First letter from Peru

Hello! We get to write you today because it's our first day! Today we
basically have the whole day to chill and acclimate to all the
changes. First of all just let me sum up the last day. wow. From
Atlanta to Lima i sat next to a member of the church, who is a nurse
in the air force and he was going to lima to train some people. it was
really cool. and I met an old man who was Peruvian and Belgian who was
a member too. A guy named Moroni Torres met us at the airport and we
went in a huge bus through the most dangerous part of town at 130 in
the morning (sorry this is a Spanish keyboard and I don't know how to
do everything on it yet.) but the MTC here is so nice! it's in its own
little city with huge walls all around it and it's basically just
three buildings. The showers and bathrooms here are way nicer than the
ones at the Provo, MTC, and so are the rooms! The food is a little
weird.. we had cereal in yogurt for breakfast and scrambled eggs with
like breadsticks, then lunch was...liver... with some orange stuff and
rice, and like beet salad. I'm learning to just eat and not think
about how things taste because it's apparently really offensive to not
eat everything here. My companion is from Chile aka the fastest, most
incomprehensible Spanish ever, but i just tell him to speak slow and
he's teaching me a lot. his name is something to the effect of elder
something angel something something Morales, haha I'll tell you what
it actually is next week, i can't remember the in between parts. i got
another haircut today and now I'm completely buzzed. we all have
Latino companions and it's such a challenge to speak with everyone!
but elder Sorenson and i are the best at Spanish so we kind of
translate for everyone and I made pretty good friends with an elder in
my room named Elder Boez from Argentina, and he kept complimenting me
on my Spanish. it's awesome when you ask someone what a word means and
they don't speak English so they just describe it in Spanish, like we
were asking what a shadow is and stuff like that. The mtc is in a part
of town called La Molina which is the really rich part and there is a
pretty big mountain next to us with a sniper tower on top of it
because people try to bomb this bank by us apparently. there are scary
guards who wear black jumpsuits and ski masks all around, and lots of
wild dogs! Next Saturday we get to go and teach and shop in a place
called miraflores. my address is elder jacob hatch peru piura Av.
melgarejo 159 urb. campo verde la molina, lima peru. i don{t know if
that's the one you already have. i'm still figuring everything out
here and it's a crazy culture shock but i love it! the buildings all
have such nice ac in them and it's absolutely beautiful outside. the
Latino elders are all really nice and love that we're trying to speak
Spanish and it's really really funny when they speak English back. my
time's up so I'll write you in a week or so! I'd love letters while I'm
here :)
love you!
elder hatch