Elder Christopher Connelly

HE WOULD LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU!!! Pouch Mail: Letters only - write on one side of unlined paper then fold into thirds and tape shut - no envelope, then address to: Elder Christopher David Connelly Chiclayo Peru Mission PO Box 30150 SLC Utah 84130-0150 Sending letters or packages through mail system: Elder Christopher David Connelly Peru Chiclayo Mission Calle Maria Izaga #690 (referencia, cruce con Av. Balta) Chiclayo Lambayeque Peru He would love to hear from you! He loves pictures!

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Memories of Peru

He is coming home Today!!! 9/10/13 :)

Sunday, September 8, 2013

The last week. 9/3/13

Thanks for the email! It was nice to get to read about you guys and how everything is going. I can´t believe that two years have already gone by it feels so weird to me. I´ve been thinking a lot the last couple of days about my mission and everything. I´m so happy I made the decision to go on a mission, it´s been one of the biggest blessings in my life. I´ve learned so much from my companions, the mission president and the people we´ve taught. I don´t think I´ll ever regret having served a mission because of everything I´ve learned and the people that I´ve been able to teach.

Yesterday I got to go to one of my areas to say goodbye to the people I taught with Elder Cabrera. It was sweet because we went to our old pension and ate lunch with the Arancibia family. We ate hot dogs for lunch and after we went to visit the people we taught and baptized. We visited Elsa Vallejos and her family it was the best to get to see them they told me they´re still active in the church and go to all the activities and are planning on going to the temple when the ward takes a trip to Lima! We went to Silvia Manay´s house after and she was super excited to see us about a year has passed since I had seen all the people we had taught. Silvia told us that she´s 1st councilor in the relief society and that next month she´s going to go to the temple. It made me so happy to get to see her and it got me so pumped for this last week in the mission. I felt the spirit so strong when we visited her and talked for a while, she said she was going to go to the airport on monday to say goodbye. It was the best to get to talk to our converts and see their progress, I´m most excited to hear about them having gone to the temple.

As far as things go in our area we´re still working with the same people. José Agip came to church on Sunday! That was cool, I didn´t think he was going to come to church but he showed up randomly. We´re having a tough time getting the investigadors we have to commit themselves to go to church on Sundays. This week were going to work on that and try and set some baptismal dates. I´m really trying to enjoy this last couple of days I´ve got in the mission and we´re working really hard. I´ve got a lot of mixed feelings with the mission ending and everything but I´m excited to be able to see everyone after 2 years. I love you guys soo much, thanks for all the support and letters you always sent me.

I´ll talk to you guys next week...in person! Love you guys :)

-Elder Connelly

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

2 weeks 8/26/13

What a week, we`ve been working hard in our area with a lot of different people and we`ve seen God`s hand in the missionary work. We`re visiting this newer investigador named Carlos Cabrejos he`s not really that new but we already taught him about the Restoration and we`re teaching him about the Plan of Salvation. We told him he could prepare to get baptized on September 7th the only problem was yesterday they called him to go drive a truck, he`s a choufer and sometimes they call him randomly. He`s capting really well everything we teach him and he`s a really humble person.

I`m really worried about some of our converts in my area because everyone is out of work right now in Ferreñafe because the harvest ended about 2 months ago and there really isn`t other way to work here in the city i`m in. One of the families we baptized about 3 months ago doesn`t have very much food and so I was going to buy some food with my companion to take to them but the bishop is going to see if he can buy some food to help them out. The problem is that the dad Luis doesn`t want to ask for help from the church and so it makes it hard for them to get help if they don`t want to ask for it. Olga Sanchez another convert we have in my area has been without electricity for the past 2 weeks and is using candles, she also doesn`t have to much food to eat but the bishop already helped her out and the president of the relief society went with Olga to the market and they bought her a bunch of food. It made me feel really bad for these people that don`t have anything to eat, it`s tough here economically especially in Ferreñafe.

Today I`ve been visiting my old areas where I was at before with my companion, we went to Las Americas my third area and visited my pensionista`s family and ate lunch with them. She went to Lima and wasn`t there but I did get to talk with her family and eat lunch with, i talked with her on the phone and she said she was going to say goodbye in two weeks at the airport. I got to go see a family that we baptized after lunch well we didn`t baptize the whole family but two of their kids. It made me soo happy to see, I sent a picture of me with them. I also got to visit Aldair he`s another investigador we taught and baptized, he went to the temple a couple of months ago! I guess he got to do baptisms for the dead, that made me super excited I was glad to see him. After that we went to José Quiñones my fourth area, I got to visit Iris and she is doing good she`s been going to church. It was a bummer to have to say goodbye to her, she`s doing really good. Then we went and visited Laura and Zair, Laura is going to seminary and is getting ready to go to the temple with the young women in the ward. I also sent a picture of the two of them with me. It made me really happy to know a lot of the people that we helped join the church are still going to church and have plans to go to the temple or have already gone. That`s a missionary`s payment, see other people come unto to Christ and live his Gospel. I`m so grateful for the time i`ve had here in Peru I don`t want it to end...I got another two weeks to go luckily :)

Thanks for the letters you`ve sent me and for the support, all the elders are always jealous of the letters I get :D I hope you like the pictures I sent. I sent a picture of Carlos and I, of lunch with the Piscoya Primo family, of the family we baptized and of Laura, Zair and I. Thanks for the email and the pictures! Talk to you next week...

-Elder Connelly

Bautismo 8/19/13

Thanks for the letter and the pictures, sorry last week I wasn´t able to write a very long letter but I have more time to write this week. I got the letters that you guys sent me with the mustaches and everything that was nice of you guys. Bryce´s enamorada went off to college? Be strong Bryce ha.

This week went really well a lot of weird things happened but in the end everything turned out really well. On monday we had a family home evening with the Popuche family they´re new converts and they´re getting ready to go to the temple, they´ve had a lot of tough things they´ve had to go through in their family but they´re progressing a ton. On tuesday I was with one of the elders in my district named Elder Pacori like my trainer haha, we taught some really cool people like Grimaldo he´s been adventist for about 20 years and he´s been investigating the church and he knows the bible really well so teaching him was fun.

Pretty much this whole week we were working hard on getting everything ready for Rosa´s baptism and I´m grateful that she got baptized because we had to overcome a couple of obstacles to help her. Like on Thursday night we had a family home evening with a lot of members in the ward at Rosa´s mother-in-law´s house and I guess some of the members got in a little argument about something and Rosa saw them arguing and it discouraged her quite a bit and it made her not want to get baptized. We swung by her house on Friday morning to review the baptismal interview questions with her and she said Elders I hope you don´t get bothered by the decision I´ve made but I don´t want to get baptized anymore. I was super bummed out Friday morning thinking that we weren´t going to have a baptism. Our pensionista went over to apologize to Rosa´s mother-in-law for what had happened and it helped a ton. Rosa´s husband Danni helped out a lot as well he helped her understand that it wasn´t something very important and that it shouldn´t change her mind about getting baptized. We went back to Rosa´s house in the afternoon on Friday to wish her a happy birthday because it was her birthday and Danni told us that she changed her mind, our prayers were answered I felt really bad that for something really insignificant like a small argument would make her not get baptized. Elder Cabrera my old companion interviewed her for her baptism and she was happy about everything and Danni bought her a couple of skirts to go to church in and for her baptism. The baptismal service went really well with the talks the members gave and my companion and I sung a hymn, but it was really tough when the moment came for her to be baptized ha. She has a phobia with water and didn´t want to put her head under the water, and to top it all off the water heater in the chapel doesn´t work so the water was kind of cold. And the other problem was that there wasn´t very much water in the baptismal font because the water pump was messed up so I was kneeled down in the baptismal font with her haha. In the end it was okay we sang her happy birthday and ate cake after her baptism.

So we´re still working with José Agip, we had a spiritual lesson with him on Wednesday and he cried and thanked us for visiting him like we had. The only problem is that he won´t accept a baptismal date, he had problems with some members in the ward a long time ago and I think that still bothers him. The bummer thing about being in a small city is that all the rumors and things like that get spread around and everyone knows each other haha. We´re still going to work with him because his wife Yolando wants to get sealed with José in the temple, it´s gonna be tough but were going to get help from God.

This last couple days have been good for me i´ve been doing a lot of thinking and reflecting over my mission and the things i´ve learned. I´m super happy i´ve got a little bit more time in the mission to enjoy and teach God´s children. Thanks for sending me a letter and with pictures, I´m excited to see you guys. I love you so much!

-Elder Connelly

PS Can I take out a little bit of money out of the bank to buy some souvenirs before I leave??

Monday, August 19, 2013

Loving the Mission 8/12/13

Today we´re going to play soccer in the afternoon with some members here in Ferreñafe so that´s why i´m writing you guys in the morning. I hope you have a fun time up at Deer Creek, the water should be pretty cold up there I would imagine.

So this week went really well we had a cool experience on Monday with Danni (was inactive member) and Rosa (his wife not baptised yet). We taught them about the Law of Chastity and at the end of the lesson Danni thanked us for having visited him and his family and bringing him back to the church he got emotionally and cried when he beared his testimony. It was a special experience for me and my companion to have helped him out, and now his wife Rosa is getting baptised this Saturday! She seems really excited about it all and her husband Danni has been helping us out a lot with references and always wants to go tracting with us. All of our investigadors have been going to church and everything is going well in our area..anyways talk to you guys next week.

-Elder Connelly

The Last Transfer 8/5/13

Thanks for all the pictures that you sent me and for the letter. Wow that`s crazy, Dad`s retired now...how does it feel Dad? Your going to have a lot more free time I imagine. The pictures of Bryce down at Lake Powell look cool, it`ll be fun to go down there I`ve never been. So Bryce took Kaylee to Lagoon? I can`t even remember how old she is, everyone is going to be so much older now...

So this week my last transfer in the mission official started, and we had a really good week i`m excited to work hard up until the last day of my mission. We`ve got quite a few of really awesome investigadors we`re teaching, we`ve got a baptismal date on the 17th I`m sure I`ve already wrote about her but her name is Rosa Quevedo. She was supposed to get baptised a little earlier on this month but because she sometimes has a hard time capting and understanding we had to push her baptismal date a little further back. She`s really excited and has come to church with her husband Danni three weeks in a row.

We`re also teaching José Agip still he`s the one that had an accident about a month and half ago and his foot got run over by a three wheeler. It completely destroyed all the flesh near his achilles tendon but his walking more now. We had a spiritual experience with him on Thursday when we taught him and his wife that`s already an active member. We had just got done teaching him and we asked him if there was anything we could do for him and he started crying and told us that he wanted his sons to return to the church. He has two sons that are inactive and always hang out in the street and aren`t very obedient. I`ve been visiting José since I got to this area and ever since he had this accident with his three wheeler he`s a lot more humble and receptive. I think the Lord is preparing him to recieve the Gospel, he`s the only one in his family that isn`t a member.

Oh and on Friday we taught this sweet family, on Tuesday or Wednesday we contacted this guy in the street and he told us that we could visit him and his family on Friday so we set an appointment. We showed up to his house on Friday and we were able to teach him and his entire family. Theres about 7 people in the family and the guy we contacted is named José, his grandson Jorge who`s about 9 years old has had two surgerys to try and take a brain tumor out of his skull. We taught them about the Plan of Salvation and it seems to really have helped them a lot.

Today we went to the beach in Pimentel with the zone and played soccer it`s like the 5th or 6th time i`ve gone to that beach. It`s one of the best beaches in Chiclayo, there wasn`t very many people there because of how cold it is. Anyways I got to go but I sent some pictures of us at the beach, thanks for sending a package!

Talk to you guys next week!

-Elder Connelly

Obendiencia 7/29/13

I got the package you guys sent me today when I went to the office! Thank you! We´re going to have to put to use the water balloon launcher, my companion thought it was funny that you sent me that haha. I liked the pictures too that you sent, the baby is so cute.

I had a good week, the only bummer was when I had the flu on Tuesday we didn´t tract at all. It was only for one day, luckily my companion has a lot of pacience and I rested the whole day. I feel a lot better now. On Wednesday we had exchanges with the zone leaders, one of the zone leaders is Elder Cabrera he was my companion in my second area. So it was cool to get to go on splits with him and remember when we were companions. I learned a ton with him when he was my companion and we baptised some really great people.

We´re teaching Rosa and her husband Danni still, and Rosa has made a ton of progress. She went to church on Sunday with her whole family and is really excited about the church and everything. We visited them on Wednesday when I was on splits with Elder Cabrera and we taught about Repentance. Turns out that Danni and his brother in law Marcos (he´s a member too) were breaking the law, they sell bricks to build houses and apparently people would buy bricks from them and they would give them less bricks than they bought. They realized it was bad what they had been doing when we were teaching them and they said that they wanted to change and were going to stop doing it. It´s tough because they have been inactive and they don´t give a very good example to Rosa. They´ve been going to church on Sunday and it´s a sign that they´re trying to change and repent.

With my companion I´ve been learning a lot about obedience, he´s helping me a lot to be more obedient. It´s always been something kind of hard for me to be 100% obedient but it´s cool to see my companion make an effort to do it and it´s been helping me to do the same. This week we met an awesome hermana named Elvira she was outside of her house on Friday afternoon sweeping her patio with some of her kids and we contacted her. She let us in her house and it turns out that she´s a member, apparently she got baptised about 15 years ago and they never registered in the church and they didn´t give her the gift of the Holy Ghost either. She seemed really happy that we had come and wanted her kids to go to church as well. It felt good to know that God had led us to her and her family.

Anyways that´s pretty much a summary of what happened to me this week, oh and the Primary President had a mini MTC for the kids in the primary and we helped her out with that and tracted with some of the primary kids it was fun. I sent a picture of that with the primary, it was cool. Thanks again for the package and for supporting me.

Love you guys and talk to you next week! :)

-Elder Connelly

Por fin estan progresando!

Wow the mountains look so green in the pictures that you sent me, the wild flowers look really cool too. That picture of the family is awesome, everyone looks about the same except for Ava ha. My mission already e-mailed my arrival date? That´s a weird feeling, a lot of the elders from my group are going home early like Elder Sampson goes home the 29th of this month. I´m glad I didn´t shorten my mission, I´m learning so much still everyday here. Dad thanks for getting all my school stuff squared away, it´s the best knowing that I don´t have to come home early to study and that you already signed me up for classes. What classes we´re you able to sign me up for? I´d be excited to make a trip down to Moab and do some mountain biking, hopefully I´ll have a little bit of time to do that.

So this week went well, my companion had his birthday on Tuesday and the members threw him a surprise birthday party. The members here are really cool and love the missionaries. Then on Wednesday we had exchanges in the zone and all the elders were with other elders that aren´t their companions. I was in an area in the zone named Latina, it´s a tougher area because the people there are wealthy and the elders there have to work with members. It was nice to get out and preach in a different area for a change but I like my area a lot. In the interchange they set a baptismal date for August 4th for Rosa, she went to church yesterday and is progressing. Her husband is inactive but he also went to church with her on Sunday.

Our investigadors are finally going to church, and we had a breakthrough with Hermana Gladys. We´ve been teaching Gladys for quite a long time now but she never commited herself to going to church. We had a lesson with her on Thursday and taught her about the sabbath day, she finally understood how important it is to keep the sabbath day and at the end of the lesson in her prayer she promised God that she was going to go to church. On sunday she made a lot of friends really fast and one of the members in our ward is a friend of hers that she knew before. We´re also trying to help this one hermana get married, she wants to get baptised and her daughter is a recent convert. Her birth certificate is in Chota and to get married she has to have her birth certificate we called the elders that are in Chota and they´re sending us her birth certificate.

Me and my companion are good, I´m learning a ton from Elder Harris and he learns really quick everything. He´s helping me a lot to stay focused on the missionary work. Today was cool because I ran into Elder Cometivos in Chiclayo, it was cool seeing him he was one of my favorite companions we worked a ton in our area and had a lot of success.

Oh by the way your letters got to me! Thanks for sending me them, it always helps to get a letter from you guys. I´m sending pictures of the suprise birthday party we threw for my companion and also a picture of lunch that we had today with the zone. I hope you guys have a good week! Love you!

-Elder Connelly

Happy Birthday ELI 7/15/13

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELI I wish I could have been there to wish you a happy birthday but I guess I´ll have to do it through my email to you guys HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELI!! From the pictures you sent me looks like you guys had a good time with the cake and everything :) I´m not going to lie all the pictures you guys send make me miss the mountains and green. I´m glad you were able to go and see Kash it´s weird to think that he´s already back from his mission. If some of my friends want to be there in the airport when I get back it´s fine by me.

This week was good, I´m learning a lot from my companion and from the experiences we are having here in our area. I feel really blessed because my companion is obedient and likes to work hard and that´s what we need to be successful as missionaries. Especially right now it´s helping me because i´m getting close to finishing. God has given me companions that i´ve needed to be able to learn and progress, I was able to think a lot this week about the mission and the things i´ve learned and it´s the best being a missionary. I´m especially liking our area because of all the member help that we get, we pretty much work through members and nothing else.

We´re still teaching José and Jesús, and they making a lot of progress. José relapsed saturday night and drank with some of his buddie, it was really discouraging for me. We´ve worked so much with him and seeing him drunk bummed me out, things like that happen he ended up making it to church on sunday so it´s okay. I´ve defintely seen a big change since we fasted with José, I´m certain that before the end of this next transfer we´re going to get them married and baptised. They´re so close to doing it, we watched the Restoration with them this week and asked them if they believed Joseph Smith was a prophet and they believe our whole mesage and everything. On thursday we´re going to go with the ward and have a family home evening in their house, pray for José and Jesús please!! We´re also teaching a man named José Agip he´s not a member his wife is but he hasn´t been baptised for some problems in the ward. He had an accident about a month ago when he was driving his three wheeler with a trailer and cut his achilles tendon and messed his foot up pretty bad. He´s become really humble and has been listening to us this past week. Pray for him too! Other than what´s going on with our investigadors nothing really that crazy has happened this week. I´m happy and healthy and enjoying the mission.

This week on Sunday we got to give talks which is always the best, I´ve gotten to really like giving talks. Today we went and played soccer, that´s pretty much the Monday routine now we always play soccer. Thanks for the letters that you sent with the drawing from Joel, Evan, Eli and Eva. Love you guys and i´ll talk to you next week!

-Elder Connelly

ps I sent two picture one is of the ceviche that our pensionista gave us for lunch and the other is of the money we took out of the bank the beginning of this month.

New Companion 7/9/13

My companion left on Wednesday and now I´m with Elder Harris, it was a bummer because I learned a lot from Elder Cometivos but I´m excited about a new companion. He´s from Nevada and was serving his mission in California for 6 months waiting for his visa. We get along really well and he´s really going to help me a lot I think. It´s different because I´ve never had an american companion but I´m getting used to it.

This week went well we´re teaching a lot of really great people but the problem that we have right now is that no one wants to come to church...but we did have a breakthrough with one of our investigadors. We´ve been teaching the Segura family for quite a long time and we´ve thought about giving them some time so we can look for new investigadors that will progress faster. This week José told us that he wanted to fast with us, so on Saturday after lunch we went to his house and started a fast with him. I´ve never fasted before in my mission with one of my investigadors, but it seems to have really helped. He came to church on Sunday with his wife Jesús and they seemed to have liked the church meetings. The problem with them is that José doesn´t want to get married yet with Jesús because he wants her to change, she has kind of a in your face personality and he is more passive. They already have two kids and it doesn´t really make sense that they don´t get married but we´re working with them right now.

So teaching has been a little different with my companion because he´s still learning spanish but he´s picking up really fast spanish and we teach well together. I sometimes don´t have very much patience but I´m learning a lot right now, my companion is really obedient and humble and he´s teaching me a ton. I´ve been lucky to have had companions that have wanted to work and keep the rules.

I don´t really have much to write about this week but I´m enjoying the mission I´m happy healthy and tired like always haha. I´m sending a picture of me because here in Ferreñafe there´s a lot of walls that have poetry here and so I decided to take a picture of this haha. Love you guys talk to you next week.

-Elder Connelly

Another Week 6/24/13

It`s funny hearing about cub country, some of the greatest memories I have are from cub country with all my friends and the Corner Canyon 2nd ward. That`s cool that that man was able to help you out with the cooler, sometime the Lord is there to help us out when we least expect it. I was able to read a little bit more about what happened to Dan with more details, I`m glad he`s doing well and recovering from the accident.

This week we baptised Olga Sanchez! It was awesome, another one of God`s chosen children was able to join the church. I think I already wrote about her but she`s about 72 years old, and one of the members in our ward gave us the referral. We starting teaching her about a month and a half ago and she progressed quicly and now she`s a member of the church! The baptism service went well, our ward mission leader baptised her. She couldn`t bend her back at all to get submirged so we had to use a chair so that she could get baptised without causing any damage to her back. After the baptism she shared some of her feelings about her baptism and said that she couldn`t have been more happy. She already has a lot of friends in the ward and visiting teachers so she should stay active.

Now we just going to try and find new investigadors, we`ve got two prospects but they didn`t go to church yesterday so they aren`t progressing...On Sunday there was a missionary work training that got transmitted to our stake in Chiclayo, it was an inspiring training. The prophet talked and some of the apostles, it pumped me and my companion up to work more with the members in our ward. I liked a lot this quote that "the most effective missionaries act by love" the also said that "good leaders act by love", it`s so crazy there`s 70, 000 missionaries serving full time.

Other than that the mission life is going good, I`m enjoying a ton my area and finally it`s getting a little colder at night and sometimes I have to use a sheet when I sleep. We played soccer today like we did two weeks ago at a synthetic soccer field here in Ferreñafe. The whole district came and we played with all the elders and some members as well. I`m doing good, my companion is still waiting for his Visa so I don`t know how long I`m going to be with him. Thanks for the letter and the pictures, Bryce looks like he`s really tall now...luckily I`m huge and can still take him haha. Love you guys! Until next week...

-Elder Connelly

Monday, June 17, 2013

Matrimonio y bautismos!!

Thanks for the letter, and for the pictures :) I heard about the baby`s new name, it`s Leah right? That`s a cool name I like it a lot, you could have named her Daisy Rose though hahaha. Crazy that Dad is working half time now, what a blessing for the family no? Obedience brings blessing.

So things are going really well right now, we`re working with some awesome investigadors and the members are helping out a ton with referrals. We`re planning a marriage this week on Friday, Luis Alberto and Maria are going to get married! Then on Saturday they`re going to get baptised with their two kids Jesús and Maricarmen. The family is so awesome, they`re really humble people and have progressed a ton. They aren`t in the best situation financially but they`re willing to keep the commandments and join the church. They have already seen some blessings in their lives, because the dad Luis was out of work for a long time and just recently he got a job in construction. It`s really hard right now for a lot of the people here in Ferreñafe because there isn`t a lot of jobs. Pray for the Cornetero family this week so that they can get married and baptised this week!! We`re also teaching this lady named Olga Sanchez who is progressing a lot and told us that she wanted to be baptised so we set a baptismal date for June 15th and she accepted, she`s about 64 years old and has been going to church she went to stake conference yesterday in Chiclayo with us. We`re still working with Manuel, we taught him and his family this last week about the Plan of Salvation and taught a little bit about temples. As far as investigadors go right now the Lord is blessing us, me and my companion are doing good he`s still waiting for his visa so that he can go to his mission in Mexico, Merida.

Nothing to crazy has happened this week other than the marriage and baptisms that we are going to be having this month. Oh and we`re working with Walter Armando as well he still hasn`t made it to church because he is sick, he has a problem with his kidneys and he used to drink a lot before and now his body is having problems. It seems like what happened to him has made him more humble and willing to follow Christ because before this happened to him he didn`t want anything to do with the church.

Thanks for sending a package :) Keep sending pictures and writing about what goes on at home! Love you guys and i´ll talk to you next week!

-Elder Connelly

Jhon and Jahira's baptism 5/27/13

It was the best to get to talk to all of you yesterday and at the same time it was really weird to say goodbye ha. I couldn´t really see my new sister but in the pictures that you sent me I was able to see a little better what she looks like. She looks so fragile, the pictures you sent look really cool with all the family holding the baby :) It´s a bummer to have not been able to be there with you guys to see her be born and all that, but like you said mom maybe she was able to acompany me here in my mission. That´s funny that you said you wanted to have 10 babies, I would have never thought that are family would be as big as it is. You and dad have really been able to keep the commandment that God gave to Adam and Eve to multiply and replenish the earth haha. It´s really special to have a big family I think, here in Peru I´ve seen that in the culture families are important to the people.

I didn´t really tell you guys what happened this week when I talked to you on skype, but to fill you in we baptised this week! We baptised on Monday Johana, sadly her husband wasn´t able to get baptised because he didn´t pass he baptismal interview. Manuel her husband, has had a problem with his personality because he has an explosive personality. His sister got robbed and he used to walk around with a pistol and he had stopped using his pistol but when that happened he was on a mission to find the robbers and either fight them or shoot them. So we decided to give him a little of time to be able to progress a little more. He went to church yesterday with his wife and he was really participating in our Gospel Principles class. I think he´s going through the repentance process, I see him more calm now and humble. A lot of times Christ taught that we should become as a small child, meek, submissive and if we do that we can experience the power of the Atonement and repent. If i´m not mistaken it´s in 3 Nephi 9 and in Matthew somewhere, I can´t remember the verses. He was really upset that he wasn´t able to get baptised with his wife, but I think this will help him to reflect and really repent of his sins. We put a baptismal date for his two kids Jhon and Johana for May 25th, so were hoping by the 25th Manuel will get baptised with his two kids, keep your fingers crossed :)

On Saturday we had a fun ward activity for Mother´s Day and we acted out a funny sketch. Where there´s a mom that has kids that lie and wants to find a way to detect the lies that her kids tell her. In the sketch this lady sales a lying detecting mummy to the mom and everytime someone lies the mummy shakes. It´s kind of hard to explain but it turned out super funny. I sent a picture of me rapped up in toilet paper as the mummy haha.

I´m doing really good like I told you guys yesterday and I´m really enjoying me new area the investigadors my companion and the members. God has blessed me to always have cool companions I think, I´m always able to learn a lot from all of them. I´m glad that you guys are glad that i´m here in the mission and it always feels good to have your support. It´s a bummer for some of the elders in the mission because their families don´t support them or because their families don´t want them in the mission. Things are going good other than the freakin mosquitos haha. I´m using repellent now but I think I got cursed with mom´s blood because the mosquitos love to bite me.

Oh today I went and bought two pairs of pants I hope that´s okay :) haha, they costed me 120 soles I¨m not sure how expensive that is in dollars I tried buying pants inexpensive but at the same time pants that weren´t going to rip within two weeks. Thanks for sending the package! It´s the best when you get a package in the mission, it´s like a little slice of the outside world haha. Welp I got to go love you guys and have a good week!

-Elder Connelly

Feliz dia de la Madre!! 5/13/13

-Elder Connelly

Transfered... 5/6/13

Hey family! Liked the pictures you sent of you guys up in the mountains, it looks so pretty there. I can finally see a little bit of the mountains here in Chiclayo from my area, it`s about 30 minutes from Chiclayo. I`m in a small area called Tarapacá in a city named Ferreñafe. Up until now I`m really enjoying the area and especially the members, everyone is super nice and welcoming to the missionaries. That`s what really makes an area for a missionary when the members are willing to help and they`re nice to the elders. It`s a little different because i`m outside of Chiclayo after being there for a little more than a year but I`m liking it a lot. The downside is that in my area it`s pretty dusty there isn`t a lot of paved roads but all the people that we`ve been contacting and teaching are really humble and receptive of our message which has been nice. My companion is a from the department Loreto from a city named Nauta, his name is Elder Cometivos. He`s cool and likes to work a lot we get along well and we`re teaching a lot of awesome people in our area. He`s a new convert to the church, he got baptized in December of 2011 when I was in the mission it`s super cool because I don`t know if I could ever have done that. He`s been a member for about 15 months, it makes me wanna be a better missionary when I heard how he got baptized and that now he`s in the mission. He`s actually supposed to be in Mexico in the mission Mexico Marida I think that`s the name of the mission, I think Carson Herbert is there if I`m not mistaken. He`s waiting for his visa so any day now he could get transfered.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM! AND HAPPY BIRTHDAY EVAN!! :D It`s a bumer to not be able to do anything other than send a message saying happy birthday, but I hope you guys had a happy birthday. I`m pretty blessed to have a mom and brother like you guys and I hope you were able to eat some cake for me haha. Evan is 8 years old now right? When is he gonna get baptized?? I`m excited to get to be able to talk to the family on Mother`s day, we talked to a member in our ward that has a video camera and she said we could use her computer on mother`s day to talk to our families. I`ll most likely be calling on Saturday night quick to figure our what time I should call. It i`ll be cool to get to see everyone again.

This week has been pretty crazy I`m the district leader here in Ferreñafe and there`s 8 elders here in the city including me and my companion. We had 4 baptisms this week and that kept us busy with baptismal interviews and baptismal clothes for the people that got baptized. In our area the elders have been working with this family that is going to get married and baptized and so on Saturday Manuel and Johanna got married. They had this big party and a lot of the members showed up. They`re going to get baptized today, well only Johanna is going to get baptized because her husband Manuel has to get interviewed by our mission president before he can get baptized. I guess there was a small problem and so he has to get interviewed by our mision president. It i`ll be special to see his wife get baptized today. In our area pretty much everyone isn`t married sadly haha, and we are teaching a lot of families where we are going to have to marry them first and then they can get baptized. We`ve got a good pool of investigadors and this coming month we should have baptisms. My pension and the apartment we live in is the best part about the area i`m in now, because we live with a cool family and our apartment is really nice. Up until now Irma (the penisonista) cooks really good and is really nice to us and worries about us. It`s almost like if mom was here in Peru haha, she has a son in the mission and her husband is in Lima working. I`m enjoying everything up until now and just trying to get adjusted to a new area.

It`s crazy that mom is going to be having her baby soon I`ll be praying for you so that everything turns out okay! I`m really excited to see pictures or see the baby when we skype with you guys :) I did get that package with the white shirts in it thanks a bunch! Thanks for everything I love you guys!!!!

-Elder Connelly

4/29/13

Family,

Hey I´m doing good, my week went by really fast. So there´s some bad news, I´m getting transfered tomorrow to a new area :( We weren´t supposed to have transfers until next week but we had emergency transfers and so I¨m getting transfered. Tomorrow is the transfer meeting but I´m not sure where they are going to send me. I was in José Quiñones since December so I guess it was about time that I get transfered, I´m not going to lie I was hoping to have another transfer here with my companion and everything. It´s funny because we´re going to have a baptism at the end of this week and I´m not going to be here to see Arturo get baptized :( I was planning on getting transfered at the end of this coming week but because of the emergency transfers I have to go. On the upside we had a baptism yesterday, Jefferson got baptized! He´s a cool kid, we´re helping his mom get back to church and she wanted her son to get baptized as well.

Thanks for the pictures that you sent me it always makes me happy to see the family and see how everyone is getting, Ava still is the biggest shock for me because I hardly recognize her. So the baby is due this next week?! Thats crazy, how come you haven´t told me if it´s a boy or a girl? I think I¨m going to be able to Skype in my new area well I hope so, I have no idea where i´m going to be haha but usually the members have video cameras and they let us use their computers. I´m excited to get to talk to you guys again that´ll be cool :) Did you sell pretty much everything in the garage sell at grandma´s house? That must have been kind of hard to have to sell some of her stuff but at the same time I´m sure it helped. How´s the family doing now with her passing and everything?

This past week we did a ton of service in our ward, it helped a lot so that we have more trust with the members. We cleaned off a member´s roof and painted at two member´s houses. We had exchanges and I went on splits with one of the elders in our zone on Friday. Nothing really too exciting happened this week, other than the baptism that we had. The baptismal service turned out One of our investigadors showed up to church drunk, he had been drinking all night and then in the morning came to church ha. We had to escort him out after sacrament meeting.

Sorry I didn´t write very much! Love you guys and I¨ll talk to you this next week :) BYEEEE

-Elder Connelly

4/22/13

Hi familia! I`m doing good, we went and checked out that museum this last week it was super cool. It has a bunch of artifacts from Los Mochicas and it has the remains of El Señor de Sipan, it was an old civilization that was here in the northern part of Peru by Lambayeque. I think Mom would like the outside of the museum a lot since she likes everything to be modern looking. That was cool to here about Mitch`s stories from his mission, it always pays off to listen to the spirit and then act a lot of times we receive promptings from the spirit and we just ignore it or think that it really isn`t the spirit talking to us. That`s so nuts about Tate...haha he didn`t want to wait at all to get married, but I guess it makes sense that he gets married before Keaton takes off on his mission. I really liked the pictures you sent of Hawaii it looks so pretty there, I miss the good ol family trip to Hawaii. That picture of Joel`s hand it`s pretty crazy, was it a big knife? How many stiches did they give him??

This last week like I told you we went to that museum Tumbas Reales and we had a zone exchange with all the elders in the zone. Everyone of the elders in the zone got put with someone in the zone that was their companion to work with that elder for the day. I think it ended up turning out okay, it always helps to go tracting with another elder that isn`t your companion so you can learn from other elders. So everything is going well with the people we are teaching, Arturo is staying strong going to church and making a lot of progress. His answer about the church is coming little by little, he already told us that God answered his prayer when he asked Him if The Book of Mormon is true. We`ve been working with the ward and the members a lot, we`ve been trying to reactivate members and through the reactivation we`re finding people to baptize. I think I wrote about Jefferson, he`s going to be baptized this week on the 28th. He and his mom showed up to church yesterday, and so we were happy about that. There`s this other lady we`re teaching named Mercedes she`s progressing a ton, she`s about 72 years old and we`ve taught her a lot about Joseph Smith and the Restoration. She went to church yesterday and seemed to have really liked it so were excited for her as well.

I don`t really have any stories to write about this week haha, but I`m doing good with my compy and i`m just happy and enjoying the mission. I`ve started reading The Book of Mormon again cover to cover and i`ve been really enjoying reading that book. If you don`t read it often, read it :) Today we went to one of the malls here in Chiclayo to eat lunch and in the morning we went and played soccer. It was funny today my companion broke a window kicking the soccer ball it made my day haha. So it`s starting to get colder here...finally, the sun here in Chiclayo it`s super strong. Oh thanks for sending that rubix cube! My companion wants you to send Monolopy the board game, to play on Pdays :) if you can send that it`d be cool. Thanks for writing and for the pictures!! Love you guys :D

-Elder Connelly

HI! 4/15/13

Thanks for the pictures of Hawaii it brought back a lot of good memories from when we would take family trips there. It looks so green, I haven`t seen vegetation in months...haha. It was also cool seeing the pictur of Mitch coming home.

So today we had zone meeting on P-Day because tomorrow were going to Tumbas Reales in Lambayeque. We would have gone today but it`s closed on Mondays, so tomorrow were going to go in the morning. It`s supposively one of the better Museums here in Chiclayo, I`m yet to go to a museum but it sounds cool. This week went good we found some awesome people to teach in our area and one of the investigadors we have recieved an answer about the Book of Mormon. I wrote a little bit about Arturo this last week and how we met him and his wife at church about three weeks ago, well this week on Friday we visited him and watched a video about the Apostasy and talked to him a little bit about the Restoration of the church. We had already taught him the Restoration but it`s a video with Wilford Woodruff and how he found the church. Arturo is super cool and we`ve been trying to help him revieve an answer about the BoM and we invited him to read the BoM and find out for himself if it was true. In the same lesson we invited him to be baptized on the 4th of May and he accepted, then 2 days after he called us and told us that God answered his prayer. And yesterday he went to church and was taking notes in Sunday School and Priesthood it was sweet. God`s has definitely placed him in our path :) on Tuesday we were tracting in our area in the afternoon and found a family super cool and we taught them a little bit about the church and apostles and prophets. They were really interested in our message and told us that they hadn`t heard any message like the one we had for them, we visited them with some members but they didn`t end up going to church yesterday...other than that everything is going well in our area. Nothing too out of the ordinary has happened. I`m kind of tired lately just a little bit burned out I guess. Tomorrow were going to have a zone exchange with all the elders in the zone and so I`m excited about that, it should help a lot of the elders in the zone.

I talked to Elder Sampson and he told me that he`s going to go home a transfer early because his sister is gettin married and so that he can study but supposivley theres a possiblity to come back like 3 weeks early to get back for the winter semester. Im still undecided about where I want to study, but I still feel like SLCC is the best option at least until I get my generals out of the way. That could change, I`m not really sure yet...So i`ve been sportin some of the ties you sent in my package for my birthday it`s so nice to have a big variety of ties. So I think I`ve grown a little in the mission because some of my pants don`t fit me anymore..some of my pants make it look like i`m gettin ready for a flood. I don`t feel any taller but I think I`ve grown a little. Thanks for writing, send more pictures!! Love you guys :)

-Elder Connelly

ps the pictures are of me and my comp when we had our birthday because he had his birthday on the 30th of march :)

Conference Week 4/8/13

Thanks for the email I imagine it was kind of hard sending an email with your cell phone but it was nice to hear from you guys and see pictures of Kauai. You might have to consider making another trip down there in about 5 months or so :) haha. It was cool seeing pictures of Mitch coming home, he`s lost 20 lbs? It must depend a lot in what mission your in because I`ve gained a little bit of weight eating all the rice that the peruvians do. I`m pretty much used to eating rice 5 or 6 times a week with potatoes too. I`m super happy to hear about Chad and that he was able to leave jail and on the same day that Mitch got home, that`s really sweet. From what Dan tells me Chad is trying to go through the repentance process. The Atonement is so special, I was able to reflect a lot on what Christ did over Easter weekend. The atonement changes lives as you learn more and more about it your perspective on life changes.

This last week we were super busy, on Tuesday we had the zone leader conference and it took up the whole morning and we didn`t get back to our area until about 4:30. Then we had to plan for the zone training on Tuesday night, and on Wednesday we had the zone training. On Friday we had a leadership training with all the zone leaders and district leaders in the mission, and then on Saturday and Sunday we went to all the sessions of Conference. We pretty much didn`t have too much time to workin in our area so it was kind of tough this week. Oh were you guys able to watch some of the conference? It was awesome, they talked a lot about the missionary work and how the missionary work is growing throughout the world. I was only able to see one session of conference in English and the rest in spanish, it`s defintely not the same to watch conference in Spanish it`s cooler to hear they`re own voices. It was cool for me because I was able to recieve a couple of answers to questions I had, and listening to the prophet was awesome. It means a lot more to me now than it did when I was home to listen to conference and listen to the prophet. There gonna build two more temples! One in Brazil and one in Cedar city I think, pretty cool. There was hardly anyone in the church on Saturday morning and afternoon session, most of the people here aren`t able to watch conference at home because they don`t have cable so they go to the chapel.

Were working with Arturo now, I wrote a little bit about him last week in my letter. He didn`t go to conference because he got sick this week but he`s really interested in the church, we`re trying to help him gain his own testimony of the Gospel so that he doesn`t get baptized because of his wife. We gave him a book of mormon this last week and we have to check up on it and see if he read the part that we left him. We went and visited Iris this last week and she is the best. She went to the conference on Saturday and she`s staying fiel in the church it`s sweet. We also went and taught Luis we only found him once this week and he hasn`t had any problems with drugs lately as far as we know.

On a random note I learned how to solve a rubix cube, if you guys send me a package it wouldn`t hurt to send a rubix cube :) haha. Today was nice we went to San Jose again and hung out at the beach and played soccer with the zone, then after we went and ate lunch in this little restaurant. So i`m good friends with my compi it`s sweet, everything is going good in our area. I haven`t really put to much thought into what I want to do after the mission with my studies, I think I`m gonna give it a little thought this week and let you guys know what I`m thinking about doing this next week. I haven`t really thought of going to UVU after the mission, it seems to be a good decision to get my generals finished at SLCC and then transfer my credits to a state university in Utah somewhere but thats just a game plan that I think will work for me. Thanks for sending the packages that you sent! I only got three of the four that you sent because one of them had a messager in it and at Serpost they told me that it isn`t allowed to send that kind of stuff...but thanks!! Love you guys :D Until next week

-Elder Connelly

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