message in a bottle

To whomever it may concern,

I have been waiting for 369 days, and I have not seen ship nor sail. I am writing this message, so that perhaps by divine influence someone will hear of my story. I have resigned myself to death by high strung high maintenance companions and an extraordinary large ratio of rice to veggies. My story is a sad one. a long one and with very very few twists and turns. And hardly any of the details matter to the plot. To be honest we walk. we sweat. I listen to my comp complain about how we walk and sweat. And then we talk to some people, and then we ask for water well my comp does for about every house it goes something like this in about every house sister, a grand favor. . . do you have a little water. . . it"s not so bad, but death by repeatism  is still death.  We have been having a little success, but mostly it comes in crazy ways and involves more of this spirit thing then us.

It’s a long story, and I won't try to kill you with the details, so I will jump to the end.

In the apartment of las flores manzana unremembered lote whoknewinthefirstplace. Lived two young men. one white. the other black. they lived. they worked. one cleaned. the other not so much. one cooked. the other too but not as good. And they lived there in a state much like that of the cold war. Passing hot point amidst the freezing cold of a war not fought. But so it is and so it was and here I resign myself to die.

To those who will know this dreadful story,

I'm sorry,

Elder Preece

one day in the world of peru. there lived some elders who did some service. . .

And it went a little bit like this 

happy day after easter

Querido familia preece

Hoy dia al tratar de pensar de lo que iba a escribirles yo decidí que será mucho mas fácil para hacer lo en español porque yo no recuerdo casi nada de inglés pero . . . no importa está bien.

But other then the regular drama that comes when a person has to stay side by side with another person 24 7 things are going alright.

This week was a weird one. we have been trying  to contact one of our recent converts who we were told was drinking again, and let's just say that when he drinks, it's all day every day. And it's horrible, but this week we final found him less drunk then usual which is to say that he was crying like a baby telling us that he wanted to change wanted to change . . . so we told him that we were going  to pass by the next day at 6 am. When we showed up he was super hungover. And so we told him that we were going to return in an hour to see how he was, and we went back about every hour all day. it was a real miracle just that he stayed in the house with all the alcohol withdrawals and whatnot. It has been one of the worst experiences of my mission to see someone I love so much fall so hard. But as he has been recovering, I have felt the spirit working to call him home. It is such a miracle to have the atonement in our lives.

But other than that we really have been focusing on trying to baptize weekly, which is rough, but we are going to get there someday jaja. Oh and weekly means someone in the district baptizes every week not just us.  But yeah we sure have a lot of room for improvement.

And for the news I made a apple pie. it turned out alright considering. Everything jajaja. But other than that  oh and i'm going to Ecuador tomorrow … 

Oh and . . . . . . . . . not sure but I hope y'all like the pics of . . . the airplane park. Jajaja

I love you all and wish you a feliz lunes y invite you all to share the gospel with somebody even if

it's just your pet fish or yourself in the mirror. (which is good practice)

 Que the fuerza les acompañe

In other words Elder Preece out

one really weird day and the airforce

Happy Monday

Dear Famiadamilia,

So the weeks just keep flying on by, and there really isn't anything I can do about it, because every time I turn around I learn that it’s Monday again. So.. I guess that’s really not a bad thing as this whole missionary gig is mostly all about time. The thing is there really isn’t enough time. I realize that I need to make better plans for the future because there really isn’t time for all that I want to do in my life. It's really interesting, lets say... to be here doing the same thing everyday...having a blast and at the same time dreading the fact that someday it will all end. then, I will have to go back to the pressures of life, grades, making lots of money etc., but down here its like a bubble of stress relief.  Although at times, I feel that my body always remembers the stress.  Sometimes I dream that I have a homework assignment due, and I wake up in a cold well...hot sweat because there isn’t anything cold about Peru, thinking about how I don’t even have my school schedule and worrying about all of the papers I should be writing and then I realize...Hey, that’s my companion...wait I'm in the mission...wait I'm not taking any classes. .. . oh I only have 5 more minutes  left to sleep...crap!

Jajaja oh the life of a missionary. But really we are doing awesome in our area. if only it weren’t for the cohabitator ways. We have 3 that we are teaching, and it's just tough because we only can encourage them to get hitched. BTW cohabitating not cool!!!  But that’s not too bad, it's just normal for down here. Also normal is that everyone works all the time and no one para en su casa or to say it in English....stops. But that is normal too, the thing that’s really killing us is that we haven't been able to find new people to teach. With the cohabitators, we just have to teach and wait to see if they want to marry.  If they don’t want to, then we have to move on...because they can't receive the blessings alone.  I think that just might be profound...you can't receive the blessings alone. You always need to work with someone. . . I don’t know if it's doctrine... but I like it.

Oh and btw I made banana pie with cornstarch and not flour well...it turned out alright.... all like masamora, if you even know what that is. Elder Credo said and I quote ¨I like it¨ lets just say he has been practicing English a lot. Oh and a new thing for y'all to try if your down with new plates....cebiche de pota (I think its written right) lets just say its really lemony and has marisco, which I have no idea what it is in English jajajaja.

But to be honest, although my comps a little wacky, and we have lots of racist conversations...as in which race is better. Jajaja  Let's just say all is well and practically normal. I have decided that relationships as elders will never be 100% calm. There will almost always be some sort of disaster to deal with. Like him not having money and eating your food, or that he smells bad, or that he spits in the house or that  .. . . but the best is when they work like crazy. All of the difficulties in life's relationships can be overcome if we have the same goals. Because at least when we fight, we are moving in the right direction.

I love you all and wish you a merry happy Monday.

May the force be with you,

Elder Preece

just remember that life is 2 parts terrible and 95821894732569873659817982374659827658923658923765203985602658037569283456982376598237465092365092364582376598237465982365892376598236598237654897263495786234987562 parts amazing!