Elder Xavier Maestas; Peru Lima East Mission: Iraq not Peru?? Call of Duty??

Hey mom!! meh it’s really okay! It’s not that bad, but I swear they accidentally sent me to Iraq! I feel like i'm in call of duty, it is legit exactly how Iraq looks in pictures! The missionaries here before us were really bad.. Apparently so I doubt they really did anything productive at all!! Hahaha yes my pension! That is where I eat all of my meals! Its nuts, the first day I was seriously thinking, wow I am going to die here! I found out this week that Peru is the second to last country in south America when it comes to the how good the economy is and what not, very poor everywhere except for La Molina, which is like not even that nice.. haha. People here don’t really work for better things; they just seem to be fine with what they have, which I honestly don’t understand! I can’t imagine living here for all my life. This week the members really have started to bond with us though and it’s nice because we have a lot of help from them. Oh man some of the other apartments are so freaking nice but our area is super poor! Pretty much all of Peru is! Our pension gives us plenty to eat! My companion says she is one of the best he has had because he isn’t hungry all the time, she feeds us a ton and is always worrying about us if were like 5 minutes late so don’t worry about that! I am definitely losing weight but it’s because I sweat all day, and then we eat pretty healthy every meal so imp losing all my fat! haha! Oh and here were not allowed to eat anywhere besides the pension if the food isn’t in a package, but the members and random people give us stuff all the time which is awesome, oh and we can have fruit and what not!

So we have a lot of freaking investigators but not so many are progressing! We have a little girl who is probably going to be baptized in 2 weeks if her mom will continue to let her to go to church with us and another lady who is going to be getting married in 2 weeks and hopefully after we will baptize her.! We have tons of lessons everyday! We have a lot of investigators who need to get married though which is our main problem here, there are a ton of members who live with their spouses but don't have the money to get married! also a lot of investigators who just have a ton of questions and its hard to get them to commit. But we will definitely have at least one in the next 2 weeks! Gosh the first transfer is already almost over!! To start the new area we had to just start from scratch, meet all the members and find people! It was hard but we already have a ton of people to teach!

I think that the bishops brother was probably in La Molina cause where I am the stuff is not so nice! But tell him thank you so much for his prayers! Ah sounds like fun stuff at home!

Tell grandpa happy birthday this week! I will send some pictures! I will respond to your other email too! Oh this week we did some service at a members house who is rich for here! It’s the closest thing to an American home but we found out why, he runs cock fights in his backyard and has like 50 roosters!! It’s freaking nuts, they are good looking chickens though, and it’s crazy! we got to look through all of it! It isn’t illegal here!!

A few more stories, so here is just like Dylan in Africa, the women breast feed anywhere they feel like and it is REALLY awkward sometimes, especially when it’s like in church! fetch, our church is like this little house too...different world! Oh here it’s normal to kiss on the cheek when you say hello but this one freaking lady tries to kiss me every time and were always like ahhh stop! Freaking peruanos. oh and we taught this old lady named eddy who is from the jungle, all the old people are nuts, and we asked if she prays and she’s like yeah I wake up at 430 every morning and pray until 6 before I shower, hahahahah what the crap!! And then she said the closing prayer for like 10 minutes, I seriously was trying to think of a way to sneak out of her house if she kept going! hahah so funny!

But I love you so much mom! Thanks so much for your emails and love! I will talk to you soon with more craziness!!