8 November 09

(Mary decided to ask Coulson to answer questions as opposed to thinking of what to write since he does not have much time to compose - ED)

Ya, mission rules on emailing… we have exactly half an hour to write, read and do anything else that we need to do on the computer. We can only write one email, and send it to however many people we want.
President Tyler is a way laid back type of a guy, so its a lot different from President Elmer. The interviews have been a bit weird. Mostly because he is still getting used to the mission, and he has a bunch of stuff to work out before he’s really comfortable in his position. Mostly we’ve just talked about my ex companion, the problems he has made for the ward i’m in, and all the inactive people we have to work with now that they know that a Mormon missionary did all those stupid things. I basically had to stop teaching anyone who had met him to start getting baptisms again. (Coulsons mission Mom said that he was developing patience with that companion - Ed)
And speaking of baptisms, we’re gonna have a baptism this week (Anibal Berrios), the week after (Paola Velasquez) and the week after (JamierLoma) if everything works out well. Anibal is a 12 year old kid that lives close to us, his mom is inactive, and his dad doesn’t want to listen to us, but he really wants to get baptized and receive the priesthood. Paola is a single mother that had a little bit of an abusive past, left her boyfriend, and now is getting adjusted to the single mother life and the church. Jamier is 15 years old and regularly attends seminary, but isn’t so sure about the prophet Joseph Smith or a living prophet now, but is working towards his baptism on the 28th.

As to the holidays, all the regulars, and none of them are really that big of a deal as far as i can tell. Just Halloween because everyone here thinks its a holiday where everyone worships the devil and eat children and steal your soul. Its really awkward because we had to completely avoid the topic.

As to the food, we always eat in the pension, but the members always want to feed us too. I think Elder Pizarro has already gained about 20 pounds because he can’t fit into some of his pants anymore. But as for me, i just stay the same weight. Haven’t changed at all. Oh, and everyone here in Peru says that Peruvian food is the best in the world. It is such a lie! It really annoys me too because i think they know they’re lying. But my favorite food is probably lomosaltado, which i ate at that restaurant with Uncle Kevin, and la papa rellena, which is something like stuffed potato which is really good. But the freaking mashed potatoes here suck. Its basically like potato water because its so thin.

And Christmas presents... I’ve never been able to answer that question, and that hasn’t changed. But i just got your package that you sent through the mail, and even though i haven’t opened it yet, thank you so much.

Places to visit... you’d be surprised mom, but i really want to go visit a few of the museums here. We can’t really go very far on pdays cause we have to stay in the zone... and our zone is kinda poor on the touristic side of life... and my sector is even worse. More than anything i want to get out of Lima. Even though i love the people, i don’t like the city at all. I want to go back and visit the jungle, and go the the mountains.

And the story of the people will have to wait for next week cause the 30 minutes are r up.

Love you guys, and hope this email is a little bit better. Keep sending me questions like that, its easier for me to keep writing and not waste time

1 November 09

This week was pretty cool, because we had what they call here a matrimonio massivo, or a massive marriage. We had two couples get married, and we’ll have a baptism on Halloween to complete a family in the church, Manuel. The wife and the little girl are already members, and soon the husband will follow her (but he isn’t the father of the kids). And the other couple we’re still teaching. The wife is a member, but her kids are still too young and her husband is a little hard to find, so we’ve only talked to him a little bit. And the following week we should have another baptism, Jamier, a teenager that goes to seminary with his friend. And I’m still hoping that his cousin Brighyt will come to church some day. She reads the Book of Mormon and accepted to get baptized, just isn’t doing what it takes to get to that point. Then the next week a young woman, Paula, who’s a single Mom and we’ve never met the father. I don’t think he has anything to do with her life anymore, except every once and a while to see his little girl.

Love you guys and thanks for your support.Wow, well first off with the baptisms. Manuel got baptized Halloween in the nighttime, which was way cool, cause a bunch of people from the ward came to support him and his family. Now that we helped them get married and baptized, the whole family is part of the church and they are definitely progressing a lot. Now we just have to help his sister get married too, cause she wants to get baptized too. It’s just that her ‘spouse’ needs to get divorced from his other marriage first. Jamier wants to put off his baptism until the end of November, and Paola is ready for the 21st, just needs to come to church for the next two weeks. Anibal is a little guy, twelve years old that wants to get baptized too, and we’re helping him work towards that, but he really reminds me of Raul’s little brother… way active. Ya know, I would have thought that Vegas, being Sin City and all, would be worse than Lima, but its ridiculous the things that happen here. Just in my sector we’ve had people shot, stabbed, run over by cars, stolen. One night I woke up to go to the bathroom and I heard what I thought was a firework (cause the Catholics here always set off fireworks in their ‘faith walks’), but then I find out two days later that someone died in the park across from where Manuel lives.

And Becca, I’d love to have you and Davis come down here too, so start planning and saving up that green. Calder, I never forget about you and Ivy, and actually I talk about you quite a bit to my investigators too cause I’m dang excited to come home to see my first little niece.

Thanks for all the news, I love you guys a ton! And thanks for checking out about that package mom!

19 October 09

No such luck with that package yet (retrieving the package in the mission office in Lima that we sent-ED), but not that Elder Hales (from the Canyon Gate ward, Sandstone Stake-ED) is in the office we’ll be able to bug the people till they get it to us. She dropped off the package at the CCM and I’m pretty sure the people there messed up a bit, but Justin will make sure we get those packages. Oh ya, so I finally got a chance to see Elder Hales, and it looks like I’ll be able to see him quite a bit now that he’s in the office. And I can call him up for whatever I need, information, packages or whatever. It’s good to have some Las Vegas blood in the mission. Anyways, I don’t think I’ll get a change, and me and Elder Pizarro will be comps until his visa gets in, but I don’t know when that’ll be, and I don’t think anyone really knows. The other guy whose mission is in Venezuela is gonna head off this week, so I don’t know if that means Elder Pizarro will head off soon or not. Its kinda nerve racking thinking about it, so I just don’t.
Actually, I was thinking about what the reason was that he’s here and not in his mission, thinking that there needed to be a reason, and we just found out… at least one of the reasons he’s here for the moment. We got a call Wednesday in the morning that his mom was in the hospital. President called us and told us we had permission to go visit her. Lucky us, it was just a 2 hour bus ride to get there. We stayed there in the hospital for almost the whole day, called president when we got back and he told us we could go back the next day. So Thursday we did the same thing, we went down to Villa Salvador to be with his family and visit his mom and then we had a baptismal interview. Friday when we got back to the pension we found out that she had just passed away and the funeral would be Saturday in the morning. The thing is that we have a conference with Elder Christofferson that morning, so he decided to go to the conference and have that baptism and then we’ll be heading out sometime this week (today or tomorrow) to go to her grave-site with his sisters. I really don’t know how to comfort him; I’ve never been good at that, but I have to say he’s been really strong. We talked for a long time about our families, about you mom, about everything and I think it helped, but we’ll see what happens when we go visit his family again.

And please don’t tell me you forgot the rubix cube (another package Mom sent, and no we did not forget)! Oh, and they use the word polo but they mean t-shirt, and yes it would be for Conny. And when I get that package I’ll send you guys all my pictures and a few video clips. And to all the returned missionaries in the family, send me some ideas about district meetings, or your favorite district meetings that you had.

Thanks for all you’re support, and I love you all.

12 October 2009

Just letting you know, we normally get the Liahona the month after, the mission sends them out, sometimes in English, sometimes in Spanish, but either way you don’t have to send the new Liahona with the conference talks. As to that problem with the investigators coming to church… we had 7 show up yesterday, and I was extremely relieved with that. And because they finally came to church, we’ll have 2 baptisms this week. Keep them in your prayers (Jamier Loma and Jaime Navarro).

(We are sending Coulson a care package - Ed) Anyways, don’t worry to much about whats in the package, you know I’m not exactly one to be picky while I’m in Peru.

Send my love to Zach and Mike. Love you guys too.

And here is a list that the pension would like… its basically a joke, but he made me promise to send it to my family

LISTA DE PEDIDOS QUE VENDRAN DE U.S.A

- USB Lexar de 4 GB
- Pistola eléctrica (TAZER)
- Polo con cuello camisero de la bandera de Estados Unidos (size M)
- Chewy
- Mantequilla de mani (Skippy con crunch)

-La Hermanita Conny

6 October 09

October conference was great, but I was only able to watch parts of it in English, and then the rest in Spanish and it really just isn’t the same without hearing their real voices. I didn’t really get as much from Elder Holland’s talk because of that, but it was still pretty amazing. As for how it works, we all go to the stake center to watch it, its that easy. And they do all the translations in the conference center and broadcast it with all the translations already added. It was amazing because we heard so many messages directed exactly to the member’s problems and needs, and those of our investigators too, but it was horrible, because during the Saturday sessions, there was hardly anyone, and the Sunday afternoon session didn’t have many people either, just the Sunday morning session. It made me a little sad that the members don’t take general conference seriously. Its like they take for granted that we as a living church of Christ have prophets to guide us.
We had four investigators with a date to get baptized this week, but not one of them showed up to conference. It was a little bit disheartening, especially now that they can’t get baptized this week, and so many messages that were directed straight to their needs. Looks like we’re gonna be teaching a whole lot about the Sabbath day this week. Any suggestions on getting people to the church are not only welcomed, but needed. We need to change something to get more of the members to come to the church every Sunday.

Thanks for all you’re support, I love you guys and you’re always in my prayers, especially my first baby niece that’s coming on her way. Whenever I see a little girl playing in the streets I think about Calder and Ivy and say a quick pray for you. (There’s a little girl playing outside now)

Mayce and Ethan, come on guys, I need to know how you're doing, write me a quick note.
Calder and Ivy, you too.
Becca and Davis, really?

28 September 09

(Question, have you seen Elder Hales, from the Canyon Gate Ward, yet-Editor) As to Elder Hales, nope. Haven’t seen him yet cause he’s still in Espinar, which isn’t exactly in my zone… but every change meeting I have it in my head to look for him. Maybe this next change meeting (21 oct) I’ll get to talk with him for a bit. As to the meetings we have, every Monday morning we have a zone study, and every Wednesday we have district meetings, and then once every change we have a multi-zone meeting with president, and then an interview every change too. Work visits come by every now and again too. Tonight my companion is gonna go work with one of the zone leaders (Elder Johnson) and the other (Elder Hoyos) is gonna come work with me in Lobitos. It’ll be the first work exchange I’ve had with a zone leader, but with district leaders it’s more common. We had one with our DL (Elder Utani) about 2 days ago.
Being a trainer… let’s see… first, I have to do all the planning, I have to make all the phone calls, and I have to teach for most of the lessons because he’s a bit nervous to teach. He’s a good teacher when he’s not scared, so once he gets over that he’ll be fine. I have to teach him some of the stuff President Elmer taught us when he wasn’t here, how to present the Book of Mormon and stuff like that. And we have to work on memorizing scriptures and the points of the lesson that we need to touch.
Oh ya, we have 6 people with a baptismal date, but now the real test is seeing if they’ll do what it takes to be baptized. The biggest problem we have in this sector is getting them to go to church. We teach a bunch of lessons, we have service activities sometimes, we get people to accept a date to get baptized… but they don’t come to church. We’ll drop by their house early in the morning and they aren’t there, or they don’t answer cause they’re sleeping, or they went to the market, or they’re at their friend’s house. It’s sad, but we’re working on some different ways to get them to church, cause something’s gotta change.
Something to send me…
well now we can watch any movie or video of the church, so if you have some cool videos for a family Home Evening or something like that, that would be cool

Love you guys, I’ll send you that video when I get the sd card

21 Sept 2009

Well ya, I wrote you last week, and when I tried to send the email the server kicked me off the website, along with almost all the other elders too. It was just great. Anyways, that’s cool that when I finish my first year in the mission, David’s (Coulson's cousin-ED) just gonna be getting to the MTC. Its weird to think we’re all at this point in our lives already. Its like I never thought it would actually come up.
Anyways, my new companion is Elder Pizarro, he’s here from Lima, a place called Villa Salvador. He’s three years older than me, but he’s still my baby boy. Ya, looks like I just had a kid! Whooo!!! I beat Calder and Ivy to the punch. Ya, right now he has a little over a week in the mission, which means I’m training, and I’m senor companion, and I have a lot more responsibilities. Its interesting… but ya, that just the way it is. Anyways, this isn’t even really his mission. His assigned mission is Venezuela, but he has to wait for his visa to come through before he takes off, which means he’ll stay here for up to 6 months waiting. And like all the new missionaries, he’s really afraid, and nervous, but he’s coming along really quick because I’m making him challenge people to baptism. That’s what my companions did to me to, and now its really easy to do.
As to my sector… Lobitos, or in English, Little Wolves… its pretty big, and we have a lot of work to do. Oh, and we have a mega-shopping mall in my sector too, called Minka, so we can pretty much find whatever we need at any time.
And with every one of our investigators, the problem we have is just finding them. Its like they’re always working or playing soccer or volleyball and we never have time to teach them, and then they won’t be in their homes on Sunday so they can’t come to church. It makes it really difficult, but ya, we’re still working with them. More than anything though, we need to work with the new converts. Its kinda funny that right when my last comp left, his converts started to come back to church. Anyways, we have to work a lot with getting the inactive members back to church, so our baptisms are gonna fall a little bit, but I’m still happy when I see two or three families coming back to church. Pensionista… Hermana Julia… Not too much to say, but we live above the pension, with the bishop, his wife and daughter (about 40 years old). She’s really cool, and thanks to her I actually made it through my last change. I talked to her a lot and she helped me be a lot more patient.

Know that I'm doing a lot better now that i have a different companion, and I'm am very grateful for your prayers. Love you guys