Anyways this week has been really hard but has really help us to learn and grow, we had planned to have the baptism of Rene this Saturday, but he didn't pass his baptismal interview, because just before last Christmas he had smoked marijuana, and as a mission rule we have to wait 1 year from the last time anyone did drugs to be baptized to make sure all the chemicals and urges are under significant control. it was really hard for me to accept this because Rene is just about as repentant and knowledgeable about the gospel as a lot of the members here and he took it a little hard, but we were able to talk with him and he told us that everything has a reason and if he has to wait, at least he will be baptized in the summer when the water will be a little warmer!
other than that our week has been a series of taking members out of their homes and having them introduce us to their neighbors, we got 8 good new investigators and are working hard to help them get ready to be baptized in the coming weeks...
... just got a dear elder letter from... Alma! how cool, cant wait to read it later!... tell him thank you for me!
anyways I'm going to try to send some pictures again so bear with me if this letter is short...
ok we have two pictures of Elder Rodas and a picture of yard work here in PERU!
Moms questions
How has this week been? ooh i really am starting to understand why people don't every say that these are the easiest two years, but we have really been blessed to find a lot of new people to teach.
Do you have the opportunity to go to the temple on your pdays or does your mission set times or days for the elders to go? the mission sets up times and days for the elders to go to the temple, we are given the opportunity to go 1 time every 3 months, which isn't much, but it is awesome, we have the opportunity to go to the temple this Thursday which is amazing!
Tates questions
How are you doing? I'm doing wonderful Tate! i love being a missionary, being in the service of god is awesome! did you know that you can be a missionary too, every time we serve someone we are really serving god, or in other words if we want to serve god, serve others!
Monday, August 29, 2011
8/1/11 Miracle Baptism
oooooook this week has been fun and a little challenging, i promised myself not to write anything negative, but I'm pretty sure i have food poisoning today so if my letter is a little short, just know that I'm passing most of my time in the bathroom today. other than that I'm getting comments that every time people see me I'm a little bit thinner, huh oh well i guess living in a foreign country does that to you.
OK i want to write about the miracle baptism that we had and maybe one other thing if there is time. OK so we had been working with this family and the 9 year old girl was ready to be baptized with her 17 year old sister and so we put a baptismal date for July 30th, after putting this date a whole bunk of stuff started happening and the 17 year old changed her date to the 27th of August and the nine year olds attitude changed 100% she went from super happy to not smiling for like two weeks and she didn't want to be baptized at all. well we decided to just keep moving along and teach other people. well we were teaching outside of an investigators home and along comes Allison (9 year old girl) and she is beaming and asks us if we will come by her house later that day (Thursday) well we were more curious to see what had changed her mind and attitude than anything else so we decided to stop by for maybe five minutes, well when we got there she threw her arms around us and said i want to be baptized tomorrow! and we talked with her mom and her grandma and they said it was all good and so the first thing we said is can you wait till Saturday when we planned to have your baptism? and she said that that was OK. so in that moment we thought oh crap she needs to have her interview, like now to have enough time to resolve any issues that could come up, so we ran to a payphone and started calling the district leaders pension (where they were eating) and there was no answer, and it was getting kind of late and if we didn't get hold of them she would likely have to wait for the next week, so we started running to the bus stop to take a bus to where our leaders were and take them to her to have the interview, well as smart, or lucky, or miraculous as it was we got a bus in less than 30 seconds and were on our way, but we got off at the wrong stop, 1 too far and so we started running down the street to the corner where we would turn an run two blocks to meet the elders, well we weren't running more than 30 seconds when around the corner come the district leaders! yes awesome! (this was the miracle because if we had gotten off at the right stop, we would have missed them completely!) well she had her interview and passed with flying colors and we were able to have another baptism on Saturday! well the lord has really blessed us with a lot of success in this area, we have scheduled baptisms every Saturday for the next month and we will be baptizing abut 11 people! its amazing to be able to work in such a fruitful part of the lords vineyard.
awesome to hear from you guys, tell shan and kris that living in a mobile home for a while isn't half bad, i was talking with a member and during the first 2 years of their marriage they lived in a tent with a blow up mattress that they had to blow up every night and the mom was pregnant which made everything so much easier.... well kind of.... just remember to count your blessings because you could always have less.
Moms questions
How has your week been? Great! it has been a pretty normal week, still receiving lots of support from the members! had a miracle baptism, and learned alot.
Can you believe he will be 11 years old?? yes mother i can believe that Tate will be 11, he was born 11 years ago. ps HAPPY BIRTHDAY TATE I LOVE YOU TOO!
Today is transfer day right? yes
Are you staying or going? staying in my area! with my companion!, i think that that is a first in all of my mission! Elder Rodas, in Jose galvez, in villa El Salvador!
Grandmas Question
So do they celebrate Pioneer Day in Peru? no, no they don't, I'm pretty sure that's just a Utah, st David thing. :)
OK i want to write about the miracle baptism that we had and maybe one other thing if there is time. OK so we had been working with this family and the 9 year old girl was ready to be baptized with her 17 year old sister and so we put a baptismal date for July 30th, after putting this date a whole bunk of stuff started happening and the 17 year old changed her date to the 27th of August and the nine year olds attitude changed 100% she went from super happy to not smiling for like two weeks and she didn't want to be baptized at all. well we decided to just keep moving along and teach other people. well we were teaching outside of an investigators home and along comes Allison (9 year old girl) and she is beaming and asks us if we will come by her house later that day (Thursday) well we were more curious to see what had changed her mind and attitude than anything else so we decided to stop by for maybe five minutes, well when we got there she threw her arms around us and said i want to be baptized tomorrow! and we talked with her mom and her grandma and they said it was all good and so the first thing we said is can you wait till Saturday when we planned to have your baptism? and she said that that was OK. so in that moment we thought oh crap she needs to have her interview, like now to have enough time to resolve any issues that could come up, so we ran to a payphone and started calling the district leaders pension (where they were eating) and there was no answer, and it was getting kind of late and if we didn't get hold of them she would likely have to wait for the next week, so we started running to the bus stop to take a bus to where our leaders were and take them to her to have the interview, well as smart, or lucky, or miraculous as it was we got a bus in less than 30 seconds and were on our way, but we got off at the wrong stop, 1 too far and so we started running down the street to the corner where we would turn an run two blocks to meet the elders, well we weren't running more than 30 seconds when around the corner come the district leaders! yes awesome! (this was the miracle because if we had gotten off at the right stop, we would have missed them completely!) well she had her interview and passed with flying colors and we were able to have another baptism on Saturday! well the lord has really blessed us with a lot of success in this area, we have scheduled baptisms every Saturday for the next month and we will be baptizing abut 11 people! its amazing to be able to work in such a fruitful part of the lords vineyard.
awesome to hear from you guys, tell shan and kris that living in a mobile home for a while isn't half bad, i was talking with a member and during the first 2 years of their marriage they lived in a tent with a blow up mattress that they had to blow up every night and the mom was pregnant which made everything so much easier.... well kind of.... just remember to count your blessings because you could always have less.
Moms questions
How has your week been? Great! it has been a pretty normal week, still receiving lots of support from the members! had a miracle baptism, and learned alot.
Can you believe he will be 11 years old?? yes mother i can believe that Tate will be 11, he was born 11 years ago. ps HAPPY BIRTHDAY TATE I LOVE YOU TOO!
Today is transfer day right? yes
Are you staying or going? staying in my area! with my companion!, i think that that is a first in all of my mission! Elder Rodas, in Jose galvez, in villa El Salvador!
Grandmas Question
So do they celebrate Pioneer Day in Peru? no, no they don't, I'm pretty sure that's just a Utah, st David thing. :)
Sunday, July 31, 2011
7/25/11 - 21 lessons with members present!
Well like I said this week has been a really hard week, but a rewarding one. We had a baptismal service on Saturday at 11:00am, but the investigators didn't show up till 11:10 which made me and elder Rodas freak out a little bit, but everything else went smoothly(with exception that their mom didn't want to be baptized quite yet) I was able to perform the ordinance for Alexandra Mercedes Dias Quinche, it was really amazing and funny because their is no hot water in the baptismal font so the water was about 50 degrees so as we were getting in Alexandra was squealing and taking deep breaths, and as she came up out of the water she was gasping and just about running for the stairs, which made it all the funnier to watch her brother start walking down into the water hahaha but it was amazing. this week was a really hard week though not sure why it was so hard, maybe it was just stressful but the ward here has really caught the spirit of missionary work and we were able to get 21 lessons with members present! that's really amazing, elder Rodas even though he is in his last three months of his mission as of august 1st said that never in his whole mission was he able to get that many lessons with a member present. it is so amazing to be able to be working in this part of the vineyard, the impact of the members on investigators is amazing and their concern friendship and help they provide the investigator is priceless. my companion said something very profound the other day during training that i would like to share with you guys and hope that you guys will be able to think about it or even try it out. we were talking about inviting people to be baptized and how we should never hesitate to ask because 1 it lets us see really where their doubts are concerning the church and progress or answer their questions and 2nd the world never hesitates to ask people to smoke to drink, to go to inappropriate parties, and they accept, why then should we fear or hesitate to ask them to do something good, because chances are more often than not that they will at least give it a try. so never hesitate to invite people to come to church with you guys or to listen to the missionaries, because chances are they have seen your great example and are curious as to what makes you different from everyone else! anyways love you!
ps if you can still put some things in the package i thought of a list of things that i would like
the study giudes/manuels for the book of mormon, D&C, old testament, and new testament in english...there are also dvds if you can find those in spanish because they are full of short videos which are amazing. if you get me the dvds a cd dvd case like the books, but a lot smaller would be nice. also batteries, i got this camera because it used batteries and it is pretty easy to come by batteries here, the thing is the batteries last about an hour in my camera, where as the batteries from the us last about a week of heavy use and a month of light use. so if you can that would be awesome!
love you guys hope to hear from you soon, and not just mom and dad, and ocasionally marlee but ALL of YOU aaron, shannon, tater kristi....etc!
loves
Mom's questionsDid your baptisms go through on Saturday? yes! we were able to baptize victor and Alexandra, but their mom wants to wait a little while like a month, to take care of some personal issues first.... sigh oh well... but we{ll keep working with her.
Have any more of your investigators committed to baptism? we currently have 9 different people committed to be baptized between now and september 3 it is really amazing how easy it is to get people to accept a baptismal date, the hard part comes in getting them ready to make this covenant and to remain faithful afterwords.
When will you be having transfers? transfers are August 1st Tate's birthday! so you'll all find out then it'll be a nice present, happy birthday Tate i love you
Any new word on your VISA? no idea apparently my tourist visa is good for 6months so well just play it by ear until December
Dads questions
Howdy Jesse, what’s new in Peru? not much, just working hard, this week was a hard week but a rewarding one, we were able to have 21 lessons with a member present!
So how is the winter weather there? cold and wet, it doesn't really rain it{s kind of like being inside of a cloud and water just accumulates everywhere.
Do I remember right you are not far from the coast? that's right were pretty darn close to the coast even though its not inside of our area, on clear days we can see it though from the tops of our giant hills
So does that make the weather a little more mild? not really, if it weren't so humid it would be really nice, or if i saw the sun more than three times every 6 weeks
Is it more desert or tropic along the coast? well if you haven't seen on google earth a satellite view of Peru then here is the layout, everything from the coast to the Andes is desert and barren, nothing would grow here if it weren't for people piping in water, so there is little or no grass, trees are tiny and the view mainly consists of dirt and mud, however right now because it is so humid small plants like clover are starting to cover the mountains and so everything looks green, but as soon as the sun comes back they will all die off (at least that's what the Peruvians have told me)
Since your by the coast do you eat more fish than in the other places, or is your main food still chicken and rice? nope the main plate is still chicken and rice
So do you get the church magazines at you apartment to read? sometimes
Or do they want you spending all your time in the scriptures and preach my gospel? its not prohibited if that's what you asking, but we usually don't have very much time to just sit and read the church magazines since we are asked to study from the book of Mormon a minimum of 30min every day and read every word and look up every scripture in preach my gospel every 6 months, so that takes care of personal study and companionship study we don't have much time either, so keep the stories coming i enjoy reading the cliff note versions ;)
ps if you can still put some things in the package i thought of a list of things that i would like
the study giudes/manuels for the book of mormon, D&C, old testament, and new testament in english...there are also dvds if you can find those in spanish because they are full of short videos which are amazing. if you get me the dvds a cd dvd case like the books, but a lot smaller would be nice. also batteries, i got this camera because it used batteries and it is pretty easy to come by batteries here, the thing is the batteries last about an hour in my camera, where as the batteries from the us last about a week of heavy use and a month of light use. so if you can that would be awesome!
love you guys hope to hear from you soon, and not just mom and dad, and ocasionally marlee but ALL of YOU aaron, shannon, tater kristi....etc!
loves
Mom's questionsDid your baptisms go through on Saturday? yes! we were able to baptize victor and Alexandra, but their mom wants to wait a little while like a month, to take care of some personal issues first.... sigh oh well... but we{ll keep working with her.
Have any more of your investigators committed to baptism? we currently have 9 different people committed to be baptized between now and september 3 it is really amazing how easy it is to get people to accept a baptismal date, the hard part comes in getting them ready to make this covenant and to remain faithful afterwords.
When will you be having transfers? transfers are August 1st Tate's birthday! so you'll all find out then it'll be a nice present, happy birthday Tate i love you
Any new word on your VISA? no idea apparently my tourist visa is good for 6months so well just play it by ear until December
Dads questions
Howdy Jesse, what’s new in Peru? not much, just working hard, this week was a hard week but a rewarding one, we were able to have 21 lessons with a member present!
So how is the winter weather there? cold and wet, it doesn't really rain it{s kind of like being inside of a cloud and water just accumulates everywhere.
Do I remember right you are not far from the coast? that's right were pretty darn close to the coast even though its not inside of our area, on clear days we can see it though from the tops of our giant hills
So does that make the weather a little more mild? not really, if it weren't so humid it would be really nice, or if i saw the sun more than three times every 6 weeks
Is it more desert or tropic along the coast? well if you haven't seen on google earth a satellite view of Peru then here is the layout, everything from the coast to the Andes is desert and barren, nothing would grow here if it weren't for people piping in water, so there is little or no grass, trees are tiny and the view mainly consists of dirt and mud, however right now because it is so humid small plants like clover are starting to cover the mountains and so everything looks green, but as soon as the sun comes back they will all die off (at least that's what the Peruvians have told me)
Since your by the coast do you eat more fish than in the other places, or is your main food still chicken and rice? nope the main plate is still chicken and rice
So do you get the church magazines at you apartment to read? sometimes
Or do they want you spending all your time in the scriptures and preach my gospel? its not prohibited if that's what you asking, but we usually don't have very much time to just sit and read the church magazines since we are asked to study from the book of Mormon a minimum of 30min every day and read every word and look up every scripture in preach my gospel every 6 months, so that takes care of personal study and companionship study we don't have much time either, so keep the stories coming i enjoy reading the cliff note versions ;)
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