La Misión de Elder Steven Neher: Week #28 - These boots were made for tracting (Cerro Verde)

Saludos a todos desde mi nueva área, Cerro Verde!

Yup, I am now in Zona Fesitranh, area Cerro Verde (in the town of Choloma, just outside of SPS). There are a bunch of hills here so I am almost positive I will lose more weight and gain more muscle…yes!!! Well, all day Tuesday I was saying goodbye to as many families as I could and Wednesday we left at 3am for SPS for the changes meeting (by the way, I think I over-packed, because not only are both of the red suitcases missing a wheel, but the big one ripped, big time). Well I went to the changes meeting, saw all the elders that I knew, and got my new comp, Elder Perez from Guatemala. He is really cool, he's pilas (ie., hard working, obedient) haha! Seriously he does everything amazingly well, way better than we have been doing lately.

Saturday we had a baptism already planned for a lady named Gabriela, and there was supposed to be two more, for a couple who is waiting to get married, but now the husband is having doubts because his mom is interfering. The mission secretaries were supposed to get the marriage partidas, but they didn’t and now that they have waited so long it has started problems, so hopefully everything will be fine this Saturday. We should have one more baptism this Saturday as well. Her name is Yuri and she works for some members at a Jamba juice-ish place. Also, we have been working with recent converts too, helping them to stay strong.

This week was interesting. Friday it was incredibly hot. Something different here is that everything is paved, while in Bella Vista my area had little to no pavement, and the pavement only adds to the heat! So Friday I had a terrible migraine that carried over to Saturday, which I’m not sure if it was the heat or what I ate (which I will explain) but I have had terrible stomach problems. Friday night while at the juicer, they sell fried chicken and stuff there too, and baleadas, so I got to try and make one (which are terribly hard to do, but look so easy). Also they offered me for dinner... chicken feet! They were soggy, covered in some sort of sauce, and (as I’m writing this my stomach hurts, I still have problems with it) it was pure skin and fat. The taste was ok, but it just felt nasty. I am never again eating chicken feet again! It has completely destroyed my desire to eat these past couple days!

Well the bishop here speaks perfect English and he has never studied it! He told me that as a kid he understood everything and that on his mission he was only able to teach in Spanish for 11 months (he was called to El Salvador, but left due to conflicts in the country) then came to this mission, (which at the time had Belize, where he was for 11 months) and now has perfect English, it is incredible! Well the members here are great, I’m still trying to memorize the area a bit, it’s a bit spread out here, but I’m not sure if it’s bigger than Bella Vista or not. I hope next week I can say more on the investigators, because as of right now I don’t really know much about them.

Oh and when the people here ask me where I’m from, my comp tells me to say Argentina and they believe me! I do end up telling them I’m from AZ, but I have heard many comments that my Spanish is very clear, especially for the short time I have in the mission. The last elder that was here has the same time I do but it was harder for him to talk. I still have a bit of grammar problems here and there, but for the most part it sounds like my Spanish is awesome! Today we went as a district to take pictures with some wild monkeys in my area, the little Capuchin monkeys like in Night at the Museum. Hopefully I can send some of those later. Hope all goes well back home with everyone!

Elder Neher

p.s. Note from the editor (Dad). Here are some pictures taken from Google Earth of his new town of Choloma.