Pictures 1.4

Hey everyone!!

So finally i have a chance to send the pictures. These have to be my favorite pictures so far of the mission. Junior is such a funny guy. He hangs out with us on pdays and when we do our reports every sunday and we are going to start having a FHE with him and his family every sunday. We have been trying to teach his sister, but she has taken too much of an interest. I dont know what happened. We are teaching two other girls (family of a convert who just returned home from the mission) but they are hard to teach as well because of the influence of freinds. they are still too concerned with what their freinds will think about the mormones.

We were supposed to have a meeting with elder pino (a seventy) this week but something happened (something aobut general conference comming up) so it got postponed to october. he is going to be doing interveiws with the missionaries and visiting some of their rooms... kind of freaky thought to have a seventy in your room...

All the missionaries are excited for general conference. it is a great oppertunity to help people feel the spirit and gain a testimony. All the missionaries tell it me its a time when you get the most homesick though because its like christmas, you usually spend the time with your family. I thought about that a little bit and i realized i have been developing a family out here. the lady who owns our apartment is like our grandma, our pensionisto is like our father and his wife is like a mom, and junior has become a an older little brother... (haha i finally know how martin and thomas feel!! haha) Im going to be so sad when i have to leave this area. I dont think that will be until november though.

Elder larson has been a little sick this week. so i have been doing my best to watch his health and walk a little slower. i like to walk fast and he is used to latino companions who are a little bit more laid back (not always a bad thing, need both in a companionship). he had something growing on his foot for the last month so we got permission to take him to the doctor and get it checked out. He was really nervous because we always hear horror stories about the doctor offices here. it turned out good. The doctor ended up just burning a hole in his foot... haha. it looks better than it sounds. haha we are going back today for a check up. mondays are the most hectic days...

Something different about this week... we did a lot of looking for old investigators to find people we could teach because in the city knocking doors isnt super efective always. Especially cause every one has gates... anyway while we were looking for old investigators of previous companionships to teach we ended up on a street that was on the edge of our area. its a bit more getto than the rest of town. the road is made of dirt and the houses are a bit more run down. (an area we avoid at night). we were on our way to find one of the last persons on our list when a big semi truck out of nowhere passed by on this dirt road (fist semi i have seen) carrying a ton of flour. some of the bags of flour started falling out and so i walked up to help.

( going to finish later out of time. funny story though sorry wasnt watching the clock)

anyway, another hard week. but the mission, as always, is the best!

Love you all,

siempre doble afuera, y continua a tener un sonrisa

Elder Bunker

Estoy Engordandome

Hey Everyone,

So as usual there is a lot to write and not enough time to write it all. Everyday is always so busy... even though almost all of a visits fall through haha.

before i start i need to finish my last story though:

Something different about this week... we did a lot of looking for old investigators to find people we could teach because in the city knocking doors isnt super efective always. Especially cause every one has gates... anyway while we were looking for old investigators of previous companionships to teach we ended up on a street that was on the edge of our area. its a bit more getto than the rest of town. the road is made of dirt and the houses are a bit more run down. (an area we avoid at night). we were on our way to find one of the last persons on our list when a big semi truck out of nowhere passed by on this dirt road (fist semi i have seen) carrying a ton of flour. some of the bags of flour started falling out and so i walked up to help put the bags of flour back in. But as i was approaching the bags a moto-taxi with three men inside pulled up. I thought oh these guys are nice they are going to help the truck gather the fallen bags.

The men worked fast and put four or five bags of flour in the moto taxi. I heard some yelling and the men started to panick and piled into the mototaxi did a u-turn and took off. haha... yea... to be honest i wasnt exactly sure what to do besides keep walking. I looked towards the truck (which had now stopped) and saw that two men were ascending into the open doorway... there was a man in the truck the whole time throwing bags out the back...

It suprised me how quickly these men were to rob another and it almost made groan out loud a little bit. people arent very honest here... at all. two of the members in our ward had their offices and houses broken into and everything stolen in the last 3 weeks. It really makes me sad sometimes.

So that was last week.

I heard elections are coming up and things are starting to get a little heated. I still havent got my email to vote yet, but we were supposed to start the process three weeks ago.

This week has been interestings as week because we havent been able to shower much. The reason is because a sewer pipe broke under our street and flooded it with sewer water, and for some reason it got into our water in our shower, sink, and toilet so all the water that was in our house smelt like sewer. (looked perfectly fine but smelt terrible) It kind of scared me to do anything with it. My poor companion didnt know that the water was bad so he took a shower in bad water...

The pipe broke early last week adn the street has stunk ever since. but the water is back to normal... i hope.. still smells a little bit. not sure if i feel comfortable using the water yet. just goes to show... you cannot drink the water from the tap here...

Also this week we helped our pensionisto with his job as a service. he is a chicken vender. so we gutted, riped the heads off and chopped off the feet of 300 chickens this last friday... my camera is dead so i dont have any pictures but im going to ask my companion to send me a few. honestly one of the most interesting, if not the most interesting, service projects we have had. He had a huge order to fill because a church group (los testigos i beleive) ordered a ton of chicken. we gave him a hard time for enlisting our help to serve chicken to "the enemy" haha we dont really beleive them to be the enemy, but they sure do make this work hard. haha. (really we were happy to help our cook with his work, i dont think i can ever eat chicken the same way though...)

Ok...now here is the news-breaker while we were working with Hernan (our cook) we were using a scale to weigh the chickens. I got the chance to weigh myself in kilos for the first time... I weigh 69 kilos... now if my calculations are correct I have gained in the last two months 7 kilos.... or 20 pounds...

AHHHHHHH..... 20 pounds???? Haha its been interesting because lately a lot of people have commented on my small belly i have now and i didnt think much of it. but I have gained 20 pounds and i guess its starting to show haha. i weigh the most i have ever weighed in my entire life. (160 pounds, last time i hit my max it was 146 haha) k enough about that now.

(im hoping some of that weight is mucle tooo. my legs are alot stronger now thats for sure.)

Its interesting here because a lot of people live in a state that in the united states would be considered unaceptable. They are a lot pretty humble homes here. But almost everyone seems to have really nice, namebrand clothes, a lot of namebrands many poeple in the US cant afford, and they buy them for cheap here. haha i finally realized why, here there arent a lot of copyright laws so everyone owns a lot of movies and music because they share all their music and can buy it cheap from the streets, and it is the same with the clothes. a lot of clothes have the brandes stitched in them and they are the same quality as the united states, only illegal. It made me think about how silly namebrands really are. haha. a lot of people buy really expesive clothing when in reality the only difference is a few feet of thread... I really like namebrand clothing but it its been interesting to take a new perspective on it.

Although there are a lot of things that arent so wonderful about the city (i live downtown) and about the state of living here, I love peru. some times i think peru was constructed perfectly to be the place i would serve my mission, but then i realize its just the opposite, Heavenly father has constructed me (or has been preparing me) my entire life to serve here. The people are beautiful, the food is great, and something feels right about being here. (even though a lot of days are difficult)

Really this is the work of the Lord,

I love you all, I am praying for all of you and for our country,

Siempre doblen afuera si mismo, y sonrisa a todos

Con Amor,

Elder Bunker

ps on the great things i love about peru is even though a lot of things are pretty modern they still live in the 80´s :D

The hair, the clothes, the music... all eighties. there are a lot of little kids here with afros, and there is a mechanic shop that is down the street from the chuch that is always playing Journey and other 80´s music. Temptation... haha

pps i forgot!!! we had 2 baptisms yesterday!! i will hopefully send pictures later from my companions camera.