Sunburned in Puno

So this week, was rough to be honest.

We just walked everywhere and had failed / cancelled / forgotten appointments all week.  I suppose it is because the "Carnavales" where pretty much everyone is in the center of Puno instead of the boonies were we work!

I got extremely sunburned last P-day. You can see in that picture, hah (that is my pension in background of the picture).

In the cachina (little local market) they sell ties for .50 cents of a SOLE
So like, 15 cents USD. Pretty cheap!

Pretty funny, you find a lot of goodwill tags on them (now you know where all your stuff goes, HAH!)

Um, just thought it was cool, is in good shape.  So now I am "Harry Pooter" as Dad calls Harry Potter.

The only real good news from this week is that we found 2 new investigators, and they came to church.  We went to go "pick them up" at 8:45 AM. However, it took FOREVER for them to get ready, till around 9:10, then they say, "Just go we will meet you there" so pretty much missed the sacrament (sad part), but good news is they actually came after. Guess it was worth it, even though late!

I will need to take out a little bit of money today, since I am broke. Spent the money I had on my scripture cases, and all that. I seriously only have 50 peruvian cents left.... Hah

Talk to you next week
Elder Connor Barry

Another week in Puno

Hey Guys!

So first of all, got my scripture cases. Tomorrow I get the agenda one.

We played soccer today, it was seriously fun though. I have grown to really like it!  Am hoping can keep it up when I get home.

This week, TOO MUCH rain. Gets gross because it gets all muddy in the streets as we walk around.
This week we have been walking a ton!  Pretty crazy.
We helped a family that lives across the street from us though, with a little service project (picked up a lot of junk and shoveling dirt).  Bad news is that they are less active, so we pretty much can't visit them (because per our mission rules it is the members duty to visit less active people and "rescuing". Missionary work now corresponds to only investigators!

Pretty cool scripture cases huh? And they only cost 45 soles each, which is like $15 dollar (even a little less)!

We also ate Cuy this week (Guinea pig!)

One of the FEW times I have eaten it on my mission, and my companion's first time.  Here is a picture of my comp with his dinner! :)

It actually is "decent", not much meat, way like stretchy chewy skin, but it is not terrible.

Things are going well here.  We are working hard and finding more people to teach.

My companion is easy to get along with and we have fun together while we walk / work / look for people to approach and teach.

We are heading out now and we are going back down to the center of Puno.

I have to get some pants stitched up -- they have a bunch of holes in them!

Love you guys tons.
Talk to you next week.
-Elder Barry

First of all, I need to apologize for only having 2 pictures this week (and took them both today basically)!

The first picture is from right now -- as my companion and I write our e-mails home!

Today for p-day we played soccer and it was way fun.  The second picture is from earlier today after our soccer game.

This week was fairly decent for work as well. We have a baptismal date on a young investigator named Majonri on March 18th, which is the mission's "White Night" when we have a mission wide goal to have baptisms.  Majonri is spanish for Mahonri.

This week, my companion was like dying on Saturday, body ache, diarrhea, and high fever.
So with permission, we went to hospital, pretty sure he got a pretty nasty shot from the Dr.!  But he is a lot better now.  It was a bit of a bummer though since we didn't work at all on Saturday (my comp spent the entire day in bed) and Sunday he had to take it easy.

So I basically did a lot of reading, and spent time talking with my companion and our members that we live with.  I tried to rest for a little bit, fell asleep for like 2 hours. Then I couldn't sleep AT ALL that night!

Well sorry for the short email.  My companion and I are going to hit the road. He wants to get some pants fixed and so have to do a bit of a hike to the tailors!

Hope you guys have a good week!  About my birthday package mom, don't sweat it!  Really.  I don't really expect anything big for my birthday, especially seeing how much stuff we will need to do / buy / pay attention to when I get home from my mission!

Chau!
-Elder Connor Barry

One transfer down in Puno

Hi guys! So we had another fairly decent week.  My companion spent some time traveling and in Cusco for immigration paperwork.  My plans were changed at the last minute and I actually worked with an Elder named Elder Cubillas (who also went home this transfer).

He was pretty dang trunky, but I couldn't really blame him, I mean when you have 2 days to go!?

I did get the package, everything is good! Actually great!

Yeah. Puno is a BIG city (especially for Peru).  I took that picture of the city from the Puma statute that is like RIGHT behind our house.

I bought a Calzone this week.  We went out to eat with Elder Hogan, Elder Hatfield, me, and Elder Cubillas (all our companions had left to Cusco ).  It was pretty good!  Forgot what those tasted like, and it was only 16 soles.

We also were bored, so I just bought some 10 soles glasses. Don't ask me why, I just thought it was funny and was tired of all the dust storms getting in my eyes.  All the members ended up saying: "ELDER, YOU USE GLASSES"?

hahahahaha

So we had changes today, but neither my companion or I got moved.  So for sure at least 1 more change together, until March 20. Pretty crazy, as I will turn 20 this change! -_-
I still feel basically the same that I was when I was 18. Pretty strange.

We got on very late today.  ALL DAY we were stuck in the church building playing soccer and ping pong.  Evidently there is a HUGE party today in Puno (sort of like Marde Gras I guess).  It is evidently a special festival for the Catholic Church. Apparently down here in Puno they throw a HUGE festival for the virgin of Puno called the Virgin of the Candelaria. So they have dances and get crazy drunk to celebrate. So this happened to fall on our p-day and they had a HUGE parade and celebration and it’s pretty dangerous. So the Mission President has told our whole Zone we have to spend P-day locked in the Church building because it’s dangerous due to all the drunks and the girl dancers don’t wear a lot of clothes so we were locked up during all of that today. Haha! So they just decide to lock us missionaries up in a chapel!  :)

Would you say I look any different from I did at home? Or around the same.

A lot of people tell me I look different.

Is pretty crazy that I basically ALMOST have just 4 months left here in the mission.  I can't even think of it. Like my entire mission I have always been the "youngling" and now people look at me, my missionary plaque all old (starting to fade the letters), and a hole in my shoe, and one just asked me, "you have less than 6 months left don't you"

So this week we were able to find a cool new investigator.  He is seriously like 75 or 80 years old!

We started teaching him (he was a referral from a member how actually lives in the same house - he is the Grandpa of one of the Bishopric members).  

We were asking how long he is going to stay, and he just said, "until I get better".  After talking with the family though, it turns out he has cancer, in its terminal stages.  The member practically told us, "hes going to stay here.....till he.....dies".  

We left him a "Plan of Salvation" pamphlet and are going to visit him tomorrow and keep teaching him.

The people we live with are really nice and yes they do serve us all the meals we eat.  They really don't like it when we ask for "little" amounts of food though, they think its because "we don't like it" even though we are just extremely full. And they just refuse to believe it.

We made an agreement though, we eat breakfast and lunch normal, and for dinner only something really light.

So a sad story this week:

There was a dog that randomly started following us.

Was a medium sized dog, but I think a puppy. Was a weird husky mix. Had one clear eye, the other brown. So he was following us, and we were petting it, all good.  

It becomes time to go home, we try to shoo him off, but doesn't scram. We try to like throw little tiny rocks to try to get the idea across, he just insists on following us.

So we are walking, on the huge avenue we live on with tons of cars flying by. When we get close to home, the owners dog (hes mean to other dogs) comes out, and starts trying to attack him. We try to defend him, but this other dog is just huge.  So the other dog runs away in a panic and just runs into the street ... BAM. A huge car hit him. Instantly dead. The car doesn't even stop.

Me and my companion just look at each other. Go inside. Then we came outside 30 min later, and had to try and just get the poor thing off the road just tried to put it down into a little ditch on the side of the road. Way sad.... but can't say it is the first time that I have seen stuff like that in Peru.

Well sorry for the downer way to end our emails.  I will talk to you guys next week.

Love yah!

-Elder Connor Barry