Working in Puno

Hi guys!

This week was pretty good I guess.  We are working hard here in the sector, even though it is very cold.  So I did have my interview with Mission President that I needed to get done for college admission, that sure took a long time to schedule!

So about the package you guys sent, we are all good!  The mission office called me the next day and said they found the second portion of the stuff you had sent.  So no need to worry about that.  My companion goes to Cusco tomorrow for immigration stuff, and I will be here with Elder Hogan (who goes home in a week), so my comp will bring back my package!  Wohoo!

Today we played soccer and well, it hailed.  It looked Christmas. Take a look at the picture below.  LoL.

We did participate in the worldwide missionary broadcast.  They are changing the missionary schedule.  It looks like P-day will be longer (starting at 8 am) and then our normal daily schedule will be wake up at 7:30 am and proselytize until 10 pm.  We are not sure how that will work here in Peru and specifically here in Puno given it is extremely cold by 10 pm.  Our Mission President said to hold off on implementing any of the changes until we know more and he can structure a Cusco mission specific change to our schedules.

We had lots of meetings this week with the missionary broadcast and a multi zone conference.  So overall it was a pretty decent week.  We did take a journey out into the "boonies" this week.  We are starting to visit a new pueblo, called Totorani.  There a lot of people there so it is worth the effort to make the trip.  We were broke, so we walked the entire way!  It took us like 40 minutes to get there and is just gross, because it is all like dirt roads with holes and stuff.  We also passed a huge prison which apparently has almost 2000 people in it!  We didn't even know a prison was close by.

My companion and I are still getting along great.  Next week we have changes, but I am guessing we both stay here since it his only 2nd change here and my 1st.

Hope to talk to you guys more next week!
Have a great week guys, take care!

Love you tons!

Peru living: rain storms and yet no running water for 3 days!

Hi guys.  Well this week really flew by to be honest!

My companion got really sick on Saturday, which of course always is horrible, but luckily we didn't really have that many appointments that day so were able to roll with it.

By the way, I forgot to tell you guys, but 2 weeks ago, I got scripture cases made (45 soles a piece). They are going to be cool, but it will be like 2 weeks before I get them (the guy who makes them has a TON of orders recently).

They are 100% leather, they both have the mission logo on the front (the old mission logo, not the new one which President Herrera adopted when he came) P.S. Old school is best! :)

On the back the cases have 2 different images, one is from a bible story, other one just a pic I like (will send pics of the cases in the upcoming weeks when I get them)!

They come with my name on the bottom, and on the spine, very interesting thing as they have a picture of a stick / scroll that says, "Stick of Ephraim" and other says "Stick of Judah", when you put them together they look cool! :)

So the 2 scripture cases and 1 agenda case all together cost 110 soles in all.  The scripture cases are way sweet though (everyone gets them made here in the mission).  I just got them for my Spanish scriptures though, would look goofy on English ones!

Things with comp are totally fine.  We get along very well and he is a hard worker.

The mission office wanted me to tell mom that my shoes arrived so she doesn't freak out :)  So she just sent shoes solo and the package after? I forgot about the shoes to be honest!

[We had actually sent the shoes and some other items TOGETHER so now we are trying to find the missing items.]

Funniest thing that happened this week:

As you know Puno is like the coldest place in our entire mission and sits right on the shores of Lake Titicaca.  So this week it was RAINING SO HARD.  Like every day! And for some strange reason we didn't have water for 3 days!  So my comp and I could NOT shower for 3 days.  It felt so gross, so I had to just make the best of it with my cologne and stuff.  LOL.  Is kind of crazy right?  We live next to one of the biggest freshwater lakes, raining every day and night, and no running water!? Huh?
The best thing that happened this week:

We have found tons of part member families.  Where one or more people in the family are already members of the church (usually less actives) and other people are not members.  So we spend a lot of time working with the less active members AND teaching the non-members.  We have found two new investigators this week that way.

Talk to you next week!
Take care, love you tons.

-Elder Barry

Puno

Hi guys.  I don't have that much time this week! But we are online now.

I didn't do anything for my 18 month mark, totally should have burned pants, (one of the many pairs that don't really fit me), but ended up just too busy / forgot about it! :)  I am really just only wearing the three pairs of pants I bought in Cusco now.

We didn't really do anything fun for P-day today.  That is ok, we still have fun just hanging out.

Anyway, this week we have had the goal to do FAMILY NIGHTS with as many of the ward members as possible. (It was actually set up by our ward mission leader).  We had a ton of appointments set up, but had like 50% of our appointments just flaked out / failed on us!  Lol.

However, at one of our family nights, we were able to find a less active family that has some unbaptized members.  We also went out with all the young adults this week. We got a ton of references from that work, because basically we had like 10 groups of 2 out working and contacting friends.  They did end up giving us a lot of work to follow up and work on those names.

But yeah things are good.

My companion and I laugh a ton; just really about how ridiculous things in Peru can be.  Is fun because as my only second companion from the States, we really share the same viewpoints on things.  For example, today in a "combi", van they use as a bus, a 80 year old lady who was sitting next to me like fell asleep on my shoulder!  I look over at her, then at my companion who was seated one row back and he is just smiling...lol

My comp didn't speak Spanish before his mission, but he speaks it fairly well already.  He is getting better each day for sure!

So we are off for this week.  Sorry about getting on so late today, but I still need to get my hair cut!
Love you guys tons.
Hope you have a great week

Tonight I will try to make the video for josh for his b-day.

Love
-Elder Barry

Cold and Rainy in Puno

Hey guys!

So this has been a decent week. We actually were able to find more people to teach. Hopefully I can give you more information in the coming weeks as they progress.  It has been raining cats and dogs here. Hail too!  But me and Elder Lara are making the best of it.

Today we went to Sillustani with some other missionaries. This is the 2nd time that I have gone, so wasn't quite as exciting for me LOL (I also went last January (2016)).

Here is a picture from our New Years Eve celebration!  Of course we were all in bed by like 9:00!  Lol!

My favorite thing about being a missionary?

Helping people.

Old-young, male-female, kid-adult, there is ALWAYS someone to help. Maybe we can't always share the gospel with them. Maybe we can't always teach them the missionary lessons, but we can always help them.

EVERYONE in Peru could use some help, so I guess that is why I am here right?

This week I have been studying how I can apply the atonement to my life in a DAILY form. It is way interesting. I realized I have a lot to improve. :)

Hope you guys have a WONDERFUL week.

Love

-Elder Connor Barry

First Week in Puno

So I am here in Puno now!

So Mirador - which is my district - is alright.  The ward is fairly small (a little smaller than my last ward in Cusco).  We didn't have a ton of appointments this week, just a lot of walking!

Good news:
Our house is nice, I wrote down the direction, but left it in my agenda at home, I think its 1675 av. juliaca....big house. 3 stories with a roof patio (4th story).

Good news: We live with our pension!

Here is our house on Google Maps

Our room is on the 3rd floor, top left.  That is our window.  The whole house is our pensions though.  The wife used to be a cook in a restaurant, but I don't think she works anymore, her husband is a police officer in Puno.

This is my second time living with pension, in first area, Los Alamos in Cusco, we did too.

Since the ward is so small, we really do not have a lot of people to visit.  I feel like we "walk the same route" every day....Not too sure what to do at times to fill up our day.

We do have a baptism scheduled for January 14th. Gabriela.  We also have another investigator who is progressing -- but apart from those two -- we really don't have much else going on at the moment.

So yeah, we will just have to keep working hard and looking for opportunities.  To fill the time, we mainly just talk (in English!) lol, pretty funny, as I really have some some broken English.  Is weird having been out so long and only now having my second American companion!  We work on my companions Spanish as well -- but he actually speaks pretty well -- just takes time to get it down.  Me and my companion get along really well.  He is from Gilbert Arizona and is a fellow gamer!  We used to play a lot of the same games before our missions.  Is sort of a funny coincidence.

Here are some pics from this week.

The first is our view from our house / rooftop.

This is a little garden snake I found in our house -- haha.

Also we did a service project this week and found some scary Tarantulas when we were shoveling loose dirt...Yikes!

Here is a pic of me doing some door knocking!  Of course the door didn't have a house attached! :)

Here is one last pic from our Christmas party in Cusco -- with the entire Cusco zone.

So we are off this for this week.  We are with another Elder at the moment (Elder Cunya), and we have to go pick up his comp (there were some emergency changes).  So will talk to you guys next week!

Love you guys so much!

Sorry for the short writing! But u guys know my area now!

-Elder Barry