Tres Mil Papas (Three Thousand Potatoes): Week 2 - September 16

In case you missed it, here is the latest letter from Elder Babbel (As time goes on I imagine there will be more and more Spanish mixed into the letters so I will not be spell checking :)

Hola yall! So this week was actually pretty much boring, but not really because we´re in Peru ya know?

Well anyway, on Thursday we had a pretty flippin sweet lesson with our first investigador and Elder Wynn and I totally killed it. Our Spanish is actually getting pretty good and we can even answer her questions even if they have nothing to do with the lesson. It's just been pretty incredible to see how much we've learned in the past couple weeks. We're learning by leaps and bounds, and I can quite honestly say, we have almost nothing to do with it. We are truly being blessed with the gift of tongues every day, especially when we teach. Elder Wynn and I have been saying a whole bunch of prayers lately and every single time, we feel a massive influx of Spanish grammar and vocab flood straight into our brains.

So yeah, but on Friday we just taught again and ate chicken and rice again and almost fell asleep in morning class again.

But on Saturday, we got a new investigador and his 'Matias'. Matias is actually our morning teacher Bro. Valasquez who is probably the most hilarious latino I've ever met. He got off of his mission 3 years ago and now he's almost done teaching at the CCM. He is a convert to the church, and when he was 17, he was well on his way to become a professional soccer goalie. But he completely changed his plans when he was baptized because his oppurtunity to play professionally would be when he was serving a mission. He chose to serve the Lord instead which is just absolutely incredible. But yeah, he always says these hilarious things like 'No gusta your face!' or 'This investigator is crap man!' or 'P-90X!!!' in his very broken english. So we taught this guy the first lesson and it was super cool except he was really tough on us. We had to really convince to even try praying to build a relationship with God, but at the end he 'had a change of heart' and said he would. It's super fun teaching the fake investigadors and I can't wait to get out into the real world so we can bless people's lives.

Sunday was very relaxing like last time, and this time I fell asleep during the movie 'The Miracle' so that was pretty nice haha.

On Monday, we pulled the best prank on Elder Hosch. We took out all of the support beams on the bottom part of the top bunk, so when Elder Hosch climbed into bed, the mattress fell through the frame and down 2 and a half feet with him on it. It made it way funnier because he was not expecting it at all and we video taped it :) I'll get the video at some point for you guys. Oh yeah, Elder Hosch, by the way, is a way cool missionary that left just yesterday. He had some pretty awesome quotes like, ' I don't shine so others can see me. I shine so that through me, others can see Him.' We're all gonna miss him :')

Tuesday was basically just waiting around for P-Day for me and Elder Wynn because we didn´t have a lesson to teach and we had already planned for our next lesson which isn't until Thursday night. Also, I ordered 2 custom soccer jerseys with my name on them for 25 soles a piece. That is 8 dollars. Best stinkin deal of my life.

Today, we went to the temple and it was flippin fantastic and I tried to listen to almost everything in Spanish, but it was pretty tough. We never use 'vosotros' but that's basically all that they use in the temple and in the scriptures. And ohhhhh my goodness I saw freaking ELDER WOOD just like an hour ago!!! It was soooooo cool to see him and I still can't believe we have 4 weeks in the MTC together! Super mega pumped.

Well I think that's everything! Adios Amigos and Viva Peru! :)

If you have ever wondered what a typical day in the Missionary Training Center (CCM) in Peru consists of here is what Jonah tells us:

Lima, Peru MTC (CCM)

6.15 Wake up

7.15 Breakfast

8.00 Personal Study

9.00 Class (Spanish and Gospel mixed)

12.30 Lunch

1.15 Class (Spanish)

2.30 Companionship Study

3.00 Physical Activity

4.00 Prepare for class

4.30 Class (Spanish and Gospel mixed)

6.30 Dinner

7.15 Class (Spanish and Gospel mixed)

9.00 Planning

9.30 Go to Bed

10.30 Lights off

"We rode on public transportation today and it was so sweeeeeettt! You basically get thrown around on a bus with no seats and then jump off of it when it's your stop. Fine Lima Living :)" -Elder Babbel