The Catholic Grandma

Hey Family,
How's it going everybody? I hope everything is good with you all in house. I'm pretty surprised to hear that it's STILL raining in Salt Lake. That's pretty crazy. When I got here it rained for like a whole month straight everyday and I thought that I would never experience that at home. I was a little distracted while reading mom's email though becuase "I Need you Now" by Lady Antebellum was playing at the internet cafe and of course I listened becuase its the first time I've heard American Country since I've been on my mission. Anyways, this week was pretty interesting becuase I went on splits with two different elders two different days this week. I learned a ton from one of them, my zone leader Elder Vargas. He's a tall, white, Bolivian missionary that people do mistake for a gringo. I really enjoyed working with him and all of the things that he taught me. He goes home in a month.

With Elder Vargas he taught me how to challenge people to be baptized in the street. Just going up to somebody in the street, introducing yourself as a missionary, and then asking them if they will follow Jesus Christ and be baptized like he was baptized is a pretty scary experience at first, but it gets results. You would be very surprised that more than half of the time they accept and they want us to come back and teach them in their house. We found an extremely Catholic 84 year old lady and we helped her with her groceries. We walked to her house which was like a ten minute walk away. We talked to her about the gospel and about baptism. She said her niece is a member and that she actually has a Book of Mormon and has read some of it but wants to die in her tradition of Catholicism. The Book of Mormon that she had was a gift from a member that lives in Salt Lake and it was pretty cool to see that address on a spanish Book of Mormon in Peru. At first I thought she was about 60 from the way she was walking. She was keeping up pretty good with us. I didn't really walk that slow with her, and she wasn't out of breath or anything. She totally didn't have any interest about getting baptized, so we thought it was a little waste of time, but then walked in her 35 year old granddaughter. She was so sad when she walked in. So then we talked to her. Turns out she's almost as Catholic as her grandma but she's been having problems with her family. She says she feels so depressed and detached from her family. She lives with her daughter but her ex husband lives with her son in Lima. She definately needed our help and we offered it to her. She said she felt so much better when we were talking to her about Faith, Repentance, and Baptism. She wants to listen more. It really was a cool experience.

Later that day Elder Vargas got to do Skype with his family becuase it was Mother's Day in Bolivia. Apparently we have permission to do Skype or call. I'm really debating this option for Christmas because even though I love all of you I kind of don't want to see you live until I come home off that plane in a year and a half. You can all talk about that until next week.

If there was something that I really learned this week it was that God prepares each of his children and knows when they are ready to hear the gospel, like Dana (the granddaughter). The grandma took the wrong bus and that's why we found her in that moment and we were willing to help her in that moment, so that eventually lead us to somebody that needed the healing power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in her life. We, as saints, need to be always willing to serve, and always willing to listen to the spirit so that we can help God's children. I hope we can all to that.

Well, time's up this week and I'm grateful for your letters. I'll talk to you all next week.

Elder Child

P.S. The mission is doing good, we baptized 196 people this month, the most in a long long time. Also, I found an original Pat Burrell Phillies jersey in a store this week. It was my size and it was 7 bucks, so of course I bought it . It's not every day you find baseball jerseys in Peru.

Just Because Cards

Hey Family,
Wow, I've got almost no time today to write, so sorry for the short letter. I was reading all of your letters and I absolutely love them by the way. I'm sorry to hear that it's raining so much and nobody can grow plants and stuff. I hear that flooding from all the snow in the mountains is also a big issue too. I'm absolutely glad to hear all the good baseball news, and that's pretty crazy about Dirk Nowitzki. I'm glad that chicago realizes what kind of a player Carlos Boozer is. Albert Pujols is my man, what's his contract status? How are the Big Four in Philly doing? Happy birthday Nicole!!!! I'm actually really sorry to hear about Edna and Terry Curling. That is a sad story but I know she is happier now.

Ummm, this week went by sooooooooooo fast that I really don't even know where to start. Last Monday was the most eventful day because I actually got to go pick up my package. It only took 3 HOURS. But that's okay, your love and thougts are worth more to me than any amount of time. The belts fit, thanks for the peanut butter, snacks, and of course vitamins. No, really, the vitamins I believe are keeping me alive. It's cold and flu season here becuase this month and the next is "winter", but I haven't felt even the slightest amount of the cold coming on. Thanks a ton for the Baseball Preview of Sports Illustrated, It only distracted me for a little bit! The only depressing thing is that it's a month old and I wish I could find out exactly what's going on right now in the league.

After I picked up your package, we just got back to work. Like I said before, the people here are just never home and it makes the work slow and frustrating. Yes, we have members and those things, but our investigators keep flaking out on us. Just trying to be patient. Thursday I got all the cards and pictures. My aunts and uncles are so hilarious, so is Alex.  I too wish that you had sent me a just becuase card, why? becuase those are hilarious!!!!!!!!!! Hope the mexican food and custard was good (so jealous). I'm sorry to hear that mom didn't get to give her whole talk, maybe she could talk to the bishop about that. Friday was actually really interesting becuase we went to a new area that some missionaries are going to open next transfer. We went with the Zone leaders and the Assistants to jump start the area. It's out a ways from the zone and has a lot of humble people (no paved roads) It really reminded me of Characato and I felt at home again. I worked that day with my zone leader, Elder Vargas. He taught me a ton. I am always glad to be working in this work of the Lord becuase even though it's hard, HE always blesses us.

I can't believe my time is up, but it is. Thank you so much for everything you do for me and all your love. I look forward to hear from you all next week. Maybe we'll go play some Fútbol this week.

Love,

Your Missionary,

Elder Child