Week 57: Secretary For a Day

Como están? Estoy bien, gracias. I hope you're all doing well! On Tuesday and Wednesday we worked. Nothing more, but since the addresses here in Huanchacho are literally the worst, we practically have to organize and create our own ward member list. We have to search out all the blocks in person and then mark them on the map, but all the blocks naturally are confusing and randomly placed. So we'll see how the next few weeks go with that🤷‍♂️ On Thursday Elder Larkin had to go to interpol with the rest of the new Americans, as well as one Ecuadorian and an Argentine. I remember how much of a pain that was, so gladly it seems to have gone smoothly with them. I rode over with him but then went on exchanges with Elder Rios so he could do his daily tasks as secretary of health while Elder Solano handled the visa stuff. Elder Rios is the man, I want to be comps with him so badly. We rode back to the offices and I got a peak at what it's like to be an office elder. We ended up wrapping Elder Teevin in plastic wrap and I got to view a transfer board from 2019 and see what the mission looks like when it's fully up and running. Man there are still a lot of areas to open. I got to talk to Elder Teevin and Elder Agostinelli a bunch, as well as hermano Freddy. It was fun telling people that I was Elder Solano's replacement because they didn't know where he was, they just saw me and Rios😂 Freddy took my keys and made a copy of them for Elder Teevin while I was there. It was fun getting to know them better and we can have some great and funny conversations. Still don't want to do what they do though. I'd rather proselytize all day than spend my day at the computer and only get out for a few hours. We went through all the mail that arrived and delivered some packages to the post office. We enlisted hermano Freddy to take us to a different post office to pick up and deliver another package to the hermanas in California. That's when we got the call that Elder Larkin was done and was sitting in the office waiting for me. We still made time to go get some ice cream before ending our "exchange."😂 Mine was peanut, and it was pretty good. Freddy got manjar and Elder Rios got coconut. We made it back to see Elder Larkin just watching Elder Solano eat his lunch🤣 We continued on with our day and rode back to Huanchaco after that. Until we're actually comps, Elder Rios. We were also told that Elder Rasband, who was going to come and speak to us on Tuesday, got a special assignment from the first presidency and will no longer be able to come to Peru😖 But in his place Elder S Mark Palmer from the presidency of the 70 will be coming with Elder Becerra of the 70. We are all a little disappointed, but it'll still be good. Hopefully I can still listen to an apostle in person before I finish my mission. The first missionary to have ever set foot in Las Lomas came to visit for a few days this week. His name's David Packer, from Idaho Falls. He served when it was still just the Trujillo mission and wasn't divided. It's been pretty fun talking with him and hearing about his mission experiences. I went on exchanges with Elder Huaman on Friday, again. It's like he's following me whenever there are transfers. He's so funny. All of our lessons were canceled but we were able to find some new people. He wanted a blessing because he was feeling a little sick. Both he and his comp got milkshakes earlier in the week and both got a little sick from them😬 But other than that it was fine. Being in Huanchaco we have to use taxis and buses a lot. Buses are cheap but they can take forever and the taxis are way overpriced. But we managed to find a taxi for 8 soles to the stake center, which is really cheap. People usually try to charge 15. On my way back with Elder Larkin though it turned into an adventure. We got a taxi that accepted for 8, but the guy got confused and thought we were going to the clinic because it has the same name as our street in Huanchaco, San Pedro. For some reason he thought we were going there even though we placed a marker exactly where we needed to go, and obviously we didn't put it there by accident. This has happened before. Why don't people just look at the map?!?!😡 So he kicked us out of his taxi. We found a bus going to Huanchaco and we were going in the right direction until he suddenly turned left. He took us deep into the Trujillo South mission before making a loop and taking us back by the stake center before finally going to Huanchaco. So what's usually a 15 minute taxi ride ended up turning into a 2 hour 30 minute exodus. That, and then the bus driver changed up the route and we had to walk 10 minutes to our apartment. So we were pretty bugged because we had to push everything back an hour. We actually saw some Trujillo South elders walking on the street when we were down there🤣 On Sunday we only saw Cirilo and Nayeli at church, but we learned that Jose attended at a different ward while he's working in south Trujillo. It was kind of sad but we'll keep working. I just got here so I assumed that Jose's wife didn't want any form of marriage and that she didn't want to talk to us, but 2 elders from Trujillo South (one of them was actually Elder Villena who I was in quarantine with in the CCM) called us and told us that they talked with him while he was at their ward and that he was mistaken because he thought that he had to get married in the temple to be baptized first and that his wife would need to do that, but when in reality he just needs to get married civilly, and he said that that's actually likely. I don't know why he thought that before or who told him that, but maybe we can fix that🤗 That and hermana Yessenia told us that the airports in Lima are a bit looser so Khaory's familia can come up with them this weekend! That means we can plan for her baptism! For pday we played some spikeball in the church and some monopoly. We then had to wait an eternity for some taxi driver to accept something that was already way over priced😡 Then I finally got a long over due haircut so I can stop using a squirtbof gel every day😇 But that's my week! See you in the next one! Elder Jensen 1. The Huanchaco elders 2. Elder Teevin (aka the hulk) 3. Ice cream with Freddy 4. Noche misional 5. Los bros (me with Elder Rios)