January 12, 2015

Scripture 3 Nephi 12:16  Therefore let your light so shine before this people, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.

Wow what an awesome week. It was my companions last week in the mission and it was a great one for the both of us. We spent every second we could working and trying to find and teach people and our work is starting to pay off as we now have 5 people with a baptismal date and are planning on having 7-9 by the end of this week.


R and her daughter are still progressing and are excited for their baptism on the 31st of this month. I love going to teach them because they have completely changed and actually pay attention and want to learn and be ready to be baptized. We also put a date for C and L for the 28th of February. They still have to get married and everything so we are helping them with that and getting them ready to be baptized. They are also actually reading their scriptures which is really helping them to be prepared. I and S are still progressing little by little but we are still trying to help them out. All of them came to church yesterday so that was a pretty big deal for us to have all of them there.


With changes and my companion finishing his mission we planned with a family to throw a surprise going away party for my companion. It was awesome because they invited the three investigator families (the ones in the paragraph above). Everyone had a good time and all of the investigators are friends now and are really good friends with the family. So our going away party was actually worthwhile as far as missionary work goes haha.


So my new companion is Elder Mendoza from Lima and I am now senior companion and zone leader. It's pretty crazy how fast time is flying haha. But we have a lot of really good missionaries in our zone so I am excited to work with all of them. Also our zone has 13 investigators with a baptismal date so hopefully everything works out and we can see some baptisms this month.


Well that's all. Love you guys!

Well since I never know what to put as the subject I decided I am going to start putting my favorite scripture from my personal studies of the week this week is 3 Nephi 5:13.  Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been called of him to declare his word among his people, that they might have everlasting life.

This week was a great week for us. It started out awesome as we started delivering the pictures we took with Santa on Christmas Eve. We were freaking pumped because like the first four we delivered were awesome families that actually wanted to learn and wanted us to keep visiting them. Then a few people after them weren't as excited for us to visit them haha. But we have found some cool people through that activity so hopefully they will keep progressing.

Tuesday was moving day for us. We invited some of the Elder's from the zone to help us out. There were about 8 of us there moving everything but in the end it just ended up looking a lot like Utah road construction, a couple people working and the rest just standing around talking and watching everyone else work haha. But our new room is freaking sweet and I have enjoyed actually taking a shower with running water for the past couple days. It's nice not having to worry about whether there is water or not hahah. When we got there we realized that our stove wasn't working and that it had electrical problems inside of it. That was when my inner Gary came out haha. I just grabbed my leatherman and started messing with stuff and it ended up working after. I now know that I am a true Chapman haha.

Our investigators have been progressing as well. I and S have been reading their scriptures and everything but haven't come to church the past two weeks because of the holidays and have had family in town. In one of the lessons we had with them their 6 year old daughter said the prayer and it was one of the most special prayers I have ever heard. She was so sincere and especially asked that her parents can keep learning and that can lead their family in the right direction. I guess I just wasn't expecting that from a 6 year old. C and L are now reading their scriptures as well. They are really excited to keep learning and even came to church with us on Sunday! It was sweet and I am excited for them. But the best part of the week was yesterday. We had branch council but had appointments at the same time so we went on splits and I went with the branch presidents son. We went to the R family. They are a family that the missionaries found a while ago and that my companion found in future investigators. The good part is that they are actually married! But him and his other companion were visiting them for a while but the mom ended up hearing anti Mormon stuff and didn't want to keep learning. But her daughter has been going to church every Sunday for the past like 6 months so a couple weeks ago we decided to start visiting them to see how they were doing. Turns out it was perfect timing. They are progressing really fast and are even reading as a family. Me and my companion wanted to put a baptismal date but when we went to visit them they told us that the dad had gone to southern Peru to work and wasn't going to be coming back until like April. So I was thinking that there was no way they were going to want to get baptized with him being gone. But the spirit just kept telling me to talk about baptism in the lesson so I went ahead with it and then the mom pretty much just bore her testimony that she can feel that it is right and that she wants to be baptized. She said she wanted to do it as a family but that she really feels that her and her daughter need to do it right now and that the husband can get baptized when he comes back in my head I was just freaking out saying "Yes! you are exactly right!" hahaha. So I challenged them to baptism and we put a date for the 31st of January. It was definitely the highlight of the week. They are really excited for their date and we are going to do everything we can to make sure that they get baptized on that day. We have a baptismal goal of 3 for January and 9 for February so we have our work cut out for us.

Today was the last p day for my companion so we went to this cool dock and hung out with the zone for a little bit. I took advantage and made it and ugly out fit p-day hahahah I will have to send pictures of what I wore.

Well that's all.

Love you guys.

Funny thing....Logan thinks the ugly part of this outfit is the socks with sandals! Little does he know it's cool to do in Utah...or at least his sisters think so!

Wow this week was probably one of the best weeks of my entire mission and one that I will never forget. We had tons of activities leading up to Christmas and it was probably one of the best and most memorable Christmases of my life. I think the part that made it the most special was on Christmas Eve when we met a guy named W. In the morning we went to visit our branch president to see how he was and share a message with him and at the end we asked if he knew anyone we could visit. He thought about it for a minute and then told us about W. He lives around the corner from him and is a member but has some disease and he is really sick and weak and can't really do very much. He's actually pretty young too. So we went with the branch president and his wife to visit him. When we got there he obviously wasn't expecting us but was so glad to see us. He talked to us about how he was feeling scared about his test results and his health and stuff. We shared a message and then watch the "Because of Him" video. By the end of the video everyone in the room was crying because the spirit was so strong. He just kept telling us how thankful he was for our visit and for sharing that with him. But we were really thankful too for being able to visit him and feel of the spirit so strongly in his house. I will never forget the Christmas that I met W.

Then later in the night on Christmas Eve we went to the center plaza as a zone. We had one elder dress up as santa and we were taking free pictures with santa with all of the families that walked past. It was so awesome. We ended up taking about 100 pictures. As we would take the pictures we would write down their name and address so that we can deliver their picture. We also took about 200 Liahonas that we had in the chapel and ended up handing all of them out. It was a great Christmas. I think what made it so great was that we were trying to make other people happy.

The other day me and my companion went to deliver some of the pictures and found a really cool family that is really excited to listen to us and learn more about the gospel so we are already seeing the results of that. We are also teaching a new family and the parents came to church on Sunday with their daughters and THEY ARE ACTUALLY MARRIED!!!! We have really high hopes for them because they really want to make changes in their lives.

On Saturday we had a giant service project as a zone here in Talara. We cleaned up a bunch of garbage in the streets and washed some alley ways. The alley ways here are pretty much the community bathroom so it was gross but the city was really thankful for what we did. We wanted to do it on the 25th but we couldn't and did it Saturday. It was our Christmas service project.

Well thats all. Love you guys.

 C

Wow this week seemed to fly by. We spent a lot of the week getting ready for the giant activity we had as a district yesterday. But I will get to that later on. So as I have already told you guys, our living conditions as of right now are very poor haha. I don't know how my companion has been doing it for 6 months. So we decided it is time to start looking for a new room. We have been looking all week and on Saturday we found a few that look pretty nice. Well at least nicer than the one we are in haha. So we will be moving out.  I'm so happy I don't even know what to do haha.

Yesterday I and S came to church again. They have been progressing really well we just need to work on them getting married. They want to get married but they just have been saying that they want to be absolutely sure about the decision before they make it. In the lesson they were saying that and then I asked them what changes they have already seen in their lives and in their family and they talked about how much better things are. Then I  asked them if that was something they wanted to have for the rest of their lives and for forever and of course they said yes and then they started to understand better and are working on getting married. We had some really spiritual and great lessons this week. I love it.

This week we had our Christmas devotional in Piura with the other zones and it was awesome. I can't wait for Christmas. This Christmas is going to be a lot different and I honestly cant wait. This whole month has just been awesome for me and for us here in Talara. I feel like all growing up I loved Christmas because I didn't have to go to school and because I got lots of presents and didn't really have to do anything but I don't think I ever really understood what Christmas is all about. Now I'm  finally starting to understand it and I love it.There is no place in the entire world where I would rather be for Christmas this year. (sorry mom)

Anyways our activity yesterday was great. It was like a giant Christmas devotional we did with the entire Talara district and lots of people showed up. The first part was a baptism of a lady and then they did a live nativity and we ended it with a devotional. President Rowley even came with some of his family that is here vistiting and participated. As missionaries we prepared like a twenty minute program where we had someone read scriptures and we sang christmas hymns and stuff. It was one of the best and most spiritual experiences of my mission. At the end we sang Silent Night and the congregation stood and sang the last verse with us and it almost made me cry the spirit was so strong.

I remember last year when I wrote my testimony in Spanish the week before Christmas so I figure I might as well keep the tradition alive haha.

mas que todo, la navidad ha llegado a ser algo muy especial para mi. mas que regalos. mas que comida y ropa. ha llegado a ser algo mas. ahora estoy entendiendo lo que navidad realmente significa. yo se que cristo nacio y vivio una vida perfecta. se que el hizo su expiacion infinita para que cada uno de nosotros podamos regresar a vivir con dios como familias. se que mediante el podemos ser limpios de nuestros pecados. se que el nos ama. y esto es lo que la navidad significa para mi. dios nos amó tanto que nos dio su hijo unigenito. y jesucristo nos amó tanto que dio su vida para ofrecernos una esperanza nueva. y ahora quiero dar todo de mi para poder ayudar a otros a entender la

TRANSLATION :
most of all, Christmas has become something very special to me. more than gifts. more than food and clothing. has become something else. now I'm understanding what Christmas really means. I know that Christ was born and lived a perfect life. is that infinite atonement made for each of us to return to live with God as families. is that through it we can be cleansed of our sins. is that He loves us. and this is what Christmas means to me. God loved us so much He gave His only begotten son. Jesus Christ loved us and gave his life to offer new hope. and now I want to give my all to help others understand.

 In our Skype with Logan on Christmas he told us they heard a loud growling in this cave and had to keep going back in to see what it was...they never did find anything but he said they will be going back to find out what it was! I told him NOT a good idea! Something tells me he's going back anyways!

December 15, 2014

Wow this week seemed to fly by! Seems like just yesterday I was sitting here writing you guys and here I am again. It's crazy how fast time flies and its' also sad haha. It honestly makes me wish time went slower sometimes. I always tell the new missionaries that I wish I had their time and I really do. This was a pretty normal week here in Talara. We had a lot of stuff to do like normal and I think that is why time seems like it is going even faster. In our branch they just called a new mission leader and he is pumped to get the ward excited again. I feel like here a lot of the members have just fallen into a routine when it comes to the church. And maybe its a good thing and a bad thing haha. But we are excited to get to work with him. We are planning to just do tons of activities where the members can come and bring their friends and just have a good time together. He is an animator (is that even a word in English?) at parties so he is really good at getting people to come and getting them to participate.

Yesterday I and S came to church again and stayed for all three hours! We were so happy that they were able to come. It is hard for us because for the people in our area to get to the church they have to leave like 30 mins early and it takes a while to get to the church so it is nice to be finding people that are actually making the trip haha. They talked to us about how they want to get married so we are going to be working with them on that. We also have another family that we are teaching whose names are C and L. They were listening the the Jehovahs Witnesses for a really long time and the only reason they didn't get baptized was because they aren't  married. but we have been teaching them and they just told us the other day that they want us to help them get married. we didnt even have to say anything about it haha. so we are pretty pumped for their progress as well.

On Saturday I was in a work visit with Elder Smith from California. It was probably one of the best work visits of my entire mission. I feel like too many missionaries take work visits to seriously and just go to the area of the other missionary and tell them everything they are doing wrong and what they need to do better. I hate that. Every missionary already knows what he needs to improve on and doesnt need you to tell him a million times haha. I just like to go and have a good time and work hard with someone else for a day. Which is exactly what we did. We talked a lot about how fast time goes and how we need to enjoy every minute. We are the ones that make the choice if we enjoy it or not. We choose to be happy or sad and the mission is too short to be sad about anything for too long. We just need to enjoy every minute we have and learn how to live and teach the gospel while we are here.

Today me and my companion woke up at the crack of dawn to go run this giant mountain that looks over all of Talara. It was a nice workout but the view was so pretty to see the whole city and the ocean in the background. Then we spent the entire morning playing volleyball and soccer at the church. This week is going to be pretty rough because we aren't going to have water ALL week long. So our 50 gallon drum has to last us a week. We have decided that we are only going to shower two times this week haha. But we do have the Christmas devotional on Wednesday in Piura so that should be fun.


I love you guys!