JUNE 4, 2012

June 4, 2012

Hey sorry about the lack of description, my apartment is pretty small but its clean and tidy and I like it. The food is great but when you are sick it is horrid. Potatoes and rice or chicken and rice, all of the ladies cook so well, but my pentionista is the best.My companion and I bought KFC for the family last week which was a great taste of home. We baptized Velissa Marivell Cantera Garcia this past Saturday. She is a single mother of 28 years and is awesome. She has a son named Franco who is 5 and the funniest little boy in the world. We have been teaching Velissa since I got here and she progressed very fast. She wasn't sure if she wanted to get baptized so soon, but with much prayer and fasting she received a testimony and got baptized earlier than her desired date. She lives with members so she will be strong in the Church I know. The ward members are great but a lot of the time they don't show up to things. It's hard to work with the ward when the ward doesn't work with you. My companion and I are struggling in the new investigator area. In the winter here no one wants to do anything, all they do is go to work and come home. No one wants to listen, but I am just going to trust in the Lord. The city has a few bigger streets, but my area is houses on hills. If Lima is Salt Lake. San Juan Lourigancho is West Jordan. If that helps. My companion and I made ties!!!! The fabric I bought for Bree... we kind of used it to make ties Hermana Charo our pentionsita helped us make them. So the next time I'm in the centro de Lima I will buy another for her hahaha. Peru played Columbia last night in soccer and from the lack of cheers in the street I'm guessing we lost.

I haven't received an  email from Brandon. I know he has written a ton, but none of them go through. Have him forward all of them to dad and dad send them to me because I really want to hear from him. How is Cameron .. does anyone know?? Let me know. Dad where is Elder Brasher? Is he going to the Peru MTC before going to Bolivia? Let me know his status. 

 love you all.

May 29, 2012

May 29, 2012

Hey sorry about the letter it didn't send because it was too big. I put three pictures in it and it was too large to send. So I deleted two of the pictures and re-sent it. Anyways that is going to be tough for Brennan. I struggled in the Peru MTC with my Spanish my last weeks and he will have nine in a foreign country. O geez. So Brandon and Landon didn't go to Brennan's farewell... that's strange. I hope that Disneyland trip was awesome

We are struggling to find new investigators. We have only a handful of progressing investigators. It is difficult to move investigators into progressing. Especially when one missionary is teaching most of the lesson haha. Anywho, Beliza is getting baptized on Saturday!!!!!! Which is a great thing and we have two other baptisms the second week of June. They are two 14 year old girls that the young women have fellowshiped and now want to get baptized. So we didn't really find them and teach them, but we are going over the lessons with them to get them prepared. My Spanish is getting better I have no problem pronouncing the words. So everyone understands what I say I just don't say things that make sense haha. I am opposite of most of the North American missionaries who know how to talk, but cannot pronounce haha. Anyways we are getting a new zone leader next P day so that will be fun. Ben Kjar's cousin is in the same mission as me. His name is Elder Essig and I met him the first day at the mission home, but I forgot to tell you I think. So tell Ben that . 

church is true read 3 Nephi 31-32 

elder woolstenhulme

 

LEARNING PATIENCE

Mon, May 21, 2012

This week has gone by so fast I hope all the weeks don't go by this fast. It is great to hear about all of your success. I am exited to hear more. Every week my companion and I are butting heads and he is getting on my nerves. It is all a trial of my faith because I obviously need to learn patience and charity. He teaches me well and he pushes me to speak and be a part of lessons which is good and I am more a part of the lesson now. It's great to feel you are actually teaching people. We have one great progressing investigator, but she is struggling with accepting a date for baptism. She says she wants to have a testimony that it is the right thing for her to do. Which is exactly what we want! We just hope and pray every night that she will get her answer. She attends church every Sunday . She lives with her mother-in-law who is a member and it will be a very smooth transition into our church because she is surround by it everyday. I cannot wait to see her excel in this church. My companion and I are struggling in the new investigator area. Since I have been here it has been harder to contact because of my lesser knowledge of the Spanish language. So along with focusing our efforts on contacts we are going to focus more on working hard with the members for referrals because blind contacts that become converts have a harder time with staying active and we want active members rather than a ton of baptisms. Anyways, I have been praying a ton that I don't snap my companion's neck. I am very glad I have him as a companion because he throws me in the deep end so I will have to swim to survive. Anywho I love you all. Go Wolverines! and GO TIGERS!

elder sy e. woolstenhulme

the church is true!

MOTHER'S DAY PHONE CALL

May 13, 2012

The missionaries are allowed to Skype now for their phone calls. So awesome to actually see his face and hear his voice at the same time.

Email from May 14, 2012

Anywho no more week two. It was great to see everyone's faces last night on Skype. My companion is pretty trunkie haha but what can you do. We had our first baptism as a companionship on Saturday. We married, baptized, and confirmed 83 yr. old Juan and 72 yr. old Benita. It was an awesome expirence. My companion and I butt heads here and there, but its nothing to worry about. I'm digging the food, everyday it gets better and better. I'm getting comfortable with the ward and it is making it easier. Anywho not much to say, just doing work. Bainy I just read your dearelder letter. I want to see the picture that got first place! Tell all the wrestlers I say "what up".

peace love baptize 

{elder wall-e}

elder woolstenhulme

IN THE FIELD

May 7, 2012

Hey everybody well I'm in the field, we left the CCM at 5:30 am to get to the mission home by 7. I

'm going to miss the CCM, but I was so ready to leave. I made tons of great friends and I know I will see them after the mission as well. The mission home is in northern Lima. We got there and we had about 3 hours of meetings to get everything figured out. After meeting the president and his wife we had the meetings then ate pizza then met our companions mine is Elder Jorge Cifuentes from Guatemala. He is 15 months out on the mission. My three buddies went straight to the jungle they are the first missionaries to be trained in the jungle Elder Brown (mi lo mejor amigo), Elder Gneiting, and Elder Neilson. Elder Price (amigo) and Elder Anderson (amigo) are in Lima as well. So is Stringham. I am in the zone magnolias and the district of Villa Hermosa. I am the only gringo greenie in my zone, there are two other greenie,s but they are Latinos. Our area is just a neighborhood, only houses, houses on top of houses. Our pentionista is Hermana Chara. She is about 60 and hilarious always cracking jokes. It is awesome, her family is great. She makes us breakfast and dinner we have lunch appointments everyday with members. We always have appointments and always have backups. We walk everywhere and climb a few mountains. We ride motoscooters to other areas to meet with other missionaries. One elder in my zone is Elder Kepner, he is 21 months out and is from Indiana so I thought mom would get a kick out of that. There is an elder in the office of the mission home named Elder Hendricks, he is 18 months out and he went to Mountain View. So I don't know maybe Bree knew him or something. Anywho we have two investigators with a baptism date. Hermano Juan y Hermana Bentia, they are both like 100 but they need to be married first. So we are working on their marriage papers so they can be married on Saturday in the morning then baptized in the afternoon. They have no money they sell snacks on the street and every time we meet with them they give us a treat and they won't let me not take it. They are some golden people, they have been interviewed and have been to church and are ready. Also we have another named Velissa who is a single mother and is progressing very well but is scared to accept a date. She thinks that a date this month or next month is too soon. We have given her all of the lessons and I know she has felt that it is right. We watched the restoration movie with her yesterday after church to get her more exited. We have others progressing but there are too many to name. I only have two ties from home left hahaa. I traded all the others so I have a pretty hefty set. We have a lot of ward council meetings, the ward is very involved which is great because that is one of the main focuses of the mission. My companion gets stressed out easy, but I don't understand what is going on so I bet I would be too haha. One thing when you send me letters don't write Elder on them because it makes it difficult to get them from post office. Also send giant envelopes rather than boxes.When you send packages you need to declare the value NEVER! declare it over $100 because the church needs to pay $200 to get it out, If I need anything of value just transfer me money. Never send me money or high value items. Also if you send me a package send me some more ties from savers/DI. Some sick thick vintage ones, but make sure they have the tag if possible because it makes it less of a target to be stolen at the post-office I NEED TO KNOW WHERE PETER MOLNAR IS GOING ON HIS MISSION so tell me when you get the chance. We can Skype on Mothers Day.!!! but i need to know Bree's Skype account!!!! I will be calling tonight around 7 or 8 my time so like 8 or 9 your time I think. *only for five minutes* so we can figure out what time for Mothers Day. So be readyI will be calling dad's phone.

Tell my friends to write me

Sy Woolstenhulme

Ave. Carlos Izaguirre 124

Independencia

LIMA 28

PERU

Anywho the church is true

I love you

I'll call you guys tonight.

He added this in a separate email on the same day.

My first area was a 45 minute bus ride from the mission home. My companion is from Guatemala and he is the district leader as well. We live in a upstairs apartment of a lady I don't know. Our pentionista is hilarious! We walk everywhere and we ride motos to the other districts we have lunch appointments everyday with members and our pentionista cooks for us breakfast and dinner. Our chapel isn't big, but it isn't small. Our area is very dusty and has a lot of small streets.

Last P Day at the Peru MTC

April 25, 2012

Today was the last P day in the CCM. We spent the whole morning at immigration with most all of the advanced North Americans getting our Peruvian ID cards. So that was fun... but afterwards our driver broke the rules and took us to McDonalds which was a awesome treat. After returning back to the CCM we took a nap and headed back out into the city to go to a temple session. The P days are very lax here. Saturday was fun, the tracting was not as successful as the first time but that's not my call who knows whose heart we touched indirectly. We were in Rimac, which is the poverty stricken area of Lima. All of the houses are on the mountains, the people say the higher on the mountain you are the poorer you are. Needless to say we climbed many stairs. I'm glad I had all of my experience of climbing mountains to get to rock walls to help me with my stair climbing. Most of the Peruvians were tired and out of breath only half way up the mountain. We were suppose to teach less active members, but in Rimac it is hard to find the right house so we just ended up proselytizing. My companion is very difficult to understand and he doesn't know how to condense the lessons so he likes to go on 10 minute sch-peels about one principle so it is hard for me to jump in when I don't know where he is. But I am learning through this trial. Lets just say i have been reading Ether 12:27 a lot this week. We did teach one woman at the very top house of Rimac who was 21 and she was interested in our message from the get go. We asked her to attend church on Sunday, but I have no idea if she did. We gave her a pamphlet and we taught her the entire first lesson and hopefully something got through to her through my broken Spanish and my companion's mumbling. Most people in Rimac live on dirt floors with tin roofs and plywood walls. It was very humbling to see a mother with 5 young children living in a house as big as my room. People here are humble and very receptive to the gospel. My teacher tells me of the food we will eat in the north. She says we will eat monkey, turtles, snakes, crocodiles, worms, larva, and guinea pig of coarse, just to name a few. I'm exited to get to the mission field so I can start learning some real Spanish. I hope and pray  will have a trainer with some knowledge of English, because I need so major help. I've lost ten pounds, but that was the ten pounds that I gained in Provo so I am back to normal. I'm killing it on the soccer field and I have been taking a  stab at goalie and doing pretty darn good. So Seth better get ready to win some games in a few years. All is well. I have almost traded all of my ties with an exception of a few favorites so I have quite the collection now. Feel free to send me some whenever because they are the greatest currency among missionaries.

I love you all, the church is true

ñuga yatray ima tasta kowsay ñuga yetray ima jesucristo chayni quishpichiq shuti jesucristo amen

{I know that God loves me I know that Jesus Christ is my savior in the name of Jesus Christ amen}

( testimony in quechuea )

Even though I wont use quechuea at all in my mission anywho peace and love

ELDER SY EMMETT WOOLSTEÑHÚLME

Advanced

April 18, 2012

I am now advanced, we have got a new group of missionaries in the MTC. There are typically 80 or so Latino missionaries, but this exchange we received 99 exactly. Also a new group of North Americans. The other two elders in my Provo district have come as well along with the others that were supposed to come earlier with us. I got a new North American companion because elder Stringham decided to go into a completely Latino class for his last three weeks in order to learn more. So I have Elder Price. He is about 6'2 150 lb. I love the kid, we are getting along very well and i am exited to continue to grow with him. the food is great. All of us North Americans receive our fair share of stomach sickness, but that has long since passed, but not for the new North Americans ;) The pizza here is so amazing. When we proselytize you are only with your Latino companion and you just knock doors and sometimes there is a teacher with you to help and to give feedback. This week we will be going out again on Saturday and I heard a rumor we are going to the super poor area of Lima called Rimac. I have a feeling I am going to be humbled greatly from the impoverished humble people and feel their sweet spirits. Today I am with my best buddy Elder Brown for our temple session and for P day. One of my new teachers in teaching us a few works and phrases in Quechua so.

¡cuyami!

"la iglesia es veredadera"

ELDER SY EMMETT WOOLSTEÑHÚLME