4 July 2010

To make it a little bit clearer, I'm staying in the the Peru Lima Central Mission as the assistant to President Tyler. My new sector is Las Brisas in the Magdalena stake. But to answer dad's question, no, we hardly ever go out to out sector to work. We just do training sessions, interviews, zone conferences, and work visits. Its pretty rough, and for the last week I've only been in my own sector (area) for about 5 hours to teach. We just have too much to do opening the new zones in the mission. We asked for two missionaries to extend their missions for two weeks to help us out doing work visits so they are here trying to help integrate the other two zones. Its a little weird because the other missions have different goals, different rules, and even different words they use to refer to stuff. I know they'll feel a little out of place for a while, but we'll be working pretty hard to help they get used to they way we work here in the Lima Central Mission.

I told you guys a long time ago that i thought and felt i was gonna stay in Lima right? And what i thought would happen is exactly what did happen. My first companion in the MTC, Elder Griffith was called to be assistant here in Lima last change, then he went to Cusco to be assistant there and help open up the mission, and I got pulled back here to Lima to be assistant for President Tyler. I'm really excited to find out about what i have to do in this position, but kinda sad that I'm probably not gonna have many baptisms at all while I'm assistant, which will likely be till i go home.

I'll just tell you about what I've been doing for the last few days. President decided to open up a new sector called Miraflores, which is one of the richest places in all of Peru, and we had to go find them a room to live in. Every single room we found costs about 500 dollars, which is just ridiculous for how small they were. I paid about 70 dollars in Urubamba for a huge room with everything included, so i was really frustrated looking for the room, but finally we found one that is way small, but fits enough for a few months for only 550 soles (about $200-ED). So we spent two days just looking for the room, and then after finding it i had to do a few electrical repairs cause we are too cheap to pay for an electrician. So i just took at it with a kitchen knife and a pair of rusted pliers and prayed for protection.

Worked out pretty well too, i just hope that scotch tape holds up to 220 volts of electricity. I would like to consider myself a real Peruvian electrician now.

Oh, but i went and took out an MRI on my left knee too (He hurt his knee early on playing soccer on P-day - ED), I'll talk to the mission doc pretty soon so see what he says about it and I'll let you guys know next week, but its not anything urgent.

Love you guys, thanks for all the updates. oh, and I'll send photos soon too.

Coulson is AP and in Lima again!

Ya, i would have told you before if I'd known, but my p-day totally changed on me and now I'll be having it on Saturdays, so that means you'll have to start writing me on Fridays. I was kinda sad to leave the Sacred Valley, but it is sooo awesome cause I'm here in the office in Lima with Justin (Hales, Glade and Ferris Hales grandson from Las Vegas-ED) now!!!

Coulson and Justin


How awesome is that? So I'll be seeing him every single day for this next month. We even live in the same room, and check this out, the room we're in has such amazing showers. IT HAS TWO KNOBS!!! I've never seen that in all of Peru, so I'm just so excited that i can turn on the hot water separately from the cold. I know that probably sounds so stupid for you guys, but it is soo awesome to me. And for the last few days I've actually been eating some good food. Papa Johns, Burger King, Dunkin Donuts and all that healthy stuff. I know it sounds unhealthy to you guys too, but you just don't understand until you try eating chicken feet in your chuño soup.
Oh, and i think i might be ending my mission in this next sector i get cause they moved me up to be assistant to open up the new mission, and they generally like to keep the assistants in that position for a while. Which means I'll probably be seeing President Dorius a bit too (the ex-stake president for Uncle Kris). I'm kinda confused with all the stuff I'll need to do, but the first thing is a training for all the new elders that will be getting here on Monday. Kinda sad though, cause being assistant basically means the baptisms are gonna slow to a stop.
So ya, I'll see how that goes. These last six months are gonna be hard, but it'll go by fast. Anyways, it was pretty special to leave Urubamba and say goodbye to the converts and the investigators. The last baptism i had, Bryan, even though he's only 8 years old, promised me that he was gonna go on the mission too. But not only that, but his mom, our investigator promised me the same thing. Then he gave me a handmade beanie and gave me a hug and walked away. I really think that finding the less active or inactive people is the best way to get baptisms. They always want their family members to get baptized too, and now that Brian is a member his aunt is more active and his cousin always goes. And now that we've started doing a lot more activities, they always have a reason to be there in the church and inviting more people to come. I really feel good leaving the sector like i did.

So i hope to hear a lot from you guys next Saturday, love you guys a bunch. Do me a favor a pray for me so i can step up to the new position. Give me any advice on being assistant or what you know about it.

June 2010

Alrighty, so because we're probably gonna be stuck in that protest, we planned out to have a theater night in the church where we just watch family movies there, we got permission and everything so it'll be pretty good to have something to do that day. Hopefully we'll get a few families there to teach and reactivate. I feel really good about how this branch is progressing, and even though the other branches aren't too strong, i really feel that this district will be a stake. And i really don't think it'll take as long as i did when i started here. Now that we have better leadership and we're starting to have activities, a lot more people are gonna come to church.
Well i would be great if you guys could pray for Karla Ormachea, she's already decided to get baptized, but pray for her family so that they can support her and that she can have the strength she needs to be a good and pacient mother.

Well this week was really quite slow, but we have found some good people to teach. We finally started teaching our neighbor Mayra and her son. The only problem there is that she isn't married and her boyfriend lives in Italy and only comes every once in a while. I really don't understand why people try to make things so hard with the long-distance relationship. I don't think its a very smart move, but she's trying it out. She just moved here to Urubamba about 5 months ago, which means I've been here more time than she has, which is just weird to think, but its also a great time to help her find friends in the church and feel the support that she needs. But what I've seen here is that there isn't much support from the members. They are mostly all converts and they don't feel the need to do much to befriend other members or investigators. They basically feel that if they didn't have that support then they don't need to give it. There is definitely a lack of service here. It makes me miss the times when we helped move, put up Christmas lights, clean houses, do yard work and all that stuff just as a priests quorum.

But we're really striving to get this branch more united. We're having activities every week know, seminary once a week, English classes, sports nights, and movie nights. Now we just need to have the leaders follow our example and have quorum activities. We need a ward mission leader and have Noche Misionales. Too bad i think I'm gonna have a change pretty soon...

Anyways, I love you guys and I'll send off that small package this week. It has a letter for Gram, a present for Calder, Mom, Dad, and Piper. Hope it doesn't cost too much.

Pictures from Machu Picchu

Here are some fantastic pictures from a trip with other Elders to Machu Picchu - Enjoy

3 May 2010

Well as to which mission i would prefer, i have no idea. (Coulson's mission is to be divided-ED) Really i would love any of the missions, but if i go to Lima, i would like to stay with Pres. Tyler. I like Cusco, and i would love to go to Puno to work there, but with only 8 months left, it doesn't really matter that much to me. Especially now that i've been to Machu Picchu, my dreams here in Cusco are completed. :)

And yes, that means today, i just went to Machu Picchu, and don't worry, i did take a bunch of fotos, but i forgot my cable so i can't send them yet, but i took around 300 or so. And i have to say, wow. I wasn't all that excited to go there, but it was fantastic. And because i'm technically Peruvian, i didn't have to pay too much. It was about 30 dollars for everything.

As to the call, i think i'll just call you Thursday in the morning, and because we have a couple missionary, they have the magic jack that makes it so we can call free to landlines. So i'll probably just call you on Sunday too, you just have to tell me when to call on Thursday.

And about signing up for the BYU classes, it will depend on my new mission president, and even if i stay here in Lima Central, i think it would be hard to get that permission. So if Calder could do that for me it would be great.
Help me out thinking about the best classes to take when i get off the mission, and keep in mind that i haven't taken almost any of my generals yet. And what happened with the room i'll be in? Did you talk with Uncle Kevin about that? (Just found out he will be rooming with his cousin Robert Hyer who returned recently from his mission in Argentina-ED)

Anyways, we'll be talking soon, and i'll send fotos next week. I love you guys and thanks for your support.

23 April 2010

1) First off I'll answer the questions, as to the release date, I just talked to President Tyler about that and he say he would be able to do it, but the earliest possible he can send me home is December 27. (this will allow Coulson to register and attend BYU spring term-ED) I told him that date was fine and I'll just have to keep reminding him until he actually does it. The bad thing is that I'm doubting that you guys will be able to come down here cause of the release date and all of that. But we can talk more about that on Mother's Day.

2 & 3) I think i'll be the one calling you. Because we have a cell phone, i'll just call you two days before to set everything up (which he did-ED), and as to how long we have, the pre-call is 10 to 15 minutes and the actual call is 45 to 60 minutes. And tell Uncle Kevin that he's dead wrong. At least with the service we have, cause I can´t hardly use my cell phone in half of my sector (Uncle Kevin thinks cell service in Peru is better than Las Vegas-ED). Just Urubamba and Ollantaytambo. But its still a lot better than nothing.

Anyways, we'll talk soon. Love you guys and thanks for the basketball update :)

18 April 2010

So we had a baptism on Saturday that was really cool. Not many people came (which is usual) but Raymunda came with her grandson and after the baptism he came up to me and asked when he could get baptized like she did. I just had to say when we could finish giving him a few lessons and when he felt he was ready. Then he asked me, ¨Can it be next Saturday?¨ I just felt that the Lord was blessing us for the work we have been doing. On that Saturday of the baptism we put 5 more people with baptismal dates and had 10 lessons. I consider it a remarkably good day. Not all of them came the church, but we still ended up with quite a few people at church. As a branch, we’re getting up past a hundred in attendance which is really good. Before we had about 50 to 80 (eighty on a good day) and not were getting a lot more less actives coming too. I think its because the chapel is a lot easier to get to and see. And now we’ll have people who are just walking past hop in to see what´s going on. We really have an advantage being the only big chapel in Urubamba other than the Catholic parroquias.

Oh, and I got the package that you sent with Anne Marie (just this Wednesday), so I got the debit card without any problems, and the money and the bookmarks (Grandpa Huntington hand engraved them to give to Coulson's mission president-Ed) too, and this Friday we have interviews with President, so I’ll give them to him and tell him thanks for being my president, because it’s looking like there aren’t gonna be many changes and I’ll be staying here in the Cusco Mission. Its not a hundred percent sure, but it sure does look like it. And as to the Mother’s Day call, we should have a call a few days before to set everything up. Tell me if you want to call me or if you want me to call you. It’ll be a little bit different cause we don’t have a land line anymore, just the cell phone, but we’ll talk to President in interviews this week.

And about those scientists that insist that its just the subconscious mind that tells us stuff, they still can’t proof what subconscious even is, and they can’t even come close to explaining how it works. Personally, I really believe that it is a manifestation of the spirit. When the Spirit of the Lord speaks to our spirit. And recognizing the spirit is the most difficult to explain to our investigators, because they have a hard time understanding what it is. There is so much confusion about the spirit, between Baptists and pentecostes and catholics and evangalists,they just don’t know what to think anymore. Mostly we have to as simpler questions about how they feel, if the peace they’re feeling is a peace that they always feel or something deeper. If the happiness they feel while we speak with them is the same happiness they get from winning a soccer game and seeing their favorite tv show. And that’s generally when they realize that what they feel with us is something they can’t find in other places.
Anyways, because this might be my last change here in Urubamba, we're planning to go to MachuPicchu to see the ruins and everything and a few more cool things, like walk along the Inca Trail, and hike up a mountain called Pitusiray to see a few things up there. So these next 3 weeks should be pretty exciting.
I'll send you pictures :)

Love you guys and we'll talk soon!

12 April 2010

(In response to Mom's question) Ya well about how we should use the Book of Mormon in missionary work, its exactly like Joseph Smith said, it’s the keystone of our religion, and we have to treat it with a lot of respect. Generally we always refer to the most important story in 3 Nephi 11, when Christ came here. At first I hated how we always share the same stories with everyone, but really its important that they know about that event specifically, and we really have a lot of experiences with that. I’ve had quite a few investigators who have had dreams just about that chapter in the Book of Mormon, and the one that stands out to me more than anything is when one of our investigators told us about her dream and she said that she was looking for the prophets that were engraving in the golden plates, and she found Nephi and started talking to him when the world just started to come down around her, she was in the darkness and when she left she saw Christ come down for the heavens and just talked with her, but he basically said the same things to her as to everything in Bountiful, told her to get baptized by someone who had the power of God and exactly in that same form that He himself had been baptized. She woke up and felt that warm sensation of peace come over her and she knew she had to start going to church. Then I left the sector, but I’m almost a hundred percent sure she got baptized.

The part I like to share more than anything though is that she really looked for that answer, she read the chapters we left her and prayed and did everything to complete with the promise that Moroni gives us in ch. 10 : 3-4 But she didn’t just ask and leave it at that but she looked for the ways the spirit works in her life and in the scriptures. We and share a bunch of stories about of the spirit works in different people in the scriptures, but the other thing we really need to do is share how the spirit has worked in our own lives, like when I was lost in St. George or Grandpa with his thumb story, or thousands of little things that happen every day.
Anyways, Love you guys

5 April 2010

Mom, i hate to tell you, but President Uchtdorf’s talk didn’t have much affect here in Peru because if you have an old 20 dollar bill, no one accepts it. It just made me laugh as we heard that because all the gringos here have a bunch of old dollar bills that they can’t use here (I do too) because if a bill is old, scarred, has a little rip, is faded, or too crumpled up, its not worth anything here in Peru. I still got a wad of fives that I’m waiting to use when I get back to the states.
Ya, I’ll call up the office in a few days to see if it got there, but now that Elder Hales is getting out of the office I don’t have the inside man anymore. I’ll sure miss that, but we’ll see what happens.
Anyways, I'll tell you a little bit about one of our recent baptisms, her name is Lizdian Salas. A member introduced us and we started teaching, she had some really interesting questions and we answered them all relatively well, she got really involved when we left her a video about how families can be forever (Camino a Casa). And just today we went to do a service project with her mom. They don't live together because the house fell over when the river went up so high (she now lives with her member friend). And obviously because she doesn't have a real house anymore and there was just mounds of adobe everywhere, we went to help out with that. We just leveled everything out and put up a fence, but seeing how big the whole was, it was a lot of work. And now we're one step closer to baptizing the family because she promised us that she would come to church this week without exception and she would bring her son too. They already accepted baptismal dates because they really enjoyed seeing Lizdian's baptism. They just need to go to church a few times and they might be able to get baptized this month. Her mom's name is Marina and her brother's name is Boris. Pray for them to help us out.
Oh, and as to my health, don't worry, I'm fine, and the two baptisms were totally worth it.

Love you guys

28 March 2010

You know what, i always thought my first train wreck would be my last, but it looks like missionaries have angels helping them out too, so i walked away from the crash just with a bruised leg and a lot of sueño. And now I'll explain what happened. We got the news Saturday that MachuPicchu had two baptisms, but they didn't have anyone to be witnesses because they only have about 4 priests in the town, one of them was excommunicated, one has his rights taken away, the other is living with his girlfriend, and the last hope kept on running away from them all Saturday so they couldn't do the baptisms. My companion and I talked about the importance of baptism and not having investigators wait any longer to have the Holy Ghost in their lives, so after our two baptisms we packed up some stuff and left Urubamba at midnight to go to MaPi. The only problem is that we had to walk because there aren't any trains working yet. So we took a taxi as far as we could, then started walking, and about 6:30 in the morning on Sunday a worker cart came down the tracks and picked us up to help us out, and about at 6:40 we turned around a curve and slammed into another worker cart that was stopped right there. I was fortunate enough to be standing up at the time because there weren't any more seats and got my leg smashed against the control box, and because we hadn't had any sleep, it didn't even matter and i didn't feel to much until i woke up this morning. But we got here in time to help them out with their baptisms, everything worked out great, and today they are gonna send out a train of passengers that we will be taking because there is no way i am walking to MachuPicchu ever again. But i can definitely say that i will never forget the 28th of march of 2010.

Anyways, ya, i figured Anne Marie would call me when she was here in Cusco, but she called right before the baptisms we had and told be she was in Lima, and i just laughed at her inside, but its fine, just try and send me the debit card through regular mail, packaged up pretty well and I'll fast and pray it gets here.

The conference will be there in the chapel, they have a projector and everything, a big screen tv and a few smaller tv's too. But this time i don't think I'll be able to listen in English *sigh* I always like to listen to the actual voice of the prophet but I'll have to settle with what i can get. Generally we have quite a few investigators that come to church here, 5 to 10 almost every Sunday, but cause we were here in MaPi we couldn't see if anyone came yesterday.

I'm safe and fine, everything is going great, and as a ZL I'm really happy that we exceeded out goal of baptisms for the month in the zone. We aimed for 10 and we got 11

cuídense mucho, les amo, chao
-Coulson

15 March 2010

Wow, so this chapel is going to be so awesome, we're gonna have an open house this weekend and then its gonna be dedicated this Sunday. We're gonna be working really hard to get a lot of people in the chapel this Sunday and today we were doing a service project to get a whole town, which looks like its gonna work cause they're all pretty excited to come see the church. The sacrament meeting is gonna be upstairs and its a lot better now that we have all the water filtered and we won't have to keep bring in bottles of water to use for the sacrament. And the baptismal font is amazing, and we had the chance to use it last Saturday. Its a good sized font and the room that its apart of is big enough to fit in quite a few people, which is better than sitting outside around a pool like we have been doing. And is got a water heater so i won't have to baptize in freezing cold water until i get a transfer. I didn't even have that in Vegas! I still remember how cold that water was when dad baptized me that same day with Audrey. But i guess that´s a good thing cause maybe if the water hadn't been so cold i wouldn't have remembered for as long as i have. One of our eternal investigadors got baptized this Saturday because we finally convinced her that she should be the first person to get baptized in the new chapel. Amazing she accepted and stopped drinking chicha de jora so that she could pass her interview.

And right now we're teaching a jovencita thats really just an amazing investigador. She's got a ton of questions for us and we're helping her first of all to gain a testimony so that she can understand and accept the answers we give her. But amongst her questions, one of them was ´´When can i get baptized?´´ Its just a pain cause she studies in Cusco all during the week and she's only here Saturday night and Sunday. So we put a date for the 27th and we have to hurry up and have her get her testimony. We left her a few videos, some folletos and some chapters to read in the Book of Mormon so i think everything will work out great. Oh, and so you know, her name is Lízdian Salas.

Anyways, I want you to know that i'm doing great here in Valle Sagrado and i love working here. Being a zone leader is a little more difficult, but its helping me grow. I love you guys, and Mayce, i'll try to write you next week!!! sorry i didn't have time today

8 March 10

Well there isn't too much to say that isn't in the recording (Coulson sends us voice mail message each week-Ed), but everything is going fine here in Urubamba. I just don't get too much sleep anymore cause we have to do a bunch of things for the zone almost every other day. And when Ane Marie (Coulson's Cousin) is here just have her give me a call in the morning (8 to 10) or at night (9: 30 to 10:30) and i'll set her up with what she should do and where she should drop it (a package from home-Ed) off. And i already told you about the chapel in the street called Tullumayo, she should be able to drop it off there Sunday at 10 am if she's here on Sunday.
And as to the earthquake there in Chile, it hasn't done anything here, cause they're still concentrating in the things that are going on in the Sacred Valley. Another town... se hundió... ummm... basically got washed away when one of the water reserves broke open. So they aren't thinking much in anything else.
But i'm pretty sure tha t almost no one died cause i haven't heard anything, so that's good.
And in two weeks we're gonna move out of the chapel house and into the real chapel that's still in construction. Anyways, thats all the big news and don't worry about the picture mom (from the last post, hanging from the bridge), i already told president all about it in my interview

28 Feb 10

Well just like i thought was gonna happen, i got put up to be Zone Leader of Valle Sagrado here in Urubamba. But what i really didn't expect is that i'm senor companion too. How weird is that? Normally you have someone to train you how to be a zone leader, but President put the two of us, me and Elder Vega as new zone leaders at the same time, so we just have to wing it.

And about my new companion Elder Vega. He's from Colombia, Bogota. He was is one of my zones before this and we worked in neighbor sectors, so i knew he pretty well before, but i figured because he has 6 more months in the mission than me that we would never be companions, but i just take this as proof that God loves to laugh.

And ya, that little hotel is owned by members, and they are currently the only members in the whole town. So that would be fine with me. (Coulson's Mom and Dad will probably stay there when retrieving Elder Huntington-Ed)

As to a fun story, we finished church and went to drop a few things off at the house, and then i felt the prompting to go and call one of the investigators from Cusco, so we went and gave her a call and she just happened to be getting to Urubamba in about 20 minutes, so we waited for her to go meet her family that aren't members. She said they lived in Pascar which is about 20 minutes away so we went with her. The thing we didn't know is that after getting off in Pascar we had to walk for two hours climbing up the side of a mountain and coming down on the other side (theres a few pictures of that)





So we didn't eat lunch yesterday and we got back to town about 7 hours after we. left. I felt horrible to have put so much time in just a few people, and to have missed out on our appointments, but at least she accepted a date to get baptized and we changed her from atheist to believe in God and put to rest a bunch of her doubts.
The only thing is that it'll be really hard for her to come to church cause she lives so far away. But ya, we'll see how that goes.

Anyways, less time for internet today cause we had to put in the numbers for the office, but know that i love you and that i'll have to work a lot harder now as a zone leader. Pray for me a lot. Love you guys!!

15 Feb 10

Well the Schellenbergs (new senior couple missinary-Ed) got here last Tuesday and they stole our cell phone, so we don’t have that anymore, but we have a land line that she (Anne Marie Hyer, Coulson's cousin who is on a humanitarian service adventure-Ed) can call, and from there in Cusco, the number is 201634. Just let her know that we’re only there in the mornings until 10 and from 9pm until 10:30. Wow, so when is she gonna come here to Peru? Cause Urubamba is just about an hour or a little bit more from Cusco on the way to Machu Picchu.

And about that thinking ahead stuff (BYU when her comes home-Ed), that would be great, I’d love to be able to room with people I already know, so if you can pull that off it’d be great (rooming with his cousin's). I’m not thinking too much about the future cause I always get lost thinking about everything I need to do right now. And about what we’ve been doing, we had that baptism last week, a baptism this week, a baptism that we’ll have on Saturday, and maybe 2 more this week. Its awesome here and now that the couple missionaries are here I think it’ll start to progress even faster.

Piper (Coulson's niece-Ed), of course I got the pictures,

Piper and Grandma


but I didn’t have my usb to download them and print them out, and I forgot the usb today too cause we had to come here to Chinchero. It’s a little pueblo about an hour from Urubamba and the first family just got baptized about two weeks ago. We’re gonna go there to eat after we finish up here so we can all meet them. Maybe if you guys want to come stay here you could consider staying at their hotel, its called La Casa de Barro, and I’m pretty sure they have their website you can look up.

And as to President Tyler, he’s great, really relaxed and ready to help us out in whatever we need. But I’m not sure for how much longer he’ll be my mission president because they just announced the opening of the missions Lima Oeste and Peru Cusco. Right now, I’d be part of the Cusco Mission and my president would be Wilson Calderon. But right now we still don’t know who is going where and what’ll happen. It’s an exciting time right now, and I’d send you an audio clip but this computer won’t accept it cause it’s a malcriado.



And that gmail thing the elders were talking about it almost true, but its still gonna be myldsmail.net, but it’ll be a subdivision of google, so we’ll have more memory, faster emails, fotos will upload faster and all that and it'll have the gmails features. And my new email address will be dale.huntington@myldsmail.net, so you gotta let everyone know that. Get on my facebook and put in my new email. And i know that you guys probably don't know how to do that, so tell Becca to do it, and i think my passwords are save of the computer, just need to look up the document.

Love you guys, hope you're all doing well, and let me know about how that room goes with Robert. Send pictures if you can, and i'll try to remember to bring my usb next time
WHOOOOO, MISION CUSCO PERU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

7 February 2010

We had five investigators last Sunday, they are workers from the hotel which they are also staying in, but this week we’ve been trying to contact them and we haven’t been able to. Sucks, but that’s just the way it is.
The pension is a lot better, the whole family are members, but there are two people who rent rooms there that aren’t members, and we answer a few of their questions, but don’t really want to hear the lessons yet, even though they’re working on the construction of the chapel here. The pensionista is a little weird, but she cooks really good, so I’m happy with that. I really wanted to burn her one time cause she didn’t want us to baptize Romario on Friday because she thinks everyone is gonna go inactive if they leave the foster home, but we tried to explain the doctrine of baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost and the fact that when he says he wants to get baptized we can’t say no, because if we do we would be denying his agency and the will of God. It was a little bit harsh, but I wanted to burn her even harder so I had to restrain myself.
And Huancayo, I don’t know much about the place, but I hear its pretty cool, but its not even close to Cusco or Machu Picchu. Its not even in this mission, so you’ll have to look that up by yourselves if you want to know about it. I Love You guys

1 Feb 2010

The flooding has been pretty bad, but mostly its Machu Picchu that’s been affected. The Elders there can’t leave and can’t bath and don’t really have that much food either, but I keep telling them that it’ll be a great story to tell their kids one day. But if their parents come to pick them up, neither of them want to go back to visit Machu Picchu ever again. It wouldn’t have been all that bad, but the houses here are mostly made of adobe, and when it gets too wet it just falls over, so there are a bunch of people who don’t have houses anymore, and even though there are a lot of other people who want to help, they don’t accept it. The District President offered the house-chapel for a family to live in (the house is pretty big and would be great to live in) but they turned him down because if they leave the tent they won’t be able to get anything else from the government. Everyone is just milking it for what they can get from the government. Its sad, but that’s how it is, and I don’t really feel too bad about it cause everyone’s fine. The Lord is just helping us out a lot by making some people a lot harder of heart or a lot more humble.

Love you guys

25 Jan 10

Anyways, we’re doing great here even though the city is slowly flooding over and some of the houses are getting pulled into the river because there’s been a lot of rain lately. I here its worse in Machu Picchu because they’re further down the river and it just keeps getting higher and higher. A few of their investigators had to move into hotels because they’re underwater now. Its just bad enough here to waste their corn crops and do a little bit a damage to their homes (the ones that are on the river bank).
But aside from that, we have a few really cool investigators, 2 that are gonna get baptized, one that just needs his mom’s approval, and another that just needs to get married. We don’t know them all that well yet, but they are all new investigators cause the other missionaries didn’t leave us anything, we just had to start knocking on doors and it worked out really well. Its just not really a good thing that all of them are in the same area, we have to spread out and start to use the members more. Its just a little hard when you don’t know who the members are… but Sister Tyler told me that we’re gonna get a couple missionary next change if they accept to come here to Urubamba, which would be great. She told me their names too, but I forgot, I think its Shellingberg or something like that. I shouldn’t know that, but I figure its ok if the President’s wife told me.
But everything's good, health is going strong apart from the fleas and the cold, and now that we’re gonna change the pensionista, I think its just gonna get better. Well internet got cut out today so i can't send you guys much, but here i go. In Urubamba there aren't any ward missionaries, so they don't help us out, but there are a few members who are way cool. I just found out that i was gonna train again but my kid went home in the CCM, he was Elder Aquino. Yes, we have to do a lot in this Branch, but not too much, just a lot of talks in Sacrament meeting. As to their work, just a lot of tourism.
Love you guys, i'll see if i can log on later

18 Jan 10

That’s a cheap shot daddy (Dad asked Coulson if he actually sent the correct SD card with pictures on it!-Ed), because that is totally something that I would do, but no, I made Conny check to see if there were a bunch of photos on it and she told me there were about a thousand, so I’m sure it was the right one, but they’re hidden in 2 different folders. (Casio 100 and Casio 101)
Anyways, as you can hear in the recordings, I’m in Urubamba, but that consists not just of Urubamba, but Yucay (you-kie) and Ollantaytambo (O-jan-tie-tam-bo) as well. I still have only been in Urubamba cause to go from one end of my sector to the other takes about and hour and a half in bus.
Oh, and my companion is Elder Cespedes, he’s from Santa Cruz Bolivia and has one change less than I do in the field. He was in my zone in Trebol when I was with Elder Marcelo. He could be a trainer but he just doesn’t want to, he told President that and I think pres got mad at him and is gonna keep him as junior companion for a while.
Anyways, cause daddy hasn’t figured out how to open up the files on the card, just send me another one so we can try again, I just am gonna keep most of them on back up in my usb just in case. And here are some other pictures too, hope you guys enjoy them
Love you guys, chaooooo

Here are some pictures from Urubamba, and in the airport.

14 Jan 10

And as to the problem with people coming to church, its getting a lot better. Yesterday we had 6 investigators that came to church, and really i could see that the work i've put into this ward wasn't wasted. I think it was a blessing that the Lord gave me to have that last chance to stand up in front of the ward and see everyone, all the members that i've grown close to, the investigators, the converts, the less actives that we had visited all there in the chapel. Now i can leave the ward feeling good that my companion will still have a good month of baptisms coming up, with Maricruz, Jacobo, Miguel Angel, Pelayo, Rubi, Jarumy, Estela, Derex, and Aldair. I don't think all of them will get baptized, but at least half of them, and even though i wont see them, i feel good that i'd helped them so far.
And to tell you a little bit about Maricruz. She just turned 14 a little bit ago and she has her little baby girl of 14 months. She's really humble and i think she had the baby against her own choice. We're not sure and its a delicate subject, but she progressing a lot and has the support of her aunt whose one of the inactives that we helped to come back to church (Rosa Casana). And her uncle Jacobo started to listen to us and is really interested. He couldn't come to church this week, but he said he'll come next time. And then when she came, she brought her nephew Miguel Angel who said he wants to come to church and get baptized, so that should work out pretty well. Everything looks to be going really good.

I love you guys and thanks for your support. I made it through the trials here and now i think its on to another place to grow a little bit more.

-Elder Coulson Huntington

4 Jan 10

Well we’re coming up on changes, the 13th so we’re getting ready for that. Its almost a sure thing that one of us is gonna get a change, especially since they didn’t send me the money for Elder Pizarro, he might be going to Venezuela soon. But there’s also a really good chance that I’ll be going to provinces. And I’m trying hard to find one of those packages to send the sd card to you guys, but its hard to find, I’m asking the pension to look for it, but it doesn’t look very promising. That and we no longer have p days for the rest of this change. But I got permission from the zone leaders to go and buy some new shoes because if I get a change to provinces I’ll be dying. My right shoe just has a big hole in it right on the heel and it feel weird to walk on it.




Wow, that’s way weird to think that Andrea is already engaged, but I guess that that’s what happens when you’re at BYU for more than a year. I'm actually surprised that i haven't heard of more engagements now that i think about it. Oh, and as to that BYU stuff, just look it up on the BYU website, the date the semester starts in January and when I have to sign up for my classes and stuff like that. It’ll all be there in the calendar they have.

And Piper!!! Sweet, so I’ll be coming home just in time for her to not be crying so much and I’ll be able to play around with her. How’s Ivy doing after all that?
And Calder, I’m not sure if its gonna hit you for a while, but you’re gonna do fine. Just take your advice to me for yourself and keep going.
I love you guys and thanks for those photos!!!

28 December 09

Well i don’t know much about the other areas, but its most likely that i’ll ether stay in this area for one more change or preisdent will send me to provinces. That would be either Cusco, Abancay, Puerto Maldonado, or Apurimac. I would love any one of them. I started there in Puerto, so that would be cool to go back there to spend some more time in the jungle, but i also want to go and see the mountains of Cusco. And if i’m in Cusco there’s a chance that i’ll be able to go see Machu Pichu too. President Tyler changed that recently. Before, we couldn’t go to Machu Pichu unless we were finishing up the mission in the provinces, but now we can go one time, we just have to pay for everything. I think its worth it though cause its about 40 bucks, including lunch and everything. But Cusco is made up of a bunch of provinces, and not just the city. I have my good friend Elder Benavides in Siquani, so that would be cool to go there. Its a little bit higher than the city of Cusco, but its still in the district of Cusco. I hear its pretty cold there and its raining a bunch. I can tell that too cause the river thats in my area is growing a lot and it smells a lot better cause its washing away a bunch of the trash and dead dogs that were just lying there in the river bed. Other than that i don’t know too much, but it looks like i’m gonna stay district leader for a few changes at least.

As to a fun story, we were walking near a high school talking with two teens about the plan of salvation when two other guys came up behind us and pulled out a gun on us. I almost laughed because it looked like one of the girly guns that can fit in the palm of your hand, but i restrained myself. He pointed it at my companion, then at me, then and the two teens that we with us and started yelling at them. He tried to cock the gun and it just got stuck, like the pin got stuck or something. But he just got frustrated and left with his friend and we kept talking about the plan of salvation like nothing happened. Whooo!!! First time anyone’s pulled out a gun on me.

14 December 09

First off, as to the package, I got everything, don’t worry. The fives, the cards, the readers, the ties, the candy, and everything. And give Stan and Judy Nielson a big thank you for the package they sent me too! Sent me a bit of candy and a way awesome tie that my companion is looking to take away to Venezuela.
Sorry, but this week i won’t be sending a recording cause this computer is latched down and i can’t get to the usb connection in back, but now that i know that it works i’ll be sending those a lot more frequently and some more pictures. You were right about the card reader, cause i’m a little bit scared to take the camera around in Callao. Its not exactly the safest place if you know what i mean. But again, no usb jack. And thinking about the voice recorder, i could probably upload the file to the voice recorder i have to play it back in the room, so that we be pretty sweet. Maybe it would be easier for becca to send me an email that way, and be there when Piper is born. But you still haven’t told me, when is she due to be born? (She arrived 30 December-Ed) And as to the phone card. I’ll be calling to set that up Thursday sometime in the afternoon. But the time limit is one hour, and as president said ‘more or less’ ao we have a little bit of give on that.
Sorry Mayce, i didn’t have time to read your email yet, but next week i’ll print it off and respond to you, if you had any questions or anything.
And the economy, i can’t see a difference. I’ve asked a few people about it too, but they say its basically the same, poor is poor and thats it. Some people have it worse off than others, some people don’t have work, but for the most part its because they don’t want to look for work or don’t want to study to get to the point where they can work. We’ve had to talk about that a few times with people who complain about the money situation and we’ve seen it help a few times, where they actually start to look for work, find it, and stop complaining. Even though its not a great job, ít gets the bread on the table´.
As to the District Leader thing... Its not that bad, but i’m just starting out. I had my first district meeting and it went really well. We put down a few goals as a district, set up the way we want to have our meetings, how we can help the people who have a date to get baptized and a few other things. Its weird to go back down to a small zone, and we’re all gonna have to get adjusted to it again, but i think we’re gonna be more united... um.... amongst ourselves? I’m not sure if thats how you say it.... la zona será mas unida entre si. Its just hard for the two elders who are gonna finish up their missions this change. They’re a little bit lazy and talk about their home a bunch, but its not that bad.
We’ll have a baptism this Thursday too! José Nicolás, the guy that asked me to give a baby’s blessing to his new born daughter and his wife is already a member. He has a bunch of questions, but i feel he is really trying to keep all of his commitments. Its just hard to find him because he works a bunch. But he passed his interview and i’m pretty excited for that. It feels like such a long time since the last baptism. Its great to see him finally reach his goal.
Again, sorry about missing the voice recording, but next time i’ll make sure to get a computer with a usb.
Love you guys, thanks for your support and i’ll talk to ya soon!

6 December 09

Hey Mom, You sent me that letter saying that i shouldn’t be afraid to take up leadship responsibilities right before changes, what were you thinking? Now i’m a district leader. I hope you can live with yourself… 
I only forgive you cause you sent me those awesome gifts! Thanks for that.
Changes were way weird… again. President Tyler changed the whole mission. We went from 5 zones in Lima to 9, so now i’m in San Martin and the two zone leaders are new to they zone and no one really knows them that well. Elder Ordinola, whose gonna finish his mission this change, and Elder Williams who just got moved up to Zone Leader. Me and Elder Griffith (my first companion in the MTC) are the two district leaders, but other than that, no changes. I stay with Elder Pizarro (but he’ll probably leave in the middle of this change for Venezuala) and i’m still in Lobitos.
So, any advice on how to be a district leader? Like you said, i was hoping to go under the radar for the mish, but its hard to do.
And as to the Christmas Day phone call… heck if i know. We’re gonna talk about that Wednesday with the zone leaders because they don’t know yet. They’re having problems cause they have to move sectors because they’re living about an hour away from us right now and in the middle of a different zone… don’t know how that worked out, but we’re gonna help em move today. But i’ll shoot ya some info on that next week.
And now that I’ve thought about it, one of the things i love about Peru is that everyone … invites you for food? How do you say that in english? Calder, translate that. I don’t know, they just give you food all the time. If you buy a little bit of candy, a snack pack or something, you only eat a handful and the rest goes to everyone around you. And i think its pretty awesome how all the families are so close. It makes it easy to ask for references, because their aunts, cousins, brothers, grandparents, and everyone else in their family live in the same neighborhood, and a lot of the time in the same house, just on a different floor. Makes me want to stay close to the fam too. We gotta plan that out, cause i’m not staying in Utah, sorry Ethan.
As to the people we’ve met this week. We’re now teaching a family of about 20 people. We’ve only met about 6 of them so far, but like i said, they all live in the same house. They’re really nice and they’re reading the Book of Mormon, they only problem is that they don’t come to church. That seems to be the biggest problem is every sector in every zone in every mission. But we’re gonna work on emphasizing the Sabbath Day this week so that they understand a little bit better, even though we’ve already taught it twice and went to pick them up to go to church.
Anyways, let me know if that voice recording worked out, I love you guys, when’s Piper due? Talk to ya soon.
MPLC –Elder Coulson Huntington