leg he made two "friends" who were travelling to Peru on business. He said that he arrived with 15 other missionaries and he is excited to make new friends!!! He said that Peru is beautiful and he can't wait to start his missionary work. I will post another update when I get one from him. ~ Ryley's Mom

Hola mi familia,

 

Okay so I have not started to learn any spanish yet, but that is all everyone speaks. So I made it to Peru! It was a long trip. I flew to Salt Lake with Jessica Hilton from the Butterfield Stage ward! After that I was alone until Atlanta Georga. I got plenty to eat. Rachael you were right! Atlanta Georga airport was HUGE! It took me 30 minutes to get to my next gate. But I was happy to make it just as all of the other Elders and Hermanas (Sisters) were boarding. There were probably 15 of us. We flew in a big plane. Most of the other Missionaries sat with at least one other Missionary, but I sat between a man from Spain, and another from Nevada. The guy form Nevada was going to Lima to visit his son, who was doing peace corp for a couple years. The guy from Spain was going to Peru for work. He knew about as much English as I knew Spanish. So we had an interesting time. We showed each other our families, and talked about what we were doing in Peru. He spent a year in Australia, and learned some English there. He laughed when he found out I was going to Lima Peru, and did not even know Spanish. It was a long flight so we did a lot of talking. We helped each other out a lot in understanding each other. But yah we got a lot of talking done, because it was such a long flight. There was some bad weather when we got near the bottom of Florida, but other then that it was a smooth ride.

 

Peru is amazing. It was scary going through customs. I told the guy I wanted to stay for 90 days but he told me 30 so I do not cause trouble. I do not know if that is going to be a problem because all of the other missionaries got 90 days. Anyways we finally left the airport around midnight. and got to the MTC around 1am. We helped the Hermanas with there lugage and then got sent to our rooms. My companions are both from California, Mission Viejo. They are cool, but new just like me. There were two other guys all ready sleeping in the room, and left a note on the door for us to be quiet. We tried our best. I still have not unpacked. The ride to Peru was amazing. It is crazy to see how so many people live. I love Peru all ready. Oh and mom sorry about that extra baggage fee, but the Church should be refunding me. I guess I should of paid for it. Any ways, we got to sleep in until 9am. Then breakfast was at 930am. We had cearal, kinda like cherios, but instead of milk, we used strawberry yougurt. I also got this orange drink, but it ended up tasting like salty mango stuff. It reminded me of throwup, so I will not be getting that tommorrow. I just got my name tag! Maybe I can send a picture next week! I exchanged some of my money for Peruvian money. Nuevo Sols. I have not had a chance to look at the money yet. It is crazy I can not belive I am a Missionary. Peru is bueatiful, and I can tell I am going to love it. I wish I had more to say. But I have not been here long. I guess they just wanted us to write to let you know I made it safe.

 

Elder Peabody