7/13 The craziest week of my life

Ok, this has been like the craziest week ever. I am exhausted haha. So this is what happened. Monday after writing you guys, President Zobrist called us and told us that he was going to close our area and that I would have a transfer. I had a week to make sure my area was in tip top shape for the other missionaries that would be taking over our investigators and what not. We had 6 missionaries in Pedregal, but now we have 4, so they split my area and gave half to the Elders and half to the sisters. So I was already going to have a hectic week showing my area to other missionaries and what not. But then on Wednesday at 730 pm, the APs called us and told us that I needed to pack up my things and leave first thing the next day to go to my new area, because my new companions companion finished his mission and he also didnt have a companion. So i said goodbye to the members, packed up my things, and first thing Thursday (6am) I got on a bus to Arequipa to go to my new area, Alto Misti. I am in the Manuel Prado zone with my companion Elder Coello, and we are the zone leaders here. Basically, we are in charge of all the temporal needs of the missionaries, and when every single companionship has a transfer and they close 2 areas in your zone, there are a lot of temporal matters to attend to. But, my new area is awesome, and the ward is super awesome also. My companion goes home in 12 weeks and is super excited to work hard to finish his mission, so we should have a lot of success. in the last few days, we placed 2 baptism dates for the coming weeks. 

So that is what happened this week. I will keep you guys up to date on all the stuff that will be going on. Love you all!

Elder Matheson

new companion

nasty soccer turf burn..

our room condition when we arrived...don't worry we cleaned it!

7/6 What a week

Well, let me start with the big news of the week.  Saturday night we were in our room and we got a call from the mission president.  Elder Cerezo's father suffered a major stroke and is in a coma on life support.  After praying and fasting, Elder Cerezo decided that he needed to go home.  He needs treatment for his leg, so he will go home for a month to be with his family and get treatment for his leg, and then return to the mission.  he has handled the situation very maturely and only expressed his gratefulness for his knowledge of the plan of salvation.  Keep him in your prayers!

We had been fasting for success in our area, and, as it almost always seems to happen like this when we fast, nobody that we are teaching came to church.  We were disappointed.  That night, Arturo (an investigator from a long time ago that we are teaching again) came to the farewell meeting of one of the missionaries in our branch that is finishing her mission this week.  He had been unable to get baptized because he was working in the mines and only comes home every 20 days.  I don't know how he knew that there was this activity in the church, but he came and told us that he has a new job now and that he won't be traveling.  So long story short, our payers were answered and we should have a baptism this week.

That's all from me, have a great week!
Elder Matheson

6/29 Peru for the Win!

Hello all!

This week was a good one! Elder Cerezo, who foolishly decided to play soccer 2 weeks ago despite doctor´s orders to not play, had to go to the doctors last P-Day in Arequipa, and we had a great PDay there in Arequipa. We met up with Elder Larsens zone, had a picture scavenger hunt in the Plaza de Armas, and then headed back to Pedregal. Then we had to go back to Arequipa for his follow up appointment Thursday. Bad news for Elder Cerezo. Looks like the damage to his leg is bad enough that there is a very good chance that he will get sent home. He has an appointment with a PT this Wednesday in Arequipa, and we´ll know then. He´s holding up pretty well though. He is the only member in his family, and since leaving, the rest of his family has been taking the missionary discussions, and his girlfriend too, and they all seem like they are getting really close to baptism. He told me that if he goes home for a month or two to recover it wouldnt be the worst thing in the world because he would be able to baptize his family. Poor kid.

We had the baptisms! Jose and Bryant were baptized, and we had a good turnout for the service. We had 3 more investigators that went to the service, as well as Jose´s family, who we will now be visiting. They were both beaming after the service, and it was nice to finally have a baptism after 3 months without one. We are working hard with some other investigators for July. If all goes well, (and I think it will) we will have at least 4 or 5 in July. I think Alex and Claudia will finally get married this month. Alex and Claudia opened a restaurant this last week, and it look likes we are finally making some progress here! We set their date for the 24th of July for the marriage, and the 25th for their baptism. We just have to work super super super super carefully with them and work more with the members, and they might finally do this!

So Peru is playing really well in the Copa America right now, and they are in the Semi-Final. They play Chile tonight to see who will play for the Championship this saturday. Peruvians and Chileans DO NOT GET ALONG. If Peru loses tonight, there will be blood. We have appointments tonight, but we´ll see how they go. It is very likely that we will end up teaching to some very distracted Peruvians tonight haha. Brazil lost to Paraguay, and I can only imagine what is happening in Brazil right now.

Have a great week!

Elder Matheson

Temple!

So, a few things from this week. yesterday was the Trujillo temple dedication, and we all packed up and drove an hour to Camana to the nearest church building with a satelite, because our church doesnt have one. I had never been to a dedication before, so i really didnt know what to expect, but it was really awesome! Pres Uchdorf and Elder Bednar came, and it was all super spiritual. Pres Uchtdorf even tried speaking spanish and it was actually really sweet, at the end of his talk he bore his testimony in spanish and started to cry. His spanish isnt very good. But he gets props for trying! 

I found a copy of Ab Ripper X, so my comp and I have been destroying our abs every morning. It hurts, but man it feels good. Brings back some good memories of doing Plyo X and getting my butt kicked by the guy with one leg (remember that guy?). Anyways, the goal is to be ripped when I come home. 

"And it came to pass that Elder Matheson and Elder Cerezo beheld the filthiness of their room, and, according the the commandments of the zone leaders, went in unto the room for to clean it. And it came to pass that they cast lots concerning as to the one who should clean the bathroom, and behold, the lot fell upon Elder Matheson. And it came to pass that they labored and toiled for the space of 3 hours, and beheld the workmanship of their hands, that it was exceedingly fine. And behold, zone leader went also in unto the room of Elder Matheson and Elder Cerezo, and were exceedingly glad. And thus we see that the cleanliness of the room and the spirit of the Lord go hand in hand for the benefit of the missionaries." (Matheson 3:5) 

We will have 2 baptisms this week, they have been interviewed and found worthy to be baptized, so unless something really bad happens, next week there will be baptism photos! Thanks for all the love and support!

Elder Matheson

The work goes on

So we are right in the thick of another transfer, and the time just continues to fly by. I was thinking the other day, holy cow, 2015 is almost half over!!! It literally seems like the other day that i was dodging fireworks for New Years in Chachani, and now its almost 4th of July (that probably wont be a widely celebrated holiday here). So right now, La Copa America (its like the world cup but only the South American teams) is in full swing. Let me just tell you guys right now, when Peru is playing, the country SHUTS DOWN. They played Brazil yesterday and from 4-6 there was not a soul in sight in the streets. We needed to catch a bus to get to our next appointment and had to wait for like 30 minutes because even the busses shut down to watch the game. The only bus we found had a TV atenna strapped to the top with a TV inside so all the passengers could watch the game too. Unfortunately, Peru lost a heartbreaker to Brazil and everyone was drowning their sorrows in their beer yesterday. Although I think win or lose, the beer would have been brought out haha.

Our investigators are progressing really well. Alex is without work right now so their wedding will once again be postponed, but he really wants to get baptized as soon as possible. He told us "Elders, I regret so much not getting married when I had the chance. I didnt understand why it was important, but I regret not doing it more than anything right now." We are hoping they can get baptized for july. We still have 3 for the 27th though. Jose Abanto, our 72 guy who cant walk without crutches, is super excited for his baptism. The other 2 are Jose Flores, and the other is named Bryan. They are awesome too.

Nothing super weird that i ate this week, just a little fried liver. The weather is always a firery inferno in the morning and afternoon, but them the sun goes down and it gets pretty chilly at nigh. I havent seen a cloud in over a month. The stars here are pretty incredible though!

have a great week!

Elder Matheson

Losing track of the weeks...

Well, what a week it was! We didnt have the marriage and baptisms we wanted, but we were able to set in stone at least 3 baptisms for the 27th. It has been kind of frustrating to have almost all of the baptisms we have planned in this area fall through, but these 3 we have for the 27th are solid. If Alex and Claudia get married next week, we could have 5 that day. We are praying for that!!!! 

This week I will hit double digits in the mission. 10 months. I am no longer a new missionary, nor do I feel like one. One thing I can say is, time goes incredibly fast when we are working hard. I was thinking that my time in Chachani doesnt seem all that long ago, but has now been 3 months since I was transfered. i just want to take advantage of the time I have here, because I know that it goes so fast and that this is the only time I will have in my life like this. 

So Elder Nelson is gone and Elder Cerezo is here. He is from Ecuador and he talks super fast and doesnt pronouce his words very clearly, and after having a gringito for 3 months as a companion and talking almost 100% English outside of our lessons, it has been a Spanish shock to the systen. For the first day or so I felt like I did when I first got to the mission and Elder Perez was trying to tell me that we needed to go get money out of my mission card but I had no idea what he was saying and I was so frustrated and just wanted to punch him in the face and tell him to speak English to me, but luckily i didnt and I got over it. But Elder Cerezo is awesome, we work hard, and we are exactly obedient. He is relatively new to the mission, but he really has an understanding of how things are in the mission. he told me his trainer wasnt super obedient and that they had some struggles, but when he heard that he was coming here he was excited to start over. I guess some of the other missionaries in his zone were missionaries that I was with in Zamacola, and they told him that he would work super hard with me. And that is what we are doing. It is super nice to have a comp that speaks Spanish and can help me more in the lessons also. 

So last Pday I was with the zone leaders and we found out that one of our less actives is a ping pong coach (yes, his job is coaching ping pong), so we called him up and he said we could go play some ping pong. We show up and there are a bunch of 12 and 13 year old girls playing ping pong, and he told us we could play against them. i was thinking, "well, i wanted some competition, but oh well, maybe we can make it interesting." Well, what really happened is that the 12 and 13 year old girls must have been part Chinese or something because we ended up at the "loser table" really quick. It was a humbling experience for sure, but now we are resolved to improve our skills to beat the beehives!

Have a great week everyone!

Elder Matheson

TRANSFERS

So the big news this week is that we had transfers. Elder Nelson, my dear little gringito, is leaving me to go to ILO with one of my best friends from my MTC group, Elder Moll. I am sad to see him go, but I know Elder Moll (we were in the same zone for 4 transfers) and Elder Nelson is in very good hands. My new companion will arrive later today, so I dont know him, but his name is Elder Cerezo (sare- A- zo) and he is from Ecuador. So my short little stint with the Gringo comps has come to an end. He has 4 months in the mission, so I will once again be the senior companion and will continue being the district leader as well. Word is that Elder Cerezo was playing professional soccer in Ecuador before coming on the mission, so our Pdays will likely be spent playing soccer from here on out haha. I talked to his zone leader the other day and he said that Elder Cerezo works super hard and will likely be a great leader in the mission. If what they say is true, I am very happy to have such a companion. 

We ate cuy this week! We showed up to a birthday lunch of one of the kids in the branch who is leaving on a mission soon as been going out to proselyte with us and he fed us cuy. Delicious (see pictures sent to Mom). Really, it is quite tasty. The only other time I had had it was a few months ago, but it was oven cooked. This time it was golden fried, and wow, that makes all the difference. The skin turns into basically a giant potato chip haha. Super greasy, and here in Peru it is basically a felony to eat cuy with a fork and knife, so you just dive in and go to work. 

Well, a Risenmay family reunion classic has been growing in popularity among the missionaries here in Pedregal. Yes, you guessed it, we got the mission addicted to playing scum. We were playing the other day and I was the scum 12 games in a row. It was ridiculous. My highest card one of the rounds was a 10. Just bad news. Oh well, I came to preach the gospel not to play scum. 

have a great week everyone!

Elder Matheson

The missionaries of Pedegral

Happy Birthday Elder Nelson!

"The ugliest dog ever" - says Elder Matheson

Crispy Fried Cuy (guinea pig) - Yum!