Yo me quedo! March 19th 2012

Family How`s it going?! Sounds like a lot is going on in the family these days. Pinewood Derbys, home schooling, trips to moab, selling the Jeep, and Ava folding her arms to pray haha. So how`s the pinewood derby car coming along, I`m expecting to hear next week that you guys won 1st! I remember like it was yesterday when we won 1st with that yellow pinewood derby car that was so cool. I`m sure you guys have built a racing machine. The story with Joel and the younger kids, made me chuckle sounds just like something Joel would do especially the fire drill hahaha. Send me some pictures of the trip to Moab I want to see where Dan and Bryce were maybe you didn`t take pictures but if you did send some! It`s a bummer to hear your going to sell the Jeep but it wasn`t used to much so it makes more sense to sell it. Also sounds like Ava is learning to do a lot of things, is she close to taking some steps yet? The picture of Eli giving his bike to Ava was cute ha. So good news! ¡Yo me quedo acà en Cajamarca! I was so happy to hear on Sunday night that I get to stay one more change here, I love it here so much I feel at home with the mountains and everything. It was nerve racking on Sunday night, we got together with the four of us Elders in the ward and brought our telephones and ate Hamburgers and waited for the Zone Leaders to call us. I prayed this week that I would be able to stay one more change, because I am super familiar with the area and know that there is still a lot of work to be done. Especially with recent converts that need a lot of help. My companion seemed to be super bummed out that he`s leaving and i`m staying, my new companion should be getting here on Wedenesday night from Chiclayo. I hope he`s a cool guy haha, but I usually get along with everyone. My companion will be heading out tomorrow night and i`ll be with another Elder on Wednesday during the day proselyting until my companion comes. I`m just really happy to be where I`m at with the work and the ward haha. In other news I`ve had a good week, come to think about it i`m yet to have a really crummy week which has been awesome. I`ve been told the first 6 months of the mission are the most dificult but it hasn`t been that way for me. We`ve been working with a couple of different investigadores and the family that we found about a month ago. Yuri (16 years old) has been studying and has had his examines this past week so he hasn`t been able to come to church and we haven`t been able to meet with him. I see him as someone that can really progress and be a faithful church goer I think. Tatiana (17 years old), she`s the girl that we found when I had this random feeling to knock this door high up on the hill. She had a baptism date for the 24th of this month, but she didn`t come to church on Sunday so maybe for this next week. Claudia (15 years old) she`s super awesome, but has about a million questions when we teach her. She`s an investigador from the other ward but wants to go to church in our ward she`s a reference of one of the members from Pueblo Libre. She should be baptized this month as well I hope, she`s so awesome and has desire to know more about the church. And the family that we are teaching it was kind of a bummer, on Sunday night last week we went to their house with Moroni (member from our ward) they fed us and right after we ate dinner with them we had to leave. So I felt like we showed up ate and then left...oh well they`re super nice and also should make good progress. *We had a baptism this week which was really cool, Heni (14 years old) another reference in the ward. She`s super awesome, and also has desires to follow Jesus Christ and become closer to him in her life. She`s got her cousin to go to church with everyweek, and her cousin has told us that every week she`ll be helping so that Heni comes. Speaking of keeping recent converts active after their baptism, that has been something huge for me this week. I was thinking a lot about the people that have been baptized since I`ve been in the ward and how some of them aren`t super faithful church goers and having really intergrated into the ward like they should have. This change has been good because the people that have been baptized have friends in the ward and callings as well a responsiblity so that they don`t inactivate. I`ve felt super bad for what happened with Juan Carlos on Sunday last week we had an activity with the ward and did exchanges with members and went out to get references. And while we were walking in the street we found Juan Carlos drunk, it was super sad to see. It`s horrible to find someone that you baptized and see that they are having problems. Gordon B. Hinckley said that there`s three things that every new convert needs; 1. A friend that can help them out 2. A calling or responsibility. 3. Every member needs to be nurished by the good word of God (Moroni 6:4). I`m hoping to be able to apply this in the mission, because the last thing you want is someone that is baptized and then immediately after inactivates...that`s what I learned this week ha. Also something that has been really cool for me was when Elder Ucede came to visit our zone, he talked a little a bit about how he always trys to improve his English skills and how it`s a blessing for him to be able to listen to Thomas S. Monson and understand what he says. It made me think a lot about how far i`ve come with the language I feel a ton more comfortable with my ability to speak, and communicate sometimes I don`t even notice that now I haven`t had problems communicating. Because the first couple of weeks or the first two months, nobody understood me I felt like haha. But now I feel a ton more comfortable. I was getting down on myself a lot the first couple of months, I find that when I feel confident and act or pretend like I can speak good I tend to speak better. I just need to zone in on my Latino accent haha, I read The Book of Mormon everyday out loud in Spanish and I notice that it`s helping me out. But I feel super blessed for what I can do with the language right now. Love you guys! Thanks for the update on what`s going on, it`s been different being completely shut out from the outside world hahah. I`ll talk to you guys next week :D -Christopher P.S. The first two pictures our from about 2 months ago when we went to La Granja Porcon and when we had the baptizms as a zone. The other pictures are from when it rained a ton two days ago and from the baptizm of Heni.