FIT BIT, IMMIGRATIONS, ILLUMINA EL MUNDO

Hello friends and fam!

This week was alright but next week will be better because we have a family of 2 getting baptized!!! Prayers for the Lopez family! 

I broke my Fitbit. Fell down a giant hill and it got completely shattered. It was tragic and now I have to buy a new watch but its cool. The have cool looking fake ones here. 

Today I spent almost all day getting my visa confirmed and it took forever all the way up until my email time. SO that was kind of disappointing. I also have to go back on Wednesday to recieve my card.

We are really focuse in LIGHT THE WORLD here. But its ILUMINA EL MUNDO. What a great time of the year to serve others. I challenge you all to find someone in need this Christmas!

I didnt take any new pictures this week so here are some old funny ones I have never sent. I love and miss you all!

HIMNO, EL CERRO, Y PESCADO

QUE TAL MIS CAUSAS

This week was super duper cool. We found 10 new investigators and 7 of them have baptismal dates for December! YOO HOO. ANd I also have some cool/funny stories my dudes.

First! The Himno of Peru. We were walking through a park and noticed a huge stage where they were having a concert. It was about to begin and this lady walks up to us and said "Would you 2 like to sing the Peruvian National Anthem on the stage with a group of other people?" "Señora we arent from Peru." "Thats okay, it will unite us as one community" "But we dont know the words." "Ill write them down for you!" "........yeah okay." So we sang the Peruvian National Anthem in front of like 500 people HAHAHA. 

"Somos libres, seamos lo, siempre seamos lo, siempre!

Ante niegues sus luces, sus luces, sus luces el sol!

Que faltemos el voto solemne.

Que la patria al eterno elevo.

QUE FALTEMOS EL VOTO SOLEMNE!

QUE LA PATRIA AL ETERNO ELEVO!"

I dont think I will ever forget those words now hahaha.

Second! El Cerro (the hill). We were walking near a giant hill near in our area and we noticed that there were more people that lived there than we thought. So we went up to contact them. The first person, shut us down hard. SO did the second, and the third, and the fourth.....up until we were about to hike down the mount. We walked past this TINY house that was a little isolated from the others. There was a man sitting outside crying. We walked up to him and his Mom who was working in her plants to talk to them. This man is super bad when it comes to his health. He has a catheter and bags attached to his stomach because of lots of surgeries. What he said was so cool. "I was laying in my bed, writhing in pain, when I felt a STRONG impression to use all my efforts to go and sit outside, because someone was going to come and help me." He told us that we were the answer to his prayers and he accepted the baptismal date instantly.

 

And Third! ALWAYS MAKE SURE to eat fish in a restaurant you can trust. I got me some food poisoning friday and threw up in our recent converts garden:) delicious. 

We find out transfers tonight and last time I was super nervous because I didnt want to leave Oquendo. This time I am more prepared. I feel like I have done a good job here. We baptized 3 great people in 3 months as a companionship. We helped start the Oquendo Ward, it used to be a family group, not even a branch. All we had to do was reactivate some less active members, it took work but we did it. I love these people, but I am also excited to meet new beautiful souls in Lima.

D&C 15! "The thing of most worth to you will be......". 

GO AND READ IT HAHAHAHA

I love and miss yall! Have a great week!

p.s. no letter last week... he just didn't send a group email. But this week's email is fabulous!  enjoy.

BLANCO ES BONITO, CEVICHE (de pollo lol), AND PACKAGES

Friends and family,

FRAYYYYYYY GOT BAPTIZED YOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOO. It was such a special day. He passed his interview, got there on time, and was smiling the entire time. So was I. I was blessed that he chose me to baptize him. I could literally feel the Spirit so strongly in the baptismal font and I gave him the biggest hug after he came out of the water. I love this man so much. He shared his testimony after and explained how he was so grateful for us missionaries for showing him the truth and bringing blessing into his life. He said " I have done a lot of things in my life and passed through a ton of hardship, but today I am clean through Christ." Yeah i shed a few (bastante) tears.

I ate Ceviche! But of chicken, because we arent allowed to eat the fish version. It was SUPER good and I cant wait to eat the real thing at the end of my mission. 

I recieved a package from my family that literally was a suitcase full of goodies and gifts for my birthday and Christmas coming up soon. I am enjoying the peanut butter and beef jerky that all American men have the privilege of eating every day. Blessed are the creators of those 2 foods. It is going to take all my willpower not to rip open the packages that say "DOnt open till the 13th of December and 25th".

Fray was indeed baptized but the work indeed goes on. We have a family of 3 who are going to recieve their interview tonight, please pray for the Zarate family that all will go well and we might have three more blanco es bonitos this Saturday coming up. How cool would that be to send even more baptismal pics next week. NOVEMBER ROCKS.

For all my future missionaries and current full timers, read ALma 17. It is the theme of our mission right now. We suffer a lot of tribulation as missionaries, that we might find joy in the salvation of souls.

I love and miss you all! Have a great week! #PrayForZaraTAY

--

Elder Hunter Sivley

Peru, Lima West Mission

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

Halloween, Tree of Life, and Elder Disney

Hello all of my friends and family!

This week was quite ridculous. RIDICULOUSLY AWESOME. We had 7 investigators come to church! One of them being.....FRAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYY BABYYYYYYYYY. He has all of his attendances and is able to be baptized this saturday! He has his interview this Tuesday so I still ask for prayers that he passes and also to help keep Satan off his back. So we continue with #PrayForFray

So Halloween was super sick. Sick in the way that I celebrated with me myself and I because everybody thinks its of the Devil here and they dont celebrate it. BUT that didnt stop me from carving a pumpkin and buying myself a shameful amount of candy. If yall know me you know that I love holidays and holiday traditions.

My spiritual moment this week came as we taught a family the vision of the Tree of Life. I referred to Lehi as the father of this family and how he should want and feel responsible that every one of his kids partakes of the fruit. He told me he really loved the lesson and on sunday they taught about this in gospel principles. He answered almost every question about the vision and kept smiling over at me. I loved that.

So i know you are all probably wondering, why Elder Disney. Well lemme tell ya a funny story here. 

Someone was praying during a lesson and they said "We are thankful for the visit from Elder Vidal and Elder.....uh....um...DISNEY.

Pronouncing Sivley is a little hard for my Peruvian Patas.

Mathew 5 is my reading assignment for yall this week. Enjoy it, pray about it, apply it.

I love and miss you all! Have a great week!

Elder Hunter Sivley

Peru, Lima West Mission

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

ELDER FALABELLA, MONOPOLY, AND WARD ACTIVITIES

Hello friends and family. This week was AWESOME. We ended the week with 8 new investigators and 13 baptismal dates. We are starting November off strong and I am super excited.

We had a visit from one of the 70, Elder Enrique Falabella from Guatemala. He was SO GOOD. ANd we were so lucky and blessed to be able to bring, none other than, FRAY VASQUEZ to the devotional. Fray is my favorite person in the entire world. He is so nice and humble and gives us free food from his restaurant. He has a baptismal date for the 11 of November and only needs one more church attendance to be qualified for baptism. PLEASE PRAY FOR HIM TO ATTEND THIS WEEK. I NEED THE PRAYERS YALL. #PrayForFray

We all know the board game Monopoly, but you all do not know that ELDER SIVLEY IS THE MONOPOLY KING. WE bought a board game for the district and have been playing the past 2 pdays and I have won BOTH TIMES. The key is Board Walk and Park Place and its OVER....OVER.

Alright im bouta get serious with yall. I cannot stress how important it is to show up to ward activities. You do not know who will be there waiting to recieve a friendship from you. We had an activity on Wednesday and only 2 members showed up. We brought an investiagtor and it was really lame because he couldnt really make friends with the 2 ancient releif society grandmothers that showed up. SUPPORT YOUR MISSIONARIES AND GO TO WARD ACTIVITIES.

I want to leave a scripture that I found in Mosiah 2:41. It is about keeping the commandments and I think that the promise entailed with keeping them is worth every thing.

I love and miss you all, have a great week!

ELDER SIVLEY loooooves fruit. Especially Mangoes.  He is happy happy happy in this pic!

As a mother, I could not be more proud of my oldest son who is out there working so hard and doing it all with a smile on his face.  I love this picture of his dirty, dusty shoes.  And his Nike shout out.

I have no idea what they're doing on this thing... but I still love seeing pics of my boy!

With their investigator FRAY on the train.  FRAY messaged me on facebook and sent me this picture... while they were on the train together!  It made me sooooo happy for a super super recent picture of my boy!  :)

 Hunter has told me over and over and over again how much he loves this chicken soup that Fray makes.  Fray has a restaurant in Lima, so if anyone is going to Lima, let me know!  I'll send you to FRAY for the best bowl of chicken soup you've ever had!  :)

NO CAMBIOS, BORRACHOS, Y EL CENSO

Hello friends and family, I hope that this week has been awesome. ONly a small short email today because this computer is what Ammon used to email his dad Mosiah from the mission field.

This week we had 6 people come tochurch, because sacrament meeting was at 6pm. We had an easier time going out and finding them at 5 in the afternoon compared to 7 in the morning. 

I didnt go anywhere for transfers, I am staying in Oquendo for 6 more weeks which is a dream come true. We have fantastic baptismal dates and great members working with us.

Funny story: This drunk guy came up to me spitting beer all over and yelling at me to leave the country, when he was finished he turned around and ran across the street and got hit by a car. He didnt die, in fact he immediately got up and continued running but still it looked like it freaking hurt BAHAHA.

I read a lot of the Plan of Salvation this week and really love that Heavenly Father has something specifically for us. I encoruage everyone to find their purpose in this plan of happiness.

I miss and love you all, have a great week!

NO PICTURES THIS WEEK BUT ... I did get some via facebook from his bishop.  Tender Mercy!!  :)

Hot dog sandwiches for dinner!

Cooking in the kitchen - not sure if it's his or the Tuero's...

For those of you who know Hunter, you know how much he loves his little brothers... this is the Tuero's youngest son and I can totally tell he is Hunter's buddy.

KIWIS, CAMBIOS, and MANGOS

Que tal mis amigos y mi familia? Como están?

This week was pretty average, BUT we had 4 people come to church AGAIN. I finally have figured out the trick. And shoutout to the fam because they gave me the idea. To teach investigators IN the chapel during the week. At first I was hesitant to plan something like that but I did it and have taugh 3 lessons like that. And PEOPLE ARE ATTENDING.

Transfers are in the morning tomorrow and I am actually so nervous. I have the strongest feeling that I am going to leave Oquendo. I really dont want to because we are finally starting to progress forward. I love these people, this dust filled area, and the horribly scheduled sacrament meeting.

Pic description:  The Tuero Family... Bishop Tuero and his wife and 3 children.  Sister Tuero is Hunter's Pensionista.  She makes them lunch every day and does their laundry once a week.  The church employs members to serve the missionaries in this way because they do not have access to laundry facilities and they are so busy during the day that they do not have time to prepare a healthy meal.  Their lunch prepared by the pensionista is their biggest meal of the day.

World cup season is starting here and Peru plays New Zealand (Kiwis) this month. So I have to pretend to hate a country that I am actually in love with, or I will, in fact, die. Dont worry my Kiwi friends, y'all are still sweet as bro!

Mangos. Just mangos. I eat like 5 every day. That is all.

Elder Garzon and Hunter are buddies... he has so much fun with him.  Hunter has always been a hugger-- glad Elder Garzon is ok with it!  hahaha :)

I dont really have much more to share but I want to leave a scripture in the Book Of Mormon. Every body knows this chapter, 1 Nephi 8. Its Lehis dream, but something very important catches my attention later in 1 Nephi 15:27. Nephi says that his father was unable to see the filthiness because his mind was focused on better things. How can we do the same? How can we weed out the filthiness in our lives and focus on whats good?

*** As Hunter's mother, can I just say how much I love this observation???  I needed to hear this right now as my life is SOOO full of craziness.  Not all of the craziness is filthiness, but I am definitely struggling to put the most important things as priority due to the pure chaos of our moving/selling our house/working full time/house hunting situation.  I love learning from my son... what an example he is to me.

Have a fantastic week, I miss and love you all!

El Olivar Zone

Baptism of Carmen Villalta and PRAY FOR FRAY!

Hello all of my friends and family. I am going to start making creative titles to my emails because naming the weeks is kinda boring.

WE HAD A BAPTISM BABY. Hermana Carmen Villalta es lo maximo!!! We love her so much and have full confidence that she is going to be such a strong member in the church. Her husband still has yet to recieve an answer of baptism but he supports her in everything. Such a great family. Pray for them please!

My spiritual experience was AWESOME this week. It came after the Zone Conference in a lesson with our investigator that night. We arrived and started asking her how she felt about her baptism this coming Saturday. She told us she felt unprepared and honestly didnt want to get baptized. My heart dropped, because she was one of the investigators that I thought was super firm in her desire. We thought of what to do in that moment and we decided to share a scripture from the Book of Mormon. Alma 7:14-15. She read it and was taken a back. She knew the invitation for baptism was hers and that she should do it, she just needed the impression of the Spirit. We asked her, "Hermana Carmen, have you honestly prayed and asked specifically if you should get baptized this Saturday?" She shook her head no. We asked if we could get on our knees and pray right there in th

at moment. Her prayer was simple, but powerful. But after, she stayed there on her knees for a solid 3 minutes before finally getting up and saying..."So what do I need to bring Saturday?" YESSSSSSSSSS. My heart was filled with joy and with the Spirit and I know hers was too.

I had an exchange with Elder Garzon from Medellin Colombia this week. He is so funny and we had a blast in this place called Parque Porcino. It is a pig farm and it smells TERRIBLE. But we found some amazing people there wanting to hear the gospel. Also I held a pig:)

Finally I want to tell yall about our good friend and BAPTISMAL DATE Fray Vasquez. He has a baptismal date for the 11 of November. He is a friend of a member and he owns a restaurant. He gives us free food EVERY time we go. He is like 23 and is such a bro, like we laugh and joke like long time friends. We finally taught him for the first time this past SUnday, IN THE CHAPEL, AFTER SACRAMENT MEETING. It was perfect and he started to cry when we gave him a Book of Mormon with our names signed inside, the first I have ever done. I love this guy and we have a lesson with him tomorrow.

I studied the general conference talks more this week. Doctrine and Covenants 3:36 is my scripture to leave! I love it so much!

I miss and love you all, have a great week. Also VAMOS PERU CONTRA COLOMBIA MAÑANA. COPA MUNDIAL BABY

Lucky week number 13... or not

Hello my friends and family!

This week was a rough one to say the least. Our baptismal dates fell because no one came to church. This is really testing me yall. Really hard to connect with investigators and share a relationship with them when they arent progressing. We can teach them so many time but they will never recieve an answer or the Spirit if they dont come.

However, I have recieved tons of advice from you all, and I am determined to put it to use. I am promising you all and myself that next week I will have at least 1 person come to church. I have the tools and the abilities I need, I only need to put them in action.

Other than that this week wasnt too bad. Today is kind of weird because they switched our Pday to Friday because we get to go to the temple. WOO HOO. I am very excited for that to say the least. But today I have been proseliting and all of the sudden we came here to email. 

I went to Interpol this past week and good news, I can stay in Peru. I would really hate to leave (again lol). But what was funny is I went with all the new missionaries who arrived 3 weeks ago and ALL of them were gringos. So I had to help out a lot as the Interpol workers with DMV attitudes were barking spanish at them like the hairless dogs here. They all thanked me at the end of the day which felt funny because I still feel new here haha. I will say that my Spanish is doing great, I havent had a problem speaking in like 2 weeks. 

I studied Ether 12 this week and verse 27 really hit me. It talks about how God shows us our weaknesses to make us humble, and if we stay humble, he will turn our weaknesses into strengths. Right now my weakness is getting people to church.  I am relying on the Lord to help me in all things. I would invite you all to read this scripture or chapter if you can, and figure out a way that you can be humble and just let go of everything, handing it to the Lord. He will bless you for your broken heart and contrite spirit. 

I love and miss you all, oh and I guess my family is moving to Los Angeles California so LETS GO DODGERS BABYYYY WORLD SERIES BOUND. (but the mission presidents son told me they are on a 12 game losing streak :( 

**Thank you elder SIVLEY for announcing our move... lol!  We were waiting to tell others until we told him.  But he just did it for us! :)

Other fun things from his letter to us this week:

-- Something funny that happened this past week: I met a cousin of Lance Hall, Hermana Abby Lee. She is in my mission and is super cool! She was one of the new missionaries at Interpol and she was born in Plano so we talked a ton about good ol Tejas.

-- Something you learned this past week: To always carry my dog dazer at night because the hounds be crawlin this time of year.

-- FOOD: We eat Pollo a La Brasa every Wednesday as a district after district meeting. It is the best. rotisserie chicken with french fries, hot sauce, salad, and wait for it...asian fried rice called CHAUFA.

12 weeks out! Time flies!!!

Hello all! This week was SWEET. Elder Dallin H Oaks absolutely filled my heart with inspiration and revelation. My favorite quote of his from this meeting is "Repentance isnt only for the unworthy to become worthy, but for the worthy to become perfect." I LOVE that quote he told us. I am never going to forget it. There are always times in our lives when we are unworthy, and we repent. However, it is SO necessary to work to become perfect, repenting everyday. He also talked about the importance of the Book of Mormon. Read it and share it everyday was his challenge. It is a challenge for all. 

My package came from my family this week, filled with cookies and peanut butter (my one true love). I am so grateful that I was able to feel their love through their letters and pictures. I love them so much!

We had the opportunity to go to the BEACH this week. Not to swim lol. But to clean up trash. There was a ton of trash and they are no where near finished but it felt good to serve.

We found 9 new investigators this week and 2 of them came to church finally! That is my biggest struggle here in the missionm. Bringing investigators to church. Our meeting is at 8 in the morning and nobody wants to come. The bishopric even arrives late. But we succeeded this week in bringing 2 of them! They have a baptismal date for the 30th of September and I hope they reach that goal!

I end my letter today with my favorite hymn " I'll Go Where You Want Me To Go." If you listen to the words, especially the chorus, you find a desire to be better. To be more like Christ. Sing that song in your heads as you serve others and improve yourself.

I love and miss you all! Until next week!

FUN TID BITS from Elder Sivley's letter home this week...

Weekly Questions:

1. Best part of your week: My package came and Elder Oaks! Also Bishop Causse came with Elder Oaks and he REMEMBERED me! Don't ask me how because I have no idea, but I was able to shake his hand and he just said "Nice to see you....again." I was so taken back. He either has the best memory in the world or its a gift from God. That was super awesome. (**We met Bishop Causse in February when we were in New Zealand visiting my parents... 7 months ago!!**)

2. Worst part of your week: A pigeon pooped on my tie. Literally fell out of the air and landed on my tie.

3.  Funniest part of your week: Yeah okay that was pretty funny too, not everyday I get bombed by a pigeon hahaha

4.  Most spiritual part of this past week: Elder Oaks said something that really struck me. "Repentance isn't only for the unworthy to become worthy, it is also for the worthy to become perfect." I worked so hard to become worthy, but it doesn't end there. Every day we need to repent for something wrong we did. We need to try and become perfect.

5.  Something you learned: If you work hard but don't work smart, you didn't work at all.

6.  Something you ate: Terrible Peruvian pizza with uncooked mushrooms on it. I hate the pizza here.

Week 11

Hello my friends and family! This week was a pretty good one. I am staying in Oquendo for transfers and staying with Elder Vidal which is even better because I love this dude. We had lots of lessons this week and we found lots of new investigators to teach. I love this place because the majority of people really have a desire to listen and understand the gospel.

Our mission President recieved a letter from the Quorum of the 12 saying that they want missionaries to stay in one are and with one companion for longer time. We are talking maybe a minimum of 6 months now. I am actually really grateful for that because I love the people hear and I am really gaining trust with the members (to the point that they always give me food when I eneter their house:)

This week was the birthday of Hermana Tuero, our pensionista (the person who gives us lunch everyday), and we went all out. We bought her her favorite candy, wrote a song for her and made this awesome sign in this picture I sent. It says "Before Hermana Tuero (with regular sized missionaries) and after Hermana Tuero (with arrows poiting to us on the sides with estómagos gorditos)" She laughed, and cried, so we know we did alright.

Dallin H Oaks is coming to our mission this WEDNESDAY and i cannot wait to hear his teachings and recieve revelation!!! Apostles are so dang cool. Also we recieved news that starting this month we will be going to the temple once every 6 months! I miss the temple, all of you that are able to go whenever you want, JEALOUS. Enjoy it for me please.

Today we made COMPLETOS from Chile and played soccer so it was a pretty good PDAY. I love this mission and the other missionaries in our district, we are one very strange looking family haha.

My studies this week consisted of 3 Nephi 11. All about when Christ came to the Americas. WHAT A BLESSING it is to have this knowledge that Christ not only taught the people in Jerusalem, but also the ancestors of the people that I teach every day here in Peru. It is really special when I ask someone "Did you know that Christ came to this land to teach people that probably are your ancestors?" I always see a light in their eyes, like they realized they are an important people to our Heavenly Father. We all are, because we all are children of God and he loves us dearly.

Have a great week and I love and miss you all!

Elder Sivley also got the news this week about his brother Brock's mission call.  We were dying for him to find out... this was his response: 

MEXICO!?!?!?!?!? THAT IS SO AWESOME. SPANISH LIVES ON IN THIS FAMILY. I am so excited for Brock oh my gosh.  I cant stop smiling at the pictures and videos of you dude. Vamos a cambiar el mundo juntos. Prepárese por la aventura de su vida. Te amo y estoy tan emocionado para ti.  (We are going to change the world together.  Prepare yourself for the adventure of a lifetime.  I love you and am so proud of you.)

Elder Sivley also got the news about his buddy Dodger dying and his sister in the hospital currently... but he is such a strong and faithful young man-- he told Hannah,  "I hope that you recover soon and that you are back out there showing the world how special you are. I love you and miss you so much!

Man I miss my boy!!!!

Week 10

Hello all, this week is going to be really short because this computer that I am on is so old and so slow. So everyone that sent me a personal email this week, I am sorry but Ill have to wait till next week to respond! With the exception of my family of course.

This past week was a great one! We recieved Elder Walter F Gonzales from the 70. He gave us a ton of spiritual guidance that I am going to use a ton in my mission. The lesson I took from his talk was: love your investigators and testify of Christ and the rest will follow.

I will leave y'all with that. Love one another and testify of Christ always. Those two things can change a life, change the world. 2 Nephi 25:26. HE is the focus, HE is the Savior and HE lives.

No pictures this week!! :( The computer was too slow...)

BLANCO ES BONITO!

Hello all!

This week was so awesome! We had a baptism! BLANCO ES BONITO!!!! WHOOOO HOOOO!

Her name was Elizabeth Vara and she is 16 years old. Her family used to be active members but decided to leave the church. I found her a couple months ago with my other companion and we taught her a couple of times but she had dropped us and told us she didnt want to progress farther. 

HOWEVER! Literally after my email last week we got a call from her saying that one of her friends (a member) had told her what a blessing it was to be baptized and she wanted to be taught again. She already had everything she needed from the last time, she only needed baptism! SO we went to her house and taught her a couple more times and she was baptized Saturday! None of her family showed up and the baptismal service was a mess(refer below) but her testimony was so sweet after and I felt the spirit so strong with her.

But let me tell you about this baptism---

So this baptism was CRAZYYYY. I had to baptize her 3 times because her body wasnt all the way under the water. The first time she kneed me in my manhood so I was crying internally, the second time her hand slapped me in the face on the way down, but the THIRD time oh my gosh you all are going to die. I tried to do it fast so her body wouldnt come up and i FREAKING DISLOCATED MY SHOULDER!!!!!! I held in what could have been a huge scream and left the font with my other arm supporting the dislocated one. But of course, OF COURSE she wanted a picture after so you can see MY RIGHT ARM resting on my leg because I couldnt lift it. Elder Vidal knew how to put it back in because he had "seen a youtube video" so in the bathroom after he pulled and turned and did whatever painful horrible thing he had to do but he put it back! We will never forget that experience and especially because it was my first baptism hahaha!

All in all it was a great week. My lesson to leave today is about befriending those who are investigating the church. The friend of this girl was a huge part of her wanting to be baptized. Help your local missionaries by offering to go on visits with them and offering to help with making their investigators feel comfortable. Because it is a brand new world for them!

I love and miss you all! Have a great week!

BONUS TREAT: a recording of Hunter singing "I am a Child of God" in English and Spanish on the uke.

Week OCHO

Buenas tardes mis amigos y mi familia.

How is everyone? This week was a pretty good one. It started with a MIRACLE.  We were walking in the street when we hear "ELDER". We looked at eachother and were like "DId you just hear Elder?". All of the sudden a door flys open from a house behind us and a 25 or so year old man comes running up to us and says, "I need to talk to you, I want you to visit my family and we are not going to rest until we are members of your church." We looked at eachother with huge smiles and said "UH YEAH OKAY". They are a family that isnt married but we talked with the secretary of marriage and got all the information for a wedding on September 22. We presented the idea to them and they responded without hesitation, "Yes we will do it." We also invited them to be baptized the day after, the 23 of September, and again almost instantly, "Yes of course we will be baptized." They are so humble and so willing to learn, they keep their commitments in reading and asisting church. I love them, and I am excited to help them reach these goals. How cool is that? That was the highlight of my week easily.

We also had a feast from Cusco Peru called Pachamanca (google it) and it was the best pork I have had in my life. I love Peruvian food so much. I am trying to learn recipes that I can take home with me.

Elder Vidal is continuing to become a brother to me. I love this guy so much and we work so well together. I took a picture of our white board (my baby) that we have in our room and some of the writings on there should describe our relationship pretty well. Oquendo is doing great and we are very confident to have some baptisms pretty soon.

This week I studied about charity. Moroni 7 talks about the importance of charity and I asked myself, what am I doing to achieve this charity? Read this chapter and ask yourself the same thing! How can you have charity for others?

I miss and love you all! Have a great week!

Funny story from his personal letter to the family:

For Pday we played this game where there were two groups of like 6 missionaries and you had to bring a fruit. Any fruit you like. I brought a pineapple. BIG MISTAKE. We had to eat it, ALL OF IT, without using our hands. I have pictures that I am trying to send but it was pretty crazy. IT was a race of who could do it the fastest and other people had like apples and bananas and I had a pineapple. But it was like a relay, when one person finished another started. So they had me go last and in the end of the entire game it was between me and an Elder who brought a cantalope. I WON. I ATE THAT PINEAPPLE SO FAST. SO fast that my lips were bleeding a little after because of the spikes. But my team was so hyped because of me it was awesome. Everyone thought we were going to lose because of my pineapple. :)

Mom's note: personally I'm shocked it wasn't a mango.  He LOVES mango!  Especially in Peru!

Semana 7... THIS is the work of the Lord

Hello my friends and family!

Nothing huge happened this week so today is a little shorter than most. We had a tough week finding new people to teach and setting very firm lesson dates. So we did a lot of searching and walking. One day I kid you not I walked 17 miles. My legs were crying and I live on the 4th floor of a very unstable looking building (so If we have a really bad earthquake yeah I am dead) so the walk up was LO PEOR (the worst).

We had a broadcast this past Sunday from the area authorities, Elder Carlos Godoy and Elder Juan Uceda of the Seventy. They both talked about reasons NOT to serve a mission (girlfriend,school,job,family) and how they are actually reasons TO serve a mission. So my email today more than anything is to those on my list contemplating serving a mission.

If you feel like you are leaving behind so much to serve, think about how much a mission will bless those things in your life. Especially the family. Your family will be watched over and protected, and more importantly, you will change the lives of every family to teach in your mission. Which will start a chain reaction, families to future missionaries to more families. THIS is the reason to serve a mission, THIS is the work of the Lord.

D&C 4 .....Read it, pray about it, apply it to your life.

I love and miss you all!

Soccer with the missionaries

 Elders Sivley and Vidal with a member in Peru...