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!!!!