First Letter from Peru!

Dinkleman, i put some nuevo sols in that money wallet today! I'm no gringo.

The mtc choir was not beginning until later in fall unfortunately.



Dear Mom,

I have arrived in Peru! The ALT to Lima flight was such an adventure.
Throughout the entire day, people had been smiling at us, saying hi,
or asking what we were doing and what our name tags were. On the
plane, a woman who was coming to Peru (also for a mission in a group
of about 15 other people on the plane) walked up and started talking
to the two people on the other side of my row (767.. 2-3-2). She kept
talking and one of them gave her a pass-along card and she said she
commended us on being so dedicated at such a young age!

Elders Poston and Bardzinski and Bowler I think had a similar
adventure in the back. A flight attendant started chatting with them,
and before not too long she was crying and talking about a feeling she
always felt whenever she had missionaries for our church on the plane
(which is apparently a lot). She gave them nicknames including "my
babydaddy" for Elder Poston. Hahaha!

Right. So after a full day of travel, we got on a small bus (which
looked like a large insect), and rode through the roads of Lima for
about an hour. It was so cool to see the differentness of the Lima
roads, as we passed through a spectrum of city feeling streets
and the outskirts. The biggest shocker after noting that all the
advertisements are in spanish, was the ads themselves. The popular
street ad is what looks like a temporary billboard. They had grassy
areas between and by the road for about half of the journey (the other
half of the journey passed 20 foot walls on the sides of the roads),
and in these grassy areas, people would drive massive versions of the
political signs we see sometimes around Arlington. ¿You know the type
with a wire frame and a slogan/picture that go up preceding elections?
Yeah, but they were 15 or so feet high. I think they are temporary only
because we passed several groups of around 10 men digging and putting
them into the ground. I suppose there is probably an election, but the
style of advertising makes me wonder if the space is always used for
some ad or another. And if it is, how do they keep it from getting
over crowded (they were orderly and evenly spaced).

After that fasinating ride, we arrived at the Lima CCM (spanish for
MTC) at 12:45 I think. Missionaries helped us get to the rooms and
showed us what's up.

This morming we met our companions who had been asleep when we
arrived. I have a companion from Chile, and we have exchanged...a few
words. It is odd because the native speakers are not in our district
learning spanish again... so I dont yet know when we see eachother.

Briefly about this CCM, it is so pretty. The grounds are better, the
food is better, it is more chill in general. I will elaborate later
but unfortunately the time limit is still here!

Elder Mark David Johnson
Av. Melgarejo 159
Urb. Camp verde
La Molina, Lima, Peru (u is accented)


is my address
takes like a week for mail tho


LOVE ELDER JOHNSON