Sidewalks are for walking

Hi again from Peru!!

Still can't find my notes about everything I want to write about so I
just started making a new list, maybe I'll think of more things later
haha.

Every Monday here there's a guy that comes to be our instructor during
our gym time and I swear he's the South American equivalent of Chuck
Norris (my companion calls him the Terminator)!! He's crazy, I had a
nightmare about him last night.

We had the craziest experiences on Saturday! Every Saturday we go
proselyting in some other area of Lima all day and holy cow it was an
extremely humbling and eye opening experience. They bussed us all to
an area about 30 minutes from the CCM and the church we went to was
totally different than what I'm used to! There was a huge cement fence
around the entire building and we had to walk through a security gate
just to get into the chapel. There were bars on all the windows too
which was a little unsettling, it was definitely the cleanest building
around though. The first place we went to was super dirty and
depressing and I had a bad attitude going into the day, I had zero
faith towards success and didn't expect anything at all to happen, my
companion have had a hard time getting along, I still can't understand
his accent and it felt like he had no more patience for me. I was
tired and feeling alone and all that junk and for a while nothing at
all happened. I really was trying to feel better about the whole thing
and give myself a better attitude, I don't want to be responsible for
somebody not accepting the gospel someday because one time they saw a
missionary who wasn't happy about what they were teaching. It's also
super different to talk to actual people in Spanish than when you talk
to North Americans who know just as much Spanish as I do. We gave out
a few pamphlets and stuff but I still wasn't feeling it. After lunch
we went out to a different area and tried again, this time the first
guy we talked to rejected us flat out, telling us that he likes to
party and has no desire to change his lifestyle. I thought that was
pretty funny because he was like 70 years old, get a life dude! The
second person we talked to however was a different story. I can't say
I understood everything he was saying but I felt good about the whole
thing and towards the end I was able to offer him the Book of Mormon
and invite him to read it (all in Spanish). He was really receptive to
it and I dunno if anything will happen but it was still a great
experience. I also saw a Peruvian midget while we were tracting which
also made me happy.

Peru is full of crazy people! We hear sirens and honking like 24/7
right outside the walls, everybody is insane behind the wheel. I'm
pretty sure I've heard gunshots too, and there's a sniper tower on the
hill right next to us. It's also socially acceptable to throw litter
everywhere which I'm pretty sure is the reason the country is so
dirty, and it's not uncommon to see people going to the bathroom on
the sidewalks. Luckily I haven't seen any of that yet but I've only
been out in public three times, we'll see what the next 23 months
brings...

My companion and I are getting along a lot better which is really
awesome, I still can't understand him though. Oh well, such is life.
He'd never had peanut butter before so last week I bought some at
Tottus (Peruvian Walmart) and let him try it. He loved it! He talked
about it for two days haha. This week I found out he's never had a
Snack Pack before so I got him one, again he's a fan. When we were
walking back to the bus I offered him a sour gummy worm, he accepted
it, and a minute later he was laughing and crying and choking on it. I
didn't think they were sour at all but I guess South Americans can't
handle sour stuff at all.

My companion gave me a silly hat the other day, I guess it was a sort
of peace offering or something and it definitely helped our
companionship, who can say no to silly hats? I wear it often =)

I'm learning lots and I still have a month in the CCM! It's awesome. I
have to go but I hope to hear back from everyone! Snail mail really is
tough to wait for so email looks like the way to go.
fisher.john@myldsmail.net I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!!!!!!!!

The Adventures of Elder Fisher and his Tie of Llamaness!

Ok flip I couldn´t find my little notebook that I keep notes in about
what I want to tell everyone about so this email may be pretty lame.
It´s the end of week 1 here in the Peru MTC (or CCM) and everything is
going pretty awesome! The amount of Spanish I´ve picked up just by
being around my latin companion all the time is crazy! He´s really
cool and we´re getting along pretty well, I can kind of understand him
now! He´s from Argentina so his accent is really strong and even some
of the natives here have a hard time understanding him. Oh well, I
guess if I was meant to be his companion it means the Lord trusts me
to figure it out haha. The food here is basically the same thing every
single day, rice rice rice. Like I said in my last letter I can´t eat
too much or it´ll make me constipated which I know everybody wants to
hear all about. I know an easy way to counteract that though, just
drink more diarrhea juice and it´ll all even out.

I figured out how to start a new paragraph! For anyone who didn´t read
my last letter this is coming from a spanish keyboard and I could not
for the life of me figure out the enter button, but with perseverance
all things are solvable=)

We went to the Lima Temple this morning, coolest thing ever! My
companion wasn't endowed yet so I got to be his escort which was super
legit. I was really nervous about everything being in Spanish but they
had it all figured out for us so it everything went down without a
hitch. To get to the temple we had to leave the CCM (I´m not exactly
sure what that stands for but everyone knows that´s what it´s called
so I just go along with it) and take the bus down the road a ways. Oh
my gosh that was quite an experience!! The busses are tiny and they
drive like crazy people!!! They just cram as many people as they can
onto one bus, sometimes the doorman type guy is on the outside of the
bus just holding on while we carreen down the road swerving around
cars pedestrians and other busses. These people are insane. However
the bus ride only cost 1 Sole for my companion and I which is only
about 27 or 28 cents so I guess it´s worth it. The temple was super
cool! It´s really small as far as temples go but it was really nice.

After we finished our session we went across the street and up this
really creepy green staircase to this little store where they sell
super cool scripture cases and ties and bags and stuff. I got some
sweet cases for my Spanish Bible and Book of Mormon triplet (or Libro
De Mormón if you prefer) and a rad tie with a llama on it. That´s
right everybody, I have a tie with a llama, go ahead and weep about it
I know you want to ;)

Right after that we went to this crazy store called Tottus which is
like a giant Peruvian Walmart. It was awesome! The junk food is super
cheap!! And they carried Sprite which was amazing since I thought I´d
have to go without for a couple years but I tell you what Sprite you
haven´t seen the last of me!!

Ugh I had so much more to talk about but I really can´t remember!! =(

I´ve been having kind of a hard time the last few days, not really
with homesickness much but that´s definitely a factor. I just feel
like I haven´t been able to feel the Spirit because I´ve been studying
Spanish so much and I still don´t understand enough. I asked my zone
leader Elder McCready and my Provo MTC companion Elder Zoller for a
priesthood blessing last night and they were more than happy to help
me out. It went well and I really felt the Spirit, but maybe that´s
just because the prayer was in English and I understood it haha, who
knows? I decided to go ahead and say at least one personal prayer a
day in English because I can´t always express my gratitude or really
any of my feelings in Spanish the way I´d like to be able to. When I
tried to pray I kept mixing Spanish phrases in and it was really
weird, I couldn´t focus on one language and thus didn´t really
accomlish much. This morning in the temple though I was able to pray
in Spanish better than I´ve ever done before which just goes to show
the power of the Lord and how He knows what´s up and can help us with
anything at all.

In the Provo MTC the big thing they pushed on everybody was obedience
with exactness which is really good because there are a lot of elders
who need that. Here though the big thing they stress is that we need
to have patience, patience with the language and our companions but
most of all ourselves. It´s really easy to get discouraged and down
and to want to give up and just throw up your hands and say "What the
heck am I doing here?" but that´s not what any of us came out here
for. There are people in Peru and other places in South America that
need this message, that need to hear that the gospel has been restored
and that we have prophets again on the earth. We've had this knowledge
in our lives and like it says in Alma 32:28 it is delicious to us, now
it's our turn to give others the chance to taste it. Satan is working
hard against members of the church and especially missionaries, it´s
like being in a giant game of tug of war between two forces that are
so much more powerful than any of us. I need to be here and I know it,
but I also need to stay focused and do what the Lord has placed before
me to do. Sometimes it feels like I'm not moving anywhere or
accomplishing anything at all but all I need to do is look back at who
I was even just one month ago today when I entered the Provo MTC and I
can see already how much I've learned and how different I am. This is
the business of bringing souls unto salvation and eternal happiness
and it's not easy, but like it says in 1 Nephi 3:7 with the Lord it is
possible. Not only that though, Jesus loves his servants and will do
what he can to help them, and that's not just limited to missionaries.

I don't have much time but I hope you all know that I´m so happy to be
here on a mission and to experience these ups and downs that will
eventually make me a whole new and better person. Please keep praying
for me and I know it will make a difference. Thank you all so much for
your love and support and I want you to know it's very much
appreciated. I love it here and I love that I learn more about our
purpose in this life with every passing day. Thanks again and God
speed =)

Elder Fisher

Let the Rice Fest Begin!

Hola from Peru!!! I`m typing on a Spanish computer and it`s making it really hard to type. It took me four minutes to type this far =/ ok i{m just going to throw proper punctuation out the window cuz it{s really slowing me down and i don{t have time to stress about it haha =) I AM IN PERU!!!! I{m having a hard time grasping it... the flights down here weren{t too bad, just really long haha. We flew from Salt Lake to Atlanta then to Lima, i tried to sleep most of the time to help it go by quicker, it worked. We had video screens on the seats in front of us and one of the things we could do was track our flight, it gave us readouts of the outside temp and how fast we were going and how far we{d gone and all kinds of cool stuff. there was also a map that showed exactly where we were. there was a two hour time difference which isn{t hard to get over at all, but it was still almost one am when we finally got through customs and immigration and all that jazz. there were a whole bunch of elders and even a few sisters in our group, probably about 40 altogether. they bussed us to the CCM (MTC) and holy cow it{s so ghetto here! we drove through some seriously sketchy neighborhoods and i was almost positive our bus was going to drive into a building more than once. eventually we got on to a real road and it was pretty smooth going from there. we drove right past the temple and i can{t wait to go inside! the CCM is less than five minutes from the temple and i think everyone here just walks over there on p days (wednesday). in the provo MTC everything is open and you can pretty much come and go anytime you want, there are no fences or anything but here the entire compound is bordered by 12 foot walls and the gate to get in looks like it could stand against a small nuclear assault. when we pulled up there were a whole bunch of american missionaries waiting for us wearing goofy peruvian hats and hoodies (i totally wanted some) and they were cheering for us and it was super bien. i got my stuff up to my room which was quite an ordeal, and eventually found the bathroom. there were a whole bunch of north americans in there having a chat about how much we{re going to love it here and telling us the low down on everything that might offend our companions (such as dropping your backpack) and we all had a nice long laugh about how much rice they eat here. We went to bed around 3 am and when i laid down my pillow was so lumpy i legitimately thought it was a practical joke from one of the other elders, no such luck. i found it more comfortable to sleep with no pillow at all haha. since they knew we had such a late flight they allowed us to sleep in until 8 which is a rare treat, however, there was some kind of mix up in my room assignment so instead of being with elders who are going to be here for another six weeks they{re all leaving in three, plus the bed i was assigned already had someone in it so i got to find another one. my companion woke me up at seven and said i was late and needed to hurry, and since i don{t speak spanish i had no idea what he was saying. someone else in our room had to let me know what was going on then explain to my new comp (elder monzòn) that it was ok just for today. so i got up and got dressed and didn{t shave (i had quite an impressive face for only two days of stubble i might add) and we went to breakfast. the CCM is really small but it{s fairly new so it{s really nice, i like it here. my new address is