Hello From PERU!

Alright everyone today I get to email and after this my P days will always be on mondays. Monday was a long day of riding in bus´s and planes. We got to the Lima Peru airport at about midnight, drove an hour to a hotel, got three hours of sleep, then drove to the mission office at four am on tuesday. Once we arrived at the office at about 9 we had about 7 hours of prep classes and training. At about four in the afternoon we met our companions and were assigned our areas. My companion is Elder Hurtado. Elder Hurtado is this short little dude from bogata Columbia but he fits in perfectly here because I havent seen anyone over about five foot eight inches. Speaking of the people, I feel like a freaking giant here, which means my MTC companion Elder Evans will really feel like that because he is six inches taller than me.

Elder Hurtado and I are assigned to labor in the ayacucho area which is up in the mountains. For the rest of tuesday we went contacting and then we had our first lesson that night. We spent the night at the house of the missionaries working in the office and after sleeping for another four hours we had to wake up and get back on a taxi to get to the mission office again because all the American missionaries needed to go into interpol and take care of the visas and stuff. After spending all morning getting our teeth counted and fingerprinted we left interpol and went back to the mission office. At this point many of the missionaries headed out to their areas but me, Elder Hurtado, and four others stayed because we would take the night bus to ayucucho. So for that afternoon the six of us went to do an endowment session in the lima temple. The temple is awesome but it is super small. We did an endowment session, placed a bunch of pass along cards, ate dinner, and then went to the bus station. The bus left at 9 and it is a 11 hour drive through winding dirt roads to get clear into the mountains where our area is. Luckily it was kinda bigger like a tour bus so we were able to sleep on the drive. We got to ayacucho this morning and had a zone meeting and now we have P day.

 It is awesome and I am glad to be here. I knew we were blessed living in the states but you have no idea how blessed until you get to a place like this. The lima peru south mission is the poorest of the Lima missions and ayucucho is the poorest area in our mission. I would have never thought that I feel like I have too much stuff when my entire life is contained in just two suitcases. I will try to tell you a little bit about life here in peru from the last three days. Food is scary because a lot of it is contaminated but the safe stuff tastes really good. Everything is small and I have to duck at every doorway. The buses are ridiculous, they are barely bigger than a twelve passenger van in the states but there will be 30 people on the bus. My companion only weighs about 115 pounds and everyone else here is just as small. They can spot me as a gringo from a mile away and it exspecially shows when I try to speak because my spanish still isnt that good. However, I would not trade this for anything, I am so grateful I get to be in this humbling place. I am so grateful for my companion, the people, and for this gospel. I love you and will write next monday.

Until then, love Elder Brown

P.S.  Austin made it safely to Ayacucho Peru! A city in the Peruvian Central Highlands (9,000 feet elevation). Located in the Andes roughly 1/2 way between Lima and Cusco. Ayacucho has a very humble population....72% of the people in this region live below the poverty line. He will be amazing and we know the Peruvian people are so blessed to have him serving as a missionary in the region.