Feliz Navidad!!

Well, this week was all over the place! I started out with having divisions with Elder Bird. We went and visited a man that we contacted in a taxi one day. He´s actually a member, and his wife has assisted the church once. They are awesome! The man´s name is Ricardo. We taught the restoration, and the wife told us she felt peace during the lesson. I pray we see progress with them. The Uman family are doing great, and love helping us find people to teach. So, don´t worry I´m fine, buttttt my ankle started to swell up this week after doing some gymnastics with Elder Bird. But don´t worry becasue I rested one day, and it´s totally fine! I love talking to Elder BIrd about college what it´s like. He was sick when I rested with my ankle, so we talked for a while about random things. He told me something interesting. He said every time you see the word Hope in the scriptures, replace it with Expect. I finished the Book of Mormon this week, and I´m starting it again. A little different this time though. THe PResident gave us Book of Mormons for Christmas, and this year he challenged us to write how every page relates to you. I´m reading and writing two pages every day to accomplish the goal of reading it. I also am reading the same amount in spanish every day to finish it in spanish also. We are helping an investigator named Richard remodel his house. Which means make a bathroom, floors, and everything. haha They invited us to each lunch with them after, and we had Cuy! This time around I didn´t kill or pluck the Guinea pig, but I did take all of it´s guts out!! I don´t have pictures this week sorry next week for sure! We have been focusing a lot on ''What can I give Jesus this Christmas?'' I want to give him Charity and Obedience. I encourage you to do the same. Do what He would actually want from you. Make him smile. We went to a Christmas Recital and it made me miss the plays and performances and programs of my syblings. I never realized how awesome those were until I didn´t have them!  I can´t wait to see you for Christmas! Honestly, best gift ever!!! Just so you know I´m going strong, and haven´t opened my presents yet. I´ve been trained well. I gotta say thought, I´ve never been more tempted to open! haha Love you all and have an amazing week!!! Merry Christmas!!! I hope you have snow!! I heard you don´t have any yet??! I can see one mountain wayyyyy high up with some snow. I stare at it at times. haha LOVE YOU ALLLLL 

Love, 

Elder Jeffery

"I felt like I was in a movie"

This week we did a some crazy fun service projects! The first one was like I was in a movie. A man came out of a member´s house with pick-axes for us. Next, we walked up the hills we usually climb, and got to a giant hill passed the city. We started to zig-zag across the rocky cliff, and finally ended up on the top of the hill, and could see literally all of cusco. There was a good sized chunk of dirt on a slant at the top. We started to till up up up. The man just took his shoes off and started to go up tilling the earth. He honestly looked like he was from a movie. I decdided to try to be like him and took my shoes off, but after one row I decided to go back to shoes because there was a ton of glass all over the ground haha I don´t know how he did it! The next day, we built a floor! First we laid out a bunch of rocks flat on the dirt, as a base. THen, you have to make the cement witht these metal bowls that you have to turn to mix the cement with the water, and then pour it on the rocks! It was pretty cool and fun to see! This week we haven´t had much success with investigators, and have a goal next week to help them to get to church, and challenge to baptism. We found two families, that are ready if they pray and start attending church. I have a pillow now!!! I sleep ten times better. Last week we had a dinner with president and did a white elephant. I got a satchel. I wrote a paper with everything I wanted to say but forgot it and I can{t think of anything else right now haha so, have a great weeek Love you and can´t wait to see all of you Christmas!! Ten days left!! WEnt by sooooo fast!!!

Learning and Faith

Hey! So this week has been full of learning and faith!! I have a new companion, Elder Bejar!! This is his last change, and I was really worried he´d be trunkie, but I remember one of the first things he said to me was that he doesn´t know the word trunkie!! I´ve been trying my hardest to be as obedient as I can this week becasue I need all the help I can get! haha I was nervous at first becasue I have to lead the sector, saying where and what we do through out the whole day, talk to everyone, and lead the lessons, but honestly, this has been suchhhh a blessing!! Names come to my mind, words to my mouth, and there´s hardly a moment where I feel lost. It´s been hard at times, but every time I feel frustrated, God has honestly given me a miracle or an event we can work with. I think I´ve learned what it´s really like to love your investigators this week. We don´t have a lot of investigators at the moment who are progressing, but we do have a woman and her kids who are very interested in the Gospel, and she even prayed and had a dream that she wants us to help her understand. The problem is her husband doesn´t want his family to have anything to do with us now, and she can´t take lessons anymore. Please pray for this family, they mean so much to me, and I know this woman, Fauni, is ready for the Gospel. These cards ´´He is the gift´´ I think that´s what they are called in English? haha but these cards for Christmas from the church and the video on youtube is such a teaching tool, and have been using it in almost every lesson. This Christmas I´m asking myself, ´´what gift can I give to Him?´´ I know serving a mission in this moment is the best thing for me and if I am more and more obedient, he will bless me. I love you Mom, and everyone who is reading this letter. Share what you know is true, and try to be like Christ, and if we do this, we have given him a gift already. He loves you and can change your life if you let him. 

Love, Elder Jeffery

Uman Marriage

So this week was full of excitment. We didn´t do much teaching, running around trying to figure out the whole wedding. Turns out we didn´t need to help them out with money, because we kind of found a loop hole with the marriage. The members were amazing with helping this whole thing come together. All we had to really do is tell people what to do, and they did the rest. The family was nervous for their big days, but when the day came, they were ready. The wedding was great. The whole family was there and some of the ward also. For the reception there was a DJ and dancing, food, cake, and everyone had a g reat time. It was really hard being a missionary at the party.  haha Elder Matekel and I chilled on the side line wanting to dance with them so bad! haha I don´t think I´ve ever been to dance and not been so sweaty I want to pass out. haha Also, for the dinner they of course had pig. Like, an entire pig they brought in a bucket, chopped up into barberic chunks and served. We aren´t alowed to eat pig, so once again, we were being party poopers. haha and, to top it off, we have a curfew of 9:30. But still, it was a great success! Idk if I have the pics of the baptism yet, Elder Matekel is sending me them. Oh and about that, Elder Matekel was assigned as the zone leader in Valle Sagrado on Thursday, and left Sunday!! Soooo, I´m staying with the other elders in my room. Elder Quispe has a change, and Elder Yallico is getting a white companion. My new companion´s name is Elder Bejar he´s latino. From what I have heard, he´s ´´trunky´´ but don´t worry, I´m whippin this guy into shape real fast! I´m staying in my sector though. So, every new companion it´s a tradition to give your companion a tie to say goodbye. haha I didn´t bring any ties that I don´t want to keep! haha I should have brought some ugly ties! haha Oh well, I think I can buy ties for like 1 sole here. I will send a few pics of Saqsaywaman, the ruins I went to last week that sounds exactly like ´´sexy woman´´ haha and also of the wedding. I´ll send baptism pics next week! Wow, thell Sarah Congradulations!! Sounds like Ez had a sweet party! WIsh I was there!!! Love you and love hearing your stories!   

Hard to say goodbye to mi first companion Elder Matekel.

I promise they are happy people, they just don´t smile in pictures. I tried to get them to smile, but.. haha

Saqsaywaman Pictures

Last Week Of Training

So, to start off, We go to ruins about every p-day because there are honestly so many! We woke up at 5 this morning and went to a place called ´´Saqsaywaman´´ which is in Quechua the native language here. When you say the name though it literally sounds exactly like ´´sexy woman´´ haha I will have the pictures next week for you guys! This week was wayyyy fast!! Only one more week of my training!! It´s not for sure, but it´s most likely that I stay in the sector while Elder Matekel leaves for his short months left in the mission. I will miss my district of four. We are honestly all brothers. This week a few crazy cool and weird things happened. We went to a girl´s house to dedicate her house. She has been having weird dreams and been playing with some evil spirit kind of things. When I walked into the room I felt so weird. After, I just had an irre feeling, but prayed we could have the spirit. THe next house we went to was of some investigators, Fauni and Oswaldo that we contacted this last week. I felt the spirit strongly and we gave them blessings afterwards becasue they have been sick. On a less serious note, we met a drunk dude in the street that told us he was the reincarnated Adolf Hitler. He was born exactly one hundred years after Adolf and knows all the history of WW2. He asked us to join him...? haha crazy dude. We are SOOOO excited to have this wedding and baptism!! What a perfect way to end training!!! THe ward is helping set every thing up (which is a miracle here in peru) and hopefully it will be just perfect for them. Our investigator Maryuri who has a million doubts and always asks strange questions that she found on the internet, has had a change of heart. she told us that she wants to listen, and really try to find out in her heart if the church is true. It´s amazing what the gospel can do for you!! Love you all and will miss you at Thanksgiving!! 

How is the Food?

 Yeah, it´s potatoes, rice, and fruit every meal with out fail. Except for breakfast. That´s still hotdog omlets. yummm. Elder Matekel told me that Mamicha has the worst tasting food he´s had in the mission. That´s good! That means there is better stuff out there! haha Hey,

Hot Dogs

Letter sent to Dad 

yeah she cooks every meal, and washes our clothes. haha I made omlets though for the last few mornings becasue they eat omlets with hot dog in them. Honestly, I thought the one food i hated I would be getting away from, but sure enough i have eaten more hot dogs in peru than I have in america.  I made my own the other day with tomatos ham and onion. It was wayyyy better. haha she just makes them flat stuffed full of hot dog. haha

? answered

This was something Desmond wrote Angelyn.

No, I don´t play soccer much becasue there are ruins and stuff to see in cusco, but i have once and all the latinos are like whattttttt you can play soccer? haha but in other areas whre there arn´t ruins we will play a bunch. Not as much as I would like though!! haha Uh, we drink Quaker oatmeal fjor breakfast, juiced fruit, and something called Mate, which is like green tea I think... The kind of tea we are allowed to drink. Uh, some people are nice, most people look us like we are f reaks. haha Idk if it´s becasue we are white or missionaries... uh, yeah slowely I am learning spanish the culture the spirit scriptures, but honestly it needs to go a lot faster becasue i have a whole ton of crap to learn. But yeah that´s about it. 

Muray

Hi!! So, this week we were challenged by the president to contact twelve families through out the week. In our mission pretty much all of our lessons come from references, and we never contact. So, we have been learning the most effective ways to contact people. It´s hard to transition a fifteen second conversation into asking someone to have a lesson with us, but hey, you just got to do what you got to do. Sometimes I get talking with the people, and forget that I´m supposed to introduce the gospel. haha. Some people are really receptive to our message, and others don´t want anything to do with us. That´s life though. Oh hey, and lately I´ve been using Alma 32 a ton in our lessons. It´s one of my favorite chapters. It´s cool in verse 28 there´s an acranim S.E.E.D. Swell. Enlarge. Enlighten. Delicious. Doesn´t quite work in spanish though. haha The pictures are from a place called Muray. The incans used this method  to grow their crops. There¨s one picture with rocks that have slits in them. THis was a way of irrigation. This week we´ve been trying to find a way to get the Uman Family Married. There are a bunch of requirements that we are trying to filll for them. We want to get them married and baptized before our next change, so we can see their baptism. They don´t have much money, and I was thinking for christmas I could help pay for their marrige. It would be about 15 american dollars I think... Maybe 20? And a pillow and USB too cause I still don´t have those. haha Just let me know what we can do! Love you mom, and whoever else is reading this!! You´re all great examples to me, and keep me going by your experiences. That´s great about Aunilie and Rob! Do you have pics? Telll them ji say Congradulations!!

Cuy

So, this week was slow and hard. On wednesday I started to get really tired and freezing cold. That night I got about five hours of sleep because I had a fever. That day I just slept all day. I´ve had a stomach ache and diariah since then. I can´t eat much at once, and I feel bad by telling our Pension that I can´t eat her six pounds of food she gives us every meal. I eat little bits here and there, but I can´t eat a lot at once. Buuutttt despite this, we did have something super cool happen this week!! Mamicha ( our pension) bought three cuy (guinea pigs) to eat! I mean live guinea pigs that she just brought in a bag. We played with them for a bit, took pictures and then started preparing them. And by this I mean killing them. haha Mamicha showed me how to hold the poor thing, and I tried my best to pull it the way I was supposed to. She said, ´´Elder! Nooooo like this!´´ as she finished the job. haha After, we dipped them in boiling water and picked off their fur. Elder Matekel and I had an appointment, so the other elders took out the intestines and such. The next day, Sunday, we ate them. Even being sick, and knowing the fact that I was eating what I had seen in metal cages of peoples houses back home, it didn´t taste bad! Honestly, the flavor is quite nice! I´ll for sure send the pictures. The only investigator that I have news about is the family uman. They are still staying strong and getting ready for their baptism and marriage. Their faith is incredible, and I know if they stay this way, their headed to the temple for sure. That´s all for this week. Love you Mom!!! Think about home and everyone every single day! Love, Elder Jeffery

First Blessing Given In Spanish

So this week has been full of running around from bus terminal to bus terminal helping Elders with transfers get to where they need to be. There were two different sets of six Elders that slept over in our apartment on their way to different areas. The first few days of this week was getting all of them off the bus, moving thier stuff, and using the 10 matresses we now have in our room, to make them beds. One of the new zone leaders told me that this was just training me to be a zone leader. haha. It was cool to meet more elders from the mission! On the mission your trainer is your ´´dad´´ and Elder Matekel had a ´´kid´´ before I came. His ´´kid´´ Elder Enriquez came to say the night. So, I finally met my ´´brother!´´ haha. I actually ended up going and teaching our lessons with him that day, because as the district leader, Elder Matekel had to help everyone get to the apartment. We taught Hermana Maryuri. A 19 year old girl, that is very interested in religion. She knows so much about different religions, and asks some pretty intelligent questions concerning the church. She´s been praying and reading and hasn´t received an answer. Lately, she´s been looking up stuff on the internet about the church, and has been shaken by it. We ended up talking about weird stuff. Mit Romney even came up at a point. So, at the end of the lesson I just simply asked her if she had faith that God would answer her prayers. She said no, and I explained faith a bit and asked if she would pray in faith right there, to see if the church was true. She did. I felt the spirit strongly as she did so, and she started to choke up a bit. I asked her how she felt. She said peace, but she´s still confused if this is an answer or not. Saturday, we taught The Uman Family. The family with the most faith I have ever seen. They´re daughter Dina quit her job so she could start attending church. Her family doesn´t have much money and since their dad Marco has been in the hospital since Saturday, I was a huge sacrifice. They all can feel the spirit in our lessons, and have taken the invitation to be baptized on November 22!!! The parents Marco and Recarda are going to get married this same day before the baptism!! I´m so excited for their decision, and the blessing they are about to receive!  One word that all the missionaries use is ´´freaking´´ The latinos in my room especially. We made a deal that whenever anyone uses the word (which is a lot) we would all punch them. haha It reminds me of ´´flip´´ on the best two years. A woman in my ward named Hermana Leni´s mom is sick with cancer. We fasted for her and her family, and went to the hospital to give her a blessing. The blessing said she would recover. I asked Elder Quispe if blessings always happen as they are said. He told me it depends on if the giver was going by the spirit and hwo much faith the person has. A lady came over right then and asked us to give her husband a blessing. THey were members from another city. We asked who he wanted to give it. He looked around and pointed at me. I was like ohhhh dang it. I don´t know enough spanish to give this random dude a blessing! I told him I didn´t know much spanish. He told me it didn´t matter. which is true. So, I tried my hardest to go by the spirit and give this dude a blessing! It went good! I know I messed up some grammer here and there, but all that matters is it was done, and he received what God wanted for him. I PROMISE next week we will have the coolest pictures for you yet!! 
PS I got my retainer and it fits!!!!!

Elder Paparazzi

 Believe it or not this week has been kind of rough! It´s all good, but I don´t know, I´m just having a hard time being in tune with the spirit, and my spanish hasn´t progressed much this week. It´s been one of those humbling weeks that I know will help me progress. I miss all of you! So, we were going into a recent convert member´s house when a big group of old white tourist mormons yelled ELDERS!! We turned and they all waved at us like we were in a parade. They Yelled again. COME HERE!! So, we walked over. They talked with us forever and gave us each 10 soles. haha they told us they had Resess pieces for our whole district. Our district being four people, we all got about ten packages of Resess. haha They all wanted to take a picture with us, and tell us all about their missions and their sons´missions. haha it was hilarious. They also gave us both baseball shirts from america! haha I´ll wear mine today and take a picture of it and send it next week. So, I´m sorry again, but I honestly haven´t taken pictures this week or last... Not much has gone on! But, we´re probably going to the plaza which looks like spain today, so I´ll be sure to send a ton next week! So one night this week after planning, Elder Matekel and I had what he called ´´father and son campout´´ haha because, he is my ´´dad´´ on the mission. It was funny. We got all of our blankets and watched the district. haha I started watching 17 miricles and it´s cool to see sister wadley! oh I have like 12 blankets now, but still no pillow. haha because we just got 10 matresses stacked in our apartment with blankets because it´s exchanges this week so elders are sleeping over one night. Love you all and thanks for all the support. Mom, can you send me a chocolate cookie recipe? Me and Hermana Mari (our pension) want to make some! She´s never had them!! 

Kissing vs Baptism Invitation

 it's spring here! and it's starting to rain a lot more. It pours, but i'm so used to cold rain that I hardly wear a jacket ,a nd im warm becasue the rain is pretty warm. So, I forgot to say that last sunday was the last day of the 3 month long elections of the president for peru. It gets pretty crazy during this time, and having a meeting is illegal, so we could only go out if we had a fixed appointment, and we had to be in p day clothes with no plaque! So, we invited one of our investigators, Hyde, to baptism this week. Elder Matekel had me send the invitation. Before he told me it was like going in for a kiss, and you had to just be confident and not seem nervous. haha I asked her, and she told us yes kind of but, it wasn´t a for sure. She still needs to read and study and pray she said. Which is good! But, after I told Elder Matekel. ´´Hey man, I´ll tell you what. That was wayyyyy harder than going in for a kiss.´´ hahaha This week I had the opportunity to go on divisions with Elder Yallico. He speaks hardly any english. This gave me an awesome opportunity to be a leader. I had to lead everywhere we went and everything we did. It was hard, but it was actually a lot less stressful in some ways because I didn´t have to think when it was my turn to speak. I was forced to speak first always. It was cool! we watched conference this week, and I loved the talk about ''Lord, is it I?'' I want to see myself with out making any excuses so that I can change more and more every day. 

"Most spiritual week I´ve had in my life"

This week has honestly been the most spiritual week I´ve had in my life. It started off with an appointment we had with an investigator named Hyde. Her husband is an inactive member of the church, and her and her three kids aren´t baptized. One of my first lessons on the mish was with her, but through the week she hadn´t progressed at all. That all changed on Tuesday. As we started talking to her, I noticed something different about her. Turns out, she had had a dream after praying about the church. This surprized us, being that she had told us in an annoyed mannor that we should come back next week because she didn´t have time. In her dream, there were two paths. One where her and her husband divorce, and many more htings she said were too sad to say. There was a man in white robes telling her the other path would make her happy, and and that this church was the only way to this path. Isn´t that super legit!? Elder Matekel explained Lehi´s dream to them, and we invited her to baptism. She said she needs time to prepare, but that she will. To top off this amazing day, we had cake for every meal! HAHA! It was our ¨mamicha´s´´ birthday and our other pensionista´s daughters birthday too. We bought ÇMamicha a cake that said ´´eat sister´´ in ketchua. ahaha 

The next family we met this last week that has awed us with faith is the Unam family or as we call them La Familia de Oro we met them at our church on sunday as the just happen to come try it out. THey endured my lesson I taught, and still stayed for the next meeting, so already we can see how sold these folks are. We taught them the Restoration that folling saturday. Marco, the father has diabetes, and was in pretty bad shape. We have him a blessing. This was last saturday. This Thrusday, they called saying marco is in the hospital. on saturday, they asked us to come see them. Marco was on iv with something breathing for him, unconcious. They wre al in tears. I was scared to say anything, but prayed that somehow they could feel comport. We all wre outside when a member from another ward recongnized the Elders, and came over. Marco´s wife, Recarda asked for us to call the bishop to perform a marrige becasue they weren´t legally married she was afreaid she ould never see her husband again. Oh boy did we have an answer for her! This member calmed her down, bore her testimony, and pretty much commited Recarda and her daughter to baptism. We talked about temples and the daughter said she had work on sudanys. My comp asked her what she could do. She said get another job. BOom! Thsi family is amazing! My comp even told them that they have more faith than any other fam he had seen on the mission! WE visited them agian that night, and Marco is supposed to crecover in 3 or 4 days. Saturday was so busy we didn´t even have time for dinner! But, I was never heven hungry being too busy to think about food! We taught a Hermana Mayuri another investigator also, and something happened to me that has never befoer. I bore my testimony about clear answers that the gospel brings. My chest literally got hot. Being cold from rain, it was an amazing feeling. Literally my chest got as I talked. We taught a man who goes to church every week and is never been baptized. He´s one of those educational smart stubborn types of people. He was getting kind of heated in discussion. I stopped him and told him we could talk all day, but if he doesn´t just read the book of mormon, he there is no one who could know if this is true without an answer from god. He just stared at the ground for a few moments. If he felt what I did in that moment, he knows what he has to do, and I pray he does. The gospel answers all our problems! Every persons situation, trial, anything! It knows all! So, besides the spiritual stuff, another miricle..... We have hot showers!!!! annnndddd a toilet see!! Wow, how I Took both these things for granted! best shower of my life honestly. So, if you wanna buy any movie in the world for 5 soles or $1.70 and this is blu ray, come here. Lots of elders buy tons of movies right before they go home.  WE went to the ruins where the incans lived before machupichu! I´ll send pics!

Black Potato

I totally went to a wedding this week! We went to visit an investigator, and totally walked into their wedding thing at their house! We ate these potatoes there called chuno. They are black, and they taste like the look. They´re firmented potatoes. Super nasty. So, I was trying to talk to the people there, get some practice with Spanish, and as we were leaving,  I was trying to say nos vemos which means See you later, butI was like, Bienvenido! Which means welcome in Spanish haha so they were all pretty confused, and we all just started laughing. haha The people here are awkward when we can´t communicate well. They don`t really know how to handle it, but I just try to laugh about it, and it usually works out. This week has been hard, but it´s a mission, and it´s supposed to be hard! We set a baptismal date for one of our investigators and her son, paula and farjed. We want to start giving her husband the lessons too but havent been able to catch him home. There are sooooo many drunk dudes out in the streets at night. Usually they say something about mormons as we pass. One guy told us he was mormon and told us about joseph smith. Another dude started talking to us and my companion pretended he didn´t know any spanish. He told us about his house in heaven, and god. My companion randomly started speaking spanish to the guy. haha he was confused. he started getting in our faces so I yelled ¨corre!´´ or ´´run!´´and he wabbled away. this p day I am chillin with my friend Elder Henderson, who has gone through the ccm with me and we see each other at zone conference so we´re pretty tight! My companero es at Machu pichu right now!!! You get to go one time on your mission. But, you have to pay for it. We are allowed to save up our money for personal items we get each month. I want to save up as much as I can before I go! you can go any time you want on the mission! I have to buy a pilllow with some of the money I get this next month cause I still don´t have one haha but I want to save enough so we dont have to use our own money!  So my companion really makes me work. He always tells me that he knows he´s hard on me, but that he´s training me to be better than he is. I had to teach a whole sunday school class this week. I get thrown into a ton of stuff, but I´m so glad. Some of the other elders tell me that their comps don´t speak spanish to them much and they only bear their testimony´s in lessons. I teach whole and if not half the lesson. It´s realllyyy hard, but if I can get good at it now, I know it will prepare me for the future.  tell everyone you see that They´re awesome for me! haha LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!!

First P Day

 I woke up at 4 in the morning today to go on a hike up this pretty mountain, and got done at 4 pm. 12 hours of hiking, and I got back about an hour ago, so yeah I have to leave it at that... Let`s just say it was an adventurous day. I have a testimony of prayer also. This week I have prayed for things, and that minute, second, hour, or day it happened. I know prayer works. Out here, the focus is on the people you serve. Losing myself in the service makes the days go by like nothing. This week have been soooo fast. I know it will only get faster too. My companion and I have grown closer, and have had some good times. He is such an example to me. So, this week I had one experience that made my week! We went into the home, or just like a dirt thing in the middle of their house thing with no roof and a few sheet metals around. We were teaching about Christ, and we were supposed to talk about the law of chastisty. I had never seen these people before, but I had the biggest impression to ask them to be baptized. So, I did, and they said yes! Then, my companion went over the law of chastity, and they had already been planning on getting married! So, turns out he had taught them 3 or 4 times before that, so it was perfect! I think I get to write tomorrow for some reason? not any time at all so I have to go bye love you all!!!! 

I Made it!

Hey so, I have even less time here because I write to the president too. so, I will try to write as much as possible! ok, so I can't spell right because I'm writing so fast so sorry. First, we get to Cuzco. It's so much more peaceful and calm. Nothing like Lima. We rode a bus to a chapel where we stayed all day getting trained. Then, we went to a hotel, and stayed the night. Next day we found out who our companions were. It was nerve racking. They called my name, I stood up and they said, Elder Jeffery, you are serving in the Cuzco zone with Elder Matekel. I was like, oh is that a Latino name, but turns out he's white! haha That day, Elder Matekel pronounced Elder          Matt E kel, and I just moved all of our stuff, and some beds and dressers into our apartment. It's an alright size, but our room itself is pretty small. There are two latinos that live with us. I swear they speak english more often than I do. haha My trainer speaks Spanish to me probably 90% of the time. Which is good! It's hard to know what's happening most of the time, but it'll come. Everything is dirty. Our bathroom is barely big enough to fit into, and there's always dirt and stuff on the floor. Ok, the worst part... NOT AN OUNCE OF WARM WATER. It's ice cold. When my friend Elder Quispe from Lima gets in he says, Cowboy up. haha He's getting hold of English way good! Every where we walk is uphill. Actually no, up mountain. I will send some pics next week so you can get a feel of where I really serve. The pics i sent are more pretty parts. We walk up dirt mounds all day, and the people live in literally sheet metal huts. It's crazy! So, one experience I will never forget. I had to go, bad. I haven't been solid in a while, if you know what I mean, and we were up on top of a mountain pretty much, so we found a lady that let me go in her house. I walked into this little room with no roof and cloth and metal covering. I looked and saw a cement platform with two places raised up in the shape of feet. no way. You can only imagine what came next. The dogs here are of satan. There are dogs everywhere. like insane. They run up to you and bark, and I always think they are going to eat me. But, Elder Matekel calmly walks by, and if they get close he sticks his foot out, and if that doesn't work, he pretends to pick up a rock, and the instantly run a way. Hopefully I get used to the dogs. It's not easy being out here. Every morning it's like a bad dream. I wake up, and everyone speaks a different language. I've found that it gets better throughout the day. One lesson on Saturday Elder Matekel told me while we were sitting there that it was my turn to teach. So, I tried. It was horrible. I stumbled over the restoration, probably getting half of what I was trying to say across. It was to two new converts, about 15 years old and 11. That night I got pretty discouraged. But, i looked at the paper you put in my suitcase, and use it all the time since. It says, ``Mistakes are proof that you are trying`` The next day was sunday. I had to bear my testimony in church. I got up there, and remembered that the day before how nervous I was. I decided to be confident. I got up there and bore my testimony exactly how I wanted. It was awesome. After, I decided to talk to as many people as I could. It helps when you apply yourself instead of waiting for something to happen. Then, that night we taught a lesson to a family in their house store apartment thing. They spoke broken Spanish Ketchuan. Ketchuan is a language that some people can speak here. We taught them about the restoration. They were members, but their son was inactive. I took on about half of the lesson, and it was great! I hope God gives me more of these humbling to teach me how to improve my teaching. I eat wayyyy too much food here. Our penicha or we call her mamicha gives us wayyyy too much food. It's insane. I'm constantly full. And, the members always give us bread when we come over, so yeah it's crazy. So, more pictures next week, and more experiences! Spanish is improving fast here, but still have a long way to go! Sorry if I don't get to writing everyone! Tell everyone I love them, and so proud of mariah and angelyn, they will do great in the plays! 

Letter From Mission President

Dear Parents,

As you can see in the attached photo, your son has arrived safely to the Peru Cusco Mission! We are thrilled to have him here! He looks great, a bit tired from the travel, but ready to go! Thank you for allowing us to watch over him for the next two years. He has promised that he will be a missionary we can trust, and we have now given him that trust. As well, you can trust that we will do everything that we can to care for him and to help him to become a successful missionary.

Con Gran Amor,

Presidente y Hermana Harbertson

Elder Richman

Secretario Ejecutivo

Telf: 084-260810

Cel: 984-503851

RPM: #623531

Keep Going

Hey, tell Teran and the family I say Hi and I love them!! So, this week I have grown to love my teacher here named Hermano Velasquez. We acted out the story of nephi and the brass plates in spanish.  I decided to speak to my teacher a ton more trying to learn spanish. Ít¨s helping a lot! I´ve been having a hard time feeling the spirit while teaching invesigators becasue I have to focus so much on my Spanish. I told my teacher, and he said to speak with my heart, and not with my mind. I took his advice in our next lesson with our "investigator" and felt I should ask Alonzo if he wanted to get baptized. He said yes, and it gave me more confidence in my spanish and being able to feel the spirit. So, all the peruvians here call me "futbol soccer Jeffery" haha It´s a blast playing out on the field every day. It´s probably one of the few things I´m going to miss about this place! haha I can´t wait to get out to the field!! I know it will be so much harder, but I´m ready for anything! Hermano Velasquez bears his testimony and shows us clips of prophets and apostles speaking to missionaries. Those meetings are where I have felt the strongest spirit of my life. I want to share one of the quotes with you. It´s from Spencer W. Kimball. It says, "If only you could see the vision I have. I wish I had your bodies to do this work. I would run form house to house telling everyone the gospel, and after I lost strength to run I would begin to walk, and afterI collapsed from walking, I would begin to crawl, and after my knees were so bloody that I could not use them, I would use my arms to drag myself, and once my muscle in my body was gone I would begin to yell... oh, only if you could see the vision that I have." I want that drive. I ´want to be able to keep going no matter what happens. Dang, sorry I wish I had more time on this thing. I wanna write you all but idk if i have time. It´s crazy.  Tell everyone that is leaving I say hi and good luck and to write!!! I love you mom!!!

To Dad

So, this week my friend Elder Jentzen cut my hair, and I was really scared he would mess it up, and it remimded me of when I tried to cut my own hair haah. But, he actually did a super good job!!! he has a haircut called a "part" and it look super cool and he gave me one, so now I have a part too!

Folleto

So, I had tons of ups and downs with Spanish this week. I had a few Latino Elders laugh at me the whole time I tried to teach them a lesson. I admitt it was a pretty rocky lesson for me, but it made me pretty discouraged about it. So, the next day I decided I would forget that day, and move on. I did, and I ended up having an awesome day, teaching a lesson, and getting a compliment from the teacher we taught. Every time I feel like I´m doing bad, God finds a way to keep me going. One of the highlights of this week was going out teaching on the street. So, I ended up going to the same area I did last time. I got lucky again, and had a companion that speaks English and Spanish. The only Latino in the CCM that could speak both. It was his first time. So, while we were out there, I recognized one of the guys I had seen on the street last time! We had breifly shared him a message, and gave him a pamphlet the first time we met him. He recognized me, and came over. He told us that he had met with the missionaries because we gave him the folleto, and wanted to know more!!! It´s was awesome to see someone take our invitation to meet with the missionaries! On Sunday Elder Day and I were assigned to be Zone Leaders. We officially start today, and will stay over our zone until we leave. I honestly don´t know exactly what I do yet, but hey, if they want me to do it, I´m game! We did introduce ourselves to everyone last night, and told them that we´ll come around at 10:30 to make sure everyone´s lights are out and going to bed. Now I´ll tell you some of the random fun stuff we did so you know that this place isn´t just a serious no fun gospel prison camp. So, this kid named elder whitlock fell asleep in our classroom, and we started whispering in his ear different things. We told him a story and he actually moved his hand and feet when we told him to. It was so wierd!!! We told him after, and he laughed way hard. He also remembered the story we told him. Me and Elder Day were upstairs getting something in our room, and noticed all the guys that left for the field left their pamplets here. So, we collected about 250, and got 105 Castidad folletos and put them in this giant display in the new kids rooms. Everyone came in to see the work of art. haha they came in last night saw it, and laughed. It was great. I officially have a Peruvian Visa now, so I´m not coming back to North America for quite a while!! One thing that really stuck out to me this week was humility. Christ was considered the least among some people. Even killed out of hatred. But none the less, Christ was and did the greatest thing for us all. He was the greatest example yet, was treated like the least. Every soul has potential. Potential to literally be a God. The trick is to trust in God more than yourself. Because only then can we be living our full potential. Alma 26:12 still pops into my mind every day telling me to trust in the lord and never fear. I love you Mom, you and the family are in all of my thoughts and prayers!! I love and hate writing these emails and reading!! so hard, but so neccessary!! Love you all!

Elder Jeffery
To Angelyn
Well, Lima is a dump. I mean it´s big and lots of people, but there´s trash everywhere, and stray dogs and on the mountains, It´s just houses made of sheet metal stacked all the way up the mountain. They make buildings on the side of mountain sides. Like drill out rock and stick it on there. And every single house has electric fence or spikes on top. Even the MTC looks like a prison because the walls are so high with spikes on top.

Three Nephites Sightings

 Ok, so this week went by so fast. The coolest thing that happened was something our teacher told us. Hermano Velasques is the coolest guy ever. He was bearing his testimony to us about his mission, and he said, "su mision es difacil, su vida ser facil, pero su mision es facil, su vida ser difacil." that problably didn´t translate exactly, but I understood it when he said it! haha pretty much, he said, "If your mission is difficult, your life will be easy. But if your mission is easy, your life will be difficult." He went on to tell us some incredible mission stories of his. One of them was of a time he was tracting, and they got to this lady´s house. She opened the door, and said, oh hi are you here to teach another lesson? They were confused and said they had never been there before. She said yes you have, but there were three of you last time, and they were big and strong. He told us a few more stories with different apperances of three other strong men, and bore his testimony about the three nephites. It was incredible, and the spirt was so strong. I bought a fanny pack from the temple store for carrying things more securely? (I can´t spell anymore uhhhhh seguridad?) it has the temple sewn into it, and it is sooooo me you have to see it. I can´t send pictures anymore because the last group that came through broke a few rules making it not allowed anymore. I wen´t to the temple this morning, that´s why I´m not on at my normal time, but oh man was it cool. It was in spanish, and I had a headset on, but some things we had to say in spanish which was awesome!! So, yesterday about half of the whole CCM went down with the runs. One kid was in el baño for almost 6 hours. I had it yesterday pretty bad, but I feel totally fine today. But, instead of soccer I just chilled and played ping pong. So, Elder Day and I were reading for personal study outside and I was in Jacob 5, and was kinda just skimming through because it seemed impossible to understand. I had a prompting to ask Elder Day about it (him being a smart dude) but just went on. It came again, so I just asked if he knew what it was saying. He said he just finished it and was wondering the same thing. So, we read it out loud to each other, and figured it out. It was such a great spiritual experience, and turns out, it has a lot of cool stuff in the chapter! So, we have a fruit here called grenedias (idk spelling) and you cut it in half, and inside there are seeds and goop that literally looks like fish eggs and boogers. No joke. And the inside has little spikes that look like sea earchen things or something. They are sooooo good though!!!! When we were out on the street shopping I saw some school kids playing soccer, and went over to them while everyone was taking pictures by the temple. I started passing and juggling, and they were amazed that this gringo could play. haha. I love the people here. My room is right next to a Latino room, and one started knocking on the wall right where I sleep. So, I knocked back. They all wanted to try so they all started knocking at me. It was almost time for bed, so I went into their room and pointed at all of them like I was mad, and they all pointed at each other. And one yelled No mi estudiar!! haha so, I pointed with two fingers at my eyes and then at each ones eyes and they all burst out laughing. So, we´re all good friends now, and they are trying to teach me this Latin pop song that they all love haha it´s great. So, did you email this week mom? Cause if you did it did´t come through... Alright I love all of you, and dad I can´t wait till I can write you in Spanish without taking half of my tiempo trying. haha love you guys so much and can´t wait to hear from you all!!!

Spanglish

 District CUSCO TOPIA

 Elder Day and Elder Jeffery first companion

 Arriving in Lima 4:00am

CCM AKA MTC
 I´m so glad everyone is doing great and life is great!! So, my district of 12 missionaries have come so close. We all weird and crazy. It´s a great time. My english is getting worse already I can tell. I speak spanglish now. Every time I say an English word a spanish one pops into my head. I feel like I am in the twighlight zone here in the CCM. Every day goes by so crazy fast. I´m almost half way done here. So, the best part about this last week was teaching people on the street. It was a blast. I went with a kid named Elder Naranjo. He´s fluent in both English and Spanish. Which was a huge blessing. I bore my testimony a few times, but one man we met was from New York and spoke english. So, I got to teach him a mini lesson about our church. It was great. Then we happened upon an inactive member of the church that let us into their house. I was impressed to bear my testimony to them, but I couldn´t say what I wanted to in spanish. So, I did it in english. It was a great spiritual experience. We have so many spiritual experiences here. So, fast sunday I was worried too because they don´t even give you any option of food to eat. Turned out though, I wasn´t even hungry the whole day! When you fast for a real purpose, with real intent, the Lord honestly picks up the rest. Just throw yourself into the gospel and he will bless you. Sundays here are super sundays. It´s so spiritual. It´s so much more meaningful when it applies to you that much more. I´ve already gain so much more of a testimony about the church. I´ve learned a lot about the great apostasy. The church just makes sense. Everyday I get a stronger testimony in my mind and in my heart. It makes soooo much sense. I don´t understand how you can see this gospel not be true. Everything is a testimony of it. There is so much truth to it. I will take picture of the market today for you guys so you can see what lima acuallly looks like. It´s huge, and crazy. I love you guys so much and miss you all!!!! Mom, you´re the best!!! Love you, and love hearing your stories so please keep it up!!

At the Lima Temple

Alma Chapter 26

 I was reading in Alma a couple of weeks ago and the chapter is in my brain at this moment. It´s Alma Chapter 26. I quoted Alma 26:12 in my farewell talk, but after reading the whole chapter here in the mission, I want to go back and just read the whole thing in my talk!! It´s such an inspiration. We started off this week with Interviews with President Harbertson. What spirit filled day! I talked with him about Bountiful, and everything that´s changed since President lived in the Bountiful North Stake when he was my age. And after talked to him about Farmington and the people there that we could think of that we both knew. It´s good to have so much in common. His wife gave an amazing speech about loving your companion. She said something really interesting that  I hve been trying to apply in my life. She quote JEsus When he said that we should have NO Disputations, then she said the way to do this is through Charity. SHe said if we take out emotion there is no disputation. As soon as we through emotion into a decision, we lose control. I know I am trying to apply this concept in my life. So, we were walking in the street when all of a sudden, a drunk man started yelling towards us. Ok ok so what? A drunk dude yelling at us, this is normal day stuff people. But then I noticed his Sister standing there too, maybe had been drinking a little, but she told us that he needed help. He said back that no, she´s the one who needs help. She looked at us and said that her brother is drinking a lot and needs help, so we set an appointment to meet them in the same spot this week on Tuesday. I honestly thought nothing of it, we´ve set appointments with drunk people, and never had a lesson. But, sure enough we went back on Tuesday, and the woman was there. I don´t know if she was waiting for us, but she was there. She saw us, and told us her brother wasn+t there. We asked if we could talk to her a little bit about why we are missionaries. She said yes, and we had a lesson. On Saturday we came back to teach her. She was there waiting, and we went inside. Her brother couldn´t come. She had a lot of questions about prayer and if she could make her brother stop drinking through prayer. It was perfect becasue we had a member there with us who joined the church went on a mission, and because of his example, his family ( who were drinking before) are all now members. God knows his children. I know that through prayer and faith all things are possible. A woman we´re teaching named Jeni is very interested in the church. I think I talked about her last week. She was having thoughts of suicide. But now, she has a desire to go to church, but has to work. She´s trying to get it off, and we are praying for her to find a way to come. Please pray for her. She´s gone through so much and needs this gospel at this time. Marco Uman came to the lesson with us this week and bore his testimony of the church. It was so perfect for her because he has seen many trials, and is more than blessed since he came to the church. My companion goes home in 8 days!! He´s ready. haha poor guy is having the hardest time. President has helped me help him so much. He told me to ask him to help me with my mission, so that he can stay focused on his. It´s working! I´ll have to send pictures when he leaves. I love you Mom, family, and friends!! Have a great week and remember who you are!!

Letters From Mariah to Desmond
Welcome to Mission101 I'm your commander Mariah Jeffery and I will teach you everything you need to know about a mission first that your sister loves you second she misses you third guess what six more months until I'm 12 fourth may the force be with you love you so much agent Desmond Jeffery
 Signing out this is commander Mariah Jeffery email you later PS can't wait to hear back

Letter From Desmond To Mariah

Reporting to Commander Mariah I repeat Reporting. Stop growing up Commander. I need you to stay young and fresh to teach me how to serve the mission. Mission Impossible is Possible. Remember that Commander.

Signing out

Agent Desmond Jeffery

FIRST WEEK

HEY I SURVIVED ONE WEEK :D hey so first off the computers here are super weird and all in different spots, but I will try to do everything I can! So, we got here at about 4:15 am last wednesday, because our flight was delayed and woke up at 8! The first day was supppper long. All we did was sit in a room just kinda chillin wondering what we do. Then some spanish teachers came in and started attempting to teach us spanish. Everyone kinda just stood there like, huh? It literally was the slowest day of my life. The first few days were like that. Super long and exhausting. On the plane ride to the CCM (What they call the MTC because spanish), I had an amazing experience. The lady who sat by me was peruvian and only spoke spanish. So, in the awkward moment of me trying to understand her and her trying to understand me, I decided to pull out my Book of Mormon and start reading. She stared at it, and finally pointed at it, shrugged her shoulders. I asked another missionary I met named Elder Bodily if he had an el libro de mormon, and he said he did, so I gave her the spanish Book of Mormon. She started reading it, and got to Joseph Smith´s testimony, and I told her she could keep the book. She said, ''Gracias, Gracias!!!'' and then passed out in her seat for the next 5 hours on the plane. So, my companion's name is Elder Day, and he's 6'3 and loves basketball and piano. He's great, and we get along nicely! On the 31 we started learning spanish. We spend probably 6 or more hours a day just learning spanish. It's pretty fun! So, on the 31 they announced to us that we would be out teaching people on the street on saturday. Not that saturday but the saturday of the current week. I'm excited!! I can't say a ton yet, but I can pray, and bear my testimony in spanish. I can carry on very light conversation, but I'm pretty slow still. The food here is so different. They have some of the same foods, but everything tastes way different. There are for sure potatoes though! Every meal, a different potato, and a different way to cook it. The juice here is totally different. It's literally fruits squeezed into juice. Apple juice tastes like liquifyed apples. Everything is so much fresher and healthier. I play soccer every single day. At physical activity we have a big field that we split in half, and play on small goals. It's a blast. I got to leave the CCM once. We got our visas at this DMV type building, so you can imagine how fun it was. Driving there was like driving in mario kart. I can't believe we didn't crash!! On the way to the CCM I say a poor part of town. I also saw the nicest part of town. It's a complete different world over here. The richest place in Peru, and it's got dogs running around the streets. But, there are some really nice buildings, and houses, but it's no America!! I didn't see the sun for probably 4 days, which is normal here. The smog is so bad, it looks like you are surrounded by a white sheet every where around you. It doesn't get very hot either. One day it got to like 70 degrees, but it stays at like 65ish. Not freezing, but most days we wear sweaters. So everyone of the teachers, and authorities here speak spanish. Hardly any of them speak english. I have two teachers. My favorite, Hermano Velascaz is the coolest guy ever. He's super energetic crazy fun guy, and never lets us be discouraged. He always says, LATINOS whenever we get something right, and always bears his testimony that we can learn the language as long as we are feliz. We taught an ''investigator'' (just a teacher in acting mode) about the great apostasy, and the restoration. It was hard to speak in spanish. Elder Day helped a lot. He took 4 years of spanish in high school, and is pretty dang good! I'm reading 17 pages of the book of mormon every day in english, so I can finish before I leave the CCM. My whole district is. We named our district ''CUSCOTOPIA complete with slide'' because we are all going to Cusco!! I love and miss you guys!! the days are getting faster, and it's going good! Tell everyone you see I say hi! and tell ezy that I remember and love him! Peace out till next week.

Love, Elder Jeffery

(the next paragraphs are what the children wanted to share from there emails they got from Desmond)

Mariah

 play lots of soccer!! and when I try to say pass, I have to say it in spanish because everyone here speaks spanish!! Wanna learn a new spanish word? Aqui means ''here''. They say aqui aqui when they want the ball!! (it sounds like ''a key'') So, next time someone asks where Mariah is, you can say AQUI!!!

Angelyn

HEY so GUESS WHAT?!?! they have CEREAL here. :D it's kinda not that good, and pretty stale, but hey it's cereal. The milk is like whole milk, but kinda weird tasting. Definetly different. So far, it's pretty. As much as I can see with all the fog. Sorry I can't send picture this week... I only get an hour of email, and I don't have time. But, next week for sure!! I love you so much, miss you all!!!

Ezra

I love you ezy. Have fun with your new toy!! You're such a crazy cat!!

give me some fin, noggin, duuuuddde.... YOLO!!!

Love your dashing dog bro, Dezzy

I MADE IT!!!

Hey, I made it and I am alive. The flight was long, and I forgot my retainer, but other than that doing good! I have 3 minutes on email today so I will email next wednesday.