Week 13 - Feliz Navidad!

 The week we were waiting for finally came! We were so excited to see Ethan! We had no idea when he would be able to Skype home, so we patiently (or not so patiently) waited around until about 2:00, when we finally got an email from him. The internet connection was not very good. He told us we all looked a little like minecraft people from his end. There was about a 5 second delay too. We got the hang of it after a while. What we could see of him was fabulous! He looked good and sounded good. A little homesick on Christmas, but other than that, he sounded great. Very positive. It was hard to say goodbye, I think we all ended up in tears. It was such a blessing to hear his voice and see his smiling face again. Man, we miss that kid!! Here were some highlights of our Skype.

- Ethan was sick all Christmas eve from eating raw fish the day before. He said he ate it really fast
         because he wasn't quite sure what it was.
-They had a mission Christmas eve dinner (I snagged some facebook pictures from his mission pres.)
-He gets along well with his companion, even though they can't communicate perfectly yet.
-He finally has hot water, although if you touch it the first 10 seconds you get shocked. I'm not sure
     their water heater is a real water heater or if it's even hooked up right. Ha ha!
-They met someone and started teaching them, but they don't believe in God, just in the sun, air and          water and plants. (That might prove a difficult teaching person)
-He has had a constant stomach ache for 3 months and just figure it may go on for 2 years.
-Wild dogs and cats can be scary!
-His ward is small (only about 50 people) but he says the ones who come and are active are really
      good people.
-It's hot during the day and cold at night. They've been eating their dinner on the roof lately.
-There is no "normal" breakfast. Normally some kind of bread with jam. No cereal!
-He misses "normal" food. He said he'd give anything for a big plate of macaroni and cheese or even
          Ramen noodles!
-His apartment is pretty nice compared to lots of places. With rent, water, electricity, it costs about
         $100 American dollars a month.
-Not many cars, lots of motorbikes and 3 wheeled taxis.
-His Spanish is getting better. He promised to speak it for us next time we skype on Mother's day!

Here is Ethan at the Mission Christmas Eve get together. 

Christmas Eve dinner.

Here is Ethan's Skype call. He was fuzzy, but we loved it!!

Elder Smith's mom sent me this. After we hung up, he pulled Ethan over to his call to say "hi" to his parents. Elder Smith has been such a blessing to Ethan. They are in the same district and are the only two English speakers. They get along really well and it's been so nice for them to get together on pdays. He just so happens to be from Arizona too!

I got a Facebook picture from Ethan's pensonista. This was their Christmas dinner. I am so grateful to her for taking such good care of him! She cooks them 3 meals a day, for 6 days a week. 

Week 12

One week until Christmas! It sounds like Ethan's staying busy and continues to improve on his Spanish. He was able to enjoy spending a day with Elder Smith, his favorite gringo!

                        "Hi. I'm trying something a little different this week. I'm writing this letter earlier and will send you a picture. That way I can remember things that happened and I might have a little more time to email on Monday. It has not been the best week. I am getting a cold. I feel like I have a fever, sore throat and runny nose. So, I haven't been feeling good. I don't like having a hot December either. I feel sunburnt all of the time. It's kind of funny, my pensionista gave me some sunscreen because she is really worried about my sensitive gringo skin! Other than that, I'm feeling ok, my stomach is still getting used to the food, but it's getting better. 
     On Tuesday I had a companion exchange and I got to go with Elder Smith, which was actually really fun. We did pretty good with Spanish and I even think that I got to teach more than with my normal companion. He speaks so fast and I don't usually get a chance to help teach. When I was with Elder Smith, we taught a few lessons, contacted some members, gave us some food and then we bought some hamburgers from a little stand. Also hamburgers are really weird here. They always are the bun and papas fritos (as a patty) and the extras you can get are pollo, lettuce an egg or beef patty. 
     On Thursday and Friday we had a zone activity. We went in the center of the town that I am in, Ferrenafe on Thursday. We set up a table with a Book of Mormon and Liahonas and we sang Christmas carols, contacted and handed out candies to the kids. We did the same thing Friday night, but in another part of Chiclayo. It was pretty fun and we even made it feel like Christmas. We decorated with lights and Christmas things. 
          On Saturday we had the baptism of Luis. He is pretty awesome and it was good to see him baptized, even though the day was crazy. We cleaned the copilla in the morning, then someone told us they were using the whole building all day for a stake primary activity. So we had to go to the other really small copilla and clean it out for the baptism. It was really dirty and had a layer of dirt on the floor. When it came time for the baptism, no one was there. They told us to go back to the main building, because the primary was done. So, we went back and there were people everywhere an food was cooking in the room for the baptism. We ended up starting an hour late, but I have realized that nothing ever happens on time here!
             Spanish is pretty hard. Some days I feel pretty good and I can understand people and I can repsond. Other days I feel so lost. Some people mumble too which makes understanding them 1000 times harder. I hope I can figure it out soon.
              The other night we ate dinner on our roof. I got to look at the stars. Some are super bright and twinkly. Can you send me star chart, so I can figure out what they are? I can still see Orion, so we aren't too far south for all of the constellations I know. But that is the only one I can recognize.
              We had transfers, but I am still here. Only one person in our district left, so it's pretty much the same. For pday I got a hat in the morning, so I don't keep burning. I guess we are allowed to wear them during proselyting since the sun is so strong here. Then we went to pick mangos with this guy. We walked really far, but never found any that were good.
           Elder Smith said said that you should go to the temple with his mom sometime. He told me that she goes every week and then once a month with Elder Edwards mom too. Also I was wondering if in the next package you could sent another pair of those nike pants, and a calculator watch, I usually only wear my nice one on Sundays because it will get beat up or stolen, also some ctr or hlj rings would be cool, and one more thing if you can find it, my friend in the ccm from the Philippines had a really fine pen like .4 or .3 and it was called pilot G tech. that would be really nice for fitting all of the things that we need to do into our little agendas.
               I don't have a lot of pictures of my apartment but i will send some next week. The desserts here are either cake with no frosting, or sometimes frosting, or arroz con leche, masamora, or whatever candies i get from the store. They don't really have normal food and they do have restaurants but it is the same food as in the houses, but i think there are different ones but they are in chiclayo. And there are not really a lot of wild animals, lots of parrots though that is cool. and stray dogs and cats everywhere, in our area there is probably a couple hundred stray dogs, and some are so ugly . look up a picture of a peruvian hairless dog. those are disgusting. 
          I don't know when I am skyping for Christmas. I'm out of time. I love you all and miss you.
Elder Lamb"

Feliz Navidad from Peru! Elder Lamb and Elder Smith

Week 11

Another week gone by. It sounds like Ethan is doing well. He's slowly getting used to Spanish. Only two more weeks until we get to talk to him!!

"Hi How is it going at home? It is pretty much the same here and it is so hard. Spanish is still pretty hard, but I think that it is getting a little better, and now when people talk I can understand most of what they say and it doesn`t sound like one long sentence, but speaking is still pretty hard, the grammar is pretty hard when compared to English. 

We did not have a baptism this week but we have on this Saturday with a guy that is pretty cool. Other than that everyday is pretty much the same going around walking so much and trying to find people to teach. I ate cabrita the other day which is "little goat" and it actually was pretty good. It tastes pretty much the same as beef but just a little bit softer. I finally figured out the name of my favorite food here if you want to make it, it is called lomo saltado. My stomach is still getting used to the food here and it is pretty horrible to have a hot December. 

I do have one funny story though. We were giving a blessing to a lady whos mother recently passed away and she was crying a lot. I was on her right side and had my eyes closed trying to feel the spirit and understand the words when she lifted her hand up really fast to wipe her face and hit me right in the "you know where". I did not expect that at all, but it was pretty funny to laugh at it afterwords. 

We got a new investigator that was a reference and lives right across the street of the church. We only called her to set up a time to meet with them on Saturday night and she just showed up with us to the baptism that the other elders were having. Then she showed up to church on Sunday morning and we finally got to meet with her last night, and we invited her to be baptized on the 30th of December and she said yes. It also makes me feel better when kids are excited to see us. That lady has 4 kids who are 7, 5, 2, and 1. Yesterday when we showed up they waved at us from their roof and were so happy we came. And as we left the waved again for 5 minutes.

Also I was wondering if you could send me my speaker and if you can that little pink ipod loaded with songs and conference talks. if you can i dont want to be a bother. The rules for music are pretty relaxed and you can send disney or movie soundtracks or piano covers, or david archuleta, or other things. Elder smith has a ton of songs and I asked him about the rules and he said that it is any song that helps you feel good.

If you find a tiny English hymnbook, that would be awesome too. I haven't seen one since I left. also thanks for all of the chocolate and peanut brittle it was so good and all gone now. I will try to send some pictures now.

Can you create me a skype account, and let me know the login information? The AP said that's the best way to do it. 

 Other than that it is so hard. There are times that I feel alright and other days that I just want to go home. It is pretty nice to have Elder Smith to talk with on Pdays though, and tomorrow we have a companion exchange with him and we get to be two gringos wondering around Peru, so wish us luck. 
I love you all so much, 

Love, Elder Lamb"

Ethan and the fields of Chiclayo

I'm pretty sure he's giving us the "look" like "I know I'm going to freak you out by standing on this ledge, but I'm going to do it anyway". Ha ha!

All of the Arizona elders at zone conference. 

Week 10 - Busy Week

It was so good to hear from Ethan this week. His spirits seem higher and he kept really busy! He had a zone conference and it was so exciting to see his Mission President post pictures on Facebook. It was a long day for me Friday and as I was flipping through the facebook pages at the end of the day, I was greeted with Ethan's smiling face! It made my day! It sounds like he has a family to teach and has a baptism coming up. I am so grateful for his service and his sacrifice. Love you Ethan!

"I saw the email from Dad that said week 10, and it is crazy that I have been gone so long. This week was alright, Spanish is still pretty hard, and the people here in Chiclayo speak so fast. Also I have realized why President Rolfe blessed me to have love for the people, because it is pretty hard to love some of these latinos, you could probably ask those people that served here too, but they walk really slow and always throw trash on the ground and are not super clean, and always say the exact same phrases I've noticed, But it is nice on p days with Elder Smith, he always has a bunch of cool scriptures to share with me and we always joke and laugh about how much it sucks here but also how much we will be blessed. 

The food also is a bit hard to get used to. I have had diarrhea everyday that I've been here if that can explain it. It is also weird being close to the equator I have noticed. The moon looks quite a bit bigger which is pretty cool. The sun is really hot though, and I am getting super tan:) But it gets cold at night because of the humidity and the wind. It is a little weird to have a hot Christmas, But the freezing cold shower everyday I guess makes up for it. 

I got my Christmas package. I loved the ornaments on the tree so much. yep i only cried for like an hour when I read them all, it was really cool to get them all. i had a couple of things to ask if you could send them before I have to leave  in a little. Do you think that you could send me the instucciònnes on how to tie a diamond knot. it is the one i did with the paracord and i cannot remember. Also some of these 5 minute workout things that I can do in the morning.

The conference was good and we have another before Christmas, I did see Elder Edwards and we got a picture with all of the elders from Arizona. We are doing Ilumina el Mundo here too. I have only a minute left, Tell Bishop`and Clay and Ryan thanks for the emails I love you all so much and also reading the emails from Dad and all of you.

We had a baptism with two kids that we taught and it was pretty cool. Our next one is the 16th with a guy that's really awesome and that is excited to be baptized. We also started teaching a family that we found and i hope that they will start to come to church and want to get baptized. The first time we taught them the guy had no shirt and was kind of paying attention, but yesterday we taught them and they were asking questions and reading and he even said a prayer at the end. I am sorry if I can not respond to everyone, These computers are so slow, and one hour is not very much time to write everyone and try and write a letter in Spanish with a dictionary and my grammar card to the president. If you can order some food from peru from amazon you should try the inc kola and sublimes, they are really good. I am trying so hard to be happy through this time that is so hard and hopefully it will get better soon. It is so awesome that Ryan is leaving soon and Chance is starting his papers. Hopefully Austin and tanner too.

 I love you guys, Hasta luego, Ethan.

Ethan in Chiclayo. Look at those dusty shoes!!

Elder Lamb and Elder Fernandez.

Ethan's Christmas tree from home and all the ornaments from friends and family. He LOVED it!

Zone Conference. Where's Waldo??...um, I mean Ethan?

Ethan and the group that came out of the CCM with him.

His very cool homemade money holder pouch.

First Baptism.