Hey everyone! Man, the time is really starting to fly in the mish! It´s like people always say, the days go by slow and the weeks go by fast! But for me it´s almost been the days and weeks and months go by slow, but I´ve already been here almost four months and it went by fast! I don´t know...but it´s hard to believe that I´m almost 1/6 of the way done of the mission that I had been waiting 18 years of my life to start! Your whole life as a kid, the mission almost seems like the end of your life. I always knew I was gonna go to college and get married and everything, but the mission almost felt like a veil or a curtain or something that made all that seem really distant. So to be a missionary and be four months in is crazy! This email is gonna be scattered, but I´ve had random thoughts this week!
It was the start of school here in Perú. Seeing all the kids walking around with their backpacks and groups of friends made me think about my highschool days and miss the memories a little bit! It´s kind of funny that even though the cultures are so different, there were still the kids with their new clothes and moms kissing their kids on the cheek before the first day. People are people I guess!
As far as the language goes, this is how I would explain my progress: I can understand about 75% average, sometimes more and sometimes less, and can say about 65% of what I want to say. The thing is though that to reach that level, it takes every bit of my focus! Sometimes...I don´t exert myself so much, and then I don´t understand very much haha. There will come a day when it will just flow without thinking, and that will be a day of days! Then I´ll be able to really focus on the people and their needs, rather than what I´m going to say next. Every day, my goal is put another penny in the piggy bank to be able to reach that goal as fast as possible!
I was sick this past week and it was the worst! There´s nothing like throwing up at 3 in the morning in a tiny bathroom in Chimbote Perú without your mom to comfort you and give you ritz crackers and sprite and then relax and watch tv. We think it was some frozen treat that we ate that a member gave us. We became a little lax with the rule "Never eat food except in a wrapper unless it´s from your pensionista" and it killed me! Haha always be exactly obedient! I´m back to 100% now though which is good.
As I took the sacrament this week, I was thinking of when Christ came to the Nephites. I love the verse that says they all came to him, "one by one," and felt of his hands and feet and sides and "knew" that he was the Savior. I thought it was kind of cool imagery to look out on the congregation, each person partaking one by one, partaking, touching, receiving nourishment from, and remembering Christ, that each one might "know" as they receive the Holy Ghost. I don´t know, kind of a cool thought that I hadn´t thought before.
I hope you guys all have great weeks and I´ll talk to you later! Love ya!
Elder Hart
