December 16, 2015

Hello to all my dear family and friends! 

I have succesfully completed another week at the CCM! It kind of just feels like one really really
really long day since I last emailed. We go to bed, then wake up 10
minutes later to get ready and go back to the cafeteria for runny
eggs. At least it feels like that;) In reality though, I absolutely
love the CCM. Love it!! I would so much rather spend this Christmas
here than in the field, so I´m pumped that I get to do that. Elder
Chapman and I were assigned to be the Zone Leaders over all the North
American missionaries this past Sunday, so that´s been cool so far!
We don´t have too many responsobitlites, it´s a lot different from
being a zone leader out in the field I´m sure. But it´s still good to
be in a position to serve! We had a really cool experience last
Saturday with proselyting, "proseletismo" en Español. We all hopped on
a bus and drove to this chapel in the Lima South Mission, about an
hour or so away. I was assigned a missionary, Elder Sejas, and a
member, some old guy, and we were off to visit menos activos! Less
actives! It was actually really hard. My missionary I was with was
super shy, so I would try to ask him a question in Spanish and he
would respond and ask the same question back, then I would answer in
my limited Spanish and it was back to silence. I was trying to talk
to people but everyone talks so fast that I had pretty much no idea
what was happening. I could at least say buenos tardes!;) We weren´t
able to teach any lessons, none of the people we were visiting would
let us come in, so that was kind of a bummer. Most of the other
people in my district shared like three lessons though and they said
it was cool! Or, the Latino missionary and member shared the lesson
and then they bore their testimony haha. There were lots of dogs in
the streets, both dead and alive. I hope my trainer is a little more
talkative and helpful than Elder Sejas, but if not all is well! I know
whoever it is is who I´m supposed to be trained by so I´ll just trust
Heavenly Father. In our study of Spanish this week, one of the things
we´ve been learning about is Por y Para. Literally the hardest thing
in the world. Por is for reason, Para is for purpose. Understand?? Um
no actually, I don´t understand! Haha we are actually getting a little
better at it though. Practice practice practice! Last week I said I
really miss music. We do get a little music each week! Our morning
teacher, Hermana Cyndi Altamirano, will play a video on youtube titled
"Instrumental (Mormon)". So if you´re curios, that´s been my music for
the past month haha! I can´t remember if I´ve said this already, but
the ice cream here is so good. SO GOOD!! I don´t know why, but we
speculate it´s because they use real sugar? It´s delicious though, we
get to have ice cream at every lunch which is fantastic. The only
thing better than that is the churros, but we´ve only had them twice
since we´ve been here. They´re more of this pastry thing with cream
in the middle, MAN! they´re good. The worst thing is the showers. You
turn the hot knob 1/100 of a degree and it goes from colder than
lukewarm to burning flesh. Literally, there are times when I don´t
think I moved it until I feel the water rise in temperature 15
degrees. It´s weird. But I can´t complain about hot showers! They may
be the last ones I have for a few years! Haha anyway, love you all and
miss you tons! Have a merry christmas season! Chow! (it´s weird, they
say chow all the time to say goodbye here in Peru haha) 

Love, Elder Hart

This is Elder Benitez from Lima. He left to Piura on Tuesday. He
actaully spoke really good english and is headed to BYU after his
mission.