Peru CCM

I´m in South America!! Made it safely, everything's all right and I love it here! Our plane landed at about midnight (we're 2 hours ahead) and didn't get to bed until maybe 3 or so... But right as we got out of the airport, BAM! Visions of Cambodia. Even though Peru isn't even third world, it's still not the US, which means I love it! The CCM here is very very small compared to Provo, which makes it even better in some ways! I met President Cardon at the airport yesterday and talked with him for awhile because I got through immigration with two other Elders really fast, so we had to wait for everyone else. I asked him some things about Bolivia, and he didn't know very much, except that they haven't had foreigners in my mission for awhile because the government is so unstable and it's not a very safe place. So my mission is really dangerous, awesome! And I asked him about the horse thing (did I tell you about that over the phone?) Anyways, I'm sending a letter that I wrote on the plane, so that'll probably explain more, but he said that he doesn't know if the missionaries still ride horses in my mission, but they used to, so there's a good chance that they still do!

But Peru is beautiful! I asked one of the ladies working here if she knew Elder Montgomery, and she got a huge smile on her face, and then I don't know what she said... I know that the MTC and temple here are in the Lima East Mission, and we saw the temple last night for about 5 seconds. My Spanish better come quickly, because most of the native-speakers don't speak any English and so my new companion (Elder Porter) and I really don't know what's going on today haha! So now it's real. Bye America! Not comin' back for 2 years!

Oh ya, really fast before I forget... You know the surprise talks that we give in sacrament meetings back in Provo? Ya, that was me this week... Even though everyone told me that I wouldn't have to because it was fast Sunday next week, so they'd have the oldest district give talks because they were leaving that week so this last Sunday was their last chance to talk... And also that they never had anyone speak if they were just switching MTCs. But no. They called on me to speak. So I gave a just-over-4-minutes talk in Spanish! And then after, I found out that there were still 4 out of the 8 missionaries that had never given talks in the oldest district, and the next district in between us hasn't had any of their missionaries give the surprise talk!!! So whatever, I guess it just makes me a little better than them, a little more spiritual, my wife is better looking than theirs, and it makes me better at Spanish than them. Chiste...[Mom's note: I looked up "chiste" which means "the joke". Relief, I thought he was getting a little full of himself there!]..... Oh well, it was funny anyways because I didn't really know half of the words I was saying anyways haha!

Anyways, adios! Peru is great! And they made me have another haircut even though I had one two days ago.

But seriously, the MTC here is way better than Provo! There's only 114 total missionaries here after the rest of the Latinos arrive today.. Quite a change from the 2600 back in Provo haha!

Mucho amor,

Elder Groneman

Oh, and some more... people really have a lot to write this morning i guess.... so I'll write some more too... I came over with about 15 other Americans, and most of us are going to either Ecuador or Bolivia, and there's a few going to Peru, but ya, I met all of the other missionaries going to Santa Cruz, so there's maybe like 10 of us? Something like that... My companion is from Rock Springs, WY, and they give all the N. Americans N. American companions, but they put both N. Americans and Latinos in the same room so that we're forced to talk with each other. Which will help a ton! Because our roommate knows almost no English whatsoever.