Week 49: Paneton, More Like Barf-aton

 For anyone who hasn't been staying up to date with the news in Peru there are a lot of riots and dangerous things happening in the country because of what's going on in the government. I just want you to know that I'm totally fine here in Trujillo. We haven't been locked down and there doesn't seem to be much going on right here. Although we can't have zone pdays anymore.


On Tuesday we went around saying goodbye to all the people in Esperanza for elder Lumbre. Hermano Edwin took us to eat pollo la braza with him and his family. Elder Lumbre had been in this zone for almost 8 months so it was sad to see him go. He got lots of letters from the members of the wards here. I packed up all my stuff except for the things I would use that night and we moved them back to the apartment in Pueblo Libre. We made it back a little late because Elder Lumbre had so many people to say bye to. I then went to bed on the floor for the last time with the trio. These have probably been my favorite three weeks of the mission with some of the best comps I've had. I'm gonna miss Elder Lumbre but at least Elder Sánchez is still in my district.

On Wednesday we got to the offices and walked into the chapel where all the new missionaries were. There were actually a bunch of Americans, I think around 8 or 9 with the rest of the 18 being latinos. I talked with the other trainers and "guides" (for people who were reassigned for a few months so they're not being trained) for what seemed like forever until we finally started with the trainer training. I was put with my greenie, Elder Ochoa. He's from Chincha, close to Lima. After the training we headed to Pueblo Libre and spent a moment unpacking stuff and cleaning the apartment, since it hadn't been lived in for three weeks. I had left one of my suitcases in Esperanza so we went there to pick it up. I met Elder Sanchez' new companion, Elder Strock, who was reassigned in Texas for 4 months. They had already moved the beds back to the bedroom and the desks back out to the sala so the tiny apartment already looked a tad bigger. We had a few lessons that day and hermana Maria again feels that she's not ready for baptism. She still wants to meet with us but it's sad because we thought we had already helped her overcome her fear. We're going to keep meeting with her and hopefully we can see her baptized by the end of the transfer by actually converting her to the gospel. I presented Elder Ochoa to hermano Díaz and we talked there for a while to present my new comp to him. They gave us some paneton, which is like a Christmas tradition down here of a sweet cake with dried figs in it. I didn't really like it the first time I tried it, but I was hungry because I hadn't eaten dinner so I ate it all.

Big mistake with the paneton! I woke up during the middle of the night and threw up. I couldn't fall asleep for a while because of how stinking hot it is. We don't have a fan in our apartment (the secretaries have one on the way now). Come morning, and I didn't work out and threw up again. I didn't eat anything for breakfast but Hermana Gladis gave me a ginger ale. I threw up again at her house. I kept throwing up the paneton so I'm sure I got food poisoning from it. I was a little achy and my stomach was really upset. That combined with the heat and the fact my area is a large hill did not make for a happy day. I ended up resting a lot because we couldn't go out and proselyte. We had a few lessons that day and I didn't eat anything. Kind of a bummer first day for Elder Ochoa.

Friday I felt fine enough to proselyte normally, but I still couldn't eat very much and got exhausted fast. I organized my first district council as a DL, and Elder Sorensen, (our new ZL) and the new Asistente, Elder Guymon, came as well. I think it went pretty well. I played some Christmas hymns because I've been missing them. Our ward's youth don't know how to play Christmas songs so we've just been listening to the same 10 songs all year round. We set some goals for ourselves and had some practices. If we get 9 baptisms in the district this transfer we're going to Buffalo and I'm paying. (If we don't get 9 we're still going, just I don't have to pay for everything).

On Saturday I still couldn't eat very much. We had a small noche blanca in the zone. 2 of the people baptized were Emiliano and Marcionella, 2 people I taught when I was in Esperanza. It was so cool to see them be baptized. We sang hymns for literally 40 minutes to wait for everyone to change to finish the program. Afterwards there was a stake young adult activity. It was dances again like the relief society one, but still cool. I got to talk with some of the new zone members. When the announcers were going through each ward and asking them to cheer, no one even came close to Pueblo Libre! We had to leave before we could see most of the dances, but it was still nice. I practically fasted because our pension was at the activity and I couldn't eat a lot because food still wasn't appetizing. Except for fresh, juicy fruit for some reason. But I didn't have money so I just didn't eat instead.

Sunday was kind of disappointing because Eymi didn't come to church, so now we can't have both her and her uncle baptized on the Christmas Eve. We'll coordinate with the Indoamerica elders to see what we'll do. I presented Elder Ochoa to hermano Enrique who always gives us food. This time he actually gave us some rocas and manjar to take with us! Rocas are from Cajamarca and are kind of like unsweetened... you know I really don't know how to describe them. Maybe I'll just send a picture. And manjar is like a carmel and milk spread. Presidente Hiatt showed us all a few really good Christmas music videos during our Sunday night zoom call. I hope this week can be great now that I'm getting better.

Merry Christmas to you and I hope you have a very merry week!

Elder Jensen

1. Sleeping on the job, huh?
2. Elder Ochoa
3. Bautismo de Emiliano y Marcionella
4. Parting photo with hermana Margarita, the pensionista of Esperanza
5/6. Funny burger place signs here. Who wants a BS burger or a chesse burger?








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