August 25, 2014

Wow, it sounds like you had a way busy week. Between volleyball, school, work, and every other thing, you guys are really busy. I hope Bev enjoyed the temple. It sounds like it looks beautiful. I haven't gone to the temple for quite awhile. I am pretty sure I will go before my companion leaves though.

Those earthquakes sound huge. I felt another earthquake yesterday in my house. It wasn't too big. It just felt like a really big truck was driving by the house for 30 seconds or so.

Yep, that is my church. There is one other companionship in the ward with us. We are pretty close to the other missionaries. We all meet up for P-day. The building is really nice. Everything here is a little beat up and covered in dust. The ground here is so dry. I have to polish my shoes everyday or they look like I have had them for almost a year. The area around the church is part of my area. If you go up the mountain that is also my area. I climb up that hill almost everyday. The area up there is really poor. We had to teach a lesson on tithing up there. It was really hard to teach about giving up money when you are teaching on a dirt floor and all their possesions are beat up and they don't have a lot. It is a good thing the people are very humble.

My apartment is pretty nice. We are on the third floor of one of the buildings. It is one of the nicest houses I have seen here. We have a mini fridge and a few utinsels. We don't have a stove or something to heat food with. I might buy a small electric stove and pan to cook stuff for breakfast. Other missionaries have done this and it sounds like a good idea.

We got to a place where you pay one sol and get to use the internet. The speed is pretty good. If I get a ton of letters it might push me a little bit on time but I enjoy reading them so it is ok. We have an hour and fifteen minutes to email. The first fifteen minutes are used to write the president though.

I forgot to tell you last week that the package you sent me last week was here when I arrived.

For my first p-day, we went and played soccer at the stake center. Afterwards we went to Plaza Norte to eat. It is just like an American mall. It was really weird to see all of the stuff there. Outside Plaza Norte is a market that reminds me the Alley in LA. It is a bunch of faked goods. Some elders bought ties for 15 soles or about 5 American dollars. They have a lot of shoes there, especially soccer shoes. They are faked but are really cheap. Some elders told me that you buy shoes there and then take them to a shoe maker in the street and they are as good as brand name shoes.

We teach a lot of lessons everyday. We are supposed to babtize Juan Carlos on September sixth. He reads so much. When I got here he was in first Nephi. Now he is reading in Mosiah. The people here are very nice. Every meal I have usually starts with a huge bowl of soup and then we get chicken. I had some lomo saltado and it is amazing. The restaurant we went to in SLC is authentic. Also with every meal we get fresh juice that has just been squeezed. It is usually warm but is really good. The only cold drink I get is Inca Kola. They always give us a lot of warm drinks.

Good luck starting school and tell me how it goes.

Love,
Elder Karter Isaacson

Everything here is really dusty. This is a picture of my shoes before and after a polish. Also the houses on the hill are just wooden shacks made of whatevery they could get there hands on. The houses there all have dirt floors and are usually pretty small. The houses in the picture are pretty far apart. Usually the houses are crammed in together. There sometimes are random stairs in the middle of the hill to help people get to the top.

First Week in Peru! (August 18, 2014)

Hola,

 My first week in Peru has been pretty interesting. I am in the Ano Nuevo 2 area. It is in Comas. Comas is in a district of Lima. I wish I had a good map to study to learn all the areas. If I did not have a companion I would be completely lost here. The streets are really confusing. My area is at the base of a mountain. I cover part of the valley, but most my area is up the mountain. I get to hike a mountain everyday to go teach lessons. Dad, you need to be ready to hike King's Peak when I get back because I will definately be ready.

My companion is Elder Ruiz. He is from Iquitos Peru. He speaks just a little english that he has learned in Peru. I am his 4th greenie but first gringo greenie. It is really different for him too. It is really hard to communicate and talk with people. I feel like I can talk better than I can understand. Yesterday, we went contacting and Elder Ruiz made me start every single conversation. When we are talking about the gospel I can kind of follow the conversation but when we talk about other things I am completely lost.

Elder Ruiz and I are in an apartment all by ourselves. It has a bedroom, bathroom, and one big open room with two desks, and a counter and fridge. I take a cold shower every morning and then study. It is kind of cold here. Temperature here isn't that cold but it is the humidity that makes it feel kind of cold. I am glad you made me bring those sweaters now. :-)

As for food, in the morning for breakfast I usually have cereal in yogurt. That is really normal here. The yogurt is drinkable. Lunch is the big meal of the day. We go to a members house and get fed. I have had chicken and rice for almost every meal. The food here is really good. Dinner, we usually will use the money we have allotted for food and buy dinner. It is really good. Everything here is really cheap. A large meal is about 6 soles or 2 american dollars. We ride in these weird vans/bus things when we have to go a longer distance. They cram close to 20 people in these vans that probably seat just 10.

We teach lessons every day. The work here is progressing rapidly. I got invited and am going to the wedding of a recent convert this Friday. That will be different because I have never been to a wedding service before.

Congrats on making the volleyball team Kenz. Yesterday I saw a lot of people playing volleyball in the street. Next to soccer, volleyball is the most popular sport I think. Tell Cousin Bev I will miss seeing her and going to get bagels in the morning.

Love and miss you,
Elder Karter Isaacson

These pictures are at the top of my area. As you can tell Lima is a desert. I won't see any green for 2 years. Also, this is definately a third world country. The houses on the hill are built out of whatever they can get there hands on. I have had lessons on dirt floors. It is way cool. These pictures are loading way slow. So, I will write a little bit more. I like to see other missionaries because than I can hear english and learn more about the country. I walk a ton. Let's hope my shoes hold up to all the walking. All the stores are just a bunch of corner stores. There is one big mall but I have not been there and don't know when I will go. My pictures are loaded so I will talk to you next week.

Handwritten Letter from Elder Isaacson!

He Made It to Peru! (August 11, 2014)

This is the e-mail we received from Karter's Mission President's wife.

Dear Isaacson Family,

We are pleased to welcome Elder Isaacson to the Peru Lima North Mission and look forward to working with him. His p-day will be on Monday and he will e-mail you then.

Sincerely,
Hermana Erickson

Last Letter from the CCM! (August 9, 2014)

Hola,

So, Mom you aren't going to be very happy about this. We found out we aren't supposed to call in the airport. I might be able to call and say I arrived safely but that is solely up to Pres. Erickson. President Pratt made it a rule we cannot call in the airport because apparently a few missionaries have missed their flights because they were talking on the phone. I don't know how they could talk that long since we have to be to the airport three hours early. I don't know what I would say anyway. I could tell you in about five minutes what has happened these past six weeks. I wake up, study, go to breakfast, go to gym, study, go to lunch, study some more, go to dinner, study, go to TALL (language study on the computer), plan, go to bed. That is what has happened every day for the past six weeks.

I am super excited to go to Peru, although I am definitely a little nervous. It is a little sad to leave the CCM because I have made so many good friends and I like the teachers a lot. I am ready though to experience something new. I kind of want a native companion so the language will come faster but it would be really hard if I wasn't able to ask him to help me translate certain words or phrases. I saw a map of our mission today. I hope I get sent to the one stake that covers the entire mountainous area. I want to go to the pueblos. I would much rather be there than in the city but I will have to be in the city most of the time probably. There are nine stakes, I think, in my area and eight of them are lower down in the city.

I will be flying with about 15 elders. My bus leaves the CCM at 11 o'clock in the morning. My flight lands just before nine so I figure I won't get out of the airport until at least 10 at night. I don't know what we will do then. Maybe we will spend the night in the mission home because I don't think they will try to get us to our companions that late at night.

Don't worry I will always use my filter bottle. I will try and get a few extra filters before I leave also. I will do my best to stay healthy and safe. Don´t worry I will be fine. I packed most of my bags today besides the few things I will still need. I am surprised I could get it all to fit in my bag. I still haven't packed the books but I should make the weight limit although it will probably be pretty close.

I am glad to hear that the kid was able to get my car registered. I had been wondering about that. Hopefully it will treat him well. It should though because it was a good car to me.

Hopefully I will be able to let you know I made to Peru safely, but if I can't I will have made it fine and talk to you in a few weeks.

Adios,
Elder Karter Isaacson

My District and Hmno. Martinez in front of the entrance sign.

 ​Hermano Martinez and I. He is a RM and my teacher. He is really cool. He can be very fun but also very spiritual.

Hermano Leon and I. He was my afternoon teacher. He was a little more serious but got distracted a little easier.

August 5, 2014

Hola,

I am so ready to leave the CCM. I hit my one month mark on Saturday. I can't believe I have been on my mission for an entire month already. It seems like it has gone way fast, but when I look back it also feels like it has gone real slow. I got some of my flight plans yesterday. I fly out to Peru on Monday. My flight leaves at 2:57 in the afternoon. I have a straight 6 hour flight to Lima. I am flying Trans American Airlines flight 961. I am supposed to get some more information and am supposed to email it to you Saturday night. I can't wait til Monday so I can leave the CCM.

I am glad to hear my friends are doing well. We are all experiencing the same thing so differently. Since it was fast Sunday, I got to wear the tie that Colby's mom gave us. It was fun to know that all of us were wearing the same tie. They were right, that tie is a small way to keep us all connected.

It sounds like you are working at least a little bit out in the barn, Dad. You better start cleaning it now if you want it to be clean by the time I get home. I know it will take you at least 23 more months before the barn is clean. It needs to be clean so you can remember where all your tools are because now I am not there to tell you where they are. :-)

The temple sounds amazing. You will have to tell me what you think of it. Dwayne will be a great Young Mens president. He was a great leader for me and he will continue to be a great leader for others. You will have to tell me who the new Young Mens leader is when you fine out.

Not much happened in the CCM this week. On Wednesday a huge storm came in. I have never seen so much rain in my entire life. The streets inside the CCM disappeared and turned into river. One of my teachers was walking home in it and took a video of the streets outside the CCM. There was about 18 inches of water running down the street. The best part of the video though was a man trying to bike through it. He was doing pretty well until he hit a deep part and went right over the handlebars into the water. It may have been rude of me to laugh at the video, but I needed something to laugh at to cheer me up.

I did get the doughnuts. They were really good. Thank you for sending them. Don't worry I did share my ''cookies.''  Even better than the doughnuts were, I got Kyle's letter he sent to me. It took just over 3 weeks to get to me. Yes, it was all in Spanish. It took me a little bit, but I was able to read it. It was fun to hear from him. I really enjoy getting letters and hearing from people.

For the first time, this Sunday I didn't even feel tired during any of my classes. Usually through at least one I struggle to stay awake. Not this week. I was able to stay awake the entire day. One of the lessons was a little bit about marriage which seemed kind of weird to me. We have only been on our missions for a few weeks and they are already telling us to get married. That is still a long ways away.

My Spanish keeps improving, I think. It is really hard and I need to just keep practicing. We started learning the subjunctive last week. It is really hard. I don't know if I will ever understand it. I can't wait until I can speak and understand Spanish just as well as English. It will be so cool when I don't have to sit and think how to translate every word and the language will just come out of my mouth.

Well, I will let you know all my flight information Saturday. I think my P-day in Peru is on Monday. So it might be 2 weeks before I actually get another P-day and am able to sit down and write you.

con amor,

Elder Karter Isaacson