First Full Week!

Hey,

1st full week in the field! I'm loving it.  There are already plenty of ups and downs daily and weekly but I'm guessing that's just how it is.  

We had a baptism for L* on Saturday.  She's 9 and her family are all members.  They were inactive until a couple of weeks ago and they wanted L* to get baptized.  They all really decided to change, to start coming back to church, to start reading the Book of Mormon and praying as a family.  Their 17 year old son is even talking to the Bishop about mission papers now.  All because they have a little 9 year old daughter that reminded them about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and it's importance in their lives.

So we're teaching a family that I think I mentioned last week.  They live on the river and I attached a picture out of the back of their house.  But like everyone here they're not married so on Friday, we went to this office in the center of Iquitos so that we could get their papers squared away.  E* doesn't have a birth certificate so we have to get him one of those first and so we might have to push back their baptismal date a week or 2 in waiting for those papers to come.  

But, while we were there waiting, I saw this security guard guy who was pretty big as far as Peruvians go.  On his name tag thing, it said Batman...haha I can't believe that was his name!  In that area there is a big hotel so there are a lot of tourists and obviously a lot of them speak English.  There is a restaurant called Texas.  It has Texas flags, the Longhorns logo everywhere.  Everything there is in English.  I'm just not so sure that anyone there actually speaks English, though.  Didn't really expect to see that in Iquitos.

So dad wants to triangulate my position... haha ok...I'm in the middle of Iquitos,  on the river fairly close to the big center of Iquitos with the big cathedral type building.  If you happen to find Avenida Del Ejercito, one of our chapels is on that street.  It's not close to a Walmart or a McDonalds or anything, I haven't actually seen either of those in Iquitos.  They do however have Pizza Hot.  That's not a typo. They have Pizza Hot instead of Pizza Hut.  I think they're just trying to make people think it's the same because Hot isn't even a Spanish word.

As far as food goes it's all really pretty good here.  Always plenty of rice and either potatoes or plantains with some kind of meat.  Pretty much always chicken.  They also have some stuff that I've never heard of before like Juanes, no it has nothing to do with a guy named Juan.  Its like a ball of rice with chicken inside cooked in a banana leaf.  Kinda like a Tamale but with rice instead of dough.  Also they have a lot of different kind of drinks from all different kinds of fruits that they don't have back in the US.  And for the record, the chicha morada they have here is a lot better than what they have at Lima Limon [a Peruvian restaurant in our city].  Can't really explain that but it just is better.  And mom I have a confession to make....I'm eating tomatoes now.  And not just the cooked ones like in Lomo Saltado (That is real Peruvian food btw so Lima Limon got that right).  Like just a salad with lettuce slices of tomato and oil...yeah I eat it.  I got a burger last Pday...with tomato.  The scary part is...I actually like it... hahah I know you're surprised mom... [oh, if he’d only trusted me YEEEEARS ago,  *sigh*]

Also if you're going to send a package anytime soon,  you should include peanut butter.  That stuff is expensive here and I miss it.  Just make sure to not put dried meat or anything valuable in the packages.  Yeah...dried meat is on the list of things to not send in the mail...no idea why.  Also, they said to send everything by the US postal system so not Fedex or UPS.  It has something to do with picking up the packages.  Not sure why but that's what they told us to do.

I think I'm about out of stuff to say this week so I'll just say I love you guys and miss you.  I know this is the Lord's work and that this gospel can change lives.  I've already been able to see that in only a short amount of time. 

Love,

Elder Peacock