Heyyyy!!! December 5th

Familia!

Hey how´s it going? Is it absolutely freezing in Utah right now? From what you guys are saying it sounds like that ha. It´s kinda cold here in Cajamarca it´s pretty much moderate all the time and sometimes at night it gets pretty cold, but luckily I have a bunch of jackets to wear. Believe it or not but it rains a lot here so I wear that North Face wind breaker all the time. I enjoyed looking at all the pictures you guys send me it`s awesome. The pictures of the boys and Ava are so cute. I completely forgot it was her birthday just barely, give her a hug from me (: haha. I am glad to read from you Dad that the NBA lockout ended and the season is starting thats sweet i´m sure your stoked about that. Also that you were able to fix that problem with AF, that was annoying whenever that would reset and it´s cool you were able to fix it. The pins you have make quite the collection no? Also that`s sweet you had some Inca Kola, it´s my favorite soda here. There`s little tiendas all around the city here where you can buy candy, soda, toilet paper, etc. They have american food so that`s been nice, and the chocolate here is amazing I´m addicted. Chocman´s, Sublime´s, and Cazino cookies ahh man it´s the best. It´s also very cheap money goes a long ways here, I believe 2.70 solace=1$ americano you´d have to look it up. There aren´t any mosquitos here so that hasn´t been a problem. You guys had better go snowboarding this winter a bunch don´t wuss out haha, it was funny when I was in Lima there were some kids skateboarding and I skateboarded with them for a minute it was fun haha. Don´t worry about sending anything more than what you send me it´s difficult to get packages here we have to go to the Notaria to approve the packages that come in and out of here. Today we went and got stuff signed for a package thats waiting for me at the mission home, I am excited for that :D

Let´s see que paso this week, we were pretty busy. We have two investigadors con una fecha de bautismal for this coming saturday. Nothing with the people here is for sure, things can change last second it´s tough. A lot of the people here always have excuses as to why they can´t come to church on Sunday or why they couldn´t read the Book of Mormon haha. We found a family in some old teaching records that were taught a year ago but were never baptized, but we still need to set a date for a baptism for them. There´s a kid named Victor I think he´s Bryce´s age who has gone to church for the past year and a half but isn´t baptized because his mom won´t give him permission, she´s a catholic by tradition. We also were supposed to have a baptizm on Saturday last week, but in her entrevista the ZL´s felt that she wasn´t ready. A lot of the people here have problems with alcohol, and we have a program every night monday-friday for people with addictions specifically alcohol and investigadors and members come. It helps them a lot I think. There was a christmas devotional last night in Salt Lake with the General authorities and we had some of our investigadors come it was cool they broadcasted it here in Cajamarca. Also today we played some basketball with some of the elders in our zone, it was fun to play something rather than soccer. But I have grown to like soccer a lot more.

Time is flying, I can´t believe I´ve been gone almost three months. It´s hardly anytime at all compared to the 24 months, but it does feel like you guys dropped me off yesterday. I am trying to enjoy every second I have with this experience. It was cool a couple nights ago I had a dream that I was skiing with Josh haha. I am finding out that enjoying the little things on the mission are important, and to just enjoy yourself and work hard. My comp loves to work so he´s helping me to set a good tone for myself. The spanish is coming, I learn something new everyday. I try not to get down on myself, and I understand it takes time. I am pretty much limited to talking about the Gospel for now. But I assume with 22 months in Peru I should be somewhat descent at Spanish right? Haha.

I recieved a bunch of letters from you guys today it was awesome as well as from my friends. I have two hours worth of phone card to talk to you guys on Christmas, I may have to buy more and I don´t know if the phone cards you sent will get here on time. But I should be able to buy stuff here. I´m sorry I cant send a package from here to you guys! Its super difficult to send anything to the US but possibly in January or February I hope. Sorry I didn´t talk back and forth with you guys via email today. Tell everyone I say hi!! Love you!! I look forward to talking to you guys in three weeks :D Love youuuu!!

-Christopher

P.S. Sorry there isn´t any pictures, this next week I´ll send some!