Hello from SAN LUIS!!!!

WHOO HOO!!! AN AWESOME NEW ZONE!!!! Hey family from San Luis.  So I got transfered to the zone san luis, and my ward is san luis also!  And the best part of it all is I finally get to climb up mountains and stuff, FINALLY!!.  I have wanted so bad in my mission to have a sector with mountains in it, and now I got a ton of them, to many people to be able to teach in the time that I will be here.  My companion is Elder Zea from Guatemala, and he is really cool, we will get along, he is kinda a pretty boy, and isnt like 100 percent obedient but whatever as long as he doesnt bug me about being obedient we will get along.  We had a baptism already on saturday, he was 9 and his name was Aaron, so that was cool, he lives up on the mountain, his mom is member, and now we are working with his sisters..  But the zone is a really cool zone, I dont remember mom if you remember that picture before the mission, where there was a huge hill and it was covered with houses, there wasnt even a spot on it for another house, yup that is el pino, and elder ramos and figueroa are there on that hill, that is there sector, and man it is humongous, but it is cool to have this zone, and yup still a zone leader no worries, but I had a change because it was just my time to leave I guess, haha they usually dont keep you with your companions very long when you are zone leader, man I was praying so hard that I wouldnt go back to Maranga, because it is so hard to baptize there, but now where I am at we just made the goal to baptize 63 people this month haha and in san martin we got 31 so that would be double and I am excited to try and get it. Well we will see what Elder Zea and I can do!  But the whole zone has alot of time in the mission and have some really awesome elders so I am excited.  We also have 2 sisters, and that is hard with 20 elders and then 2 sisters to try and make them happy will definantly be a struggle.  My room is ok, the toilet doesnt work, so you have to fill water up in a bucket and then throw it in the toilet and then it all goes down but it so annoying to have to do that, definantly very grateful for our jet toilets that we have at home, what a blessing!!!  and man on saturday I was good and sick about to die.. I got a fever again, there is this food that they give me here that I just know everytime that I eat it, I get a fever, it is called carapulcra, it is like dried potatoes with peanuts and then they soak it in water forever and ya it is digusting, but just be grateful to be able to eat a nice steak.......... and so at six on saturday i went back to the room and rested and elder zea went out and worked, we did splits, so i could rest.  I hate doing that, but last time that I tried to be a hero i was sick for like four days, i was only sick on saturday night this way, so that was good, very grateful that it passed. and now gonna try to drop down again my weight, with elder armijo , we ate a ton of pizza, but now I will stop and start to lose weight for all of you.  And our pensionista has her own restaurant and so we get to pick whatever we want and she is amazing, her name is ana and she is the president of the relief society.  She is an awesome member, faithful and knows what she is doing.  And the bishop here is super young like 30 years old, like tory, and he is super cool..  Bishop Palasios. 

But hey enough about me, THat is so awesome that Jeremy got married, tell him congrats for me and that that is way awesome.  It looks like you all had alot of fun and thanks for all of the pictures it is always so good to see you all.  Sorry I havent taken any pictures yet, havent had time, just trying to work hard, and next week I throw some pics your way.  But thanks tam for your email, you sound great and the baby is gonna be awesome, what are you gonna name him?  Are you gonna name him Boston like you were gonna name Branik?  that would be pretty cool?  or you could name him Hugo like one of my investigators hahahahahahahha that would be even more awesome.... ish.... hahah thanks tam.  Sister I dunno what happened with you email, I dont think that it worked...  but that is okay.  Toads man your gotee grew in real nice, and man you got a sweet brown shirt on, I wonder whose that is?..... haha maybe you can have it if you wake up put it on and go to church more bum.... the elders of isreal are waiting for ya, hop on bro.... 

Thanks mom for everything and for the awesome reminder of how much time that I have left..... haha jk it just looks dawnting, and it looks like I have more left then i have ahahah but o well it is flying by, and everything is so new here that I think that this change will be flying by...  well mom and dad Love you very much, everthing is awesome.  Keep up the good work, and Ill be over here in the hills talking to some really really really poor people love you...

Love you all very much..  Jess

The worth of a "soul" is priceless...

The Savior, He wore sandals and through the many miles He walked,

The people they all gathered, they all marveled when he talked.

I am sure his feet were worn, yes, they must have been so sore.

Yet he never murmured or complained of the pain he surely bore.

So here I am serving and doing all that I can do.

To be just like the Savior I am trying through and through.

And now my shoes are dusty, you could say they are even worn.

But oh it is so worth it when I testify that He was born.

I teach about His kindness, and His love for all mankind.

I testify of Jesus Christ, in Him my words I find.

So for now I walk and walk and move from place to place.

So on that day I meet my Savior I will know I have blessed others with His grace.

                                                                                             by Stephanie Hicken

Lots of Pictures This Time

Hey family so another good week, and man it flew by, but had our baptism and man it was a good one for me, one that I have wanted for 12 weeks now, finally it happened.  But I got the call on saturday night, I AM GETTING A CHANGE TOMORROW.   I was only here for 12 weeks and they are shipping me out of here, out of san martin, I kinda had a feeling that it was gonna happen because I was already here before and I dunno it just felt like it.  I am excited, changes are awesome, new people to meet, I love it, but at the same time, we have a ton of baptisms here in Rio Blanco, so I hope that I can keep baptizing.  We were gonna have 2 more baptisms this week but Now i am leaving so they will have to get baptized without me.  haha o well as long as they get baptized it will be good.  BUt hoping that I dont go back to maranga....  k gonna send this email and load some more pictures.

K so what I sent you on the last email, is the marriot where we will be staying, yup palm trees in front mom, haha it is pretty big, and nice to be in Peru, and then a picture of Carla, that got baptized, she almost didnt get baptized because on wedensday, she lied to her mom and said, mom I am going to my interview at 7 pm and then at 11 pm her mom started to get a little worried about her and so went out looking for her and found her with all of her friends on the avenue and so her mom was way upset and said that she wasnt gonna get baptized, because her interview wasnt even wed it was on thursday but lied to be able to go to a party, and it was a party with all of her friends from the church so that made it even harder on us, but just said our prayers and her sister angel talked her mom into letting her get baptized.  so that was good,  and then a picture of the puzzle that aunt connie sent me, tell her thanks for me, thanks aunt connie, I sent you a letter in the package, hope that it gets to you, I sent it a week ago so it should be getting there sometime.  and then yes mom,  I GOT ALL THREE PACKAGES AND WEARING MY NEW SHOES RIGHT NOW, thanks mom thanks dad for sending me all that stuff it is awesome to have a new pair of shoes, as you can see, my last shoes were pretty beat, compared to the new shoes that ya sent me, so i have been shining my shoes everyday this week to keep them up a little more.  But thanks for all the food, haha I have to eat it all today because tomorrow I have to pack my bags and I dont have room for it. haha Ok now these three pictures are Yuvitka and Fransua who are getting baptized this saturday, and then miguel and his family, his wife is a member and they arent married and gonna get married on the 14 of may now and he is gonna get baptized, he is awesome he is really looking for the truth and it was awesome the help him.,  He has been listening to the missionaries for years but with elder armijo we got him excited and his heart opened a little with us, it was fun to see his progress.  then the zone last night in our room, o ya we had to move because our last room didnt have its own entrance, we had to go into the front door of Irenes house then through her kitchen then up stairs to get to our room, and the church wants us to have our own entrances so we had to find a room with its own door, and that is our new room, it is huge and awesome but now im leaving, haah but still doesnt have hot water, 3 months without hot water, man sometimes it is so hard to get in the shower but now I wont have to worry about it, hope the new zone has hot water. 

O ya lucky sister, enjoy it the cruise, and the countdown is awesome that they put up because I will end my mission the 21st of march of 2012 it looks like, haha so it is almost exactly to when mom and dad will be here, haha crazy,A funny story that happened to me this week was , we were going to get on a combi and I got stuck in the median and elder armijo crossed the street so I had to wait for like a min so the light would turn green and when I crossed elder armijo wasn't there, he had gotten on a combi without me, and three blocks later he finally relized that I wasnt there and got off, and so i walked all the way back to the room to call him and man I felt so weird to be alone, it was crazy, the first time in my mission, everyone was looking at me wierd like why is this mormon alone, they are always together haha.  that was crazy.  but we met back up Where did camila move to? And I dunno if you have read my letter yet, but we get to call from skype this mothers day, so I need you to check on my skype I think I remember the password and everything but if not you will have to create me another Skype.

Well family I love you very much , thanks for everything, just keep going, love you all, let you know where I am next week,  love you all elder stauffer

Hey family dang it has snowed a ton, thanks so much for all the pictures mom that is great...  And ya I would like them in my packages now too.  Now we will be gettng all of our packages on tuesdays instead of mondays, so that is something new for ya.  And i wont be getting a transfer for at least six more weeks maybe even 12 weeks.  But we will see you never know.  That is awesome that you all got to go to dinner together at the  praie scooner.  I remember that i used to always bug you guys with the light that they have there, i would turn it up and down. haha hope you all missed that ...  i still can remember the food there, and miss a huge steak so bad, it is unreal, i could use a huge 32 oz. steak right now.  Today  for p day we are going to be cooking things from our country, so all the gringos will be making brownies and something else and then all the elders from guatemala and costa rica are gonna make something together and then all the south americans are gonna make something together, so it is like a day when all the parts of america are gonna make their type of food, so we will see how it goes.  This week we didnt have church so we couldnt baptized anyone kod to answer your question because when someone gets baptized it is better if the next day they get the gift of the holy ghost, and we didnt have church because of the president elections so next week we will have like 11 baptisms, and we have one.  Man i am so excited for her though, because on thursdsay we did our fast as a zone and then on friday we went to the temple and then on saturday we went to carlas house to talk to her mom and see if she would finally give her permission... because carla is angels sister that i baptized with elder vasquez, and then angel said hey why dont i just take the form up and see if my mom will sign it now, and man she came down with the signiture.  It was awesome, and the Lord answered our pray that same day.  Man I have learned to pray more often in my mission, before the mission it was just like ya i gotta say my prayers to say them, and always recieved blessings but never recogized them, I have learned to recognize the blessings now.  And man it was awesome.  So carla is so happy to be able to get baptized, so I will try and plan the baptism really good for her.  That is funny about the driver that quit, but hey thats fine, no big.  Alot more people that are looking for jobs.  And thanks for all the pictures again, it was awesome to see how chubby payton is still, hahah she has grown up a ton.  And bt smiles like his mom haha so on fridays we always play soccer at the stake center and there is a little bit of extra grass there.  And a convert to the church that is like 18 came to play soccer and then when we were all leaving he said hey stanford, cause that is what they all call me because there is a notebook company down here that is called stanford and they all have to buy like 15 notebooks each for school so they all know that name and that is what they call me, but he said hey stanford when are we gonna play football,  (futbol americano)  and i said right now ill teach you how.  And then i sat and taught him and he was like ok lets go. I taught him his 3 point stance and how to fire off the line and just try to drive the other guy back.. Well he wanted to play, and so I said okay and we went and I just went like half speed and he kinda got a little fired up and was like okay im ready and then he wanted to go again and so I was like okay whatever you say and we did it the second like and still went like 50 percent and threw him to the ground and man he was like okay this is mine, lets go again, and man he got kinda fired up for this one, and man i said if he wants to do it 3 times Ill show him on this one.  Man I gave it to him.  Everyone was watching us and were like dang he just got his butt kicked, it was so funny and then I helped him up and he humbled himself a little bit.  So my companion was laughing so hard at me, he was like man you killed him..... hahah but you know me, when someone wants to go, they have there personal agency right?  It was awesome to feel the football juice again, and now I can make it for another year without playing.  haha thought that I would share the story with all of you.  So the mission is awesome and flying by, feels like yesterday that I just wrote you all ..  Elder armijo is elder armijo, known in the mission for being the most un humble missionary ever, and I have to deal with it, but it is teaching me alot and how I dont want to be... haha and just trying to make it through it, without doing anything that would affend the Spirit.  And he thinks that he is the next assistent so we will see if that happens.....  but yesterday we went to bello horizonte to eat lunch with our old pensionista, Claudia, she made me my favorite, fried chicken o man her fried  chicken is something else.  And we watched a show that is called one good man, you have to see it.  It was a awesome show, you should all watch it as a family, so you have to watch it as a family, not just mom and dad but ALL OF YOU....  do that for me...  well I love you all very much, finished up my package and I am going to send it today, so be looking for it please, it is like a white brick, so love you all very much thanks for everything mom...  write me... jesse. ps i forgot my camera again, sorry :(

HAPPY BIRTHDAY POPS!!

Hey family, how is it going?  Just wanna start off by saying HAPPY B DAY POPS, HOPE THAT YOU HAVE A GREAT DAY, wish that I could be there but hey next one i will be there.  Seems like just barely what you all told me you did for dads b day last year, time is flying.  This week was another good week and the conferences were really special, I GOT TO WATCH THEM IN ENGLISH  whoo hoo, so much better....  Because I could watch them in spanish and understand but it is just more specail to hear the prophets voice.  And hey ONLY 1 MORE TO GO HAHA  that is crazy.  I still remember the conference last year in the MTC it was great there and now I only have one more, whoa...  But man tammie thanks for giving me an update, you got pretty lucky on having another baby boy, but then again you never know, you always hear of a story or two when everyone had everything all boughten and then come to find out when it came out that it was a little girl, so dont be to confident, you NEVER know.... hahah  but still lucky, Im gonna have another little boy when I get back..  One of the craziest things about here is how the moms just breast feed in public WITHOUT ANYTHING COVERING THEM. It drives me absolutly crazy.  But what are you gonna name him?  what could you name him that everyones name is here in perú?  carlos, jorge, or pablo.  There you have it the three names that you could name him.  haha o or Jesús.  hahaha  But man thanks for telling me the story about branik, i laughed out loud, lol hahaha hahah  tell him that jesse will be home soon to explain it to him.  I am excited to start to speak spanish to bt to see what kind of reactions i get out of him haha haha.  Mom you are so lucky, (and thanks for the scoot, keeping er clean) and cody is awesome, he is a really good kid, and needs to accept the gospel, he needs it.  And thanks for the boxes and the shirts and everything that you do mom your the best.  Thanks pops getting that for me.  So this week we had to move, man it is always me, that has to move and it took the whole day, it was lame, but the new room is nicer it is pretty cool..  so enough about that.  But this week we couldnt baptize because there wasnt a sunday to confirm, and this week either because it is president elections,  so bummer but the next week we should have baptisms..  and the conference was a good opportunity to evaluate and see what  I have to do better, alot of things, just remembering Him more often, that is my main goal right now.  I thought about you all alot and that we were watching at the same time the conference so that was sweet.  but man what else can i say,  that i am still working on the cassete tape and that it will be sent off , some day..  I have gotten your letters and thanks it is so good to hear from you, maybe I dont respond to ev erything but hey it 1 year you all can ask me a million questions about my mission and i will be able to answer right then and there..  Kody everything is good, having fun on my mission, thanks for your support.  I Love all of you, and hope dad that you have a good steak on wednesday ;(  hahah man I want a steak so bad but hey 11 and a half months haha haha love you all elder stauffer