03/30/15 Pativilca, My New Area

Why doesn't Larson want to go to BYUI?

Devin and Diana came face to face with a puma?

I hope you guys have fun on the trip. I also can't wait for general conference.

I'm now in the area Pativilca 2 of the Zone Barranca. It's a district and branches here although the mission president, in the transfers meeting, was saying it will be changing into a stake in May. Pativilca is a smaller town about 3 or 4 hours north of Lima. It however is hot here like Lima but I have begun to get used to it. 

My companion is Elder Troll from Chile (he says his name is German and that his ancestors moved there because of WWII) He is from the city Viña del mar which is on the coast directly west of Santiago and apparently a beautiful place. He is in his second transfer in the mission: I'm finishing his training, but he is already quite capable and has a good work ethic and all so that's good. 

The house is quite nice, the building is like 5 stories tall. The apartment isn't too expensive but we are the only people living there, other than the owner, which is odd. We have a working fan and quite a few windows so the heat isn't really a problem. There is only one branch in our town. The district leader is in our branch but works the other area.  His name is Elder Vega and is new to the area too. He from Quitos Peru and his companion is Elder Quesne (pronounced "cane") from England (I don't remember what the name of the city is).

There is about 50 people in our branch. The Branch President is a 29 year old. Church was good yesterday. The chapel is situated in such a way that the person at the pulpit can see out the door to the entrance and yesterday a family (from the other area) walked in a little unsure of where to go while the branch president was giving his talk and he, with out breaking stride in his talk, said "Elders, a family just walked in, could help them into the chapel." I liked that. The Mission President mentioned that his Area President said they should put more missionaries here to build up the area and so that's what he did. He said we will see success as we thrust in our sickle with all our might. Our Mission President always says stuff like we're not in Europe. ¡estamos en el Peru! You should be baptizing every week!

I already knew a few people in our zone such as Elder Robinson who had served in Huaraz a couple transfers ago and Sister Morales who was in Huaraz just before here as well, she is from Mexico. Elder Clouse who was in my district in the MTC is also serving here.

We have some baptismal dates set, such as the sister with her daughter, they are friends of a member. I just hope they all attend General Conference: that can really make it.

Anyway love you, thanks nos vemos

PS  Here is a picture of me with our pentionist (the lady who makes lunch for us) in my last area and her grandson Matthew. 

To his dad: 
We can watch talks and stuff directly from lds.org or mormon.org but from youtube, no. I imagine Sierra and Savannah were definite help with the kids. How was seeing Larson?  (Brad told Chad about a talk by Brad Wilcox called, "His Grace is Sufficient")  What does it say about His grace?

Have fun going to conference, I'm just excited to watch it from here and in Spanish this time! nos vemos chao