I'm not in Villa Rica anymore

Hey everyone how was your week!

Things got more relaxed here in Carhuamayo. Monday I was able to buy a coat and some other things to help keep me warm. Tuesday we got our bathroom problems figured out. For now we are sharing a bathroom that has a cold shower with some other people, which isn't the best situation, but better than nothing.

There isn't anything really interesting to tell you about this week. Opening an area is definitely different. Basically everyday this week we contacted except for the couple appointments that we had. Right now we have 1 investigator haha, but his family are members and he is 13 years old. He has a baptismal date for the 12 of October, so if that goes through we will be able to have a baptism this transfer.

Also the branch has a lot of work to do. Church starts at 10:00 here and the building wasn't even open until about 9:50. There were 17 of us who took the sacrament and after the sacrament about 10 more people showed up. From there we didn't have any talks haha. The branch president gave some announcements and spoke for about 5 minutes on how we need to show up on time. So the sacrament meeting which is supposed to be about an hour long with speakers, ended at 10:30 and no one spoke. Then we all gathered outside (since we are in a house church) for the Sunday school class and the teacher never showed up. So then they asked who was older out of us two missionaries and I had to teach the Sunday school class about 2 Corinthians on the spot without knowing anything haha, it was a little rough.

The branch is really nice and if we work with them there can be progress here. So far contacting hasn't gotten us anywhere but also there aren't many members to work with either so we are in a little pickle. The pension is really nice and her family is basically the entire branch. The only bad part is we eat soup at least twice a day. Before my mission I would never eat soup haha, but it's okay I'm getting better and maybe one day I will like soup (or maybe I will end up hating it more than before) haha.

Anyway saludos from Carhuamayo. I hope y'all enjoy your week and watch some football for me! ;)

Photos:

1) Branch Carhuamayo

2) Just a headless pig, nothing out of ordinary

3) Be grateful for the church buildings you go to

4) A view of lovely Carhuamayo

A Winter Camp Out that Never Ends

Hey everyone!

I will keep this one short. This week I was in Huancayo Monday and Tuesday to pick up my new kid. His name is Elder Aguinaga and is from Pocatello, Idaho. He is a really cool kid and we are pretty sure we have played against each other in baseball.

This week has been full of a bunch of frustrations. With opening a new area we were shorted a lot of things normally every room has. For example we have an iron but not an ironing board. I tried using our square table to iron this morning but it didn't work. Luckily here you wear 3 layers of sweaters so no one will ever know that my shirts aren't ironed haha. Also we don't have a bathroom yet... and I haven't showered in about a week but it's an adventure. And as it is so cold here, I feel like I'm on a winter camp out that never ends.

We didn't get to our area until Saturday and we had stake conference Sunday, so I don't know a whole lot about the area. But here are some fun facts that I do know.

Carhuamayo is famous for its Pachamanka (food cooked buried underground) and my pension owns a pachamanka restaurant.

There isn't a church building here, just a small rented 1 story building and the branch has about 20 people coming to church.

No even up this high do the houses have heating or heaters...

The town is super small only about 6-7 thousand people live here.

Yesterday I had stake conference in the highest city in the world so you can say I've been to stake conference at the highest stake center in the world!

Sorry I can't find my device that lets me send photos so you will have to wait until next week. Love y'all!

Goodbye Amazon Jungle, Hello Andes Mountains

Hey sorry for not emailing last week and not really emailing today either.

Last week I had to travel to Lima for immigration purposes and also had zone conference. There was only one day out of the entire week that I didn't travel. So I'm feeling pretty worn out.

Also today we have transfers and I'm leaving beloved Villa Rica. This next transfer I will be training and opening a new area so that will be a new and crazy experience for me. My new area is called Carhuamayo and is at almost 14,000 feet elevation or 2 and a half miles-ish above sea level... So goodbye amazon jungle and hello Andes mountains!

Divisions, Ward Activity, Mercy of God

Hey everyone!

The week passed by super quick. Our zone leaders came up Monday and Tuesday to see how the lovely isolated Elders in Villa Rica were doing. It was a lot of fun to have the four of us together, especially on P-Day. But anyway the week was pretty normal and we were full of appointments and preparing for our big ward activity which we had Saturday. I made some posters for a table we made and it reminded me a ton of all the posters we would make for school activities back at Logan High. Good times.

The activity was supposed to start at two but here the culture is if you show up an hour or so late, you are on time. The activity started at 5 (3 hours late if you are doing the math) and at that point i was pretty frustrated with the ward but in the end they came through and the activity was a lot of fun. p.s. It was national coffee day this week and being a missionary in the city with the best coffee in the world, meant the president of Peru came into to town to visit and also free coffee was given away in the park.

Then Sunday we really felt the mercy of God. I'm not going to say how many came because numbers don't matter, but this Sunday my record for investigators going to church was blown out of the water and also at church an investigator we started teaching this week came up to us and said Elders, I've decided I want to be baptized. I talked to my parents and they are fine with it. Something so unexpected but so awesome.

Later Sunday we got to talk to the mom of another one of our investigators and the mom is against her kid getting baptized and we had a good talk with her. In the end she said she was still unsure on her kid getting baptized but said she wouldn't interfere with her kids desires. So after having been frustrated with the area the past few weeks, it looks like we might have some more baptisms before I leave the area!

God is real and loves us. If we pray to him, with patience, he does answer our prayers. Sometimes not in the way or time we want, but in the way and time he knows is best.

Also this week I have been thinking a lot about service. In King Benjamins great speech he told his people that if they want to retain a remission of their sins, it is through service (Mosiah 4:26). I love the word retain. If we want to retain that feeling of being free from our sins, we need to serve and help others. So this week please look for little ways in which you can serve and make an impact in the lives of others!

Photos:

1) President in town

2) Throwback to SBO poster making

3) Funny picture of my companion trying to get the kids at the activity to form a line

4) A good 'ol rope swing

5) Silly tourists...

6) When 4 gringos get together, they make s'mores

Blessing of God to Keep Going

Hey everyone! Sorry I didn't email last week. It was a pretty normal week as for missionary work so I didn't want to bore you too much haha.

Anyway the past two weeks have been good here in Villa Rica. This transfer has been a lot of fun because I have been here since March and know all of the members. They have really grown to become my family and friends here. It's also humbling to see how willing ward members are to work with you if you have their trust and they know you. At the start of my time here we had no ward help and I was super frustrated with the ward. Now, we are always receiving references and people offering to help us out with the work.

But the work has still been a little frustrating because we are teaching some solid entire families with the desires to be baptized, but no one gets married here in Peru. They just have kids and then move in together. So we are trying to help them all get married but any returned missionaries know that is a hard task to do. But hey when you are on Gods errand, anything is possible.

For a story, yesterday we went around our city with a list of ward members since there are about 60ish who come to church but about 300 people listed on the ward list. So yesterday we went around trying to find some of these families. There was a family on the list we felt like we should visit so we went out looking for their house and after a decent search, found it hidden behind a restaurant. When we knocked the door, the kids came out and told us their parents were gone and wouldn't be home until night. That usually is a typical move by parents to have their kids go out and say they aren't home. But that night we decided to try and go back to see if they were telling the truth. This time when we knocked the door the husband came out and shouted, "Elders!" and later we were invited inside the house. This family is super cool and unique. The dad was one of the pioneer members in this area of Peru and also has worked with and knows almost all of the Presidents of the country. Also his wife is literally white. If you remember in one of my old emails, some cities in this region were colonized by Germans who fled the country after WW2. Anyways her last name is Schmidt, haha so that was really funny to hear. But this family gave us 3 solid references to people we need to visit and one of them being their youngest daughter who isn't baptized.

That morning I was feeling a little frustrated with the area, so it was crazy that night in seeing us being guided to their house and God putting these references into our lives to help me stay motivated here! Also if you have time please listen to this talk by Jeffrey R Holland. It has hit me a lot the question Christ asks to Peter 3 times saying, "Peter, do you love me?" I think we can all apply this question into our lives and ask if we sincerely love God. Also I do recommend listening to the talk and not just reading it because the passion in his voice gets to you as he gives his talk.

The First Great Commandment - Elder Jeffrey R. Holland.

Anyway take care. I love y'all.

Photos:

1)Bird/Duck thing chillen on the post

2)Hammocking lake side

3)Lillies = aesthetic

4)Elder Cutler