Juli

Good week here in Juli.

Our baptism went well on Sunday IN the lake! My companion did it, but I felt the water, pretty frikkin freezing lol.

[We asked for more details re: the baptism and for pictures -- but it looks like our emails were taking like 30 minutes or more to go back and forth - so we didn't get much in the way of "conversation" from Connor this week.]

[Update at 5:10 PM: We got additional emails from Connor -- those second round of emails are below this first round.]

How many missionaries are serving right now from this Poway ward? [For those of you who are interested -- this new ward we live in has 13 missionaries out -- including Connor in the mix.]  Random question too: About how many people attend our ward every sunday? I was wondering how many go compared to here.

I really like everything that came in the package, I love all the clothes haha.

Finally UoU came! [Connor was nervous -- but shouldn't have been re: acceptance to University of Utah] I still dont know what I want to study though, haha. Ive been thinking a lot about like stuff having to do with medicine, but im not sure, I want a job that obviously makes good $$$$ but is also interesting for me.  [Note from Dad:  So long as he studies anything that is not humanities or any of the other liberal arts -- is fine by me!]

How was your week?

Didn't see all these questions you wrote!

I know im gonna love Salt Lake!

My favorite girl scout cookies besides thin mints would be samoas I think.... mmmm I miss good food.

Changes were actually today, but me and my companion Elder Sanabria are staying together for 1 more, im okay with that..This change is gonna last until march 4. (Almost gonna be my 19th birthday!) (my 18th when we went to outback steakhouse feels like 1 month ago..lol)

But hey, something I really liked in the package was the clothes you sent, like the shirt. Do you think its possible to send shirts thats like a thin material (like the one I just received) but is LONG sleeve? Im not sure why but i think I like long sleeve shirts more right now, but like a thin material, not like a sweater. Sorry if it sounds like .......I dont know..hard to find or something but it would be awesome!

(me last week at those ruins)

"Awesome" new phone

Late Christmas photo

[Second round of emails]

Hi again!  So the power went out in the middle of our internet time when we were in Yunguyo for Pday, 3 hours later we are here in Juli and my companion didn't get to write his family so we are here again, you guys still here?

I like a lot of the ties, but I really like the two that have my name and the other one with the lama haha :)  [I had sent Connor another batch of ties, including one with a Llama on it and two "custom" ties of California and Peru from a website that let you embroider his name (Elder Barry) and mission (Peru Cusco) on the back of each tie -- links to each by clicking on "California" "Peru" and "website") :)]

I really liked the personalized ties though, were awesome!

So excited for Holland the 20th, every missionary in the entire mission is going to be there!

But lol, those guys in the mexican restaurant .....i cant wait to get back and be able to understand people like that.  [This was in response to my email re: at lunch I had a few spanish speaking guys who I think were talking about the gringo ordering in the hole in wall mexican place.]

Today there were some prob around 14 year old kids in yunguyo, and they were just staring and me and starting muttering amongst themselves, all I heard was the occasional "gringo" here and there, I just looked at them and said, "You guys know I understand you right (in Spanish)?", sheesh their cheeks turned rosy read and they just looked at each other, didnt know what to say lol!

There are some pics from the baptism too, but on my comps camera, hes gonna pass me them right now.

This is the family of the girl who got baptized...

The dad in the photo is the owner of the house we live in, he is the ex-mayor here in Juli, so he is known by like the whole town, pretty cool

So 6 more weeks in this change with my comp and I am HAPPY!  I will try and use the voice recorder throughout this week, love all you guys!  [We got about a 3 minute audio clip of Connor and his companion basically yucking it up for the recording / practicing English.  We loved IT!]

Still going strong in Juli

Big news in the mission we learned today in our zone meeting.

1. Every companionship now has a cell phone, before it was just district leaders and zone leaders, im stoked, finally we dont have to put up with our crappy litte landline.

2. Jeffrey R.HOLLAND comes to CUSCO Febuary 20th, we are going to have a mission conference, the WHOLE mission is going to travel to cusco and he is going to talk. I am stoked hah, he talks with SO much power!

Thats the noticies from the meeting.

So yep, got my package, still havent opened it, going to wait til we are back in Juli to open it, opening a package with many people around is NEVER a good idea, will have to end up sharing everything that you waited months to get!

I dont have my camera with me right now! Left it in willys house, (with my new backpack) and all my other stuff. I do have the camera of someone else that has a bit of pics from last wek and a little from tday too, sending em now.

We already got our phone! Handed out in zone meeting, just a little white movistar phone, prob about the phone people used in the US like 10 years ago, maybe even more, but its chill, we can finally just call without having to go back to the house!

Next week i should have some awesome pictures, with the package, and my new backpack, and of the ruins we went to today.

Yep those pictures above are from our last hike, last week, was so awesome haha.

Today we went to the ruins of Sillustani (google it), have some sick pics on my cam, but he also has some, gonna keep sending.

[Sillustani is actually a fairly interesting place!  I found some good links doing Connor's recommended Google search! :)  The best is probably here (a two minute video summary on YouTube re: burial chambers built in ancient times).]

[I asked Connor how the work was coming and whether he felt like he and his companion were working hard enough]

Well, its hard to work here, because Juli is like, well, the hardest sector in the mission work wise, but our investigator Janice did have her baptismal interview yesterday, and is going to be baptized in the lake this Sunday, will be cool in the lake.

The time passed super super fast in this change though, cant believe this is already week 6... I expect I will be here in Juli 3 changes for the least, well, 2 is actually the least but not probable. I suspect I will stay 1 more with Sanabria, then 1 more or 2 more with my next comp here and after that move on.

We are not sure yet who is going to baptize her, she told us she will tell us by Thursday. Personally for me, I dont really care as long as it just goes smoothly, thats all I want hah.

Changes are next monday!

Ruins were awesome today, tons of tourists (gringos), so tons of little shops overpricing crap so that the tourists buy it at a price that seems normal for them lol.

But it usually costs 10 soles to enter into the ruins, but I heard they always rip off tourists saying its 25 soles, so when we went up to the guy to get a little ticket to enter in, he said "25 soles", seeing me and another gringo, Elder Harris, but then one of the latinos we were with (Elder Cortjo) said to him that we were all missionaries working here locally and so we paid 10 soles to get in!  lol.

But yeah times up this week, so fast as always, I will see you guys next week, with more pictures!

Bye.

Another Week in Juli

So, this week was a bit hard but alright. Me and my companion worked, but in reality we didn't have that much going on, but I guess that is how some weeks are!

The good thing is that we are going to have a baptism on the 23rd!

To answer your question dad, yes, Christian (our investigator in Cusco) did get baptized the SATURDAY after I left, he already had his interview when I was there haha.

Next monday we are going to Puno, today we actually stayed here in Juli, the other elders came and we hiked a HUGE mountain, it was so cool. I didnt bring my camera, but others took pictures of me and they are in another internet cafe, so I will have to send them next monday, but it was soooo cool.

At the top of this GIANT mountain, (hike took like 4 hours straight uphill), there was a bunch of crappy little stone altars that people make by piling rocks when they climb up.  As I said before, the people here are crazy superstitious, so there were a whole bunch of like altars like where they think make deals with spirits and all that crazy sort of crap!

I did receive my handmade tie on Monday, but its too fat for my liking, its super big, but still cool, I just gave it back and asked him to skinny-Tie it for me, I am sure he will do it. But I am going to get the backpack Monday, that for sure will be awesome.

[I told Connor that his new mission president had been called and would report in July of 2016, and so asked if he had already heard about that or not]

No, never heard of him hah, we dont hear much in Juli! Hah!

When we want to keep working, but don't have a ton of stuff to do, well we pretty much just walk around going to every house that we know, and every person will make some dumb excuse, its usually around these lines:

"Hey! We decided to pass by to visit you! You have a bit of time right now?

"ohhh, no, I dont have time, sorry , another day another day,"

Then we make another appointment, and its like a rinse wash repeat thing hah, even when the appointments are like set, the people just say, OH I FORGOT! Dont have time sorry! another day another day!

[We told Connor that both his Mom and I had given talks in church on Sunday in our new ward]

Hah, as a matter of fact I had to give a surprise talk this week myself, I found out 2 minutes before Sacrament started, so that is pretty fun, also that same day had to give a surprise talk at a baptism of an 8 year old!  haha.

But yeah, time is pretty much already about up, not sure how much longer we will be here, but yeah,

love you guys!

New Years in Juli

Happy 6 months out on mission and New Years!

Sheesh this week went by pretty quick. Right now I am in an internet cafe in Puno, and this computer is legit crap, and has a mind of its own so my writing might be a little bad today hah.

This week has been alright, new years really didn't feel like new years. I can say that for sure.

As you guys already know, I completed 6 months recently, and with that come the ritual burning of the tie, (picture attached).

Here in Peru, people make like...dolls, dummies, not really sure the word for it, but then they burn them at 12:00 at night for new years with the fireworks and all. My companion and I decided to make one, and we made an Elder out of crappy torn up dirty clothes left from other Elders before us.  So we burned the doll at midnight and watched all the fireworks from the roof of our building.

Gonna try to make that birthday video here right now if I can for Josh!  [Connor's little brother turned 14 on New Year's Eve]

The photo album that Mom made me for Christmas was perfect!  Please tell her I said thanks.

The guy who owns our building we live in, which is the same guy that let us borrow his laptop, let us use his roof for fireworks and new years eve.  He actually gave us fireworks and was up there with us with his kids haha.

Things in Juli are going about the same lol, but we are going to have a baptism in 2 weeks so thats cool :) So the owner of the building we live in is not a member, but realy likes the church. His wife was a member but passed away this year, his oldest daughter is a member, and his second oldest daughter now wants to get baptized, and also his little son hah who is like 12 years old.  So we should have those couple baptisms in next few weeks.

Our landlord really likes the church, but doesnt really want to do anything right now, but we are sure his conversion will come through all of his kids if anything :)

And yep, finally got my haicut, feels a lot better , my hair (when wet) could touch my eyes it was so long. Was a little bit scared to get it cut though because they just like pull a length of hair from the head, ask you,"is this good?" give you like 2 seconds to respond and then start to snip away, sheesh!

My bag from Willy I think will be done today, not sure though, but it should be ready today, if not, next Monday, the tie will be ready for sure though, ordered a tie which costed 15 soles, has like the mission logo with a cool Peru design, will take a pic this week week.

So that internet cafe in Josh's video, its like a sole and 50 cents for an hour, so literally those kids play very old video games (like 3 or 4 years old compared to US games) for like 6 hours and pay like $3, pretty cheap but its pretty annoying with all these kids yelling and cussing in english, not even knowing what they are saying lol.

I really want to know if i got in to U of U! Im almost sure i did, but just wanna make sure, Jeff wrote me this week, is loving the mission but super excited to room together after the mission, me too! Not sure if an apartment or in the dorms would be better though, dorms sorta seem small in my opinion! (But i got some time to think bout that) :)

Well time is up, see you guys next week! Everyone else is already leaving! bye! lol Love you guys!