la carta de esta semana

CalDon sent us an audio file for a letter, but I can't figure out how to upload it to the blog. Sorry.

so this week i tried something new, i sent you a voice file. I'm really sorry if it doesn't work. i actually like this better because i can say more faster than i can type, but i going to send you a letter anyway just in case.

any way these are my closing remarks.

llerva huisa is an herb that they make into a drink i think and it tastes like fruit loops. it's super good.

chifa is a really common food here. it's chinese with a little peruvian flair and it is delicious.

umm this week we ran into a couple borachos. they are niceish but one of them cried for about 5 minutes on elder castillos leg, and we are going to teach him Thursday. that will be fun. 

perhaps the best thing that has happened  to me in peru was somebody was blasting hotel california last sunday. it made my week. love you pops. also i heard imagine dragons yeah that was weird

our peinsionitras son has found your facebook profiles, so don´t do anything i wouldn't do. and also he made me make pancakes at 10 pm, which is thirty minutes before curfew. it was fun but totally unnecessary. he always says hey crazy. and pretends to fall asleep when he´s bored.

the singing in church is bad. it is so bad. nobody knows pitches in our ward, but it makes you feel pretty good cause you know that you can´t be worse than the guy sitting next to you. 

elder murray from the district looks like Sheldon cooper

they cook popcorn just like you mom. its delicious and i love it.

world's biggest fail: district 2 german law of chastity. have jordan show you it. its freaking hilarious. 

the clothes for kids are optional here. under 5. so yeah i've seen my fair share of peruvian behinds. 

picking your nose is actually acceptable. which i´m for. i don´t need a tissue. the only think weird is my companion picks his nose with his pinky. yeah that's bien extraño 

anyway no more time

may the force be with you 

chau

elder preece 

Re: Survived Trek!

so momma good to know with the banana foster. also i don´t bake them in fact i don´t use eggs. i make it just like the cookie dough. and yes i can get oatmeal by the bucket. its the chocolate powder that´s in short supply.

oh boy that old man is nuts. perhaps he ate something that did it to him. this week i ate something and i haven´t  felt right since. but perhaps that's just peru. 

this week was a tough one. for almost 3 days we contacted families and nobody was home. not the investigators or the members or the menos activos. nobody. it´s tough at times. because the message we have is so precious, but at the same time nobody wants it. ugh. today we went exploring to the puerto pizarro and it is quite the port. i´ll send some pictures next week and i'll just say that they sure do love their colors. their boats are all sorts of crazy colors. actually i think that is one of my most favorite things. Is the colors everywhere you turn its bright and usually flashing one the mototaxis there are usually. a bunch of neon flashing lights. i´ll try for a picture, but its hard to do because we work every night.

to be honest the weeks are flying by. sometimes the days seem to drag on forever, but the more you just think maralin needs this or maybe we can teach this familia about this. before i know it i´m writing home. Its funny i usually don´t feel like a missionary because missionaries are old and serious and super spiritual. and then i´m in a lesson pleading with somebody to come to church because i know that it will bless their lives. It´s just weird. i think because it feels so natural. and easy. i think that is the thing that i didn´t understand before my mission was that it is super easy to share the gospel. it really doesn´t take much. as president uctdorf said preach the gospel at all times and if necessary use words.

have i told you about the gringachos? all the little kids here love to call me gringacho. and i have been thinking of what to say back because i am a missionary, and i can´t say anything rude. so i thought to myself im white they're brown. hmmmm and their peruanos. so when the little kids shout out gringacho i shout back peruanos.  it makes me feel better.

this week we knocked the door of  a less active recent convert. and found his girlfriend and started teaching her. and its funny because he can´t go to church because he looks after her kids during church, so she can go to school. they are living together that will take some time but hopefully they have the faith to follow the commandments. anyway hopefully they are both coming to church with all of their children this week.

weird experiences

they don´t spare any expense when it comes to birthday parties. i´m talking 6 hour parties with music balloons for 4 year olds. and they have this song that goes chu chu a chu chu a chu chu ua ua ua apparently its a the sound a train makes. i think its really weird but they all seem to love it.

corazon serano (its a popular band here in peru) look them up cause i practically listen to them because peruvians have no sense of spacial boundaries. or sound 

so in peru the pharmacies are a little different. they sell everything behind the counter. trust me everything. baking soda, hair gel yeah hair gel let me tell you behind the counter strength hair gel that stuff is almost prescription for your missionary comb over.

anyway 

perhaps some questions would help i pretty much have run out of things to tell you guys. its tough cause i really see and hear a lot but its hard to explain in words 

i´ll try to send more pictures next week

until then 

may the force be with you

Elder Preece

Trek Week

sooo the rats (cui) that's not a joke. i have eaten chicken foot or pata which is good really chewy, and i haven´t tried it yet but chicken balls are a delicacy here. so yeah oh and we literally eat every single part of the chicken minus the tendons and bones. so yeah its great. i´m stoked and no we live with our peinsionista. we are her guests. sister mariela takes good care of us. she has cooked us many breakfasts and dinners, which she doesn´t get paid for. usually its rice and chicken but sometimes its tamales and the tamales here are really different. they make them out of corn that is really chunky with asetuna (olives) pollo, cebolla (unions) ají (a orange pepper super common in like ever dish) and what ever else seems good. and then the wrap them up in the leaves from a banana tree. and boil them they are fan-freaking-tastic. and then they serve it with kimbo to drink.

to be honest the two hardest things for me to stomach so far was some of the juices because they make them fresh and some times the fruit isn´t the best. they make juices by blending fruit with water and straining out the bad bits or with chicha morada (which is a drink made from purple corn.) they boil it. i like the chicha morada if it has enough sugar and it takes quite a bit. haha but yeah its crazy. and did i mention they really like rice. for every meal there is rice and its not like a side dish. its a freaking mountain of rice. we are talking more than half a dinner plate about 4 inches high of rice, and i eat it all cause i´m starving i don´t get its like 04353098753420q485439850938 calories, but man its really good.

as far as my cooking experiences go i made banana foster. it didn´t turn out quite right, but it tasted really good on the crépes. i think it was because i put the bananas in too early but i can´t complain because to be honest the only time i get to cook any thing good is on sundays. but i have made chocolate chip cookie dough and oatmeal cookies. oh and they only have sugar in the raw. nothing else, which i don´t mind, but its not very conducive in cookies. also i haven´t been able to find yeast or wheat flour not that they don´t have it. its just that i can´t find it. another thing is that they don´t have peanut butter. which is sad. cause i really like peanut butter.

that's. enough about the food. i can´t believe how much you crazies have done i mean a wedding and trek and everybody being sick and oh my gosh mckell has a boyfriend eeeeeekkk thhts exciting somebody forgot to tell me. whats he like? how many toes does he have? is his favorite color blue? does he have a mustache? can he sing the alphabet backwards? does he know the words to the poem the raven? where did he serve his mission? does he have desires to run for president? and will he be my partner in crime? i haven´t had a good partner in crime since the last one got married to my sister. 

so my companion loves to sing, but he sings kind of funny. its a sing hum and its high pitched, and he breaths like a an asthmatic. so its like hum la hum la hum la huuuuuuuuuuuuuhh hum la hum la hum la hujuuuuuuuunm. its terrible, but hey i´m probably going to be stuck with him for a while. 

for liesl i have found her dream house. it literally is painted pink no joke. in fact most of the houses here are bright colors. and the t shirts. and almost everything else. which is probably why i fit in so well. and i honestly didn´t notice it for a couple weeks. 

other interesting things. the favored sent for cleaning products from limipa to do to laundry. detergent is baby. which is fine. smells good.

the bananas. they have several different kinds and when you ask some one in the small house stores for bananas they just look at you like your nuts. their is one called. guineo and its just like our banana and it tastes like our green bananas but a tad softer when its almost brown and the maduro verde which is a different thing completely, which i really like. they fry them and also make potato chip like things called chifles which are good. they also make chifles out of yams. they're good. and there is a fruit called the chirimoya. you´ll have to google it because its really good, but there's no way that i could explain it. hands down one of the weirdest fruits that i have ever eaten. i´ll send some pictures of the fruits. 

oh and papaya that is perhaps the nastiest fruit on the planet. smells like vomit and it tastes terrible. if you put it in yogurt its not too bad but man ugh. it´s also not bad in a banana smoothy like drink, but all by itself its just bad.

honestly the hardest part about being on a mission is that i can´t share my experiences with you guys. because there really just isn´t a way to describe the tastes and the sights and sounds. its unreal how cool this place is. the mission work itself is not difficult. it's actually having success as a missionary that's hard. people here will listen to us. but we have a super hard time finding people that will actually accept the gospel and become converted and attend church. i love the people here but at the same time it's so sad to see them choose to miss out on the gospel. i love you all. and wish you the very best. 

may the force be with you.

Elder Preece 

Fotos

SO I NOW KNOW WHAT IT FEELS LIKE TO BE UNLOVED. :(

so no letters from my family this week I think I´m going to cry. its all right you probably were too busy with partying and such for the fourth to remember little old me. but hey I´m over it. 

here is the complete address for letters directly to me but I would think the pouch is easier

i only get mail once a month so there is no telling how long it will be until i recieve stuff. address to:

Chad Rowley 

Elder CalDon Alan Preece

Urb. Los Geranios

Calle Los Naranjos Mz. "H" Lz "4"

Piura, Peru

not sure about the Lz part sorry my hand writing is still bad

Time for the letter

actually not first: if anybody wants to send money really just put it on my card I can make withadrawals. so yeah not entirely out in the wilderness.

So In peru they do things a little differently for example list of priorities for americans is

Tasty Food that has no bones or other little gross things with spices and other things

A home with carpet and tile and a yard with grass and solid walls made of of wood and sheet rock and other such modern thingys 

A seemingly endless supply of hot water. 

Electricity that works and if it goes out comes back on before the ice cream in the fridge goes soft.

a car. that runs consistently with A/C and a radio 

A television.

Iphone

Clean Bath Room

Cloths for everyday of the week

and no flies in the house.

the list of priorities for peruvians:

Stereo the old ones 

Television

Food could be a rat or just arroz con pollo no matter. the spice can be used or not

some from of juice of soda with every meal chicha morada is one of the better ones. my favorite juice is the orange juice but it tastes nothing like ours. it's like apple juice but with oranges WEIRD but really good. also the kimbo is crazy its called pero in america its toasted barley

 A place to sleep: parts of the roof is optional because its super hot and the roof is really just for shade anyways

water from the tap or a bucket just need it. oh and hot water is a luxury that nobody needs I haven´t had hot water for a shower since before i got to peru

electricity sometimes. we can do without cause we don´t event need to refrigerate our milk before we open it.

a moto or not their only about 60cents per ride. so yeah and driving is a little scary

television with lots of dvds. 

a bathroom cleanliness is a little optional for missionaries. (you wouldn´t want to know how i had to clean the toilet bowl, but lets just say they don´t have toilet wands.

clothes but shirts are optional for men and clothes are just optional for children

flies we just try to not let them in our food. in some areas its like a wall of flies. it's crazy.

In reality I feel that in america we don´t know what the meaning of the word lack

this actually has been a wonderful experience to find what in extravagance and what is the stuff that makes life worth living.  In actuality it is the quarks of peru that i love the most. 

Oh and the brown bottle yep they got em´ and weirdly enough if you just don´t think about it its fine. your teaching a lesson and bam there's a boob out and a baby stopped crying. I mean dang its efficient. haha we just keep teaching and kind of turn our heads. its funny. And great here

last story for the week. so the sister that cooks for us is called our pensionista and she is great, and her cooking is even better. Her son eduardo is hilarious. he always calls me suli which means friend, and he is a riot. he´s fifteen and he´s thinks its fun to try and high five me when my arm is raised and i´m on my tip toes. I think its pretty funny too but last night we had an arm wrestle, and it went pretty bad for him. he is about a foot and a half shorter than me and 90 pounds, so we start and he's about to lose. he starts to use both hands and then stands up and uses his whole body and I still almost won. hahahaha really though I love it here i just wish i could share more with you.

love from me and may the force be with you

Elder preece

How to write CalDon in Peru

Pouch instructions:

Letter folding instructions: lay the letter blank side down. Fold the bottom of the letter about 1/3 of the way up the page and crease. Fold the top of the letter to the nitty. Of the first fold and crease. Secure the long side with two pieces of tape about one inch in from each end, but do not seal the ends. In the top left corner write your name and complete return address. Affix first class postage in the top right corner. In the middle write the missionary address  as follows:

Elder CalDon Alan Preece

Peru Piura Mission

POB 30150

Salt Lake City Utah 84130-0150

El primera carta de Perú

¡HOLA!

how is every body doing? I love you a bunch and feel super sad that I can´t go on the canyoneering trip. those are fun. pack lots of water, your emergency space blanket, and watch out for snakes and poison Ivy. haha 

So I am in tumbes which is a 6 ish hour bus ride from piura. its a large coastal town, but I have in reality only seen the coast one time since I have been here and that was in the few minutes that i wasn't sleeping.  The scenery here is gorgeous, and although there's a lot of brown its pretty green. the houses are small, but are comfortable. they are made of bamboo and a dirt, donkey poop, and straw like plant mixture which is packed in between the bamboo frames. it's interesting and different and I love it. 

I don´t think the pictures I have are going to send sorry um 

The food is different. every dish has rice and almost every dish had chicken. but today we had a omelet like patty with shrimp on top of our rice and also beans. beans and flour are sort of commodities here. also they use every part of the chicken. I have not tried but would like to try fried chicken legs. and also a soup called cou cou. i think that's how you spell it. it is a delicacy of cow stomach and other things. one of the north american missionaries said it tastes like poop. but I want to try it. they have a lot of aji which is just a type of pepper. um but i really like the crema that one of the families made us. it was crackers with milk and lemon juice and oil and the aji pepper. it was awesome we ate it over a potato (and they peel their boiled potatoes it was interesting. 

today I changed all my money to soles. and the conversion is awesome I got 300 soles for 120 dollars which is about half our total monthly budget. one of my most favorite things are the mototaxis they're everywhere. they are the primary way for transportation and basically, its a tricycle motorcycle with a small cab. they're super funny and the drivers all drive around saying moto moto.

um I can´t understand a lot of what people say. its probably because they speak a funny type of spanish here called jarga. i think its basically slang. which is super tough to understand especially the little kids. they are so hard to understand.

so in perú there really isn´t anything that resembles a hot shower. which is good cause it saves on costs, but its a little cold in the morning. although I think that is just because its winter at almost 80 degrees. I honestly sweat all day and people are like hace frio.  its nuts. but cool my companion speaks zero ingles, so its really fun to try and communicate with him. especially because i describe something and he tries to tell me the name. we played yo esp (he ran out of time)

mas pictures

Mi familia necesita enviar más fotographias y cartas a mi.

hey every body send me some letters por favor. letters by internet probably are best as I am not sure how to send letters and packages myself jk

um if you would like to send something to 

Chad Alvin Rowley

Elder CalDon Alan Preece

(and then the address that is in the mission packet I don´t have it and don´t remember it. its something like los calles naranjos i don´t know for sure)

but Email works great.

Now for some pictures