Baptisms!

Monday, on Pday, Elder Gonzalez went to Lima to take care of his residency papers and I stayed in La Merced. We just relaxed and took a nap and had a milkshake; the day was pretty ordinary. Tuesday was a long day and I was looking forward to getting back to my area to work.

At 9:00 PM on Wednesday, Elder Gonzalez was supposed to get back from Lima. We went to the terminal to pick him up and he was nowhere to be found. We searched for him like crazy and then I got a phone call from some random number. I answered the call and it was Gonzalez saying, "hey, I'm at the crib". He decided to get off in San Ramon instead of coming into La Merced. So I had to travel back to our place alone. Thursday I gave a training about recent converts in our district meeting and then we had a full day of work.

Friday we worked hard and were able to visit a lot of families that haven't been visited in a long time. The old bishop of the ward, Bishop Diseño is really, really sick right now. We gave him a blessing and hopefully things will work out well for everyone.

Saturday was the baptism of Javier and Rebeca. It was really really nice. The ward helped out a lot. There were refreshments and decorations, Elder Bell came and baptized Javier and I baptized Rebeca. It was absolutely amazing. They loved it! Then, we went to Elder Bell and Elder Carrasco's baptism (Henry) in La Merced and that went well.

On Sunday Javier and Rebeca were confirmed in church. It was a good day. 

Things Got Jacked Up!

On Pday we went to Bayoz and a waterfall called El Velo de la Novia. That was really fun and then we went a little ways further to another place and got to hold monkeys and jungle cats—it was pretty cool. Later, we went to the Espinoza family's house for Frank's birthday. I gave him some the things that you sent me for Halloween.

Tuesday was kind of nuts. Elder Bell and I were doing divisions and we got a phone call from Elder John in Villa Rica that one of their investigators had fallen off a roof and broke his leg. They're investigator, John, it is an American and he is seriously nuts. He says that he has been a racecar driver and he speaks Russian, Latin, and French fluently. She is 50 years old. His ankle/foot is seriously jacked up! He needs surgery. We had to go receive him in the hospital because he has no friends or family here.

Wednesday we finished our divisions. We went and visited John in the hospital and he is doing better. John has no money and so Elder Jorgensen and Elder John had to call his mom in Connecticut and ask her to help her son. She will only send some money after she talks to her son personally. She thinks that this is some scam or something. I can't believe how much I had to help out with John in the hospital. I helped him get dressed and wrap his cast... It's just crazy when you get thrown into things like that.

Thursday we had our correlation meeting with the ward mission leader. He just got off of his mission from Lima.

Friday not much happens. Hermana Lici, who washes our clothes, fell down the stairs. It was about eight stairs and she had to go to the hospital. We went over and gave her a blessing.

Saturday was a good day of work. It has been really hot the last couple of days so sometimes that is bothersome.

Sunday was good and everything ran smoothly, however, Nelly did not come to church today because she woke up feeling really sick. She's the older lady and will not be able to be baptized this Saturday. Javier and Rebecca still want to so that will be interesting to see how that works out. Nelly will still be baptized it just will take a little bit longer. Caio!

Multi-zone

Monday all we really did was write home and then another day at work! It was a good day—a really, really good day. Then Tuesday we went to Pampa Michi with the zones Tarma, Satipo and La Merced. We ate steak, salad, rice and fries. Basically we played volleyball all day.  It was really, really fun! Other than that, nothing much happened.

 Our "home gym"

Wednesday, we had a multi zone conference. President came, everything was really, really nice.  We had some good training-nothing really to mention but I wrote some notes down and have learned a couple things. Thursday was a sweet day—we had eight lessons and got three new investigators. Javier and his family are doing really well and we had another meeting with them that next day too.  We got up Thursday morning at 5:10 to go play basketball with Elder Y and Livingston, Elder Glassett and Gutierrez—the office staff, over in La Merced. We had a good time.

Me and Elder John

Friday we had a sweet day. We had seven lessons and we had a good meeting with Javier and his family!  He bought us pizza again—just so cool, and they're doing really, really well—we're having a good time! Saturday we also had six more lessons. We are seriously killing it, I don't know what it is but we’re just having a really, really, really good week! Everything is going well! We had seven people in church on Sunday, new investigators and a couple of less actives were there.   All are progressing really well and we had a good day of lessons afterwards. Then, we had a good Ward Council meeting—which is good! Last week we had an assistance of 165 and this week, it’s 145. This is still really good. We ended this week with 35 lessons, 8 new investigators, and that is just crazy!  That is the most lessons I have ever had—and they were all good, effective lessons—not just like a little prayer and stuff. They were all good lessons!

I would love to stay here for Christmas, but I am also fine with leaving, I think that all the success we are having is going to be all finished by the time I leave, or by that next week, because we put another two investigators with a baptismal date. We have a total of 7 right now, 5 for the 28^th of November and 2 for December 2^nd.  We should be putting a date with 5 more as well. My companion is STRUGGLING with Spanish. And that is horrible for him—seriously.  I try to help him by practicing and games and studying.  His stomach is a little better, or he is just getting used to it!  Poor guy! We are going to that big waterfall , Bayoz, as a zone today which is why I am on early. I guess we are going to head to the jungle and play with the monkeys! Should be fun!  Love you guys!  

The Natives are Restless!

Monday we went to El Tirol with Elder Bell and Elder Carrasco (he is from Chile). Elder Carrasco is actually from my group so that is kind of cool. Tuesday we didn't do much because my companion was sick so we stayed around the room for the most part.

Wednesday we put a baptismal date with Javier, Rebecca, and Nelly for 21 November. They are seriously so awesome! Elder Gonzalez is feeling a little better.

 Lunch with Bell, Gonzalez, and Carrasco

Thursday I gave a lesson in our district meeting about sharing the gospel with families. We had a pretty full day of work, toward the end Elder Gonzalez started feeling poorly again, but we got a lot of work in so that was nice. It has been raining a lot so things have cooled down quite a bit which is nice! It is worth being a little wet to not be so hot.

Friday not much happened. We did our weekly planning and played volleyball with Javier and Rebecca after we had our lesson with them.

Saturday we helped our pensionista move apartments. I actually found the place for them and it's really nice. Moving their stuff however was not so nice. Everything seemed to weigh a ton! We had to take all of their things up the skinniest flights of stairs. We scratched a lot of things but everything turned out fine.

Views from our roof

We were supposed to have 11 investigators in church on Sunday. I have to admit that it was one of those days I just got really irritated. We had seven people that were technically progressing with a baptismal date--Javier, Rebecca, Nelly, Jersy (The show for for the missionaries), his little brother Kevin, Rosa and her little brother Luis. Nobody came to church! It really made me mad. Javier called and said that something happened with a family member of Nelly's and so she went to Huancayo. Then he called me that night and said I am really sorry, how can I justify what I did, I'm going to pray to God...and so I'm not really mad at them but I am frustrated about the others.

Here's a little crazy thing that happens in Peru:

There is this group called the Asháninka. They are the Indians/natives that live here and they still wear the old traditional clothing and paint their faces, etc. Well, a bunch of them from many different villages came into town and put on a protest. They started closing off roads and wouldn't let anybody go by. They had their bows and arrows and I guess they have actually killed some people in the past—so that was kind of scary. I guess they were protesting the government cutting down trees and not giving them the proper rights to their lands or something like that. I hope that gives you a little taste of what Peru is like and how random things are sometimes!

Halloween II

On Monday we played soccer again with the Espinoza family and some of their friends. Tuesday in our district meeting, I gave a lesson about goals and it went really well. I am needing a lot more patience. I am struggling a little bit with Elder Gonzales and his Spanish. He is a great guy but he just seems to keep to himself in the lessons and I am doing all of the talking, but he is working hard and I'm sure he will improve. We walked a TON on Tuesday. We walked so much because a lot of our meetings fell through and we went all over our area.

Wednesday was a sweet day! It rained a lot and we had seven lessons! The lessons were all quite enjoyable. Brenda, the little one-year-old daughter of Hermana Magali, had a seizure. So I think they have to take her into Lima to get her checked out.

Thursday was another regular day of work. Friday there was a little activity for the primary where the kids came and dressed up as butterflies and things like that at the church. Food was handed out and we had a fun time, we had a few investigators there.

Saturday was Halloween so Happy Halloween! It was a really, really good day. We just walked around and worked hard and we found this family of golden investigators! They were a reference from La Merced. Their names are: Javier, Rebecca (his cousin), and Nelly (his aunt). They live clear way up at the top of our area, so we have to travel a fair ways to go and get them and teach them. They are seriously so awesome! Elder Gonzalez is doing much better. He is working hard, we are studying together, and I'm seeing some good improvement.

The power went out in all of San Ramon on Sunday so church was really toasty inside. But that's all right! We had five investigators in church: Javier, Rebecca, Nelly, Rosa, and Luis. I was so glad to see them. They are all doing great. I had to teach gospel principles because a teacher has not been called yet. After church, we had a good day of work. We had a 16-year-old kid named Luis, who is a member, come with us to some of our meetings. There were a lot of people in the cemetery today because it is the day of the dead. Here in the jungle everyone feels that this holiday is people worshiping Satan, so not a lot of people celebrate it, but there were a few cute little kids running around the town dressed up. We didn’t really do anything different on Halloween though, just worked and everything like that. Last year we definitely did more traditional things but I still don’t know which one I liked more.

Peruvian cemetery celebrating "the day of the dead"

I just got out of the ice cold shower, I feel great, things are going really well but my companion is not feeling the best today. I want to wish Nikenna happy birthday! So, Happy Birthday!! I love you so very, very, very much! I can't believe you are 18 and an adult! That just freaks me out! But, I know things like this have to happen. Well, have a great week. Love you all!