Happy Thanksgiving...a little late, but that's okay

Just wanted to start out this email by saying that I am sorry for last week and that I barely had any time, but hey ya gotta do what ya gotta do.  This week was two baptisms for us, we had Dorina and her grandaughter that got baptized, dorina got baptized 25 years ago but never got confirmed so she had t

o do it again, and valentina I baptized.  The foto with the other lady hugging dorina, Rosa, our pensionista, man she is the best, but she gives us a ton of
 food, wow.  and the other foto is on the top of our house, and in my sector there is a ton of parks like this.  Everything is really good for me, and thank you all for all of your emails and your fotos, man that is the best to get to see all of you guys, all look the same, but bt and payton are getting so old.  I didnt even think about thanksgiving this thursday which is sad because I love thanksgiving, but doesnt sound like you all did that much.  Changes are coming up this 14 of december.  And man I am hoping for a change, ready to have new experiences and new people, but hey it isnt what I want but Ill do whatever he asks, even if it is hard.  Thanks mom for the boxes that you have sent.  AND WOW THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALL OF THE PENS, SWEET, I AM SET AND SO EXCITED, YOU DID AWESOME.  I gave one pen to elder zapata cause he didnt have a nice pen, and that is just something that you have to have here in the battle field )the mission) Still just working on the language so they can understand me better, I get all the grammar, but just try

ing to get rid of my accent, so they dont even have to think when I talk, but man it is hard.  That is definantly the hardest when people tell you that you stink at spanish, that has been the hardest thing for me in my mission, but ya whatever it is coming along.  Just hoping for some more responsiblity , ready to be zone leader, or something like that. Still just talking with people in the buses about the book of mormon, and everything is going good.  We found fransisco this week knocking doors, man we knocked doors all week this week, just searching searching, grinding, and man he was awesome, a pretty big guy that let us in.  Way  fun, but he has dawged us to times now, we have had appointments with him, and we go back but he isnt there.  So i dunno, the mission....  We are teaching Martin, he is a big black guy that loves soccer, and he is the kind of guy that has to be the tough guy, I am trying to soften him up, I was thinking that maybe a picture of Jordaans dad would help me out a ton, at his baptism if that is even posible.  Man i was so happy to hear that, I was so so happy. I am happy that everything is going good with the business, and that everyone is busy, makes the time fly by.  Dont worry about me I am just fine, not sick, ,, knock on wood. Tell the bishop that I am working on a letter, and that yes I am thinking about it, maybe today I can write it.  Today we are going to watch the lion king, in spanish, that will be awesome.  I saw that african cats is coming out, that sounds sweet.  but I love all of you guys, we are just working, and sister your recess cookies i would love.  love all of you tons, keep reading and praying for me..  gonna sen

d another email with another foto

Snow...Wow!

wow thank you so much for the pictures, and another fast fast week down, wow, had alot of success this week. It was so good to see that picture it doesnt seem like all that much is different, and love you all.  sorry this week will be a little bit shorter, cause there isnt enough computers for all of us, so I volunteered to share with elder hawk. So everything is good here, just another normal week here for me, we have 4 with baptismal dates, and I am pretty excited for that, cause man we were sctratching here to find the people prepared to hear the gospel. Just half way through the change, hoping that i get a change, so I can get to know some other people, and sick of the airplanes here, they are so loud, and when they fly over all of the car alarms go off, it is annoying.  But made alot of progress.  Cant wait to get the packages, today we are going to the zoo again.  Thanks sister for your email, that is awesome that you have antoher cat in your house, .... not.... jk.  But yes they do maestros orientadores here ( home teachers,visiting teaching) but we are in peru come on, they arent as faithful like us, but they try.  We are so blessed .  love you all tahnks for everything.  Thanks for the liahonas mom in the packages, I love that.  Man freemont went to the ship, that is pretty sweet.  but hey they beat alta that is pretty sweet.  not gonna lie. hope that you all know that I love my mission, and that is crazy about isaac bell, let me know how he is doing. Love you

Se Bautizo (He got baptized)

Hey family¡¡¡  Wow I will start by saying how fast that this week went, wow, seems like 3 hours ago I was writting you guys.  But Adrian got baptized, it was awesome.  We barely got the program going, geez, we didnt have the keys to the office and not one of the bishopric was there and it was kinda a mess but we got it done.  The bishop here is a flake and so it makes it a little hard on us.  But a really good week, the Lord had prepared adrian, we barely had to do anything.  His best friend is a member, and his best friends dad baptized him, so it was good.  It was so bright for us to open our eyes in the picture.. I am happy that you got my letters, and thank you mom for sending them all out.  Hope that you liked reading all of them.  And okay I will be waiting for my box now, it is getting closer, christmas, they have all of there christmas stuff up already.  I still havent seen the family pictures so i am pretty curious to see how they turned out. haha but think next year when you do them you will be thinking about your trip to Perú, this awesome country. ;)  That is awesome to hear that grandma is doing good, I am happy because it is an answer to my prayers, because I pray for her everynight.  I know that He is really answering my prayers.  Hope that she continues to get better, and that is sweet mom that you are doing that, keep up the good work, and keep doing the missionary work, we will be held accountable in that day about how well we shared our testimonys.  Im happy that my broncos won, and sorry toads for your utes, but how did northridge do?  Still havent heard anything. 

SO this week went by so fast because I was praying and thinking about what i could do to help the other elders have more lessions because they werent teaching very many people, and I had the idea to set a goal for how many people that we would try to talk to everyday in the street or knocking doors.  Besides teaching our investigators we set a goal to talk with 10 people about the book of mormon everyday, and man it has helped me and elder zapata so much, and it helped the other elders so much, elder thurgood from idaho, and elder dias from columbia.  It is awesome talking with everyone about the book of mormon, i carry the book of mormon in my hand everywhere now, and it is awesome to see how many people get so upset about this book, it is just another testimony for me that satan is working pretty hard against us.  but Ill keep proclaiming the new news...

Did my sister get her job?  sorry for your email, that is a pain...  How was your scoot this summer, i miss my scoot alot!! haha we could really use a scooter here, it would be really nice.  We walk alot.

Tonight i am going to go to elder dias´ sector to work with him tomorrow to teach him a little more, and see there investigators and see if they are working like they should.  It should be fun. 

Sorry that I am not answering all of your questions, it is cause I havent gotten a package for awhile, I dunno it gets all backed up sometimes in the office I think and then I wont get them for 3 weeks and then I get 3 packages at once.  But it is awesome just keep up the good support.  THanks for everything. 

Read Jacob 2:18-19

Today i was going to try and meet up with tann but he isnt writting me back so I dunno if with will be able too. But the mission is still sweet.  Not even gonna lie, sometimes it is killer, it is like the hardest thing you will ever do, talking a new language, talking with everyone in the street, knocking doors, planning baptisms, working with the members, I know the ward better than the bishop does, in 2 changes.  It is pretty crazy stuff, but I am learning alot while I am here, and most of all I am learning about the things that really matter. 

We did a little service on saturday, and we painted the Lorino Families house, and man I wanted to take pictures so bad, but when I took my camera out, the battery was dead, I was pretty bummed, because it would really make you count your blessings.  We have this alcoholic guy, julio, that fell into his addiction again, it is sad, we went to his house, he had thrown up everywhere, man I was like holding my nose it was nasty, his house was already nasty enough.  but he came to church for the first time, wants to change his life. 

So elder zapata and I did a fast on friday till saturday for our investigators and to get some more investigators, and man on sunday did he ever answer our fast, 8 PEOPLE CAME TO CHURCH.  THat is always way hard to help 8 people get to their classes and all but hey we made it, and made appointments with 2 new families, man I am so excited, because one of the families, there daughter got baptized the week before I got here, and so i think they will progress really fast, and the mom was telling me that she thinks it would be really cool to listen to the lessons, so I am super excited about them, next sunday is our appointment.  Then yesterday, I went out with Gonzalo and Elder zapata went out with the ward mission leader to talk with members, and so gonzalo and I just went out knocking doors, contacting people, and it was really fun, had some success, talked with 7 new people about the book of mormon.  Gonalos mom is our pensionista, he is 14.  He is awesome.  OUr pensionista is really nice, but feeds us A TON!!!!!!!  Last night we got to her house at 9 30 and were going to eat something really quick to fill our stomachs but she didnt have anything and was going to buy stuff for us, but I said no because yesterday was sunday, they have such a huge problem with buying stuff here on sundays, it kills me.  SO i had to teach them that lesson, because we cant make them break the sabbath day.  but hey I love you all and I miss you, I should be getting a package toady, love ya mom, love ya pops, tell grandma that I love her and gramps

Letter From Home

Hi Jesse!  I am so sorry I haven't written you yet! I can't believe you have been out so long already...time goes by too quickly :) I have seen pictures and it seems like you are doing so well.  I am so proud of you and the spirit that you have, you are such a good missionary.  There are a few things going on in our lives, Boston is now 2 and he is a monster!!!!  He is into everything and has more energy than I can handle.  But he is such a sweet little guy and loves to give hugs.  Riley is back in preschool and is learning to write, I attached a letter from her to you. She asks about you all the time and wants to know how you are doing.  She is still taking dance and loves it, she is actually pretty good at it.  Jason is working his rear end off pretty much and I love him for it.  We bought a business called "Classy Can" he cleans out garbage cans for people and it is doing okay, we could do better but we haven't put a ton of time into it.  BYU has won their last two games so that has put him in good spirits :)  I am the primary president and we had our primary program today, we had about 80 kids participate so it is a big thing!  They did such a good job and I was so proud of them.  We love you and think about you all the time, your picture is up on our fridge and my kids are always telling me who it is. Riley's letter is attached she came up with it all by herself (I did help her with the spelling!).  You are such a good example to her thank you for your efforts and testimony!

We love you,

Stephanie, Jason, Riley and Boston

Another hard week on me in Peru...

Family how is it goin? thank you for all of your support...  Another week in the mission, and man had some crazy experiences.  And one of them hit me pretty hard.  We took a taxi to the beach because my sector is really long, it is probably our house to northridge high, it is huge, and so we took a taxi yesterday to do some service for milagros, and I was in the front seat talking with the guy about the gospel and when we got there and I gave him his 5 soles, he was just like, I just wanna tell you that Joseph smith and his wives are in hell right now, and he said that the book of mormon and doctrine and covenants, the pearl of great price are all books of the devil, he knew alot about the gospel, man he was an awesome guy but they are just so, I dunno how to say it, but they are just like pretty wrapped up the all the graps of the devil, it killed me, I had like such a terrible feeling, and the spirit left me for a little,  but it was only a trial of my faith.  I just said to him, Hermano, i just wanna testify that I know José smith was a prophet.  Because there is alot of times here when you have to just testify so when we are in front of the Lord some day I can say, Lord, I told him that he was a prophet, better said, Is i am testifying to everyone so that their blood doesnt fall over my head when we get to that day.  but other than that, WE HAD A BAPTISM.  It was sweet, Alejandra Quispe.  She has been an investigator for a while.  Her son got baptized a couple months ago, and then we had been working with her for along time, she works all week and gets back to her house at 9 30 every night so we could only teach her sundays, but we got her to come to church two times and she got baptized.  It was awesome to finally get her there, she made alot

 of sacrifices to get there, she had to have two interviews for baptism and so she skipped two nights of working to have her interviews, and she had a real desire to get there, and she did it.  We have another baptism this saturday, and then after that we are running dry, so pray this week for us that we can have the faith to find new investigators.  It is always hard to find the ones prepared.  I think we have one that can get baptized but we need to get more appointments with him.  Me and tann are talking with the presidents and we are getting closer to getting permission.  That will be so sweet.  We are going to go eat pollo a la braza, it is like that chicken mom, how do you spell it, rotisery chicken..  It should be way fun to see him.  And the picture is of elder zapata in our new room, look how nice it is.  That is our beds, and I sleep on the bottom.  This last week was so so so fast, it seems like I just barely wrote you last monday, but the time is flying by here.  Before I forget I will tell you a few things that I would like.  You would make my day, if you

went to office depot and bought me a couple zebra pens, that is how you call them, and if you could send 4 or 5 I would be so happy.  Ties, you can never go wrong with ties, I need alot more, um..  o ya I forgot, I still havent seen the family pictures, and I am hoping that they get here today, but you can always send me pictures by email, I will see them when I read the emails.  Just random pictures would be nice, hope its not too much to ask.  The language is awesome, the teaching is easy, but just talking normal like as a friend with all the wierd verbs is pretty tough.  There should be something coming for you in the mail, and so wait for it all of ya.  ;)  I am the district leader of elders now, and so i am really excited about that, now I can talk a little more direct and try to help them more, because the sisters work so hard, I dunno how they do it, but every week they have better numbers than the elders, geez I dunno, one of these weeks I will beat them.  ahah So i hear that my broncs are pretty terrible, well there is always next year.  Sorry about utah toads...  Arin toughen up por favor.... just sleep downstairs.. you need to come here and utah will be heaven, its like the celestial kindom there.......  and I am living in you know where.  Tamm I am happy that you are making the corrections, sacrifices bring blessings, remember he wants us to be perfect like him, so 75% isnt good enough.

I have alot of things I need to get better at and I will let you know how this week goes, today we are going to play sports.  but right right now I am going to the zone leaders room to see if my package got there.  Cant wait to see the pictures. I am happy, and im good, dont worry about me.  I ll be home before you cant even imagine.  And informe me more on my grandma, I pray for her every night.. tell her that.  Read the book of mormon with her please.  Love you all a ton.  mom just surprise me with all of the other stuff..  You always do great.  Thanks mom love you.  Thanks pops love you..  Love you all