Hola de Peru!!!
This has been one of the most fun weeks of my
entire mission. Here in Peru Christmas and therefore Christmas activities are
in full swing (despite a large portion of Peruvians who do not celebrate
Christmas). This week started with a great family home evening Monday night
where we enjoyed some delicious chicken ceviche. Ceviche is a super famous Peruvian
food that is raw fish that is served after "cooking" it with nothing
but lemon juice. I have heard it is quite delicious but as missionaries we are
prohibited from eating it considering it is raw chicken. That being said we are
allowed to eat chicken ceviche which although is cooked and is not fish it is
still delicious.
On Monday night after our family home
evening we got a call that President Calderon was coming up to Cajamarca to
teach a zone training and host a zone wide Christmas dinner in a member’s
house! Well my dear friends the elders from the distant Celendin branch (about
3 hours outside of Cajamarca) came and stayed with us all week as we enjoyed
the various activities president had planned for us. Tuesday we had
our interviews that we have every transfer. Then on Wednesday we had
our zone training which was amazing. President taught a lot about the
importance of having faith in whatever we do. If you do not have the faith that
something is possible than you yourself are causing it to be impossible. It was
an amazing and incredible motivational training, but the highlight of the week
was our Christmas dinner with President Thursday night. All 22
missionaries from Cajamarca came to a member’s house in the city to share a
dinner and Christmas festivities. We started off with some great Christmas
music and President and his wife had bought a Christmas president for every
missionary. After sharing Christmas presents President invited us all to watch
a Christmas movie with him and the family (as missionaries we do not watch
movies). It was crazy awesome. We watched the classic "It’s a Wonderful
Life" and I think everyone was dying of laughter and nearly brought to
tears by the end. I think everyone was a little over emotional at the whole
idea of the Christmas night and breaking out of the norm of the missionary
routine to celebrate Christmas. After the movie we shared a nice Christmas
dinner with Turkey. Turkey in Peru is a food that you only eat at Christmas. It
was awesome. We also shared some special Peruvian hot chocolate and the famous Peruvian
Pantone before returning to our areas. It was awesome to enjoy a true family
dinner with the other missionaries and celebrate Christmas.
To make the week even better the ward had their
annual Christmas party this past week where we witnessed a hilarious talent
show filled with lots of Christmas themed skits and sketches. To top off the
week today we went to a super cool rock forest here in Cajamarca where there
are tons of cool rock formations, caves, stones carvings, and every an Incan
sacrifice table. This week was full of lots of fun and exciting
activities but I think the very best moment of the week was seeing the Estela
Medina family attend church with us yesterday. The family consists of the mom
(Marina), her two sons (Arturo 20 and Victor 19) and her daughter (Diana 17).
We have been teaching Victor, Arturo, and Marina for a few weeks now, and
yesterday with the help of a member who owns a miniature bus the whole family accompanied
us to church and loved it. This week we are going to teach them about the plan
of salvation so that they understand that God wants their family to be eternal.
Pray all goes well.
Well this week has been amazing and this coming
week is Christmas which gives us just that much more of an excuse to talk to
people about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and all he does and has done for
us. The littlest we can do to show our thanks is to share his love and message
with everyone else. Christmas time is truly the most wonderful time of the
year.
Love,
Elder Vassau
p.s. My room is now decorated with a little Christmas
tree and lights to help us keep the Christmas spirit going. Also big thanks to
the best family in the world for the Christmas package
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