Week 18

Ethan's still got some stomach problems and doctor visits, but he sounds better this week! He hit his 4 month anniversary this week. Yay!


"Hi. How's it going at home? I thought I would write out a letter during the week and I might be able to remember things better. I'll take a picture of it and send it to you.

  This week was the last week in this change and I have officially finished training for my mission and am not a "greenie" anymore! As of right now, I don't know what is happening with transfers. They haven't told us yet. Also, my stomach still hurts pretty bad and it stinks that I can't do anything about it. We called Hermana Balderrama and she told us she would talk to the area doctor. He called and asked about it and said he would get back to me. But I am still waiting. I went back to the doctor to get more tests. They think it might be a parasite or maybe now I am lactose intolerant or gluten intolerant? I have no idea. That would stink though.

Other than that, this week was pretty good for teaching people. I feel like my Spanish is getting better. I can teach parts and share scriptures and most of the time they understand and if not, my companion helps explain it. I feel like understanding Spanish is getting easier. I can read and understand the scriptures most times.  There are still words I don't know or conjugations. It will get better though.

On Wednesday we thought two people back to back and set a date for baptism for both. One is an old guy whose wife is a member and he had problems with drinking until a month ago when he was drunk and fell down and got hurt pretty bad. It was a bummer that it happened, but also not really, since it kind of woke him up and made him realize h needs to change. He has gone back to church 2 weeks now and stayed for all the meetings. He has to stand the whole time because it hurts him to sit. The other lady is pretty young and has 2 little kids. Her husband is a member, but was excommunicated, but now he wants to come back and we are teaching her too. This Sunday we had 5 investigators come to church, which is pretty great. Today is also the birthday of one of the kids we are teaching, so we are going to visit him and bring him a little gift. 

To answer your question. Our ward is small, so all of the young men is combined. Same with the young women. I'm not sure how primary works. I haven't been much.

Tell Eli I have not performed any miracles  yet. I don't think those were the kind President Rolfe was talking about.  If I do something amazing like raising the dead, I'd be sure to mention it! Ha ha!

The weather here is pretty hot. There are starting to be lot of mosquitoes and sancudos (which are mosquitoes, just double or triple the size!) They say it really starts to rain a lot in February or March.

Thanks for the package, it was really awesome. The cookies were still good and actually soft. It might be because the way you packaged them or might be the humidity. Sometimes I leave oreoes out and they are soft by morning. I love the music and talks. It's nice to lay in bed and listen to conference talks or hymns at night. My companion loves the monopoly card game. It's actually pretty fun, You should play it. Emma would love it. The macaroni and cheese was awesome. I got to cook it at our pensions house. It was fun to cook again and it tasted SO good!

When you see Tanner next, tell him thanks for the hymn book. That is the first English hymn book I have seen in 4 months! It was the best!

Love you guys. Thanks for all the letters.

Con Amor,
Elder Lamb"

The outside of Ethan's apartment building. 

The inside of Ethan's apartment. I asked him to send me pictures so we can see what it's like.

Peruvian sunset

Week 17

It sounds like Ethan's feeling a little better, but still having some major stomach issues. I guess that's part of South America living! I just hope he can get well, so that he can enjoy his missionary work a bit more. He sounds more upbeat this week!

"Hi how is it going? This week was pretty normal like most of the weeks here. My stomach has been hurting a lot and not really getting better so I don't really know what to do. The mission president´s wife said to just wait and try to get rid of it naturally, so I don't know how long it will take i just hope that it is soon. I think it might be what they call gastritis, which i guess is kind of like heartburn or ulcers. I felt awful in church yesterday it hurt so bad. If there is anything you can send me that might help, it would be good. There isn't much medicine down here.

I haven't gotten my package yet. Hopefully soon. The zone leaders usually bring it. Hopefully the stuff you put in there will help my stomach.

We had a zone meeting on Tuesday that was pretty fun. They even had pizza hut pizza! it tasted so good even though it hurt my stomach. This week I had a work exchange with Elder smith and he came to my area and I had to lead and talk more with people and it was pretty hard but pretty fun too. In the night we found a little store that had milk, and oreos and it tasted so good. Also you will have to tell Eli that Canada is not the only place that has milk in bags, because it is here in Peru too. For P day we just played soccer again in Chiclayo with our zone. 

Eli's pen is awesome. You will have to tell him to make me one. I forgot to bring any of the ones I made. Tell him to keep working on them. He's doing good.

Also this week starts Carnaval Which is the time people fight with water and have a fair kind of like gold rush days. They also drink a lot,but that is like every day for them. I also am going to buy a notebook today to write down all of the funny things that happen.

I don't really have a whole lot of stories though but I will email them when i get some. We did get a lot of new investigators this week and one that we are teaching asked us for more folletos orthe little book things to read, and we came the next day to bring a member to be her friend and go with her to church and it turned out that it was her best friend from school, so hopefully she will get baptized.This is the last week in this transfer and I am not sure what will happen. Maybe i can go to the jungle parts, or maybe i will be stuck in the city part again. I have not really seen a whole lot of animals, only  a bunch of stray dogs and cats. The cool thing was a little puppy ran out of a house and was following me so I got a picture with it. 

Con amor, Elder Lamb"

Ethan and Elder Fernandez.

I'm not sure what this exactly. I think Ethan probably thought it looked cool. 

I miss this smiling face!

Milk in a bag!

Elder Lamb and Elder Smith. His favorite missionary to do splits with :)

Elder Lamb and Elder Smith eating their Oreos! What a find! They were so excited :)

A cute puppy. He said after all the ugly, stray dogs he sees, this one was super cute!

Week 16 - Still sick...

Poor Ethan. He's been so sick and I worry so much when he's far away! Hopefully he'll start to feeling better soon.

"Hi how is it going at home? This week I don't have a whole lot to write about since I have been pretty sick. I woke up with a fever Tuesday morning and a really bad headache and my stomach just hurts so so bad. It has been getting worse everyday, even though i went to the hospital in chiclayo on Thursday, and they just gave me pills that have been doing nothing. I have eaten in filibertos that are nicer than that hospital. Also the people that work in the little clinic in Frys probably would be more help. So because of that this week has been a lot of being inside and feeling pretty sick and sad. 

I don't think there are mission doctors. only in lima. I got a blood test and had to poop in a cup. and they told me that I didn't have a parasite, so i am not sure. I just have been having a pretty rough week. it makes it hard when we have to stay inside too since i think of home more. other than that i just want to feel better and I don't know what else to do. Hopefully it will get better soon. also will my package get here? and who is the prophet now?

I am sorry if I am negative, I just have had the worst week ever. Hopefully it will go away. Next week I will write all the things on a paper everyday so that there will be more stories.

We did have a pretty good time finding new investigators this week which is pretty good, and I feel like my Spanish is getting better. We had another interview with the president and I understood him this time. He promised me that if I keep going and hope, that I will be fluent in 2 more months, so hopefully that will work. We were supposed to give a talk in sacrament this Sunday but we ended up not going since i'm pretty sick and the people that live right next to us had a big peruvian party with super loud music from 8:00 until 5:00 in the morning, and we didnt sleep at all. Our whole room was shaking. P day was pretty boring as well. I just sat and watched them play soccer. Hopefully everything is going well at home and that everyone is enjoying the cold.

Elder Lamb"

I think this sign says something about "no littering" obviously no one listens! Ha ha!

Week 15

I loved Ethan's letter this week. It was good to see he hasn't lost his creative way of thinking. I love how he found a way to heat up some water. I also love that he is always thinking of little kids. He has always had such a way with them. I think it's one of his many talents that he may not realize. I feel like it will be a blessing to him on his mission. He still sounds a bit homesick, but we know he can do hard things and we know there is an army of people praying for him.


"Hi how is it going at home. This week was pretty similar to the other weeks. It was pretty rough but I will just talk about the things that happened. We still have a lot of walking, and it is kind of disappointing when we walk for a long time and then the people are not there, and we have to walk all the way back to other lessons. I wish That we could have bikes or cars or something like other missions. I also wish that we could cook our own food. I am so tired of eating rice with chicken everyday. I did cook some water the other day for those hot chocolate packets that you sent. I flipped our iron upside down and used a soda can with water. 

We did go out to that field again to visit him and I got bit by some mosquitoes. We had a service with one of our investigators Juan. We went out to his field and helped him to pick a bunch of beans. I will send a picture of`that. It was pretty fun. Other than that not much is new.

 I also wondered if you could find a bag of marbles to hand out to the kids. they all play in the streets and all have those simple clear ones with the swirl and I try to keep some that I find while walking to give to them and they love it. 

You should look at pictures of chota and chachapoyas too I here it is really awesome there. also there id a little artisan lady here I want to send some things home how do i do that? Also do you want little wallet things or some jewelry 

 We played soccer again today for pday and i found a jar of peanut butter in one of the bigger stores in chiclayo. My spanish I think is getting better and there are certain times i think i kind of think in Spanish. Hopefully I will be fluent soon. A funny word in spanish that dad might laugh at is maybe. The word is quizas and when you say it, it is pronounced the same as kiss a··. hopefully everything is good at home. I miss it quite a bit ,but I am trying to be happy. It it just really hard some days.

I love you guys, con amor, Elder Lamb"

Bean picking for service. I wonder what kind? Ethan didn't say.

Ethan's way of heating water, so he could make hot chocolate. He's always been brilliant at coming up with ideas!

Week 14 - Happy New Year!

Apparently New Years Eve is a big deal in Peru. It sounds like they have fireworks, feasts, burning of giant dolls (yes, you read that right) and partying all night. So, New Years day, everything is closed, including the Internet Cafes where Ethan emails us. Thankfully we heard through the facebook gossip grapevine that the missionaries would be writing Tuesday, instead of Monday. Then we did get an email from the mission office at 11:00 that night. So...we had to wait an extra day to hear from him. Since everything was closed New Years day, they had a super pday with most of his mission. It sounds like a lot fun. They played lots of sports and games.

Here is Ethan's letter for the week:
" Hi. How's it going? It's pretty crazy that its already been a week. I don't have a whole lot of new things to talk about. It was a little harder, with it being Christmas and all. I've felt pretty sick for a week. My stomach started hurting and has been hurting for over a week. I actually think I've lost some weight because I look skinny. But that's a good thing, right? :)

We walked out to some houses by the fields and contacted them. It was pretty cool to see the trees and green, even though there are more mosquitoes out there. We found one family out there and they let us teach them. It is a lot of walking every day.

New Years eve was pretty crazy. We had to be in our rooms by 7:00 since everyone was pretty much drinking and partying. The power went out around 11:00 and I couldn't sleep very well as usual, so we went to look out the window. All around us people were launching fireworks, there were fires in the street where people were burning giant dolls made of hay called monecos. I felt like Harry Potter, all alone, watching my clock until it said 12:00.

Monday we had a multi-zone meeting and a super pday with almost all of the mission. It was pretty fun, but I got super sunburnt! Other than that, not much more has happened. After Christmas when we all talked with our families, the whole district cried together, except for my companion and the district leader. It was pretty tough to be away at Christmas.

Hopefully all is well for you guys and everyone is doing good back home. Spanish is still pretty hard, but it is getting better. This week I have had to use the cell phone to call people or other missionaries and that is pretty hard. If you think it's hard to understand in person, try using a little white $.99 cell phone that is beat up and broken. I am trying to practice as much as I can, so hopefully I will be good at it soon. I hope you had a good Christmas and New Years! I love you.

I had a couple more things to ask for in the package to. Sorry if it cost so much to send stuff here.

-that missionary guide book that you bought me

-some paracord( like one roll is good)

-a square of carpet that can be pretty small, just something to remember. a couple inches by a couple inches

a talk the atonement and missionary work

-and my companion keeps asking for monopoly in cards. he said that an elder from USA gave his old companion it and that it was fun and that he wants it again but it is not here

-Thank you all for the emails. I don't have enough time to respond to everyone, but I really appreciate it.

-Dad, can you send more mission stories or experiences? I love those.

-Also, if any of the young women feel like writing me, you can give them my email :) Ha ha!

Also, happy anniversary. I forgot last week. Love you guys. "

Green trees and mosquitoes!

Walking, walking and more walking.

On the road again...

Ethan forgot his sunscreen!! Poor fellow.