January 7th

Hey Fam.

It seems I defeated you again this week in the email race. Hmm. You know when you're starting an essay or something and you have absolutely no idea how to get into it? So you just sit and look at the screen for several minutes rereading the first line. That's what I'm doing right now. Usually it's caused by lack of thesis. Could be the case.

This week didn't really have a big over riding theme. Elder Andersen went up to Huamachuco this week to do some work visits. I was super bummed I couldn't go. I'm not allowed to leave Trujillo in case something goes down. Lame. But get this. Last time I went on a work visit with Elder Andersen we went out with the East zone leaders. So I go off with one zone leader and he with the other. As we're walking down a street on the way to a reference I hear someone yell my name from a window. Which is weird cause I'd never served in that area in my life. Then I see two of President Salinas' kids from Huamachuco come running up to their big gate thing on the street. Hadn't seen them in like three months. I guess they were living with their aunt to go to school down here. Anyways, coincidence is God's way of staying anonymous, right? 

So it was just Elder Richards and I in the apartment for a couple days while Andersen and Davila were in Huama and Vera and Escobar went to Chimbote. (pause here while I go read the email you just sent me.) Ha... fat cheeks. But mine were so much worse. not even comparable. But still funny. So then Richards and I go into the office all excited because we figure we're gonna get done and get out proselyting for once. False. One hour into the chamba the power cuts. Pretty common occurance here in Peruland. So we go downstairs and discover our little electricity meter that´s set in the concrete all aflame. Don't ask me what was on fire, everything in this country is made out of concrete and brick. So the door guy gets a screw driver and just starts poking randomly at things through the little opening where you read your meter. Well turns out that wasn't actually the most effective plan so we popped the box open and flip the breaker.... long story short Elder Richards and I have to sit in a dark office all day waiting for the electric company to come. It was terrible. But then the next night we got a really awesome reference in our area. Things tend to balance out. Except for Peruvian building codes. 

In other news. We got our surgery done this week. Pretty uneventful. I pretty much play doctor like non-stop now though. After a lidership consejo last week I just got swarmed by missionaries with all their plethora of strange medical questions. I literally stood there and turned in circles from one person to the next writing down medication names and answering weird questions for 30 minutes. It was madness. And then once I escaped it was just to go to the clinic to see the EEG results. So medical stuff is a little out of control right now. So President talked to one of the IFR's this week and found out that, by number of missionaries, we are the largest mission in all of south and central america. And that being the case, we're assuming in all the world. I'm sure we'll drop in number the next few months but for right now it's pretty intimidating to keep track of all this. President gave me a good pep talk this week though and I think we'll get by.

I am... out of things to say.

Seacrest out.

Elder Brian.