First baptism in Santa Cruz

ok so what's up everyone.

this week has been interesting in all honesty. different than any other week in the mission so far. just the type and how you work here in bolivia is so different than how things work in peru. but slowly I'm adjusting. very slowly but still adjusting. in all honesty some of the things just seem to cause more problems than help but whatever that's what they want here and that's what well do.

so this week we had a baptism. jose luiz, a 15 year old kid, was baptized. he's really chill and a great convert. in the two weeks here we've gotten to know him very well and we were ooober excited for him to get baptized. my comp baptized him since last week was his birthday present and i didn't have much to give him outside of the cake. so when jose luiz said that either one of us could baptize him i said happy birthday to my comp and that's the way the cookie crumbles.

so the weather here this week went from frikin cold to amazingly hot and humid. great.... it was horrible. and then there's the wind. this month and the next are windy season here and the wind just picks up all the dust and whips it in our face. it's so strong that the dust feels like you're getting pelted with needles. it's fun... sorta. but today started the rain again. supposedly it's gonna be rainy, hot and windy, all at the same time. gotta love this jungle thing.

and ya so we've been working a lot with members. trying to get to know them and find investigators through them. we do what we can but, in all honestly, things are going pretty slow. we found some really good people but will probably progress slowly. the nice thing is that here the members take their friends to the church. we had 7 people in the church which was really nice. gives us the opportunity to teach people who are willing to go to church even before they talk to us.

o and just soes you know I'm not sure if this mission does the dear elder thing. i haven't got any so far and i haven't heard that anyone has gotten any so i would say send one or something and let's see if it gets here but don't send too many. although, if the mission does do that, it'd be the best way to write me and everyone could do that. i just can't receive emails from friends or write them by email. and in all honesty I'd send letter out by mail but there is supposedly only one post office that sends things outside of the us and it's far away from where i am and so that makes it hard. but tomorrow we have a multizona or zone conference and interviews and i'll ask the president or the assistants about all that stuff.

amanda, i'm glad you like your calling and that ur doing good. thank you for understanding all of this stuff..you help me more than you could ever know.

so i'm gonna try to send pics from myldsmail we'll see if it works. i guess that if you see some then it worked. so these letter's gonna be short and sweet. thanks to everyone for all the help and support. especially mom and dad for everything you do. i'll talk to y'all later

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