Dallon's Email from 9 November 2011

Here's Dallon's email from 9 November 2011:

First I have to say sorry mom!! I really meant to send it to both you and dad, I´m not quite sure what happened! I´m starting to get more emails now :) so I was kind of rushed last time. You asked who´s written me, and I actually got a DearElder.com letter today from Tosha! Haven´t heard from her until now. I also got an email from Deborah, and letters from all the sisters (sure you know that) and also Saundra and Jocelyn. Aunt Lisa sent me some postcards from Disneyland a couple weeks ago too! It´s been a lot of fun to read about life outside of the mission!

Life here has started to settle into a routine. The first week or two we had no idea what we were supposed to do and when we are supposed to do it. Now everything is routine, and I love it! We´ve been reading the Book of Mormon like crazy! We´re supposed to just read super fast, but I´ve been like mentally obsessed about reading. It´s amazing how you can just feast on the words of Christ. I´m in 3 Nephi right now, almost finished with it, and I just love the teachings of Christ to the people. It truly strengthens my testimony each and every time I open it up.

Today we got to go to the temple! I decided I´m cursed with never finding pants in my size. This time instead of having just really short legs, I had short legs AND it was HUGE around my waist. Someone half my height that weighs 3 times as much could have worn them. Haha, and there weren´t any belt loops! needless to say, I felt a little ridiculous, but at least in the temple, it doesn´t matter that much. The temple here is just so peaceful. Today I did it without a translator, which was difficult, but I understood all of it-thanks to the fact we went so much before that I practically have it memorized! Thank you so much for that-all of the family! I´m so grateful that we were able to go through together, and so often too!

The language is starting to get a little easier. Before, making a sentence was SO difficult because they have almost 14 different tenses. We pretty much have past, present, and future! Now I´m learning so many different tenses, the language is just beautiful. Constructing sentences is just fun! I still don´t really know how to talk to someone about things other than the gospel but hey! That´s what I´m here to do.

It´s definitely NOT cold here! I´ve been dying almost every night of heat! It´s around 80 degrees here every day, and Lima is pretty humid. The city here is pretty amazing! There are tons of cars, just like the states, but all of the streets are pretty much two lanes. The bus drivers are pretty crazy, and they definitely pack people in there. I have to pretty much bend in half to get in, and today I bumped my head 100 times during the 5 minute ride, it was insane! The people are SUPER friendly. I can start talking to anyone, and they´ll talk to me. They say hi to everyone on the street, it´s like a small town. The culture in Peru is the best! The houses are all pretty small, nothing like the states, and I haven´t seen a single house that had any sort of yard. There are some pretty nice houses-with electric wire going around the top of there cinderblock walls. :) Most of the houses are kind of like townhomes, and they are all right next to each other. Of course the only houses I see are from the temple to Torros, which is pretty much a Wal-Mart, but mostly food.

Our teaching has started to get a little bit more intense! It´s still just teachers acting like investigators, but one of them has a law of chastity problem, he´s living with his girlfriend, and the other one is named Carolina. Her mother died when she was young, Carolina knows everything about the church, and we´re just trying to get her to have a testimony. It´s amazing, when you think about it, how many people KNOW the truth, yet are unwilling to do anything about it. I think you´ve all seen that in the states too. They know the church is true, they just aren´t willing to take the steps. That´s going to frustrate me, I´m sure, because it´s their eternal salvation that they really should be thinking about.

Ah, only 3 minutes left! So many spiritual things happened this week, and I can´t even remember them all. We talked quite a bit about attending church and how important that is. I must say, I have truly been blessed by us attending church each and every week. The opportunities to renew our covenants and feel the spirit so strong in that dedicated building is just the best blessing ever.

I know this church is true and that this work is so very important to our Heavenly Father. The spirit can be with us all, every single day, guiding us to those that stand in need if we remain worthy. Remember that I love you all, and more importantly our Heavenly Father loves you. Pray, ever single day-real, fervent, unhurried prayers. It will bless you so much.

Love,
Elder Schofield