Week 3 in Peru Jan 29, 2013

Some of his answers don't make sense if you didn't read the letter we sent, and for clarification for later reading in a few years, and so you don't have to read our letters I put explanations in parentheses.

Dad

I have not really paid attention to the sunset and sunrise, I have actually been focusing on noon trying to not see my shadow and i always forget until twelve thirty, but i will keep my eyes open from now on for that. Secondly, you have to tell me how much I get from my W2 both together don't just leave it at you got them. We do get to go to the temple every week, by a bus that is scary to be on, drivers in Lima are crazy, if your big enough you get the right of way and that is how it goes. Lima is big with a lot of people and garbage and it is dirty, but a nice form of dirty if that makes sense.  I have gone out tracting once, but out proselyting twice. We go door to door and talk to people on the streets. the second time we went out they gave us lists of non-active members and we were supposed to try and get them to attend church, but we go with missionaries from the CCM not the actual ones from around here.

love you too dad,

Elder Jesse William McCammon

Mom

Life is great here, today everyone but our district left so it is really quiet. found out that last week was our last opportunity to to go to the Peru temple because it is now it is closed for two weeks. I will start sending pictures. I also really enjoyed Saturday teaching again. there was a really depressing part where we asked someone if we could teach them and they said okay, but when we came back later he had changed his mind.

The Peru CCM is different than Provo, for two big reasons total Spanish and that you are not just a person out of thousands, the President here takes the time to get to know you because he can. On your p-day you go to the temple and then you can go to a Walmart like store, it is pretty awesome. That is one of the cool parts about being here it is not just temple then back it is temple and then here is a list of approved places and you have two hours, enjoy.

Tell Abbie buenos suerte in her performance (she made the spring school musical) and i know she will do great. Also, let her know for Volleyball, not to get discouraged, to keep practicing and that there is always next year.(she was disappointed when she didn't make the tryout travel team) I also did get the Murdocks letter, and Chuck´s mail comes every Thursday and that is when i got the last ones. tell dad to be more careful and to quit breaking stuff, first his arm and now the dishwasher, I mean come on. Tell the girls to count their blessings on the snow day because i always wanted them, but never got it. Yo querio taco bell así mucho (his friends dropped a taco on our front porch after one of their taco runs,picture posted below), we have rice everyday and it is getting boring i wish you could send packages but they said you shouldn't because it is like a hundred dollars to get it. sorry i got on so early today, but this was our scheduled time because we don't have the temple so they are sending us into town after twelve and we write first.

I love and miss you all.

Love Elder Jesse William McCammon

PS ask dad if he can send me some OMD lyrics because I have the beats in my head and they are not as good without words  :) love you all.

Since he didn't send me any pictures I thought I would include the picture I sent to him from the taco run his friends made and left it on our front porch. It was so fun I couldn't resist!!!

Week 2 in PERU MTC 2-22-13

I wonder when the tears will stop!  Every time I open a new letter from him...its a huge flood of happiness and tears!!!

Hola,

I hope you all got my pictures last week, you did not comment so let me know if you did. Just got back from the Peru Temple and I still had to use the English headset, which really is irritating because you are focused on English so much you forget you are in a Spanish session. We also ended up finding mountain dew today at the store and it was one dollar for a single can. it made me laugh because of how much people still bought. Saturday was the first time we got to go out and proselyte and we get to go again this Saturday. Tell Grandma McCammon I walked about 460 steps up. If you have seen the Incredible Hulk at the very beginning where he is in Brasil jumping from the top of house to house down a hill, that is like the area we were proselyting in. It was really enjoyable because everyone was very friendly and everybody had a belief in Christ. It was a very uplifting and humbling experience. I thought I had gotten better at Spanish too, but it seemed like i could start off the conversation smile in between and then invite them to church in the end, but not to much Spanish. People out in the field are a lot different to understand because the natives here have gotten to the point where they will talk slower for us because they know we cannot understand otherwise.

Dad i cannot believe you are not going to be able to golf. that makes me feel bad because i got out of the temple today saying man i wish i could go golfing...nope and you are apparently with me. the weather here is really nice though, but it was funny today i thought man it would be nice if it could cool down a little and it made me chuckle because i just came from Provo where it was just in the negatives. i love and miss you all so much. I look forward to all your letters cant wait to hear again.

He sent me a quick are you online message, I asked...how are you doing?  Are you Okay???  Too Homesick or anything??  Are you Happy?

Here was his quick reply back,   Doing great, i am fine, not homesick, but miss golfing in this weather and i am always happy. I think chatting on these computers takes to long, i  guess its because it has to go to space. but my time just ran out, I love you and miss you.

 

love jesse

He sounds good this week!!!  Please keep him in your prayers!!!!  We love you all and thank you for your support!!!

First Full Week in Peru

This letter was in Response to Bill's letter to Him:

The flight to Peru was great got a lot of sleep. The Peru MTC is beautiful. The teaching here is insane though, in Provo we had 6 hours of class, but here we get 7 and a half and very little study time. the food is actually really good and it started to get to a point where i really haven't cared what i have been eating because i was hungry. we also had this weird fruit called granadilla, you should look up a pic on wiki it looks like crazy alien babies inside. the food is pretty much the same though just more spices. still have devotionals, but Spanish with headsets for us, which didn't work this week so i hope they are fixed the next week. the number of missionaries is like 150 i think and it is the 3rd largest MTC. language is doing good, learning really fast now but i feel dumb. my companion went to Hillcrest graduated a year before and i did not know him but i do know Elder Murri, he graduated in ´12 and is in my district here. Me and elder fisher get along well. I miss you much and really wish i had more than 30 min.

This part was in response to my letter.I am sure you can guess by the answers what our questions were. He needs to learn to read then just answer in one letter.  

I did get to go to to the temple today, inside reminded me of the bountiful temple, just a lot smaller and older. Elder Fisher did come down from Provo with us. The rooms are bigger and nicer here than Provo. The food is great. I love to play soccer with the natives and I play basketball when we do not share gym times. There are not  many bugs, just ants.  I haven't proselyted yet. I feel dumb when it comes to speaking the language, but I am learning much more than i think i would in Provo,  and if you could just keep updated on my card account. I am doing great love the weather here and it is great. The natives are awesome i will send you a pic of my roommates, but i do not have much time left there were a lot of emails to read today, but i imagine its because i was changed locations.

Love you lots, Elder McCammon

Lucky Us!!!  We Get Pictures this time!!!

There weren't any captions but I am assuming the first four are Provo, and the last 5 are in Peru. 

Jesse and his MTC companion Elder Jeske

The guy in the blue t-shirt is Elder Fisher, Jesse's MTC companion in Peru

Quick note from Peru 1/9/13

He sent this while I was gone this morning, he was hoping I'd be on to chat...oh well.

1st email: We made it here safely. the airport in Peru was different, the city to the MTC was different in a run down way, but the MTC is beautiful. Bright green grass, palm trees, birds, newer looking MTC than the one in Utah. P-day is on Tuesday here so it will be a week before i write back, this is just an update note.

2nd email: It is humid here as well not as humid as I assumed, but still getting a little bit sweaty sitting down. I assume you are not on so I will try writing more.

They also assigned new companions upon arrival, My new companion is Elder Fisher from Idaho Falls. The schedule is much different here than in the Provo MTC as well. This MTC is also a lot smaller, there are three buildings and then a small yard. It makes me laugh because they have soccer on the grass, also on the grass is the two basket ball hoops hanging from the same fence over some bushes. I assume no one likes to play basketball. I really wish you would type back so we can to the chat thing now because nothing has happened between last night and now.

Needless to say I didn't type back...now I have to wait clear until next Tuesday.

And he's off to Peru!!! 1/7/13

I thought yesterday was awesome when I caught Jesse on the computer at the MTC and we were able to send notes back and forth through email...it felt like a real conversation...no waiting a week just to see what the answer to a question was! 

Today was 1000 times better!!!  We got to talk to Jesse while he was on his layover in Atlanta.  He left the MTC this morning at 4am and flew out of SLC at around 7am.  They flew out with some Missionaries going to Atlanta and others going to Columbia, but the others that were going with them to Peru had a later flight out of SLC and they met up with them at the airport in Atlanta. We were worried about his bags being heavy, but he was okay so only $75 for the 2nd bag, but no overage!  We got to talk for a little over an hour, its amazing that you can talk about so little for so long, but it was so good just to hear his voice.  He sounds great!  I asked him if he was home sick, he said not really but there isn't really any time to be home sick. He does miss us though, but its already been three weeks and its flown by. He said being at the MTC seemed like he was away at school and just decided not to call home!

In last weeks letter he told us that the MTC had a big bout of sickness go through it, he has a cold, but he didn't get whatever it was that went through.  He said it was food poisoning, but from others we'd heard it was the flu.  It seemed to be over in a couple of days though so who knows.  And I found out that he did get all our letters...he just forgot to take them with him when he did laundry so he couldn't remember any of the questions and thought I would have sent another email with more.  So here I was upset over nothing...as usual I suppose!  Now because I complained to dearelder he now has like 3 copies of all the letters because of my over reaction...maybe he'll learn not to be so vague!!!

He said he was nervous to be heading out to Peru, but we reminded him that he was nervous for the MTC here too and it turned out to be no big deal. He seemed ready for the change though.  We told him to be excited and work hard, keep the mission rules and he'd be good.  He said him and his companion get along pretty good, it still makes me laugh to think they were born the same day!  His companions name is Benjamin Jeske (Je-ski), and he goes by Jamin...Jamin Jeske.  I can't help it, it makes me giggle!!!  

We asked him how the language was coming and he of course is a little discouraged.  Most everyone took Spanish in high school.  I told him to be happy and realize how far he's come just think two weeks ago you didn't understand a thing, and you've completed 4 years of high school Spanish in 2 weeks and he needs to quit expecting it to come overnight...the Lord wants him to work for it, that's how it works!! As much as we want Him to, the Lord will never just give it to us without us doing work too!  I guess all the advice on doing a crash course like Rosetta Stone wouldn't have been such a bad idea!!!

All in all it was great to talk to him, we got a little more info on the MTC.  He said it was different than what he thought...he thought there would be more sitting in class learning and not so much personal study time and just being thrown into a room and told to speak to someone in a language you don't understand or speak...but he said it works.  Just not really what he expected.  He did get to go to the Temple once, it opened back up last Wednesday so that was a good experience for him.  He said a lot of people told him they loved the food at the MTC he said he felt like they ate the same thing everyday.  He got along with the boys in his district, but didn't like having to climb the stairs to the top floor to get to his classroom and to his bedroom...he said he can tell his kids when he was in the MTC he had to walk uphill both ways!!!  Oh and by the way he clarified his Christmas letter by explaining the police...apparently it was the South Korean Missionaries that were causing the ruckus they share the same floor just through a wall...the guys underneath called the cops and when they came, because there were mattresses all over out of the bedrooms they figured it was them.  No problems though...just a great story!!!  Were hoping to get pictures, but I guess he needs a card reader he said he couldn't hook the camera up to the computer. Hopefully when he gets to Peru!

Now he's on his way to Peru landing in about 2 hours to begin chapter 2...please keep him in your prayers, pray for his safety, his ability to learn and not get discouraged, and that he can love those he serves with and those in Ecuador!  Thanks for your love, support and prayers!!   

Jan 2, 2013

My heart is breaking today...I thought I was doing the right thing by sending his letters through Dear Elder...so he could get mail during the week and not have to spend time reading our emails and could just get on the computer and reply.  Not sure whats up with Dear Elder, but I have sent him 2 letters through them plus a snail mail, since he wrote us last and his letter seems to indicate that he hasn't received them!  So sad, I hope he doesn't feel like he's already forgotten!!!  Not a lot of info today...We got his travel plans and he flies out to Peru next Tuesday and he'll call us from the Airport in Atlanta during his layover.  Can't wait to hear is voice!!!
Anyway here is this weeks letter!!!


Another week gone by and it went fast. Nothing really big happened this past week. That's the hard part about the MTC, every week is pretty much the same. The only thing that really changes is the food...and that doesn't really change. New Years was fun, it turns out the majority of the MTC got food poisoning so there were no lines anywhere and everything appears empty. During the fireside they had last night they just decided to broadcast it to all the classrooms that way not everyone was in one giant room to get everyone sick. They apparently could not figure out how to broadcast it, only the senior missionaries got to watch it live, no one heard more than the last ten minutes. We also got to hear from a BYU professor on Sunday about the early life of Joseph Smith and I found it to be a very informative talk. We also watched the talk Elder Bednar gave at a Christmas a few years ago called Characters of Christ, which was really good. I also discovered that you cannot find transcripts of the talks that take place at the MTC, but thank you for looking. I hope you got the travel information I sent to you. I made sure I got my visas, so I am good to go. I found out the five dollar phone cards we get here hold 500 minutes, I was planning on getting two that way I could guarantee I have enough minutes and I know I won't happen to miss the one you send to me and get it in Peru after I have left. I guess you have not had a chance to email me back. It is a lot easier to think of things to write when I have questions to answer. Chances are during the layover in Atlanta is when I will call you just because I am there for so long and I do not know how much time I will have in the SLC Airport. I look forward to hearing all your voices. By the way I did get my licence and Immunizations card so thank you for that. I hope I hear from you before I leave even if it is via snail mail.
Love you all so much
Elder Jesse McCammon