Wow Members!

Hola Familia!!
Hey everbody, once again it's P-day and I'm a little more lost for
words this week than usual. I'll try to write something of
consequence.

This week was really just full of STUFF. There were some happy moments
and some sad ones too. Right after I wrote last week we went to Tottus
(Peruvian Walmart). It's out of our area but we got special permission
to go there because we had nothing to eat. So we went there and had to
figure out what we could buy that didn't need refrigeration and didn't
need to be heated either. It was an interesting experience. We bought
a lot of cereal, yogurt that doesn't necessarily need to be
refrigerated, jam, and this really good caramel stuff. And we bought
an electric water kettle for hot drinks in the mornings. That's about
it that we could find for food. After that we had Noche de Hogar at
our house. There was our one investigator family, the Mendoza family.
And their kids invited some friends, who also invited some friends,
and before we knew it we had like 20 kids at our house. I shared a
spiritual message about faith, then we played some games. It was fun
and we made some contacts with the kids and their families.
Tuesday was pretty interesting too. It was full of more of the sad
stuff. We went to the Mendoza family to ask if they would give
permission to their kids to be baptized. Only the dad, Rolando was
home, but we went anyway. We asked all the kids if they wanted to be
baptized but they were really paying attention and neither was he, so
he eventually said no, because they weren't ready. It was sad to hear.
We were kind of just depressed for the rest of that day too. And after
we got home from contacting and tracting, we found that the outdoor
awning/roof that we have outside in our courtyard totally fell down.
It was funny just because we were at that point that a bunch of bad
stuff was happening that day.
Wednesday was really good. There are four of us that live in the
apartment, so we went on splits on Wednesday just to mix stuff up. I
went with Elder Ruggiero who is from South Jordan. He and I get along
really well. He told me a bunch of helpful stuff about the language
and learning how to teach and the culture and stuff. He has really
turned into a good friend. We find more stuff in common every day,
like how much he likes baseball (his family is from Boston and he's a
huge Red Sox fan). Wednesday was also the first day I bought Peruvian
street food. We kind of have to for dinner because we have nothing to
cook with at home, unless we want like jelly sandwhiches and cereal
for dinner, which kind of gets old. But the street food is Salchipapa.
It's like Chow Mien and ham fried rice with french fries. Its pretty
good, even though it doesn't sound like it. We get it with fried
chicken too, which just makes it even better.
Thursday was kind of difficult because we had our first 4 way
companionship arguement. The arguement was really just a
misunderstanding, but it all stemmed from money that we needed to get
reimbursed for our taxis and stufff that we used while we didn't live
in our area. We worked everything out and all is good now. I think
we're a little more close now as a group becuase we've gone through
some of that stuff. Also on Thursday we started a fast for our
investigators so they'll accept baptismal dates. I also got a lot
better on my contacting approach in Spanish which was good.
Friday was hard because I didn't have hardly any strength. We walked a
ton that day too. We found some people to teach and did a ton of
contacting but I was feeling out of it till I ate. I wasn't feeling
the spirit of the fast at all I didn't think it was doing any good,
but something really cool happened on Sunday that I'll tell you about
later, that I think is a little bit of a miracle.
Saturday was cool because I actually got to interact with MEMBERS!!!!!
The Stake President and several members came to our house/chapel to
clean it up. They cleaned up the fallen roof, and we leveled out the
crappy front yard that we have in order to make a way to put in a
lawn. The Mission President wants us to make the church actually look
like a church, so we're going to put in a lawn, flowers, re-finish the
brick walls, paint, and put lights up. It's going to eventually look
really pretty. But anyways, I actually got to be with members, it was
awesome. I definately took it for granted that there are 200 members
at church everyweek in Salt Lake. We don't have hardly any in my area,
so it's tough to show our investigators what the church culture is
really like.
So then Sunday came around. We went around inviting people to church
but hardly any of them could come. There was a town meeting in the
square from like nine in the morning till twelve and so a bunch of our
investigators were there. We eventually found six investigators to
come to church, which was good. We also finally met the brach
president and his family, so at least now we have him to help with
church on sundays. We had like 23 new investigators this week too, so
hopefully by next week we can get settled and get church going. We
could easily get like 50 people to be at church, we just have been
getting unlucky on some stuff for the past three weeks. I have a
feeling we're going to have a bunch of people there on next Sunday.
So Sunday night something special happened. We went over to the
Mendoza family again just to talk to them. But this time all four of
us went. We just talked with them, about all kinds of things, work,
sports, their country, ours. Then we talked about the church, temples,
members, the growth of the church, and a lot of good the church does
in a humanitarian way. We just tried to be thier friends and member
neighbors. Then we asked again if the kids could be baptized this
week. The kids said they all wanted to and the parents said yes too.
It was a neat experience that I know our fast helped with. I'm so
excited!! We're going to have three baptisms this week and more
importantly, we're going to actually have a baptism service that our
investigators can come to so they can feel the spirit and see how its
done.
Yesterday was special for another reason too. It finally rained a good
amount. We heard that it hasn't really rained here for almost two
years. So that was cool. It was good to get a change of weather too.
The weahter here is kind of weird. It's hot and sunny in the morning,
then it cools way off at about four o'clock and gets really cloudy and
overcast. So what happens is I put on sunscreen in the morning and a
sweater in the after noon. I'm totally getting more tan here, and I
found out that there's a hole in the ozone layer here, so the sun is
really strong. I'll try and cover up as much as I can though, becuase
I don't want to damage my skin. With the lack of food in the mornings
and at night, I'm also losing a little weight. I don't know how much
but I can definately tell everything fits a little looser. Also, I
finally have hair. They cut it super short in the CCM, but now i can
actually lay it down flat on my head and put a tiny bit of a part in
it.
Well, that's about it for me this week. Thanks for all your prayers
and thougts. I could definately feel them this week. As I look back, I
can see the blessings in my life. At the time I thought I was having a
rough week, but now I know how blessed I really am. Continue to read
the scriptures, they are such a source of peace and comfort. We can
learn from them always. I can't wait until I can here the voice of the
prophet again in two years too. Please don't take modern revelation
for granted, it is such a blessing in our lives. I love you all, the
church is true.

Love,

Elder Child