03/16/15 Completing Families!

We're definitely looking hard for those who are ready to hear the gospel and are finding some. Last night we were knocking doors and an older woman, Y______, who invited us in and showed us some pictures of her late husband, among which was one of him in white baptismal clothes with the missionaries and another in which he is in the hospital with Parkinson's  She has not been baptized so we will work with her now. 

Holland is 1? Wow, yes she's adorable!

With whom did Ariel get engaged?

The S____ family had to go out of town again. A lot of people (especially fathers) have to go out of town for work which can be frustrating. Every few days it pours for a little bit but otherwise it is sunny. Pday is good and our food is great. Money is fine. Most of the clothes are fine other than that there is now a hole in the pants of my gray suit, I have no idea how I got the hole in it, it seems to have worn thin but I don't know how. I also have some holes on the inside of the sole of one of my pairs of shoes from getting filled up with water. My companion has a few EFY songs on a usb and they are majorly in English so he sometimes asks me to translate it haha. How was Sam's talk? nos vemos gracias por todo love you

PS This is a picture of our district from last transfer that my ZL just sent me 

To his dad: (Brad was telling Chad that we got 22 tickets to the Saturday afternoon session of Conference and that we are taking our Young Women)

22 tickets to Conference? Wow, that's quite a few. Yes, we get to attend all of the sessions if I remember right and I'm excited. I love general conference. (Brad was telling him something about the sealing powers) Tell me what grandpa says, that's an interesting question. Thank you for the exhortation.

So I've been helping my companion to learn English and it's funny when I have to explain things like "well brethren is the plural for brother but it's an old word, except if you're talking about prophets and apostles, otherwise we say brothers" 

anyway love you chao

03/09/15 We Change Because of Him, For Him!

A boy? Awesome! Do they have name ideas they're thinking of?  That is awesome that the Brady's are coming to Peru, what made them decide to come here? Well, you can tell them that I don't think I had any altitude sickness, well actually I do feel some altitude sickness when I go down to Lima but when I came up here, no. Although we don't usually choose to go for a run for our morning exercises because you can get a little winded here. I'm sure if they're going to Huaraz they'll end up in my area for a bit because I guess there are some ruins at the top of Wilcahuain here (but the place is closed on Mondays so of course we haven't been). 

Things are going well with my companion although he still laughs that I like oatmeal, they hate it around here except as a drink, they just don't know how to flavor it haha. 

Brother V_____ is about 68 years old if I'm not mistaken. the bishop and some others went to give him the sacrament Sunday before this past one, but otherwise they're not really too involved.  We didn't have ward council yesterday because it was stake conference or we would have mentioned it. Our Mission President was invited to our Stake Conference and spoke in one of the meetings, he spoke on comparing the missionaries being set apart with the vow of a Nazarite: from important but small rules like that a Nazarite could not so much as touch a grape (numbers 6) to the sacrifice of not attending the funeral of a loved one. At the normal Sunday session he taught lesson 1 (the restoration) which wasn't what I was expecting but it was good. The S____ family came back from travelling so we're excited to work with them this week.

One person we met this week, named J____, who has problems with alcohol, during the whole of the lesson was at the point of crying and kept saying "I want to change, I'm ready to change. for Him" pointing to an image he has of Christ in his room. I could see Godly sorrow in him, that he said as his only reason to want to change, "for Him" is something we can definitely learn in our lives: to love Him enough to desire to change.

chao, les amo

To his dad:  (Pres. Brady had told Brad that he wanted to get a beanie like one that Chad had on in a previous picture)

I'm not sure if you can see it in the pictures so let him know that most of the beanies like that have Huaraz written on them haha maybe he'd like that. Did you tell him how to pronounce it? Some recent converts J______ and J______ (the ones who got married) are working as tour guides around here in Huaraz so maybe he'll come across them. 

(Chad's friend - a Priest in our ward - told Brad that Chad sure did look happy) That Tanner employed the word actually sounds like he's surprised haha do I not usually look happy? If not, maybe I ought to work on that, at least for the sake of the investigators because I surely am!

Who was baptized? Sounds like the ward will have grown when I get back. Que vayan todos, con planes asi, sin problema al Peru. Chao y gracias por animarme siempre

03/02/15 God's Ways Are Not Always Our Ways

Neither Z----- nor B------ were home when we attempted to visit them, however, we've gone to visit a sister in the ward every morning for quite a few days.  Her husband has been bed-ridden for a couple years (I'm still a little unsure of what the problem is but I guess he has a benign tumor in his head and though it was operated on, it wasn't treated fully) and being stuck in his bed has some problems on his back including a fair sized umm hole in his lower back. The wife has learned how to clean it and all, but needs help to lift him and move him onto his side, both to clean it as well as change his diaper. Of recent he hasn't been eating, in fact when we first went to help him last week she said he hadn't eaten in about 3 weeks! But today he did eat a potato and something called chocho (not sure what it would be called in English) puree. This past Thursday after we helped, we sang with them his favorite hymn "Grande Eres Tu" (how great thou art) and although he can barely speak you could see him singing along, especially in the chorus and the faith which both he and his wife have continued. Above his bed, to his side, is a picture of the two of them outside the temple after their sealing a few years ago. And above the back of his bed is a painting of Christ pulling up a lame man to his feet, holding that man's hand in the same way I hold this Victo Marzal's hand as I ask him how his morning is or when keeping him from ripping his wife's hand away from cleaning and treating his back. I can see in them that God's ways are not our ways and a loss of faith does not simply come from a difficult time. We're working on moving this work over to the members, having spoken about him in ward council yesterday, because this of course is a great opportunity in the manner of service for the ward. 

We are always searching for someone to teach. I'm healthy and of course I'm happy: I've been enlisted in the great work of salvation (as have we all).  Today was companionship pday so we mostly cleaned the room, went to buy some necessities and stuff and we played some chess and so forth.  We have some preparation days which we do as a zone, some as a district, and the others just as a companionship (and in the last meeting with the president he told us we are not to meet up with other missionaries on the companionship ones). 

This Wednesday we had a meeting with the mission president at which he, as always, started by saying "Well what are we going to study today?" holding his very visibly studied scriptures. Some of the questions brought up were regarding the spirit world, Alma's explanation is somewhat unclear. So president too us to section 138 of the Doctrine and Covenants, it is much more clear in explaining of such than anywhere else in the scriptures.  It also includes that Christ was unable to visit those who had rejected the words of the prophets and are in prison and that he organized his forces or set up missions with those in Paradise to go and teach them. It also explains that the time there is a further time of probation, it will not be much clearer to those there (in spirit prison) what is the truth and what not, much like here in regards to the same ministry done here and there. 

love you. chao 

And to his dad:  

Now we be emailing around 3:30 or 4 pm.  I have seen that Priesthood blessings are the thing asked of us most around here: much of the time, even when there is a father in the home with the Priesthood because they have to be away for work not just during the day but for days at a time... sometimes the whole weekend.  That is a difficulty within the church and the work centered on finding and helping families to come unto Christ, equally. I know that we have been blessed with the real Priesthood of God which can truly heal. love you too!  Thanks for everything. nos vemos

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