The Best Birthday Present!

After I wrote you guys last Monday, we went to Ambo and played soccer on this huge, full-sized soccer field. It was fun. Tuesday we had a multi zone conference with Pres. Henderson. We learned some cool things, like remember to just teach and keep it simple. We had a lesson with Luis and his girlfriend, Diana (the referrals we got from Hermano Lincoln—the 1st counselor in the bishopric) we also had a lesson with two contacts that we found, Ivan and Henry. Ivan (20) and Henry (24) are brothers. They both struggle with drinking. When we contacted them (a few days ago), Henry said that he just wanted to "change who he was completely". When we met with them for their lesson, I was straight with them. I told them, "Listen, it's going to take a lot of work but it's totally possible to change. Are you guys willing to do whatever it takes to change?" They said, "Yes". I really think they are going to progress. It's amazing how quickly fasting/prayers are answered. We prayed that we would get referrals and we got some. I prayed that we would get some investigators and we got nine! It's just crazy! So, remember that there is nothing that you can't ask our Father. He cares!

We've been meeting with Christian Villanueva, getting him ready for his baptism on Saturday. We taught him about laws and ordinances, had our pre-interview with him, and he's doing great. We've been working really hard for a while now, trying our best to be diligent, and it's finally starting to pay off now. Just remember that it always does. It might suck for a little bit, maybe a little longer than a little bit, but always, always, always, God comes through in the clutch! Remember that He is there for you and He will always help you no matter what. Yeah, it's a simple little thing but, "by simple and small things, great things come to pass."

On Friday morning, during the course of our studies, I may have gotten a little bored and threw an apple out the window to try and break it against the wall across the street and I might have hit the window and shattered it! It was kind of embarrassing but 56 Peruvian Soles later and it's all repaired. Hermano Matias wasn't mad, and it was very nice of him not to be. I can't believe I'm turning 19 on this week! It just doesn't feel like it's my birthday. I'm going to bed on Friday night 18 and I'm waking up 19!

"Hello", this is the 19-year-old Will speaking—I didn't know if you could tell the difference. Haha. Today was an awesome day. I started the day off opening up your packages. All kinds of food, toys, ties, pants...seriously, thank you guys! It was awesome! You guys spoil me rotten. For lunch, Elders John and Hardison came over. We had the closest thing to barbecue they have here in Peru. It was really good. It was very nice of Hermano Matias to invite them over. We ended the day with a baptism! Christian is doing really, really well. He was SO happy! After the baptism, we were in the bathroom and I just gave him a big hug! I asked him how he felt and he said, "clean. Like a new person." I got to baptize him which was an awesome thing on my birthday! On Sunday, when Christian received the Holy Ghost, I was able to help with that which was really cool! Later in the evening, we had a meeting with the stake president and that went well. We talked about baptisms and a bunch of other little things and then after that we had another lesson with Luis and Diana. They've had a lot of doubts about the church and they don't know what to believe, so we just sat there and answered all of their questions. It was really good. We invited Diana to say the closing prayer, which she did, and she just cried and cried and cried. It was really cool. It's amazing how quickly Heavenly Father answers our prayers sometimes.

Thank you guys for making this week so very special for me! My birthday was awesome and I love you guys!

It's a Boy!

After I emailed you guys last week, we played soccer again and then had a lesson later that evening. At 10:20 PM I received a phone call from Pres. Henderson asking me if I would be willing to train a new missionary. Usually he doesn't call that late to let you know that your training, but evidently he called everybody late this time, which is kind of funny. Of course I said, "Yes" and then I left that next morning to go to Huancayo. I got to the mission home and hung out/was joking around with the assistants and we ate really well. We had Pizza Hut, KFC, Popeye’s; it was amazing compared to what we have been eating. Tuesday night we sort of just sat around and waited for the next morning. Wednesday morning we met our "kids" (all the new missionaries that just got in). They are all awesome. I met another missionary from St. George. His name is Elder Cunningham and lives over by Pine View. I thought that was kind of funny. Anyway, we found out who we were going to be training. I'm going to be training Elder Tapia. He is from Argentina. He is 20 years old and the only member in his family. We got some training, watched some of "the district" and did some other things like that. After training we went out and basically contacted all day. It kind of sucked actually but it was good. Thursday morning we got up, ate some breakfast, and then hopped in a van with some other missionaries that were going back to Huánuco. We dropped his stuff off at our place and then basically went around and introduced him to everybody. The new zone leader, that took Elder Torres's place, is Elder Hardison. He is from Arizona and lives over near the Hunter's. We received a new district leader, Elder White, he's from Springville, Utah and Elder Bush, who was in my group in the CCM, is now in my zone. He's companions with Elder Pizarro. It was great to see Elder Bush; I haven't seen him for a while. Elder Tapia is doing really well and I really like him. He is my first kid and it's so cool!

New companion--Elder Tapia

My new, new pensionista--Hermana Matias

New Digs

Friday we had a meeting with an investigator, Ruth, and we had a less active member, Robbie, go with us. Saturday was the baptism of Harry, an investigator of Elder John and Elder Hardison. It went well. We had a ward activity that night and got three referrals. It's awesome! More work for me and I can't wait! That gives us nine investigators and a number of less active people that are progressing really well. It's so awesome how much we're working right now! Lincoln, John (Kidder's brother), Junior...are all doing great. This next week we should have Christian's baptism finally. It would be really awesome if he gets baptized on my birthday! We didn't have a chance to meet with him this week because his dad has had a number of problems with alcohol. Christian came to the ward activity so that was cool. 

On Sunday we had a lesson with Christian after church and it went well. Afterwards we found 4 more new investigators. It's nuts! I freaking love it! It's seriously the best. Fasting works! I have so much work to do right now; it's going to be awesome and way easy to stay busy. Things with Elder Tapia are going well. I am so happy to be training. We had a companionship inventory and he started to get emotional. He is the only member and he is so nervous to be out here. He was baptized a year and 3 months ago. I shared a scripture and he said that he felt like his whole body and mind had been cleansed! Haha, so that was pretty cool. He is a great kid! Tomorrow is going to be the first Pday in the field for my companion and so I think we are going to go to Ambo and play soccer. Well, until next week. I love you!

I Killed My Companion!

This week we had a family night with the family Segundia. They're a family that was rescued by Elder Torres an Elder John (zone leaders). We had a message and ate some stuff. We went and visited Kidder, he's doing good. We had another family night with a couple that is from Lima. They are both returned missionaries. She has family that lives here and they have three kids, a four-year-old and two twins that have a year and a half. They live in this really small room and are really struggling financially. So we had a short message and a quick dinner/refreshments of eggs and bread. It wasn't much but it was more than they had. (We need to remember how much we have and to be grateful for it and to try and look to help other people!) We are trying to help them find another room to live in and they are looking for a kitchen set and all these little things they don't have.

We had our Pday this week on Thursday instead of Monday because my companion Elder Caro and Elder Torres are going home, so we went around and took photos of all the places that they wanted and then we went and ate lunch as a zone at this Chinese place, Khon Wa. It was pretty good. Later, Elder Caro packed up to go home to Bolivia. It's kind of crazy to see him doing that! I couldn't imagine leaving right now. Besides that, we didn't really do much. We played a little soccer in the church and said goodbye to the people he wanted to say goodbye to. It was a pretty good day. Early Saturday morning, Elder Caro and Elder Torres left for Huancayo then home. So, I killed my companion! Just like I was “born” in Pampas and my trainer was my “dad”, I was Elder Caro’s last companion, so I “killed” him. It’s interesting that many missionaries use these term throughout the mission. I will be with Elder John until I get new my new companion. I am temporarily the zone leader with Elder John so we have the zone leader stuff to do. Like we were out proselyting and got a call from the APs that we had to send 2 missionaries to Lima on Sunday, so we had to drop everything and go do that. It's kind of crazy how you could be out doing whatever and then have to drop everything to take care of a problem in the zone. It's kind of irritating but was cool to see the center of Huánuco and do stuff like that. For service we painted this guy’s house.

We had a less active kid, named Lincoln, accompany us to some meetings, so that was cool. One thing I fasted for on Sunday was to find some new investigators and guess what? We found one! She's awesome! Her name is Ruth and I think she is really going to progress!

We also had a lesson with Christian. He is staying here to work and so we are officially teaching him again. We have a baptismal date for him this Saturday the 14^th.  Things are great here and I hope things are great there. Love you!

Fast!

First of all, Happy Birthday to mom and dad! I love you so much and hope it’s great for you!

For our multi zone Pday, we went to this field and played soccer and volleyball. Later that day, after we showered and got all cleaned up, we had a family night with the family Matias. We had a little message and ate hotdogs. They were way, way, way good!

Guess what? We are actually moving again. Elder Caro and I found a room that we really like, we're going to pension there and do our laundry, it's going to be awesome. It's not terribly big but it's really nice. We’ll live above this little garage thing.

We did some service with Hermana Julia (the bishop's mom) by removing some earth so they could put in a wall or something like that (It seems like everyone is digging a hole somewhere here in Peru). We taught some lessons with some less actives and things are going well there. We are teaching three kids right now: Alexis, Yoel, and Anthony.

We had an activity at the church. We played volleyball and soccer and it was really fun. A lot of less actives and non-members came, so that was great.

It's the first of the month again and I had the opportunity to fast (I can't believe how fast January went by). I hope you guys really take the opportunity to fast. Back home, I really didn't do it and I've had so many answers to my prayers when I fasted. It's a crazy, crazy, crazy how many blessings this little sacrifice can bring! So I hope you guys will try and do that a little more and read your scriptures!

We had a family night with Hermano Edwin's family. All of his family members are members but his father-in-law is inactive. So we shared The Family: A Proclamation to the World and watched a video with them and everything went really, really well. We had rice and eggs for the refreshments. I felt the spirit and it was really cool to see him want to change and stuff.

Kidder is a less active boy that we have been teaching and he got rescued this week, we rescued him! Rescuing is like a baptism where a less active person is activated. We teach them all the lessons, they have to have an interview with the bishop,...and they're active again. So Kidder is active again! Yay!