Week 35 - Interviews with The President

Hi mom and dad,

Things are also cruising along good here for me. That's great that Jefferson's going to be visiting you guys on the fifth. Really happy, looking forward to talking with you guys coming up.

That is freaking cool that Zach got his call to go to Ghana. Africa! He's going to have a blast.

That's great that Shaylee is getting baptized this next week. Tell her I love her. Also tell grandma happy birthday this week.

This week is been a week of learning a lot of new things. We had our interviews with the assistants to the president and the president.  We are learning a lot of things that we are trying to put into practice. The president told me that he had noticed that I have changed a lot on my mission. He said "Your new companion that you will be getting soon will either be, one of the following, A missionary that needs to learn to follow the rules, or a new missionary who will also need to learn how to follow the rules." So I guess I will be getting some missionaries who need to learn how to follow the rules and I need to shape them up.  We will see how that goes.

We have a baptism planned for this week of a young girl. Her name is Lina. Her mother was a menos activo( less active).  We rescued her this week. She now has a calling in the church. That is great!  We have been working hard this last transfer, trying to get people to teach. We have been working with this family since day one that I got here. It's been three months that we have been working with them. And we are seeing the fruits of that labor. Today we are going to have a lesson with them. Next week you will see some pictures. Pray for them that all will go well and she will be able to be baptized. She's a little nervous.

I have some news on the call for Mother's Day. We can't go to a members house or investigators house to do this. So it looks like we will have to do it on Saturday so that we can find a place that is open to be able to Skype with you. I will let you know what time next week.

We will be working hard this coming week. Hopefully we will have some investigators we can place baptismal dates with. We have a lot of investigators but many are not progressing.

Thank you guys so much for everything. Oh, I received the second package you sent. Where did you find those measuring spoons and cups? They are nice.

I love the pictures you sent of grandpa and of you guys. They're really nice. I am downloading them and printing them off.

I love you guys a lot.

Oh, just so you know,  President and Sister Pricoli were very worried about me, because I have lost a lot of weight. They said my suit looks big on me.  I have had to open up two new belt holes. That's what you get, here in the mission. Everything is fine.

Have a great week.

Elder Pead

Week 34

Hi mom and dad,

Happy birthday dad, Whoopi, it's your birthday!

This week has been very different. As I told you before my companion and I weren't having the greatest days.  This week, we have done very good. Today has been a great day. I read Troy's letter from last week. And he had lots of  good advice. He told me to treat my companion like a brother. I have, and it has worked great.(Dallin's Dad asked his great friend and mission companion Troy Jentzsch to write to Dallin and give his some advice.  Troy learned a lot about patience in the mission, after all he did have to spend a few months with Dallin's dad.  Thanks Troy.)

This week has been really uplifting. We had seven people assist(attend) the meetings this week. They stayed for all three hours. Seven investigators, that's a lot to attend Church in one week. So we had a really good week.

We have found a new family to teach. We will be visiting them tomorrow. I am really excited.

One of the things we have been working on this week is with the members. We are focusing a lot on members this week. Working with what is called nido,(nest) we are trying to get the investigators to have a nest with the members. There are a few of the members who have fallen away from the church a little bit because they didn't have friends. We really have great members that we are working with on this. Currently we are working with the primary president to have a noche de hogar(Family Home Evening) with a less active family and their daughter who wants to be baptized in two weeks. We are working hard to help her so that she can be baptized. It is very cool. I love to work with the members.

Also I am focusing on what I can do to better myself.  First off I am focusing hard on studying Spanish. Practice, practice, practice and learn a lot more. I am studying a lot in preach my gospel. About study tips and how to study better.  I also I'm trying to apply what I learned studying in the discussions we teach. And seriously in one day, my companion I felt the spirit so much better in the lessons we taught that day. We were able to help investigators overcome many of the doubts and questions they had.  I know that the Holy Ghost can help us so much, and help our investigators to understand and feel the spirit. It is so important that we have the Holy Ghost with us constantly.

Mom, thanks for your letter you sent. I don't know why you do this to me. I have still got a lot of time left in the mission. (Dallin's mom wrote to him that a missionary reported his mission on Sunday. All she could think about was Dallin reporting his.) Seriously mom, I feel so good and feel your love when I read your letters.  Yes, when I get back we will all be able to read the Scriptures together in Spanish, it will be great.

Mamá, te quiero mucho.

Jarrett, I love you superduper much. I hope you enjoy my room.

I love you all.

Elder Pead

Check out my new hair cut

Week 33

Hey mom and dad,

I got the package you sent for myself for my companion. Thank you very much. My companion sends his regards and thanks for things you sent him. He wasn't expecting anything. I gave him the video and he was happy and then the card mom sent. He says thank you very much.

I am going to print out Troy's email that he sent, so I can read it at my apartment.

That's great that mom was able to go to the temple today. I read that and I was happy and that is good. We had a few members here that were able to go to the temple in Bogotá. They came back and they gave lessons and talks in Sacrament meeting about it. I really can't wait to go to the temple again. I need to go to the temple again.

Just so you know, yes it was very hard for me to contain my emotions about eating guinea pig. You know I had the overwhelming urge to eat guinea pig. Now I have satisfied that urge. Yes, maybe in the future I will have the opportunity to eat cows stomach. Oh and dad, just so you know I have had the opportunity to eat chickens feet. Sorry I didn't tell you sooner. And boy did I love it. Sorry, I'm a liar, it wasn't very good.

That is great that Zach is getting his mission papers in. I am so excited for him. He sent me an email a few weeks ago and that was awesome. That is great that Doug is going to serve in Italy. I have heard that that is a very tough mission. If you see him again tell him congratulations and that will be a great mission.

That is great that Christian Paystrup was ordained a teacher yesterday! I'm so excited!

Today for P day, well I got a haircut. You will not get a picture of it. It is very short. But I like it short. We played fútbol(soccer).  We went to a really cool restaurant. We had never been there before. We went with Elder Skinner and Elder Cubillos.  Elder Skinner is from my group and we are Bros until the end. The restaurant is called Capitán Nirvana.  You enter into it and there are huge pictures of different bands. You will see photos. We ate some really good food there. I was able to spend some time with Elder Skinner, he's a really good friend of mine. Him and I have a lot in common. It was great. Elder Cubillos también (also). He is new in the mission, and really fun to be around. It's been a really good, nice P day.  Oh, we also cleaned today we clean every p day.

Mother's Day is coming up next month. And we will have more information on what I need to do to talk to you guys. Don't worry I will let you know.

We are continuing to work hard and have members and investigators that are progressing.

Thanks for your love. Hope you guys have a good week.

Elder Pead

Goodbye Guinea Pig,  Now we are Bee Missionaries

Elder Skinner, Elder Coca

Elder Pead, Elder Cubillos

Bros till the end

Week 32 - Conference and Cui (Guinea Pig)

Hey Mom and Dad,

Thanks for sending all the pictures and your emails still trying to read them. This week has been good. My companion and I have set some goals and are really working hard to meet them.

I have made a new study plan for Spanish. I'm working hard on it and I can say that I feel like my Spanish is progressing.

Conference was a really big help for me. It helped me to not stress as much. I know that the Lord had a lot of answers for me during conference. Answers to questions that I had. I really did enjoy conference. This last conference was one of my favorites. Also I was able to hang out with some of the elders and just talk.  Speaking of which, one of my good friends, my district leader, is going home for a root canal soon. I'm kind of sad that he's leaving.  We talk a lot and get along good. He's kind of sad about that. But he will go home get that done and come back.

Had a good time this week. We have good investigators. We are teaching the daughter of a less active sister in the ward. We are working to reactivate and her daughter has a baptismal date for the 16th. We are still working with Alejandro. He wants to get baptized. He has told us that he knows the church is true. And has known it for a while. We are trying to work with his parents so that they can give him permission to be baptized.  If anyone has ideas on how to talk to his parents please send them to me.

Life is really good, I can't complain. We are still trying to get our investigators to come to church more. We are working with three families, two that are not married and one that is. Difficult at times to get them to come to church. But other than that everything is going good. This week has been fun and I have enjoyed it a lot. This week I feel like I have become really close to our Heavenly Father through prayer. When I pray I pray for a lot of things, not the normal things you usually pray for. And I have received a lot of answers. I'm really happy that I got the responses to my questions. Really made me think a lot that I do have a Heavenly Father that does love me.  Really happy that he does love me.

I really enjoyed conference. For me conference was what I needed to realize how to deal with problems and I'm just really happy.

I listened to that recording from Jarrett, Santa Vaca (Holy Cow) his voice is so deep. He's my little brother he can't be getting that old. He sounded so mature, and I don't know how I feel about that.

I love you guys so much I'm so happy. Thanks for praying for me and for all your doing.  Hope you have a really good week.  I have a lot to do and a lot to learn. I also learned that humility is required. I am working on that.

Oh, I had Cui today.(Guinea Pig)  We played Basket Ball with members today.  I sent photos of the Cui and a young man who is leaving soon on his mission.

Love you all.

Elder Pead