Elder Jake Moss: Jake's First Christmas in Peru

We had a great Skype call with Jake for an hour on Christmas Day. Best gift we could ever get! Here's his letter from Monday, December 28th.

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Hola Familia! Happy New Year this week! It was great to see all of your faces! I love you all and I hope Christmas was great! This week flew! It was great to be in Huancayo with the zone and the missionaries! P-day we were in Huancavelica and we went and picked-up our hand knitted ties, that a Peruvian lady made, because all the Elders love my knit ties! The ties are awesome...I will get a picture from Elder Pincay. Tuesday we traveled, which I'm getting tired of, because it's so hard to sleep! But we arrived and worked and wow the difference of the people in Huancayo to HVCA! The members are so great! Tuesday we had the multi-zone conference and for our present we received a flu shot....haha. Then President taught a few things, we ate turkey (which is ehh) and then we performed skits. He gave us a cool little ornament with a nativity......I turned it into something to use for my keys, chapstick and other things. Later we had an activity with the ward in Huancayo and it kind of felt like home....being in a real church with lots of members!

On Christmas Eve we had a district meeting with the other elders and sisters and then we visited members, sang hymns and then they gave us paneton (fruit cake), which I'm sick of. It was fun to walk around, see the people giving out little panetons, hot chocolate and then to go around and sing and talk about Christ. That's what Christmas is about! Then that night we went and sung hymns and Christmas songs in the main plaza with all the zones in Huancayo, took pictures and talked. That was awesome to have a crowd of people and the assistants were out contacting! Then we went to eat turkey, rice....., potatoes with the zone at the elders pension which was great and fun to be with everyone! We watched fireworks that night and WOW Peru goes crazy! It was the coolest thing! And there's no laws on fireworks (dad would love that), but seriously the whole sky it lit up.....so cool! On Christmas day we woke up, played soccer, ate pancakes with the zone traveled back to HVCA. Christmas is sad in Peru.....not much to it. But we talked with our families....that was so much fun! That hour flew.....I miss you all! It made my day to be able to see all of you. I love you all!

The next day we had an activity with the branch that started 3 hours late. Everyone runs on "Peruvian time" which means you show up 30 mins - 2 -3 hours late. We had a talent show which was fun. Sunday we had about 16 people take the sacrament....but 53 showed up in total after we opened the doors....Yay! We are trying to discipline by starting at 10 and people running on Peruvian time miss out on renewing their covenants. Hopefully they'll learn.

Reflection of the week: The gift of tongues works with diligence and the Lord. We didn't have speakers show up for sacrament because they are late so I got to speak for the first time.....I was stoked! I spoke for 12 mins. on the edification of the church, talked about being examples, showing up on time and missionary work! It all came out of my mouth like English! I can speak and understand Spanish. Elder Jimenez tells me my fluency improves everyday! I don't sound like a gringo. He says I sound better than most of the gringo missionaries.....and speak correctly. I love you guys and thank you for everything! The Lord's hand is always there! We just have to seek.

Love,
Elder Moss