Arrived in Trujillo

Dear family,

I am here in Trujillo.  We got here at about 9:00pm yesterday, all is well. Last night the missionaries, and President and Sister Turk picked us up from the Airport. Then we had dinner and rested in the hotel, today we have a bunch of trainings and I will meet my trainer later this afternoon.   I am tired, but fantastic!!!

I will email you more next Monday.

Love,

Elder

Ps. So, that was a pretty generically generated message. But really. I´m here. And fine. I'll write latter in the week though. Ciao.

(ps. from Christy) Got a phone call from a random lady in Layton today who said her daughter is serving in Doug's same mission. She saw Doug on the Mission Presidents' blog and then looked up our number just to call and tell us about it so we could see too. How adorable! right!? So, in case you wanna see too, the address is http://terryandjanetturk.blogspot.com/

Hola.... So our email time is pretty early today. looks like I beat any/all emails today so hope you didn't have any pressing questions. I might be able to get back on later but. I dunno.

So yeah. still in Peru. We've been watching all the Jefferey R. Holland talks he gave at the MTC over the past couple years. Seriously the most intense things ever. Turns out I missed seeing him there by like two months or so. any way you should go find them. cause they're way good. Mm Elder Weber and I are currently getting ready for our proselyting trip on Saturday. Which is gonna be way good. But I think he depends on me a little more than Elder Serrano so, probably gonna have to step my game up a little more for that. Hopefully I'll understand spanish by then or something. That'd be alright. ummm This week was really fast and I can't think of anything new cause it feels like I wrote you guys like... yesterday.

Oh. but can someone out there in the virtual world get me a report on how Davis soccer did? Elder Loveless knows like every game Bingham has played while he was gone somehow and I want to rub it in a bit if Davis did better. ha.

 Um yeah. pretty much out of time. So in summation. still here. Still just read and study and speak spanish everyday. Gonna go wash my clothes and read a book (are you guys aware of how intense the new testament is? you probably are. But i wasn't before. And I recently discovered that it's nuts.) anyways. Love you, Elder Brian.

Lima, Peru

May 18th Update

Okayyy so your vacation sounded suuuper fun. but don't complain. I just got off a bus ride from the temple where there were at least 35 little peruvians and 8 significantly larger Elders packed into a bus the size of my bathroom back home. Super fun. But hilarious.


Even in Peru lately it's been really cloudy and (relatively) cold. The latinos were losing their minds cause they thought they were all gonna freeze to death or catch pneumonia from the 70 degree weather. Funny.
But sounds like a good trip. more hiking and stuff like that in powell would be fun every once in a while. Karen's backyard is gonna be a restaurant?? that sounds intense. And i would want to eat there. A lot. so that'll probably work out.


Also we are advised to tell our parents to not send packages here. it's really expensive and i have to spend all day going to get it from customs and weird stuff... i dunno why. but in two weeks when i leave it's easy again sooo just hold off on that. I can't believe i look skinnier. I eat. SO. MUCH. Granted it's usually like 90% rice but i eat like.. 4 pounds a day. Not making a dent? sad. Probably because i (and all the gringos) am sick. all the time. not sick enough to really matter. but sick.


But hey i play soccer everyday and Elder Loveless taught me how to do a backflip. And by taught me i mean yelled at me till i got the nerve to do it. but yeah. now i'm one of those cool guys that do backflips when they score a goal.


what else.... umm my new companion is elder weber. he's nice... but. He's kind of my kryptonite. And by that I mean he keeps putting things on my bed. It's DESTROYING me. Like his wet towel after he showers. or his sweaty gym clothes when we change... I beg him like everyday to just use his own or his closet or something. he will not. Then one day he started clipping his toenails whilest sitting on my bed and i drew a line. So I think now he understands my concern and will no longer defile my sanctuary. really though. it was messed. que mas.... 


so i bought like 15-20 dollars worth of candy today. hope thats chill. Ha really though it was super necesary. you can only have one plate of food here. and while it's massive it's not really filling the gap that Chic-fil-a/cereal has left in my heart(stomach). So theres that.


 Did you see those pictures i sent of our tour in Lima? cause that's where we were when we went through that museum. you were there. it was weird and de-ja-vuy.  I'm gonna wind down now. Crazy that logan is married. Keep doing good things and having fun with all your misadventures. cause they keep me amused. hey I finished Jesus the Christ last week (random). Super good. you should read it (chirsty/everyone who reads this). Love you all keep the prayers up.

Excerpt from Doug's Letter last week...

Hola Fam.

Still here in Peru. Today we're going on a tour through Lima. Should be pretty great. Elder Serrano took off to Bolivia and it's just been my district of Norte Americanos here for the past two days. Its weird this whole big complex and there'sonly like eleven of us..but more are coming soon.

We went tracting last Saturday and it was intense. They drove us out for about an hour to a place called Valle Sagrado and...just let us go. So Elder Serrano and I just start walking up this crazy, dusty, super poor area on the mountain stopping people and knocking doors. We each had one Book of Mormon to give away, pamphlets, and the missionaries assigned there said we could give them everyone's information we found and they'd follow up with it. So it was nuts. We were out for like..7 or 8 hours and taught 8 lessons and contacted like 20 people.

It's still pretty hard for me to understand 100% of what people are saying..mainly cause there's always noise going on or they mumble or something. But I was able to teach okay and I let Elder Serrano handle most of the real specific questions...

It sounds like Doug is adjusting to missionary life pretty well. We appreciate all your prayers for all of Heavenly Father's missionaries! If you get a few minutes to write a letter it would really mean a lot to him. Hope everyone's enjoying their summer!

A Couple of Photogs.

First Companion: Elder Dickerson.

Originally from: Tennessee

Favorite Pasttime: Checking his watch.

CCM: Lima, Peru

Doug's room at the CCM.

New Companero: Elder Serrano

Originally from: Cusco, Peru

Likes: Soccer, Dragonball Z, and American Music

New Addresses - Send Elder Brian some LOVE

Peru Trujillo Mission Home Address:

Elder Doug Brian
Los Granados No. 613
Urbanizacion California, Trujillo 
PERU 

Mailing Address:

Elder Doug Brian  Peru Trujillo Mission
POUCH: PO Box 30150
Salt Lake City, UT 84130-0150

email: douglas.brian@myldsmail.net