Spencer Mohlman's Mission: It's been almost a week and I bought a hat!!

Hi Everyone!

I have been having such a great time! Today is My P-Day!

I had the opportunity to figure out why I am here. As I sat in the Temple, I realized that my purpose here in Peru is to help people to be with their families forever!

The MTC is so stressful! We are learning about the gospel and the language at the same time! How do they do it? They teach doctrine in Spanish! It is so crazy how fast they talk! So the MTC is probably one of the most beautiful places I have been other than the temple. There are tons of exotic plants and fruits! They grow bananas! How cool is that!? They literally pick bananas every week for us to have with our meals! Another cool thing about this place is the food. We have a lot of native dishes as well as dishes from China! Every meal is served with rice and bread. Every so often we will get some potatoes or yuccas. At the MTC there are probably 30 Americans or like they say it here Norte Americanos and about 60 Latinos. They come from all over central and South America. I can keep up conversations with them and I play a lot of soccer with them. The MTC here has a full size turf soccer field, and we are allowed to play for 1 hour a day! It’s the best part of the day because you get to give your mind a rest. All the Latinos call me potero or goalie. So within the first week here I have learned to pray in Spanish and bear my testimony in Spanish! Every Sunday we have all three meetings, and yes they are exactly the same. The only difference is the talks are in Spanish. So another thing you guys should know is that the water here in Peru is super bad. They gave us all filters on the first day. So today for P-day we went to the temple and then we went to a store called Metro’s. It’s a three level cheap version of Wal-Mart. You’re probably all thinking, "How could it be cheaper than Wal-Mart?"

Well a 3 liter coke is 1.60 soles. So that’s like 50 American cents! After that we went to a 4 story-storage building that a bunch of people rented out to sell stuff out of. It’s called the Garages. It literally means the garages, but its pronounced gu-ra-hays. It’s pretty cool because everything is super cheap. I bought a hat from there for 6 soles so like 2 us dollars. While we were there we were approached by a very old lady, she asked about the gospel and who we were. I was able to give her a pamphlet about the restoration. I was the only one that had brought a pamphlet and it just so happened to be the only one I didn't take out of my backpack before I left in the morning. It just goes to show that our father in heaven doesn't do random! So another fun fact about Peru is the people here are really nice. Even when they are mad, they still are polite. Also the roads here are CRAZY! Cars do not stop for people. If you hear a honk you sprint across the road. People here don’t use turn signals all the do is honk! So in order to get to the temple we had to take a bus. The buses here are as big as a 15 passenger van. There are only like 8 seats and a bar that runs across the top. Usually the buses have 30-40 people on them! So picture in your head me hunched over surrounded by about 10 Peruvians. None of them are taller than 5ft 5in. It must be a pretty funny sight! The bus costs 50 Peruvian cents every time you get off. It’s like a really cheap roller coaster ride, with bumps and sharp turns, and no seat belts! I really like it here, but I am really homesick. I know its only been a week, but it feels much longer. I have been having some pretty fun times with some pretty awesome people! I feel the spirit so strong here in Peru, and I can tell the people want it. If at all possible write some letters I can only look at emails once a week, but I can look at letters over and over! Have some other people write me too! I miss you guys so much! Just think in only 111 weeks I will see you again! I love you guys so much and there is not a day that goes by that I don’t think of you all! Hope all is well!

Love

Elder Mohlman