January 18, 2016 ~ Week 81 ~ Pictures

"P-day activity".  We were at an awesome members house

and she gave us a Mani!!

Don't worry we took it off before proselyting.

At the Family History Center with my companion Elder Randall!!

January 18, 2016 ~ Week 81

We had our zone conference this past week.  President Zobrist came down and that was a surprise.  It appears that the zone is applying what was learned because the zone doubled its baptismal dates and we are do real well as far as the mission results go, in lessons with a member
present and lessons with less actives.

We also had our interviews with President and his wife, the assistants, and the family history missionaries.

One of our investigators wants to be baptized in February, he is Alessandro’s little brother, he is 14 and yesterday we went with all the youth in the ward to the family history center and we created their accounts and got them started.  They were creating their books online and it was awesome seeing all the jovenes do work...

Still waiting patiently for the announcement date for the Arequipa temple to be built...

Ciau, Ciau
Beardown
Elder McCook

January 11, 2016 ~ Week 80

My weeks are getting a lot better.  We are starting from ground zero with people to teach, but contacting is a lot of fun.  We have a good contacting tactic that works here but would not work at all in the states, it goes a little something like this "do you speak English?"

We had our mission leadership conference this past week and we learned so much about the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Better ways to get references and the first 12 weeks, the church will be doing a worldwide broadcast on the 20th for missionaries on the first 12 weeks.  So we need to get prepared for that.

Changes are in February and I think I’ll get changed because I have been here 6 months.

This past week I got a big bug bite on my fore arm. The Peruvian cure tactic is to draw a circle in pen around the bite then stab the middle of it, and it will go down and not itch.  I learned that in my first area and it worked but these mosquitos in Arequipa have got to be on
steroids because the bite was only getting bigger.  A member told me to put toothpaste on it. It itched so bad and it’s not like I can scratch it.  I applied some toothpaste on it and... it worked, I don’t know how it worked but if you have a killer bite put some toothpaste on it.

Adues

Elder McCook

January 4, 2016 ~ Week 79

Que Onda?

A little more on my companion.  His name is Elder Randall and he is from Cedar Hills, Utah.  He has one month less than me in the mission, he is 19 years old and he loves singing and playing the guitar.  This past week on our second day together, the ward had a
talent show, so we prepared 2 numbers, the first one he sang and played his guitar and I danced obnoxiously, they loved it.  The second act that we did, we sang “Titanium” together, it was super awesome!!!

Our area is actually starting to pick up.  We have been able to find new investigators this past week just due to little acts of service.  There was this old man who literally was dragging his feet on the floor and carrying a gas tank, so we grabbed the tank and walked to his house.  Get this, he is 95 years old and was a boxer.  He was showing us some of his moves and he was dog gone fast for being 95!!

My New Years was spent eating pizza from Papa Johns and seeing the fireworks at midnight, the view from our 3rd story apartment was great!!

Last week we went to a member’s house for lunch and I realized I left the keys in the apartment.  So after lunch we broke our glass window with a brick that we now have to replace, good thing the window only costs about a dollar.

Elder McCook

December 28, 2015 ~ Week 78

December has passed and La Zona Huntendo finished up this month with 4 confirmations and 17 rescues

I have a new companion!  Elder Pascual finished his mission and returned to Piura and now my new companion is Elder Randall.  I have seen him around in the mission but now it will be nice to work with him as zone leaders.

Now there are 30 missionaries in the zone because President opened another area up in Mollendo.

This past week because I didn’t have a companion I just spent the week with other missionaries in their areas having a good time.

Have a great new year!!

Elder McCook

December 21, 2015 ~ Week 77 ~ Pictures

Feliz Navidad from Elder McCook and little baby clay Jesus

The Hunter Zone was invited to go sing with our stake and 3

others in the plaza this past week.

(Like my jacket?)

Dressed up Elder Rojas as Santa for the mission devotional,
say hello to: Grand Master Claus

December 15, 2015 ~ Week 76 ~ Pictures

This picture summarizes my P-day in Chivay
Sweet matching alpaca jackets,
alpaca, a sweet hawk,
and a sweet Peru hat that protected my face....but not my

 neck
(with Elder Olsen, and Elder Lorenzen)

Bought a sweet llama sweater that I am so gonna be

using after the mission

SWEETEST PART OF P-DAY!  Zip lining

At the canyon De Colca

Bridge shot

December 15, 2015 ~ Week 76

This past week Elder Pascual and I accomplished our Decembers goals: Duverli got confirmed and Auora and Amparo we rescued, they are a mother and daughter.

Yesterday was my companion’s last P-day so we headed over to this touristic city called Chivay, and also to Colca.  It was super awesome.
Elder Alvey, my old companion from Matarani, is serving in Chivay.  He and his companion are the only missionaries there because Chivay has an attendance of 15 members, and he’s loving it. It was wonderful to catch up with him. He showed us around the whole place.  I went for the very first time with the Hunter zone zip lining.  I was so scared but I did it and it was probably one of the best parts of my pday.

I love this zone and the missionaries, I bought this sweet Peruvian hat and I loved it so much that I bought two. I’m going to use it after the mission, and the Spanish will give me credibility.

My companion will be going home in a week so we will see how this week plays out.
I’ll be without a companion for Navidad.  so I’ll be with members and other missionaries.

Christmas devotionals are coming up for the mission.
Nothing but happy this time of year.

Elder McCook