July 16, 2011

Howdy Doo family!

Well family I have had a really great week! I love working in this position! It's really fun to visit the elders and see how they are doing. So I have to tell you a story. My companion and I were planning on visiting the zone leaders in Cañete this last week. A few days before, I had a dream. In that dream I was talking with President Manning. He asked me where we were going to go visit on our trip´and I told him Cañete. He then looked at me with a disappointed face and said "I thought that you were going to go to Pisco. I really think that you should go to Pisco." And then he kept saying it over and over again. Well I woke up and asked my companion if he had had a similar dream he said that no he hadn´t had any dreams. Well I tried to shrug it off but I couldn´t help but think that it actually meant something. So on the ride down there with President I shared that dream with him. He said "Honestly, when you told me that you were going to go to Cañete, the first thing that came to mind was why don't you go to Pisco." I said "Well I guess we are going to Pisco then President!" And so we did! That is the second time that I have had a dream on the mission that was meant for something. I'm glad I listened. It turned out to be a really good visit to Pisco, they needed some help and we were able to help them out. We got to see Elder Martin, the one that you asked me about mom.

Well we are teaching the coolest guy. His name is José Inocente Carhuanambo Ramirez. His great niece is a recent convert. He is 97 years old! We have to write everything down when we teach him. He can hear but you have to yell right in his ear haha!! He's the best! We write things down then he reads them and then we try to listen really hard to his answer. He has dentures on the top but... he doesn't have denture glue so his teeth move around when he talks haha! So sometimes its kinda hard to understand what he is saying. He is so cool though. We have been talking to him about baptism a lot. I asked him if he had been baptized like Christ had been baptized. He said "Well I dunno. They baptized me a loooong time ago! I don't remember". I told him that he needed to be baptized like Christ had been baptized and showed him a picture of Christ being baptized. He said "Well were can I be baptized like Christ?" I said " Well in the true Church of Christ" His answer was "Ok ! Where is it?" He is awesome! We just need to keep teaching him and help him understand the commandments and how to keep them. He´s going to do great!

My companion and I are looking for new people to teach and we have been looking at the old teaching records. We found this lady and her two young daughters. We got there and her uncle that is an inactive member was there! So we went in and shared something with them for just a few minutes. One of the first things that they said to us was "Oh my girls want to get baptized Elders! Almost all of my family except for me and my girls are members!" We will be working our tails off with this family to help them do what they need to to get baptized! I'm so excited for them! I'm super excited! If we have faith in the Lord and we do what we are supposed to the Lord will provide the people that he has been preparing. I know its true! I have seen it too many times to deny it!

Well family I sure do love you a lot! I'm so glad that you all had a blast in Star Valley for the 4th! Sounds like grandma's house was chuck full! You have to send me pics of the sockey teams please! Let me see some of those new babies! There are so many new family members to get to know! OK OK!! No one freak out about BYU please! I'm not sure. It was just an option. I still love USU too. I have a lot of decision making to do when I get home. I sure do love you a lot family! Thanks for everything that you do.


Love Elder B

July 8, 2011

Hey family!

Well I sure hope that you are all having quite the week! I hope your time in Star Valley has been great. My time here in Peru is the best. I love the crazy world here with all the people and all the noise. The people are so great. I have had several fun experiences this week. We had a multi-zone activity in my old zone Villa el Salvador. We had a lot of fun playing soccer, volleyball and dodge ball with about 50 missionaries. President brought the grill and made all of us hot dogs. Sister Manning made us some way good brownies. They looked a lot like Bear Lake mud cake! It was good!!!

My companion and I are struggling a little in our area. We don't know it very well and we have little time to be there. We baptized the majority of our investigators because we don't always have time to look for new ones but we are finding some really good new people. The Lord provides! Yesterday we had a zone leader council. That's when all the zone leaders come in and we have a few hours to talk about a lot of things that are happening in the mission. We have 246 people with a baptismal date in the mission as of last Sunday! All of them are for the month of July. That number will have risen this week! We are doing great as a mission! We are getting so much better every month. I'm so proud of all that they are doing! We have an investigator with a date his name is Ronald. He is a good kid and we are helping him to make it to church so that he can progress. Please pray for him.

I'm sending some pics because I haven't been able to send any for a long time. I still don't have the pics from Sister Giovana or Sister Lourdes. I'll have to get them from our ward mission leader. I'll have to send those next week. I'm sending some from my visit to Ayacucho. I took some from the plane. I'm not sure that I was supposed to do that but i did! The other one is Elder Cahui and I in the hotel in Chincha. I'm going to send you some pics next week of our room that we lived in and where we live now. It's pretty crazy!

Well family I sure love you a lot! Thanks for all that you do! Don't forget to send me pics of your fun in SVR!! I love you fam! Thanks for your prayers!