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.