Birthday Guinea Pig?

¡Hola Familia Y Amigos! 

Hope you all had a great week, I know I did. So weird food of the week: Chicken Intestines! I later found out that there is a very good chance that they were actually dog intestines. Pretty tasty nevertheless. 

Lets see so for P.Day last week we went to the mall Plaza Norte. We were on a mission to find Dr. Pepper. In the Metro in the foreign foods aisle, we found a bunch of American Brand Names. Including Dr. Pepper and Kit Kats. The DP was good, but I must say I was thoroughly disappointed with the Kit Kat. 

Quechua phrase of the week: Upalla Shimi (Shut your mouth). Hopefully I’ll never have to use that one. haha.

So something I really like here is, at lunch a lot of times we have homemade limeade. Just a bunch of fresh limes, real sugar and water. Pretty refreshing.

There’s lots of really pretty colorful tropical flowers here.

Saturday we had service as a Zone and it was like something straight out of a National Geographic show. The 23 of us moved this giant mountain of sand from the street up a trail to this house that was up in the hills. Everyone is pretty sore but it was awesome. Afterwards, the family cooked Pachamanca De La Tierra (remember where they just throw a bunch of meat in a pit in the ground and bury it and it cooks?) Very tasty, and the Peruvian kids went around filling up our glasses with orange soda. It was the best feeling in the world, just being able to serve the Peruvians, and seeing how appreciative and grateful they were for the service that we did. 

So we had another neat experience...we found a wallet in the street with a bunch of money and credit cards in it. We called the guy, and met up with him to give him his wallet.Then of course we contacted him, and set up an appointment with him. He is a pretty cool guy. Just goes to show that the Lord works in mysterious ways to make missionary opportunities for us. 

This week we watched “The Book of Mormon, How Rare A Possession”. Pretty cool movie. Check it out if you haven’t seen it. But, it really strengthened my testimony of  The Book of Mormon. We are so blessed to have a book of scripture like that in our lives, yet so many of us take it for granted. It really is another testament of Jesus Christ, but so many times it just sits on our shelves gathering dust. If you have The Book of Mormon, read it! It will change your life, I promise. 

Love you all so much, and I hope you have a great week. Send some of the cold air down this way, that would be nice:)

Con amor, 
Elder Reschke

P.S. I may or may not be having a birthday guinea pig this Saturday. Cross your fingers:)

Questions Elder Reschke answered this week: 

I know it’s Summer there.  What is it like?

It’s like Summer in Utah, hot!  But it feels hotter because the sun is stronger.  We are drinking way more water than usual.  We managed to stow away with six jugs of water this month and the other companionship was mad cause they only got four!  

Any new bugs?

With the heat coming, there are more and more bugs.  I think we have termites in our room....but nothing that a little pest spray can’t take care of.

Where do shop for food or snacks?

We buy stuff in the market. It’s easier than taking the bus all the way to Metro.  We also buy a lot of stuff from the little tiendas.  They have them on EVERY street corner.

Does anyone have a garden there?

Some people have a little fenced in garden that they take are of.  Like the richer people that live down below.

How are things with your Investigators?

We are teaching a lot of people.  We are going to have to leave Jhordan behind or a while because he is not doing his part.  We found some cool new people this week.  The problem is that they work a TON so they are hard to find or can’t come to church for that reason.  Also, the grand majority of the couples aren’t married so we an’t baptize them.  But, this is a relatively high baptizing part of the world nevertheless. 

  

The little buildings on the hill that are half the size of my bedroom back at home in Utah,

 are people's homes.  Very humbling to see this:

                                             Finding Kit-Kat's and Dr. Pepper in Peru:

          This is not a real building, but rather a mural.  Picture Elder Reschke and Elder Aoki:

                                                                 Peruvian Monopoly:

                                                                           Dollar ties:

                                         American candy in the foreign section at Metro:

                                          Houses on the hill.  Most do not have electricity:

               Zone Service Project.  It took 23 people about 3 hours to move the sand up the hill:

                                             This is the house we did the service for:

                                                                 Houses on the hill:

                                                               Houses on the hill.

                                There is a water tank on the hill to provide water to the houses:

                                      Paths to the houses that the missionaries visit:

                                                     Elder Aoki and Elder Reschke:

                                                       Elder Reschke and Elder Aoki:

                                                    Peruvian outdoor toilet:

                                               Moving sand.  It was a great workout:

                                                         Service project moving sand:

                                                      It really is amazing here.
We are so blessed to live in America, but I am very grateful for the opportunity to experience this:

                                                                   Elder Reschke's area: