Week 16: Christmas

Merry Christmas everybody!!! 

This last week was really fun and filled with great experiences. But to sum it up it was a week of service. Started Tuesday with throwing rocks in potato sacks and hauling the rocks/dirt on our back to the backyard of a members house. It was exhausting but really fun. Wednesday we sanded two rooms, they gave us a piece of sandpaper and asked us to sand the concrete walls then after wards we reorganized their house. Then Thursday we painted one of the rooms, then later that day we built a house. Stuck bamboo type wood in the ground and just stuffed mud in between the wood. Friday we painted another room of a house. Then on Sunday we visited an investigator and she was throwing a Christmas dinner party so we helped set up and move around furniture and cosas como si. It was a lot of fun. 

We also had our ward Christmas party this week, it started off boring, every group from the ward prepared an act to preform, kinda like a talent show type event. But nobody really prepared anything so we just sat there bored, but then out came a clown, and here in Peru clowns are so popular! Every kid wants one at his birthday party, they are huge. So the ward hired a clown for the party and he was actually really funny and entertaining. Then we had food and paneton, and ya, the party was fun.

 A strange experience I had this week happened when I was in a moto on the way back to my room and it got pulled over for a random inspection. Turns out the guy didn't have a license, or any papers. But he told the cop he was just helping the missionaries get back to the room because we needed his help. So the cop let him go. 

I also found my new all time favorite food here in Peru, its called an Empeñada de Queso. Its a scone type bread stuffed with cheese then fried in oil. For 1 sol cada uno it is absolutely delicious!!! The cheese on the inside is melted and running, best food I've eaten here yet. 

A Peruvian Christmas: so the days leading up to today all the streets (around the market) were filled with vendors selling toys and fireworks, and clothes and cosas como si. It was fun to walk and experience, I bought myself a few things. But here in Peru, everybody celebrates Christmas on the 24th, they do lots of shopping and stuff in the morning and then the biggest part is dinner Christmas Eve, that is their big celebration with the family and they open the presents then. But then at mid-night that's when it gets crazy. Once midnight strikes the entire air is just filled with fireworks, the entire town just goes crazy, then they rave and party and get super wasted until sunrise. 

We left this morning around 9 am and nobody was a wake. They were all passed out. Everybody is either dead tired, hung over, or drunk and still drinking. But it was really cool. Last night we went over to a members house they gave us dinner, dessert and we just listened to Christmas music till 10:30 when we returned to our room. Then in the morning we woke up, opened our presents and just hung out listening to more Christmas music. It doesn't feel anything like Christmas, especially because I am sweating 100 percent of the time. Its super humid and hot, anywhere I go I am drenched in sweat. 

I hope you all had a great Christmas and are enjoying these holiday seasons. I love and miss you a ton. I'm sad and cant be with you right now. But I'm have the best day ever!

Love, 

Elder Luke Gruber 

Week 15: Sunburned

So this week started pretty bad. After playing soccer in the sun on Monday, and not using sunscreen the back of my neck was burnt like a bad bakers cookie. Putting on my white shirt Tuesday was horrible, I walked around looking down all day and pushing my collar up- so it wouldn't touch my neck. But my pensanista gave me some weird white liquid, I put it on my neck in the afternoon and about 1 hour later it was basically perfect. That was miracle number one of the week. 

Then Tuesday and Wednesday were busy days of work, lots of appointments and contacting. Thursday morning we woke up at 4 AM, to travel to Piura for the Christmas party.  Our bus left at 6 am, its a six hour bus ride and we´d be there an hour early. But our first bus after 45 minutes broke down, after 30 minutes of waiting they ¨fixed¨ it. Traveled another hour and it broke down again, they made us get off and we transferred to bus number 2. We thought we were good, but 2 hours later our second bus broke down. But this time in the middle of farm town with the next city about 35 minutes away. So we took taxi to Sullana (the next big city). Found bus number 3, that then took us to Piura. Then took a taxi to lunch. We arrived an hour late at 2 pm. 8 hours of traveling down, it was long and a hot trip. But we were rewarded with pizza and ice cream at lunch with the president. Then at the mission home we played games and ate a lot of candy and watched "Its a wonderful life." Spent the night in Piura and the next morning traveled back up, but got stuck at a check point were they searched all the buses for over an hour. So the trip back was 7 hours. It was a lot of traveling but Piura was fun.  

Another miracle that happened this week, we got a reference from a member, went looking for him and didn't find him- so we gave up and thought oh well I guess we will never be able to teach him. But then walking down the street this group of kids yell at us from super far away and we met the guy we were supposed to teach and got his actually address. I know that wasn't a coincidence but that the Lord put me and my companion into his path so that we could teach him. 

I also gave a talk this week in church. It was on missionary work, it was about 8 minutes and I was told that my Spanish was good enough that everybody understood, so that's awesome. 

Then today for P-day we went to the beach, its only about 30 minutes away. It was absolutely gorgeous, the weather was hot and perfect, it was perfect beach with soft sand, and there was nobody else there. The only thing is that we couldn't go swimming, we could walk in up to about high ankle, then the waves would come in to about the knee, but that's all we could go in. But we played some kick ball, caught crabs, drew in the sand, it was really fun, it felt like I was on vacation. But I told myself i wasn't going to get sun burned again. So I put sunscreen on my face, neck, and arms. But forgot my legs and top of my feet. So for a second week I'm burnt to a crisp, its not very fun. But with enough faith, and more Peruvian ointment it will hopefully go away quickly. That's about it for this week, I love and miss you all so much!!! I'm having the best day ever!

Love, 

Elder Luke Gruber

Week 14: Scorpion

This week was a great week, not a ton happened just a work week. But there has been a lot more mosquito's recently. They are everywhere, bug sprays my best friend, but even then I still get on average about 10-15 bites a day. They go away pretty quick and don't itch too bad. But I know sooner or later one of them will be kind enough to give me dengue (not looking forward to that, I've heard a lot of stories here about dengue). 

After a lesson this week we were just small talking, and one of the investigators mentioned that the rainy season is coming up soon. So they turned to me and with curiosity and in all seriousness asked me if it rains in the states. I let out an audible laugh, and told them yes. 

We also found a scorpion in our room this week, it was in our room so we caught it. We heard rumors about something fun we could do with the scorpion. So we waited till night, put it on the ground with a cup over it. Then put a ring of hand sanitizer around the cup and lit it on fire, then lifted up the cup. When the scorpion sees that it is surrounded by fire it gets scared and starts stabbing itself with its own stinger to kill itself before the fire can. It was pretty crazy and also really fun. 

This week we also did service shoveling dirt. We would load it into a back of a motorcycle truck (a motorcycle with a truck bed on it). Then brought it up a big hill so they could use it to build a new house. But the small motorcycle couldn't get up the hill, so we had to push the motorcycle truck up a super steep hill. It was fun, but a lot of work in the hot Peruvian sun. 

Today we played game one of the Copa Piura. Because we are so far north, only one of the 2 zones gets to go to Piura to play in the actually cup, so we played today to see who would go. We lost, so we most likely wont go to Piura next Monday. But we do go down this Thursday for a Christmas party at the mission home. Which means 6 hour bus ride at 6 am, then 6 hours back up the next morning. It should be really fun. I'm loving it here, everyday is the best day ever. Lots of work, and lots of fun.

Love, 

Elder Luke Gruber

I also want all of you to think of the real reason you celebrate Christmas. Is it only for the lights, cookies, gifts and shopping? Try to think of Christ this Christmas season and all that he has done for us. Then think of ways that you can be more Christ-like this year. Illuminate the world is a great way to do this and I recommend that each of you look at it and try to do something everyday to help others. 

Tried making No Bake cookies- had to guess the measurements, we have no measuring cups. 

I found a Peru version of the Kinder Egg. Not as good though.

Week 13: New Area and Mango's

Hey all, 

This week was a crazy week, but a week filled with a countless number of small blessings. My companion and I changed areas, but neither of us know anything about our new area; where anything is, where anybody lives, and the last elders helped us out with very little. So we thought we were going to be lost all week. But with a very small and bad map and the spirit we were able to find almost everybody that we needed. However that doesn't mean it was easy. We would walk to a house on one side of our area, realize it was the wrong one, and walk all the way to the other side of our area. We walked so much this week (just trying to find everything), but I found that as long as we kept working, the lord helped us find where we needed to be. That was especially important because here in Peru, streets and house numbers make no sense, its just a bunch of random numbers all over the place. 

This week was also a million times hotter, almost everyday was sunny and felt like a million degrees.  But it was so much fun, and we were able to have a lot of success. Its also now mango season here, and everybody loves mango's. We just finished teaching a new family for the first time, they are really poor, the dad works 3 jobs, but asked if we wanted a mango to take on our way to our next appointment, we said yes. He returned with a bag full of mango's. I thought he was going to have us grab one, but instead hands us the entire bag with probably 15 mango's. Its crazy the people here are super generous. 

Then the next day we were at a members house and after the lesson she again asks us if we want a mango, but decided to give us another big bag of mango's, so we have so many mango's in our room right now. 

Another day after lunch we went to an investigators house, after the lesson she goes to the back of the house and returns with a big plate of food, my comp and I were stuffed from lunch, but you can't refuse people, so we stuffed this food down our throats. The people here are super kind and always trying to give us food. I also was asked if I was related to Freddy Krueger 2 times this week. They heard Gruber, thought it sounded like Krueger and seriously asked if I was related to him. It was a great week, filled with lots of work, but lots of good times. 

I love and miss you all so much! 

Love, 

Elder Luke Gruber

FIRST ADVENT

Week 12: Thanksgiving and Transfers

This week started with a trip down to Piura. On the way down we took the VIP bus which has super nice wide seats that are like beds. The 6 hours went quick, I didn't sleep but it was nice and relaxing. Spent one day there, ate Papa Johns which is always delicious and then came back. But on the way back we got the economic bus, which is super small, cramped, hot, and boring. So that was a long 6 hour bus ride. 

Then it was Thursday, aka Thanksgiving. We woke up in the morning knowing that we were going to eat a lot so we went for a run. It was the first time I've worked out, we ran about 2.5 miles. I felt so good after wards. We then played a game of soccer which we called our turkey bowl. Then for lunch we got our food to go, we brought it to our room, cooked stuffing, mashed potatoes, and the pumpkin spice cooks. We had  rice, chicken, stuffing, mashed potatoes, potato/beet salad, and rolls. I felt pretty bad after wards, me and my comp got sick for about 4 hours after wards, but it was so delicious and worth it. 

The next morning we woke up at 5:30 am to go to the gym. (we can only go to the gym from 6-7 am here, so we rarely go). We ran to the gym, but it was closed so we decided to go for another run. Ran for another 2 miles. Then for that entire day, I could barely move, my legs were super sore and my body was exhausted. But once again, it was worth it. 

This  week we also made some homemade juice. First we made Maracura juice. It is super sour and delicious. But then you add some sugar and it is the most delicious thing ever. Then we made papaya juice too, that was terrible, we ran out of sugar so it was so gross. Another thing I found out this week is that if you add lime to anything is makes it delicious. Its really popular to have red onion and lime on the side of a meal, its so tasty. Then we were at a members for lunch yesterday, on the side was a big bowl of cucumbers. I thought oh no, I hate cucumbers, but I have to eat it otherwise they will hate me. I ate one bite, found out they were soaked in lime juice. I couldn't stop eating them they were so good. Another really famous food here is Paneton, its just bread with chucks of fruit in it. Almost everybody loves it here, they have it at every meal. I tried it, and it is gross. Today for lunch we went to this restaurant, we got a starter soup. In the soup it had a chicken foot, chicken neck, chicken spine, chicken heart, and a chicken liver. It was weird but tasted good. Then had a delicious piece of fish.

On Friday this week we had a talent show with investigators and members, it turned into just a bunch of people dancing. Then we also got transfers this week. Training's are always 2 transfers, so you stay with the same companion and same area, or so I thought. Me and my companion will be switching areas to Triunfo 1. Which is across the street from my area now, it was the zone leaders area, but both of them got replaced. So we are getting 2 new zone leaders that will take over my area. So I'll be training the zone leaders on our old area while figuring out a new area that me and my comp have no idea about. This next week is going to be a lot of fun, but a lot, like a ton of work. But the nicest thing about it all is that we don't have to move rooms, since we would just move across the hall. So after writing today me and my comp have to go pick up the new zone leaders, and 2 Hermanas that are moving into our district. But neither of them have phones so we get to sit at the bus station waiting for them. 

It was a great week full of great times and experiences, many more are to come. I hope you all had an amazing Thanksgiving and that everyday is the best day ever. 

Love, 

Elder Luke Gruber