Week 20

Twenty weeks! Time is flying by. Ethan did his first baptism Saturday. He was so excited! He has such a way with little kids. I knew that it would be such a blessing to him on his mission. Here is his letter for the week:

" Hi how is it going? This week was a little bit better. I still am having stomach problems and none of the medicine that they gave me is really working so I might just have to stay forever with a hurting stomach. Also my head hurts a lot, but I think that it is just because of the sun and the hot. I told president this so maybe he will send me to a place in the mountains that is cold :) The rest of the week was pretty similar to all of the other weeks though. 

     

Wednesday we went to Chiclayo so that I could get my DNI which I guess is like a citizenship card, but I have to come back in 2 weeks since it wasn't ready yet. We got a new investigator who is 9, and her Dad finally gave her permission to be baptized. She has been going to church with the rest of her family for a while now so it is pretty easy to teach them. We teach her and also her 7 year old brother who is pretty fun. She will be baptized this Saturday. I also had my first baptism on Saturday. It was the kid that we play marbles with and that we had been trying to baptize since I first got here, only we couldn't since his parents were less active. He was so excited and nervous too he told me. I told him that I was pretty nervous too. But it all went well and he was baptized and I got all of the words right and we had cake after and it was pretty awesome experience.

The picture with less people is his mom and dad and little sister, and the other is with his uncle and aunt. They are both members and return missionaries. They are pretty nice and help us all of the time, and they were pretty excited to see my first baptism and to have it be their nephew.

    

I think that my Spanish is getting a little better. I have had to teach more and contact and talk more since my new companion wants me to learn faster and be ready to train people or other things. That is good even though it is hard sometimes. Being able to talk more really helps, and now I have more people that are friends in the ward.  My English class was only one person so we changed it for next week. We will have to get the word out to all of the people for the class this week. I will have to let you know how it goes. 

Also I was wondering if you could send some of those things that are like post its but are plastic and an arrow for marking scripture spots? In a lot of different colors.

    

That is pretty much all for this week, I will have to write down some more things for next week and take some more pictures.

Con amor, Elder Lamb

Week 19 - New companion

We were excited to hear about transfers this week. Ethan is staying in Ferranafe, but he did get a new companion. He's still having stomach issues, so any prayers would be appreciated! Here is is letter for the week:

"Hi. we are writing now. My companion got changed up into the jungle, and I am a little jealous. I am still here with a different companion, Elder Espinoza from Lima. He is also the new district leader since Elder Smith left to Chiclayo. He told us that we have an hour and a half to write our families and president. I am writing another letter now that is longer with more details, I just thought that you would want to know.

My new companion is pretty good. It is a little different to be with someone else after being with another person for 12 weeks straight. He is good though and teaches really good, and I think the members trust him since he is from Peru. He also can play piano so this was the first Sunday with piano for a long time. We also have permission to teach English classes and piano classes to members to try and get more references and people to teach. Our first English class is this Thursday so wish me luck!

Hey how is it going back at home? First with the changes. I am still here in this area, but i think that it might be might last change here. My companion left to San Ignacio, which is way up by the jungle, so yes I am a little bit jealous, but I will probably have one chance to go there. My new companion is Elder Espinoza from Lima. He was literally neighbors with the CCM and his uncle worked there as a gardener. He gave me one of those cool ties that you can by from the temple there, but the missionaries were not allowed to go since it is just outside the fence. I might give him some money to have his family send some more to send to you guys, that is what his last companion did too. His last area was Chachapoyas and he has all sorts of cool things from there, and the pictures too are really awesome. He is the new district leader too, so there is a lot more stuff to do which helps me to feel better. Both people from the other district left and one from the other area, so it is just me and Elder Remigio that have been here the longest. We also have to new new people. a gringo and a latino. Elder Chura form Bolivia, and Elder Witworth from thousand oaks California, which I think was in Dad´s mission. We  had a pretty crazy week and a baptism on Saturday. We also have another one or two planned for this Saturday, and another for the next and for the next. Not a whole lot of new things happened only those, just the same things teaching and preaching. 

My Spanish has had to improve a lot for this week though. My companion works really hard and has almost finished all of the books to learn English, but still doesn't understand a whole lot. Also i have had to talk a lot with the people since they know me better. It is so hard, but it is getting better. My stomach is still hurting pretty much every day. It got a little better on Wednesday but then went back down. I haven't had things with milk or soda for like two weeks now which is a bummer. Also i a¿have a pretty bad cough that is like the bronchitis I had a year ago. One day I might get better though. Other than that not much new. I had a guy fall asleep on me in one of the vans when we were coming back from Chiclayo today. He also opened the door a little because his bag was stuck and later he was sleepy and the door opened and I had to catch him. That was pretty crazy.

Con Amor, Elder Lamb

Ethan at a baptism. 

Ethan on the day of transfers. He got a new companion last week. He's going to miss Elder Smith like crazy! Hopefully they meet up again sometime in the next two years :)

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.

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.