December 18, 2017 - San Luis

Bautismos! So we had another baptism this week and it was another cool experience! She chose me to baptize her so I was a little nervous for that but it all worked out perfect! The day of the baptism in the night we were waiting for everyone to show up and her mom came and told us that she didn't want to come. We were super surprised and ran to her house and she was just sitting on her bed with her phone! we walked over to here and asked why she wasn't at the baptism. Apparently she was super nervous and didn't want to come but we forced her lol. but when the thing actually started she got in the water after me and just started saying , NO QUIERO, NO QUIERO. lol. I calmed her down and baptized her haha. but it was a super cool experience also. Also we had changes yesterday and I will be with Elder Luna for 6 more weeks here in San Luis! we have gotten to be really good friends so I'm excited for that too! But everything is fine! I'm doing great! loving it down here. I've learned that the more you work the happier you are and the more the time flies! I've been here for 4 months and it feels like i just left! love you all and thanks for everything! 

 Peruvian Culture!

_the concept of snow for Christmas is weird to them because its summer for Christmas down here so its super weird for me down here

Elder Beck

Ivonne Barrios, Elder Luna and I

Ivonne's Family with Elder Luna and I

                                                                Ivonne's son with us. 

                               Elder Luna and I in our cool shades my mom gave us for Christmas

December 11, 2017

                                                    Stanik, Stanik's mom, Elder Luna and I

                                                                    Stanik and her mom

Me, Elder Luna, Stanik, Stanik's mom, some of her friends and Yeison (Who introduced us to Stanik)

                                    Those in the ward and friends of Stanik there to support her! 

                                                                Hermana Vanessa's birthday

                                                       Elder Luna, Christopher Epifania and I

Elder Luna tried to grab something of mine and I stabbed him with my pencil. He overacted and started                                                                     wrapping his hand lol. 

                                 Us at the Carranza family house. They were some cool members. 

Love all of you guys and thanks for everything you guys have done for me on the mission and also before the mission! 

So This Saturday we had our baptism for Stanik! Elder Luna had the opportunity to baptize her and it was way cool! she really was a gold investigator. she brought her mom who isn't a member and also all of her non member friends! So we got a couple of references from them! So that was such a cool night! The day after in Sacrament meeting was her confirmation and me and Elder Luna went up with her cause we were gonna help but when we got up there the counselor asked me if i have ever confirmed someone i told him not yet so he told me later that he got a feeling that i should give this blessing in her confirmation so that was super scary for me. in front of everyone and on the spot! the first 1 minute was horrible, like i just sat there for a while not knowing what to say and super embarrassing but after that the spirit punched me in the face and i actually had words in my head and it was actually a really cool experience for me! 

That Sunday we also visited a member family and they had this cool idea with working with the missionaries. they are going to be teaching the plan of salvation in the street next to a market while we are going to be collecting references. so we don't really have to be doing anything! the people in our ward are so cool! 

Well this week has been going really good for me and so many cool things happened! but love you guys and remember to always rely on the spirit in everything you do and you will always have what you need to say in the exact moment you need to say it!

Peruvian Culture!

_ idk if I've mentioned this but most of the dogs here are super territorial so if we get too close to there house they will run at us and try to kill us! idk if really they want to kill us but it's pretty scary at times.

_also they always show up for things way late! like they don't know what time it is every. like the baptism started at 7 but everyone got there at like 7:45 lol, I just think its crazy. 

Elder Beck

December 4, 2017

Tuesday was a little hard for me because of certain things like we didn't have much success and I'm always beating myself up over the language but ill be fine right?

Wednesday we had a multi zone training with Pres Rios and that was amazing about being obedient and how we should have no less than 1 baptism a month which is really cool to think about!. but yeah i was stressing so much after that because all that new info and other things. but we actually had a lot of success that night!

Thursday was another stressful day. he wanted me to direct the area today and he scheduled people that we rarely visit so I didn't know what i was doing and he didn't help me at all. the most stressful thing i have ever done in my life! I felt like such a failure but after dinner I got pumped up again and went back to it. Elder Gunn told me that the difference between a good and a bad missionary is that when a bad missionary makes mistakes he gives up. so that pumped me up! the rest of the day was really good.

Friday morning we did 3 hours of service and we got super worn out and i got burnt so bad. but it was all good! After that we had 0 success with anything and we basically just walked forever! 

Saturday we had baptism interviews for out baptisms and Stanik was perfect as always and came early and it was great! but Ivonne didn't even show up so we think that she doesn't really want to get baptized which was super frustrating but its gonna be all good i think! 

Sunday was another good fast Sunday! we had a great first lesson with this guy named Santo! he really has a good relationship with God and Christ and when we were talking about the Book of Mormon he was super unsure because he's been with the bible his whole life and adding another book is weird for him but he promised that he would read 3 Nephi 11 and pray about it so that's super cool! every time i get to say the first vision its super powerful and I can feel the spirit so strong!

but other that its been a slow week but just need to have patience and its gonna be good!

love you guys and sorry for the rushed letter! i never have enough time to write anyone! but I really love getting letters  and there are a lot of people that i still want to know how they are doing! so write me please!

November 27, 2017 - Peru!

Elder Beck again about to tell you how my week went!!! another good week and its really important for me to keep busy because i really really miss my family which is really bad as a missionary on the other side of the world. But we have kept pretty busy which is good!

So on tuesday it was a pretty rough day with certain things and we haven't been working as hard as i have wanted so ive been beating myself for that but just gotta keep working and everything will be fine! Again just need that patience with the language and other things!

Wednesday most of out appointments fell through but we worked really hard and walked a lot so i was happy =) I also studied the attributes of Christ today and learned a lot of how we should be when on the mission with diligence, patience and humility. they all link together perfectly with faith. its so important to have faith because its the first thing we need before we can go forth with out life!

Thursday was thanksgiving and they don't celebrate it down here so for lunch i had rice beans and chicken and for dinner we had breaded chicken and french fries so not much but we tried lol. but today was super fast day because we had so many good appointments with teaching a lot. 

Friday was super fast also and we had another lesson with the barrios family and ivonne is for sure going to get baptized we think but she asked me to baptize her so me and elder luna will both baptize someone on the 9th of December! So super exciting! but another good day!

Saturday was super slow day for me because most of our appointments fell and we did a lot of walking but what can ya do! i'm in Peru!

Sunday we had 8 investigators in church and that was super good! out investigator class was full with a lot of people in there! they rest of the day we went on visits with a member that really has the desire to find new people that would be interested int he gospel! but super fun and good lessons with her! well anyways just remember that i love all you guys and i'm doing fine down here! also this morning we played ping pong and me and elder gunn dominated everyone lol. but yeah just remember to pray and read everyday! its super important for our salvation! 

Peru Culture!

_all the construction down here is super fast but also super sketchy, you can see it in the houses also

_also fruitcake is super huge down here for navidad, they call it panaton and its the worst thing ever! but everyone loves it down here!

our thanksgiving =) they don't celebrate it down here so that fun!  I ate chicken and french fries for my dinner. 

making cookies at our pension's house

Tanner said through emails - I can understand almost everything its just the talking that is a little hard but its so much better than i thought it would ever be lol.    

November 20, 2017

Love you all and just know that i'm doing just fine down here!

On tuesday apparently it hit elder gunn again with the sickness which isnt good and we had district meeting and he was feeling really bad through the whole thing lol. didnt have much success this day tho.

Wednesday morning i wasn't feeling the best again but we walked to new parts of our areas today and just walked basically through more dirt and sand which was super fun! So we have this family (barrios family) that missionaries have been trying to get baptized and married for a while now and we actually have fechas for their kids but after a week they weren't sure anymore which is super frustrating but we got them to come to church which is good and we have hopes for the oldest!!! 

Thursday basically just had weekly planning which i basically just did by myself because we didn't have much to plan. but also my pension asked for my moms recipe for out pancakes and i gave it to her and she uses it for so many things now which is super funny! we had tacos today with our tortillas being our pancakes lol! Also Peru beat New Zealand the other day and they are now in the world cup!!! its been 36 years since this has happened so that was super huge for Peru!!! i love it here! 

Friday most of our appointments fell through again but its fine cause the sun was shining that day and i was in a good mood! 

Saturday we had intercambios and i was with elder gunn this week in my area so i was directing! well both of us have the same experience with spanish and its still a little choppy so i was super nervous! but everything went perfect! (almost) haha, i directed every lesson and i actually didnt know i knew very well Spanish until this point so we did awesome! we only really had one choppy lesson but that was about tithing and the word of wisdom. the 2 lessons that we never teach so we didnt know how to very well but it was all good in the end!! but it was an awesome day and we found 2 new investigators when we only had 3 for the week and that was a super good lesson too!!! 

Sunday I was super tired today because of all the walking with elder gunn! but church was good and we got 2 of the barrios there to church and that's one of the main things we have to do for investigators that want to get baptized. Also we got to go to the face to face last night and that was super cool! we brought Stanik and a recent convert Luisin and that was cool! it was with president oaks and ballard and it was way cool! well other than that i love this gospel and everything is going great down here! the Spanish is coming along and i learn so much every day! i know that the book of mormon is super important for us and that's one of the main things we want our investigators to do! 

Peruvian Culture

_There lunch here is the biggest meal of the day so its super hard for me to eat it cause i would never eat breakfast or lunch at home lol

_there are also so many dogs on the roofs that will just bark at you when you walk past, its like they get banished up there because they are never not up there

Elder Beck

me and Elder Gunn went on intercambios on Saturday and we found this sweet door in our area!

me and elder luna just after our haircuts

my mom wanted pics of what our food looks like and other things so here are some pics of that

November 13, 2017

So Tuesday was a perfect day! we actually had all of our studies and actually proselyted the whole day like we are supposed to. We actually didn't have very much success but i don't care as long as we tried! I read in Ether 12 today and it says faith in there i think 34 times! i love it so much and encourage everyone to read that! so many good things come from faith!

Wednesday i was really sick of my comp always bugging me and other things but other than that i cant remember what happened this day!

Thursday we had a lot of success! we had really good lessons and we also took over a family that the other missionaries have been teaching, they just wont get married so we decided to just focus on the kids so we talked to them and they actually want to be baptized so we have fechas for them which is awesome! we just hope that we can get the parents married so they can get baptized as a family! Also the language is coming slowly i feel like but everyone just tells me to have patience so that's what i'm going to do. 

Friday we had a service project in the morning so we moved so many bricks for them and the brother for his job has a juice cart so we all got really good juice after and he had us try this one that tastes like literally just a garden. well that was a mistake cause we all got sick after that. i thankfully didn't throw up but that night i was feeling really awful! and elder gunn got hit the day after that and he was throwing up that night! so i stayed with him while our comps went out proselyting. 

Saturday i had no energy from being a little sick but the sun was out so i was happy :)

Sunday was the primary program in our ward and it was super cool, i didnt know they did those here also. it was way cool to hear from all the little kids. Elder gunn today was feeling super bad also so i again stayed with him while our comps went out. but we also had a great lesson with a member family that night! I haven't really had an appetite these past couple of days so that has been super fun!!!

this morning we went to play soccer again and we invited 2 of our investigators today including stanik so that was super fun also! and now i'm here! 

Well i love it down here no matter the oposition we face! I love you all so much and just remember to always pray and read the book of mormon every day! President monsons last words were about the importance of this book and its so important for us to read it!

Peru Culture!

_When you meet someone the custom with the girls is to kiss them on the cheek and its really funny when we tell them that we cant and they think its so weird haha

_ apparently the chicken down here isn't woman or male, its really weird and they were explaining it to me yesterday

_I feel like im going crazy down here, the things we do are so weird as missionaries. I don't even know what else they do down here cause its just like normal to me now. 

Love all of you so much and so glad that you are all doing well!

Elder Beck

there are so many churches its crazy!

they have so many garbage piles in the middle of the streets

this is where we write! 

sorry not much to take pics of here! 

November 6, 2017 - First Baptism!!!

So Tuesday was Halloween and they all know about it but no one celebrates it which was kinda sad to hear because I love Halloween! So if you remember a couple weeks back I asked someone to be baptized and he said yes. well we had the last lesson with him and he's for sure gonna get baptized which was awesome! But it was so funny cause we were talking about baptism and he said "podemos hacer mas practicas?" and it was so funny! He was super nervous for some reason. Wednesday we traveled to Trujillo for my 5 week training and that was super fun! 3 hour bus ride and we stayed the night at the zone leader's house there. Then next morning we had the training and it was with my old ccm group and they are the coolest people ever so it was fun to see them again! The training was super boring but we did get pizza at the end(real american pizza) haha. So Friday was just a day to get ready for the baptism which was kinda boring and I really didn't feel like we did much but that's fine! I was super excited for Saturday for Rodrigos baptism! So on Saturday was the baptism and that went really well! He chose Elder Luna to baptize him and again he was super nervous and he kept wanting us to practice with him but we kept telling him that everything would be fine! So he was baptized and he felt so good after. He's the one that's not smiling in the pics lol. But then he was confirmed the following day which was super cool! on Saturday we had another lesson with Stanik and she still wants to get baptized which is awesome! We are just reading in the Book of Mormon with her and its all going great! She made this really cool case for her Book of Mormon also which I thought was really cool. Also on Sunday I was going a little crazy because we had to go to our room at 7 because it was the days of transfers so I was stuck with my comp but it was all fine. Just need patience right? lol

Well I love all of you and I know this church is true. So many cool things happen everyday when we have the spirit with us and it's just so cool. Make sure all of you guys are reading the Book of Mormon daily also because that's a big thing and that can make a huge impact on your life! 

Peruvian Culture

_They are all a little racist here and aren't afraid to call people what they want. Like it's just a normal thing to call someone negro or gringo which I think is so funny. They also say some worst things but I don't want to say them lol. 

_A lot of things here are just randomly in English which is super funny too. Like we will be walking and someone will have a quote on their shirt in English or this one time we were talking to a member and they said babyshower and i was super confused but thats what they call it down here too. American culture kinda just spreads everywhere.

Well love you all so much!

Elder Beck

Gracias Presidente por todo

Durante la capacitación en Trujillo fue muy bien. Yo aprendí muchos sobre estudiando y muchos otros cosas, muchos gracias por este reunión. Yo y Elder Luna intentaremos usar ese tiempo para estudiar por mas practicas porque yo necesito mucho. También aprendí mucho sobre la idioma y Perú!

Tenemos 7 investigadores
_Antoni Solis : iniciativa propia
_Marcelonio Cordero: iniciativa propia
_Jhony Villegas : miembro activa
_Maricielo Villegas : miembro activa
_Graciela Estrel : iniciativa propia
_Rosa Huanka : iniciativa propia
_Jean Carlos Huanka : iniciativa propia

Teníamos 1 bautismo este semana con Hermano Rodrigo y fue muy bien! Muy bien experiencia. No teníamos fechas por este semana pero teníamos 6 investigadores en la capilla este semana.
Soy muy agradecido por la oportunidad a servir aquí en San Luis. Me amo todos los persones aquí. Gracias por todo presidente.

Pictures from the new missionary training on Oct 31, 2017

October 30, 2017 - Holaa - San Luis

Hey everyone! love you all so much and am having a great time in Peru! 

So last Monday we had a family home evening with our pensionista and i had to give the message by myself and it went great. We just read in Alma about Ammon and I just talked about service and how important service is in this life! We are always looking for ways to serve people because that's the way to their hearts. So a couple weeks ago we found this 17 year old girl named Stanik that had so many questions about what church was true and other stuff so we have made a lot of progress with her.  She is gonna get baptized on December 2! She loves reading the Book of Mormon and goes to seminary every day which is awesome! This Saturday we had a cool activity at our church called puertas abiertas or open doors, we had so many invites that we handed out and told the members to do the same, it was basically just a tour of the chapel. So the time came and there were really only 30 people that came and we only got 6 references which was kinda a bummer but that's 6 more people to talk to! We also got pizza after which was awesome! 

Love you all and this gospel is so great! If you think about it we get so much more than everyone else and I just want to share that with everyone here! I love the Book of Mormon and sad that I only get a short amount of time a day to read it! 

Peruvian culture!

_Everyone thinks that we are always hungry so we get so much food!

_ they have this barley coffee that apparently isn't bad but they have it so much and I hate it!

Also my mom wanted me to send the letter I send my president every week that you guys will have to translate if you want.

muchos gracias presidente! nosotros pedimos para bautismo muchos veces en la primera lección pero la investigador no esta seguro. Muchos éxito porque tenemos una fecha este semana para Stanik Atoche!
Yo aprendo mucho sobre paciencia este semana. Como misioneros necesitamos mucho paciencia porque la investigador es en su propia tiempo. También es muy importante para nosotros a leamos Predicad mi Evangelio cada día. Este tiene mucho información que ayúdanos en este obra. 

nosotros tenemos 8 investigadores
_Celestino Marquina : iniciativa propia
_Javier : miembro activa
_Justo : miembro activa
_Deisy Felix : iniciativa propia
_Adrian Cuti : iniciativa propia
_Junior Velasquez : iniciativa propia
_Debora Velasquez : iniciativa propia
_Robinson : iniciativa propia

tenemos 1 nuevo fecha y también teníamos 8 investigadores asistir la iglesia ayer. 
_Stanik Atoche - 2 Dec!

Cada semana mi español esta mejor. Yo puedo entender casi todo en este momento pero es difícil a hablar porque mucho conjugaciones, pero cada día aprender algo nuevo! También es mas fácil a leer el Libro de Mormón en español cada día. 
Gracia por todo! Usted ayúdame mucho cada vez en este emails!

Elder Beck

Pic 1-2 Elder Luna and I

Pic 3 - Me, Elder Luna and our mission leader in the front and Elder Gunn and Elder Pacco in the back, Hermano Jonathan (Ward Mission Leader) and Hermano Esteban

From Tanner to our family - Well love you guys so much and please write me every week! I love it so much when I get to talk to you guys! I'm having an awesome time down here so you don't need to worry.  Cant wait for everyone of you guys to have the same experiences as me.  Well I got to go but talk to ya guys next week!

1- Have you been able to have a 1 on 1 interview with President Rios yet?  How did that go with him not speaking English? yeah but they are really short and i can understand almost everything at this point

2- Do you have any problems with the food and your system?  Is it affecting you or are you able to tolerate it ok? I've been perfectly fine with everything, I haven't had any problems with sickness or diarrhea, its been great

3- Do you write reports to your mission pres?  I remember Michael Jamison doing that and then sometimes sending them in his letters to get more details- would love you to forward them to us if you can so we can get more details into what you are doing day to day.  Yeah I can copy and paste them in but they are in Spanish lol

4- Any foods you been missing yet since Christmas is coming up? yeah all american food, but for Christmas can i get all the rest of my ties? I need more lol

5- How are your shoes holding up?  I love my shoes! there are great! yeah they are holding up just fine - yeah we walk quite a bit, just depends on the day. we don't have any more mobility money so we have been walking more, our area is huge!  It is about 10 miles across.

October 23, 2017 - San Luis

This week has been pretty crazy.  Last Monday we went as a zone to Cerro de la Paz in Chimbote and it was so amazing.  I will try to send pics because it was so cool. On Wednesday, Elder Luna was a little sick and so we didn't get to do much. I already knew he was super insane but when he's sick it's even worse. It was the funniest thing. On Thursday we had a multi-zone meeting with all the zones in Chimbote and the one in Casma. It was so fun to see some of my old group there! Also that night we had a fun trip with the people in my old group to Lima for our visas and that was super fun! 16 hours on a bus so we got to talk a whole bunch about our experiences. It was without our comps so we were all alone. That took up all of Friday. So my comp is super crazy.  He always wants to wrestle me and he's super big so if he's on top of me I can't do anything.  He's also super weak so I can just throw him off but it gets so annoying at times.  I guess I'm just supposed to learn patience.  Yesterday we had census from 7-5 so we had to stay in our apartments for all that time and I almost went insane! So that was super fun!

Well I love all you guys and I know this church is true! I love reading the Book of Mormon and I know that it's true also.  So glad I get to serve the people here in Chimbote, Peru!

Peru Culture

_everyone drives manual cars here and most of them don't know how to use them so it scares me so bad!

_all Latinos are crazy! 

_all the houses here are made out of cement and most just have dirt floors but they always have nice phones and TVs which is super funny

Elder Beck

Photos of Cerro de la Paz which was awesome!

October 16, 2017 - San Luis

This week has gone great and we have had a lot of success. We had 10 new investigators and 6 investigators come to church yesterday! My Spanish is still coming along and I can understand really most of what's going on, and I can teach the lessons pretty well now! Peru played Columbia this week for the world cup qualifiers and it was crazy, like always we couldn't do much because everyone is in their house watching it. The score was 1-1 and we were in the perfect spots to hear both goals -- the first in a taxi with the radio on when we heard that Columbia scored and that sucked but then later we were in a member's home when Peru scored and the husband smashed his hands on the desk and ran outside screaming with a horn. It scared me and was one of the funniest things ever. I love Peru!!! On Thursday I went on splits for the day with Elder Gonzalez our district leader and he's such a cool guy! I learned so much and I tried teaching him English because he's never had a North American companion so he's never had the opportunity really. I have had the chance to talk more in lessons which is awesome! I feel more comfortable expressing my feelings in Spanish and just talking in general! It's so weird on the mission what you like to do for fun! like reading the Book of Mormon. I feel like I never have enough time during personal study to read it because I love it so much! The stories and such are so cool and I look forward everyday for the time to read! But anyways I love all you guys so much and love getting your emails! I'm gonna try but idk if i can send pics this week with this comp. 

Peru Culture!

_a lot of words they add an ito or ita at the end which is so funny! my dad was telling me all about that but didn't realize till i got here! like they say ahorita or minitito its just so funny!

_they also say pe after a lot of stuff just for no reason. its short for pues.

_everything is made out of cement

Elder Beck

Some more information from his emails:  It's going great! I'm on now because our district is going to the Cerro de la Paz, It's supposedly super cool place that we had to get special permission to go to, you should look it up.  Yeah this week has been so much better and had a lot of success with lessons and such.  Elder Luna lives in Chincha, Peru where they are famous for eating gatos. He loves to eat and listen to music, there was a rock fest in Chimbotes Saturday and he was telling me all about the bands that were playing there because those are his favorite bands. I don't think he did scouting and not sure what he wants to do after the mission, I guess I need to ask him.  Every day my Spanish is getting better and better, I can understand about 80% of the words but sometimes its hard to put them all together if that makes sense. I am reading el libro de mormon everday and that has helped me so much with learning. My favorite things are when we have good lessons or just talking to people. Latinos are so weird but so funny at the same time so just talking to them is so fun. There are so many awesome families in our ward that we visit on Sundays often. On Thursday I went on splits for the day with Elder Gonzolez -  he's our district leader and that was so much fun! And I really like the food down here. Everyone has chicken but it's different every time! Yeah I've heard the first 6 months are gonna be painful and they have been but at times its super fun also, well love you so much dad and I always think of you because I know you have gone though some of these same things with the language and the culture.  My daily schedule - we wake up and exercise and go to eat desayuno at 7:30, then we have planning and study after that. then depending if we have citas after that we will go to those or have comp study or idioma study. then its just proselyting for the rest of the day. so lots of walking. then get back to our room around 9-9:30.   its great, shes so cool also, when i went on splits i went to another pension and it wasnt as good. ill get pics for next week.  I really hate paneton which is fruit cake and everyone has it down here. I really just like simple rice and chicken with some good sauce, but I'm kinda getting sick of rice for lunch and dinner every day! but i just have to get used to it cause that's me for 2 years.  We have to pay .50 soles per half hour to use the computers, it really is nothing.

October 9, 2017 - San Luis

So this week has been pretty good, lots of walking and lessons, I'm starting to talk a lot more during lessons which is great! my companion is still doing great but can't talk to him that much cause i don't really know Spanish and he knows little English. on Thursday Peru played Argentina for the world cup qualifiers and that was crazy, we couldn't get into anyone's houses cause everyone in Peru watches the game!! you could hear it from in the streets cause it was so loud. on Saturday we had a lesson with this guy named Rodrigo who is about 25 and I asked him to be baptized and he said yes!!! so I will have my first baptism on the 28th of October which is so exciting to me!! Well I love all you guys!

Peru Culture

_there are no stop signs where I am, there are just speed bumps everywhere which I thought was super smart

some pics, not very many cause there really isn't that much to take pics of, it's just a lot of dirt and shacks, also i forget I have my camera

Pic 1 - Dirt and shacks

  Pic 2 - Me with Inca Kola

Pic 3 - Pin in my house

Some more information from emailing with my family: I'm pushing through, the main problem is I can't really talk to anyone because I don't know Spanish, I feel kinda alone. but i know that I'm not.  its a members home, another member does our laundry every week also.  yeah Elder Gunn (was in CCM with me) has the same pensionista as us so i get to talk to him every meal.  yeah its going good i guess, its super ez to tune out Spanish because i don't get a lot of it so when people ask me questions its hard cause i don't hear them half the time, and they speak really fast.  yeah kids are always playing soccer, i want to play with them so bad!  just look up San Luis in Nuevo Chimbote, I don't really know our address or even they have real addresses down here.  We live in an area called Vista Alegre.  We are about a 10 minute walk from the church.  Our home has 2 levels, the members live above us.