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

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

YAY, we had a baptism!!!! (and also...I ate cat)

ok everyone

hi

so we had a baptism this week. yayayyayyay. teresa rodas huamani. good for her. we were very happy because she had been listening to the missionaries for 2 and a half years. but finally got baptized. this week we have another sure one too. even more excited. the one for this week is oro. or gold in English. he contacted us and in two weeks bam baptism. pure gold. but we have a lot that are hard and we are working oober hard to get everyone here in some water. but patience and long suffering is a trait we learn to have.

so outside of that mom and Amanda ur gonna love this...... guess what i ate? last week i ate cuye and this week ..........gato like real live cat. well, not live, but real. it was actually amazingly good. i was really surprised. i tell everyone my favorite food is cat now. it's really good. anyone with a cat u don't like, send it here and we'll eat it. or try it for yourself.

ok what else. today is cambios. and the results..........

elder santi has a cambio and i stay here in solidaridad.

he's kinda scared, his first cambio. but he's happy to go, i think. a lot of the members would joke around with him a lot. now they do it to me but since I'm a little more playful, its cool. he's really serious. good elder though. I'm sad he's leaving.

in our zone four people have cambio. our zone leader is finishing too. fun fun. so well see who'll be my new compie..

this week for pday we also got to go to the

PARQUE DE LAS LEYENDAS or PARK OF LEGENDS

which even though the name is kinda cool is just a zoo. i was kinda disappointed. i thought i'd be learning about legends and Peruvian history and all i got was monkeys and birds, and other ugly animals. but the day got a lot better when i found out they had penguins. let me tell u. penguins turn any bad day into a day of joy and peace for the soul. i took so many pics with them. yayayyaya penguins.

so ya that was basically the week. thanks Pam and kirk for the music. this week we're gonna play road to zanarkand from ffx but next week we'll use the songs for sure. and happy birhtday melia mabel collins taliercio. u turn 489 today. enjoy ur youth....or the little u have left.. hahhahah jk. but happy birthday..

and ya what else................................................................................i don't think anything.

o wait ....

mom i got the packet that u sent to the house and not the one that u sent to the office. the one to the house took 14 days. the one to the office will be at least one month b4 i get it. so the house is better. put the address of the house and the name of Ricardo and all that. but on the packet u spelt his second last name wrong i think. check the email and be sure. and i'll send his name again so u can know exactly what it is. but that system works a lot better. so tell everyone how, please. thank you. love ya

and ya. thanks to everyone for everything. bye till next week

GO CARDINALS! and a new assignment

ok everybody.

first of all and most importantly...........

GO CARDINALS. gonna win a superbowl and only waited till the year i leave to do it. send my thanks to the coach. how many years have I rooted for them waiting for a year when they make the playoffs and now look as soon as i leave. it's almost as bad as the star wars movie coming out while i was gone. almost but not quite.

anyways. second most important. i have a change. don't know where or as what or with who. just a change. so I'm happy and sad. i don't wanna leave the members, because they have been absolutely the best for me. but that being said, to stay in surco for six months would be horrible. and the reason for that is because surco is really small. now just soes y'all know how small. we're talking, from pinnacle peak rd. to los gatos. that wide. and then up to the mountain. really it's like a little rectangle. from one corner to the other is 40 min walking. so I'm happy to be going to a new area. I've basically knocked every door here. people i don't even remember know me. walking down the street and random people shout elder talercio. nobody says the "i" here. but ya. some even know my first name. don't really understand how though.

so today at 130 I'm getting my new area and comp. today and a lot of this week has been saying goodbyes to people. i sorta figured it would be better safe than sorry and it turned out to be the right choice. so i leave my area in the hands of elder chafloque. I'm more confident in him than the members. almost everyone has asked, cant he leave instead of you. but i tell them that elder chafloque is twice the elder i am and really they should be happy he is staying and not me. most think that i say that just to be nice. but i honestly believe it. i look back at what I've done here and i feel like i coulda shoulda done more. like i had opportunities and let them slip. i did my best though so i leave happy . i think they'll send a lider here though. the prez said he wants a leader in surco so we'll see. it's a good area, one that i really wanna come back to after the mission. and the hna that we live with has already offered me a room for 100 dollars a month. she says for me shell kick out whatever elders are there. her and her family have been the best thing about surco for me. they are like a third family now. mom number 3, mas o menos. but she said that after me she never wants to talk to the missionaries again, bc she said that she oober sad, and doesn't wanna be sad. so she wont talk to the others. obviously it's sorta a joke. she probably won't talk as much, or invite to as many things and whatever, but shes a great person and the missionaries are lucky to be there. she was even planning my birthday party. kinda funny. but that's part of the mission.

lets see, o ya. i got more packets. thank u mom number two and melia, dan alana, ian, gdog, mike and of course the all powerful amanda. i loved everything. it's the greatest feeling in the world when u ask for something u need, like ties, and then now i have over 70. i had 5 for like 6 weeks and now i can go a different tie everyday, for a whole cambio. that's cool.....

what else, go cardinals. superbowl champions or superbowl losers either way it's history. and i do love history. that's a knee slapper. for me anyways. maybe an inside joke. i might actually be the only person in the world who thinks that's funny and now I'm talking a lot about it and for everyone else this is probably boring.

so ya a change of topic. so i think that's all

surco has been a great area for me. not a ton of success, if u count success by baptisms. 4 but i feel good about what I've done. i think that's the most important. thanks to everyone for all ur help, how do u spell support or sapport... I'm gonna go with support but nobody can make fun of me if I'm wrong. but ya support and prayers and everything. and ya tomorrow we start in a new area. i'll let y'all know how it is next week

pajarin cama... which is quechuan for hasta manana
i don't know how to say till next week. so that will be good enough i think

o and my name in quechuan is jasonki talierkanchis
or something like that

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

I'll go where you want me to go...Bolivia or Peru Lima South

and the results of this cambios cambio is...................

Utia is leaving surco and elder taliercio is staying. another six weeks in surco for me at the least. it's really good bc I'll be here for Christmas and new years. and if i stay one more I'll be here my bday too. that would be the best but that's thinking too far ahead. we find out today at 2 where he goes and who my new comp is. I'm scared and excited at the same time.

but that's part of the mission I'm sad thought that elder utia is leaving. he's been a great comp and has taught me a lot. he left with 5 of the 8 baptisms in the ward so far this year. so the ward really loved him. we spent the last two days saying goodbye to investigator and members. and they're giving him a lot of gifts and whatever. so I'm sorta excited for when i get changed. all i need to do is get more baptisms than he did.

and on that note, its very likely that i will bc, we found one family. that is like golden. they contacted us, and almost all her family is member but in arequipa, another part of peru, outside the mission. so they are a family of 4. also eloy really wants to be baptised we're just waiting for the time to get to the end of dec. or a little later. we have a bunch of other people we're teaching. this new no contacting system is really help the work in surco. some number that don't count for us as missionaries that have really gone up is inactives returning to the ward. this cambio we had like 10 families return to the church. it's been good. we might not get all the baptisms but we building up the church. so i think its still good work. and they're giving us lots of references so its working in a sense. but people progress slowly here in surco. i love surco though. id be happy staying here all my mission. but the time will soon come for a change and I'll be happy wherever i go. it's the same thing, i wasn't happy with being in Peru Lima sur at first but now i love it. i almost don't even wanna go to Bolivia even if i get the chance. but what I've learned is that we go where God wants us. it's that simple. there is a plan and the steps are in front of us. all we gotta do is keep going ya know. and it helps to have a good attitude bout things. the mission is hard and missionaries have a lot more problems than i though they did, but with a good attitude the problems become easy to overcome. so keep a good attitude everyone and just keep going. the problems are for our good. I've learned that.

and ya on that good note time is almost up. thanks for all ur prayers support and help. as always i wanna let u all know its very appreciated and it helps a lot. . till next week

Baptisms and new way of getting contacts

ksjdklgjfskjgklsdfl
sdkjtglkasrgksadfir534kljdsflgns

that's to sayge and alexis. it says hi back and that they are both pretty amazingly awesome too. and so are the other sobrinos que tengo.

so how's everyone doing. thanksgiving this week and peru doesn't celebrate it so we did nothing for it. it was good though. another day of work.

so this week we had two baptisms again. but this time they are officially my investigators and i taught them all the way through. it's cool to find them, teach em and baptize them. and i did baptize both of them. the other missionaries sorta said i should and both agreed. utia just didn't wanna get into the cold water. and it was cold. but after the first 5 min in it it seemed normal. and why was two baptisms taking longer than 5 min? because since one was really old and sorta fat, she didn't bend. so i attempted to baptize her 5 times. that was isabel. but the fifth time worked fine and that was that. poor linda, ten years, was so cold that right after i baptized her she came up and jump on me. like how a girlfriend would jump on a boyfriend she hasn't seen in a long time. it was kinda funny. so i had to carry her out of the fount and ya. it was really cool. sunday they both got confirmed and a lot more friends. so we're really excited.

so i don't think i mentioned that our zone is trying something different than the rest of the mission. we didn't wanna count contacts and came up with a strategy, which is pme, which doesn't talk about contacting at all, and we are focusing on pme the indicadores claves. so it's focus on what's important. the reason is bc the leaders would burn the missionaries if they weren't doing their 100 contacts. and in surco u can't do 100 contacts. but we were getting better numbers in the key numbers, like with member, others, references, and new members. so we talked with the pres and pleaded our case and he gave us permission to try this new system. and this first week all the numbers have increased across the zone. so we're all really excited.

on that note, cambios this week. probably elder utia is leaving surco and i stay but you never know. next week when i write i'll know only if I'm getting changed or not. i won't know where or with who. but if nothing changes, not likely, i'll let u know.

for that reason I'm kinda scared. me and elder utia are getting really good at teaching and with this new system we're having a lot more success. so I'm just worried a new person or area will change that. but we'll see. no matter what happens the work goes on and we adapt.

so it's kinda cool, a lot of the people have Christmas lights on their houses and Christmas trees. so it's one holiday that peru and us celebrate the same. finally. i was getting tired of celebrating holidays with 5 other people. but ya i hope i stay in surco two more cambios so that I'm here for Christmas and my birthday. that would be the best. so we'll see how it works. i'll find out on saturday nite

and that's that i think. anything else. i don't think so. thanks everyone for ur support and letters and all that other good stuff. it helps a lot. i'll talk to u next 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