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