Christmas Devotional

Hey Family,

I'm so glad to hear about all of your lives out there in the Northern
Hemisphere. I'm actually a little jealous of the cool lights and
decorations for Christmas along with the snow. I wouldn't want to live
there, but to visit would be nice. I'm going to have to rethink living
with my family after the mish there in Salt Lake. Maybe you guys could
move to St. George, that would be acceptable on my part.

I kind of got carried away with writing to my peeps so I don't have an
eternity to write the family letter, sorry. Let's jump in to the good
stuff. We should be having a baptism this week!!! She's the cousin of
a member. Her name is Marisol and she just moved here two weeks ago.
The member brought her to church and we were like, Hey do you want to
get baptized, and she said of course. No, so it didn't go exactly like
that, but after a couple of visits, she's pretty excited to get
baptized. I don't want to go overboard, but if everything goes
perfectly and they have a testimony, we might have two more
baptisms!!! I'll just be praying really hard along with my companion
for that to go alright.

This past week nothing crazy or out of the ordinary really happened. I
was actually glad for that becuase we were able to do some good work.
We actually had a lot of lessons this week, not a ton of people
totally fell through on thier appointments. I can testify that if we
are diligent, the Lord will bless us. Now, the hard part and the part
that most people forget, is to keep the same level of
work/diligence/humility/

patience when we get blessed with a little bit
of success. I'm really going to focus on that this week.

Oh, so last night was so cool!! Why you might ask? Probably becuase I
got to see and listen to a real prophet of God!!!!! Not a lot of
people get that opportunity so I feel really blessed. Every single
night I thank my Father in Heaven for the home I was born into and for
the Gospel in my life. I can't say for certain that I would accept the
missionaries at my doorstep but God knows why I was raised in the
Church. The Christmas Devotional was really good. I really loved the
stories, the lights, decorations, and of course the cool movie they
showed. We were going to watch it at the church, but we had to go
teach a lesson. We went to the lesson and it turns out that they have
BYU TV on cable so we watched the live feed (8:00 pm our time) of the
Christmas Devotional. The family really liked it and I hope it softens
thier hearts becuase this is a family that has heard the gospel many
times and has family that are members but haven't accepted it yet.
Also, super exciting was that I saw my cousin Scott on tv playing the
trombone!!! I was soo excited and told the family that he is my
cousin!!!

Well, its all good here in Peru and unfortunately my time is gone,
Thank you for your prayers and support back at home.

I know that the Lord is always aware of us.

Love,

Elder Child

Happy 470th Birthday Moquegua!

Hey Family What's Hap Hap Happenin?

It was soo cool to hear about your Thanksgiving weekend and all the
food you ate there. I'm glad you were all together for Thanksgiving
and could enjoy eachothers company. I hope you talked and shared
experiences more than watched T.V. just becuase those moments don't
always last forever but there's always T.V. I actually kind of forgot
about Thanksgiving until an american reminded me on Thursday. I tried
to explain how cool it is to be able to just eat all day, watch
football, decorate the house for Christmas then go shopping on Black
Friday but most latinos just don't understand.

This week was pretty cool. We found some pretty cool people and a
family that has heard the gospel before. The most interesting part was
probably the Birthday Party for Moquegua. They turned 470 this year,
almost as old as mom!! (Hey-oh!!) There were parades on Thursday and
Friday almost all day. We saw a little bit of it but not a ton because
we are still missionaries so the work must go on. I absolutely love
the people here in Peru. I'm trying to learn as much as I can about
the culture here. Just like the states, the people here are different
than in the North or the East of Peru, so I'm trying to learn as much
as possible about every region.

Tuesday was pretty hilarious. Every Tuesday we have a meeting with the
Elders in our District and the District Leader teaches us something.
Our President has said that an Elder has to give a little mini lesson
for 15 minutes, in english. It was my turn this past week and it was
soooo hard to speak correctly in English. It was also pretty funny to
see all the blank stares on the Latinos' faces. Man, you guys are
really going to make fun of me on Christmas but I don't care. I talked
about how we have to teach people so that they understand, not just
teach to teach. It was fitting giving the circumstances.

Well, my testimony grew as always this week. I learned how important
it is to find joy in the journey and to learn from everything that
goes on around you. We actually had fun as a companionship this week.
Not because we goofed off more than usual, but becuase we worked hard
and talked to a ton of people. In the mission, the secret to being
happy is working and testifying to people of this gospel. I recieved
the package that you sent me with the CD. I love THIS IS THE CHRIST by
James E. Faust and really felt the Spirit testify to me the reallity
of the atonement when I read the lines "And how many drops of blood
were spilt for me".

I love the Savior and all the experiences I have been having here in
Peru. I hope you all do your best always and try to do a little more
each day. Be diligent and consistent.

Love,

Elder Child

P.S. So mad about the Utes, but hey there's always next year. Thank
you for the sports pages, they really broke the routine of things. My
comp says hi.