Parent update -

Spencer spent all his time chatting with me instead of writing an update email, so I told him I'd provide an update.  Big changes this week moving to Chepen (which took 20 minutes of me repeating it and never once enunciated it correctly.  I was saying something that sounded like Japan, saying it too slow, and putting the emphasis all over the place).  His companion is from Mexico, from an Arizona border town, and Spencer really likes him.  A cool note is that his trainer was first assigned to Chepen and the pensionista has his picture on the wall, so the small world connection was happy for Spencer.  Also, this missionary was engaged a month after returning home, so he thought that was weird, but he was happy for him - the missionary was 28. 

Chepen is apparently quite a bit wealthier than Esperanza.  He said there are some really nice home.  There's a slang word in Spanish for rich and fancy, I suppose similar bougie, and some of these home fall in that category.  It's more of a concrete jungle and much less sandy.  There's a Christ the Redeemer statue that overlooks the entire city and it's illuminated at night, and he said that's really comforting.  Spencer mentioned that the people were a lot more trusting - some of them leave their doors wide open, which did not happen in his last area. 

He kept forgetting to mention that he shook Elder Renlund's hand while at the CCM.  That was exciting for him.  Also, his area did not feel the earthquake that occurred in Ecuador several weeks back, Peru is not Mexico, so allusions to the movie Coco are wasted (for which his companion got a good laugh at me for, also his companion does not play the guitar in the town square), and figuring out the exact street he lives on is virtually impossible.

Finally, Spencer wanted me to express how much he loves the gospel.  How simple it can be when we choose faith and while there are complicated issues and questions (polygamy, Book of Mormon being an addition to the Bible, faith in our leaders, men becoming like God being akin to blasphemy), that none of these questions need to overshadow the simplicity of faith and hope and how wonderful that gospel is with the things that we do know and believe.

Below are a series of pictures that he sent that I absolutely love.  Very funny, in my opinion.  Enjoy and Spencer sends his love to everyone.

Also, here is a picture of Spencer preaching the word.  All times, in all places and in all things.  

Tengo información triste. Me voy a Chepen, y yo salgo de los Robles. Muchas lagrimas y personas que amo bastante. No sabia que gran mi amor por estés personas será. 

This week, I found out on Friday that today I will be leaving the Robles area and heading North, to the valley of Chepen. Not gonna lie, I didn't think how hard it would be to say goodbye to so many people I love. I definitely wasn't expecting tears from the amazing people here. It was definitely hard to say goodbye, but hopefully that I can move forward and develop amor for the people in Chepen!

It has been a great time here in the Robles. I look forward for what there is in store for Engelbert, Sebastian, Noel and Rosemary, Lesly, the Familia Taco Rocio del Pilar y Carmen, Marilu, Gerraldo, and everyone. I really love everyone here and I don´t want to say goodbye, but I have to keep pushing forward. I will come back!!! I can´t wait to go to the sealing for Noel and Rosemary when the time comes.

This week has been a great week, and I am sad to say goodbye but excited to see what other blessings there are in the mission!

I love and miss you guys! I hope all is going well at home. I took a ton of pictures but the computer isn't working with my camera for some reason, so that stinks. I know the church is true and that the gospel does amazing things in the lives of so many people and when we live in accordance with the gospel, we feel a much greater love than we could feel by ourselves. I know it is true, and helps us in so many ways. I love you guys!!

Hola familia!!!!

Este semana yo estuve enfermo y no fue divertido.

So I am still so shocked that we can call home now, but I will still make sure to write emails to keep everyone updated!!!! You know, my fans back home and all.

This week I got sick, and that was not fun. I woke up throwing up and told my companions que yo no quería NADA pero a dormir (translation - get out, shut the door, let me sleep!).   So I slept the whole day to try and regain my strength, but I was not having it. Later, I got better, but the illness was only  slowly leaving my body. The work still goes on though and we work despite the challenges we have!

We started working more in the far part of our area which is Virgen de Socorro, where it is nothing but sand. We are starting to find more and more people over there and hopefully we can plant many seeds with the people to get more hearing about the gospel! It is kinda sad because some people say they've never seen the missionaries, so I hope we can make sure they see us more. I'm also pretty sure it is our area still, because we don't know it very well since our area is so huge. However, every time we go there we have to take these ghetto cars where there is literally a million people in this small car. I am surprised at how many people you can fit in one car. People stacked on other people, but it is better than walking for 30 minutes to get there!  Haha.

Changes are coming up this week and I find out if I remain with Elder Baque in this area, or if I go to a different area. Fingers crossed for what happens next.

I also got some awesome packages!!!!  I got candies, candles, socks, an awesome calendar with pictures of Jesus, and a cute little stuffed alligator that Grandma sent me, it was awesome!  Love you family!!!!

We also had zone conference, so that was fun. I got complimented by the president about my Spanish when he asked me a question in front of everyone, so that made me feel special. Almost 7 months here, so I hope my Spanish is good  Hahahaha.  I do love that the language is coming wayyyyy easier than at the beginning. I found that my testimony of the gospel has been growing so much and I can really share the messages that the people need at this time. I love the gospel and I love sharing it with everyone. Everyone should listen to the gospel!!!   It is so awesome!!!!    I love you guys!!!

So this week was crazy!!!

We spent basically the whole week focused on Noel and Rosemary, and THANKFULLY we got them MARRIED and BAPTIZED the same day!!!!  It was a stressful, because we had to do a whole lot to get everything in order. It was so beautiful to see them make this step towards repentance and be baptized!!  I am so happy that we brought this family together, and their two adorable children will get the opportunity to grow up in the gospel! How awesome is that!?!  I got to baptize Noel, and my companion baptized his wife Rosemary.  It was so beautiful to baptize Noel and later watch him watch his wife be baptized right there in the baptismal font. I am so happy for them!!!!  I cant believe we did it and helped them make this huge step.  I will never forget bringing this family together, they are all so beautiful.

Other than that, there is some MAJOR news....... I CAN CALL MY FAM. WHAT. Who would have thought?!?!?!?!  I guess this means everyone is going to stop emailing me. Please don't stop!!!  I love hearing from you guys!!!  But dang, I am sorry for all the missionaries who recently finished, because that stinks for them. I am so happy I can call my family! It is crazy how many changes President Nelson is making! There are so many, but it is beautiful to see the Lord Hastening His work.

Life is going good! Peru is awesome! I love the life! God is great! Beer is not good.

Hola mi familia!!!!!

Comó están? todo bien? Todo fino? Espero que si!

This week was super interesting. So we have been struggling to get this coupled married. Noel and Rosemary, but we have been working our butts off to get everything organized for their marriage and their baptism, and this Saturday they are getting married and baptized the same day!!! How is that for crazy? Who would have thought that I would play a part in this eternal family, helping to make this covenant with the Lord. It is so crazy to me. They are 18 and 19 years old, but have two adorable little kids. They are the cutest things ever, and words can't describe how happy I felt to help them make these steps and to know that these kids are going to get to have the chance to grow up in the gospel and that hopefully a year from Saturday they will be able to go to the temple to be sealed for time and eternity. I am so stoked for them. My companion and I will be baptizing them this Saturday!!!!!!!!!

Other than them, we have been working our butts off trying to find the people who are prepared and want to listen to us. Our area is HUGE, and so when we have a day where we don't know what to do, we usually go and explore our area and find some people to teach. One day when we were doing this, something crazy happened. The dude who cleans our clothes was out where we were. We were over in Sol Naciente, which is literally like the middle of nowhere, it is this place where everything is dirt and sand, and pretty far from where we live, but it is our area still. We ran into the guy who cleans our clothes and he said that he has a reference for the missionaries but didn't know whose area Sol Naciente belonged too. It was crazy! But hopefully we can meet the family and have him introduce us and maybe we can work with them!

We got to go to the temple in Trujillo today!!!!!!  I will say, this temple has been my favorite so far. It is SOOOO stinking pretty. I bought a hymnal in English because I wanted to remember the songs in English, as well as Spanish, and also to help my companion learn English. But the temple was sooooooooo beautiful and the spirit there was so strong when so many missionaries were there. I LOVE TO SEE THE TEMPLE SO MUCH. I wish we could go more often, but we only get to go every 6 months. So I had to make this one worth it.

I hope everything is going good with you guys! I love the gospel so much. We have the greatest gift and the most important information of all time. I am so honored to be the lords mensajero aqui en su obra. Vida es hermosa, I love you guys!

Also, I have a couple hats that I have been wearing as we go outside because the sun kills me, however I don't know if the stares are at the hat or because I am white.  Maybe it is just because I'm incredibly good looking.

Hola mi familia! Comó están?

Este semana era tan bueno. Me encanta la obra del Señor y siento tan satisfecho. Que tal los Estados Unidos? Escuchado que Trump va a ser algo para ayudar Venezuela! Ya sabia porque los venezolanos aquí son tan felices sobre eso.

This week we worked super hard. I have been learning and growing at a super fast pace and I can feel the work of the Lord within me and it feels so great. The harder I work, the more I feel it, and the more I feel it, the harder I want to work. We have found some really great people this week that I hope will progress.

First off, I need to be careful because I may start feeling like a Latino, but I still don't look like one. I am oblivious to everything, but apparently I am getting cat called a lot by teenage girls and my companion is explaining it to me and it feels a little uncomfortable. I felt weird when there was a volleyball team and they just started calling me Papa-cito. That was weird.

So my area, it is HUGE. Really big and we do tons and tons of walking. Thankfully, I bought some pretty heavy duty boots, that luckily I was able to talk the price down because I am a boss like that, but I have like the worst blister/bruise that is part of breaking in these boots, so that stinks. But the other day we were contacting in a part of our area that we haven't been in before, and it is LITERALLY the farthest part of our area that I had no clue about because I have never been over there. But we found some people who were like golden, and they wanted to learn more and were so open and receptive to us. They don't have anything, just a mattress on the floor inside their house, and it was humbling to have the opportunity to teach them about the restoration and share the message with them. It was awesome, however we have to go back and frankly, I don't know if I will be able to remember how to get there. ALSO, they only have time at night, so that may stink if we get stuck out there. Hopefully we can make it back to our room by the time we are supposed to be there.

I have been practicing talking with literally everyone. Every person that I have a thought about talking with, I go and do it. It has been an amazing experience to talk with so many people about the most important message in the world. Maybe not lots of people were interested, or a few wanted to fight, but my testimony has grown immensely and I am so unbelievably grateful for the message that we are bringing to the people here in Peru. I love this gospel so much and I am hoping that the people can really feel the sacred nature of the gospel of Jesus Christ that we are sharing with them. Nothing beats the feeling of being able to go to bed at night knowing that I gave all that I could that day. It is the best feeling in the whole world, and I am looking forward to the many lessons that God has in store for me to learn here in the near future.

We are teaching English classes los dias miercoles (on Wednesday) at the church, and it has been such a blessing to get to teach the people my native language. We have been using it as an opportunity to bring investigators to the church, and after we teach some English we share a message about the gospel with them to teach them why we are really here. It is a little bit of a challenge, because there are some kids who are members and a little disruptive so we may need some discipline. I may understand how my Spanish teachers may have felt now. (Sorry coach Pickup and Señor G).  I love teaching children songs, that I sang when i was little, in English, then to hear their broken up English sing the song. To me it is the most beautiful thing in the world and makes me so happy.

Overall, this week has been a good hardworking week. I love you all, and I know this church is the best, greatest, awesome-est, and the only true church of the Lord Jesus Christ. You guys are all so special to me and I am loving the service I am doing here in this amazing place. Love you all so much!!!

So this week was interesting.

It started off with transfers. Elder Padilla left and is now in Cajamarca, enjoying the cold, and I am still here, in the sand, dying from the heat with my new companion Elder Baque.

Speaking of heat, we went to this investigators house who lives in a part of town that is actually a little hard to get too. It is like this abandoned complex, that literally looks like it is taken from the movie Maze Runner. It literally is kinda creepy when we go there. So we went there at night to teach this lady. She has only listened to us give the first lesson, and she is already asking tons of questions about baptism and all and it looks perfect, but she likes to talk so it was hard to get some words in. While we were explaining the Book of Mormon, she remembered that her dog died and she needed to bury it. So she interrupted us and asked us to help her bury her dead dog - and so we did. That was kind of gross burying a dead dog. She left her dog out in the sun when she went to work, so the poor thing literally died from the heat. And her daughter was crying when we were burying the thing and I felt sad for her. But at least she seems like a good investigator and hopefully she can keep progressing!!!

Another awesome part of this week. Remember Engelbert from Venezuala that we baptized a while ago??  (see post dated Nov. 27, 2018).  He just got sustained to be an Elder and receive the Melchizedek Priesthood!!!!!!  Not only that, but he was called to the STAKE YOUNG MEN'S Presidency!!!!  It is crazy that I was here when he first came to church and now he is going to set the example for many young men here in Esperanza. It made me feel so special to see how happy he was to receive a calling, and talk in church, and how much he has grown in just a short period of time. I am so proud of him.

Today I bought a new pair of shoes that are some nice heavy duty boots. I already wore through one pair of my shoes just from walking a lot, so hopefully this pair will last a little longer. It is kinda nice how you can talk people down from prices here, things really are so much cheaper here than they are in the States.

I love and miss you all. The mission is going, and I am working hard. I feel so good when I go to bed knowing that I honestly tried my best, and even though lately we hit a slump, I still am at peace when I talk with as many people as I can and share my testimony. We, as missionaries, are told to contact at least 20 people every day, 10 for each missionary, and so we really work hard to talk with as many people as we can. It is sometimes a challenge, but it feels amazing when we accomplish it at the end of the day.

I hope you guys are all doing great and remembering the savior in your lives. I know that through Him we can overcome any challenge that is thrown our way. You guys are all so amazing.

Here are some pictures when we went to the Centro and found some weird black magic dudes doing some weird stuff. I am with two of my Latino companions, Elder Baque and Elder Chuqiopiondo, as well as my friend from the CCM Elder Boyce!