Fwd: PERÚ

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-------- Original message --------
From: Chaz Hafer <chaz.hafer@myldsmail.net>
Date:07/29/2015 12:27 PM (GMT-08:00)
To: alexis neilson <alexismayeilson@gmail.com>, Ashley Gutierrez <ashleygutierrez22@yahoo.com>, ashley sutton <asutton62796@gmail.com>, brooke daniels <Bdaniels445@yahoo.com>, christian filip <christianjfilip@gmail.com>, jessica jimenez <jimenezjessica2016@gmail.com>, lance marguet <lancejmarguet@gmail.com>, Logan Marquis <lmarquis518@gmail.com>, Mellissa Hafer <msmellissa@hotmail.com>, savi hafer <savilove@icloud.com>, tristan hafer <Thehafster@gmail.com>
Cc:
Subject: PERÚ

wow... there is a lot of stuff this week! 

the most memorable event and the thing that was most fun this week was the chance to actually go outside the walls of the CCM and preach! we got to go to the Lima east mission and pair up with lds members and missionaries that are in that mission. so we drove like an hour to get to the mission and we drove through some of the poorest areas i have ever seen. when we got to the chapel where we were meeting the other missionaries, the chapel stood out like a sore thumb! this huge building right next to this super poor area of town. we go into the chapel and we see some missionaries and some members. there wasnt enough missionaries to pair everyone with a missionary so some of us including me went out with a member! i was paired with a member of the stake counsel so the man i was with knew alot about the gospel but no english... this was rough because my spanish is terrible. its like a 3 year old trying to speak...but we set out to teach people and the guy knew where he was going.

we walked for like ten minutes and then took a fifteen minute buss ride up the side of a mountain. this was super crazy, because as we got towards the top of the mountain, we started to see the really poor areas, which is really hard for me to witness. when we got pretty close to the top, we had to stilk walk for 5 minutes and the roads were all dirt now. and the houses were boxes with 4 walls. we got to the first how that the man had on his list and we started talking to a young man named Pedro who was 16 and really didnt want to talk to us but we talked about th book of mormon a little bit and then we left. and while we were at the top of the mountain, we could look down and see the huge grouping of houses that were like favelas in Brazil. i wish i had my camera because that would have been the coolest picture. but they said we could not bring them.

we then started to walk down the hill and we saw soo many stay dogs and one started to follow us. we then got to a very small store, no bigger that a normal bedroom and this man an d women were there and they were the owners and we asked if we could talk to them for a little big and share a message with them. they agreed and we started to talk about the book of mormon and the gospel and how it was restored. the man seemed interested and he was a non practicing catholic. i started with questions trying to get to the man and the man i was with just took the lead and spoke to these two with such passion and love and eventhough i didnt understand everything he said i understood enough to bear my testimony and ask them some questions that i felt inspired to ask. we ended our conversation  with them when i told them that if they read this book and pray to know the truth that they will recieve an answer and he accepted and he was so excited that i gave him a Book of Mormon which made me feel way happy!

we then started to walk down to the chapel again but we had one more house to try and that one dog was still following us down the hill! we get to the house and no one is there so we go down to get in a moto taxi and i jump in but the dog jumps in with me!! and the man i was with laughed and pulled the dog out. when we got back to the chapel we were one of the last ones, and we stated sharing our experiences and it was crazy what some people did and i felt really frustrated because i knew so little spanish. i came back to the CCM super upset and angry at myself for not knowing the language and then the mext day in our meetings the leaders were speaking and they just randomly said, dont worry if you dont know the language right now. they told me that you dont really learn the language untill you leave the CCM and live the language. i got super motivated after they spoke to me and i was so grateful for their counsel. 

all of the other days were the same...all spanish all day, with a break in the middle of the day to play some sports for an hour... spanish is tough and it is still coming very slowly but it is coming. 

keep emailing i always enjoy reading about home!

the Church is true!

LOVE Elder Hafer