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

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 cuídese Papi

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. 

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.

2 Baptisms Set!

Yes, the postal service is technically still on strike in Huaraz but not in Lima and we receive our mail from the mission office in Lima anyway, so don't worry it. 

(I told him that my lesson that I am teaching the young women next Sunday is on true conversion) 
True conversion, yeah that's a really good topic, just like the talk by Elder Bednar I told you about (HERE) where he spoke of the Relief Society president and true conversion meaning having the character of Christ, to look outward when you have all reason to look inward.

Our zone had about 5 or 6 baptisms on Saturday and Elder Pilacuan and I have 2 set for early November (if they go to church on Sunday because that's all they're lacking is a 3rd time attending).  Yes, I participate in lessons, of course. My Spanish is coming along.  The work is going pretty well but we went to Lima for training which meant leaving on Tuesday at noon and getting back at about 6 am on Thursday, but it was good.  We had a 6 hour meeting with the president discussing different things, including him opening it up to questions (we usually only have one or two questions because he goes into so much explanation).  We rode a bus with big reclining seats.

Yes, lunch is prepared for us, it usually consists of some combination of rice, chicken and potatoes as well as soup which usually has chicken feet in it for some reason. I guess they eat that here. Usually, we go to pick it up in containers except on Sundays we eat there. The wife of the bishop is who cooks for us, but it's going to be someone next door when we move (which is at the end of the month) so we might eat there every day, I'm not sure. We have a different person who does our laundry. The meals we make for ourselves often consists of ramen or cereal, stuff like that.

So my Ipod has disappeared somehow... It was lost before I could use it even once.  

No, they don't take siestas from what I've seen.

On P-day we play lots of soccer, and yeah I'm enjoying it.

And, to his dad...

Um, we get an hour and 1/2 to 2 hours to write on p-day. We sometimes have service projects like the other day we were helping paint a ward member's house. We have someone whom we pay to do laundry every week and someone else, a pentionist as they call them, whom we pay for lunch but we have to take care of the other meals ourselves as we are not allowed to eat with the members (other than the pentionist). We have a refrigerator and a microwave so the other meals are pretty simple like a lot of top ramen. The members help pretty well to find investigators and we have ward council every week. In fact, on Wednesday we went to Lima for a large training meeting for all the greenies and President Archibald was saying that only here, Bolivia, Columbia, Venezuela, and Ecuador have ward council every week because we have the goal of baptizing every week.  Yeah, I'm enjoying myself pretty well.

Here are a few pictures from the bus ride to Lima...

And, one last picture of a very large rabbit on the top of a house...

no tengo tiempo. 

10/20/14 How are you so white?

Yeah I know Elder Chisholm, Elder Bird, and Elder Jensen. In fact, Elder Jensen is in my district and he just shouted over to me that his mom has been talking with you. 

The Zone Leaders brought the furniture over. I don't know from where it is supplied. (we're going to be moving soon since we're actually slightly outside our area, still in the ward but in Centenario 1 instead of 2). Oh and when we first got moved in the Zone leaders said my first job was baptizing and my second is teaching my companion English, and yes he plays the guitar and he's pretty good. 

Our ward is pretty much average, I mean it is smaller than our home ward but not overly small. They can receive the sacrament from just 3 deacons but they, more or less, fill the chapel.  

You might be able to detect a mistake in that copy of the Book of Mormon. This is how the ones we've been giving out for the last 2 weeks have been. It just continues with Helaman from there and lacks the last part of 3rd Nephi (once it circles back to 3rd Nephi it again skips to Mormon on the same page) so we got new ones and will have to switch all those out so that was pretty funny. 

Yeah, we went back to the house up the stairs (that's where the pictures above were taken).  Their daughter was there (whom they said before did not live with them) and she said the man had died. I was a little unsure as to what she said so I asked my companion afterward and he said "El Murio" so yeah. 

We've gotten quite a few new investigators.  A few days ago, in a lesson a little four year old boy, Eduard, said something like (probably with different phraseology) "¿Como eres tan blanco?" (how are you so white?) while pointing at my hand. My companion and I got a good laugh from that.  Also around here there are a lot of English words they'll just throw in like every time they answer a phone it's with "hello" basically, and a lot of 'yeah's, and the phrase ¡que freaking! is common, especially among the missionaries.  

We have 8 missionaries in my district. 
Yes we go door to door. 
I participate in the lessons but it's sometimes hard to tell what others are saying.  
Yes i think we have district meetings every week. I've only had one so far.  
Yeah Peru seems really interesting so far, like the people have nice clothes and phones and stuff but the houses and furniture inside are kind of thrown together, which is interesting, for example almost all the young boys at church have suit coats... different priorities for the use of money I guess. 
It rains less than it did the first few days but we usually take our umbrellas out everyday, but that's only here.  It never really rains in Lima nor does the sun come out there like it does here.

Last Monday evening we went to teach a less active family and the father didn't want any of it but the mother brought us in and asked us for a blessing and told us all about how she had told her children not to go on missions but to go to college instead and how they have stopped going to church and how she regrets it now.

anyway ¡cuídense! 

The email to his dad: 

It's a fairly densely packed city except the edge of my area where it goes up somewhat into the mountain. There the houses have little dirt courtyard type areas walled on one side by a cliff at the top of which lies another road. Housing is kind of randomly put together as though they wanted to use the space as efficiently as possible so that you might see a large apartment building and around the bend of the road another but in between a house put together with brick shaped clods of hard dirt filled with rocks. Most buildings are built almost entirely out of concrete. As you walk down any street you'll see smalls stores intermittently dispersed among the houses, which can only be discerned that it is one because the door is open and there is food stored inside. They all sell basically the same things: sweets, soda, bread, canned milk, and some other essentials like toilet paper. There are taxis everywhere that charge a flat rate of 3.50 soles but won't necessarily take you where you want to go if it's too far for them. There are also vans that just drive on the main roads and you can get on and get off wherever for 80 centimos. They all have a 15 to 16 year old boy handling the door and taking the fees as his job. Many of the houses are lower down in the ground than the street, the bottom foot or so of the door is below the sidewalk. The bishop of the ward runs a wood manufacturing place that I guess cuts logs into long 2x4s and whatever else and ships them places. Other than that and another of the same I've not seen any industrial anything in this area. Next to that river is a small park which is a strip along one of the main roads (for whatever reason it has a hedge and barbed wire just outside the hedge bordering it). It's the only grass in the area until you get up toward the mountain where there are a lot of towering trees. Much of the time between the larger buildings next to the street lies an alleyway as small as 4 feet wide, like an outside hallway with the doors to homes on either side. A lot of people own chickens. Oh, and a lot of people have English sounding first names like Richard, Brian, Janet, etc.

10/13/14 When Cortez came to the America's he made his men burn their ships

It's great here. First thing we did when we got to Lima was go to a rocky beach with all the new missionaries and the mission president and his wife and daughter. He told us about how when Cortez came to the America's he made his men burn their ships meaning that they could not retreat. Then they gave us little paper boats and had us burn them basically meaning we weren't going to go home early.  

Then we went to the church and while we were eating breakfast all the missionaries that were changing areas came in. Then we had a little slide show thing to show with whom all the new missionaries would be companions and we had to give a short testimony (in Spanish of course) and meet our companions. So my companion is Elder Pilacuan from Ecuador. 

He speaks some English like random phrases and the lyrics to some songs haha. So my area is in Huaraz, to get here from Lima it was a 7 hour bus ride through Tuesday night. 

Our area is actually new or at least half an area that just got split. So the first day our house had no stuff so we stayed at the district leader's place and he's cool as is his companion who is just one transfer ahead of me and from Utah. Then partway through the next day we went to our home which is all concrete and the sink is outside which is funny since it rains most days here. So it took time to start to get into things. Oh and last week was voting and I guess they don't allow religious ceremonies during that so we watched general conference again. So I didn't really get to meet the ward in full but that's fine.  Also Elder Pilacuan is really funny so that's good. He says my Spanish is good so that's good. Anyway, you can see my home in these pictures. I'm top bunk, not much space between it and the ceiling. 

We just saw that river the day before yesterday, our area is pretty big. Last night we taught a husband and wife who live in a house that's up a hill/alleyway about 5 feet wide. They live I think 147 steps up (that's how we were told which house was theirs since few places around here have addresses) which was interesting. I'm glad to hear Holland is doing well. And i loved President Eyring's talk both times, at the end. "The church of Christ always has been, and always will be, a missionary church." chao.