Love...from Mom

Love...

Each week (or once a month with the intentions of once a week!) I sit down to update Logan's blog I have to spell check and proof read it...EVERY TIME the first word it asks me to change is the word LOVE...it's a crazy thing cause to be honest that is one of the things that has grown the most in our house in the last almost two years...

LOVE for each other...LOVE for the gospel...LOVE for family...LOVE for friends...LOVE for missionaries (which I can finally pass on the street and not cry!!!) LOVE for the people of Peru who have taken care of my son...LOVE is one of the things Christ taught was to LOVE one another...It all starts there...

I LOVE Logan and the choice he made to serve the Lord on a mission...I LOVE the change it has brought into our home...I LOVE the change it has inspired me to make in my own life! I LOVE my girls and the example they have become to me and their dad in their lives...

I remember the day I took Logan to get his passport and we went to lunch after...first thing I told him was "once you make the choice to go Logan, you can't come home early!!!" Hahaha...my biggest fear at the time! He started talking to me about some things...mostly hinting towards the changes he would like (and needed) to be made at home...I got a little worried cause I knew that it was going to require a lot of work on my part to turn things around and to be honest I wasn't sure my testimony was strong enough to do it!!! Not to share ALL the details but it was going to be a challenge...Happily I can say that it is SOOOO true...if you put your trust in the Lord and do your part...things can change! Little by little and in his time...things change!

Some of you may know already...But Gary and I are going through the Temple in the next few weeks to receive our endowments and be sealed to each other and when Logan get's home we will go back and have the kids sealed to us...CRAZY...! I'm so happy...I sometimes find myself saying can this really be happening for us! I only share this because maybe it might help someone struggling with their own problems...but I can promise this...happiness is ahead if you keep reaching for it...do your part and the Lord will do his!

This quote from Elder Holland kept me focused: 

June 15, 2015

Holy cow this week was probably the busiest week of my entire mission. We only had two days to actually work in our area which was pretty depressing. But at least it’s over and we will be able to focus better this week.

It all started on Tuesday with the multi zone conference in Piura. We had to get there bright and early and we also had to prepare a special musical number with the zone. Well they told us a little too late and we only practiced the musical number like twice before the conference. But it all turned out great. It was one of my favorite conferences of my mission. It just had a different spirit to it. It was also president Rowley’s last conference with us so it was pretty sad. I have learned so much from him and I am definitely going to miss him. Then after the zone conference we came back to Paita and started a work visit. I went with Elder Abbott from Montana to his area in Pueblo Nuevo. It is a little town about 30 mins from Paita and is basically identical to Chulucanas. So you can imagine that I was loving life haha. In Pueblo Nuevo it is just a family group so the elders live in the church (well the house that has been turned into a church) and pretty much are in charge of the church. It was cool to be there for a day and to work with Elder Abbott.

Then on Thursday Sister Rowley wanted me to go to Piura to get my finger x rayed. I guess you could say she worries a little hahaha (Mom note…in her defense she is like a mom to a few hundred missionaries…pretty sure I would have done the same!). But we had to be there at three thirty and the doctor was going to get there at 4. Well the doctor didn’t show up until 6:30 and we didn’t get back to Paita until 7:30. It was exhausting. Turns out I have a micro fracture in my finger. But there’s nothing I can do but just toughen up and wait for it to heal haha. In my defense I didn’t even want to go but we went to make Sister Rowley and the offices happy haha.

Then Friday we were with President Rowley all day doing room inspections in Paita. It was one of the best days of my mission. Just driving around with him and his wife talking all day. Definitely one of the days that I will never forget. I am so thankful for him. It will be sad to see him go but I am excited for the new president to get here too.

Well this Sunday is the Trujillo Temple Dedication. I’m pumped because I have never seen a temple dedication and I am excited to be a part of this one. Peru needed a temple in the northern part and this will be a great blessing to the members here.

Well that’s about all from my busy week here in Paita!

Love you guys!

Logan actually sent two pictures this week...the other might be rated R (kidding)...and I didn't want to scare the chics!!!

June 8, 2015

Wow this week seriously flew by. We were pretty busy with leadership council and the zone meeting and everything and this week we have even more things that we have to do. But it should be pretty exciting and fun.

The highlight of the week was the missionary fireside that we had last night with all of the members in Paita. Pres. Rowley and Sister Rowley came and talked and they both gave great messages. As missionaries we had to be the choir and I’m sure you can imagine how that turned out ha-ha. Jk it actually turned out pretty well. It’s sad because president is getting ready to leave and President Rasmussen will be getting here soon. I don’t want him to leave because I have learned so much from him and his example. But at the same time I am excited to see what changes will come with the new president when he gets here.

Other than that it was a pretty normal week. We are still working our behinds off trying to find new investigators. Hopefully we will have some more luck this week.

Well that’s about it. Love you guys!

June 1, 2015

Another good but tough week for us here in Paita. As I have said before, the hardest part of missionary work is finding people to teach. And we have been dedicating a lot of time and energy on finding new investigators. We have found quite a few people that have let us in their house and have listened to us. But we haven’t really felt that they are true investigators or that they are going to progress. The best one was yesterday. After a very powerful lesson on the restoration of the gospel and lots of inspired questions from the investigator, we were excited to see when we could go back and teach him. His exact words were "the last Sunday of every month." I almost died haha. We tried talking him into at least once a week but he didn’t really want to. So hopefully he at least comes to church haha.

We went and visited our branch president this week and he told us all about his conversion. He got baptized just a little over two years ago but is one of the strongest members I have ever met. But his story is super funny. Long story short, his wife got baptized before him and he was still investigating the church. One Sunday morning he got mad because he didn’t have any clean shirts to wear to church and decided he wasn’t going to go and that he was just going to watch movies all day. He was the only one in his house and wanted to watch the new Thor movie that had just came out. Well when he went to put the disc in he saw the doctrine and covenants DVDs sitting there and just stared at them for like 5 minutes trying to decide which one to watch. Well he made his decision and watched the doctrine and covenants videos and that’s when he received his testimony to be baptized. Haha it’s a pretty funny but awesome story.

These next two weeks we have a lot of stuff going on in the mission with multi zone conferences and leadership councils so that should be pretty exciting. I have been cooking lately and have invented a new dish. It’s called the super desayunazo. I will include a picture. I could charge 15 bucks a plate at home for this baby.

Well that’s about it. Love you guys!

Logan claims he made this...come on...REALLY! It's not long noodles or a bowl of sugar cereal swimming in milk...What the...!!! I'm impressed! 

May 25, 2015

Well this week was a lot different than I have been used to lately haha. I have had to learn the area and get to know the people and it has been really new for me. Not like new in the aspect of completely new, but something that I had forgotten about haha. Our area is freaking huge. Like enormous. We should at least get one of those moto taxis to proselyte haha. It’s kinda easy to tell that there hasn’t been a whole lot going on in our area for the last few months. We have one investigator family that we are teaching. So we have to pretty much start from scratch and start finding people to teach. Which is always fun but also the hardest part of missionary work.

The investigator family that we are teaching is the C family. The good news is that they are married! The mom is really receptive and interested but the dad is kind of quiet. They have had a few arguments lately and I think that isn’t letting them progress like they could be. But hopefully everything works out with them.

I have the best pensionista in the world. I don’t think I have had such a good cook since I left home. (props to mom) (Mom side note…didn’t know I was that good…so either he’s easily please or my cooking isn’t so bad!!!). But seriously I am going to make her give me a book of recipes before I leave so that I can make this stuff at home (Mom note…great idea! You can cook from now on…live at home rent free if you make dinner!!!) haha. Speaking of cooking, me and my companion have actually been cooking this week. Normally it was just the classic missionary dinner…ramen or a package of crackers haha. But now we have actually been cooking and it is nice. I have made some mean hash browns and hamburgers so far. This week we are going to make tacos. (Mom note…Hash browns and Tacos…a Chapman specialty learned from his dad and Grandpa C…) So far we haven’t gotten sick yet so that’s a good sign haha.

All is well in Paita. There’s just lots of sand and stuff haha. And a lot of work to do here in our area and in the whole zone. I’ve got my work cut out for me here in the next few months. Our branch is one of the strongest in Paita and the attendance is normally around 110. But that’s nowhere near where we could or should be. I also noticed that the members aren’t really used to working with the missionaries a whole lot either. My goal is to change that. The best way to work is with the members. The missionaries can’t do it alone.

Well that’s about all. Love you guys!

May 18, 2015

Well its transfers again. I got transferred to Tablazo in Paita. It was really hard to leave Talara and the people and everyone I met and taught there. I will definitely miss all of them and that great city. Now I have to get used to another new city haha. But I am excited for the new change. My companion is Elder Martinez from Argentina and I met him while I was in Talara and now we are companions. I’m excited to get to work with him this transfer and to be able to be here in Paita.

My last week in Talara had its ups and downs. S ended up not getting baptized. It’s a long story but basically she couldn’t come to her interview because they are moving and she was super busy with all of that. But she is still excited to keep learning and come to church and they are going to put a new date for her. I hope everything works out for her and her family.

Yesterday they did a little "farewell" for me and for another elder that was going home. Everyone was there and everyone just like said goodbye and stuff. It was a really cool experience to hear from all of my friends and basically family and to tell them thanks for all that they have done for me. I will never forget them. I am hoping to have the same experience here in Paita.

Anyways that’s about it for this week. More details next week.

Love you guys!

May 11, 2015

Well this week was really good here in Talara. We changed S’s baptismal date to next Sunday so we are hoping and praying and will probably fast so that everything will work out with her. We had a really good lesson with her on Saturday night and she almost started crying because of all the changes that she has been able to see in her family and in her life since we started teaching her and she was really excited to come to church on Sunday. But she called us in the morning and said she wasn’t going to be able to go for something that happened. But we are going to visit her tonight so hopefully everything works out okay.

This week we saw a bunch of pictures from the Trujillo temple open house and let me just say, it is the prettiest temple I have ever seen. If you haven’t seen the pictures yet, go look at them. We might even be able to plan a trip to come visit it in a couple years ;) ha-ha. I heard the Payson temple is really pretty too. Crazy how many temples are getting built! The temple should be the goal for everyone. That is where we can make covenants and become eternal families. I can’t wait to be able to go to the temple again. It’s been a while haha.

On Friday night we had a mother’s day activity in the branch and everything went great. The church was absolutely full haha. I had never seen that many people in the church before. But it was a sweet activity. It was like a talent show thing and as missionaries we did a skit that was way funny. I won’t go too into detail on what we did because I don’t know if you would understand it through email. But just take my word for it, it was awesome.

Well this week is also transfers. And it looks like I will most likely be leaving Talara. I have loved Talara and it has been my favorite area so far. It will be hard to leave. Crazy that the next area will probably be my last one. To be honest, I don’t like the sound of that haha. But I guess we will see how everything works out with the transfers and where they will send me. Or hopefully if they let me stay in Talara for 6 more weeks haha.

Love you guys!

PS happy mother’s day to everyone on this list! (Well the moms, not everyone)

May 4, 2015

May 4, 2015

Wow what a week. Okay we are going to have a problem here. This space bar doesn’t work very well so some of my words might be stuck together (Trust me…they did…the unedited version had me going crazy!). Anyway this week was awesome! We helped S feel a little bit better about her baptism but we might end up changing it for next Saturday. I guess we will see. Everything is going great with her and her and all of her kids came to church yesterday. She just might need another week to prepare and to have her interview. But tomorrow we are going to visit her to talk about all of this so I guess we will just have to wait and see haha. 

This week we had a branch "family home evening" in the house of one of the oldest members in Talara. His health has been going bad lately and he wanted to see everyone therein his house to try and cheer him up. It was awesome because none of his kids are members but they were all so happy with the activity and how it turned out. There was a Great Spirit felt there.

We also found a new investigator named H (the names down here never cease to surprise me). But he is freaking sweet. We just started talking to him in his door because we had contacted his step dad like week ago. Well he wasn’t home so we just took advantage of the opportunity so talk to someone new. Well he let us in right off the bat and we taught the restoration. He was really interested and at the end said one of the most sincere prayers I think have ever heard from an investigator in the first lesson. He had to work this Sunday and wasn’t able to go to church. But hopefully next week he comes and we can start working with him.

I and S went to get all the paperwork they need to be able to get married and are going to be getting married at the end of the month. I most likely won’t be here for it but oh well. I’m really happy for them. 

In our branch we had another activity on Friday where we made three groups and each group had to present a story from the scriptures. It turned out super funny and there was tons of member participation. This week we have a mother’s day activity and are planning sweet sketch with the missionary’s haha. 

Yesterday at church I bore my testimony. It was kinda hard because it was most likely my last testimony here in Talara. I was holding back tears to be honest haha. I love Talara. And it will be hard to leave in a few weeks. Well I guess that is if I do leave haha. But these people have become like family to me. 

Well that’s about it. Love you guys!

April 27, 2015

Wow this was a pretty crazy week. Unfortunately, there was no strike. Some person came and talked to the company that is causing all of the problems. But rumor has it that they only came "for show" so that they wouldn’t do a strike. And now everyone is super mad and saying that they are going to do an indefinite strike. I don’t know if that’s how you would word it in English but basically they are just going to have a strike and aren’t going to stop until they get what they want. Stay tuned for updates on that one ha-ha.

But this week me and Elder Soto got to take a little road trip to El Alto which is like a little tiny town an hour north of Talara. The mission offices sent us there to go get a birth certificate and I was freaking pumped thinking that it was going to be cool and that there was going to be things to see and things to do. But it was freaking boring. I think there are more things for a tourist to do in West Point than in El Alto hahahaha. I was a little fired up about that one. If they try and send us again I am going to send some poor district leader to do it because it was not worth it haha.

But things have been going great with our investigators. The couple we are working with are finally paying off their debts and are going to be able to start coming to church this week. They are going to be getting married at the end of May and then getting baptized. Kinda sucks because I most likely won’t be here in Talara anymore. But I guess I was able to be a part of them knowing the church and helping them. I am just happy for them and all of the progress that they have made and the changes that the gospel has helped them make in their lives and families. S is also going great. She came to church yesterday with all 6 of her kids and even brought her little sister. She is progressing well toward her baptismal date on May 9th. But yesterday was so much fun in church. Her two little boys (the twins that are 2) didn’t want to go to nursery and ended up just coming with her to gospel principles. It was basically my responsibility to keep them distracted for an hour so that she could pay attention. And it was awesome haha. I had them coloring in my planner, looking at pictures in a gospel art book I have, and I even taught them to recognize Jesus and say his name when they see him haha. So my mission was a success in gospel principles. I heard that the sisters didn’t have as much luck in relief society haha. But she loved church and is going to come to an activity we have on Friday and to church again on Sunday.

This week we had a zone meeting with President Rowley and after we had interviews. He has a giant picture of the army of Helaman and all of the missionaries sign their name on the outside of it and because he is leaving he brought it so that everyone could sign it. It was in a giant heavy wooden box and I was helping him carry it into the church and I smashed my finger way hard on the wall haha. I’m like 80% sure that it’s broken. It’s all swollen and bruised and crooked haha. But it’s all good. We had a great zone meeting and interviews with him. It was kinda sad because that will be my last interview with president Rowley before he leaves. I will miss him.

Anyway there has been a dengue breakout in Talara so pray that they mosquitos don’t choose me!

Well that’s all. Love you guys!