February 23, 2015

Wow it seems like since the second I left internet last week everything has just been crazy. It’s funny because a couple weeks ago on p day we were sitting there talking about all the crazy stories from our missions and I realized I couldn’t really think of a whole lot. Well this week added some to the list haha.

 

Starting with L. After internet last week we went to a lesson we had with a family we had contacted and during the lesson I felt the phone vibrate that we had a message. I waited until we left to get it out to read it but it was just a really weird message from L. We both had a strong feeling that we should go to her house. So we went there as fast as we could and when we knocked on the door her daughters came out and said that their mom was sleeping and that she wasn’t feeling good. I had a feeling that we needed to stay until she came out to tell us herself. So I told them to go wake her up because we needed to talk to her. So they went and came back and told us that she didn’t want to listen to them and just ignored them. That was a giant red flag for me and I just had a feeling things weren’t right. My companion said maybe we could just come back tomorrow but I just had a feeling that we shouldn’t leave. So we went in and sat at the table and kept telling the daughters to go wake her up. It finally got to the point where I just asked what L was doing and her daughters said that she was sleeping with her eyes open and wouldn’t respond to anything they said. I told them to go get their grandma and their aunts who live next door so that they could come help. I remember just sitting at the kitchen table praying probably harder than I ever have that everything would be alright. Well about 20 mines later without any response from L we decided to take her to the hospital so we helped carry her out and put her in a moto and they took her to the hospital. Everyone just started freaking out and crying. But I remember being completely calm. I knew then that everything would be okay. Then I realized that it was my job to help everyone else that was crying and was worried. I just sat down next to her son on the curb and wrapped my arm around him as he cried and just told him that everything would be okay. We went to the hospital and they gave her some shots. I guess her blood pressure just shot up really high and when that happens its really dangerous for her. But everything got better and they let her leave that night. We went to her house with a member family that was with us at the hospital and the branch president to talk to her and give her a blessing and finally ended up leaving at about 11 that night. I’m so glad everything was alright. It’s crazy to think what would have happened if we wouldn’t have gone to her house that night. 

 

Then on Tuesday we had a little "reunion" with all of the missionaries in the zone and a lot of them were excited to work and stuff and a lot of other people were just complaining about everything that was going on. If you didn’t know, that is my biggest pet peeve ha-ha. So I was a little bugged and stood up and talked about Nephi and his attitude. How he was one that was always faithful and obedient and did what the Lord asked. Then I talked about his brothers and how they were. How they always complained and didn’t really like to work. Then I asked all of us to think about which type of missionary we were all being. If we are Nephi or if we are one of his brothers who just complains about everything. After that the attitude changed quite a bit in the room haha. 

 

Today are transfers and I am staying in Talara with my same companion and we are both excited for another transfer together. We have some high goals and plans for this transfer and are excited to work hard. There were a lot of changes in the zone and it was hard to see some elders leave and finish their missions. But the work goes on. Nothing will stop it. Well that’s about all I can think of for now. Love you guys!

February 16, 2015

Wow what a week. We worked harder than ever this week to contact and find new people to teach and we did a ton of contacts and actually found quite a few new people to teach. To be honest, the majority of people that we talk to want nothing to do with us haha. But we just try not to get discouraged and keep looking for those few people that are prepared and ready to receive the gospel. I guess we'll never know if we never talk to them.

 

So like I said last week, we set the goal as a zone to contact 1200 people in one week and if we did it we were going to go to the beach and have a giant barbeque. Well we made it all the way up to 1164. Almost. A lot of companionships worked really hard and some other ones weren’t really interested in doing it but today we still had an awesome activity with the zone. Next week one of my best friends from the mission and from the zone is going home. Elder Lux. I remember the first day that I got to Piura he was the personal secretary and me and him went and started contacting people while we were waiting for president to finish the interviews. He has always been a great example to me and I have learned a ton from him. So today we threw him a giant going away party and it was awesome. We played games and volleyball in the church and then ate lunch and had a piñata and cake and everything. Then we threw eggs on his head and dumped flour on him hahaha. It was quite a mess to clean up but it was worth it. 

 

Everything is still great with C and L. They are seriously so ready to be baptized but we just have to wait for all of their paperwork to get here so that they can get married. L even brought her mom to church yesterday so that she could see how it was. I love them haha. 

 

So right now it is what they call "carnivals" down here in South America. Which pretty much means that all of the kids throw water on everyone and have water fights with people just walking down the streets. And while the kids are playing all of the parents just buy a bunch of beer and get wasted haha. We have already had some pretty crazy experiences with some drunk people and carnivals is going to last until the end of the month so this should be interesting haha. I will share those stories at another time haha.  Anyway that’s about it for this week. Love you guys!

February 9, 2015

Well another good week here in Talara. Me and my companion have been having a ton of fun together and working hard. We are averaging about 30 new contacts a day. So to make it fun and keep it from getting boring we invented a game. Our game is that one picks a word that the other one has to say in the contact. Such as purse or backpack or computer or frying pan hahaha. Maybe you just have to be a missionary but it is actually way fun and super funny to see how the other person is going to use the word haha. It’s hard to not start laughing when they say it. 

 

This week we had a leadership conference with President Rowley and all of the zone leaders in the mission. We talked a lot about a quote that I love by Gordon B Hinckley, "The cause of most of man’s unhappiness is giving up what he wants most for what he wants now." and we talked about how we have to sacrifice our own will every day to meet the lords. It was an awesome conference and I learned a ton. Then we had our zone meeting and taught pretty much the same thing to the zone. We always set goals and want to achieve great things but sometimes we put that off to the side and do our own things. As a zone we also set the goal of contacting 1200 people this week and if we do we are going to have a huge activity next p day.

 

C and L are doing great. All of their family came to church. They still don’t have the papers that they need to get married and the guy in Chincha is taking forever to send us C papers. They pretty much need to present everything this week in order to get married and baptized on the 28th so we are praying for a miracle.

 

Everyone down here is already getting excited for the temple dedication. The youth are practicing almost every single night and traveling to Piura once a month to be able to practice and participate in the cultural celebration. It’s sweet because Linda is there and also Cesar and Liliana’s son goes and wants to participate. I wish I could go to the dedication in Trujillo haha. 

 

Well that’s all. Love you guys!

February 2, 2015

Wow this week was awesome. We had a zone conference with President Rowley this week and we talked a lot about having faith to contact and talk to people to be able to find new people to teach. That is something that we are definitely stressing in our zone and in our mission right now. We have been trying our hardest to talk to at least 20 new people every day. Then after that we had a work visit and I went to negritos with Elder Harris. Him and his companion were having some struggles contacting people in the street. So I just told him that I had faith that anything was possible and he agreed. So we set a goal to talk to 75 people that day and when we got to the room that night we had talked to 77 people. It was a great testimony builder and helped me realize that if we set a goal and work for it then the Lord will help us achieve it. 

 

Also something funny from the work visit. We went and did a service project where we helped a lady cut all the dead branches off of her tree and move all the dead grass into a pile. So we did it and when we finished she said, "Okay now put it into these bags." but when I saw a giant pile of dead grass and dry sticks I had another idea. So I said "are you sure you don’t want to just burn it? That would be a lot easier and funner." it took a little convincing but she finally just let us burn it hahahah. It almost looked like one of dads fires at Island Park that would have made grandma go inside until things got under control haha. When her son saw it he had the bright idea to go get some chicken to cook on it. But because everything was so dry it was over in about 10 minutes but he was still set on cooking his chicken. When we went to leave they told us to wait because they wanted us to try the chicken and I knew that it was going to just destroy us haha. Right when I bit into it I knew my stomach was going to have some problems because the outside was crispy but everything else was raw haha. But elder Harris liked it so I just gave it to him. Then that night he was on the toilet for about 30 mins hahhaha.

 

The highlight of the week was the baptisms we had on Saturday. It had been a while since I have had any and a year since this area has had baptisms so it was nice to finally have some. I set a goal a while back that the next baptism picture I was going to send home wasn’t going to be just some random person that met the requirements. But that it was going to be someone that I thought was really going to be a convert to the church and to the gospel. And I think I have achieved that goal. It was so special for me when R was bearing her testimony after her baptism when she was saying that her baptism was so special but that she knows that isn’t where it ends and that she wants to keep working hard and living the gospel forever. Her daughter also got baptized and it now practicing with the youth of the branch to dance in the Trujillo temple cultural celebration. I hope they get to go. 

 

This week has strengthened my testimony that I know this church is true and that the gospel changes lives and blesses families. I have seen that in other people and in my own life and family. I’m so thankful for this church and gospel and for Jesus Christ and the opportunity to serve a mission. Love you guys!

January 26, 2015

Holy crap this was an awesome week for us here in Talara. We worked hard and had a lot of stuff to do and the people we are teaching are progressing like crazy. So I guess I will tell you a few of the really cool experiences we had this week. 

 

First with I and S. They had always told us that they like the church and would like to someday be members. But for now they just want to keep learning and seeing how things went. We had pretty much tried everything with them and had no idea what to teach them. So one night when we were planning and we had no idea my companion just said, "Baptism and confirmation" and I was a little nervous about it because I felt like if we talked about it one more time it wasn’t really going to be an invitation but more like begging them to get baptized haha. But I looked up at the calendar we have on the wall and March 7th just came right to my mind. So I said we should challenge them for March 7th and see what happens. So the next day we went and taught them and challenged them and they were a little surprised and were smiling and stuff so I asked what was going on and they said that march 7th is like their "anniversary" and that it is always a special day for them. They gladly accepted the date wanting to make that day even more special. It strengthened my testimony that god knows every one of his children. 

 

We also had a work visit this week and I was with Elder Hanvey from American Fork. He is somewhat new but it was cool to get to know him. But a couple days before the work visit we set up a prank on him with one of the families we are teaching (C and L) hahahaha. So when we were going to the last lesson (which was with them) I said, "hey there’s still some time, let’s go knock one door before the lesson." Little did he know that the door we were going to knock was the family that we were going to teach. So we got up there and knocked the door and the dad came out and opened the door and I started talking to him and he just started freaking out saying he doesn’t want anything to do with Mormons in his house and was just yelling at us. Meanwhile I am trying not to laugh because I see his wife and all of his kids inside laughing their heads off but I just tried to act like I was calming him down. But he went to shut the door on us and I put my foot in the door and swung it open and said, "hey! we just want to share a message with your family!" and at this point Hanvey is pretty much peeing his pants because he doesn’t know what to do and is just looking at me like what are you doing man. So then we all kind of just look at each other and just bust up laughing hahaha. It was one of the best pranks yet. 

 

We had a sweet ward activity this week and it was a treasure hunt. We made three teams and made clues and everything for each team. Each clue was a scripture and they had to read the scripture and try to think of where the next clue would be. We had a great turn out and it was awesome because everyone had fun and got to learn something about the scriptures.

 

This week when we went to teach C and L they told us that they weren’t going to have enough money to be able to get all the paperwork to be able to get married because C doesn’t really have a stable job right now. We already offered to help with C papers and get all of that taken care of but the problem was with L papers. When they were telling us all of this the only thing I could think of was fasting. So I asked them how they felt about fasting together Saturday and Sunday so that the lord will make it happen. They are awesome so of course they were willing to. on Sunday they showed up a little bit late to church and after sacrament we were talking to them and L told us that in the morning a guy showed up to their house and offered C a job to work Sunday morning and make 50 soles. He was going to take it because they didn’t even have money to eat lunch or get to church because they have to take the bus but then L said, "no, we are walking to church. The Lord will provide another way." I seriously wanted to start crying when she told us that. That family has so much faith. They finished their fast and some members invited them and us to eat lunch at their house so we all went there after church. I love them. Even being investigators, I learn so much from them and their example. 

 

This Saturday is R and L baptism! It has been almost a year since there has been a baptism in this area so we are pretty pumped and they are way pumped too. 

 

La misión es lo máximo.  

 

January 19, 2015

Wow this week was definitely a little bit different than the last 6. It is always different getting used to living with someone else. Especially after you were such good friends with your other companion. But my new companion is awesome and we get along great and work had so everything is good. 

This week was awesome. We worked hard all week with the families we are teaching but this week we tried to have a member family in almost every lesson with them. It was a lot better than just teaching them alone and the members helped us out a ton. And it paid off because all 9 of them came to church yesterday. R and L are pumped for their baptism on the 31st and are progressing really fast. I love teaching them because they actually want to learn and prepare themselves for their baptism. A lot of other people are just there to kinda listen and nod their heads haha. C and L are also progressing a lot. They are reading and praying and everything. We just need to keep working on all of the papers and stuff so that they can get married and get baptized on the 28th.

I love Talara. I love the people here. I have made so many good friends since I have been here. Especially with the families that we are teaching. We are always having fun and there is always an awesome spirit felt when we are with them.

There are a lot of new missionaries in our zone and everyone is working hard and it is awesome. The Talara zone is going to be seeing some success over the next few months and I know it. I am so happy to be here. I have been feeling that this is where I am supposed to be and this is what I am supposed to be doing more than ever lately. I am so thankful for my mission and the opportunities that it is giving me. 

Today we went to Lobitos which is a beach about 15 mins from Talara. We played football and soccer and all that stuff. I put sunscreen on but still got freaking fried haha. There were a ton of gringos there because there are some really pretty beaches around here that people always come to visit. 

Well that’s pretty much it. Love you guys!