Elder Barney's Birthday

Ahahhh that's crazy Tate's going to Mexico! and even crazier that he's going to Monterrey! My best friend here in the mission field is named elder Mario Espinoza, and hes from Monterrey! So we'll for sure be visiting his mission. He's the coolest and he will be happy to know Tate's going there! 

As for my birthday it went pretty smooth. we worked like normal and did like a family home evening with the Huayhuani family in the night and celebrated a little. I'll try to send some pics. The Huayhuani family and my penionista are definitely the closest things to family I've had here in Portales so it was nice to spend it with them.  As for the rest of this week its gone by pretty slow. We have one baptism next week but after that we've got nothing, so were kinda stumped at the moment. Also, I baptized a girl this week named Isabel Yhomara Cruz Yacta.

Lima, Portales

Jack is now working in a new area…Lima! After spending a number of transfers in Pichanaki in the jungle, Jack was transferred to a city in the mountains called Ambo. He was only there for one transfer and was then sent to Lima. Not only that but he is training a new missionary, acting as a district leader and opening a new area.

His zone is Vitarte, and Portales is his area. They are having a lot of success in this new area and so Jack is very happy. I've attached a couple of photos of the area so you can get an idea of where Jack is serving.

Elder Barney taking in the view of his new area

This area is filled with steep trails that the missionaries must climb. 

One of the families that Jack is teaching

Last Week in the MTC

Jack's didn't have too much to say in his letter today. Things are pretty much the same at the MTC in Peru. He's still bored and anxious to get out into the field which he will do next Tuesday! He doesn't know where he's going yet but stay tuned for more information and don't forget: if you want to write Jack, just click the "Write Me" tab at the top of the page!

Here's what Jack had to say:

Things are good here, I did migrations today, it was pretty crazy. Its like the DMV of Peru. As for other things here, it's really slow. I'm very bored here but I hit the field Tuesday. I'm excited to see where I end up!

Learning Quechua

Things are going good over here. Not too much to worry about. I don't get to knock doors again for a few weeks cause of General Conference so that's a bummer. But Whatever. I'm terribly bored here at the MTC. Spanish is child's play. I'm learning Quechua now, the Incan language. It sounds super cool and tribal. I'm doing that cause a few towns in my mission speak it and I figured why not? Anyway, so I'm trying to learn that which is difficult but at least it gives me something to do here.

I was made Zone Leader here. There are 2 zones: Zarahemla and Abundancia (Bountiful). I'm the zone leader over abundancia and everything is going good.

My teachers are super cool here. I got some good ones. A lot better than some of the strict ones some people get stuck with. Anyway, it's all good. I'm anxious to just get out of here and start working. My companion is Elder Escalante from Argentina. He has a very thick accent but he's pretty cool. He speaks a decent amount of English and he wants to learn more so I try to help him out.

That's all for now!

Elder Barney

Boy Meets (3rd) World

Today Elder Barney shared his very first tracting experience:

I went tracting Saturday and it was so, so, so crazy. We went tracting in a town called Rimac—very ghetto. The U.S. isn’t even capable of having a town this ghetto. The roads were dirt, nothing was safe at all. Everyone lived out of shacks, cardboard, and even holes dug in the ground or mountainside like caves. We weren’t allowed to bring anything at all because we were huge targets to get robbed. There were stray dogs everywhere (like hundreds). It smelled like poo everywhere in the town ‘cause they have no sewer, I’m sure. Super gross. You could hear gunshots in the background—that was pretty sketchy. The church in the town had like 14 foot walls surrounding it with spikes on the top, and the church was horrible. It looked abandoned. There were cockroaches everywhere, no air conditioning, it was pretty bad. I wish I could have taken pictures, but I would have gotten robbed for sure if I’d brought my camera.

It was just me and Elder Huaman who went. We got into three houses and taught lessons. It went well. We got second appointments with all of them, but other missionaries [who are assigned to that area] will teach them.