Birthday and Carnival in Peru

sorry it took so long.

but ya this week has been a good week. my first lesson to my district, my first baptismal interview, and my first something else that I'm forgetting. but I'm sorta getting the hang of this dl thing. I'm not that happy about it still. I'm sorta just let me work sorta missionary. don't want to be a leader, don't wanna climb any sorta ladder. let me work hard and that's that. but i'll do whatever they ask of me.

and ya my district is amazing. the numbers are really high and we have a bunch of people who'll be ready for baptism and willing to listen to us. we're excited about the progress we're making.

the assistants did a change with us this week. since the two district leaders are my old zl and my comps old zl it was a good change. elder vickery came here to solidaridad, and his comp with our zls. it was great. didn't burn us like all the other assistants did. he was nice and is gonna show me how to get all the erased fotos back. so mom u can be happy.

we here have four people really chill. the people here do progress a little better than in surco. a ton of lessons, and enough in the capilla to make us happy. but the most important thing is that they are getting the chance to hear about the gospel.

I'm sorry to hear bout the cardinals. I'm not gonna say that i was watching the game, cause i wasn't. the cable went out. so i couldn't. i wasn't too happy. but with what i hear I'm sorta glad cause i woulda been an unhappy little missionary if i was.

on that note. yesterday was a very important day for me here in the mission. my first day of carnivals here in peru. everyone in the street trying to shower u with buckets of water, great. i learned really fast not to take my book of Mormon with me. but ya we'll see how the rest of the month goes. they say it's all of feb. fun fun

and tomorrow also is sorta an important day for me. sorta but not really. we have citas all day so my birthday will be spent with investigators. what else could a missionary ask for.

ya today i had to go to Interpol and that was fun. four hours of fingerprinting. yay Interpol.

and mom the address for u to send that packet to is

Mz J Lt. 12 Asociacion 27 de Julio
San Juan de Miraflores
Lima, Peru

but in the name of Ricardo Fernandez Santisteban. because he will be the one picking it up and they will need to see his id.

ok so thank u everyone for ur letters and support. thanks to the nelsons and two other people who sent me a packet. i don't know who it is till tomorrow but thank u still. i miss y'all but i know what I'm doing is right and is helping me more than i had ever imagined

bye

Good but sweaty week in Surco

hi everyone.

this week was a good one for me. still as always some problems but for the most part the work is getting better here in surco. still nobody with fecha but we could get two before this cambio the 19th. so at the very least if i leave, the missionary coming in will be very happy. but with every passing day i think it's more likely i stay here in surco another cambio. the members say they are asking for me to stay. i don't know if it's because they like me that much or they're scared to leave the area in the hands of elder chafloque. and it's not that they're scared to leave it to him just that some members here have heard a lot of bad things about him. since he's kinda a special missionary he doesn't eat sometimes or just basically says he hates the food the pench makes, and because of that stuff the hna. was saying some things about him to some of the other members. and well, it got as far as our dl and so we'll see what happens.

all that mess aside, the members do help me a lot. they are always asking how they can help and making our investigators feel good. the thing is that when we teach i do most of the talking. sounds like me but believe me it's not what i want to do. elder chafloque doesn't talk too much. but we're working out the kinks and things seem to be getting a little better.

we had two investigators in the church yesterday. as many as the first three weeks of this cambio combined, so we were sorta happy. we split up and i went with one ym and chafloque with another so that we could get more. we took 7 people to the church. 3 recent converts, 2 investigators and 2 menos activos. so we were content. and ya, we'll see if we can get more investigators there. we're teaching a bunch of lessons. for 3 weeks in a row we've had 15 lessons. the most i ever got with elder utia, was 12 i think. so things are going good they just don't progress quickly here. but I'm practicing patience and learning a lot.

this Thursday we ate lunch with the pres. it was a lot better than i thought it would be. everyone laughing and joking around. it was actually fun. whoda thunk.

it's summer here in Peru and it shows in my shirts. I've never liked to sweat so with the humidity here i wanna die. i think that's why we have so many lessons so that i can get inside. however that doesn't help too much because i haven't entered a house that has air conditioning. but I'm sure i will.

this May the members in surco will have a new church building. everyone is really excited. i wanna be here for it but I'd have to stay 2 cambios more. not gonna happen most likely. but i keep my hopes up.

thanks to everyone for ur letters and all. i have two more packages coming to me this week so I'm as Happy as i was watching star wars before my mission. thanks and i'll talk to u in a week