Week 22

Hey Dad, I'm reading your email. I heard that Miss Colombia won last night, don't know how I feel about that. I always thought that Venezuela would win every time but it didn't happen, a lot of people are happy here.( I asked him if there was a lot of partying going on after Miss Colombia won Miss Universe last night)

Yes, I did receive your package. (Dallin and the other Elders had requested a few shirts and beanies from BYU)All the elders loved what you sent. They're really happy about it and everything is great,they really enjoyed it and they thank you very much.

We all got our BYU shirts and stuff. I gave one of the hats to a member, Abner, the one who let us use his computer at Christmas. So I gave him that because he likes BYU. I thought that it would be nice to give him that since he does nice stuff for us.

Everything's fine, I'm trying to take care of myself in the physical way we are starting to do more exercising. As well as eating, starting next week we will have a new pensionista. Her name is  Hermana Cuqué ella es muy chévere(she is very cool). Her husband is the second counselor in the bishopric. Their whole family is Chévere. I love saying Chévere. We went and had a family home evening with them yesterday and she gave us some food and it was great food, she made this salad with carrots and cream cheese and piña, (pineapple) and together it was perfect, it was great.

Yes I making sure that my clothes are very clean, I take two hours every P day in the morning to scrub them and make sure they're clean.

Things are going good with my companion, working good and working through any differences we might have. Had a good interview with the mission president this last week during zone conference. He gave me some great tips on how to do better on certain things.

This week our baptism fell through, well not actually. At first we talked to this family and they're a less active family, as we talked to them we learned that their daughter was eight years old. And we realized that it would be a ward baptism. Then we talked to the bishop and he said no the daughter is nine years old. We looked at the records and it does say that she is nine. Then the family looked at their stuff and said, oh yeah, she is nine. And the daughter asked, did I miss a birthday?  Did you skip my birthday?  Can I have a birthday party?  So it is our baptism I guess. Not a lot of the family could come to the baptismal service this week, but they can come next week. We really need to focus on reading of the book of Mormon with them. They were baptized about four years ago.The mom has gone to a few different churches in the past few years. so we are trying to focus with them on reading the book of Mormon. Other than that this week is been a normal week. There really isn't anything out of the ordinary and just working hard and doing what we do.

All the Elders say thank you for the presents you sent. They've been taking pictures every day. The Elder from Brazil takes pictures every day with his BYU stuff. He says now all he needs are BYU shorts and it would be perfect.

Tell Sister Syphus, Sister Twitchell, the Brands, the Demke's, and everyone there, hello. Tell the youth I said hi, tell Bishop I said hi, tell the Beechers I said hi. Tell them thanks for being in the ward and helping me learn from everyone. I really like that I have a good ward and with them I learned a lot of stuff.

Pretty much it, we're hoping everything will go fine.

Love you mom and dad. Tell Jarrett I love him.

Elder Pead




No new photos this week so I will share a few of the "silly" ones from last week

Week 21

Hey Guys
Well, this week was a hoot!!!
...
I will never say hoot again.

Well, the baptisms did not fall though! Everything went okay. I baptized Brandon, who is 8, and  Elder Bautista baptized Maria, who is 74.

We also will have a baptism this week! A young girl named Diana (pronounced with a hard "D" anna) Her family is menos activo(less active). But now, her dad can baptize her! I love the family, and she loves that I speak English haha. I love working with them.

Tell mom I got the recording for Grandma and Grandpa Venezuela ready. Did she want other ones for the family? Like Jeff or the Kids? let me now asap.

Yes... I did wash my hands(after playing with the "poop" from last week). I wash them a lot because I basically do all the dishes in the house. It's my life now. haha.

We will be in Cali for like, 3 days this week. Because my companion has a doctor's appointment, reunion de zona(zone meeting), and intrevistas con el grand jefe(interviews with the grand chief), Presidente Pricoli. So that is grand! haha. I'll be sure to bug the living snot out of our leaders for the package! haha.

Tell mom thanks for the money, my companion really likes to go out and eat, and I always buy food as well so he doesn't feel alone, so I really really need to budget it better. haha.

What I have been realizing on my mission is that Heavenly Father helps us by not just by comforting us, but by making us a better person though our works and actions. Because we all have something we can change.  I would encourage you to look for that something to change, because it's going to make you a better person, and more importantly More Christ Like.

Love you Mom and Dad. Tell Jarrett I love him dearly.

love your son,

Elder Pead

Cleaning the Chapel

 The fruit is called pitaya, it is a cactus native to Colombia
Very sweet

Week 20

HEY PADRA FADRA.

Well, Jarrett might have the brains of the Family, but I have the dance and singing moves... well, he does sing really well... and I can't practice my dancing skills here.......never mind.(Jarrett got a certificate for High Honor Roll.)
Spanish study is hard. My comp wants to learn English all the time, and I kind of need to learn Spanish a lot more.
Let's see. Well, I'm sending a butt load of pictures so I really don't have an idea for one.... but let me see..(I asked him to tell us what some of the photos are of)
There is one of me playing with a lot of poop. A lot of poop.

Well, it is for service.... so I can't complain!!!

Ha-ha but really. It's really fun ha-ha.

So the poop... we have a investigator named Armando who lives in a finca(small ranch), and he asked us to help him with it. so we went last Tuesday... and well... we put the poop on the wall, and just spread it around. Its decomposed poop with other building materials, and well, it was tons of fun. Just really dirty... I'll tell you one thing, I may or have may not gotten poop in my mouth... BUT I DIGRESS.

WE ALSO HAVE TWO BAPTISMS THIS WEEK OHMYGOSH
Maria and Brandon.
Maria is 72, and during the first lesson she accepted the invitation to be baptized!!! also, Brandon who is 8, who the missionaries have been teaching for a year, has also accepted the invitation. They are both relatives to a sister named Hermana Sol Malfa, who is the daughter of Maria, and the Grandmother of Brandon.
WE ARE SO EXCITED

We are seeing the fruits of are labor, and are so grateful of the Lord for blessing us and helping us teach by the Holy Ghost.

We have a few new investigators coming out of the woodwork, and we are going to extend the baptismal invite as well.

Love you dad. Tell mom I love her too, lots. Tell Jarrett I love him too.

Hope everything is going good with you guys. Love you soo soo sooo much.
When I think of the baptisms, I think of the family. They will be together forever, just like us Dad. For eternity.

With love, your son

Elder Pead

Week 19- New Year, New Companion

Well dad, you will get a few photos today.

Today I just want to talk to you because I don't have a lot of time to write. Just want to tell you about a few things, I have a new companion. His name is Elder Bautista. He is from the same group as I. I will be the younger(junior) companion because he speaks Spanish and I don't. Ha ha yea that's it right there. We get along really well. Really well actually, I've gotten along with him a lot more than my other companions.

 We've been working really hard this week. I've worked hard in my mission, but this week we worked extremely hard. And we have a baptismal date for the mother of one of the sisters in the ward here. This lady will be baptized into weeks time hopefully, if everything goes well and she follows the things we ask her to do with the lessons and everything. Her name is Maria. She is really cool, she just wanted listen to us one day and in the lesson we just told her about baptism and she started to cry during the lesson and it felt really good. And I started to cry also, I'm a crier. Her daughter told us that while she was in the temple she had an experience where she felt like she was important to the Lord and she felt that one day her mother would be there with her. And her mother now has agreed to baptism. Hopefully everything will go well. This will be my first convert in the mission.

Jose Camilo was my convert but I only taught him like two lessons and he already had made the decision to be baptized. But sometimes I count him as my convert because I taught him and I still help him with stuff at church and we give him other lessons after baptism. Everything is going good with him as well.

We are just really excited for two weeks time. We have some other investigators in that family and hopefully they will be fine. We have Alejandra, hopefully she'll be doing good. And Brandon, I don't know about Little Brandon. If he sees his mom get baptized he'll want the lessons as well.

I've had my first hardship in the mission. We were talking to two of our investigators, they are sisters. And their father will not let them get baptized. And because they know their father will not let them get baptized they had to tell us no to getting baptized. That was really hard because when you Love someone so much, you love these people and you want them to have the gospel in their lives. Hopefully everything will be fine you know.

I want you guys to know I love all of you very much. Everything is going fine here. We are working hard.

Love you guys and thanks for everything.

Audio from Dallin

Elder Pead and Elder Bautista

Look Dad, I use Ariel laundry detergent just like you did on your mission.
Mine is better because it is Double Power!

Elder Bautista thinks Elder Pead is a little strange