Elder Caden Cluff: September 15, 2014 Letter...

Tell all the boys I love them and thank you for their letters, they mean the world. I´m so happy and glad to hear they are all doing so well. Cameron cracks me up... Brigham is still just chill and happy.. and Zack is a stud.. make sure to tell him he needs to eat a lot of food if he wants to grow:) I was so happy to call you and dad.. it was great. Oh my comp´s card wasn't working, so he couldn´t call, so I let him use my debit card.. hope that´s alright. Oh today is P-day so I´m going to buy a new backpack. My shoulder bag destroys my shoulder. I love you mom and family, please start making noche de hogar a priority. It´s so important, the family is where we grow and learn the principles of the gospel the best. This is why families are so important. I loveee you guys so much:)

Okay now to reply to this letter and to tell you a little bit about Peru:

A contestar su preguntas..

My companion, Elder Fernandez is from Puno, Peru. He is learning English here on the mission; we only speak in spanish though. Which can be veerrrryyy difficult at times, because sometimes I need to say things that I don´t know how to say, but I´m learning very quickly. Oh fun fact.. Peru.. doesn´t speak pure Spanish. Here it´s called castellano. Which is Spanish, but super slangy, fast, and difficult to understand. It´s like someone learning Utah English for six weeks, then goes to the UK to continue learning English. It´s difficult but I´m picking up on the slang and different phrases and words and sounds.. slowly, but surely:)

Okay.. Area of town, hahaha. I live in Rimac. Rimac is probably the second poorest district, and second most dangerous. The people here, the area, all of it is extremely poor. Like I´ve been extremely humbled seeing how people live here compared to Alpine. It´s so different, but it´s amazing. Me and my comp´s sector is called Leoncio Barrio 3, and we have the hill with all the houses on it. So we have to climb up mountains of stairs every single day.. I can already feel my legs growing, hahaha. It´s fun though. The people here are great, especially the members.. they are so loving. The investigators always make fun of me because I´m a gringo and don´t speak much Spanish haha.. good stuff.

We don´t have a pensionista in this area. But every single day we go to a members house for lunch, and holy wowowwowow is the food good... One thing I´m learning here, is how to eat, and how to eat a lot. There is rice with probably every meal, but it´s always amazing and flavorful. Lot´s of chicken and potatoes, too. Also, there is this drink called chicha morada - it is this purple corn drink with piña and sugar. It´s good if it has a lot of piña. But, the members feed us sooo much. I´m not kidding. Infinite amounts. The other day at the stake president´s, we first had a huge plate, stacked to the roof of pasta, the second course was a huge plate of rice, chicken, and veggies.. soo good, then we had a break with a banana, then dessert was ice cream. Sooo much food, but MY stomach feels healed and can pound food:) I can´t wait to get fat.. actually, I probably can´t because of the infinite amounts of walking we do. But it´s great!

Oh we get to go to the temple here about every 3 months! Which is awesome! I´m really excited.. We go for the first time on october 6th!

I need to continue working and continue to learn this language so I can help people to the best of my abilities! We have several investigators right now, and we just commited one to baptism!!! We are arranging a marriage first, because cohabitation is the norm here. We can´t have that:) So yeah marriage first, then baptism! We are so excited. Many more to come:)

I´m still adjusting here, but I do love it. I love you family!

Love,

Elder Cluff