Subway!

  Hola queridos amigos y familia!

Hope that all is well with you guys! This was a good week! On P. Day we went to Plaza Norte and had Chinese food and frozen yogurt. They eat a lot of Chinese food here for some reason. Wednesday we went to Immigrations, and I got my Peruvian ID card! So I’m official now. After that, they took us to lunch at....SUBWAY! It was fantastic. Tasted just like America, and I got the 30 centimeter Italiano BMT. It was pretty amazing. 

So, Saturday was a cool cultural experience. With the A____ Family, we ate Pachamanca de la tierra! It was the best meal I’ve had in Peru, and quite possibly some of the best meat I’ve ever eaten, and they cooked it in the ground! They dug a big pit and made an igloo out of rocks (which I helped scrub) and lit a fire and fed it until it was way hot. When it was time to cook they knocked the igloo over, and put a bunch of potatoes and sweet potatoes on the hot rocks.  Then they threw on a bunch of raw lamb, pork, and chicken, that had been marinating overnight, and some green bean type things and this huge green plant. They covered it all with hot rocks, and put wet paper over the top of it and shoveled dirt on the paper until it was completely buried. They let it cook for an hour, and dug it up and served it. We ate it with our hands, and it was soooo good! It’s a traditional meal of the Sierra, where our Pensionista is from. 

That night they threw a party for Elder Martinez’ birthday, and we had a cake. Sunday was Fast Sunday, and we ate lunch after church with a member of the bishopric and his family. We had a dish from southern Peru called sopa seca con carapulcra (Peruvian stew). It was very tasty!

We had a good Family Home Evening with the A_____’s last night all about the Spirit of Christmas. I’ve decided that wherever you are in the world you can feel the Spirit of Christmas!

I learned this week about the power of fasting. We fasted for our Investigators that they could come to church, and we got one of our new Investigators to come! His name is Jhordan, and he is progressing way nicely. I think that if we can teach him everything, he can get baptized later this month. But really, the Lord works in mysterious ways.

We are all Children of God, and he is watching out for each and every one of us. If we keep the commandments and live in accordance with his Gospel, we can see miracles in our lives, I know it's true! Hope you all have a great week, and hope you can all feel the Christmas Spirit this week amidst all the holiday craziness!

Con Amor, 
Elder Reschke

P.S.  This week the hot water device inside our shower broke, but we, being the handymen that we are, took it apart, bought a replacement part and fixed it!  I felt pretty accomplished.  Who knew that the Mission Call is really a call to be a missionary, plumber, AND electrician!

Questions Elder Reschke answered this week:

Is it getting hot there?

It gets pretty hot in the day!  The sun just feels really strong. It’s Summer after all!  But I’m making sure to drink a lot.  I like the strawberry-lemonade Propel Drink Mix. 

Are there mosquitos there yet? 

Virtually no mosquitos at all so I don’t use bug spray.

How do you find investigators?  

We do a lot of just walking up to people in the streets and talking to everyone.  Everyone’s houses are tiny, so people spend time hanging out in the streets and talking.  We knock doors sometimes, but usually that’s not very effective because the people are busy with something.  We also get a lot of referrals from members and these people are good to teach.

How is your Spanish?

Spanish is great, some of the Ward Members tell me my Spanish is flawless and that I hardly have an English accent, so that is cool!

How is your laundry done?

HNA Luchi does our laundry. She isn’t in our Ward, but she washes for us.  I think she has a washer, but no dryer.  Our clothes hang up in her house to dry.  NOBODY here has a dryer, everyone has clothes lines.

Are you enjoying the Christmas package?

The Christmas letters are so much fun, I can’t wait to open them each day.  In all honesty, we did not put the St. Nick gifts in our shoes, because I wasn’t sure when St. Nick night was.  We opened them Friday in the morning.  We loved the St. Nick ties!  We wore them to church and everyone liked how we were matching.  Good to have marzipan too!

Is it starting to feel like Christmas in Peru?

Christmas is quite big here.  Decorations, and some people have nice Christmas trees.  There is something huge here called Paneton.  It’s spiced up fruit cake. It tastes like Christmas to me.  You know that taste?   AND, it’s pretty good!  The nativity scenes are pretty large, and take up a lot of room.  

We got to watch a tad bit of the Christmas Devotional in Spanish at the A_________’s home.  A lot of people are sad being away from their families and all, but honestly,

 I think we can feel the Christmas Spirit if we choose to.
I'm having a great Christmas Season down here!

Scrubbing rocks for the fire pit:

                                                                      The fire igloo:

                                            Lamb, chicken and pork put in the pit:

                                                   The pit all covered up and baking:

                                               Uncovering the pit when the food is ready:

                                                    All of the food that was cooked in the pit:

                                       "The meat was absolutely amazing!  So tasty.
                   And it was cooked in the ground without pans and trays and stuff,
                                         just dirt and rocks!  It was so good!":

                                                       Elders eating the good food:

                                                         Elder Reschke and Elder Martinez:

                                                       Birthday party for Elder Martinez:

                                            Elder Martinez, HNA Norma (she cooks their food each day),
                                                                    Elder Reschke:

                                                                        Scripture covers:

                                                                 Lunch at Subway:

Dusty shoes at the end of the day:

After polishing:

                                                            Christmas Coke sign:

                                    "I think we can feel the Christmas Spirit if we choose to."
                    (It is not really snowing in Peru.  This is a mural that looked very realistic!)