Week #14 - La Union, Chiclayo - January 27, 2020

Hey everyone,

So sorry I haven't written the last two weeks! It's been super hard for me to have time to write. But here's a quick rundown of what happened.

So with my Spanish, I basically can understand pretty much everything people are talking to me about. Unless someone goes on a long rant, then I lose them after a while. But everybody's been telling me how great my Spanish has gotten since I first got here, so that's pretty good to hear. They tell me I can communicate and have pretty decent conversations with them, as opposed to just staring at them completely confused like I was doing when I first got here.

So the first week I got here (8 weeks ago now), there was this kid that I had an extremely powerful impression about. I gave him a Book of Mormon and the last two months we've been visiting and teaching him and his family. Unfortunately his parents aren't married, so that was a problem, but his dad was so close to accepting an invitation to be baptized because he recognized the spirit when we were in his house. And his son who is only 16 years (and the one I kept pushing my companion to teach), accepted a baptismal date. This kid had the strongest faith I've ever seen! Even though no one else in his family could be baptized, he wanted to become a member. He wanted to change himself for the better, and he told us he wanted to "unite with our church". Probably the most powerful thing I've heard so far on my mission came out of his mouth when we had a lesson on modern prophets and how we have one today. We showed him a picture of Russell M. Nelson, and I asked what his thoughts were on him. He told us, "I've never heard of him before. But I believe this book is true, so he must be a prophet." A few weeks ago, right before his baptismal date, he starting having doubts but we helped him through them, and he got baptized this last Saturday! His parents came to support him.

I've gotten used to everyone staring at me in the store, at church, and in the streets. Probably because I'm American, but also something totally new to me: I'm always the tallest person in the room! People always ask me how tall I am, and I don't know what to say because they don't use the measurement in feet here. I'll have to figure it out soon so I can shock everyone!

- Elder Dyal

 Benjamin's baptism day

 Selfie in the apartment mirror

 Another selfie .... ???

Study desks in their apartment

(Elder Dyal's is the one on the right)

More of the apartment...

Week #11 - La Union, Chiclayo - January 6, 2020

Hey guys,

So today is transfers, but I'm staying here in La Union and have the same companion, Elder Beazer. I'm glad because I feel like I just got here and still have work to do. Plus I feel like Elder Beazer and I are finally vibing, so that's good. 

This week has been pretty difficult because we've been having a pretty hard time finding our investigators. In fact there was one of our investigators that saw us walking by through the window, and he dipped. Like, ran off! He's not a small guy either, but he seemed to be able to run pretty fast when he saw the missionaries were coming. But yeah, a lot of little kids usually answer the door and when we ask if their parents are home, they'll run off to ask them what they should tell us. Then they'll come back and say their parents aren't home even though we heard them talking to them. And there was one guy that we contacted and when he came to the door, we asked him how he was. He said he was doing bad because we just impeded on his time and then he just walked away. I'm not complaining about these things. I actually think it's a little humorous, although sometimes discouraging. But this week has been pretty difficult because people have been pretty hard to find. Not only our investigators, but also those to teach.

One of our investigators works right next to our apartment so it's pretty fun to talk to him each time we pass by. He's a really awesome guy; his name is Eric and he's Venezuelan. He has a baptismal date this Saturday, and he's done everything that meets the requirements for baptism. So if everything goes well, I'll probably be doing my first baptism this Saturday! 

It's actually very interesting with the Venezuelans because there are a lot of them here. There was some political turmoil in that country, so Peru has been having a ton of immigrants from Venezuela and also Bolivia. The Venezuelans talk differently than those from Peru, it's a bit strange. They don't pronounce the ending of their words, and the Peruvians stretch out their words. For example, we'll ask people if they want to hear our message, and the Peruvians would say: "Estoy ocupaaado", while the Venezuelans would say: "Estoy ocupad." It doesn't really make any sense, but I'm starting to get the hang of it.

Anyways, I'm learning the language as well as the gospel more and more every day. It hasn't been easy, especially with the language, mostly because of the different accents. Makes it harder for me to recognize the words. But it will be ok. I do my best trying to study and learn as much as possible, so I'm confident I'll become fluent either way.

- Elder Dyal

 Elder Dyal with President and Sister Balderrama

(They are currently in his La Union Ward)

Elders in La Union

Meeting up with his MTC buddies

Pondering....???

Week #10 - La Union, Chiclayo - January 1, 2020

Hey guys,

Wow, it's crazy that I'm almost done with my first transfer. This has been the longest month of my life, but at the same time when I look back, its seems like it just flew by. That's insane. 

Either way, I can't remember too much of what happened this week. On New Years Eve, everyone was drunk in the middle of the street so that made contacting pretty entertaining. I can't understand anyone if they're drunk, it just sounds like noises and I try not to laugh because I think its pretty funny. But usually we avoid the drunk people.

Anyways, I'm actually having a hard time typing this in English which is pretty weird. I'm in no way near fluent, but some words I'll literally think in Spanish and I go like, woah. Its really weird to me cause I've only been here one month. Either way, its been some extremely hard few weeks but its all good now that I'm starting to understand.

There was this guy that I taught when I went on intercambios, and he wanted to be baptized immediately even though we didn't teach him anything yet. And then the next couple days he couldn't be found, so it seems like this guy just disappeared after he realized what he just agreed to do. It was pretty funny, but like seriously, we don't know where he went. It was super strange.

We've been having some unsuccessful efforts cause a family that wanted to be baptized changed their mind so... and one of our guys that was about to be baptized was sick so we moved the date next week. So yeah. But I'm not worried. I try to keep the best attitude here because its easy to get discouraged.

So yeah every P Day we play soccer, and I hate soccer, so I'll probably lose my mind by the end of these two years. 

Anyways, I'm really low on time, but at least I have pictures this week.

Elder Dyal

Elder Dyal and Elder Beazer with Papa Noel 

 President and Sister Balderrama at the Mission Christmas Party

 After singing on stage at the Mission Christmas Party

(Elder Dyal is 3rd from the left)

 Mission Christmas Party

(Elder Dyal is towards the back - you can barely see his head)

Peru Chiclayo Mission Picture

(Elder Dyal's head is barely visable from the back row on the left side)