March 28, 2011

Good mOOOOOOOOrning famila mia!

Well first off, thanks for all the birthday shout outs that i received

from everyone! I had one of the best birthdays ever, seriously!

Well first things first... Elder Campos will be going home to Bolivia on

Wednesday... I'm going to miss him a ton! He really is the best Elder

ever. My new companions name is elder Jimenez. He's from Nicaragua! He's

nicaraguense! He's only got 10 months in the mission but he's awesome.

We are gonna work hard together!

So the night of my b-day Lourdes, our first convert here in Villa threw

me a way sweet family home evening. They bought me a monster cake!

They put my face in the cake! I don't have pics on my camera but I'll

have them send them to you. I had frosting so far up my nose that I

think it entered my brain... It was a good cake though. We went and

taught a lesson to Jose Maria and his family. Then when we got home

the family that we live with bought me another cake. I ate lots of

cake.

Jose Maria's family bought me a cake on Wednesday.. I ate a lot of cake

and there is more in the fridge. I didn't want to tell anyone that it

was my b-day but Elder Campos spilled the beans. Peruvian love hurts...

your stomach! They show their love by filling your already full

stomach again! I love them so much! They are the best!

So we had a lesson with a family that is way cool! Juan Carlos and his

wife Ursula. Ursula was pregnant... I say was because we went to the

appointment and they told us that they had left and the doctors

were telling her that she needed to have a C-section. So we haven't

been able to talk to them for a few days. We are hoping and praying

that everything goes well for them.

On Tuesday night my companion was here with another elder. I was doing

a visit in another area. They went to a family that we had contacted

and ended up teaching 12 new investigators! Awesome! Pray for us

family, we don't have anyone with a baptism date in April. We have

conference this week and then the next week we have the national

elections in Peru. One of the laws is that you can't gather in

groups of people on those days so... no church. It's going to be hard

for our investigators to progress this month. But we are gonna make

it! We finished the month of March with 33 baptisms and confirmations.

That's much much better than what we have had in the past!

Well family I love you tons and tons! I hope that everything is going

excellent there at home! Be careful and stay strong!

Love elder B

Hey mom I think that you could renew my drivers license now. I think
that it's going to expire this month!

March 21, 2011

Hey family!

We had a pretty good week this week! Up until right now we have had 19

baptizms in the zone! We have 15 more for the 26th we could finish the

month with 34 baptizms! It will be such a huge miracle! Please pray

for the people in the zone, the mission and the world. It's not an easy

thing to be baptized. I have been reflecting a little bit about all of

this. For someone to be baptized they have to usually change many, many

aspects of their lives. It's not an easy thing to do. I'm so proud of

them when they make the choice to leave "babylon" behind and go

forward with faith in Christ, knowing that He will help them with

everything. I find myself awe-inspired at their faith.

This week is the last week that my companion has in the mission. We

are working really hard right now. We have had kinda a rough time

because lots of our investigators have kinda fallen off the edge. Some

have lost their interest or just aren't willing to do what they need

to. BUT! We have found some awesome families! Yesterday I had a

powerful experience. We walked passed a house after our dinner

appointment and through the window I saw a family sitting and talking

together. I'm not sure what it was that I felt, but I needed to talk to

them. I'm sorry to say that I was slow in my response to the prompting. We

walked by the house and got to the corner. We waited for about thirty

seconds for a moto to pick us up. Standing there I felt like someone

had punched me in the gut. I told Elder Campos "tenemos que ir por

allí" "we have to go over there". He followed me back to the house. I

knocked on the door and a woman that to me didn't look super happy came

to the window. We said that we were missionaries and we had a pleasant

conversation with her for a minute or two, then her brother came to

the door as well. We talked to them and her brother shared a lot of

problems that he is going through. He is separated from his wife and

now his son lives with her really far away. He only gets to see him on

Sundays when he takes him to an evangelical church. They were really

nice to us and eager to hear what we have to say. I'm glad that I

listened to the spirit and knocked on that door.

Thanks everyone for your B-day emails! Thanks to Hermano Pollary for

the letters from the youth. The one that told me Zach spilled my

hospital story was pretty funny. I was laughing pretty good. Thanks

for all your support and prayers! I hope that you are all doing

excellent.

Love elder B

Mom,

Still didn't get my package but it should be coming soon. I did get

some jerky from grandma dot though. The best! Tell B happy Bday from
me! Love you tons mom!