Brimstone, Marble and Flames

Hello everybody!

Phew what a week! It was definitely a roller coaster ride, thats for sure! Let's start from the beginning.

Another exchange!

Lets go! I got to lead my area again, and this time it didn't all go to pots! I had the opportunity to go on exchange with an Élder that has been out for the same length of time as me, which immediately made me terrified, but what was better was that this is his first transfer in Perú. So he's been here for like 6 days, and I'm his first impression of what an exchange looks like in Perú. . 

But in any case, we had literally the greatest lesson of my entire time as a missionary. It was literally crazy, because I understood and spoke the most Spanish in any lesson ever. In fact, I LED all of the lessons (except one) that day, and it felt great! 

Plus, it's kinda funny the stares 2 gringos walking through Perú gets .

Lima

Aight so a couple weeks ago when I was sick I was told I needed to go to Lima for some Visa stuff, but I didn't because A. I was sick and B. I slept past when I was supposed to go (5am like wut)

We got a text this week in the middle of our work day that we would be leaving for Lima in 3 hours. For those that don't know Lima is a 3 hour bus ride away, and it was like 3 when we got this text. (So many 3s lol) 

This meant we would be sleeping at another Elders apartment, would complete the Visa stuff by like mid day and return for like 1 or 2 appointments to finish the day. Epic 2 days!

But... things never go that smoothly for Elder Bahnmiller. Like, ever.

Bus ride was ok. Got some nice sleep. 

In Lima, things went south really fast. I got food poisoning from an apple, I believe (didn't clean it properly? I dunno. May have been bad too) But I sure felt like Snow white as I commenced to toss everything I had in my stomach the whole night. 

-1000/10 do not recommend food poisoning in a 3rd world country. Some of the worst pain of my existence. No joke.

Got to go to a music store! I had an Elder currently in Mexico (shout out to Elder Walther) suggest a musical instrument as a way to destress, and I saw this with my comp in AZ (shout out to Elder Knight) so I said why not??? 

Yo did y'all know that the exchange rate here is crazy? Like insane??? I got like a 1500 dollar instrument for like 100 bucks no joke. Dude didn't know the Violin he was selling was worth so much I guess

Oh man does playing the violin after 3 years feel so awesome! Its crazy. I'm not as good as I was back then, but I've got 18 months, no?

SIX MONTHS WHAT THE BRO IM SO OOOOOLD. 

AR: This weeks is Truth. This one is gonna take me a bit, because for this one I need to write an entire inventory of my life, which I'm kinda scared to do. But I know it will be good for me! God knows what he's doing!

I do have to say though that during the incredible trial in Lima, I couldn't help feeling of the Savior in Gethsemane. Strange tie in, but I knew that he has gone through everything I've gone through, and that gave me comfort.

Also real quick! We challenged 3 siblings to baptisim! 2 of them for sure, we think, 1 we don't know. Pray for us!

1. Average height of a Peruvian?  actually no but like wut

2. Service project shoveling a mountain of literally cat litter. 

3. Your eyes do not deceive you. Found Shrek in Lima 

Cambios! Y Trust

Hola uno y todo!

This week we had transfers!

I get the epic privilege of staying in Pueblo Nuevo with my same comp for another transfer! Lets GOOO! 

What that does mean is that I am Elder Fuentes final companion, because this is his final transfer. Craaaaazy.

Whats really weird also is that I'm starting to meet missionaries that go home after me. That's honestly such a strange thought.

In any case... I hit 6 months this week! Its honestly crazy. Its said the mission is like a drawing of a basic house (like this one ) first 6 months are a wall and you climb up vertically. The next 6 are like the roof, still going up but its easier and faster. I don't  want this to go faster  I'm having too much fun!

I think my mindset this week has finally changed. I've been treating my mission like I've been on vacation, but this week my comp said something really profound to me. I was moping that I was a terrible missionary when he said this: "You have all the tools to be an amazing missionary. You have the doctrine to teach, legs to walk, and hands for service"

Made me realize its all mindset. So I decided to look at this finally like it's my mission. This week went by a lot smoother because of that I think.

We challenged another amigo to baptisim and he said he'd pray about it! I'm honestly so excited. Also a little bit frustrated. People here make agreements pretty quickly. Its just we need to help them keep those commitments.

I helped a woman build a garden this week! As in i dug holes and put poles into them, then helped my comp wrap these holes in plastic. It was pretty cool, as the woman was really grateful and its pretty awesome to be able to build something.

We also helped build another roof with the whole zone. The zone is officially a brozone! 14 Elders in total. I feel like im back in the MTC with those kinds of numbers  

This weeks AR had to do with trusting God and giving my will to him. A quote by (not sure but i think it was an apostle) struck me. It said that our will is the only unique thing we can give God. Everything else we are just giving back to him. I thought that was really cool.

Invitation! Pretty basic, but contemplate what you are grateful for in your situation. Even if its really tough, there is always something to be grateful for and noticing the good always brightens your day. 

I know that God lives, and that he is the good in our lives. In the name of Jesucristo, amen

-Elder Bahnmiller 

1. Because of the dust we can see the sun as it sets!

2. WE GOT RAIN LETS GOOOOO

3. Sunburn

4. Tag Picture

40.1° and Hope

Hola one and all!

This week was one of setting a personal record of sorts. Lets get into it!

Last Monday was fine, because we got to play Soccer (I stunk as per the usual) and we watched Wall-E so that was awesome. Forgot how wholesome that movie is.

But now, we fall into Tuesday.

Woke up feeling ok, so we went to District Council. Foreshadowing: I was NOT FINE in any sense of the word.

I sat down in a chair and... collapsed. Like, my body didn't want to function anymore. So i sat in pain through district council. Got back to the apartment and it turns out I have a fever! Of 39.9° C! Whatever that means! Consulting your nearest calculator you'll find that it means 103.82° F

So, Tuesday was all kinds of fun sleeping and thinking my head was going to explode.

Wednesday.

Woke up to a temp of 40.1° C aka 104.18° F. PB obtained!  more sleeping.

Thursday.

Comp got sick. More sleeping. Lots of coughing

Friday. 

I got a package from home! I HAVE HERE TO SLAY LETS GOOOO!!!! My families the best! Sent me a valentines day themed package with candy and notes inside. Can you all tell what the highlight of my week was???

Saturday.

Sunday.

Went to church with face masks! Felt like Covid all over again. But, despite the literal warning sign on our faces people still gave us hugs and handshakes.

We also bought a watermelon because A. We were hungery and couldn't eat anything else and B. Why not. (Yeah I realize it was Sunday, but it was an emergency)

TODAY!!!

Well, we were supposed to go to the beach and play sand volleyball with the zone, but my comp still doesnt feel good, so we are gonna be inside all day! Ha haaaaa pray for me please im dying

AR: Hope

What an Ideal virtue to talk about this week.

Basis of this weeks recovery is that we need to have believe that God wants to help us, and act on that belief through prayer and study of the scriptures. I read a cool passage in Alma 15:

6 And it came to pass that Alma said unto him, taking him by the hand: Believest thou in the power of Christ unto salvation? 

8 And Alma said: If thou believest in the redemption of Christ thou canst be healed.

For me that was really powerful. As long as we believe we can be healed. And I do believe. I've got the Hope.

- Elder Bahnmiller 

Wouldn't ya know! No photos for this week, sorry guys. Why would yall wanna see my sleeping, sweaty forehead? Makes no sense

Yes!

Hola familia y amigos!

Another week, another P-day. Man, things are speeding up. It feels like just yesterday I left the MTC. Whats even crazier is that I'm almost to my 6 month mark! 

Alright, whats up with this week?

Lets start off with last P-day. 

I purchased some souvenirs!

...

I know, I've been here for a month but these were really cool! I got a soccer ball, a Peru hat thats honestly so cool, and a book where I'm gonna write all of my favorite Peru recipes 

--- (out of timeline, sorry)

Im honestly so BASURA at fútbol. So literally an hour ago me and Elder Vargas went and practiced a little. It was really fun, until Elder Vargas broke a street light in the park we were practicing. He looks at me and just says "When something like this happens here in Peru, we RUUUUUUUN!!!" He makes a running motion then laughed at his own joke.

---

Ah yes, another exchange.

Again with the ZLs. This time though I was in their area. It was really funny because we are both Legend of Zelda nerds and Smash Bros nerds, so we were talking about video games as we walked around to our appointments. 

We also saw a dead dog. Sad. It was flattened with how many times it was run over.

Extra ah yes. Another invasion. This time we invaded the Hermanas area for like an hour and a half. We only had 1 lesson, which was kinda sad. Especially since we were supposed to hand out these flyers for activities the Hermanas had planned. I should also mention that my Comp is a perfectionist, which means he wanted to hand out every flier. 

Heres the problem. The fliers were for a primary activity, where the little kids would be making pizzas.

So, we were looking for niños pequeños.

I felt like such a stalker. One Mom even looked at my comp like he was a creep, but he didn't realize as he talked about how all her young kids were invited to an activity at 7 at the capilla on Thursday.

Pretty funny.

AH YESSSSSS

We got another person on Bap date YALL!!! This one might actually pan out lol. The last guy stopped meeting with us after he agreed to be baptized, which was depressing. But this woman, Maribel, me and my comp are determined to help her get baptized. She's awesome. She has all of the doctrine she needs to be baptized. She's prayed, read thd BOM. She has a desire to be baptized. Only problem? Church attendance. She needs to come 3 times in order for us to be able to baptize her, and she came last week! LETS GOOOO

Also, one of the members invited her to an activity later that day and she went! Without us knowing! LETS GOOOOOOOO THIS IS EPIC #MISSIONARY WORK IS THE BEST!!!!

Yo I'm  so excited if you can't tell this is awesome!!!

Awwww yes. 

For the next 10 days (or so) we have a street fair here in Pueblo Nuevo! Accompanied by a concert like every night. We have so many rides and street games its crazy. Theres like a ferris wheel and a roller coaster. Its wild!

Lol ah yes

So, we had in person interviews with President this week. It was really cool and inspiring. My mission president is awesome, and definitely the president I need. But, in any case, we were talking about my problems with the mission, and I only had 2 with Peru. One was Spanish (duh) and the other are the packs of demons that chase us and try to kill us (dogs).

My mission president was talking about how the dogs are such a nuisance when I said how I had this electronic dog whistle. I explained how it makes most dogs back off and he got really excited. Said Mrs. Holt would love that. I think my Moms foresight might have just given future missionaries another packing item. President said he was going to add a dog whistle to the packing list. Don't  I just have the coolest mom?  

Sincerely, 

Elder Bahnmiller

1. Ferris wheel

2. Roasting pig

3. Fair entrance

4. Comp selfie

Responsibilidad, Punctualidad, y Servicio

Welcome back to another episode of Elder Bahnmiller screws up big time!

So big he died of shame and was resurrected only to die again! Of shame!

Entonces... ¿que pasó?

Well, the day I've been dreading since day one happened.

I got put with a DL as my first comp here in Perú. Which means, we have to do exchanges with our ZLs. Which ALSO MEANS I have to lead my area for an ENTIRE DAY. 

Which, as I expected, was a disaster. We were 3 hours late to an appointment, left our area ob accident, and missed like 2 other appointments. I quite literally broke down from the shame. We improvised 3 other contacts (one was a micro lesson) and I came home defeated and exhausted. 

When we did exchange review, however, the ZL I was with said I did really well for a first timer under stress, and he sees potential in me. So thats cool.

---

We invaded another zone! This time, we had 2 different members with us that led us to where we needed to be. What was really cool was I actually had a conversation with one of the guys! It was super cool because I asked him to describe his mission in 3 words (hes an RM) and he told me "responsibilidad, punctualidad, y servicio"

Whats cool is that I've been seeing these 3 words in my mission a lot also. I have had to work so hard on my punctuality and my responsibility. If this keeps up (and I'm sure it will) I'm gonna be a completely different person when this is all said and done. U can't wait!

---

Sorry this weeks a bit short. I didn't  have my usual time to write my email because we were playing "here to slay", soccer, and watching movies all day today. Honestly, the mission isn't quite what I thought it was going to be. Its insane what I've seen and experienced. I can't  wait for whats next!

Elder Bahnmiller 

1. Cloud fire

2. Epic meals for days

3. Sunsets!

4. SPAGHETTI

5. This made my day

6. Purple butterfly made of 2 seashells

Thunderstruck and Gringo sauce

Hola amigos y familia!

This last week was rather... interesting. I'll start from last P-day.

P-day:

Last P-day me and Elder Vargas had a little Peruvian stand-off on a roof of a building... unfortunately there was no one else on the roof so I have no pictures to show, but oh well.

During my time in Perú for P-day I've watched Cool-Runnings, Howl's moving castle, and the Lego Batman Movie. I checked the list for allowed movies, and there are some pretty epic movies on the list! (I.e How to train your Dragon, Cars, and Narnia, just to name a few)

Like, Thursday I'm pretty sure:

I had a lesson in English! This man wanted to practice his English, so I got to teach him the plan of Salvation in English! However, during the lesson, 2 things happened. First, he started chewing cocaine in front of me and my Comp. Second, turns out he's gay. So when I started talking about the 3 kingdoms, he asked kinda forcefully where gay people went. Did they go to hell, in our beliefs?

I explained to him our non-traditional view of Hell, and said that in the end, (because God loves us so much) we all obtain heaven (albeit different levels)

He seemed shocked because I think he thought I'd say they went to hell. He sat back and said that was "very kind of us" and the discussion continued.

I have mixed feelings about this lesson, because I'm sure I could have handled it better (there was unfortunately a good deal of rambling involved) but all things concidered it went pretty well.

Then yesterday my area got blitzed by my entire zone! Not only that, but we had a member with each companionship, so we got so many members to lessons! It was LEGENDARY!!! 

Ah yes, my final point.

Gringo sauce.

For those that don't know, I call Chick-fil-a sauce gringo sauce.

I'm sure yall see where I'm  headed with this.

For reference, my mom (what did I do in the premortal existence to deserve such an awesome mother???) On my birthday sent me some Chick-fil-a sauce that I've been saving. Well, we were having chicken and rice (again) so I thought I'd whip out the gringo sauce. My American ZL was ecstatic, and every latino in the room was very confused (including my penchanista, hermano José)

After me and said ZL take a few delicious bites with said Gringo sauce, everyone else wants to try some of it.

I gave some to Hermano José, and he said "I don't see the big deal" but everyone else loved it. My comp even gave my sauce a look as if he was going to steal it.

After a couple of minutes of me pouring sauce Hermano José asks me to stop pouring it and to save some for him 

Gringo sauce is something I'm gonna miss when it runs out.

Long email sorry.

Quick spiritual thought.

I've been thinking about virtues a lot lately. I feel like since my time here, God's put obstacles in my path to teach me patience. So, I've been focusing on that for the past week.

I encourage you all to search for a characteristic of Christ to focus on for the week, and make a goal/plan to improve on that characteristic. I promise, through God's help, you can make progress on that virtue!

I knlw that God lives, and through him all things are possible.

En el nombre de Jesucristo, amén.

1. Comp be real

2. Peruvian food be like

3. Sushi and peruvian burgers!

Yatusabeman

Hola one and all! 

Its your favorite potato boy in Perù, back with another update!

This week I had my birthday, which was quite honestly one of the coolest B-days I've ever had. I got some frisbees from my parents, and somehow my Mom got a cake to me down here, which was delicious and awesome. 

Down here, we are allowed to have orbee guns. (Pretty sure I mentioned this before, but not sure). I've been getting shot by my ZLs and my comp, so I figured it was time I got back at them. So, I bought my own. Mine, however, has a laser pointer and a flashlight, so bonus! It also hits pretty hard, so they'll think twice before they draw guns on me again .

New years! Apparently here in Perú they burn dolls to burn the new year, so not only did it feel like I was watching heresy, but it looked like the apocalypse as everyone burned their dolls. Quite crazy.

Spiritual stuff!

We got someone on bap date! It was super awesome, because I was sitting there while my comp was talking about baptism, and I felt an impression to challenge him to be baptized! It was super fuego, because he was really into what I was saying and accepted the challenge! Pray that he stays with us and he goes through with his promise! We need all the prayers!

My Spanish is seriously improving. I've  found myself saying things I didn't know I could say in Spanish, and it (some what) makes sense. I am also understanding way more than I thought would be possible with only 2.5 weeks in Perú! The gift of tongues is real! Like, seriously real! Its INSANE!!!

I would like to end in my testimony that I know God lives and that through him all things are possible. Aye no way did I think a year ago that I'd in Perú speaking a foreign language and understanding what people were saying. I truly know that its through Christ that this is possible. There is no other way that I could do this. I invite you all to reflect and see what in your life wouldn't be possible without God each day (something different each day), and say a prayer of gratitude for that thing. I know that you'll be happier and feel more grateful for the things in your life.

I say these things in the name of Jesucristo, Amen.

 

1. Goofy brain looking fruit. Actually tasted pretty good

2. Cow... tounge. Yum!

3. Heresy and the apocalypse 

4. Feliz nuevo años con mí ZLs and comp!

5. Peruvian street scones!

6. Apparently its tradition to get egged on your birthday here in Perú. Aftermath of my comp pinning my dazed and tired self to my bed and smashing it on my head

7. I'm tall

8. Fruits stuck in 2020

9. This simple photo shows how heavy I am

10. Elder Bunkall style!