La Segunda Navidad

Hi My People,

I pretty much have nothing to say because we talked yesterday and it
seems like you all feel the same, hence the short emails. I could just
end right here and say take luck till next week...... but I decided to
be a good son, turn the other cheek and write a little bit more
extensively. It really was so great to hear all of your voices
yesterday. I was actually really nervous to call you all and I didn't
really know why but I got through it. Its such an interesting emotion
to talk to someone you haven't seen for more than a year. The mission
that we serve makes you really know what it means to want, love, miss,
be sad, happy, tired, and frustrated. But the ups sooooooo out weigh
the downs.

So something spiritual for a change. Probably one of the most
spiritual experiences in all of my time away from home happened
yesterday after church. I was too excited to talk to all of you that
it kind of slipped my mind to tell you all over the phone. So Efrain
got baptized and confirmed last week and he is such a boss!!! He
really is a good friend of mine. We started teaching him with my temp
Leonel. Efrain is his friend and he wanted to know why Leonel changed
so much and why he's so happy. Efrain sells oregano and some other
things, has farms, properties, houses, and actually quite a bit of
money. But he's always tried to remember God in his life. He always
had felt better when he prayed and he prayed a lot in his life, but he
wanted more......... of something. So we gave him that "something". We
taught him frequently for like three weeks and he was going to get
baptized on the 5 of November but then he had to travel to Arequipa
for a couple of weeks. Then he got robbed at gun point along with his
Dad out in the fields. They took his truck and like $10,000 of
merchandise and left them tied up on the side of the road out in the
middle of nowhere. They broke out of the cords and got back home okay.
He passed through a lot of trials but we finally got back in touch
with him. The thing that amazes me was that he never lost his faith
and said that he was alive for a reason. He thanks God for his life
and he says that he can always make more money, he can't live two
lives. So he got baptized last week and this week got ordained to the
aaronic priesthood. He even showed up like 15 minutes early for church
which is odd even for the bishop here in Peru. After the meeting we
talked for a few seconds and he told me how happy he feels in his
life. He says he feels better every day and feels the Spirit stronger
every day. Then with tears in his eyes and thanked me from the bottom
of his heart for helping him. He told me I helped him so much in his
life and wanted to thank me for the things we do as missionaries. I
had to force myself to hold back my own tears and I realized how
important every child of God is for Him.

That was definately the highlight of my week. Even though calling the
family, recieving letters and playing soccer is fun too, those moments
that you can't live through if not only in the mission really are
priceless. I know I was sent here to Moquegua for a reason. I look at
other missionaries sometimes and think that they are more qualified
and know more than I do, but then I realize that our Father in Heaven
knows us all personally and has a plan for each one of us. I'm so
thankful for every day that I have to work in the mission field and
for every second of door contacting, sun burning, rain, sickness,
fights with the comp, rice, heat, small rooms, cold showers and
walking up steep hills because I know I'm blessing the lives of others
and I know that I'm making a difference.

I hope I get the Christmas package this week and that we can keep on
working hard in this area. I wish you all a happy New Year and hope
you can all party like its 1999! Oh, by the way, they DO love New
Year's here. They usually just spend time with the family here on
Christmas but they ALWAYS have huge dance parties for New Years.
They're doing a big party at the church New Year's eve until exactly
12:00 then they are just going to "eat" until 2:00. I hope they come
to church the next day so that the investigators can keep their
commitments!!!

Love,
Con Cariño,
Elder Child

Baptism Pictures

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas

Hey Familia,
Its so good to hear from all of you this week. I'm so glad that this
week has gone by just fine and that you are all well. Thats kind of a
bummer that theres not that much snow over there in Utah and I'm sure
Christmas won't be really the same without it. Now just imagine it
being 80 degrees outside and you'll know what I'm living with right
now. I actually don't really miss the snow from Utah, or the cold for
that matter. It just really doesn't seem like Christmas without those
weather items, it seems like I should be watching summer baseball
games, go on vacations, swimming, cutting the lawn and working rather
than drink hot chocolate, put up lights, sit by the fire, build snow
men, shovel snow, fight through the bad traffic and decorate a
Christmas tree. The people here have thier own traditions for
Christmas. Every once in a while we find a house that is decorated
with lights and stuff, but its not as wide spread like in the States.
Thier biggest tradition is that of the food! Everybody we talk to asks
us, "Hey, where are you eating on Christmas?" That's pretty much all
they worry about. So what they do here is they have a HUGE dinner
party at midnight and then they open presents and dance and eat and
eat and eat. They usually make turkey. They also eat something called
Paneton, which is kind of like fruitcake but it actually tastes good.
And they drink hot chocolate, probably the only time during the year
that they do that. They spend all the time with the family and more
than anything just party. Its not like home where everybody has
Christmas lists and want a whole bunch of stuff from Santa. Mostly
becuase the people here don't exactly have the money to really do big
Christmas gifts for all their kids. That kind of puts the holidays
into more of a perspective.

Well, enough about what I'm expecting for Christmas and I'll tell you
all about my awesome week! So, last week was kind of difficult just
because of the permission and our baptism falling through. I wasn't
really depressed or anything becuase I knew that we did all we could
to help the situation. So this week we had two baptisms planned. But
on Tuesday we realized we could have a third. We are working with a
family where the step dad is a member, his "wife" that he's not
married to isn't and neither is the ten year old daughter. We're
trying to get them married and baptize the two of them but they are
having difficulty doing that. So we just focused on the girl, Thalia
and she was excited to get baptized. So we taught her and she got
baptized too. We had a baptism service on Saturday and all three got
baptized!! We were so happy to see our work and patience finally pay
off. That's such and indescribable emotion. Efrain asked me to baptize
him and my companion baptized the little girls. Efrain is soo cool!!!
He has such a strong testimony and not that much experience, I know
he'll be a great asset to the growth of the church and that he'll
bring an entire family to the gospel too. He was a reference from
Leonel and was really prepared by the Lord. We are actually really
good friends and he wants to go into business with me. We can open a
Peruvian restaurant in Utah together because he already has experience
with that and I love Peruvian food so I thought that would be
awesome!! Oh, and Karen too. She was the third baptism. Her cousin is
a member and so is her uncle. She gave the best testimony of the
entire meeting (including the Bishop, his councilor, and the other two
baptisms). Her testimony was so good becuase she's only eight but it
seems like she's a grown women with a ton of experience in the church.

So, my Christmas came a little earlier and yes, it was white. We're
hoping to have two baptisms this week. If we can get a permission and
somebody comes back from vacations we could do it. So on the 24th I
will call you all at about 8:00 to 9:00 AM to set up the call on the
25th. We're only going to have sacrament meeting that day too so I
should be able to call at like 11:00 AM your time but we'll have to
see. I'm excited to hear your questions but a little nervous for
everybody to hear my horrible accent that I have now. We have the
Mission Christmas party tomorrow and they are saying that we should
get all the packages that day so I'm hoping that's true. Oh, I'm not
going to use SKYPE so don't worry about it.

Thanks for all your prayers.

Love,

Elder Child

P.S. That's cool to hear about the Jazz game, wish I was there.

Fighting Satan

Hey Familia ¿Què tal? ¿Què dicen parceros?

How's it going everyone? I've decided that I like the question marks
in front of the sentences. I'm not sure what "parceros" will translate
as through google but its a Columbian slang for "dude". I've decided
that I love the way my comp talks with all his slang from Columbia.
He's hilarious and I even took some videos when we were just chilling
out in the room, man I can't wait till I come home to show them to
you.

This week was a pretty hard fight with Satan. I'm not saying he won,
I'm just saying it was a little bit of a harder fight than usual. You
know how I was supposed to have a baptism this week? Yeah, that kind
of didn't happen. So, Marisol is 16 and she told us that her member
cousin was her legal guardian so we thought ya no problema we're
baptising her. But, it turns out that's not the case and her dad is
mad at her for some stuff so he's not giving his permission. It was
kind of a week full of trying to figure out a way to get permission
and work everthing out. It was kind of disappointing but we just have
to be patient in order to see the blessings.

We did get some points against the diablo though because one of our
investigators that was having problems, Efrain, totally said he wants
to get baptized this next week, and he came to church on his own
again. He's really cool and has a strong testimony. He says there's no
way the Book of Mormon isn't true becuase it only teaches good things
and he's seen a ton of blessings in his life since he's read it. He's
a special guy and I know he'll be a great leader in the church and
will raise a good family.

Also, we learned that another investigator that was going to get
baptized but moved away suddenly, just moved back and should be here
for awhile. We're going to see if he can get baptized next week. Also,
there's this little girl that was a reference from some members who is
going to get baptized this weekend too. Things are starting to really
progress here in my area becuase of the support of the members. I've
learned that maybe it sounds cooler if you tell people how many street
contacts and hours of knocking doors your doing, but it's more
effective to just visit member references and coordinate really well
with the ward leaders.

This week I also wrote down a few experiences because I think most
weeks I forget. Some really funny and interesting things happen in the
mish. Well, for starters this week was super cold and unusual!! There
were TWO WHOLE DAYS with clouds outside. That was worth writing down
and I was so excited to see the clouds for a change. Its probably been
a good 9 months since we've had two cloudy days in the same week!!
Supposedly it's going to start raining here but they also told me it
gets cold in Arequipa but that didn't happen.

Another funny experience was when we walked one of our drunk
investigators home. Nelson is in his fifties and his parents are
members. He's got a really bad problem with drinking and we were
supposed to have a lesson with him one day this week. We got there and
he wasn't there so we starting walking to another appointment. We find
him coming up the street so we walk him home. He really loves me, I
don't know why. But he acted like he was going to hit my companion and
even tore off his shirt (but he did it jokingly) and my comp totally
freaked out and started running away!! Hilarious! Nelson was laughing
too.

We were teaching the little girl and my companion was like, "ya, so we
have seven days to do what we want in the week but the eighth day we
have to keep a commandment. There's eight days in every week but
sundays we go to church" I didn't correct him and he just kept going
for a few minutes then I couldn't stop laughing and he realized, he's
an idiot.

Well, that's about it for this week. I love you all so much. Have a
great week and look for a missionary opportunity too.

Sincerely,

Elder Child

Christmas Devotional

Hey Family,

I'm so glad to hear about all of your lives out there in the Northern
Hemisphere. I'm actually a little jealous of the cool lights and
decorations for Christmas along with the snow. I wouldn't want to live
there, but to visit would be nice. I'm going to have to rethink living
with my family after the mish there in Salt Lake. Maybe you guys could
move to St. George, that would be acceptable on my part.

I kind of got carried away with writing to my peeps so I don't have an
eternity to write the family letter, sorry. Let's jump in to the good
stuff. We should be having a baptism this week!!! She's the cousin of
a member. Her name is Marisol and she just moved here two weeks ago.
The member brought her to church and we were like, Hey do you want to
get baptized, and she said of course. No, so it didn't go exactly like
that, but after a couple of visits, she's pretty excited to get
baptized. I don't want to go overboard, but if everything goes
perfectly and they have a testimony, we might have two more
baptisms!!! I'll just be praying really hard along with my companion
for that to go alright.

This past week nothing crazy or out of the ordinary really happened. I
was actually glad for that becuase we were able to do some good work.
We actually had a lot of lessons this week, not a ton of people
totally fell through on thier appointments. I can testify that if we
are diligent, the Lord will bless us. Now, the hard part and the part
that most people forget, is to keep the same level of
work/diligence/humility/

patience when we get blessed with a little bit
of success. I'm really going to focus on that this week.

Oh, so last night was so cool!! Why you might ask? Probably becuase I
got to see and listen to a real prophet of God!!!!! Not a lot of
people get that opportunity so I feel really blessed. Every single
night I thank my Father in Heaven for the home I was born into and for
the Gospel in my life. I can't say for certain that I would accept the
missionaries at my doorstep but God knows why I was raised in the
Church. The Christmas Devotional was really good. I really loved the
stories, the lights, decorations, and of course the cool movie they
showed. We were going to watch it at the church, but we had to go
teach a lesson. We went to the lesson and it turns out that they have
BYU TV on cable so we watched the live feed (8:00 pm our time) of the
Christmas Devotional. The family really liked it and I hope it softens
thier hearts becuase this is a family that has heard the gospel many
times and has family that are members but haven't accepted it yet.
Also, super exciting was that I saw my cousin Scott on tv playing the
trombone!!! I was soo excited and told the family that he is my
cousin!!!

Well, its all good here in Peru and unfortunately my time is gone,
Thank you for your prayers and support back at home.

I know that the Lord is always aware of us.

Love,

Elder Child

Happy 470th Birthday Moquegua!

Hey Family What's Hap Hap Happenin?

It was soo cool to hear about your Thanksgiving weekend and all the
food you ate there. I'm glad you were all together for Thanksgiving
and could enjoy eachothers company. I hope you talked and shared
experiences more than watched T.V. just becuase those moments don't
always last forever but there's always T.V. I actually kind of forgot
about Thanksgiving until an american reminded me on Thursday. I tried
to explain how cool it is to be able to just eat all day, watch
football, decorate the house for Christmas then go shopping on Black
Friday but most latinos just don't understand.

This week was pretty cool. We found some pretty cool people and a
family that has heard the gospel before. The most interesting part was
probably the Birthday Party for Moquegua. They turned 470 this year,
almost as old as mom!! (Hey-oh!!) There were parades on Thursday and
Friday almost all day. We saw a little bit of it but not a ton because
we are still missionaries so the work must go on. I absolutely love
the people here in Peru. I'm trying to learn as much as I can about
the culture here. Just like the states, the people here are different
than in the North or the East of Peru, so I'm trying to learn as much
as possible about every region.

Tuesday was pretty hilarious. Every Tuesday we have a meeting with the
Elders in our District and the District Leader teaches us something.
Our President has said that an Elder has to give a little mini lesson
for 15 minutes, in english. It was my turn this past week and it was
soooo hard to speak correctly in English. It was also pretty funny to
see all the blank stares on the Latinos' faces. Man, you guys are
really going to make fun of me on Christmas but I don't care. I talked
about how we have to teach people so that they understand, not just
teach to teach. It was fitting giving the circumstances.

Well, my testimony grew as always this week. I learned how important
it is to find joy in the journey and to learn from everything that
goes on around you. We actually had fun as a companionship this week.
Not because we goofed off more than usual, but becuase we worked hard
and talked to a ton of people. In the mission, the secret to being
happy is working and testifying to people of this gospel. I recieved
the package that you sent me with the CD. I love THIS IS THE CHRIST by
James E. Faust and really felt the Spirit testify to me the reallity
of the atonement when I read the lines "And how many drops of blood
were spilt for me".

I love the Savior and all the experiences I have been having here in
Peru. I hope you all do your best always and try to do a little more
each day. Be diligent and consistent.

Love,

Elder Child

P.S. So mad about the Utes, but hey there's always next year. Thank
you for the sports pages, they really broke the routine of things. My
comp says hi.

Pictures

An Abundance of Cake

Hey Familia!!!!

This week was actually pretty interesting and hopefully I can give you
all the good highlights. Thanks for all the updates on the world back
in the states, also thanks for making me a little trunky by giving the
heads up about Thanksgiving. Unfortunately they really don't celebrate
that holiday and when I try to explain the meaning of the holiday to
the Peruvians they kind of give me this look like, "Wow that's lame.
There wasn't even anything to do with the Virgin Mary in that story!"
But, pretty much every day here they eat way too much so I feel at
home. This week is the Day of Moquegua on the 25th so this past week
they have been celebrating. There was a food convention in the plaza
with a ton of food, so I kind of felt like it was Thanksgiving. Enough
about food, I'm getting the munchies. Also, I'm glad that Dad is okay
and that the ward is still alive and okay too.

Like I said last week, we are teaching a man named Otmar. He is super
cool!!! The Lord really does prepare people and I'm so glad that every
once in awhile I can see that here in the mission. Otmar is from
another city named Juliaca but moved here thirty years ago becuase its
super cold there and his knees are messed up. He lives alone now
becuase he got divorced when he moved here to Moquegua and has one
son. He never liked the Catholic church and never agreed with the
things they do. He is super good at sports, especially soccer. He's
kind of like Mr. Miagi from Karate Kid becuase he said he almost went
pro here in Peru when he was 17 but his Dad didn't want him to live in
a big city. He got hurt after that so he didn't go pro. He just wanted
to know more about the Book of Mormon and once we taught him about it,
he read it every day. He accepted everything we taught him and kept
his commitments easily. He said he was going to talk to us but he was
scared to come up to us in the street. He saw us twice walking in the
street but didn't come talk to us. Then one day he saw our whole zone
together for P day and he knew it was a sign from God that he should
talk to us!!

Otmar got baptized on Saturday and it all went well. There weren't a
ton of people there from the ward which makes me a little frustrated
but he didn't care. IF THERE ARE EVER BAPTISMS IN THE WARD, YOU HAVE
TO GO!!!!!! It helps the new converts so much if they see people there
to support them when they are taking steps of faith. We asked a member
to bake a cake but she didn't show up so we ordered one. An hour later
she came to the service, so we had two huge cakes. There weren't many
people at the baptism so we took a cake and a half home to eat this
week.

This week I also was given the opportunity to speak in Sacrament
Meeting. I didn't really know what to talk about but then on Saturday
I kind of felt inspired to talk about one of my ancestors, Levi
Savage. I didn't really know why but after awhile I felt that I should
really tell his life story and put emphasis on his mission. I talked
about his life and told the ward that almost all of them are pioneers
and that nowadays in the States we don't really have the opportunity
to talk to pioneers anymore. I said I was really grateful to be here
in their presence. It went really well and the Spirit testified to me
that it was becuase of my ancestors that I even have a testimony and
that's why I'm serving the Lord. After church we went to a birthday
party for a little bit and ate more cake!! The bishop's wife was there
and said she really appreciated my talk and really liked the story
about Levi Savage. She wants to see that movie, 17 Miracles too, so I
hope she can find it.

Thanks so much for all of your prayers and support. I feel
strengthened in this work that I know I can't do by myself.

Hope you have a good Thankgiving and you can send me tons of pictures.

Love,
Your Elder,

Child

P.S. Didn't get the package yet, hope it comes this Thursday. Have you
sent my Christmas package yet? If not, you could include a new Mo Tab
CD, or a Cardnials hat, or a jersey, or Mormon Doctrine. or a Sports
Illustrated, or a car, or a Playstation, or a TV. Just a suggestion.

Otmar: Weird Name, Cool Guy

Hey family,

It's good to hear from all of you like all the other Mondays. We have
a little bit more time each week to write now so I'm not stressed
about being able to read my emails and trying to write too. It sounds
like you're all doing okay so that-s good. Sorry about the apostrophes
again, hey, its Peru what can I say. (Just found out that the question
mark doesnt work either, that-s cute).

This week was a lot better than last week. The Lord really wanted me
to learn a lot last week and I kind of didnt so thats why it was
difficult, but Im good now. Thats intereting to hear about the leaves
falling there in the States. It doesnt ever get that cold here so Ill
never see that. Well, if there were trees, that would be a little bit
different, they dont exactly plant too many trees here, or grass, or
plants in general. We saw a house with plants on their porch this week
and my comp was like, wow I want to live there, it was pretty
hilarious.

I love my companion. He is a hard worker and he makes me laugh all
day. He knows some english and his accent is so funny. Hes from the
capital Bogata and hes comes from a well off family but hes actually
humble enough for me to train him. He actually listens to me and we
get along well. He has actually taught me a lot too.

This week I got to do splits with the big baseball fan in the zone,
Elder Hansen. He has a month and a half more than me. We pretty much
just talked about sports the whole day, it was a good break from the
norm. His area is a lot like my first area, Characato!!!! I really
miss that place. I hope that one day in the future I will be blessed
enough to be able to go back there and visit all of the members of the
church and visit the places we always went to.

Well, this week I was really grateful for our fan that keeps us cool
at night. I was grateful for sports in my life that Im convinced was
given to us by God so that we dont go insane. Im grateful for semi
warm water. Im grateful for paved roads. Im grateful for shade. Im
grateful for cold soda. Im grateful for sunscreen. Im also grateful
for my mom for cooking a lot of interesting food becuase some people
just dont like the food here but I love it!!! But all joking aside, Im
most grateful for my savior and redeemer Jesus Christ. I think about
how ungrateful sometimes we are because of our actions but He doesnt
care. He will always be there for us no matter what we do.

I love you all. Have a good week.

Elder Child
P.S. We are actually going to have a baptism this week. His name is
Otmar and Ill tell you all about him next week but just know that the
Lord really is preparing people to hear this Gospel.

P.SS. The only thing I want for Christmas specifically is maybe a new
tie, and a Cardinals 2012 calendar (not just like their games, but the
whole year). Thanks.\

PSS Alex, what-s with the UTES

Missionaries and Members

MY FAM-A-LEE,
(You have to read it like GA-RO-SHER-REE STORE from the best two years, otherwise its kind of lame).

Hey everybody, it was so good to hear from two and a half of you this week, Alex counts as a half becuase technically he did send me a message but it wasn't from his email.... sorry. It sounds like all is good up there on the other side of the equador (not sure if that's spelled right). How's the snow going? I only miss the snow a little bit. If I could live in it for like 2 or 3 days that would be cool just because 200 straight days of sun and no clouds kind of gets old. I really do love my area though and the city that I'm in.

This week was one of those weeks that you can learn from but you don't really want to re live. I want you all to know that I still have a testimony of the gospel and I know that I was called to this mission for a reason. At first I thought it was becuase I had to learn specific things but now I know its becuase I have to give specific things. First of all, Halloween. They don't really celebrate Halloween here in Moquegua. They just barely, like 10 years ago, recognized it as a holiday. So they pretty much just have cheap costumes and have parties. They don't even have trick or treating (that would actually be pretty risky), so it was different. The main thing they do is just continue worshipping and celebrating the Virgin of whatever (its a different virgin in every different part of Latin America) and the saints. Several times this past week we have run into parades where they carry a statue on there shoulders in a big procession with music and stuff. It was a little annoying to see the children of Israel over again, I can only imagine what Moses felt like coming down from talking with the LORD and seeing that kind of thing. So that was a little bit different than the usual in the States.

This week was a little harder than usual just becuase almost none of our appointments actually followed through. You have no idea how frustrating it is to go to house after house and find out that nobody is there. At first I was just like, "Ya, we'll just knock doors and do street contacts until we find the chosen people". So we actually did talk to some cool people this week, but this pattern continued until sunday. It was a trying time and I learned a lot of patience and I learned how to make some changes in the way we plan. The brightest spot was Sunday. My ward mission leader actually started doing his calling!!!! He made this forms that all the Preisthood had to fill out of families that they knew that we could go visit. So this week we are going to work with a ton of families and get a ton of references. Then in the afternoon the whole priesthood left with us to knock doors and contact people. It was soo good to finally work with the members more. There is definately going to be a better missionary spirit here in this ward from now on. I really encourage you all to work as hard with the missionaries as possible. How much better it would be to have the missionaries teach and the members find so that we don't waste time.

Thank you all for your prayers and for your support. My time has gone, I'll talk to you all next week.

Elder Child

P.S. Go Utes. Hey Alex fill me in on the Ravens okay?

Happy Halloween/Mi Hijo Part Dos

Hola Querido Familia,
Hey Family What is Happening?!!!,

Firstly and most importantly I would like to wish my Grandpa Urbane a  very Happy Birthday!!! I can't believe he's still making everybody laugh. I thought of my grandpa especially during general conference when Elder Cook talked about a general authority named Alma Sonne. If my Line of Authority is correct I believe Alma ordained grandpa to be a High Priest which is very interesting. I find connections with people all the time.

Alright, of second importance. I'm a new father!!!! My son's name is  Elder Parra and he's from Bogota Columbia. He's actually really cool and we get along just fine. I think he was missing his family for a little bit but now he's working really hard. He inspires me to be a better missionary and to always set a good example. This week was really good. Something super weird happened at church. We walk around all day and talk to random people about the gospel and we give out free pamphlets and invite people to church. We were talking to a young police officer saturday night at like seven. We talked to him and his girlfriend for like a minute maybe. Turns out he actually came to church becuase he lives right in front of it. He's a really cool guy and I'm excited to see his progress in the gospel. It is very frustrating though because the ward boundary makes it so that the other side of the street in front of the church is NOT our ward, so he will have to be taught by some other missionaries. Oh well, the Lord does things for reason.

So, of third importance, Happy Halloween!!!!!!! I hope you all dress up as scarey people (just put on your normal clothes and people will be scared enough). Hahahahah. Somebody said the most popular costume in Utah is a missionary costume, maybe you could fake that. I hope you all have a good time, I hope to scare people with the gospel and the power of the spirit.

I wish we had couple missionaries in my mission. I definately  encourage mom and dad to do everything possible to be able to one day serve a mission. They can definately add a sense of maturity that sometimes is laking here in the mission. I know that with more sacrifice, your mission will mean a lot more to you. You wont waste time, and most likely will work harder and take it seriously.

Thanks for all of your support and love. I have definately felt my Father in Heaven's blessings this week and I know it is becuase of your prayers.

Till next week,

Elder Child












What? Did you think I forgot about my team? GO CARDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Can you hear me screaming in my mind???? Becuase i am really loudly!!!! That just makes my whole mission service worth it! Oh, and all the people I help too, that part is pretty important. But seriously, I'm soo happy. The only bad thing is that I'm not going to be able to see the games for at least another year. Oh yah, Happy birthday in the mission to me on Thursday. Can't believe it's actually been a whole year. Mostly because the weather here is always the same, warm and sunny. It seems like its been summer for like a year now. It's funny that mom said Alex wants to be a missionary when he grows up becuase 90% of the people here think he is older than me. Also, I've grown a little bit on the mission too. You can't really see it in my pictures but I've grown at least an inch maybe a tiny bit more. I measured myself against an elder that is 6 foot 3 and I'm almost the same heighth. Interesting!!!

Transfers

Mi Querido Familia,
Family!!!!! How's everybody this week? It sounds like it has actually
been a very exciting and eventfilled World Series this year. I was so
excited to hear about Albert Pujols and his three homeruns. That's too
bad they lost their game on Sunday but I'm sure they'll pull through
once they get to St. Louis. I'm glad to hear that the birthday was
really good too. The ONE thing I really still miss about the food in
the states is the Mexican Food. In my mind I usually count the days
until I can eat a really awesome burrito (little donkey) or some
tacos. Mom, you are very welcome for the sweater. I thought long and
hard and spent a great deal of time shopping around for it. It
represents a great sacrifice from all of us so please enjoy and just
know how much we love you.

This past week actually went by pretty fast. It seemed like every
night when I was about to fall asleep like I was just doing that like
an hour before. Its pretty crazy how the time really does just FLY by.
I also can't really believe that I'm creeping up on a year. What's
more incredible is that I've been here in my area for six whole weeks.
Today (this morning at 1:00 am) they called me for the transfers. I'm
staying here and I'll be getting a brand new baby elder to train. I
guess the president still trusts me enough to let me try to train
again this transfer. His name is Elder Parra from Colombia. He'll be
getting here on Wednesday so I still have two more days with my temp
Leonel.

Speaking of my temps. They really have helped me a lot and I've
learned so much by going through this stage in my mission. I think it
prepared me a little bit more on how to train somebody. I'm far from
being a perfect missionary and sometimes I do feel inadequate but when
we trust in the Lord we can do anything he asks us to do. My first
temp Luis leaves for the CCM tomorrow to go to Bolivia. He's a good
friend of mine now and I look foward to writing him and seeing how
he's doing in La Paz for the next two years. My comp Leonel is a
recent convert of 4 months but knows a lot about the gospel. He has
introduced me to almost all of his friends and has helped me to get
some new investigators that way. I really realized how much more
effective it is to just go and teach the members' friends and family
members. Not every single person that we introduce to the missionaries
is going to get baptized super quick but a greater percentage will get
baptized than total strangers to the church. I think that sometimes we
are afraid to introduce our friends to the missionaries becuase we
think they will reject us or the gospel. That may be true at first but
eventually most people feel the need one day to talk to the
missionaries again. We just have to always be willing to help them.
The Lord knows His children and He also knows who needs the Gospel in
their lives. This was very evident with Leonel's friend Efrain. Efrain
wants to be baptized and will do it on the 5th of November. It has
been such a cool experience teahing a truly prepared person that was a
reference from a member. I hope you all can help the missionaries to
use their time for teaching and not knocking doors all day.

The Lord is aware of our circumstances and only wants the best for us.
If our life isn't going the way we want, maybe we need to repent and
come unto him. Thank you for all of your support and prayers I feel
them every day.

I hope to hear good news this coming week.

Love,
Your Brother and Son

Elder Child

Recent Pictures

Richard in Arequipa

At a Stake Dance

At some large cathedral

The city of Moquegua

He's still Richie..eating some scones.

Baptism

Love that goofy face of his.

Happy Birthday Mom!

¿Comò Estaìs Familia?
What is Up my dear fam fam? I'm glad to hear that you are all doing
well, (especially Alex). I don't think you can hear me screaming in my
mind or through the old computadora, but I am. Why? Because the Cards
are awesome!!!!!!!!! I knew that my Heavenly Father loved me enough to
look out for my team, the Big Red Birds (just made that nickname up,
probably won't every use it again its lame). I also know that this HAS
to be a trial for me thought becuase He knows that I can't watch the
games, patience, patience. I'm also glad to hear the the Utes beat the
Panthers over there in Pittsburg. Alls well in the States it seems.
One of the things I don't really miss all that much is the snow, but
the leaves turning colors I actually do miss. Hope you all get to
appreciate the leaves in the fall time.

Wow, just lost my train of thought for a second but I think I'll be
okay. Where was I, oh yay, this week for me. This week for me was
pretty awesome, seriously. I was able to go on splits with the zone
leaders for a day and it gave me a new outlook on how I can work with
my new temp Leonel. We worked hard and we had some good experiences
too. Also this week we found and started teaching a family. We're
teaching the mom, her four children, and one of the son's girlfriend.
The problem is that the son and his girlfriend aren't married so it's
going to be awhile until they can get baptized. They actually came to
church this week though, so that was pretty cool. We also found my
temp's friend Efrain. He saw the change that took place in Leonel's
life and wants to change too, so now he's listening to us. He actually
prays and reads and likes to listen, so I think he'll get baptized the
5th of November, easy.

I learned a lot this week and have felt the blessings of persistence
and hard work. Sometimes in the mission field we don't really see all
the blessings for all of our work. Sometimes we talk to many people
and get rejected. Often times I think that it was something I said or
didn't say and that's why the person didn't accept us, so I feel bad.
But I learned that if we're honestly trying to help the person and we
have the Spirit, it really doesn't matter that much what we say. Last
week we gave a blessing to a little girl of one of our investigators.
The little girl had an eye infection and was getting to the point
where her mom needed to buy medicine, the problem is that she didn't
really have the money to buy the medicine (I didn't know this at that
point). Her friend is a member and later the member friend told us
that the little girl's eyes were all cleared up the next day and she
didn't have to buy medicine with what little money she had. She said
thanks for all that we had done and that she could feel our Father in
Heaven's love for her when we visit her. I was pretty blown away and I
felt very grateful for the love that God has for the little ones, no
matter where we live or who we are. We are all His children and He
wants to help us, we just have to come unto Him.

Next week should be interesting. We are preparing somebody for their
baptism this week, and hopefully we can get four baptisms next week.
The work keeps going on and I'm super grateful to be a part of it.
Thanks for all the support and all the prayers. I really have felt the
blessings this week and I know who they come from.

Elder Child

You all probably thought I forgot about Mommy didn't you? HAPPY
BIRTHDAY TO YOU, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR MOMMY,
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!!!!!

I wish you a happy birthday from the bottom of my heart mom, I hope
you have a great day and that you can enjoy yourself. The Big 49,
almost cincuenta!!!!!!! Too bad I'll miss the peaking of the hill next
year but I'm sure it will be cool too. Thank you for your example in
my life and for all of your love. You have always been my rock and the
discipline in my life. If I have any appearance of goodness in me it
is definately becuase of you. You always helped (sometimes forced) me
to be a better person and a true disciple of Christ. THANKS!!!!

P.S. Sooo jealous of Ryan Vaughn. He should really love it there. Tell
him Hi for me, and good luck, he'll do great.

First Baptism in Moquegua

Hey family,
Im soooooooo stoked to hear that Cards advanced to the NL Championship
against the Brewers!!!!!!!! They actually took down the huge pitchers
over there in Philly, Im impressed. (Sorry about no question marks, my
keyboard is not very high tech this week). What disapoints me is the
Utes obviously. Also, I would like to hear these kinds of things from
my number one best friend, my brother. Somebody give him a big hug for
me, I know he feels lonely sometimes. Thats okay (also excuse the
absence of apostrophes), I know that he is busy and also taking care
of Grandpa. I was really impressed when I heard the story of how
President Monson cared for his grandpa so much in his youth and that
is what made his wife like him even more. I would be caring for my
dear grandparents, but unfortunately I cant so I glad that Alex is
doing it while Im gone.

Sorry about the snow to those of you who dont enjoy it. I know that
Karyn will enjoy it so keep that in mind. Im sorry that Mom has to
work so much and is stressed out. Just keep it up Mom, the Lord will
bless you for your sacrifice. You youngens should help Mom out just a
little bit, she does so much for us. I just want to tell you all to
calm down and stop bugging the church with my little companion
problem. I really am doing fine. We are doing good in my area. And, Im
not the only one in this situation. There are twelve more people just
like me in this situation. What happened is that 20 people left the
mission field last transfer and only 7 came from the MTC, so there is
a shortage of missionaries. President didnt want to shut down 13 areas
all at once so he is using temps to ease the stress. Next change, if
there is a shortage of missionaries, he has to shut areas to keep
missionaries with missionaries. I kind of regret telling you about my
situation, but I thought it was only fair to tell you.

We are actually doing really well here. We just had our first baptism
here in this area. She is 20 years old, her parents and recent
converts, and she has a real testimony of the Church. Her name is
Maria Alejandra and she got baptized on Saturday afternoon. It was a
good service and I felt the spirit. This week all in all was good even
though I had some struggles about my temporal. Luis left this morning
and I got a new one named Leonel. He is going to be with me until the
end of this month. Dont worry about me Im doing fine. My health is
good and so is the weather. I just have to learn some things in this
difficult situation. Something I realized is that I dont have the
Godly patience with single mothers. I never really understood the
complaints, till now. Like a missionary companionship, a marriage
should have two dedicated individuals. But if the mom or dad is alone,
there is way more responsibility and stress. Ive definately learned
that, I dont really have anyone to rely on or depend on right now,
just my Father In Heaven. It has taught me a lot about how it would be
to be a single parent and I have that much more respect for them now.

I gave a talk in sacrament meeting with a five minute notice
beforehand. I talked about applying what we learn here in church. I
love the scripture in James 1. 27. I encourage you all to read it. I
love the savior, I love this work. Even thought Im not perfect and
maybe I dont always work as hard as I possibly could, I love this
work. Thank you for all your support and prayers. I love you all and
the people here in Peru.

Love,
Elder Child

P.S. Thanks for the You Can Do It card, it really made me laugh.
P.S.S I feel bad that I havent sent you a lot of pictures for like 6
months. Next week I should be sending some. Just be patient with me.