Week 31- Semana Santa

Hey mom and dad,

We have had a pretty normal week. It's been a good one. We have had good lessons with investigators with got some new ones, we've got some coming in.

I guess I am learning to be patient with patience.

This week in Pasto, is Semana Santa(Holy Week or Easter Week) What do they do? They go on long walks to towns a little ways away to go to some of the big churches. It seems like no one is here this whole week. So we are struggling with talking to investigators and getting them excited about coming to church this week.

Yes we are working with the new initiative of #Gracias a que El Vive (#because he lives).  We Have pass along cards and everything. It's fun, I love it. We just started. We have like three days doing it. It's a little different but we are doing our best.

Thanks for finding those videos and the things I asked you to send me. That's great that you are getting them together. Thanks.

Not a lot of new things happening.  Still working with our investigators and hoping to help them get to the pathway of the Gospel. Sending a few pictures this week hope you enjoy.

Working on doing my best. It's a hard time sometimes in the mission.  But just got to keep working and things will get better. Always hoping for the best.

Thanks for your love and support.

Love you guys.

Elder Pead

Transfers

More from Transfer dau

Week 30- The Ups And The Downs

Hey guys,

This week has been the hardest week of my mission. A lot of our investigators, a lot of the baptismal dates we had fell through. We had 13 last week and now we only have four. As well as a lot of our lessons with members present fell through and most of our lessons with our investigators fell through.

Really has been a hard one. My companion is comparing our situation to that of Job. This week has been a great test of faith. We are kind of in the mode of, wow that was tough. It's kind of stressful. In Cali I was never this stressed. And my other areas it was never this stressful. This week we have planned for a lot of things and we will go forward. There's a lot of things to work on. But I guess the mission is going to be like this. Sometimes it's tough. That's how the mission, I guess is supposed to be. You have good weeks and you have bad weeks.  I am happy today but talking about the past week is difficult.

My companion will be staying with me for the next transfer. We're trying our best every day, trying to get into the spirit of what we need to do and continue on.

I want you to know I love you very much. It is weird to think that Jarrrett is now sleeping in my room. Cool.

It's been a hard week but it makes you realize that there's a reason for it. Heavenly father puts you in the situations for a reason. So we will have a better week.  We will try to do everything we can to follow Christ's example.

Love you very much.

Elder Pead

With Alejandro

He told us last week he was learning to cook.  Now he is Sewing!

District Activity 

Week 29 - Traveling Elders

Click Above To Hear Dallin's Letter

Hey dad,

It's been a great week. Very long. Highlights of this week. Dad, Alejandro came to church, he finally came. This twelve year kid when we first met him didn't believe in anything, didn't believe in God but now has a baptismal date. He's working, he's reading, he's doing everything we are teaching him. He's so happy, I'm so happy. He finally showed up! We had a goal of five investigators coming to church. We only have three, but when I saw him show up I was just so happy. I can't stop thinking about it, did that ever happen to you dad when you were a missionary? You can't stop thinking about something that just happened? Like, oh my gosh. Did that just happen?  Yes that just happened, I'm so happy, that's how I feel. Alejandro came to church, I'm Super Duper happy!  I'll send pictures later. I don't take my camera everywhere sometimes it is difficult.

This week we had divisions with the traveling elders. We had my old zone leader.(Elder Dean) He is now a misionero viajante. We got to talk to him a lot. We learned a lot from him, my companion and I. It was cool to learn and I'm really happy that I got to learn a lot and to be a part of that cool experience with him.

Everything's fine here a blast -from the past. We have a lot of baptismal dates. We had the highest but we lost a few. We're going to make another three dates this week with another family. And then try our best to get them ready.  Me and my companion have learned a lot and are working hard together. If he gets transferred I'm going to be a little sad because we are now just kicking it in and it feels really good.

English exams. I am starting the English exams this next week. I'm not as stressed about it.  I am just stressed that I have to work with sisters. The only difference with sisters is I have to come up with different things for them because they don't have English speaking companions.

I had a great week this week, today we went and played at a soccer field. It was really cool. It looked a lot like something in the states it was really cool. We also went to Mister Pollo. It is a really good restaurant. You look at it and you also feel like you're in the states. I will send you some pictures. Also some pictures of some minions. One that my companion bought which is a music player. It's cool and we use to listen to church hymns and that. Cool beans.

Nothing much else I'm really just happy right now. We have a lot to do now. The only stress I have is when we don't have investigators that are progressing. When they say, "will be home, will do this, will do that", but they don't get there. That's the only thing I stress about. Right now it's just kind of relaxed time. We are trying to do our best. Investigators is the only thing that gets me stressed though.  Not my companion or anything else. It's just that when you show love to people, you want them to have everything they can. Sometimes they don't want get back. That's the hardest thing.

Yes Dad, Everything is awesome when you're part of the team.(Lego movie reference)
I was wondering if you guys could send me some stuff. I will write it down in another email. Not a lot of things just a few things. Just somethings I've been looking for and can't really find. Here they don't seem to have measuring cups. I'm starting to try to make food. I can't find measuring cups  so I've got to try to find out a way to figure it out. But that's not what I want you to send me.

I love you dad, tell mom and Jarrett I love them very much too.

Right now I'm just in the mission mode of every day work and really trying to work hard.  When I get home I'm really tired. When will bedtime come?  I hope everything is fine.

Love you guys.

With Elder Dean the Traveling Elder

Week 28

Hi mom and dad,

Hey things are going great. You don't need to keep asking me about the food. It's all good. Lots of potatoes here.

Yeah, so I am in charge of the English program, I'm actually starting this week with that, a lot of stuff to do.

That was good that you got to see Darren and Mellody and the kids this week.

Jarrett has a week off of school this week? That's really grand!

Yes mom, I am taking my suit to the dry cleaners frequently. Don't worry. I actually am taking it this week. It's been a few since I took it.

Everything is going fine with our investigators. We have actually placed a lot of baptismal dates this week. Our zone is the leading zone in the mission right now. This last week we placed 94 baptismal dates. And my companion and I placed 13 this week. That's a lot. So we're working on how to help them progress and attend church. We have really made a lot of progress this week.

We had a baptismal service as well this weekend. Ana Ortiz was baptized. And I got to perform the ordinance. This was the second baptism I was able to perform. The best part was that she said she felt God and Jesus Christ right next to her during the baptism, to me that was just the best thing to hear. She said thank you so much. And she wanted to give me a hug. I told her I couldn't. So I hugged myself and she hugged herself.  I will be sending a few pictures.

An interesting thing here, when people say "you're welcome" they say it using vecino, which means neighbor. In Cali or in Jamundi they say "A la orden". But here they say vecino, kind of weird.

This week I also went on splits with our district leader,  Elder Lyon, a gringo. He taught me a lot of stuff, he is in reality one of the best missionaries I have met. We're doing good, and trying to be our best and things are happening.

I love you guys and miss you.  Tell Jarrett I love him.  Everything is going great, and I really love the mission.

Hope everything goes good for you guys.

Elder Pead

Cool Bookmark of the Galeras Volcano

Ward Activity

The Ten Commandments

Week 27 - English Leader and Meet the Mormons

Hey Mom hey Dad,

Yeah the months really do go fast here.
I'm not sick anymore, I think now my companion is a sick one. He got sick yesterday and I guess Sundays are our new sick days.

I'm having a good time here. We are having a lot of success. We have five people with the baptismal dates. Five, that's really cool. And this week I'll be able to baptize someone. And the cool part is I didn't even have to ask to baptize her. She talked to the bishop to see if she could do it for this Saturday. And he said it was fine. So she came to us and said she wanted to let us know of the change. And then said, oh yeah Elder Pead, I would like you to baptize me. And I was like sweet. No, I was just like really happy. I'll send a few photos this next week.

That's nice that you had stake conference this week. I totally forgot that I spoke in stake conference a while back before the mission. Tell Bro. Dickson hi for me.

I'm glad that Jarrett is doing good in school, and that you and mom are doing good. I'm trying to have love for everyone. We have an investigator that we are working with, he looks a lot like Jarrett. We invited him to be baptized, and he said yes. I was really excited and then his mom walked in and said, you're going to be baptized? Then he said no I'm going to be baptized. So in reality I am trying to have a lot of  patience with him. As well as my companion, something I still need to learn.  I guess the Lord is trying to teach me to have patience with all of my companions.

Everything is going fine here, my camera is fine. The pictures I sent last week were from a different camera. I am sending some pictures this week and you will notice that they are better. They are not blurry like the other one. My camera is fine now, everything dried out.

Oh, guess what I am now? What my new responsibility is in the mission?  In the Pasto zone I am the English leader. That means I have to do a lot of things. One thing is, I have to make sure all the districts are singing their hymns(in English), make sure all the companionship's complete book one of the English program. I need to make sure they complete that book by March 21. And I need to memorize the English study books that we use in this program. I need to work with my companion and teach him the things he needs to learn. And I get to go and give module exams to the missionaries when they are ready to take them. I am over the whole area in Pasto, that's a lot of area to cover. It will be fun.

That's about it for this week, I will be sending you photos and whatnot. Oh, dad as well there's a less active family here in the area. The mother is very active but the father and few of the kids are getting reactivated.  Their daughter has autism. She is 25, and she is amazing with art. She makes amazing beautiful art. They told me things about her when she was younger it was kind of like Jarrett a little bit. But now she is improving and doing a lot of schooling. A lot of people around the area know her now because of the schooling that she is doing. It's really cool to think that one day maybe Jarrett can be the same as her.
It makes me realize that there's a lot of people throughout the world that are similar to us. It's really cool, I like it.

I will be sending you the recordings I have made for the young men in the ward. I am trying to get those loaded and sent in an email to you. There's so much I get to do now and P days. As well as I'm trying to get a CD together for an investigator. She has a child and she wants her child to listen to primary songs so you know, no pressure on me today.

I love you Mom, I love you Jarrett. Oh, guess what we had in zone conference this week. In our zone conference we watched Meet the Mormons. We finally got to watch it. It was cool, I loved it. Watched it in Spanish. Great movie, it's a funny movie. I really liked it. All the missionaries cried in the last one about the mom who sent her son on the mission. Everyone was in tears.

Love you guys very much.

Elder Pead