Dear Family,
I would really like to go rock climbing too! That sounds really fun. The last time I went [was] with two friends from high school and it was a blast. [It was] around the place Paul went carting. Pretty intense there.
I changed the resolution of the pictures to be able to send SOMETHING: haha, pretty useless 14 megapixels when you can only really use 3. But it's ok. Ill be able to shoot about 2000 more with my two little 2 gig cards.
So the big news is last night at around 1 I got a call from the District Learder, saying: pack your bags you're going to Tacna! Your companion will be Elder Stewart in the LeGuia area in the Alameda Zone. We are literally the last area in Peru before Chile. I think tomorrow or this week I will catch a glimpse of Chile on the horizon when we travel down to the south of our two ward area.
At 2:30 I finished packing everything (sharp contrast to packing to leave on the mission in August) and tried to catch a couple hours of sleep.. but couldn't. Mind racing.
At 4:30 a.m., I got up and showered, got dressed and ate breakfast. We left to go to the house of the Zone Leaders, and when they were ready, I left to catch the bus for Tacna with Elder Huacaychuco (my old zone leader will still be my Zone leader here).
The bus was super interesting. We were an interesting gaggle of Peruvians, European backpackers, a few high class south American young couples including a member of a band, a few hippies I think, and two missionaries. I briefly thought about the group dynamics if we crashed in the desert, a lasting impact of the little Lost that I watched.
Speaking of the desert, it is really deserty! Some pictures should (better) arrive of a couple scenes we passed. There were several stages of desert as we left Arequipa. First we wound through lots of hills that were very rocky, angular, jutting. Then there started to be white sand between the reddish rocks. The sand concentration increased until we were driving through large dunes, which changed to have hard shells of sand. Finally we began to descend into flat and big valleys. The only sign of life between us and the distant and wavery sand (because of the convection off the sand) was the string of high tension high voltage power lines following the road at a respectful distance.
We passed through several little pueblitos which appeared out of the desert at periodic intervals. Stopping, local women would board the bus and offer us desserts, exotic fruits, calamari shrimp, and soda, while a few passengers deboarded.
We passed Mocegua, where Elder Orihuela is. That's all I'm sure of.
I shall miss Augusto Freyre I think. The last day we did splits, I contacted around 100 people, and Elder Hernandez visited a few families and contacted. In church I described why baptism in any church that doesn't have the authority to do so isn't a covenant with God to an investigator young woman who was doubting a lot the need [to be baptized], and later she told my companion that she wants to be baptized next Saturday. Another investigator too will be baptized next Saturday (Gabriela, and the young woman is Raquel Alejandra). Augustine too might, but it's not sure. So that's what I left.
What I found is my companion from the CCM!!! Elder Stewart is the bomb. Only problem is that we are both gringos and have a year combined, but that's alright. We shall see miracles here in Tacna.
Feel a little like a noob again since I don't know the area at all, but it's kinda invigorating to be new again!
I got a mountain of Dear Elders from y'all. Thanks!!!
Love Elder Johnson
I would really like to go rock climbing too! That sounds really fun. The last time I went [was] with two friends from high school and it was a blast. [It was] around the place Paul went carting. Pretty intense there.
I changed the resolution of the pictures to be able to send SOMETHING: haha, pretty useless 14 megapixels when you can only really use 3. But it's ok. Ill be able to shoot about 2000 more with my two little 2 gig cards.
So the big news is last night at around 1 I got a call from the District Learder, saying: pack your bags you're going to Tacna! Your companion will be Elder Stewart in the LeGuia area in the Alameda Zone. We are literally the last area in Peru before Chile. I think tomorrow or this week I will catch a glimpse of Chile on the horizon when we travel down to the south of our two ward area.
At 2:30 I finished packing everything (sharp contrast to packing to leave on the mission in August) and tried to catch a couple hours of sleep.. but couldn't. Mind racing.
At 4:30 a.m., I got up and showered, got dressed and ate breakfast. We left to go to the house of the Zone Leaders, and when they were ready, I left to catch the bus for Tacna with Elder Huacaychuco (my old zone leader will still be my Zone leader here).
The bus was super interesting. We were an interesting gaggle of Peruvians, European backpackers, a few high class south American young couples including a member of a band, a few hippies I think, and two missionaries. I briefly thought about the group dynamics if we crashed in the desert, a lasting impact of the little Lost that I watched.
Speaking of the desert, it is really deserty! Some pictures should (better) arrive of a couple scenes we passed. There were several stages of desert as we left Arequipa. First we wound through lots of hills that were very rocky, angular, jutting. Then there started to be white sand between the reddish rocks. The sand concentration increased until we were driving through large dunes, which changed to have hard shells of sand. Finally we began to descend into flat and big valleys. The only sign of life between us and the distant and wavery sand (because of the convection off the sand) was the string of high tension high voltage power lines following the road at a respectful distance.
We passed through several little pueblitos which appeared out of the desert at periodic intervals. Stopping, local women would board the bus and offer us desserts, exotic fruits, calamari shrimp, and soda, while a few passengers deboarded.
We passed Mocegua, where Elder Orihuela is. That's all I'm sure of.
I shall miss Augusto Freyre I think. The last day we did splits, I contacted around 100 people, and Elder Hernandez visited a few families and contacted. In church I described why baptism in any church that doesn't have the authority to do so isn't a covenant with God to an investigator young woman who was doubting a lot the need [to be baptized], and later she told my companion that she wants to be baptized next Saturday. Another investigator too will be baptized next Saturday (Gabriela, and the young woman is Raquel Alejandra). Augustine too might, but it's not sure. So that's what I left.
What I found is my companion from the CCM!!! Elder Stewart is the bomb. Only problem is that we are both gringos and have a year combined, but that's alright. We shall see miracles here in Tacna.
Feel a little like a noob again since I don't know the area at all, but it's kinda invigorating to be new again!
I got a mountain of Dear Elders from y'all. Thanks!!!
Love Elder Johnson
