Hey everyone!

This week was good. We had a reference for a family, and we went to visit them and they are awesome. The Familia Chavez es como se llamen. We taught them the restoration, and this same week they came to church!!  We were so stoked to see them come to church, because we invite so many people, but this family is super cool.

Other than that, this week we did lots of walking. Chepen is HUGE. My feet are super calloused and blistered, which kinda stinks. I can't wait to come back and get a pedicure or something becuase I need one. Something unfortunate is that we have lots of investigators that live literally in all different spots far away from each other, so we have to do a ton of walking. We can't pay for a moto because we always run out of money. Also, I need my coka cola or something....

I am still waiting for the heat to cool down. This place is HOT. It has been more breezy at night so that is good, but I am sick of sweating. I am always sweating.   Whyyyyyy??  But it is for the better. I know it is starting to warm up back at home so hopefully it'll cool down here!  Hahahaha

I love you guys all so much. In the mission, I am learning how to love others. It is a challenge to learn how to love, but I know when we strive to love as Christ loves than we can feel His hand work more in our lives. Loving one another sounds easy up until there is a challenge to love someone that is difficult to love. I know that if we can pay attention to the way we treat other people and focus on the Savior, then we can have this blessing given unto us. I know that if we all try to love as He loved, then the world would be a much happier place.

Something I learned in a General Conference talk I listened to this week was speaking with the tongue of angels. When we speak with kind words, when we speak loving words, we can speak with the power of the Holy Ghost which is the tongue of angels. Elder Holland gave this talk and it was super powerful. That really no one wants to hear all our complaints and everything wrong with the world, but if we speak loving words then we can really have power behind our words and our influence on those around us.

You guys are the best!  I am going to try and take more photos for you all.

Hey!!!!

So this week was pretty good!  I have to say, I had a surprise. An old friend from my first area came into town and we got in touch!!!  His name is Edwin. He and his family were inactive in Trujillo, however, with casual visits and encouragement they changed their lives. I felt like I had such an insignificant role because it honestly just started with ´hey I need the bathroom' and from there, he got his rights back from the church and is about to baptize his little girl. I am unbelievably happy with them, however, I didn't feel like I really did much. He came here into Chepen and bore his testimony about the change he had in his life, and the role I helped with that and it was just so beautiful for me. It was such a touching experience. On top of all that, his in-laws live here in Chepen and are not members. We visited them and they accepted us with open arms and a desire to learn more about the church and the role it had on their daughter and his husband. How awesome is that!!! I feel so happy that I could play a small part in bringing this family together and help them with their goals of becoming an eternal family.

Other than that, we got an unexpected message Friday morning from the zone leaders saying that we had to contact 100 people that day. Normally, the standard is just 20, but since it was Semana Santa here, the president raised the standard for the day. Many missionaries didn't do it, however, I can say that I contacted 101 people in a span of two and a half hours. Can you believe that?!   I talked with more people than I thought I could have. I learned some quick ways to discern who is interested and who is not, but young people definitely like to talk to the gringo in English. Even though I don't understand what they are saying when they try to talk English haha.

I hope you guys are all doing well!   I love this gospel and I know that it has such an impact if we let it in.  I love studying the doctrine and increasing my knowledge every day. Truly, this is the restored church of the Lord Jesus Christ.  If not, I don't know what or why or how this work can come to pass. Love you all!

Spencer did not have time to email this week, but he sent a few pictures.  For district conference, they traveled to Pacasmayo, on the Pacific coast.  Otherwise, he said it was a busy week, as usual.  He received a really nice card and a homemade bookmark from his sister, which he said was very touching.  So proud of him!

Hello!!!!

I hope you guys all watched and paid close attention to General Conference because it was literally THE BEST.  It was so stinking amazing to get to listen to the modern day prophets and apostles with the same power and authority as the prophets and apostles of ancient times.  I absolutely loved hearing the messages that we need in this time to apply in our lives.

Something I learned was definitely the importance of repentance, eternal families, and loving one another. We need to ensure that our families are a sanctuary from the evils of the world where we can have love, and peace, and joy in Christ. Also the importance of every day repenting and changing our lives to come closer to Christ. We, as followers of Christ, have this responsibility to learn how to act as He would act and love as He would love. Although we are not perfect and never will be perfect, we must learn how to be on this constant search of Christlike attributes to be a light to the world. Although not everyone will choose to accept the Gospel, we can love everyone as the children of God that they are. I was so moved by the power behind these revelations and words that were said. 

Other than conference, this week was pretty relaxed. We are working hard with some Venezuelans, and other people who are on the brink of baptism. We have a family, the familia tocas, and the Dad said that he received an answer about the Book of Mormon and the truth it holds!!!!   We are so excited for him and his family, which is a family of 5. We invited him to be baptized, but he wants to keep preparing first before making a decision like this, so we are exercising our patience and helping him along the way to make this sacred promise with the Savior by the right authority of Him.

I love you all so much and are all in my prayers!!!  It is such a blessing to see my friends back home all leave for their missions and that we are helping with quite literally the most important work on the earth which is the gathering of Israel.   I love it!   I know it!   God bless you all!!!

Hey guys!!!!!

So the end of this week is General Conference!!!!  Who else is pumped??  Literally I am so stinking excited. Partially because I most likely will get to watch it in English, but if not that is okay, but regardless I am still super pumped!  I am hearing lots of rumors of big changes. I know they are just rumors but we will know the truth when the big guys speak this week......

This week we had some interesting things happen. We have this huge group of Venezuelans that we are trying to teach, but they are quite interesting. Last night we were working with one of them, then his friend came in and started giving him a haircut right in front of us talking like nothing was happening. They didn't even mention anything about the haircut. It is like he read his mind for exactly what he wanted. They are also all a little gangster-ish.... but they said that we are homies and they got our backs, so I feel safe. They also wanted to take pictures with us and the Book of Mormons, so we took pictures with them. However I don't know what will happen with the pictures because they have them, not me.  Haha.  Even though this part of town where they are at I hear is a little dangerous, we have like 25 Venezuelan ripped out dudes as protection.

This week was super awesome. We had a conferencia de mision!!!  Elder Alonso of the Seventy came to speak to us and said many amazing things. The theme was definitely centered on Christ. I learned a lot this week about developing the attributes of Christ. He gave us the perfect example to follow, and even though we are SOOOO imperfect, we will someday become like Him if we have a constant effort to develop His attributes. I learned a lot about the importance of love, charity, and humility. These attributes are essential to develop if we want to have a happy life.

I began to study more into the attributes of Christ myself and had some really uplifting personal studies. I learned that Joy is a gift for the faithful who live within the commandments of God, and are living lives centered on Christ. We begin to experience pain, sadness, frustrations, anger, hatred, when our thoughts deviate from the Savior. How else the pioneers could get through the trials they faced? They were chased, persecuted, murdered, yet they found joy. They sang and danced while pushing through their way to the west. It is because their joy came from the savior. Joy doesn't come from the world. Joy comes from things we feel, such as our families. Such as love. Peace. This is joy. When we start worrying about our Facebook, Instagram, what clothes we are wearing, who is going out with who, the hurt others cause us, the injustice we receive,  we open ourselves up to the negative feelings that don`t come from God. We begin to feel sorry for ourselves. We begin to focus on how we are hurt. We focus on what happened to us. The Savior felt pain. he felt sadness. He had it rough. But I don`t believe one tear he shed, one drop of blood, one yell of pain was for himself. He felt the pain of the world for the fallen and wicked state we are and His sadness comes from when we fall away from Him. When we feel joy, it is because our thoughts are on Him who made it possible to feel happiness. When we feel joy, Christ rejoices too.

I love you guys all so much. I know that we all face trials, but how often do we include Christ when we are struggling?  How often do we think about Him?  It is something I noticed in myself this week is when I struggle, I tend to think of myself and rarely about Christ or other people. I know that through and with Him, the trials we face will seem pretty small in comparison for what we have in store. The gospel is true, the church is true, now let us rejoice!!!!!!


Below are pictures of Elder Sangerman and I on our first day in Chepen and the rest are pictures in a district meeting and it was Sister Clark`s birthday