Another Week Down...

Well, we had a baptism almost set up this week, but it fell through due to some Word of Wisdom issues. We were quite sad that she didn't pass her interview, but it's alright. We're here to help her overcome whatever problem so she can make those covenants. We visited her after the interview, and she really seemed to have repented, so we're excited to support her and help her make the goal. We know she can do it.

Other than that, we've recieved several very good refrences from the members, all we have to do is get them to come to church. If we can help them with that, we can see some great progress in this area. We're working with those referals each day, and fervently praying for them.

As for me, I'm doing just fine. Still excited to do the work, despite being tired each day. I've been working on directing all of my thoughts into the work and my investigators. I can already see a difference in the revelation that I can recieve to help them.

 

Oh, and I had chicken heart in my soup yesterday. My companion gladly ate it... that was just another one of those moments...

The world of missionaries sure is small. And within the church as well. The brother of my companion for the MTC in Provo, Elder Hill, baptized someone in my district! It was really funny for Elder Hill to meet him. His mind was blown. It was really cool that he happend to meet one of his brother's converts for Lima. Small world.

 

Hope all is well!

Elder Seth

Another Week in the One Stoplight Town... Oh Wait, We Don't Have a Stoplight...

Well, we've been working hard with our investigators, and I feel like we're making progress. We even got to see a miracle yesterday! The Family Group in Roma joined with our ward, and with that they brought an amazing investigator. She's a girl about 15 years old that's been going to seminary for some time now. She wants to be baptized and has a strong conviction to choose the right (despite what her friends do at times). We set up an appointment to visit her yesterday and she was really receptive. So we're really excited to help her prepare and make a covenant with the Lord.

As for me, all is going well. I'm still finding more and more enthusiasm each day. Especially as I see investigators progress and feel the spirit.

Well, as for interesting things that have happened... Well, not too much. I did get to see the crazy spiders that live in people's walls this week! They hide in the holes between bricks in the house and make a funnel web around it. When they feel the web move, they dash out of the hole and attack whatever's stuck there, hoping it's a tasty snack. So my companion used a piece of grass, and the spider jumped out and it was huge! It's body was probably 2/3 of an inch, but it has super long, gangly legs. It was pretty crazy. And scary that they live in the walls of tons of people. Good thing it's just on the outside...

Other than that, there was a massive harvest! Tons of people were vending their plants in the streets and traffic was almost completely blocked. But they had car fulls and truck fulls of plants all over the place. It gave the town an interresting smell. But that's just another one of those things that I've never seen before.

Take care!
Elder Seth Prestwich

----- Dad's update ------
I was talking about school in my email and Seth responded with this story.

"Phew. Glad to be from the US, lol. One of the members here was kicked out of her religion class for saying that God had a body of flesh and bones and that reciting the Lord's Pray wasn't what Christ was teaching, because he said that we should ask for what we need in his name. The Catholic Professor got really mad and kicked her out. I thought that was pretty funny, but also really depressing. Apostasy... I get the whole separation of church and state thing."

Wow.... 1/3 of my Mission Gone By.....

I feel quite comfortable here in Ascope. I'm excited to work and help our investigators to progress. We had 6 people in Sacrament Meeting, which was amazing! So we're really hoping that we can help them progress and come to Christ. But we have one investigator who is PF, and she's had many baptismal dates before, but she went to church and it looks like this could very easily be the time she decides to make the covenant. We're really excited for her and are working hard to help her keep the desire.

All is great here! I'm working hard and am really starting to enjoy the work. Things are getting to be a bit more normal. I still have little girls ask me what I used to paint my hair yellow.

Other than that, I'm healthy and excited to work. We're having success and life is pretty tiring as normal.

It was great talking with everyone on the phone! Hope all is well.

 

Elder Seth

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Alan's Update

Seth was able to call home last night for Mother's Day, it was great to talk. We had some bad connections, and he couldn't buy cards longer than 20 minutes, so he called several times working everything out and after cards ran out. After lots of problems and not being able to hear all that well his second card ran out, before he called again he said a quick prayer asking that the connection would be good this time so we could talk better. He called and it was a perfect connection. We could hear him great and he could hear us.

A few things he mentioned that you might want to know. Apparently, Peruvian dogs are some of the ugliest around, lol. He's not much of a fan of dogs anymore after all the little dogs barking, and general uncleanliness of the ones there. I included a picture below of a typical Peruvian Dog, except Seth said they are more disease ridden. Apparently, they are a hairless species. 

Mosquitoes are a problem in his new area, and apparently they hid in the toilet...ewww & ouch. He was asking around if they had any kind of bug spray like Off, but there isn't. They did suggest "snail juice" though...uh, yeah. Someone showed him how to take a snail and get the juice out to put on you neck and such. Apparently, it helps with the bugs and acne, :). He skipped that one and decided to just live with it. 

Overall he's doing well and enjoying his mission. He loves the people and said he told us the worst things, which means it's not all that bad. Seth's finally used to the food, although he's tired of chicken and rice. Especially, tired of seeing chicken feet in his soup. 

Alan.

Update -- Ascope, La Libertad, Peru

Hi Everyone, this is Alan. Seth called last night to setup a time to talk on Mother's Day, as missionaries get to call home on Christmas and Mother's Day--yeah, not Father's Day :). He is now serving in Ascope, La Libertad, Peru. It's a tiny town, so small it doesn't even have a post office. He will get any letters you send, but it will take awhile and he can only reply to one person a month (and the letter has to weigh less than 2oz or something--really small). He appreciates any and all letters, and will respond when he can. I'll let you know if anything changes. He says it's really green compared to his last area (still looks kinda brown from the satellite  images), but the image of the town square below looks nice.

Nothing even close to town. Definitely a farming village.

You can zoom in to see the few streets and brown river going through town.

Looks like the village square is nice.

From Beach Front to the Styx....

Well, they've finally sent me out of Huanchaco. I'm now in a little farming town of Casa Grande. It's definitely a change, though. There's plenty of green around. Trees, grass, plants, and crops everywhere. There's even a couple little (brown) rivers that pass through my town. It's a quaint little place, but really nice. The people here are a little more well off than a lot of areas in Huanchaco. The only downside--Sancudos. They're like mosquitoes, but worse. They hide in the houses and eat you alive if you're not careful... But other than that, I feel a lot more calm here in Ascope. I think all the green puts me at ease.

I am the only foreigner in the town, though. I get a lot of strange looks here. Well, even more than in Huanchaco. And when I first got here, I didn't feel so well, so my Pensionista gave me a bowl of soup... with a chicken foot in it... My companion and I traded soups (he was rather happy to eat the foot... *gag*).

I also saw a real life sheapherd for the first time! He and his family were riding donkeys and hearding their sheep down the river. Kinda a funny moment. I'm definitely not in Beach-front Huanchaco anymore...

There are actually only 3 paved streets in my town. Kinda fun, actually.

Everyone speeds around in little mototaxis here as well. There's thousands of them on the road, which is pretty funny as well. Either that or Bus and that's all the transportation here.

My companion is awesome. He's quite the joker, but he works hard. He only has 4 months left in his mission, and his experience really shows. I hope to learn a lot from him and really enjoy my time here in Ascope!

Hope all is well over there in the good ol' US!

Elder Seth

Transfers Coming

We didn't get a main email from Seth this week, so I put some info together from his other emails this week.
--Dad

All is going well here. I'll be heading to another area, which is weird. It'll make me super sad to leave Huanchaco.

But as for the health thing, another sad story is the "faith" that they teach people to have here. Some churches basically teach that science is a lie and of the devil. A lot teach that you shouldn't (or don't need to) go to medics, because God will heal you if you believe. So they have Priests come and give "blessings" then pray for them, but they don't often get better. A lot of people have died that way, and one investigator that we're teaching was distraught for the death of her son (a year earlier) and at first, refused to talk to us because of an experience like that.

I still haven't got my tooth x-rayed. I'm working on it all, but not that I'm leaving Trujillo, I'm not sure how that'll work....

We had a few investigators make it to church. We now have one progressing (just in time for me to leave) investigator. She's really awesome, and I'm sure she'll be baptized.

Hope everyone is doing well!
Elder Seth

Chao, Huanchaco

This was supposed to be Seth's email last week 5/1/12 (I'm backdating it so it shows in order). For some reason nobody got it until he sent his email this week??
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Well, I just got the news that I'll be heading out of Huanchaco to an area called Casa Grande. Casa Grande is a little villlage town about 2 hours outside of Trujillo. They say it's really green there, and is pretty nice. But we'll see. Seems like a lot of misionaries want to go there, but since it's small, not many get the chance. I'm super sad to leave Huanchaco, but it'll be good to see new scenery and learn how to work in a different area. I'll miss all my converts and I'm sure I'll worry about them, but it's alright. I know they can make it! Especially David and Daniel. Both of them are getting excited about being missionaries in a year! I would absolutely love to see them go out and serve.

Hope everyone is doing great!
Elder Seth