Monday, November 24, 2014

11/24/14 Sick and a Blessing

A couple of Pday pictures...



No, I was not transferred, neither was my comp, but some of the others in our district had changes.  We had a change of district leader to an Elder Apablaza from Chile and one new zone leader, Elder Norton, who only has a few months left. Our zone has quite a few new people so he's one of the only gringos around here with a hold on the language so that's funny.

Yes, the two baptisms that we had are sisters. As far Neoman, he didn't know where the church was at first so we've been helping him get there but now we're going to ask him if he can get there on his own next week. 

My camera kind of works but it dropped so the lens doesn't stay on right and stuff like that...

In the way of funny things: we were walking up a hill toward a family we wanted to visit and a lady was having a little trouble carrying some boxes and we went and helped her carry them.  We realized on the way up the hill that the boxes had bottles of beer in them, so that was a pretty weird thing to help with, haha  When we got to the place she was taking them we gave her the Word of Wisdom pamphlet and kind of laughed at ourselves.

We contact on the streets often.  One thing that works pretty well when we knock doors, we will often ask if they know where someone lives whom we need to find (like a less active) and that relaxes them a little to be more willing to talk to us.

No, I haven't gotten any packages. (we sent his Bday package and he still hasn't received it)

The adult married missionaries here, Elder and Sister Oxborrow, told us we are going to have a Thanksgiving meal at the church on Thursday!  They're going to try to have Thanksgiving food although they said they can't find any turkeys or spiraled hams so that's pretty fun.

So I was pretty sick on Tuesday, in fact I threw up like 3 times and we didn't get to leave to teach at all that day.  Later in the day, when I was in especially bad, my companion got me to sit up long enough to give me a blessing. I laid back down and after a little bit it kind of went away and the next day I was fine.
anyway nos vemos

His email to his father:

Wow, for Christmas everyone is going to be gone except you, mom, and Blake? We'll also be doing thanksgiving at the church.  Yeah, I'm getting enough to eat.  The other day at lunch the sister who gives us lunch gave me grilled chicken and with it some ketchup which I hadn't had since the MTC and it was weird how ridiculously good it seemed after not having it!  I think it might have more sugar than our ketchup too or something.  Also, the package had instructions for making bbq sauce on it which I may have to make sometime. That's something I miss haha. The language is coming pretty well and it's all going pretty well.
hasta luego

Monday, November 17, 2014

11/17/14 Elder Bergquist's First Baptism in Peru!


My first baptism! I baptized the one on the left-Cheaylhi (which by the way all the Spanish speakers around here had trouble with that name too, it's basically just Shalee but ch- instead of sh-) and Deyssy asked that Elder Jensen baptize her. I guess something to do with a dream she had regarding the church before she was contacted by the missionaries. They had been found by the elders right before us and had had one or two lessons.  It went fairly well, I didn't have to do it twice or anything.

I don't have a lot of pictures because the camera is having trouble. 

We had one investigator at church, the same one that speaks Quechua.  His name is Neoman and his baptism is planned for the 29th as I recall but that might change because we're trying to get him to be able to go to church on his own, as his leg is injured we have to go get him and get a taxi for him to go.

The other day my companion was whistling If You Could Hie to Kolob so asked whether the song exist in Spanish and he just looked at me funny and said it's in the Emma Smith movie, so that's a little sad. (That's one of Chad's favorite songs)

On a side note, I guess he really likes English music, in fact he often just sings random gibberish to the tune of some rap and then laughs. He's fun!

Tomorrow is transfers but we haven't gotten the report of who or where yet...

Chad's email to his dad:
Well that sounds like a good presidency. (We just got a new Stake Presidency and Brad shared with him who was called and shared with him 1 Samuel 16 about how people are chosen and called) Yeah I heard a little about that process from one of the talks by a 70 in the Missionary Training Center, it seems interesting. That must have been cool to participate in. Who is president Smith again? Who were the other 2 names you recommended, if I may so ask?

So I discovered that my companion really likes electronics and stuff of that sort. He has a box of random lights and wires and batteries and plays with them sometimes in our little downtime. Also he wants to live in Silicon Valley and knows who Nikola Tesla is haha so that's nice. Anyway cuĂ­dese Papi

Monday, November 10, 2014

11/10/14 A Book of Mormon in Quechau

I am not sending many pictures, sorry.  This is a Book of Mormon in Quechua, a native language some people speak here in Huaraz. Some people don't even speak Spanish at all.  These books are only partially translated, looking at it I think many of the chapters are cut down because they have fewer verses and it goes straight from 2nd Nephi to either Words of Momon or Mosiah, I don't remember. I just recall that it lacked Jacob and some others. 

I spoke in sacrament meeting the first week we had it--so the second week actually, since the first was conference. 

We play soccer usually with most of the zone except some times the hermanas and a few others. Last week in the afternoon we went to a full sized field and first played a little American football then some soccer as a zone.

On Sunday we had three investigators attend church including two who are planning to be baptized on the 15th. The other is named Neoman and speaks Quechua (Spanish too) and when we were in Priesthood meeting we were discussing having the Priesthood men come and help us in lessons and who could when, and Neoman suggested he could come to help teach those who don't speak Spanish. He was participating quite well in church overall.

I think I've decided on a scripture for my plaque: Luke 15:7
(I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.)

It was funny, the other day we were walking and I said "buenos dias" to a man passing by and he responded simply with "gringos" and my companion and I just looked at each other totally confused and I just said to my companion "un mono tal vez, pero tu no eres gringo, se eso" because I guess they call people from ecuador mono (monkey) around here, and he just laughed.

Chad's email to his dad: (Brad had told Chad about a blessing that he had given)
Similarly, the other night as we were getting ready, the lady who makes us lunch called us and asked us to go give her grandson, Joshua, who was really sick, a blessing. So we did... I anointed and my companion blessed. Joshua was fine the next day, it was a good experience. 

I'm curious who will be the new Stake Presidency. 

Quite a few people wrote me for my birthday, including some people from the ward and two people from Devin's mission. 

Monday, November 3, 2014

11/03/14 Elder Bergquist's Birthday!

Tell Marleigh, "Happy Birthday from me!" (They share a birthday!)

I don't think I will get the package unless you sent it the way it says to do it in this picture.  (I wish we would have seen this sooner!)

My name should be somewhere on the package other than in the address. 

Yeah they know it's my birthday, they brought me to the roof of the zone leaders' house and smashed eggs on my head. (I wish he would have sent a picture of that!) I'm not sure if that's a Peru thing or a mission thing or what, but they did the same thing last week to the zone leaders, who I guess have the same birthday. 

Last week on pday we went up one of the mountains nearby where there's a pond and grassy field which was pretty fun. 



As you can see we moved, and the new house is very pink, at least it doesn't have concrete dust that gets all over everything on the floor like the last one. Also it's on the second floor with a circular staircase outside which is cool.

They acknowledge Halloween here and there were some people taking their little kids around trick or treating in costumes but there's not a lot of celebration and no decoration. Saturday, of course, was all saints day for the catholics and yesterday was some kind of day for lamenting the dead I guess, so most of the investigators we invited to church said they would be at the cemetery and couldn't go. 

Deysi and her little cousin Cheaylhi didn't come either because Deysi was sick (the ones with the baptismal date).

If the ipod already has music on it go ahead and send it... but it's not easy to put music on it here.

Probably what was most spiritual this week was when we were actually on a work visit exchange with the zone leaders and we visited a less-active member.  Toward the end we asked if he had any questions and he asked "who is Christ to you?" to both of us. So we each shared our testimony and asked him the same question... never underestimate the power of sharing testimony! chao

His email to his father:
(Brad had told him, "I saw your golf coach at the driving range and he asked how you were doing and asked me to please tell you hi and that he prays for you in your service.)


There is clearly something to be learned from the attitude of Mr. xxxxx: respect and love for others even if they are of a different faith, especially if they are not of our faith. 

I can hardly think that I'm 19 either. 

It's still a little weird getting used to fasting dinner and breakfast instead of breakfast and lunch, which reminds me it's interesting that the Spanish word for breakfast, desayuno, has the same basic basis of meaning since ayuno means fast.

Earlier this week some people shot at our bishop's warehouse which is connected to his home so they were gone from their home for a day but they quickly came back. Pretty big scare, but as far as I know everyone is fine. People have said they did it because he's rich or something, doesn't make a lot of sense to me.