27 July 2009

Well thats pretty cool that Kevin´s engaged now (Coulson's Cousin - ED). Looks like the family just keeps changing more and more while i´m away. And now that I think about it, there´s a good chance that Robert (Cousin just returning from Argentina Mission) will be married too by the time me and Dallin (cousin serving mission in the Ukraine - ED) get back. Well this week we have the change meeting, so there´s a chance i´ll have a new comp or a new area. I think I’ll probably stay here in 200 Millas for two more changes before I leave. Which means I’ll spend my first birthday of the mission here in Lima. Anyways, send me an update of how everything went during the family reunion. An update of everything that happened this week… I’m happy because we baptized a joven this Saturday and confirmed her (Hitsbel) and Zefy, the niña that we baptized last Sunday.



Oh, and Zefy finally learned a little about my name, because now she doesn’t call me el gringo, but now its Elder Timbre, which means doorbell, because they pronounce the end of Huntington like a doorbell **Tin Ton**
It makes me laugh, and hopefully this next change we can baptize her dad.

Love you all

6 Months in the mission and it is a tradition to burn a tie (who knew? - Ed)

13 July 2009

Ok, maybe i just forgot, but what "move to Albuquerque"? (sister and brother in law, Mayce and Ethan are moving to Albuquerque for Ethan to go to University of New Mexico law school - Ed) and wow, that would be so amazing if i could see them (Uncle Kevin goes to Argentina to pick up cousin Robert from his mission, with a side trip home to Peru where Kevin served a mission a century or so, ago - Ed). Actually i pass my the airport every Monday and Wednesday to go to meetings as a zone and district. the airport is just 5 or 10 minutes away from my house in a bus (which bus really is more like a really really old van). So at least i think i would be able to get permission to see them at the airport when they get in on the 21st, but our new president is much more relaxed than our other president. More focused on the spirit, which i really like, than memorization and a strict way to teach. I'll talk to our zone leaders to see if i can get permission to call president. As for being in Lima, i don't think that'll be a problem. I'm pretty sure my companion is going to have a change on the 29th of July, and then the next change isn't until the 9th of September. So my next email should have an answer if i can see them or not, but if not, you can check out how close the house is on google maps, my house is in Lima, Callao, San Juan Mesias, Ave. Arequipa, Manzana LL1. Its just north of the airport (Jorge Chavez) by a little bit.

Coulson's Daily Agenda


Well, we had two baptisms this week, Karn and Ariana. I baptized Karen and Elder Marcelo baptized Ariana. It was just a small event, but considering its the one thing we work to do more than anything else, it was a special day. And i confirmed for the first time too. That was a little interesting. To give blessings and confirmations and things of that nature we use the tú form (Common form of Spanish - Ed), but as a missionary learning Spanish, i pretty much only know usted (formal Spanish - Ed). I always mess up a bit with that. But it was cool to be able to do that.
Anyways, gotta go, but i love you all, and thanks for the package in advance (Mom's Care Package - Ed). Tell me a little bit about the palm pre (Mom and Dad and brother Calder's new cell phones - Ed)

Last few weeks

Another picture of Gloria (new convert) at a ward activity night.




June 14th
Well, we have a few investigators, but the most difficult thing is actually getting a hold of them. Karen and her daughter have baptismal date for the fourth of July, Pilar and her sister have already listened to everything and would accept a baptismal date too except for their dad, who we haven’t gotten a hold of yet. The same story with Janet and her children Janet and Carlos. Her husband isn’t exactly keen on them getting baptized, and we haven’t been able to talk with him either. Sergio likes to listen and he´s easily the investigator that understands the most, but he studies a lot and doesn’t have much time except on Saturdays. Good thing he studies a lot though, cause i can help him with English. Victor listens, doesn´t talk much though, and he has another problem because he doesn´t live in our sector, but he spends all day here. We try to teach him every once and a while, but without him in our sector we can’t really do anything, including talk to his parents. Hitsbel is interesting... she lives in a school... last time we taught her she was pretty busy, so we offered to help, and surprisingly she accepted, so we cut out letters and colored in pictures for about an hour for service. It was the first time I’d been in a school like that for a while. Luis is a great guy, we just have to find a way for him to accept baptism. His brother Eric comes along with us occasionally because he’s a recent convert, and I’m hoping that he’ll help us with Luis. Annie is receptive, but doesn’t have time on Sunday to come to church. We’ve talked about it a lot, but she is very loyal to her mom, which is great, but her mom needs help on Sunday mornings with work, so she puts that above going to church. Her brother Eduardo is another story. He’s a physics student, so we have that in common and we get along pretty well, but he’s also agnostic, so we have our differences. Anyway, most of our lessons with him are focused on testifying of God and getting him to pray, because he doesn't like to admit there is a God, so he doesn’t like to pray to something he doesn’t know. Its interesting, but when we taught him the Plan of Salvation he seemed a lot more interested. It was the first time that he only asked me one question. Normally is closer to ten, so i could tell something was different. The question he asked was how i could believe in this plan and in science at the same time. And oh, i was ready for that. We talked about it, how is physics we accept certain rules before we verify that they’re true and related it to accepting Christ and his atonement so that we can repent, pray, and know for a certainty that they exist and work. Its my first experience with someone here that doesn´t really beleive in God, so its really enlightening to see him working towards that change. Lizbet (or Elizabeth, i don´t really know) likes to listen too, but doesn´t really have a testimony, so we´re trying to help her with that, but she´s told us that once she knows that its true, she´ll get baptized, she just needs to know first. Hopefully her boyfriend will help her with that. He was a missionary that returned after two changes because his knee needed to get a surgery. And then there´s her sister too, who is a little more difficult to get a hold of, but ready to listen too.
Wow, there´s more too, but i´m out of time, so i gotta let my comp write his family. This week is changes, so i´ll let you know next monday if i´m with a new comp or in a new area. Love you guys a ton, and Daddy, early Happy Father´s Day!!!! More about that next week since its closer to the actual date.

A few more pictures of the Ward Activity night.




July 6th
Ya, it wasn´t a computer crash (we did not have an email last week, this is why-Ed), but my comp was sick, from last Friday to about Tuesday he was down with a fever and some other stuff, so we didn´t have a chance to go to internet. Anyways, for the same reason we haven´t had much chance to work, but we do have two baptisms coming up this Saturday, Karen and her daughter Ariana. We´ll have her baptismal interview tomorrow, along with a multi-zone meeting with President Tyler (first time we´ll meet him), so tomorrow should make out to be a pretty long day. And then we have interviews with him the next day, so this week we´ll be low in numbers again. I hate looking at the numbers when we have sick days, or weeks with a lot of meetings, because it always feels like we haven´t done enough. Anyways, where did Bec and Davis go on their cruise? (4-day Catalina, Ensenada and San Diego-Ed) I figure all i need to do is marry someone who likes to scuba dive (Yeah-Ed) and I'll have a great honeymoon. Go to some warm-water diving spot for a while.
Anyways, wasted most of my time uploading the pictures, so I'll just end it here. Language isn't really a problem anymore, not too bad anyways. Oh, and send me some surprises with the package if you haven't already sent it : ) and if you can, send some salsa cause my pensionista wants to try some. Her son is in Quaxaca Mexico and he tried to explain it to her but she wants to try some and they don't really have it here. Love you guys.

The family went to Park City to celebrate Grandma's 80th B'day, so Coulson had a cake made in her honor in Peru.




Picture of Coulson in his Apartment

7 June 09

Short message to Davis, the parents really arent as crazy as they seem. (Whats with that? - Editor and Parent)

Ya, so this past Saturday we baptized Gloria, and there is a picture attached of her, me and my comp. The water was freezing, and there was an 8 year old getting baptized too, but because the water was so cold he wouldn't go all the way into the water. Took him nearly half an hour to get baptized. But aside from that, all the messages were good and when Gloria bore her testimony it was incredibly strong. I was the one to baptize her, solely by chance, because she wrote si on one piece of paper and no on another, crumpled them up, threw them in the air and i picked up the one that said si. After that, we asked why she didn't want her cousin Lorenzo to baptize her, and she said that Lorenzo will always be there for her, but i want to remember the Elders that knocked on my door and taught me, and i think this is a good way to be able to remember you. It was interesting how she explained it... or at least how i understood it.
And now that we have those baptisms, we need to challenge a lot more, because we don't have many more with a baptismal date.
Well, this past Tuesday was an interview with President, and that was great, we finally had some good food (pancakes and tacos) for breakfast and lunch. But more than that, i actually had a good interview. My first was hardly anything, just a few questions about my health and the language, but this time it was actually very helpful. I expressed my concern that i still don't know hardly anything about the forms or anything because my trainer never fills anything out except the baptismal record. He knows that I have had a bad childhood on the mission, so hopefully it will just get better. And next change we will have our new President. Interesting start for the two years.
Love you guys.

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!!!!