Week 45, New Area

Hi, Dad.  Glad things are going well with work. Wow, I'm sorry to hear that Brother Auger has been sick! I'm sad to hear that, but I'll be praying that he'll be alright. My buddy Matt, if you remember who that is, left last week for the Pennsylvania mission, so that's pretty sweet.   I'm in a new sector, living on the shores of Lake Titicaca (I forgot my cable so I'll send pictures next week).  Here now in Puno, Peru.  It's awesome!   It is freezing cold, and it's going to get colder but I like it a lot.  It is much different because it's pure city, so contacting is a little different. Instead of answering the door, they answer the window, ha ha.  (the usual answer is "I have my religion" then the window shut response).  In Puerto Maldonado I was used to getting into pretty much every single door.  Here it is not like that, but there is a stake here, so the only thing that can hold back our success is the free agency of the people and our obedience and strive.   My new companion is awesome.  Elder Gonzalez is from Guatemala.  He's great and we're working very good.  It was nice yesterday for the first time in my mission to be in a ward with a chapel full of members!  I almost forgot what that was like.  We're working on looking for new investigators.  We have challenged a few people to baptism at the door, and we're getting some cool new investigators.  One investigator I thought was a returned missonary trying to mess with us but it turns out he's real! ha ha.  We were sharing scriptures, and he's like, yeah, but here in this verse it says this, and stuff like that.  It's a good thing I study the Bible!   Apparently there are mermaids in the lake here and it's dangerous to be out after 11.  Many believe that Atlantis is under Lake Titicaca, so who knows ha ha.  My new family that we eat with is awesome and it's fun to listen to all the stories.  When I was in Puerto I was told that there was a lost city of gold, too.   Everything is going good.  I hope you guys have a great week, love you, Aaron

Week 45

Hi Mom,

So I just got in to Cusco a few hours ago - the 30 min flight was a lot better than the 12 hour bus ride, ha ha. Hey that's sweet that Aunt Margaret and family are going to visit you guys!  You'll have to let me know how that movie (Monumental) is, you know I like stuff like that.  So conference is very soon like you're saying.  I'm not sure where I'll be for right now.   Tomorrow is the change meeting.  I'm in the mission office right now.  So things were pretty crazy this week!   There was a huge riot in Puerto and we had to stay in our rooms for 2 days.  We could only leave to eat.   It was pretty crazy.   The miners there are upset, so they decided to trash the streets and cause a big mess.  It was like a movie, almost.  So that's why we took a plane today, because the riot was supposed to start back up, and the roads get shut down.  Tomorrow I find out where I'm heading to - pretty exciting.  It's weird to be back in the dryness and not sweating again ha ha.  Like you're saying, it's hard for me to really understand too, why the family here isn't such a big deal.  You would be surprised.   This week we were in a lesson with a couple and the "wife", Victoria, is progressing - awesome.   She has a testimony and goes to church and everything, but her boyfriend doesn't want to progress - and he doesn't want to get married or anything because he thinks if gets married that he automatically becomes a member of the church.  We explained that if they get married SHE can baptized, but he could still keep investigating the church or not and he said flat out "No, I'm not going to marry her".   We said, "you guys have been together for almost 10 years, you have a kid, you're basically married now."   It's sad and frustrating.   I've gotten used to hearing that though.  I'm out of time and next week I'll let you know where I am.  Love you guys.  Have a great week! 

Week 43

Hi Mom, Glad you guys are doing great, sorry you didn't get to see Kayla and Lynell, it's alright though-I didn't get to, either! It sounds like if everything works out good you will have an awesome conference weekend though.   It's pretty amazing when you think that we have Prophets and Apostles.  After telling that to people everyday for some time I was thinking this week as I was reading the Bible (in the book of Acts) about how amazing that REALLY is!  I guess just having that information around my whole life, I didn't realize how big of a blessing it is. This week was pretty sweet!   We've been preaching with power and authority across the bridge here, however we didn't have much success with people showing up to church, but we revisited the investigators and re-explained the importance of the Sabbath Day to them, so I think this week will be a little more successful.   I've been thinking, that if over in England in the first 21 years of the church (after it was restored) the missionarys that were there were able to baptize 32,000 people, stuff like that gets me pumped, so I've been doing what I can to bear my testimony with some more power (well the Spirit is the Power, but creating the atmosphere for the Spirit).  It's pretty awesome - I feel like I learn so much in one week. It's still sad to never find anyone that is married.  (seriously speaking - in my whole mission I've probably taught about ten families where the parents are married!  When you tell people that in order to live gospel they need to get married, most people say, "we dont want to get married."   We say, "but you guys have been together for 15 years and have 4 kids!"   They say, "It is just a piece of paper from the city office.  This week I taught a guy that was said, "no, I don't want to marry my girlfriend.  We have been together for 12 years but if we get married there is that commitment!   My parents were together for 30 years before they actually got married."  They think that when you only have 10 or 15 years to life left (tops) that is when you make the commitment, I guess.  Hope you have a great week, here are some photos. I love you and I'll talk to you next week!

Week 42

Hi, Mom
So this week was a good week, we had a baptism! Remember the guy that has to travel an hour to get here so we can teach him - well, he got baptized yesterday!  It was awesome!   We had a lot of members there and everything went really well.  I was able to confirm him as a member of the Church!  I'll send a few pics next week. We started working in a new city across the river, we need to cross the bridge to get over there, but there haven't been missionaries over there so were starting fresh!  It's exciting!   We're gonna split our time between here and there.  Yesterday we talked to one of our investigators, and she recieved her answer that the Book of Mormon is true - but not just "yeah, I prayed and got my answer".  She read the whole chapter (3 Nephi 11) marked up words, circled words, footnotes marked, read the references to the bible, and had a paper full of questions in between the pages it was awesome.  She is one of the FEW people I have taught that have taken the "meditate" part of the promise to practice.  Now she has a date for baptism too!  I'm praying hard that she'll be able to make it there and be baptized with her daughter
whose 9.   So this week was good!  I haven't gotten my shoes yet, they're in Cusco.  I have to send some money there so they can take it out of the post office.   I should have them next week.  I hope that Brett's test went well.  Say hi to them for me.   Alright Mom, love you!  Until next week, Aaron