December 28, 2015

Hey well suprise.... After skyping with you guys I received a phone call from the assistants that I will have a change and that I will become a district leader... My anticipations were confirmed that yep,,, I am leaving the Cria... The suprising part this time is I actually know where I am going and who will be me new companion. I am heading off tomorrow to an area in chiclayo called las brisas or the breezes.. It will be really different actually being close to the center of chiclayo. I will be in the Chiclayo Central zone. I am actually devastated to leave Elder Darrington. We have become great friends yet it will be really easy to see eachother after the mission because we live the max 7 minutes away from eachother. Oh my new companion is named elder Isuiza... he is from Lima and will be my first companion from peru... the funniest part is this guy is basically a midget... well not quite but it is really short... He has the same time as my stepson in the mission... I feel that it will help my accent having a companion that is actually from peru.

This last sunday all the ward members new I was going, and it was hard... .they were all saying their good byes... I hate good byes... it hurts... I love these people... AND I WILL SEE THEM AGAIN IN PERU..... when I come back with the family to do a little tour of all my areas. and hopefully see Machu pichu.. Haha one of the speakers did not show up so the bishop... haha... during the passing of the sacrament had one of his cousnelors pass me on note give a talk... I was fine with it... It was just another great time to thank the ward for all their help and love and support. I then talked about the atonement and the importance of being humble.... I shared isaiah 1 18 and 19 and talked about the cleaniness and whitenss of snow... I even mentioned how you guys held up and showed me the snow during our skype call.

I will be on later today... hope to see you all on because I love to chat with all of you guys..

love you a ton... Happy New year... haha next year I am coming home.. Time to kick it in to the top gear... Lider de distrito here I come...

Bring it

Elder Mecham

December 22, 2015

HAHAHAHAHA Merry Christmas

Hey the internet did not work yesterday so now we got permission from president to write right now.. how are you.. this week went well. The past week we did a work visit with the elders from Pucala. It was a little annoying because it was scheduled that I would stay in our area and Elder Darrington would go to pucala. They called the morning of and changed it all. It was actually annoying, but what evers you go where you go. It turned out well.

The only thing is work visits are always fun and something different always happens... for example the penscion of pucala gave me a tomale.. the last time they were delicious but thing time well lets just say i almost barfed. I was half way through eating the tamale when I bit into some chicken that was completely raw. How gross. I walked with elder Lozano and block and then I threw it to the dogs... the sad part is  the dogs would not even touch the tamale either.... that is when you know it is bad. The good part of the work visit is that it was the birthday of one of the members there. We were just passing by and we saw all these little kids eating cake, popcorn, and jell o. Next thing I know the ward mission leader, a big fat dude, was calling the kids over... He basically coerced the kids to show them what they had then he ripped the popcorn out of the hands out of one of the smaller children. The sight was hilarious a grown man stealing popcorn from a 3  year old. Later the family ended up giving us cake, jell o, and popcorn. The best part was that the little kids tried to get even with the ward mission leader of pucala. The little kid ran in got some of his older buddies and they started to attack the poor guy. His shirt was white when we started and later it is completely covered in dirt and grime.. . Moral of the story is do not steal popcorn from a peruvian.

On friday we went and sang in the plaza de armas or the town center of chiclayo. It was a blast to sing and see a lot of my friends and buddies from the mission. The cool thing is the mayor of chiclayo was there and also a whole camera crew, so we were live in the peruvian television. We also contacted like crazy there in the square.. .there were so many people. at the end of the night we stayed in chiclayo.. the best part is we stayed in the room of the zone leaders of chiclayo central which one of them is elder nordhoff my old companion. He took us to eat at a nice american style pizza place, where I ate the best pizza I have tried  in peru... Why was it so good, well because an american made it... The owner of the store is a guy named Bob that moved to peru married a girl and started a pizza restaurant. . the guy is awesome... he is from portland maine.... He also also taking the lessons from the missionaries... he will b e a great member.

Pedro pablo is doing well... Each time we meet with him he tells us more how since he has taken the visits from us he has changed and become basically a new creature... The man is inspiring... he lives in one of the humblest houses I have seen, yet he is happier than ever.... Money does not equal happiness folks... He is perparing for the 23rd of January.... This man is a testimony builder... you guys just got to meet him one day.

Well feliz navidad,,,, Go UTES... 5 consecutive games in a row over the BYU... Remember... Ha Nacido un Salvador    

With my buds,, Los cuys muertos... Also with Elder Nordhoff

                                                                       

December 14, 2015

What a fanntastic week!!!!

First my birthday was great. We had a district meeting in Patapo where they sang to me. And of course I received many eggs on my head. The thing is, it was not my first rodeo in receiving eggs. The first egg I completely dodged, the second no... But the elders that smashed them on my head, I gave them a great big hug, and rubbed my head all over their shirts...They should have seen it coming.... haha.

 

Jorge Torres, my recent convert, had his birthday on the 10th. It was funny because he did not believe me when I told him, he made me take out my visa to prove it to him. Then he gave us cake and we laughed.

On Friday, there was a multizone activity in Chiclayo with half the mission. Usually multizones are where we learn a lot, and it is super spiritual,but this one was a Christmas party. We got there played ping pong until everyone arrived and then we walked to Rokys and ate pollo a la brasa with inca kola and icecream. It was good. The funny thing is we filled the entire top floor of restaurant, and all the peruvians were like,, what in the world his going on? A bunch of gringos and Latinos in white shirts and ties all walking togehter and eating here... It must be the end of the world. Afterwards, we did our skits, and watched santa claus is coming to town,,,the classic Christmas tale with the mailman and the burger meister meister burger.

It was a great time. After we ate banana splits and they gave a some gifts from the mission: a custom made temple recommend holder with a picture of the trujillo temple on one side saying mision peru Chiclayo, and the other side has a picture a Presidente y Hermana Williams that says in spanish with lots of love and care. It is sweet.

After, the party we tried to get back to our area, but there were not combis that late in the night. So we stayed with the assistants and they ordered pizza hut. Also my package showed up afterwards too. What a blessing....

After chatting basically all night,.... haha... the assistants... we went back to the cria just to travel again for stake conference. Elder Wilson Calderon spoke on the key to being happy is serving.. Then he had all the elders and sisters stand up.. He then said, look these are happy people and for this reason.

Sunday, for the general session of stake conference we watched it in the cria at the chapel. The sad thing is that the internet feed did not work, so we missed over half of the conference. To calm the congregation, I played prelude Christmas music..

Then today we played soccer and football with my new gift also.

 

 

 

Thanks for the package.. the tree was awesome,, thanks so much... I will for sure see star wars when I get home. I opened the football right away.. and the music because I am putting it on an mp3 player right now. It is hard to add music to the iPod, because I do not have the iTunes account and pass word for it

December 7, 2015

It seems like the weeks are flying by. Sometimes it is hard though in Christmas because everyone heads out to the city , so it is hard to find people in their homes. All it means is that we must work and follow the spirit even more.

This last week the highlight for me was that we were able to put a baptismal date on an investigator named Pedro Pablo Tenzin. Yep his name is Peter Paul, very biblical right. The guy is a humble farmer that does not know how to read. The dude just has the strongest desire to follow God and do what is right. We put the date for the 23 of January because the guy wants to finish the year as a catholic, but he told us that he will prepare so that he can get baptized. The coolest thing about him  is before he could not go to church for his work buying and selling cows, but this last time we saw him he send a new job presented itself and with this job he would not need to work on sundays. It is amazing how God gives us a way to complete all the commandments, so times we just have to take a faithful step into the dark, so that our light can grow. I know that the Savior is working side by side with me, I can feel his love, not only for the people of peru but for me as his servant too.

This sunday we  watched the Christmas devotional. Wow... I miss being able to go and see the lights and temple squarre.

Also this next week as a mission we will have a multi zone to eat, do skits, learn more about the gospel, of course, and live Christmas

up.

It is also stake conference, a seventy is coming so that should be good.

The mission gave me cake for my bday, also this monkey is just a guys pet. It was really funny having him jump around and climb on my head.

Have a great week... Eat some great American food for me please.  Also send pictures...  I love to see how you are.

November 30, 2015

Well with the Christmas season coming upon us. We must remember why we celebrate.

I love this time, the music, the traditions, the time with family. Snow, haha, not going to see that for a little bit.

Remember, remember, that this time is to reflect on our Lord and Savior, the great I am. I was reading today before P day started in 2 Nephi 25. This chapter is great, by the way so read it, ponder it, and apply it to your lives. Anyways, Nephi rejoices in Isaiah who prophesied the birth of Jesus, but the cool thing is Nephi actually had the name of the Christ child revealed unto him.

Jesus was born. I invite, all to rejoice, live, and bask in the tranquility that the Lord has given us. Live as examples, true disciples of him. I know if you do, you will feel the peace, joy, and love that this hectic commercialized world cannot offer. I know Jesus Christ lives and through him I can do all thing that make me a better servant in his hands.

Video Links

https://youtu.be/q_TEOyhy7Bg

https://youtu.be/Ly7c9scxB9I

Watch it, love it, share it.

God rest you merry Gentlemen, As you can tell I am excited for Christmas..

Gonna eat me some turkey, the turkey that I did not eat for thanksgiving.

Oh ya, had a baptism... haha. Honestly, the prayer in Spanish is easier. 

First time I performed the ordinance, but the start of many more to come

Elder Joshua Leo Mecham 

#ASaviorIsBorn

I am thankful to have born in a family that knows the gospel. Thank you for a roof over my head, and having been born in a country with roads, that it is safe to drink the water, and that the bathrooms and somewhat clean.

I am thankful for my savior that died for a sinner like me, for a perfect gospel. I am greatful that I live next to the temple, and do not have to travel hours and hours to do the work of God.

I am thankful for the opportunity to pray to my Heavenly Father that loves me more than I can imagine, so much that he gave me the chance to read and learn how to live the restored gospel from the B

ook of Mormon.

I am thankful for college football, even though the Utes lost, they are still cool, I am also thankful for a Dad that lets me know how my favorite team is doing.

I am thankful and proud to be an American. 

But more I am thankful to be able to say that I am a son of a living God.

November 16, 2015

This week is just jam packed with a lot of great stuff that happened. Where to start...

Well first this Tuesday we had interviews with president Williams, his wife, and the assistants. Weird right, the assistants, but it was a blast to travel to Chiclayo. On the way there was a fun experience.. jaja, Combis are always just so interesting, just the type of things you see and hear when you are jammed into a tight 10 man mini bus with about 30 people in it. Well on to the story we got on the bus and we had great seats, the best you could get in the combi. As we headed out to Chiclayo the combi was getting fuller and yet fuller. At one stop some old lady and girls got on, so I did the right thing and gave up my seat. As we kept going it just became worse and more packed. At the end of the trip I was riding backwards, on a tiny seat, this is worse than standing... It just felt like a ride in lagoon so it was enjoyable... The cobrador tried to knock the price down for me because he watched me get moved from what is like a first class to the worst... I basically told the guy no.. And that I enjoyed giving up the seats... The guy was shocked and insisted again... But i am stubborn so he had no chance... I just felt good.. You cannot pay for those types of feeling.

Wednesday was Elder Darrington's B day.. It is always hard to celebrate the birthday away from home, but I tried to make it a good day with him... We were really blessed though because this day all of our appointments stayed strong, and we ended up finding 3 new investigators. At night the members surprised my comp with a nice cake.. This members here are the best.

We had a work visit.. I went to an area called Pucala which is just a branch. It was fun just getting to know new people, the members here are so strong.. I really feel like a bum as a member compared to the sacrifice


these people make. I went with elder lozano, a colombian, that is basically a stud. I brought my soccer ball and we played in the morning to get some exercise in. It was also the birthday of the daughter of their penscion, so I took the liberty of the Peruvian traditions and smashed an egg on her head. The birthday traditions here are so fun.

The best thing is we have a baptismal date for Jojo or Kevin Joel Guillermo Huaman. He will be baptized in 2 weeks on the 28th of November. I am super happy. He will be the first of many here in this area. 

Wow, another change has flown by in the mission... Joy overcomed my soul when they said I did not have changes.. Thank goodness. 

Elder Mecham.

Happy Friday the 13th from Peru
 This last Sunday I played for sacrament meeting... That was a fun and great experience

November 9, 2015

OH, I half way there, O o, living on a prayer, Take my hand we will make it I swear,

oh oh living on a prayer

To be honest I really cannot believe I have been on the mission for a year... I have learned many things, yet I have so much more I need to learn. 

The thing most important is that we need to love everything... Our circumstances, blessings, trials, family, friends, enemies, work, and most importantly God. Really we cannot do anything without His help. All of our blessing come from him, all of our talents, progress, everything. I really know that the Savior guiding this church, God knows how to do his work, and he works in small and simple ways.. I can say by small simple things we are made strong. I love the spanish saying of OLA... Orar Leer Asistir... Really it is that simple just prayer, read the scriptures, and go to church. We must do it with full intent of heart, and a willingness to change and push ourselves. I know the Book of Mormon is the best book. By not reading and feasting upon its advices we shut ourselves from pure wisdom and answers that we need.

The week was amazing, we had zone conference, where they taught that we need to invite everyone to baptism the first lesson, and the second lesson we must put a date... If they do not accept, we need to drop the investigators and move to the ones that God has prepared. It is actually really hard, because I see every person I meet standing all in white... not baptisaml white but temple white as an eternal family. This week many people came to church. 3 investigators just came on their own accords, God works in mysterious ways.

I know that this is God s work... Christ lives... 

Well I will be able to say I have fought the good fight, like Paul,, one more year,, what a blessing.

Bring it..... The time is now,,,

see yous in a year,, hahahah

Elder Mecham

Ha in the picture i put a filter on.. I am really not that red

November 2, 2015

Lets just say moving is never that fun, and work visits are always different.

This week after the district meeting we had a work visit with the elders from Pucala. Work visits are always different, because after time adjusting to a comp and how they teach, they switch it up to see what else we can do to improve the area. I stayed in La Cria  and Elder Darrington went over to Pucala. I stayed with Elder Wilson our district leader. To start the change meeting we stayed after the district meeting and he did a baptismal interview. It was fun because I had the opportunity to talk and meet with the elders from Patapo. Me being bored, started just sweeping the church and talking to them at the same time. It was a lot of fun.. Their investigator got baptized too so that is always good. Afterwards we returned and ate. It was really funny because Elder Wilson ate a bunch of food... I guess he just loves to eat.

The things I learned from Elder Wilson were that we always need to be contacting or introducing ourselves to people,  and to just invite everyone to baptism. The guy has 20 months in the mission and you can tell he is getting antsy to come home, but the guy works super hard so that is a great combination.

It was nice getting back with my companion though... It is just weird to be separated... A whole Yin yang thing... 

Guillermo went to Lima and the cool thing is that he called us to see if we wanted anything. He is such a cool guy. I just had him pick up a hard cover book of Mormon in English. Now I am going through and marking it up... It just feels good to be able to start with a clean slate and just devour the good word of God. The other cool thing was it only costed a dollar... What a great price for something that is priceless and life changing.

Scriptures That had an impact on my life and week

Isaiah 41:10

John 14 : 27

2 Timothy 1 7-9

And basically 3 Nephi 12

Read them... They will bring peace into your lives. I promise you.

The area is going well... The members are bringing people to church, which is amazing.. All, I can say is God knows how to do his work.

Happy Halloween.... I am so glad I only miss one halloween, because in Peru they do not do anything....

I love you all

Elder Joshua Leo Mecham

.........Send my love to all... I mean all the ward.. the fam... the neighbors...

 

last weeks service

October 26, 2015

Wow another week has flown by... I can just say I am exhausted yet energized to keep going in this work... This last week, we were able to leave with a lot of different members and find some new people to teach.

I am having a lot of fun training... It is hard, but I have learned a ton from elder Darrington. This week we had the first 3 weeks training meeting. It was fun because that meant we were able to go to Chiclayo and see a lot of my friends from the mission. Like always, president Williams gave a great lesson and his wife too. They always teach in a way that just invites the spirit to help us know what we need to do to improve. My highlights of the meeting was that Elder Darrington said the prayer to finish. The best part is that he did an amazing job...

Then we had the opportunity to do service in two different opportunities. First was Thursday in the morning, we had planned to just go out a teach, but when we passed by the church there were a couple members there to do some service. The coolest part was that a member of the ward Kennedy was there. It was really cool to see him again. He works for the church in the maintenance and fixing of all the church building in, what I believe the Chiclayo mission. So, we hurried and changed our clothes and worked. I felt like I was back in my first area working side by side with Hno Daniel. The project we did was we repainted the lines for the soccer-basketball court. It was actually really enjoyable. We put tape down, and then afterward we painted the white lines for basketball and soccer and then a yellow line for volleyball. At the end we took all the tape of which was a ton and rolled them up into huge tape balls. We started playing around with the balls throwing them like footballs and kicking them around.

The second opportunity was that we cleaned out the outside of the what they call the high school so that they could have a annual party for the school. IT was just a lot of sweeping and picking up trash.. but it is always fun to mix in service in the week.

Sunday we went to a multi stake conference of the area of Bolivia and Peru. It was cool... The only thing is the church we had to travel to had a lot of technical difficulties... The speakers spoke about temples, Christlike attributes... and a lot of great experiences. The speakers were elder Nash... elder Anderson... Elder Uceda.. and others.. They all were in salt lake city, apart from elder Uceda which pre filmed his talk...

I am really enjoying studying the scriptures.. I am learning so much and it is strengthening my desire to keep working and studying. I am reading the book of Mormon from the back until the front. weird, but I have found a lot of answers and I have received some great incites this way.

This week that will not be pictures... because this computer is really sketchy and I do not trust my pictures with this computer.

Well love you all a ton

Elder Mecham

Can you find Elder Mecham?   Hint  Look on the Left hand side

October 19, 2015

What a Crazy week

WOw,,,, all I can say a lot has happened this last week.

So first to start off the Peru, Chiclayo mission has a saying or slogan that goes Estudiamos por las mañanas, trabajamos por las tardes, y vemos Milagros por la Noche. 

Or if I can get it right. We study in the morning, we work in the afternon, and then we see miracles in the night.

I can really say that this is true. Right now I am doing my hardest to be the most obedient that I can. I have always been trying, I am just putting a stronger emphasis now... Especially since I am training again.

The first miracle I saw.....

Well, right before the change, two weeks ago, we had the pleasing surprise of the landlord telling us that we needed to move. Not, because we were dumb and broke anything, never would missionaries do things like that, but because the landlord s son was coming back from Lima. The land lord was sad to have us move because, one he is a member, and two he developed a great relationship. Anyway, that stressed me out a lot... Then I had the pleasure to train Elder Darrington... I say pleasure because really he is the only thing that is keeping me sane. The guy is chill. The funny thing is he went to my rival High School Lone Peak. Really to me, that does not matter at all. We have worked super hard together. I have learned a little more how to manage my stress in some unpleasant situations. Well now on to the point, our ward mission leader found us a house that was really nice. We went and saw it and they wanted to charge 400 soles for the month. That is a lot for here... haha... I do not think is dollars anymore it is quite sad. We sent the pictures to president Williams, and he called and told us to negociate with the guy... He said to get the guy to at least 300 soles a month. This is not an easy task... Especically since my companion is recently learning spanish,,, so we tried our best... then we got back up... Hno Guillermo Mejia really helped us out a lot. All in all we got them down to 250 soles a month rent then 20 soles for light and water. and then 3 soles for the trash guys to come. I felt accomplished and protected. The lord prepared a house for us. This guy told us after the he used to rent this house to his brother, but his brother was basically a bum and trashed the house. Afterwards, he swore that he would never rent the house out again... Well the Lord had other plans... I know he is protecting us... 

Second Miracle....

This sunday we went to church like normal... haha... And after the meeting Guillermo present us to a family of members from a city called Chongoyape. The thing about Chongoyape is that there used to be a branch there but it got closed down because it just did not work out. Chongoyape is 30 minutes from where we are which would be for the less 2 hours from Chiclayo. The thing is the family was of faithful members a mom, and 2 of her kids. One of her sons were not members yet. His name is Joel Guillermo Huaman.. Pray for him.. And the family Huaman... They will be our next baptisms.. I have faith that they will.

Well besides that we are doing fine... WOrking like crazy... I soo Tired..

Elder Joshua Leo Mecham,

Love you all.... See you all in about a year

Oct 12, 2015

This week is was a new experience and a lot of hard work. Elder Darrington is really willing to work so that is an amazing thing. Every since he came it is like my spanish just clicked in. I mean ya I still have to study my brain out, but It is good to see the progress. So far it has been me sharing most of the lesson and elder darrington testifying, but it has been an amazing combination. I have had scriptures just come to mind and questions too. I taught Elder Darrington to ask for references so that every person we speak with we can ask. Let´s just say references are more efficient than contacting. We were finding people like crazy. Thanks to the help of the members and the willingness to give us people. On the other hand we found a family THAT IS ACTUALLY MARRIED... what a blessing. They are farmers being in the Cria and sadly they do not know how to read. The thing is that they can still pray and attend church. Their names our Pedro pablo and Maria Luisa. Pedro shared a really good story about how god provided cows for him. I then shared malaquias 3. They will be good people. This next week we are going to try and put a baptismal date. They other great thing is this sunday a lady named Angela Marisol just came to church. We had a really good lesson about the word of wisdom in gospel principles, It all ended up with her having a really spiritual experience and wanting us to visit her. The funny thing is that I did not even know she was an investigator until she told us to come visit her.
We are close to have three rescues in the next coming weeks too. We are working hard and I can see the blessings. Now it will be contiuning on.
ohh... The other cool investigator we found this was a couple Named alejandro and elena. they are also married!!! A member gave us the reference and we made sure we visited the couple with the member. The dad is a really great guy that just had a tragic accident where he lost he leg in a car crash. It is really cool how God will put these people in our path.

The most spiritual experience though this week was that we went with a member named Guillermo to visit a list of windows and sick people. We visit a widow that was blind and almost deaf. In the end she asked for a blessing to comfort her. When I started the blessed words just filled my mouth... I could feel how much heavenly father loved this daughter of his. My eyes were not dry at the end of the blessing... I know that God will work through us if we work as hard as we can... That blessing was not my words or any thing of mine. I love this people.

Elder Darrington will do well, it is taking a bit of adjustment to change for clean states to here but he has an amazing attitude and is not afraid. It is a pleasure to work with him.

We are doing well out here, I was so tired this last week, but we worked like crazy. The other fun not really thing that we have to do is move... Lets just say looking for houses in spanish is not as easy as it seems. Bartering is really fun too.

I saw and killed my first scorpion, I guess those are common here... It kinda of scared me.. I was reaching for some of my books and I picked a a book and bam there was a scorpion. I was like oh snap kill it. But i decided to take a picture first. haha

This picture is of me and my step son Elder Torrez and my son Elder Darrington.

October 5, 2015

            11 MONTHS IN THE MISSION!!

This was the last week of this change but it was a week of surprises, adventures,good byes, and conference that was a great conference. As for my area the Cria, it is hard right now to find more families. So now what we are doing is looking like crazy for more opportunities of service. I am looking for the small things like carrying the bags of the cute little old ladys or anything to help out the people. My district leader taught of the preaching and service go hand and hand. Jesus Christ was the perfect example of this. He would be on his way to go help a friend or heal someone and he would stop and heal someone, but at the same time he would teach. He showed  this perfect love for them, and then he inspired his disciples to improve and live the gospel. 

With the current El Niño coming there is a lot of preparation and service to be done to help the people whose houses are not ready for the rain. And there are countless other ways we can help out even if it is really simple. Felix Castillo one of the less actives in the ward is getting closer to being rescued which is being reactivated. We are teaching him all the lessons and he has come to church. He even went to both sessions of Conference on Saturday and on Sunday which is rare for peruvians. It is really funny because many of the members here think that conference is just one session that they just play over and over so that everyone can come and see it at the time most convient.

For conference we were able to go to Chiclayo and I was blessed with the opportunity to see it in English. The funny thing is because my area is so far away there are not combis that come back later in the night, so we went to Chiclayo to the mission office and stayed with the office missionaries and the assistants in there really nice house. The best thing was my companion Elder Flores was ending his mission and he was there because he had to travel from Jaen to end his mission. We had a great time talking, telling stories, and visiting a few places in Chiclayo between the sessions. Elder Flores was in the office before so he knew the area of Chiclayo like the back of his hand. We went and saw some cool things like the picture of this scary loooking statue. It was so cool there was just a park where artists made sculptures about the history and folklore of peru. It was huge. We only had 20 minutes but it was so worth it.

Conference was great... What was cool is they called elder Stevenson, he gave us a visit with elder benson. The best thing was the spirit that was present. I cannot believe how fast it went by. Like I  said before it is like Christmas for missionaries. I felt that these 3 men were called by God. Now it is time to put all the we heard and felt into action.

The cool thing is my old pensionista hna. Deydi send me a package. SHe really was like having another mom in peru. She gave me a whole bunch of chocolate and a picture of her family.

I hope you guys are doing well. Ponderize haha, and learn to understand the promptings of the spirit. Also happy birthday Siena,

 keep you light shining

September 28

This week was fun, but it was another just good work week. Besides a little cold everything was normal this week. It is hard in this area right now because we have a limited pool of people we are teaching. I should not be complaining because I received an email from my friend about her mission in europe and they have absolutely nothing. The most important thing right now for us is that we must find more people to start teaching. So we are talking with everyone in the streets. knocking doors (I have knocked every door in my area) the thing is every time we knock the door it will be someone else that opens. One day we left with a member named Guillermo, a really cool member in  the ward that called and asked us if he could leave with us to visit. It is such a blessing to have him in the ward, most the times we have to beg some people to come with us, but he called us. Anyway we were with and we went to the first appointment, but it fell through... then we heard some loud music in a house with someone singing karoke. Normally we would have just passed by the house because many of times there are people having parties in their houses getting drunk, but Guillermo stopped and told us that it was his friend. We knocked on the door, and a man named Santos camed out to greet us. After some talking, we were able to explain a bit about the book of mormon. And we were able to set up another appointment for this next friday. I hope that we can do our best to help hno Santos progress and build him up so that he will choose to come join the fold. THe funny thing is that he only accepted the next visit him if Guillermo and maybe us too sang karoke with him after the lesson. We will see what will happen...

I am super excited for this next general conference. We will see who will be called as the next apostles. I just hope I will be able to see it again in english because one I can understand it better and two I will actually here their voices. Once you know their voices it is just frustating to listen to translater. How can they match the voice of the prophet or the strong call to repentence from Elder Holland, or the wisdom and hilarilousness of Dieter F Uchtdorf. If not the meaning our still the same. I am just excited. Really excited.

This week the ward had a Luau which was really funny. The only sad thing was peruvians always start really late so an 8 o clock activity starts at 9 or 10. We took some pictures and had fun while we could before we returned to the room before the party actually started. But all in all it was fun.

For the Bitner family, Elder Anderson sends his love, Especially for Whitney. haha.

Love you all

Another week has flown by in the mission, it is amazing how fast it passes. This week we worked hard but right now we do not have a lot of members leaving with us to visit. The thing is that we just kept working and had a lot of lessons with members, and our contacts have not dropped under 120 since Elder Cusihuaman set the goal-punishment of the push ups. It really takes an effort to contact that many people when the area is a little bit smaller. I have contacted the same people twice or threes times on accident. A question, is it okay if we contact the same people over and over not every day but giving it a break. It gives them another opportunity to accept our message or have the chance to be served.

When it comes to investigators Lucio seems to be the next baptism because the other few are not completing with their committments that we have left them. Lucio has 16 years, and he is working on reading the book of mormon. He is reading the book of mormon for the first time. We will keep working on his parents they have not attended once, but I feel that he is mature enough to be baptized and continue in the church. The leaders and the young men support him well in the ward. Would it be okay to put a baptismal date on him but in a month or 2 so that he can advance more in the book of mormon. A baptismal date would raise his animo because he really wants to progress.

Elder Torrez is progressing well, he has a strong desire to learn english too. He always is asking me how to pronounce names in the book of mormon. He will learn english for sure if he continues with these same desires to learn.

Right now I have the goal to right all of the Old Testament, but in english. so far I in 1 samuel. It is really interesting how many times they fall into worshiping other gods than Jehovah. A talk I listened to recently said that the question is not why did they struggle with these things, but how do we struggle in our own life. Also it was not that they stopped worshipping Jehovah to worship the gods of the Philistines or the Moabites but the changed their customs to worship both at the same time. Maybe we do not worship Baal or Asheroth, but we worship other things like football or facebook. (NOt in the mission) but at home. But more that Zion struggles with is that we worship the world and try to worship the Lord at the same time. The talk gave an amazing example about water skiing. This person has skiied utahs lakes many times, but one year him and his brother decided to ski utah lake every month of the year. Even when it was really cold in the winter he took the chance to glide on the water. He joked that water skiing is basically that closest sport that we have to a celestial sport if we look and the experience of Peter and Jesus. The thing is over the many trips he was able to teach many people how to ski. He found the the most common errors that prevented a learner from experiencing the auxilarating thrill of gliding on water was that they would try to pull themselves up or they would try to stand up against the pull of the boat. Though these actions appear to help they end up doing the contrary and they pull their legs from out from under them. He assured the learners that the boat is strong enough to pull them up the just need to depend on the boat and be patient. The thing is at times the learners would not even notice that they were trying to pull on the the rope. How does this apply? He said at times when we try to worship God and the world we pull our spiritual legs right out from under us, and it leaves us there wondering why we have not progressed. We must not allow the world to set our standards or slowly but surely change our views of what God has made very clear what is right and wrong. I am enjoying the old testament..

This sunday I gave another talk. It was supposed to be ten minutes but I did not watch the time well so I spoke 15. It was on charity. I really enjoy 1 Corinthians 13. It explains the importance of Charity and how with out it

TOday we went hiking to what they call the white rock. It was a great little hike that left me burnt. It is nice to do more on P days to make them more enjoyable.

I am doing well, I hope all is well there

Elder mecham