July 4, 2011 - Just a little smile!

This week has been very fun, very hard, and very interesting, hard because the people we were teaching to be baptized weren´t and we are still working with them but they have a lot of problems, so we've decided to give them a week or two and focus on finding other people who are ready to listen and apply.

We contacted a ton of people and had a lot of great lessons, but one in particular I've decided to tell you guys about, so we were walking down the street kind of bummed because all of our appointments fell through and right then and there i decided to never again walk the streets of Peru without smiling and my companion decided right then and there to push through and find new people, we were walking and some one said hello to us (that's actually a change) and so we started to talk with them, and they have been amazing ever since! his name is Nilton and he introduced us to his sister, who introduced us to her family...etc and it has opened up  many people who are really ready to listen and apply, in talking with Nilton he said that he started talking with us because he saw that i was smiling and he thought to himself, i would like to be able to walk and go and smile like that, not because i don't have problems but because i am with god. he now is going to get married (civilly) and he wants to be baptized and become a missionary just like us! we told him he could probably be a ward member missionary, and when he and his wife are 62 they cam submit their papers and leave on a mission just like us. he was so excited, he is a golden investigator he really takes the time to understand and reiterates or teaches us what we have taught him its really amazing. 
So its just a testimony to me that the lord works in mysterious way that when one door closes another opens, that he is always mindful of us and giving us what we need. when we need it. thanks for the prayers they really help and ill send a few your way. love you bye!

Quick Questions & Answers

How are you doing? Great!
Any news on the VISA? Yes-no i am currently on a tourist visa, until my missionary visa comes through.... missionary visa.... no info
How is the food? as great as i remembered, well almost, the food here in Lima doesn't taste as good as it does in the south where everything is grown
Do you have people cooking and cleaning for you in the city there or is that your responsibility? no we still have people cooking for us... well right now we´re changing between people so kind of and the cleaning is all our responsibility
How about Laundry? yes there are people here who do our laundry however here in Lima i have only seen the sun twice and it is super humid, and since the people who do our laundry don't have a dryer it takes most of the week to hang dry and even then everything is still wet.
Do you think you will be in this area for a while? hmm hard to say, from previous experience no, do i hope so yes
How is your apartment? good, small, zero hot water (were working on getting some) but for the most part its just a place to sleep and study, so we don't need very much.

Back to Peru and happy to be there!

Ok so obviously i landed safely, i was detained at customs and they let me out as a tourist (ps i really don't like exploiting the system it feels wrong) but i made it to Peru, spent the whole next day in the office and got my new companion! well not exactly new, remember my first companion in the field last time, elder Rodas, well turns out that he is my first companion in the field thins time too! he is so cool and amazing, he has changed though, its hard to explain, best way i can put it is like the rocks in a river how they are smoothed, well he has been smoothed. it is so cool to have him a s a companion again i have been learning so much from him. We have been working really hard this week with a sister who was almost baptized last week. i say almost because she was baptized but didn't go all of the way under, and the water was really really cold and she was scared about getting sick and not being able to support her child (single mom) and she wasn't baptized, we have been working with her all this weekend she has had problem after problem, so we took her to the temple (yes we got permission) and walked the temple grounds and felt the spirit there and she bought a book of Mormon (the ones for children with the pictures) and she has progressed so far and she is so excited, we are working with her to get their to trust in god that by following his commandments such as baptism we are blessed for our obedience. she has a new baptismal date for this Saturday, so keep her in your prayers so that she will be able to have enough faith in the lord that she can do this and not get sick. I have had many experiences that testify to me that i made the right decision in trusting my answer from god that i should return back to the field. i know there is a plan and a purpose in everything!

sorry to hear that Tate is bored, but i guess he has to find other ways to entertain himself, i cant always be there! excited to hear that grandma came and you all had a blast, and that Aaron is now out of school for the summer, and yes Marlee apartments and dorms are always small, if you want something bigger look at condos.

SO you didn't tell me anything about Shannon and Kristi, how are they doing, they didn't write me either so they much be really really busy. :)

that sounds like an awesome movie that you guys went to see, was it produced by the church?

oh yeah i forgot to mention what area I'm in I'm in Jose Galvez in via Salvador in Lima, its really really humid and at night it gets cold, glad i have all this blubber to keep me warm, no its not cold enough to use the coat because in the afternoon when we leave its still warm and humid and carrying it around with me until night would be very very bothersome.

Tell my siblings that they can write me too! anyways once again I'm out of things to say....

umm..... we are also working with a young lady (Melissa) and she wants to be baptized, but she need the permission of her parents, who just so happen to live in Italy, (ps alot of people here have family in Italy go figure) but she was really nervous about calling them and so we gave a lesson on faith and how we are blessed and i was able to share part of an experience i had of telling our parents something difficult and not being sure of how they might react, but that i had the faith that if i did everything would end up being ok and she said ok the next time they call ill tell them, well that night they called and they gave her permission, woohoo! and they want to listen to the missionaries woohoo! but they also want to be there for her baptism and they cant get here until November... uh... well that's really really hard and we are trying to get her to be baptized because there is just soo much that could go wrong in that much time so we prepared to give the lesson of acting on faith, but this time we took a member of the bishopric with us, and we started to go into the lesson and this brother was amazing he took over and found every doubt that she had (one of which was that she didn't know the book of Mormon was true go figure again) and we taught her they was we receive answers to our prayers and committed her to pray again, so keep her in your prayers i know that she will receive an answer, but she needs the strength and faith to keep moving forward.

That's all the time i have see you all later

Questions from Mom and Answers from Tyler........
Is our 18 month assumption correct? as far i know yeah

Have they figured out your VISA? no, not sure the whole problem yet I'm asking for more information though, but it takes a while to get up the chain of command and receive a response

Are you still there as a tourist or are you legal now? tourist, illegal alien, which ever, we´re not sure there, seems to be a 20% chance though that if we cant figure this whole thing out i might be switching missions... the lord knows where he wasn't me and i go where I'm called

How has the 1st week gone? Amazing, i really feel like i´ve been able to really help people here.

Is the language coming back quickly? I'm not sure it ever left, but yeah its coming back, it took me all of thirty seconds to switch back to Spanish and not use English

Do you feel rusty? there are a few words that I'm slower at but I'm just lucky that the people here are patient and understand me.

WOW It has seriously been a LONG time

Ok it has been way too long since I actually wrote something down. So here it goes....... SOMETHING DOWN! and a lot has happened since my last letter home from Peru, I don't really know what happened I guess with everything that happened this was pushed way to the back, and now after like six months I'm finally getting back into it.... maybe.... I do not know if I was ever sold on it in the first place...