Monday, September 29, 2014

Today marks exactly two months in Perú!  Time is flying by and also we are halfway through this change already.  It is crazy.  Ok, so _____came to church yesterday and has his baptism date set for Oct 18.  He is progressing so good.  He is 21, has a younger brother who is 14-ish and a sister that is 26 or so.  His mom just had her 50th birthday and we ate lunch at her house for her birthday with the other missionaries in our district. At church she asked us when her sons  baptismal date was  and we told her and she just got the biggest smile and started inviting everyone who walked past to her sons baptism.  And then she was talking to us and she started crying and told us how we are angels in her life.  Seriously I feel so blessed to have the opportunity to bring this joy to people`s lives.  It is such a blessing and learning experience and I receive so much joy from it.  Then afterwards, oh I forgot to mention that she is in a wheelchair.  So after church she wanted to do her visiting teaching.  And nobody has cars here.  And nobody could take her to do it.  So we took her to the houses that she needed to go to.  At one house we stayed and taught a lesson to the lady she was visiting.  But seriously, she is such an example to me of being Christlike.  She can't travel to do her visiting teaching by herself.  But still, she does it and loves the people.  We all need to be willing to serve like she is.  

Lessons this past week...  we had two days when we had 9 lessons scheduled and another with 7.  All with a thirty minute time slot for each.  One thing about Perú is that everything starts late.  But also, people bail on us a lot.  One of the days that we had 9, literally every single one of them fell through.  It was rough.  But that is what it is like a lot here.  We go to our appointment and all the people are busy.  So ya, our teaching time each day is 11 to 12.  Then 2 until 8.  Then dinner.  So in this time we are just out trying to teach.  Yes we can knock on doors.  A lot of times that is what we have to do.  Also, one thing that we end up doing a lot is when the person is not home in a house - there are a lot of rooms in these casas and so a lot of people aren`t family but live in the same house - it is hard to explain.  They will tell us oh, ya, they aren't here so then we will ask if we can leave something with them.  They will come down and we actually get a bunch of investigators like this.  

English this week was hilarious.  Not going to lie, there were a couple of times that I thought I was going to die because I would be trampled.  We were in the street one day and we saw this one girl that is like 12 and the sister of this kid that goes on visits with us so we say hi then before I know it, I am literally surrounded by, I kid you not, 15 screaming children.  "Cómo se dice en Ingles?"  Over and over and over and over again.  My companion was literally just laughing and it was funny but terrifying at the same time.  

I am so blessed to be able to spread the gospel and to see the joy that it brings into the lives of everyone.  It is truly incredible.  Never shy away from inviting people to hear about the gospel.  Everyone needs it.  This is the only way we can live with our families forever.  Help out the missionaries in the ward and stake, and encourage the people in the ward to do so also.  We are having problems with that in our ward right now.  It is tough but we are working through it.  I don`t get to watch general conference this week because of the elections in Perú so enjoy that!  I love you all so much.  

Monday, September 22, 2014

This past week was good but rough.  The week was all good, really good, and then we went to church.  We had families and all these people commit to come to church and they were excited.  Then we went to walk with them to church on Sunday morning and they either said they were sleeping and not this week or that they just didn't want to go.  That was discouraging.  Our investigator who came the previous two Sundays  didn't come to church either.  They had a birthday party for his mom the night before.  And Peruvian parties are nuts.  They literally last all night long.  And when I say all night long I mean all night long.  Like I woke up at 530 in the morning and heard the music from parties still blasting.  I don't understand how they go that long.  Go to bed people!  Anyway, so the party for his mom went all night long and we called him and went to pick him up but he was sleeping and didn't come.  So that was a bummer but he is still going good.  Progressing and keeping commitments so all is well with him.  The other girl, we aren't sure what is going on.  She told us that the Book of Mormon is true.  But this week we didn't have much contact with her.  Anytime we went to her house she was "not home", and we think her phone might have gotten taken away because she never answers it anymore.  Someone else does so hopefully we get things worked out this week.  

Other than that nothing else has really happened this past week.  Still progressing at the same pace with the Spanish.  I am starting to understand mostly everything.   One thing, I bought a basketball!  We are going to play today for p-day.   I will teach everyone how to play and they will like it.  And mom, you will be happy to hear this.  Anytime I show people the pictures of our family they say oh, muy joven su mamá.  This means that you look very young.  People are guessing in the low thirties for your age.  I think that is right isn't it?  :)  And dad, your compliment from people is, one guy said that you look very strong.  So hey, now I know where I get the muscles and the good looks haha.  I love you two.  

Yesterday we were waiting outside a house for a lesson and I hear GRINGO!!!  I look over and it was a little kid and then there were like ten more kids that ran around the corner to see the gringo.  If they came over I was going to say I am from Argentina.  Elder Apaza taught me the Argentina accent.  It is show soy Argentino.  yo soy Argentino but with show.   The writing doesn't do it justice.  Anyway that was funny.  I am gringo and proud of it.  I can't remember if I said this last week but a bunch of people think I am of Latin descent.  I have gotten told I look Argentinan or Venezuelan.  So hey, once I get good at Spanish maybe I can pull it off.  My companion tells everyone that I am from Cajamarca.  It is a place in Perú and apparently the people there are Peruvian but have lighter skin.  Everyone laughs so I don't know.  

I love you all.  Everything is going good in Perú.  I hope you all have a wonderful week.

Monday, September 16, 2014

This past week there were definitely a lot of ups and downs.  If there is one thing that I have learned is that the mission is not easy.  There are soooo many more downs than there are ups.  BUT, it is the ups that make everything worth it.  Seriously if one investigator keeps a committment or comes to church, we are seriously so happy.  It is incredible how much joy we can have from one righteous act.  The church is so true.  Anyway, the kid who I told you about last week is progressing so good.  His baptismal date is the 27th.  Here, they have to come to church three times before they can be baptized.  He has been twice and last night he basically asked us why he has to wait so long before he can be baptized.  He is awesome and is progressing so well and it is so cool to see him grow.  The other girl told us that the Book of Mormon is true.  But, one thing is that every time we go to her house she has a new scripture from the Bible from her family to show us so we are working through that.  She hasn't been able to come to church the past two weeks because she has had stuff but she told us all other Sundays she should be good to go. 

This past week we had to go to migrations to get our visas.  The first morning, Thursday we had a members friend take us in a taxi and it was 15 soles.  Fine.  Then we got there and when we were waiting in line, members of my district from the CCM were talking to this guy and struggling bad.  So I went over and helped and the guy told me, thank you, you can understand me, they don't understand.  It was funny but it made me feel good with my Spanish.  My Spanish is definitely a lot better, I have made a big jump this past week.  The gift of tongues is real.  It is definitely a gift of the Spirit and it is cool because we can all have gifts of the spirit.  We need to pray and ask our Father in Heaven.  He wants to bless us and all we need to do is ask.  In the Bible and Book of Mormon it says multiple times something like if your father knows how to give you gifts than how much more does your Father in Heaven know how to give you good gifts!  Anyway, back to migrations.  We talk to that guy and he lives in the north mission.  Bummer.  But I passed along the reference.  Hopefully Koji can teach him or something.  Afterward, me and another gringo, Elder Sok, who has bleach blonde hair, were trying to find a taxi.  The people were saying 40, 45, and 50 soles because we are gringo.  We finally got one for 28 so we took it because we didn't know how many other options we had.  Anyway, in the morning our companions came with us this time to find a taxi.  They literally made us hide around the corner until they found the taxi because if the driver saw me and Elder Sok they would charge more, so we hid, they got the taxi, and then we came and got in.  It was funny.

This weekend we had stake conference.  It was good, good experience.  Good spirit there, but it was really hot in the meeting and we were tired so we had to be sure not to fall asleep so we could be examples haha.  Also, it was my companions birthday that day so a couple days before I bought some stuff for my companion without him knowing and when he was in the shower Sunday morning I put it on his bed and bam Happy Birthday!!  Anyways, the week of general conference, we do not get to watch it.  We get it a week late.  That weekend in Perú there are elections.  Basically nothing is allowed because they want people to vote.  So the Saturday we have to stay in our room all day pretty much and just study.  It will be so boring but good to have that much time to study.  I feel like I never have enough time to study.  So that is a bummer that we get conference a week after the real thing, but oh well.  Better late than never I guess. 

That is all I have for this week!!  I love you family.  I don't have a lot of time to write everyone else.  But Mom, Dad, Blake, Kristina, I love you so much!!!!  And all other family too.  Keep working hard in everything you do and rely on the Lord.  Remember to say your prayers and read your scriptures.  I love you.

Monday, September 8, 2014

First off, I have gained twenty pounds.  Wow, I do not have time to write today!!  I am going to type super duper fast or try to at least.  Ok, so this past week was good but rough.  We dropped another baptismal date because the people here do not want to come to church.  But one cool experience.  We were contacting a house because right before I came to Perú my companion said that there was a funeral in this house.  So a 19 or 20 year old girl answers the door and we talk to her and give her a Book of Mormon and invite her to read a chapter and all that. She says she will and then she tells us that her family is Jehovah's Witnesses. We go back the next day and ask if she has questions and she had a lot about what we believe and there was a lot that she thought we believed that was not right so we told her everything and then she said she would read that night.  We go back the next day and she read the chapter, the introduction and started reading from the beginning and she was marking passages and holy cow, incredible.  Anyway, she accepted baptism for the 11 of October and to come to church and everything.  But on Sunday she couldn't come because she had to do some thing at the university.  Anyway, but I have faith that all will go well with her.

The temple was incredible.  We had a zone meeting in the morning and then we went to the temple.  It was an hour bus ride, then we were walking for 15 minutes then BAM there it was!  Beautiful.  We ate in the cafeteria and I was hoping we wouldn't have to pay, ya know, missionaries, but we did but oh well.  Then we went to the temple and me and another new kid asked for translators and they brought them but then I decided I didn't want it so I just set it on the ground and did it in Spanish.  I understood basically all of it.  And knowing the things in English helped a bit.  Anyway, so it was beautiful and so peaceful and nice to be in a calm environment outside of busy, busy Lima.  After the temple we were in a taxi on the way back and we were driving and Elder Sok, the other gringo, and I were talking and talking and we were in a wealthy part.  And at the same time, we both stop talking and go, AHHH CHILI'S!  Same time, same reaction, I want Chili's, it sounds really good. It was funny.  

Oh we have another investigator and he is awesome.  He had met with the missionaries once before I got here.  We eat lunch at his house a lot because his mom is a member and his younger brother.  He always tries to talk English with me so it is fun.  But anyway, the first lesson with him, he just said he wants to do all the things we ask.  He is reading, praying and wants to be baptized but doesn't feel like he is ready.  And this is incredible because Elder Apaza told me that before I got here, the previous lesson, it was not like that.  He came to church yesterday and so it is just awesome.  And we went and took pictures on the roof of his house and you can see so much of Lima.  It was cool, but scary because none of the buildings are finished so there are no barriers or anything on the edge of the roofs and is a straight drop to the ground so that was scary but it was cool.

I am glad that you are all doing good.  It is weird that Kristina is going to dances.  And BYU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   I am so happy that they are dominating and I don't know if I sent my prediction last week to you all or just Blake or dad, but Taysom Hill is going to win the Heisman in this year or next year.  I am just sad I won't be able to see it.    

I was kidding about the twenty pounds thing at the beginning.  Love you all. 

Monday, September 1, 2014

This past week we had an experience that was awesome but sad also.  We were supposed to have a meeting with the entire mission with Elder Kristofferson.  He was in Perú but he had to go back to the states for other meetings.  Instead we had Elder Suarez who is one of the presidents for the quorum of the seventy and his wife, and Elder Grow who is a member of the seventy, speak to us.  They were really good talks.  The wife of Elder Suarez only speaks Portuguese so a lady translated line for line but I understood about half of the Portuguese so that was cool.  The talks were awesome.  They pumped everyone up to do the work.    And afterward, there was a gas station where they import American candy.  And they had purple Skittles!!  My favorite.  They were ridiculously overpriced but that is ok.  I bought two packs and yes, it was worth it.  Even though I only ate one.  

The other pack of skittles I gave away.  We were going to teach a guy on Sunday who we met Saturday night.  We get there and it is his kids birthday.  So he says sorry, my fault, but another time.  We ran back to our room and made a birthday card and put a pack of Skittles, some Oreos and some other stuff in the bag and took it back to them and we have a lesson with them later this week.  The are extremely friendly and I am really excited to teach them.  

It is weird that people are starting school.  I can't believe it.  that went by fast.  It is weird that I would be starting school right now too.    Everyone here that we talk to wants to learn English so that is a good way to teach them.  We invite them to the classes that we have on Thursday nights.  The classes are funny because I get to see how I am with Spanish through their English.  Whenever people make fun of my Spanish I just say ok let's talk English haha then we say two lines of what they know then it is back to Spanish haha.  

Misc. notes:   We email from a little internet cafe!  Everyone lives in families.  Grandparents, parents, children, aunts, uncles, eveyone in the family in one house.  The ward is good.  It is developing.  It is pretty good but sometimes it is strange in somethings but oh well.  The church is the same everywhere so it is ok.  We do family history stuff in the same place we email.  We have to do it once a week.  Yes, everything is a cappella.  It is rough but oh well, the people love to sing so we will just keep it up.  There are TONS of little kids running around the church.  they always just grab all your stuff, dig through my back pack for pamphlets or tarjetas.  And they are funny.  But crazy.  The guy who calls me one direction wanted to have a staring contest with me and he owns this company that makes t shirts and so I said if I win I get a shirt and I don't remember what he wanted if he won.  Anyways, 3... 2... 1... And I clapped right in front of his face and he blinked and I won. soo...  haha it was funny.

Everything here is going good.  I saw the sun twice this past week so that is exciting.  Keep loving each other and going to church and everything.  Love you all.