Hard Time Adjusting

Hey everybody hows it going? thanks for writing the letters I haven’t gotten any yet but thats because pouch mail takes a long time. I don´t have much to write about because its the CCM, I have two Guatemalan room mates that are the best. Elder Rodabough is awesome companion and a great example to me. Today we got to go the Lima Temple today which was great but a really different experience for me. The session rooms are tiny they only hold about 15-20 people. Afterwards we walked home and picked up some scripture cases and drinks. Lima is different, its all really poor, everybody drives crazy, there’s porn everywhere and the sun doesn´t come out here that much because of the pollution. Walking back was the highlight of my week, its probably been the most challenging week of my life, the spanish going great, the teaching is too. I´m doing everything a missionary should do but I’m feeling just the opposite. Its been hard to stay focused and to find the desire to keep going sometimes. I´ve had a hard time adjusting to the culture and this lifestyle. I never thought things would be they way they are. Nothing i could´ve done in mission prep, at home or anything period could prepare me for the things that are happening right now. I don´t have much time to write every body. Thanks Mack for the letter it was great to hear from you. I want to finish by telling you all that i love you and miss you a ton. Thanks for supporting me and being a part of my family. Hope you´ll be home tonight because i think you might be getting a phone call from me

Just some more I forgot to write about. The spanish going good, we´re not permitted to speak english when we're around teachers and can't with the latinos so to say the least I'm learning fast. We have to teach one of the lessons 2-3 times a day in spanish and thats really hard to do but we're learning a lot. I hate the food here, we have some dry beef 2-3 times a day and rice a guaranteed 2 times. I've got the runs, if you know what i mean. I'm pretty sure i've dropped 10-15 lbs so far (so much for what happened at provo) . I'm just not hungry for the food here and its always the same and what they do serve doesn't really put meat on your bones, because its rice. Saturday we get to go out tracking with a local, who will most likely be a deacon so there's not a lot of help with the deacon part. I'd write more but my time is officially up now.

Late Night Flight

Well we made to the CCM last night around two in the morning and had the privilege of waking up at 6 in the morning. Everybody is exhausted from the flight and the bus ride. The bus ride was cool, we pulled out of the airport and it everything looked like a spanish version of salt lake, big and city like you know... well yeah. So we drive around a corner and it turns into a ghetto everywhere, graffiti, trash in the street, it was awesome. We drove through that for about an hour, it was so cool. Then we paid to go through a toll booth and after that the neighborhood was a lot nicer, thats where we are now. We pulled into to the CCM to see a bunch of missionaries waiting for us with the MTC prez and wife. They helped us get to our room which sleeps 6 people, I don`t think they we're to happy to be woken up by us and i know we weren't to happy to be woken up by them about three hours later. The CCM is way nice, its a newer building, with 10ft walls, guards and a gun turret on one of the buildings, the inside looks like a new church. Its been an adventure so far, the people speak crazy spanish down here, its fast and its hard to understand. The last thing i want to do right now is try understand some of it, I'm so tired and jet laggy combined with humidity. My new companion is Elder Roadabaugh, the one from Lehi UT. We're going to do great he is always speaking spanish and wants to stop speaking English, i doubt he ever will too. We were all hoping for a native companion but there are to many white missionaries so now they are having English together for the first 3 weeks and then the last 3 weeks you join up with a native companion. I have more to tell but i already wrote it and I’ll send it in a letter.

Dad you really need to get me a handgun while I'm gone so i'll have one when i get back because of obama, sounds stupid but i really want to have something before it gets illegal to buy one. Elder Lusk has shown the me the importance of this, through is infinite wisdom haha.

I don't know if we're going this Saturday or not but on Saturdays we go tracking out in Lima so i have to work hard on my spanish between now and then. Thanks for the sentences dad. I know how to conjugate verbs that involve me how do i do it to other people like I’m good with quiero but I need more experience with quiere and quieren, gustar etc...

Peru Here I Come

Yeah, I got the packages yesterday, thank you so much!!! I really was missing those shoes so much, yesterday I felt like I was back at the church when I had those bad boys on. Thanks for the shirts I only had two, one to sleep in one to get nice and sweaty everyday during P.E. Same with the socks, so yeah thanks a ton (we sent him some extra things he forgot). Well this week flew by, I'm so stoked to go to Peru even though I won't understand anything, I'm crossing my fingers for a new native companion when I get there which would help me a ton. I'm having a hard time practicing spanish because my companion is so far behind but even then I'm still learning a ton. So some interesting stuff that you I didn't tell you:

My district Presidency is amazing they're all awesome. They are also the same presidency that Talon had. President Dickerson recognized our last name and said that he remembered Talon, and that he was so proud of him when he left and that he thought it was super cool we're cousins. President Dickerson is amazing he is the biggest B.O.M. fan in the world, he tells us everytime he sees us that if he wouldn't get in trouble he'd tell us to send our Bibles home. He gave a sweet lesson about how the "B.O.M." is the best tool we have, and how he related it to how Micheal Jordan was the best player to ever play the game. So he said if we have the greatest player to play the game, why don't we put him in the game and pass the ball to him. Then related it to putting the book of mormon out there right when you teach, and give it to the investigator. Awesome lesson! We had Elder L. Tom Perry speak to us and honestly it was alright, but we had The Rasmunds speak to us who are in the Presidency of the 70ty and they were amazing both him and his wife, they totally got me ready to go.

The food here is real good thats why I gained 7lbs plus, I get about a package a day full of candy. Everybody in my district says it's a given, I get a package full of food. So when I go pick it up they call me Elder Elephante haha. The Williamson's have sent me krispy kremes and a ton of chips and salsa, the Borgets with Cookies and good Caffienated drinks and all the wonderfull cookies and coke I get from home I've gotta be the most loved and happiest misionary out here. Also thanks to everyone for writing to me!

Tell the priests and Mack to read PMG its really the best thing they could do. The priests need to go to mission prep too. I learned a ton in there and have had some real good expriences teaching so far because of it, instead of struggling and learning how to teach. Which has helped me work on Spanish.

A couple people in my district got Swine Flu but there all better now, and we're all on a bunch of pills to not get sick before we leave. By the way i got a my last shots done today it cost $110 so I hope I have money on my debit haha.

A few cool stories this week, we got to go to the RC (referal center) and talk with people. You can take calls, chat with people or confirm bible, bom, dvd orders etc... So it truly hate calling to see if people recived their bible, because they swear at you and say some thing like "Yes I got my bible and don't want any more to do with you "**** ing mormons" so that isn't my favorite. But on a chat I talked with someone for 1hr and 6mins about Polygamy, Temples, Temple Marriage, where we go after we die, the trinity, baptism, priesthood, views on gay and marriage, and the book of mormon. Joe, the guy i was talking to, sounded like he was fine with everything, and wanted to learn more but didn't want the misionaries and the BOM, but said he would get on later to know more. So that was a good teaching experience for me because we hear all day about teaching people but never get any real expericence, so that was awesome for me. Then I was trying to chat last night but nobody was on so I did out-bound calls, the bad ones. I called Lily and she answered, I asked her if she got her bible and she said she got a bom instead, then I thought she said she wanted to give the bible she was suposed to get and give it to her realator. I was like your realator? and she started laughing and said "no my relative" which really opened the door for me to talk to her. I found out she lived alone and was a widow, she didn't have anybody to talk to and couldn't read or watch TV anymore because her eyes were bad. So I just talked to her, It really made her day. I told her I would resend the bible she asked for. I asked her to read the bom but she said she wouldn't because of her religion. I asked her to give it to her grandaughter (who is an athiest) who she was going to give the bible to and she said "sure, of course." So that pretty much made my day because I got to talk to her and helped place a book of mormon!

Wish I could've better explained it but I have to go
Love and miss all you, and hope all is well

Elder Fritz Culp