Half Way Point!

Monday we played basketball and soccer in an arena which was actually a nice place. The hoops had glass backboards and we could lower them to dunk and stuff. It’s the coliseo in La Merced. Tuesday Elder Torres left to Huancayo for a district leader conference and I stayed with a different missionary named Elder Anzaldo from Bolivia. Had a great day—it’s always nice to work hard.

Wednesday was officially my half way mark! Thanks for all the goodies! Torres got back and we tested out some speakers we used in our activity on Friday. Thursday we prepared for the activity. We had a cool conversation with a member named Jhon. He is the owner of what is called El Recreo Tirol. It’s like a place to vacation. He worked in the temple for like ten years and was the administrator or something. He was telling us how he has seen spirits and stuff. He also said one time he was working at night and was super tired so he prayed to God to help him and he said he saw the hand of Christ and it touched him and he worked for four days without rest. He isn’t some crazy old guy either. He is a really strong member who was an “assistant” in his mission and everything, so that was cool.

Friday and Saturday we had our activity where we watched Meet the Mormons on a projector outside in the soccer court. We had like 80 people come. We had less actives, investigators and recent converts there. Right as we ended with our prayer it started raining like crazy! Harder than I have ever seen in the mission I think. We all got soaked trying to bring in the speakers and things like that. Saturday we found a cool investigator named Yersi. He has been a driver for the missionaries for a long time taking them to Huancayo and stuff.  I will keep you updated on him! Sunday we had 136 people in church and things went well, one investigator and a few less actives! That’s all for now! Ciao!

Can I Get an "Amen"?!!

We had our zone Pday and we went to this waterfall named Bayoz. It was huge and super pretty! We saw monkeys and got to feel the cool water and it felt amazing! We had our zone meeting Tuesday and had training on how to work more with less actives and recent converts.

Wednesday everything basically fell through and Thursday wasn’t much different, but I got to give a blessing of comfort in English to Hermana Peaz which was cool and hard because I haven’t done it in English for a while. I liked it though because I felt like I was the mouthpiece in the situation...very specific ideas were flowing and there came a time where I couldn’t think of anything else no matter how hard I tried. So I took that as a signal that God was done speaking. It was really cool.

Friday was pretty weak because a lot of stuff failed but I am trying to work hard with Elder Torres. Saturday we made pancakes with a family of members and also ate French toast in our pension. We had 5 lessons as well so Saturday was a lot better.

A funny story: We were in a meeting with a member and he was saying the closing prayer. He wasn’t talking very loud so it was hard to hear and then my companion said “amen” out of nowhere. So I said “amen” as well thinking that maybe I didn’t hear him and when we looked up he was still praying. Haha. It was awkward but funny. My companion was pretty embarrassed.

Well, I have one year down and now one to go! Time is flying and I’ll be back before you know it. I love you guys!

Patience

Hey guys, well the Internet sucks again this week. It's weird; we had a bad connection last week so we tried a different Internet cafe today but are still having issues. (It's hard to be understanding and patient sometimes) Last Pday we didn't go to that snake place (Pampa Michi) because it rained super hard! So we stayed in the room of the zone leaders and played Risk.

I did divisions this week with Elder Garcia and we worked in his area. It went well. He is hilarious! He is the one from Mexico that has nicer teeth than I do. He crossed the border every day to go to school in California. Haha. He leaves to go home pretty soon.

Our area is struggling and we are working hard to fix it. Our area book is pretty hammered and we are changing a number of things and working more efficiently.

We visited a family that was recently rescued and it just so happened to be the birthday of one of the girls that lives there. She was way sad because her family hadn't done anything for her and she was turning 15. So we went with our ward mission leader and bought her a pretty cake and surprised her. She was so happy!

Our pensionista's name is Melina. She is married and has one kid and she cooks really, really well! I still eat a ton of rice and meat and I am going to gain weight here I know it.

Today for Pday I think we are going to this massive, beautiful waterfall as a zone. I think this one is the Bayoz waterfall. I have to go guys. I love and miss you all!

God's Law

We had a multi zone conference yesterday on Monday so we are having our Pday today (Tuesday). The Internet is giving us issues today so I'm not able to load all of the pictures I would like to. I have some pretty sweet pics that I took this week!

Last Monday on Pday I went to this waterfall called El Tirol. All the other days of the week were pretty normal. The multi zone conference was cool. I got to see everyone and that was fun. The zones involved in the conference were La Merded, Tarma, and Satipo. One thing I learned was that everything we do should be spiritual because everything here on earth is a spiritual law for God.

This Sunday we had 135 people at church, 5 were investigators and 5 were less actives. One of our investigators has a baptismal date for the 29^th of August. Her name is Hellen.

Well, I'm heading off into the jungle for an activity I will tell you about it next week. Love you and have a great week!

I'm Killing my Father in the Jungle!

I'm getting transferred! I'm on my way to the jungle!! My new area is San Ramon and I'm going to kill my "father"! Yes, Elder Torres (my trainer) is my companion again and I will be his last comp before he goes home this next transfer. Crazy stuff right?!

When I left on Wednesday, Mari (my pensionista in Cerro de Pasco) stopped by and bought me some yogurt and cereal for my trip. She was crying and they were pretty sad that I was leaving. When I got to San Ramon, it felt like I was in the Garden of Eden! The people here are so nice! They love the missionaries and are always talking to us and laughing with us and giving us free sodas. It's really, really hot. I shower like three times a day. Once in the morning, once after lunch, and once at night. I can't get over how nice the people are here. My new pensionista is good. My room is kind of small but it is really pretty. I'm happy! I hope I am here for a while because this place is seriously awesome! Elder Torres is better than ever and is currently the district leader. I have really cool zone leaders too, Elders Garcia and Toomers. Garcia is from Mexico and has nicer teeth than I do and speaks perfect English. He is awesome! Toomer is from Wyoming and he leaves this transfer as well. He says he knows Laramie like the back of his hand! There are 8 people in the district. 2 sets of hermanas, us, and the zone leaders are technically in our district.

Friday not much happened. We didn't have too many lessons because some of the meetings that we had ran long. We had an activity in the church and we played a little bit of volleyball so that was cool. Then there was a youth group from Huancayo that came and they passed out like 200 pamphlets which was really cool. I think that will help us out.

Saturday we had six lessons and we started our fast. I did divisions with a member and that went well. It sounds like this ward is really strong. The members are way cool, very loving, and accepting. I seriously just love them so much already.

We had four "rescues" on Sunday, which was really awesome! Also, the bishop is super funny. He looks like he is white—he has this full white beard and glasses and he wore a hat! The members work hard and are great. I don't know if I mentioned it but our area is huge! It's this big city that we share with two hermanas—Hermanas Paez-Daravina and Asto. The other members of our district live in La Merced.

I'm really hot and thirsty and hungry. But that's okay, it's all worth it right?! I love you all and will talk to you later.