Lima

Everyone,

Well I apologize, but i dont have any pictures this week. Im a little bit in a hurry to write. i dont have my cord with me to upload pics. 

First off, today has been crazy. Like really insane, we have been hiking for the majority of the day. Our district decided that we would go check out some caves and see some bats and things like that. Tunrs out the caves were really small and there wasnt much to see. but it was neet to see some bats.

When we left the cave we decided to hike a little farther up to see if there were more caves. When we got to where we thought there would be caves we found that there wasnt anything but big rocks. so we took a few pictures and apreciated the veiw of the valley. It was so pretty we decided to hike a little father up to see a little more. after we hiked a little ways we saw the top of the mountain we were on and decided it would be possible and fun to get to the top. (the hike took a little longer than we had hoped haha) on the way up we saw some of the coolest plants and bugs I have seen here in the mission. (at one point we found a spider I had almost stepped on. It was super crazy looking, gave me goosebumps to look at it, it was all shiny, black and yellow, and looked like it could leave a pretty nasty bite) (There are also really cool tarantulas here XP)

we finally got to the top of the peak and took pictures of the whole valley. It felt amazing to be in the mountains again hiking and soaking up fresh air. Im afraid i got a little fried. I didnt really plan on hiking uip there, I was planning on caves. 

as we took pictures though we saw a little white cross right across the mountain range. so... we took another short little hike (that lasted a little longer than i thought it would) to get to the cross. Haha its funny here in peru because they put random little things on mountains like that all the time. after visitng the cross we headed down the mountain, (we ended up in someones back yard for some reason haha) and headed back to central Cajamarca.

so that was pday.

This week has also been pretty crazy. Like i mentioned in my other letter this last week i traveled to lima to fill out some papers. wow what a trip. It turned out to be super long. so we headed out monday. took a six hour bus ride to Chiclayo from Cajamarca and rested at the mission office for a bit and wrote a little home. then we took a plane from chiclayo to lima which is like a 1 and half plane ride. when we got to lima a guy picked us up in the airport and gave us dinner there. we headed to the hotel where we would be staying and got to sleep around 3 in the morning. we woke up the next mornign at 5 and stood in lines until 3 in the afternoon to get our pervuian ID. Wow what a day. I met a few new missionaries while we were waitign in line though who were still in the CCM (pervian MTC) it was fun to see some new missionaries. They always seem more excited than the misisonaries that have been out for a while. They were all nervous about the language (which is natural) but i got to assure them that it would come with practice

wow seems like I was there yesterday... that was almost a year ago for me. 

after waiting in lines all day we were hoping to get to go to the Lima temple which usually happens on these kinds of trips to take pictures. Since i was never in the peruvian MTC i never got to visit the temple. they told us however that they didnt want to risk missing our plane.... I hope when i go home the mission president can set up a long layover so i can go in and enjoy it before headign back to the states. 

we got to the airport and we ended our mini half day fast around 5 when someone showed up to help us out and buy us food. at that point we were really tired. 

we got back to chiclayo that night, and sleeped in the office elders apartment. (haha missionary sleepovers... epic) we woke up the next day with the suprise that we would not be going back home that day, because it was dia del trabajador or Pervuian Labor Day there were no busses to take back to Cajamarca, so i hung out in the office all day and read some inspiring talks one of the office elders (Elder Davis - coolest missionary ever) found on the byu devotional website. I cant beleive I have been a member my whole life and there are still SO many things I dont understand that would be considered basic in the gospel. Its just SO AMAZING. I want to read church literature THE REST OF MY LIFE. Its amazing the things one can find by reading the teaching of the prophets. 

so that was the trip. after the day had ended i went with some elders to a family home evening with one of the goofiest peruvian families i have met (they dont know what burritos are here. I had the miscomception that all south america ate burritos before the mission. They told me about their trip to the united states and that they got frustrated because it was hard for them to find a place that sells rice, and they ended up eating burritos.... haha they didint know what to call the burritos and so they decribed it to us in the funniest way like it was the strangest foreign barbaric food they had eaten hahahaha...) I fell in love with that family. haha.

So i got back and zoom. 

Love you all, 

always turn outward, and keep smiling.

Elder Bunker