Week 2 in Arequipa

Hey everyone! Sorry for my super depressing letter last week. It turns out missions are so much better when you can leave your appartment. Still, this week hasnt been easy, and I think that I might not have an easy week for the next two years. HOWEVER, this week has been sooooo much better. I feel like the language is coming along much better too. Unfortunately, I'm starting to realize that my companion is pretty lazy though. There are times he doesnt get out of bed until 730 or so, and it's been kind of a struggle at times. Its also been super frustrating because since he's peruvian, he has no sense of punctuality. Like yesterday for example, we had an appointment at 3, and he was talking to the pension of some of the other missionaries in our area until like 330 and we were a long way from our appointment. I was trying to get him to hurry, but i guess its just not a big deal at all if you just miss an appointment and go back another time. Half the time we go to our appointments nobody is home anyways haha. Oh well, i guess i need to get used to the culture here a little more. 

I got to go on splits with our American zone leader, which was awesome. I got to speak English for an entire day with Elder Cromar, and he's a fantastic missionary too. I learned a lot about how i can teach better and how we can work more effectively too. I actually get to speak English a lot more than i thought i was going to be able to. We have 5 or 6 american missionaries in our zone, including two of my friends from the CCM, and we meet 3 times a week. On top of that, one of my friends is assigned to the same ward as i am, so i actually get to speak English once or twice a day usually. It honestly keeps me sane. I can kind of convey what I want to say in Spanish, but not how i want to usually and thats frustrating, so its nice to be able to vent every now and thenn. But my language skills are definitely improving every day! 

I actually dont get to watch general conference until this next weekend because this week was elections in Peru. And they are a very big deal. Elections are on sunday, and it is against the law not to vote here. On top of all of that, you have to go to your hometown to vote, and no one is allowed to consume any alcohol for 24 hours before voting (still doesnt stop anyone though haha, we saw a bunch of drunks all over the place on saturday). The campaigns are crazy too, and the politcal party symbols or whatever are hilarious too. One of them is a chicken kicking a soccer ball. Another one is a women breast feeding a baby. Crazy peruvians haha. 

Our teaching has been pretty good this week! We work a lot with less actives here because a lot of people who get baptized end up falling away. We've been able to get a few to start coming back to church though! The people here are super nice too. We've hardly had anyone who doesnt invite us to their houses or at least talk to us in the streets. We have a lot of investigators right now too. My favorite investigator is someone we havent even taught yet though. Her name is Paulina and we ran into here on the street the other day and talked to her for a while. She's catholic and reads here bible everyday and we gave the Restoration pamphlet and we made an appt for this wed. with her. We ran into her the other day while we were walking to another appointment and stopped to talk to her about the pamphlet and how she was doing. She told how awesome everything in the pamphlet was and how she wants to know more about that Book of Mormon the pamphlet talked about. We gave her a Book of Mormon right then and there (duh) and she took it, kissed the cover, and clutched it to her chest. There are some people who are just super prepared! 

Hope everyone has a great week this week, thank you all for your letters of encouragement, it was much needed! Love you all and miss you a bunch!

Love,

Elder Matheson 

Picture of my house, street and area: