6/14/10 Left CCM - San Isidro, Santiago, Ica Peru- First bout with food!

Well from now on I'm pretty sure my P-days will be Monday from now until i return from my mission so that might make it a little bit easier on the email front as for letters i received dads first Dear elder before i left and am anxiously waiting for the others.? It sounds like a lot has been going on at home and sorry its been so long since the last email this week has been completely crazy!? Well i am in my new area. I am serving in the San Isidro, Santiago, Ica, Peru portion of my mission.? It took about five hours on a bus a overnight stay with our zone leaders and a 45 min taxi ride but i made it safe and sound! I love it here. The people are not a crazy as the people in Lima and i heard that it is the same with all of the provinces,? but the people here have absolutely nothing, i picture it kind of like the St David/Benson area small area with a bunch of houses the size of grandmas shed all sharing walls.  I have taught lessons in houses made out of woven bamboo and a dirt floor and have had a lot of times when I have said wow people actually live like this! Poverty is extreme but the people are happy and ready for the gospel, we keep finding a ton of people that would like to listen to us and it is way exciting, my new companion is ELder Rodas from Equador, he is an amazing elder he has only been on his mission since December but he is such a great missionary.? The language is as always a challenge, because the people here speak different than they do in the city of Lima, i think that it isn't so much as different words as it is that they say things differently.? Teaching has also been an interesting experience, the people here are not very educated especially the elderly.? talking to some of them about the gospel is very challenging because we will talk about how God and Jesus and the Holy Ghost are different people for a half hour not because they don't believe it simply because they don't understand and it takes a lot of patience especially when you don't know the language and have only one way to explain something but my companion has been a great help to me, the children are easier to teach because most of them are becoming more educated which i think is amazing, oh wow my zone leader just handed me 8 letters all from AZ WOOOHOOO! I'm looking forward to tonight! and will try and write back soon!? anyways my story ok so the people here are impoverished right but somehow they manage to have food, and i mean a lot of food.? most of the people here either work in the store or in the fields which i have no idea what they do but it is always store field or factory.? so our lunch appointment forgot and didn't prepare anything so we went back and had some rolls in our apartment and went back out to teach this part member family.? well they had prepared a feast they set us down and gave us a bowl of soup each and we ate and talked and i was full of rolls and soup and was ready to go when they brought out the main course, it was a giant plate stacked two inches deep with rice topped with potatoes and peppers and sauce.? I about died trying to eat all of it because if you don't eat it it goes to waste because they wont eat it if they give it to someone so I'm dieing and just as i finish my companion is about a fourth of the way through and he says I'm sorry i haven't been feeling well so do you mind if i can take this with us?? I was flabbergasted i didn't know you could do that here i ate until i was literally feeling ill and he just casually takes it with us.? ugh after that i had to go back to our room and lie down for a minute while my companion called the president and talked to him about how sick he was and i passed out for what was probably an hour and then we went back out teaching.? that night for dinner we were at this other house and were served a giant soup.? well i wasn't hungry but i started at it when my companion said STOP! and he pointed at the meat in my soup and said we can't eat this and he tells the woman and hear i am with ten spoonfuls of this bad meat and what not inside of me freaking out thinking i just got a virus and now I'm going to die great at least I'm dieing of my mission.? well today i am reaping the rewards of my meals i think i have literally dropped a depth charge into my bowels and have had a lovely time on our broken toilet.? Sorry i can't give you pictures i forgot my camera you will just have to be patient as i try and figure everything out.? I think that this next week will be amazing and hope to get more letters soon.? Don't  forget that you don't need an immediate response from me before you write again writing letters is a good way to make sure your doing something important with your week, if you need a recap of how i feel about letters and missionaries just ask SAMANTHA MANNES if she doesn't hate me too much! LOVE YOU ALL SOO VERY VERY MUCH!