Sunday, August 29, 2010

LOVING LIFE LOVING MY MISSION and looking forward to hearing from home and yeah....... LOVE

How is the teaching coming this week? The teaching is coming along good we have been working really hard and trying to show forth that love to the people of the ward and our investigators, we have been really busy with baptismal interviews and i had the opportunity to baptize one of our investigators on Saturday Sandra Silvia Pellanne Bautista she is amazing one of our golden investigators (her husband is a returned missionary)

How is Galindo Quispe & her two kids, Heidi and Gerardo? Ok Eliza Galindo Quispe and her daughter Heidy and her nephew Gerrardo are doing good we have invited Eliza and Heidy to be baptized on the 4th and they have accepted! the only problem is that Gerrardo is only 12 years old and his mother doesn`t support his decision to be baptized and so we cant do anything accept work with her and she is never there (she works from 5am to 9pm) so we are praying for a miracle

What golden family took the place of your golden investigator? Vanessa Cortez and her Family Danilo(18m), Maverik(14m), Cherry(11f) and more...

How is the health? i Have actually been doing really good this week on the health front mainly because we have been without pension (kind of) and money issues (that's a story all of its own)

More good days then bad? YES!!!!!!!!!!!

I can’t believe you have lost 40 pounds! Holy cow!! Yeah me neither it is really weird when i see myself in the mirror but I'm happy and hope that i keep loosing weight but not at the expense of my health.

How are the feet? great not one problem yet! i have been watching carefully though and trimmed them very carefully about 3 times though

Are you wearing your retainers? Cough uh yeeeeeeah right about that....

Has the rash gone? YES and no... sometimes its there and sometimes its not but don't worry its not there very often.

It sounds like you are keeping very busy with splits and exchanges. How long do you think you will be in this area? I know Shannon served about 6 months in his first area. Is that normal in your mission also? I really have no idea, nothing is for sure in this mission and i have heard of people changing after 3 months and others staying for 9 nothing is normal but I'm not sure how much longer i will be here for two reasons one is i have felt over and over that I'm leaving and the other is a long story.

Have you read it through yet in Spanish? NO but i have read through 2 Nephi and understand pretty much everything soo eventually! but i have actually taken back to studying in English for two reasons 1 my companion says that the book of Mormon is written in Latin not in Spanish and 2 i get soooo much more out of my English scriptures but yeah i get your point and studying Spanish both passively and aggressively is key to success.

OK so i forgot my camera in our apartment so sorry but i cant send pictures this week and a special sorry to Marlee because she does have a letter there and now she is just waiting on me!

anyways story time

The story this week is more of the effects of the story last week.

1st and foremost we have big problems now and I'm not sure what to do about it. So i gave my talk, then we started showing forth an increase in love and working diligently but i guess we really offended the bishop big time or at least i did, i think he felt humiliated and now is bearing huge resentment towards me let me explain.
Before he was,  he made promises and never came through, now we can't get a hold of him and he is actively fighting against us. for example the keys to the chapel now have new rules (we don't have a set) that everyone who has a key cant lend it out so now if we want to teach someone at the chapel that person has to come with us which is hard because they have real lives to (we need the chapel to teach another golden investigator whose mother is antimormon) and the only people that have keys to the baptismal font are the bishop and his councilors and they haven't been to a baptism yet (the bishop is playing tennis) and it was only by pure luck that we found someone who had a key for Sandra's baptism)
don't get me wrong i love the ward the people the investigators and would gladly stay here for my full two years but i don't want to fight the Bishop and that's all he is wanting to do with us.

so that's where we are i have told my mission president and well we´ll see where things go!

other than that i have now had the opportunity to teach people by flashlight (they don't have electricity)

LOVING LIFE LOVING MY MISSION and looking forward to hearing from home and yeah....... LOVE

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Welcom to the family Kristi......Down to 190 lbs.....lost 40.

OK so i have a little bit more time so i just wanted to say WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW what is it like to have a new daughter in the house give Kristi my love and warm welcome into the family send lots of pictures and i will try and send pictures the next time I'm on a normal computer i cant plug my camera into this one! umm i got a letter from Marlee and have written a response and the letter is in my camera but i cant send it which is really kind of frustrating, but just wanted to say thank you Marlee because she has been the only one to give me any detail about how Shannon proposed.  The rest of you just said that they were finally engaged! so Marlee takes the cake soo far with letters!! oh and BTW I won the competition i said that he would be engaged within 6 months and married within 1 year and i distinctly remember Marlee saying engaged within a year and married within 2 and so I'm pretty sure i won. that's my story and I'm sticking to it! anyways sounds like Tate is doing a ton of new stuff and that is soo awesome!


oh i found out how much i weigh
before 230lbs or 111kilos
now 190lbs or 94kilos
after mission ???lbs or ???kilos
but i am significantly smaller!

umm and a final reminder that i really would like you guys to copy and paste all of the letters from LANCE AND DANIEL INTO DEARELDER.COM

8/16/10 - The real news

OK so i actually have a story to tell this week and it starts in San Juakin  during a companion exchange with the zone leaders who i was with in San Juakin and loving life.  We visited a family that i know really well (the family with the lipstick game) and were able to talk with them and I could feel a little bit of sickness coming on so i thought well i might as well taste something sweet so i bought a slice of cake and it was soo good it was the first desert i can normally consider a desert since Arizona! but in the morning i was back in the normal greengo diareah stage and enjoying life. at 12:40 we swapped back and i was once again in San Isidro but our lunch appointment fell through (eating with members not her fault she lives really far away and we couldn't make it in time) because we needed to be in la chirana for a baptism because the investigator asked my companion to do the honors so we arrived exactly on time(3:00pm) but the baptism didn't start until(4:00pm) and we needed to be in our area by 6:00pm so we could baptize our investigator Jose Antonio Garcia Perez (age 23) and we arrived at (5:30pm) so we were frantic trying to clean the church and the room for the baptism and then we had to go and get my white temple pants and give them to Milton Montoya (his friend) to baptize him. well at (6:00) there was another activity in the church where the members cooked deserts presented them and then ate them and we were going to have a baptism in the same church at the same time so i thought great perfect we can have the support of all these people too! well the thing is they wouldn't bother themselves to move one classroom over and give support until the third time we asked and then alot of people just left and about ten came in anyways we were about to start when we realized that we didn't have the clothes for Jose to be baptized and we ran as fast a we could back to our apartment got the clothes and returned and were able to perform the ordinance at about (6:40pm)


OK that is part one

Part two is the day after (Sunday) we had the opportunity to speak during sacrament meeting and i was assigned to speak for ten minutes and my companion 15 about missionary work.  Well as i have been constantly talking about in this area there has been a sufficient lack of enthusiasm or support for new members and for this many people fall away from the church so i was going to direct my talk on this exact topic. well i got up and started talking and really I'm not entirely sure what i said ( the only thing i can compare it to is a blessing one, where it really isn't your words and afterwords you really cant remember what you said but it leaves a lasting impression on the people) well i didn't speak for 10 minutes i spoke for about 35 minutes and my companion said i started off great talking about the difference in culture and then i started beating people across the face with a sledgehammer. And the only reason i stopped was my companion gave me the time out sign which means that we have to stop and go somewhere else so i stopped and sat down.  Later after the meeting my companion said the bishop (behind me) was freaking out that he was sweating and that afterwords he confronted Presidente Gido Pelaiz (assistant to President manning and good friend) about my talk and that a missionary shouldn't talk like that and was really flusters and angry and Presidente Gido said no he said exactly what needed to be said and that he had all the right to say it.

Well needless to say there was a change in program after me my companion was only allowed to bear his testimony and then end the meeting with a hymn. After the meeting everyone i talked to told me that my talk was powerful and that it was hard and that the people needed to hear it and need to wake up and take an active part in missionary work. well i hope with all of my heart and soul that my talk doesn't become just words but that it will motivate people to action!

anyways afterwords i was exhausted and i can only liken it unto moses when he was exhausted after his vision.

oh we also encountered a golden family to replace our golden investigator

LOVE YOU SOO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

8/16/10 - Answered questions........

Did the baptism take place on Saturday? Yes and this is a huge part of the story this week!
more baptism dates set? Yes! Sandra and we are working with an amazing family right now too!
How is the health? Great
have you been able to go another week without being sick? Almost i was a little sick in a San Juakin
Pretty weird to think of Stevie driving huh? Yeah when i left he was soo tiny!
Speaking of books, in your letter you said you had just completed “Jesus the Christ”. What I want to know is if it was in Spanish or English? It was in English! of course the giant English words are a third language for me
Are you just as comfortable speaking Spanish now as you are speaking English? Yes English a Spanish both come naturally and flow fluidly but English is definitely easier!
Or would you rather be speaking English? sometimes i thinks so but not really i am very grateful for the opportunity i have to be speaking another language
So, what is it that you really want from the good ol US of A? or from home? UMM PHOTOS!! GRANOLA!!! LETTERS!!!! and I'm sure Tate is not so big now that he cant fit!
Lance is still in St. George and doing well there. He is enjoying serving there in the Spanish speaking area. OK so you guys really just need to copy and paste his letters into a DEARELDER.com letter for me every week and the same with Daniel's too! i really would like top hear their experiences! first hand!
I don’t know how I would keep it or post it on your blog!! me neither but i have been just as bad with the video journal as the normal the problem is there really is just no time and as soon as we are done plannings for the next day my brain really just turns off.
That was pretty weird how in that café you were in how everything was being put up on a screen for all to see. Does that happen often? well this is the second time..
Do you always go to the same place to email? yes
Why do you think you were so sick? I was sick because i was eating too much... let me explain here it is the culture to eat a ton of food and during the week we eat with our person and come the end of the week my bowls cant take it and really just hits the get rid of everything button and evertyhing comes out of every possible side.

8/9/10 First 2 baptisms scheduled!!

Well its been great to hear from all of you and the story continues! Well i actually haven't been sick in a week which in and of itself is a miracle considering how badly I've been sick since coming out here! anyways thanks for the prayers on my behalf! OK so there weren't many questions this week just a lot of desire to know whats going on so I'll just start typing and see where that takes us. So the big event this week has been the training that all our missionaries have been going through to prepare for the transition the the new system of teaching people! which i think has been a big improvement anyways elder Quispe was in Pisco which is about an hour by bus from Ica and every morning and night he had to commute to Pisco to learn from President Manning. While he was there i was left with Elder Rojas and Elder Meneses two great missionaries Elder Roja only has two weeks in the field and has a strong testimony and Elder Meneses has five months and is a spiritual giant, his voice invokes the spirit which is really cool, but for these three days we went about our normal teaching business the Chiranna in the morning San Isidro in the afternoon, it was really fun and we had a lot of powerful experiences like with Violetta Huamani we were talking with her about how god is her heavenly father and she closed with a prayer and started bawling, well needless to say we asked what was wrong and she said that her daughter who only was 19 years had left home and hadn't visited in over a week and we were trying to console her and talking about how Christ knows how she feels and was really a remarkable experience, spiritually productive maybe spiritually strengthening of course. anyways that was one of the cool experiences i had this week.

Ok so right now in this very moment i am writing on a giant computer in a public Internet store thing and this giant computer is on display so that everyone in the street can look in and see what i am writing which makes me very grateful that i am writing in English and they cant understand what it is that i am writing.

anyways something a little bit funny we have asked our two golden investigators to be baptized Jose Antonio Garcia Perez on the 14th of august and Sandra Pellanne for the 28th of august the thing is that we wont baptize them Jose has asked his friend Milton Montoya and Sandra's husband (returned missionary) I'm sure will do the honors so yeah we have two baptisms and no i don't think that i will baptise either which is ok by me the only important thing is that the ordinance is preformed but there i was thinking my first 2 baptisms! and then oh all the work none of the glory huh well thats ok the lord giveth and the lord taketh away...
Anyways another woman we have been working with Elisa Galindo Quispe(35+/-) is amazing she is the mother of two children Heidy(9) and Grerardo(12) and they are making huge progress and we are planning to ask them to be baptized this week we just need to make sure not to loose them and are working to fellowship them as much as possible!

ok so my stories are becoming fact for fact not very detailed in which i apologize but I really don't know what to say more than i already have which in an of itself i guess is a testimony of how normal the mission life has become and i kind of feel like talking about the normal is boring when even the normal here might be extraordinary to you guys.

ok so here is a little tidbit for Marlee all the stores here and i mean all of them are all arranged by type, let me explain if you want to buy shoes you go to a certain street and there is about fifty stores that sell nothing but shoes or if you want to buy electronics there is a separate street with fifty more stores that sell nothing but electronics and it is the same with dentists, doctors, spas, salons, clothes...etc. and this is pretty cool strange but cool!
 
ok so i still have time to write but im not sure what to write about... hmm... maybe making a video journal of five minutes every night and then sending the videos would be more helpful...

anyways i have been studying Jesus the Christ and have finished the book which of itself was a huge accomplishment and i have been studying the gospel of christ or the doctrine of christ namley faith repentance baptism holy ghost and endure to the end!!!

anyways ...................... this north american is talking to me about twilight and i was slightly distracted

ok well it has been a good study of the evangelio de Jesucristo and how very perfect the plan really is and i have been really studying the scriptures not just reading which i think has really opened my mind to what i thought were mysteries and i have had my testimony strengthened to the point of which my soul hungers to read.

is summer al ready over?! wow I guess that means that time for writing me has gone from some to one.... but thats ok i know the lord will bless those who can endure to the end. Oh btw i was thinking about it and i have finished 4/24 of my mission.

8/2/2010
OK so i mentioned in my email that we found two golden investigators"!
Ok first is Sandra Pellalle She is the wife of a returned missionary and wanted to lean about the gospel becaue they wants to be sealed in the temple! AHHHH! amazing so we are working with her to help her get a testimony for herself and we are planning to baptize her on the 28 of august!
the second is Jose Antonio
he had heard of the church and attended a few meetings and came to us and asked to recieve the lessons (well of course is our response) and start teaching him he is way receptive and had the oportunity to participate in somehting akin to a youth conference and so now he has a ton of friends in the chruch, and this sunday he came and asked us to be baptized and we put a date for the 14th of august (btw he is bigger than me thats strange here) but it has been a huge spiritual blessing to have these two glden eggs in our nest.

I just want you guys to know that i love you and that i know this is the church of god and that when we endure with faith we last longer and stronger than we think possible
ok mini story

there was once two farmers with adjoining feilds who were passing through a drought and didnt know if this year would be good for the crops they both were tusting in god to send the rain. one farmer went out and prepared the field while the other patiently waited to see if his efforts would be worth it. and when the rain finally came the farmer who had prepared the field was happy and the one who diddnt missed the oportunity to utilize the rain

ok lots of morals but right now it is even though we dont know if the rain will come - blessings<<<<< we need to prepare ourselve to recieve them

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Things looking up this week! New mission strategy.

Our letter this week from Tyler was more of an answer mom's questions......not really a letter, so here it is. We are still happy to hear from him and next week I'll ask fewer questions!! 

Ok, so first of all, how are you feeling this week? I am doing a lot better i actually haven't been sick for the last week and i think that i have figured out why...

Have you talked to the mission president? Yes i have been talking with him ever since day one of that deathly ill part of my mission but we have been blessed soo much!

Is there someone you can go to for a health check up? Not really it is more like a phone check up with the doctor of the mission or the presidents wife and they tell us what to get from the pharmacy

Thank you soo much for the fast it really has been answered by the lord and thank you for the prayers we have been blessed with two golden investigators.

That's awesome to hear about Lance and Daniel maybe you should pass this along to Lance but there is a missionary here in Inca who was called to Argentina and has served a full year of his mission in Peru!

Have you tried out your debit card? Did it work? Yes and i was able to see the balance on the card even though i didn't take anything out so thank you for getting that straightened out for me!

AHHHH DEC 18 AHHHHH oh that is sooo exciting! oh man wooot wooot wooot! HAHAHAHAH I WIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Great to hear about everyone else too but you know i would like to hear from them.

Was your package all in tact? Had it been opened? No IT WAS IN PERFECT CONDITION and Thank you so much for the package i really loved the trail mix the one with coconut that was amazing they don't have stuff like that here but what i liked most of all was the pictures i cant tell you how amazing it was to get pictures!

Who is your companion now? Is this the week of transfers? Will you be staying in this area or leaving? no Elder Quispe hasta que el fin de la mes (until the end of the month because that is when we have transfers!) btw huge changes in the mission new version of preach my gospel and lots of changes in the mission in how we are to work with members apparently we aren't supposed to find people anymore the ward members now have that responsibility!

7/26/2010 Health not good, answered mom's questions.

7/26/10

OK i just realized how utterly depressing my letter was this week so i just want you guys to know that i am here mentally and physically and trying to get back to work and that i know i will be able to make it and if not it won't be because i couldn't or didn't have the faith to be healed but because the lord has willed it to be so, I love you so very very much Elder Tyler Jesse King your favorite currently serving son.

thank you for the help on the money issue it is a huge comfort to know that i have people at home trying to help! LOVE YOU SO VERY MUCH
Was that a resort or something? Yeah its really just a tourist trap but it really is cool

how is the exchange rate? 1 us dollar is 2.87 soles
Was your companion in the same boat with the money situation or had he figured it out and just not told you? well yes and no the whole money thing i screwy here and he thought that i knew and didn't think to go over it with me
Is that easier than typing letters or just faster? both
How is the health this week? Are you getting used to the bacteria yet? Do you think it is from the food or the water?
i am really sick right now the whole diereah vomiting fever it is progressively getting worse week to week, this week i have a rash that is covering every square inch of my body. i called the office and talked with them and asked if this is the normal thing for greeengos and he responded very doubtfully but didn't say more than its possible, well needless to say I'm a little bit frustrated, at first the illness was awful then i made it into a joke then it really became annoying and then it has really developed into the i really cant put up with being sick like this for much longer stage i mean six weeks of constantly being sick and being bed ridden for one or two days every week has really brought me to the edge, if i didn't know this is where the lord wanted me i really would be tempted to,,,,(idk ask for a change in mission i guess)

all i know is that it is some kind of infection in my intestines that really has responded to medication but has come back stronger every week and my body id doing everything to try and get rid of it flushing it out with diereah and vomiting,  burning it with fever, and now trying to move it to my lymph nodes where I'm now breaking out in rash.

How far away are those sand dunes from where you live? about 15 minutes

How is the teaching coming?  great we had a lot of success this week we were able to make a lot of progress with one of our investigator and her daughter.

Do you think you will be in this area a while? I hope so its really nice

How is the weather now? the same sunny and hot at about 3 and freezing cold at night

How cold does it get? no idea... very

Did you ever receive your package and how much money is American dollars did it cost for you to get the package?.    just got it this week and about 7$ in us I'm looking forward to opening it and thank you

7/19/2010
OK the fruit is really interesting it looks kind of like an orange but the peel has more of the consistency of an egg and your really have to crack it and peel it. then inside it the skin and inside that is a bunch of seeds that look like fish eggs and you kind of just suck the seeds out of the skin. it has an interesting flavor i really don't know how to describe it but it is good i don't remember the name of the fruit right now.

ummm and otro fotos de mi comapañero y yo.

7/12/2010

Did you get the package we sent? NO! What kind of condition was it in and was it all in tact? necesito paciencia
How is the stomach? Do you think you will be having the runs your whole mission? Are you learning to live with it, or does it come and go? The stomach is good (for now) and probably yes and no it really does come and go, everyone here says you really just have to let your body get used to it before it feels normal and i think i am pretty much there!

So you enjoyed that huh? yeah it was pretty fun being in a leadership position, but i also like being a normal missionary!

So have you participated in any baptisms? Yes(ish) i have not baptized anyone but i have been the witness at another missionaries baptism!

Were any of them baptized? Yes! Jesus (the little boy) was and he was in reality happy and ready for this and since he isn`t my area anymore elder Rodas had that awesome pleasure!

How many times do they need to go to church before you can challenge them to baptism? Several, but at least twice, the thing is retention is really bad and because of that the ward members have become slightly frigid towards new people and so it is really important to find a friend in the ward before baptism which is why it is several. What are the requirements down there to be baptized? pretty sure its the same everywhere in the world ask shan for the baptismal interview questions!

Have you had the opportunity to give any blessings? oh yeah we give a ton of blessings down here i think that i haven`t gone a week without giving two or three or five!

How is the food? What do you eat mostly? Is it like the CCM, chicken and rice? Do you have to do your own shopping or does someone do that for you? yeah there is a lt of chicken and rice bc those are the main staples of their diet but they never cease to amaze with all the different varieties they can create with those two types.

Is it a better part of town? How did you find it? How far away is the church building? it is the same part of town only thee blocks away but it really is in a nicer part of town the safe zone, and it is only one block away from the church instead of two.

Does anyone ride bikes, or would they just get stolen? none of the missionaries no, but i have seen some of the people here have bikes and they guard them zealously.

The Hopefully that will improve a little with the new apartment? Is it cold during the day? Where do you get your blankets? How is the electricity thing down there? yes everything has really improved with the new apartment, and i found a polar blanket which has imroved my life dramatically and oh our apartment has hot water whenever we want and electricity when we need, it is a place where a spoiled North American like me can live very comfortably ;)

Lance O entered the MTC this week, shouldn't Daniel be going soon? Pienso, oh you definitely need to dearelder.com me all of lance's letters!

Hopefully you will have a little more time on line! BTW, how much time do you get anyway? one hour! woot woot

What is your zone doing today? BARBQ!

How many are in your zone, any other North American missionaries? 14 missionaries and 3 north Americans!

ok lots of questions and sorry i don`t have very many picture of sand boarding but i made a cd of all of my pictures and am sending one copy to you guys to enjoy so when you get it put them all on photo bucket and make a slide show for the blog. but i think Tate and Marlee will forgive me fastest! BTW how did they like this i think that this could definitely speed u some of the communication!

Monday, July 5, 2010

News from Peru

How did the move go on Thursday?
Ugh headaches! just so you know i love traveling but hate moving our previous landlord was a real jerk about letting us go but i think that is just normal world wide when someone is loosing business, oh well he was a great guy every other time i saw him.

Who is your companion this week?
Haha i have had that same joke playing in my mind too! but no it is still elder Quispe (for the moment his normal changes are this upcoming week but we think that we will remain companions but who knows!) oh yeah missionaries enter the field every 3 weeks and transfers are every six so normally you have two groups and elder quispe and i are in different groups

How many Elders live in your apartment?
just me and elder quispe!

I'm guessing that the apartment you were taking pictures of was your old apartment you just moved from, right? How is the new one?
Yes you were right and the new one is soo much better!

How are the contacts going? Any new leads or baptisms?
this week has been the `normal´ missionary week with nothing exciting lots of people not showing up to appointments and since we were moving we really didn`t do very much contacting but this week everything has settled back down and we are working really well with a part member family that we are hoping to baptize before transfers (mine)

What is yours?
Patience!

Have you received any of our letters from Dear elder.com?
Just got Marlee`s today!

Weird huh? Timothy with a baby?
umm yeah but that is way exciting!

OK story time!

hmm let me think...

ok so this week we have been really busy with the move right and i don`t want to bore you with the details of that so i am going to tell you about noche de hogar or family home evening that is one of the tools that we as missionaries use to gain trust and help investigators make friends or even simply gain references from members.

ok so this is the general course of NDH sing a hymn say a prayer a brief lesson from me or my companion then a short lesson from the other my companion or me, then a closing prayer and a game. pretty standard right? well the real reason people like to have NDH with the missionaries are the games after the closing prayer we have three standard games cat and mouse, hot potato, and Indian fire.

cat and mouse is a game where everyone sits in a circle and has two ties one tie is the cat and the other is the mouse. two different people start with each tie and tie a knot and untie the not and pass it to the next person and it starts a chase. the mouse has to toe two knots and the cat only has to tie one.

hot potato is the same

and the Indian fire some one strikes a match and says by wisdom we learn by experience we burn and passes the match to someone else who then says the same thing when the fire goes out or someone drops the match they are the loser and the person who passed them the match writes on their face with lipstick giving them Indian lines or not depends on the person!

anyways this is just one of the tactics we used.

wow this is a lame letter...

ok today we are going sand boarding! yes you heard right sand boarding! here they have giant sand dunes i mean the size of mountains in Arizona! and you either hike of ride to the top and strap a snow board to your feet and ride down! we are only allowed to go about once a transfer here in ica and we are going as a zone today so i hope that it lives up to the reputation that everyone gives.

ok i also learned a little something about the ward i am currently in there are 1500 members thats right on thousand five hundred members and only about 180 active members yes one hundred and eighty active members. just a statistic that might help you understand a little better the area I'm working in!

ok i also learned this week just how huge our area is we were asked to come give a family bendiciones de salud (forgot how to say it in English) and we got in a taxi and were taken out of the city through about four small towns and to a house where a older lady a jovencita of about 21ish and a baby girl live it took us about a half hour a travel to reach them! they are an amazing family and would be probably the most faithful members if they didn`t live so far from the church the jovencita only works three days a week and makes enough to take care of everyone they actually own their house what is her job you ask? that's right CABLE! ha ha. but really they are an amazing family and we will be visiting them again tomorrow.

another family that we are working with is the Mendosa family. The Aunt (Edelmira) was baptized during the previous transfer and the niece asked if she and her mom could receive the lessons. WELL OF COURSE so we have been working really well with the niece (Bridget) and only recently have been able to talk with the mom (Delia) but we are making great strides with them and their aunt is always there to support them which is amazing! ok the daughter of Edelmira is from Spain and has red hair! and this family is not very Latino but still have Latino blood in them!

anyways happy fourth of July i actually forgot! ha sound like everything has been really busy at home though! ok SHANNON BE CAREFUL and umm please tell me when I'm getting a new sister! :) anyways i love you

i got a letter from Marlee on dear elder and a letter from Tate postmarked 23 jun 2010 if that gives you any idea how long letters take!

umm.... wow this letter is way scatterbrained

ok LOVE YOU ALL SO VERY VERY VERY much and I've decided that whoever rights me the most on my mission gets the best souvenir! so start you engines sharpen you pencils and write me! haha! anyways this week i have been studying JESUS THE CHRIST and have been really interested in everything that's in there! i `can`t believe i haven't read this before!

Questions answered!

well I'm trying to send pictures so this letter will be more of an answer question and if I have time a story letter.
Is this week a week off or on the thrown? Well i have no idea what this question means but i have been working hard with a lot of different people!
Does the town you are in one that has grocery stores and modern type stores, or is it like markets with meat hanging out and chickens running around? Well there are actual stores in Santiago, but I am no longer there I am in San Isidro with Elder Quispe as my new companion!
Have you found anyone to alter your pants so that they fit? no not as of yet probably this week
Dad was wondering if you have a mamasita to do your laundry and cooking?
Do your "helpers" know how to alter clothes? Yes we have a variety of people helping us every lunch and dinner is with a pensionista and breakfast and weekends we are on our own either eating with members or by ourselves, we have separate people for our clothes but I'm not sure if they know how to alter clothes!
Which of us is right?
MOM of course i simply forgot the camera in our apartment
Has everything worked out?
How are things going?
Everything has worked out my companion Elder Rodas had a friend from his ward in the mission and they are now companions during this hard time in Santiago!
How is the family you challenged to baptism?
How soon will they be baptized?
I'm not entirely sure because I'm not in that area and couldn't follow up with them but i think they are doing great! and they are supposed to be baptised this Saturday!
Are they pretty kind for the most part to the elders? most people are very nice and others not so much people vary here as much as in the united states
Do you knock on doors and tract?
Do you have many referrals or not?
we haven`t knocked doors yet we are always working with members and contacting in the street because everyone is outside here!
What do they think about your fair complexion and red hair?
Do you get any second looks?
of course i have even been bowed down to and worshiped like a king and let me tell you that was awkward but I'm pretty sure they guy was drunk so not sure if that will ever happen again!
Is there anything you need other than our prayers?
Well here it is freezing at night but we just found a new apartment that is warm so no prayers are all i need! oh no its not i just remembered! the rules for music in this mission are MOTAB AND CLASSICAL HYMNS so all the great instrumental variations of hymns and motab (English and Spanish if possible) would be beyond amazing every apartment has a cd player so send me cds if you can! LOVE YOU but prayers are more important than music they are a lot more helpful!
I'm going to send this one and write a story in another just in case time runs out!

Short and sweet!

ok wow a ton has been going on at home! ayah! and you should definitely dear elder me ALL OF THE JUICY DETAILS of everything because right now i really only know that events have occurred! ok zone leader just told us to stop so events

cold
no water in shower
not able to lock door at night
looking for new apartment
found moving on thursday

LOVE YOU HOPE TO WRITE MORE NEXT WEEK

Monday, June 21, 2010

Stomach of Iron needed!!!

OK SO FIRST OF ALL HAAAAAAAAAAAAAPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPY FATHERS DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


and second of all FELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLIZ DIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA DE PAAAAAAAAAAAAADRES!

and third of all HAPPY BIRTHDAY FELIZ CUPLIANOS! just wanted to get this one out there because i hate giving late birthdays

OK yeah so here are your answers!

What kind of place do you live in?
we live in a nice apartment (in comparison to what i have seen) and i have really enjoyed being there, haha but i haven't really been there in like a week! oh i wish i could send pics but i dint have the opportunity all of this will be explained latter sorry!

How long were you sick from the food?
Well this will also be explained in my story, but i thinks that i felt good from wed until this morning!

How do you know what meat to eat and what not to eat?
Me, well i don't really i just know i cant eat anything that hasn't been properly cooked so from now on i always wait until after my companion takes a bite. :)

Has your companion been in this area?
Yes he has i think he has been here for the last transfer ( down here they are known as cambiars)

You said your toilet was broken? What does that mean, and do you actually have plumbing?
Yes we do have plumbing the toilet seat cracked in half and so the front part is annoying and occasionally the seat pinches!

When are we going to get some pictures?
siempre proxima semana! :) always next week! but again this will be explained latter!

Where do you go to email?
We come to this large computer/internet store there are probably thirty computer here and everyone from the zone comes and emails here at the same time!

How big is the ward/branch in that area?
In Santiago i think i counted about fifty people including investigators and children.

Are you keeping your journal?
uhhh yes..........and a very poor one which i why i love writing stories whenever i get mail.

Do you guys walk everywhere you go?
Yes we walk everywhere, except when it is really far in which case we either take a taxi or a mototaxi :) mototaxi's are so much funner and a lot cheaper they are like a mortorcycle that has been modified to have three wheels a cab and a seat that comfortable seats two but they are not much bigger than gocarts and alot of the time i have felt like i am in bumper cars at a theme park it is just so strange!

About how far do you walk each day?
We can walk anywhere from three to four miles with taxis without we would have to walk more like 15-20miles.

Does anyone speak English?
Um there are three north American missionaries so yes! other than that the Latino missionaries are supposed to try and learn English according to PMG. ohh we met a boy about 13 who could speak English and i could barely understand him it sounded so foreign to me. even now it is a struggle to write English as you can probably tell by my very poor typing spelling grammar

How are the shin splints?
GONE! WOOHOO!

How do you get your dear elder letters?
every week the mission office sends a package via bus to Inca and the zone leaders pick it up and deliver it to us during email time!

OK only a half hour left and i have to tell you what has been happening all week! UGH!

OK so exactly one week ago everything started a downward spiral with my companion. Ok so before i start that i should say that my companion is amazing that i love him and he felt like he was under a lot of pressure because i was his first hijo (oh trainers are padres and newbies are hijos) anyways we came and emailed and immediately afterward i asked him how did it go and then i see his face with looks completely grief stricken and he just shakes his head as if to say don't ask ( ok so i think that has to be the hardest thing ever to see because it just breaks your heart) but i gave him a little room as we walked with our entire zone over to a soccer field to play some soccer. well by the time we got there other missionaries had notcied but weren't doing anything. so when a north American missionary (ELDER HALL) came over and asked me how it went i told him everything was great with me but i think something happened with my companion, and that i thought it was family related. well he and his companion went straight into Jesus Christ mode and were comforting and got the zone leaders in on it and after a little bit we all played soccer and i think that helped get my companions mind off of his problem, but when we got back to the apartment and went out to teach i could still tell it was eating him up inside. And what made it worse was the next morning i was completely in full blown illness which was lovely:) anyways we were able to go to the district meeting and talk with all the missionaries again and he got a blessing of comfort from the district leader and me, and then they arranged to have a short intercambia tomorrow anyways when we got back to the apartment i died, i fell on the bed and was immobilized by cramps and escapades to the bathroom which was soo much fun for my companion to be stuck in the apartment with me my stomach and his problem and for about five hours i laid there (oh mini story! while i was laying there i was having some pretty wigged out dreams but one that scared me the most was i was sent home and i was kay with it i felt accomplished that i had done everything i had come to do and was satisfied) so in the midst of feeling this strange feeling of accomplishment and dierreah my companion comes in and says he knows that i am not feeling well and that h has some problems but that we needed to get out of the apartment and serve. and when he said that i immediately started feeling better. Personally i think that god made me sick with the exact intent of forcing my companion to evaluate why he was on a mission and i only had the feeling of accomplishment when he had finally made his choice, but that is just me. anyways we went out that night and committed a family of four to baptism and their friend (FAMILIA VARGAS AND HNA PRIORIA) and that put us on top of the world, but when we asked Jesus (a 8 year old investigator his mom is a nonmember but his grandparents are) if he would be baptised he started a silent cry trying to hold back tears, but he said yes, but personally i think he only said yeas because that is what he thought we wanted to hear so we talked to his grandpa to talk to him about it and that he needs a real desire to be baptised and we left with a very hollow feeling. Well the next day was an exchange and we had a lot of success well me and ELDER QUISPE our district leader which was awesome we only had the opportunity to teach 3 families (OH there is a huge difference between areas of this mission! in poverty in education and in acceptance an i had to learn how to teach to this completely different kind of people!) anyways i was a blast and when we me back up to trade back companions i could tell that my companion was doing a little better but not much but he had committed another man to baptism JOSE VERA which was soo cool! and then we went back and taught and did what we could! the next day however is when it really hit him hard in the face, he hadn't been able to sleep at night at all and he really couldn't function and he ran to the phone and called to zone leaders and said he needed them. They showed up in about an hour and we talked the four of us to try and figure out what to do, it kind of felt like an intervention though with missionary motivating scriptures and that but he needed to talk with the president and over the phone wasn't sufficient, (oh everyone talked with president individually over the phone and this is what president said to me sometimes these things happen when there are problems at home and the family needs someone to confide in they tell their missionary who is powerless to do anything and it putts a lot of pressure and stress on the missionary.) so the president arranged for me to be companions with ELDER ARENAS until Monday night and for ELDER NOVOA to be my companions companion. SO i packed a bag full of ....ahh 2 minutes anyways i have enjoyed being a deputy zone leader! we live on the 5th floor and haven't had the opportunity to get my camera sorry with i could say more bye! love you all!!!!

Sunday, June 20, 2010

6/17/10 Letter to Kim from Tyler - Pigs outside!

WOW that sounds interesting, i wonder why everything was going wrong. I am trying to take Job´s attitude with facing troubles like that. God doesn´t give us challenges so that he can sit back and laugh with amusement, no he loves us too much and he gives us challenges that way we have the opportunity to grow and become more Christlike. I know that i have had to really learn and understand how to bear all things with patience in this part of my mission and hope that i can be given the strength to continue on. OH i have had some interesting experiences. we were teaching this one family who are recent converts and they live in this woven bamboo hut and just outside is the pig pen. did you know how extremely loud pigs are? well we are talking to people the pigs are´belching´´ and they are talking softly and at the same time so naturally I'm not getting much out of it, but i did understand that this man has seen angels in his life and they are some pretty interesting stories. but the thing is i don´t know how much to believe. because you don´t really hear much of this in the US and i don´t know maybe it is culture these people really have nothing but family work and church, oh and TV and soccer. did you know most of the bamboo huts here have a TV for watching soccer it is way interesting, any ways I think maybe alot of them are real and that people in the US are simple too plugged in to really notice all of the miracles going on around them, i know that i have really seen the hand of god on my mission much more than before and i don´t know if it is the fact that i have unplugged myself or the fact that I'm a missionary and this is normal. anyways i love you so very very much and hope to hear from you soon! BTW have you had any challenging companions? what did you do? any great companions? why were they great? DEARELDER.COM me the answers! ADIOS! AMOR!

6/14/10 Left CCM - San Isidro, Santiago, Ica Peru- First bout with food!

Well from now on I'm pretty sure my P-days will be Monday from now until i return from my mission so that might make it a little bit easier on the email front as for letters i received dads first Dear elder before i left and am anxiously waiting for the others.? It sounds like a lot has been going on at home and sorry its been so long since the last email this week has been completely crazy!? Well i am in my new area. I am serving in the San Isidro, Santiago, Ica, Peru portion of my mission.? It took about five hours on a bus a overnight stay with our zone leaders and a 45 min taxi ride but i made it safe and sound! I love it here. The people are not a crazy as the people in Lima and i heard that it is the same with all of the provinces,? but the people here have absolutely nothing, i picture it kind of like the St David/Benson area small area with a bunch of houses the size of grandmas shed all sharing walls.  I have taught lessons in houses made out of woven bamboo and a dirt floor and have had a lot of times when I have said wow people actually live like this! Poverty is extreme but the people are happy and ready for the gospel, we keep finding a ton of people that would like to listen to us and it is way exciting, my new companion is ELder Rodas from Equador, he is an amazing elder he has only been on his mission since December but he is such a great missionary.? The language is as always a challenge, because the people here speak different than they do in the city of Lima, i think that it isn't so much as different words as it is that they say things differently.? Teaching has also been an interesting experience, the people here are not very educated especially the elderly.? talking to some of them about the gospel is very challenging because we will talk about how God and Jesus and the Holy Ghost are different people for a half hour not because they don't believe it simply because they don't understand and it takes a lot of patience especially when you don't know the language and have only one way to explain something but my companion has been a great help to me, the children are easier to teach because most of them are becoming more educated which i think is amazing, oh wow my zone leader just handed me 8 letters all from AZ WOOOHOOO! I'm looking forward to tonight! and will try and write back soon!? anyways my story ok so the people here are impoverished right but somehow they manage to have food, and i mean a lot of food.? most of the people here either work in the store or in the fields which i have no idea what they do but it is always store field or factory.? so our lunch appointment forgot and didn't prepare anything so we went back and had some rolls in our apartment and went back out to teach this part member family.? well they had prepared a feast they set us down and gave us a bowl of soup each and we ate and talked and i was full of rolls and soup and was ready to go when they brought out the main course, it was a giant plate stacked two inches deep with rice topped with potatoes and peppers and sauce.? I about died trying to eat all of it because if you don't eat it it goes to waste because they wont eat it if they give it to someone so I'm dieing and just as i finish my companion is about a fourth of the way through and he says I'm sorry i haven't been feeling well so do you mind if i can take this with us?? I was flabbergasted i didn't know you could do that here i ate until i was literally feeling ill and he just casually takes it with us.? ugh after that i had to go back to our room and lie down for a minute while my companion called the president and talked to him about how sick he was and i passed out for what was probably an hour and then we went back out teaching.? that night for dinner we were at this other house and were served a giant soup.? well i wasn't hungry but i started at it when my companion said STOP! and he pointed at the meat in my soup and said we can't eat this and he tells the woman and hear i am with ten spoonfuls of this bad meat and what not inside of me freaking out thinking i just got a virus and now I'm going to die great at least I'm dieing of my mission.? well today i am reaping the rewards of my meals i think i have literally dropped a depth charge into my bowels and have had a lovely time on our broken toilet.? Sorry i can't give you pictures i forgot my camera you will just have to be patient as i try and figure everything out.? I think that this next week will be amazing and hope to get more letters soon.? Don't  forget that you don't need an immediate response from me before you write again writing letters is a good way to make sure your doing something important with your week, if you need a recap of how i feel about letters and missionaries just ask SAMANTHA MANNES if she doesn't hate me too much! LOVE YOU ALL SOO VERY VERY MUCH!

June 2, 2010 - Hard experiences - more growth!

How different are the keyboards? way different mast of the keys are in the same place but there are different letters like ñ and other things are rearranged so it is definitely taken getting used to! Have i found anyone to alter my clothes yet? NO I'm waiting for the field when have time to take it and pick it up and get measured. other than that i have no idea where other than maybe a dry cleaners. How is the language barrier? I'm knocking holes in it, i have officially gone for like a full 24 hours without being lost at any point during the day! Me and my companion can communicate kind of it depends on how patient he is and how focused i am but we manage. Were you able to go out on Friday? yes we were able to go out on Friday and it was definitely different from my other experiences. When is my departure date? Next Tuesday is my next P-day so write early and i leave wed morning! ;) Any rumbling in Peru? YES! we have experienced a minor earthquake and that one i didn´t even feel but the people in the cafeteria said the tables were bouncing and the windows were pulsating. I still haven´t received any of your letters yet however i do have to say i am sorry to SAMANTHA MANNES because i had just wrote a pretty decently long letter calling her and Lance and Leslie to repentance for not writing me and had just put it in the mail and sent it off when two hours later i got a letter from Sam so SAM I AM SORRY and i wrote you a pretty good make up letter that i put in the mail but wont be sent till next Monday, so when you get this one try and read it and laugh at my pettiness! but it is still necessary for lance and Leslie to read it so share it with the world. and i will thank you mom for hopefully relaying the message! ;) Okay my story about this Saturday is kind of a gut wrenching one because of how sad it was, but i was able to grow a lot from it and i think that i now have some idea of what really happens out in the real world. so we headed back out to Callao but were in a different part of Callao and this time instead of going with a teacher and a member we had the magnificent pleasure of proselyting with the brand new bishop of this ward. so we went out with him and he and my companion hit it off really well telling jokes and laughing, so i was feeling sort of like a third wheel in a foreign country where no one would talk to me but i had hope we would be able to get in and teach a lesson and feel the spirit! well this brand new bishop thought that this time to proselyte would be an excellent time to find out who the inactive members of his ward are so we would show up at the door and he would talk to the members for about ten minutes on the doorstep and then look at us and say they have a message to share with you. well i have no idea what the needs of these people are you were talking Spanish at high speed and i got nothing out if it, so i wait for my companion to bear his testimony, OK going to church OK that easy i can do that so i bear my testimony and then the bishop thanks then for their time and starts walking away and I'm thinking what the heck is going on we are supposed to be going out and teaching people and getting commitment to return to church and blah blah blah well this continues FOREVER and it honestly felt like we were making mandated office visits to bear a two sentence  testimony and move on, it was awful and i really struggled with feeling any unity with my companion or the spirit and so i returned to the CCM in a depressed funk. well thanks to some of the people in my district they were able to get me to smile but i really was trying to figure out why i couldn´t feel the spirit and why my companionship and speaking ability tanked. Well I prayed really really hard and this is the response that i hear'felt'thought ´´you are in a different country speaking a different language and have had the blessing of my spirit and strength continually with you and yet you feel robbed when you don´t have an amazing proselyting experience every single time´´ well after feeling that i put myself in the right frame of mind and being grateful for everything! i have even had a fast to try and improve my companionship and it has worked! i know God is real! no time love you by looking forward to my DEARELDER:COM letters

May 26, 2010 New Companion in CCM from Bolivia

how are things in Peru? things are great.... Have i received any letters yet? no..... any recommendations right now? no... Have i been drinking the water? yes and no the ccm has clean water everywhere else does not. How did my follow ups go? didn´t have any. and my new companion well..... ok those are the short straight forward answers and i just wanted to tell you straight off because they have a new computer system that absolutely sucks can´t push enter right click or send home pictures and i was really looking forward to sending some cool pictures! oh well things have been great here in Peru i sent off Elder Tapuy and was a little sad but i know that he is ready to serve the people of Bolivia La Paz! We had one of the most amazing P-Days ever we were able to go on a tour of Lima and see a lot of historical sights as well as go to the beach and to the Inca mart which is basically three city blocks of straight up small street vender type stores, and McDonalds! No i haven´t received any of your letters yet it is taking a really long time and i feel bad because i think i lied to you, but i found out how to work the system really easy while i am here in Peru and it is through that DEARELDER.com apparently you write and they drop it off in the church pouch because they are right across the street from the CCM and they forward it to any church office building and then they deliver it to us, it is free from what i understand and if you right me i will get it not the next day but the following Friday whenever that is like if you right Monday it might come that Friday or the next it basically just skimms a couple days off of the top. but they apparently will all ways be able to find me through that and i will be changing addresses again shortly!!! I really can get my hands on anything if i really want to but it is all the Peru version so anything American would be nice. It was a really sad and a really long Saturday since we were the only 18 people in the entire ccm that had been there for more than three - four days we were unable to go proselyting, but this Saturday we are headed back to Callao! woot woot! i am so excited! Ok my new companion is Elder Tellez (tey yez) he is from Santa Cruz Bolivia and he is was cool. He really slurs all of his words to gether so he is next to impossible for anyone(North American) to understand and the other thing is he can´t understand me, all the other Latinos can just not him which frustrates me. oh well. oh he also has a lack of understanding of companions, this one time i was in the bathroom and when i came out he was gone, i checked all the classrooms went back to the bathroom to make sure he wasn´t there and then found him walking around outside. he had just decide to go off on his own, and again today when i got back from migrations i found him alone in the distributions center down here. i asked him where his companions were (he was in a trio) and he said that they had left. HELLO YOU HAVE TO GO WITH THEM! oh well this will be an interesting three weeks. other than that all is going well, i officially have been working out enough to get shin splits and have dropped a good couple of inches i wanted to send a picture of how baggy everything is but the program changed and the timer is back! ugh! oh well i know god is with me i just need to have patience and endure to the end of my 9week stay in the MTCs ugh! love you all hope to get some letters soon! oh this was a great letter btw but I'm serious about dear elder give it a shot!

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Woo Hoo, score three for Callao! But back next Saturday for appointment

It is soo great to hear from you too! I don´t know what it is but something about Peru is killing handwritten letters, or at least making them that much more special when missionaries do receive them, did you know they have Dear elder here? i don´t know how it works but apparently they do!  anyways i feel like the last couple of letters have been lame so i will try and make this one worth publishing.

first off i broke the rules so that you could have a picture of my first native companion and a few shots of the inside of the CCM (Central de Capacitation de Missional) (i think) and if i get struck down then at least i´ll be doing missionary work on the other side! 

ok so they were right we do get to proselyte on Saturdays here it is a way awesome experience and i loved it. Me and my compañero elder Tapuy were sent on a bus to follow up with some less actives in Callao (ki-yow) ask Sister Oaks about it i don´t have time to get into it other than the fact that it is definitely not the safest place in Perú.

so we show up at this chapel, which is just like the CCM surrounded by a ten foot fence topped with broken glass and spikes and lots of other stuff. and we meet this member man MIGUEL who is was awesome and we along with him and a teacher go out proselyting and as were are knocking some doors these two guys maybe about 25, 26 years old come up to me and start talking really loud really fast at me and i have no idea whats going on and i look at the teacher and he talks to them and says he doesn´t understand and they start jabbering at him and he says they want to know where i am from and how long i have been here so i say mesa Arizona and one week, i don´t know if they have any idea where mesa Arizona is, but it got them to walk away, so i was thoroughly worried as we walk up to another house about an hour later (during this hour we did a lot of walking and talking to people through doors, classic missionary style reactivating members) when these other two guys walking down the street call out to me something like ´´oye russo´´ which apparently means something like ´´hey russian´´ again i look at the teacher with a funny look and he tells me in straight up English that, that is not good because there are gangs in this area. OK so I'm thoroughly freaked out as we are now walking around the streets of Callao, when these 3 niños about five or six years old see us and more importantly see me the only white person i think they´ve ever seen and they come up to me and ask why I'm white and why i have red hair and are way cute right well as we start walking away all of the little children pick up rocks and start throwing them at us so we just keep walking, woo hoo score 3 Callao! then about five minutes later this woman runs up to us and starts yammering on in Spanish, and what i gleaned from what she said was something like ´´are you guys crazy don´t you know this place is dangerous you need to get off of the street like right now!´´ so needless to say we hurried out of that area and started tracting on the next street over.

GOOD PART we found this old lady who had joined the church but had become inactive, and her granddaughter who is a very strong catholic and they let us in and we were able to talk to them about our church it was way awesome, my companion started us off by having us sing i know that my Redeemer lives in Spanish and the older lady was teary and we were able to talk about the restoration and have a great spiritual experience and make an appointment to follow up with them this Saturday!

ok and i also now understand why people eat dog here, dogs are everywhere, i mean everywhere, and its not like they are even any ones pets they are just everywhere and they don´t ever move as you get close to them they just lye there. its weird but i guess when your as poor as some of the people we saw in Callao you eat what you can get.

anyways we went to Interpol today which was way easy they didn´t even ask any questions they just checked our teeth and then they took our picture and finger prints and let us go. i can´t wait to go to the temple tomorrow morning (we went to Interpol instead)

oh the food here has officially become bland you have arroz con pollo for lunch and pollo con arroz for dinner, occasionally a fish thrown in. oh and there is some havoc on our dietary systems here. lots of rice backs you up way bad! and lots of the fresh juice here give you diareah, so you have to find a great balance of all things here! ok well I'm out of time if you have any more questions try and dear elder me and i will prepare a response so i can think rather than just write fast fast fast love you and bye!

Peru pretty good, fresh fruit, creamy warm milk, crazy drivers, small temple!

Umm trying to figure out how too send pictures, but most importantly i do get a mothers day call, well technically you have to call me at 51-1-3494282 between 8 and 9 local time on Saturday, i get exactly five minutes no more, so basically this call is just for me to talk to mom and wish her happy mothers day. Other than that Peru is way awesome i am learning Spanish way fast my companion elder tapuy is way awesome he is from Ecuador he is 24 and has only been a member of the church for 2 years! his testimony is way awesome and I can actually understand him, i also got a compliment from elder bravo (native) which i think is like the highest compliment that any greengo can receive he said ''elder king your Spanish is very good you speak just like a native, if i closed my eyes i wouldn't know you were American!'' so I'm stoked, i know the lord is with me and that he continually blesses me in my life! um oh the food here is amazing umm there is only fresh squeezed everything, like watermelon and cantaloupe and pear and coconut and papaya and mango and every other kind of fruit the milk here is way creamy like warm whole milk with a little bit of cream i think they have a cow somewhere and they are milking it every morning! oh but it isn´t all good they had this one kind of pudding the other night, you look at it and it just looks like normal chocolate pudding right! wrong it tasted like someone had been smoking while they were making it and had used the bowl as an ash tray! i took like one bite and almost spewed! it was awful! good thing my companion seemed to like it, umm there are six people in my room this time me my companion two americanos and two natives umm the teachers here are way awesome they are teaching us way way fast and we get to go out on Saturday and do our real life teaching experience! ahhh! I'm way stoked! ummm yeah it is way humid especially today, you know those restaurants that have the misters out side, well that is what it was like today it didn´t rain it was just like being in a cloud of mist which was weird, yes we did get to go to the temple, and the temple here is wayyy small there are only twenty five people per session and i think there is maybe two ordinance rooms and not even sure of that, there are 115 missionaries here and 32 are American so there is not very much diversity and every single one of us ha a latino companion! this is way awesome i love the people here! OHH the drivers here are INSANE!! they say they have driving lanes but i have yet to see anyone paying any attention to any of them they just stop and go whenever they want, they will run you over if you don´t get out of the way fast enough and no one stops at stops signs ever they really only slow down for the random speed bump and when a bus slams its brakes in front of them! ummm president whetten and his wife are the presidents here and they are way cool they take care of every single missionary like their own children and i think they all love them more because of it! everything is great here just keep praying for me i still need all the blessings i can get! hope to talk to you on Saturday love you so very very much! adios! cho!

Monday, May 3, 2010

Made it to Peru!

OK this key board is wacky! but awesome! we have safely arrived in Peru which is awesome i have a native compañero who's name is Elder Tapuy (tah poo ie) he is way awesome and speaks like no English which is not helpful but necessary for me, he also is on his first day here so needless to say we have gotten lost a few times already this morning, also since he is a native speaker, we hardly ever see each other because we go to different classes and i am convinced that no matter where you are you first day in an mtc it is very long and no one knows what to do with you or where to send you!
I got a haircut again today, my last hair cut was on Monday, but that was like the first thing they made us do this morning, so my hair is now really short OK i love you all and here is all of the critical information
mail goes out on Mondays, my p-day is Wednesday

For the next three weeks this is my address i think, give this to everyone, me and Samatha have been corresponding through letters so this would be helpful to let her know, it takes about a week to go one way and i write on Wednesday.
Street address
Apratado Postal Elder Tyler Jesse King Lima Peru South
12-167 Av. Melgarejo 159
Lima 12-Peu Urb. Campo Verde
La Molina, Lima, Perú

I have no idea how to write here really but this is the other address they gave me for my mission
so after that you have to use my last three weeks here you have to use my mission´s address

Misión Perú Lima Sur
Av Jorge Basadre 592, Oficina 604-A
Edificio Torre Azul
San Isidro
Lima 27
PERU
or pouch which i think is by far the easiest
Elder Tyler King
Lima Perú MTC
P.O. Box 30150
Salt Lake City, UT 84130

my return address in pouch is

Elder Tyler Jesse King
CCM Lima Perú
Ave. Melgarejo #159
URB. Campo Blanco
La Molina - Lima 12
Perú

oh and they say ABSOLUTELY NO PACKAGES!! SEND MONEY INSTEAD VIA DEBIT CARD!!!

umm oh yeah they say that it is about the same amount of time either way so it doesn't really matter. 
Ahh immigration papers ugh,  well if you can make any sense of anything above i wish you the best of luck because i can't.  I love you guys and hope to hear from you maybe the Oakes will be able to help a little so.....
anyways the facilities here are waaaaaaaaaaaay nicer than the Provo ones and the food is infinitely better, um we are not allowed to take pictures like anywhere on the ccm but i will try and find a place where it is allowed, forgot to bring my camera this time but it looks like this computer will let me send stuff so plan on it next Wednesday! hope you all got my last letters from Utah and i hope to get an email telling me the jist of whats going on. I know these next couple of weeks will be a struggle with español to the max, but i know the lord is with me and i am taking the promise of 1 nephi 3:7 to heart.  Love you guys sooo very very much

oh btw it is WAAAAAAAAAAAAAy humid but in a good way, i don't even know if its possible, but no doors or windows are ever closed and they always have the ac cranked which is awesome

I see what everyone was talking about though, the giant wall around us is intimidating, but the ccm is very small and extremely beautiful which is amazing!

LOVE THE LORD
LOVE TO SERVE
LOVE MY FAMILY FOREVER
HASTA VER!!!!!!

Thanks for the goodies!

Heck yes i have received a lot of goodies and they all came on the same day! i felt soo much love, extend my thanks to the Northridge ward they also gave me a lot, umm some people especially though are the Lesuers, but that's the only name i can think of off the top of my head... don't think i can take much of it to Peru but my district will be eating through it relatively quickly, i would have never finished it, elder Brownlow our district leader said that i have lost weight since being here here says my face looks narrower oh well i weighed my self and I'm still the same but my belt has gotten bigger I'm down three notches.

Don't know if the flight's direct but we will be spending about twelve hours traveling ugh oh well great time for study!

oh and you really didn't have to send the i home back! i am grateful don't get me wrong, but at the same time it is very heavy and i would rather go without music than pay an extra 150 to bring it to Peru! but thanks it means alot that you care so much for me!

Sounds like a lot is happening in Arizona! wow! i love to hear but if you want my thoughts on all of it i need handwritten letters there is way to much to talk about in 30 minutes!!! ahh, oh well this week has been awesome though.

I have $99 cash with $100 emergency, have no idea how much is on my debit card i haven't checked in forever, but any help will be appreciated even just knowing its there for me.

ok well my comp says they have cool belts in Peru, but I'll need to get myself some llama fur moccasins they are supposed to be waaaaay comfortable.. haha, he has been there a couple of times doing humanitarian work and it is awesome to have his experience!

Spanish is coming along well, my brain now has a switch which lets me go back and forth when I'm thinking, which has been a blessing in its own right!

We have been talking alot about identity this week and i just want to let you know that i know i am a son of god that he knows who i am and every detail about me, and that he is there with me through every step of my life carrying me when i become to weak to walk.

It has been same old same old though i am getting way excited to go to Peru! we were looking at the calendar and saw we have been her for almost 20 days! it is soo hard to believe so much time has passed, days are long weeks are short and it is a real blessing to keep a journal because i really can't remember anything already let alone in two years good grief too much happens!

tell every one i love them and tell tate i am proud of his baseball powers aaron for his giant brain working on that project and marlee for always being soo amazingly wonderful at everything she puts her mind to! Tell shan that i love him and mom be patient with everyone, as far as I'm concerned as long we are doing what the lord would have us do and loving everyone in our lives everything will work out, if not in this life than in the eternities but everything Will be awesome!!

love you can't wait to write from Peru my address will probably change but hopefully not my email looking forward to the next wave of letters!!! jajaja!

hasta luego. para siempre dios este con vos!

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Language can be tricky!

It has been an awesome experiance here in the CCM (Mtc) Me and my companion are going to the peru mtc together on APR 28 along with a sist3er missionary from our district. Oh right now in our district there nd two tripanionships one sisters and one elders, but its awesome, i have been able to see scott bothwell all week he is in my zone so we were able to talk and get reaquainted, he also spoke in spanish on sunday then preformed a musical number tell his momn that his is doing good and that he definately knows enough spanish to survive and that (ahh i cant think in inglish) as long as he is doing what he is supposed to he will be great.

umm i have seen a ton of people actually, i have seen ashley because we came in on the same day we kinda got lumped together i have also seen people like ryan hatfield and Josh oster ( he was in the mtc fireside byu mens chorus) oh aparently i am say alot of suff that sound like other stuff now that ia ma developng a spanish accent, like on friday? we were in class and i asked the teacher "where can we find abish in the escrituras?" and the tripanionship of elder start laughing i didn;t get it so i just ignored them, but the next day saturday they explained that when i had said that i had said it with an accent and it sounded like i said "where can you find a B**** in the escrituras?" well i laughed my self to tears at that but appaently it is a common occurance for me to say stuff and people to hear somthing completely different.

How is everyone doing? i haven't heard anything bad so i guess thats good! um my companion is from utah, but a little bit of everywhere, he was born in az, and has lived in nebraska? but he is awesome.

the hermanas in our districto are mas fanatastico hermana Dekay (Duh ki) is from the philipinews inglish is her third language and she is learning spanish with english. She is tyhe hermana comming with us to peru she is going to ecuador, then hermana clark es muy intelehente she is moving to an advanced spanish program and will be leaving our district, then there is hermana budge who will become the solo sister in our districto when me and Marsden and dekay leave. I can't believe i habve already been gone for six days its way amazing. i am not sure how much has actually "changed" its just that no one tells anyone else what is going on. I would send you picture but i forgot the cord to look forward to next week.

Tell bishop that the MTC president has come out and said that no elders are allowed to wear pink ties in the CCM. I am very amazed aty how the lord is working im my life, i think that there is a very bg push right now at the mtc on what image we want to present.

umm i have been wearing my suit alot just because of meetings for the next two weeks we are here we will only be wearing them on sunday monday tuesday for sacrament, temple and meeting, other than that we just have to ddrees to match our companeo other than that i am good it is giving me the five minute warning!!!

I am doing awesome i have been studying and working hard and have truly felt the influence of the lord, we haven;t been forgotten he is always there with us we need only to look for him. My companero has spent some time in peru doing humanitarian services in peu and bolivia ... so i have been sking him many questions. tell all of the family i love to hear from them too!!! hasta!

Saturday, April 10, 2010

First letter Home!

Sorry I haven't written yet, usually there is a first day orientation email thing, but somehow we were unable to do that because of recent changes at the MTC. Everything is wonderful right now, my companion is Elder Marsden, mars like the planet den like the lion den. He is amazing, we get along like two peas in a pod I really couldn't have asked for a better companion. The first two days were full of gaps because of the changes and no one knew what to do with us, but it gave us plenty of time to bond as a district. My Pday is Mondays which is awesome. The food it ummmm adaquate, not great and very starchy, i find myself sticking to a lot of fruit and vegetables. I had a good nights sleep surprisingly but the days have been long. I have felt like the MTC is like efy, but on steroids, I have been very blessed to feel an outpouring of the spirit in my life. I was made senior companion for the next nine days and then me and my companion switch. Our departure date says Apr 28 which is awesome i keep hearing from everyone that we are so blessed to be able to go to the Peru MTC, oh btw Elder Marsden is going to the Peru Lima East mission. Ummmm I am remebering things i had completely forgot in spanish and i am learning how to pray, we pray as a companionship in spanish and sometimes it takes us five minutes to say some of the most basic prayers, with a cheat sheet, but i can feel the spirit every time we pray, i have worn my suit every day since entering, because we have had so many meetings with the branch president and devotionals it almost doesn't make it worth it to wear anything but a suit coat. I know i am where i am supposed to be i have felt the love of my savior jesus christ and i can feel his love for the people of Peru already, i know i would do anything for my companion, or anything to serve the lord, i can only hope that i feel this spiritual high for the rest of my life through serving the lord, i know this might be going up on my blog and so i want to start with bearing my testimony, that way i can see the difference between the start and end of my mission. I know that my redeember lives, I know that Jesus is the Christ and that he truly suffered in the garden and died on the cross and was resurrected for me personally and for all of the other inhabitabnts of the world before and after him, i have felt of his deep love for all of his brothers and sisters and of our heavenly fathers deep love for his children, i am truly blessed for the feelings of the spirit given to me and my ability to learn spanish i know that it would be next to impossible with out him. I know that The atonement of jesus christ is real and that through that anyone can return to live with him no matter how far we have sunk we can rise up with him, for he has decended below all things.  Got to go just want to let you guys know i love you! Great job Mar 10'6'' is amazing love hearng from you give my best to everyone.

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

So this was pretty much my farewell talk excluding some adlibbing.

Ok, I still have seventeen days left with all of you, so no one is allowed to cry. I have been asked to speak today on blessings of knowing the “Plan of Salvation”. However, to know what those blessings are, we first need to know, and understand the “Plan of Salvation”. So to begin with I am going to speak briefly on the “Plan of Salvation”.


Being members of the church, I think we sometimes take for granted all of the things that we have grown up knowing. There are many people in the world, who don’t even realize that there is a “Plan of Salvation”, and they ask themselves, the three big questions. “Where did I come from?”, “Why am I here?”, and “Where am I going?” Being members of the church we are blessed to know the answers to these questions. However, to more fully understand the “Plan of Salvation”, we must first understand who we really are. We are all literal sons and daughters of a loving Heavenly Father.

Think about this for a minute, just as you are children to your parents, we are all children to our heavenly parents. And because our Father in Heaven loves us he has provided a way for us to return to live with him, called the “Plan of Salvation”, “The Great Plan of Happiness”, “The Plan of Redemption”, and “The plan of Mercy”

Simply put, before we were born we lived with our father in heaven. We then came to earth to gain a body, and work at our salvation. Upon death we pass on into the spirit world to await a judgment based upon our deeds in this life, where we can receive a Telestial, Terrestrial, or Celestial reward.

Now I am going to draw from my own personal experience, that I have been able to draw a lot of gospel principles from. Most of you hear have probably heard about the weight vest story, but probably not from me, so listen up. Around four or five years ago was my first trip to Mt. Humphreys, where we rode all the way to the base of the mountain and hiked up the mountain, it was about three miles up and three miles down, and was a fairly simple hike. Other than spraining both of my ankles I had a wonderful experience.

Then almost two years ago, after my brother Shannon had already left on his mission I went to work with my grandpa for six weeks on his farm, where we would get up before the sun and haul hay off the field while there was still dew on the ground, after that we would work on various other farm related things which I won’t get into. Nonetheless after doing this for six weeks I was very confident in my physical standing and when I heard that we would be hiking Mt. Humphreys for our super activity I thought I would challenge myself by wearing a weight vest.

The morning of the hike was beautiful, the air was crisp, and there was only a slight chance of rain, before leaving my tent, I put on my weight vest and put a sweat shirt on over it. This was going to be my private challenge, I was not doing this to say “Hey look at me I am so strong la di da” I was doing this for me and no one else. As soon as we started though I knew something was different, I asked if we were going to get a ride to the starting point, and found out quickly that we were going to hike a different trail. So I thought to myself well the last time I hiked this mountain, it was fairly easy how hard could this new trial be? I was about to find out just how hard. IN the first mile I was already in the very last group with two leaders and their sons. It was a very slow going hike mainly because of the weight vest that no one knew about. I had the distinct impression several times that I should just take off the weight vest but I wasn’t going to quit. About two to three miles into the hike we reached the base of the mountain and started the steep climb up the mountain. It was long and arduous with stops every hundred yards or so, that way I could catch my breath. The leaders with me were wonderful, they kept trying to keep me motivated and gave me some of their energy cube things they use in marathons so that I could keep going. However that could only keep my going for so long. Pretty soon, the sun had risen pretty high in the sky and I was starting to overheat. Several times the leaders asked me to remove my sweatshirt, but I wouldn’t do it, partly because I didn’t want them to know about my personal weight vest challenge, and partly because I was embarrassed about wearing the weight vest in the first place. Eventually however, I heard them talking about my welfare about fifty feet in front of me, about how dangerous it was, and how I was overheating, so brother Adcox, finally turned around came up to me and forced me out of my sweat shirt. At first they didn’t know what I was wearing they thought it was just a normal vest that had granola and what not in all the pockets, but when I told them that it was a weight vest they almost burst out laughing. Brother Adcox removed the weight vest and almost dropped it. My thirty pound weight vest now drenched with sweat weighed closer to fifty pounds. We then hid the weight vest off the side of the trail, and went around the last switch back and got on the mile long straight path to the top, continued up the mountain. Immediately I felt better we traveled the farthest we had all morning in one go, and I felt lighter than air. Unfortunately my new found energy was short lived and I was unable to make it all the way to the top of the mountain, but I gave it my all.

On the way back down I was fortunate enough to have friends to help me carry my weight vest all of the way back down the mountain to our camp.

Now there is a lot to be learned from this story, but my topic is the plan of salvation so keep that in mind. However, I would like to take a look at the plan of salvation a bit differently today, let’s focus on “The creation”, “The Fall”, and “The Atonement”.

Before we were born on the earth, we lived in the presence of our Heavenly Father as one of His spirit children. In this pre-mortal existence, we attended a council with Heavenly Father's other spirit children. At that council Jesus Christ, covenanted to be the Savior. Lucifer, another spirit son of God, rebelled against the plan and "sought to destroy the agency of man". He became Satan, and he and his followers were cast out of heaven and denied the privileges of receiving a physical body and experiencing mortality

Then, under the direction of the father, Jesus Christ created the earth as a place for us to live and gain experience. In order for us to progress and become like our heavenly father, each of us had to obtain a body and be tested, with a time of probation on earth. Because this was a test, we passed through something called the veil that keeps us from remembering our pre-mortal life, because we don’t remember our pre-mortal existence, we are required to walk by faith rather than by sight.

Now before the hike, I found out a little bit about what It would be like from my experience before and what I had learned from our leaders.

Now after the creation God placed Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, where they dwelt in the presence of god. While in the Garden of Eden, God gave Adam and Eve their agency. He then gave Adam and Eve contradicting commandments, first he commanded them to be fruitful and multiply and eplenish the earth, and then he commanded them not to eat of the forbidden fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Satan tempted Adam and Eve to eat the forbidden fruit, and they chose to do so, because they knew that it was the only way they could follow God’s commandment to be fruitful, to multiply, and replenish the earth. However, they still broke the commandment to not eat of the forbidden fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and this transgression set in motion the fall, which was a separation from God’s presence, or a spiritual death.

From that time forward Adam and Eve and all their posterity, were subject to both physical and spiritual death, disease, and all types of suffering. But we being descendents of Adam and Eve were also blessed with moral agency, the ability to choose between good and evil. This agency makes it possible for us to learn and progress, and this is the reason we are here on earth. So what is the purpose of life? Simply stated it is to prove ourselves obedient to god in all things.

However, because we are human and have agency we are going to make mistakes, we are going to occasionally stumble and fall into sin, making it impossible for us to return to live with our Heavenly Father again. However, because of the Plan of Salvation, our Heavenly Father had planned for this and had already set up a way for us to return to him, and that is through the atonement of Jesus Christ.

The bulk of my hike can be liked unto mortal life and the weight vest can be likened unto sin and the weight that we all carry through life

This mortal existence would be nothing if it weren’t for The Atonement. The Atonement is the single most important act ever preformed in time and eternity. In those hours of agony, Jesus Christ took upon himself the pain and suffering of everyone who has ever lived. He atoned for the sins of each one of us. And, if we have faith in his sacrifice, and repent, we can be made clean, and be able to dwell again with our heavenly father. The atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ makes it possible for us to overcome the effects of the fall. That means we can overcome physical death through resurrection and spiritual death through repentance and forgiveness.

And I like to think of this as when my leaders found out about my vest and helped me remove it and continue on up the mountain.

Having a knowledge of the plan of salvation, can be like a map and a compass guiding you through life. The plan can let you know where you’ve been as well as point you back to our heavenly father. Having a testimony of the plan can change the way we see the world around us help us see past our temptations and remind us of our divine heritage.

A testimony of the plan of salvation can give us hope and purpose as we wrestle with the challenges of life. We can find reassurance in the knowledge that we are children of God and that we lived in His presence before being born on the earth. We can find meaning in our present life, knowing that our actions during mortality influence our eternal destiny. With this knowledge, we can base important decisions on eternal truths rather than on the changing circumstances of life. We can continually improve our relationships with family members, rejoicing in the promise that our families can be eternal. We can find joy in our testimonies of the Atonement and the Lord's commandments, ordinances, covenants, and doctrines, knowing that "he who doeth the works of righteousness shall receive his reward, even peace in this world, and eternal life in the world to come" (D&C 59:23).

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

A day with the missionaries!

So yesterday, I spent some time with the elders on their P-Day.  We went to the Library where they emailed their families and I read a good book.  After which we went to Wal-mart (wali-world), where they did their shopping for the week.  Then I drove them home and went to my orthodontist appointment at Garn and Mason Orthodontics.  After my appoint ment i got another call from the missionaries asking me if I could make a video for them.  I said yes and made a dvd of President Thomas S. Monson's Be of Good Cheer talk he gave during the April 2009 conference.  When they came by to pick it up they had also come with a pair of whit button up shirts so they could complete their one year mark tradition  where they burn their white shirts.  So it was a very good day with the missionaries.

http://lds.org/conference/sessions/display/0,5239,23-1-1032,00.html