Normal week

Hey, what's up to everyone out there...

this week was normal...for missionaries anyways. a bunch of citas but not enough to make them happy, even though it was the most I've had in my mission. but apparently, well, never mind. in the end it was a good week because on Sunday we had four of our new investigators in the church. it helps a lot because since i got here we have had about six people every week in the church but four of the six were people who didn't want to hear anything about a baptism. this week those four people didn't go but four new investigators went which gives us a lot more work. so we're oober excited. still planning on three or four this month. but we had two people for this Saturday but they didn't go to church so we'll have to reschedule their fechas. kinda a bittersweet thing.

but we had a bunch of the families go to church who live in the bottom part of our area. it was great because normally only two families from there assist...like 8 people. this week five families went with like 22 people in total. we were excited for that because we've been working our butts off to get those people excited to go to church. we split our days in two. almost everyday we go down to that area and now we know a lot more families and to be honest we want to work there more. the members give more references and they go with us to the citas. so it helps. but in the end since we eat and sleep in the top part we need to stay there more. we might try to change rooms to move closer to the bottom part but we would still have the problem of getting the people to the church. don't know what we're gonna do about that.

lets see...to be honest not to much to say. basically, just going about the work, one day at a time. it's hard when you have 14 months in the mission because everyday seems the same as any other day. the time passes by so fast but it's so, boring isn't the right word, but my English is getting really bad honestly. I've almost completely stopped talking in English even with the greengos.

just soes that y'all know the weather here was hot and now once again starts the wind. the wind is the worst thing about this mission. the sand hits your face so hard it hurts, and then you get it stuck to your face and arms cause you're sweaty and it stinks. i finish everyday two shades darker than when i started it.

here in Bolivia i haven't eaten anything that i haven't liked except that evil mondongo...sheep stomach. not to happy about that, but everything else has been good. the Peruvian food is better but the food here is more normal. except for some black potatoes that they give us. they look more like beans but are potatoes and they are not very good. they put them in soup and on the main course. yum yum

so ya i think that's about it. talk to y'all later.

Slowly adjusting

ok what's up everybody

we'll start out answering all the questions i got.

first i'm slowly adjusting to the area and the mission. to be honest, my opinion is that all the leaders here care about is numbers and i don't work that way. needless to say I'm pretty stubborn and i think i'll have some problems with that down the road but i am and always will do what i think is best for the people that i am in charge of. i know that they just wanna help and whatever but i was called to this area to help these people and i will do anything to fulfill that mission. my mission isn't to make my leaders happy or the president happy. I'm doing everything i can to strenghten my members here and find people to teach. but i look at it like this. if i do all the work, find people to teach and teach them and the members don't learn how to do it then all I'm doing is saying that when i leave i didn't really help them. in my sight the only way to be successful as a missionary is to make sure the members know like i do that they are missionaries too. it's my goal. i don't need a million baptisms to feel successful. my goal is that by helping the members work like missionaries, i might not get baptisms or at least a lot....but the ward will forever be a little bit stronger for my efforts to help them help others. well, lets just say that i might be the only person in bolivia santa cruz mission that thinks that way but i think it's right. it's like people always say...the right thing isn't always the easiest. to be honest the leaders are the most annoying part of the mission but i just try to focus and work.

sorry bout that

next when we got here to bolivia we flew from lima to la paz...that was interesting landing in la paz. I'm glad we didn't have to get off the plane because most people get sick from the altitude. i stayed on the plane and just stuck my head in my book so that i wouldn't get sick. but then flew to santa cruz. it took about four or five hours.

now I'm almost positive that everyone can write me. what i heard was that only family could but i heard that from one of the elders who came over with us and i think he was lying. my comp receives letters from his friends every week and the pres didn't say anything against it. and in the manual missional it says we can communicate with friends and family so i think it's ok. and to be honest I've been dying every week to get a letter from Amanda. thanks mom for you help with this but until they tell me i cant I'm gonna say go ahead and send letters.

and now on that good note. supposedly the packets take about two months to get here but they do get here. i don't know if you wanna try something but in any case remember that 7 to 1 is a pretty good exchange rate. although there are a lot of things about getting a package that just make you all smiley inside. that sounded kinda special. Amanda you're a horrible influence on me. I'm cant believe i said smiley inside......next thing you know i wont know the difference between mayo and mayonnaise. jk love.

but ya anyways. this week was good we are getting better and better each week. it's actually kinda funny in the three weeks i have here the assistance in the ward has gone up 40 people each week. the first Sunday there we 87 the second 136 and this week 183. not bad to be honest but i don't think i'll be able to keep that going. we'll see.

the area that we have is huge. there are about 500 member registered but obviously most are inactive. so since the area is so big it used to be divided in two branches. but they combined them and now we get to work in both. but one is four times bigger than the other but with less actives. so we are basically gonna divide our days in two parts. almost every morning we'll be working in palmira...which is the huge part of our area with a million inactives.... and in the afternoons in fortaleza which is the part that we'll get almost all of our baptisms and investigators. we think it makes the most sense that way.

the members here are great and are helping us a lot. i don't know why but it seems like the area is famous for the members here...but not in a good way. all the missionaries give us warnings about the members talking bad about the missionaries and what not. a bunch of Bologna if you ask me. i just tell them that when you love them they love you back. and thats the plan. the members here seem great. they haven't talked bad or said anything bout us and we are working really hard to get their support and trust and just plain out get them working.

no people don't steal the cows. they basically just spend all day eating and wlaing around like what I'm gonna do when I'm 65 years old. sorry Amanda....but you can walk with me. but ya i don't think anyone eats them either although there are some crazy homeless people that might try to cook them every once in a while. in any case the food here is good. a lot of good meat and unlike in peru not everything has rice and chicken. there is more variety here in bolivia. the food isn't better but its not bad.

so what else. i don't think there were any other questions and ya. i'll try to start writing more about the lessons and people that we're teaching. we have a decent amount of investigators...not enough for the office apparently but enough. in september we hope to have somewhere around 4 baptisms. i'll let ya know next week exactly who and how they are progressing.

ok y'all talk to you later.

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

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

Happy New Year's from Peru

hey everybody and happy new year's

just ya chilling out here in Peru. for new year's i spent it with the family that we live with. they are totally cool and we bought fireworks and other cool stuff and set Peru on fire. but literally because people make these life size dolls and set them on fire. so you look down the street and see like 10 people burning. kinda cool. and ya i'll send the videos to u all soon. just gotta have someone put it on a cd and all that other good stuff.

and ya outside of that with this new years, i wont change to much. i have a feeling they are gonna change me from surco the 19th but all the members say no. i don't know if its because they like me that much or that they just don't really get along with my comp. who knows but either way with 4 months and a half in surco, I'm sorta ready to go. the areas really small so to be here such a long time is hard, because I've talked to everyone already and am making second rounds, it seems. but nevertheless not my will but his be done.

that being said i don't want people to think that surco isn't amazing. it's the best. i love my ward the members and they are totally great to us. they remind me of my wards there. so i am very happy.

the work goes good. in the last two weeks we found 18 new investigators and this week were teaching them all. have a lot of lessons and so things are going good. but they don't want to go to church. we go to pick them up and they don't answer or someone else does and says they left, and ya. so we still have that problem, but are trying to figure out some way to get it fixed. any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

and ya, so I'm learning a ton. i cant believe how much I've learned about the history of everything since being here. i cant lie, I've studied some books about history and other stuff of Peru and of the bible and man, I've learned more than i did in college. but i still have a lot to learn. mostly the language tho. still need to improve but I'm getting better

and ya, so i think that's all. here they do some cool little new year's thing. you get 12 grapes, one for each month and with each one that you eat u get one wish. so i got twelve wishes. hahahhashah, did anyone else? but ya so i was very happy. and am. thanks to everyone for all u do. i wish u a very happy and prosperous new year.

bye

Baptisms and new way of getting contacts

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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

Thanksgiving in Lima

what's up y'all. so this week was all good and fun and all. we were working real hard to get some people with fecha ready for their baptism. so this week we have two people who are gonna get baptized this saturday. linda brahmon and isabel carmen and both are really cool. linda is a girl 11 years old daughter of a menos activo and isabel is someone who contacted us, about her grandson eloy. eloy is our best investigator tho. he understands everything and is changing his life like crazy. he was into drugs and all sorts or other good stuff like that. but its been two weeks since hes gone there and is reading the boook of mormon and went to church. so were excited. we are gonna put his fecha for the end of december if all goes good.

and ya tomorrow we have interviews with the president again. so ill talk to him and explain the problem wtih the foot and knee and well see if anything happens. if not i don't really care too much its not that bad and it wont kill me, or send me home.

i was wondering wen the 6th harry potter movie comes out somebody let me know. not that i can see it just wanna know if ill be back b4 the seventh one gets out.

on that note, i thought that this thursday was thanksgiving but apparently not. everyone was telling me today is ur country´s dia de gracias but they lied. i guess its this thursday. so have fun enjoying it cause that's the second holiday they don't celebrate in Peru. but don't really one of my favorites anyways

but since i got the request here are some things I'm grateful for

1- I'm grateful to be in peru cause that just cool to be able to say I'm in peru
2- I'm grateful for my family and friends obviously
3- I'm grateful for the church
4- I'm grateful for the catholics that yell at us wen we walk through their idol parades (they are really fanatics here in surco)
5- I'm grateful for the Jehovah's witnesses that visit us every Saturday morning
6- I'm grateful for smiles of little kids and just how cool all of them are
7- I'm grateful for food
8- I'm grateful for America and i hope u know how lucky u all are to be there (but its cool to visit the other places in the world)
9- I'm grateful that i have at least 8 things to be grateful for.
10- I'm grateful for all the emails and letters u all give me
11- I'm grateful for the investigators that we have
12- I'm grateful for change because through change we can exercise our agency to get better or worse (hopefully better)

so ya there is some things that I'm grateful for. there are a lot more, but the time thing ya know.

so this Sunday i gave a talk. basically spent all my time explaining the difference between member missionaries and us missionaries. the members all said that my spanish was really good. but it was hot and i was sweating. so it was kinda funny. like nervousness and hotness mix made for a sweaty elder. kinda sucked cause i hate sweat, like with a passion. but what can u do. they got the message and we are starting a new plan to involve the members in the work. cause if they don't get in the work the work will get really slow. so we are working with them a lot more now. o and something kinda funny was that they counselor gave me a paper saying my time was up. i used up all the time. i was excited. i don't know y but that's what happens when ur a missionary.

so that's all thanks everybody for all ur help and have a chill thanksgiving with turkey and other good stuff.