02/23/15 Polygamy? Not.

It hasn't rained as much as usual, nor been overly cold, it's sunny and a little hot at the moment. The week was pretty good other than being gone from our are from Sunday night until Tuesday night doing immigrations in Lima. The sisters of our district helped a couple to get married and baptized them afterward. Z_____ wasn't able to be there when we attempted to visit him. We've majorly been contacting this week so not a great deal to tell about but for the first time in Peru I've been asked about polygamy by a professor of a nearby college.  We contacted at her home and now she's been reading The Book of Mormon since we contacted her. She says her husband doesn't want to talk to us so I'm not sure how that will go. Well as far as giving Jason my address... I guess you can see what it's like to try to contact because rarely are there house numbers, so I'm going to say that we live in the city Huaraz about four blocks up the street Wilcahuain and down a small side street in the second of three stories of a white apartment building... good luck to him finding us!  Today for Pday we played some soccer and then we went to get our hair cut. We went to a barber shop and a nice Jehova's Witness cut it, she gave us some of their little magazine things in Quechua which was cool, haha.

Me wearing Elder Diaz's sunglasses...
Thanks for everything!  I love you!  Chao

Chad's email to his dad:

I got your package, thank you! And I got the chance to explain dance cards to my companion haha. That's great with the plaques (Chad's plaque is finally up!). Well the number you could give Jason is _________ but I don't know where he'd take us to lunch within our area haha. I hope I can help him feel the Spirit as well. That's pretty cool that Dirk is Bishop too haha Well anyway thanks for all your prayers and help, of course.
love you, chao

02/16/15 Articles of Faith

Elder Diaz is my new companion, he is from Peru with 17 months in the mission.  He is a hard worker and a pretty funny guy, still getting used to him but he's great!  He pushes me a little more in morning exercise with which we both wish we had a pull-up bar haha. He cares about learning English a little more so that's pretty good during language study we each explain the pronunciation and meaning of what is being said in parts of The Book of Mormon. 

While my former comp was gone and he was coming I worked with Elder Sandoval, one of the other missionaries in our district (whose new companion was my companion in the MTC).  We had to come to Lima today so I could do immigrations and I forgot my camera in Huaraz so no pictures sorry. 

Larsen is worried about the cold (his cousin is trying to decide if he should go to BYUI or not, he hates the cold) haha I'm worried about when I get transferred down here to Lima, it's hot and humid here. That would be awesome to be roommates with Holden (his cousin who is currently serving in Brazil).

We were talking with a new investigator, named ______, and he has a conception for himself of what the church of Christ should be like and because of that he hasn't joined the congregations he has seen so far. He was questioning us, among other things, about whether we can perform miracles; incidentally, his wife who wasn't there at the time has cancer. So it should be interesting to see what the Father has planned for him and how we might be utilized in that. 

In today's letter from the president he said we'd be starting to teach about the Articles of Faith to recent converts which will be great considering that there are certain basic beliefs outlined there that aren't always directly spoken of in church lessons or plainly said in other scriptures such as that we believe in being subject to the law or the literal gathering of Zion. Anyway it's been a pretty good week. les amo y nos vemos

02/09/15 His Testimony of the Healing Power of the Preisthood

I told Chad that I had not received an email from him last week... here is his response.

(Last week's email that I didn't get)

I sent this, in fact it's listed under sent mail not drafts:

At our last visit with the S----  family they told us they would be going out of town until the 20th so we won't be able to see them until then of course. Umm, we didn't get to see the A------  family this last week but we will be visiting them this week I believe. But yeah the young couple married on Saturday at the church and pretty much all of the ward council helped in one way or other with the wedding which was good and then they were baptised on Sunday morning. 

Brother Salazar (our old zone leader who recently finished his mission) visited for their wedding and baptism and will be with us for part of P-day today.  He had the opportunity to baptize the wife whose name I have trouble spelling haha it's said 'Jadira.'

Anyway, last Saturday we went to "la punta olímpica" which I guess is the mountain from Paramount pictures, and we got to play with snow. we threw snowballs at each other and all it was awesome. 

"Anyway ----, whom I've mentioned before, did not come to church in spite of our visiting her yesterday morning and her seeming animated about the gospel so we're a little confused and will have to ask her what the problem is this week. ------- and -----, the less active couple, did come to church but they are separated, at least for now, so we're going to visit him this week and hopefully we can help him to understand how important it is that his son have two loving parents in the sight of the Lord. Also the bishop's second councilor talked with us and asked us to come with him to a member of the ward's house to give a prayer saying something about there being a "malignant spirit" there. ------ overheard and asked if he could come too, imagining that we were going to go exorcise someone and he'd see something like some movie he was talking about "Constantine" so my companion had a pretty fun time explaining that we would really just go offer a prayer and that's it."

(This week's email)

This week one of the Zone Leaders, Elder Norton, finished his mission and should be back in Arizona tomorrow. And yes transfers are today or tomorrow... I just know those going from Huaraz to other areas will be going tonight late and those coming here from Lima will be getting here Wednesday morning. My companion is going and I'm staying.  Elder Lunt and his companion Elder Castillo are going, Elder Jensen, Elder Quezada (my DL), Hermana McKnight, Hermana Ahern, and Elder Reese are all leaving too.  The DL is going and one of the ZL's, the other ZL will still be the same (Elder Poveda from Bolivia who by the way started his mission in Venezuela but obviously couldn't stay there and was switched to this mission part way through) we don't know where any of them are going nor who is coming, all we know is who had to pack their bags and will be leaving tonight. I am excited to get to meet my new companion!

Yes, we do have fun as a zone, we went up and had a snowball fight in the mountains with the whole zone the week before last, but most of our pictures don't turn out very well.  Today we met up at the DL's house after playing soccer and before coming to write and so I didn't have my camera with me.  Here is a picture that I have of our zone.

That sounds exciting that Devin and Diana are going to Costa Rica!  Will you guys be watching Krew and Holland for them during that? What's going on with Brittany and the coming baby? How is all that? 

I'm not sure if I mentioned before that our pentionist's (the ward member who makes lunch for us) daughter-in-law is an English teacher and named their little baby Matthew.  The 'th' doesn't exist in Spanish so when they refer to him they usually say Matew and she said "no it's not Matew it's Matthew" so now I say his name and in an American accent and it feels funny in the middle of a sentence in Spanish.

Which reminds me... as far as understanding everything everyone says: no. especially when they're drunk or using sarcasm. 

Larsen is home? Have you gotten to talk to him? How is he?

Chad's email to his father:

In the way of spiritual experiences this week we talking with an investigator whose father has cancer and whose parents are separating. My companion's parents have separated and gotten back together a couple times (and received the gospel separately at the same time during the last of those). I've, of course, seen a little of the effect of cancer but also the healing power of the Priesthood and prayer and fasting, so we were each able to testify to part of the problem and I do testify that the Lord is watching and knows what he's doing to help his children and whom he sends to them as well. 

Phil didn't make the cut? I guess that sounds like him. He's 5'6"?  How far does he drive at that height  Either way I wouldn't mind making $130,000 from a round of golf, I mentioned that to my companion and his jaw dropped and he said, "I think I'll take up golf".  My district leader didn't believe that he could have won that much for 11th place haha. Yeah, I'll let you caddy if I play in a PGA tournament (I'd need all the help I could get)

No I haven't received any package but the Zone leader is in Lima so maybe when he gets back. I have, however, received a few Christmas cards so please tell Derek and Brittany, Uncle Brent and Aunt Melodie, Grandma Measles, and Sister Shear thanks for me, it's awesome to receive cards.

02/02/15 Traditions of Their Fathers

It was a bummer... I didn't get an email from Chad this week, I am not sure why.  I did read that many missionary mom's didn't get emails this week either, something was wrong with the Internet.  BUT, luckily we did get a short little email that Chad sent to his dad...  Brad had told him about his friend who is serving in Micronesia.  He doesn't have access to the Internet but luckily his friend who works in the mission office will email his family once in a while.  His father had told Brad on Sunday that his son had 13 baptisms that week!!  But, they have a hard time retaining them... here is Chad's response to Brad's email.


13? Wow I hope those are all retained, I've heard that can be hard, luckily my few so far have retained. So my companion was talking with one of the recent converts and the 3 magi came up and he said something about their names and I asked him about that later, really baffled about the idea of what their names were, he insisted that the bible said their names, it took taking him to the zone leader and having him corroborate my statement to convince him that it doesn't even so much as say they were three. Anyway it's interesting to see how deeply the catholic view of some things is ingrained as part of the culture, such as that they may accept without problem that to Joseph appeared the Father and the Son as two individuals but then after explanation of addressing the Father in prayer and doing so on the name of Christ, it still arises that sometimes they address Christ like the conception of them not as interchangeable names is hard to get used to... anyway that is just interesting to me! chao

01/26/15 Transfigured - Smart Boy!

(He begins by answering my questions from last week)

To the meeting in Lima, yes my companion went too. And with the DL it was splits, the DL went with my companion in our area and I went with his companion in his area. I haven't gotten to write in my journal every night but in general yes I do. My shoes are fine, the water doesn't really get inside so I'm good and Huaraz is the only part of the mission where it really rains so I'll hold off on the boots, I'll be good. Well every transfer people come into the mission and the last few have had more than usual, in fact my group was one of the biggest, maybe it's in preparation for opening up the Trujillo South Mission or something.

So a new family we're teaching, the A------ family, seems pretty interested. We asked the father whether he'd read The Book of Mormon with his family and he said that he would but that he doesn't read well, like first grade education was what the wife said and it was interesting because the son, who's maybe 11 or 12 years old, really understood everything better than most investigators, in fact when we spoke of the first vision he said "I remember the Bible said that people can't see God in person because of his glory so how was he able to?" (a question that my companion said no one had asked him before in the mission) So we kind of explained being transfigured, with such examples as Moses speaking face to face with God. 

Anyway, just this morning we were on our way to meet up with the zone leaders and the father of the S---- family we're teaching opened up the door to the taxi he was in (which was stopped in traffic) to tell us that he'll be waiting for us on Wednesday, they weren't home at the last appointment we had, so that was good.

Also the young couple who are working as tour guides are going to be married this Friday and baptized Sunday morning. I think Elder (or now Brother) Salazar who was zone leader here and recently finished his mission (he lives in Peru, just a little North of here) will be coming down here for that.

Anyway, love you guys. I hope Holland gets a little less frustrated with her crawling. Chao

01/19/15 Responsibility

The week was good but I had work visit where I went to the district leader's house on Wednesday.  On Thursday we went to Lima and got back on Saturday so I didn't get in as many lessons as I would have liked to, but it's good. Yeah, it hailed recently I don't remember what day it was. And, sorry, I have no picture of them smashing eggs on my head. The sink in our new house is inside, in fact we have two.  One in the bathroom and one in the, uh kitchenette. 

I wish I could see those two nieces of mine, they sound so cute.  

So, yeah, we went to Lima for a training, because as the president said, we have had so many come into the mission that the majority of the mission has fewer than 6 months in the field which is why they're doing a few more trainings but he said for my group that would be the last one.  He mostly talked about how we do planning, studying, and get a baptismal date. For this last training, the mission president did a practice where he said "does anyone think they can say no to me when I ask you to being baptized?" and Elder Welburn and his companion went up and Elder Welburn was annoyed because his companion ended up saying yes. President also said that when we start teaching someone we're bringing extra attention from the adversary into their lives and are therefore responsible for them which was an interesting point I'd not heard before. 

Tell Taylor I love her too and good luck with her Arizonian. We're not sure yet what we're doing for Pday today but in general we do often go with the other district here.

love you too. chao 

To his dad:  

I can attest to the fact that there is no other opportunity like a mission...

01/12/15 Baptism!

I haven't printed things out to read later. I have downloaded some of the pictures onto my memory card. yeah that is a cool picture. I hadn't seen it before either. 

(I sent this picture to Chad to show him. I love it!  I have always loved the scripture Doctrine and Covenants 84:88  And whoso receiveth you, there I will be also, for I will go before your face.  I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about your, to bear you up.)

Yes, Elizabeth was baptized on Saturday. 

Neoman was baptized yes and I sent you pictures from it. We're working on getting him an interview to receive the priesthood this Sunday so we'll see. Some others that we're working toward baptism are Kathy and a new family of three that a family in the other ward introduced us to (the family at whose house we skyped).  They are the Saenz (pronounced signs) family and they really seem interested. they're also pretty well-off because both the husband and wife are lawyers and I got to learn a little about the Peruvgian judicial system.  None of them came to church yesterday, however one of the ladies in the ward brought her nonmember husband so we'll be working with him but he has to be away from home for work a lot.  Around here they can't move to accommodate to work so often the father has to be away from home a lot at a time. In fact, my companion asked me how people move so often in the US.

Sounds like a nice place that Derek and Brittany are moving  in to.  What major do Aimee and Shalee both have?  That reminds, me the Fresh's sent me their Christmas card, so please tell them thank you from me.  It's pretty cool that Aimee is teaching Hungarian in the MTC.

Here is a picture of our district minus the sisters. starting from the bottom: Elder Norton (ZL), Elder Quezada (DL), Elder Poveda (ZL), me, Elder Sandoval, Elder Pilacuan.

Also, it appears they have had a big rain storm!

His email to his dad: (He is talking about 3 of his friends and their missions... )
Is Sam's companionship the only one on the island? I'm curious as to what those villages are like. (Marshall Islands) Yeah, I've been talking with Michael (Madagascar) and I didn't know Mckay (Chili) was so far down south. They always make fun of the Chilean missionaries I'm not quite sure why yet.  Yeah we have a nokia 100 or something like that (he and his companion). I imagine it would be slower than them all if it had anything to do that could be slow haha. (Brad is looking into getting a new phone and was telling Chad about the differences) what is Brady doing these days?