May 16

Hey fam!

My new life as an assistant is very, very different. I have lots of responsibilities. We have to do the majority of the preparing of zone conferences, and stuff like that. We plan with President and we take care of lots of things that he wants us to do. We plan the zone conferences with him and then we get everything ready to go. This week we will have three conferences one here in Lima, the other in Cañete Friday! I'm gonna see the Riches and the Whitneys! Awesome! I'll get to pass by Mala!!! Side note! There are now 130 people attending the Mala Branch. When I got there, there were only about 50! It's progressing so much! Ok, back to the stuff. On Saturday I'll be in a place called Pisco. The cool thing about this new assignment is I get to travel a lot and I'll see the whole mission.

This last week we actually got to work in our area a lot. I was able to meet a lot of the members. Its a great ward! Its called Surquillo. The members help out a ton and the bishop is awesome. We have a house converted into a church. Its pretty sweet. Its illegal to build a church building where the church wants to, so they have been using this house for the last thirty years. They take really good care of it and its really pretty. Its all hard wood. We have some awesome investigators. One girl is named Ana Lucia. She is only fifteen but has the mental capacity of someone much older. She would be baptized if only her mom would give her permission to do it. she gives us tons of references. Its hard sometimes to see people that are so prepared be denied the gospel because of the choices of another. She will be baptized though, we have a plan. We are doing everything that we can to convince her. Please pray for Ana Lucia.

I live in one of the richest places in Peru. Its very different from where I have been before. There are streets and grass and there aren't stray dogs. I saw an Audi today that looked like a concept car that escaped from the factory! Its very different from what I'm used to. The people are kinda hard to teach sometimes because they think that they know everything, and talking to people in the street is very ineffective. They don't even respond to your "Buenas tardes" usually. But when you do find someone that will listen to you they understand very quickly. Its something that I'm also not used to. Its different but i like it. I'm glad that I still get to teach. Sometimes we don't have time because we go with President or we are in the office for a long time but when we do have time, we get to go out and teach. Oh something cool. I live next door to the Romanian Emabassy. I thought that was kinda funny cause Nats in Romania, haha.

We do lots of things with numbers. We take things like all the lessons taught and the contacts and references and we put it into spread sheets and stuff like that. Its not the funnest but someone has to do it. Its not bad. I'm kinda nervous about learning everything because Elder Cahui, my companion is going to have a change in five weeks and I have to know everything that there is to know so that I can "run the show". I have to learn an area and take care of the mission too. Its stressful and challenging but I like it. I hate to say it but I'm pretty sure that I'm going to get a little fatter while I'm here. Its really hard to eat good food. I don't have time to make stuff very much and its hard to buy everything that I need. So I'm going to try and be good at doing my exercises so I don't get too fat. But please don't stop loving me if I get a little chubby.HAHA

Oh before I forget, I ran into someone today that just finished her mission in Mesa Arizona. She said that she worked in the visitors center a lot. I just thought that was pretty cool. She said that Elder Caywood sounded familiar but didn't remember him exactly. I can't remember her name.

I'm stoked about Ben! That is so cool! I'm super happy that everyone is making it out to the mission field. Thanks for sending me the letter from Justy!

Well family I love you a ton! Thanks for everything that you do! you are the best!

Love elder B