Week #18 - La Union, Chiclayo - February 24, 2020

Hey guys,

Like I mentioned last week, changes happened and I'm still in the same area, but with ELDER DIAZ from Argentina. Its been pretty lit. He's pretty chill. But the last week its been discouraging because our investigators with a baptism date all seemed to disappear. We couldn't get a hold of them for one reason or another. In one of the families we teach, their grandma is really sick, so its been impossible to find them because they're always visiting her. Which I understand, but they missed their baptism date because of this unfortunate news. The other family just disappeared and blocked our number. A few people actually blocked our number who we THOUGHT had potential, but that happens. More often than I had hoped. We'll keep trying. 

Its been pretty nice not falling back on my English with my new comp. Exactly what I need to get pushed further and now I don't even notice that I'm speaking another language anymore, it's pretty cool. I've even had dreams in Spanish now. My companion confuses me sometimes though because he'll use Argentinian slang, but he's pretty cool and he's teaching me some stuff. I'm trying to teach Elder Diaz English slang, but he doesn't really understand. He only knows like two works: crap and gangster. So he'll use those words in weird context and it's pretty funny. One of my biggest worries coming on my mission was learning a new language. and I'm feeling pretty confident about now even though I'm learning more every day. 

We found these kids who happened to be a member reference, and each time we visit them they want to play chess and we also play around with their kittens. So that's definitely a win. But this week just consisted of searching for new people because our others disappeared. So other than that, not much happened. Next week I hope to write a more eventful email. Maybe with some actual baptism on the horizon.

Elder Dyal

Elder Dyal's zone with Elder Alonso of the Seventy 

and President and Sister Balderrama

 Elder Dyal and his new companion, Elder Diaz from Argentina

This is Elder Diaz's last area before he goes home.

 Elder Diaz and his candy

Elder Dyal looking at the window to his apartment in Chiclayo

Walking the dusty roads of Peru

Week #17 - La Union, Chiclayo - February 17, 2020

Hey everyone, 

Sorry I didn't write last week. Trying to get better at it. Anyway, so today we had changes and I'm still in the same area, which has been my first area. It's also the mission president's ward, so I'll be staying here for a total of at least three transfers, so all of that is super fun. My companion is changing today, and I found out that I'll be with a native. So at least for the next six weeks, I'm probably not going to speak any English, which I'm actually excited about. I know it will help a lot with getting better at my Spanish. Also, we just changed apartments. A few people in the ward helped us so it got done quickly. But yeah besides that, this Saturday if things go smoothly, which doesn't always happen, we should have 4 baptisms. So I'm excited to see what will happen this time around. 

This week we found some religious fanatics who were quoting random bible scriptures to us (which I'm pretty sure weren't even the right verses), and they didn't actually understand the meaning of them either. This isn't the first time people have done this. But the people this week I thought were super funny because during our whole lesson, one of the guys would talk to us about something, then try to tag a bible verse to his comment, like everything he said was prophetic. I don't know if we'll get very far with these guys. 

My new companion's name is Elder Dias and he's from Argentina. Like I said, I'm pretty excited to really be able to learn a lot more Spanish this way. I'm already feeling pretty comfortable with Spanish, but I'm no where near fluent.

Elder Dyal  

 A local fruit called maracuya, a type of passion fruit

 Finally got to eat some pizza! 

 Desks in the apartment

 View from outside the apartment

 SELFIE CLOSEUP

 Some investigators

 A family in our ward

Another investigator

Week #15 - La Union, Chiclayo - February 3, 2020

Hey everyone,

I have been having a pretty hard time this last week or so only because people have been really testing my patience. There was literally one guy who told me how bad of a missionary I was after we contacted him. And some other members have treated me like that as well, which has been pretty discouraging and sometimes frustrating. I think because I'm still new and learning the language so I'm not taken very seriously. But other than that, the week has been a pretty good one.

There is this family who we are teaching who got fired from their job and decided to start a business on a corner where they sell hamburgers. We were a bit worried about them because they were in a bad situation and we had to present them with the Sabbath Day and not working on Sundays. They surprised us like crazy when they said they'll follow the day of rest, and even better, they did! And they went to church with us on Sunday, too. We've never seen people with such great faith here, but I know they were prepared from God because of this. 

But its been pretty cool. Every time I'm put in a position where I can only speak Spanish, I feel like my Spanish gets better a ton, and I know that it's God helping me speak and communicate.

But yeah, its super cool here, its just hard sometimes but everyday gets better.

Elder Dyal