First week in the field!!!

Ok, here it is, the long awaited letter!

I honestly dont know where to start. The last week in the CCM went by so fast, it was unreal. We had a bunch of firesides and farewell stuff, but it all still felt surreal, like it wasn't really happening, like we were going to be in the CCM forever. And then Tuesday morning came, and we woke up super early and hopped on a bus to take us to the airport. They threw us on a plane to arequipa and as soon as we got there, President Zobrist and the APs were there to pick us up. From there they took us on a tour of the city, to the temple ground here, and then to a stake center for orientation. And it still seemed so surreal. We got our comps too. Like i expected, my new companion doesn't speak a word of English. So i think i'm gonna learn spanish pretty quick here haha. His name is Elder Perez and he's been out for almost 15 months now. He says my spanish is about 5/10 haha. I can understand probably about 60 or 70 percent of what is said has long as people are talking about normal things. anyways, after we got our comps they shipped us out. and thats when reality came crashing down. I guess it never hit me that i was in peru. in the ccm i was always surrounded by white people in an environment more or less like the united states. but as soon as i said goodbye to be CCM friends and was in a taxi on my way to chachani, i was like holy crap, this is for real. it was pretty rough. I felt pretty alone, just really disheartened. Needless to say, this week has been pretty rough. it sounds like this is pretty normal though. there are times where i just want to lay in bed and forget i'm here. but, in spite of all this, i've been happy too! all of the good that has happened has definitely outweighed the bad. I've already seen miracles in the people i teach. 

unfortunately, i ate some bad food and spent the next few days... in bed. due to that we havent had as many opportunities to teach as i would have liked. I had a lot of time to think about everything though, and i've decided that i'm going to be ok. i also read about 300 pages of Jesus the Christ because theres only so much you can do in an appartment for 3 days without TV or a phone or what not haha. Our appartment is tiny tiny tiny, and our area is in the most impoverished in the entire mission. Compared to the houses around us, our appartment is super super nice though. we have a bathroom with a shower and a tiny little bedroom with bunkbeds (im on top) and two little desks to study at. The people in this area are so nice too. We haven't had a single person turn us away. 

Peru is crazy. The busses are crazy too, i never thought you could fit so many people into a little bus, but apparently you can haha. well guys, sorry this letter was depressing, but know that I know what I'm doing is right. I know things will get better, but right now its frustrating to be in such a new environment with someone who you can only have very basic, slow conversations with. It will get better! I know it will! Love and miss you all a lot.

Elder Matheson