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

Jason's Christmas call

By Jason's mom:

Early on Christmas morning, the phone rang and on the other side of the phone was that wonderful voice that we missed so much: Jason!

Everybody else in the house was still in bed but, as soon as they heard the phone, quickly came to the master bedroom to talk to Jason. That call wasn't long, just a short time to let us know that he was going to call later when everybody was in the house.

When his next call came, Pam, Meli and their families were there, everybody talking to Jason at the same time from different phones. It was crazy but this is what we learned from his call:

• Jason's spanish is pretty good, he even has a Peruvian accent.
• he has not been mugged (at least he says he hasn't)
• he ate horse and guinea pig - Jason says they Don't taste like chicken. But so far that's the worse he has eaten but he knows one area of his mission where they feed the missionaries cats.
• jason still buys star wars toys if he finds them and can afford them
• he doesn't play as much soccer since his knee is still swollen and hurts. But he does play.
• he misses ice cream the most since it's very expensive and not widely available.

Otherwise, he is doing great, he loves the work and Peru. He loves being a trainer.

Jason is not sure if he will stay in Peru or will go to Bolivia - they expect the relationship between the US and Bolivia will get better once we have the new president in office.

He sounded great and happy. But somehow his voice was most animated when he was talking to Amanda...I wonder why. He said he could not watch the Star Wars movies without her or fall asleep during General Conference without her (but I think that last part is a good thing)

Next phone call: 5 months away, on Mothers Day

We were illegal in Peru for 2 months

ok so we have a ton to go through today since it's been a while since I've written. not my fault by the way, i had to go to Chile and ya.

so what happened, two weeks ago utia had a cambio to lima tambo. he's there in a trio and seems to be more or less happy with it. with him gone i got a new comp. elder chafloque who's pretty chill. we've had some problems these first two weeks but things seem to be getting better. he came with a warning though it was kinda funny. when the pres announced the change two of the elders in his old zone came up to me and said you need to have a lot of patience with him and just don't yell too much. but he's not as bad as they made him seem. I've never been one to judge anyways. i just work and he does too so i don't mind. o but i became comp mayor. or senior comp in English. kinda cool but not something that i really care about. it just means that i get more money and have to be in charge of the area. so ya, that's the cambio.

so then this last week all the missionaries from my group, from the ccm the 17 whose mission was Bolivia all were illegal for about two months or something like that. so to get us all legal we had to leave and come back in. to do that they took us Sunday night flew us to tacna, which is the sur of Peru and we stayed there the night. did some shopping in the morning and went to Chile in the afternoon. stayed there for a couple of hours and just enjoyed our pday. but that Monday night we flew back to the mission. got the the mission home at about 1 in the morning and stayed there and at 8 and consilio. and then back to work.

this week our numbers in surco were very good. like numbers nobody here has had in a very long time. some are good and others not quite but we're progressing a little bit. it helps that i have such a long time here in surco and i know what works. so i do that and nothing else. the problem is that we still don't have ward missionaries which means we don't have a lot of people to get our investigators every Sunday and so we have few in the church.

and now since this week is Christmas just soes everyone knows. Peru does celebrate Christmas and does it like us. so ya. this Christmas we're gonna visit some members and call home. they say we have 45 min to call. lets see if i obey that rule. but ya i'll probably call in the morning and or in the afternoon. depends on when my comp will but guaranteed in the morning a little bit and then maybe in the afternoon. so around ten i'll call. ten in the morning. in the night we will visits members and so i can't call then. and that's that

Christmas ¡this year has a very special meaning to me. it fulfills 6 months in the mission. kinda cool. one fourth of the way done, but they say the first six months are the hardest and i believe it bc i can already see the hardest is behind me. i'll still have problems and challenges but i know how to handle them. so it helps . I'm a lot less stressed and just happy to be doing the work. for all the future missionaries there just get through the first six and you'll be as happy as one of these Peruvian dogs who has skin diseases when they die. kinda a bad example i think but it's true. the first six are hard then it is easier.

o and i did see the doctor and we'll see. didn't help much but basically gave me permission to act for myself so i will and i'll get it better.

o and more importantly my packets came. yay me. i was so happy . after three months. one had a ton of ties and coloring books and stickers, thanks for all that i was so happy. and the other was one from the church i forgot what it's called. so ya thanks guys. i don't know y i like stickers so much but i do .

so ya that my time. thanks everyone and have a very happy and merry and feliz Christmas. or navidad. thanks for everything.

we went to Chile to get visas

hiya. sorry i couldn't write this week, we had a lot to do. i went to chile and had to get some visas with the other americans from my group. and so we didn't have time to go to internet. so i'm gonna write this little bit soes y'all know i'm ok and whatever. esta lunes i'm gonna write to everyone and i'm explain whatever. my new comps name is elder chafloque. i'll put more detail this monday. gotta go love ya

(Sent on Wednesday, 12/17/08)

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

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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

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.

Don't mind eating fish anymore

ok hi everybody.

so this week was really cool. we got two people with fecha for the 29th of this month so that's really cool excited for that. ill baptize one and utia the other, so well have some good pics too. I'm trying to send some pics and take some more than i had before. i figure some people may really want to see this amazingly good looking face more. just kidding.

i got a lot of questions to ask and for once enough time to answer them all, i think.

i still haven't seen the doc but i don't mind too much. things are getting better with my knee and foot and I'm just taking some ibuprofen to help out if it ever gets to bad. they say with the holidays its really hard to visit the doc, so ill wait till after, if the pain and whatever is still there.

also i still haven't gotten the package, they say if it weighs more than 5 lbs it'll take 6 to 8 weeks so if anyone wants to send one, probably be best to keep it light. the address is
Av. Jorge Basadre 592 - Piso 6 OF 604 A, Casilla 14-0293, San Isidro, Lima Peru
or
Ave Jorge Basadre 592, Oficina 604-A, Edificio Torre Azul, San Isidro, Lima, Peru
either one of those two or so they tell me. id check online and see if it says.

on pdays we gather as a zone and just chill mostly. play soccer, eat and go to internet. sometimes we try to play other sports today were gonna do some acting or something like that. jsut have some fun as a zone and then break off and do our shopping or sleeping depending on how hard the week was. but in any case it is a very fun day.

there are 10 or 12 missionaries in my zone, i forget how many and don't wanna stop to think, and yes we have hermanas. yes i love the people and the food. they both are pretty sweet. at first it was hard to adjust but now that I'm getting the hang of it, i hate to say it but i don't mind eating vegetables or fish too much at all anymore. who says miracles don't exist. but ya. our ward is chill but in a casa capilla, so kinda small. however they're constructing a new building for the ward that will be done in like 5 months and everyone is really excited for that.

my spanish is getting better like always. i have become like a perfectionist and wish i wouldn't make mistakes but i still do . i get really mad sometimes but i think about that in five months somebody cant learn a new language and for only five months I'm doing pretty good, well above some of the other guys from my group anyways. i read and basically live in spanish, except wen I'm with the other missionaries from my zone. me and my dl have developed a good friendship but we mostly talk in english. hes leaving in less than 50 days tho so im kinda sad. hes from az too so that's cool. our zone actually has 3 americans from az. and one from idaho.

my comp doesn't speak any english. and he doesn't wanna learn but that's actually good for me bc i still need to practice spanish so i don't wanna speak english anyways.

o ya, about Christmas. the mission does some cool stuff and gives us a cd with all the elders in it so thatll be something I'm looking forward to. i think my pic will be the one with me kissing that little girl. who is the sister of one of our con fechas by the way. they are a really cool family, who always feeds us. the mom and dad are both chefs but both work all day with sea food. so ya i think that's y i don't mind it to much. ill get the details about calls and whatever later.

and i think that's about it. thanks everyone for all the help and support, letters and love. and ill talk to u next week. bye

Earthquakes are like blending smoothies

ok so wat is up everybody.

so this week was a good week. we got some good investigators last week and are working with them. we want to put the baptism date for one the 29th whcih would give us two for that date. were excited to have soem people progressing again. however we have one guy who has a lot of problems with drugs and watever, but he really wants to change. its cool to see that he is leaving all that stuff behind and starting to change his life. his grandma is the one we want to put a fecha for the 29th and if all goes well, he can be baptized in december. but well see.

i looked at and saw the jtdiegom.blogspot.com thing and it is amazingly sweet. whoever is working on that or started it or helped with it at all, thank u and its really great. on that note, i really liked the countdown thing. it was funny to see exactly how much time, to the second, i have left in the mission. the time passes quick thouhg.

about the earthquakes here, not quite earthquakes. more 5 sec shakes. like blending a smoothie. some places are a lot worse than others but where i am we barely feel them. so no needs to worry bout any of those. but we have had like 5 since ive been in surco, kinda cool.

o ya obama. the people here really liked him till i explained a little bit about how hes for abortion and all that. it was funny that all they ever hear is good things about him, but everyone asked why utah was for mccain and i explained y and they all changed their mind. but i like obama and hope things go good with him as pres. and if they dont i wont be there anyways so i dont need to worry bout it.

ya i think thats about all. just something else real quick. luke i heard bout ur soccer goal. really cool beans buddy. keep playing soccer so that when u get called on a mission u can start out a little better than me. o which reminds me. ma ur gonnna love this. this sat we had a activity with the young men. officially it counted as a missionary activity so they let us go. soccer obviously. well me being me, played with my heart as always. welll me and one other kid crashed like pretty hard. his knee got the inside of mine and we both went down. poor kid though didnt get any help cause everyone was worried bout the missionary who was hurt. but it ended up not being something to bad. sorta just hit my knee to sleep. it was funny cause i couldnt move it for like 3 min, everyone was really scared. but ya it got better real quick. like always. and ma u know me, i kept playing. never give up, ya know. and we can apply that to more than sports.

well thats all. bye and thanks for everything

Halloween in Lima

ok everyone, thanks for all ur letters and help.

i don't have much time at all today cause the office is making us send pics to them so they can make a Christmas cd for us all. that'll be cool but it takes away like 5 min from me today

sorry blame them

but on that note not to much happened this week in terms of work. i got some cool pics of halloween but the people here don't really celebrate it. i was going crazy. i bought a bunch of candy and gave it to anyone with a costume. like a lot. they loved me. at one point i had like 15 kids huddled around me like a mob. it was kinda cool.

in terms of work we did 51 contacts. which wouldn't seem like a lot but for surco its a ton. we were knocking doors for hours to get them too. very stubborn the people here

in terms of me I'm doing fine. loving the work loving Peru and loving my study time. me studying, not gonna hear that to much after the mission i think. but who knows

i want to thank everyone for ur letters and help and support and for not criticizing my bad inglish in these letters, especially when i spell english wrong. but ya.

the baptism date got pushed back bc of the dad but it'll be for the 29th which is still good. we have some others but they are progressing really slowly.

well i gots to go, thanks again for all ur help. i really miss my two wards there. i think about both everytime i go to church. how great they were. i wish all the members here would be that strong and willing to support our investigators the way u all supported me. if that were the case the work here would be amazing. talk to ya later

It's just a kiss on the cheek president, after all, the babes love me

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

the work is good

so my first interview with the pres and it was kinda quick. they say all the elders first ones are. it was good, he pepped me up a bit and layed down the law like hes trying to do with all the missionaries. something kinda cool, my comp will most likely be the district leader here or somewhere else. this is the last week of this change and its almost guaranteed i stay here, elder utia also, but hell be the dl. so that's cool.

this week was good. we are working with some inactive families who have some sons and daughters that aren't baptized and that's how were getting most of our investigators. contacting, while I'm getting a lot better finally, still is relatively ineffective here in surco since it's a richer part. but we still get some success from it.

in terms of packages, send anything to the mission office. they take care of anything. but be careful with the packages. most missionaries put a pic of Jesus or a saint cause it means the people wont touch it. also the packages shouldn't be to big, especially coming form the us bc they think it has a lot of rich stuff. so just be careful but thanks for helping me out.

still nobody with baptism dates but we have two that say they want to be baptized they just wanna learn a little bit more. were gonna get them a fecha this week at least one for sure. so the work goes on. this week the apostle christofferson is coming here for a devotional on wed. so thatll be something else. excited for that ya know. my first devotional with an apostle. cool beans

outside of that not much, just wanna say hi to luke and harrison, alana, ian saige and alexis, and all the other ones who are to young to know that I'm saying hi to them. I'm miss u all and be good.

so ya thanks everyone for all ur support and help

Eating all this weird stuff (10/13/08)

whats up y'all-

I think this week was kinda a bust for me and Elder Utia. we worked hard but I was kinda sick, when I was feeling good he was sick. our investigators kinda fell through and we had to go to the office a bunch to get some things like money and stuff figured out, which took away from our work time. Something kinda funny, even though I'm eating all this stuff i don't like, fruit fish and veggies, Elder Utia is the one who is getting sick to his stomach, he's thrown up like 3 or 4 times this week. that's life. but...

through all of that this week we hope to feel better and we will work. we're gonna find so many people to teach it's not funny. and we have some investigators that are getting all the lessons just won't go to church. they will. we'll do whatever it takes. it's about time Surco got some oober hard working missionaries and this week, sick or healthy, we'll show them they have some.

now to answer some questions.

basically all is chill here. me and utia get along great. except when peru lost to bolivia and argentina beat uruguay, he wasn't happy. but we joke around a lot and are like brothers. but he's not like bryce, miss ya buddy. but ya, our pench kinda stinks, that's our food lady. always green stuff with onions or fish. every meal has something we don't want but what can you do. they are supposedly gonna build a new chapel for our ward, but I'll be gone before they finish. and i live in a little community along a road called jorge chavez. in surco, by a military base. so that might help find me on google map.

I actually do have some requests this week. i lost my triple. that is Book of Mormon, D&C and Pearl of Great Price. left it on a bus. somebody got a very cool book. but ya, so i can't get a new one anywhere but the temple and we never go. so ya, also a quechuan dictionary translation book thing. where were staying in our house the hna. speaks quechuan and boy am I determined to learn. I'm even reading the BofM in quechuan, if you count knowing 6 words every 3 verses reading. also ma do you remember that electric shaver u got me, left the charger there at home. sounds like me. some mouthwash cause its crazy expensive here, gel, sounds like me again, air freshners, cause our room smells like soggy wood, cause it is soggy wood. and some ties and coloring books. the kids here like coloring books, and I like ties and have actually given away most of the ties I had to members. especially since the general conference when they said members need to be dressed better for the sacrament. so ya. if you could that would help a ton. i still have a bunch of everything so no worries, just those things would be cool.

outside of that I wanna thank everyone for your thoughts, prayers, and any other type of help that your giving to me. I really help. my comps girlfriend broke up with him so he thanks you too. we need any type of help we can get.

I think that's all, until next week
Elder Taliercio

Officially in the Peru Lima South Mission

hi yall what's up.

this will probably be a shorter letter cause i got a bunch of letters but not to much to say anyways

the work goes on in peru and is really strong. my zone is doing really good this this month. this week we have 8 baptisms planned with 3 more likely.

on a random note i just got welcomed, officially to the lima sur mission as of wednesday. lunch with prez and all that good stuff. only 6 weeks after i got here. but thats ok, itll make a good story for the grandchildren

peru is nice. the weather is good and like our winters in arizona, almost perfect. but 2 hermanas in the barrio said i needed a sweater so i have two sweaters already until it gets hot. the ward takes care of us real good but still i did get sick this week. my stomach did not like eating so i couldn't eat to much without feeling sick. outside of that all is good.

i did get to see general conference and took some investigators to see it. what a cool thing to actually have prophets in these days. a blessing for us no doubt. i loved the messages and understood them all even thought they were in spanish. my spanish this week has really improved to and my quechuan. the lady we live with speaks quechuan so shes teaching me. cool beans

outside of that not much. if anyone has any questions let me know. and dad I'm gonna get the address of the house and put it next week.sorry i forgot this week.

bye

Email 9/29/08 - Still Lima

ok wats up everybody.

this keyboard that im using is weird so ur gonna see alot of typing errors. sorry

ok so thisx week has been really cool. we got two more people with dates for baptism and they are both chill. we got a lot of investigators but not all of them are progressing. we are also visitin a lot of inactive families wtih some members who arent baptized so we could have a lot more. thats the worrking side of things. all is good and looking forward to general conference

now i want to say happpy birthday to some people. dad obviously, the 3rd. anthony is the tenth of oct, and liz had her birthday last saturday. happy birthday everyone.

now about the mailing. when u want to send something its best they say to send it to the office. from wat i hear they will give it to the zone leaders who give it to us in our zone and district meetings. so thats supposedly how thats supposed to work. because we live in teh house of a family htey dont want to bother that family with our letters and whatever. and yes i did get one dear elder today. so i dont know how many u sent but we do get them. thanks

now about my comp. chill sweet little peruvian. his names elder utia and we work good together. i still have problems with door aproaches so he elps a lot there, but outside of that we share the load. hes a cool trainer though.

i wanna send the pics that i have, i have aobut 300 from the ccm and the field so far but im trying to find a way that if nothing will happen to it. like it get stolen or anything. some elders download them on a flash drive and then send the card. i think i might do that.

uuuuummm, thanks for writting me this week. i love getting ur emails and sorry i cant always respond idividually but the time thihng doesnt quite allow it. but i do appreciate it all.

for request of my father here is my daily schedule

wake up at 630
7 breakfast
8 personal study
9 comp study
10 leave and work
1 lunch
2 training
3 work
6 dinner
7 work
930 in the room
1030 lights out

thats that. i dont havce to much time to exercise, but i do write in my journal somehting i take as something i really need to do. but some days have more details, other have not so much. still its nice and im glad i am

o i just have to say that the dbacks getting eliminated kinda not cool. but whatever. now let me know how asu and the cards do in football, and whats going on with teh suns, if they messed up the team more or if the changes they did might actually work. just briefly cause in all reality i dont care to much right now, but its nice to know

o and the force unleashed, the star wars game. that has to be amazing. i saw some kids playing it here, i wanted to die just being around something star wars but it looked so gooooooooood. the sacrifices i make as an elder.

i think thats about it. thanks everyone and if u have any questions or anything just ask and ye shall receive.

Email 9/22/08 - Lima South

ok whats up everybody. so this week was really chill, or cool if you dont quite understand chill.

baptism number one and two officially in the book. two young guys one 17 one 16 got baptised on saturday and sunday. that is apparently a miracle for this area since they hadnt had one for four months before last week. so that was really cool. one of hte kids is gonna come work with us a little this week and the other said that his goal was to get his mom grandma and brother baptised. on top of that me and elder utia have 8 new investigators, more references to find and two old ones. so the work seems to be going great. very cool. my comp baptized one of the kids, carlos tabori and a priest in the ward baptized the other, victor icant remember his last name. but both are oober good kids, both have plans on going on a mission. even though i really didnt teach them much officially i get hte number and the pics. most important. but ya so 2. cool beans

outside of that the work is the same. everyday we look for more people to teach, knocking on doors. some argue, some say theyre busy, but some let us teach a little and at least let us set up a return date. so its nice.

ill get the address of my room for next week so you can check exactly where i live and whatever dad. and you guys got the address of hte mission right. i put it in the last one i wrote. if not ill send it again.

i want to thank everyone who reads this for their help and support. i know how many prayers are being said for the missionaries and i know its apreciated. we can have success on those alone, but it helps to work hard too. which we do, cause this is a sacrifice for us. hard work and hard to keep focused on the now and not the future, but we press forward and get just enough help

hte members in my ward are sweet. i didnt go like 5 min without someone asking us to do something, telling us we need to visit one of their friends, or trying to get to know us, and have us go over to their house. its sweet. like my two home wards. i feel like home there which always help.

one sister has really become like a mom to me too. she always is like that with the missionaries but it helps a lot. she made her son give me a sweater even though i said i didnt need one, she said that if i didnt put it on and wear it she would be upset and not help if i got sick. like any mom she basically forced me to wear it with love. thats ok though. shes great.

outside of that not much. thanks again for the help and support and everything else.

and if you guys wannna hear more bout something or want me to tell you more details bout anything, just send an email and let me know. im here to serve for two years, not just in peru but anyone i can.

talk to you next week

change of mission - 9/14 & 9/15

(Email from Sunday, 9/14/08)

so this is not monday but we got special permission to write today cause we got hte news that i will not be going to bolivia.

apparently they are in a civil war and they are pulling out all the americans. so ill stay here in lima south adn will be getting transferred tomorrow. i should be able to write tomorrow too, so yall can write back adn try to lift me up a bit cause im not gonna lie im kinda dissapointed. however, i guess it really doesnt matter where you serve as long as you do. so ya

outside of that the work here has gone good. we have 3 people with baptism dates but today will be my last day with any of them. we have 9 investigators and ya, so not bad for 3 weeks.

im doing ok with spanish, its almost to the point were i can understand everything, instead of jsut everything bout the gospel. so thats nice. im working hard adn trying to learn everything that i can you know. i like to learn.

outside of all of that i dont know what else to say. you can write back in emails, but try to keep them somewaht short and dont be upset if i cant write to much tomorrow.

2morrow ill give the address of this mission at which point you can send cards and or packages and i will send stuff back. i found out bout some program that lets us save all out pics and im pretty sure if i set one up and give yall the password and whatever you can get them that way, but ive never been to good with computer stuff so who knows.

thanks everyone for your help and stuff. i dont know what yall will do with anything that says im going to bolivia, at the very least itll be a good laugh when i get bakc. peru is cool though. limas the sister city to buenos aires, but rumor has it im going way south, close to the border of chile or something, but rumors here end up wrong.. i should know tomorrow.

ok adios for know, till 2 morrow.

and for anyone whose counting only 648 days left
21 fast sundays or months
and like 16 more transfers or something like that

but i didnt do that math, one of the other americans did it, i just thoguh it was funny he figured that out.
bye

(1st email - Monday 9/15)

ok so today all i know is that im going down south out of the city. im leaving lima but staying in the mission for good almost 99 percent sure of that.

im doing good you know. starting to accept the fact that im staying in peru and not goin to bolivia, but i like peru so thats not a bad thing. its a nice place and im glad i get to be here. the spanish is cool too, learnign a lot of peruvian slang and stuff like that so when i come back you can say im basically peruvian.

so i think thats it. im excited for this change cause itll help me a lot. ill get a trainer and will go to an area with just me and my comp they said. so itll be cool. i look at this as sorta a cool little change. i dont know anything boout this mission though, in terms of boundaries and stuff like that, maybe yall could fill me in. i really know nothing. right now i havent even had an interview with teh pres or to be honest i dont even remember his name. ferreras or somthing like htat. but ya let me know.

o and since this week is amandas bday happy birthday, and mistias need to send pics of baby 13. so ya i would say dont send stuff just yet. let me ask how things work now that im gonna stay and next monday i will tell you exactly how.

thanks everyone

(2nd email - Monday, 9/15 - and NEW Mission Assignment)

ok so who knew two times in one day was allowed, but apparently it is some transfers, or my new comp just wants more time. hes great though, been out for 14 months cool guy. latino also from peru. im excited for that.

so my new area of work...... surco surco lima peru. or something like that. its about 40 minutes from where i was but some parts are a lot poorer. nice place mostly though. the room is cooler too. cause its only two of us and a nice little room. cute anyways.

so my comp worked this area before and said that they had one baptism last month and hadnt had one for the previous 5 so that means, a lot of work. but he says that they have 3 good investigators who might be getting baptized soon. so i came here at a good time. im oober excited to be in this part with this comp. his names elder utia.

o the part of this letter im most looking forward to........ you can send letters and packages, brothers, sisters, nephews, nieces, whatever you want to peru for me now.

the address is something like:

Elder Taliercio
Mission Peru lima south
av jorge basadre 592-piso 6 OF.604 A
Casilla 140293
San Isidro- Lima Peru

i dont know if thats it exactly but mom im sure you can find out and tell everyone too. um so this isnt exactly me asking for stuff cause its probably expensive to send but if you love me you will send stuff. just kidding, really yall dont have to. just so that you know you can. and if you do let me know in an email or something so that i can expect it and see if things get here or get robbed.

they say dont put things that jingle jangle cause they think its money. so no skittles ya know. and dont send packages that are to big, cause they like those too. to be honest i dont need anything anyways, but i always like letters of love. just paper and love.

so ya, thanks for everyone whos helped and supported and prepared and whatever other stuff you can think of. im excited to be here to do this cool work and hopefully get some success.

thanks

Email - September 8 - Lima South, Peru

ok whats up everybody. this week in peru has been kinda interesting.

first the details.

they are having a meeting today and apparently are gonna figure things out. however, if things dont work out todya they say ill probably be spending a couple of weeks or months here. so thats cool. the place is really nice even tho the work is hard.

o i cant forget, happy birthday pam. adn happy birthday amanda in a couple of days. i wont say what day for fear that its not right. but pam you said that for your bday you wanted me to commit someone to bapism and so we did. his names arturo. were teaching him and his family and commited him this to be baptized at the end of the month. we wont be in the area tho, so we wont be able to do the baptism most likely. me and my comp have 6 investigators, which is pretty good for starting with nothing and only being here for a week and a half. were excited but like i said theyre moving us to a different part of the city.
cool beans ya know.

i wanna thank everyone for writting the emails, you don know how much they help me. ill try to respond to some today so this letter will be kinda short. but i am also aware of everyone reading this letter. thanks for your support and your help in my life. if it wasnt for everything id done before i got here i couldnt handle the work and stress that comes from being here.

im trying to do all i can for the work. its a good work. thanks to everyone for your help.

all is good too. feeling good, sleeping good, eating good, and all other stuff goood.

till next time.

Email - September 1 - Peru Lima South

ok well first letter from peru, the field life. and it wont be my only one. the field is a million times better than the mtc but it is really hard.

first of all lima south mission is pretty cool but they have us in the hardest part of the misison. its the richest part which is why its the hardest. its actually a lot like the big cities in america, but in spanish. so its kinda cool. but most people dont listen to us. the work they have us doing is looking up all the references that we gfot this last saturday. its been kinda cool, cause we saw some guys that we talked to come to church this sunday. fun fun. however, my comp is a latino who just got out of the mtc the same day i did. because of that weve had a hard time adjusting to what we need to do. i get no trainer or senior comp. its cool but it makes the work seem that much harder becuase niether one of us really knows what to do some of the time. also because were both new we start with out any contacts or appointments. which was hard to get some. but we did and we are trying to teach them as best we can and its going really good actually. we try our best.

ok thats sorta it. nothing to exciting. we work a lot, have like no extra free time. which is actually a blessing. we walk about 15 kilometers a day and ride the bus like 3 or 4 times.

we actually arent sleeping on the floor. they went out and bought brand new bunk beds for us. but we have 12 people in the room. thats fun. its pretty big though so its not to bad. im thankful for what we have, even though we have no water and need to buy it at the stores. its fun you know. so mom just to let you know i need to take some money out of the bank, cause the money they give us isnt enough for the rides, but what can you do.

our pench or food lady is realy cool. great food adn feeds us till were full. it helps. today obivously is my pday. and no i dont have more time to write. but thanks for everyone who wrote me, i appreciate it.

like i said in the other i would prefer that we not send letters to this mission but if you do, use dear elder. i dont know though how it works. maybe you can call and ask if itll go to this mission attomatically or if you need to do somehting. but ya figure that out.

im excited to be here but its hard work. but i like to work hard. so its all cool.

thats basically it. if anyone has any questions or whatever, email. i cant print it out yet either. so try to keep them short, but three or four paragraphs is short enough that i can skim through eight letters like i did today, and still explain whats going on. i wont be sending any letters out either. sorry. just this emial. i will as soon as i can.

bye till next week