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.-