Pictures!!

Thank goodness for those in Cory's mission who keep up the mission blog and take lots of pictures. I found these on the mission blog today, which warmed my "mother's heart" and brought a smile to my face. We missed seeing Cory's pictures this week since we couldn't figure out how to get into the photo sharing site he uploaded his pictures to, but this helped to make up for that. Hope you enjoy seeing these as much as we did. We love that he always looks so happy in all of his pictures.

                                                                                

Elder Rokovitz and his Zone at Zone Conference - Elder Rokovitz is in the middle row, 9th from the right with the yellow tie. 

Helping with a selfie with a couple of elders and the mission president's wife, Hermana Rios.

Photo bomber

He must like to make that face.

Taking pictures with elders in the mission.

Elder Rokovitz and Elder Harper at Zone Conference.

                                                                           

Stinky Feet, Dusty Streets, Church is True

I decided I will wait until the end to answer all the questions from my fans (Mom and Dad.)

Sooo this week has been really amazing! I've been understanding the language at times a lot better. I usually can comprehend during the lesson, but once they start telling their life story, I get lost and maybe only pick up a few words. 

Last p-day we went to Viru, about 30 minutes out of Chao and went to go eat POLLO LA BRAZA (Peruvian grilled chicken) with the Zone Leaders and Elder and Hermana Whitney (they are the senior couple and are from Arizona.) Pollo la Braza is so amazing!! It's this rotisserie chicken with actually good fries. Most fries here are cold and wet but these are actually good haha.

I've noticed that I love Christmas music now that I don't listen to any music anyway haha, but Elder Harper lost his USB so now we have no music. 

The next day we went to Trujillo for a multi zone conference and had to wake up at 5 a.m. to ride the bus for an hour and a half to Trujillo, but we got to listen to the Grease soundtrack in English and Top Gun too haha. We can't control what happens on the bus... So I figured it might be okay to listen. Plus Grease is one of my favorite movies. 

Anyway the next day we found a nuevo (new investigator), her name is Karla. She has 4 kids. We found her through service. I helped her fix her hose... Then we set a date after giving her the missionary run down. As we walked away we found out that fixing her hose was so that she could water her dirt... haha yeah, for some reason they water their dirt here. I guess since they don't have grass, they figure they might as well water their dirt. 

That night we found out what happened to Lizbeeth! (Carlos´ wife that randomly ran off.) She apparently was cheating on him and was being fake to the missionaries. It's really sad what happened... and apparently the kids said, "No we don't want to go. That guy is mean, he hits us" which is horrible because Lizbeeth and Carlos were going to get married and baptized and live happily ever after... We can tell he is really sad about it, but he tries to tell us everything is alright and then changes the subject to our lesson.. poor guy. He is still planning on getting baptized on the 8th though so we are really happy about that! 

Friday morning I was having a hard morning, missing home (stupid I know), didn't have motivation to work out, I was super tired etc... I know I shouldn't look back home and I was just having a hard time for some reason with missing Amber's wedding! But, I know why I'm here and I know this is the best place I can be and I am loving every second of it!!. We did service later and ate and took a nap after lunch at Flor's house for about 30 minutes. Then I realized I needed to quit being a bago  (lazy) and get to work. For the rest of my life I'm going to be tired but it's my mood that's going to change my bad days into good ones. I was reading in "Adjusting to Missionary Life" and it says to act first, then get the motivation to do it. Sometimes that's what we have to do - Act first and then the motiviation will come... Especially with waking up haha. The next day was kind of long... not really, but just kind of mostly because all of our citas (appopintments) fell through etc. But then we went and taught Alonzo (a recent convert and needs the lessons over again) and I killed it and killed the First Vision! I have that memorized totally in Spanish now, so wootang-killa-bang! After that we taught Victor, a progressing investigator, who is currently co-living with his girl. We commited him to a baptism date for the 21 of Oct. He just needs to ola (orar leer asistir - Pray, read and attend church) to know that this is what he needs to do and that it is true. Yes, the church is definitely true!! 

That night, our friend... not really our friend... our neighbor, Juan, apparently that's his name... decided to turn 50. Yep, here they like to blast their music all night when it's their birthday, and you know what? There is no sound ordinances here! Que en el mundo?! (What in the world?!) Yeah I know!! Haha so yeah they blasted it from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m.. perfect right? Haha it was awful! But oh well, life goes on. 

Sunday we had a ton of citas (appointments) and were booked! But we were able to get to all of them. We taught Ivan and told him about the Law of Castidad (Law of Chastity)  and asked him to move out, he said no. Mostly because he didn't have the money... So he said he will start working on their marriage papers, which is hard here, so we are going to help them. It's actually really common not to get married here because of that. After that lesson, we were going back to Flor's for dinner, when a man came up and asked us something that I didn't understand, having to do with beer. I think he was trying to sell it to us. We told him who we were and gave him the run down and then he told us his life story. I know that this guy believes in God but he claims he doesn't because his life has been really hard. He said his dad was a drunk and would beat his mom until one night it went too far and he killed her then he ran away and left the kids behind. He now works for a restaurant and just has never understood the gospel and feels like Jesus didn't do anything for him. I'm really excited to teach him. We should be teaching him tonight, but Elder Harper had something bad and has been double dragoning it all night and day, so we've spent the p-day inside today. But I did get 5 hours straight of studying without noticing it haha, and then took a nice nap. He seems to be doing a lot better now though. He had some crackers and got some fresh air. Oh yeah.. and he has a foot fungus so his feet smell kind of stinky! Haha so that's why my title says that... Sometimes it's pretty bad at night hahaha but I just pray for strength to be able to endure it.. haha. Well I love you guys! I hope all is well!! Philipians 4:13 - I can do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth me. Church is true, go to seminary kids, you'll regret it if you don't, I promise. Hasta la pasta!! ...... 

Okay, question time Mom and Dad! 

- Tell us about Flor.

Cory: Flor is our pencion and she is amazing! (She cooks for the missionaries and I think she does laundry too.) I showed her my family pictures this week and she was just lit up so much!!

- We saw pictures of bikes with wood type boxes on the back that say "taxi" on them. What are those?

Cory: The little bike taxis are very common. That's how a lot of men make their money here. They're called Moto Taxis.

- Where do you go to church?

Cory: Our church building is just a house basically, haha, and we have a Branch obviously, but it's getting pretty packed! We had 11 of our investigators come to church this week. That's not counting Chao 2 (the other elders) they live closer to Flor.

- How many live in your apartment? 

Cory:  It's just me and Elder Harper in our appartment.

Cory: 

- That's really cool about all the young women in our ward who are preparing to serve missions!!

-  I'm sooo happy that Maple Mountain beat Spanish Fork high school in football last week!! I just didn't want Maple Mountain to lose to them! And it was on their turf, so even better.

- I got a clip from Cia about Cam's email. That's crazy he already got bit! The dogs in Chao are really nice luckily. Cam always had the best Spanish out of anyone, naturally, because of his fam. I hope the guy is doing good. I need to get to emailing him! 

- Don't tell anyone this, but girls are snakes. You probably already know that! Except the girls in our family. They're all pretty butterflies or something like that.  My all time favorite Proverbs 21:19 - It is better to dwell in the wilderness, than with a contentious and an angry woman.

Besitos (Little kisses) !!! Love you fam

(Cory uploaded his pictures to a photo sharing site but didn't give us the login information or password. I tried to catch him online to find out what it was, but he was already gone..... So no pictures this week. Darn!)

First Week

Okay first, your questions etc. Yes we took a plane, they just paid all of it. I didn't have to pay anything, which was nice. I didnt take too many pictures this week and I'm sorry, I'll get more of the streets and stuff. It's just been busy and I forgot. Spanish is harder here for sure, a lot harder.... Most of the time I just kind of listen and say what I can if I do understand something. It's hard... but it'll come. Six weeks have gone by crazy fast. It's crazy! I can't believe it. Dad, thank you so much, it means a lot that you put me on the prayer roll, especially right now reading about the wedding. I was trying not to let my companion see me cry as I was reading all about the wedding. I guess it's harder than I thought to be away from that. I didn't realize it on Friday, but hearing about it is really hard. Honestly.. I kind of wish I could've been there, but I'm doing the right thing. The wedding all sounds so amazing and fun! I hope they had a great honeymoon. That sounds like it was a lot of fun. It's hard hearing about it.. Amber looked absolutely amazing for sure! That's really cool about Chad! I pray for him every week and put his name on the prayer roll when I could. I'm glad to hear that it was good for him and everything! Tell Lindsie thanks for taking my spot and giving some thoughts on Amber at the luncheon. Wouldn't have wanted anyone else to do it. And I'm glad I was still recognized, especially as an honorary groomsman, haha that sounds pretty cool! I like that a lot, thank you! 

Okay... now for this week! Haha it's been an amazing week. It started out with me eating soap.. haha that's hard to explain. Hopefully I can get my pictures to work so I can send that video. The elders told me I was too soft. Well, I'm not. Don't worry, I didn't swallow, but my tongue hurt for a bit from not being able to rinse my mouth out, thanks to Hermano Castillo haha. Also, I've realized I was the "tie trading king!" I traded all my least favorite ties for some nice ties. Don't worry, I kept all my ones from the family, mostly because I like them. 

We had a hard time saying goodbye to Hermano Castillo on Friday. He told us that we were here for a reason. We may not know why, but we are here for a reason and the Lord knows why. We all told him thanks and bore our testimonies with him and Hermana Mujica. It was really special for us. It was hard saying goodbye to them. They're the best people in the world! Also on that night I was reading my English scriptures and looked up for some reason, then when I looked back down, I started reading in Spanish and didn't even realize I was until about 2 verses later, so that was pretty cool haha. Then on Saturday it was pretty boring. We had this orientation but it was the same thing over and over again, and it was all in Spanish. Soooo I had a bunch of really good naps that day.. hahaha. On Sunday we had our final interviews with the branch president, Elder Asay. He told me that I have a bunch of potential, that I am a natural leader and people naturally look up to me. He said he doesn't tell everyone that and so I needed to take it seriously. He told me to use my leadership for good. It was actually really special to me because it reminded me of something that Dad would say to me. So I felt like I was just talking to Dad. It was really good. Later we got to teach the Latinos English and that was a ton of fun! I think they realize our pain now with learning Spanish. They said how hard English is and how easy Spanish is. That's funny, I wonder who else says that! They all kept calling me Captain America too haha. That's what people keep calling me here. It's too funny. I don't know why they say that though. 

Finally Tuesday came and we finally got to leave!! At.. 3 a.m. Me and Elder Greer got some quality McDonald's before we went through security. I passed out the whole flight. We got to Trujillo and there was a big welcoming committee for us! Oh by the way Mom, you need to try to find the mission blog. It should just be like Trujillo South... maybe Sur...mission.blogspot... Anyway, so they were there and then we saw president as we passed them! He and his wife are super nice people!! He's really short, haha, but they're awesome. He doesn't speak any English and she basically doesn't either. We went to the temple and ate breakfast there... pancakes and stuff.. so that was amazing! Then we went to wait for our trainers to get here. They start assigning people.. They assigned a few guys and I'm freaking out because they're running out of Gringos (American elders) haha, then Elder Rhoton, who is before me, gets called up to the second to last Gringo. They hug, have their cool moment and stuff.. then the president gets up and starts talking to his assistant and then pulls Elder Rhoton and Elder Harper back up. He says.. elder so and so and Elder Rokovitz, please come up here.. then explains how everyone makes mistakes.. Well Elder Rhoton's companion isn't Elder Harper.. he's mine!!!! Haha so yeah, Elder Harper, he's 21 and from St. Louis, Missouri! He lived in Meridian, Idaho for a little while actually.. Dad isn't that where you are from? Yeah, super nice and outgoing! He's a great guy. I really like him. He's actually the District Leader too and I'm his second trainee. My first area is Chao.. which means "goodbye" in Spanish, so everyone says 'bienvenidos a chao' which means "welcome to goodbye" haha. 

So we bussed out to Chao from Trujillo, which is about an hour and a half, and an hour and 20 minutes into our ride, Elder Harper puts his head between his legs... we didn't have a window on the bus.. and pukes.. so that was my first image of my companion haha. Apparently he ate a bad empenada that morning and was just paying for it.. poor guy. So after we get off the bus, I see my first women breastfeeding... yeah, apparently they're pretty open about not covering while breastfeeding here.. yep that happened. We got to our apartment around 7:30 or 8 p.m. and didn't have much time to do anything so we just met some members, etc. Holy. Cow. I have taken my whole life for granted. I'm even crying right now thinking about it. They live in tiny, tiny, tiny houses. Half the size of my bedroom at home, with their 4 children and have enough room. Some have beds.. some don't have beds.. they have enough room for their bed, 2 if they're lucky and were able to save up all their money, and maybe a stove or a sink. It's incredible. It's crazy to see how blessed I have been and how much I have taken my life for granted.. I just can't believe it.

We finally got to our pencione's house (kind of like a boarding house) and she was so excited to see me, she was so happy. It was awesome! Our district is us and another set of elders, Elder Portillo and Elder Ortiz. Elder Portillo is from Texas but his parents aren't American. Elder Ortiz barely speaks English. They're both really cool guys! Anyway, later that night after having dinner at Flor's house (the pencione's house) we went back to our room and I started unpacking, and Elder Harper finished puking haha. He fell asleep early because he didn't feel good. which was kind of hard but I was okay. I just needed to unpack anyway haha. 

On Wednesday we went to work! We went with a less active Christian. He actually served a mission and is maybe 26 years old, he's a bacan! (Cool guy) Apparently he was pretty lazy on his mission though.. he admitted to bagando, which basically means he was super lazy. But he came with us and taught with us, and he has been coming to church lately, but didn't for a year or so before that. We taught a few people and visited some members. We taught a man named Carlos. He and his wife were about to get married and baptized.. until one day she just up and left with the 3 kids. No one knows why because they were actually doing really good and were happy. It was just out of no where.. it's sad.. but he still really wants to be baptized. On Saturday we committed him to baptism for the first week in October! He's a great guy. 

The next day we taught with our pencion, Flor. All our citas (appointments) fell through and so she gave us 2 nuevos (new names). The first was a women, younger, and was really nice and willing to hear our message.. and she breastfed in the middle of our lesson. Yep. That happened again. Then we taught another women. She lives on a dirt floor in a really small room with her 4 children. We taught her about prayer and they learned very slowly, so we only taught them prayer. Her son, Jesus, offered the last prayer and did a great job! But it took about 10 minutes to get him to pray because he kept forgetting how to or how to end. Then he called me his "homie" when we left haha. He's really cool. He's 13. 

The next day all of our citas (appointments) fell through so we went to Chao 3, which is just a part that's basically farm people. We talked to a family that are members about the temple and they're getting sealed soon. Then we went to go teach Florencio, an old man. We first checked his new house he's building at the bottom of the hill. No one answered, so we went up to his house and no one answered there either. We were about to leave when we both felt a super super strong impression to stay. So we kept looking. Nothing. Kept looking. Nothing. Said a prayer. Nothing. We eventually left and were really worried about him. Then checked his house again.. there he was! We were both so relieved! 

The next day we got to give a woman, Lidia a blessing. She has a tumor. She is barely able to walk and still said she was coming to church the next day. She said she would just put it all in the Lord's hands. she's amazing! Her and her family all have such great faith and want to be baptized but they need to get married first, but it's hard for that to happen now. We taught them lesson 2 and about the atonement of Jesus Christ. I cried telling them about that.. thanks to dad. (Dad has a sensitive side that his boys have inherrited) haha but it was really good. And her husband told us we are welcome anytime we want to come, and to never think we aren't welcome. It was awesome. 

That sunday I had a hard time focusing in church. It was hard in Spanish and I couldn't understand anything, plus I was super tired, but I got through it. Yesterday we taught a new woman and her name is Cicilia. We taught lesson 1 and she was really intereested and cooperative but her screaming children kept interupting right as we were about to feel the spirit! It was really annoying.

Well I have 2 minutes before my computer shuts off. I'm sorry.. but you aren't getting any pictures this week. I'm really really sorry! Have to go! Love you!! 

Even though Cory didn't have time to send any pictures today, we found a lot on the mission blog.

                                                                               

Getting off the plane in Trujillo

Meeting Presidente and Hermana Rios

Trying to speak Spanish to Hermana Rios

The height difference between the elders and their new mission president.

Breakfast on the temple grounds.

New elders and sisters with their mission president. Cory is in the center back behind his mission president's wife. 

New Trujillo South elders. Cory is the 2nd one in from the right. 

Elder Rokovitz and Elder Rottweiler (from his CCM group) in front of the Trujillo temple.

Elder Rokovitz pointing to the country he comes from. 

All of the new elders and sisters with their mission president and his wife at the mission home or office (not sure which.)

Having a meal at the mission home/office.

Elder Rokovitz and his new companion/trainer, Elder Harper

Spending some time getting to know Elder Harper better. 

Made It!

We got this quick email from Cory today. We knew he was leaving the CCM early this morning but didn't expect to hear anything until next week. We were happy just to get this small bit of information and to know that all is well. 

Welp, I'm here! We left at 2 a.m. this morning and flew up here. We get to email and say hi, I made it, I'm safe... so hi, I made it, I'm safe! Haha. Trujllo is way cool. I will get my companion later and I will get my area later. We ate breakfast at the temple, which is gorgeous, and we are having interviews right now. Presidente Rios is so cool and very nice! I think we get a nap before or after almuerzo (lunch) but I'm not sure. So I have to go now! I love you guys. I hope all is well. Tell Amber I hope that she has an amazing day on friday! (Her wedding day.) I wish them the best luck. I love you guys and I have to go now! I'll write you next Monday.

Elder Rokovitz

Another Amazing Week

This week has been amazing, as always. Me and Elder Lee have been getting along very well! He's actually a really funny guy and is a complete savage. I think he just was shy at first and needed to open up! He's a great kid and always comes in clutch during lessons with scriptures! He's a cool kid. We think his spirit animal is a polar bear.

Oh and Mom, have I not told you yet?! (Mom asked if he had been dreaming in Spanish yet.) My roommate on the first night they got here (the new ones after 3 weeks) said he woke up one night and heard me talking in my sleep.. but it was in Spanish! Haha and I've had a few dreams where I've known they were in Spanish. 

Last week was our first time listening to the templo (temple) in Spanish. It was really good! I was able to understand quite a bit and it was really cool! Also we hit our one month mark on Sept. 2nd!!! 

I found a guy here, I don't know if I have told you guys this or not, but he's a really good Greco and Freestyle wrestler from down here and has super cool cauliflower ear! We have wrestled a few times. He's about 170 lbs. It's so much fun and he's pretty dang good and strong too. We wrestle from time to time during our activity/physical time. Also there's a guy named Elder Bolduc who's from Skyline. I think, he's a 220 pounder.. or was.. and used to wrestle Tibbles! We talked Wednesday night, which was cool. We just talked wrestling and football and stuff! It was fun and fun to hear about! 

On Thursday, me, Elder Simonsen and Elder Greer usually have a little workout group at night, and we decided to workout outside. I'm glad we did.... Elder Olsen decided to workout for his first time with Elder Rhoton and Jones. Anyway Elder Olsen was apparently working out pretty hard and really feeling the burn. He was yelling, "the only thing to fear is... not having abs!" Haha yeah well he had a little "Best Two Years" moment (a missionary movie) as Presidente walked up on him as he was yelling motivational things while doing wall push ups.. hahah poor guy! We had a little talking to the next morning because of him. But all is well, don't worry! 

I have realized that I am so ready to be out of here. Next Tuesday could not come faster! The flight and day is on Monday/Tuesday, early Tuesday morning. We won't get flight plans until Sunday or Saturday I think..  I know I'm going to miss Elder Simonsen but we are going to keep in touch for sure! On friday me and Elder Simonsen got a little bored of our normal hair..                                                                                                                                 

Hermano Castillo (Pedro in our lession ) told me, "su cabello es feo" (his hair is ugly) I then, not being able to stop myself, said, "usted es feo" (you are ugly) hahaha. He couldn't stop laughing the whole lession.. oops! 

                                                                             

With Hermano Castillo. I love this teacher. 

Later that day we had a surprise assesment test.. We always have assesments but this time the lady in there told us to log in and we had to take a surprise speech test that gets sent to our mission president this week! Haha we were all freaking out, but it really wasn't that bad! It was pretty bad for Elder Rhoton though.. haha at the beginning you're supposed to say your name, what you like, etc. He just thought it was a mic test and started going ´bee doh bee doh bee doh´ hahaha poor guy! Presidente Rios is going to think he's crazy.

Saturday I slipped up with my Spanish again.. Hermana Mujica was telling us to get organized and said everyone was messy! I said, "estoy orinado!" Naturally thinking that means 'I am organized..' Nope, it basically means "I peed." I just can't wait to tell my pensionista (lady that will cook for them) that I peed instead of I'm organized. 

                                                                             

Us with another one of our great teachers, Hermana Mujica.

Sunday wasn't so good..... DO NOT eat lasagna here! Dad, remember Mexico? Yep, that happened to me. I've been having what the Latinos call the "siempres" or "the rios".. yeah it's not exaclty too fun. (These words probably don't need a translation. I think we can all figure it out.) So all Sunday I felt awful and slept through all my classes, which wasn't fun because Sundays are always the best. I feel better now but I still have the rios. Better here then in the campo (countryside - mission field) I guess! We did watch "The Testiments" on Sunday! I love that movie, it's great!! 

On Monday we were teaching "Pedro" again, We shared with him Alma 7:21 on accident and that basically tells him he's going to die in filthiness.. haha we seem to do that a lot! The other day I was studying and I was studying with my palms on my cheeks. I got comfy and fell asleep on accident.. Haha then when Hermano Castillo came in, Elder Simonsen noticed that I was alseep and came over and woke me up. I woke up and looked up and Hermano Castillo started cracking up at me.. I had no idea why but apparently my palms made my cheeks all red! Haha so now he's been calling me "Little Debbie.. like from the muffins or candy. Man, I'm going to miss him and Hermana Mujica. They're the best! They're the coolest maestros (teachers) ever! They're so cool and funny but also get down to business when it's time! I love them so much.

Yesterday the area 70 came here and spoke to us. He's a Latino and spoke in Spanish. I pretty much understood 90 percent of his talk! It was so amazing and he talked about preparing and changing our hearts. He said we need to put in what we expect to get out of our investigators and essentially practice what we preach. It was so amazing and it was nice not to have to use the translator! It really is amazing the gift of tongues and how it works. It only works when I have a good attitude and am willing to listen though.

On another note, on Sunday we had a really amazing lession from Hermana Moore (she always gives the best lessons) and she pointed out Alma 26:27! It's a really great scriputre and just helps me to know to keep pushing on and that the Lord will always be on my side if I lean on Him. ( 27: Now when our hearts were depressed, and we were about to turn back, behold, the Lord comforted us, and said: Go amongst thy brethren, the Lamanites, and bear with patience thine afflictions, and I will give unto you success.)

Anyway, that's it! I love you guys and I'm so glad to hear from you!! I'm doing great and I love the gospel! It's so amazing and I just love the scriptures. They're the best thing in the world. I wish I would've taken advantage of them and actually paid attention in Seminary! I really hope my Seminary teachers aren't reading this.. haha sorry Brother Johnson! Anwyay, I love you all! 

Hasta la pasta!

                                                                                 

My CCM family.

Me with "Elder Janitor". He is the coolest and funniest guy ever. I love him. 

Just your average missionaries. 

Me at el templo de Lima. (the Lima temple)

Another one at the temple. 

The best fruit on the earth. It's called Granadilla.

Despite the look, it is really delicious. (Grandilla - Hearty eyes)