A Week of Firsts

¿Qué Tal Familia?,
Querido familia how's it going with you all? This week has been very interesting in a lot of ways and I'll try to tell you everything that happened with Las Torres and with Elder Ventura (and yes, I have called him Ace, and Ventuuuura as well, it's pretty funny for me but not so much for him. He just doesn't laugh at those jokes I'm not sure why). I was glad to read all about Kim getting ordained as a bishop and that you were all able to see the family. It's pretty scary sometimes when we get new responsibility in the church, but that's always God's plan. He wants us to grow continually, not just in your childhood, your youth, your mission, your first years married, your first kids, or your first job. I am thoroughly convinced that we are always supposed to be growing and challenging ourselves. That is how we become better people and eventually like our Father in Heaven. Just when you get comfortabe with your life, your responsibilities, and your abilities, that is when God gives you more to do becuase he knows you need to keep growing. I'm not saying it's easy to get new responsibilities or to grow, but it is always worth it if we try our hardest and are cheerful while we work. Remember that if it is the will of our Heavenly Father, he will lift you up and give you the strength you need to accomplish the things which he hath commanded.

This week in Las Torres was a new experience for me. My first change, my first new companion. Elder Ventura is a good missionary. He's super obedient which is good. He loves everybody in the ward and is super friendly with everbody. Like I said before he's a little chubby guy from Piura, Peru that laughs at almost everything. He has 24 months in the mission and asked president to extend for another FOUR MONTHS. He's not going home until September 12 of this year. That's pretty crazy, I don't know if I could do that, but I guess he felt like there was more work for him to do in Arequipa. He was originally called to the Bolivia, La Paz mission. He served there for 18 months but then got sick. He recovered in Lima for awhile but then got reassigned to this Mission about 6 months ago. Our mission president, President Fernañdez was his Bishop for awhile before his mission so that's pretty cool. We get along pretty well.

My area has mostly just houses and paved roads. I've never seen so many paved roads in my time here in Peru! It's pretty crazy becuase I don't have to shine my shoes everyday like I used to in Characato. There are actually members in this ward too, I couldn't believe it. Yes, we live in the Bishop's house, and No, I do not know thier last name (that's pretty sad right). But pretty much we just live there, we don't eat there. They have five kids that I know of but I think they have three older ones. They have one that's like 24 ish that still lives at home. Then they have a 13 year old boy, an 11 year old boy, a 5 year old girl, and an 8 month old boy. We eat at another lady's house for lunch and it's pretty good. We eat at a different lady's house for dinner. The two different places that we eat at are at opposite ends of the area so that's a little difficult. My area is all one hill up against the volcanoe Misti. it's probably about a 15 minute drive away from our house.

This week was a week of firsts. It was my first time taking the sacrament in a dedicated church for 6 and a half months! It was the first time in the mission field singing the hymns with a piano accompanionment. It was the first time in the mission field that I didn't give a talk or a Sunday School Lesson. It was the first time in the field that we had a priesthood meeting. It was my first time living in the house of a member. It was the first time that we had ward committee meeting. It was a week of firsts for sure. I like having a ward, but I still miss the little group of saints in Characato too.

This week was a little difficult for the work becuase even though we have investigators and people to teach, they are almost never home. So like literally 90% of our appointments fell through. It was kind of frustrating but we found a lot of people by knocking on their doors. We taught a recent convert this week named Danay. She got baptized like a month ago. She is a young girl like 23 who had been investigating the church for a while. She wanted to be really prepared for her baptism so she kept on taking the lessons. She finally made the decision and it was a good one becuase her testimony is really strong. She shared it with us and I felt the spirit so strong I wanted to cry and so did my comp. She said that people with the most trials and difficulties in life are usually the closest to Heavenly Father. I know that that is true. If we rely on our loving Father in Heaven during our trials in life our relationship grows immensely with Him.

I finally got the notice to go pick up your package today. So we're going today to go pick it up. Hopefully it's good stuff. I also hope I get those pictures this week too. The members and investigators love to see a gringo family from the United States so it's fun to show them all your crazy faces.

Well, more next week I'm sure. I can't believe it's almost June, May has gone by so fast.

Love,

Elder Child

P.S. In your next package (you can wait till my birthday if you want) it would be super cool to get Levi Savage's journal =).

P.S.S. The bishop has a keyboard in his house and i've been playing the simplified hymns. I really enjoy playing them and yes mom, you were right, I wish I had kept up with the piano because it would be nice to play for our meetings and stuff.