Golden Investigators

This week was great. We had 153 contacts and found a family to teach, so we will start teaching them. We are going to baptize Javier (he is 12) this Saturday. We are also working with Lorene, she is awesome. She is also getting baptized Saturday. We went to her office and she had bought paintings of Joseph Smith and Moroni which where expensive. I walked in her office and she was like look what I bought, I was like oh my gosh, she was like it was expensive but look its Joseph Smith the Prophet and Moroni with the plates, I was like ya wow, it’s good to have a investigator of gold like that.

Things are going good with my companion, he is away good teacher and we get along, we don’t have any problems, he is a pretty humble kid, his family is members, they converted when he was two so he has always been a member.

My Spanish continues to improve. I gave a talk yesterday in sacrament meeting for like 8 minutes. I got up and talked the whole time without stopping to think of a word, it was pretty sweet. Elder Cheesman still he helps me with my Spanish, I can talk all day and understand like 95 percent but I’m still not fluent but it’s coming fast.

I haven’t stopped sweating in the past 2 weeks. It’s pretty hot and I’m not even in the jungle.

Email time limit causes short Posts

The Lima Peru North Mission has been put on a email limit of 30 minutes every week due to some missionaries not following the rules. Therefore, his emails have been short and these posts will be short. We hope that his mission president will see the need we have for a longer email time. Last week we did not post due to a very short and personal email from Elder Ridge.

Golden Contacts and "Should not have asked"

Well, so we had the changes, Elder Roldan left and Elder Maldonado came here. He is awesome, he is from right here in Lima, an area call Los Olivos. (Los Olivos is in the Lima province and appears to be in the Central Mission) We work hard and we get along so this change will be fun, he is a good teacher. We had a sweet lesson with this lady named Estel. Her daughter is a member but she isn’t and I have been talking with her since I got here but we went there for her to meet Elder Maldonado and we talked to her about the importance of baptism and she broke down crying saying she has been putting it off and that she needs to get baptized. She told us to baptize her in two weeks we are going to baptize her. It was awesome the spirit was way strong. We also had a member bring her friend to church and she was like hey I want to get baptized in this church. She said I already prayed about the church so we were like great! We said of course we will teach you and baptize you. She is pretty excited.

I finally got sick, first time I have been sick since I have been here. I had a fever and pounding headache, I couldn’t even walk but it already passed so I feel better. Last week I was at lunch with a family and this lady gave us this meat and I was eating it and I was thinking huh this kind of taste like steak but not really, so I was half way through eating it and I decided to do thing that you are not suppose do,Ii asked her what it was, and it was cow liver. haha I barley finished it, the image got in my head haha, it was gross.

Transfers, Baptisms and New Years Eve

Well changes are here and I’m going......... no where!
HaHa I’m not going anywhere, it’s cool, when I first found out I was a little disappointed cause I
want to go see another part of the city or the jungle but it’s all good I won’t mind being in this area and this change is 5 weeks. Elder Roldan is leaving me though which is sad, my new companion is Elder Maldanado he is from here in Lima, he is actually the companion of Elder Taylor right now, and Taylor told me he is amazing, he works really hard but he makes things fun and is a really cool guy so I’m pretty excited to get him. The next change ends 11 of February so I know I will go somewhere then. Elder Cheesman is with me still which is awesome, we both are staying and getting new companions, we have been there together since September. Wow time goes by fast.

Our baptism was awesome, I baptized the 10 year old Jeanpier and Elder Roldan baptized the 8 year old Jericho. Ivan is going to get the priesthood so I’m pretty excited for him, he showed up at church yesterday with tie and white shirt and a briefcase, it was awesome, he is going to be a Bishop one day.

Our news year was pretty cool, we stayed up until 1 in the morning, here it’s a little different, they do fireworks here but there is no regulation on what type so there were big old pipe bombs going off shaking the windows. I have footage of the fireworks going off like 20 feet above me in the air and it’s raining ashes, it’s dangerous, they light off so many fireworks that we couldn’t see the sun the next day, the also burn these life size dolls. (Customs associated with the New Year are intended to bring good luck- a popular tradition is to dress up a doll - (or effigy) with old clothes and then burn it, which signifies getting rid of the old, and making a new start.) It was so hot that night form all the fires, our room was filled with smoke.

We went to the temple, that was way cool, my Spanish was a lot better than the first time I went. Elder Cheesman and I were outside the Temple and this lady walked up to us and we said, hi how are you in Spanish and she goes, hi elders how are you in English and it took us by surprise, we were like oh, how’s it going. She was from Dallas Texas visiting temples, with a guide, it’s so weird to hear people talk to you in English in the street, it takes you by surprise haha. Our Latin companions don’t know a lick of English so I literally talk in Spanish all day every day.

The Phone call at Christmas

We had our Christmas call with Elder Ridge. It was so good to hear his voice, although we have had more opportunities than most missionary parents. Since Elder Ridge traveled to Arizona for a month and then to Peru, we have had a couple extra time to speak with him.

He is loving it in Peru!! He has not been without his challenges, most of which are in this blog. He is really doing well with his Spanish and sounds great. He bore his testimony in Spanish to the whole family on speakerphone. Although we could not understand it word for word, we could get the just of what he was saying and we could feel the power and spirit of his testimony. We realized how much he has grown.

He says he is not home sick at all, although he misses a few of the comforts of home. (Carpet, taller shower heads that don’t shock you, fresh water)

We got to hear stories of conversion and cultural differences. All in all it was a great call and we look forward to his emails every week and we are counting the days until Mothers day when we will talk again.