A great week!

So guys, the 1 year mark / half-way through mission is upon us, crazy right?

So overall this week was GREAT!

We put 2 baptismal dates this week, one for 23rd of July and the second for the 6th of August and all looks pretty good.

So the first is Urpi. She is the twin sister of a recent convert here.  Her sister gave us the reference and we were able to put a date for the 23rd.

The second one is with Brenda (she is the non-member who wants to get married to an inactive member (Jose), and we will also be rescuing Jose. Brenda has a date for the 6th of August. They will get married within that time. They are looking for a group marriage to participate in, but if not, they will just do it normally. They have the money, but I am thinking (as we discussed last week) of tossing in 50 soles to help them.

So Saturday we ate pizza as a zone because elder Williams and elder Polad are both going home TODAY. We have changes TODAY because President Harbertson goes home today, but I am sticking with Damazo. So we bought 6 pizzas from Papa Johns with a 2 for 1 price deal, was cool.

We also got to eat dinner at a great restaurant called Kion this week, its a SUPER nice restaurant (and chinese food).  A member owns the restaurant and invited the whole zone to eat (for FREE!). 12 missionaries. It was a banquet and costed about 800 soles, free, little weird huh? We ended up eating until like 9:25 at night and ended up running back to the house lol.

Also did a service this week, helped a member move. We loaded all his stuff into a truck and then hopped in the back. Was a little sketchy because I was in a seat in back and almost falling out of the car, good peruvian memories.

So TODAY we are going with the office elders to that tailor here who makes custom suits.  They know how to do it more. I am thinking of a dark blue one with a usa flag and peru flag embroidered inside like everyone does. will be an awesome memory.

But yeah, time is up, love you guys a ton. Talk to you NEXT WEEK in JULY!

-Elder Barry

PS. For Dad.

So the people in our zone are.

1. Me and my comp Elder Damazo
2. Elder Cortijo and Kline
3. Elder Polad and Vasquez
4. Hermana Rodriguez and Portugal
5. Elder Williams and Costa
6. Elder Flores and Carrasco

So those are all the companionships in our zone.

BYE!

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day Dad!

So this was a normal week, we are working hard and just a few problems with our investigators who need to find a way to get married, but we know if they have the desire they can actually pay for it, they told us that in the lesson this week.

So this week we had a great experience. So in the morning in our studies, I felt a strong impression we should do service to find more investigators. So I shared that during companion study and that day we set out to apply it. At like 5 PM we found a family and my comp is like, we are going to help them, because they had like a TON of full of bags of corn, so we offered to help. At first they were reluctant, but eventually they gave in and we helped them like 45 min and after taught a lesson to a family of 9 people. Was sorta crazy but now we have 9 new investigators!

So this week, also during our studies in the morning, we heard a BLOOP BLOOP BLOOP weird sound super loud outside, but being in Peru we didn't think it was anything unusual. So eventually like a few minutes later Elder Kline yells, "EYYYY VENGA," or like, come here!

So there was a gas truck that had flipped over carrying 130 gas canisters and they all went rolling down the hill, so we all had to take some pictures!

In our ward, gringos come EVERY WEEK to church, basically because our chapel is in the center of town, we have a LOT of tourists that come to church on Sunday.  Usually the are from Utah, but this week a family came that had a daughter that was preparing to serve a mission, and apparently she went to JERABEK! [Connor's elementary school.] They knew some members from SR1 ward and like Bishop Riding and stuff, was a really weird coincidence.  It was weird though that I didn't recognize the girl. [Connor couldn't remember the name of the family!]

I will send a video after this that shows a little bit when the car fell over.  We live in the house behind us as we are filming this video.  It is a house on a corner with a 4 way merge, we live on 2nd floor right above the little store on the corner.

There are a ton of tourists right now in Cusco.  Is actually VERY busy in the center of town.

Today I was actually thinking about getting a custom suit made, apparently there is a nice tailor where all the north american Elders go and it costs like about 300 soles [US $90].  You can also get it made so that on the inside it has a Peruvian flag and a USA flag on the other side, looks pretty cool but I don't know, it may be sort of obnoxious!

So my package did arrive, its awesome!

I of course shared mac and cheese with pension and other elders so 3 of the packs are already gone, I also gave the cheese powder to the pension so he can make stuff with that lol.

Our pension cooks super well, but the problem is, they (as well as ALL the people here) have problems with $$$. That is the sad part about this place, like he knows how to cook VERY well but there is just not that much money coming in from it!  Sad.

So yeah, the shirts fit nicely, the sleeves are a TAD short, not sure why, if my arms have grown or something, but it is definitely not a problem.  [We had sent Connor three new long sleeve white shirts]  The weird thing is, the new shirts don't have a shirt pocket, like where to put my name tag, but I almost always use a sweater so I can just put on the other one, and if i need to I can use a magnet one with my white shirt but just not be all that secure and could fall off!

Well I gotta go.  Love you, thanks for the package and all your support.

Elder Barry

[I couldn't believe that I bought shirts for him that didn't have a pocket!  Didn't even think about them NOT having a pocket and so just bought them on Amazon!]

Another week in Cusco

So not much time to write today.  Sorry.  Right now I am with Elder Costa, Elder Williams, Elder Kline, Cortijo and my companion in an internet for a bit before playing soccer.

PS. Heard my package arrived, but will have to pick it up after playing soccer today.

So was a great week, we are still having problems with trying to find a large group wedding for our investigators, because I don't think we will find one until like august or something, sometimes money problems for the people of Peru really suck in the mission :P

So my file size is super big for the photos we took today, so will have to send them slowly, but today we went with a ton of elders and saw some ruins.

The interview was super cool with president, will be sad to see him leave, and along with him like a fourth of the people I know in the mission!  Crazy, so it will be really different.

I know that the church used to pay all the fees for folks to get married, but now they don't evidently.  It costs about 300 soles ($90 US) to get married here, but that is a lot of money to the locals for sure!  Most of the people here really don't have much, so it is so sad sometimes.

These people really have the desire to get married and get baptized, its just they also need a signature from their parents that live in Juliaca, like 6 hours from here so it just gets rough because Peru just doesn't have a real mail service.

The next group wedding is in August and it will be a trial for them to wait until that day.  But I am sure they will be blessed if they do it, they have the desire.

We will have to see, we have a few appointments with them this week and they still have to come to church 3 times before they can be baptized, but thanks so much!

So we are going to go play soccer, love you guys so much. Bye.

Here is a picture of a bunch of companions at the ruins today.

[Connor had taken a bunch of pictures but his internet connection was so bad that he couldn't upload them!  I found a bunch of pictures of these ruins from another Elder's blog who went with Connor that day.]

Back in Cusco

[First email from Connor just letting us know he would be back online later.]

So, we are here in Tuahantisuyo, its great here. TONS OF HILLS, TONS OF TOURISTS but it pays off, since today some tourists gave us 50 soles for lunch lol!  It was a member of the church from the US, but in general a lot of people greet us too when they see us.

I will send photos a bit later (when my companion is going to use the internet).  So tomorrow is the last interview we have with President Harbertson, because he goes home in 2 weeks!  It will be interesting to have a new mission president!

Be back on in a bit!

[Second email from Connor.]

So sorry, but now we have like ZERO time left for the internet, but it is alright, here are some photos!

So this week was a little rough, not companion wise, but instead just all the walking as it is literally full of hills here! Just stairs upon stairs upon stairs!  We are working with a family that is really humble and the husband is less active and the wife is an investigator that WANTS to get baptized but the only problem is they aren't married, and here it can be costly to get married.

A mass marriage is possible, but we figured out one is coming up the 11th of this month and its pretty much already too late to do anything, probably won't be another one till December/next year.

My new companion Elder Damazo and is alright.  He is from the outskirts of Lima and he likes to work hard. We have really different personalities but we get along fine.

This week we couldn't find ANY NEW investigators, but we had a TON of lessons and referrals and other stuff, its a nice change for sure from Juli! I am sure if we keep working we will find success, we already have 2 families that have the husband less active and the wife investigator wanting to get baptized but the problem is marriage and $$$.

Living with the zone leaders is alright, Elder Cortijo is like my brother!  Sharing the same sector is easy with the zone leaders, whoever finds or starts the teaching for an investigator, it is theirs and the others don't visit them.  It is not like we divided up the sector into 2 or anything!

Lucrepata is the street we live on, but im pretty sure its a huge street, I need to find the number or the street it crosses with. We live like, RIGHT on the intersection of 2 streets in a nice room.

Here are some random pictures of my with a big dig; a scary spider in our room; and some pics of our room.

So sorry guys but we got a TON to do today, and have our last interview with President Harbertson tomorrow, should be great!

Have a good week, will have more time next week!