Well, the weeks just
seem to be going faster and faster. I cant believe that I have already been
here for 3 weeks!!!! If this were a normal transfer, it would be half over
already. But.. its as 7 week transfer so its not. But still, time continues to
go at warp speed. This week was full of trainings, companionship exchanges, and
rain. We headed down to Tacna, which is like a 7 hour bus ride from Arequipa,
on Monday afternoon to get there in time to go on exchanges with the zone
leaders there, and it went super well. I went with Elder Andersen, and it turns
out he also lived in May Hall before his mission, but he lived on the 3rd floor
on the other side. It was a lot of fun actually, we talked a lot and he´s a
really good guy and a fantastic missionary. That night, President took us out
to eat at this nice steak restaurant in Tacna, where they import their beef
from the United States... oh my heck is was delicious. I got a bone-in ribeye
that was seriously amazing. I dont know if its because I havent had good meat
in 18 months or what, but dang... good stuff. Cooked well, served piping hot.
The zone conference we had on Wednesday went super well, and I think my part
went better too. We had to end at 2, and I am the last speaker, and had planned
for like 45 minutes, doing role plays, analyzing Preach My Gospel videos,
everything, but I only had like 20 minutes because everyone else went over
their time, so it ended up being more of an extended testimony of the Book of
Mormon. People said they liked it though.
Thursday was the
district leader training in the morning, then we ate lunch and drove back with
President in the afternoon. It was actually really cool, Elder Orbegozo was
watching Finding Nemo on the laptop in the back seat and i was in the middle
and President and Sister Zobrist and I just kind of talked for like 5 hours. He
is such a cool guy, and I really feel like I am getting to know him a lot
better. He is super worried to make sure the hand off to the new mission
president goes smoothly, so he was pretty much telling me that I have to help
him know how to get places, where to eat, how to do things... it sounds
stressful but I think its going to be a really cool experience getting to help
a new mission president transition in to his new calling.
Yesterday we
finished off the week doing yet another zone conference here in Arequipa. It
was actually the best one I´ve done yet. I had enough time to do what i wanted,
the role playing went super well, and the spirit was there. One of the elders
came up after and told me, "in my whole mission, i have never left a zone
conference as inspired to work as i did today."
So, as the title
says... it has been raining here in Arequipa. We were in Tacna most of the
week, but President said it rained so hard on Monday that the ENTIRE city of
Arequipa (more than 3 million people) went without power. We went to work
Friday in the afternoon and got to the house of a member who lives in front of
one of the huge irrigation ditches they have to control flooding, and as we
were in the house, the floor started to shake and I was thinking "another
earthquake," but then we realized that it had rained so hard that the
ditch turned into a massive river that was literally carrying giant rocks like
they were pebbles. The street a few blocks up collapsed into the river, and so
we helped the family get their emergency backpacks together and then we got out
of their. As we were leaving, a two story house near the collapsed street also
collapsed and fell into the river. We dont know if anyone was hurt or not, but
the river was literally like a class 5 rapid. If you fell in there.....
probably not making it out alive, especially with all the debris in their. We
cancelled out appointments last night and went to help a ward member whose
entire house had filled up with like 3 feet of water. Its a mess right now in
some parts of Arequipa. there is no drainage system so everyone who lives at
the base of the mountain gets hit with a ton of water. I´m going to attach a
link with pictures from around Arequipa and the flooding that has happened. And
dont worry, where we live we are fine, and we are fine. I havent heard of any
deaths or anything like that, just property damage.
Well, there ya have
it, another week down. We have another busy week next week, going to Camana and
then to Pedregal for zone conferences, and i think we might be going to Colca
Canyon for Pday next week, so we´ll see. Have a good week everyone!
Elder Matheson
No comments:
Post a Comment