Letter 12/23/2013

Hey Everyone

Well it sounds like everyone has been pretty busy with Christmas. Dang I´m super excited for Christmas, but at the same time Christmas here is nothing like Christmas at home. Well I got all 3 of the Christmas packages that you all sent me. THEY ROCKED. Oh my gosh to eat some Hot Cheetoh Fries again was SOOO DELICIOUS!!!!! Also you sent me a ton of Oatmeal. Not gonna lie Oatmeal has never tasted soooo good in my entire life. They have oatmeal here but... it´s SO different. I have no idea why the oatmeal here is so different but also they only sell it in like plain oats so I have to make the flavors myself and it´s just nothing close to the oatmeal preflavored you sent me.

Oh yeah sooo on wednesday my time I´ll be calling you guys at 11 am. I´m going to attempt skype because President Cardinas has this USB chip that can grab internet like a cell phone. And it works super good, so I wanna try skype first and if it doesn´t work I´ll just call you all. Hey but I think it´ll be way better to call our home phone because this call is gonna get super expensive if I call a cell phone.

Wow I´m sorry to hear about Mr. Mazzacco. Hope their family is doing okay. Their son Matt played football with me and he´s a great person.

Well yesterday Chivay had a baptism. We ALMOST had a baptism. Shirley an investigator of 1 year went to the baptism the other day and she was SUPER close to saying yes and getting baptized right there. But it´s also super probable that she gets baptized this week.

Also we had our Christmas Devotional this week with the mission and it was SUPER AWESOME! 

We played a ton of football after writing last week and I sent a few pictures of us on the field. It wasn´t nearly as satisfying as I thought it would be though. No one here knows anything about football here so it was just me organizing and doing everything. 

Oh also in the baptism it was crazy getting to the baptismal area. From the rains the river raised like a TON and we had to cross the river with our pants rolled up and shoes in our hands. 

Lol also on the way back from the baptism we passed by a little truck filled with like 25 people. I swear the truck is only meant for like 5 people hahaha.

Our little branch had their Christmas Party.

Well that´s about it for this week. I love you all. I´ll be calling or skyping 9 am your time on Wednesday so be ready and be on time. And have both the skype and the phone ready because I want to try out skype first.

Love Elder Russon

Look I found another Alpaca.

Nice Alpaca!

Bad Alpaca!!!!

Letter 12/9/2013

HEY!!!

WOOOHOOOOOO HART WON CIF!!!!!! That´s awesome. Dang I hope they beat Chaminade.

Oh sooooo I decided to not do the treatment. I called the mission medic and the wife of the Mission Presdent answered and basically told me that NO ONE thinks this is the reason I´m coughing so instead of the treatment we are going to send all the tests I´ve taken to the Missionary Doctors in Salt Lake. I´m going to give them all my tests tomorrow and they´ll send them and we´ll see what they say.

Dang you guys HAVE TO BUY THE HART GAMES FOR ME TO WATCH! I need to see them after the mission. Dang 6500 people that´s crazy. Was in at CoC? Wish Hart the best of luck against Chaminade. Dang I hope Hart takes State.

Well I sent some pictures. This week the rainy season started in Chivay. And OH MY GOSH it´s rained SOOO MUCH and it´s sooooo cold here. Actually it´s not that cold because it´s not snow but it´s still super cold. Well this week the plaza of Chivay was finally finished and now the entire city is getting drunk and playing in bands. Seriously the last time there was a big party in Chivay it was horrible. Drunk people sleeping in the middle of the streets for like 5 days. The city was TRASHED after it too. But this time we have something on our side. THE RAIN AND COLD!!!! That´ll keep a good chunk of them off the streets. But the plaza here just got finshed and it´s AWESOME! I´m gonna take some pictures of it right now and I´ll send them next week. Well other than that nothing happened this week. We were supposed to see he Christmas Devotional yesterday but the internet here couldn´t even receive it yesterday because of all the clouds and rain. Well That´s all I got for this week.

Oh and what do you guys think Skype on a day near Christmas or phone call on Christmas?

Well I love you all a lot. 

Gotta go Thanks a ton for the letters. CHOU CHOU!!!

Love Elder Russon

Letter 12/2/2013

NICE Hart is still in the Playoffs. Hopefully they destroy Valencia like 54 to 0. How did Davey do in the game?

Well this week in Chivay we had like 60 missionaries from the mission come to Chivay with our Mission President too. They all came up and did service all day long. It was awesome. We cleaned the plaza of Chivay and a bunch of streets and painted the plaza and cleaned the Market here. I sent some pictures. Oh and also changes were yesterday and no one from Chivay had changes sooooo I´m gonna be here for Christmas and Thanksgiving. We talked with our Mission President and he might give us permission to go down to Chivay to be able to skype you. But it probably wont be on Christmas day. What do you all think. Skype on a day close to Christmas or a phone call on Christmas day? I´m good with both. Not sure what´s going to happen yet but just so you know.

Oh and you know how in the States usually the animals you find inside of a house are cats and dogs. Well we were buying breakfast this morning and turned a corner and like 10 sheep came bookin it out of the front door of one of our neighbors houses. It was pretty weird to see. Oh and I have some HORRIBLE news. So our mission got soccer taken away again. I´m SOOOO SAD. When I first got here my first like 4 months we didn´t have soccer. Then a few days ago our Mission President told us we lost permission to play soccer again. A whole bunch of missionaries, like 4, have gotten injured pretty badly from soccer and are going home for it. So PDays now are horrible. Once again. Hopefully he is super nice and as a Christmas present gives us socccer back.

Well I gotta go love you all. Thanks for the letters CHOU CHOU

Love Elder Russon

Letter 11/25/2013

Hey Family and Friends,

So I sent a bunch of pictures. Don´t know if they´ll all get to you but I´ll explain them all. One of them is of me eating the cooked head of a guinea pig. It was terrifying to eat. But I did it. My old comp went crazy and ate like a full guinea pig in like 30 seconds. He loved it. 

The next few are of me and some guys from our zone on Pday. We went to Arequipa for Pday and we played soccer on a turf field. It was AWESOME! 

Then the next pic is of a yellow truck full of something. You guys just have to investigate for yourselves to find out what those somethings are. 

Then the next bunch of pictures are from the baptism of Daniel and Ruben. We drove over to the Colca River in the back of a truck then went on a hike until we got to the spot in the river to baptize. Daniel is the one I baptized and Ruben is the boy my comp baptized. Daniel is 13 and he is AWESOME. Ruben is 17 and also AWESOME. Even before we baptized them we went out to eat with Daniel and he started asking us all these questions about being a missionary and told us he wants to be missionary. He´s been a member for one Sunday now and is the most faithful youth. The first (top) picture is the little brother of them. He´s 3. I was his guide back to civilization. We had to hike up a giant hill to leave the river.

So on Friday we traveled back to Arequipa and we got to meet in person and hear him speak. Elder Nelson (Apostle) Elder Godoy (70) Elder Uceda (70) and Elder Rasband (Presidencia of the 70). It was AWESOME!!!!! But this week was super crazy. First we left last last Sunday night to Arequipa for Pday and a doctors appointment. Then we got back Wednesday at like 930. Then Thursday we left at like 2 for Arequipa again to listen to all of them. Then we got back Friday at like 930. Then Saturday in the morning we had the baptism of Daniel and Ruben and then Sunday totally normal. But we literally worked in our area for like 10 hours this whole week. It was super weird.

Oh so also about the Doctors. Well the mission decided to change my doctor to see if a new one would help more. So i got to the doctors appointment and he was completely insane. He was just like WAIT!!! LET ME GUESS!! You´ve taken like 6 months of medications and hasn´t gone away. Then he did this test on my head and squeezed my ears into my head with every muscle he had and of course it hurts like crazy he was trying to crush my head. Then he was like... did it hurt? And of course I said yes and then he was like AHHHHHAAAAA!!!!! Then he whipped out this article he was probably reading that very same morning. And diagnosed me that I have a jaw nerve problem and it is somehow causing my to cough. I didn´t believe any of it. But i´ve had this cough long enough so i´m ready to try anything....hahah. So now I have an appointment with a dentist in a few days for the cough I´ve had for 10 months...

Well that´s it for this week. Oh this next Sunday is changes soooo the next time I write I might not be in Chivay any more. That thought makes me sad....love it here!!! 

Oh and SUPER happy Hart is still in playoffs! 

Well i love you all. Gotta go CHOU CHOU

Elder Russon

Letter 11/18/2013

Hey everyone!

WOOOOHOOOO Hart won. That´s what I´m talking about. They are already in the playoffs? And Sam´s team got third. That´s awesome.

I sent the pictures of the baptism we had last week with Eddy. Some pictures of us chilling in one of the other villages that we cover. Also one of me carrying this Peruvian backpack for some lady. We were trying to talk to this lady but she was super super busy walking with all her strength with this backpack so I said I would carry it if she would listen to us. She let me wear her hat since I was doing the hard work.

Our Zone leaders came to our village for a day this week. It was nice having visitors. Also this December we are losing our House/Chapel here in Chivay so we went out looking for a new place to rent for the chapel and we found this super awesome abandoned hotel. It´s gonna be SOOOOO AWESOME if we get to use it for the chapel. Oh so yesterday there was no electricity in Chivay the entire day and no water so for church we had absolutely no light or water and it was super dark during the entire 3 hours of church. It was kinda saddening not gonna lie.

Yesterday we had 24 attend church. There is still a few people out of town. So hopefully when everyone gets back we can break the 30 barrier. That´ll be awesome. Well Right now I´m chillin in Arequipa. We have 1 pday a month in Arequipa and today is it.

Well I´m running out of time. I gotta go. Love you all CHOU CHOU

Love Elder Russon

Letter 11/11/2013

Hey everyone

So I sent some pictures. They are of the baptism we had on Saturday. Eddy got baptized by his dad. It was super cool. We did it in the river and got lots of cool pictures. Eddy is 18 years old and his entire family is members. Actually he pretty much already was a member but his papers got all messed up and the church had no record of him being a member. So we baptized him. He is planning on serving a mission too. He´ll be the first person to serve a mission from Chivay if he does.

Sweet so I´m getting a Xmas Package. That´s what I´m talking about. I don´t really know what I want though. Oh speaking of Christmas. I might not be able to Skype you guys this time. If I´m still in Chivay for Christmas it´ll be impossible. The internet here is SOOOOO slow. I´m shocked sometimes when I can get in sending you all a picture.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO How did Hart lose to Canyon too? Hope they regain momentum and STOMP on Paso Robles.

NOOOOOO Sam lost too!?! Oh it´s Veterans Day today. I had no idea. The only holidays I ever hear about here is Day of the Virgin Maria or of the Virgin of Chapi or Saint John or other catholic Holidays.

Well not much happened this week. Alejandro and Eddy both got baptized and confirmed. It was a relaxed week. Got a haircut this morning! My comp says I look like John Cena. Davey will know who he is. Yep that´s about it.

Oh and It´s taking to long to load the pictures so I could only send one and I don´t know which one it is. Well I gotta go love you all a ton. CHOU CHOU

Love Elder Russon

Letter 11/4/2013

So I sent the pictures of the Colca Canyon from last week and also of the baptism we had this morning.

First off..... I am sooooooo sad Hart los to Valencia. But I´m super happy that Davey had like 15 tackles and 3 sacks. Which is super crazy good.

Well this week was normal. We struggled ALL week long to get Alejandro baptized and finally today this morning he did. Alejandro is 96 years old and is almost completely deaf. ALSO he doesn´t understand Spanish. So for like the last 3 months we´ve been teaching him with people from our ward that speak his language(Ketchwa). We can communicate with him if we scream into his ear in Spanish but it is very very difficult. So he basically had like 4 different baptismal dates this week. First Friday then Saturday then Sunday then today in the morning he finally did it. The problem with him is that he forgets everything we teach him. He is pretty old and has a tough time remembering. So finally yesterday after church. We had one of the members who speaks Ketchwa ask him about baptism and then he started his same old spiel. But then the other members who spoke Ketchwa heard them talking and like 5 members shared with him and his wife with their testimonies. It was awesome and he and his wife were like "yeah, tomorrow, baptism." (His wife got sick this morning though and couldn´t get baptized). Anyways so we had the baptism this morning and guess where we did it at.... A PUBLIC SWIMMING POOL!!!! It was pretty weird but super awesome. Because what it really is is a hot spring. And they build a Swimming resort on top of the Hot Spring. So yeah that´s what happened this week.

Well I gotta go. Love you all a ton.

Thanks for the pictures they ROCK! CHOU CHOU!!!!

Love Elder Russon