Good News, Bad News

Hey Family,
Greetings from the big city of Arequipa. This past week we had
transfers and after almost 6 months I left Moquega. I absolutely loved
every minute of my time there in that area and I learned soooo much. I
love the people there, the weather (hot), and the cool landscape.
Heavenly Father knew that I needed to learn some things there and
that's why I was sent to that area. This past week was full of events
and surprises. Firstly, on Monday, I was able to play soccer with the
zone after a long time. I actually playing that sport now. I can
actually keep up with the latinos becuase I understand most of the
techniques and play strategies. My comp was like, "hey, this is not
the Elder Child, I used to know, he plays like a latino!!"

So, my email is entitled, good news bad news and I'll tell you why. On
Tuesday I got the biggest surprise of my life, my Christmas package
arrived!!!!! I was so elated!!! (big word bonus, kind of). That was
definately good news. I loved the drawings, the card, the cds (even
though you've already sent me two of them, but now I have duplicates).
I also loved all the treats in the package. I was soo glad to get to
eat the m&ms. Now the bad news, I literally could not eat it all fast
enough and I had to leave the better half of it in my apartment when I
left. Unfortunately I didn't have room for all that stuff in my
suitcases.

More good news. That same night I went on splits with an assistant.
He's really cool and not like super strict trying to get everybody in
trouble for breaking rules. He helped me out a lot. My comp went with
our zone leader to an appointment with an investigator we've been
teaching for like 4 months and wasn't really progressing. In the end,
she decided she wanted to get baptized this past Saturday and they did
the interview in that moment. I was sooo happy to hear that. Her name
is Veronica and she's really nice, she showed effort on her part at
the end because we didn't have to drag her to the baptismal service or
the confirmation, she actually had the desire to do it all on her own.
Her baptismal service was pretty sweet becuase it was with the whole
stake. We had 8 baptisms that night as a zone, it was pretty cool. I
got to be with my friends from the mission the last saturday in
Moquegua.

We had a cool activity in the mission department of our ward. We had a
few returned missionaries share experiences from their missions and a
little bit about the country where they served. They also cooked stuff
from the different countries. They asked me in the last minute to cook
something too so I made French Toast, they loved it and all wanted to
know how to make it. The bad news is that the stove pretty much blew
up in my face and the end becuase there was some gas leak in the stove
but God protected me and nothing happened, just a loud bang and a
bunch of freaked out Peruvians. The good news is that nobody got hurt,
the bad news is that all the peruvians are always super late so we
(missionaries) couldn't stay for the whole activity. But the next day
for breakfast I had a PB&J sandwhich (actually three=). I missed that
stuff!!!!

I'm soo happy to be serving the mission here in Peru. I got
transferred to Arequipa again, I'm in a place called Palacios. Its
pretty rich compared to any other area I've been in. I'm soo excited
to start working here. The bus ride was a little long (almost 4
hours), and hot, but I'm happy to be here again. It brought back sooo
many memories so come back here. I know the Lord has a plan for us and
that we can be successful in this life if we are obedient. I hope you
all have an awesome week and that Spring Training goes well too!!!!

With a lot of love,

Elder Child

P.S. Tell Josh Liddle that I'm happy for him and his new job at the
Jazz. Maybe one day I'll get to see him play, prrrrrrr!!!!