Week 5 of Captivity

Dear Family,

 

Week number 5 of captivity. Mental status is slowly declining into madness. I'm not sure how much longer I have until my will is completely broken. I'm planning my escape with my fellow inmates as I write this...Heh! Just kidding. Still doing good here. We continue to teach lessons to investigators and they are going well. The food is still awesome =). We weren't able to go out into the city this week for some unknown reason, but we'll get to go out next week. Not sure what else to write really....oh, before I forget or run out of time, here is how to send stuff through the pouch. The address is "Elder Skylar Black, Lima Perú MTC, P.O. 30150, Salt Lake City, UT 84130. It'll take about a week to for a letter to get here. And you're not supposed to send me packages while I am here. My secret to not being homesick....? Just being awesome I guess. I can't really pass that on though, so I guess everyone is out of luck =). Emilee (spelling?) is getting married. Weird. Juan Rico eh? .....whatever.....lol. Yup. Random stuff time. It's always overcast here but never rains. Elder Holland is in the builing next to the MTC but we don't know if he'll visit us. I hope he does =). I taught one of my latino roommates (he speaks english fairly well) what freaking awesome meant. He asked me what it meant one day because he heard some americano's saying it on the soccer field one day. Now he says it all the time with his accent. So funny. I've gained about 12-15 lbs between here and Provo. Not sure how or where it all went, but apparently I weigh 140 now....And no, I'm not getting fat. So too bad. Next week we get more new missionaries; latino's and americano's alike, so we'll be getting new roommates. Me and my companion are getting along pretty well and things are going well. Got to go right now! Bye}

 

Elder Black

August 22, 2012

Yo yo yo!

 

The MTC is great here. Its really nice here. The grounds are immaculate and it looks great. I like it better than Provo. The food is good and we have rice, meat and bread twice a day with juice. Food is awesome =). We have 2 investigators who are actually our teachers. We do role plays and pretend to be actual investigators. Were teaching one investigator that is argumentative and opionionated. Shes hard to teach but we somehow pull off the lesson at the end. Our other investigator is awesome. His wife wants a divorce because he beats her and hes drinking away his sorrows. Hes nice and weve felt the spirit in our lessons. Teaching is great here. We also do TRC which is when members of the church outside the MTC come in and pretend to be investigators. In TRC were teaching Julio. His family died in a car crash and he blames himself for it. He doesnt think god answers prayers and is really down on himself. In our second lesson with him we felt the Spirit so strong. He was tearing up and he said we gave a beautiful lesson; on the Book of Mormon and him recieving peace in his life throught the BoM. Best lesson yet. Oh, I have a new companion, Elder Murphy. Hes from LA Californina. Hes 6 foot 4 and weight 250 lbs. Hes a big guy, but hes cool. Hes funny and lively. He gets discouraged sometimes though with the language and getting used to being a missionary. He does a good job though. I have 3 latino roommates. 1 speaks english (Elder Lozano), another speaks a little english (Elder Moreno) and the other speaks none (Elder Ticeran). Theyre all really funny and fun to hang out with. Elder Lozano is really spiritual and love it here. He  said he heard and elder use the word freakin on the soccer field and he asked me what it meant. I said if you say "freakin awesome" it means really awesome. Now he says freakin awesome all the time in a spanish accent lol. Its so funny. Elder Christofferson is coming here on the 30th to speak to us in spanish. One of the latinos here is going to translate for him. That should be pretty awesome =). Also, were going tracting this saturday in the city.....I split from my companion and go with a latino. Hopefully one of my roommates =). Not sure how I feel about going tracting yet, but I bet itll be good. The MTC here is pretty small. It only hold 200 people and theres maybe 100 here right now; so its pretty chill here. Our schedule is more or less the same here but everyone here speaks in spanish so my comprehension is going up =). I now have the missionary purpose and the first vision memorized in spanish. I would type it to you to show you but Im running out of time. I dont know how you can send letters to me right now, but I can let you know next week. Dear elder would work best if you wanted to send a letter like that. But apparently there is a mail strike right now so....yeah...I dont know lol. Overall Im doing great. Oh yeah, its winter here right now and it doesnt really get below 55 degrees and its always overcast. Kind of gloomy sometimes but its better than being hot. Sorry to hear about brother Hiatt. Kind of sudden =(. Its good that the trailer got sold though! Cool beans. I do like though that you wait to redo the flooring in my room until after I leave, thanks. And buy a 5th wheel trailer? Is dad going to buy a truck? Yes! I just found out how to use an apostrophe! '''''. Oh yeah =). That's all I can think of for now,  so uh.......bye =)

 

Love,

 

Elder Negro

Finally in Peru!

Hola!

 

Im finally here in Peru! The plane trip was long, and we didnt have much to do, but I survived. Everyone in my group got here fine, which is good. We got into our rooms at around 1:30 last night. I slept like a baby. Luckily they let us sleep in until 9:00 this morning. The breakfast was cereal. Namely "Fruit Loops". They tasted almost exactly like chewy fruity vitamins.....not the best lol. The MTC here is pretty small, but really nice. Nicer than the one in Provo. The first impression I had of Peru on our way to the MTC was, "Wow, this is so getto". Lol. Luckily as we got towards the MTC things got less getto and were in a nicer area. Sorry about not putting in apostrophes....Im using a spanish keyboard and its kind of weird and I dont really know how to use it lol. The temperatures here right now are fairly cool. About mid 60 s. Its also a little humid. This will sound random, but the grass here is really weird but I kind of like it. Its like really short, sturdy, soft crabgrass. I just thought it was cool =). I dont really know what else to say... the plants are really pretty here lol. Thats all I can think of for now, so uh....bye.

 

Love,

 

Elder Black

Letter to Hunter

This is mostly for Hunter. To fix the interent on the computer you have to right click on the internet bars on the toolbar. Then  click troubleshoot. If that doesn't work try disconnecting from the internet and then reconnecting. That usually works. Haha....he had to have dialysis, huehuehue. Thanks for the sticker, I thought it was pretty awesome =).  And no, I haven't heard about the trumpet and helium thing before. I'll have to try it when I get back. It is kind of hard to wake up, but you get 8 hours of sleep (usually 7 and a half) and I haven't slept all the way through the night yet. You're tired but you can get along fine. Yes your letter was long enough =). I tried to interrpret your spanish and this is what I came up with. Did you use Google translator or Mom lol? I had a hard time with the grammar. "How much spanish do I actually know?" I can teach about anything I want from Preach My Gospel without notes for the most part. It would be slow and might be a little hard to follow, but I think I can get the point across. "Is there anything you can do do prepare for a mission?" I got the answer to that question in Sunday school in sinlges ward. The answer I got was, "Get as close as you can to the Savior and stay there." That I think will make the biggest difference. The main thing is helping your investigators feel the Spirit and have the Spirit testify to them. If you're spiritually strong and close to the Lord they'll be better able to feel of the Spirit. So read scriptues, pray and do all the primary answers. Hunter, usted ser un pedo.

 

-insert sentiment-

 

Elder Black

Just a Note August 13

First of all, thanks for the Chinotto =). I enjoyed it, it reminded me of being in Italy. Nobody else in my district liked it. They all made horribly disgusted faces and spit it out when they drank it. So hilarious. One hermana from another district actually liked it though. First person I've met that's actually liked it. Thanks for the jerky Dad! I ate it all =). You'll be proud to hear that the more I eat the more I like it. I actually liked eating it this time lol. Not too much has gone on here. Just the normal stuff. We did teach a lesson to Amalio (a pretend investigator), and I felt like the gift of tounges was starting to kick in. I understood everything he said and I was able to respond to anything he said. Pretty cool and spiritual experience. That lesson lasted about 35 minutes. =) I'm sending home a package today that has an extra towel and a pair of pants, also a pair of womens socks that snuck into my luggage. It's kind of nice having p-day the day before we leave for Peru. I get to chill for my last day =). I'm not really nervous about going or anything, I'm actually ready to leave here and move on. I can't really think of anything else to write right now; so I'll probably send another one later today. Yeah Peru! Woot!

 

Love,

 

Elder Black

 

P.S. Tell Hunter that he's still a loser for not writing me =)

My promised mongo awesome letter...

Week 2

Hola!

Things are going well here at the MTC. This letter will be pretty short because I'm writing a mongo letter that will have everything in it. =) And laundry is really easy by the way. We just chilll om the laundry room until it's done and then take it right to our room and put it away. I don't even have to fold much =). Actually no, I haven't really gotten homesick at all. Sorry. Although I do miss sleeping in and your cooking. Also I don't know if you have time, I've seen a lot of these full size microfiber towels that look awesome. They're thin and lightweight and dry you off really well. I'm not sure how my other towels will dry in 100% humidity....if you could find 1 or 2 of those at like a travel store or something and send them here before I leave that would be great. We got our travel plans this last week. We leave next tuesday morning. And guess who's the travel leader.....me. I'm in charge of making sure that 12 elders/sisters make it onto all of our flights.....woot....We leave to Atlanta and then to Peru with 2 hours between every flight, lots of time =). Then to go to Ecuador we have to go all the way back to Atlanta and then to Ecuador. I guess Peru and Ecuador don't really like eachother right now so they won't let any flights in from Peru or something....kind of stinks but whatever. Everyone in my district loved the rolls and jam. They were awesome! Thanks. And don't send me any more food before I leave, I still have bunch lol. More details on the MTC will be in my awesome letter.

See ya later!

Elder Black