Feb 22, 2010

Hello Family,

Sounds like it has been a tough week for everyone. I'm sorry to hear about all the tough stuff that has happened lately. Here is what happened this week in Mala, Peru. I was able to confirm my first convert this week! How cool was that! Ray Ramos is the convert that we baptized last week and he couldn't go to church because he was sick. He was fine by monday and was able to come to church yesterday and recieve the holy ghost! Mala is really growing. Elder Servan and I teach more than 20 lessons a week! It's really a blessing to be here. I think that I will be training after this next change in three weeks. We had our conference this last week with President and with that, interviews. I always love my interviews with President Manning. He is the best guy ever.

How cool that you got to meet Elder Perry!

Tell Sister Allen that I'm very happy that she and Sister Jenkins are ok. I was scared reading thinking that something terrible had happened. I'm thankful that everything turned out ok.

I cant believe that my birthday is almost here... getting old. I know what I want for my b-day! I would like one can of Nalley's chili... it would be the best birthday ever.

I don't have too much to write this week. This Saturday we will have the baptisms of two niños whose father is a member. They are hilarious Josè and his sister Asucena. I'm so thankful for you all. I'm praying for you and hope that this week is better for all of you. I love all of you so very much thanks for your support and prayers.

Love elder B

Give Steve a hug for me mom, and tell him I love him.

Feb 15, 2010

Buenas Dias Familia!!!

Ok business first! About the marriages. We have two familias that we are trying to get married right now, at this moment. There are two reasons that it is so hard to get everyone married here. The first is that it costs a lot of money that people don't have. The people here work to live. They have just enough money to get by with their families. Lots of them make about 7 soles a day which is about two dollars and 30 cents. There is no way for them to pay the hundreds of soles for their marriages. The second is that they need their birth certificate from their original place of birth. Most of them live a long way from where they were born. Sometimes the missionaries can get their papers for them but sometimes they are from little villages where the missionaries don't go. So to get their papers they either need to go there personally or have someone they know get it and send it to them. One of the people we are trying to help has his mom still living where he was born but she can't read so the chances that she gets the papers wrong is highly likely. We are not advertising that the church is able to pay for them to get married. They need to have a testimony and a desire to get married before we even talk to them about it. Elder and Sister Whitney also are going to help us pay. They want a written testimony and a picture from them before they help them with the money. I would like to do the same for anyone else that would like to help. President Manning has given me permission to ask as well. We need $240 for both marriages that we are doing. That will include their passage to their home towns and for their marriages. They will be great additions to the church and all have great desires to be members. The two marriages are Iber and Elizabeth with a one and a half year old son Nicholas. The other family is Mauricio and Juana with their 5 children of whom the first is already a member. They are Dantol, Max, Kimberly, Jean Pool, and Edison. I can't tell you how great the change has been in their home. The spirit can dwell there now with them. How different it is from the first time that we visited. Thank you family for your generosity and love. I will let mom know exactly how much we need after the Whitney's help as well!

We had our second baptism in the ocean this week! Ray Ramos. He was terrified to be in the water. I guess that he almost drown in the ocean twice in his life. His older Brother who is a recent convert was trying to baptize him. So with Ray being scared, and his brother never having done it before we were in the water the better part of an hour. Finally Elder Servan had to do it. Yesterday, Sunday, Ray couldn't come to church to be confirmed because he had a fever of 39 celsius. They had to take him to the hospital and they put him in the Peruvian equivalent of the ICU. We couldn't visit him because he was there. But he will be ok and ready to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost this next week. Everything will turn out ok. I have faith that it will.

Adam is home! Wow! It seems just like yesterday that I was at his farewell. Weird... did he have trouble speaking English? I know that he served with everything he had and I'm proud to call him my friend. Another friend that I'm proud of as well is my good ole buddy Stevo! I'm really excited to hear how the MTC has been for him and how New Jersey will be! I'm so Happy for him! For P-days mom usually we play soccer. I'm getting a lot better. I really like playing. Last week we also went to Asia which is a huge tourist spot where there is lots of money. We ate pizza! I love pizza! I have also rounded up stuff to make S'mores a couple times for family home evenings! That's awesome and they all think it's good! Family I love you all so much! Lauren stop being sick, and Z-man keep growing! Day told me your growing like a weed! Get out there and play some sports! haha! Mom tells me your doing well with your priesthood assignments and taking them seriously! I'm proud to here that. Thanks for writing me dad! I love hearing from all of you! Good luck with your last two games fruity. I love all of you!

love Elder Bearnson

Mom if you could email me right back and tell me how much the family would be able to donate that would be great. Oh and Liz wrote me and wants Toot to text her. Thanks Love B

Feb 8, 2010

Familia!

Wow this week was full of interesting things. First off some sad news. I gave a blessing to the mother of a member who was very, very sick. Her whole body was swollen. To me it looked like her organs had all stopped functioning. I gave her a blessing and all I could think to say was have peace. I couldn't give a blessing of healing, the Spirit didn't tell me too. We knew that she didn't have much more time on this earth. She passed away this past Thursday. Apparently she wanted to talk to us before she passed but her daughter didn't want to leave her to come looking for us. We are going to make sure that her daughter knows about the blessings of the temple so that she can do her work for her.

Another scary thing happened. The young son of our pensionista had to go to the hospital the other day. He was throwing up all day and had a very high fever. She left to go to the hospital before we knew that he was that sick. We called the missionaries in the other area and they gave him a blessing. His mom, Hermana Luisa said that the missionaries stayed with her until about 10:30 that night before they left. She was terrified because only about two years ago her other son passed away in the exact same way with the exact same symptoms. I hope that she will want to listen to us so that she can understand the Plan of Salvation that God has for us. Anderson gets to come home tomorrow I'm excited to see him. He can't say chao. Ha its hilarious. You tell him to say chao and he says bye! Its awesome.

We are working with two families to get them married in the upcoming weeks. We are really excited for them. Pray for Familias Medina Pascual and the Familia Pumatay. They need prayers! We have another baptism this upcoming week. Ray is 16 going on 17. His brother who is a recent convert is going to baptize him! I'm super excited!

Mala is doing so great! Usually in the summer time there are only 30 to 40 members but the last few weeks we have had almost 100! I know that the Lord is blessing Mala every day! I know that the power of the priesthood is real. God has given us this power to use on this earth to bless the lives of others. I'm so thankful for every opportunity to be able to do it. I know that this gospel is true with all my heart and soul. Stay strong family! I love all of you!

Love Elder B

Mom. I have a proposition. If some members of the family would like to help pay for marriages we could really use the help. Really right now thats the best way that we can help anyone. Thanks mom!

Feb.1, 2010

Hello greatest family that there is!

Business! Ok. I got the package from Grandma B today that she sent me for Christmas... yea it's ok though. I got it. And everything was in it. Thanks a bunch Grandma! I'll have the couple missionaries make the cookies because no one has an oven other than them. Most people don't have one. There really isn't anything like baking here.

OK so Mala means "bad" that's why I say Mala la buena. I'm not really sure how to explain it in English. I hope that you all understand it ha ha. This week was the fastest week that I have had in the mission so far. I feel like I was sitting at the computer only yesterday. We are working with 6 families and prepping them for baptism. The catch is... 5 of them need to get married first before they can get baptized... it's really hard to get married in Peru and really expensive. So we are working with them to get all their papers ready so that we can get it all set and ready to go. Some friends of the Whitney's the couple missionary that is in Cañete have some friends that would like to help pay for everything and the North American family has friends that want to do the same, so awesome! We have a new person ready for baptism. His name is Ray and his older brother is a recent convert. His brother Pedro asked hm when he was going to get baptized and he told him that he needed to feel called to get baptized so that night he prayed to know if he should be baptized or not. The next day he said he was super happy all day and recognized it as his answer! We gave him the choice of being baptized the 13th or 20th of this month and he said the 13th! He is one of the smartest people that I have ever met. He is only sixteen and he helps his brother with his engineering math homework from college. We are really excited for him.

Oh man! We had s´mores this week! It was awesome! We had a family home evening with the family that we live with and we made s'mores with a real fire and real marshmallows and almost graham crackers. It was awesome!

Please let me know how I can send a letter to Steve. I'm really excited for him and hope that everything is going well for him, and For you Momma LeBaron!

Good job Zachy man on your talk! I wish that I could see the Deplees when they come to visit. I hope that they all have a great time. I love all of you so much! Keep working hard! I'm glad to see that dad and Geoff are becoming well rounded! haha! I love all of you more than you know!

Love Elder B