Letter from May 28

Another week has come and gone and I have some good news, some not so good news and some crazy news. I will be starting out with the not so good news.  As you all know this past week we had changes, and I have been moved to a new area.  I found out that Marleni will be getting married this week, but the bad news is that I will not be able to attend the wedding.  I do have some great memories in Huanuco so I can´t complain.  I am now in a city called Cerro de Pasco. It’s cold, but I´m used to cold weather because as you know I grew up in Utah, but it is colder here than in La Aroyo.  It is also known as the highest city in the entire world.  Can you believe that? It makes it a little bit harder on the body, and I definitely get tired a lot faster.  The good news is that I adjusted really quickly and I feel great here.  Although some of the missionaries that have come here have gotten sick and one had to go to the clinic.  I really do enjoy it here though.  I have to be quite bundled up. Oh, and how could I forget the best news, we don’t have a bathroom where we live, which means we don’t have a shower.  We use a pitcher that heats up a little bit of water and we do the best we can to clean ourselves up.  Haha it’s pretty funny to me.

Now for the great and crazy news.  You will never in a million years guess who my companion is.  I’m sure you won’t believe me, but my companion is Elder Norris.  As you know I was with him for two weeks in La Oroya, and I guess President liked having us together, because we are together as companions again.  This time in the highest city in the world!  He mentioned to me that about a month ago he wrote the president saying that he would like to be with me again because he finishes in August and will be getting right back into running, so we wants to have a companion that will run with him some mornings. Well we have gone out running and after about 5 minutes we are pretty tired, it sure doesn´t take long to get a good exercise in here, but that’s always good, because there is never a lot of time.

The ward here is great.  We are in one of the weaker stakes in the mission, but I’m excited because it means we have a lot more work to do as missionaries so that the stake can grow and improve.  In our ward about 40 to 45 people attend.  It’s not a lot, but the few members that we have are great.  We had a few investigators in the sacrament meeting so that was good.  My pensionista is sister Nancy, she lives with her husband, Jesus and her two kids.  They are awesome!  Nancy doesn’t cook quite like Clelia, definitely not a health nut.  I had french fries today for breakfast.  That’s what I’m talking about!    We also have a goal to increase the attendance to about 70 or 80 before we leave.  I really hope I finish my mission here so that we are able to do it. Where the Lord wants me is where I will be. That’s about it for this week, I’m getting to know better the investigators that we are teaching so I will fill you in more about them next week.  

Elder Riggs