Monday, May 23, 2016

I am probably not going to be writing for a long time next week so I just wanted to express my feelings about my mission since I will be home next week.  These have seriously been the best two years for my life.  They have been hard, I have been rejected, had doors slammed on me, been spit on, had drinks thrown on me and many other things..  But I would not change it for a thing in the world.  I have been able to follow the Saviors footsteps in this time.  I have not experienced almost any of the things He experienced but I have never felt better than in the moments that the Spirit confirmed to me that I was doing that right thing and that I was doing what the Savior would do if he himself was personally ministering to the people of Lima, Perú.  God loves these people and I do too.  I have learned that no matter what we do, God will always love us.  We are his children and he desires that we all be saved and return to his presence.   I can now say without a doubt is that Jesus Christ is my Savior and Redeemer and that He loves me and paid the price for me so that I can one day return to God's presence.  I know without doubt that Joseph Smith, a young boy of 14 years saw God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ.  They really did talk to him and called him to be a prophet of God.  I know that today we have prophets and apostles that still talk with God and receive revelation to guide us through this life that can have many challenges.  

These past two years have saved me.  They changed the course of my life and eternity forever.  Also the life of my future family.  It is so comforting knowing that families are forever.  I am grateful to have great grandparents, grandparents, parents, friends and many more people in my life that have had testimonies of the gospel.  I am also grateful that my future children will be able to have the gospel in their lives, and their children and like that a chain of members of the church throughout time and all eternity.

Bello Horizonte

Bellavista

Zarate

Santa Cruz

Jorge Chavez

5 wards but countless numbers of people that i have met that have impacted me greatly.  I feel that on my mission I have been impacted way more by the faith and testimony of these people.  I am grateful for all of my companions that taught me something new and helped me grow spiritually.  

I love you familiy and I am so grateful for you and all my friends as well.  To all the people that have helped me grow throughout my 20 almost 21 years of life.  

Yo se que La Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Ultimos Dias es la unica iglesia verdadera sobre la faz de la tierra.  Yo se que Dios es mi Padre Celestial y que Jesucristo vino aca al mundo, sufrio, murio y gracias a el y su expiacion todos podemos ser limpios y salvos.  Jose Smith vio a Dios y a Jesucristo.  Presidente Thomas S Monson es un profeta de Dios.  Las escrituras contienen la palabra de Dios.  Se que Dios contesta oraciones y escucha atentamente a cada uno de sus hijos.  Se que el sacerdocio es un poder real.  El poder de Dios que el da a los hombres para ayudar a llevar a cabo la inmortalidad y vida eterna del hombre.  Se que los templos son las casas de Dios.  Las bendiciones del templo son reales y podemos ser sellados a nuestras familias para siempre.  Amo a Jesucristo.  Amo a Dios.  Amo ser misionero.  Amo mi mision y estoy muy agradecido por haber tenido la oportunidad de servir al Señor por 2 años.  

I love you all family!!  Thank you for all your love and support.  See ya soon!

Love, Elder Baker

Monday, May 16, 2016

This week was VERY busy.  Monday was not p day but that day a lady was coming to the mission to make suits for Elders and my comp needed a new one so he went and got one so all morning we were there doing that.  Then on Wednesday we had our normal district meeting.   On Thursday we had a conference multi zone and that took all day long.  Like we left at 8 o clock and got back at like 730 at night - but it was a great meeting.  On Friday it was p day because we had the opportunity to go to the temple!!!  It was so great.  It had been a while since I had gone and it was so nice to be able to go.  I am defnitely going to be taking advantage of having so many temples close by when I get home.  On Saturday we had a contacting activity where the whole zone went to the sector of certain Elders and contacted for two hours with them.  We found a lot of interesting people so hopefully they are there when the Elders go back and they can have some appointments with them.

Other than that this week we were just trying to find new people to teach and we knocked on A LOT of doors.  It was wild how many we knocked on.  My knuckles hurt from knocking.  Just kidding I always knock with my pen here so my pen totally broke but oh well.  One little success story was ____.  He wasn't going to come to church with us this week because he was going to go to his church but my companion had a talk on Sunday and we told him that and he was like ok.... I will go with you guys.  And while he was at church his heart was softened so much!  Some doctrine he didn't agree with before finally made sense to him.  It was a really good day to have him go to church so in these next weeks we are going to do everything possible to get him baptized.

Anyway, that is a quick letter from this week but just know that I love you all!!  Have a great week!

Monday, May 2, 2016

This week was great!!  The guy that I told you all about last week, who is in the wheelchair, is named _____.  We taught him the Restoration and he liked it a lot.  He had A LOT, and I mean a lot, of questions.  So that was definitely fun to teach.  Anyway, we quedamos for him to come to church with us and  he said that he couldn't because that is when he goes to his church.  So we talked to him a little bit more and with the help of the spirit he agreed to come to church with us on Sunday.  It was a good meeting at church because they called a new bishop that day.  So it was a spiritual meeting because there were a lot of testimonies given.  He is in a wheel chair and when we were heading back to his house to drop him off he said, "Next week, I am coming alone!"  So that was a really good experience.  We have a goal for him to get baptized in this month.

For a long time, with Elder Clark and now with Elder Pearce we  have been teaching a guy named ____.  He wants to get baptized but there are some things impeding that. His pareja and grandchildren are members.  But we thought they were all members because they all go to church.  We were talking to the grandma on Sunday and she just randomly mentioned that she wants her grandson to get baptized and that he wants to get baptized.  So I said perfect!  This Saturday he is going to get baptized then.  That will be good.  

For us this month is looking like it can be pretty good with a couple baptisms.  We have some people that need to get married so we are hoping that they can make that choice so they can be baptized.  

I love you all.

Monday, April 25, 2016

Hello family!!  I am here in Jorge Chavez still and my new companion is Elder Pearce.  He is from Herriman Utah.  It is crazy that this is my last companion!  I seriously can't believe it.  It is weird to think that I have such little time left.  But it doesn't really feel like it.  It has not sunk in.

So I will start off with a funny story.  We are in our new room and we haven't had water for these past couple of weeks.  So three days ago we got a therma put in and the next day my companion was showering and POP.  All the lights in our whole house shut off.  So they get back on later in the day.  I was showering this morning and POP.  All the lights in the house shut off again.  So basically now we have hot water but we have to shower with all the lights off and everything unplugged from now on.  But I am so glad to have hot water now.   It was soooo cold but now it is all better.  

This week it was good.  It is always a lot different having to show your companion around but normally everyone gets to know the sector pretty fast.  But We did have a really cool  moment this past week.  We decided to knock on doors in a part we normally don't try.  Normally while knocking on doors we get a couple people that want to listen  but this time we knocked on about every single door and almost every single person accepted another visit.  It was awesome.  So this week should be a very good week because we have citas with all of those people so hopefully they are home and still willing to listen.  

Last night we had a very cool activity.  The whole mission and all the stakes were invited to the institute building for a family history activity.  There was  A LOT of people.  Missionaries, converts, investigators, and members were all invited!  It was so great to see.  They are making a very big push on family history because they are going to construct the new temple.  They are going to construct the new temple in Los Olivos!!  That is about 15 minutes from my sector right now and is so much closer than the current temple.  It is outside of our misison but just by a little.  That will be cool to go back and visit some day.  

We had a really good lesson with some people this week.  One of them was with one guy that we found and started talking to and he had some knowledge about the gospel.  We started explaining things a little more in depth and he understood and was excited and is going to pray about it.  Hopefully he actually does it because he was a really cool guy.

Also we had a lesson with a new person.  He contacted us when we walked past his house.  He is in a wheelchair and started talking to us but didn't want to accept an appointment.  We asked why and he said that it is because he goes to another church.  We saw him yesterday in the street wheeling his wheel chair and I went up and asked if he wanted me to push him to his house.  So I was pushing and we asked him how his church meeting went and he told us what he learned and we told him what we learned and by the time we got to his house he was very grateful and accepted a visit from us.  So today we are going to have that with him so hopefully his heart will be opened.  

SERVICE BRINGS MIRACLES.  

I hope you all have a wonderful week!  

Monday, April 18, 2016

So this week was wild!  We were running around a lot because Elder Clark had trainings and interviews and went to the temple so we weren't in our sector a whole lot but I was in a lot of interchanges.  ____ still isn't sure about getting baptized so that was a bummer but we are going to keep visiting her so hopefully pretty soon here she can get baptized.  It is weird taking out appointments with people because now I know that Elder Clark wont be there and that it will just be me.  

Wow, so in our new room I have to get used to cold water.  It comes out like a waterfall but it is freezing, we are hoping that we can get hot water soon here.  It is nice though, good room.  To answer your questions mom, no I don't have a new bag or scriptures.  Scriptures I won't be able to get because I can't go to the temple but I have a triple, the only thing I am missing is an old testament so I can wait until I get home.  The bag I am trying to coordinate with the offices to try and get a new bag so hopefully soon.  Camera, Elder Clark is going to give me his camera so I will use it for 6 weeks and then give it back when I get home.  

We were the zone of excellence in March so this morning we had a breakfast and played games with President and Hermana Larson.  It was such a good breakfast.  It was definitely a lot better than what I normally eat.  PANCAKES and french toast.  Pancakes are so good.  Hopefully the zone can keep up the good work.  

So I don't have all the time in the world today because Elder Clark is going around saying bye to converts but I will be able to write more next week.  I love you family and hope you have a good week!

Monday, April 11, 2016

[So that you understand his letter - their apartment was broken into in the middle of the night a few days ago]

So this week was definitely interesting.  Haha.  So ya, we had in our house like an open area up above where you could get in.  Like we lived in a garage and the first wall had a big door to open up for cars but that is always locked and then another normal door to go in.  But when you get in there is a little patio area that is there that does not have a roof up above so in the middle of the night someone, or a bunch of people, i don't know, jumped down in and decided to take some stuff.  They got my camera, bag with my scriptures in it, wallet and my monadero which is like a little pouch with change in it.  We were asleep and at 6 o clock in the morning we hear, "Elderes, elderes, elderes, elders" over and over and over again and we woke up and a member was in our room saying, "your door is open."  So we got up and saw that my things were gone so that was a bummer.  We looked out in the patio area and on the wall there was a footprint and the marks of hands on the wall.  When they left our room they left the door open so that is how we found out.  So we had to take all of our valuable things out of the room and put them in another missionaries room. 

Above my study desk I have a really big picture of Jesus Christ.  So we think that maybe in the middle of the night he was grabbing stuff then looked up and saw a picture of Christ, got scared and ran out. 

I learned a really good lesson from all of this.  Like I said, we had to take all of our valuable things out.  As I was looking for my valuable things to put them in a suitcase I realized that the things I consider valuable have changed.  I wasn't very concerned about the watch I had in there or a couple other things that you could maybe sell for some money.  But I was more concerned about Book of Mormons that I had marked up before, journals, study journals and things like that.  Ya, bummer I lost the other things like a camera but what I want back the most are the scriptures.  That is what I miss.  So that was a good reflection time for me.  It was good to see what are the things that are most valuable to me now.

After that the week was stressful because we had to sleep in the room of other misisonaries.  Also the days were full of walking up and down the streets looking for a house that was renting rooms.  We found one on the last street we tried of the day so we were exhausted after.

Yesterday, in Perú were the elections.  So it was different because we were not allowed to contact people and we had to be in our rooms at 630.  It was actually really calm and not dangerous, at least where we are.  They narrowed it down to the two last candidates so there are more elections in May or June, so we will see!

Other than all of that it was actually a really good week with a lot of success!  We had a couple of investigators that we are teaching tell us that they want to get baptized.  That was exciting news.  Also, we are still teaching ____ and her daughter _____, we are hoping that they get baptized this week.  They are so cool.  But we think that she likes to play games with us because sometimes she really wants to do it and other times not so much so this will be a very important week for them and us.  We are just hoping and praying that everything goes well so that they can get baptized this week.  Today we found another room and we are moving in later today so that is good.  But it will be tiring because it is on the 4th floor of this house.

Anyways, I hope that you all have a wonderful week!  I love you all!

Monday, April 4, 2016

Holy cow.  There is going to be ANOTHER TEMPLE IN LIMA!!!!!!!!!!  Seriously when they announced that it was such an amazing feeling.  To know that I have been working here and now they are going to build another temple.  I think everyone wanted to just get up and run around, I know that I did.  There were so many good talks in the conference - it was inspired.  Some of my favorite speakers were Elder Duncan, Elder Arnold, Elder Owen, President Nelson, President Uchtdorf, President Eyring, President Monson, Sister Oscarson and Elder Holland.  But they were all good.  One of the things I liked the most was that HEAVEN IS CHEERING YOU ON.  So any time that we get sad or down we just need to remember that the heavens and all the angels are cheering us on so that we succeed.  Yesterday, today and forever.

Each time that we had an investigator in conference it seemed like the speakers were talking to that investigator.  Even some of the investigators said that.  They all really liked it.  It is a good thing that we had Saturday and Sunday in church this past week because this week we don't have church on Sunday.  The presidential elections are coming up in Perú this Sunday so we aren't allowed to have meetings.  So Sunday should be a weird and interesting day.  

This week we had a bunch of new investigators and some of them were really cool.  One of them was with a guy named ____.  He is about in his 20s and is passing for some tough problems in his life right now.  He has a kid and is separated from his pareja.  We saw the aleluya video with him and it was awesome.  He loved it and we talked to his mom after who is a member and she said that he was really happy.  We left and he started talking to his mom about that he liked it and wants to keep listening so hopefully we can help him out and help him get things turned around in his life. 

Also, with ____ she is doing good.  She is listening to us and went to conference so the progress is slow and steady with her.  We just are focusing on helping her keep her commitments because she doesn't like to read that much.  

We had interviews with the President this past week.  Elder Clark and I had to go around to all the rooms in the zone and make sure they were clean.   It was surprising that they were pretty clean.  It took a long time to do it though because we had to go around to all the rooms.  After that we were just at the interviews.  I had mine before that day because I had to go in a little while ago to renew my temple recommend.  

Basically after this weekend I am just happy because we got to watch conference.  It was so heavenly listening to the prophet, apostles and other general authorities.  They were great.  And the talks helped me out a ton.   I hope that you all have a wonderful week.  Choose the right!

Monday, March 28, 2016

This week was very very busy!!  In the zone we had a lot of baptismal interviews to do and a lot of things to verify.  We had a lot of success in the whole zone and in our ward.  Alexandra was able to get baptized.  It was a really good experience.  We were a little nervous because she was scared but she absolutely loved it and her mom who is not a member also loved it.  There are a lot of tips, ties, promos, prima, etc, who live in her house so we are hoping to have more success there.  But everything turned out good.  Also there was a guy that is awesome that got baptized!  He is so cool.  He was not our investigator but we found him and passed the reference to the hermanas and they helped him out a lot and he is doing way good now.  Another girl wanted to get baptized but she was really scared.  The first time her whole body didn't get all the way under so they had to do it again and she was terrified.  We were waiting for an hour and a half and she finally got baptized after that.  It was good and in the end everything turned out alright.

Also this was a good week because _____ got out of the hospital!!!  She is finally back in her house.  We thought that she was going to be very sad and down but she is the same.  We couldn't get in to teach a lesson this past week but we were able to talk to her.  We have the first return visit with her tonight so hopefully everything goes well and she is still excited to learn about the gospel.  Her and her daughter both seemed like they still are so that will be interesting to see.  

It was so awesome this past week to be able to teach people about Jesus Christ because He was resurrected and still lives.  It seriously seems like when it is a holiday the hearts of the people are softened.  There are a lot of different traditions here that people do.  They call it la semana santa.  Some of the days they will only eat fish and they have a bunch of other traditions as well that I will tell you all about later on.  But it is interesting and definitely different from the states.  Sunday was kind of sad because people didn't remember the resurrection that much.  Down here it is not something that people really focus on in the culture.  So we made sure to tell everyone about it and to watch the video that the church made with todos so that they could all feel the spirit and gain testimonies and it worked with a lot of people.  The spirit was defnitely very strong this past week.  

Also from this past week I testify that the spirit talks to us and tells us the things that we need to do.  We had an experience that was very cool and we were able to help out a less active and get him out of a situation that he should not have been in but only because we followed what we felt we needed to do.  The spirit helps us and guides us and lets us know what we need to do.   I love you all and hope you have a great week!!!  

Monday, March 21, 2016

Hola familia!!!  This week was A LOT better.  The past couple weeks were super duper tough with investigators being sick and not being able to find new people and people not going to church but we have been praying to God to help us get new people to teach.  

During the week we still hadn't had that much success but we had an interchange and we helped out those Elders for a day.  Then when we were back in our sectors we just decided it was time to buckle down.  And we did, we had a super good day!!  It was awesome.  One of the most successful days of my whole entire mission in finding people to teach.  But one thing that I can say from that whole day is that God works in mysterious ways.  We had contacted a lady in the street a day before and then we went to find her and the people that were in the house said that she doesn't live there but told us to go try another door because they thought she lived there.  We knocked on the other door and the lady did not want to see us but told us to knock on another door and we did.  And in that house there was a FAMILY!!  They let us in and the whole family came and listened and we watched the aleluya video with them for the pascua.  It was so awesome!!  After that they asked a bunch of questions and we answered their questions.  We have another appointment for this week so we are super excited for the appointment this week.  It is interesting how God works.  We were rejected at two different houses but we were led to that family.  There are not coincidences.  God plans everything.  It is so wonderful.

Also another testimony that he works in mysterious ways is that we received a reference this week from the church and went to find him but he lives in Spain but put his address down because he is going to come here in a couple weeks.  We found the grandkids there and taught them and took out another appointment with them.  We were going to that appointment but we knocked on the door and they weren't there but the mom came out and she started asking and she said that her Dad used to talk all the time with missionaries but she never had but she was super interested.  So she let us go in and we talked for a little bit.  Shared a principle and took out another appointment but she was super excited to learn more about the gospel and we have an appointment for this week also so hopefully all of that goes well.  

But the lesson that I have learned this week is that God sees that it is necessary to test his people sometimes.  We have trials in our lives but we are not to get down on them.  We need to learn from them, get better, have patience and move on.  We have learned a lot about that in these last couple of weeks. Elder Robbins from the presidency of the seventy told us that a successful missionary is one who goes from failure to failure without getting down.  So we all just need to do that throughout our whole lives.  I know that God loves me and loves each and every one of you.  

I love you all and hope you all have a great week!!  

Monday, March 14, 2016

This week was good!  I am still with Elder Clark so I am going to be sending him home at the end of this change!!!!  We are super excited to still be here together.  There were some good changes in the zone.  One of them especially, my companion Elder Jones from the CCM, got put into our zone and is training so that is tough because they don't know much about the sector because they are both new there but he is awesome and they are doing so good. 

One great thing that happened this past week is that there is a girl who is 12 and has wanted to get baptized and goes to church all the time but her parents were against it.  We had a list of less actives and we were searching through it and we found her grandpa and went to visit.  He wasn't there but the girl's mom came out and was telling us that her daughter really wants to get baptized and that she was ok with it.  We talked more and she signed the baptismal record so that is super exciting!  We are shooting to have her baptized this weekend so hopefully all of that goes well.  

One bummer is that hermana ____ is still sick!  She is still in the hospital but we go by her house like every single day to see if she is there.  Hopefully this week she gets home from the hospital so we can teach her. 

We had a meeting with Elder Robbins from the presidency of the 70 Thursday and with Elder Montoya also.  It was soooo cool!  Afterwards we had a meeting with all the leaders in the mission and Elder Montoya was there with us and WOW.  It was great.  He talked very directly but with a lot of love. It was such a good meeting.  General authorities are so inspired.  Every opportunity we have to meet with them is such a special experience.  

Yesterday we had another meeting with the area 70.  Me, my comp, President Larson and the stake president.  It was another super cool meeting and we discussed some of the needs of the wards that are in the stake.  

We found a random family this week.  A guy was cleaning his windows and we told him to come down and he did and he let us in and we were able to teach them and so hopefully they are interested. We have another appointment to go back so it should be fun.  Also we are teaching a young couple and in just a couple of weeks they are making so much progress.  They went to church by themselves yesterday so that was great to see.  

So I had to write this really fast because I didnt have too much time today but I love you all!!  Have a great week!  MARCH MADNESS.

Monday, March 7, 2016

This week was highly stressful.  We had a lot of appointments fall through.  But the Lord is definitely testing our patience and diligence.  We had a couple of good lessons this week.  Besides all the appointments falling through the lessons we did have were good.  We had a lesson with this lady that is the daughter of recent converts.  She is having problems with her husband and is about to have a baby.  I think I talked about her last week.  But if not I will talk more about it.   In the lesson we read the Book of Mormon to help her understand more and she felt good and at the end of the lesson she told us that she wants to get baptized.  Her only problem is going to church because sometimes she doesn't feel too good so we are hoping that in these weeks we can get her to church.  

Other than that we had a SWEET contact last night.  We were in the street kind of disappointed because of all the lessons that had fallen through.  And we were about to have a lesson with a new family and it fell.  So we were bummed but then a guy came up to us and said that he is a member in another ward.  So then he told us that his daughter lives in our sector and that he wants us to go teach her.  We told him to take us to the house to be able to present us to his daughter and he did and we met her.  She is a mom and lives with her husband and 3 kids.  She told us that she used to go to church activities and participate in the church but then she moved and stopped going to church.  She even went to seminary when she was younger and loved it!  Her name is  _____.  We have a lesson with her tonight and so we will see how that goes.  Hopefully she will want to accept and be baptized.

Another good lesson we had was with a 22 year old that we met a while ago.  When we started the lesson we were prompted to teach him about God.  He had different ideas about who God is because in the past he had participated in another religion.  Elder Holland in the Liahona taught that the investigators will progress more if they understand who God is and his true nature.  So we started teaching and it was interesting because at the start of my mission I marked a couple of scriptures in my Bible with some tabs and I felt a while ago like taking them out because I had never used them but something told me to leave them in.  I did and in the lesson I ended up using those scriptures probably for about the first time in my mission.  It is so awesome how the spirit works!! I am glad that I did not take out those tabs!

_____ this week was sick and in the hospital all week long!  So that was a bummer because 1/ we couldn't teach her or give her a blessing and 2/ she couldn't go to church.  We are hoping and praying that this week she will get better so we can help her progress towards baptism.  

That is how our week went.  Tomorrow are transfers so we are praying that we stay together one more change.  We find out tonight!!   I love you all family!

 

Monday, February 29, 2016

Hello my family!  This week was stressful.  But it was good!  Everyone always said that January and February are the worst months of summer and last year it was true but wow, it is so hot.  I feel like I complain about the weather a lot.  But it is hot and it is not getting colder.  But oh well, what can ya do?  

One thing that is good that happened yesterday is that it was the last day of carnavales here.  Carnavales is every Sunday of February.  Here it apparently has gotten smaller and smaller over the years but it is basically where people just have water fights and paint fights.  Yesterday, the last Sunday of the month, is the biggest one so there was just a bunch of parties and everything but now it is over so that is good.  We don't have to worry about people getting us wet.  One day this week there was a guy in the street and he started chasing us with a giant bucket of water and water balloons.  We had to run so he didn't get us wet.  Even though it probably would have felt good haha.

This past week hermana _____ came to church again!  We were really nervous that she wasn't going to go because she said that she had to do a couple of things on Sunday so we were going to her house on Sunday morning to remind her about church and we found her in the street already wakling to church with her son!  So that was awesome and such a relief.  It was great.  She is doing good.  We also had the first lesson with her husband.  He is a little doubtful.  He isn't very religious but we really want to focus in on him so that they can be an eternal family.  The only problem is that he works and basically is only in his house on Saturday.  He is pretty much always in his job.  But if we can get him to come to church and progress we know that the whole family will be able to progress even better.  

We had a lesson that was SO COOL this week.  Some recent converts called us and told us that their daughter wanted to listen to us so we went over and talked to her.  We had met her in the past but she was doubtful because she has been in another religion and her husband and family are all part of the other religion.  But we were teaching her about the restoration and she basically said how can she know that everything is true if it is not written in the Bible?  And then we just got into the prayer and the Book of Mormon and the spirit was testifying so strong and she accepted baptism!  So this week we will see how that goes with her.  Hopefully she can complete all the commitments we gave to her so she can receive her answer.

One more cool thing that happened was that the Hermanas in our ward had two baptisms.  One of them was an investigator that we taught the first lesson to.  We taught him and he accepted baptism but he didn't live in our sector so we passed him to the hermanas and he got baptized this past saturday!  So that was exciting, he is sweet and he says that he wants to go on a mission.

That is all the news from this week.  I am doing well.  I hope that you all have a great week!!  Have fun, be safe, choose the right.

 

Monday, February 22, 2016

Hola familia!!  This week was super extremely highly stressful.  We were stressed out the whole time but it was also a great week!

First off, we had another baptism!  Her name is Marycielo.  She is a girl that has 9 years and her mom is being reactivated.  It was a miracle though because the church that we go to we normally assist at 10 in the morning.  We go to church outside of the mission and our capilla is the stake center of the other stake.  So yesterday they just happened to have their stake conference and so our meeting got pushed back to 2 o clock.  Ok, now with all of that in mind.  Marycielo had her date for the 20th but she went out of town and was going to get baptized on that day.  So we had planned for her to get back, teach, get her interview and baptize her.  So we went to her house and her mom was like I don't know if we are going to be able to go to church tomorrow because we just got back from viaje and there are some things that we need to do so probably next week.  BUT.  Surprise, we went to church at 2 so she was like ya, we are going to be able to go!  So Marycielo got baptized right before church yesterday and then got confirmed in the sacrament meeting.  It was such a miracle and she was really happy to get baptized.

Another cool thing was our convert from last week was in church yesterday, PASSING THE SACRAMENT.  It was awesome!  We were so excited for him and he was super happy.  He is doing good.  

ANOTHER MIRACLE.  So last week I told you about the lady that said she was not easy to convince and dura and didn't want to leave her world.  We had a couple of super good lessons with her this past week and we helped her with a couple of problems and she came to church yesterday!!!!!  Her and her two kids!  And she liked it and the members did such a good job of being friendly to them and helping them out.  It was seriously perfect!  They loved it and they have a baptismal date so hopefully they can keep progressing and be able to get baptized her in March.

Those are just a few of the miracles that happened this past week.  I love you all!

 

Monday, February 15, 2016

So this week was AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We seriously had such a big miracle.  God gives us miracles when we are exactly obedient.  So I don't remember if I told you about this last week but...  Our investigator, ____ had permission to get baptized but then he didn't (get baptized).  His parents didn't want him to get baptized so we decided to fast with him and he did it.  So we had a cita (date) with him on Tuesday and we asked him if he had permission and he said....................... YES!!!!!!!!!!  He got permission from his parents.  It was awesome!  Such a big big big miracle.  He was so happy.  So we got him ready, he passed his interview and he got baptized and confirmed this past weekend.  He was so happy and this week we are going to get him an interview with the bishop so he can get his temple recommend.

Another miracle!  So we were knocking on doors this past week and this lady came out and started telling us that she has a brother that is Mormon but she was too wordly and hard of heart to change.  And we got an appointment with her and honestly just talked to her very directly for like 20 minutes, after we saw that all of that was not working we decided to try something else.  We gave her a card with the steps to say a prayer on it and she started praying and she said the shortest prayer I have ever heard but started crying so hard.  Saying she wanted to change.  The spirit was so strong.  Honestly it was a HUGE change from when we first started talking to her.  It made me really realize that we are not the ones who teach but it is the spirit that teaches and can get to the hearts of the people.  It was another miracle.  

One funny story that I forgot to tell you all last week is that whenever we walk past a big group of people here everyone always starts yelling HELLO HOW ARE YOU?   Because we are two white kids walking around in Perú and the other day we past a group of kids that were boxing in the street and They all stopped to say HELLO.  And one of the kids that was fighting stopped and said hello then BOOM.  The other kid came over and hit him in the face and knocked him over and oh my word.  It was funny.  So then after we helped him up we told him he was a champion and got his direction to go teach him but that was funny.

 

Monday, February 8, 2016

This week was much better than last week.  Last week we worked super hard but we didn't really see any success in getting people to church.  This week we were super worried the whole time that we were going to work super hard again and then otra vez not have anyone in church.  But those worries were taken away when we got to church and there were investigators there already and when we were sitting down more investigators came in.  It was so nice.  A load was taken off of our shoulders.

On Monday we met a really cool guy named ____.  He is 22.  He had just barely moved here from Chiclayo and has been here for a week.  And that same day we knocked on his door he said he had found out that one of his best friends had just passed away.  So that was a bummer but we kind of just said like HELLO.  What more do you need?  Like the same day that this happens two missionaries knock on your door, a random house that we didn't know and we found you.  So we have had a couple lessons with him this past week and they have all been super good.  Especially focusing in on repentance and baptism.  We read 3 nefi 11 with him and it was the best.  The spirit was so strong and we made him some pretty cool promises if he fulfills his commitments that we gave him.

We also met a really cool guy one day just contacting in the street.  He has been the administrator in his church for like 10 years but was super open to listening to us.  He even at the end of the lesson accepted a baptismal date in March.  We have a follow up lesson with him today so hopefully it all goes well.  Hopefully he read and prayed.  It is a little funny thinking about how simple it is for someone to get an answer.  We tell them just to read, pray and go to church and it is so easy.  God just asks the people to act and he gives the answer but sometimes people just get lazy or who knows what happens and don't do it.

Also I have been thinking a lot about all of the seeds that we plant on the mission.  Like sometimes we don't always see all of the success that we have.  We contacted a couple this past week and started talking to them and he starting telling us about how he like 6 years ago was going through something really hard and he met the missionaries at a friends house who was a member and said that the missionaries helped him out a lot and for that reason he really respects missionaries and loves them.  So when we went in his house he just like exploded with excitement.  So even if we don't always see everything we do, some day it will have an affect on someone's life.

Monday, February 1, 2016

Hola familia!!   This week was AWESOME!  I got changed to la zona condevilla ward -Jorge Chavez.  Elder Clark is my new companion and we are the zone leaders, he is from Alpine Utah and is awesome.  Except for the fact that he went to Lone Peak but it is ok I already expressed my feelings to him about Lone Peak.  But seriously he is awesome. He was going to go to Ukraine on his mission but while he was in the ccm he got changed to Perú because of the war over there.  He has 1 change more than I do.  It is a little different having a white companion.  We just understand each other and talk about cafe rio a lot haha.  So my sector is half Callao and half San Martin.  The people here are so much more receptive.  The whole week we were just running around like crazy just talking to everybody and being super energetic and making people laugh then teaching them repentance and inviting them to baptism.  I love this place.

This past week we had a bunch of people that we contacted that were really interested in listening to our message.  We found one guy in the street and sometimes to make people laugh we ask them really dumb questions but there was one guy drinking a peach juice called pulp.  And we asked him if he liked it then if he liked inca kola or pulp more and he said inca kola so then it was hilarious because the next question was sooo why did you buy pulp instead of inca kola?  it was seriously hilarious and we had him laughing and then we told him we were missionaries, got an appointment went to his house and he accepted baptism so this month we are hoping he gets baptized.   

We teach good together, me and my companion.  Like we have really just been asking people a lot of questions this week that make them think and then they basically teach themselves.  It is really cool.  It is like what Christ did to the people, he asked them questions that made them think and then after thinking and answering Christ taught more.  So that is what we have been trying to do this week.  

This week has been seriously awesome.  It was a little disappointing at the end because we didnt have very good attendance at church.  Not as many people went as we would have liked but it was still good and even though we were sad we were happy because we had done all we could have done in the week so we were happy because we worked hard. 

Now we just have more meetings with the President and the stake president to coordinate the missionary work and then after those meetings we teach the zone what the mission president wants us to teach the zone.  So it is fun.  My room also is awesome.  In my other room in Santa Cruz it was liike an oven in there.  But this room it is cooler so I can finally sleep now.  

Those are the stories and updates from this week.  The work is awesome and I love it.  

Monday, January 25, 2016

So this week flew by again and this change flew by.  We have changes tomorrow, we find out in the night if I get changed or not so we will see what happens.  I wouldn't mind getting changed to a more humble place haha.  

This week was another good one.  We had our interviews with the president this week and it was strange because he told me the date that I go home.  And started talking about that and all of that stuff.  The interviews are always good.  The President is called of God.

This week there are not that many exciting things to say.   It's just getting hot and hotter.  This week the people have told us that it is supposed to get up to 95 degrees but the humidity is also at 95 percent.  Our ward mission leader bought a machine that sucks the humidity out of the air that is in his house.  And in a couple of hours he had a full bucket of water to dump out.  It gets super hot because of the humidity.

Also this past week we had a devotional for all the missions of all the world!  We were trained by apostles and other general authorities from the church.  It was really cool and a neat experience to have a meeting knowing that all the other missions in the whole entire world were watching the same thing.  

We were going to have a family night with a bunch of people this past week.  The missionaries in the ward and we invited EVERYONE.  And EVERYONE said that they were going to come.  We got there and we were waiting and waiting and nobody was showing up.  There were 3 people there and we had already waited like 45 minutes so we decided to start it.  We ended with the same three people.  So even though not that many people went it was still a good experience.  We taught the restoration with candles.  Pictures included.  It was great and the spirit was strong.  

That is my report for this week.  I love you all!!  Have a great week!

*****NEW PICTURES at the bottom (after all the little side pictures).  His mom finally figured out how to do the file on the semi-new computer. *********

Monday, January 18, 2016

This past week was great.  On Wednesday we had a meeting with Elder Uceda, all the missionaries and leaders of ward council.  It was seriously such a great meeting.  The Bishops left the meeting very happy because Elder Uceda talked about how the bishop is responsible for the youth.   So if older people have family problems and things like that then it goes to the elders or the sumos and the stake so it was interesting and the Bishops were happy.  

Also, in the meeting, I was amazed the whole entire time.  He started telling us the story of the church here in Perú.  Perú is the country to make it to 100 stakes faster than any other country.  Faster than the US, faster than Mexico, Brasil, any country, the fastest.  And this past week Stake number 101 was opened.  So the church is growing fast here and Elder Uceda was talking because the people have the blood of Lehi.  So I feel very blessed to be able to be here in Perú teaching these people.

After that Elder Uceda called a family up.  Well a mom and a dad that were converts (and have 4 kids and 1 in the mission), then he called the ward council up from the ward of this couple.  He then talked to everyone and asked the ward council how they helped this family (that is now sealed) stay active in the church.  They talked about it all and Elder Uceda then called up 4 people to represent the kids and said that thanks to the ward council a family and many souls were saved.  Then he said the kids will also have kids and called up 3 kids for each child of the couple so 12 more people.  Then he said your grandkids will have kids and called up 3 people for each of the grandchildren and so it was 36 more people.  And he showed us that the work we do doesn't just save that one person.  It saves generations and generations of people.  He said that if a person makes a decision to leave the church they take with them hundreds and hundreds of other spirits because the next spirits will not be born in the church.  It was a very cool meeting.

The next day we had a meeting with him with our whole mission.  It was AWESOME.  It was from like 8 in the morning until 230.  He trained for almost 4 hours and it was incredible.  He has so much information in his head.  All these facts and everything and he didn't even use notes to teach us!  He just went based on the spirit.  It was truly incredible.  The general authorities and everyone in the church are called of God.  

We also got a triple in Russian yesterday!  Hermana Larsons son was asking RMs in Provo from Russia and he found one and sent it here and yesterday we went to the presidents house to pick it up then we went and gave it to _____. He is still very busy but he was happy to receive it and he told us that he could actually read and understand now.  So hopefully that helps him out in his progress.

I also got to go and baptize an investigator of some of the hermanas in my district this week!  The baptism was very nice and the spirit was very strong.  

Something I learned this week in the meeting with Elder Uceda is that repentance is a principle of perfection.  It is something sweet and should not be feared.  

 

Monday, January 11, 2015

This week there wasn't a whole lot that happened.  One exciting day was Wednesday.  a young man came with us and we found 4 new people to teach that day!  We told him that he was a good luck charm so I think that we will be using him more often.  Maybe every day haha.  Also this lady gave us free water bottles and ice cream!  (He says it's really hot now.) So it was a really good day.  So when I lived in Callao the family that we lived with had a bakery in Callao and in Miraflores.  They have a car that has a BYU sticker on the back of it and I recognized it here in my sector the other day.  So when we went in to a store to buy a drink, she was in there and recognized me and was the one who gave us free water and ice cream!  So that was awesome.

Also, we have another investigator that I told you all about last week who is 23.  Last night she accepted a baptismal date!  So if all goes well we are going to have a baptism on the 23 of this month.  So that will be good.  She is excited and really likes the church.  Also her husband owns a store that sells all these old items and watches and all this stuff.  It is pretty cool.

With ____ and ____, they are still good!  This past week they just didn't have much time.  Because ____ (the Ukranian investigator) found a job and he is basically gone all day long.  Because he cant have very many jobs because he doesn't speak Spanish so this job is good for him but he just doesn't have that much time.  They are still excited we just have to find an hour that we can go teach them!  

This week we are going to have two meetings with Elder Uceda!  One on Wednesday with our mission and members of a bunch of stakes and one on Thursday with just our mission!  So I am excited for that. 

Well, that is the news from this week.  Sorry, I didn't take any pictures this week.

But I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Monday, January 4, 2015

This week was a little slower than normal because a lot of people traveled for the new year but we were able to find some new people.  One new person we found was a less active and his wife that are not members.  They had been going to church and we had a lesson with them on Monday.  It was funny, she told us a story about how she was baptized and all that stuff but she didn't really remember much and we didn't really think she was baptized so we searched for her baptismal record and it wasn't there.  But she said she would like to be baptized again so that is good.  The husband is a lot older than she is but they are great!  

_____ the Ukranian and his wife went to church again!  They love it.  I am still trying to find a Book of Mormon in Russian.  This morning we got a text from Hermana Larson and she said that if we want, we can use some other Elders in the mission that speak some Russian to help teach him.  In our mission we have like 6 missionaries who were going to go to Ukraine and were in the MTC for 6 weeks learning Russian and then because of the war and everything they got changed to Perù and a bunch of them have been studying Russian here in the mission.  So in this week we are going to see if we can get one of those elders to come here for a lesson to teach him in Russian!  But we will see, this week or next week.

New years here this time was pretty boring.  We didn't do much.  A lady invited us over to eat at 7 but nobody invited us over to stay until midnight.  So we were just in our room which was better because I was tired.  We fell asleep at about 10 o clock and then randomly woke up at about 1130 so then we stayed up until the new year and then crashed again.  Where we are the people can get in trouble for using fireworks so there weren't very many.  Especially compared to when I was in Callao last year.  But it was good.  That is about it for this week.  I hope that you all have a great week!  I love you all!