Baptisms in Characato

Hola Familia,

Unfortunately for all of you people in the normal world, this
missionary experience is going by faster and faster every week. Which
just means that I forget things and things kind of are more normal,
less special. That just means that the every day living stuff isn't as
important to me anymore. I'm a little more concerned with people. I
say sorry, just because my letter this week is probably going to be a
little short.

This week was mostly spent preparing the Quispe Vega family for
baptism. They are really special. They accepted us and everything they
taught us very easily. They are really loving and accepting. We got a
baptism date for this past Saturday. There are five people in total
that can be baptized. We were planning on having all five baptisms
this past Saturday, but the father showed up from work really late and
didn't want to go through with it becuase he had a bad day and some
things happened. But we went through with the others. I baptized the
oldest girl, Vanessa. She is fifteen and actually reads things and
understands things. She is a special girl who is going to be a great
member. This family is really special becuase they all understand that
this baptism isn't the end of their journey here on earth. They really
understand the importance of going to church every sunday and keeping
the commandments.
But even though the Father, Sixto, wasn't baptized last saturday he is
going to get baptized this saturday for sure. Just a little delay
that's all.

It's stopped raining here so hard. Just light drizzles the past few
days. Our roof stopped leaking on Tuesday, so that was pretty sweet.
Now my stuff is pretty much dry. Things are looking up, but yesterday
my comp was pretty sick and i was a little bit too. We've decided it's
our food. We went and bought more healthy stuff and we are going to
take better care of ourselves.

The work here continues every day. We have a ton of activities at the
church to try and get people to just come and to meet people. We have
english classes, family home evening, and movie night. The activities
are definately helping, we can see that. We have made a lot of friends
with the kids and young people here, which is a good way to talk to
the parents. Like I said before, this week was mainly spent preparing
the Quispe Vega family for baptism, which means we spent a lot of time
there. The Mother, Norma, cooked us lunch a couple of times, and
dinner too. The cool thing is that now we're going to go follow up on
their references and we'll see how that turns out.

I forgot to tell you guys this last week becuase it didn't affect me,
but we had transfers last Monday. I'm going to be in this area for at
least another five weeks (probably like another 4 months becuase it's
a brand new area) and i'm glad for that. I want to follow up on all of
the special people that live here. Hopefully they make Characato a
Zone becuase it's so far away from our zone. We have to take a taxi or
bus for like 30 minutes just to go to district meetings and to go to
the internet cafes for p-days.

Well, that's about it for me this week. I increased yet again in my
appreciation for primary teachers, sunday school teachers, choristers,
presidencies, members, ward mission leaders, people to give talks, and
bishoprics. I'm more grateful for these things becuase we have none.
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do not grumble or complain if you have a calling.
Please, magnify your calling, make it a good part of your life and
make your calling a priority. You have no idea how much you can bless
lives through your church calling. Thanks for all your prayers,
thoughts, and letters.

Elder Child

Happy Valentine's Day

Querido Familia,
Hey everybody, once again it's P-day and once again I didn't really
think about what I'm going to write, so I'll try and do my best. I
can't believe it's been a whole week already, every week goes by
faster and faster. So the highlights of this week were pretty cool.
Last Monday we had Family Home Evening just like every week, but it
was raining at six o'clock, so we were slow to get out the door to go
invite people to the activity. Just as we were leaving though, the
Mendoza family and their friends knocked on our door and were there
ready for Family Home Evening. It was pretty cool to actually have
people come to the activity without having to go bug them and remind
them that we were actually having it. It was a cool experience. We
have fun every Monday night with the investigators and this week was
no different.

Tuesday was probably the second best day of the week. That's because
we actually got some tables, chairs, shelves, and dishes for our
kitchen. It was awesome!!! Now we can actually gather together and
have some meals. That took like all day so it was pretty boring but
worth it. We had to go buy the furniture and things then get them back
to the house and clean the whole house so that we could actually have
the kitchen. All the while it was raining like CRAZY!!!! It rained for
about ten hours on Tuesday. There was tons of water on the streets.
I'm really getting sick of the rain. No, really I'm getting a little
sick. Nothing to be worried about, it's just that I'm feeling a little
under the weather today. And I'm pretty sure I know why. Our roof
isn't exactly built to code, so there's a leak in our roof. The water
is coming through the ceiling little by little. There's water all over
our ceiling on our room, and its dripping a little. We called the
President but they can't do very much until it stops raining because
the roof needs to dry. So we're waiting for it to stop raining. Don't
worry, it's nothing to overreact about but it's just making things
more interesting.

So Wednesday was really cool because we went to a baptism with our
investigators. There's this family that we found last week that is
absolutely golden. They accept everything we tell them, read pretty
much everything, and actually go to all the activities and church that
we have. Its a family that is actually married, they have five kids.
Three of the kids can get baptized. So we went to this other baptism
for them to go and see. It was a cool baptism and it allowed this
family to feel the spirit and see an actual church. This family
accepted the challenge to get baptized, all of them, on Thursday. So
we're going to have 5 baptisms this Saturday. I know that we were led
to them and they were prepared for us to teach them about the gospel.
We are only tools in the hands of the Lord to carry out his
preparations. We don't convert anybody, we just invite people to come
unto Christ and choose what they know is right. Sometimes they use
their agency to refuse us at this time, and sometimes it's just not
their time, but always, the hand of the Lord is in this work.

This week we also started doing English classes. We invite everybody
to this, but usually its the kids that come. We are starting to have a
good relationship with all the kids here in Characato. The English is
fun to teach because I actually know what I'm talking about. We've
only taught them like numbers, days of the week, months, and things
like that, but its still fun. They all enjoy it and it's a really good
way to get people introduced to where we have church and to us as
Elders. We also had a church movie night on Saturday. We showed The
Testaments. It was really awesome, everbody liked the movie and I know
some people were touched by the Spirit. It was the perfect movie
becuase it talks about The Book Of Mormon and how it really is another
Testament of Jesus Christ. People here all believe in Jesus, we just
have to make sure they know that The Book of Mormon wasn't written by
Joseph Smith. After the movie, one of our investigators who hasn't
come to church, told us how good it was of us to be here in Characato.
He said that the people here needed this good thing in their lives and
he was grateful for all of our help. It was cool, but he still didn't
come to church, that was kind of sad.

That's like the biggest obstacle here, getting people to church. But,
yesterday we had like thirty people at church. Its really cool to see
how the church is growing here. We started in an investigators house
with 8 people, and now we have members, a branch president, and
several new investigators coming to church every week. We really have
been blessed and I know sometimes I talk about the hardships, but
really this is a good experience for me. I'm making really good
friends here in the mission and I feel like I'm helping people become
better families and helping them find eternal blessings. I wouldn't
trade this for the world. I know I have to leave one day, but I don't
want to. I wish I could just read the scriptures, serve people, and go
to church every day, just becuase of the peace I feel when I do these
things.

Well that was my week, see you next week.

Love,

Elder Child

We Have an Apartment

Querido Familia,
Thanks for all the mail this week. I was kind of depressed because
last week on the parents emailed me, and you know how exciting they
are right. I'm also glad to hear that there are some other people
outside of my family that actually get to read about my life here in
Peru. Well, this week was pretty crazy, but I only have a little bit
of time, so I'll just type up the highlights. I'm just doing these
letters mainly in chronological order so forgive me if it's boring but
that's just how I am.
Monday was awesome becuase we actually got to buy some food for the
house. We got to go to an actual mall that reminded me of the U.S.
because there was so much American stuff there. And it was really
nice. Like The Gateway status. We bought our food then had lunch, at
CHILI'S. That's right. I was totally thinking of you Nicole. I got a
burger, it was the closest thing to a burger I've had in three and a
half months so it was pretty good. And only like 8 bucks in American
money.
Tuesday was a neat experience. We didn't have water at the house so it
was interesting to say the least. But the work must go on. It was
cool, because even in our weak state we found the coolest family ever.
It is a mom and five kids. Three are over eight years old. She is
searching for the truth and wants to follow the savior in her life.
Another miracle, she's actually married to her husband. We haven't
gotten a chance to talk to her husband yet but it sounds like he will
let his family get baptized on the 19th. That day the President came
to our house to see what we all needed and stuff. So he got us an
electric stove and a mini fridge. We can actually cook an cool food
now. We just need a table, some shelves, counters, and cabinets, and
we'll be set.
Wednesday was pretty awesome because we actually had water which means
i could actually take a "real" shower. It was nice.
Thursday was probably the best day of the week besides yesterday. We
were given our desks to study on and our dresser for our clothes. Our
rooms look a little nicer now that we have things to store our stuff
in. I also learned that my package arrived but the Secretary at the
Mission Office just needs to go and get it and give it to me. It will
probably be tomorrow or Thursday, I'm not sure when, I'm just super
apprehensive for it.
Friday was nice because we actually had sun which means we could do
our laundry and actually dry it. We contacted and tracted into some
pretty receptive people that day as well. But, after we did laundry,
the water turned off again in our neighborhood until Sunday night.
So since we did't have water Saturday morning we went to our recent
converts' home to ask their mom for water. She gladly gave us 18
liters buckets of water for us. She is such a nice lady. She gave us
food and milk the other night as well to cook. She cooked us lunch
yesterday too after church. That family is really cool and just needs
to get married so that they can enjoy the blessings of baptism and
marriage. The husband is leaving for work for a whole month though, so
it might be a month or two until they can actually get married.
Saturday was really cool though because we got permission to go to San
Antonio to respond to some member references. San Antonio is about 35
minutes away by car. It's super pretty there because it's up against
the mountians and is super green. It's a small town with a peaceful
town square. There's a doctor there who is a member of the church and
knows some families that want to hear the gospel. We taught a family
that is super humble because the father is out of work and the mother
has cancer. She is Catholic but she has been touched by the kindness
of the doctor who is a member. The father prayed at the end of the
lesson and he said he felt really good at the end. Then his son said
he wanted to pray too, so we let him. The family is really ready and I
think they will recieve an answer to their prayers. They have two sons
above the age of eight, and a little girl who is about 2. They even
commited to go to church next sunday, which is like a miracle because
nobody likes to actually act on their feelings here, which is sad
sometimes. Saturday was also the beginning of a super Catholic
holiday. So we went to the town square to do some contacting but the
people there were drunk and not willing to listen in a peacefull
manner, so we left. But it really rained Saturday night, which was
difficult. It's so much harder to tract in the rain.
Sunday was really cool because we found some members who live a little
ways away who came to church yesterday. And we got 9 investigators to
come to church, and the other Elders got 7 people to come to church.
So we actually had something of a branch, like 25 people in all. It
was testimony meeting so all of the members got up and bore their
testimony. I bore mine and emphasized my testimony of the Sabbath day.
I definately took the time that I had every Sunday for granted. I miss
the time I had with my family and ward members every Sunday. People
here are difficult to get to church and to keep the Sabbath Day holy.
After church we went contacted again in the square but the square was
filled to the max with crazy drunk, dancing, loud catholics. They are
all God's children and we sincerely want to help them because they are
good people but it just wasn't the right time. Besides, it was raining
like CRAZY, last night. It rained a ton the past two days. I'm
definately sick of the rain. I hear that from the end of January to
March it rains. It's cold in April and May. But the rest of the year,
its hot and really sunny, for like seven months out of the year. Me
and my companion grew closer this week and i'm spending more time with
him instead of Elder Ruggiero. My spanish is getting better but I
still have a ways to go.
Every day I feel God's love for me and my testimony strengthens
through adversity. I definately know this church is true and is led by
a prophet of the Lord. I absolutely love church literature and
especially the Book of Mormon. I'm glad to be involved in this great
work and encourage everybody to reach out in love to your non member
friends and try to share the gospel in whatever little ways as
possible. Live the gospel and be happy. Be fully commited and love the
lord. Thanks for all your support. I love you tons.

Love
Sincerely
Elder Child

The Rains Came Down

Hola Familia,

This week went by even faster than last week if thats even possible.
It feels like yesterday I was emailing you guys. Well, as always, Ill
try to let you know as much as possible about my life in the mission.
First off, lets just say right now, that I hate the rain. Since last
Monday, it has rained every single day without exception. Its also
gotten cold too. Its pretty bad becuase all the roads are dirt, so
theres some mud and dirt envolved too. If the rain was just a personal
annoyance, I wouldnt really care, but theres like nobody in the
streets and people are less likely to open their doors when its
raining too, which has cut down dramatically on our new investigators
numbers. But its all in the mission experience. So last Monday was
kind of special because after I emailed we went on splits so that we
could buy a camera for Elder Ruggieros comp. Elder Gamarra. He didnt
have one, and he was really sad. So Elder Ruggiero bought one for him
and said it was from all of us. Elder Gamarra almost cried when he
opened it because it meant that much to him. Its crazy to see how
little the people have here and how much they are willing to sacrifice
to serve a mission. It rained a lot last Monday so we werent able to
have Family Home Evening with our investigators. So we went and got
pizza for dinner. The pizza here definately isnt as good as in the
states though.

Tuesday was pretty different too. That pizza we ate actually made me
pretty sick on Tuesday. It wasnt very fun. We just stayed in the room
and I slept all day because I was feeling bad. So it was boring.
Wednesday wasnt very interesting either though. We taught some lessons
to some cool people and if all goes well we should be able to baptize
them next week. We taught the Mayors daughter and her cousin. They are
super interested and believe all we are teaching them but whether or
not they keep their commitments is another story. Wednesday is when it
REALLY RAINED. It was the day that started the trend for the last five
days. I guess in January and February is when it gets cold and rainy
in Arequipa. So their Summer is the season that it is cold and rainy
(ironic right).

Thursday was cool because Elder Ruggiero went on splits with another
Elder in our district so we got that elders comp in our apartment with
us. His name is Elder Calizaya and he only has three months left in
the mission. He acts like he doesnt want to work and wants to be a
little rebellious but really he is a good missionary. We went and
taught a bunch of stuff to the Mendoza children on Thursday too. We
taught for like an hour and a half because we werent able to teach on
Tuesday. We finally got them ready for their baptizm on Saturday.
So Saturday was special because the three Mendoza children got
baptized at the stake center which is like 20 minutes from Characato,
but it was all good. I baptized the two girls and my companion
baptized the boy. It was special. Baptizing kids is a little different
than adults because their understanding is so little, but I just think
how little I actually understood about the Gospel when I was eight
years old and it is amazing to see how much faith they have to want to
be baptized. The baptism was actually a good opportunity for their
father to see the ordinance and feel the spirit. We just have to marry
the parents and then they can get baptized too. I think the father is
more open now.

Sunday was another sacrament meeting at our house. Every week we have
to try and drag people to church. Its a little bit of a pain but its
worth it if we can get people to church. We only got one investigator
there, but the Mendoza family was there too, so that was nice. The
branch president and his family was there too. Hopefully we can get
some improvements to our house/church this week. They werent able to
do anything this week because of the rain. It rained a ton last night.
We tried to go to peoples houses but nobody was home or wanted us to
talk to them, so we did a lot of contacting in the rain. It was tiring
and we were wet and cold, but we got through it.
This week was interesting too because I learned how to do laundry by
hand. Its pretty easy, but it takes a lot of time, and we have to have
sun in order for the clothes to dry, That was a little bit of a
problem this week though. All is well on the kitchen appliance front
though. We got permission to go to the mall today, so we are going to
buy some stuff to cook with. Dont worry mom, we are doing just fine.
We will ask for more stuff when we need it okay. Im doing good all in
all. Love the mission but the language is still hard for me. I
understand a lot but the speaking is difficult.

I had the chance to read the Book of Mormon a ton this week. I learned
a bunch of stuff, and its even better when we actually take the time
to study the book and look for principles and things we can apply. I
abslolutely love the scriptures and hope you all take advantage of
your opportunities to read it. Well thats all for me this week,
hopefully more baptisms this week. Also, pray for the Sun.

Love,
Elder Child