February 21, 2011

Hello world!

We had another awesome week here in Floresta! We had the baptism of

Silvia Burgos. She is the youngest daughter of hermana Perla, the lady

who's in the picture with her. The other little kids are all nephews

of Silvia. We have been preparing Silvia for a while, almost since I

got here, and she had been listening to the missionaries a little bit

beforehand. Her baptismal service was pretty good. She had to get

dunked three times. First for her name, second the elbow, and on the

third she got in! It was the first time that Elder Campos had to

baptize someone more than twice! We felt kinda bad for Silvia but she

was a pretty good sport haha.

We are working with a couple named Doni and Carla. Doni is the son of a

member and his future wife Carla. They are really cool and want to

learn. They are having lots of problems in their relationship but are

trying really hard to apply the things that we are teaching them. They

needed a testimony of the Prophet Thomas Monson, so we read an article

about anger from him in the ensign( the one with the King Benjamin on

the cover, I don't remember the month) As we were reading it Doni's face

changed. He became very serious and was listening very intently. We

finished reading and he said that his words gave him goosebumps. we

were reading it taking turns reading a column, but when it got to

Carla she asked if she could keep reading it. She almost read the whole talk.

They both, after reading it said we know that he is a Prophet of God.

I have a much stronger testimony of the power of the words of the

prophet. His words have helped three of our investigators have a

testimony.

We now have nine people with a baptismal date for March and April.

Braulio, Claudia, Nancy Max, Yamaira, Luis, Alejandro, Cristina, and

Jose Maria (Jose Maria is one name. They do it for Mary and Joseph.

If you're a guy it's Joseph Mary and if your a girl the other way around.

culture fact of the day) Please pray for all of them. They are awesome

people. All of them have their specific problems and challenges but

the lord is helping them. Pray for Braulio he needs your help to be

able to make it to his date. He comes to church, pays his tithing but

doesn't feel sure about getting baptized. Pray for him to have the

courage to just do it. He knows it's true.

I love you family thanks for all of your prayers! I love you so much

and pray for you all. Be safe and keep working hard!

Love Elder B

Mom,

I have received my trunkie letter. It's a letter that says when I'm

going home and asks me for specific info. I'm coming home the 3rd of

August. I'm not sure if I'm going to extend or not but I'm leaning

towards the no. I need to know these things

The number for Pres Muirhead, the airport where I'm gonna land.

Thanks mom if you could get that stuff for me for next week that would

be great thanks.

Have you talked to Jess? And I think that I'm going to want to go

to BYU but in 2012. I need to go home and work my tailfeathers off...

I have found some way cool buddies here in the mish we wanna be

roommates. Well mom I sure do love you. Hows dad? I sure do
miss you guys a lot but I'm working hard and doing my

best. Thanks mom!

February 14, 2011

¡Hola mamà y familia!

Mamà està hablando español jaja. Mom your speaking Spanish! Spanish is

really fun, I like it a lot. I'm gonna have to look for a job where I can

use it! Tooty won! Awesome! Sorry I can't be there to watch! I

have a couple of appointments that day;) but Il'l be rooting for you!

And that's awesome news for Frank and the Mailes! D-line coach for the Aggies!
I know he was working hard to find something. That's awesome that
he is on the staff officially now.

I hope that everything goes well for Lindsey and Austin. Sounds like

the economy is doing rough... I see the dollar dropping all the

time... When I got here it was above 3 soles to the dollar and now its

around 2.70.

My comp and I are working our little missionary tails off! We made it

through changes and neither one of us is going. That means that I'm

going to kill him! That's missionary terms for being with a missionary

until the end. This is his last change in the mish. He's going home the

29th of March. We will all miss him cause he's the bomb. There is

still lots of work to do until the end! We have 4 people with a date

for March. They are Braulio, Claudia, Nancy and Max. Please pray for

them! They need your help. Braulio especially needs your prayers! He's

an eternal investigator. That's when they have been listening to the

missionaries for years and years and they don't get baptized. He pays

tithing and goes to church everyweek but hasn't got wet yet... But he

has a date for the 5th. Pray for him please! Your prayers will help

him.

This week we found a ton of new investigators! Two or three families!

In total we had 16 new investigators! Awesome! The Lord has blessed us

so much! We have a baptism this week of a girl named Silvia. She is

the daughter of a recent convert. It's been kind of a rough journey

with her because she is so reserved. It always looks like she isn't

paying attention or just doesn't care what it is that we are saying but

then we ask her and she knows everything. She actually recieved her

testimony in a really cool way. My companion gave her a Liahona from

the April conference with the talk about gratitude from President Monson.

She said that she read it and felt the need to be more grateful. She

just looks happier now. As she was reading it she said that she felt

like his words shook her. She's ready and will be baptized on Saturday.

We also found a lady named Nancy. She has had a very hard life. When she

had five children from the ages of 9 to four months her husband left

her and never came back. She also lost her daughter to suicide last

year. She has had a very hard life and an even harder last few months,

but we are going to help her. She's gonna make it to happiness.

I love you family so much!

Love elder B

February 7, 2011

Hey fam!

Asu! It's freezing back home! I told my companion how cold it was and

he said "and they're alive". I can't ever remember a time when it was

that cold. It's super hot here. I'm kinda missing the cold weather. I

want to see snow again. It's so hot right now, the pulgas (fleas) are

eating me alive... My ankles are all torn up... it's not too fun. The

pulgas come out in force when it gets hot. They live in the sand and I

walk in the sand all day so there is not much I can do about them. We

always see poor dogs that live in the street and pretty much have no

hair because they have scratched it all off because of their fleas. I'm

not very happy about sharing their fleas, but its getting better. I'm

showering twice a day and its helping, a little.

We have some wicked sweet investigators right now. we only have one

with a date in February right now but we have four more in March. The

majority of them are progressing really well. I'm rerally happy about

it and we are feeling good. This past month of January we passed the

record high for the whole year of 2010 in our zone so we just need to

keep trucking and we´ll have a really great year. I can't tell you how

much I love my companion. He is the best really. It's so much fun to be

his companion. We are working super hard and getting the job done. He

is helping me a ton. Probably the best missionary in the world, haha.

Elder Campos and I looked for a reference that we had received and

when we got there he wasn't home... so we went and knocked a door they

weren't home either, but when we left the house we saw a family of a

husband and wife and their little boy taking a walk. We walked up to

them and started a conversation. Turns out the man is Peruvian but

has been living in Colombia for 10 years. His wife is from Colombia

and they recently moved here together with their son. We talked to

them a little about families and took out an appointment. Yesterday

my companion and a member went to their appointment while I went with

another member to go to a couple other appointments. My companion said

that they are a family of gold! He invited them to be baptized in the

first lesson and they both accepted. They also have plans to get

married. They are really interested in our message and want to know

much more. They are awesome. The Lord does things in such small and

wonderful ways. Maybe he gave us that reference just so that we would

find this family. Who knows.

One thing that I love about being a zone leader, is that I get to meet

with the Stake President every month and talk about how the work is

going in the stake. Yesterday, Elder Campos, President Manning and I

went to talk to President Morocho, our Stake President. It's a really

great experience to be able to talk to and work with the leaders in

the mission. I really enjoy the opportunity. I'm learning alot about

what I want for my family in the future, and lots of leadership

skills from them.

Ah man Josh broke his hand? Bummer dude. Right or left? How many

bones? You think you can beat me? I hope not. I had 18 stitches 7

screws and 2 plates... Hope you just need pins... That's really lame

that you can't play lacrosse... sorry buddy.

Good luck with your science project D-man. I love you fam! you're the best!
Good luck at Districts sis! Have fun

Love Elder B

January 31, 2011

Wow! Alrighty Family,

I had a sweet week. We had a baptism! Lourdes got baptized! It was an

awesome service! I love this ward. All of the members help. The Bishop

directed the service, something that hasn’t happened in almost my

whole mission. She was so excited and it was a really great service.

I really enjoyed it a lot.

We did a training meeting in our zone on Tuesday and Wednesday morning.
We have eight lessons that the first presidency sent to all the missions
in the world about 6 months ago. They help us to be better teachers
and to explain things a little more clearly. So we did some recap training.
I taught for 4 hours one day and for four hours the next day. It was a little
tiring but was really good and I worked on my class teaching skills.
I liked it.

We had an awesome day yesterday! We set 4 people with a baptism date, but

they're all for March haha. They are gonna need some time to get

some stuff worked out. We do have some more baptisms set up for

February. We could be lookin at three if we can get Lourdes´s little

brother and sister excited. They haven't been coming to church... But

I'm still really excited!

I'm having a great time and lovin life. I love Elder Campos and the zone.
We are working hard to get it done and get the work accelerating.
Thanks for everything that you do for me fam! I love you all so much!
Thanks to everyone who supports me and thanks for all of

your prayers.

Love Elder B