Choooloooos Thugs Gettin Ready to Play Soccer!

Hey guys!  Not much happened this past week.   By accident I had my
first alcoholic item hahaha.  We were in a lunch with a member and for
dessert she gave us these ice cream cones.   Without thinking we just
started to eat them until my companion said wait!   What the heck?   On
the cones it said prohibited for minors and that it contained alcohol.  The
lady was really embarrased and truly had no idea.  She had just bought
them for us.  It was hilarious!   We have 2  people progressing for
baptism which is really nice!   They are both kids from less active
families.   We will be able to baptize them and reactivate the families
which will be really awesome!   The weather is getting really warm
here and sometimes it is torture to walk around all sweaty and tired!
But it's much better than the cold so I'm not complaining too much.   We
haven't had too many lessons these past weeks.  Its been really hard to
find people in their houses and when they are in their houses they are
busy.  But its been fun because we have just been able to talk to
people and spent along of time knocking doors!  The week was pretty
fun and we are enjoying our time here!  Not too much happening.  A pretty
normal week!   Hope all is well at home!   Miss and love you guys.

Lessons the Lord Wants Me to Learn

Hey guys! The new companion is great, and he is from Midway Utah, and yes he speaks English and almost perfect Spanish!  He works extremely hard and is pushing me to do everything to prepare for being a senior companion.   I plan our day, direct and lead us to the areas and I do almost all the contacts in the street and at doors.  He directs almost all of the lessons which is really good because I need to learn how to teach and direct better in the lessons!  It's awesome because I started my mission extremely scared to talk to people.  Now I'm happy when I see somebody in the street and I go as quickly as possible and talk to them!   It's so cool being able to talk to people normal and have conversations and not have to worry every single second about what I'm going to say and how to say it!   The work is awesome!!!   This week was terrible... the people we had scheduled almost all canceled their meetings so we ended the week with 6 lessons only... usually we end the week with 20 to 25 so it was rough.   We were frustrated.. but I learned the lesson I feel the Lord wanted me to learn which is  patience, and to open my mouth and overcome my fear of talking with random people.  We contacted people in the street and knocked doors almost the entire week and found really awesome people to be teaching.  So, I guess the frustration was worth it.

My New Companion! A Sign From the Lord!

We had the cambio today!  I will be staying in San Felipe again for this next month and a half!  My new companion is Elder Kelson!  He was the assistant to the president this last month and a half and its such an amazing blessing to have him as a companion.  Our president knew about everything that was going on with my companion and that I was progressing, but he was hindering my progress... and that I was extremely frustrated!  So, I called him on Saturday to talk about problem with a member and he told me that he had really amazing news for me and that I was going to LOVE my new companion.  I didn't push and ask for who it was in that moment because I didn't want to be nosy.. but he didn't waste any time and asked, do you want to know who it is?   Obviously I said yes and he said Elder Kelson, my assistant :)  It was so awesome! There's so much that I will have the opportunity to learn! While I was talking and joking around with president I told him about the dream I had the night before about being told that Elder Kelson would be my new companion!  A sign from the Lord he told me!  Pretty cool.  It's the last exchange for Elder Kelson.  He will be going home after our companionship!  Here in this mission we call it "dying".  When you go home you die. And you "kill" someone when you are their companion for their final exchange.  So far I have "killed" Elder Chung and now Elder Kelson.  Hahah!  All the elders keep joking about it with me.

Two Crazy Spiritual Experiences this Week!

Benjamin and his family at the baptism last week.

We had two crazy spiritual experiences this week! First we were in the beginning part of a lesson with a lady in our sector, just gaining confidence and talking with her about her life. Then we asked if we could say a prayer and I was asked to give it.  Something that I have been trying to do better is listen for the spirit when I am giving a prayer and to follow the promptings of the spirit as to what to pray for).  Well, I chose to follow and gave a prayer completely by the spirit.  After the prayer we were all in tears and you could feel the spirit soo strong!  It was amazing!  The next story I have is even more powerful.  After the baptism of Benjamin we went to their house.  The dad was extremely sad and so was the mom.  We asked what was wrong and they told us that the daughter was really sick and they weren't sure what was going to happen and all the doctor did was give a little medicine.  We could tell that it was a big problem so I asked if we could give a blessing.  The dad said yes and we went upstairs to the room of the girl.  She looked horrible.. really really sick and was crying and yelling.  It was sad.  I gave the first part, the sealing of the oil, and my companion gave the second part.  She was cying and screaming during the entire blessing.   BUT, as soon as my companion said Amen, she stopped crying,  her eyes went back to normal,  and her fever went away.  She started to laugh and smile and play with her toys with Benjamin and run around like normal.  It was amazing :) So, so powerful. The dad was amazed as well as the mom!  It was such an amazing blessing for us and for them!  It strengthened my testimony sooooo much!  We are going to continue to help them progress towards baptism and an eternal family!   Yeah that was our week and things are still really good here!   Next week I might be in a new area and with a new companion!   :)

I Have 100 Days Already in my Mission!

Benjamin at his baptism on August 24, 2013.

This week was CRAZY!!!  We started off with having to bless a haunted house of the father of one of our investigators.  It was really creepy!  Things would randomly just fall throughout the day and night and they kept seeing things and feeling weird things! But after the blessing all the father could talk about was God and the blessing that he has received and that he wants to be baptized in the near future and now we are going to try and pass by and teach him.  The bikes are still my worst enemy...This past week we had interviews with he president which we have every 3 months.  It didn't go so well.  My companion has been really disobedient.  I'm still new and wasn't really sure how to handle it.  I just tried to motivate him as best as possible and keep it a secret for the time being.   Well, we had the interview and I entered not planning on talking about this with president.. but during the meeting I felt the really strong impression to talk about it so I did.  It was pretty awkward for a few days.  The president called and said that  we would finish out these next 2 weeks before the actual companion change of the mission.  I will probably be staying here again for the next change which is awesome:)  I love it here and I know pretty much all of the people and have developed relationships with them!  The other big thing this week was our baptism yesterday!  We baptized the son of Roman and Karol! It was so crazy spiritual!  The mom of Karol came... she is Catholic and wanted nothing to do with our church...Benjamin invited her and she attended.   Well, lets just say that she was in tears and all she could talk about was how spiritual the experience was and how beautiful our church is and this path that Benjamin is taking and how she felt so calm and peaceful!  Its so amazing how the spirit works in people!  we wiil be passing by her house soon as well to begin teaching her, hopefully! :)   I definitely learned some really good lessons for myself and for my mission!  Its such a good opportunity to be here and I'm really enjoying it!

My Little Brother Braden Entered the MTC Today!

My little brother went into the MTC in Provo today to begin his mission.  He will leave for the Guadalajara, Mexico mission in 6 weeks.  Good luck Braden and I am very proud of you!

Missionary Service Project

"Attacking the Sector!"

I have gained about 10 pounds since I arrived here!  The food is good and they feed us till we want to throw up!  It sucks and is really good at the same time!  The last p day we all got together (elder huatatapayro, elder dykstra, elder de castro, elder zuniga, elder estiva, elder chinga and me) and cooked a giant Peruvian lunch at the house of the zone leaders.  It was delicious! Our bikes are still cursed!  Both of the tires of my bike needed to be replaced, and the seat broke and we had to replace it.  Mine is also making weird sounds when I use it and on my companion's bike, the handle bars are broken so they spin around a little as we are going down the road.   These bikes are awful! We went to a city called LLay LLay on Saturday!  We went to help the 4 sister missionies in something called Attacking the Sector!  It's where a whole bunch of missionaries go to one area and work for a couple
of hours to help motivate people to come to the conferences or things like that!  It was awesome! And the city is beautifull! If you guys get a chance look it up!  The weather here is crazy!  It's so warm during the day here already and it's just the first month of spring!  We had a really good week this past week!