1 June 2009

Well I have a pretty cool story, because Gloria is going to be baptized this Saturday, and Jhonatan just got baptized last Saturday. But i think i´ll just stick to Gloria´s story. So we were talking with her a little bit after a lesson, and after teaching her friend Paula. We just kind of casually asked how she knew our message was true, you know, how she got an answer to her prayer. I really didn´t expect the answer she gave us. She just said, ¨Well i didn´t ever pray to know if your message was true.¨ And i was like... what!? But it was really cool, because of the next thing she said. ¨I didn´t need to, when you were teaching me I could feel the Spirit telling me, so when I prayed, it wasn´t to know if it was true, it was more just thanking God for telling me that it was true.¨ And then i was like... wow. But it reminded me of the gifts of the spirit, especially in D&C 46:14, where one of the gifts is to believe in our words.
Anyways, a quick update, we had a meeting at the CCM a few days ago to listen to President Snow of the 70, which was definitely interesting and lead me to focus my personal study in a bunch of new areas of the gospel. It was really enlightening what he said about the trend of brothers in the Book of Mormon and in the history of the church. Calder, it made me miss you a bunch. But ya, its was really interesting how he compared the influence of brothers like Sam and Nephi, and then Nephi and Lehi later on, and Joseph and Hyrum. Pretty cool talk. News from this past week, we had a baptism and also had a change for the day and i worked with Elder Chuan, and really, i hope that we can be companions eventually, because he is really just focused on helping people. And because we have another baptism this week, we´ll have another change. I´m thinking this is motivation for me to challenge more people to baptism.
Love you all!!!

200 Millas, in Lima

Anyways, a little about 200 Millas... its huge (Coulson's current area-ed). We have to take a bus to get to the other side, where its basically like a new area. Its a bit poorer than where we live, and that's where we have a bunch of investigators. But we have plenty on the side where we live too, so we have to plan our days to go visit one side, and then go and visit the other at another time. Its interesting, more so because my companion doesn´t like to plan. Or study. But he sure does love to sleep. So that's a little about my companion, his name is Elder Marcelo, and he´s from Puenta Piedra, just about an hour in bus from here. Its a little difficult, but hey, the mission isn´t supposed to be easy. At least he teaches pretty well. My Spanish is coming along, and i feel like i can teach and share experiences pretty well, its just a little hard to understand everything because i really have to focus, and i still miss out on a lot of what they say, but its not really a problem.
As to our investigators, we have a baptism this Saturday, a joven named Jhonatan (and yes, that's how its spelled). But the other investigators that i find is really exciting to teach is Gloria. She is living with her cousin right now, and he´s the secretary of the ward, and he´s getting ready to go on his mission, so he helps her out by talking with her, about his mission and everything else. She has a baptismal date too, along with a few other of our investigators.
My health, its fine, but my companion got his wisdom teeth out (3) so he was down for the count for about a week, where i got some down time to read my scriptures in Spanish and work on organizing the area book, which was in horrible disorder when i started. But i think that now we´ll finally be able to use it with some efficiency.
I don´t really know too much about how to do everything with the papers, and it doesn´t help that i can´t ask my companion cause he doesn´t use it, but i´m learning little by little.
I love you guys, and i´m looking forward to getting some pictures from the wedding (Coulson's sister Becca and Davis MacKay are getting married June 27th-ed), and well... everything. And i´ll send you some more of my pictures next week.

Alright, I finally got you some pictures. Be happy :)

It was great talking to you all, but it really came as a shock to me that I couldn´t talk with grammy (Coulsons Grandma Huntington passed away on Mothers Day morning - ed). I just thought that she would be there to talk with for a little bit. I don´t even know what to think... its something that I teach people everyday, the plan of salvation, but its a little bit different when its something that you have to actually apply in your life. Grandpa, I know you´re the one that hurts most of all, because she is your partner for eternity and she isn´t at your side right now. But for the pain you feel now, imagine the joy you´ll have with her after this life. Just like in 2 Ne 2, without pain there is no joy, and with immense sorrow comes the redemption of your happiness once you´re reunited. All you have to do is look forward to the future. You still have more people to help here and I´m one of them.
Occasionally when we´re teaching I´ll have one of your poems pop into my head that I want to share with the investigator, but it does not really work with the translation from English to Spanish. I love you Grandpa, and I´ll talk to you again at Christmas!
love you all!!!!

4 May 09

Anyways, wow this week went by fast. We were both a little sick Thursday, so we didn´t head out after the multizona and Friday it was worse s our pensionista wouldn´t let us leave. She is extremely protective of us. Its kind scary, but she really does love us and want to help us in any way she possibly can. We had to do a bunch of stuff for the zone, so i´m learning a bit of what you need to do as a zone leader, which is horrible because i think that President is gonna have me be a zone leader eventually as he hinted in my interview.

So the interview with President was cool, it was extremely short, just a few questions, he was really nice and he didn´t mention anything about where i would be going, but its pretty much a sure thing that i´m gonna be in a different place next time you guys get an email. I think it´ll probably be in Lima, but i don´t know. And as to the camera situation... its horrible, i left my cables in Puerto so I can´t recharge my camera, its dead so i can´t take pictures here, and I can´t connect it to the computer cause it has a specific cable and no one has an sd card reader and i can´t find an electronic store in my sector. Don´t really know when i´ll be able to get you guys some photos, but i´m trying, this is kind of an upsetting situation with my camera right now.

Dad, as to your questions ya, everythings fine, my eyes are a bit red still but they feel normal (except the pollution in Lima is beyond imagination) and i´ve felt fine since i´ve been here except for a little bit of gripe. Ya, í´m keeping a journal, its tiny, but its there and i´m writing in it quite a bit, not nearly everyday, but enough.

I love you all, sorry i can´t spend more time writing you, but i gotta go, love you all. And ya there is a time limit for the Mothers Day call, like 30 min.

Mail via the "Pouch"

Thank you for your inquiries about Coulson's mailing address through the Church's pouch system. The caveat is that only postcards and letters may be sent, nothing heavy and no packages. That address is:

Elder Dale Coulson Huntington
Peru Lima Central Mission
POB 30150
Salt Lake City, UT 84130-0150

Leaving the Amazon

Vaña actually progressed so quickly that she wanted to up her baptismal date and i baptized her 2 days ago along with Jose Luis. And his dad received the priesthood yesterday too. Its a bit of a sad story there because he electrocuted his pointer fingers to the point where you can see the bone on both of his hands. He can’t work right now so we’re trying to help him through the branch. (question how does the branch interact with recent converts-ed) As to the recent members, we take on that job, but we frequently use other members to help us. The branch doesn’t really have much of a missionary program within itself, and we’re focused on trying to turn it into a stake. (question-how does the world economy effect your area? Ed) And the recession has no affect here. Most people go to the mountain to mine (for gold), or to do other things for work. Actually a girl just got back from 2 months in the mountain and we’re starting to teach her.
But as to everything else... conjunctivitis sucks, but after that started to heal up I got a massive headache and started throwing up so I had to go to the hospital, which is not the best experience. Jungle doctors aren’t the best doctors in Peru, and Peru doesn’t have the best doctors anyway. I actually just got back from the hospital again where they told me I have a pulse of 48 and it’s a little bit irregular, so President might be sending me to Lima to see a specialist, which is a bit of a bummer. And by might I mean probably tomorrow. I love the jungle, and the people here. The environment is a little difficult, but I hope I get sent back here.

Mary and I received a wonderful call from Coulsons mission president assuring us that Coulson would be just fine. He will stay in Lima for at least a few weeks to be checked on. His mission president is a respiratory specialist doctor in his civilian life, and confirmed what Coulson told us about the jungle doctors. They try hard but just are don’t have the equipment or training for treating most stuff. I am sure that Coulson did not have that low a blood pressure, and his next email confirms that he is doing great. His blessing from President Larkin is comforting in times like this. Part of this amazing blessing was concerning his health based on his being obedient (he is) and this blessing is proving prophetic.

Coulsons next email from Lima - Ed

Yep, Elder Peterson (Coulsons new companion – ed) is from Snowflake Arizona and speaks English, but he is also half Mexican so he has been speaking Spanish for more time than he’s been speaking English. Its great to be able to talk with him a little bit in English just to get to know him a little better and he’s helping me with my Spanish way more than my other companion did. By the way, he’s a Suns fan too, he’s favorite player is Nash and he’s very upset that they didn’t make it to playoffs and that the Cardinals lost the Superbowl. Its way funny to go out tracting and have people say stuff about me being a gringo, but they don’t say anything about him because he’s a little bit darker. It’s funny because the people here really like the people from the states, and he always has to say that he’s from Arizona so that they know. I’m way happy to be here, and my eyes are doing fine, just a little bit red still. My heads fines, nothing wrong accept a little cold. Lima is definitely a bit different than Puerto, but I like it here too. For the first time in my life someone tried to rob me. We were just sitting outside the church (cause all the churches have gates and spikes around them) waiting to interview someone because my companion is also the zone leader, and a guy came up asking what would happen if he pulled out his knife and cut me to the bone. It was funny cause he was scrawny and we could tell he didn’t have a knife, but it was an interesting experience to have right outside of a church building. The work here is a lot harder than the work was in Puerto. No one wants to let us in, it’s harder to find people in their homes even if they say they’ll be there, and because my companion is zone leader so we have to do a bunch of other stuff too. Sadly, because he’s a zone leader I’ll be getting transferred on the 6th so that he can have someone that can help him out, but it’s exciting to think about where I’ll head off to. It’ll probably be in Lima, but you never know.
And geez, Calder and Ivy are having a baby and they don’t even email me to let me know (yeah, what’s with that Calder - Ed)? What is that? Wow, right when I leave all this stuff starts happening. I’m going to come back to a completely different family.
Oh, and I left my camera cables in Peurto, so they’re sending them to me now, and i still can’t get any photos to you, I’m really sorry about that, and I can’t take photos here in Lima cause my cameras dead, but I’ll send them when I can. And just so you know, if you send letters through the pouch its a lot quicker, let everyone know that, cause I got my first letters, and some were from the middle a February because they were sent in the mail. Grandma knows how to send pouch, and I’m sure aunt Zan does too. Give Grandma and Grandpa my love, Becca and Davis too. Let me know how the plans are coming for the wedding. Both of them, cause that’s amazing that Chandler and Karen (Chandler is Coulsons cousin – Ed) are finally going through with it (engaged - Ed).

April 6th 2009

Sorry guys, but at the very end of my email the internet cut out so I only have a little bit of time to write, so i´m just gonna say a few things. First, in Gary E. Stevenson talk, I thought about our house for the little virtual tour and I got a little home sick, but at the same time I realized how great of a home you made for me and I want to thank you so much for giving me a home of refuge. Next, a cool story that happened. Last Monday I got sick but for the last two hours of the day I felt like i needed to just stick it out and walk it off, and that night we found a family that let us in right away. At first it wasn´t really spiritual because the girls were texting, and two little boys were running around the whole time, but the next appointment was a lot better, Vaña, one of the girls had read the chapter we gave her and we answered her questions and committed her to be baptized. That was pretty cool, but what was even better was when we were talking to her mother yesterday and she said that she had had an experience where an evil spirit was trying to make her do bad things, and after a few hours of this, she grabbed the Bible and the Spirit left, and even though she had that experience and a strong testimony of the Bible, she never let other missionaries in the house until us and she felt really good about it and happy that Vaña is getting baptized. We´ll work on the rest of the family now, but Vaña will be baptized on the 25th.
Thanks for the short updates, keep sending them, and I´ll send pictures next time when I have more time, sorry the internet cut out so I didn´t have time to do it today. And if you could, send some pictures to me because I didn´t bring any so that I wouldn´t miss you guys too much. Oh, and by the way, I can only send one email during p-day, so its just this one to the family, no specific ones anymore, sorry guys. And what language do they even speak in Ghana? Start studying now Tyler.
I love you so much and have you in my prayers all the time.