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

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.

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

From Elder CHristofferson to being bitten by a dog

so whats up everyone

sorta a lot to go through and not much time

this week was really cool. on Wednesday we had a devotional with d todd christofferson and it was really cool. talked about baptism and really prepped us up to see an apostle there. we got to shake his hand and say hi too so that was cool. also since it was in the ccm we got to see all the other elders who were with us in the ccm, well a lot of them. i saw most of the other elders who were going to Bolivia, and something cooler than christofferson was there, my mission president. president maynes was there and everyone, who had Bolivia got to meet him and say hi, that was cool

outside of that, we got one girl with a baptism date, nov 8th so that's chill, today cambios, but not for us. utia wont be dl which is good bc he was starting to get really worried he would have to shape up and be the dl. but its cool. they're adding a new district in our zone so u never know what can happen.

something kinda fun, bryce ur gonna love this, i got bit by a dog. but not bad. luckily i had my book of mormon in my left hand. i walked by and saw this dog laying down. i heard him get up and as i turned around, he bit me. but with the divine revelation we have, i had started lifting up my book and the dog got scared, so he pulled back a little and just got my calf a little, no marks or anything. so that's that.

the work goes good, we've found some families in our areas and are teaching them. they just don't wanna progress though. that is don't wanna go to church. but we try. it seems like whenever we have a great lesson with someone, we go back and they're drunk. a lot of drinking here, which is sorta a problem. most don't wanna drink and want to change, just need some help. so that's that too.

something kinda cool, yesterday, me and utia got caught in a crowd of catholics, they were in a parade type thing and stopped to pray and me and utia were in the middle. well sure enough, a member sees us and yell, hey mormons. and all eyes go to us. he was dressed normally, we are in white shirts and ties, so ya. got some dirty looks after that but all turns out good. it was kinda funny.

that's all i think. thanks for ur help, letters, support and all that. and yes i do get dear elders. just its sorta slow, but the letters are slower cause i haven't gotten any, but no worries. thanks again for everything, i miss u all and since its the second cambio i did the math and have 604 days left, or something close to that. so ya. bye