Paintballing? Nov. 5th, 2012

Seeing all the pictures that you sent me made me miss Halloween a ton haha, they don`t do anything here in Perú for Halloween it`s lame. I liked a lot your guy`s costumes haha, Evan looked cool as Dracula and that picture of Joel is cool cause his eyes are soo blue he`d better watch out the chicks are gonna want him for that haha. Tell Eli I liked his cool Frankenstein costume tell him that somebody really cool used it before him :) The leaves look awesome with all the orange, yellow and red there`s nothing of that here in Chiclayo there`s just a lot of dirt and a dust and wind but what can ya do. I`m glad that you were able to enjoy halloween and go trick or treating. I hope you guys liked the pictures of us cutting pumpkins last week.

So this week was good we had some problems in the zone with some of the elders because they don`t get along very well so that was kind of a bummer. This elder in the zone has had problems with everysingle one of his companions up until now in the mission. He sometimes doesn`t like to listen to his companion and he likes to do everything in his own way and doesn`t like to recieve councils or suggestions. Everything is better now but whenever you have problems with your compy it makes it hard to teach and if you can`t teach with the spirit the people don`t recieve that spiritual confirmation that they need. We are working right now with a family named Cuespan Amisfuen, they`re awesome well at least the parents are really cool. The mom and dad have come to church and we`re teaching the whole family but we need to work with the young men and women and the ward so that their daughters can get excited about the church. We went to a baptismal service in another area with part of the family and it didn`t turn out so well because the kid that was going to get baptized has a phobia of water and didn`t want to be baptized. We had to wait like 40 minutes for this kid to get baptized and so it was kind of a pain and the daughter weren`t so happy because they had to wait forever to see the baptism. I`m pretty sure that if we work with the young men and young women in the ward they`ll get baptized this next month with their parents if not this month. We`ve also been working really hard with Elvis still, he has problems with alcohol and didn`t come to church yesterday. We have an appointment with him like right now at 8pm so we`re going to go see what`s up with him and verify how hes doing, he has a baptismal date for the 24th of this month. Keep Elvis and the family Cuespan Amisfuen in your prayers :) We`re also trying to reactivate this lady named Jacky, she`s nice and really friendly we`re also teaching her daughter Brenda so that she can get baptized. It was a let down this week becaue we saw Jacky drinking in the street with some of her friends and he daughter Brenda was right there with her. The next day we visited her and she tried to lie to us and tell us it was fruit juice that she was drinking haha, but we`re gonna be working with her a lot. This week has been a lot better because I`ve become better friends with my compy and it makes the transfers that much better when your companion is your friend. 

So tomorrow we have zone conference with all the zone leaders in the mission and the asistents i`m excited to see what it is they have planned for the mission. We finished this month with 8 baptisms in the zone, and we finished the first week of November with 4. Sometimes its dificult because when the zone doesn`t baptize or have much success not that baptisms and numbers show the success of a person we are responsable. Everyone in our zone is super sweet and hard working so we`ve been having a lot of success and people are joining the lords church. 

Today was pretty awesome Bryce is going to be jealous, we went paintballing with our zone here in Chiclayo. It turned out to be pretty sweet just like in the united states. Everyone seems to have had a good time, for most of the missionaries it was the first time that had done it and so everyone had fun. The paintball field was fairly large and the guns they rented us were Spyder`s just a standard paintball gun but I had good time and wished that Dad and Bryce were there so I could rock them haha. The guns were nothing like using a gun with a lengthen trigger and an electric hopper but it was worth it. We payed about 10 dollars (25 soles) to play for and hour and a half. It made me remember all those times we went paintballing in pegleg paintball off I-15 with mitch and john hahah those are some funny times. 

That`s so weird to hear about Tate getting home from his mission on Wednesday you`ll have to take a picture with him and send me a photo. It feels like yesterday that he left...when you see him tell him I say hi and to not get married before I get home haha. I was thinking a little bit about that the other day and how people get married so fast after getting home from their missions. But tell him I say hi! And also tell Laurie Scott congradulations for making the mormon tabernacle choir!!! 

Thanks for writing me and sending pictures, I`m going to send some pictures from today paintballing a little later when we are planning for the zone conference tomorrow so that you guys can see what it was like. Love you guysssssss!!

-Elder Connelly

Hiiii Oct. 29th, 2012

Hey! Glad to be able to write you guys again this week. I really liked the picture of you guys there at that lake it looks so pretty there. It`s so weird to see Bryce and Ava I feel like of everyone in the family they have changed the most, Bryce looks like he`s the same heigth as dad and Eva just seems to have changed a lot in this short time like any other baby ha. So the dogs got kicked out of the house ha, I wasn`t too surprised to hear about that. Lulu was a problem for a long time, don`t worry mom it`s not that big of a deal I probably might cry tonight but it`s not a big deal hahaha kidding. It sounds like it`s a better situation for everybody now, maybe things will be a little bit more smoother without the dogs causing problems. Jazz was always a pretty weet dog and never had any problem going to the bathroom in the house or doing things like that. I`m sure that this decision is better for everyone. 

So I had a pretty good week, I think I`ve come to the conclusion that being tired is just part of the mission because I`m always tired haha. On Tuesday we had a work visit with some of the elders in the zone and i was with Elder Driggs from Las Vegas, he`s a newer elder in the mission. He`s been out now about 3 months, it was a special opportunity to help him out. It`s always cool for me to be able to go on splits with other missionaries so that you can become better. I`ve been kind of having a problem with my companion lately it`s kind of a bummer, not really a problem but we haven`t been able to teach with that unity that is needed so that the people can feel the spirit. A lot of times in the lessons I feel like another member hanging out in the lesson, maybe my companion doesn`t notice it but I`ll have to talk to him about it. It makes it hard when you can`t teach as one voice with you companion because the spirit just isn`t as strong. We get along super well and he is a stud but I think maybe he just doesn`t realize how important that is to teach together. I`m going to try and talk to him this week a little bit about it haha. 

Candy got baptized on Friday with the bishops daughter, it was quite the baptizm haha. It all turned out really well, just that the bishops daughter didn`t want to get baptized so it made it a little dificult. It was a spiritual baptismal service and Candy was excited about her baptism, especially Candy`s mom so that was neat. I was happy to see that now their whole family is baptized and now they would just need to make that step to be sealed in the temple. It`s tough because Candy`s mom has work on Sundays and can`t go to church and we`ve talked to her many different times and just can`t give up her work on Sunday. This week we were looking for new people teach and contacting like crazy, and we found this awesome family on Thursday. They`re from the jungle and have come to Chiclayo for work. We shared the Restoration with them on Thursday we`re yet to talk about Joseph Smith, but we talked about the church of Christ and the apostasy they understood what we taught them and were anxious to have us return. On Saturday night we talked to the dad and mom about the sabbath day and they told us that they would go to church the next day and the dad came with us to church. It was pretty sweet that at least the dad was able to come to church, we have a lot of faith for this family and we think that they are going to progress a lot. They`re adventists but they haven`t gone crazy on us yet about their beliefs of the sabbath day, they aren`t what you`d say super adventists. 

But I`ve been good, this transfer has been tough and i`m learning and growing a lot. I think that`s just what I needed is something to make me push myself to make myself learn and grow, the trials and hard times are what make you think and push yourself a little harder, and when you accomplish your goals and do what you wanted to do it`s a good feeling. Theres a cool scripture in Romans that talks about that but I can`t remember where it is....

Today was cool we hung out with the zone in the church and cut pumpkins and played pictionary. It made me remember cutting pumkins at home during Halloween. Nobody does anything here in Peru for Halloween it`s sad. It`s not really a big holiday. 

Thanks for all the support and prayers!! Love you guys, talk to you next week :)

-Elder Connelly

PS heres the pictures of the activity we had today with the zone and the baptism of Candy, my comp is the one in the black shirt!

Hiiii Oct. 22nd, 2012

First off I want to tell Joel CONGRADULATIONS for getting baptized that`s so cool, you didn`t send me any pictures of his baptism. I want to see the pictures of when Joel got baptized, I hope everything turne out okay. Im glad Bryce didn`t have to baptize Joel three or four times haha, that always seems to happen in some of the baptisms here ha. I didn`t know you guys were going to do the baby blessings of Ava and Eli, that`s awesome I´m glad to hear about that! I burst out laughing when I heard about Evan trying to give Ava a blessing hahahaha. Bryce is with another chica? Freaking what`s going on dude? Haha take a chill pill and enjoy high school while you have it haha, that`s cool though be careful though :) 

Welp we`ve had a pretty good week to say the least. So my companion left and now I`m with Elder Ocampos, he`s from Paraguay. He`s a stud it`s we`re going to work super hard this change and we`re hoping to have success in the zone. I ended up in the same zone as a lot of my buddies here in the mission so that was cool, and everybody in the zone is cool and we shouldn`t have any problems.  We have a baptism scheduled for this week, it`s the daughter of members in the ward that just got reactivated and have started going back to church. The mom (Juana) didnt want her daughter (Candy) to get baptized because she told us that God isn`t to be played with and doesn`t want her daughter to just get baptized, we asked Candy if she wanted to follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized and she said yes. We then went on explaining to her that her daughter has to be baptized and we shared D&C 68:25-28 if I remember right, she told us that she was going to talk with her husband and give us and answer so we`re going to go see if Candy can get baptized this week. Keep her in your prayers :) Everything is about normal right now in the mish and I`m just trying to enjoy everyday that I have here and work hard. Sometimes I feel lame writing you guys the same thing everyweek haha. Today we went to this cool place and played soccer and hung out with all the Elders and Sisters so that was fun, I got sunburnt again because I always forget to put sunblock on. 

Im finding a lot more time to read my book of mormon lately so that`s been nice, i`ve been trying to read and finish the book or mormon this month. Everytime I read it I always recieve that spiritual confirmation and I can feel and know that the book of mormon is true. It always helps me to read and pray about the book of mormon even if I already have a testimony of the message it contains. We can always take the invitation that the book has for us and read and ask God to help strengthen our testimony  of this book. I`ve been teaching a lot more with the book of mormon and giving priority to the book of mormon in our lessons and I`m seeing such a big difference. It helps bring the spirit into our lesssons and helps people so that they understand the doctrine. It`s sweet. So I guess the invitation is that you read and pray about the book of mormon this week even if you already know it`s true, I know with out any doubt that God will answer your prayers. Sorry I didn`t write very much, love you guys!! :)

-Elder Connelly

Transfers Oct. 15th, 2102

Well I had a good week and it was a surprise to read about what has been going on with you guys at home. I can`t believe Evan broke his arm hahaha, freaking it was just a matter of time no? I hope he`s doing okay tell him I`m sorry and hope he feels better. Did he get a cast or just a splint for his arm? Joel HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! how`d your birthday turn out? Did you get to do anything cool because of halloween and your birthday. I wish I could do something more for you dude but I`m kind of far away haha. I`m glad no one died fourwheeling in Moab there`s always some rad thing that happens on those fourwheeling trips like when Dad got thrown from his fourwheeler or when Bart got burned. Tell Lindsey congradulations for her baby BOY! Haha that`s funny, i`m sure that was a surprise.

I had a good week pretty normal and also kind of hectic as usual. We`ve been working really hard with a couple of people in our area, with Candy she`s a little girl from an incative family in our ward she just hasn`t gotten baptized yet. We baptized her brother a couple of weeks ago and now she`s going to get baptized. We`re pretty excited for her and we`re hoping to get permission from the mom today in our appointment. We`re also working with this awesome guy named Elvis, we contacted him about a week and half ago and he lives alone, works welding, and is super interested in our message. We had taught him for the first time a week and half ago and he was really interested, and my companion and I taught him on Saturday night about the Restoration. It was a spiritual lesson, I felt the spirit testifying that what we were teaching him is true. I could really see that he was learning by the spirit, we left him a book of mormon and we also invited him to be baptized at the end of this month. I was a little hesitent to invited him to be baptized because he hadn`t gone to church yet but he said that he would try and be here in Chiclayo so that he could get baptized. He works all the time and sometimes he has to travel out of Chiclayo, keep Elvis in your prayers!! 

So my companion is getting changed, that was kind of a bummer. We thought that he was going to finish his mission with me but this was his 5th change here in the area and so it was time for him to be transfered. I`m a little nervous for this next change and I`m sure it`s going to be kind of tough but it`ll help me to learn and grow. It`s been a lot different being worried about 18 missionaries in the zone and for all their areas haha, but it`s made me feel a lot more love for the missionaries and made me be more humble. I`m sure that everything will turn out well this change but some prayers directed my way wouldn`t hurt :) because it i`ll be needed. But I guess that is what God wants that we be dependent of his help, and we turn to him always for guidance in our lives. If we don`t have challenges that help us to learn, grow and depend on God more then we won`t make progress or reach the potencial that God hopes for everyone of his children. It`s not that i`m super nervous about this change but I want to do a good job and not screw up haha. 

Today was pretty cool because the missionaries that are going home this change from Cajamarca slept in our apartment last night and so I got to talk to one of my old companions that I had when I was in Cajamarca Elder Sandoval. It was so weird to see him heading to his house. Right now I`m with my companion still Elder Cerrutti until tomorrow when we have transfer meeting and they tell us who our companions are. I`m with my companion and another north american because his companion left home today thats why there`s three elders in the picture that I sent. Sorry that I don`t send very many pictures I was going to send more but I fogot to ask for the memory card that our pensionista has. Thanks for all the letters that you send my way, it helps me out a lot to get a letter of support and encouragment from you guys! As for that package that you were thinking about sending me, you could send me candy like Sour Punch Straws and other candy that I can`t find here in Perú :) haha. 

Thanks for letting me know what`s going on at home, I hope everything is going well with you guys. I`ll talk to you next week! :) 

-Elder Connelly

Conference Week Oct. 8th, 2012

Heyyy how`s it going? This has been a really long and tough week so it made my day to get to see some pictures of you guys and read a little bit about what`s going on at home :D I saw the pictures of all the little kids and notice that the kids are changing a little, well at least Ava is. Bryce has got some super long hippy hair haha, cut that hair dude it`s too long haha! Kidding. Bryce stray away from girls they`re nothing but trouble haha, that`s bummer man but don`t worry about it. It`s weird to hear all about the elections in the united states I have no idea what`s going on outside of Perú i feel pretty much like in my own bubble. 

I hope you guys were able to watch conference and learn from all of the talks that were given. I was able to really meditate this conference as I listened to the bretheren speak that they are literally called of God. It`s really something neat to be able to listen to the Prophet and hear about all the new changes in the church with a new temple in Perú and that the youth is going to be able to leave now at a younger age. I liked a lot what the prophet said about that sometimes people are called or given a responsiblity and they don`t know why and it`s because other people and God see something in them that they don`t see quite yet. We all have a certain capability and potencial in our lifes and sometimes we don`t recognize just what it is that we can achieve but sometimes other people see something in us that we ourselves don`t see. I would talk a lot about all the talks that were given but I would be writing forever haha. 

This week was pretty nuts like usual on Tuesday we had Zone meeting and checked out all the work we did during the month of September we had 7 baptisms in the zone it was a pretty good achievement for the zone. On Wednesday we had zone council with president and all the zl`s of the mission, it was the second time that I was able to be in the zone council and it was cool to hear about all that the mission is doing we hit 133 baptisms in the whole mission that`s the most baptisms we have ever had up until now. The president is so inspired and cares so much for all the missionaries it`s cool to get to listen to the plans he has for the mission. We were able to actually get time in to go proselyting this week so that was sweet, sometimes we don`t have time because we`re helping the other missionaries out. Then on Saturday and Sunday we were pretty much watching conference all day and proselyted a little. It is crazy when you talk about people like Mitchell finishing up their missions it freaks me out. I feel like I`ve been in the mission my whole life sometimes as if I didn`t have my life before I got here it`s kind of a weird feeling haha. I`m trying to enjoy every moment that i have here, defineitly don`t want to finish thinking that I wish I would have done something different or worked harder. I`m learning a lot right now about being able to endure to the end, it`s one of the most important principles in the gospel being able to continue faithful until the end. I`m super stoked for everything that I`m learning and still trying to strengthen my testimony always. I hope you guys can check out the other sessions if you weren`t able to see them all, it was really a pretty sweet conference.

Have fun fourwheeling and in Vegas!! I`ll be waiting that package :D hahah I love you guys and ill talk to you next week! 

-Elder Connelly

P.S. I was going to send pictures but...I didnt end up sending them. Next week though :D

Hard Week Sept 24th, 2012

So this has been one of the harder weeks I`ve had in the mission so far, I definitely think the Lord is challenging my faith. I`ve been pushing myself really hard with my companion so that we reach our goals that we have and so that we can help the zone out. We`re super stoked about all the success we`re starting to have. It`s been pretty hard this change, I`d say it`s been my hardest change so far. Ever since the begenning of this change i`ve been asking myself why they called me to this position when I`m still fairly new in the mission well i`ve been out a year. I`ve had a lot of feeling of unsufficiency this week, probably from Satan or something haha. But it`s really been really hard lately this week, Im really excited to help the elders and sisters out in our zone and so that`s been really cool. But this has been the busiest/hecict week hha. 

On Tuesday I was in Pimentel by the beach preaching with one of the elders in our zone its a really neat small town by the beach and so that was cool. On Thursday we went to Santa Rosa the new area that just got opened up to help the elders out that just opened that area up we were there with the whole zone working it was cool to work in that area were hoping that the growth in this new area is good. On Friday we had an activity in our ward with all the members and investigadores we did the tree of life and watched a smalll cartoon and explaining the meaning of the chapter to everyone and had refreshments after it turned out to be nice. I`ve been getting to know my companion a litte better and so we`ve gotten to be better friends I think a sent a picture of him and the other week, he`s helping me out a ton right now. It`s been really new and tough for me to help the zone out, but he`s a stud and has been training me well so that I can do all this when my other companion comes. We were talking about how we think this week has been a week of testing for us because of all that we went through it was tough. We were pretty stoked and happy last night to see the results of the zone and all that we did this week. I`m reading the book of mormon with my companion and so that`s been cool he reads in English and I read in spanish and we correct each others pronucation. Im working and trying to tweak a couple of things about how I talk in spanish, theres so many little things that you need to polish and tweak so that you speak like a peruvian. I`m trying to work a little harder on testifying in the lessons too and that has been super cool I`m seeing and feeling the results when you testify with a surety of what your teaching the people feel it and you reach their hearts when you teach. 

I`m so grateful for the opportunity to serve a mission right now it`s kind of hitting me how cool it is to be able to help people come to know the restored gospel. I`m gonna try and finish the book of mormon in spanish here shortly, maybe by the end of this change i`m not sure. I`m sorry that I wasn`t able to write too much more but i`m going to write you guys letters like ka did the other week. Love you guys soooo much and hoope everything is going well. Pray for Thomas and José Luis people that are getting baptized in our area :D 

-Elder Connelly

One year Sept. 17th 2012

Well it`s now officially been a year since I left, pretty crazy to think about. Time flys so fast, i`m excited to enjoy every moment I`m going to have here on the mission you don`t get the opportunity to leave behind everything and serve the Lord very often. 

So things have been going really good and also things have been really tough at the same time. I`d say this has been the toughest change so far for me in the mission, i`m really having to push it a little bit more and be a little bit more enduring (Matthew 10:22). It`s been so different this change but it`s been really cool because I`m able to serve more the missionaries in our zone. We`ve had a lot more time this week to preach and so that has been nice last week was nuts there wasn`t very much time to get to teach because we were helping the missionaries. On Thursday we had a training with all the District Leaders and Zone Leaders in the mission it was really neat, President Risso is such a cool President. My companion and I taught about the interviews that we do when there are baptisms, it was a spiritual meeting. 

We were able to get permission for Thomas so he`s going to get baptized on the 29th of this month we`re super excited for him. I was a little unsure that we were going to be able get permission from his parents. So me and my companion have become better friends so that has been nice, I`m trying to help him as much as I can. He`s helping me out a lot and i`ve been learning a lot from him so that`s been cool he`s got about 22 months in the mission and he has a lot of experience. I`ve been getting to know better the elders in our zone everyone is pretty cool and we`re trying to do everything we can to help the zone out. It was pretty sweet today we went to a cool area in Reque to play soccer and hang out with the zone it was cool it was nice to be able to relax. 

Sorry if I`m not really responding to what your writing to me, I don`t have too much time to write and respond to everything that you guys right to me and I want to have time to write to you what`s going on. Tell Joel that Im going to pray for him so that he feels better, that sounds like it`s been a bummer tell Eli that i`ll pray for him too so that he feels better. That sounds like you guys have had a super busy and crazy week, sounds like we`re living about the same type of life crazy and busy. It`s nice to be busy but it`s also nice to have down time. It`s tough sometimes to balance everything out in your life but it`s for sure important that we do it. I love you guys and hope you have a good week!! :D 

-Elder Connelly