Jan 25,2010

My beloved Family!

Wow sounds like everyone is having an awesome time. Speaking of birthdays I'm pretty sure I forgot to tell dad happy b day! How does is feel to be only eleven years away to being half a century old!? I love ya dad! Fruity needs to be more careful and not take after me. And Zach needs to work something other than his thumbs... haha. I'm glad to hear that dad has been able to be home a lot recently but makes me wonder why I haven't received a letter from him... little guilt trip for ya haha. You can probably see where we had the baptizm of Derly on google maps. it's on the backside of that mountain, just this awesome beach cove.

This week was a little bit lame. We went to Cañete for p-day on Monday and couldn't come back until Wednesday because of a strike. All of our families have problems. Some are sick in the hospital, others are having dreams from their dead parents not to join the church. Others are being kicked out of their homes. We are trying to help them out with everything. A lot of them aren't married so we are helping them to get married so they can be baptized. But I'm still happy because I'm working HARD! I love you all!

I'm out of time sorry!

Love elder B

Steve! You can do it buddy! Let me know how I can send you a letter

Jan 18, 2010

Hi everyone!

We had our first baptism this week! This computer is terrible so I don't think that I'm going to be able to write too much. I'll send you all some awesome pics of the ocean . It wasn't a very nice day but it was still way cool! We baptized a nine year old boy whose mom is a member and his
aunt is a recent convert. He is an awesome kid and wants to be a missionary in the future. Elder Servan and I have found a lot of families that want to be baptized. But... they are just living together and aren't married. It's really hard and expensive to get married here. It can cost up to 200 soles just to get your paperwork done depending on what they have or don't. People just don't have that kind of money so they just don't do it. We have a lot that want to get married and we are starting to get going on their paper work. We are working on a free marriage with the local government but we aren't sure how that will go. We have one family that he was married to a woman and hasn't seen her in over thirty years. He has a family with another woman and wants to get married but can't because he is still technically married to her. He isn't even sure if she is alive still. He is a member of the church but the woman that he is living with can't be a member because they are living together. I hope we can get it all worked out. With the lord anything is possible. We have 40 people that we are teaching in Mala! It's awesome! I sure hope that I don't have to leave here in this next transfer. We only have two more weeks before the transfer. I don't think that Ill be leaving but I sure hope not.

Wow family I sure do love all of you! Thanks for writing and just being the best! Love to you all!

Love Elder B

Jan 11, 2010

Hi Family!

Business. I got a package from the 60th ward at USU! Thanks! I'm going to cherish every single bite of peanut butter! I haven't received the other packages that you told me about. And I didn't get the letter from Aunt Kim and Brookie J that Grandma told me about either. Bad news I think that I have a cavity. It's all the soda that I drink. People are always giving me soda. Yes mom... I brush my teeth and floss too and have mouth wash. That's all the business I can think of. Now to the good stuff.

Ok I don't have much time this week but I'll give you the highlights. This up coming Saturday we are going to have a baptism! !!!! IN the ocean! I'm super excited! We are teaching some really great families. Our biggest problem that we have right now are people living together without being married. We have at least two families that want to get married and we are going to help them get everything ready! I'm so excited here in Mala! We had 22 lessons this week! That's a huge number! We have about 20 new investigators that we are teaching it's awesome! I'm learning so much and seeing miracles every day. Elder Servan is the best ever. I have an awesome pic of him riding a pink tricycle that I'll send next week. I love you all and I'm glad to hear that everything is good at home! Steve! Keep it up bro it's the best thing that you could ever do. I'm really excited to hear your New Jersey accent when you come home! HAHA! Fruity good job in BBall! I wish I could have seen it! I love you all a ton! Oh and flea collars here are only for the dogs. And if people use them it makes them sterile. I'll take fleas over sterility. The flea situation is improving haven't had a bite in a few days. I love you!

Love elder B

PS. Sorry if I don't send you a hand written letter for a while it's hard to send them from here because there isn't a post office.

Jan 7, 2010

Hi Family!

Wow what a week! I love Mala! It's the coolest! It's way prettier than Villa Salvador by a long shot! And dad ya there is a river that comes out of a different valley than where I live. I live in the valley south of the one with the river. If you look for a place called Dignidad in Mala that's where I live. If you can find the Big Catholic church with a park in the front I live right in front of it. Mala is kind of a coastal farming town. There are chakras or fields all over the place with houses mixed in. There is green stuff all over so that's what makes it pretty. There were almost no trees in Villa Salvador. I'm really liking it here except for that I have fleas really, really bad. I have had them for about two weeks and im trying to get rid of them cause they are eating me alive. Other than that though everything is really good!

Elder Servan and I are getting to work here in Mala! We have two with a baptismal date! One is a nine year old boy that goes to church every week and wants to grow up to be a missionary! His date is for the 16th this month so we´ll be going to the beach soon! The other is an old lady named Joséfa. Elder Servan challenged her to baptism in the first lesson. She said well yes if I get my answer. We have her date for the 30th and wé are going to keep working with her. We have two more that we challenged last night their names are Jurasith and her Grandma Maria. Really they know it's true all of it, but they aren't sure that they have received their answer for baptism. They know they need to do it so I'm sure that we will be having their baptisms too here pretty soon.

I had a pretty awesome experience this past week. We walked by a guy that was working really hard moving two really big mountains of dirt in front of his house. I told my comp that we should help him but my comp said that we should keep looking for this inactive member. we found their house but they weren't home so when we left we were about to go look for more members but again I had the very strong feeling that we should help this guy. So Elder Servan and I went and asked if we could help. He said no because we were in our nice clothes but that we could come back Saturday to help him. He was late so we had to leave before he showed up, but he has told us that he wants to learn from us. I'm learning to follow the Spirit and do what he tells me to do. Sometimes it's hard to do everything that he says but I have promised myself that I will never again ignore what he tells me to do.

Sorry that this one is a little short. But I'm working hard and Elder Servan and I having really great success here! We're going to keep working hard! I love you!

Love elder B

Dec 28, 2009

Hey Fam!

Wow! So I'm in my new area called Mala! Technically its a suburb of Canete. It's kind of an oasis in the desert. I'm so excited! The missionaries that were here before us were slackers and didn't do anything. One of the members of the family we live with doesn't want anything to do with the church because of the example of the elders before. They wouldn't leave until after 4 or 5 in the afternoon. To all future elders! Don't be this kind of elder. I have the feeling that we will have to pay for this kind of thing at the last judgement. Elder Servan and I are working really really hard to talk to people and get in their houses. We have 7 new investigators this week and we have a planner full of appointments. I'm really excited to have a baptism here, not that I'm not always excited but this is the only area in the mission that baptizes in the ocean! We get to do it under this huge rock arch that you can see from our room! It's so cool!
My Companion is Elder Servan! He was the assistant to the President for the last 7 months and is really excited to only have the responsibility of a regular companion. He is so full of faith and works his tail off! It's awesome! He is from a place called Chiclayo, Peru. It's up north. He has 6 older sisters and a younger brother. I'm so excited to be his companion. He only has until the middle of March before he goes home so hopefully I get to be with him that whole time. I caught him riding a pink trike this morning when I came out of the bathroom! Haha! I got an awesome picture that I'll send to you next week.
We had some really cool experiences this week. We went into Canete for a meeting and on the way home we accidentally got off the bus at the wrong stop. About 7 kilometers too early. There weren't any cars so we just started walking. I just thought to myself, "Ok, I guess we're walking!" But Elder Servan was praying the whole time that someone would pick us up. After we had walked 5.5 km, a car pulled up behind us. It was a member who had been driving his taxi the other direction when he saw us and turned around to pick us up. He drove us almost all the way home for free. I learned that I should always have a prayer in my heart!
I love you all and it was really great to hear from you this week. Best Christmas present ever! Brookie J I would love to hear from you! Thanks Family! I love you Bunches!

Love, Elder Bearnson

Dec. 21, 2009

Hey Fam!

Wow this week was crazy! Let me start with The baptism of Cesar Chiroque! He is twelve and we have been teaching him and his family for a long time. His baptism went well. Elder Saavedra baptized him. It was his mom and his sister and cousin and his two other little sisters. His older sister and cousin Romely and Jennifer want to get baptized this upcoming week after seeing Cesar do it. They said before that there was something missing and they weren’t quite sure what it was. I guess it was just the example of their younger brother:)

Ok, so that was awesome but after that we went back to the room and sat and waited for the transfer call. I was pretty sure that I was gonna go because president told me I would have a new comp this change but I wasn’t sure if I would be leaving or elder S. It’s me. Today I’ll be leaving for another area. I’m sad but it’ll be good to have a change. My zone leader told me I’m going to Mala. Not sure where that is but I guess I’ll find out. I’ll let you know more about that Friday cause right now I don’t know more haha.

So something crazy happened last night. We went to the home of Family Chiroque and there had been some kind of fight or argument. There was a broken beer bottle on the ground and Romely and Jennifer were crying. We still don’t know what happened for sure but we asked them if they would like blessings. I started with the mom Hermana Aurora. When I was about to end the blessing I felt super dizzy like I was going to fall over. When I said amen I felt fine. I don’t know if it was because I had my knees locked or something but it was a really weird feeling. But the weird part was when I finished the sister of Hermana Aurora was bent over in her seat with a look of pain on her face. She was holding her stomach then said I don’t feel good. Then she passed out right off her chair onto the floor. Luckily she didn’t hit her head or anything but it kinda freaked me out a little. We got her back into her chair and tried to get her to wake up. After a while we got her back awake. We gave her a blessing too. Then Romely then Cesar, Jennifer had left. I shook all of their hands then when I shook the hand of Hermana Petronela, the sister of Aurora, she held it for what must have been fifteen seconds and just stared right into my eyes. She had a small smile on her face and teary eyes. But her expression was very strange. I don’t know, it was a very strange night. During the blessings that i gave to Aurora and Romely the only thing that I could really think of to say was that everything would be ok and that Heavenly Father loves them. Hermana Aurora just thanked me over and over for teaching her and her family. It was a very good but slightly strange experience.

So Not too much has happened else. I’m going to leave here in a while to find out what I need to do for my transfer. I’ll call the house and then mom and then dad in that order. I think that I’ll call Christmas Eve. We have P-day that day. Here Christmas is different. It’s a huge party that starts about 5 in the afternoon on the 24th till about 6 in the morning on the 25th. It’s pretty dangerous to be in the street cause there is lots of drinking. We will be doing something away from all the people. Thanks family for being awesome! I love you so much! I’ll call you Thursday night! Love you muchos!

Love Elder Bearnson

Dec 14, 2009

Hi Family!

Ok business really quickly! Some stuff happened this morning so I don’t have much time to write but everything is still good. But what phone should i call for christmas? I thought that I had other stuff that I needed to say but i cant remember...

Ok so this week was pretty awesome and at the same time lame. We didn’t teach a lesson for 4 days that here is pretty terrible... But! On friday night we had the baptisms of Hermana Maria Del Pilar and her Daughter Tula. They are awesome! I got to Baptize Maria! It was an awesome experience and a really spiritual service! We should be having one more baptism hopefully this week again! I’m pretty excited! I love being in Peru! We had zone conference again this week and President Manning said something pretty cool. He said that the Apostles have said that the people of Peru are 70-80% descendants of Father Lehi! How cool is that! I really am teaching the people from the Book of Mormon. Many of the people here are very ready to receive the gospel. We have changes this next Monday so not sure if I’ll have time to write. I’m pretty sure that I’ll be leaving. At least I will be getting a new companion. Not sure if he will leave or me but pretty sure that it’s me. We are doing a lot better together and I’m actually learning to like him.
And he isn’t treating me like dirt very much anymore so that’s good! I love this place! It’s dirty and stinky and you have to watch where you walk always or you’ll break an ankle, there are dogs with fleas (and missionaries too) But the people are awesome!

Zach! Now that your the Pres you have a lot of responsibility! You can do it! Make sure that you do everything that you’re supposed to in your calling. Great job in school! Keep it up broseph! I love you buddy!

I love all of you so much! Stay strong and remember the Lord is with you the most when you feel the most alone.

Love elder B

Mom I love you so much! Thanks for keeping up with my blog so that the family and friends can keep up with me. um and if members want to write me they can write it to you and you can send it to me. Thanks so much for being my mamí! Thanks dad for being awesome! Hang in there with that cast!

Dec. 7, 2009

Hey family!

Ok business first. Mom if you and Ant Brynnie want to do something with ties its probably best to just send me money and I can buy them. I can buy 12 ties for 50 soles. That's about 2 bucks a tie compared to 20. And they are really nice ties. But I'm not sure who I would share them with. Everyone has clothes and stuff, they aren't that poor. But if you want to let me know what you would like me to do. Funny story I got both of your packages last week. The Christmas one too. Kinda funny how one was 6 weeks coming and the other was two. Thanks for everything though! My comp and I use the football in the room a lot haha. And the candy is still there, I haven't been able to eat all of it yet. I know I'm sure that your probably surprised by that. Thanks for the music and the PJs. It's hot right now so I don't use them but I'll be able to use them about June. I can't believe that I have been out four months already...

Oook so this week was kinda crazy. We had three baptisms scheduled for the 5th so we were trying to get everything ready like their interviews and all of that squared away but we kept having problems with it. We finally got everything all ready and had the baptism of Hermana Eva Cordova. There were only nine people there including us and her and her sister and five members. We had it at 11 in the morning so that was part of it people all work Saturdays too. But it was really simple and was really great for her. She is ready to be an example for her family and show them the way. The other two baptisms that we had scheduled for that night we ended up not having. Hermana Maria del Pilar had a family member die so she got on a bus for 12 hours to go visit them. Her daughter Tula didn't want to be baptized alone. I don't blame her. Not one person from her family could be there. So we will hopefully be doing it this Saturday instead.

Elder Saavedra and I are doing better. Sometimes he still treats me like junk but I'm just trying to ignore it and worry about me. I'm working to be the best missionary that I can be. I'm trying to learn to teach with the spirit and with power. I'm learning the language and the lessons better and trying to better myself everyday. This week was kinda lame in that aspect and I feel that I let a few things fall out of perspective. But I'm going to do better and get to working harder! I love you all thanks so much for being awesome!

Love elder B

Nov. 30, 2009

Buenos dias!

I’m pretty sure that I got my package. I haven't been able to talk to the zone leaders today yet but I'm pretty sure that it is here! I have been waiting a very long time for it and I hope there is still stuff in it haha. I can do without a watch. Probably best not to wear one anyway. I still have my other one but I have to keep it in my pocket cause I could get robbed for having stuff like that. All the members want my ties and my watch haha. They all want to trade for the tie thatTtrevor gave me. The Hawaiian one.

Sounds like Thanksgiving was pretty fun. Too bad you didn't get to go spend it with the whole family. I had chicken and rice haha. I'm really getting sick of it, which is bad because I still have twenty months of eating it. Oh yea yesterday was the end of my fourth month on the mission and two months in the field! It's going by super fast! Hey dad if you have to have surgery I bet you can't beat my record of 7 screws and two plates! Actually I really hope that you don't have to have surgery at all. I've been praying for you. But hey look at the bright side you got out of hanging lights again! Z man! Good job on the school work! Keep it up! Life is much easier if you just do it! I hope that fruity gets better and they figure out what is wrong with her. What's wrong with you guys? Because I'm not home to get hurt and break stuff doesn't mean you all need to start doing it haha. But really be careful!

Ok so this next week is going to be pretty darn awesome! I'm really excited! We had four people accept invitations for baptism and we´ll be doing at least three of them this Saturday!!! Maria del Pilar her daughter Thula and Hermana Eva Cordova! Pray for them they need it! Possibly we could be having the baptism of Cesar, his sister Romely and their cousin Jennifer as well but it's more likely to happen on the 12th for them! So this week pretty much we just focused on them and helping them with their doubts and excitement! I'm really excited for all of these investigators!

I had the thought again this week in a lesson about mothers. There is this old lady that we have taught just a little. The kids that live with her are members but only one is active. But she has one son that is a heavy drinker. She started to cry and asked us to pray for her son. Her other son hasn't been to church in two weeks as well and she is worried that he will turn out the same. The thought ocured to me for the second time on my mission that we will pay for the prayers of sadness that our mothers offer up because of the choices that we make. I think that the penalty will be harsh. Dad gave me some very good advice when I left. He said don't ever do anything that would embarrass your mother. This, I think, is some of the best advice that I could ever receive. I think that if we all went by this advice the world would be a much much better place. If always we thought What would my mom think? The world would be relieved of many of its sins. I just had that thought and thought that I would share it with you. Mom I hope that I have never done anything to make you sad or worried for me.

Family! Do you know how wonderful you are? Thank you for sending me letters and packages and emails. There are many missionaries that have served almost their entire mission without a letter, an email, or anything that would slightly resemble a package. Not even from their friends or families. Please know how thankful I am to all of you for your constant support. It's such a help to me always. I can't imagine not knowing about the plan of salvation. The great plan that our God has put forth for us. The great plan of mercy. I hope that we can all work together and achieve the highest ring of the celestial kingdom and live together for eternity in the Presence of God the Father, The Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, in the presence of celestial Glory. How great a blessing! I love you all so much. Share this wonderful plan of happiness with those around you. It is far too precious to keep to ourselves and if we do keep it to ourselves then I think that we don't fully understand it. I love you all so much and wish you all a wonderful week! Oh and To my dearest Angel of a mother! Happy Birthday! If I could, I would give you a great Big kiss and a hug. Just know that I love you mom.

Love
Elder B