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...

Semana 6!

Buenas tardes mi familia y mis amigos.

What a week! We had lots of ups and downs. I am going to start with the downs.

Hermana Luz did not reach baptism. She told us the day before that she wanted to wait longer but I feel like she is sweetly telling us she will never get baptized. Which is SO SAD. Because I know for a fact she has read the Book of Mormon and felt the Spirit of truth. I really came to love her and I still do but I hate how the adversary is working so hard against her. Also this week, someone passed out at church and nobody realized because she was in a back room working on programs. We dont know how long she had been in there but Elder Vidal and I found her. She went to the hospital and we still dont know what is up or how she is doing. SCARY.

Okay, now the ups! I LOVE ELDER VIDAL. We are the same person except he was born in Chile and speaks much better Spanish. We work so well together and when we teach it is like we know what the other is going to say and the Spirit is so strong. Also, we cry laughing at at least 2 things daily. It is the best. Also we found a new family! The Chiroques. They are so humble and willing to learn and I can see their desire to make changes in their lives. I am excited to teach them more. Prayers for them please!

I was studying the words of King Benjamin this week in the Book of Mormon, chapters 2 and 3 of Mosiah always hit me. Serve others and put off the natural man. I encourage all to read these chapters and ask what you can do better to serve and be humble.

I miss and love you all and pray for you all every day!

(This 70s van was the highlight of my day today, If you know me you know I love 70s music and movies and especially cars from the 70s. Also Elder Vidal haha)

Extras from his letter to the fam:

Elder Sivley sends an audio recording every week and we love listening to it and hearing his voice... last week he sent us his daily schedule detailed out in his recording.  His mission is one of the missions that has adjusted their wake up and bedtime routines and schedules to fit the culture of the locals.  For them to get up early and be out of the house before 8 am would not benefit them at all because most Peruvians are not awake at that time.  They also eat lunch later than normal and Dinner is when they return to their apartment at 10pm.  He says that Sundays and holidays tend to be their busiest proselyting days because people are home and have family there and are usually willing to listen to their message.  So those days are pretty busy.  He loves the Peruvian people and is doing great with the language!

Week 5 in Oquendo

Hola de Oquendo, Lima Peru!

I hope that everyone has had a fantastic week. We had lots of crazy stuff happen! First, July 28 is Independence Day for Peru! We climbed a mountain and celebrated by looking over the desert frontier of Oquendo. (cue western movie music) 

One of our investigators is going to be baptized this Saturday! I would ask for an abundance of prayers as Satan is going to come at her like a swarm of locusts (shoutout to Moses). Hermana Luz Fernandez is her name and she is truly amazing. She expressed to me her concerns about baptism. She felt like if she repented and got baptized, she wasn't allowed to make mistakes. I looked at her and opened up my heart about the blessing of repentance. Tears were flowing from both this sister and I. After my testimony she said "Okay Elder, estoy lista." (I am ready.) Such a testament to me of the Spirit. She is going to be baptized first and then hopefully her 11 yr old daughter in a couple weeks! I am so excited.

Also this week, I got a new companion! We had delayed transfers and I am now with Elder Vital who is from Viña Del Mar, Chile. He is awesome and I cannot wait to work with him. It will be a challenge for me because I am the one with experience in the Oquendo area, so I gotta introduce him to everyone and every place. I hope it will increase my Spanish, which is really progressing (blessed), but I also hope it will teach me a little about being a leader in the mission. 

I love you all and I miss you. Read Matthew 5 this week, everyone needs a little Sermon on the Mount in their lives!