The Area is Catching Fire!

Hola Familia Y Amigos!

This was a solid week for us here in Trapiche.  For P. Day we went and hung out with the Zona Santa Isabel, and made tacos, so that was a fun day.

We had a good Zone meeting on Tuesday. Whenever I give trainings for my District, I always bring treats to keep everybody excited, ya know? 

This week was a solid week for us because we were able to teach a lot of progressing Investigators. We have a baptismal date with David, so we are excited for him. We are working on a baptismal date with Antonio, and we have a lot of people that we are going to mention baptism this week! 

Remember that golden family I told ya about that we contacted last Sunday? Well I was wrong. They aren’t golden. They are DIAMOND!!! They are so awesome!! Super excited, liked the Book of Mormon a lot, are for sure coming to church this Sunday, have already given us breakfast and lunch, and invited us to spend Christmas with them! Wow they are going to progress so quickly. I am very excited for them. They are very kind, and they like listening to our message. Lots of prayers please!! 

We were also able to bring Simón, and Bety to church yesterday for the first time. They liked it a lot! There was a Regional Conference transmitted form Salt Lake City for all of Perú and Bolivia. We were able to listen to Elder Anderson and two of the Seventies. They gave really good talks! 

Wow I am just so excited for this week that we are going to have teaching all these people that are progressing! We were contacting people in the park yesterday and ran into a lady that just got here from Chiclayo and was already to be married and baptized by the missionaries in Chiclayo a month ago, but lost contact with them when she came to Lima. So, she just kinda fell straight from the heavens! We are going to visit them this week. 

Well sorry this letter was kinda scattered but I want you all to know how excited I am to be a missionary and participate in the work of the Lord. This truly has been such an amazing time period in my life, and I am excited to keep working hard until the very end!!

 Love you all so much, and have a fantastic week.

 Con Amor,

 Elder Reschke. 

P.S. Cultural Note: In just about every area in the mission, there is something called a Huaca. Just in the middle of the neighborhoods, stand the Huacas, which are ancient ruins left by the ancient inhabitants of this area. You can see the melting walls of the buildings where they lived, and if you look around real well you could probably find artifacts. Pretty neat, and there is a GIANT Huaca right in my area. Nobody really pays any attention to them, but they are super cool to explore!

P.S.S. We already have our Christmas festivities planned...There are some people in the Branch that have something like 50 pigs, so they are killing 15 of them for Christmas, and we are going to help them:)

Questions Elder Reschke answered this week:

What do you feed your District?

Well, this past week I give them Chokosoda, which are these really tasty soda crackers covered in chocolate. It sounds weird, but it is super tasty.

Have you gotten your package yet???

I haven’t gotten the package, and I am 99 percent sure it’s just sitting in the mission offices.  Sometimes they take a while…

The fields and jungle behind our apartment:

               The only crepe restaurant in Peru, which just happens to be right here in Trapiche:

                                                                            Trapiche:

                                   Mozomorra morada (Popular traditional Peruvian dessert made with
                               purple corn and fruit.  It is thickened into a pudding-like texture
                                       with potato flour and spiced with cinnamon and cloves.)

                                       

TACOS!

Hola, 

It was a good week for us here in Trapiche. For P. Day Monday, we had P. Day with my old Zone, which was kinda strange. Got to see two of my old Companions: My Son, Elder Ramirez. And my father in the mission, Elder Martinez. It was a good day.

For Family Home Evening, we made Tacos. I am the homemade tortilla MASTER!

On Tuesday, for the District Meeting, I brought breakfast for my District, which was kinda fun. We had a good Zone Conference with President Erickson, and we talked all about the importance of all of the Auxiliary Organizations of the church. 

We had a solid week of finding new people, and did a lot of knocking on doors. This week was also a week full of doing baptismal interviews and visiting the other areas to do work visits, which was a lot of fun. The thing about being District Leader is that instantly, the Investigators, Converts, etc. from the entire District become YOUR own Investigators. So, I get to know them. Four of them got baptized on Saturday which was good.

We had a good lesson yesterday with a new Investigator named Lily. She doesn’t believe in God.   BUT, we taught her the best Plan of Salvation that I have taught in my whole mission. The Spirit was super strong, and in the end she said, "Well, I am a little more of a believer now." We are excited to keep working with her.

When we were comin´ home last night, we were like 5 contacts short of getting to 101 which was our goal.  Ordinary missionaries would have just gone home because we were super tired and right by our house. BUT, we decided to get to the goal. Coincidentally, the last two people were a GOLDEN FAMILY.  Married, awesome, super nice, and when we asked them what day we could visit them, they said,  “Wednesday at eleven, so we can all eat lunch together!”   WOW. I just know that Heavenly Father was testing our diligence in that moment, and blessed us with that family. I’ll let ya all know how it goes. 

Thanks for all you do, and have a great week.

 Love, 

Elder Reschke. 

P.S. This week I bought some milk STRAIGHT from the cow. It was super tasty, and a lot better than the bagged stuff they sell in the stores.

Questions Elder Reschke answered this week:

Inquiring minds want to know; WHAT happened to Carlos?

As far as I know, members in my old area have him.  If I would have stayed in my old area, we would have eaten him, but it’s kinda hard to bring a guinea pig in a taxi to a new area!  

Did you get the package we sent?

Nope, not yet. Probably this week!

How do you like your new companion? Tell us about him.

Elder Gil is from Chiapas Mexico.  He speaks a fair amount of English and sings in English. But we always just talk in Spanish.  We laugh a lot and he teaches really well!  We get along great.

What are you going to do for P. Day today?

We are going to make tacos with the Zone Santa Isabel, and play soccer and stuff.  Should be fun!

How far are you from your Mission Office?  Your old area?

Maybe half hour from the offices. It’s funny because vertically, my area is between my two old areas.  But horizontally, it’s a lot further west than my two old areas.

Have you had the farm fresh milk yet?

Yes and it’s super tasty.

What is the Branch like?

The Branch is super cool with about 200 members.  A majority are women and children. Only about 60-70 people come.  We are finding a lot of new Investigators.  

What is the scripture of the week?

The scripture is Isaiah 55:8-9.  

8:   For my thoughts are not your thoughts, 

neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.

9:   For as the heavens are higher than the earth,

 so are my ways higher than our ways, 

and my thoughts than your thoughts.

What is the miracle of the week?

The miracle is, that right when we were going to quit for

the night, and were so tired, we decided to knock on one more

door.  And behind that door was a Golden Family!

Our complete kitchen at the moment.  It works great:

                                                        Making tacos with Elder Gil:

                                                          The tacos were super tasty:

                                                                  District Meeting:

                                      This area is super green and pretty, and also super dusty:

                                                         Nice to see some green:

                                                              Walking lots of miles:

                                                                A day in Trapiche:

                                                                      Fields of corn:

                                    Our Convert Maria has this little Peruvian Hairless puppy,
                                      and ya can't lie, it's the cutest thing you've ever seen:

             This is a painting of Jesus that a super special needs kid made for me...personalized
            with my name and everything. He is very handicapped, but he has an amazing talent:

Moving To The Country: Trapiche!

HOLA HOLA, 

Well everybody, it’s been an emotional but amazing week. Emotional because I had to say goodbye to my beloved Año Nuevo. Amazing, because they sent me to one of the coolest areas of the mission...Trapiche!

 We had a sad sad goodbye to Año Nuevo, and a final Family Home Evening with Joselyn and Ingrid. They were crying hard, and said that I have come to be like a brother to them, and that they will never forget me. Manuel was also crying. Hermana Sonya was also crying. It was such a tender moment. Joselyn Ingrid and Marcos, my 3 converts made a final goodbye video, and I’m not gonna lie...I cried too! SO many amazing experiences back in Año Nuevo that I will never forget as long as I live. 

      President put me back as District Leader, over a bigger District of 6 missionaries, 4 Elders and 2 Sisters. Almost all are super young in the mission, with like 1 or 2 changes each.  I am the oldest missionary in the District.

I am in like a very cool area in the mission too! Trapiche is kind of in the outskirts of the mission, and it is like the country! Super Tranquilo, quiet, and full of farmers fields, where the Peruvians don’t even use machinery, and they just plant and harvest by hand. There is a big awesome river, with a little village type thing down by the river, and a huge chunk of my area is this Jungly forested area. There’s cows, goats, etc, and I don’t have to buy bagged milk anymore, because here you can get fresh farm milk straight from the cows!

Here they don’t have a Ward, we are in a Branch. And the leaders were talking to us and want us to help look for a place to rent out to have church, because the chapel where we meet is too far away. 

     The Branch is super awesome and willing to help out a ton! We had to kind of start from scratch, but we already have a bunch of cool people with a ton of progress. We are excited to teach Antonio, Angelica, and Angelo.

My new companion is Elder Gil (pronounced Heel in english), and he is from Mexico. He just barely finished his training in the mission, so is super young, humble, kind, and excited to work hard. We are going to get along great! Should be fantastic! 

One of our recent converts has 50+ dogs, like 15 of which are the Peruvian Hairless breed. The apartment is kinda small, but new and nice, and hey a small apartment means it’s easy to clean right? At night out here it is SILENT. And there is a papaya tree right outside my window. There’s a TON of banana trees all over the place. Bring it On Trapiche!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am super excited to work out here in Trapiche, and I know that if we work hard, the Lord will put the people in our hands! I trust in that completely.

 Love ya´ll so much!

 Love, Elder Reschke. 

P.S. I guess I’m kind-of a cowboy now, right??

P.S.S: Having a Mexican companion is the best!

 We are making tacos today!!

Questions Elder Reschke answered this week:

What lessons did you learn with Elder Ramirez?

With Elder Ramirez I learned to be more sensitive of the feelings of others. 

  I ended the transfer well with Elder Ramirez.

 I love him, and I wish the best for him. 

What do you think of your new companion so far?

He is going to be a great companion! I am excited to work with him. The funny thing is that I met him the day I picked up Elder Ramirez, because he got here with  Elder Ramirez.  His dad in the mission and I just did a switch, and his dad in the mission is now with  Elder Ramirez!

Do you know any of the missionaries in your new District?

I know Elder Romero, from Cusco. He is my buddy, and has a year in the mission.

What is the miracle of the week?

Miracle is that we found a cool guy who is already coming to church! 

Scripture of the week?

The Scripture is something super original!  

Nephi 1:1, where we read about the importance of raising our children with good values:

“1:1 (I, Nephi, having been born of goodly parents, therefore I was taught somewhat in all the learning of my father; and having seen many afflictions in the course of my days, nevertheless, having been highly favored of the Lord in all my days; yea, having had a great knowledge of the goodness and the mysteries of God, therefore I make a record of my proceedings in my days.”)

                                            Saying good-bye to the old District:

                                                            Good byes are always hard:

                                                     Saying goodbye to the new converts:

                                                              Good-bye to our friends:

                                                                        Good-bye:

                                                                  One last good bye:

                                                     Elder Reschke and Elder Hilario:

                                                 Saying good bye to Manuel was hard:

                                                                           Good bye:

                                            Good bye to my beloved  Año Nuevo:

                                                                 Good bye dog:

                                           Time to say good bye to my son, Elder Ramirez:

                                    A package in the mail from McKenna was a fun surprise:

                                                           Elder Gil and Elder Reschke:

                                                           Lunch in my new area:

                                                                   My new area:

                                                              Peruvian hairless dogs:

                                                            My new area, Trapiche:

                                                      Cooking in our new apartment:

                                                             Elder Reschke and Elder Gil:

Escape from the SHARK.

Hola Familia Y Amigos,

Twas a good week here in good ol´ Peru.   Monday, I was in charge of P. Day. We had a good “Beach Day” in the Stake Center, with Hawaiian leis, sandals, limbo, a movie, tasty tropical juices, pineapple, and the game “Escape from the Shark”, which consisted of running away from the the guinea pig in the shark costume. The guinea pig’s name is Carlos, and we are proud of him because he did a great job as shark. If all goes as planned, today we are going to fry him up. More to come on that next week;)

     Tuesday, we did our final Service Project for our favorite little hill, La Cruz. We moved around a whole bunch of dirt like usual:) We have been teaching Nancy, Joselyn and Ingrid’s mom, who has gained a very strong testimony just by listening to our message and seeing the huge change in the lives of her daughters. She wants to be baptized really bad!

     This weekend, we had the privilege of watching every single session of conference in the Stake Center, where it was transmitted. So many inspiring messages, and I am way excited for the new Apostles, and I know they will do a great job. In a separate room they put on conference in English for the gringos, but I just stayed in the main room and watched it all in Spanish.   I dunno, it's just like,  I can watch it in English my whole life, but I only have 4 opportunities to watch conference with my beloved Peruvians, and so it only makes sense that I watch conference with THEM. My favorite talk was definitely Elder Bednar, when he gave the culmination of all the great apostles and prophets that have passed away in his time as Apostle. It reminded me that the message that these great men share is an Eternal message, and it will always be important. 

 Changes are today, and I am almost positive I’ll have to say Peace Out to Año Nuevo. Because of that, my converts have been saying goodbye, and Hermana Susy bought me a way nice Peruvian scarf made from this really nice wool with designs of Maccu Pichu and Llamas, and a Llama keychain with my name engraved in it. 

We had one last Family Home Evening with the Familia H., and they shared some really nice words, saying that even when they were sure that the wedding wasn’t going to work out, Elder Reschke stayed faithful and said, “Don’t worry, everything is going to work out,” and that now they consider me part of their family. Working here in Año Nuevo has been a marvelous experience, that has really shaped my mission and I will remember all these experiences for the rest of my life.

 Love Ya´ll so much, 

Love Elder Reschke. 

P.S. My Meditizando scripture of the week is 2 Nephi 4:16 "He aqui, mi alma se deleita en las cosas del Señor, Y mi corazón medita continuamente en las cosas que he visto y oído .”

(Behold, my soul delighteth in the things of the Lord; 

and my heart pondereth continually upon the things 

which I have seen and heard.)

P.S.S. Carlos is gonna be TASTY:)

Questions Elder Reschke answered this week:

What is your scripture of the week?

(See the P.S. above.)

What is the miracle of the week?

The miracle is that we were able to bring the Family O. to General Conference.

Where has Carlos been all week? 

He has been having a week long sleepover at a member’s house.

What is in Carlos’s future?

Everyone around here knows how to cook cuy (guinea pig). 

 We already have three offers…

                                               Elder Reschke and Carlos the guinea pig:

                                                          Elders doing a service project:

                                                          Families up on the hill:

                                                                          Elder Reschke:

                                                                         City lights:

                                                             At General Conference:

                                                                At General Conference:

                                                              At General Conference:

                                 President Soto, the Stake President who took us out to lunch
                                  between Conference sessions, Saturday.  We ate Chinese Food:

                                                                 At General Conference:

                          Familia H.  Our Converts.  They are like family to me:

                                             The nice wool scarf from Hermana Susy: