April 20, 2015

One more week down. Crazy how fast time flies. To be honest, this was one of the harder weeks I have had in the past couple months. We had most of our lessons fall through and weren’t able to find very many new investigators even though we have been working like crazy. But we are excited to get back at it this week.

Something I learned this week was about trusting in the spirit. I guess that has been something that has been hard for me to learn to do. To learn to listen to, hear and recognize the voice of the spirit, and then act according to what it says. But I focused and set goals that this week I was going to try to do it and I had a really cool experience. We were teaching a guy and I honestly don’t even remember about what. But I asked him a question and right when the words came out of my mouth I just thought, why did I just ask that? That has nothing to do with what we are talking about. But he thought about it for a second and started telling us things and the spirit was so strong after that. I realized after that it was the spirit that told me to ask that question so that he could later come and bear testimony to him. The lord knows all of his children. We don’t. But he will tell us how to help them if we are willing and ready to listen to the spirit.

A funny story from this week, I guess I will try to keep it PG so that you don’t get too offended. We were teaching this other guy about the restoration of the gospel and we got to the part about Joseph Smith and told him the story and the spirit was way strong. We started bearing testimony and then all of his ducks started walking in the room. (If that seems weird to you, I guess it’s kind of a Peru thing haha.) But there were seven of them. One boy and six girls. You can probably see where I am going with this. But we are just in plain lesson and these ducks just decide that it was perfect timing. I won’t go too into detail but we were laughing for the rest of the day about that one hahahaha.

S has been progressing and reading her Book of Mormon. But yesterday she didn’t come to church and we went to see her in the afternoon and she wasn’t there. We called her this morning and talked to her husband and he told us they might be moving to Piura this week. Freaking. Why does this stuff always happen to us? But hopefully she will stay.

At church yesterday we had 135 people there. That was the most people I have seen at church on a normal Sunday my entire mission. It was great to see so many people there and everyone was excited to see everyone. All of the members are working hard and the fruits are showing. Now we just got to keep moving up from there.

Well that’s about it. There’s going to be a huge strike this week where the city is going to shut down for two days and they aren’t going to let anyone in or out. I will be sure to send pictures haha.

Love you guys!

April 13, 2015

Well this was another good week here. It was easy because it wasn’t like I had to get used to a new companion haha. But it was a little different getting used to how he is because everyone is different. We had an awesome week this week. All we do is talk in English between each other and it’s pretty cool to be able to do that. But to be honest, sometimes I like Spanish more haha. So I guess we will see what it’s like when nobody around me understands Spanish and I don’t really remember how to speak English.

This week we have been focusing on taking specific families with us to visit the investigators and recent converts and less actives and we have been seeing a lot of results. The members bring a different spirit to the lesson that we as missionaries can’t do alone. And it really helped with S because we taught her about the Sabbath day and the next day she came to church with her six kids. And when she got to church she already knew a few people because we had taken them to her house with us. So it wasn’t too uncomfortable for her haha. Tonight we have a lesson with her in an active family’s house so hopefully everything goes well with that.

L and C are going to be getting married in the coming weeks and he will get baptized after that. Just gotta wait for that because he is ready to be baptized.

This week we had our zone meeting and we talked a lot about faith and what it truly is and the power that it has. Faith is manifest through our actions, not our words. We show the lord through what we do how much we love him and how much we really want to keep his commandments. Faith is a principle of action. And when we act that is when we receive power to do the lords will. It was a great meeting and I learned a lot and realized what I need to do to be better.

Also last week there was a giant strike in Talara. It’s a long story about why, but they were blocking off all of the roads to get in and get out and nobody could drive around in the city or work. They closed all of the stores and the city was just shut down for a day. They were burning tires and blocking off roads and throwing rocks and all that. I personally thought it was pretty cool haha. But they are saying that they are going to do it again this week because they didn’t get the results they wanted haha. So hopefully nobody gets hurt and they can work things out.

Well that’s all. Love you guys!

April 6, 2015

Holy crap what a week! We were pumped for conference and it was a great conference weekend. But more on that later. This week was transfers. And since I had 3 transfers in my area we were all sure that I was leaving. Well I guess the Lord had other plans haha. Because my companion got transferred and I now have a new companion. Well I guess not new. It is Elder Soto! He was my companion 6 months ago in Piura and now we are companions again. I was so surprised but I am so excited to get to work with him again. It’s awesome because we have already jumped over one of the greatest hurdles that companionships have...getting to know each other and learning to work together. I’m pumped to get to work with him again for the next six weeks.

Conference was great. My favorite talk was Wilford W. Andersen’s about dancing and hearing the music. It made me realize if I am actually hearing the music or if I am just awkwardly dancing around haha. We all need to not fall into a habit of just going through the gospel motions, but truly feeling of the change that living the gospel brings. I’m so grateful for my mission because here is where I have truly learned to hear the music and love the gospel.

Right now we have 8 investigators with a baptismal date. We put a baptismal date with C and S for May 9th and they are excited to be baptized. S even came to a session of conference with all 6 of her little kids! I thought for a second that the Harward's were walking in the door haha. But their family is awesome and I am so happy that I stayed and will be here to see all of the families that we are teaching be able to teach and progress.

Anyway just want to finish bearing my testimony of Jesus Christ and his life and atonement and resurrection. I know that he lives. I know that through him we can be cleansed of our sins and that because of him families can be together forever. I am so thankful for the love that Heavenly Father has for us to send his son and for the love Christ has for all of us to suffer and die for us. I love him and am so grateful for his life and gospel.

Love you guys!

March 30, 2015

Wow what a week. It was one of the best weeks of my mission so far. Everything leading up to my birthday on Thursday was awesome and my birthday had a little unexpected twist haha. So they were originally planning on throwing a surprise party for me but then president Rowley called and said he wanted to meet with us and the district president at 8 at night on Thursday. So that pretty much went down the drain. Then he called the next day and said that he wanted to leave and teach with us on Thursday from 3-8 hahaha so any other ideas that they wanted to do went down the drain as well. But Thursday was probably one of the best days of my mission. We went and taught I and S and placed a date for them to get married and also to get baptized and they are excited to keep progressing. Then in the rest of our lessons the spirit was way strong. We had a lesson at 7 with R and at about 5:30 we found out that some things had happened and she was really sad and we had no idea what we were going to teach her. Then we walked in and started talking to her and the words just came. It was probably the strongest I have ever felt the spirit when we were in there talking to her with president Rowley.

Then on Thursday we had a multi zone conference with Sullana here in Talara. And boy was it freaking hot all day long. And we don’t have the blessing of air conditioning down here and all we have is fans so that didn’t really help. It has been super-hot for about a week now and has been raining. Tumbes is flooded. The Piura River is way high and everyone is freaking out because there is going to be "el Niño" this year. Which basically means that it is going to rain like a cow peeing on a flat rock for a few months. I guess I don’t really know how I feel about that haha. But other than all of this, the zone conference was awesome. We talked a lot about the importance of a testimony. I guess I have always had a testimony. I don’t really know of one exact moment or experience of when I got my testimony. Mine has come little by little. And especially since I came on my mission and I have had the chance to live the gospel and love it. My testimony has become my most prized possession.

Good news! L and C are going to get married! They are now just saving up the money that they need to get married and then after that C is going to get baptized. The lord heard and answered our prayers and fasts. We also found another really good family this week. They are C and S. They have 6 kids and it reminds me of Lisa’s family because they are all still little haha. (I know that Lisa’s family isn’t little anymore, but they were when I left so bear with me here.) But we went and taught them yesterday and they were super receptive and we challenged them to baptism and they accepted. Now we are going to put a date this week and start preparing them for it.

Next week is transfers so this is most likely my last week in Talara. It will be sad to leave because I feel like I am leaving home again. But I guess that’s just how the mission is haha.

Anyway have a good week! Love you guys!

March 23, 2015 March Twenty Bucks

Well this week was awesome. It rained pretty much all night every night. Which is cool because it never rained here. But also dangerous because the rain can pretty much ruin the entire city and community if there is too much. But we didn’t let the rain get us down and worked hard all week long. We realized that we had been kinda slacking on a few things so we got our crap together this week and went to work HARD. Every single night when we got back to the room I was just drained and the next morning it seemed like the alarm was going off too soon. I don’t know where I was getting strength or energy from but somehow we finished the week and it was definitely a good one.

One thing I forgot to mention last week, so have you seen those YouTube videos of Christian baptisms where the rebellious little heathens jump and do a cannon ball into the font? Yeah well that was E last week at his baptism hahahah. After his baptism they closed the font doors so that his mom could walk into the font for her baptism and he was just like swimming laps in the font. Then we finally got him to relax for her baptism and right when they shut the doors again he just dove in from the top step haha. Then that was repeated about two more times and we finally got him to get out hahaha.

So I have a new thing to put on the list of weird things eaten on my mission. Eel. It wasn’t actually too bad haha but it’s definitely not one of my favorite things I have ever had. Just imagine a really salty fried fish. (Well I guess most of you are Westbroeks and dump the whole bottle of salt on anything you eat so it doesn’t really matter) but it was alright haha.

We did a service project this week and helped a lady move her house. Yep. We just took that thing right down. I’m a Chapman so I am an expert in the destruction department so that helped out quite a bit. But she had a bunch of "shingles" (they are called calaminas and they are what they use for their roofs down here) in the back and when we lifted up the last one we found a family of about 10 rats. My companion shot out of there like a wild bat so I was just stuck there making sure the calamina didn’t fall and break haha. It was pretty crazy. It took us about 4 hours to get it all taken down and it was a ton of work. We just put the old material in her new house which is made out of cement. And then she just gave us a ton of food haha.

So throughout my mission and especially now that I am a zone leader I have had a lot of opportunities to deal with different missionaries and correct or help them with their attitudes and behavior. And it has been pretty tough and hasn’t always been easy. But I have learned something that I think applies to all situations, not just missionaries or zone leaders. It is that the way we react in any situation has to make things better, not worse. For the person to actually accept our council or what we are saying they need to feel of our love. And our words and actions need to influence in the person for the better and not bring out feelings or contention. I was also reading Jeffrey R. Holland’s new book (thanks mom) and I really liked the talk called "Remember Lot's Wife" and I recommend it to everyone. We need to always be looking forward to the hopeful future that the gospel offers us and not dwell on past mistakes or things we have done.

Anyway I think half of the city of Talara knows about my birthday on Thursday. I guess that’s a good and a bad thing. I am preparing myself mentally and physically for that day because I’m sure it will include a lot of eggs and flour in the head and a few cakes in the face. But Peruvian birthdays are the best. And just so you all know, I’m bringing the traditions home with me. Everyone has now been

fairly warned. And with that I leave you ha-ha.

March 16, 2015

Wow this week was full of tons of ups and downs. We were pumped for L baptism all week but she kept having little problems that we had to help her with to be ready. In the end she and three of her kids got baptized and it was awesome. We had the district president and the branch president baptize two of them and the pictures look awesome with everyone in all white. We were really happy to see her finally achieve this goal that she has been waiting and working for and we are excited to work with her and the goals that she has for her future.

So this week President called me and started telling about the situation of my extension. He said that he has asked for extensions for three years now and they haven’t said yes once. But he asked for me and then a few days later he called and told me that they sent him a letter and that there was actually hope and that it was the first time that had happened. So he asked if I still wanted to extend and I told him yes and he said he would keep me informed. Today he called in the morning and said that they approved my extension and my new release date is September 22nd! I was freaking pumped when I found out ha-ha. So I will have six more weeks in the mission. That gives me some time to restart the sexy six months ahata. (The six months before you leave and you work out and don’t eat so that you aren’t fat when you get home haha.)

Today we had a little activity with the missionaries in our branch and our mission leader. We played soccer against a family and got our butts handed to us. Again. But after that we made lunch and my inner Chapman came out again. I was in charge of the hash browns. Now they weren’t quite the west fork of the black fork level. But after 18 months you tend to get a little rusty. They still turned out good ha-ha. Then we ended up playing ping pong for like 3 hours haha. I forgot how much I love ping pong. If anyone wants to challenge me in October, challenge accepted.

Well that’s about it for this week.

Love you guys!

March 9, 2015

Hey sorry for not writing a family email last week! I didn’t have very much time to write. I don’t really have very much time right now because we have a very important soccer game scheduled at 3 so I will just write this family email and then reply to all of you guys after we play.

Anyway to catch you guys all up on what has been going on.... C and L aren’t going to get married. They decided that they would just rather separate and live apart. It was really hard to accept that decision but we can’t really do anything about it except for support them. It was hard because everything that the church is about and everything that we teach them is about families being together and they have decided to separate. Hopefully in the future they will change their minds and decide to get married. But L and 3 of her kids are going to be getting baptized on Saturday. We had L talk to President Rowley and she explained the situation to him and he said that she is ready so we are going to have her baptism this Saturday.

A couple weeks ago I finished the book of Mormon again and right after that president challenged the entire mission to start it again and finish it before July 1, which is the day he leaves and the day the new president gets here. We also have a plan to work with the members of the church in missionary work. I’m not really sure how it is at home because things have changed a lot but here we have kind of a hard time getting the members to really "participate" in missionary work. So we are starting what we call "Alma and Amulek" because Alma was a missionary that went to Amulek's house (member) and they both left together and preached the gospel. So we are visiting the members and helping them set "missionary goals" to invite people to church or to talk to someone about the book of Mormon. And it has actually been going really well for us! Liliana brought her mom to church and other youth are bringing their friends and cousins.

On Saturday we had a service project cleaning up all of the garbage on the beach. It was something we did with all of the members and missionaries with the city of Talara and it was awesome. There was a lot more garbage than I expected ha-ha. We ended up filling up about 25 or 30 giant black trash bags of just garbage and we didn’t even get all of it. We are going back this week to keep working on it. It feels great to offer service with all of the members and missionaries because the people can get to know the church and see that we are normal people just like everyone else. Speaking of Mormons being normal people, today we watched Meet the Mormons as a zone with president Rowley and it was awesome! A lot better than I expected ha-ha.

This weekend was district conference in Talara and it was full of great experiences. Saturday night when we were sitting in the adult session we looked over to the door and saw a crazy guy (a guy who is just out of it all the time because of all the drinking and drugs he has done his whole life) walk in so we went over to him. my first instinct was "oh great, now we have to get up and take him out and tell him he can’t be here" but then I thought about it as we were walking up to him and something told me to just invite him to come in and sit with us. I was kind of scared at first ha-ha but we invited him to come and sit with us. And I learned a great lesson. When we would sing the hymns he would move his hands like he was leading the Mormon tabernacle choir and sing his heart out to the best he could with the words ha-ha. It was a funny experience and he really liked it. I mean I thought that Mormon meetings were pretty cool sober. This guy got to go through one high as a kite ahata. But I learned that just because he is suffering the consequences of his bad decisions doesn’t mean God loves him any less. And that doesn’t mean that I should love him any less either. I’m thankful God sent him our way that night to teach us that lesson and to give us that experience.

Also we are teaching a guy named A and his family. We weren’t able to find him or get ahold of him all week and we were kind of down about it. But before we left for the conference Sunday morning we prayed that he and his family would go. And as we were waiting at the door they showed up! I know that God hears and answers our prayers.

Well that’s all. Love you guys!