Feliz dia del Padre! June 18th 2012

Hey happy fathers day DAD!!! How´s it going? Sounds like you guys were able to do something fun for fathers day. I feel bad because I haven´t been able to write any letters or send a small package, it cost a ton to send letters from here to the US. But I´m glad you guys got to do something this week. I´m not really sure I know where that Natural History Museum would be at, but it sounds cool. I´ll have to check out that movie that you guys saw it sounds super cool, I liked Alien I saw it like 8 years ago or something like that ha. I really liked the picture frame that you guys made for dad it looks pretty sweet, I wish I could have particpated haha. 

TELL EVAN HAPPY BIRTHDAY :D and tell Joel, Eli, and Bryce I say hi!! 

Things have been going really good here, I fell like i´ve learned more in these couple weeks than I have in all my mission. We´ve been working so hard in our area, it´s had a lot of trouble in the past but I´m convinced that it depends on you and if you really want to work hard. We´ve been studying a lot in the morning, we studyed a little bit about how we need to listen as missionaries sometimes we´ll get in a lesson and it´s tough to just listen atently to what the people are telling you. Well at least it is for me, I get too excited to try and respond to their doubts or problems and I just need to listen to what theyre saying haha. 

This week I was with one of the elders from my district Elder Driggs from Riverton, I had a work visit with him to see how him and his companion are working. It´s super cool for me to go out teaching or tracting with other elders because everyone can teach you something different. We have a baptism this week, and i´m super stoked for the sister that´s going to be baptized. Sister Silvia, I think I told you about her this last week. We´ve been doing everything to try and help her with her progress, on friday we taught her about a couple of commandments and she is super awesome and when we invited her to keep the commandments we had taught her she accepted and was super excited about everything, yesterday we visited her with the stake patriarch this super spiritual guy and he helped her out a ton. At the end of the lesson with the patriarch she said a super awesome prayer and cried. It´s been really really special to see her progress up until now and see her testimony grow. Thats the one thing that makes me super happy, to see someone have a strong testimony of the gospel. Also on Sunday we had four people in the church and three of them came with out us having to swing by their houses, you can really see the progress of someone when you don´t have to remind them to come to church. I was also super stoked to see Oscar at church with his scriptures and everything, it´s something really hard to explain the happiness that you feel for the people you teach. 

On Wednesday during district and zone meeting president risso showed up unexpectingly, and that was cool. I was able to have a small interview with him and talk a little bit about what were doing in our area and how i´ve been doing. He´s awesome and makes me excited to get out and work. Today we watched 17 Miracles with the zone, it´s a pretty sad/cool movie, about the pioneers and all that they went through. Then we were able to nap a little bit. We´ve been running and excersing in the mornings, I´m hoping to try and lose some weight I´m getting fatter day by day I think. Also on friday we ate these super huge sandwhiches, and then on saturday we went downtown with the stake president and the patriarch to eat. The pension is sweet, we eat in the same house as the secretary to the mission, the stake president, and the stake patriarch. Welp that´s about it for this week, I love you guys! Talk to you next week!! 

-Christopher

Changes June 11th, 2012

Hey! Well this week was changes, and there wasn´t hardly any changes in our zone. Because of all the emergency changes a couple of weeks ago. I´m going to be staying with my companion one change more, I don´t know if he wanted to stay another change with me or leave but he´s a cool Elder. We´ve been working super hard with our investigadors and our area. It´s one of the more tougher areas in the zone, its super small and most of the houses have been contacted but were making a lot of good things happen. 

Were teaching Silvia Manai she´s 52 and has been investigading the church for a while now and her mom is a member. I think I talked a little bit about her the other week. We set a baptismal date for the 23rd of this month, and she says shes going to try and do her part. We had a lesson with her about 4 days ago when we put the baptismal date. She had been going to another church for a long time and was baptized like Jesus was baptized, she didn´t understand why she would need to be baptized again. We explained why we need to be baptized by someone that has the priesthood and that it´s not complete unless we recieve the holy ghost. She seems to have understood, but she says she needs more conviction and needs to accept Jesus Christ. Were trying to do a lot to help her. Include her in your prayers please!! 

Also we´ve been teaching this guy named Mikel from the US, he lives right by our apartment. We went to his house about a week ago and he gave us nachos and we talked for a while he doesn´t understand any spanish I felt bad for my companion because he couldn´t participate in the lesson. He´s a cool guys he´s like 6 foot 5 and has some sweet dreads ha, but this desire that he has to get closer to Christ is what draws my attention. I told him on Saturday night when we talked to him that I dont think it´s a coincedence that he´s able to hear the restored gospel from someone that speaks english. We talked a little bit about the atonement and how Jesus Christ knows all of our hard times, suffering, and sins. And how he can be cleansed of sin through the atoning sacrafice of Jesus Christ. 

I can say that I´ve learned more in this change with Elder Cabrera than in any of the changes I´ve had up until now. I know for sure that through Jesus Christ our weaknesses can become our strengths (2 Cor. 12:10) :D I´m hoping that we can keep working hard. I´m super stoked for this change and all the plans we have to help this ward the members and the people were teaching. Love you guys, by the way I got your package well I didn´t go pick it up yet but it´s here in Chiclayo! Love you!!!

-Christopher

Another week June 4th, 2012

Welp this week has gone by pretty quickly, haha this change we`ll be over this next week which is kind of weird. But I had a super good week with all the experiences and with my companion. We worked so hard this week I`m super tired haha, but I feel super good with our work and what were doing with our area. It`s super small but were trying to make things happen, we found 23 new investigadores this week so that was cool we were contacting like crazy whenever we didn`t have an appointment. But I`m trying to adjust a little bit with my new calling or assignment I guess it be since my calling is to be a missionary haha. The elders in my district are super sweet and cool, theres six of us. We had our first district meeting on tuesday last week, and it went good better than I thought it would I just did what I`ve seen all the other district leaders do. I`m trying to help the elders out with whatever they need. Two of the elders in the district and my companion are working really well, but one companionship hasn`t been doing so well. I don`t think they have a ton of desires to work really hard, that companionship just had  an emergency change today so we`ll see how that goes haha. There`s been a ton of problems in the zone this change but I think everything should be settling down for now, there was quite few companionships that didn`t want to work. I`m hoping to continue this change with Elder Cabrera he`s super cool and were working well together, I don`t want him to get changed and then have some elder come to this area that doesn`t want to work but who knows ha.

 

This week we had a cool experience I was talking to my companion in the morning on Wednesday while we were tracting, and I was talking a lot about how we don`t really have anyone that is progressing super well. I was feeling a little bummed out but we decided to buckle down and just work hard. We had various appointments during the day but we were knocking doors a lot to find new people to teach. And we had found a couple of different people that accepted us in their houses and it were feeling pretty good and at about 8:30 we were dead tired and we were going to go to the pension to eat dinner and we decided to knock a couple more doors. We knocked one door and we didn`t know who lived at this house but a member from the church (an older lady) opened the door and let us in and we talked to her for a while. We had been told from some members that this older lady`s daughter had been investigating the church for 5 years or so but wasn`t really sure about her testimony. We ended up talking to her daughter Silvia she`s about 45, and we got talking and she told us about how she had been investigating the church for a really long time and that she couldn`t accept that the church was true. But she told us on Wednesday that she felt that this is the true church, it was a cool experience and strengthened my testimony that there are people that the lord prepares and puts in our way. Her testimony was really strong about the church, my companion and I are super excited about Silvia. Also yesterday in church our convert Oscar got up and bore his testimony it was so awesome, I was super stoked and happy for Oscar and his progress.

 

Today we went to Eten a beach about 20 minutes from our area with our zone, it was super cool theres penguins and it was super tempting to not be able to get in the water. I got my hair and feet wet but it reminded me a ton of Hawaii. Thanks for sending me the pants and all of the stuff that you guys have sent me. Don`t worry too much to send me more things but if you guys insist i`ll receive a package :D haha. Love you guys!! Sorry I couldn`t really talk about what you guys are doing LOVE YOU GUYSSSS

 

-Christopher

Another week in Chiclayo, May 21st, 2012

 had a super good week and was able to learn a ton. We`ve been working a ton with the members, every has told me how this area is super dificult and they haven`t had baptisms for 7 months. But we`ve been working super good and had a lot of lessons with members this past week. But i`m most excited for the baptism that we have this week. His name is Oscar he`s 26 and we found him about two weeks ago, I think I told you about him last week. But we found him on a saturday night, and only talked to him for about 2 minutes and left him a pamphlet with the church`s address. He showed up to church last sunday and was super interested and told us that he read the whole pamphlet and prayed. We had a lesson with him and talked about the first lesson and he already knew a ton. On tuesday we set a baptismal date for the 26, and he was super excited about it. We´ve been visiting him throughout this week to help prepare him. And yesterdy was Stake Conference and we were going to swing by his house to go together but he left early and showed up alone. It was so awesome. He is super receptive and tells us every lesson that he knows that this is the Church of Christ and reads every chapter in the book of mormon that we leave him to read. He`s what you call someone that was completely prepared for this Gospel. I feel super good about him and that he`s been able to experience a true conversion to this restored gospel.

 

It`s been a little different this change with my companion because I have to make more of the decisions in what we are going to do and how were going to help the work in our area progress. I don`t really feel like I`m finishing training my companion because I think he already knows a lot and knows how to teach all the lessons. But i`ve been able to learn a ton this change it`s been super sweet. I feel super bad I don`t have more time to write you guys but tell ELI that I think that is awesome that he learned how to ride a two wheeler bike! That`s crazy that he`s that young and already knows how to ride a bike.

 

Sorry again I feel bad I had to write President and sometimes I feel like I don`t have enough time to write you guys. But I`ll talk to you next week :D

 

-Christopher

I'm here in CHICLAYO May 8th, 2012

Like always it was nice to read how everyone is doing and to see some pictures of you guys, sounds like you guys are doing good!! It´s so weird to see pictures of Ava she´s grown so much...Cool that you were able to go to a Peruvian Restaurant you guys for sure need to eat Ceviche, it´s super good. Luckily in the pension in Cajamarca Paola knew how to make Ceviche with cooked fish so that we could eat it. We can´t eat uncooked fish or ceviche. But I like it a lot, I don´t like Sushi but Ceviche was super good. Dan came back from Canada? That´s sweet that he was able to go on that trip he has a sweet job. You´ll have to tell Evan HAPPY BIRTHDAY! It feels lame to not be able to do anything more than write happy birthday but i´ll wish him a happybirthday on mothers day! Well I made it to Chiclayo all in one piece, haha funny story about my traveling experience from Cajamarca to here. But i´m here with Elder Cabrera he´s from Chile, Santiago he´s 19 and he´s been in the mission a little under 2 months. I´m here in a ward called La Únion in the Stake La Victoria, it´s super awesome here I like it a lot the weather is pretty moderate and a lot like California. Everyone told me how it was going to be burning hott but it´s nice weather with a ocean breaze were about 15 minutes from the ocean, there´s a lot of dirt roads but in our area theres more streets. Were about 5 minutes from downtown Chiclayo, from the mission office. The room where we live is a lot smaller than where I used to live in Cajamarca but it´s nice and cozy, the pension is sweet the Hermana cooks what we want to eat I feel pretty blessed to be where I´m at. I´ve felt that way up until now in the mission. Funny story so I traveled alone from Cajamarca to Chiclayo, I was supposed to travel at 9:30pm and the zone leaders told us that we were supposed to be there right at 9:30pm and I was trying to hurry because Hermana Paola made me pizza on Monday right before I left. I was trying to make it to the bus station right at 9:30 and we got there at 9:45 and all the elders and members were freakin out when I got to the bus station, because we showed up in the taxi with all my luggage and the bus was driving off haha. They stopped the bus and everyone grabbed my luggage and we ran inside to get my ticket but they told me it was too late, and the bus drove off ha. I thought I was going to be in Cajamarca one more night but I ended up buying my own ticket and they sent me alone from Cajamarca to Chiclayo, I sat with a family on the bus and just slept for the 6 hour ride. I got to chiclayo and found all the elders from my zone in Chiclayo and it was all alright haha. In the change meeting I found all the elders from my group that I came to the mission with and Elder Sampson it was sweet. I was super nervous in the change meeting, I wasn´t sure who I´d be with and they told me I was going to be with a new missionary but I didn´t know if they were lying or not but sure enough they put me with Elder Cabrera he´s a super cool guy, a little serious but I think it´s cause we don´t know each other super well yet. I really like the ward and everything about the area here, the members and all. It´s a pretty small area from where I used to be at, but I like it a lot. Its been a little different being the companion that´s been in the mission longer I kind of have to step it up a bit and be an example but it´s going to be a good learning experience. This week we were knocking doors when one of our appointments fell through and we found this lady in her wheel chair on her porch we presented ourselves and she let us in her house. We talked for a little bit and while we were talking I realized she didn´t have her left leg, she explained to us what happened. She feels that it wasn´t a coincedence that we showed up at her house, we´ve talked with her two different times and she´s super receptive and learns fast. My companion and I are working on teaching a little bit more smoothly and more as a team, a little bit of ping pong. I think were going to do really good this change he likes to work so were going to put forth our best effort. So my pacakages came, I tried to go pick them up today in the plaza of Chiclayo but Serpost was closed. I might swing by there tomorrow but there´s not a ton of time probably next week. So I think i´m going to call on Saturday night to let you guys know at what time i´m going to call and all of that and so we can figure out if were going to skype or just talk on the phone normally. Probably at 9ish on saturday night i´m going to call for like 5 minutes just to figure that out. Thanks a bunch for everything that you guys do for me! HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!! :D Talk to you guys on SUNDAY!! :D -Christopher

Bueno April 16th, 2012

It`s so funny to read the stories of the little kids and all that is going on at home. It`s so weird to think how much Ava has grown up and that she`s walking. Does Dad know that your jumping the Van? Hahaha. That`s super funny I was laughing when I read it. I`m glad that Eli was able to get his Hulk Fists, that super sweet hah. Too bad that the Track Meet got rained out, I remember when they had High Jump one time in the rain. It is funny to think that i`m living in another Country where the people don`t speak English and live a lot differently than we do. But so far it`s been such an awesome experience, i`m learning so much. I wouldn`t want to be anywhere else than in the mission, bueno I`d be sweet to be home but not for another 17 months haha. It`s been sweet lately my comp and I have been doing good work and i`ve gotten to know him better he`s a stud. I`m bummed out that we only have another two weeks together, it`s crazy how fast 6 weeks or a change goes by it`s weird. He`s been teaching me a lot of doctrine that`s going to help me out a ton with my teaching, he know`s quite a bit. It was sweet we were able to put a baptismal date for Yuri he should be baptized this Saturday, if everything goes as planned. The good thing is that he is putting forth his part and trying to prepare himself. He`s been to General Conference, the church twice and a baptismal service. He`s prepared for his baptismal date this saturday, the only thing is that he needs a friend in the ward I think i`ve already told you guys about this but were trying to help him out with that. We`re still working with the family, they`re slowing progressing and all of them have been to church more than one time other than Wilson (The Dad) because he works on Sundays. But were going to teach them about the Sabbath Day, and try and see what Wilson can do to change his work. He works driving vans from Cajamarca to San Marcos (a small provincia), it`s his own work so he should be able to work something out. Other than those who are progressing we`ve been working on finding new people to teach, we have a couple people that we think can progress. It was pretty interesting we found this guy named Jose that used to be a terrorist he told us all these stories about what he used to do , he`s super cool other than that he used to be a terrorist haha. He wants to change and so were going to see how that goes. Also on Tuesday I was buying a soda outside of our house in a small store and this lady asked us who we were and was trying to talk to me in english hah we wrote down her address and on Friday we went to her house and she`s super receptive her names Laurez, she lives with her family. On Sunday we had Stake Conference and the Stake Presidency changed a little only the counselors, but the Conference was sweet I was able to learn a lot. The Stake President is awesome he`s super helpful with the missionary work and all of that, I think they`re hoping to divide all the wards and make another Stake but that won`t be for a while. Today was fun we went to the hill Santo Palonia with the Zone and to the Soccer field in front of our pension and all the zone played soccer and we ate pizza after in our pension. Hermana Paula cooks super good and made about 10 pizzas for all 22 of us in the zone haha. It was pretty sweet. I`m hopìng that this week we can really work hard and improve our numbers more with our lessons that we have everyweek and everything. Like on Sunday we had divisions so we could find more new investigadores, with some of the youth in our ward that our preparing for the mission, I was with Marvin in our ward he has his call to Bolivia. It was interesting being with someone that doesn`t really know the lessons very well, I don`t think I ever want to train a new missionary haha. Thanks for sending my pants! It`s a bummer I don`t fit in any of my pants anymore, I had one of the members in our ward let out the pant a little bit. I think i`ve gotten super fat or all this hill climbing has made my legs bigger but I think i`ve gotten fat haha. The Zone Leaders told me that I have a package so I think what you guys sent me just got to the Mission office. Love you guys, I`m gonna try and write out some letters today. I should have some time to do that :D Talk to you next week! P.S. Sorry there aren`t any photos this next week i`ll send some!

Easter April 9th, 2012

How´s it going? Good to hear you guys were able to enjoy Easter! They don´t really do much here but celebrate La Semana Santa and on TV theres a ton of Bible movies haha. It was crazy we were in the street and there was a bunch of Catholics about 100 walking through the street. About four of them were dressed up one as jesus carrying a cross and the others as roman soldiers. Every block theyd stop and whip Jesus and he´d fall to the ground and they´d chant. While I was watching it´d made me think a lot about how in our church we don´t focus a lot on the death of jesus more on the fact that he lives that he was ressurected on Sunday. It´s crazy to think about all Christ has done for us, it´s difficult to comprehend what he went through but the least we can do is be grateful and obey the commandments ie the simple things. This week went really good, I feel a lot better with the work we were able to do this week. I felt bad last week because I don´t think we put forth are full effort to work really hard and we didn´t have super awesome numbers. I´m learning to work really hard in the mission but also to have fun, or just joke around in the street. If you can imagine walking everyday in the street for 7 hours it helps a lot to joke around with your comp or do whatever to enjoy yourself ha. But I feel really good with the work that were doing and im learning a ton from my companion. Yesterday we were knocking doors and we knocked the door of this house and a lady came to the door and was super welcoming and super nice it seemed to be a little to good to be true until she said she was a Jehovas Witness haha. She let us in and we started to talk with her a little and there was what seemed like a million pamphlets from the Jehovas Witnesses, she was super energetic and acted almost like a robot it was super weird. We invited her son to join us in the lesson and we were going to start with a prayer but her son said that he would feel uncomfortable if we prayed which was weird. But we started talking and about 2 minutes into the lesson the lady stopped us and started to share a ton of different scriptures in the bible about how Jehova is God and how Jesus Christ is his son. It felt like she only wanted to tear us down, I had a super weird feeling. She would ask us questions and we would just answer with yeah and for sure haha, we didn´t want to cause problems but it just made me think about how great the Gospel is and the blessings that the gospel brings to our lives. She just wanted to tear down our beliefs and was super robotic it was weird I don´t really know how to explain it. I was able to study a little in the old and new testament about scriptures that explain how Jehova is Jesus Christ, I have a hard time understanding how people get so confused with the doctrine it´s right there in the scriptures for example how we should be baptized or recieving the holy ghost. But it was a really good experience for me. I have been learning a lot from my companion lately he´s super cool and knows the doctrine really well. I´ve been able to learn so much from the three companions that i have had so far in the mission. It´s been cool because there´s something to be learned from everyone of your companions. I´ve also been trying to be more humble and recieving of suggestions, I think sometimes that I was super prideful and not very recieving of advice. But I know that I have a lot to learn sometimes I have a hard time with that I think haha. The family that we are teaching seem to be progressing pretty well and we had a family home evening with them and the bishop. I don´t think they´ll get baptized in this change probably after I leave. But all I want is that they get baptized and dont reactivate. That is something so important that we dont baptize anyone without a firm testimony of this gospel, I think I´ve already said it but it´s the worst feeling seeing one of your converts inactive. Were also teaching Claudia she seems to be doing really well too, she is a little confused because she´s going through some problems right now and doesn´t think that God should let all this happen at once to her. We also taught her the Word of Wisdom on Tuesday but we had a lesson with her on Thursday and she freaking drank Coffee it was a bummer were gonna keep working with her. We just recentely had a lesson with Yuri and we shared a little bit about 3 Nefi 11 and how Christ appeared to the Nephites and how he talked about how we should be baptized by immersion and all of that and put a baptismal date for the 21st of this month. Were pretty stoked about the progress he´s making and i´m happy because he´s putting forth his part. And I think the goal we put for the 21st is reachable. He already has a testimony and always keeps our commitments so there shouldn´t be a problem other than that he needs a friend in the ward, so that he can stay active. Well that´s about all but I´m glad you guys are doing really good! Thanks for all the support and all that you do, I was gonna ask if you guys send me a package that you could send my brown slacks! When you have time to do that :D Love you guys!! Talk to you next week :D -Christopher