Monday, November 17, 2014

This was the hardest week of the mission.  We just didn't have that much success and citas fell.  First off, I had to talk in sacrament. I love talking.  Seriously I would not mind if they called on me every week to give a talk.  Bring it on.  But anyway it was on missionary work because what else do missionaries speak on.  And for it I just threw down a couple of bullet points that I wanted to talk about and went up there and BAM.  I talked.   For about 15 minutes.  I didn't even do the bullet points thing in English.  What in the world.  But it was cool.  I shared a couple of scriptures.  In Alma 4 and in Doctrine and Covenants and at the end I told the story of the dirty little Irish boy.  I feel like you could put that into any talk.  But the cooler thing is that I can tell the story in spanish.  Spanish is seriously so cool. 

Second of all.  Onnnn Friday I think it was.  EARTHQUAKE.  Earthquakes are cool.  I had felt little ones here but this one was big I heard.  I heard it was 7 on the richter scale or however you say it.  We were at the church and I was sitting outside in a chair.  We were talking and bam my seat just started rocking, it felt cool.  But the cooler story.  We were there because we had to take the keys to the church there because other missionaries in our district had an interview for baptism and so he was in his interview and told our district leader that he hadn't received an answer yet on whether or not the church is true or not but he has faith and he feels it so he wanted to be baptized.  Our district leader told him I know you will receive an answer.  you are going to receive an answer today and BAM the earthquake started.  And... He took that for his answer.  It is so cool.  that was his answer.  God sent an earthquake and received his answer.  It was awesome to hear.  

I am jealous of the pork tacos.  Literally me and the Elders in my district talk about Pork burritos from cafe rio almost every day haha.  The investigator that we have at the end of November is named ____.  He is about 20 years old and he is the one that asked us what he had to do to be Mormon.  So he pretty much accepts everything and all that.  We just need him to start fulfilling all his commitments.  He is awesome and the other week when we had the special musical number in sacrament he sang with us.  He wants to do everything and participate in everything.  So we just have to prepare him and teach him.  He is really cool.  

Another cool thing...  Quechua.  It is the language of the Incans.  Yesterday we were at this guys house for lunch because it was his birthday.  And it is the guy that loves me - that called me one direction and now he just calls me his twin.  His is in his thirties but ya, he loves me and his whole family especially his mom.  His mom was just talking about how fast I learned Spanish and how good I talk with the other missionaries.  So that made me feel good but then after that she was like ya, you are going to learn Quechua because she speaks it.  So that is cool.  I am going to learn Quechua.  They have Quechua Books of Mormon at the temple so I am going to buy one.  Anyway, I know how to sing happy birthday in Quechua so that is a good start. 

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

Monday, November 10, 2014

Ok, first thing first. I sang a solo in sacrament meeting.  It was a solo of one line but still I was singing alone in ward conference.  For ward conference we had to do a special musical number the missionaries and we sang Joseph Smith's First Prayer to the tune of Come Thou Fount and we sang Come Thou Fount and it was awesome.  And I had to start us out by singing alone but it was cool.  Definitely different because I always just mess around when I sing.  But hey, Elder Baker, your next American Peruvian idol.  

Second, Jair got baptized!!  And second to second, Elder Apaza baptized him!!  It was awesome because people can only come back for baptisms if they are going to baptize the person!  so Jair chose Elder Apaza so he got to come back and I got to see him and it was great.  Jair's baptism was awesome.  What was even cooler is that after his interview, our district leader told me that he is super prepared and so that was good to hear.  It makes you so happy when you can help other people come closer to God.  

Third, on the way to church this week we were going to this ladies house to help her come to church because she can't walk and is really old.  Oh first, the night before we were at the church and the Bishop and other people were like hey she lives in your sector so you need to pass for her.  And I was like ya ok, wait, can she walk and they were all like, no.  So I was like does she have a wheelchair?  And they were all like no.  so I was like uh oh, but we just went and got a taxi to her house and got her in the car and drove to the church.  But when we were getting the taxi this lady starting yelling at me in the street about juice.  I am not kidding.  I don't know her but she came up to me and started yelling telling me how I need to drink my juice.  She was saying we can't because we don't have the money.  But you have the money so you have to drink your juice.  So I told her I will drink my juice and she left but I have to say, that was really strange.  

This week was kind of crazy.  On Monday Elder Vance got changed to a different sector.  But his companion was alone so he came with me and Elder Hernández and we were a trio.  And he is in his training so I was a trainer for those days so that was cool.   He was with us Tuesday and Wednesday then Thursday we got a call and another missionary had to go to the hospital so Elder Durfey was going to go with that missionary's companion.  It was crazy so we had to take him over there and we were all running back and forth.  Elder Durfey is from American Fork.  So I had an American companion finally even if it was only for two days. 

On Wednesday we got to go to the temple again.  It is so nice being able to go!!  So peaceful in crazy, busy, Lima.  Also, I am thinking of buying one of those Llama ties for every month in the mission but let me know what you think about that mom.  haha  

Other than that nothing super exciting happened this week.  We have another investigator that is progressing and his baptism is for the 29 of November.  He wants to be baptized and everything so, so far so good.  

That is really all that I have from this week.  Oh, and it is starting to get super hot here.  Like in the afternoon it is death.  But that is ok, I am going to get a good tan and then maybe I really will look latino.  Maybe then people will stop shouting "gringo gringo" every time we pass them in the streets haha.  

I love you family and hope all is going well.  Remember to read your scriptures and say your prayers.  

Monday, November 3, 2014

Well I will just start out this email by telling you about Italo´s baptismal interview.  So our district leader did the interview and he is awesome - he was just an AP.  Anyway, after about an hour or so, he calls me over and is whispering to me, hey we put a goal for 11 de January and my heart dropped a little bit but I was like ya, ok esta bien.  Then he tells me to congratulate him anyways and I was like oh, ya.  So I walk in and I am like ITALOOO and hug him and he is like 11 de January and I was like ya, it is going to come fast.  It will come really fast.  Then we are talking a little bit more and Elder Castro, our district leader, comes up to me and with the baptismal umm record?  Registro bautismal and he says you just need to put your name here and the date because you are going to baptize him this Saturday!  So I was like whatttt???  And I go and hug Italo and then I almost beat up our district leader because that was a mean joke.  Ok, I didn't really almost beat him up but ya.  It was all a joke, he passed and it was all good!!!  

So Saturday came and we are at the church, my companion and I to fill up the font and clean.  There was a fiesta the night before in the church and they didn't clean so that was rough.  And I had to plan the program and it was stressful and everything.  And the font takes forever to fill up, like 4 hours and still, freezing cold water.  But hey, it all worked out and everything.  But Italo shows up and I asked where his mom was and he told me in the house and I was like is she going to come and he said no.  And so I just started freaking out because his mom is so nice and I thought this would just break her heart.  And she can't come by herself because she is in the wheelchair.  Anyways, I see a mototaxi pull up in front of the church and it was her with her other son and she came and it all worked out and he got baptized and confirmed yesterday and it was just awesome!  

We also have a baptism scheduled for this Saturday so if that all goes well, then this Saturday we will have one too!!  So we are hoping for that.  

We get to go to the temple again this week on Wednesday!  I love going to the temple here.  This week, also I got to go to a wedding with my companion because his old investigators were getting married and so we went to that.  They are going to be baptized in a couple weeks and then hopefully they will work for a temple sealing.  I am grateful for the temple and the priesthood so that we can live with our families forever.  

Another fun thing this week, we had intercambios and I was with Elder Irving.  He has 2 weeks in Perú so he is brand new and is from Alpine.  So we got to go around for a day together.  That was fun because he doesn't speak Spanish but he isn't scared to talk to anybody.  So it was fun.  I can pretty much say everything I want to in Spanish now so it was not hard or scary, just fun.  

That is about it for this week.  Oh, I feel bad but we were in a little CHIFA restauraunt with all the missionaries for lunch one day and I looked up and saw that LeBron went off and Blake Griffin went off.  I felt bad afterwards and had to look away from the screen but ya, oh well hahaha GO HEAT!  

I love you all family!!!  Be safe have fun and work hard in everything.  Remember to say your prayers and read your scriptures.  

Monday, October 27, 2014

Hola from Bello Horizonte!!!  This week, I got a new companion.  His name is Elder Hernández and he is from El Salvador and has 20 months in the mission.  It is really strange getting a new companion.  I miss Elder Apaza a lot but it is ok because it is already normal between Elder Hernandez and I.  Once again, my companion doesn't speak English.  He speaks hardly any but I love it, and he isn't studying English, doesn't want to, so we can just speak Spanish the whole time.  It is great.  But with him not speaking English, he told me that he doesn't really like to talk, like he isn't good with his words.  AND since I am leading out the area I know all the people and the area and yeah.  So this past week, I have done so much more talking.  I have to start everything, end everything and I LOVE IT!!!  It is so fun and my Spanish, no joke, was pretty good before but it is taking off now and it's great.  Seriously the gift of tongues is real.  

We didn't have our baptism this week, hopefully we have it this Saturday.  We are hoping and praying but we will see.  ONCE CRAZY EXPERIENCE.  So we were teaching ____ last night and we were having him stand up and do this demonstration.  He was holding books out in front of him and we were seeing how long he could do it.  When he was doing that.... FLASHBACK...  Literally it is like this flashback punched me in the face.  I had a dream YEEEEAAAARRRSSS ago.  I was sitting in a room and there was someone in front of me.  They were holding books and the room in the background had these windows and a television and a sofa.  When ____ was holding the books, even though I didn't remember the dream before, I literally got smacked in the face like holy cow.  This is the same room, that is the same table and tv.  That is the same stack of books.  His shirt was the same and now I know it was the same person.  In this moment I could remember my dream so clearly.  It was crazy.  It was such a testimony builder.  I know that missionaries are called to be in specific places at specific times for specific people.  I know without a doubt in my mind that there are people here that have been prepared to listen to the message that I have to deliver.  This experience was so cool and such a testimony builder.  Always, we can have people around us that need to hear the gospel and we are the people that can give it to them.  

Spanish is better than English.  Well, in some ways,  Trying to teach English, wow, English is hard.  We have so many strange rules.  Spanish has irregular stuff and all but everything is clicking.  I can pretty much say everything that I want to now in Spanish.  I just have to get more words in my head now.  Spanish is so cool!!  

Other than that, this week was normal.  Just more work and all but it is so great.  It is making me a better missionary.  I hope that all is well at home.  I hope that you are all having fun and have a good Halloween for me.  I don't know if Perú celebrates it.  From what I have heard, no, but whatever.  It is chill.  THANK YOU FOR THE CANDY!!!  Especially the double stuffed oreos, they don't have them here.  and I forgot what they tasted like.  You are the best. 

And wow, throw this in the email too.  I ate raw chicken.  And I remember in foods class that the effects from a food sickness can be anywhere from 30 minutes to thirty days.  I took a bite and was like wow, this is not cooked at all.  Found a part that was cooked bit into it and realized it was just the top part.  It was literally raw chicken.  I hid the rest under a napkin and didn't eat it.  

I love you family! Remember to say your prayers and read your scriptures!!  

Monday, October 20, 2014

No baptisms this week.   ____ was not ready and so we had to push his date back.  It is scheduled for this Saturday but we are going to see if he is ready by that time.  So, we could have one this week but we might not, so we will just have to wait and see.  Ok, this story is crazy, we have a kid who is a less active.  20 years old and we have taught him a couple times.  We saw him and we were talking and his compañero de trabajo (co-worker) died.  He fell from the roof of the work and died.  We were talking to him because he never comes to church and we were like you need to come to church.  Then he was like ya, ya, I know but what do I have to do to be a member of your church?  My companion and I just looked at each other in shock!  He has been in our area book as a less active for quite some time and the first time he met with my companion before I got here he said he was a member.  But this time he said he was a member of the church Evangelica and was baptized in that church, not our church.  So, needless to say, he has a baptismal date for 29 de Noviembre.  

This past week we had an interesting experience.  This guy was using the phone outside the house of these recent converts that are 14 and 12.  We were teaching them in the doorway and this guy finishes his call and steps through us and says permiso and so all is well.  But, five steps more and he turns around and starts screaming at us.  He was saying how we don't use the Bible and we only use the Book of Mormon so our church isn't true.  And how only the Bible is the word of God and that we don't need more.  And he just kept on going and going and so we walked over to him and asked if we could talk because we didn't want him to yell at the conversos recientes and we walked to him but he started to walk away but then he turned around and kept yelling.  Walked to us and was yelling and he raised his hand and in my mind I was like oh it's about to go down.  Luckily he put it down and kept yelling and then walked away.  BUT, THE CRAZY THING IS, before he started yelling, we were reading with them in the Book of Mormon about how people will be mad and say that we don't need another Book because only the Bible is the word of God.  It is crazy because all of that mans anger was just a testimony to that scripture.   It just strengthens my testimony of the Book of Mormon.  

No more sickness this week, so that is good.  I don't really have that much to report this week.  Except for it is getting hotter and I love it because finally the sun can shine and I can get a nice tan line on my arms.  Hey, how are the Heat doing?  Send me some updates of the NBA.  That would be great.  Thank you.   And I will throw this in, we were teaching a lesson a couple weeks ago and through the wall a song just started blasting and I was like hey, I know that song!  Livin' on a Prayer by Bon Jovi.  I started thinking of Dad and the song just made me start laughing.  Not going to lie, it was very difficult to hold in my laughter but it was hilarious.  

We have cambios (transfers) tomorrow and we are pretty positive that my companion is leaving.  We will find out in a couple hours but it is pretty much for sure.  So that means that most likely I will be leading out this area.  Crazy.  Hopefully I don't have to train a gringo haha.  That would be hard.  

Monday, October 13, 2014

Hola Familia!!  Conference was amazing!!  I got to watch all the sessions in English except for one because I sat with our investigator to answer any questions but that is ok.  The talks were so good and seriously you feel like some of them just punch you in the face but it is a good punch in the face.  It feels good when the Spirit smacks you.  Haha but really, conference was incredible and there was such a good spirit.

This past week I am glad to report that I was better from the sickness.  Then I got sick again hahaha.  This time it was worse though, but it was from the afternoon and I didn't really sleep that night but it is all good.  They think I ate something bad and had a stomach infection so they gave me these pills that I had to take for a couple days then I was all better.  And I am good now, no problems and I am not going to get sick again.  All is well.  More good news, I revived my camera.  Mas o menos.  I try to turn it off and it shuts halfway then if I press the button again it starts having a spaz attack and making a machine gun noise so I just have to shut if with my fingers and push the lens in so there is that.  but it takes pictures and all so I think we are good!  

One experience from last night was crazy.  We were about to be back in our room and BAM.  We get a phone call from these Elders in our district.  They were in our area searching for a guy.  This is an old guy in our ward and he has alzheimers.  He will walk around and forget where he lives.  He went to go to church in the morning and it was at the stake center so even farther away and he left at 6 in the morning and his wife called us at 8 at night!  So we are running around everywhere trying to find this guy and he could be anywhere and some parts are a little sketchy but oh well, nothing happened.  We searched for about an hour and couldn't find him.  So hopefully he gets found soon or has some ID on him so he can get returned to his home.  

This past week was good.  Nothing really exciting happened that is like WOW.  Ok I lied because the missionary work is incredible so everything is wow.  But from this past week the highlights are that _____ is still progressing and his baptism is this Saturday!  Out of the Elders in my district, we have 5 baptisms scheduled for this Saturday!  It will be an awesome day of seeing people be baptized.  Baptism is the door for all the other things we are going to do in our life.  It starts everything and we receive a gift afterwards that will guide us in everything!  For our whole life if we are worthy of it.  Also we have another baptismal date for the 25th with ____.  He is 15 and came with us to both sessions of conference yesterday!  Hopefully he continues to progress and feel the spirit in his life.  So ya, we have two baptismal dates and we received a lot of names this past week from the mission of menos activos that we have to go find.  Normally each area receives 20 names but... We received 83 and we have to contact them all by the end of October.  Luckily the names are divided between the Elders in our district so we have 33 that we need to find.  That will be quite the task.  We have changes on the 21st I believe and I pretty much know for a fact that Elder Apaza is leaving which is a big bummer.  I am going to have to lead out the area which will be a good experience but I just hope I am not training a gringo because todavía I don't speak Spanish!  But whatever happens all is well because it is the will of the Lord and everyone is called to a specific place at a specific time for a specific reason!  

Love you family, keep saying your prayers and reading your scriptures!  Love you all!!

Monday, October 6th, 2014

Ok wow, this week I am really a marathoner.  We have no time at all.  We went to the beach again today and went on the longest bike ride of my life.  With lots of hills and all that stuff.  I was tired, I thought I was in pretty good shape and all but.... Nope, guess not.  Oh well.  And bad news, no pictures, my camera broke.  I was giving it to someone to take a picture of me and it dropped in the exchange, I will take the blame for it, I tried to revive it, everything, but... it has moved on to the Spirit world.  

Good news, we got to work like normal on the Saturday and Sunday, we didn't have to stay in our rooms.  But, a lot of the people were gone voting all day.  The people don't just go to the closest place to vote, they have specific places where they have to go to vote so some people were gone all day long so that was a bummer.  I am glad the elections are over.  I was getting sick of all the signs and everything everywhere.   But, whatever.  I don't need to worry about that stuff because I am a missionary!!!!  And how awesome is that!!!  

This part will freak you out mom.  Well not freak you out but you won't like it.  Wednesday night I went to bed and my stomach hurt a little so I was like ehhh whatever.  At 230 in the morning I woke up with incredible pain.  Then I went back to bed and for 3 and a half hours I was in my bed rolling around in pain.  I don't know what it was.  And I threw up one time and ya, no fun.   My companion called the secretary the next day and I had to drink 1 liter of this nasty medicine stuff in one day, and it was so gross.  It was tough to get down.  But the next day I was better.  

On P-days we wake up and have study like normal in the morning until 10.  Normally we have activities planned as a zone.  Like the bikes today, last week we went to a park with fountains and the week before we went to a zoo, so we do fun stuff.  Ya,  I know, I am behind on pictures.  Anyways, that is why I need a new camera so I can send them.  So we have activities until 6.  At 6, we go back to work until dinner time then it is back to the room.  So from 10 in the morning until 6 at night we have p day.  Oh, and a lady in the ward does our laundry.  We pay her 35 soles a month and she does it.  The only thing is, we always run low on clothes because it is humid here, so things take forever to dry and it is not hot yet.  But ya, that is our clothes.

I am so bummed that I missed conference.  The rule was that if we had an investigator we could watch it at a members house.  Anyway, a family called us and said oh, we have an investigator for you!  It was their dad so we were like oh, ok sweet!  So we go to their house and start watching conference on Sunday morning.  We are watching and we saw the first two talks and then he left.  I think to go vote.  So, ya, we had to leave.  So that was a bummer.    But that is cool that people can give a talk in their own language.  What do they do for the people in the conference center??  We get to watch conference this weekend and I get to watch it in English!!  That will be sweet!  

This past week, nothing extremely special happened.  We had intercambios with the zone leaders because Elder Apaza is the district leader and so that was interesting.  I went to the zone of the zone leaders and we worked and we seriously knocked on so many doors that day and literally not one person answered.  They have a pensionista and that fell through and the consejo de barrio fell through - don't remember how to say that in English but ya.  So everything fell through that day.  But it was a good day.  There was a guy with us doing visits and he got back from his mission the week before so people would yell hi elderes and he would wave then go, ahhh I am not a missionary anymore, it was funny.

One thing, everyone who reads this, family, friends, EVERYONE.  Get a testimony of El Libro de Mormón!!  And if you have one, strengthen it!  it is everything.  Our whole religion, if it is true, our religion is true.  Joseph Smith restored the church, Thomas S. Monson is a prophet hoy en día that receives revelation for everyone and guides us.  It is crucial.  Get a testimony of the Book of Mormon and don't let go of it.