Hi Mom,

The light was out in all of Puno last Monday, so I couldn't write you.  Glad everyone is doing good.  I hope Brennan had a great birthday! Wow, Brennan is teacher now, that's sweet. I'll keep Brett in my prayers. Well I'm back in Cusco, in a little city called Urcos - an hour or so out of Cusco.  It's a family group like where I started, so we do everything, but it's cool.  I teach sunday school for the kids from 12-18.  This Sunday I had a talk.  It was my first sunday there and just my luck the mission president just happend to show up ha ha.  The church is in an apartment building, it's interesting, but I'm excited to be there, we've got a lot to do. My companion is Elder Gomez from Guatemala, he's awesome. Urcos is really pretty as you can see in the pictures.  We have a few other smaller towns which are part of our sector too.  This week we walked 2 hours to one and found a whole family to teach so that was awesome.  I'm doing good. The baptism we had the last week went really well, it was sad to baptize them then have to leave the next day.  That's all I have for now.  Love you, and I'll talk to you next week!

Hi,Mom
HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRENNAN!! Love you! Hope you have a great day!! 
Glad you guys are doing good. This week was pretty sweet.  Saturday we will have baptisms!! That is exciting. The sister that we are going to baptize stood up in Relief Society and told everyone that she was getting baptized this saturday and that she wants everybody there! We had a multi-zone conferance this week, it was pretty sweet. President took us out to a steak dinner, however as usual, (ha ha) the steak was included with RICE! President is proud of the work that me and my comp are doing, so that is pretty cool. This week is the last week of the transfer, pretty sure I have a transfer, but will see what happens when they call us sunday night. Everything is going good, our sector is progressing and everything so that is nice too see. But not a whole lot that is new.  Stormy wrote me this week! I'll have some pictures to send home next week!  Love you guys, till next week!

HI,Mom
In answer to dad's question, no, none of my companion speak English.  I have to wait till p-day to talk in English, with the other gringos.  This week was pretty awesome, our investigators are progressing well, and are ready for their baptisms.  We could have a few more this month with some of the others too.  We are working like crazy! You have to go through quite a few people to find the ones that will progress.  I do my best to talk to everybody because you never know, some people that look like they don't want to listen to you, DO want to sometimes.  I have made myself a new goal to talk to the people we usaully just past by this week, and its been going good. Every weekend there is the evangelist preachers in the town square with their loud speakers.  I want to preach in the square too, but I haven't had a companion that has the guts to do it with me yet.  However, it will happen during my mission. The old testament is awesome, been studying it before the normal study time, finding awesome scriptures, and learning a lot.  Everything is going good though.  Love you Mom and family, talk to you next week!

Hi Mom,

Hey, I'm glad your feeling better! And that you got the promotion!! Wow, your going to change stores, that's pretty cool. Glad Brett and Jennie are doing good! And that Brett's test went well. Tell Sadie Happy Birthday for me! or Feliz Cumpleaños! ha ha. This week was pretty sweet! We are teaching a single mom with her daughter, Martha and Pilar, they are awesome.  We went to go visit them this week, and we asked Pilar if she read the Book of Mormon and prayed.  She told us yes and that she prayed how we taught her to pray, and that her prayer was answered and that she knows the Book of Mormon is true! She said she knows it's true because when she prayed, she said that she felt like God was listening to her! That was awesome! Now we just need to help her mom a little bit, she has an "online friend" that told her she can't just join any church, and that she should read the bible more.  That's annoying because the lessons go really well, but then after she talks to that guy. haha  This is the second week she has come to church and assisted all the reunions, which is sweet. We're finally starting to get some more help from the members.  I decided that just talking about helping us out and our investigators in Ward Council isn't enough so last Sunday I started walking up to people and asking for the cell phone numbers where they live and when they can join us for lessons.  That helped out this week.  We also got a new ward mission leader that is a returned missionary!  Things are starting to move forward more, which is good. We started teaching that one guy that said he would read the entire Book of Mormon in 2 weeks, which he did, but he looked for all the scriptures about the law of moses, to try and show us that the sabbath day is still saturday, but ya that didnt work.  Yesterday we taught him about baptism because the last time we visited him he said, well no baptism will change my life, so we taught him that, to the point were he couldn't say that it's not necessary.  Like usual he tries to respond by showing his knowledge of things and then tells us that the new testament isn't even necessary and that only the first five books of moses we could use and be fine, but to his dismay (ha ha) I showed him a verse in Duteronomy that says we should live from every word which proceedeth from the mouth of God, and after that we were just like look man, it's all about you knowing that the Book of Mormon is true and that the authority was restored through Joseph Smith.  He said he would pray this week, will see what happens, really hope he does, But this week was pretty sweet. Hope you have a great week, Love you Guys, Love, Aaron.

HI Mom,
This week was AWESOME, we worked like CRAZY, best "numbers" I have had in my whole mission.   This week we got the most new investigators that the whole zone has had in long time so that was pretty sweet. This week we started teaching Giovana, she's awesome, probably has the worst life of any investigator I have had.  She's from a small town and was living with her boyfriend in his moms house.  She got pregnant and very sick, and then 2 months later one day the boyfriend said he was going to buy something and never came back.  Then a couple days latter his mom showed up and kicked her out of the house saying that her son doesn't want a pregnant and sick woman.  So somehow she got work with the sister that owns our house. We went to teach her the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but when we started to talk to her she started to cry and tell us her story and all that is screwed up in her life, and how bad she feels.  Honestly, after she was done I didn't know what to say, but after sitting there for a minute waiting for the spirit I felt like I should open up to 3rd Nephi Chap. 9.  I read the verses where Jesus says that his arm is always extended out to us, and I asked her if she wants to feel free from all the suffering she has, she said yes.  We explained baptism to her and that when were baptized our errores are erased, and we challenged her to be baptized and she said yes. It was an awesome experience!  We didn't teach a normal lesson, it was all from the spirit, and after she felt a lot better. I've got some talks I've been listening too, and one by President Benson.   He talks about the first missionary of this dispensation - Joseph Smith's brother, Hyram.   His first tday as a missionary he walked about 20 miles or more and stopped by a house to see if he could stay there the night and he explained that he was a missionary, and about the Book of Mormon.  The guy threw him out his house saying, "you'll get no where with your books!." and then he slept under a tree, and that is how missionary work started in the latter days. Listening to the prophets talk about missionary work and focusing my personal study more towards the Book of Mormon, has helped me learn a few things lately. All is going great. Love You Mom, hope you keep feeling better, until next week!

Hi Mom,

This week I got my new companion Elder Mamani from Bolivia, he's awesome. We worked HARD this week. We met a really awesome investigator this week named Rosa, she wants to get baptized already too! She came to church on Sunday, prayed, read the Book of Mormon - she's awesome. We had a new convert sister walk home with her, but what's even cooler is that she said she didn't understand what she read in the Book of Mormon but after the sister walked her home she read the Book of Mormon TO her and explained it!!! How awesome is that! The sad thing is that she is not married and will be moving in a month, but we going to do all we can to teach while we still can, and then where she moves send the elders.  We climbed up to the top of a mountain read some scriptures together then dedicated our sector, it was an awesome experience. Hope you recover fast after your surgery, Mom love you! And I'll talk to you next week.

Hi Mom, Today are changes and Wednesday I get a new companion, so that's cool.  This week was pretty cool, we met a great investigator Monday, probably the best lesson I've had in a while!  She said she wanted to know it is true and everything, asking us questions, it was awesome.  We invited her to church with her family, and she tells the next day she is travelling and won't be back till after fathers day.  Usually always something has to happen, but it's all good. This Sunday is Fathers Day, I think and I want to say I love you Dad and hope you have a great Day!  Honestly the food here for me isn't the best, there are a few things I like such as tuna salad Peruvian style, and some other things but I don't know the names. I guess I should probably start asking, that would be good. (sometimes you'd rather not know) but yeah, all is good.  I listened to a talk by Elder Oaks about teaching.  It was awesome, he said whenever we are teaching the Gospel, that is WHAT we teach, the principle and then the doctrine behind it, and that is all, which I liked and some other things he said.  Sometimes some missionarys share weird things with people. Anyway,  love ya Mom, have a great week and Dad a great Father's Day!  Love Aaron