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.