Last Week in the CCM

So this past week has been a little rough, but there have also been some good times. The CCM is pretty crowded, but we are making friends with the new missionaries. One of the new Latinos is named Elder Jaimes.  Guess how it is pronounced? (Hymas) We both thought it was funny. Our roommates are nice and they are also pretty funny. One of them loves to crack jokes and say American phrases, so for example, he will say things like "what's up man", "what's up bro", or "you want to fight?" to which his companion replied with a "no" which sounded more like nah. I don't know if the nah was intentional but it sounded pretty funny. I can probably borrow someone else's shoe shine kit.

I think I know which drink Chrisanne is talking about. I have not had it enough to tell. If I'm thinking of the right thing, when I first tried it, I thought it kind of tasted like cider. I'll have to try it again though to see! I know people think that the fruit loops are gross because they taste like gummi vitamins. I have not tried those yet. I have been kind of sick this week. My stomach was churning a bit at the beginning of the week, and I am getting over a sore throat now. It was funny though because our investigator is supposed to be sad all the time because his mother is dying of cancer, so our last visit with him was very serious and quiet, and as I was right in the middle of saying something very important, my stomach lets out this HUGE rumble. I saw my teacher crack a smile and then we all started laughing. My teacher was like, "'It's fine, I needed something to make me smile!" As district leader I assign people to do prayers and scriptures for our morning and night routines. My companions are responsible for getting the meetings set up though.

I feel that Spanish is as good as it will get in the CCM, but we are learning grammar lesson after grammar lesson. I will definitely be studying verb conjugations for a while. Today was our last time at the temple. It was a good time though. Our group was only Avanzados, which was kind of fun. Our bus ride back to the CCM wins most memorable bus ride. Since our group only had us three elders and 14 hermanas, we all had to be on the same bus because our companionship couldn't separate and the hermanas cannot be without elders. As usual, there were people already standing on the bus when it stopped, and then they put all of us on. Elder Co and I standing right next to the open door with the bus worker. My former roommate Stephen messaged me, and I think Ben is entering the MTC the week that I leave. I'm excited for Huancayo!

 

I have a charger for my camera right? Also, how does it work if I run out of money? I still have a bit more and I know things are different in the field, but I'm just wondering.

 

I love you all and I hope you have a great week!

Love,

Elder Brian Hymas

 

Doug's letter from Brian : My companions are also excited for Huancayo. Everyone keeps saying how pretty it is and how good the food is. I am also ready to meet the people. I am excited to see where I will go for my first area. Tell mom that I probably will not be writing next week, but I will probably have pictures and a lot to say the week after that. I love you all! Have a great week!

Proselitismo

So a lot happened this week. We went to the Lima East mission to go proselyting. Elder Ch and I  were paired with an American elder who has been out for 7 months. I did not do a lot of talking, but Elder Ch was pretty good at saying hi to people on the sidewalk. We helped out with one lesson about the restoration. We met a man who spoke a little English from working on a cruise, and he allowed us to come back to his house to teach him. He started talking to us about his sister who lives there too and showed us some pictures from his cruise travels. He had on this half-English half-Spanish game show. It was kind of funny because we didn't realize that he also had the radio on, so when our companion asked if he could turn off the TV it was funny to hear the radio still going. We were able to teach a lesson though, and Elder Ch and I were able to help out a little. We told Elder Co about the house, and after hearing Elder Ch's description, I realized that there was a lot more I was oblivious to, and I am pretty grateful that I felt protected from seeing those things. I felt the Spirit there though and they were pretty receptive. It really shook my mind though after seeing it.

So here at the CCM, we all have to prepare 4-5 minute talks in Spanish every week and then they call up people to give their talks. Everyone always gets a little nervous when they announce who is giving their talk that Sunday. I have only have had to write two so far because we had the Trujillo temple dedication and then another Sunday was the first Sunday of the month. This past Sunday I was picked to give my talk. Our branch presidency said that I did a good job and they were surprise at how my Spanish has come along because I had a bit of a hard time at the beginning of the CCM.

We are now avanzados! Since we are the only American elders who are avanzados, we all knew that two of us were going to be zone leaders. Elder Ch and Elder Co are the new zone leaders, and I took over the position of district leader from Elder Ch. The Spanish is starting to come along, but I get a little confused with verb conjugations. Our teachers are starting to talk faster in Spanish. One of the supervisors here was telling us about Huancayo and Lima, and we learned that people in Huancayo tend to talk faster, quieter, and with a higher voice than people in Lima. It already seems like the people in Lima talk that way, so these next few months are going to be pretty interesting. It will also be interesting to compare Spanish with Chrisanne and Dad. We stopped teaching an investigator who had an alcohol problem because our teacher is now taking on another role of someone who has met with multiple sets of missionaries before and has member family members. It is a little tricky.

We miss our roommates who have left on their missions, but now we have Latino roommates who don't speak much English. We have even more missionaries in the CCM than we did before. My FHE sister Hermana Kelly arrived this week. It was good to see a friend from school. That is pretty cool about Michelle and Jordan's nephew. I will definitely keep an eye out for him! The weather here is usually cool in the mornings and nights, and then kind of warm in the day. It is funny when we start to feel even the teeniest water droplets because people joke and say things like, "There's a storm, quick, everyone inside!" or something about that that is the most rain we have seen since we have been here. I keep hearing things about bonita Huancayo and I am starting to get ready to leave the CCM. We are starting to see that teaching in a trio can be a struggle sometimes because sometimes we cut someone off or someone gets left out. I think we are doing pretty well though. If you don't have a scripture for my mission plaque I think I want D&C 128:22. It should say something about going forward and not backward.

I hope you are doing better mom. Please let Dad know that I did read his email and I do thank him for writing me. I may need Lactaid pills if I can't find them. Am I allowed to wash my suit pants? I did it once already. Also, do you know where my shoeshine kit is packed? I love you all and I hope you all have a great week!

 

Love,

Elder Brian Hymas

4th of July

So I felt pretty happy to be an American on Saturday. For lunch we had hamburgers, fries, and pie. They decorated the cafeteria with red, white, and blue banners and flags. Everyone was excited to have hamburgers. Since I have started to put lime on everything, I put lime on my burger. I am envious of you all going to the beach. That is funny that you brought up sayings because there are times when I want to say "I think the bigger question is..." There was one time where a Hermana in my district was talking to her companion and she said "What word did I want to know?" and I started thinking, "I think the bigger question is, what word DIDN'T you want to know?"

We have not gone proselyting yet, but we will go this Saturday. We only go one time in the CCM. Yesterday we had to give a lesson to another teacher where he was a new investigator and then he gave us feedback. It was kind of stressful, but we did our best. So we are teaching both our teachers about the Word of Wisdom in the investigator lessons, and one of them is pretending to have a coffee addiction. The day after we committed him to give up coffee we followed up, and he was like, "Yeah, I'm trying, I usually drink about 8-9 cups a day, but yesterday I only drank 7." We had to show disappointment, but I had a little bit of a hard time not cracking a smile. Luckily Elder Checketts was able to talk to him with a straight face. Both of my teachers are great. I have to say, I am pretty happy that I was not assigned to a Lima mission. We were in charge of leading a new group of missionaries to the temple and the stores today. I am happy that my companions knew what they were doing, because it really stressed me out. It took a while before we could catch a bus, and then we had to split and take two buses. The bus I was on was WAY crowded. Elder Cornilles and I were pressed up against each other. It was pretty much my worst nightmare, but I made it to the temple. It also stresses me out when we cross the streets because pedestrians do not have the right of way here. Walking in New York looks like nothing compared to this. I am pretty excited for the field for that reason and I am also excited to meet the people of Huancayo.
 

That's cool that Stephen got called to Japan. I can imagine how excited he is. I bet he will do great! Our companionship is doing pretty well. We actually have roommates now. One is a Lima native who is visa waiting to go to Spain. He learned a bit of English when he went to study in London. His companion is an American of Hispanic descent and he speaks pretty fluent Spanish. They are both pretty nice. I have thought that it is weird that David will have graduated and Grace will be in college by the time I get back. I like the food here, and I like the views of the mountains and the palm trees. I sleep on the top bunk in my room and when I climb up and look out the window, the view looks pretty cool with the lights from the city. The weather is pretty good here. I bought a little Spanish Himnos today at the distribution center. Sometimes people will joke and call me Elder Himnos. They do say Elder Eemaas here, and sometimes when we practice contacting, I introduce myself just because it flows better.

That is great that you are all doing well and having a good time! Congratulations to Grace! I'll have to hear more about what's going on with Allison and David. The Spanish is starting to get better. One of our teachers told our companionship that he can tell we are improving. That made us feel pretty good. I also had to give the closing prayer in Spanish after a fireside on Sunday. We are learning more about how to plan lessons, and I feel that that has helped us out a lot. That is pretty interesting about Thomas Knowlton. It looks like he was fighting so that his descendents could join the church!  Thanks for your prayers. I love you.

 

Love,

Elder Brian Hymas

We are now intermedios!

Though I hope you are all safe, it is funny hearing about all the rain because we just get really misty air here. It is pretty cloudy most of the time though. This week we have been focusing a lot more on teaching. Our teachers are our investigators and we go teach them in little casas. We taught one "investigator" for the past couple weeks, but our teacher wanted the district to start over with another investigator. We teach in the morning and in the afternoon.

I was thinking about Matt and I wonder how he is doing as he enters the MTC. We have a ton of new missionaries right now. One of the new districts has 18 people. We have heard that the CCM is at full capacity right now. It was sad to see all the Latinos go, we had made friends with a lot of them. I am kind of looking forward to Huancayo just so I can get away from the crazy city. We ran into a couple today at the temple today, and when we told them our missions, they were like, "Huancayo is so beautiful!" I think that I will just buy a coat when I am in the field. I am sure that I will have to adjust to their rural life though. The small temple is beautiful, but it does make me miss D.C. a lot because of its size. I have not seen all of Lima, but there are some places where we run into some nice little parks. I am sure Chrisanne has been to a few of them!

For breakfast we just usually have a lot of bread and sometimes eggs and meat. I stopped eating the bowls of fruit for now, but I eat fruit at my other meals. If they have milk out I eat cereal. Because we eat a lot of bread here, some missionaries say that CCM stands for Carbs, Carbs, and Missionaries. They have some pretty good juices here. I like their orange juice and pineapple juice, but I really, really like their maracuya juice. It kind of tastes like mango, but it is a little different. It is really good though. Lunch and dinner are pretty good. Sometimes they give us ice cream for dessert. Their ice cream has a little bit of a coconut taste.

 

The learning is still pretty difficult, but I think that I am improving.  German words come into my mind first, and since I really have to concentrate, I sometimes lose my chance to say something in our lessons. I think that my Spanish accent is better than my German accent though! I also learned this week that Presidente Gonzales lived in West Berlin for a time. Elder Riddick also took German in high school and was talking about that with him, so that is how I found out about it.

I forgot to tell you all that we went to grocery stores for Pday.Chrisanne probably knows which two grocery stores I am talking about, Totos y Metro!

I am glad that Grace's rash is doing better and that her school work is going well. I cannot wait to here what you all do over these next couple weeks. I am sorry that this email is shorter than last week but I hope more goes on this week. Thanks mom for that bit from Brad Wilcox talk! I love you all!

P.S. I learned that the Quechua word for baby is wawa. I believe it was one of our relatives who was trying to find a wawa and said it sounds like baby talk, well they were very right about that!

Pictures  1. My district in front of the temple. 2. My trio. Elder Ch is the tall one and Elder Co is the other. 3. The little casas where we teach our "investigators".