True Religion

Mi Familia!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hey family how's it going????????????????? It's so awesome that you all had a good week in all of your endeavours. I especially enjoyed hearing about the sibs hanging out in Santo Jorge por algunos dias. Ofcourse, I only heard about it from one of the participants so I'm not sure if it actually happened. I hope that Nicole is getting used to her new job and that everything is going okay with all of your jobs. I can't believe Alex is a senior in high school already and that public school is almost over for our family.

This week was one of the fastest and one of the most fun I've had in a while. The conference with the general authorities was AWESOME. The spirit was super strong and it was short and to the point. There was some funny parts whith the spanish translater and Elder Oaks. He told him if his talk got a little boring he had to make it better in spanish. Elder Hallstrom is so much fatter and older than his picture in the ensign, I think that picture was taken about 30 years ago. Anyways, after the conference, I wrote you guys, then after that I went to pick up my package. Unfortunately I had to wait like 3 and a half hours to get my package, but the good news was that there was a TON of missionaries there too. So I pretty much talked with them forever, and the time went by super fast. I talked to the Elders that are there in Characato right now. They are my good friends and there's a connection with being in that special area. They say that there's somewhere between 40 and 50 people at church on a bad week, and that sometimes they get in the 60s. That made me so happy to hear about. I remember the first week with 6 people in our house, it was so special to be there in the very beginning. I've also heard about some people that have gotten baptized since I've been gone and about the active members there, it was so cool to hear about that.

Well, I eventually got the package and I was so satisfied with everything in there. I was elated to see the American candy and the super cool Mormon Tab CDs. Thank you soo much for the party decorations too. I laughed soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo hard at the spanish birthday card that Nicole sent me and the English translation. My comp kind of gave a half laugh at it, but I thought it was hilarious. We went out to eat, and kind of walked around downtown together till we had to go back to the house. We'll probably do more stuff today just because we have more time today.

 Tuesday was the best day of the year, my birthday. I woke up to fireworks outside of our bedroom. The family we live with woke us up with fireworks outside of our room. Then it was pretty much a normal day. Every Tuesday we meet as a zone to have some training meetings so they sang Happy Birthday to me. Then the day just went on. The best part of the day was at night when the family got me a cake and sang happy birthday to me. The have a tradition in Peru where they shove your face in the cake. It was tasty. They also have a tradition in Peru where they throw eggs at you for your birthday. They got me while I was eating cake, then I took a shower. When I got out of the shower, another member came over and got me from behind when I was all clean. It was pretty fun, I didn't really care about the clothes.

My subject for the email comes from an experience we had on Friday. We were teaching a lady who is the principal of an elementary school in our area. She is pretty super catholic, but she was a reference from a member. So we went and tried to teach her about the Restauration and the Book of Mormon. We were explaining a lot of things and she wasn't
arguing, but she was trying to prove us and our knowledge. Finally she got tired of that and said she really doesn't like to discuss and read the Bible. She said "why are we here wasting our time reading the Bible and arguing about our religions when there are kids starving, without clothes, who really need our help?" We should be DOING things, helping people, serving others, not arguing or discussing things endlessly. Obviously I knew that we do help people, and that the church does help people like that. But it made me think a lot. If a church is true, then it helps others. True religion is helping the needy and showing the love of christ to other people through our actions. I encourage each one of us to help others, serve them. Share the things that have blessed your life and lift their burdens.

Also this week, Sunday, was my comp's birthday. We had a good time and he got egged too. We've been eating so much cake and stuff it's been crazy. Yesterday morning right before church we had a baptism of a guy whose girlfriend has been a member for a long time. He has really changed and he has a strong testimony. I FINALLY got to baptize somebody in NOT freezing cold water. It was almos lukewarm (first time in the mission).

Thank you for all the support and the prayers, I really do feel it in my life. I hope Lucy doesn't get jealous of the new dog in the family.

Love,

Elder Child

P.S. Can't wait till Thursday. Four more days till UTES FOOTBALL.-

Happy Birthday Sister Karyn!!!!!!!!!

¿Como Estaís Familia?

Hey everybody, I was so glad to get all of your emails this week. It
is so good to finally hear from Alex and some of the things that he is
doing. Your pictures were pretty crazy and of course I laughed a lot.
You kind of made me miss chinese food with all the P.F. Chang's stuff
there but that's okay. I can't believe its been almost a year since my
last birthday, they time really does just fly by. I hope that Nicole
gets used to her job at IHC and that everthing goes okay, please have
any future boyfriends email so that I can internet-interview the boy.
I still have to watch out for my big sis even though I'm 5000 miles
away from ya'll. Anyways, sorry about the food poisoning from Taco
Bell (mexicans don't have that great of food, look for Peruvian fast
food!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!). No, I actually do know what it's like to be
sick like that for an extended period of time. Get better soon. I'm
pretty jealous of all the new sheets and blankets and what not for
your birthday.

This week was pretty cool. We finally had a baptism of a 18 almost 19
year old girl. She's actually a really good investigator. She reads,
goes to church, and actually showed up by her own will to come to the
interview and the baptism. The baptism was pretty crazy though.
Absolutely nobody showed up from our ward to do the baptism so we had
to ask a worker that was painting the outside of the church to come
and join us. He did, and then we finally had the baptism. I had to do
it 3 times, but she finally got baptized. The most interesting thing
that happened this week just happened this morning. We had a whole
mission conference this morning with some special guests. Elder Uceda,
Elder Hallstrom and Elder Oaks gave us a little conference. It was
really cool to hear the words of a prophet of the lord and to shake
his hand too. The coolest thing that he said, that I really felt, was
that in all the matters of the church the Area presidency, the
seventies, the apostles and the counselors of the first presidency
have a say. Everybody has a voice and an opinion, except for temples.
The decision to place a new temple on the earth is a matter only
between the Savior and his Prophet on the earth. He is the only one
that recieves that revelation.  It was cool to feel the power in his
voice when he bore witness of the prophet and of the savior. I learned
a lot and am grateful for his words.

Thanks for all the prayers and all the support. Today i'm going to get
the package so I hope it's good. The work must go on and send my
thanks to all the ward members for their support too.

Elder Child

Dia de Arequipa

Hey Familia,
Thank you SO MUCH for all the emails this week. I really needed them.
I was sooo surprised to hear that Nicole got that job at IHC. I almost
screamed for joy in front of the whole zone here in internet. You do
not know the amount of prayers that I have offerred in behalf of my
big sister just so that she can keep the commandments that God has
given us. He knows that if we are willing to keep the commandments or
not after we have recieved a blessing. If we don't ask for things that
are unholy or unworthy he will ALWAYS help us to reach our goals and
live our dreams that we do have. Unfortunately that means that I can't
really write so much right now. I hope you don't mind. Today is the
birthday of Arequipa so it's a pretty crazy party today in the city.

I recieved my paper that says I can go pick up my package in the post
office this past week. I could have gotten it today but I'm going to
chose not to just so that I can go get it on my birthday. Thank you in
advance for all of your prayers, thoughts and sacrifices. I know that
it is a little expensive to send things internationally so I really do
appreciate it.

This week we had some pretty cool experiences. One of the best was
that we finally had a zone conference with the president. I say
finally becuase it had gotten postponed for a whole month. It was
really good. The best part is that we watched a talk by Elder Holland
that explained why we needed Preach My Gospel as missionaries. If we
really understand that book we will be able to baptize hundreds of
people no matter where we serve. The problem is that the manual is so
spiritually intense that the missionaries don't really understand and
don't apply it in their lives. We are just recently starting to
understand it, so we are just recently starting to see more growth in
the church over the memorized missionary lessons. I encourage all of
the young men (especially Alex) to use the book in quorum meetings for
lessons. Learn the lessons. Learn the doctrine and learn the
scriptures. If you don't, you wont reach your potential on your
mission. It has taken me 9 months to learn what I know now. I can
hardly imagine how much more success I would have had by now if I had
actually learned Preach My Gospel before my mission. Elder Holland
also told the story of Peter after Jesus ascended to heaven after his
resurrection. Peter didn't understand his calling as president of the
church. So what did the apostles do after Jesus left them the first
time, they didn't preach the gospel. They went fishing. They went back
to their former lives and their former jobs. They forgot their calling
as servants to the Lord. That is the reason there are inactive
missionaries today. Often times the missionaries forget their calling.
WE ARE ALWAYS MISSIONARIES, even if we don't have a name tag. Its not
like we do the work of the Lord for two years then just forget all
that we did. We have to keep the same mentality always.

Thank you so much for the sports updates and everything. Thats it for
me this week. We should have a baptism this week so pray for us.

With Love,

Elder Child

P.S. Elder Oaks is coming to Arequipa this week to create a new stake
and to pick up his grandsons from this mission. They are pretty cool
guys, one was an assistant. I don't know if we are going to have a
conference with him but I'll keep you updated on that next week. The
Church is true and is continually growing.

New Comp

Hey familia,

What is going on with every single person in my home? I was so happy

to hear about your trip to Denver and I kind of wish I was there to

see the game. I bet that drive was pretty cool. I wish I could see

some trees and wilderness out here in Arequipa. They have mountains

but they're all like barren desert mountains, not really that cool to

look at. I'm finally talking a little bit more with Dallin so it's

funny to hear that Nicole saw Diane and Cody the other day. He's doing

really good it seems like. He says it's super cold in his area while

over here in Arequipa it's always hot and sunny. That's not true, it

does get a little chilly at night with the wind, but I tough it out. }



Like I said last time, I got a white companion, Elder Whitmer. He's

from pretty much Sacramento California. He lived in Monterrey too.

He's pretty cool I guess. He's got 17 months in the

mission and is the District Leader so yes, technically, he is the

senior companion. But a lot of the time he doesn't do anything until I

tell him too. I have to remind him like 80 times to do something

before he does it, or I'll just make the executive decision to do

something. He also tries to speak very fast so the people here are

always looking at me to translate his spanish into an accent they can

understand. But, all in all we should be doing good here in this

month.



A really cool experience we had this week was on Saturday. We were

walking to see a kid whose brother is a member just to see if he was

home and we found a girl sitting on the back of a car and talking on

her cell phone. Usually we don't naturally just start talking to

people if they are on thier cell phones, but this time was different.

We started talking to her and she was really interested. She said she

knows a lot of members and was talking to member of the ward of my

comp's old area. She has always wanted to know more about the church

and is interested in a baptizm like Jesus Christ. We also placed a

really for sure baptismal date for the boyfriend of a member of our

ward. He will get baptized on the 28th of August.



Well, my time was a little short today becuase I wrote to Josh Liddle

and to Karyn. I wish you all well, I'm doing good. I haven't gotten an

email from alex in like 3 weeks but i do get them sometimes. Hi alex,

you are important to me. Nicole, don't keep going on dates with

married men, we as missionaries have to deal with the repurcussions of

that on a daily basis!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!hahahahah.



Have a good week, read your scrips, have fhe, say your prayers, watch

some baseball, keep me updated on the Utes, and lock your doors.



With Amor,



Elder Child

Happy Birthday Dad!!!

Hey Familia,
I was glad to finally be able to read your emails this week. I was a
little late at being able to get to a computer today becuase of
transfers. Anyways, that's awesome to hear that you are going to be
able to see a baseball game in Denver this week. One thing I actually
miss about this time of year in the States is all the baseball that is
going on. I don't know much about what's going on in the baseball
world but I still love it. I'm proud of Dad for telling people like it
really is at Sacrament Meeting. We all need to be more reverent at
sacrament meeting in order to feel the spirit. I read a talk in the
conference edition of the Ensign by Elder Cook and he said that the
Sacrament Meeting is our most sacred meeting. Really we gain salvation
through partaking of the sacrament every week, we should take it that
seriously. That's one of the jobs of a bishop too is to warn people
and encourage them to be better, even if he's not popular.

Well, you're all probably asking why it took so long to finally get to
the emails this week. That's becuase this morning we had transfers. My
companion went this time to a place called Moqeuga. It's about two or
three hours from Arequipa. It is the only place I do not want to go
becuase it is soooo hot there. I was making really good friends with
Elder Ventura too. Even though it was sad to see him go, it's part of
the mission, part of life. So he left at 7:00 in the morning and my
new companion was coming from Tacna, which is the furthest away from
Arequipa, like 6 hours. So I had to wait till he got there before I
could come to email you all. His name is Elder Whitmer and I know he's
from the States, just not sure which one. I seriously met him like 15
minutes ago so I'll go and get to know him more this week.

This week was actually really interesting because we actually had a
baptism. It was unplanned at the beginning of the week but we found
out on Tuesday that we could actually have two. We have been teaching
a family where the Dad and one of the daughters are members but the
Mom and the other daughter are not. We taught the family again on
Tuesday and they said they wanted to get baptized this week. That was
really cool becuase we weren't really expecting it. So we taught them
everything thing this past week. The only problem is that the Mom and
the Dad are not married, so she could not get baptized this week. But
we are planning thier wedding for the 13th of August and hopefully she
can get baptized that same day. We'll have to see more becuase it's a
little complicated to organize weddings, but I'm sure that the Lord
will help us to get this done if it is his will.

Other than the baptism, this week was pretty normal. We did teaching
like always and trying to find new investigators and things like that.
The only challenge is that the people here commit to coming to church
and we plan to pick them up, but then they aren't home, aren't ready,
can't come, have to do stuff; it kind of gets irritating after awhile.
I seriously hope that another part member family will come through
this week, come to church, and get baptized this month. That's three
baptisms, and two Melchezidek Priesthood holders.

Thank you for all of your love and support, I feel the blessing
everyday. I'm also very grateful for the package you sent me, I'll be
waiting for it patiently.  If you can, keep me updated on the sports
world, just something I miss is all. I hope everything works out for
Dad's Birthday, HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD, I love you!!!!!!! Be faithful and
do cool things with your lives.

Love,

Your son and brother,

Elder Child