Hey family!Ill just say now that this will be a pretty short letter. Not a wholelot has happened since Saturday, and this week was pretty slow becauseof the holidays. Sounds like everything is going well, and Im glad that you liked thebracelets I sent you. I do like those really cheap gifts. It wasgreat to hear how everything is going right now. I remember a fewthings I wanted to say to each of the kids so in the next group ofletters I send there will be one for each of the kids and a few othersI need you to send on, please. As I said this week was really slow, and we didn`t have a lot oflessons, but we did work with Joel and his wife Betty a little bit,and yesterday was pretty cool. We talked to their son yesterday andhe wants to listen, and in passing we mentioned the word of wisdom andthat we don`t drink Alcohol, coffee or tea, and we don`t smoke andBetty responded with something similar to, "You don`t drink coffee?!?Really? I drink a ton of coffee" so I was worried for a minute, butshe followed with "but, if you say I shouldn`t be drinking it Ill quitdrinking it." Awesome no? I honestly think the Holy Ghost guidedElder Kasat to mention the word of wisdom. It was great. Llery also had her confirmation yesterday which was awesome. I was soglad that it went well, especially since yesterday we didn`t have anyother investigators at church. (Joel and Betty were visiting familyin the morning.) Well thats about all I have. We get to go to the temple on Wednesday,which is awesome! And I was finally successful with my goal of havingmembers baptize the investigators. (Llery was baptized by her friendwho introduced her to the church.) My scripture of the week is actually a talk from general conference...We finally got our Liahonas for November!!... Its by Elder Claudio R.M. Costa (I finally understand why he has four names!)... It talksabout obedience to prophets and some principles that Elder Ezra TaftBenson taught. It was in the Saturday morning session. I also likedPresident Uchtdorfs talk in the Priesthood session. Im going to send some pictures in another e-mail. And I forwardedsome pictures of our mission Christmas card. I love you all. Merry New Year, and Happy Christmas! Tyler

December 20, 2010
Hey family,
I hope that everything is going well at home still. Sounds like you
are staying busy in the church right now, and that everyone still has
something to do.
Trevor, Im a little dissapointed that you tricked me into thinking you
are really tall. But that`s okay.
Great job Trent in recruiting Brett to cub scouts. Sounds like they
can have all the more fun together now. And Im glad that Mom and Dad
were able to cook your 24 loaves of bread in one day. Can you send me
1… or 3… or 10? Just kidding. 
First the great news!!! Llery had her baptism! And a member baptized
her!!! All the better. The baptism was great and the spirit was
really strong. She bore her testimony at the end and it was simple
but powerful. And because the baptism had to be on Sunday we had a
ton of members there. It was awesome!!! The week was a little slow
because we had the Transfer Meeting on Tuesday, but the week was good.
We found a new investigator this week. His name is Joel and he is
really interested in listening.
I have a little sad news. Lourdes isn`t home right now. She has a
problem with her legs so she is living with her sister outside our
sector so that her sister can help her with the problems with her legs
and so that she isn`t living in her 4 story house. (Its not that big,
it just sounds big. Mostly just lots of stairs. Kind of like a
townhouse) We will teach her a little more when she gets back…
My scripture of the week this week is John 3:16-17 which talks about
the love of God in sending his son to the earth for us. We have used
the movie Joy to The World quite a bit lately. And I love that movie
and it talks about the perfect gift from our God and our Savior, Jesus
Christ.
I love you all, the church is true and the work will continue to progress.
Tyler

December 13, 2010

Hey family,Glad to hear you finally got snow... Even if it didn`t last. A fewdays ago I caught myself singing "Let It Snow". Im just going to giveup on getting snow for Christmas. It just isn`t going to happen. Imglad to hear that the concerts went well for the most part, even ifthe guitar players were a problem. (It always seems to be the guitarplayers). Happy birthday to Alex. :) I can`t believe that he is14, but I had better just get used to it. Sounds like the music inthe home is getting better and better. Glad to hear about Dad`sopportunity to share the gospel with his co-worker. This is soimportant. We have found here in Porvenir that the work is a wholelot more successful when the members are involved. The work is soimportant and the members are an incredibly important part in this. To Megan: Congrats on Utah State!!! I remember the I´m In! paper.Thats so awesome. My advice for you is study hard and play hard.Meaning, study as hard as you can, and when you have an oppurtunityto have some fun, make it really fun. Other note: Megan`s hair is really long... Just sayin´ Other note: Has Trevor grown a ton? or is he just standing onsomething to look almost as tall as Dad in the picture? Needless tosay, Im a little scared of him now. :) Im glad to see that everything is going well, and that you are allhaving some fun. Thanks for sending the padded envelope, I got ittoday. (Ill wait to open it until Christmas, don`t worry), I alsogot the package from Grandma Gee today. About Perù... You won`t be hearing about Milagros for a while. She decided shedoesn`t want to get baptized. I still don`t know what happened, andshe was really closed up so I don`t think I`ll ever know. But lifegoes on. We have changes tomorrow, and I have some interesting news... My Zone isn`t changing! There are 16 missionaries in our Zone andonly 2 are leaving the Zone. Elder Pompilla who is finishing hismission and going home to Cusco, and Hermana Gardner who is alsofinishing her mission and going home to St. George. The other 14missionaries are all going to be in the same Zone until the end ofJanuary. Its pretty crazy. This means that Elder Kasat and I will betogether for one more change and when we finish Ill have been here for4.5 months and Elder Kasat will have been here for 6. I am kind ofready for something to change here, but we have a lot of plans forthis next transfer, so we`ll see. About invaciones...These are actually done by the Stake here together with themissionaries. Lots of the Priesthood Leaders, Returned Missionaries,Priests planning for missions, Ward Missionaries, and the full-timemissionaries. We did it for one of the wards, and visited over 20inactive families and gave the missionaries 56 references to contact.It was really cool. We will actually be doing it in every ward in thestake. We do them every other week. They are pretty cool. A little more about Elder Mitchell and I last week. We had anincredible spiritual experience. We visited a few people, and eventhough it was two American missionaries with no more than 4 months intheir missions, we were able to teach with power, which was awesome.It was a huge lift for me after a few hard weeks with not much. Thehighlight of this was when we visited Lourdes. Elder Mitchell and Itaught Lesson 3 from the missionary lessons and challenged her for abaptismal date for December 18th and she accepted. The spirit wasincredible and I learned a ton from Elder Mitchell. Lourdes didn`t come to church last Sunday because she couldn`t. Shehas had some problems with her legs and it is difficult for her towalk sometimes. We are still planning her baptism for this Saturdaybecause she has the desire to attend and participate in the church.We need to have her interview, but after that we can make finalpreparations and have her baptism. She also gave us references forher sister and her mom, so we hope to be able to go somewhere withthose. Other great news: Llery passed her baptismal interview!!! We aregoing to be having her baptism this Saturday, which is awesome. Shehas such a great testimony and I can`t wait for the baptism. Thelessons with her were so good because she listened and wanted tolearn. We also have a new investigator. Silvana. Silvana has a friend in adifferent stake whose name is Hermana Ramos. Hermana Ramos has beenworking with Silvana for 4 years to teach her a little bit about thegospel of Jesus Christ. Silvana has great faith, and our first lessonwith her was awesome. We hope to be able to progress with Silvanapretty rapidly. This week was kind of slow other than Llery and Silvana. We didn'thave a whole lot of lessons, and I felt pretty bad for most of theweek. But it should be gettng better as we start a new transfer. SoI will definitely be in Porvenir until January 25, 2011, and I willvery possibly be here until the middle of March. My scripture of the week is in Doctrine and Covenants. There are two.Doctrine and Covenants 88:80-81 which talks about the calling for allmissionaries in the world. 81 talks about the responsibility that allpeople have to warn their neighbors. It is about the importance ofmember missionary work.Doctrine and Covenants 88:118 talks about how we can gain more faithand more wisdom by seek the best books. Both of these scriptures helped me during the week and I hope they canhelp you too. Always remember who you are and why we are here in the earth.Remember your potential. In reality all of us have the potential tobecome like God. Not just live with Him again, but to have His powerand His glory. Remember that Jesus Christ loves each and every one ofyou and He wants you to be happy in your life. Be happy and Keep the Faith. I love you all. Good luck with preparations for Christmas, and don'tforget the true meaning of Christmas.Tyler

December 6, 2010
Hola familia!Im glad to hear that everything is going well in Maryland right now.Glad to hear that Megan finally passed the test of death. Im justgoing to say that I am really glad I got my driver´s license in Utah,because Maryland´s driving test is crazy. Glad to hear that the boyswere able to have a piano recital this year. I think that recitalsare a great opportunity to learn how to play songs a lot better. Whyisn´t Trevor taking from the same teacher? Is he taking lessons from amore advanced teacher? That would be awesome, because I still expecthim to have written 10 songs by the time I get back. Sounds likebasketball is going to be pretty fun this year, and Im glad that Adamhas a good coach. I hope he can learn sportsmanship a little betterthan I did. About here in Peru.Lets start with the unhappy, so we can finish happy of course!!! :)Milagros didn't have her baptism again, and this time she gave us lesstime to cancel the baptism for the people in the ward. We passed byher house Saturday in the morning to talk to her because she wastravelling that night, and so we were going to have to have herconfirmation the following Sunday. And she was okay with that. So westarted the water for the baptismal font and went to our serviceactivity that we had planned. We returned had lunch (directly after,we were running around all day) and went to get the keys to the churchfrom the members cleaning the church at about 3:00. At about 3:00, wereceived a call from Milagros. She said she didn't want to bebaptized, didn't give us a reason or a day we could come by again andtalk to her, and she hung up. Her baptism was scheduled for 4:00, sowe ran to our apartment, changed and ran back to the church to sit inthe church until 5 and tell people that we weren't actually having abaptism that day. We couldn't spread the word the normal way so wehad to wait at the church. And on top of that Lourdes (one of ourawesome investigators) came during the time we weren't at the church,so she got news of the non-baptism from a member. Lourdes then didn'tcome to church Sunday and we aren't sure why? Needless to say,Saturday was a pretty miserable day. GOOD NEWS: Im not worried about Lourdes. She is awesome and we have anappointment Tuesday that we can talk to her. OTHER NEWS: We had two exchanges and an "invación" this week. It made it a littletough to work because I was with other people 3 different days thisweek.Tuesday I was with Elder Becerra in his sector because our Zone had anawesome day where all of the missionaries in the Zone go with adifferent missionary. I learned a lot from Elder Becerra. He is amissionary of the same group as me. (We both started July 21, 2010)It was a great day. On Sunday we had an "invación" (I think that translates to invasion.Im not sure. I understand what it means in terms of missionary work,but Im not sure the translation. We gave one companionship 56references. On Friday I was with Elder Mitchell who is from my group. It was anawesome experience with two Americans with 4 months in the mission.I learned a ton from him, and our day was the best I have had with thebest lessons in my mission so far.Sorry about the short parts, but Im out of time.My scripture of the week is 3 Nephi 27:13-16. I love you all. Have a great week. Tyler

November 29, 2010
Querida familia,Well glad to hear everything is going well in the ward in Maryland.The party with the members from the ward sounds like it was prettycool, and the kids got to play with their friends in that ward. Ijust have one piece of advice for Dad. :) Practice, practice,practice... Or you can just give up. The second is probably thebetter idea. Mario Kart will just frustrate you most of the time. :)The picture of the nativity scene is awesome. I love it. :)I noticed that Dad kind of left Utah State out of the informationabout football. Im assuming that means they won 3 games total thisyear. I`ll just have to hope that they do well in basketball. Keep meposted. I like basketball better anyway. Thanks for the informationabout Elder Bell. I actually have had information here in Peru.Remember when I talked about Hermano Casanova from the CCM? Well ifyou don`t, he is the Elder`s Quorum President in this ward and hehappened to be one of Elder Bell`s teachers in the CCM in La Molina(Lima, Perù). Im glad to hear that he is doing better. Well here in Perù we had thanksgiving, but it was really just all ofthe Latino Elders calling all of the American Elders to wish them ahappy Thanksgiving. We also ate chicken, (but we eat that every day ,so its nothing special.) This week we had a whole bunch of serviceactivities and we had the opportunity to go and see a Peruano Circo(Peruvian Circus). It was way awesome. I also ate something elseother than cow heart that sounds weird and tastes delicious. I hadcow lung on saturday, and it was way good. I guess that anything froma cow is probably good, except liver. Ive heard that that Americansdon`t like it very much. I had another division this week. This time I was with ElderEcheverria. He is from Guatemala and he is awesome. I learned somuch from proselyting with him. He taught me the importance of goodquestions. About the week being weird. (semana extraño) Milagros didn`t haveher baptism on Saturday. Monday we got a call from a member who heardfrom the friend of Milagros that she didn`t want to be baptized.Tuesday we got a text message from her, telling us she didn`t want tobe baptized and didn`t want to be an investigator anymore. Wednesdaywe had what we thought might be the last lesson with her because ofthe text, but she told us she wants to listen, but doesn`t wantbaptism because of a feeling she had leaving the church and a dreamshe had. We taught the restoration over again and committed her toread a few things. Saturday she wanted to baptized again. So we aregoing to have an interview Tuesday and if she passes it, we will behaving her baptism this Saturday. We also had the Children`s Program is sacrament meeting. It wasawesome. We had 6 investigators at church again today. This time itwas Sislet (she doesn`t want to change her life much right now, butcomes to church every week), Angelica (only came because her son wasin the children`s program), and then 4 investigators that areprogressing a little. Milagros, Llery (who still has the goal forbaptism December 11th), Lourdes who we just started teaching lastweek, and Grecia who is nine years old and would be progressing but itis difficult to find time to teach her because her grandma, who is amember, lives in a different part of Lima and only comes to our sectorSundays, and her mom is always working. Lourdes, Milagros, and Lleryare all progressing right now which is great, and we hope to have 3baptism this month and improve on the amount we had before. My scripture this week is Mosiah 18:17. It talks about the new churchduring the time of Alma the Elder (right after the death of Abinadi).It says "And they were called the church of God, or the church ofCHrist, from that time forward..." We again have the church of Christon the earth. What a great blessing! I hope everything continues to go well. I love you all. Have a great week.Tyler

November 22, 2010
Hola mi familia,Im glad to hear that everything is going well and that Mom has anawesome calling in the ward. Sounds like the ward talent show waspretty cool, and that the Rasmussen family helped a whole bunch. Ican`t wait until I get those pictures from you. I do love the glowstick dance talent, and Im glad that Trent got the last laugh in theskit. Im glad that you are having success with baptisms in the ward.Its great to hear about your experiences with missionary work. Dad`sconference in Orlando sounds like it was interesting. We actually hadthe same lesson that Dad taught in High Priests in the Elders Quorumin Barrio Porvenir. Im glad you got the bus receipts and everythingelse. I look for random things I can send a lot of the time becausethere really isn`t a whole lot of things that can be mailed.This week was loaded with great experiences. We`ll start with Monday:Monday started really slow for us, but it finished great. We had aFamily Home Evening with David Robles and his family. They areawesome and are going to be some strong members in the ward. He justgot a calling as the 2nd counselor in the Young Men`s Presidency. Inthis Family Home Evening, his daughter Dhara gave the lesson. She is12 and has been a member for a few years, and her lesson was awesome.She talked about temporal and spiritual blessings in our lives. Shealso talked about a few other small things. She used an awesomescripture, (its one of 2 of the week) which is Moses 6:63. This talksabout the fact that all things bear witness of God, temporal andspiritual. The fact that we can live on this earth is one of them.If the earth was any closer or further from the sun, if we had adifferent mixture of elements in the atmosphere, and even in the moonwasn`t where it is, the earth would have drastic differences andpossibly be uninhabitable. Tuesday we had a one day split so that Elder Kasat could view the areaof the other missionaries in our district. (Elder Kasat is DistrictLeader, I don`t remember if I told you). Becuase of this I had ElderRichins in my sector. He is from California and doesn`t talk a wholebunch, and because we were in my area, I had to lead all thediscussions and I did almost all of the talking. I had to trust inthe spirit more and it was a great opportunity for me to learn totrust in the spirit more. Milagros also accepted a baptismal date forthe 27th and she promised that she would cancel anything else thatcame up so she could go to church. This week throughout the week, Junior also became willing to marryElizabeth so that she can get baptized in the church and their familycan progress in the gospel. We have one hold-up in this. There is alarge marraige service this Saturday but we are not sure if they willbe allowed to participate because you have to call in a little inadvance, and it may be too late to call in. We also had anotherlesson with Milagros. We also gained a new investigator Llery who hasbeen coming to church and she accepted a baptismal challenge forDecember 11th. Sunday was awesome. We had 6 investigators at church. Elizabeth,Milagros, and Llery all came as well as Grecia who is a 9 year-old weare working with. We also gained a reference of a member in the wardduring church and we hope to be able to visit her a little bit. Hername is Mayra and she wants to learn, but she is only available onSundays so it is hard. We met with a returned missionary in the wardfor dinner and he taught me a few things about missionary work. My other scripture of the week is Mosiah 14:7 which talks about JesusChrist refusing to talk and respond to attackers when He was beingscourged and judged before He was crucified. It reminded me ofsomething I read in Jesus the Christ about Pilot and his amazement atthe quiet dignity of Christ. His submissive yet majestic manner.(Jesus the Christ page 633-634 if you want to look at it. ) :) JesusChrist would not respond to incriminating and false accusations of theJews. I think this is so important, because Christ suffered for eachof us and when being judged falsely did not defend himself, but stoodin submissive majesty because this was part of why He came to earth.We all need to submit ourselves to Him and The Father. This is oneway we can be humble in this life. I love you all and hope everything continues to go well. The Churchis true and Jesus Christ is our Savior, Redeemer, and perfect examplein this life. Good luck with this week and keep working hardeveryone. Tyler

November 15, 2010
Hey family,Glad to hear that everything is still going reasonably well inMaryland, and that Mom is getting a break from driving everyone allover Maryland for their different activities. Im glad to hear thatthe Stake Conference was good and that you got a great experience outof it. And Im glad that Dad at least stayed awake while Mom was atthe pulpit. Sounds like you had another experience of the "Who arethese weird people buying all the food in the store?" Isn`t foodstorage great? By the way, I got the pictures that you sent. Thanks. Its good tohave a real picture of all my siblings and not just papers. Peoplelike seeing pictures of our family here, and its great because for alot of people in Perù, families are really important. This week was pretty slow work-wise and pretty fast time-wise, westill don`t have any investigators progressing, but this week wefocused on getting new investigators and got 6 new investigators thispast week and have appointments with six more people this coming weekwho could be new investigators. Of our 6 new investigators only 1seems like she will progress pretty rapidly. Her name is Charo. Itwas great because when we contacted her at her house she respondedwith the phrase I hear everyday... "Soy Catolica", meaning... "I`mCatholic" which usually means we won`t get anywhere, but when we cameback and taught the first lesson she was really interested and when wetalked about the Great Apostacy and the need for a restoration sheagreed and then when we talked about Joseph Smith she was interested.Charo was also interesting because someone else told her we didn`tbelieve in the virgen Mary. And when we explained we do believe shewas the mother of Christ and an incredible person but we don`t worshipher because we only worship God and Jesus Christ, Charo was a lot moreopen to us. Our other interesting new investigator is Antonio. He is more than 80years old and kind of... strange... For example, when we contactedhim, he said that we needed to come back in the morning, because itsbetter to talk about Jesus Christ in the morning, and he also said weneeded to learn to say thank you in more languages and that Spanishand English aren`t pretty enough. He said we needed Russian andGerman and French. He also thinks Portuguese isn`t pretty enough. :)But he listens and although it will be slow we think he mightprogress. About the title...We got a call from President Tyler Saturday night and he told us thathe and Hermana Tyler were coming to visit our ward on Sunday...Needless to say we were worried about having investigators there.Especially because we had been told by Milagros, Leidy, and a fewothers that they couldn`t come... However,Sunday was awesome! We had 7 investigators in the church... Granted,only 2 are our investigators right now but the members are workinghard too. David Robles brought his 2 children from his first marraigeand another person brought his neice. David`s children don`t live inmy mission, but they were pretty interested too. Fernando andElizabeth came on Sunday as well. They were our 2 investigators.Neither can progress... Elizabeth needs to be married and her "pareja"(person she isn`t married to, but lives with and has had a child with)doesn`t want to be married so we are still working on him. Fernandoneeds permission from his parents before he can be baptized. Itstough but Im glad to see they are coming to church. It shows theirdesire for progression even if those around them are making itdifficult.Its a little sad because we have to move Milagros` baptism backanother week, but we are going to work on her more this week and tryand help her come to church. She has a class from 9 to 1 on Sundayswhich is making it difficult for us. My scripture of the week is Luke 5:12-13... This scripture is about aleper who when asking to be healed and said to Christ: "Lord, ifthough wilt, thou canst make me clean." This man had no doubt thatJesus Christ could heal him. His question wasn`t "Can you?" hisquestion was "Will you?" He knew that Christ could heal him, but heknew it had to be the will of Christ to heal him. This was anincredible show of faith, and humility. He was submitting himself tothe will of Christ. All of us need this same humility. I hope everything continues to go well at home and you are succesfulin work and school. I love you all. The church is true. Keepstudying the scriptures and learning the gospel.Love,Tyler

November 8, 2010
Dear family,
First thing, to clear up my error. I meant Alma 26:12 last week formy scripture of the week so if you were a little confused, it was myfault.Second about the title. Crazy thing here... Stores have alreadystarted setting things up for Christmas. And its weird for me,because the closer we get to Christmas, the warmer it is getting. Itprobably won`t warm up a whole lot more, but it is pretty nice to haveit a little warmer.Sounds like this last week was pretty good at home. Its good to hearthat Dad is finally getting to the end of his busy season. Id say 80hours of work is pretty close to a lot. :) Sounds like the soccerseason was pretty good overall and sounds like Adam had a prettydominant team. Kind of like Team San Luis in the Lima Centralmission. ha ha Im glad to hear that Dad got an opportunity to teachthe High Priests in the ward. Sounds like the garden will be a littlebetter next year. I just have one request... PLANT MORESTRAWBERRIES!!! If you think you have too many, plant more. :) Illjust tell you now that when I get back from my mission I am going towant them every day. :) We are not allowed to eat strawberries herebecause they are hard to clean and they will make us sick, so I reallymiss strawberries and raspberries (which they don´t have) a lot.This week had a few highs and more lows...Lets start with the lows, then we can finish happy. :) None of ourinvestigators are progressing (with the exception of Carmen). Wehaven`t been able to find Jeffrey at home and his family says he hasbeen drinking, which is sad for us. I don`t know how much Ive saidabout Jeffrey, but Jeffrey has had an incredibly difficult life andhas a lot of mistakes in his past, but he wants to change. Its just aslow process that we wish would go a little faster. Milagros didn`tcome to church yesterday so we have to move her baptism back a week tothe 20th so that she can attend church. She has been having problemswith her brother. We aren`t sure about the details, but it makes itdifficult for her to attend church. We hope to show her theimportance of it this week. Other problem is that none of ourinvestigators are coming to church, and we aren`t sure what to doabout it. We call some Sunday morning and they say they are coming,and don`t. We look for some and they don`t answer the door. We arekind of at a difficult spot with this. Because of this we don`t haveany investigators that are really progressing. (Milagros kind of is,and kind of isn`t, we`ll see how this week goes.) If you have anyideas for how we can motivate for church, please let me know. Now the highs!!!First of the world. Funny, interesting, scary tidbits.Interesting first. There is a KPMG office in my mission, really closeto my mission office. When we were going to our Reunion de Cambios(Transfer Meeting) we passed it. Its tall green and has a big KPMGsign at the top. (Hence the knowledge about the building.) I plan ontaking a picture eventually. I don`t have one now though.Funny and slightly scary... I almost died... Well I almost dieeverytime I get in a bus or taxi, because traffic here in Lima isinsane... but this story tops the rest... (until another one comes).We were doing some service for our pensionista (The sister who we payto feed us). And we were taking a quick taxi across our sector. Weneeded to be one street over to the right, but the road coming up wasa one way road travelling to our left. So our taxi driver decided todrive in REVERSE... We drove backwards into oncoming traffic for anentire block. I was in the back seat and watched as more and moreheadlights came towards us. Obviously, we survived, but it was prettyfrightening.Other awesome thing, I ate something weird this week and it wasdelicious... Its called anticucho... and its a kind of meat from theheart of a cow... So I ate cow heart... And it was probably one ofthe best things Ive had since I got here. cool huh? This week we had the baptism of Carmen Lopez, and it was awesome. Thespirit was strong and it was the third family we have completed thatcan now prepare to visit the temple. Her husband Anibal, who wasbaptized in my first week here, bore a really strong testimony that Ididn`t expect from him. He doesn`t talk very much in our lessons, soI didn`t think he would say much, but his testimony was great. Carmenalso bore her testimony and talked about how her heart was opened tothe church. Its interesting, because Carmen was the first one themissionaries talked to, but she wasn`t really interested. First herdaughter Pamela was baptized about 8 months ago and then here husbandwas baptized 6 weeks ago, and now all of their family is baptized...This gave me strength this week, because we had such a hard time withMilagros and Jeffrey. Other highlight is Lourdes. We actuallyhaven`t taught her yet, but we think she is going to be great. Wewere looking for an old investigator and one of our contacts and theyweren`t home so we were going to our next appointment and Lourdesyelled to us in the street and was really excited to talk to us... Inother words, she found us. And we planned to visit her another timebecause she was busy at that moment and we weren`t at her home, so wegot her phone number. We were walking down another street later andpassed a quinta (basically an alley with 10 to 20 small homes in it)and to our surprise, we found Lourdes again. This time in front ofher house. She proceeded to show us which house was hers and she isreally excited to hear about the gospel from us. We plan on visitingher this week, so we will see how it goes.Our Zone meeting was good today too... President Tyler came to observeand wound up teaching us about why Africans couldn`t have thepriesthood until the revelation in the 70s to President Kimball. Ilearned a ton, and now understand a little more about Cain and thecurses that were upon his seed.My scripture of the week is Mosiah 5:15... This ones correct. :) Thisis about enduring to the end and I think it is a great scripture forall members to know. I love you all. I hope that everything continuesto go well. Remember that the church is true, and that we can do allthings through faith in Jesus Christ.Tyler

November 1, 2010

Hola familia,Glad to hear that everything is going pretty well in Maryland and thatthe kids are staying busy and having fun. Jazz band sounds prettyawesome for everyone and I have no doubt that Adam can handle Jazzband, especially if he practices hard. Soccer sounds like its goingpretty well for everyone. Sounds like the piano is going well forAdam and Trevor still. And I still expect Trevor to have written afew songs by the time I get back. :) The ward sounds great. And itsounds like everyone is going to get all of their service hours prettyeasily.This week was kind of rough for us again. I have been getting alittle frustrated with my companion lately. I feel like we justaren`t working as hard as we can and we could have a lot moreopportunities to teach people if we worked harder, but its tough forme to do anything about it. We were able to talk to Jeffrey andMilagros a little bit, but not much else investigator-wise happenedthis week. I spent most of the week a little frustrated because notmuch was happening, but on Sunday I got a great uplifting experience.We had Stake Conference this past Sunday and we had the opportunity tohave Elder Rafael E. Pino of the Seventy come and talk in our stakeconference. Milagros and Carmen both came to the conference which wasgreat, and a little uplifting since we had only had one investigatorcome to church the past few weeks. Every little improvement is great.President Tyler and Hermana Tyler came to the Stake Conference aswell, and this was probably my favorite part of the day... We had theopportunity to introduce Hermana Tyler to Milagros and Carmen and shetalked to them for a couple minutes. We also got to introduce DavidRobles and his family to Hermana Tyler and we took a pictureafterwards. After the picture everyone was excessively happy. Ithink its impossible to be sad when Hermana Tyler is around. Shealways is so happy. This is when Hermana Tyler turned to me and saidsomething. I can`t even remember what she said exactly, but thespirit behind it was incredible. It was something along the lines of,Doesn`t this bring you joy... The opportunity this family has to havean eternal family? This made me think a lot. This is why Im here.To help people have eternal families and eternal life. Even when itis just one person I baptize, Milagros for example. Milagros is 23and after her baptism will have started the process for her to have aneternal family. She can marry someone in the temple and their familycan be together forever. We also have the people like David who arethe final member of their family with baptism and now their family canbe eternal. It was awesome.We have transfers tomorrow, but they don`t affect Elder Kasat and I.We are both staying in Porvenir for 6 more weeks, and then after thatwe are pretty certain Elder Kasat will receive a change at least.President Tyler makes a lot of changes every transfer and we weresurprised Elder Kasat didn`t get a transfer this time. I was ElderKasat`s fourth companion in four transfers and he has already been intwo areas. So he was pretty excited not to make it 5 companions in 5transfers.I hope everything is going well. My scripture of the week is Alma12:26 which is a great scripture about trust in God. And power inGod. Its Ammon talking and its great....I love you all. Have a great week.Tyler

October 25, 2010
Sounds like everything is going well at home and the kids are involvedin a bunch of really cool things right now. Its interesting for methat just as it is getting cold for all of you it is actually warmingup a little bit here and we are getting sun most days for part of theday, which is great for me. Im glad that school is going well and Ihope that Megan`s scores come back with those few points she needs.The 4 year scholarship would definitely be better, but knowing Megan,she will put in the work with whatever scholarship she gets... Unlikethe certain lazy person we know from this last year. Sounds likeeverything is getting crazy for Christmas and sending things should beinteresting... I hate sending mail by the way... Im really glad I cane-mail you, because letters are expensive to send here. Its like 3dollars to send a normal letter to the United States. Im not exactlysure, but its 7.40 soles... Ridiculous... So I will probably onlysend pictures through e-mail. However, I did figure out a slightlycheaper way to send mail. Glad to hear that Trent got the bowlingbelt loop in Cub Scouts. In my opinion, its definitely the mostimportant one... :)This week had its ups and downs. It was really slow with ourinvestigators and it made it a little rought. Tuesday we had aintercambiar in my sector. So I got to go to the district leaderssector while the district leader was in my sector with my companion.I worked with Elder Paredes from Arequipa, Perù. It was pretty cool,but I think I would have had a better day had I been in my own sector.It made it rough on Elder Paredes because most of the people wantedto spend 20 minutes marvelling at how tall I am and talking to me...By the way, one of these people wants her son to marry Megan and herdaughter to marry Adam, so I think we may have to re-instigatearranged marraiges in our family. :)...The rest of the week was slow, none of our investigators reallyprogresed and it was really hard to find most of them, so our week waskind of rough, but hopefuly it will get better this week. One brightspot in the week was Jeffrey. I don`t know if I have talked abouthim, so Ill re-introduce him. Jeffrey actually found us he was an oldinvestigator from like 7 years ago, and he wanted to talk with usagain. He started with a testimony about Joseph Smith, which alwayshelps. He isn`t married to his esposa, but there is a multiple personmarraige ceremony at the end of the month, which means lots of couplescan be married all in one day, and he wants to be baptized so we willsee how it goes. He is an interesting case, because at this moment wethink he needs to be interviewed by the Mission President because hewas involved in some armed robberies, but he has repented and isimproving his life and trying to improve the life of his family.Saturday we had the baptism of David Robles, who has been aninvestigator for a really long time. I know it has been for more than10 years, but Im not exactly sure how many. The baptism was great,and he and his family can`t wait until they have the opportunity to goto the temple.Sunday was good and bad. The good things were the confirmation ofDavid and the fact that Carmen came to church so we can keep herbaptism date for November 6 the bad news is that Milagros didn`t cometo church and we haven`t been able to find her all week so we don`tknow what is going on. Needless to say we can`t have the baptism datebe sure until she comes to church. We still want the baptism forNovember 13, but we`ll have to see what she does. Sunday Elder Kasatand I also gave talks in sacrament meeting. His was on obedience. Mytopic was "What do I want from this ward?"ish. I wasn`t exactly sure.I talked about the missionary purpose which includes Faith,Repentance, Baptism, The Gift of the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to theEnd.Today we had a huge sports activity with our whole mission, which wasawesome. Our Zone had matching jerseys that had Zona San Luis on thefront and our last names and our number on the back. Way cool. Turnsout that I have a really athletic Zone. We won the competition inSoccer and lost in the semis in basketball... It was fun.I love you all, the church is true. My scripture of the week isMatthew 26:39. "And he went a little further, and fell on his face,and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup passfrom me: nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt." I actuallyused this in a few lessons. This scripture is one of many that showsthe absolute obedience and humility of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ wasgoing through incredible pain, and asked that if there was any otherway it could be done, to stop the suffering, however with Hisincredible understanding and absolute humility he submitted himself tothe will of the Father. This is an incredible example for us and Iknow it is important. I know that humility is important and I haveseen it in action here and I have come to realize I was no where nearas humble as I thought I was. Again I love you all. Keep Pushing On.Tyler

October 18, 2010
Dear family,
Glad to hear that everything is going well in Maryland. The weather is changing a little bit here as well which is awesome! We actuallyhad two days in a row where the sun was out. I think I have only had5 or 6 of these days in my entire mission. Its also warming up just alittle bit. Im glad to hear that Adam and Alex won and that Trent isgetting better and better every game. Sounds like Adam´s team ispretty incredible. Thats pretty awesome.Fishing school sounds pretty interesting, and its cool that mom anddad got to go into some of the rich people sections in the stadium,even if it was for the Nationals. I think I would have had more funup in the announcers booth looking at that stuff. It sounds prettycool. Sounds like Trevor is going to be the man for the piano for awhile in the ward. That`s pretty cool. I am definitely sure that bythe time I get back. Trevor will have surpassed me by a ton in thepiano. And he`ll probably have 5 or 6 songs written. Makes me just alittle bit jealous. :)Well this week was pretty slow for me, at least until Thursday. I wentand met with Elder Slingerland in the mission office. (ElderSlingerland is the area medical advisor) I learned that I had aninfection in my toe, so I have been taking medicine for it all week,and every morning and every night I have to soak my foot in water. Itis kind of annoying because it cuts into my Personal Study a littlebit, but at least it is starting to get better. Tuesday all of ourappointments fell through and we couldnpt find any of our backup plansat home, but we did get to go to the temple in the morning which wasawesome as usual. I love the temple, and it was a great experience.We seem to move our Preparation Days a lot here, but we always haveinternet on Monday which means on Tuesday we get one less hour ofpreparation day, which is fine for me.Wednesday was the slowest day. We had a Emergency Transfer Meeting.(If you remember at every transfer we have a meeting, which is nice,but makes it tough to proselyte that day). This meeting was for 8missionaries coming into our mission from the CCM because of VISAproblems for Mexico. It was cool to have them presented, but Im notsure if I am a fan of the Transfer meeting every 3 weeks. It wasnice, but it was really frustrating afterwards, because ourtransportation back to our area took 2 hours. We were supposed tostart proselyting at 4 and we didn`t even get back to our sector untilfive, and then we had to go and put our suit jackets en ourroom(because our area is dangerous when we walk around in suits), andso we didn`t start proselyting until after 5:30.All in all, we didn`t have a whole lot of teaching on these three days. Thursday was awesome. We finally found Fernando at home. He is oneof our investigators who is really awesome. He is 16 years old, andwould be baptized already, but his parents won`t give him permissionto be baptized, and they won`t talk to us. Its really frustrating forme, because he knows its true and he wants to be baptized, but hisparents are a huge road block. Needless to say he may not be gettingbaptized for a year and a half when he doesn`t need his parentspermission anymore. Thursday we also gave a blessing to Pilar whohas a whole bunch of medical problems that make it dificult to attendchurch and progress, and she has a little problem with faith. We alsoworked with Leidy a little bit. And we talked with a few otherinvestigators briefly. Friday was good we found two older investigators who the missionariesstopped visiting. One is Alfredo who moved to Argentina for a littlebit, and now he is back, and seems interested in the gospel. We alsotalked to Freddy who actually found us and wanted to be taught, Im notexactly sure how his lessons will go. I don`t have the best feelingsabout his situation right now, but hopefully that will change when weteach him later today. We also talked with an inactive member, and wetalked with both Carmen and Milagros some more. William Casanova camewith us and helped us a ton. Im not sure if I have told you muchabout him, but he is awesome. He works for the Peru MTC as a teacherso I actually knew him before I got to the area. He is the EldersQuorum President and is awesome. A little more on him later. Saturday was the day of the baptism for Josè Tenorio. It was roughbecause he works until 8:00 every night Monday to Saturday so we hadto have the baptism at 8:30 and very few members came, but Milagroscame which was great and she accepted a date for baptism. Nov. 13.Funny thing about Milagros, she is a little superstitious. Sherefused a date for Nov. 6th for one reason... 6 is the number of thedevil... And she also doesn`t want her baptism to be at night.The baptism went well, we had a few people bear their testimoniesafter the baptism, including Josè and his testimony was brief butstrong. He had been investigating the church for 15 years so we areso happy for him and his family who can now progress with the goal ofthe temple.William Casanova taught me a ton during the baptism. He came to thebaptism even though he was incredibly sick, and he helped a ton whichwas great. He conducted the baptism and gave a message about the holyghost. It showed me an incredible example of faith.Sunday was good because of the confirmation of Josè and the fact thatI gave a 35 minute lesson, in Spanish... It was awesome... But it wasbad as well because David was our only investigator (Josè isn`t aninvestigator anymore) who came to church including Carmen, Milagros,and Leidy. Carmen and Milagros took a step back and Leidy still isn`tprogressing so we can`t teach her as often anymore.Im starting the scripture of the week this week.This weeks is: 2 Nephi 33. The whole chapter. It is the finaltestimony of Nephi and I love it. It talks about the book of mormonand the bible (Testimony of the Jews, and Testimony of Nephi) it talksabout charity and it has other things I really like.A few pictures of my companions camera: I have been kind of lazy onthe picture taking. Ill have photos of baptisms next week. First is of me and my companion at the Zone Lunch after the temple.Me pretending to punch him.Second is of our Zone the first P-DayIf the pictures don`t work sorry. Ill try and send some again next week.Love you all have a great week. The church is true. I know it. Goodluck is sports, school, church, and total.Tyler

October 11, 2010
Hey family:Well Im glad everthing is going well for you at home. It sounds likeAdam and Alex are dominating at soccer this year, and when I get backand play them it will be pretty interesting. :) Im glad that the newward is going to be pretty good, and Im definitely excited to not bethe tallest person in the ward like I am here, and if it wasn`t for mycompanion and one other person in the ward I would be the tallest byfar... Don`t know if Ive mentioned this, but Elder Kasat is actuallypretty tall. He is 1.86 meters tall and I am 2.07 meters tall. Imnot sure what that converts to in feet and inches for Elder Kasat, butI would guess that he is around 6 feet tall. Needless to say, I amthe only person taller than my companion and Im quite a bit tallerthan he is. Shame on Utah State, for losing again, but its prettycool that BYU finally won again and Im glad Utah is doing well. Atleast they can represent our Utah schools.Well this week in the mission was interesting. We didn`t have asingle day that we proselyted in the morning which was a littlefrustrating for me, but it was still a good experience. Monday wasour Reunion de Zona. Which is pretty cool to have because it gives usan opportunity to learn from other missionaries in the Zone everyweek. Tuesday we had our District meeting because Wednesday we had amultizone conference. President Tyler and Hermana Tyler talked aswell as the assistants to the President. One of the Assistants, ElderWeber, talked about the suffering of Jesus Christ during theatonement, and then he focused on the pain that our Heavenly Fathermust have gone through to watch His Only Begotten Son suffer. It´ssomething I had never really thought about before. But when I thoughtabout it, I realized that it must have been terrible. Elder Weberreferenced it with a video of a man who works for a train company whohas one son. His son is fascinated with trains and loves going towork with him. One day he is working at a spot with a bridge thatraises and lowers for trains and boats and lifts up the tracks when heshouldn`t have. Afterwards his son notices and tries to fix theproblem, but falls into a spot where he will be killed if the tracksare lowered. A train is coming and the man has a terrible choice tomake. Save his son and in turn let the train crash into the water, orsave a train full of total strangers and allow his only son to die...The man makes the sacrifice of his son and saves the lives of thepeople on the train. I cannot imagine having to make a decision likethat. I can`t imagine doing that in a situation with any of ourfamily members. I think I would rather sacrifice myself thansacrifice the important people in my life. Two scriptures that I haveloved my whole life, John 15:13 and John 3:6-17 talk about this. Inthe past I have thought that I understood these scriptures, but Irealized I have absolutely no understanding of these scriptures.These scriptures show the perfect love of our Savior and His Fatherthat I cannot begin to understand. However it is important for me totry to have this love for others in my life and show it in my mission.Friday we had interviews with the mission president. We have theseevery two changes, and while the other missionaries in the Zone are inthe interviews with have a training with the assistants to thePresident. Elder Asqui talked about the importance of our personalstudy and our scripture study. Elder Weber talked about the GreatApostacy. I learned a ton from both. I also learned that I may havean ingrown toenail so I get to go see the doctor later today.This weekend was general conference for us because of the eleccions. Iactually learned a ton from conference even though it was a littlehard for me to understand it. The spirit was so strong. and Ilearned a ton. I took 20 pages of notes from conference 100% inSpanish and gained a bunch I could use with investigadores. I knowthat I probably didn`t understand completely the meaning of all thetalks, especially after reading what Jantzen got out of Dallin H. Oakstalk and seeing what I wrote, and they are completely different, but Idefinitely think that I can learn from these talks. One thing that Ireceived personally for me was the understanding that I can keep thespanish after my mission. D. Todd Christofferson and Neil L. Andersonboth translated their own talks. It made it a little differentbecause they were past recording so they ended at a different timethan the actual talks, but I learned that if I try after my mission Iwill be able to stay fluent in Spanish.Our investigators this week were a little bitter-sweet. We are oneweek closer to the baptisms of Josè and David, and these are still setin the plans. After conference we also had the opportunity to visit areferral of a member whose name is Milagros. She has an incrediblyopen heart and has so much love for God and for learning about God.Im actually glad that she is open to our message, because Im prettysure if she had wanted to argue with us about topics in the Bible andhad presented us with hard questions from the bible I may not have hadanswers. Her knowledge of the Bible was incredible, and when I usedscriptures by the time I finished she was quoting most of them . Sheis catholic but has some doubts about catholics especially Priests inthe catholic church so it makes her more open,especially when shefound out we agreed with her doubts. We also talked to Carmen who isthe only person in her family that is not a member and she accepted abaptism date for November 6th which is great.The sad things were that Leidy has quit progressing. She has beenavoiding our questions about baptism and won`t let us know what herconcerns are. She also didn`t come to conference this weekend. Wealso only had 1 of our 6 to 8 investigators who said they would attendconference actually attend. This includes both Josè and Carmen, whichis making things a little difficult for us.I hope everything continues to go well for you at home this week, andI hope that the new ward turns out to be great. I love you all.Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father love you. The Book of Mormon isTrue. The church is true.TRUTH WILL PREVAIL! We are all called to serve in this great work.Keep moving forward. Keep pushing on. Life is great, so smile andenjoy it. Tyler

October 4, 2010

Hey Family,
Glad to hear everything is going good and that Utah State finally
decided to win another game. I’m especially happy that it was against
BYU, for obvious reasons, although I wish that BYU and Utah State
could both be decent at the same time for once. I’m glad to hear that
Megan is liking her young women’s group and that Trevor and Alex will
have the opportunity to transition. The new ward sounds great and I
can`t wait to meet some more people. The rain that you are having
sounds wonderful! We never get rain... or snow... or sun. It’s just
foggy, smoggy, cloudy, and overall generally gross, but the people make
up for it. I just can`t wait to get rain when I get back home. I may
just play in the rain and make myself sick the first time it rains.
Thanks for the pictures you sent in the mail. I love getting them,
and every time I do it puts a smile on my face. :)
I have been sick the last week and on Tuesday I was completely out of
commission until after lunch because at 4:40 in the morning I woke up
and threw up all over the place. In the morning we called Hermana
Tyler and she told me I had "Welcome to Peru" disease. It was
wonderful... However, I also gained an extremely spìritual experience
from this. Elder Kasat gave me a blessing and I slept and felt
miserable all morning, however, after lunch I was able to proselyte
with Elder Kasat, and then that night I felt miserable again. It
showed that the priesthood has the power to help for what is needed
and that through Christ I can do all things, including walk a bunch
while my stomach and head were on fire.

On Wednesday our morning was rough, but at the end of the day we were
able to teach Leidy again, who still thinks that she isnt ready for
baptism. We are working hard to convince her otherwise, because she
is definitely ready. We also taught Sandra, who is one of our many
cases of someone who can`t move forward until she and her esposo get
married. They have it planned for October 30th so hopefully after
that we can move forward. She seems excited to learn and wants to be
baptized, we are just waiting for that marriage.

On Friday we had the opportunity to again teach Angel and Juana. They
both are really interested in Jesus Christ, but I can`t quite decide
how they feel about our church and having one church in particular.
This week we are going to invite them to conference and hopefully
after that we will understand a little more about what their desires
are and if they are going to want to move forward in the gospel. We
also taught Lucila and Elizabeth. Both of whom are people who need to
be married before they can be baptized. Lucila isn`t as far into the
lessons and we aren`t sure where she is at completely yet, but
Elizabeth has a huge desire to change and be baptized. She wants to
be married on the 30th too, but her esposo, who happens to be an
inactive member, doesn`t want to get married. It is causing problems
because he is slowing down her progress, but we are going to continue
to work with them and hopefully they will move forward with that step.

Saturday was P-Day except for Internet, (Today Obviously), and we were
able to move things around in our room and put what belonged in our
room... Like a small fridge and a microwave... and take out the things
that didn`t belong. We also got together with our Zone for games and
that night we had a Family Home Evening with our Zone that consisted
basically of a testimony meeting. It was amazing. Its amazing how
much spirit and power can be in a room when a bunch of 19-23 year olds
get together and testify of Christ and of this gospel. It was a
definite testimony to me that we are missionaries called of God, and
that we have even more power than we can even consider, through faith
in Jesus Christ and through the power of the Priesthood. We have an
amazing Zone who has so much spiritual power.

Sunday was a study day for us, because again, we weren`t allowed to
proselyte, which I am kind of glad. When we were going to members
homes for food, the streets were crazy. Lots of people, some yelling
at each other. So much going on. Definitely detracted from the
spirit I was feeling that day. I studied in the New Testament, the
Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants and I read in Jesus The
Christ. I learned so much that I didn`t know before and it was a
great testimony for me.

I love you all, the gospel is true, no matter what language it is in.
The people here in the church are so awesome and I am so happy to be
here serving the people, even if it means I am sick for a long time
here. Have a great week, and good luck in school and in the ward
changes.

Tyler

Sept. 27, 2010
Hey family,
Sounds like everything is going well at home. It sounds like Megan and Trevor are in for a lot of changes and all of the kids are going to have to find some new friends in the ward. I'm excited for Megan's opportunity to go to Utah State next year, altough its kind of frustrating that my little sister will be as far as me in school when I get back. The yard sounds pretty crazy right now. With all the hornets it seems like the kids will be diving down into the water to avoid the bees alot more now. One note for mom. Hermana Whetton from the CCM (wife of the mission president), said that I should thank you for making me practice piano all those years, and she is thankful for you making me practice.

Here in Peru, there is some pretty crazy stuff happening right now. First, is awesome: I have had the wonderful opportunity of walking head on into a few baptisms. Yesterday we had a baptism for a man named Anibal. I have only briefly met him, but he seems really great, and his family is awesome. Yesterday we also got 2 commitments for baptisms on October 23rd. David and Jose are these two baptisms. Both are the only non-members in their family cureently so its great because their entire families will be members now, and they will be that much closer to being an eternal family. David is incredible. He has actually been an investigator for 7 years now, so its great that he is finally getting to the waters of baptism. David's family fed us last night, and so I got to know them a little bit more. They were incredible and they had an amazing spirit in their home.

Our second is rather interesting: This Sunday is the day of the elections here in Peru which means a few things are going to be happening. First our P-Day is Saturday and Monday. My email will be on Monday, but the rest will be Saturday. This is because in Peru it its illegal to have any gatherings of any kind on Saturday for the elections Sunday, so we are not allowed to meet with any families. This also means that none of the members can go watch conference this Saturday, and on Sunday we don't have church. The General Conference broadcast will be shown on the 9th and 10th, the following Saturday and Sunday. And then we have stake conference on the 30th and 31st. So this month we only have church on two of the five Sundays. It also throws off our schedules just a little bit.

The third is kind of frightening: In my area there are multiple places we can't go at night without a member, and certain places we can't go at all because they are dangerous. We also have had the awesome opportunity to have rocks thrown at us. My first day some teenager threw a rock at me. He missed, but it was an interesting thing to be welcomed with. We also had a rock thrown at our window a few nights ago, so now we have a window to fix. We also see lots of drunk people a lot here. It's pretty crazy.

Back to our investigators...
We have a few other noteworthy investigators right now. One is Fernando. He is 17 and has a desire to be baptized, but we don't have permission from his parents, so right now we are kind of at a stand still with him. We keep meeting with him, and we have talked to him about prayer and fasting for permission from his family, and hopefully that will lead somewhere for him. Our other major investigators are the Fernandez family, especially 2 of their daughters, Leidy (pronounced Lady) and Tania. Leidy is 15 and is really close to baptism. We hope to have a date set for her by the endo of this week. She has a great spirit. She just isn't sure if she is ready yet. Tania is 21 and she seems ready for baptism as well and she wants to be baptized, but firest she has to get married to her "husband". They are planning on getting married in the end of October, so we will have to wait until then to se a baptism date, but the desire is definitely there.

I think a little explanation is important now. Here in Peru there is a major problem for missionaries. In Peru it costs 150 soles to become married legally and many people don't have that money or don't want to pay that money so it provides an interesting situation. Many people here become married in all be legality. They love each other, they live together, they take care of kids together, and they even use the term "esposo" for their relationship. (Esposo is husband, esposa is wife) The problem is they are not legally married so they are breaking the law of chastity and they can't be baptized. Many of these people are very good people, but the culture here is just different. It is not looked on as harshly by members if people aren't married because outside of the church, very few people are married. David is one of these examples. He just barely got married Saturday, but he and his wife had been living together for years, and they have a teenage daughter. They were not living together before their official marriage for a while because his wife had been baptized, but now they call all be baptized. This is a common situation that we will have to deal with a lot here.

Quick list of other investigators I may talk about later.
Angelica (45ish) - has a son on a mission, has been an investigator for a long time. Doesn't want to get baptized yet.
Carmen (50ish) - Husband is Anibal. Just getting started with her.
Grecia (9) - was baptized but not confirmed and now too much time has passed and she needs to be baptized again. Her mom is inactive and her grandma is active, but we have a hard time meeting with her because her mom is seldom home, and her grandma lives in another area.
Arturo and Florencia (Not sure on ages) - Parents of David's wife Dora. I haven't met them yet. Don't really know the situation.
Juan and Rebecca (40's) - Another case of not being married officially. Only met once, and didn't keep the commitment to come to church.
Angel y Juana (76 and 73) - New investigators who we have an appointment with in a few days, they were excited about learning.
Jose (50) - New investigator.
Well, I'm glad everything is going well, minus the bees, and hope everything continues to go well. I love you all. Good luck with the changes.

Tyler

September 23, 2010

Hola familia,
I am finally in the field and it is a whole lot of crazy and I'm not sure what else. Over last week a few things happened. On Saturday was the day that we had the opportunity to go proselyting again. Elder Purvis and I were actually paired up with our teacher named Hermano Huerta. He made it a lot easier for us. We contacted 8 people and were able to teach one family a lesson. We got 3 references for the missionaries in the area and the one family we taught, who is inactive, said that they would go to church. Not being the missionaries, we couldn't follow up, but it was still a great thing.
Tuesday, I went into the field. We did a lot of things on Tuesday including having our entrance interviews with President Tyler. President Tyler is so cool, and was really kind and helpful to the missionaries. After that we went to the change meeting. It is interesting that because of the size of our mission, the entire mission meets every six weeks for the changes. We had 120 missionaries there waiting to welcome the 11 of us that were new to the mission.
My companion is Elder Kasat. He is from Santiago, Chile. He is extremely helpful and very patient with my poor Spanish. The opportunity to be serving with his is incredible. My sector is called the Porvenir sector, and it is the area for one of the wards here in Lima. My zone is the San Luis stake. My sector is actually new as of 3 months ago to the Central mission. The new mission boundries in Peru officially took affect in the beginning of July, and my area was in the Lima south mission before the change. The last two days have been crazy overalll and they have been very stressful for me. we are teaching a bunch of people, and i am never sure who is progressing and who isn't because of the language barrier. It's okay though, because it is slowly coming over time.
Here we have what are called Pensions. Which means that we never make our own food. We just walk over to someone's house and they feed us. I will try and send pictures to you as soon as possible, but I'm not sure how well tht will work. we also don't do our own laundry. This makes it interesting because I have to make a list of all the clothes I have that need to be washed so that I can get it all back. My room has a cement floor and the building looks pretty cool.
Things sound pretty interesting at home. I'm glad Megan and Trevor are having some fun with their band. I know that everything will work out with the new ward. The Bishop sounds cool, and it sounds like the area will be pretty good. And even though they aren't in the same ward, I bet the kids can stay in touch with their friends pretty well.
I love you all. And hope everything goes well with the new ward. I actually have P-day on Mondays now, I just had some time I was allowed to email today since I missed P-day this week. So expect another email in 5 days. The work is moving forward and I know that it is important.
Tyler

September 15, 2010

Dear family,
It's amazing how time flies by when you are busy with a good cause. The mission is blowing by and I'm again at that point of being super nervous about the future part of my mission, but I know that everything is going to turn out great. It has so far. I'm glad to hear that Utah State won, even if it was against a pretty week school like Idaho State. This year should be pretty interesting for them. Its great the soccer is going well for Alex, Adam and Trent. Im going to have to say though, that when I get back and Alex is a superstar on the High School soccer team that I'll have to give him a run for his money. We play a lot of soccer here in the CCM in Peru. It's actually making it pretty hard on my shoes. After only 8 weeks they are already falling apart, but I will make them last my whole mission, even if I am holding them together with scotch tape by the end. (I would say duct tape, but they may not have that here. They don't have super glue, which is really disappointing.) Sounds like Clarksburg is doing pretty well this year so far in sports as well. Im glad the ward is doing well right now too.

This last week was actually pretty uneventful overall in the CCM. A lot of classes. A lot of practicing. My journal entries are all like 3 lines long. Its been one of those weeks for the most part. There were a few interesting things though. On Thursday I read in Alma about the 2000 sons of Helaman. I was amazed by their incredible obedience to the Lord and their incredible trust in the Lord. In Alma 57:25-27 it talks about their faith, and in 27 it sums it up. I really like this verse. It says:
"Now this was the faith of those of whom I have spoken; they are young, and their minds are firm, and they do put their trust in god continually."
This is a ton of power and I really felt the spirit reading it. I also like Alma 48:17 when it talks about the amazing power of Captain Moroni.
Friday I had a pretty humbling experience... Elder Purvis and I had a TRC lesson and it went horribly. Elder Purvis was feeling really sick, and I was having a really hard time understanding the Spanish. The teacher pretending to be an investigator was bored, and frustrated because we weren't answering her questions. It was really difficult. I learned a lot from the experience though and it changed how I am going to study now.
Saturday was the day that we got to go proselyting again. Elder Purvis and I went out to an area in the Peru Lima North mission which was pretty cool because it was Elder Purvis' mission. The area was called Las Flores and it was ok housing, but not great. Definitely better than the people living Callao though. This one was tough because we were two North Americans without a Latin companion to help us with the lessons. We were paired up with the Elder's Quorum president of the ward and sent to some inactive members homes. I think we frustrated him a little because at the beginning he kept knocking on the door and stepping back to make us do all the talking, and I think it was kind of rough at the beginning. elder Purvis was trying to talk, and I was going through shock. I think I spent the entire first 4 houses with my jaw on the ground because I was so intimidated. We wound up only getting to teach one person on the entire trip because the others either were at work, weren't at home, or gave their children excuses for why they wouldn't come to the door. The one inactive member we taught had a little shop he was running out of his house, and his house was pretty nice considering the surroundings. We talked to him about the Priesthood and the power of the Priesthood. I learned something from this lesson as well. I learned that I need to follow the Spirit more.
I thought he was an active member and we were talking to him because we had extra time and he was preparing for a trip to the temple, but it turns out he was inactive. I had a feeling to bring up that he needed to go to church to allow his Priesthood to help those in his home, but I just pushed it aside because I thought he was a member. Even though this happened, the spirit was incredibly strong and I we left him with the Spirit in his home. I felt it and I know that he felt it. He gave the closing prayer and I think he understood the importance of the church.
It's really tough to gain a real understanding of Spanish here in the MTC even though I'm in Peru. The teachers and the Latin missionaries all talk slower to us to help us understand and because of the amount of North Americans in the CCM, I have a class and a companion of all North Americans which means I can speak English a lot and get away with it. I think that's why the opportunity to proselyte is so good here. It allows us to go into the real world and experience the people with really quiet voices, the people who slur because they are missing most of their teeth and the people who just talk really fast. This allows me to train my brain a little more in Spanish. We get tons of encouragement about the language though. Elder Slingerland is the Area medical advisor and he also acts as a member of the Branch Presidency at the CCM. He has used a few times the idea that in 6 months we will be fluent, 8-10 we will be super fluent and by a year or a little more we will be thinking in Spanish. Its tough to believe that now, but I know it will happen with the Lord's help. I love how the prophets talk about this in the scriptures. Nephi says it in 2 Nephi 4:20 when he says: "My God hath been my support; he hath led me through mine afflictions in the wilderness: and he hath preserved me upon the waters of the great deep."
I also like when Ammon says this as well in Alma 26:12.
"Yea, I know that i am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever."
This has been so helpful to me over these past 9 weeks. When I have felt an sort of inadequacy, I have been able to lean on Christ as my strength. My Savior has guided me so much. I think this is why I have been so engrossed in the scriptures. I told you last week that I have been reading a lot in the scriptures lately. Well now I am in Ether and I plan on finishing tomorrow or Friday. The power of the scriptures, even when I have been reading them in English, have helped me in my lessons as I use them more and more.
I am glad that everything is going well at home, and I hope that you are all doing well. For the boys, continue to prepare for your missions. It can be the greatest experience of your life if you put the effort in to it. Mine has already been incredible and I am still in the MTC. For Megan, keep being awesome and studying in the gospel. It will bless you life so much, even if you don't serve a mission when you are 21. I love you all.
Tyler

September 8, 2010

It's awesome that you got to invite the new family over to the house. I'm excited that the kids are going to get more people to hang out with their age that have good moral standards. I'm also glad to know that USU is actually looking pretty good at football. They had better be bowl winners by the time I get back from my mission. It's cool that Alex and Trevor both read the Book of Mormon in 26 days. I am loving reading the Book of Mormon really fast. I have been using most of my personal study time and all of my extra free time to finish the Book of Mormon in english as fast as possible. I am learning a ton from it, and it is cool to see all the storiest connect better than when you only read a few pages a night. I am actually reading 30 pages or so every day, minus Sundays when I'm busy with my Zone Leader duties and Wednesdays which are P-days.

On Wednesday last week we got to go into Miraflores in central Lima. It was really cool because it was part of my mission. It is also where the Peru version of the White House is. The main difference is that security in this area is incredibly tight. Because of the political unrest that has been prevalent even in the recent history of Peru they don't take any risks. There are officers with riot shields and AK-47's all around the main building and there were multiple guard dogs in the area. They also have tons of tourists in the area. I also went to a small marketplace and got three pretty cool things. A bag, a beanie which I am saving for when I get home and a Peru soccer jersey. In total it cost me 33 soles which is about 12 dollars.

The rest of the week was pretty slow because we didn't have proselyting on Saturday. I got to stay up late until 1:30 in the morning on Wednesday night to welcome new missionaries flying in from Provo. I actually ran into Isaac Bell who went to elementary school with me. He's in the CCM right now. He was one of the new group of missionaries.

My spiritual experiences were pretty good this week. We were studying for a topic, I don't even know what it is now. But Elder Purvis and I came across Mormon chapter 7. Mormon chapter 7 is basically Mormon's final testimony. It is awesome. In the last four or five verses he talks about judgment, baptism, and the Book of Mormon as another witness of Jesus Christ. It is incredible, and we think we will be able to use it for investigators on our mission. On Sunday we had a fast and testimony meeting and I bore my testimony, which was pretty cool. I also translated a temple orientation with Elder Purvis on Sunday. It was really tough, but I was surprised with how much I knew. I was able to translate a bunch of quotes and articles. It was a definite spiritual experience for me. I also came across a scripture in D&C 76:114-119. This talked about the kingdoms of glory and how we can all receive a witness of them through the Holy Ghost. Also in the introduction for verses 114-119 it says that all the faithful may see the vision of the degrees of glory. That would a great thing to see, and I hope to be faithful enough in my life to be able to see them. I think it's great that all the faithful can see visions like these. I love you all. Have another great week.
Tyler

Hola,
There have been a lot of changes at the CCM in the last little while,
and it is going to be an interesting and tough next three weeks, but
things are still going well. Im glad to hear that Adam and Alex got
to go on the varsity scout activity and that Trevor has another palm.
They definitely seem more devoted to scouting than I was. Its cool
that the ward is expanding so much and that there are good families
moving in. Everything seems to be going pretty well in Maryland. In
Peru it is finally starting to become less depressing overall. Here
the weather during the winter, although its not freezing is pretty
disheartening. Because of the pollution in Lima and because of the
fog that comes off of the ocean, there isn´t very much blue sky here.
But we are starting to see more blue sky and now there is actually
starting to be clouds and not just a layer of gray. The temperature
has always been comfortable, but a little chilly. Now it is starting
to warm up which is great.
The last week has been pretty good. I have begun to attack the Book
of Mormon and the Bible in english in my personal study time. I have
read from early 2 Nephi into the latter half of Mosiah in the last
week or so. With the exception of Sunday when we are busy and Tuesday
when I had to go to immigrations so I didn´t have personal study, I
have read from 15 to 20 pages in the Book of Mormon and 10 in the
Bible. I have had extra time because my companion has not been here
during companionship study. He has been at immigrations and interpol
and things like that to prepare to go to Mexico. On Saturday we went
proselyting again, and Elder Alvarez and I were in Callao again. We
knocked on 3 doors of inactive members. 1 wasn´t home and the other 2
let us in. I find it interesting, because I doubt we would get in as
many doors in the United States or in any richer areas in the world.
We also went to a recently baptized members house and bore our
testimonies to her. I didn´t understand a word in the entire first
visit, but the Spirit was definitely there.
I don´t know if I have mentioned this before, but there are a ton of
dogs here. They are all over in the streets in Callao and they just
sit around and don´t do much usually. On Saturday there was a little
more action with the dogs. One of the members we were with decided
she wanted to pet a dog, and it wound up that we had for or five dogs
barking at us and moving closer to us. Then one of the other 2
members started to swing his scripture case at them and they started
to back off. He then picked up some rocks as we walked away to make
sure that they didn´t follow us and attack us. Later I saw about 12
dogs start to fight each other. Pretty cool to see... From pretty far
away. I was a little nervous that they would come closer to us.
On Sunday we wrote letters to the MTC President and it made me think a
lot about what I had read in my scriptures. I thought about Mosiah
chapter 3 and King Benjamin´s speech. It was so amazing. I
especially focused on verses 16 and 17. In 16 it talks about man
being fallen by nature through the fall of Adam. And because we don´t
believe in natural sin and babies needing to be baptized I had never
thought about us as fallen when we are born. But then I thought about
it a little bit. We are fallen in one sense that I know of. We have
left the presence of God. Thats a pretty steep fall. Even if it is
for a good purpose in the end, we are cut off from his presense when
we go through the veil. I also like that verse 16 says that little
children are saved in Christ. How great a feeling to know that
children who don´t understand who die are going to be saved through
the Atonement. Although I don´t personally know anyone who has died
before they were 8, it still brings me comfort. I can´t imagine how
much comfort that would bring to people who have lost young children
in their lives. I also liked verse 17 where it talks about Christ and
says that through Christ is the only way we can return to live with
our Heavenly Father.
On Sunday we also watched the Joseph Smith movie. I am amazed by the
power of Joseph and Hyrum Smith and all who gave up their lives for
the church. These are people who trusted in the Lord and became
martyrs because of their faith. It made me think about myself...
Would I be willing to give my life for the church? I definitely don´t
know. I am giving 2 years of my life to serve a mission, but that is
a whole lot different than dying for the gospel, and I know that the
Lord will bless me for my mission. I am also not leaving an entire
family to fend for themselves because of my mission. Joseph Smith and
Hyrum Smith both left families that had to continue on their own. I
decided that I would like to think that I would give my life for the
gospel, but in the moment would be a whole different story. Joseph
and Hyrum had so much conviction and I hope that I can have that some
kind of conviction in my life. The movie reminded me of the talk that
Jeffrey R. Holland gave about the early leaders of the church. If you
haven´t heard or don´t remember that talk it is definitely worth
watching again. You can find it on LDS.org. It is so powerful about
the Book of Mormon and the early prophets. I think it is called a
witness to the Book of Mormon. You can definitely also find it on
Youtube. And it may be easier on Youtube. I think that the pioneers
were incredibly strong in their faith and in my opinion, every member
who died because of mobs or sickness in their treks between Ohio and
Utah are martyrs. They died trying to follow the prophet and be
strong in their faith. They died for the gospel. They are all
martyrs in my book. I will always remember their example and the
example of Joseph and Hyrum as well as the talk by Elder Holland. And
I will continue to learn and trust in the Lord because as Nephi says
in 2 Nephi Chapter 4. "I know in whom I have trusted. My God has been
my support.
Monday was interesting because as we have been preparing to get new
teachers, districts and companions one of my teachers asked me to
write the words for "Be Still My Soul" down in English for her as well
as writing how you would say the word with Spanish letters. For
example Be still my soul is something like "Bi still may sol" It is
weird because there isn´t a way to write it in Spanish for every
english sound. It definitely helped my spanish though.
Tuesday was interesting as well. I changed districts, but we kept my
entire district intact minus the loss of the one sister missionary we
had. We just added other missionaries. Here it is a little
different. Because North Americans and Latins have different class
work because they don´t need to learn the language. My companion was
in a different district than me so our 12 missionaries in our
district, 106, were companions with the 12 missionaries in District
105. Now its all english missionary companionships so my companion is
in my district. We also had an interesting experience with
missionaries leaving. They needed more room for more missionaries so
8 missionaries from my group were asked to leave 3 weeks early and go
into the field. Because of this we lost 3 missionaries from our
english district all of whom went to the Lima Central mission. One
was our district leader, so we didn´t have a district leader for about
a week and a half. Elder Purvis one of the elders in our district
filled in for him. Elder Purvis also happens to be my new companion.
He is from American Fork, Utah and went to Snow College for the last
year before his mission. He is awesome and it should go well.
The most interesting change yesterday was the fact that I was assigned
to be a Zone Leader in the CCM for the next 3 weeks. I am one of 4
North American Zone Leaders and their will be 2 Latino Zone Leaders
once the Latino missionaries get here. The Zone Leaders were assigned
off of recomendations by the previous Zone Leaders. The other 3 Zone
Leaders: Elder Jensen from Salt Lake, Elder Huddleston from Louisiana
and Elder Angerbaur from Bountiful were all district leaders before so
they know a little bit more about whats going on than I do. Its going
to be great though. I think it may have just been the 4 district
leaders from before had my district leader not left early. I think I
was probably called because I got to know 2 of the Zone Leaders really
well and I played the piano for them a lot. It is pretty interesting.
I need to go now, but I love you all, good luck with the beginning of
school.

August 25, 2010

Hey family,
This last month has been so ridiculous for me. You asked me about the
food and its pretty interesting. The food is good for the most part
and its just different. Most morning we have some kind of meal with
eggs, bread, and this really thin type of yogurt. On occasion we have
had french toast or pancakes, but they don´t have much syrup here, and
when we were shopping in the supermarket and went looking for it it
cost like 3 times as much as it does in the United States. In their
supermarket they have lots American foods but they are all really
expensive. For example, an 8 pack of fun sized twix candy bars is
about 15 soles, which is about 6 or 7 dollars. Here lunch is the
biggest meal of the day, and they every day we have rice and some kind
of meat. Its pretty good. They also have different appetizer type
things, most of which are pretty disgusting, one of which I got to
give it a try and it has permanantly removed any chance of me ever
eating broccoli again. Pero está bien. I just don´t get the appetizer
thing. I still get plenty of food. They also have a dessert every
day. One Peruvian type of dessert and jello... Some of the desserts
are kind of weird, but Ive become pretty good at being able to tell by
looking at it if I am not going to like it. They have also attempted
to make American desserts, but they aren´t always good. If not I get
jello, because its kind of impossible to ruin jello. Sugar and water
makes things a lot easier. During dinner we have rice and meat again
with a small dessert item that is usually pretty good. All in all the
food is different with lots of rice, but nothing other than their
weird appetizers is bad.
Im glad to hear that everything is going well at home. Its awesome
that Adam finally has someone his age in the ward that he can do
things with. Although his friends in the neighborhood are pretty
cool. Im glad to hear the work is progressing well in the ward, and
you are having a good time in the ward. Its important to keep working
and striving to help the missionaries because we can use all the help
we can get.
The weeks in the CCM in Peru are kind of all the same over and over
again. On Tuesdays we have devotionals on some mornings and some
nights we have enseñanzas, where we practice teaching situations for
investigators. They are frustrating some times, but it helps the
language and it helps with teaching skills. The CCM is kind of
frustrating because of my companion sometimes, but I just try to work
my hardest, and try not to focus on the negatives. All the latinos
and all of the older North American missionaries leave in the next
week, mostly on Monday and Tuesday so the CCM will be pretty empy for
a while. On Wednesday of next week we get to go on a tour of areas of
Peru and shop in areas where we can haggle prices and get more
experience shopping. After next week I will have a North American
companion, and things will change a little bit.
On Saturday we had an awesome experience. We went proselyting for
practice in Lima. I was actually proselyting in a part of my mission
out by the ocean. The poverty in the area I was in was incredible.
No one had very good houses and everything was dirty and poor. It was
actually a little sad to think that I had lived my life so comfortably
and they were in such poverty, but they are happy here. And they are
so kind to the people who come. That night in my journal I wrote
this:
"We went proselyting for the first time. We were focusing on inactive
members, but we also placed a Book of Mormon. We had an opportunity
to talk to an old woman who is a member. Her testimony was so
strong. she had an incredible spirit. We were in the Callao area of
Lima. The people there are so poor. it was a real eye-opener for me.
These people have makeshift homes and no luxuries. Their roofs are
hardly roofs at all, and yet they are so happy... The members are so
helpful, and if the non-members , or inactive members, don´t want to
talk to you, they are kind about it¨"
The work is moving forward and even though their church didn´t have
the running water working they praised God like the riches people in
the world would, and maybe even more. I love the people here and I
love my mission. yo sé que José Smith fue un profeta de Dios. Yo sé
que Jesucristo es nuestro Salvador amaroso. Yo sé que el evangelio es
verdadero. I love you all,
Tyler

Dear family, How is life in the United States? I have landed in Lima, Peru and am not at the Peru CCM. We finally got here at 2 o clock this morning and then we went to bed. Just an update: On Tuesday we had a devotional and the speaker was David Evans. He is a member of the quorum of the seventy and he talked about the importance of the Book of Mormon in our teaching. He talked about how every scripture passage in the Book of Mormon can help us in our teaching to the people around us, and as we do so the Spirit will be there. He talked about the Book of Mormon letting investigators know that what we are teaching is true. He said they will receive revelation through the Book of Mormon. He taught us to have investigators read the Book of Mormon from the beginning, and giving them reading assignments taht will challenge them. He said something i found interesting about Moroni 10:4-5, he talked about what "with a sincere heart and real intent" meant. A sincere heart is when someone really wants to know the truth, and real intent is a specific intent to act on the answer. PMG says to encourage them to read the Book of Mormon from the beginning. It also says: "The Book of Mormon combined with the spirit is your most powerful resource." He also spoke on the Isaiah chapters in the Book of Mormon. He said that if we focus on Christ while we read them, then we will understand them better. I know that all of what he said is true. I feel the Spirit so much on my mission. After the devotional we discussed it as a District. The Spirit was so strong there. After we sang "Para Siempre Dios Esté Con Vos" which is "God Be With You Til We Meet Again. It was awesome. We took some pictures back at the room and got ready to go. I got to sing "Face to Face" to my district and it was awesome. Then I went to bed and got up at 5:30 the next morning for my flight to Peru. In Peru they put me with a native companion. His name is Elder Alvarez and it is very hard to have a native companion because I can´t communitcate with him. Elder Alvarez is going to be serving in California, and the other two Peruvians in my room are going to be serving in Mexico. My district is great, and we have had a good time today. Today has been a relaxation day for the new North American missionaries because of our long travel and lack of sleep. Tomorrow the hard work will begin again. It gets frustrating because I can´t understand what is being said around me, but I know that if I trust in the Lord it will work out. I want to leave you with a few quotes:

The importance of the Book of Mormon in the Latter-Day work cannot be overestimated

-James E Faust

We are who we are, and we know what we know, and we are to go forth and preach the gospel.

- Boyd K. Packer

The Power of the Gospel is so incredible, and it will help all of us in our lives. I love you all.

- Tyler

Last P-Day in Provo

August 9, 2010

Dear family,
This last week as gone by so fast. On Tuesday we had another LGM and devotional. The LGMs have all been very helpful for me as I prepare for my mission. On Wednesday we had another TRC appointment. We had to contact about families and the importance of families in Spanish and then teach the first Lesson in English. Our contact went great. The woman we contacted was pretty nice about how poor our Spanish was. She was very patient with us. Our lesson was kind of rough. We were working with our investigator on Joseph Smith and where he got his authority as a prophet. One of the teachers was our investigator and he made it pretty tough, but at the end the Spirit was there and he accepted the commitments we gave him so it turned out alright. On Thursday and Friday nothing happened other than the daily grind of the MTC, but on Saturday we had another practice lesson. This time we taught Lesson 2 which is on the Plan of Salvation. It was a train wreck. I learned a lot from it though. The 2 missionaries we were teaching gave us some great tips for the future. We ran in circles and didn't teach very well but we were finally improving by the end of the lesson. On Sunday we had our departure devotional and a Sunday night fireside. There have been a lot of talks and devotionals on service and obedience since I got here. The Spirit continues to be so strong. We have been preping to leave today and tonight we have a Health and Safety meeting for departure. Tomorrow we will be packing so we can be ready to leave by 6:00 a.m. (Much better than the 4:30 that we had to get to the MTC.) There is a group of about 40 missionaries going to the MTC in Peru at the same time as us. At least thats what it looked like at the departure devotional. My flight group is 8 missionaries. I am actually flying on Delta Airlines so my bags can be 50 pounds and I can have 40 pound carry-on not to mention I can use my backpack as my little back so wight and room won't be an issue and Ill be able to bring plenty to study on the 12 to 13 hour trip to Peru. If there is one thing I wish I had done more of before I left was study Preach My Gospel more. Trevor and Alex and Megan (just in case) should study PMG as soon as possible. Especially the Lessons in Chapter 3. Know them in English really well and practice teaching the doctrines in them and you will not be as overwhelmed when you get to the MTC. They use PMG so much in the MTC. Study the scriptures as well. The more knowledge you have the easier it will be when you turn 19 and leave on your missions. (Or 21 if Megan decides to go. :) ) It will still be overwhelming, but it will be less. Spanish is still tough, but it is getting easier. I can understand a lot that the missionaries who have been here long are saying, but responding is difficult and frustrating.
I do get your Dear Elder letters, but I wasn't able to respond to them because they don't print them off until 5:30 every night, and I have to write earlier than that. (Sunday's don't get printed off until Monday night.) Sounds like everything is going well at home, and Bar-T is still lots of fun. Im glad to hear that the ward has another baptism. This work is so important. If I could request one thing, it would be for you to pray for the investigators learning the gospel and the potential investigators around the world. Missionaries are told to not try and figure out how well they taught, but to try and figure out how the investigator is feeling. We are instructed to teach to lead the investigator to know certain things, to feel certain things, and to be willing to do certain things to exercise their faith. (This depends on the progress of the investigator and what Lesson is being taught.) Commitments are so essential. Beacause if they won't keep their commitments it will be harder for them to be ready for covenants made in the church. This work is moving forward and it is so incredible. The next time I write you, I will be in Peru! If letters are sent to Provo after I am gone they will be returned to sender with the correct address. All that will be needed is the extra postage. :) I love you all. Work hard. Keep the faith. Strive to be better every day.
Tyler