4 BAPTISMAL DATES FOR DECEMBER

December 3, 2012

Hey everybody I apologize, but this letter will be short the internet took a long time to load and I am very short for time. So we have some new changes in the zone. One more elder form Colombia who will end with me so now we have 5 in the zone with the same time. And then Elder Maldonado who started the mission with me so we have a pretty young zone. This week Elder Bustos and I just worked hard. We have 4 baptismal dates for December and they are all progressing well. Clara Pasapera who has been coming to church is still trying hard to get that testimony strong enough to take the plunge. Nils Rodriguez has finished the year of college and we are having his interview tonight. And Ludgarda Gonzalez and her son Álvaro are very excited to get baptized, but they need to come to church a few more times. Elder Bustos amd I are fasting every week in order to get these people baptized. Our zone ended November with 1 baptism so we are trying as hard as we can to change this zone which everyone thinks is impossible. 

The Christmas devotional was very cool it was nice to see some familiar faces in the choir and in the orchestra. There isn’t much to say for this week we are just trying to get in the Christmas spirit with this heat and trying to baptize like mad. I hope that next week I can get a computer that loads faster in order to write more.

Peace out

I'm not sure what time I will be calling to set the date for the skype session, but don't worry I will call at a reasonable hour so we can chat for a bit. I'm thinking we might be skypeing on the 26th because we are going to be in Soritor for Christmas and I would rather call in the house of the member than with all the other elders.So we will figure this all out later.

ATE CUY AGAIN - HEAD AND ALL

November 26, 2012

Well one more change gone.

Monday we had P-day in Soritor which is super far away. So we traveled like an hour and a half to get there and then as a zone we ate cuy. This was my 4th cuy and I was very excited. Because I love cuy. So this time was a bit different because I decided to eat the head as well. I didn’t have the stomach to do it in Lima so I was like yea I’ll be cool in front of my homies and do it. So I ate its face off sucked out the eyes and munched on its brain. And surprisingly it was quite delicious. I enjoyed it. It might have been 4 days early, but that was the closest thing to a Thanksgiving dinner that I had. On Tuesday I had paid money to Elder Robles in Rioja to buy a skin together and on Tuesday he brought me the finished product. My awesome tigrillo bible and then right as you thought I was done I have had a member who owns a jungle gift shop to search for more skins that might pass through moyo because it’s against the law to kill animals in this part so they have to get them sent from Iquitos so they are rare. Any who Wednesday she got me a nice boa for 30 soles which is a bit more that 10 bucks when they sell snakes for like 55 and like 70 for gringos. Cause she is my homie. So my companion and I are making wallets and hymn book covers for that. So while all of you are doing your crazy stuff with Bree getting engaged and Brandon leaving and Thanksgiving. I was eating and skinning wild animals in the amazon jungle.

On thanksgiving my companion and I dropped almost 95 percent of our investigators because none are progressing and we are starting over. Only with those that have baptismal dates for December it was difficult, but it needed to be done. We’re going to change a lot of things about this place. We have one date for the mom of the girl I baptized with Elder Castro for the 15th and we are hoping to get Nils in the water that same day and we are fasting and praying hard to get the Salazar family baptized. We just need them to exercise their faith. We are also teaching the brother of Clara, who is getting baptized, who is a recovering drug addict. It will take a lot but we are helping him change his life and from the progress he made this week all is well. I’m not changing this change I got at least one more with Bustos. Which means I will be here for Christmas? Don’t worry I have all the things written down my passwords and your usernames. And I have already arranged for a member to let us use his internet and his camera so don’t worry were going to be skyping soon ha-ha. Not much is going on. We haven’t baptized in a while, but God tests our faith to see if we really trust him. I know we are going to baptize like mad. President sent me to the toughest zone for a reason I just need to learn these lessons quick yaknowwhatimean.

O yea the Catholics put a giant Jesus statue on top of their church so that was a nice Friday surprise haha.

O yea I need new oil vile. Mine broke... blessing like Jesus I guess.

I sure hope there are some nice photos in that package ;)

Vitamins help missionaries stay strong when they are in the jungle eating rice and eggs.

I would like a nice journal if you could send one. I kind of gave my other one away to my trainer and never wrote in it and I kind of want to start writing so my kids can know how crappy of a missionary I was ha-ha I nice hard back nothing too fancy

Did you know that 90% of all the cocaine in the world is grown in San Martin. Which is exactly where I am ha-ha fun fact happy thanksgiving

WATER BALLOON FIGHT

November 19, 2012

Because my zone leader only thinks with his stomach we had another BBQ instead of going and doing something fun again. So the gringos and I played soccer on the court while the rest cooked the food. We then were assigned to fill up the water balloons for the water balloon fight. We filled up them all and it was a great time. We had not very many balloons so we did one on ones in the middle of the court like a western draw. Brown and I both threw and we both smacked each other in the chest. So after that we all took a big nap and chilled the rest of the day.

Because we as a zone have been low in our baptisms we decided to do a zone inventory so after the district meeting we all sat down and talked it all out. Which was good and I think it helped a bit, but we still don’t have sufficient baptismal dates. On Tuesday after the meeting we did a zone wide work visit. All of the junior companions left with a senior companion from a different district. Which was very cool. I left with Elder Robles from Mexico in Elder Brown's area? We walked a lot through all of the farms and taught a couple families which was cool to see how the other areas are doing. In the night we called tacos (which are very hard to find in Peru) and we ate the giant greasy guys all night long. Then we woke and went to do service in a member's chakra (area of land to cultivate) and we ripped out roots and about 5 trees. My legs got eaten alive by biting flies, but it’s no big deal at all it just itches a ton ha-ha. Then we came back at started working again in our areas.

My companion and I have no money to take mottos to our appointments so we have been doing nothing but walking all this week. It stinks no one in our area has money we all have to take 45 minute bus rides for district meeting and P-days so we are super poor its hilarious. We have tons of families that can get baptized in December. We have a family of 7 that we are trying to get in the water. And Nils came to church which was a mini miracle because he has classes every day at 9 so that was something really sweet. We also have two single moms with kids that have dates, but they just need to come to church. So this month was real tough. No baptisms this whole change, but December we are going to baptize like crazy. Keep praying the people of Moyobamba need the prayers.

Brandon is looking real good just make sure he gets all his homies addresses. Atlanta is never going to be the same.

TIOYACU - ALLIGATOR

November 12, 2012

Monday Tioyacu!!! Tioyacu is a tourist attraction that we went to which has like a ton of fresh water pools to swim in... But we didn’t go swimming. Aalso there are a lot of cool areas to take pictures so it was nice to go see some sights. We then had a barbecue which was delicious. I found an alligator named Hank that a took a picture with, which was enjoyable. After returning home we took a nap and then went to work like normal. Then that night the whole zone came to the house to sleep because we were going to Tarapoto the next day bright and early for a training with the President. So needless to say me and Brown and the other gringos stayed up all night talking in English and making the Latins angry. The training in Tarapoto was all about using the doctrine of Christ to protect the baptismal dates, which is something I need to utilize more in my area because our dates keep falling. Also we talked a lot about strengthening the branches and wards. Which I feel also was directed towards me because my branch is now down to less than 45 in the chapel. We are trying real hard to fix all the years of problems in this branch. But that night my companion and I found a complete family of 5 that also have 2 older sons. Which was a nice blessing. On Wednesday as we were searching for inactive members we realized that almost all of them have moved away. My area has had the church for almost 20 years now and the directory has never been revised haha. Its OK because through our searching we are finding families and learning the area more. So we found 2 more families on Wednesday so we are focusing a lot on the families which is the goal of the mission so I hope that through our efforts to focus on these families we will be blessed and get them baptized.

Friday was my companion's birthday so that was fun eating the cake from Hermana Blunck and smacking a egg on his head before we ate our rotisserie chicken. Then the next day happened to be Elder Cruz’s birthday so with the zone leader's phone I called my Mexican taco and wished him a happy birthday and learned that he did baptize the three families I left in Lima so that was a little birthday gift for me. On Saturday we searched for everyone of the investigators and found a few. We found a natural spring in our area that has pure water which was tasty. Then came Sunday, Seth's birthday which I hope was wonderful, and being that is was the 2nd Sunday of the month we as missionaries had our talks to give. As I talked about membership support in the missionary work many eyes lighted up and through the talked about references that my companion gave the few members that were there in the chapel started to offer their help. I hope that they will continue with this excitement for the work. Not a single investigator came to church so we will not be baptizing this change, but we plan on having a lot in the water in November. In the afternoon we taught a man named Gerges who is the husband of a very active member. He has rejected the missionaries all his life and has recently started listening to his wife. So I bolted over there with the Restoration movie that he wanted to see. And we taught. This man was so strong in his beliefs he would not hear a word he was talking nothing more than blasphemy and me and my companion bore the strongest most power testimonies in this world and through this man's own agency he chose to deny it. I was so heart broken. All of the prayers and the words. But I know that through that same agency he will one day accept Joseph Smith as a prophet and come to the truth. We do not convert people the spirit does. Our job as missionaries is to teach and to invite them to know for themselves and if we do that then we have done all we can do and the rest is for the will of the lord.

HOSPITAL IN PERU

 November 5, 2012

So Monday we were going to go on a cool nature hike but we didn’t because we didn’t get our baptism goal so me and my household made completos. Yes like the video on Kid History. The hot dogs are called
completos here in Peru so that was a great surprise and they were delicious. We enjoyed a lovely P-day taking naps. Tuesday was a normal day, but I woke up with the strangest headache. District meeting was
difficult to get through, I was feeling very sick. And Halloween was no different, we went on divisions that day and I went to the zone leader's area with the new zone leader feeling worse than ever. We somehow
managed to get 6 lessons which was awesome. I think because I felt so sick I tried as hard as I could to focus on the lesson so the day would go by faster and I ended up teaching better than normal. But
with the constant migraine that had not yet ceased to haunt me and the rising fever we decided we would go to the hospital and after I fainted when they took way too much blood they told me I have a blood
infection (which I don’t believe because they suck at taking blood). So they gave me a ton of pills and I rested for like 2 day and watched a lot of church movies. So I felt fine and worked on Saturday and
Sunday and I climbed a tree which was fun well I hope these pictures get through if not I’m sorry. This letter is so small I had a problem getting the pages loaded so ill write more next week so hopefully I will
actually not be bedridden this week so I can get some stuff done. Nils couldn't make it to church because of his schooling, but we still got to teach him a few times so that’s good. He is progressing so very fast we just
need to find a way to get his bum to church he wants to go but cant. It’s always like that the ones who can come to church don’t and the ones who can’t come to church want to. o geez
Don’t drink the water.

DRAWING OF ZONE

October 29, 2012

Well Monday started off with a relaxing P- day with hamburgers and Mormon movies in the chapel with the zone. Me and Brown and Anderson left to go search for mountain dew like always. Then after we decide what we would do for the rest of the transfer and I was given the responsibility to design the zone shirts and with the counsel of my zone leader (who wouldn’t let me do anything cool) we have a design ha-ha. So Tuesday in district meeting I took a photo of the zone and drew ourselves for the backs of the shirts I'm hoping it will look good on them but we will have to see in a few weeks when the shirts are printed (if we can find a place cheap enough to do so). Anyways after a long Monday night of playing phase ten we decide to play phase ten again on Tuesday. I still have only lost once in the 6 games we have played let’s just say my zone leader wasn’t prepared for the years and years of Lake Powell training that I have at phase ten. Wednesday we did service in this ladies house in the other branch and we moved a humongous stack of bricks in the pouring rain and mud. I had a great time, but the other elders didn’t ha-ha. I found a salamander and it bit my ear but the picture is on a different elder’s camera. So Thursday work visit with my district leader we walked the whole day so he could realize how giant my area is and how difficult it is to find people, let’s just say he got the message ha-ha. So low and behold we get home that night and guess who the zone leader is doing a work visit with… yea Elder Brown so we all played phase ten and I won on the tenth phase by points ha-ha it was a close one but yea clutch no big deal. Then Friday my companion gets sick. He has an internal fever from the food and we got to take a day off. So I practically read the whole New Testament while we tried getting his fever down. Saturday we left and tried visiting all of the investigators that just might come to church, only found one. Dang it is said we have tons of baptismal dates, but we can find anyone to remind them and to excite them to come to church. Let’s just see what happens tomorrow. Sunday morning we are late to the church ha-ha took a long shower. So we get in the chapel and Marisol Vera is sitting with a member her 3 kids weren’t with her but hey she was. Then we were like dang that’s sweet and right at that moment mister Nils Alacin walked in with his backpack on without fear. Nils is a 19 year old kid who I found on a work visit with my zone leader. This kid is more prepared than anyone I have met in the mission. The kid always reads the pamphlets and he is always at home when we have appointments and when he can’t make an appointment he calls us and re-schedules. The kid's questions are always about the next lesson and I think this kid will be a missionary. So I was pretty pumped on Sunday after a week were no one was in thier house. So this week we are all healthy and the zone has baptismal dates. In October we didn’t make the goal, but November we have the potential of surpassing it.

Realize the little miracles in your lives every day. God is a God of miracles. He is the same yesterday today and tomorrow. He cannot change or He would cease to be God. Pray for miracles, pray to recognize them in your lives. Ask and ye shall receive knock and it shall be opened unto you.--

NEW COMPANION - ELDER BUSTOS

October 22, 2012

New change.

So Monday we were three me, Elder Castro, and Elder Casteñeda. So Elder Castro left with a member after the P-day internet to say goodbye to all the people he wanted, so me and Elder Casteñeda had some nice peace and quiet for a change. We went and got some sea food and took a nice nap then left the house to proselyte. So P-day was pretty nice so we got home and Elder Castro wasn’t there, it got to 9:30 and he still wasn’t there, it got to 9:50 and he wasn’t there. We were about to call the assistant when he walked through the door with hamburgers… so my zone leader yelled at him and said all that he needed to say, then we all ate hamburgers. My companion and I stayed up all night packing his suitcase. He couldn’t fit all of his stuff so we had to make a few boxes that the zone leaders are going to send to Lima. Well Tuesday morning. Peace out Castro. So I’m in a trio with the zone leader and Elder Robles. So we have a district meeting hangout a bit and eat lunch. Start proselyting in my area and I’m lost ha-ha. We pick up my companion and the new zone leader at about 2, my companion is Elder Bustos from Chile. He is super chill nothing like my old companion and we are getting along great, but I’m still lost in the area. So we are like where is Elder Brown, he didn’t show up with them. So we went contacting because all of my appointments fell and we went to the taxi station to wait for him at 6. We waited and waited. I also had Elder Brown's tie on which was a nice touch. And it got to 8:30 and he wasn’t there. So we called the zone leader and they called the other zone and they said he left at like 8 from Tarapoto which is where the airport is. Which is 3 hours away? So we headed home planned and waited for Elder Brown. The zone leaders left and picked him up and he obviously couldn’t go back to his area at this late hour soo shoot dang he and his companion need to sleep in our huge apartment!. So let’s just say that I and Elder Brown had a good night talking about all types of things.

So me and my companion hit the ground running we have the spirit and we are both lost in the area. So we contacted and found so many awesome people I’m teaching so much better than before it is so much easier to teach when you like your companion and you have the responsibility or directing the area. Elder Bustos has 18 months in the mission he is in the same group as my last companion. He reminds me a lot of Taylor Wilkins so that’s pretty cool Bree. We get along well and we will see if we can change this area because from what I see we are going to do some good work here.

Friday, the assistants came to Moyobamba and stayed with us for two days because we had our interviews with the President so we bought pizza 2 days in a row and it was delicious, but I’m all out of money for the month ha-ha and the assistants owe me some green. But the interview was great. Right now I and my companion are focusing a lot of our efforts on finding inactive members. Not just asking the active members for references but asking them to help us find inactive members because if we can reactivate a family we will also find someone in the house or in that family that isn’t a member. So we are trying hard to work harder with the members so we can grow as a branch and become a ward.

On Sunday we had district conference and the chapel in Rioja was packed full of people it was nice to hear from the mission presidency and to see the entire district united. Elder Anderson and his area just officially became a branch yesterday so that’s exiting they now have a branch presidency his companion is the 2nd counselor and Elder Anderson is the secretary to the branch so that’s something kind of nuts.

Our zone has 4 missionaries that all started the same day. Me, Brown, Anderson, and Amaya our whole zone is young new and pumped to go. This area is going to change and we are going to be on the top of the mission every elder here has a past of success in areas that didn’t baptized so we are all here to change this zone. Everyone says that Moyobamba is the hardest to baptize. That might be true. But that’s why he put all these studs here.

A buddy of mine recently referred to a scripture in his farewell talk, ¨many are called but few are chosen¨ we are the missionaries that were saved for this time on earth because we are the most powerful we need to live up to the millions of years of training that we have.

All you missionaries that are about to leave on your mission. Know that God loved you so much and trusted you so much that he saved you for this time. The time when the world is the most corrupt. Make your Father in Heaven proud.

























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