10-13-08 E-MAIL

AREA: LAS FLORES, PERU

COMPANION: ELDER MELANDER

Hi everybody, so b4 i start i have to tell you that you need to start sending your emails to mom, and then she has to fwd them to me…. I don’t really understand the rule, but hey. Any who, this week has been good not a ton happened. We commited a man named Ermogenis to baptism. And then right after we found out that Alejandro( another investagator with a bap. Date) broke his shoulder in the gym and has a half body cast on and isn’t getting it removed for a month. But the problem is he's embarrassed about the cast and doesn't want to go to church with it. So we'll have to wait a while b4 he can get baptized. Also yesterday was some festival for a saint, so there were all these parades for it, and everywhere there were these purple banners and decorations. They always have some festival, one every couple weeks. But all the difference is that usually there's a bunch of drunk people walking around. But when there's a festival they are drunk, walking around, with funny hats on. I have to admit, the drunk people are pretty funny. There's one guy that gets drunk, and then walks out to the same spot in the street and yells ´´THANK YOU!´´over and over. We did our first real service project here. We helped build a foundation of a house. But I don’t think many Peruvians took a physics class, cuz what we did was, we were digging this thing on the side of a mountain, but then we would haul the dirt and rocks… further up the mountain… so there's a good chance of a landslide there now. But anyways it was nice to have some excersize and to get dirty. Ya not much happened this week, we didn’t find too many people to teach. With out references nothing really happens. Ermogenis was a person we contacted, but he's probably only the 3 person I've contacted that I've taught, and we contact 200 every week. So we are gonna really start asking members for references. And also we are going to start teaching English ,it'll probably start after Elder Melander leaves, so I might be teaching it with a latin comp… which would be just…peachy. Today should be awesome, we get to go to the Peruvian Black market haha, I have so much I realized I need to buy. And they have some of the nicest ties ever… haha, love those things. I'm gonna try and burn another cd and send it to you all pretty soon, there's a video on there with this crane…. Its so amazing… you just have to see it. My Spanish is still coming bit by bit (poco a poco) I can understand most things when we talk about gospel topics. But if I'm in the street… I usually don’t understand anything, its pretty frustrating. But oh man when I get home I'm speaking this everyday, cuz there is no way I'm losing this after working this hard for it. I'm gonna have to marry someone from here so I have to speak it…. Alright maybe not.

Mom- Its not really getting any warmer here, it’s a lot tougher to wake up in the morning when you're cold… and there's no hot water haha. Elder Haleis always telling me how much nicer Santa Cruz is. I didn’t even know Jared was engaged. When are Ashley and Dallin getting married? I knew my pin number was something like that, I'll find out in about an hour if its correct. Did I send you those names last week of my mtc buddies? You should really find their families if you can. Also I wanna start writing Vince and Beau, and Austin, but I have no idea what their addresses are now, could you send them to me?

Kim- That’s so great you got to go to conference. I'm gonna try and go right when I get home. Also I got a letter from Emily Peck today, her dad was with mason in pharmacy (haha it took me so long to remember how to spell that)school. She was like ´´why are you still in peru?´´ Tell Brennan Mikey saysto behave.

EE- Watch out for those groupies. Elder Christopherson is coming the 22 ofOctober, its gonna be so great.

KK- what happened to Cecily?

OK sorry everybody, this email seems a little short to me but I can't really think of much else to write. I'm trying to think of some funny stories. Ok here's one: Elder Evans is in my santa cruz group and right now he's in a part of lima called Vitarte. And this drunk guy threw this rock at him, but he was drunk so naturally it missed. But then the guy ran up to elder evans expecting him to run, but he's like 6-4 230 so he just stands there. And the drunk guy doesn’t really know what to do so there both just standing there. So Elder Evans goes, ´´ would…. You like to hear about Jesus Christ?´´. And the guy just starts crying and kissing Elder Evans hand. Slowly he realizes that the guy thinks Elder Evans …..is ……Jesus. Ha, its probably a bit funnier to tell it in person. I already have a million stories from this place, I'm keeping a pretty good record in my journal, so I'll tell them all when there's more time. So I really need to start writing letters to people. I want to write one to all the kids at least. But we don’t have much time to sit and write, on pdays we have free time but we still have stuff to do. I was also going to try and send some pics with this email… but I left my camera at home. Ok well I gotta go, love you guys.

10-6-2008 E-MAIL

AREA: LAS FLORES, PERU
COMPANION: ELDER MELANDER

Ok this week im writing this on Microsoft Word cuz it should be a bit more
reliable. Sorry about last weeks email, Ill write that one real quick again.
First of all, weve been told now that after this transfer, well be here for
one more, so we are shooting for going to Bolivia around kims b day. So
hopfully my Spanish will be good by then, cuz ill be ONE FOURTH done by
then. Funny story. theres another elder Wilson in this mission, and my zone
leader showed me apic of him, I totally know him, we were roommates at EFY
the summer b4 I was a senior. He was the guy that had the koala bear puppet.
Oh man he was a funny kid. Also we had zone conference with week. our zone
has the lowest baptisms in the mission. So we have some room to improve. But
last night we committed two guys to baptism for oct 25. I haven't really had
any baptisms yet, the first week I was in the mission elder dodds had 3, but
I didn't even know who they were then. We also commited 3 others right b4 I
left for here, so im not gonna count them either. Mom, b4 I forget, I cant
remember my pin number to my debit card, idk what you want to do about that,
I think you should just send it and ill delete the email after you send it,
just send it Sunday night so its not in my inbox forever. Myldsmail is
pretty secure but you can never be too careful.  That's cool you found those
elders moms. I know elder wilding and Allred(from Washington). I also met
one of the elders named cook, idk which one. But you need to find some of my
friends from the mtc (ccm). Morgan Jacobsen(or its son, not sure how it
ends). Aaron Puglisi, Tyler Meridith, Tyler Duncan, Garret Evans, Benjamin
Smith, and elder ward, im not sure what elder wards first name will be, its
either dallas or Andrew. Ok ill run through my list on my paper real quick,
its unorganized sorry, I haven't gotten any of my santa cruz mail yet, today
I got moms bday list, grandamas letter and all the cards from Hawaii. But I
really want more pics, also I never got the package with duct tape, but wait
one more week b4 you do anthing about it, I might show up next Monday. EE,
one of the guys in my ward found me on facebook, can you make sure you
accept him, his name is Eduardo. He just got his mission call to Uruguay so
I told him about dad a bit. Also that reminds me, dad and mason, can you
send me some of your cool mission experiences I love hearing those.
Conference was sooooo amazing, I got soo much out of it. I got kinda
homesick seeing Utah, and thinking about you all crashing in the family room
watching it. I know two the 70 now, Elder Gavarret, the one that talked
about all the peru stuff, I met him like a month ago. And then elder
nash(said the closing prayer), is the area authority for peru, he is so
amazing.  We had one room that was English so me , elder melander, elder
lopez, and elder hale all sat in there by ourselves. It was nice we grabed a
table to take notes and had snacks, haha it was really confortable. The
speakers spoke a lot about trials, so that's probably preparing us for
something. We were so bummed when it was over, it was just so awesome.
Also, in like 3 weeks Elder Christoferson is going to come down and talk
to us, that is going to be so awesome, Ive never been in the same room and
an apostle.

OK now to the questions
Valynn, Email is probably the safest way to write to me, but it feels really
good to get letters haha, so idk. A few letters now and then are nice, but
ya emails are fine. You liked my pics? Haha, ya that was where I slepped for
about a month, it was rough but I just passed out so it was ok. The less
disgusting looking bathroom is the one we used, but they were both in my old
apt. Now I have a bunk bed, but our bathroom is pretty disgusting haha. The
weather here is basically like seattle, just that wet cold, but its not bad.
But those pictures aren't of FOG, that's SMOG, lima is the dirtiest place
ive ever seen, everthing is covered in this weird polluted dirt, its really
bad.

Mom, I got your twix package last week, oh my goodness that tasted soo good.
I do get to eat American food in this area, we are going to mcdonals after I
write this. You have no idea how much I miss that shower, my bathroom
doesn't have hot water, when I get home ill act out my little shower ritual
to you, its pretty funny. Theres a lot of things out here you just have to
laugh at, so in the shower I just make a lot of noise to make myself laugh.
And as far as the google earth thing. im in this little valley right now,
and the mountains are like close to the size of  badger mountain.

Crystal-sounds like everything is going well, if you wanna send stuff use
the address mom used for my twix package, everything just goes to the
mission office and then I get it on Monday.
EE- sounds like the house is going well, we don't ride bikes here, which im
not upset about, and I wont in santa cruz.

Kim its good to hear your doing well. When you mentioned reunions I just
thought of how great its going to be after my mission to see all my mission
buds again, we are soo close. And now we are separated and I miss them so
much, we all helped each other through some really tough situations. Last
week I saw elder Jacobsen and elder evans. Weve only been separated for like
3 weeks, but I ran over and gave them such a huge hug. Im hopeing to see my
whole group when elder christoferson comes.

Ok fam I gotta go, love you all soo much.