Frozen desert

hi everybody.

just soes that all y'all knows, the weather here in Bolivia is amazingly strange. this week started hot, like Arizona hot but with humidity. then on Wednesday a cold front came in, but like Chicago cold...windy and all. it was horrible. the high went from Tuesday...33 degrees c. to Wednesday...15 degrees c. it was horrible. i was ready to die since the rules here are that we can't wear sweaters unless they are black, have no designs and are v necks. so of all the sweaters that the members have given me i can wear zero of them. it was fun. just for kicks i wore short sleeve shirts the three days that it was really cold. all the members asked aren't you cold...and i said no, where I'm from it's always a lot colder than this. so i have like forty people thinking that Arizona is a frozen desert. kinda funny.

so outside of the weather, this week was fairly normal. o this last thurs was cambios...who knew. but nothing changed with me except that i have to be district leader again. not too excited bout it but i'll do whatever the president calls me to do. all the other missionaries were surprised that i became one. when the zl announced it all the missionaries started talking to their comps. kinda funny. just that this week i had an interview with the pres and i think most of them think that in that interview i talked bad about my dl and so i got raised. the pres changed all the district and the elder who was my district leader is now co-co but still in the zone. kinda weird. but ya so i think some of the people think that that has to do with me but it doesn't so ya.

my district has the zone leaders...again...kinda a drag, but what can you do. then it has two hermanas. so all the missionaries say that even though I'm officially their leader, they'll all be leading me. its true. the hermanas are great and work oober hard and the zone leaders are two greeengos and very good guys. and my comp is a million times better than me, so in the end I'm just gonna do my best to inspire them to give just a little bit more than the great work we're already doing.

so that's that

now my area is ok. same as always. a few new investigators, a bunch of people who don't wanna hear about baptism but will listen to anything else and then a bunch of eternal investigators. we're doing everything we can to animate the members to work a little harder with us but seems to have very little results. so the plan is to basically first get them to give us more references and then get the results. it seems to be my blessing to go to a ward where the people are great...honestly great people but who don't quite understand how to work in the missionary part of being a member. although it is helping me a lot I'm sure that when i get back i'll be able to get the other members of my wards along with me to work and help the missionaries a lot.

i honestly love being a missionary. it's a lot of fun even though a lot of hard work. most of the work seems to be blood and sweat but somehow, you find a way to feel good with what you do. it's really amazing how God works sometimes.

so all that said and done. i think that's about all. thanks for everything everyone is doing to help me stay here. i understand that i get more help than i probably deserve so thank you a million everyone

in any case happy birthday Amanda. this Thursday is gonna be one of the hardest of my mission. I'm gonna hate every minute of it. but that's ok because i know that both of us know why I'm here and it's worth the sacrifice. in any case it could very well be the last birthday I'm not there with you. so happy birthday from Bolivia this time. be safe have fun and know that i love you

Normal week

Hey, what's up to everyone out there...

this week was normal...for missionaries anyways. a bunch of citas but not enough to make them happy, even though it was the most I've had in my mission. but apparently, well, never mind. in the end it was a good week because on Sunday we had four of our new investigators in the church. it helps a lot because since i got here we have had about six people every week in the church but four of the six were people who didn't want to hear anything about a baptism. this week those four people didn't go but four new investigators went which gives us a lot more work. so we're oober excited. still planning on three or four this month. but we had two people for this Saturday but they didn't go to church so we'll have to reschedule their fechas. kinda a bittersweet thing.

but we had a bunch of the families go to church who live in the bottom part of our area. it was great because normally only two families from there assist...like 8 people. this week five families went with like 22 people in total. we were excited for that because we've been working our butts off to get those people excited to go to church. we split our days in two. almost everyday we go down to that area and now we know a lot more families and to be honest we want to work there more. the members give more references and they go with us to the citas. so it helps. but in the end since we eat and sleep in the top part we need to stay there more. we might try to change rooms to move closer to the bottom part but we would still have the problem of getting the people to the church. don't know what we're gonna do about that.

lets see...to be honest not to much to say. basically, just going about the work, one day at a time. it's hard when you have 14 months in the mission because everyday seems the same as any other day. the time passes by so fast but it's so, boring isn't the right word, but my English is getting really bad honestly. I've almost completely stopped talking in English even with the greengos.

just soes that y'all know the weather here was hot and now once again starts the wind. the wind is the worst thing about this mission. the sand hits your face so hard it hurts, and then you get it stuck to your face and arms cause you're sweaty and it stinks. i finish everyday two shades darker than when i started it.

here in Bolivia i haven't eaten anything that i haven't liked except that evil mondongo...sheep stomach. not to happy about that, but everything else has been good. the Peruvian food is better but the food here is more normal. except for some black potatoes that they give us. they look more like beans but are potatoes and they are not very good. they put them in soup and on the main course. yum yum

so ya i think that's about it. talk to y'all later.

Send me Letters

so hey everybody.

don't have to much to write i think but I'm sure i'll fill it up with something. if only because mom will get mad if i don't. but that's a good enough reason for me.

so this week we put two people with fecha for the 12 of sept. one is faustina who is about 22 years old and speaks very little spanish. understands it though which is y we can teach her. but she's living with some members and is excited. the other is a golden child. 9 years old and ready. so we should have two even though, like with bryce, the baptisms always come hard. you always gotta fight for them. but it's worth it.

so outside of them, we didn't find too many new people to teach and it's getting hard. we still are working and visiting the members and helping a lot. there were close to 4 inactive families who went to church this week on top of the 6 investigators there. but 3 of the six have told us that they don't even want us to talk about baptism. kinda funny. they go every week and most people think they are members but because the missionaries b4 us would always hound them to get baptized they have a bad idea of what it is. we are trying to be their friends more and then, hopefully, they see that we don't want them to get baptized for more numbers or anything like that but because we know that it'll really help them. in any case it'll be really fun working here

and like i said last week the leaders just don't give you a break. this week we were working a lot in the bottom part of our area which is huge. the are so many members and they want to go but have to pay between 40 and 50 bolivianos each family to go to church every week. needless to say it's hard to get them there. and then the leaders here say just teach them about sacrifice. in all honesty from my point of view the church should be able to help after the members do everything they can. it's funny cause even though almost all the members down there are inactive they give us more references and work with us more than all the members in the upper part. but that's life. we're trying to find some way to make everyone happy.

o and amanda just soes you know and this isn't just applying to amanda, but anyone when i say write me a letter you don't need to send it through my mom. you can write directly to me. or at least I'm 95 percent sure. all the other missionaries receive letters so i don't think the pres holds a special grudge against me. but thank you mom for always being willing to do that.

and just soes you know yes i have gotten dear elders. on thursday they gave me a bunch so you can send those too.

ok that's about all i think. bye

Slowly adjusting

ok what's up everybody

we'll start out answering all the questions i got.

first i'm slowly adjusting to the area and the mission. to be honest, my opinion is that all the leaders here care about is numbers and i don't work that way. needless to say I'm pretty stubborn and i think i'll have some problems with that down the road but i am and always will do what i think is best for the people that i am in charge of. i know that they just wanna help and whatever but i was called to this area to help these people and i will do anything to fulfill that mission. my mission isn't to make my leaders happy or the president happy. I'm doing everything i can to strenghten my members here and find people to teach. but i look at it like this. if i do all the work, find people to teach and teach them and the members don't learn how to do it then all I'm doing is saying that when i leave i didn't really help them. in my sight the only way to be successful as a missionary is to make sure the members know like i do that they are missionaries too. it's my goal. i don't need a million baptisms to feel successful. my goal is that by helping the members work like missionaries, i might not get baptisms or at least a lot....but the ward will forever be a little bit stronger for my efforts to help them help others. well, lets just say that i might be the only person in bolivia santa cruz mission that thinks that way but i think it's right. it's like people always say...the right thing isn't always the easiest. to be honest the leaders are the most annoying part of the mission but i just try to focus and work.

sorry bout that

next when we got here to bolivia we flew from lima to la paz...that was interesting landing in la paz. I'm glad we didn't have to get off the plane because most people get sick from the altitude. i stayed on the plane and just stuck my head in my book so that i wouldn't get sick. but then flew to santa cruz. it took about four or five hours.

now I'm almost positive that everyone can write me. what i heard was that only family could but i heard that from one of the elders who came over with us and i think he was lying. my comp receives letters from his friends every week and the pres didn't say anything against it. and in the manual missional it says we can communicate with friends and family so i think it's ok. and to be honest I've been dying every week to get a letter from Amanda. thanks mom for you help with this but until they tell me i cant I'm gonna say go ahead and send letters.

and now on that good note. supposedly the packets take about two months to get here but they do get here. i don't know if you wanna try something but in any case remember that 7 to 1 is a pretty good exchange rate. although there are a lot of things about getting a package that just make you all smiley inside. that sounded kinda special. Amanda you're a horrible influence on me. I'm cant believe i said smiley inside......next thing you know i wont know the difference between mayo and mayonnaise. jk love.

but ya anyways. this week was good we are getting better and better each week. it's actually kinda funny in the three weeks i have here the assistance in the ward has gone up 40 people each week. the first Sunday there we 87 the second 136 and this week 183. not bad to be honest but i don't think i'll be able to keep that going. we'll see.

the area that we have is huge. there are about 500 member registered but obviously most are inactive. so since the area is so big it used to be divided in two branches. but they combined them and now we get to work in both. but one is four times bigger than the other but with less actives. so we are basically gonna divide our days in two parts. almost every morning we'll be working in palmira...which is the huge part of our area with a million inactives.... and in the afternoons in fortaleza which is the part that we'll get almost all of our baptisms and investigators. we think it makes the most sense that way.

the members here are great and are helping us a lot. i don't know why but it seems like the area is famous for the members here...but not in a good way. all the missionaries give us warnings about the members talking bad about the missionaries and what not. a bunch of Bologna if you ask me. i just tell them that when you love them they love you back. and thats the plan. the members here seem great. they haven't talked bad or said anything bout us and we are working really hard to get their support and trust and just plain out get them working.

no people don't steal the cows. they basically just spend all day eating and wlaing around like what I'm gonna do when I'm 65 years old. sorry Amanda....but you can walk with me. but ya i don't think anyone eats them either although there are some crazy homeless people that might try to cook them every once in a while. in any case the food here is good. a lot of good meat and unlike in peru not everything has rice and chicken. there is more variety here in bolivia. the food isn't better but its not bad.

so what else. i don't think there were any other questions and ya. i'll try to start writing more about the lessons and people that we're teaching. we have a decent amount of investigators...not enough for the office apparently but enough. in september we hope to have somewhere around 4 baptisms. i'll let ya know next week exactly who and how they are progressing.

ok y'all talk to you later.

First baptism in Santa Cruz

ok so what's up everyone.

this week has been interesting in all honesty. different than any other week in the mission so far. just the type and how you work here in bolivia is so different than how things work in peru. but slowly I'm adjusting. very slowly but still adjusting. in all honesty some of the things just seem to cause more problems than help but whatever that's what they want here and that's what well do.

so this week we had a baptism. jose luiz, a 15 year old kid, was baptized. he's really chill and a great convert. in the two weeks here we've gotten to know him very well and we were ooober excited for him to get baptized. my comp baptized him since last week was his birthday present and i didn't have much to give him outside of the cake. so when jose luiz said that either one of us could baptize him i said happy birthday to my comp and that's the way the cookie crumbles.

so the weather here this week went from frikin cold to amazingly hot and humid. great.... it was horrible. and then there's the wind. this month and the next are windy season here and the wind just picks up all the dust and whips it in our face. it's so strong that the dust feels like you're getting pelted with needles. it's fun... sorta. but today started the rain again. supposedly it's gonna be rainy, hot and windy, all at the same time. gotta love this jungle thing.

and ya so we've been working a lot with members. trying to get to know them and find investigators through them. we do what we can but, in all honestly, things are going pretty slow. we found some really good people but will probably progress slowly. the nice thing is that here the members take their friends to the church. we had 7 people in the church which was really nice. gives us the opportunity to teach people who are willing to go to church even before they talk to us.

o and just soes you know I'm not sure if this mission does the dear elder thing. i haven't got any so far and i haven't heard that anyone has gotten any so i would say send one or something and let's see if it gets here but don't send too many. although, if the mission does do that, it'd be the best way to write me and everyone could do that. i just can't receive emails from friends or write them by email. and in all honesty I'd send letter out by mail but there is supposedly only one post office that sends things outside of the us and it's far away from where i am and so that makes it hard. but tomorrow we have a multizona or zone conference and interviews and i'll ask the president or the assistants about all that stuff.

amanda, i'm glad you like your calling and that ur doing good. thank you for understanding all of this stuff..you help me more than you could ever know.

so i'm gonna try to send pics from myldsmail we'll see if it works. i guess that if you see some then it worked. so these letter's gonna be short and sweet. thanks to everyone for all the help and support. especially mom and dad for everything you do. i'll talk to y'all later

Wow, what a first week in Bolivia

ok, so what's up everybody from Bolivia for the first time...

wow. it's kinda weird that I'm actually here. so lets' start from the beginning i guess

got here on Tuesday but stayed in a hotel for two nights. during those two days we got to meet the president. president maynes who is really cool and a nice guy. ooober oober strict but that's the best type of president i think you can have. even though i think some rules are way too extreme....I'm starting a new mission this week and so I'm gonna try my best to be 100 percent obedient. which in this mission will be really hard actually.

so then on thursday we got to our area. i'm in the sixth ring of santa cruz. inside the city but on the outskirts. in fact my area actually runs to the limit of the city. my area is called fortaleza and it's fairly big. like i said it doesn't have a limit on one of the four sides. my comp is elder titto. he's a peruvian but from cusco. he has four and a half months in the mission and is a great elder. we get along great which is gonna help us a lot. in our area the missionaries were taken out a year ago. they went nine months without any missionaries and then three months ago two missionaries came to open it. now me and elder titto are taking their place...we are both new to the area and the missionaries who left didn't leave any investigators for us, outside of one young kid who's gonna be baptized this saturday. that's nice but outside of him literally there is even the area book to work with. it's kinda sad but we'll see.

so the thing about santa cruz is that it's very unorganized. there are very little street names and the houses don't have numbers. so it makes finding anything almost impossible unless you know the area. so me and titto have been walking around just looking and struggling to find any member and then asking the direction of other members and references. it's gonna be hard but we are starting to get to know the area really good in such a short time. we're confident you could say.

so this sunday was interesting. the ward had us share our testimonies and elder titto is apparently ...how do they say it...stage fright or shock or something like that.. .he doesn't like to be in front of a lot of people and talk. so that was fun...mine was a little more normal and trying to animate them to work with us. well, the member seem to be chill. they gave us a bunch of references and their directions by drawing a little map and so we should have a lot more to do this week, so we're even more excited.

now about bolivia. the mission here is ooober strict, like a said. the rule that i hate the most and will have to put everything i can to obey is that we can't receive letters from anyone who is not our parents, brothers and sister. basically if they're not direct family we can't read them. and we still can't write to anyone outside of those same people. in all honesty i don't know why they do that. i understand not being able to write them but not even being able to read messages from friends seem a little too much for me...but we'll see what we do. maybe y'all can send me a letter by emailing it to my ma first and then she forwards it to me but i don't exactly know. but if you send it directly to me i can't open it or read it. something ridiculous like that. but it's a rule and I'm gonna try to obey it even though i don't understand it.

now about the cool Bolivian weather. so, for those who don't know, santa cruz is like a jungle. it's very green with a lot of trees and bugs and animals in every frikin part of the city. kinda weird to be walking down the street and there is a herd of cows, on the next street a herd of chicken...then horses... then sheep... then frikin bambis...or something like that. it's just kinda funny. I'm gonna try to take fotos and send them but i don't know exactly when. santa cruz is kinda dangerous too. not like too dangerous but there are not too many lights at night so it's easy to get robbed if you're not careful. and like all jungles the weather is just strange. when we got here it was humid and hot. i was sweating like a person from Arizona. but then Friday and Saturday it got really cold. like ridiculously cold. it's windy and they say it will be for about two months more....fun fun. and the best part is when it rains it doesn't sprinkle like in Lima...we're talking like monsoon frikin type rain. you go one minute and you're drenched. it's horrible...but fun. i love the rain and the best part is that i got to use that giant trench coat thing that we got. the first time. I'm gonna have to buy boots though. o ya so the entire thing is mud and mud and wind and sweat and cold all at the same time. it's crazy. that's how you can describe the weather.

so ma, when i was in the airport i had to pay for the suitcases which was a ridiculous 214 dollar but the office is supposedly gonna give us that money back. if you noticed that's why it disappeared. i don't even think it'll be possible to use 214 dollars in Bolivia in a year. but ya I'll let you know how all that goes. but ya so when i need something it'll be a million times cheaper to buy it here then to have you send it so i will never ask for any packages or anything like that. if you wanna send something, send money....and even then remember that 20 dollars is 140 bolivianos here and a lot of money. so ya.

let's see don't know too much about the rules, the things are very different here than in Peru. so we'll see how all this goes. I'm still trying to get used to the schedule and things like that.

o on a random note, this Friday was my comp's birthday. so i bought him a cake and we had a very mini party type thing. with cake and dinner and some good old fashioned Disney music. it was kinda weird but i got some cool fotos and I'll send those out to y'all.

OK so i don't know what else to write...I'm excited to be here. it'll be fun. the people seem really chill and me and my comp are gonna work like crazy people to have some success in our area here.

ya so that's about that. bye

Bolivia, here I come

ok, everyone you're gonna have to forgive me for this letter. it's gonna be amazingly short even though maybe i have some interesting things to say. i'll try to write about them next week, but in all honesty don't think i'll remember.

so I'm going to bolivia....tomorrow. kinda got me by surprise when they called yesterday at 11:30 to tell me to be in the office on tuesday morning at 7. surprise surprise, it wasn't a joke.

so ya, basically I've got a mini freak-out thing going on. i don't know if I'm more excited or worried or just scared. in any case by wednesday i should be in bolivia. so not much more to say honestly. i cant even think of anything else.

o wait, i can. we baptized briggette crispin yauri on saturday and was confirmed yesterday. very cool and a great baptism service. ya, so that's that

sorry about it but i have a lot to do i have to get my suitcases to weigh less than 23 kilos and that's not likely to happen. in any case i'll try. so we're gonna get started on the packing and goodbyes.

I'll write more next week

Great Week in Bolognesi

ok everyone what's going on....so we're gonna try this one hour internet thing and see how this goes. in all honesty i think it's kinda pointless to say we have one hour and then not let us write to anyone outside of our families but ya know it's good and what the president wants so i wont complain. president maines in Bolivia is the same way so i might as well get used to it.

so ya this week was another great week...even better i think than last week. we found some new people had 5 in the church again. we have one girl with fecha for this saturday...might have another young boy with fecha for this saturday tomorrow..depending on his parents. and if all goes good should have two baptisms before i get shipped out to bolivia. in all honesty i really want these two baptisms. well i want a lot more but not for me. i want them so that i can remember bolognesi. even though this is my ugliest area and most dangerous, I've come to love it. i love being here. i don't really know why, in all honesty i don't wanna come back to this part when i finish the mission but i just love to work here. strange. i just really want this ward to grow and get better. it's strange because each ward has something about it that we connect with. in san juan that ward was like my family. just one big family. here in bolognesi i look at it as if i just wanna help them grow. like they're the kids and I'm a parent. it's kinda weird and hard to explain but something like that.

and ya so the two people with meta are bridget and jimmy. bridget is the little sister of our mission leader. for whatever reason they didn't baptize her at 8 so we get the number now that shes 9. but they said that she would have to decide for herself and the first time we taught her this girl just knew. i mean she'd gone to church a lot and everyone thought she was member so when we asked her if she wanted to get baptized she said...of course i do when can we. it was cute cause in her prayer she said ...thank you for my baptism that I'm gonna have....and just a really cute but ready girl. she's smart too. i wish i had been that smart when i was nine.

and then there's jimmy. he is our contact golden investigator. found him 3 weeks ago and each week since in the church. amazing really. but we want to baptize him this week to but didn't have the chance to talk to him after church on sunday so ya we have a cita with him tomorrow and we'll see how that goes. he's a great kid, 13 years old. he has Jehovah witness influence. it's actually kinda funny. everyone in his family is either Mormon or Jehovah witness except for his parents...who are inactive catholics. kinda funny. but we're happy for him and hope all goes well

so to answer some questions, no i don't know when I'm going to bolivia. still they haven't called. in theory we are just waiting for that last call to say pack ur bags and be in the office in two days, but who knows when that'll come. we are waiting for our visa. they did all the paper work and everything just need the visa. they said two to three weeks so it should be this or next week. fun fun.

outside of that nothing to bad has happened this week. kinda a nice chill week. and ya mom i got the packet. but the office did tell me to tell y'all that if you send packages and there is more than 100 dollars worth of stuff that well have to pay for it. supposedly the office said the package had 200 dollars worth of stuff and wanted me to pay another 240 soles for it, or something ridiculous like that. they even asked me to tip the guy who brings it from the post office. but whatever. just soes that y'all know...and it probably wont matter because when i go to bolivia the packages take like 3 months to get to me so i would say it'd be better not to send them anyways....but if you send packages put the receipts or have someone make a fake one and say that what's in there is less than 100 dollars.

so this one hour thing seems really boring. but on one note this week is Peru's like independence day. the 28th, tomorrow. so happy birthday peru. they celebrate this more than Christmas....they have their priorities mixed up sometimes, but whatever i'll eat good for it. o and today is also Amanda's two year baptism birthday. that's cool. so happy two years you mormon girl, your baptism was my first and favorite up to this point. thank you amanda.

so outside of that not to much else to say i think. ya know its funny i have one hour now which is what everyone wanted...but I've only used half and hour and so i guess the whole hour thing is overrated. but its still good. i didn't have very many letter this week...cough cough cough..cough...cough... just saying. no I'm kidding....but seriously mom number two ya know I've been waiting for one. and a very public thank you and i love you for both my mom and mom number two....and of course dad. and i hope abuelo is doing ok. let me know. bye

Ready for Boliva AND almost getting robbed

so hi everyone. this week was interesting for me and my comp. a great week in terms of the work. we found a ton of new people and have some people with goals for the first two weeks of august. the only problem with all that is that today i finished everything for bolivia. the only thing left is the phone call saying pack your bags you're leaving. and they say that will be within one or two weeks. which i am very thankful for. these last two weeks, for me personally, have been really oober hard. don't know why just felt kinda depressed and not too excited about much. but now knowing that i'm going to my mission, finally after so much waiting just gives me a new hope. i'm so excited to go. the problems here weren't the area really or my comps...they've been great. the office has given me a lot of problems and the rooms and just whatever but that's all behind us.

so remember last week i said that we had a contact who went to church and whatever. that kid...jimmy has got a meta for the 1st of august. just a really cool kid. i hope I'm here bc up to this point in my mission i haven't baptized a contact. all have been references or part member families. so I'm really excited for that but don't think i'll be here to see it. we also have the sister of our mission leader who for whatever reason didn't get baptized at 8 and is nine so it counts for us. sorta like cheating but hey you get what you can. so we're sorta excited. we also found 8 new people this week who seem to be really good. five went to church this week. a lot better than the one that went last week. so we're excited. we have been working good and with some new programs that we made up. they seem to be working really good so i'll take them with me to my new areas. they're called....every member a missionary, which includes every week going into one of the organizations and teaching about missionary work. how to give a reference or how to give out a book of Mormon. something like that. the others are...today i learned about the book of mormon. which includes going to the house of the members and leaving goals for them to read the scriptures as a family every day. and the last is the temple, is an eternal goal...which also includes going to the houses of members and getting them focused on the temple. so that's what we're doing. outside of that we have our lessons and time to contact every week. but a lot less this week than the first.

so ya the new pres has apparently made some changes about the internet. i haven't officially heard anything bc this morning i had to go to the office so i didn't go with the zone. but rumor has it we'll be getting one hour of Internet. so that's cool. and then the bad is that we won't be able to send emails to anyone outside of our family. which only actually affects like two people for me but still i don't like it at all. the punishment for breaking it is pretty harsh too. i don't know if it starts today or not but I'm not gonna risk it. so sorry Amanda that's why you don't have a letter. not my fault. but ya so i'll have plenty of time to read letters so make em longer or send more whatever y'all wanna do.

so on a good note. this week i almost got robbed. almost. i was with another greengo in a change and three little thieves come up behind us and apparently tried to take elder alders wallet. now i didn't see that but after that they stuck around and were like dancing behind us saying o look at the greengos and ya. then one of the kids tried to take of my backpack. i actually didn't realize that he was trying to take it off. i thought he was just playing. he was only like 13 or something. but ya i got mad and started chasing after the kid. i was gonna beat him down for touching my backpack and then i realized that he was trying to steal it and not playing with it. then i heard elder alder yell for me to stop and i did. only then did i realize that the kid ran around the corner in the dark and i had seen some other people there earlier and it struck me that this kids job isn't to do the stealing but to lead the people to that corner to be robbed my bigger people. smart kid i thought. and apparently our pench says that they use two big dogs to help win the fight. so ya ...good thing i heard elder alder yell. but ya that's how i almost got robbed. but i don't think my area is that dangerous. maybe. who knows but we watch ourselves pretty good and most people know that we don't really have anything valuable. except the pages of the book of mormon and bible which they steal and use to smoke. but haven't done it to me. so Bryce the race is still on. that doesn't count as getting robbed.

so since i still don't know if i have 1 hour or half a hour I'm only gonna do half because the pres seems to have burnt the zone leaders really badly about how the mission is tronki and all this good stuff. its true of course but I'm leaving anyways. he apparently think my zone is the most snakero...in his exact words. which means has the most girls who go after the missionaries. the zone leaders have to interview every set of missionaries and all that good stuff. but when they were supposed to talk to me one of them who knows me pretty good said.. no this kid already has a wife at home, nothings gonna happen with him. i sorta laughed and just... well what could i do. Amanda thanks for saving me a ten minute interview.

so my area is kinda cool though, we have a big tourist attraction apparently here. there were a lot of greengos anyways. it's nice too. i sent pics to mom and whatever. barranco is one of the oldest developed areas in Peru so it's sorta historical. i think it's gone to the dumps but there is like one nice part. like surco. most of it's poor and a rich part that is really hard to work in.

so here though I'm sure i wont be eating anything strange. my last pench was from kahamarka which is why i ate so much weird stuff. she is from lima so i wont eat too much strange things i think. ok times up

bye everyone. if you have question or whatever let me know. bye

I'm in Bolognesi, zone Chorrillos

so there were a lot of changes for me this week. first a change of area. i'm in bolognesi, zone chorrillos. it's a very dangerous and not a very easy place to work. seems like i always get the worst area of the zone but whatever...we've got a lot of plans and hope to have a good amount of success. the cool thing is that it's right next to surco surco. were i was b4. and we go to the same church. that new church that they were building for them is ours too. so i see all the members from surco and it's an amazingly built church. like a temple to be honest. this thing is huge. twice as big as any I've seen in the united states. i couldn't believe it to be honest. but it's amazing and is gonna help us a lot. so we're happy.

the second change is a change of comps. my new comp is elder quispe. he is a very cool elder. has just as much time as i do in the mission almost....3 weeks more. but he works good, teaches good and will be a good friend. this week has been great and i don't think we'll have any problems with anything.

so another change kinda interesting is that i got lowered you could say to comp menor. kinda funny actually. i promise mom i didn't ask for it but it's sorta what i wanted. being district leader was great and i loved it but i just wanna work and focus on my areas. it's a hard area to tell the truth and so i'm glad that we will be able to just go at it and do what we can. elder quispe was also a district leader b4 and now is comp mayor. so we're good. like i said we get a long amazingly.

and so just so you know where i am. my area, like i said, is somewhat dangerous. if i don't get robbed here i never will, let me put it like that. my second day here i saw a group of guys get run down by cops. they turned the corner and bang.... a good old fashion gunshot. very cool. we see fights and all sorts of cool stuff. amanda this is my payback for you going cliff diving or jumping or whatever it's called. so ha. no, but in all honesty I'm sure we'll be ok. most people don't say anything to us and we keep ourselves safe. we walk on the borders of our areas because the streets are more populated. i have no intention of getting robbed but Bryce the race is on buddy. first one who does buys the other one a steak when we get back.

so ya outside of that the new pres is a great guy. pres. manning from Idaho whose wife doesn't speak like any spanish. it's kinda funny. but she's learning well and really fast. so ya. i don't really know him yet because we only saw him speak at cambios but we should have a multizona and interviews soon and I'll let y'all know how that is.

so the area when i got there had almost nothing. one progressing and only two investigators. this week we took one young boy to church who is really chill. reminds me a lot of john from san juan. a great young kid that guess what...we found knocking doors. look at that, elder taliercio knocking on doors. not gonna hear that from too many of my areas but hear we're determined to do anything we need to to find people.

and ya that's all for this week i think. if anyone has any questions or anything let me know. thanks for all you help and support. and mommy number two needs to write me.....just throwing that out on the table. ya know. it's there ... to pick up and all..... if you want to..

o and bryce take care. I'm excited to hear about you field stuff now. just work and remember to obey the rules

New zone, new comp, new area

so hey everybody what's up. i'm all by myself right now....sorta. i'm with the zone obviously but without a comp. elder medina is done with his mission. this morning i killed him and sent his body home. i even have fotos. mom you'll get them soon

so ya, obviously, i have cambio. a new area and a new comp. everyone seems convinced that i'm gonna get raised and i think and hope that i don't. i wanna be comp menor or co co. i love being a leader and all that it's a lot of fun and i really like teaching. mostly i just don't like the interchanges i have to do. so as comp menor or coco you don't have to do those. that's the goal. but whatever and wherever i go i'm happy and i won't mind. obviously i'll let ya know next week where i am and about my comp.

so this week was a real normal week. a lot of goodbyes and good stuff like that. we, at the moment, have left a good amount of people for the new elders who come here. we have 3 people who are great and ready for baptism and so they'll be happy for that. we're sad to leave, but that's part of the mission.

just soes that everyone knows. the whole bolivia thing seems to be a joke. i've even heard talk about them bringing the greengos back from there. so in short i don't think i'm going anywhere for a while. which means that you can send letters and packets now. but send them to the mission home for peru lima sur. mom has the address.

the coolest lesson this week was with evelynn who is the friend of medalith who was baptized like 4 weeks ago. evelynn is a 20 year old girl who we teach with her two younger siblings. we teach them in the house of medalith and this week had a great lesson. we were teaching the plan of salvation, my favorite lesson but the hardest for me to teach in spanish. but for me this lesson just was special. i always have some problems with this lesson. don't know y but i do. but this time it was like my mouth moved by itself and i spoke words i don't even think i should be able to know. it was really cool. in the end they accepted a meta for their baptisms for the 18th. it'll be up to the new missionaries to finish the lessons and baptize them.

so this week was the fourth of july. don't do anything for that here tho i forgot that it was completely. sorry america. but ya i'm sure it was cool for you all.

o so we were supposed to change rooms this week but didn't. we got lazy and decided to leave it for the other elders. so they might not be to happy with us. but we never really wanted to go anyways. that's the way the cookie crumbles ya know. so that's that.

ok times up. thanks to everyone and i'll let you know next week about whats going on. i get to meet the new presidnet today. yayayayyayayya. i'm excited.

Through challenges and trouble we fulfilled our goals

ok so this week has been something kinda cool. so i finished my first year in the mission and like everyone says it just seems that the time has passed so fast. its crazy. but I'm glad that it goes fast because it makes you work good. you think man i don't have that much time left so you just go and go like the energizer bunny on steroids. the party was really cool and fun and i sent mom like a million fotos so they should get up soon. it was really cool with some other elders and pinatas and cake in the face ad stuff. very cool.

so then this week we had a baptism too. it was esther veronica vazquez chuque and ya. very cool girl. but ya like always a lot of problems. we changed the time and day of her baptism like 8 times. no joke. it was supposed to be on friday and then saturday and in the end sunday morning. but we had ward conference so it had to be really early. like 7 30 so that was fun. but the baptism turned out nice. i baptize her and again mom has fotos. proof that I'm sending fotos over mommy

so this week we had a girl who was gonna get baptized but hasn't gone to church in two weeks so were gonna wait till next week. this week is gonna be kinda bum week i think because we're gonna have to change rooms and it's really far away from the pench and the office doesn't wanna give us 10 soles more for bus rides over there. also the room is on the limit of our area and in a place somewhat dangerous. so I'm not happy with it. but i'm leaving anyways. we'll only be there like 5 days or something. but I'm worried about the other elders. but i guess the president knows what he's doing.

so this month we fulfilled our goal finally. it was a lot of work and not easy. a lot of problems and challenges but we did it. and in the conference there were close to 130 members which is the most since i got here six months ago.

just soes everyone knows cause you'll find out soon enough is that the word is i'm not going to bolivia for another couple of months. nobody knows really. but apparently some elders had problems with getting their visas and so they're keeping everyone here or something like that.

and ya mom don't worry bout the packets. I'm willing to just let it go and just keep working. i forgot to ask the papi if i could go get the shoes tho but whatever. I'll do it this week. we're gonna be in the office anyways with medina finishing. o which reminds me this week is cambios week. and ya I'm gonna have a change. at least of comps and probably area also. i have six months in solidaridad and it's been great but it's a long time. so that's whats going on.

so ya happy june birhtdays to everyone who's had it. especially all the sobrinos. harrison and rythm sorry bout the spelling and ya so have fun everyone. talk to you next week

My Mission Birthday

so this week is my mission birthday and we are planning on celebrating it as such. the one year mark is a very big date for a missionary. and since it is and i have such a long time in the zone and everything the entire zone is coming over to the house on thursday for my surprise one year and going away party. also since elder medina, utia and lopez are finishing their missions we made it a one year party lots of going aways party thing. it'll be fun. since its our pench and tia cosa though they said everything will be decorated with puccas and penguins. so that'll be funny.

anyways. president fierro finishes his mission this week. the 30th is his last day. also apparently the day bryce goes to argentina. so yay him. I'm sad he's leaving but I'm leaving too so it doesn't really matter. he's helped me out a lot. spiritually emotionally and with everything. hes a great man and will be a great leader.

so about bolivia news says that to save money the mission will send me with the missionaries who are finishing their mission this cambio. so id be going the 6th of july to bolivia. however reports are coming in from lots of people and in the end i have no idea when im going. but ya what can you do.

so this week no baptisms but we found some new people and put baptism goals for three people. friends of medalith. they are really cool too and I'm sure they'll get baptized. this month well finish with 3 baptisms. medalith john and veronica. the other two who had fecha for this month sorta didn't go to church and so couldn't get baptized but that's the way the cookie crumbles sometimes. were still very excited for the baptism of veronica this saturday. it'll be great.

so just soes y'all know, in bolivia they give us one hour to talk to people on the Internet. mostly so that you can read all the emails and whatever. the thing is that you can only send emails to your family.. which is basically all i do anyways. except for some friends and Amanda. but having a hour to read and write emails will be very cool I'm excited.

so this week we had a multizona which was like a giant goodbye party for papi fierro and his wife. it was really nice. at church things have gotten a lot better with the members who earlier were talking pretty badly about me and elder medina. i would do my interchanges with other elders and hear some horrible stuff about the elders from solidaridad but that's all changed. its not that they were saying bad things about us just that we don't work or whatever because for the longest time we didn't have baptisms. but now we do and things are ok. there always has to be some problems...if not that means were not working like we should.

so ya I'm excited for this one year thing. they say it all downhill from there. like turning fifty. sorry for the reference mom. just kidding. but just gonna put it out here. bryce just keep going. the mission will be so much different than the mtc but you're gonna love it. just no matter what just keep going. it seems like every month I've had something that just got me wanting to go home...it'll always be there because it means satan is trying to get to you but no matter what find the strength and just keep going. i really and trying hard to get into this missionary role and im finally starting to teach really good. thanks to elder medina. I'm excited to go to bolivia just aoes everyone knows too. it'll be a great experience and I'm gonna love it there. except the heat

so ya lets see i think that's about it. this week is a big one and next week will be to. my one year, papi fierro leaving, and going to bolivia all in these two weeks. so thanks for the letters everyone. melia and pam. i love hearing what luke and alana harrison, rachel and ian well all of them, have to say. its so cool. and dad thanks for keeping me up in wats going on in the ward. i miss everyone but were half way through this now. ill work even harder the second half. so thanks for all ur help and support. bye

Happiness in the Gospel

hey everyone this is gonna be a really short letter.

i sorta wanna write back to everyone whose been sending me letters. we'll see how i do. anyways this week was great. i learned so much that i know will help me throughout my life. the thing that hit me the most was when i was in a cambio with another elder from my district and i went there hoping to help him understand some things but i came back to my area so much more filled with knowledge than I've ever been before. i know without a doubt what i wanna do for the rest of my life. i love the gospel. I've made mistakes and I'll always make mistakes but i will never let anything get in the way of the fact that i can be with my family forever. and god. that's nice too. it's amazing how this just hit me reading something i must have read 20 times before. this time just straight to my heart. and it's gonna change me more than most people can imagine.

anyways john cesar peralta rivas got baptized this week- i was very excited and he is such a great young kid. i know he'll be active and a great help to the church in the future.

this Sunday i had a talk at church. and it was a good one. my best i think. it was weird cause i planned to talk about one thing, had scriptures and everything and then talk about something else. but everyone was just eyes open dead quiet listening. to be honest i don't remember much of what i said but i remember feeling power in the word that came out of my mouth. i talked about repentance and about how the church needs to be a family for us. kinda ironic for the situation i find myself in. the talk honestly was more for me i think than for the members. but i think they got a lot out of it.

this letter has been kinda weird and a little short. just know everyone that I'm thankful for everything I've learned from the gospel. i know it's true. i know it. I'll do anything to make sure for the rest of my life i can live it. and then to share it with everyone i can. it really brings happiness.

talk to you

Baptism!!! and heating the water for it

hey everyone.

so a lot to go through sorta. this week was a good one for us and then this coming week seems to be full of stuff too. so the work goes on, like the energizer bunny.

so this saturday medalith cueva cachique got baptized. yayaya her. we're very happy and excited for her and her now complete Mormon family. so they can live happily ever after in the gospel. no but seriously it was not easy getting her baptized. not that she was hard just that she was saying all this week that she wanted a firmer response to her prayers and then when she decided ya I'm going to, she told us that she has a health issue with cold water. and of course hot water in the winter time here is impossible to find. so me and elder medina spent all saturday afternoon at the church trying to find a way to heat up water faster than boiling water and dumping it in. so we had heard that there is a way to do it with the electricity of the outlets. so we, being the smart young men that we are, decided it was worth the risk and decided to try it. mom and amanda you may not wanna read this part. so we got two long electric cables, one really long metal pole, and a plastic pole to keep the metal pole up. got the experiment set up. then elder medina who knows a little bit about the stuff put in the first cable in the outlet. cool. nobody died, no problems. but when he put in the second.... spark and all the lights in the church go out. all of them. but he didn't die. so that's the good part. and neither did i. in the end we decided the best way to heat up water isn't with electricity and a metal pole. so we spent 3 hours boiling water and in the end she was baptized in basically still cold water. but she did it.

so ya. outside of that, this week was a good one. we put baptism goals for four other people. one for this sat, one for the 20 and two for the 27th. so this month seems to be the fruit of our labors month. and we are very grateful. in part it has to do with our new sense of desire to end here with all our heart, mind, might and anything else you can think of. we plan on four more this month and pray that it'll happen. the people who have the goals are called... jonathon peralta, veronica, alicia yaguna, and karin dabilla. all four are great people. veronica is our neighbor and contacted us about wanting to be a part of a religion and wants to learn more. gold. jonathon a reference from a member. also gold. alicia is the niece of the lady we baptized in feb. she's like silver and karin, the sister of a member, also silver. so in the end we are excited for the opportunity to have such high priced peoples, because it seems like all we've been finding was those dirt rocks that break up in your hand. but now everyone is valuable to us. our eyes have changed and we see them a little like God does. just hope they do their part so we can do ours.

so ya some good good lessons this week. the best one with medalith. we were at her house and she was saying how she had decided not to get baptized. we didn't have an appointment that day but felt like we should visit her. anyways, after teaching her a little bit we decided to kneel and pray and ask right there if she should or not. the spirit was so strong that as we kneeled me and elder medina could feel she would get an answer. apparently she did too, because as we kneeled before we even started praying she said, i know i need to get baptized we don't need to pray. it was something else really.

ya so today i got to find our more about bolivia. did my last paper work for it or so they say. for sure ill be leaving before the next cambio the 6th of july but it could be the last week of june or the first of july. so i will finish my one year here in solidaridad which makes me very happy. and i will be going to bolivia which also makes me very happy. in the end I'm oober excited for everything that's going one. it is hard though, its been hard. but I've always had just the right amount of help at just the right time. funny how God works. no testimony till after the trial of your faith.

so tomorrow we have interviews with the president. hes gonna burn me for a couple of things probably. not having a new room and for getting back late last week but we have five people getting baptized this month so we are working. in the end he won't be able to burn us to bad. my district had four this week. were just amazing i think. the other here are such great missionaries it's amazing.

so i would write more but my time is almost up. thanks for everything and all your help.

o and i got one of the 3 packets u sent. the office said they got the other two but can't find them. the missionary in charge is looking but lost my packets. we'll see if he finds them. I'll let ya know. i got the one with the card but the password or pin number isn't the same. did you change it. anyways let me know. talk to everyone later. bye

Very good week teaching

ok hi everyone.


first off congrats to anyone who graduated and all that. very nice. and Amanda sorry i missed it but ya my ma says they were all loud and everything for you so i'm cool with that. just imagine if i had been there how i woulda embarrassed you so you should be happy that it was just them screaming. but I'm proud of you. and thanks mom and everyone who went there for supporting her for me.


ok now this week was a very good week to me and my comp. this saturday we should have a baptism. of medalith cachique. she's really cool girl we've been teaching for about a month. she's ready to do it just doesn't know it yet. but were gonna teach her again tomorrow and get her all ready ready for the baptism. also we put another goal for a baptism of another young girl we're teaching for next saturday. her name is alicia yaguna. the niece of teresa that was baptized in feb. so we're happy for that too. this week also we plan on putting a goal for two more people. a young man named jonathon peralta..golden investigator, really cool kid. and then my little love, an 8 year old girl who you would think was my little sister the way she hangs around and clings onto me whenever she sees me. but we gotta talk to her parents first. but in the end it looks like finally were getting the fruits of our work here. if i stay this month I'll be six months in this area and i love it. its an amazing place and the members take great care of us.


like i said last week, me and my comp are working harder than we have up to this point. he is ending his mission here and i am going to bolivia from here so we want to leave this place with all the member praying that we don't have to go. were doing everything possible to find people and teach them. hes just an amazing teacher he really is. i on the other hand don't teach as good but i get the trust and friendship of our investigators and they love having us two or three times a week and it helps a lot. they can progress faster. so in the end even though i have my problems and he his... we work great together. so that's good. proof that god does know more than us. were gonna be 4 and half months together and the first 3 without baptisms. but the fourth should have 3 at least.... we plan on 5. so that's good. but who knows.


i still don't know when I'm going to Bolivia, sorry everyone. i talked to the lady in charge and she said this week i should do more paper work but it looks like i might stay here till the end of the month. which i would love. I'm coming up on a year mark and i wanna pass it here in solidaridad. the pench and the people there are like my family and so it'd be great. but whatever. come what'll come.


so this week i got to baptise someone. not one of my investigators but another one from armonia. i feel bad, like I'm taking a baptism from them but the girl wanted me to do it and i couldn't talk her out of it. she was a young shy girl and int he interview i got her to open up and she just had a good time in the interview and wanted me to baptise her. kinda strange but whatever. it was nice to get in some water. I'm hoping to do it soon with our investigators.


o so sorta a funny story. not really actually but it happened. this week we had a family home evening with the family cachique. medalith who has fecha. anyways we finished late cause they got there late and when we got home president had apparently called. so i called him and he basically just let me have it. i understand why because it was fairly late. but ya just sorta like my first burn by the president.


ok so this week also elder snow from the seventy presidency came and talked to us. a great devotional. and it was in the ccm so it had all the missions in lima there so i got to see the other people who were in the ccm with me. that was cool. he talked about brothership and it really hit me. he mentioned nephi and lehi, the brother missionaries, and i thought about me and bryce. since bryce has gone out it's given me another reason to work even harder. i wanna be his example still. i know he'll be a better missionary but i wanna be there with him. but it was a great talk that he gave. he had a translator though so it was a relatively short talk. but ya. quality of quantity.


ok so i think that's about all. we are still looking for a room. not like i wanna change but the office says we have to. to be honest we are looking but i'm glad we can't find one. o and on another note just soes that everyone knows. winter is here in peru and now it rains and is cloudy like almost all day. i love it. i love that weather since in arizona it's sorta never happens. but it's getting kinda cold now. but i starting to wear my sweater and so it's nice. but since we're on a hill it gets really hot with a sweater on. so we basically put it on and off like 30 times a day.. kinda funny


ok well times up. bye everyone. thanks for everything. and mom did you get the packet. and bryce keep going at it buddy. you'll be in argentina soon enough.

Nephi & Jacob; Jason & Bryce

hey everybody, how's it going.

so some interesting things this week. so this week is cambio but i don't have any changes. i didn't expect to because i will be going to Bolivia soon but still. same comp and area. i should be here only about 3 weeks more but i guess you never know.

so this week we had some cool interesting experiences. we did a noche de hogar or family home evening with our best investigator. her name is medalith cachique and is 20 years old. very cool but wants to be sure that the book of Mormon is true before she gets baptized. so we did this noche de hogar and it turned out nice. i did the lesson in it and it ended with games. they are fun. we do a lot of those fhe in this area. it's part of the mision plan here and it helps a lot. we always have some good people there. also this week we got some good references from some members. two families and both seem pretty cool. we have a new desire to do everything we can to help the people here as best we can. elder medina is dying here and i will leave to bolivia from here so we plan on leaving everything that we have here in solidaridad. and so we hope to have a lot success.

i have not been feeling too good lately but, as of saturday, I've been feeling a lot better. don't know why. kinda weird how things just seemed to change so fast. but i feel good right now. I'm happy it seems. excited for whats to come and feeling a million times better than a week ago. and Bryce in part it has to do with you buddy. i don't know why but i just read ur letter that u sent right before you got to the mtc and what you said there i think helped a lot. it seems corny but my goodness just got to me. you said that i was more like nephi and you like jacob... but lets just let jason be jason and bryce be bryce and we'll make nephi and jacob want to be us. how amazingly true i want that to become. see this is why i always said that you will be the better of the two buddy. but i say lets do it. up to this point I've given a lot of myself. but i know i can do more. I'm a better missionary than what I've been to this point. i know you''ll be a great missionary if you just follow the rules and forget everything else but the work. its hard. lets do it. lets make nephi and jacob want to be us. i know we can. I'll do my best, u do your best and we'll do it. I'm proud of you buddy and i don't mind saying that i love you.

ok now .... this isn't meant to be a letter just to bryce so sorry but i get going on one thing and next thing you know ..well ya.

so this week i didn't do any new paper work for bolivia but i'm sure i will have to now. the cambios in the zone are mostly in the other district. in fact the only change in my district is that elder crisanto, the zone leader is dying, which by the way means finishing the mission, not like dying. so I'll have a new zone leader. and no that's not the one that i had problems with before, he's still here and still a pest but I'm learning to love him. slowly but surely.

and it's 100 positive elder medina girlfriend left him. he has just one month left and so we'll see how that affects him. the poor guy. i feel bad for him but he seems ok as of right now. just amazing though that after 23 months of waiting you'd leave someone. but ya. so this is the second time this has happened to me where my comp's girlfriend left him. i hope it'll be my last, it's sorta a awkward situation.

and to end just wanna say thanks and happy birthday to everyone whose birthday it is. i miss everyone and am glad to hear from everyone every once in a while. I'll try to write more but with the time ya know how it goes.

and bryce the secret to writing fast in the mtc is print out ur emails and just type. it cost like 7 cents every page but it's worth it. and then while typing try to make a plan on what you're gonna say, write it on a piece of paper and take it with you. i try to plan out what i wanna say every week... most Weeks i end up forgetting the paper at the home tho but it helps. and just so you know the timer is only in the mtc. not in the field when you get here you have your leaders and comp as timers.

ok bye everyone

Interesting week

ok so some sorta interesting things this week.

first of it is 100 percent sure that I'll be going to Bolivia. I'm going in June, is what they told me but they don't know the exact date. i went to immigrations this week and started all the stuff to go. i have to go two more times, at least, to finish and when I'm done with all of that I'm off. she said i was the first from my group going back so that'll be interesting. I'm excited to be going. things are cheaper there and it's a totally different atmosphere... not literally. but ya so in about a month I'll be there in another country. so that's kinda cool. ooo and that means to anyone don't send cards or packages.

on another interesting note, this week on weird food that jason has to eat because the members give him strange stuff.....frikin sheep stomach. apparently they have 3 and i ate parts of two of the 3 ... great. i think it's something that they have there to eat but this stuff looked like starfish, tasted like star fish and was squishy. the only cool part was that while i was eating it i had that finding nemo thing going through my head. the i will call you squishy and you will be my squishy thing. i don't know if anyone has any idea what i meant with that but whatever. so it's called mondongo here. the name even sounds horrible. and it is the worst thing to this point that i have eaten on my mission. ayyayayyaya mondongo.

and ya outside of that sorta boring normal week for me. we taught a lot, found some new people. our girl with fecha is gonna wait another week or two to prove to herself that she is ready to be baptised but she is still totally amazing. in church i still teach at least one class a day. my comp had to give a talk and teach two classes so that was fun. it was interesting this week the bishop talked to him because he's not always with me at church. i don't blame him, none of my comps stay with me because i always end up finding my way to the primary or nursery. anyways the bishop asked him y he wasn't with me and my comp says because my comp likes kids too much. and if i leave the room two or three kids start screaming so he'd have to go in for us to be together. anyways the bishop said something like even though you don't like kids maybe your time with elder taliercio is so that you can learn to like them. i thought that was funny. elder medina is my comp so that he learns to like little kids. whatever. it's cool though I'm like the most loved elder in the primary ever. all the kids greet me with hugs and try to pull me to their classes every hour. it's kinda cute.

anyways my time's almost up. just wanna send a good luck wish to everyone who is finishing up with finals and a oober special good job sorta thing to anyone graduating this year.

o and hi amanda
o and hi luke harrison rachel i cant spell rythyms name yet sorry, alana ian saige alexis and baby number 3 of mistias

o and mom number 2 i know that I'm amazingly good looking but i think some of it might have rubbed off on you when i was there at ur house be sure to give that back when i get back ok..jjajjajajjajaja

and mommy i love you and you too dad.

and bryce... glad you like the mtc buddy, its a good place. take advantage of it while you can.

o and say hi to skyler and tyler for me. let me know how they're doing and all that good stuff

ok everyone. thanks for everything and I'll let y'all know i f i have cambios this week or not. bye