Week 54: Surprise, Surprise, Surprise

Hey all, 

So this week was LO MAXIMO (the best). We started by painting a house!! Some investigators trusted 4 inexperienced teenager's to paint their house and I think it turned out super super good!!! It was a blast, but it took 2 full mornings of work (8 am to 1pm), one day to sand the wall, and put on 2 coats of white, and the next day to paint it yellow and blue. 

The rest of the week was pretty average, one of the Elders in my district, Elder Isaac, died. As in he went home today. So we had a party as a district and then a branch. We ate lots of cake and no bake cookies. 

AND CAMBIOS, so its sad, but I have been changed out of Pueblo Nuevo, after 6 months I'm gone, it was sad to say good bye. But I am going to be opening up and area called Huangala (Juan-ka-la). It is a super tiny small town, even smaller than Pueblo Nuevo. I haven't even been there yet. My companion and I are the first missionaries ever to work in the area. So I am super super excited. The gospel is literally being spread to ever corner of the globe. Our room is currently empty and we still have to move everything there tonight, but its going to be a blast, there will be more photos and news next week. My new companion is named Elder Chao (In English Elder Bye). He has 5 months in the mission and is from Bolivia. I've been with him for 6 hours but seems super awesome!!! 

That's about all for the week!!!! Super excited for the future and all the new fun stories to come! Everyday is the best day ever!!! 

Love, 

Elder Luke Gruber

Week 53: HALF WAY

So this week was more normal that then rest and went by a little bit slower but still filled with lots of fun. The highlight is that I hit one year on Thursday, it was a regular day but we ended by eating rotisserie chicken and making waffle cakes and frosting and burning a shirt. The waffles and frosting were so sugary they made everybody in our room feel super sugar rushed a little sick in the stomach. And the chicken gave everybody diarrhea. 

We also had a super funny lesson, we entered into a house with an elderly couple and the dude was hilarious!!! He was the biggest jokester but was also a little hard on the hearing. We introduced ourselves and my companion started first and they had the hardest time trying to say his name. "Eler maqita, Elker Maqeka, Elber Maqa". They couldnt do it. Then I said my name and they just starting laughing and said "hahaha we don't speak English, we don't understand you." So then my companion said it again and explained it was only my name. Then after about 5 minutes the gentlemen said "man, if only I knew English so I could talk with this young man here" and pointed to me. I then told him a knew Spanish and he just starting laughing as if he didn't believe me (even though I said it to him in Spanish). 

Then today we went to a super cool beach named "La grama", its just a super rocky beach with caves and we found penguins, and foxes, and a bunch of cool animals. It was the bomb! 

That's about it for the week! This next week is transfers, so we will see what happens! 

I love you all a ton!!! 

Love,

Elder Luke Gruber

Week 52: Juana! Mudanza! Multi-zona!

Hey Hey Hey, 

This week flew by super fast, we had almost no time to work in our area we were all over the place. On Tuesday we had our interviews with President Vega and his wife, and then on Wednesday we had our multi-zone conference in Piura and we didn't get back to our area until about 7 pm. Then on Thursday we spent a few hours helping a member move. 

Then on Saturday after 4 long months of looking and praying for a new room, we moved into our new room! It is only 3 doors down, and on the 3rd story, we are the first people to ever live in the room and it is super nice. Us 4 Elders live there, it has 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, a kitchen, laundry room, and a living room. It is big and nice. We also have a really nice view of the entire town. Also our window in our bedroom opens up to look over a pasture of goats, sheep's, pigs, ducks, chickens, turkeys, dogs, cows, horses and more. So our alarm in the morning is the screaming goats and the oinking pigs, and cocking roosters and its super cool! 

Then on Saturday we also had the awesome opportunity to baptize our investigator Juana, we found her knocking doors about 2 months ago, and we had given up on her, and we were about to drop her, but then out of the blue she showed up to church, and told us she was reading the Book of Mormon. She has so much faith and was super super excited to be baptized. Although I might have lost my footing as she was coming out of the water and we almost both fell in, but I saved it. All the members had a good laugh. Then she asked if she could stay in the water and swim a little bit. Also the branch president tried to confirm her a member on Sunday but ever time messed up a different part and tried it about 10 different time. So he gave up and said it would be a better idea if I just did it. So I also had to opportunity to confirm her a member of the church and give her the gift of the holy ghost. A super cool experience. 

That's about all for this week!!! Ever day here is the best day ever!!

Love, 

Elder Luke Gruber

Week 51: Unwelcomed Intrudor

Hey all, 

This week flew by super super super fast. I literally feel like yesterday I wrote y'all. We have had lots work and some fun service projects. We have some super good investigators that are progressing well. 

We spent two mornings this week ungraining corn. We have a member who buys corn (corn that is dry and super hard) and we have to scrape it off the cobb with our fingers, and we also learned that if you put it in a bag and just beat the bag with a stick the corn also comes off. So we got a good work out it. It was fun. Most of the time they grind up the corn and give it as feed to the animals. 

When we got back from the service project we showered and as we were heading upstairs we found that a snake found its way under our door and climbing our stairs. It then ran away and entered into the bedroom of the other companionship and we lost it. We had to look in their bed room trying to find it. We then found it half in the wall and half in the bed. We tried trapping it but it didn't work, so Elder Isaac got the broom and went ham beating it senseless on the ground. It died a very painful death, and we now have a dead snake in a bottle in our room. I have a very entertaining video of 4 men screaming at the top of their lungs for over a minute. It wasn't a very pleasant experience. We are just super lucky we saw it entering, because if we didn't see it enter the elder probably would have entered his bed and gotten bitten. 

This week was a strong campaigning week in Pueblo Nuevo, the election for town governor is October 7th, there were lots of parades, and campaign events. Its hard to work sometimes because everybody leaves their house to go to these events. 

Yesterday there was also a dance event here. Where professional teams came to preform traditional dances from Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Bolivia and Peru. It was free and in the town Colosseum. We watched a few of the dances and they were really good. That is about all for the week, everyday here is the best day ever!!! 

Love, 

Elder Luke Gruber