Hello Everybody!
These
last two weeks have been crazy!! It started with my last week at the CCM. Since
the temple was closed last Pday we went to a catholic school for disabled kids
and cleaned their wheelchairs for 2 hours. Then the rest of the week flew by,
not a lot happened, they gave us a bunch of field "training"but
was super boring and didn't teach us anything. Then it was the last day which
was a hectic day. We had more training, haircuts and classes. Then at 9 pm
they finally let us start packing. But it was so hard because there were so
many distractions. Lots of photos, goofing around, and tons of fun. It wasn't
till about 1 am when I went to bed. Then at 1:10 my alarm went off and I got
ready to leave for the airport. We left at around 2 am with all 21 of us going
to Piura.
At the airport I ate McDonald's and had a slice of Papa Johns, it was
so delicious. The plane ride was about 1.5 hours, I slept the entire way. The
airport at Piura was so small, and then we found out none of our luggage was
put on the plane. So we went to the mission home, ate food, had some training
and then had some down time to study, sleep, and play games. Then that night we
went out contacting for 5 hours. We then got our luggage at 9 pm, the airline
brought it to the mission home. The 8 gringos of the group stayed the night at
the mission home and had our last warm shower.
The next morning we went to the Stake Center where we met our trainer and found out what zone/area we're
serving in. My new companion is Elder Nieskens from Oregon. And we're serving
in the Tumbes zone in the Tablazo area. Which I then quickly found out is a 6
hour bus ride from Piura. So after a delicious Papa Johns lunch we headed to the
bus station.
The 6 hours went by pretty fast. I only slept for about 30
minutes, the rest of the time I just watched the desert of my mission. We arrived around 9
pm at night. When I walked in our apartment I very quickly realized that I just
signed up for a wild ride. I had been spoiled in the CCM. I started asking
myself why I would want to be here. Then the next morning when I found out that hot water doesn't exist and I was showering in a ice cold shower that is
sprinkling water on me, I knew these next two years were going to be very
different. But then the first day my companion wanted to walk around and get to
know the members, investigators, and recent converts, and see if we could get
any references. Every person who knew us, had the answer to why I would
sacrifice to serve a mission. It was the big smile that each of them had when
they saw us, when we talked to them they were so happy and I could see a big
change that the gospel had on them. That brought me so much comfort. I'm here to
share that joy and happiness with everybody.
Now after a few days, everything is
good, I love my room, and life is great. The next day we had noche missional.
Where we invite everybody to the church to play soccer, volleyball, etc. and it
was tons of fun. I'm pretty bad at soccer compared to everybody here, but I'm
hoping by the end of the 2 years I'll be pretty good.
Sunday was the Peru
national census. So nobody was allowed to leave their room until 5 pm at night. There was no church, but luckily the zone leaders live right next to us, so
we had 4 people to mess around and have fun. We did lots of studying, but we
also listened to lots of music and also played monopoly. It was a quick game
because I beat them all.
Then today is Pday. Pday's here are awesome, in our
mission we're allowed to listen to any music that is clean and uplifting. So
that would be Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran, Disney, James the Mormon, Penatonix,
anything that's uplifting (we just have to approve it with our zone leaders). Also we get
to watch Disney/Dream Works/Pixar movies on Pday as well, as long as they are
approved by the president. So today we watched How to Train a Dragon (in Spanish) and Moana (in English). You can buy movies down here for about 2 soles. Most are in Spanish but some are in English.
I also learned that because I'm a
gringo I get a lot of attention. People are so fascinated by me, everybody
stares, laughs, points, etc. Because I'm white, have blonde hair, and blue eyes.
I'm a rare find in Peru. Also my neighbors like to throw big parties. And there
music blasts till about 4 am, but luckily my comp had extra earplugs otherwise I wouldn't have been able to sleep. Also I'm allowed to eat ceviche in the
mission. It just has to be approved by the zone leaders. We were at a
members house eating dinner and my comp asked if they had ceviche and they did
so I had a plate. It was just raw fish with red onions and a aji sauce. It is
really tasty!! Everyday is the best day ever!! I love and miss you all a ton!
Love,
Elder
Luke Gruber
Pictures below were posted on President Rasmussen's
Facebook page this week of a training meeting from Luke's zone.
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