Transfer Day

Hey family, how are ya'll?

I would try to translate that in spanish but I don't really think that
there is a word for ya'll in spanish, sorry. My week this week was
actually pretty insane, why you might ask? That's becuase I had to go
to a special training meeting with the Mission President, Presi
Fernandez. I was soo happy to hear that everyone is doing okay and
that Alex is actually going to be social for once, hahaha. I'm glad to
hear that 9/11 was a spiritual day for everyone and that you could all
remember that day with reverance. Peru didn't exactly celebrate it the
way we would but they actually do recognize it as a world changing
event and they do feel sorry for the people that were involved. I'm
also glad to hear that the country wasn't attacked again for the 10
year anniversary. There were some pretty huge rumors about that kind
of thing so I'm just glad everybody is okay.

Well, back to my week (was that a selfish comment?). It was pretty
crazy like I said. Turns out that on Tuesday the zone leaders tell me
I have to go to a special training meeting with the president. Only
the people that are going to be leaders, and the people that are going
to train greenies go to that meeting. So Wednesday morning I went to
the meeting and it turns out that yes, I'm going to be training a new
elder. It was pretty scarey to hear, I can't believe that I'm actually
ready to train somebody in the mission, it feels like I was just
getting trained myself. The training meetings were
sooooooooooooooooooooo spiritual and I learned a TON. Our mission
president is a super go getter, think outside of the box, hard worker,
in your face, intense person. He taught me more in that meeting than I
ever learned as a missionary from my own experience (and I thought I
had learned a lot of stuff by myself). All I can say is that is was
really good. Something really important that I learned is that we
invite people to do stuff (keep commitments), like read or pray, not
to get them ready for "baptism", but to help them build their faith.
We are here to help them and to support them, not to just baptize
them. If the missionaries apply this, they will get more baptisms
because the people will be able to feel the spirit a lot more.

So, I had been in my area for three changes (a little over 4 months),
but I'm going to train, so we weren't sure if I was going to get
transferred or not. Well, Sunday was the day of transfers, and sure
enough, at 12:30 in the morning they called me and told me I'm going
to a place called Moquegua to train. I was kind of scared by that,
why? Becuase that means I'm going to a place that nobody will be able
to show me around, I will literally be blind. I have no idea where the
invesigators live or really where the limits of my area are. Also,
Moquegua is another "state" in Peru. I had to take a three hour bus
ride to get here (hence the tardiness of the email). And, it's pretty
hot here. It's a lot like St. George because its pretty tiny, out in
the sticks, and has some beautiful scenery, but it's super hot in the
sun. Well, I know the Lord will strengthen me.

Sorry, I have to go. Thanks for the prayers and the love. Don't forget
the Utes, they are kind of on my mind.

Love,

Elder Child

Teaching Primary

Hola Familia,
How's it going with all of you guys? I was so happy to see that the Utes won their game, but a little disappointed by the score. Hopefully their team gets the rust off and gets a little better throughout the season. I'm so curious so see what the new dog looks like and I'm a little sad to not come back to the ward with the Stevens. I don't think it will be the same without them.

I'm glad everybody's happy and having a good life. Pretty much this week was about as normal as it gets here in Peru. Nothing terribly interesting happened to us this week, just work like normal. I don't think I told you guys this but the girl we baptized didn't get confirmed right after. So this sunday we finally had the chance to confirm her and now she is officially a member. The most interesting thing this week was the fact that there was a white guy at church yesterday. He is on business here in Arequipa. He works for
Catapillar and was here for this weekend. He served his mission in Brazil, the same mission as Dallin!! He bore his testimony in spanish and he did allright.

I also taught primary this week. It was the same lesson about missionary work. This ward has like 5 missionaries out. I had the little kids write notes to the missionaries and hopefully we can send them to the missionaries soon. I hate that I only get like 45 minutes to read and write everything so my time is up.

Have a good week everybody and I promise I'll get faster at typing this week in order to write more.

Elder Child

Love As Always