Week 39 - A Baptism and Teaching 34 new Investigators

Hey pop,

Well, we got a baptisim!!! whatttt!
Esteban Monkayo Aries was baptized on the 23 of May. The 40 year anniversary of the Mission Colombia Cali. He now, is preparing to baptize his mom in about a month! How great is this gospel!

As well as Viviana and Sebastian will be baptized this week!
We also are helping a man called Maricio prepare for baptism.
he has lots of dudas(doubts) but he´ll get through them.

Let's see. Well dad, in response to your eating well question, I am eating alot. like alot.  It's the mountains here that take off the pounds. So don't worry, I'm not overdoing it.  To be honest, I don't even exercise haha.  Really.

I really love it here in Pasto, so I know I'm going to get transferred.
but I'm not gonna be trunky!

This week, we found and taught 34 new investigators! The highest in the whole mission, and the highest zone and district!  My comp and I have been extremely tired. But we are pushing though, now we just got to see who wants to progress and who does not. We have got lots to do, and lots of baptismal dates to put down.

Tell Gabe I said hi! Tell him that he'll be a great missionary when the time comes!

Yeahhhh a package... I hope I'll get it, because transfers are really really really close.  So yeahhh.

I'll be twenty years old, but I still feel like I'm 10.

Oh yeah. we went out to Capitan Nirvana to celebrate with our district! so yeahhhh lots of pictures this week haha.

Oh yeah, and dad, when I left for the mission, I was 38 pants size... I think I'm wearing 34 or 32 pants size? I traded some pants with my comp because I needed some that fit haha.
Oh and new Spanish plan... so yeah, hope it works out.

Love you Mom and Dad. Love you soooo much and jarbear(Jarrett).
I miss you, I love you, and I'll write you guys next week.

Love,

Elder Pead

Week 38 - Lots of New Investigators

Hey dad,

This week was the week that I call "new investigators". We found 16 people to teach. We left some of them after the first couple of lessons. What we have been doing is we have been finding people and then if they progress then we continue with them. If they don't progress after two or three visits then we have to leave them.

We have found many investigators who are very good and who are progressing. We have lots of people who are progressing. We found a man who is 35, Mauricio. He is loving the church. He is reading a lot of the Book of Mormon and he gets it. He loves the doctrine, and he is saying his prayers every day. We have found a lot of people this week. I have never had a week where we found so many. And dad, we are knocking on doors. We had always in the past met people in the streets and talked to them there. I have never knocked on doors like this before. My companion has come from a different mission. And in that mission they knock doors a lot. It's great.

We have an investigator who is preparing to be baptized this Saturday. A young man who is 17 and has plans to serve a mission.  I love this work! And then his sister and little brother will be baptized the following Saturday. They are really excited about that. We also have another date for 6 of June, woo hoo the day after my birthday. Those are the four we have planned.

Things are going great with my new companion.  We are different personalities, but we get along great.  I am thankful that I have a good companion that works hard and is able to teach me things that he knows.

Literally all we do is wake up, study, go to our lessons, walk everywhere, come home super tired. I think I will lose even more weight with all this walking that we are doing.(Dallin told his mom that he has lost around 40 pounds since he started his mission.)
Hey, but I love it.  That pretty much sums up my week I literally cannot think of anything else to say about my week.

Oh yeah someone offered me tequila to drink, because it was cold outside. I had to refuse like five times. So that was fun.

I am glad that Jarrett is happy that school is almost over for this year.

I'm sorry my letter is so boring this week, but literally we have been working so hard.

Oh yeah, my feet really stink. You can put this in the blog if you want. I have been using a lot of foot powder, It seems to be helping.  I will let you know how it works out.

Love you all,

Elder Pead

Week 37- New Companion

Hey Mom and Dad,

It was great to Skype with you on Saturday.  Love you a lot.
We had two investigators come to church yesterday.  My new companion served for awhile in a mission in Peru.  He has some different ideas they used there.  Things are going good.  We are trying to find a lot more people to teach.  We are working hard.

I am sending some Fotos for you.  Enjoy.

Elder Pead

Week 36

Hey  Mom and Dad,

Today will be short.

First great fotos of the family! Glad all went well with The best baptism of the world!(Dallin's cousin Shaylee was baptized this past Saturday)
Because here, it was a hassle! Like ugh!
The day of the baptism, the lady in charge of the baptismal clothes went on vacation, and me and my companion went a wild goose chase to find some ropa bautismal para ninas!(baptismal clothes for girls) yah!
Like it was a pain in the nalgas.(behind)
But we found it, and well, the baptism was so fast and great!!!

Lina was so nervous but happy.  Monica, the mother, told my comp and I, thank you so much for helping me come back to the church, and now my daughter will follow in the path. Dang! I love that family.
The members have done so much work with them, she now has a llamamiento!!!(calling in the church)

I love the mission. Things are hard.  But we get through them.  Also, my new companion will be my district leader, and is from Peru. His name is Elder Valenzuela.  So close to Venezuela hahah.

Love you guys. I'm so happy that Jarrett is progressing little by little. I love him so much. (Jarrett was singing the words to the hymns in church this week.  First time he has done that.)

I love you mom

love you dad

love you all

Elder Pead

Foto of the baptisim of  Lina Katerine Muñoz Mincanquir

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