Hey Family,
Well first things first. I'm glad to hear that its possible to come get me I'm just sorry there's not much time to plan everything. Right at this moment all I have is the husband's email, who is really the one that has the tour business, its jorgesad3@hotmail.com I THINK!!! Sorry but I didn't exactly come to the internet store with all that info. But ya seriously she was like, ya I can do it for about 800 soles (which is like $300) and she took me through every single day, the hotels, the food, the buses, everything. Remember that guy who called you from Orem and his daughter served in my mission? Well she was in that area too and they did a similar tour with that sister, so they've done it before. The couple's name is Jorge and Noelia Sardon. They kind of speak english but not super fluent. I don't have their number today but will bring it next week. As far as my release date is concerned I believe it is the 6th of November or the 7th but I'll call the office and try to get that info!!! If you call my president I have no idea if you will be able to speak to him because I've never heard him speak english, good luck!
So this week was actually really interesting even though it was kind of stressful at the same time. First of all I have to tell you about a first in my life. Wednesday was the first time in my life that I've eaten goose! It was pretty interesting. So there's a part of our area that's up the canyon about an hour and a half in bus and we went there on Wednesday. Its pretty cool becuase Camanà is the coast and pretty humid but this place (named Socso) is like nice and dry by a river and there is NOTHING! Its pretty much all dirt where the people live and they build their houses out of plants (in spanish its cañas but in english I have no I idea what it is). Anyways, there's some members who live up there so they took us to their references and we taught a little bit. But the interesting part was when the old grandma killed the goose and said hey this is what we're having for lunch! Goose is good, its like duck, which is like a tough chicken!
This week we are going do have a baptism and wedding (i hope). We are trying to marry a member to her "husband" and he's going to get baptized. His name is Eliseo and he's got a cool story kind of. His wife and daughters have almost always gone to church but he was too busy working and getting drunk to care. Then about a month ago he fell off a construction site and broke his back. That's when he decided to take the missionaries seriously and listen and go to church. So we've been helping them get married which is like a nightmare becuase the peruvians aren't exactly organized and they do everything in the hardest way! But yeah, I have faith that it's going down this Friday!! (Pray for us)
This was the first time in a long time that I've been a part of a "real" branch council meeting. It was actually pretty awesome becuase they did a lot. They actually made goals for the trimester report and made everybody accountable for what is going on in their organization. For example, of the 167 families that live in the branch, only 10 were visited by their home teachers last month, so they kind of wanted to get better. Then they surprised us and started making goals about the missionary work in the branch! We were pretty happy becuase they want to baptize 11 people this month of September! If that actually happens that would be great! We really need their help becuase we have like three families that need to get married in order to get baptized which is like impossible to do without the member's help. The branch president quoted Pres. Hinckley and I really liked it "If you spend your whole life just thinking of yourself you'll end of being very sad. Lose yourself in the best cause there is in the worl, the Lord's and you'll experience more hapiness than anything else." I like that becuase it is absolutely true. I've been a little more engaged in the service of my fellow beings this past week and have really felt the difference. The time sure flies and I've felt even more strength from my heavenly father.
I love you all very much, thank you for your prayers. The hill in the morning for breakfast is getting shorter every day and I don't breathe as hard when we get there. But I don't know if I can get used to the ice cold showers every morning!!!
Till next week, love you all!!!
Elder Child
P.S. We were walking home really fast one night through a street that's kind of dark and I hit my head on a low lying roof! The peruvians didn't really have me in mind when they made their houses. I felt like an Idiot though!
P.S.S. Well here are the pics from my baptism en Palacio, Diana. Then there's pics from Jackson's baptism and finally my birthday wish to my favorite sister named Karyn!!!! Happy birthday sis sorry I couldn't be there for the party at Texas Roadhouse, was too busy preaching the gospel among the sinners here in Peru!!! Love you all, have a good week!!
Hey Family,
Greetings from Camana in the great country of Peru! This week really has been something different and exciting. I could definately see the Lord's hand in my life this past week and I'm so grateful for it. It was so good to hear from all of you, thanks for your prayers and for your thoughts, I honestly was able to feel all of them. I have a lot to tell you all so lets get started.
Well my area is pretty interesting. The city is by the ocean so the weather is sometimes like a really nice San Diego, sea breeze and warm sun. But becuase its winter here in Peru its been pretty overcast and muggy. That's supposed to change here in about a month and then its supposed to get really hot right about the last of November. My area is next to the fields and farms of camana. They farm a lot of rice and other stuff here. Its pretty interesting how they do stuff here in Peru, they save all the flat area for farming then they build their houses on steep slopes of sand. So there's a lot of dirt just to say the least. We live pretty far away from where we eat so that's always an adventure. We have to walk really fast (up a giant hill of sand) for about five minutes to eat. I get a work out every time! The members here are pretty cool, they are warm and friendly even if they have no idea how to run a branch of the church.
My comp like I said is like my little brother because he turned 18 the 17th of March. He's from Santiago Chile and he has about two months in the mission now. He was born in the covenant (which is pretty rare). He played for the "minor leagues" of chilean soccer so that's cool! I really love him becuase he's super obedient and knows the lessons. I barely have to help him at all.
We had a baptism this first week which was awesome. Jackson is a little kid who's grandma is a member so we taught a couple of times and had his baptism on Saturday. I'll have to go into more detail when I get home but lets just say it was a special experience with the water. My comp baptized him then Sunday he got confirmed.
Something really hilarious that happened this week is that the little kid that lives where we eat was eating spicy chips so he started to blow on them to cool them down!! I love little kids!!!
Sunday was amazing because we found a bunch of really awesome people to teach and baptize. One lady said she had heard the missionaries before and has a lot of family members who are members. She was about to get baptized but then her dad got sick and had to take care of him. She also had a dream where god told her to read the book of mormon so that's awesome.
Well, that's about all for this week, the hour really flies by to write letters. Thanks once again and do something fun for my birthday and for Karyn's as well. Love you tons. Congrats Alex on the old Elder ordination thing, the priesthood is awesome but only if you use it to serve others (go home teaching)!!!!
Love,
Your Bro,
Elder Child
Hey Family,
I'm so grateful to hear about this past week from you guys. It sounds like summer is winding down nicely over there and school is starting up for some and work for others. I'm glad you were also able to enjoy yourselves at a ward activity. That rarely happens where I'm at in the mission so it will be nice to actually go to a well planned ward activity here in a few months. I know God answers prayers becuase my little brother got his job to pay for his mission, I was happy to here about that.
So this week was actually pretty CRAZY!!! It started off pretty cool because we taught a super awesome lesson Tuesday night to an investigator we've been teaching for like 5 months, Diana. Diana lives with her aunt and uncle in our ward. They are members but she was raised Jehovah's Witness. She has come to church for the past 4 months and she likes it but always said it was different. She had a natural interest in the church becuase it was different and she wanted to hear more about prophets and apostles that we have now. But she always had doubts about certain things. Little by little we helped her with her doubts and questions. Then she started to read the Book of Mormon regularly and her faith got huge. So Tuesday we talked about Alma 30 with Corihor and asking signs from God. Diana had prayed and read before about the Book of Mormon but kept telling us that she didn't want to get baptized becuase she was waiting for a bigger answer from God. So when we read that chapter with her she really got touched and the spirit testified that she had to exercise her faith and just do it. The members helped us out with a couple of good testimonies. I'm so glad for that because in that lesson she made the decision to get baptized!! We had her baptism on Saturday in the afternoon and even though not a lot of people showed up, her testimony was the best part. I love new convert testimonies becuase usually it is so pure.
The other crazy thing that happened this week is that we had transfers. I was seriously doubting my transfer because I wanted to end in Palacios. The members here are really my friends and I've have some awesome experiences with them. So after visiting a few families last night we waited till 1:30 AM for the phone call. I was a little discouraged when they told me I had transfers. I was sad to leave that awesome ward I was in but the Lord has called me to work in another part of the mission for the last 3 months of my mission. I had to pack all my stuff and call a few people and say goodbye to the boys that I lived with, that was tough, they were like my brothers. So I went to bed at 3:30 and got up at 6:00 to catch my bus to my new area. I'm now in a part that's called Camanà. Its the coastal part of Arequipa so yup I got to see the beach this morning. I hope I can do a good job here. My new comp is called Elder Pino, he's from Chile, he's 18 (week younger than Alex) and has been out for a month now. I hope I can teach him the things he needs to know to be successful as a missionary. Its a great responsibility.
Well, that's about it. Pray for me here. I was really bummed out about leaving this past area because I was there for 6 months but I know I'll make new friends here in this area. I love you all so much, waiting for the package hope it comes this week.
Have an awesome week.
Love,
Elder Child
Hey Family!!!
I missed you guys soooo much these past two weeks, just want to tell you all I'M ALIVE!!!!!! Thanks for all your prayers and thoughts and concerns. I can imagine how worried you were from not hearing from a loved one for a couple of weeks! I can explain everything but I don't know if I have the time to do so.
Alright, so last week was all good till Tuesday. My companion has had this weird growth thing on his thigh for about a week and it started hurting pretty bad so we finally called the President's wife and she said we should go to the hospital. So we go to the hopsital and the doctor said my comp shouldn't be walking. He had an infection that I have no idea how we say it in English so I won't try. So my comp and I had to go to the hospital every day for four days so they could clean the infection then on Friday he had another visit with the doctor. Turns out his leg got worse instead of better and the doctor said, you know what, you have to be in the hopsital for the next two weeks or we have to amputate your leg!!! That was a little bit of a shocker. Of course we were super bummed and I kind of flipped out becuase we have a ton of work to do. So that night Friday we started our "hostage" situation in the hospital. I tried to set up splits with the priests in our ward and a couple of days I was able to leave but the majority of the time I was stuck in the hospital too. It was kind of a weird experience becuase my comp was fine but he had to have an IV and tons of anitbiotics. So we spent a ton of time together and the nurses got mad a lot becuase my comp just couldn't sit still in his bed and had to get up and walk around. Luckily Saturday in the afternoon the doctor came in and said, Hey it's not as serious as we thought you can leave on Tuesday!! We were super happy for that.
Now, I wasn't able to write on Monday becuase we were stuck in the hospital and I couldn't get two people to do splits the whole day. So since I couldn't get to a computer sadly I wasn't able to read your letters or write you either. Believe me, I was more worried about what mom would do over the phone to my mission president than about getting to read the letters from my family!!!! I was definately praying for you all this week.
So after Tuesday my comp was released from the hospital but he was ordered to stay in bed for another five days, till sunday. So it was pretty much the same story this past week, in the house not doing much, but at least I was able to sleep in my own bed.
I grew to be really thankful for all the blessings my Father in Heaven gives to me everyday. I am very grateful for my health, I really haven't had to suffer that much in the mission. I'm grateful for a family that writes me letters every week, well at least most weeks. And I'm very grateful for the restored gospel in my life and the plan of salvation. We taught an investigator a coulple of times this week that grew up in a Jehovah's witness family and it's apparent their desire to learn all they can about God and try to do the right things. But, they don't have all the knowledge we have about the pure and simple truths of the gospel.
Hope you all have a good week and thanks for the pictures you've been sending me.
Love,
Elder Child
Here are some pretty funny pictures from the barbeque the other week.
