1st Mailed Letters From Peru - 6-18-12 & 6-23-12

We were so happy and surprised to receive a hand written letter from Shaydon! He can send letters through the pouch system with a US stamp and we get them 5 days later! So we get his emails on Wednesday and letters on Thursday! I love it but know it will probably stop when he gets to Ecuador. Just from experience with Tanner on his mission, these missionaries get so busy and wrapped up in the work, it's hard for them to write that often but we will enjoy it while we can! Here's a few lines from Shayd's letter!

" . . . . This is Monday, June 18th. This MTC in Peru is awesome. My Spanish has doubled. My companion is awesome and has the funniest laugh! So it's 6:50 am here now and I woke up early so I could write. The food here is really good by the way. We eat the cereal with yogurt and it is so good! I really don't know what to write. I'll explain a lot more in my email on Wednesday. The church is true. I've learned a lot about the gospel. The people are really friendly. Well, cya later!"

6-23-12


" . . . Hola Familia!It's Saturday night. We went proselyting and it was so much fun! So we started out taking a bus from the MTC to the area. It took about 1 hour. So I was kinda getting car sick because the traffic here is horrible so we were constantly stopping and the bus was pretty hot. But, I made it without throwing up! Ha-ha. After we got to the church, we waited inside because we had to wait for the ward members. We were at the church for probably 1 hour. I was talking to an American missionary who was already serving in that area in Peru. He's been out for 7 months. Finally, we were off. It was me, my Latino Companion, & 3 other kids ha. One of their names was Marcelo & there was one other boy & 1 girl. They gave us a list of people who went inactive so we were off looking for them. We walked around in a very ghetto part of Lima. The homes were probably 20x15 and about 300 sq ft. Very small homes. They don't have tile roofs, just sheet metal but the people looked happy and clean. It was a very humbling experience. I complain that I don't have masculine wallpaper in my room & these people barely have anything! So walking around Lima was very fun. We went to every house we were assigned to but no one was home. It was kinda disappointing but it's all good. I had a great time learning about the culture. I can see how Spanish improves big time when you're in the field. Being around it really helps you pick it up. I feel my Spanish has been doubled since I got here in Peru. I've only been here for 1 1/2 weeks. I've set goals for my self like to learn 10 more verbs a day. I try to get 8 regular verbs memorized & 2 irregular verbs and all of it's conjugations memorized. I'm a big goal guy, and I believe in them. I want to be fluent with the religious side of Spanish by October so I'm working towards that. I hope you got my last letter and this letter. Ha-ha. I love the MTC here. I wish you guys were here with me. I'll try to take some picture on my P-day & send them 2 you guys. Peace out Familia!!"


Love, Elder Gates

Note from Shady's mom: Shaydon inherited Cassidee's room when she went off to college and it has floral wallpaper! Hence, the comment about not having masculine wallpaper! Ha-ha.