Happy Halloween

29 October 2012

Hey Family

     How's it going.  All is well here. I am sending fotos this week.  This is my companion, Elder Zeppy.   What we did this week was... we made pizza!   We hiked to see the Virgen of Guadalupe,  and ran from one side of the zone to the other several times.   It's interesting being a ZL.   Even with everything that we have to do everyday, we still manage to teach 20 or more lessons a week which is above average for the mission.   We have 2 investigators here progressing for baptism.   We also had someone who came to church on their own looking for someone to help her change her life.  We will have to see what happens with her. Work here is good. My companion is way cool.   He is super tranquil.   We just joke around all day in between lessons, and we teach really well together.  He is a great deal better teacher than I, but I am learning.

      I hope Matt starts getting better.   Remind him to read Alma 7:11.   He ought to know it.   Also remind him to pray. I will keep him in my prayers too.

       What is going on with the 666 thing. We have been hearing a great deal of buzz about Obama trying to implement a 666 chip or something.   I have no idea what it's about, but the Peruvians are all freaked out about it (Revelations 13:16-18).   Everyone of our investigators has asked me about it this week.   It's not causing problems or anything,but I'm just curious.   Have you heard anything?  If not, don't worry about it...  just idle curiousity.

     Anyway, for the stake, I have something here I thought was absolutely awesome.

Isaias 54: 16-17

Joseph Smith is the smith, the Book of Mormon is his instument. and no weapon formed can withstand it... and it absolutely wrecks false doctrine. :)

I  have to run! Bye!!  I love you!!

Guadalupe

22 October 2012

Hey Parents!

     I am Really in the zone Guadalupe.  I am in Chepen.  It's a decently sized city.  a little smaller than AF, I think.   We can walk from one end of it to the other in about an hour. (There wasn´t money for a taxi).   I am the Zone leader here with Elder Zepeda.  It's a lot of fun.   He actually reminds me of Jeff by his character.  Actually, he looks kinda like Jeff too  and he is about the same age as Jeff which is even more strange...  I think Jeff has a Guatamalan twin.  No,he is 27, just a touch younger than Jeff.   He went into the mission at 25 years, right on the line.  His family was really really inactive in the church and he reactivated at 24 years.   He reactivated himself to go on the mission.  He is on his last change in the mission.   He goes home the next change, about half way through.   I am looking for something cool I can do for him before he finishes up.  I like it here.  Being a zone leader is a lot more fun than district leader.   Now I get to do stuff,  but it's busy all the time.

      Chepen is really sweet.   The people here are super nice.   We have only had one person who straight up told us to go away and stop bothing him.   The area is big, but with an incredibly active branch.   It's actually about the size of a ward.   We have about 120 active members. but then we have 280 inactives,  really its not bad.   I did get your last package too.   Sorry I forgot to say something in the last letter.   I got it, I ate it, and enjoyed it a great deal.   Thanks for the book of temples!!  I look forward to seeing it!   I have wanted one for a while!!!   Thanks!   Also, if its possible,  I would like just anything of the church that you think i could use.  I apreciate it!   Thanks also for the news.   I just like knowing how the family is doing!   Also, if you can keep me updated with how Devin is doing I would appreciate it. I will be sure to send him a quick note before I get off today.

     If you hear anything from anyone else, I'd love to know how things are going back home both in n the ward or if you run into anyone I know.   Haha!   I think I died to all my friends. (the peruvian joke about missionaries over one year in mission.)

     I love you so much.    Thanks for everything!   I really do appreciate it.   I hope all is well at home.  Say "hi" to all the family.  I am glad you two had fun on your vacation!

Have a great week and I will write again Monday!

 

A-Hola

15 October

Hey,  how's it going parents?
How is Hawaii?    Here, it's been really slow week.   The cool sister
I mentioned disappeared this week.   We helped her find some work with a
member family here and she never showed up to it, so we think she felt
ashamed (se avergonzó) and now is hiding from us.   The other boy,
well, he started progressing but never made it.   We got up to the law
of chastity with him and he had a lot of problems with living it.   He
has his ¨wife¨ have been dating for the last 6 years.  They have all but
the ring and now they don´t really feel the need to go through with
it.   They are as good as married to everyone except God, but didn´t
understand that last part. soooo...His brother in law is an RM so we are still working with them
and have hope, but...
     Yes, I do have transfers.   I have a buddy in the office who
informed me that I am going to be a zone leader in Guadalupe.  I am
going to be with my buddy Elder Zepeda (Zeppy) and it's a good zone, i
have heard. I honestly am a little intimidated with the thought of
being in charge of the security, health, wellbeing, and everything
else for 18 missionaries,  but it's a cool change.
     All is well here; not much new is going on. I have discovered
that being in charge of missionaries is very stressfull, and takes all
the time in the world to look after them.
     I have decided that Heavenly Father wants me to be a marriage counselor after
my mission.   Every married couple and their dog had a marrage problem
the last few weeks.  My companion and I have given more blessings, and
helped resolve more marital problems that I can even count.  It's been
interesting. but i decided its going to be for something some day.
     Anyway, I still have a bunch to do tonight and I need to go.  I love
you all.  Sorry for the super brief summary of this week.  Hope you enjoy your
vacation!   Happy Birthday, Dad!!  You two go hula dancing again!

Love you all!

Zone Conference

8 October 2012

Hey Mom and Dad

     How's everthing at home?   Sorry this will be a really short letter.
 We are out in Morrope this week.   We decided to get together on a
zone activity.   We had a zone sleepover  (una Pijamada). We came out
here yesterday after the conference.   In the evening, we roasted
hamburgers over an open fire that we made inside the house of the
other missionaries here in Morrope. (Morrope has a church house that is  3
stories tall.), so we had some fun with that.   We then all slept in the church
on concrete floors (not the best or brightest idea we ever had but we
did it).   Then today, we have been running around together all day
doing just about everything.   It's been a way sweet day.   We have had a
great deal of fun.   We will stay here and go work here in the
nighttime.   Tomorrow we are going to have our zone meeting here
and then head back to our areas.   The DL´s are in charge of our district
meeting tomorrow... that is me, my buddy Elder Yagual, and Elder
Cordero  (Elder Sheep which makes me laugh!)  It's been a fun day.
But because of that, we are using the internet here which is a touch
sloooooooooooooowwwwwwwww.   I have not gotten my debit card yet, but
I did get the other package with the shirts and the food. Thanks!
But with the mail, our ZL´s haven´t been to the office in a week so it
could be there by now.   I will try and see if I can get it this week.
 Tell the Bishop thanks for the intent.   I didn´t get one this week
either.  I am not sure when you talked to him, but I for sure didn´t
see one this week.
     I hope you and dad enjoy your week!  With everyone
out of the house, this is the time to go party I think! Thanks for
everything.  This week we have been working hard.  It was stressfull.
We had literally 20 or more investigators promise us to come with us
to the conference this week and we only got 5... which was one family,
and one girl (part member family).    We had invited so many so it
was tough after all the work and the running around to all sides of
Jayanca to have almost no one show up.   We had 2 or 3 investigator families
that we had hopes of putting baptismal date with, but they just won´t
go to church.   We have been working and working with them and the 3
promised us to go to church and not one made it.  We are probably going to drop them because they won´t progress and don´t really have much stopping them from progessing.   We
have one other investigator who we are hoping to baptize soon with her
daughter. (We teach a lot of women here I realized.)  She and her
daughter were in a lot debt, had  a lot of health and other problems and didn´t
know what to do.   They were talking one day and the mom was
telling her daughter that God would send help,
and we knocked on her door in that very same second.    We have been
teaching her and trying to help her;  the other day we felt
impressed to go visit her. went, and she was super sick (heart cancer
I think she said.)   We gave her a blessing of heath;  when she
woke up the next morning she was completely better. I am not sure if
God cured the cancer or just got her heart back to normal, but she has
been 100 percent better  and now looks truly converted to the
gospel.   We haven´t talked to her about baptism yet but she is
incredibly animated about the gospel.  We are hoping to put a baptizmal
date with her this week.   We are hoping for the end of October or the
first of November.
     Well,  I have to go.  Tell Jeff and Kels congratulations!   I
will be praying for them. I hope everyone in the family is doing
well  and send my love to everyone back home.

     I love you! have a good week! I look forward to hearing from you next week!

Presidente se pica...J/K

30 September 2012

Hey fam,

     This computer has a virus so I am afraid to attach anything in case the virus comes with my email.  Sorry.   I'm doing good.   This week we worked really, really hard.   We had a good week. but I am about ready for a change out of Jayanca. I have been here for more then 4 months now.  I love the area,  but I know just about everyone by sight by now  and I know they don´t really want to talk to us so... My comp is doing alright now.   He is fully recovered and  we are working really well. It sounds like I might be going to Cajamarca soon.   Several people have mentioned it to me.  I have been wondering if President mentioned something to someone and the gossip lines went nuts  (missionaries gossip worse than old ladies!), but we will see.  President also mentioned to me I might ¨Ir lejos muy pronto¨ (go really far away soon.)   Cajamarca is about as far away as one can get so...    transfer week is the 14th.   I will know then if I will be transferred or not.   In jayanca we have been working really hard trying to share the gospel.   We taught 23 new investigators this week and we had  30 some odd lessons with more than 90 contacts.   It was a good week.  I was really happy with my district.   In my district, we in total had 92 lessons, and 352 contacts (between 3 areas) and 2 baptisms in Mochumi with Elder Jafek and Elder Fandiño.   I really like my district. We work really hard here and are all really great friends.   Elder Fandiño is way cool.   He reminds me of Aaron a lot. I wish i could send pictures but the computer makes me nervous to do so.

     Anyway, I don´t have much time today to write.  We are hanging out in Chiclayo today and all is well here. Tell Katherine Congratulations!!!  Tell her to send me a heads up when she gets out here. I will meet her at the mission border!  Haha just kidding!    As they say here ¨Presidente se pica¨ when we do things like that.   I have no idea how to translate it, but it's a really funny comment.   Just laugh when you read it....

      Anyway I have to run. I love you all. and have a good week!

Back To Work...Almost

25 September 2012  

     Hey how are you all doing?  So things are going well here. I am still bored out of my mind.  We are hopefully going to start work this week.   Yeah,  I think we are going to start our investigator pool all over again.  We have been out of work as of the 10th of this month with all the exams and hospital visits we have had.  But now,we should be ready to work again.

     So what's new at home?   Anything fun going on?    Not much knew  here this week. Presidente has asked all the Greengos to vote.  Our investigators have all disappeared except 3.   One of them is good so hopefully, he will be baptized sometime this next month.   His name is Christian.   I would love to see him baptized.   He is really cool,  about 25 and all of his friends here in Jayanca are RMs.  We have a lot of hope for him.  We will see what happens.  He has a baptismal date for the 6th of October.   For the packages, well,  I still have not seen the other one.  I think someone in the office lost it.  It is the 3rd package that I have heard of that supposedly arrived at the office that never reached the missionary so I don´t know.   However,  I did get a letter from Brianna.   Haha, but she sent it in March. It got mis-sent to Thailand.  I guess its an easy mistake to make!  Thailand is just around the corner from here... haha, but I guess I spoke too soon in my last letter. 

     So this week not much has happened. I started reading the book of Moses in the Pearl of Great Price.   It's a good book.   I like it a lot,  but I haven´t decided if I can use it.   The last verse of the first and third chapter. says don´t show it to anyone but the believers,  but its really interesting to read about it.   Also, here, everyone is worried about the end of the world in December.   The Mayan calender ends  so everyone here is sure that the Mayans had prophets who knew when the world was going to end (makes teaching the Book of Mormon a whole lot easier because they already think that there were prophets here).  Well, that's about it for this week. I am really excited to go back to work.

     After all of the study time I have had this week, I have a dream that I want to fulfill after my mission.   I want to get a bible that has the the JS translation next to it and make a family Bible so I can read it a little easier!
     Thanks for the debit card. I will keep this one a little safer. I just like having a new one every year :)  You sent me a new one last year so I wanted a new one this year too! :)

    Thanks for all the help, the packages, and the love.   I will write later! I love you all.   Have a good week.

A Long Week

18 September 2012

Querido Padres

     Hey whats going on?   Here in Jayanca, well,... we haven´t been here in Jayanca much this week.   My companion had an operation on Monday. I promise never to complain about American health centers.   It was a disaster trying to get in for this operation,  but it happened and now life goes back to normal again, I hope.   So, this week we had just a little bit of work we got to do.   More than anything we were in hospital.  Wow, in the hospital there was absolutely nothing to do!   I have never been so bored in my life.   I read the book of Leviticus in the bible and watched like 4 hours of nascar.  I was extremely happy I did find the Broncos / Falcons game last night in the hospital.   It was kinda sad the Broncos didn´t show up to it... How are sports going?   I hear BYU got stomped by the U too... sorry Mom and Dad...  

      I´m glad to hear that Matt is doing better.   Let him know that I am keeping him in mind out here and send pictures if you can of the Brigham City temple!  I would love to see how it turned out.  Also, if it's possible, send out the conference to peru.   I would love to see it. (probably Presidente Ivins has it.)   It sounds good!  

      I am impressed that you are painting the garage.   That is a project in and of itself...and cleaning it, too?   Wow!   Mom and Dad, you guys got ambitious!  I thought it would have been better to dedicate one of the family reunions to cleaning it...  and the tractor.

     How is the Shelby?   It hasn´t been sold yet has it?  

     Tell Matt 220 lbs is a whole lot better for guys our size.   I, too, finally stabalized at 220.  I am turning a lot of my old fat into muscle.   I have dropped several waist sizes but am still at 220.

     WIth the packages, well, ¨sería mentirle¨, no I haven´t seen any of them. I don´t know what happened to them. I have been keeping an eye out for them,  but still nothing. It's possible that someone lifted them.   The crime rate has jumped up quite a bit here recently. I wonder if the economy here took a hit.   Someone robbed a big golden catholic cross in Morrope (or in Motupe, I always confuse the two places), but in one of them they had a big catholic cross that they keep well guarded. But, every year they add golden and silver ornaments to it.  Soooo, someone lifted it, and cut it up to transport it.  They found the cross cut into 4 pieces and burned with all the gold and silver missing.  It was a big upset here.  Several people talked to us about it.   So it's possible that someone in a similar situation is lifting packages. 

     For money, yeah, I'm doing more or less OK.   I still have 25 dollar.   The conversion is about 2.7 right now,  so I still have like 60 sols.   We cut back on everyhting this month and I still have like 30 sols to use and the 60 more from the dollares if I need it.

     How are my old friends back home? Have you heard from anyone? Is devin doing better? Did Braden ever go on a mission? I haven´t heard from anyone back home in 5 or 6 months.  I think the last letter I got was in March from Paisly.  Do you hear about anyone back home?   Nor have I heard from the stake or ward since before Christmas.  If you hear from anyone, well,  I would like to know how things are back home.

     Oh, in the package that you are working on, there is a magazine of temples. If it's not a problem, it would be really cool to have it.   I saw it on the church website.  It looked really useful.   Also maybe ask Venessa if the other packages were sent from Lima  because if they were, they are probably gone.   I would just to find out somehting about them

     Well,  all things aside, I'm doing good. Presidente Risso mentioned to me in a meeting that I might be going far from chiclayo this next change. I guess we will see. The changes are in the middle of October.  

     I love you all.  Thanks for all the support.  I will write again in the next week. Keep in touch and let me know whats going on back home! I am always interested to hear.

Much love,