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