Nephi & Jacob; Jason & Bryce

hey everybody, how's it going.

so some interesting things this week. so this week is cambio but i don't have any changes. i didn't expect to because i will be going to Bolivia soon but still. same comp and area. i should be here only about 3 weeks more but i guess you never know.

so this week we had some cool interesting experiences. we did a noche de hogar or family home evening with our best investigator. her name is medalith cachique and is 20 years old. very cool but wants to be sure that the book of Mormon is true before she gets baptized. so we did this noche de hogar and it turned out nice. i did the lesson in it and it ended with games. they are fun. we do a lot of those fhe in this area. it's part of the mision plan here and it helps a lot. we always have some good people there. also this week we got some good references from some members. two families and both seem pretty cool. we have a new desire to do everything we can to help the people here as best we can. elder medina is dying here and i will leave to bolivia from here so we plan on leaving everything that we have here in solidaridad. and so we hope to have a lot success.

i have not been feeling too good lately but, as of saturday, I've been feeling a lot better. don't know why. kinda weird how things just seemed to change so fast. but i feel good right now. I'm happy it seems. excited for whats to come and feeling a million times better than a week ago. and Bryce in part it has to do with you buddy. i don't know why but i just read ur letter that u sent right before you got to the mtc and what you said there i think helped a lot. it seems corny but my goodness just got to me. you said that i was more like nephi and you like jacob... but lets just let jason be jason and bryce be bryce and we'll make nephi and jacob want to be us. how amazingly true i want that to become. see this is why i always said that you will be the better of the two buddy. but i say lets do it. up to this point I've given a lot of myself. but i know i can do more. I'm a better missionary than what I've been to this point. i know you''ll be a great missionary if you just follow the rules and forget everything else but the work. its hard. lets do it. lets make nephi and jacob want to be us. i know we can. I'll do my best, u do your best and we'll do it. I'm proud of you buddy and i don't mind saying that i love you.

ok now .... this isn't meant to be a letter just to bryce so sorry but i get going on one thing and next thing you know ..well ya.

so this week i didn't do any new paper work for bolivia but i'm sure i will have to now. the cambios in the zone are mostly in the other district. in fact the only change in my district is that elder crisanto, the zone leader is dying, which by the way means finishing the mission, not like dying. so I'll have a new zone leader. and no that's not the one that i had problems with before, he's still here and still a pest but I'm learning to love him. slowly but surely.

and it's 100 positive elder medina girlfriend left him. he has just one month left and so we'll see how that affects him. the poor guy. i feel bad for him but he seems ok as of right now. just amazing though that after 23 months of waiting you'd leave someone. but ya. so this is the second time this has happened to me where my comp's girlfriend left him. i hope it'll be my last, it's sorta a awkward situation.

and to end just wanna say thanks and happy birthday to everyone whose birthday it is. i miss everyone and am glad to hear from everyone every once in a while. I'll try to write more but with the time ya know how it goes.

and bryce the secret to writing fast in the mtc is print out ur emails and just type. it cost like 7 cents every page but it's worth it. and then while typing try to make a plan on what you're gonna say, write it on a piece of paper and take it with you. i try to plan out what i wanna say every week... most Weeks i end up forgetting the paper at the home tho but it helps. and just so you know the timer is only in the mtc. not in the field when you get here you have your leaders and comp as timers.

ok bye everyone

Interesting week

ok so some sorta interesting things this week.

first of it is 100 percent sure that I'll be going to Bolivia. I'm going in June, is what they told me but they don't know the exact date. i went to immigrations this week and started all the stuff to go. i have to go two more times, at least, to finish and when I'm done with all of that I'm off. she said i was the first from my group going back so that'll be interesting. I'm excited to be going. things are cheaper there and it's a totally different atmosphere... not literally. but ya so in about a month I'll be there in another country. so that's kinda cool. ooo and that means to anyone don't send cards or packages.

on another interesting note, this week on weird food that jason has to eat because the members give him strange stuff.....frikin sheep stomach. apparently they have 3 and i ate parts of two of the 3 ... great. i think it's something that they have there to eat but this stuff looked like starfish, tasted like star fish and was squishy. the only cool part was that while i was eating it i had that finding nemo thing going through my head. the i will call you squishy and you will be my squishy thing. i don't know if anyone has any idea what i meant with that but whatever. so it's called mondongo here. the name even sounds horrible. and it is the worst thing to this point that i have eaten on my mission. ayyayayyaya mondongo.

and ya outside of that sorta boring normal week for me. we taught a lot, found some new people. our girl with fecha is gonna wait another week or two to prove to herself that she is ready to be baptised but she is still totally amazing. in church i still teach at least one class a day. my comp had to give a talk and teach two classes so that was fun. it was interesting this week the bishop talked to him because he's not always with me at church. i don't blame him, none of my comps stay with me because i always end up finding my way to the primary or nursery. anyways the bishop asked him y he wasn't with me and my comp says because my comp likes kids too much. and if i leave the room two or three kids start screaming so he'd have to go in for us to be together. anyways the bishop said something like even though you don't like kids maybe your time with elder taliercio is so that you can learn to like them. i thought that was funny. elder medina is my comp so that he learns to like little kids. whatever. it's cool though I'm like the most loved elder in the primary ever. all the kids greet me with hugs and try to pull me to their classes every hour. it's kinda cute.

anyways my time's almost up. just wanna send a good luck wish to everyone who is finishing up with finals and a oober special good job sorta thing to anyone graduating this year.

o and hi amanda
o and hi luke harrison rachel i cant spell rythyms name yet sorry, alana ian saige alexis and baby number 3 of mistias

o and mom number 2 i know that I'm amazingly good looking but i think some of it might have rubbed off on you when i was there at ur house be sure to give that back when i get back ok..jjajjajajjajaja

and mommy i love you and you too dad.

and bryce... glad you like the mtc buddy, its a good place. take advantage of it while you can.

o and say hi to skyler and tyler for me. let me know how they're doing and all that good stuff

ok everyone. thanks for everything and I'll let y'all know i f i have cambios this week or not. bye

Getting Ready to Go to Bolivia

ok what's up everyone...

this week was very good. we are teaching good a decent amount of lessons. we have some good investigators. some new ones. one is a young lady, twenty, named medalith. she is the only non-member in her family but her family is inactive. so we started visiting her and her family. anyways she's gone to church for two straight weeks and we are very happy. she's a good person and the plan is to baptize her the 23rd. so were happy for that too.

outside of that, we have some families that we're teaching still but, like most of our people, sometimes they go to the church sometimes they don't. pretty inconsistent but that's how it is. we just do what we can and keep going.

so ya, this morning the office called and said that this Thursday i have to go to the office to go and get some paperwork done for my foreign something or whatever. so... i would assume that that would be for me to be going to Bolivia. since i did the stuff for Peru already. but i don't know. if it is for Bolivia it would mean probably in five weeks that I'd be going there. I'll let you all know though. I'm actually excited for the chance to go to Bolivia. i think it would be really interesting and a great way to change the scene of things a little bit. i love Peru. it's a great place but Bolivia is my mission and i sorta wanna go.

so ya that's the word on Bolivia. now my district is great. we are having a lot of success and doing good. as is the zone. it's a good area but not one of the best according to the missionary grapevine. but i love it. even though I'm pretty sure I'll be getting changed this cambio. but like most things in the mission you never really know.

ok so it was great to call home yesterday. that was nice. mom sorry i called so late. didn't realized you were home that early and whatever. i know Bryce didn't get to call you so i bet you were waiting all day for that. but ya i loved talking to ya and I'm glad all is good there in the ward and the branch. which reminds me. i wanna say hi to all the families in my ward... desert hills. i miss you all and hope all is good with everyone there. and then a special hi to all the families in the Spanish branch. the six months that i was there were just amazing. i loved it and hope to always be part of the branch. thanks to everyone. but actually since the Spanish branch people speak Spanish i shoulda written it in Spanish. mom you can translate it if you want to . next time I'll write in Spanish.

so lets see... we still haven't changed rooms. not like we really want to but since the pres says we have to we're looking. but there still and none that meet their requirements. so we're still there. it's nice.

so ya things are going good. this week is gonna be kinda busy probably. we'll have interviews i think, i have to do two changes, and Thursday i have to go to that thing in the office... so ya fun fun

thanks for forwarding Bryce's emails. it's nice to hear that he's doing good. one week done. only 103 left. don't tell him that tho. and like he said the worst things about the mtc were the showers but ya know when he gets to Argentina and doesn't have the option between blistering hot or ice cold.... and the only one is ice cold, he's gonna wish he had those mtc showers.

so just some random facts....

• no i haven't been robbed...
• i haven't eaten any other strange food
• 4 of the six dogs that always barked at me and tried to bite me have died. i didn't kill them somebody else did. in the middle of the night somebody shot them. in the morning the owners went outside and found them all dead. kinda funny... unless you like dogs.
• my pench wants to make turtle and alligator for me but can't find the meat
• they sorta celebrate mothers day here. but it's not as big as it is in the U.S.
• my foot is getting better....slowly but surely
• my district always wins when we play soccer. we have our own name and everything. my district is ... distrito despertad.. and the other distrito burgos... and we've won at soccer 6 to 2, 5 to 2, and 3 to 1... domination. but ya know we try to be nice every once and a while and change teams up.

ok so that's about all i think. thanks for all the help and packages.. letters and all that good stuff. i miss you all. bye

Multizona meeting, birthdays and a fight (sort of)

hey everyone

how are we all doing this week ....so on my part it was a good week.

not too much out of the ordinary happened though. but some little things

we had a multizona this week. that was really kinda boring but a little fun. the multizona are when like four or five zones join up set goals and get lessons from the pres, his wife and the assistants. finishing witht some games and food. so the end is the best part. we were supposed to have interviews too but they got changed to tomorrow. scary.... but good

so this week was also the birthday of three elders in my zone. so we had a big party for the three in the house of one of hthem and that was cool. a barbique... how do you spell that. i have no idea. and ya so that was interesting.

outside of that not to much. i sorta got in a fight with my zone leader. that might be interesting. not like a fight fight but like he got really mad at me for some things this week which made me mad at him but nothing happened from it. it's that we were told to change rooms. cause the room, they say, is way too small. so we found a room that was really cool. two rooms twice as big as the one we have wiht a nice bathroom and everyting. but the morning we were supposed to move the zone leader said that none of the elders could help us. that thteye had to do their comp study and cant help us move. so that wed have to do it ourselves. but it's not like we were moving one house to the other. the room was like six blocks from our house. with 12 missionaries it'd take like an hour but with two it'd take like four, at least, and so i wasn't happy. and becasue of that, to make a long story short .... we couldn't change rooms . so then the president got really mad at us for not changing rooms. and so now we need to find another room and they keep hounding us about it. but it's just a little thing. he somehow in all of this found a way to get mad at me tho. but whatever. i don't really care. we're both good now and just doing what it is we do. there is nothing good that comes from being angry with anyone. so it's behind us and that's that.

lets see.... me and ricardo did another video thing. i look good in it. just saying is all. ok, well, not much else.

o and for mothers day let me know what time you want me to call. ask bryce when he'll call so that we don't overlap. and let me know.

ok bye everyone.

Proud of little brother - Bryce

hey everyone

so ya this week was a very interesting week. sorta started out on a bad note though. this last Monday after pday, while playing soccer, i sorta slid into a wall and messed up my foot. just a little bit. but ya so they put me in a resting mode sorta. they said go to the citas that you have but outside of that don't walk too much. so i tried that but it got boring. long story short it still hurts to walk and today I'm seeing the doctor and I'm sure that will get things fixed. so ya that was fun

another fun thing... something missionaries love is a cambio with the assistants. my fourth that I've done in my mission. they keep coming to me. but ya so that day was really good. we found some new people and had some great lessons. we walked a lot and it hurt but it was worth it. but what i found out was more valuable. he said that every missionary from Bolivia will be going back, they just don't know when. the plan they were given is to send between five and seven back every cambio. so they know who's going this cambio but not the next ones. so basically i could be returning in ten weeks or in 6 months. but if all goes like they plan i will be in Bolivia to finish my mission. which is fine with me. I'm excited to see a new country and whatever.

so ya, also this week another sorta strange thing that happened was that i baptized someone. what was strange was that the baptism wasn't mine. it was someone from an area in my district. i had taught the girl once and then in the interview she asked me to baptize her. kinda funny. i had no idea what to say. i said that either one of the elders there could baptize her or anyone in her ward with the priesthood, a friend or bishop.... and she said... well can you do it? i didn't know what to say... it was weird. but ya she said she wanted me to do it and so whatever. so ya. it was nice to get in the water again. i tell ya when i get back gotta go swimming a lot more. it'll be on my list of things to do when i get back.

and ya so this week also Bryce goes into the mtc. this Wednesday. I'm more proud of him than I've been of anyone else in a long time. way to go buddy and i know you'll be a great missionary. i love you and I'll miss you. but know that when i finish and i work with you for a day or two in Argentina I'm gonna show you how good of a missionary i am... so you better work... i expect a good challenge like always. be safe and just keep going.

ok so outside of that i don't have much to say. it was kinda a boring week. just know that I'm ok. my foot will get better and I'll just keep going. like i tell Bryce. so ya that's the plan.

bye for now

A slingshot keeps the dogs away (and also a truck)

hey everyone

so this week was absolutely amazingly awesome. we found another family to teach. which is great bc one that we were teaching for two months sorta fell through. but this family is a family of 5 and really cool. a reference from a member and were excited to be visiting them. as we are with all our investigators. so ya.

yesterday, Sunday, was really kinda interesting. we got to church and our mission leader says .... elders you guys are gonna give the talks today. 15 min. great we say.... so we did whatever we do and gave two very good talks considering we had ten min to prepare it. i normally speak very good now, but i don't know why yesterday i just couldn't speak. i was fine until i hit prosperaria ..... which just threw me back to the mtc days spanish. fun fun. but i got through and it turned out good. then the more fun begins. they didn't have a teacher for the Sunday school adult class and asked me to give it. i said great. and didn't even have a min. to prepare it. just had to give a lesson about Doctrine and Covenant and i think that one turned out ok too. and then more fun... the third our primary class teacher wasn't there and the primary leader.... my tia cosa asked me to help. well, actually the kids asked her to ask me , but she did and i taught my third impromptu lesson of the day. three hours and three lessons that i didn't have time to plan. i loved it. i was not a good speaker before but the mission has helped me to teach and talk publicly. so benefits.

ok Bryce Happy birthday and farewell party thing. i asked papi fierro if i could call you before u go since it'll be three years till we might see each other, he said he'd get back to me. so maybe.

in other news... well i can't think of any other news actually. but i bought a slingshot and have been attacking the dogs that have been trying to eat me. my revenge... sorry Amanda and mommy number two but a dog who tries to eat me is no friend of mine. but on one of my sling shot bonanzas i hit a car. well, a truck. kinda funny. luckily the guy didn't care or anything, he just wanted to try out my slingshot.

o in terms of food, for breakfast now I'm drinking oatmeal. it sounded weird to me but that's how they take oatmeal apparently. it's like a drink so ya... i haven't eaten anything too strange but they say they are gonna try to buy alligator and turtle for me to eat.

which reminds me we have two new pets. a dog that they call leon... i call cow... and a turtle that has a quechuan name whose translation i don't know if i can say. so our pets are cool but the dog tries to bite me unless i have food. the turtle is super turtle i call him .. the amazingness of the ninja turtles combined in one super special oober cool turtle... kinda a long name but it suits him.

ok so i think that's about all. happy birthday everyone whose birthday it is.

I'll talk to y'all next week.

bye

Cambios (transfers), new room and a Pillow!

hi everyone

so this week was good.... like them all. but this week was also cambio week. and the results of this cambio are....... for me nothing. which is cool. i like my area and like my comp so I'm 100 percent ok with that. three people from our zone got changed. not very many which leads us all to believe that for the next one there will be a lot of changes. also bc that will be the last change b4 our new pres. shows up. so everyone thinks that the next change will be how things will be when the new president shows up.... if that makes any sense.

on other interesting news.... rumor has it that today or tomorrow they are gonna return all the Bolivia missionaries to their mission, if they had already been there. they are going to the interpol or Bolivian embassy to get things figured out for today and this Wednesday should be back in their mission. interesting stuff. another rumor says that they will return all the Bolivian missionaries when this next cambio ends. meaning the missionaries that never got to Bolivia.... so that's cool too. they say the only reason they don't send everyone together is to not hurt the mission that we're in, bc by now there are over 50 Bolivian missionaries, and bc they say it'll be easier to send the ones who've already had the visa to go there. so it'll take longer for us to get ours. but who knows ..... the rumors come from elder vickery, my old zone leader and now assistant to the president. but rumors from anyone are just rumors

so ya.. something else kinda cool. mommy Fierro, the wife of the pres. inspected rooms a little while back.. she said our room was way too small. it is but the hna. gave us another room to put a lot of our stuff, but mommy Fierro still wasn't happy. she told us to change rooms, we looked couldn't find anything. talk to the our pench and she said that she'll build us another room right next to the one we have and bigger. so we're gonna get a new room and stay in the same pench. so it's kinda cool. and we get to help build it. so in surco i put up roofs, and tore down roofs. and here I'm gonna learn to put up walls from bricks and wood.. so it'll be cool.... and they sent us a new bed. and pillows which helps a lot bc for my whole mission I've used my clothes as my pillow. it's not very comfortable but now i have one. yay me.

so as far as all else goes.... same old same old. we're working with our families but we have to teach very simply and repeat lessons a lot. but they're starting to go to church and other activities so we're excited. we have some amazing people. some great friends but they just progress so slowly but I'm practicing my patience and we have faith that all will turn out how it should.

OK i think that's about all. maybe...... yup. thanks to everyone for all the help and support and for being there to help me and my families. oooo and happy Easter. they totally don't do anything for that either so i had no idea it was Easter until this morning. Peruvians don't celebrate holidays it seems, or at least not very well. OK bye everyone

I just love general conference

hey everyone

i just love general conference. what a cool opportunity to hear the prophet and apostles talk. and what powerful messages they gave this year. just made me shiver like a peruvian bum sleeping on the floor in ayacucho.

so ya i loved the general conference but unfortunately we only had two investigators go to it. the thing is that the stake center is so far away from my area that it's hard for our people to go. it costs a lot of money and time. but we tried to get them there, didn't really work. but they are great people. we are teaching some families. some big ones. hopefully we can help them out and they can get baptised. that would be great, to have another family united in the gospel.

this week in my consilio or district reunion I'm making cookies. my lesson will be something about if we follow the recipe God gives us in "preach my gospel", as missionaries we will feast on the rewards which are sweet to our taste. something like that. just a smart way of making and eating cookies if u ask me. but it'll work.

Peru is finally starting to cool down again. still some days are horribly hot but it's getting better. i just think about how lucky i am to have gotten the hill part of san juan for the summer. lucky me but its helped me a lot. stay in shape and not get to fat. cause I've been eating a lot of junk food. every weekend we're supposed to eat with the members but our bishop hasn't done the list so we've been eating out four times a week. kinda funny actually. but he'll have a list this week and it's back to members. which helps a lot. also my mom number three or my pench here just makes food that we like. she hasn't made fish since i got here and gives us a ton. she's really i think one of the best penches in the mission. but i'd be fat because of it if it weren't for the hills. so I'm ok. I'm even excersising. and i forgot how to spell excercise in english.... how do u spell it.... that's just bugging me but whatever. so ya doing push ups and jump rope for like 30 min a day. i try everyday but i don't cause i get lazy.

ya, so were doing good. cambios is this week and everyone in our zone is scared. nobody knows who might be going. most in the zone have only 3 months here or less so it'll be interesting. and ya i'll let y'all know as soon as i know.

o ya about Bolivia. i hear that they will start by sending five missionaries from every mission there. don't know who or when. but they say that five from north and central have already gone back. the info comes from a good source. it's from a hna who works in the ccm. she was in charge of the visas and travel info for all the missions here in lima. so she sorta knows i would assume. so I'm sorta scared but not really. i would love to go to Bolivia and be in my mission. what i wouldn't like are the bugs, humidity, heat, food and other stuff like that. which i would get used to anyways so I'm cool. really,,, i just wanna know if I'm going or staying. i wish they would just say. go or stay and i'll be happy either way. but what can u do.

Bryce I'm so stoked ur gonna have ur farewell this week.. that's great buddy. I've sent some letters to u, but they're in a card to mom. so ask her. u'll be a great missionary i have no doubt. and the best part is that i'll get to see u probably when i finish my mission. so that'll be cool. well I'm looking forward to it.

ok everyone. time is probably close so I'm gonna let y'all. go.. .. thanks for everything u all do. for ur prayers and faith and everything. i miss u all but I'm doing good and I'm happy here. I'm doing good work and i can't come down. my new sorta pep phrase for my district. we are doing good work and we cannot come down. so ya. talk to ya next week

Looking forward to General Conference

hey everyone

what's up. this week was kinda fun but ended not so good so i'll let y'all know what happened.

this week we did a cambio with the zone leaders, one of them. the one that was with me, elder crisanto, his trainer is here in san juan and was getting married to a girl here. his trainer is from the states but he met this girl while visiting the country after he finished his mission and fell in love. how sweet but ya. so since it was his trainer he invited elder crisanto to his wedding. well he invited the missionaries from my district to this wedding and so we decided to go. it was really cool. all of us had a good time and we got some good pics.

and then this week pday was personal so me and elder medina decided to go to the parque de las leyendas again. so we did. but since we didn't have as many people and weren't so rushed we got a lot of good pics and stuff. so be happy mommy.

so now the good work. the two bad parts of the week were that: one, we were supposed to have a baptism of Aurelia, the isrealita and investigator for like 2 years, she got the interview and passed but the sec. didn't give us the key to his room by mistake and we couldn't fill up the fount. cause the keys to that are in his room. long story short she got mad that things didn't work out and said that she didn't wanna get baptised later. that if we couldn't do it at the planned time she didn't wanna do it. so, it was impossible to do it at the time she said and she left. so obviously we felt pretty bad bout that. i left out a lot of details but it was impossible under the circumstances to do it, but it still means a lack of preparation on our part. so that's stinks but we learn and live and move on.

the second bad thing that happened was that alexis the young man who we just baptised, probably stole my mp3 player from me. i can't say it was him or not but everyone else says it is obvious. i lent it to him and then he says some people robbed him. and took it. fun fun. i couldn't get angry though. it's just a thing, a mp3 player isn't gonna upset me. but he seems to have distanced himself from us a little. but ya once again. you live, you learn and you move on.

so to answer some questions people had. no, still have no hermanas in my district or zone. the fotos i have with them are from surco. they say having hermanas in ur district, while nice, is hard for leaders. to plan the activities and everything just makes things more difficult. would i like some. don't really care.

ok, my comp elder medina is really cool. nice guy, we get along really well. he teaches great and doesn't really like to contact like me. if i had a twin on the mission it would probably be him. haven't had a problem to this point. and obviously don't expect one. we work good together.

i dont eat cat and cuy too much. I've eaten cat twice and cuy only that one time. cause i like cat and cuy doesn't have much meat. and i think I'm gaining weight now. i lost a lot of weight in surco and then i got here and didn't gain weight bc i was climbing hills a ton and not eating too great. well, at least not eating breakfast. now the hna makes me a whole bunch of food and I'm positive I'm gaining weight again. not that I'm happy about it. but I'm sure mom is, so ok.

I'm excited this week for general conference. it'll be great. my second and i think it means i only have two more sessions. they say that we will have it in english cause the people who translate sound like the people from the movies and it's just weird.

outside of that i don't remember what questions people had. if i forgot some, sorry. i miss you all. thanks for everything. I'm sending a lot a cards out this week and one packet we'll see if they get anywhere. and more importantly, how much it costs to send the stuff. i love y'all, talk to ya

I'm still waiting to hear about Bolivia.

hey everyone, how's it going?

I'm oober excited to be writing this week... don't know y in fact I'm probably kidding but whatever. so this week was good but not great. we were hopping to have aurelia baptized but she pushed it back another week. shes had four fecha for her baptism and just keeps pushing it back. we'll see what we can do... she said i would baptise her before i leave so I'm gonna tell her I'm going to Bolivia this week and if she wants me to she needs to get baptized this week. we'll see if it works.

my district is good though. were working hard and teaching a lot of people. the zone is really close, i think. closer than a lot of other zones I've had. but that all depends on the missionaries here. so basically were all happy

I'm still waiting on any news if were going to Bolivia or not. I've heard two things. one says all the missionaries with less than a year are going out and the other that nobody who had their mission changed is going back. but officially i never got my mission changed so. in the end. i end up the same: confused. but whatever. i asked pres in the card i wrote him we'll see what he says.

it's starting to get a little cooler or so it seems. maybe I'm just getting used to the heat and humidity. but either way I'm glad for that. we haven't eaten anything too weird since the last time. I'm waiting for the next time the hna gonna make cat. i love cat. it's delicious. like steak style meat but with flavor of amazingness. all u cat lovers, sorry.

ok so I'm gonna hi tail, it talk to y'all later.

We might be going to Bolivia

hey everyone. so i don't know if y'all have heard but they say they opened up Bolivia again. well that they sent greengos there again. try to see if its true or not. elder vickery the assistant said they were just waiting on the call to send us back. sounds scary to me. it's kinda funny when they originally changed my call i was mad to come here and now that i might go to my mission i don't wanna. Bolivia is hotter, more humid, more bugs and more fruit. all things I'm not too fond of. but I've learned it's not where u serve it's how u serve and anywhere i am i'll get by. I'm not gonna let something like that get in the way of my service. so that's that

now this week was interesting. not too much happened. we had stake conference and so that kinda messed up some numbers but that's part of it. i had to buy some new shoes, but let me tell u finding my size in Peru is not easy. i actually couldn't find any that weren't my size for less than 300 soles so i bought some that were just a little bit smaller and a third of the price. i figure my feet will shrink if they have to. the shoes actually seem to be getting more normal. so ya. no worries.

outside of that its been kinda boring. but since i still have time i'll tell y'all bout Peru. this week i got to know a lot more of Peru than i knew b4. we went to other zones and I've basically been in every zone of my mission that is in Lima. so when i say the mission is filled with poverty i know it's true. but there are some nice parts. parts that are great to visit. surco, limatambo, san borja, san isidro are all really nice places. and it has a lot of beach front so it makes it that much nicer.

we live right now i n a small room. like tiny. this thing wouldn't pass as a bathroom in the USA but it's great and for 30 dollars a month i don't complain. me and my comp have gotten in a habit of playing ping pong any time we find ourselves in the church. he's really good and I'm learning from him. he also plays basketball really good. i beat him but just barely. and he could beat me any day. so basically our companionship is really good. we get along great, finally.

as a district leader things are good. I'm getting a little better maybe at teaching and with my changes. still don't think I'm dl material but that's not gonna change anything so i keep going.

ok almost out of time.

thanks ma for the packet and for everyone for the bday cards and all that good stuff. and for the cards and stuff. i'll write next week

bye

Great week in Miraflores

Ok so what's up everyone. this week was a great week for me!

we had another baptism here. baptized a young man. 17 yrs old. Alexis. he wants to be a missionary. if there is such a thing as golden investigators he would be it. so i did the baptism and only had to dunk him once. we'll see how things go, but the 21st we should have another baptism.

o ya the results of the cambios were pretty cool. my new comp is elder Medina. from the same group as my papi utia. and utia came to my zone. not as zone leader, comp mayor but still here. not in my district either but we still see each other twice a week so that's really cool. my comp is an amazing teacher and a great guy. kinda quiet and it's possible that he had done some bad stuff earlier in his mission bc he's comp menor even though he has 20 months. but if that's the case he's not showing it. and i don't have any interest in what he's done just what he's doing now and he is the best teacher I've seen ever. it's ridiculous. so I'm learning a ton and loving it.

so that's that. this week i didn't eat anything really weird. finally although all the stuff I've eaten is really good. the hna says she's gonna make bunny, and turtle if she can find them. they say turtle is one of the best meats in the world. I'm willing to try anything now, except for my own cooking. to please u mommy i also am eating breakfast again. don't know if i told u but we don't pay the pench for breakfast anymore. but since i wasn't eating anything bc i was lazy, i started paying the hna to cook me breakfast and now I'm eating again. so be happy.

about my physical health I'm ok. the knee brace and orth pads help a ton. there always has to be something wrong though. but nothing bad and nothing to worry about.

ok and i still haven't gotten the packet that y'all sent to the office so i would recommend sending the stuff to the house. just make sure the stuff inside isn't more than 100 dollars or weighing more than 2.4 kilos i think. and ya u guys have the dirrecion right.

it's summer here so it's kinda hot. and it doesn't help that i have all the hills to climb but I'm getting used to it.

o and ma don't worry if anything happens to me like getting mugged or chased by people with machetes i'll let u know. but nothing like that has happened. my mission has been very normal. here, there are a lot of dogs but when u threaten them they don't do anything. so that's the worst.

i think that's all thanks for everything i'll talk to y'all 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

Little girls clinging to my arm

ok, ten minutes left.

the time passes by fast here in the mission even faster in the 30 min of Internet.

but ya thanks to everyone for everything. letters and prayers.

and so ya. our baptism this week fell through. we'll see if we can work with her more and get her ready but the work goes on and we are teaching a bunch of people.

this week i had to play a special number on the piano in the church. i spent all week, every spare minute i had, practicing it. and i got it ok, but after playing it in church the members thought i could play all good and whatever. and asked me to play a special number every week. so yaya me. that just complicated my mission. when i go to a new area I'm not gonna say i know how. but this gift of tongues is applied in the piano too i think. i don't know how i learned the song but i did. faster than i did b4. who knows. but that's kinda a fun story.

o mom ur gonna love this. i got a new little card reader thing so that i can get all the fotos that chafloque and the other one, erased back. i don't quite know how it works but today were gonna get them all back. so be happy. u'll have a ton more pics again. hopefully.

and ya so my ward is an amazing cute little ward. the people are really cool and chill. we are teaching 3 families and all have little like 8 year old girls. and i don't know what it is about me that's appealing to 8 year olds but all these girls have to be clinging on to my arm or holding my hand or resting on my shoulder when we teach them. since they're 8 i don't mind and it's not breaking rules. but it's just kinda funny because one of the girls has a 16 year old sister. and she was making fun of her sister saying that elder taliercio like me more than u because i can hug him and u can't. darn 8 year olds. very cool tho. that's my life here

and so only 1 min left.

thanks again for everything everyone for all ur help and support. means a ton to me.

o and oober happy birthday to gdog aka regina this mes hgtlws cipriano.

bye

Eating guinea pig - cuyes

Proud and happy for younger brother

Bahia Blanca Argentina.... and i have to stay here in Peru. u lucky person. well even though this is my letter to everyone, the best thing that coulda happened just did. Bryce leaving for a mission to Argentina April 29th, i think the 29th. how dope is that. I'm oober excited for him. it's the best new i can give this week.

but outside of that, nothing else would seem important but since some people asked questions i'll answer those too.

this week i have a baptism, next week should be another. finally the work is starting to show. we have two families that we're teaching but they haven't gone to church. we are working hard and teaching a ton of lessons, and finding a ton of people. i don't quite understand y the baptisms are taking so long, but i figure after the trial of my faith and work, will come the blessings. I'm sure Bryce wont have to wait as long as i do to see the baptisms. i wont lie, i tell everyone about him having his papers. they're gonna be so excited and are gonna make fun of me. because i always said he would go to the states and he goes to Argentina. that's cool. Bryce study pmg because ur gonna need it. learn it, live it and love it. I'm so excited

and ya outside of that me and my comp are having some minor problems. nothing like with chafloque, but just some pride issues. I've come to realize that being my comp is probably the hardest part for my comps. I'm getting better though. poco a poco. im trying. me and santi work really good together. our numbers are the second best in the zone, outside of the zone leaders and we teach a lot. we are working and gonna be having success finally.

and so ya what else. it's summer here which absolutely stinks cause now it's hot, humid and still hills. fun fun. my pench is still amazing. and still racist and gives me the best of the best and santi whatever. but she really helps me feel at home.

what else. this week I've been missing everyone a lot. don't know why. feb. was always my favorite month. but I'm more than halfway done with it and then there is only one left without everyone. the time really passes by fast. i can't believe we're almost two months done with this year. it's crazy.

so ya. thanks to all my family and friends for the cards, letters, packets and help, support and everything. i appreciate it. and Bryce I'm so excited still. it's amazing. my younger brother on a mission. how cool is that. i can't tell you how happy i am.

bye

Working really hard and helping people progress

ok so yesterday they took away our pday so i couldn't write sorry, never know when the office will do it.

anyways thanks everyone for the birthday stuff. thanks for ur cards and packets and all sorts of good stuff. i felt really good here for it. the family I'm with treats me well. like a son. and since they're a bit racist and like Americans more than Latinos it was kinda funny. but ya.

so anyways the work here goes good. we have two with fecha for this 21 of feb and we'll see how it goes. we found a family of 8 this week and are working really hard to help them progress. i like solidaridad, its a fun area. the members are also helping us out a lot more than before. it's one thing I've learned how to do. work with members.

so this week i did my first exchange as a dl. it was ok. i think i coulda done better but for my first it was chill. the changes have to be for 24 hours so that's not cool but I'm sorta getting used to it. my district is absolutely amazing. like the best ever. no we don't have sisters 6 guys. but we work hard and get a ton of numbers and whatever. we are excited. here in solidaridad we are having people in the capilla and progressando. a ton of lessons and all sorts of good stuff.

outside of that not to much going on. Bryce I'm oober excited about ur papers. the second u get the call write an email and tell me that ur getting called to Boise Idaho or st Monica Kentucky. i don't know if there is a st Monica Kentucky or not. but let me know.

and ya so i don't have like any time cause i got 14 letters and spent it all reading them. sorry guys . i miss y'all a ton

Celebrating my birthday in the mission field

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