July 23, 2011

Dear Family,

Basically, Ill start by describing the title of my letter. I have made an official scientific discovery. (Hypothesis, theory, and facts included) The second week of every transfer is the toughest week here in the office. Up to this point we have not been able to proselyte in our sector for more than 1 hour. It´s been tough, however, we have done almost everything that we will need to do for the next couple week, so we hope to be able to get out and proselyte a bunch in the next couple weeks. We try and work as much as we can in our sector, but it is pretty tough. Elder Noriega is awesome though. We still get along great, and he loves to teach. When I get tired of teaching taxis, he just jumps right in and takes care of it. I learn so much from him. Other news in the office. We have partially been busy with an activity that we are going to do Monday. Monday we are having a mission-wide activity. Its going to be pretty sweet. We are basing it on the Pioneers because of July 24th. I have found that is really sweet to be in a different country when you start talking about things like pioneers, because the pioneers of the gospel in some of the central and south american countries are still living. For example, my companion´s grandparents are some of the pioneers in Guatemala, and we have an Elder from Colombia who is a pioneer for the gospel in his city, and an Elder from Ecuador who also is a pioneer from his tribe. (He is basically what you would call a native American. He still lives in a tribe, and he has church authorization to have long hair because it is part of their culture. I think it´s pretty sweet.) We are planning games, and a video and its going to be a really spiritual experience.

This week we have had some interesting experiences teaching. We have mostly taught taxi drivers, but during this time, we have found a few receptive people and a few less receptive people. One man I had a chance to teach was actually a less active member. He was baptized when he was 17 years old, and so we taught him and we gave him another Book of Mormon. He was really excited to be able to read it, (he had lost his years ago), and he told us that he would make some time to go to church. It was a highlight in a pretty rough day. We also have been able to plan to get ready for the following week. We also had another opportunity to do another baptism interview. This time it was Elder Noriega´s turn to do it. The sister missionaries in the ward are working really hard and are having a lot of success. Its pretty awesome. We are able to help them a little bit with their investigators, which turns out being a blessing for all of the work in the ward.

Sad news on Leon (the 80 year old priest). He had a stroke this week. He is declining in health, and its been pretty rough for him. We hope he will improve, but its looking less likely now, however, Elder Noriega and a member gave him a blessing the first time they went. (I was with Elder Pineda at the time) We have the faith that he can be healed, if it is the Lord´s will. However, we also find that it is important to follow what I call the "if not" scenario. If it is the Lord´s will, he will recover and be able to come to church and be baptized, but if not, the Lord knows our hearts and his heart, and he will have the opportunity to receive the blessings of baptism through baptisms for the dead. We are going to be taking down his information, just in case. We hope for a speedy recovery and we will continue praying for him. We are also going to try and visit his family in the next week. We received his family´s information, and the member who gave us the information says that they are also interested in the gospel.

I know that the gospel is true, because I have seen the blessings of the gospel in the lives of others and my life here in Peru. God loves us, and desires our happiness. We can receive whatever thing we ask for from God, if it is right. (3 Nephi 18:19-21) I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and translated the Book of Mormon through the power of God. Thomas S. Monson is a prophet, and the apostles are also prophets seers and revelators. They receive revelation for us. I know that prayer has power. I love you all, and hope that God will bless your lives this week and in the future.

Tyler

July 16, 2011

Happy Birthday Megan!!! In 5 days anyway,

I´m gonna say that it feels really weird for me to think that Megan is going to be turning 18. I feel kind of cheated because Megan will have the opportunity to vote before I will, but its okay. I also am reminded that my little sister will be as far as me in school when I get back from my mission. Weird.

Another week has gone by, really, really, really fast. We have been super busy as well with a few different things that have come up in the mission, however its been pretty cool as well. This change we had a ton of changes to the mission. We also have 21 new missionaries who have entered the mission and only 14 left, so, the mission keeps on growing. We also had a change here in the office. Elder Bate finished his mission and so we got a new assistant. His name is Elder Stauffer and he is from Layton. I like joking now that half of the office Elders are from Davis County so the office must be pretty cool. Elder Stauffer is awesome, and he is going to be a great assistant, although the office is going to miss Elder Bate. He had a huge impact here. He was a great example for me as well. We are excited to have Elder Stauffer here, and he is excited to be able to serve the other missionaries in the mission, we are also excited for this upcoming change. I am also super excited to be able to work with Elder Noriega again. He is awesome. We get along great, because we are quite similar, and although we still need to work a little bit on our unity in teaching, we feel like things are going to go pretty well for us this change.

This last week has been pretty crazy, we had an activity in the ward that went pretty well. The members gave us a bunch of support. We also had a division. I was with Elder Pineda and Elder Noriega went with a member to teach an 80 year old priest from another religion in the hospital. It is amazing the effect that members can have in the work. This man became interested in the gospel because of a member who worked at the hospital who had the charity and the love to help this man when he was in need. He saw the light of Christ in her and the example of the believers that she was, helped him find the gospel, and now he wants to be baptized. We just need him to get out of the hospital. We are going to go back and visit him again tomorrow, and see how he is doing.

Well that´s all for this week, I hope everything is going well, and you can find teaching opportunities every day, and you can be examples of the believers like this sister in my ward. I love you all,

Elder Tyler Rasmussen

July 9, 2011

Hey family,
Sounds like life was pretty normal this last week. Its pretty awesome that Megan, Trevor and Alex are all working. And way to go Adam for beating us all at merit badge getting at scout camp. That´s pretty sweet. You finished half an Eagle Scout in one camp. :) Just remember to keep working hard to achieve it.
This week in Lima has been pretty interesting. We are getting ready for the changes, so obviously there is a lot for us to do right now. We are also trying to work hard on finding people to teach and help come to the knowledge of the gospel. We haven´t had much success with the references and door knocking, but we keep trying to move forward and be happy. One cool thing is that I learned how to do a rubik´s cube again. :) We also have had the opportunity to talk to a few less actives in the ward and plan with the youth leaders more on how to work with the young men.
There isn´t a whole lot to report. Mostly we have just been really busy. Although Wednesday in our District Meeting. Elder Lopez, who is our district leader, taught about the fact that everyone needs to improve and we decided as a district on how we could help each other improve on the Christ-Like Attributes. I had two that I decided I wanted to work on. Obedience, and Love and Charity. Obedience is always something I can improve on in the mission. Little things like going to bed at 10:30 and getting up right at 6:30, and using study time in an effective way. I also decided to work on Love and Charity. I have learned here that love and charity are things that are essential for missionaries. I sometimes feel like the mission is too hard, or get frustrated when people don´t listen, and then when we pass people in the street who I would rather not talk to because I don´t think they would listen or I don´t trust them, I realize that I am not showing love for them. Someone once asked a group of us in a meeting if we loved the people in Peru. Everyone says, ya we love our investigators, and the members... but to say that they loved all of the people in Peru that they come in contact with is very hard to say yes to. Its something I want to work on. An unconditional love like that of Jesus Christ.

I love you all, and hope the weeks keep going well.

Tyler

July 2, 2011

In the flying missionary pictures last week we were landing on a mattress on the floor.
A few pictures
1. The office with President and Sister Tyler and their daughter.
2 My poor shoes... Yes I did finally start using the other pair.
3.Map of our mission. Its kind of hard to see, but if you can zoom in using the computer you can see the names of the zones. PS you can also see missionary boundries by logging in with your member account on maps.lds.org. Its pretty cool. You can see really how incredibly small our mission is.



Hey family,


It´s way cool to hear about the experiences you have had this week. The youth conference in Kirtland sounds way cool. I think it would be awesome to be involved in something like that. Dad tells me that the spirit was really strong, and I felt the spirit just reading about it. Way to be examples to those around you. It´s great to hear that the kids talk about my mission, but at the same time, the boys can give their testimonies and share that you are also going to serve missions in the church. Never be afraid to bear your testimony, no matter how small it is. The simplest heart-felt testimony can touch the hearts of others and lead them to a desire to come unto Christ. You have power, and through the bearing of your testimony, your testimony will grow and become more powerful. Alma 37:6-7 says that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass. These small testimonies can bring the salvation to the souls of your friends. verse seven says that the "Lord God doth work by means to bring about his great and eternal purposes; And by very small means the Lord...bringeth about the salvation of many souls." Your testimony can be this small and simple thing. I am way happy and proud to hear that Trevor had the opportunity to bear his testimony about the experience during sacrament meeting. For me, testimonies are very important. Through a spiritually guided testimony, we can invite the Spirit to touch the hearts of our friends, families, neighbors, and all others who we come in contact with.
We are seeking to do the work of the Lord here in Peru and there are 50,000 other missionaries just like me doing the same. And that´s just the ones doing it full-time. The efforts of the millions of members throughout the world, inviting people to come unto Christ is amazing. As Daniel prophesied, the stone cut out of the mountain is beginning to feel the whole earth. I know that the gospel will continue to be preached until it feels the earth.
This week we haven´t had a lot of time to work in our sector, however we have been blessed with opportunities to teach and help others. We were involved in a family home evening and we taught about faith. It was a great experience and we were guided by the spirit. I love seeing the faith of the people around me here. We are trying to work with a lot of the young men in the ward, because many are inactive. We are hoping we can get to know them and help the learn about the importance of the gospel of Jesus Christ in their live so that they can feel the desire to come to church, and learn of him and eventually serve missions like we are serving right now. We are going to do it through a variety of methods. Activities, sports, and service. We are hoping that soon there will be 20 young men attending the ward. (Right now there are about 4.) We are also trying to help guide our investigators to the truth of the gospel. The sister missionaries in the ward are having a baptism today. Its Marco. Im not certain if I mentioned him or not, but he has only been investigating the church for about 2 weeks. It just goes to show that through the power of the Spirit many people can come to love their Savior. It also shows that the Lord brings the people who are prepared to receive the gospel to us as missionaries.
My scripture of the week is in Alma 61:9. In 60, Moroni sends a letter to Pahoran the chief judge and gets after him for not sending more reinforcements, In Alma 61 we learn that there have been problems in the land and Pahoran has been removed from the judgment seat by rebels. Pahoran could have been angry for the chastisement he received from Moroni, but he showed his humility and his love in verse 9 when he says "you have censured me, but it mattereth not; I am not angry, but do rejoice in the greatness of your heart." He then begins to talk about the liberty that is so important to him. I think we can follow his example and not allow ourselves to be angry with the things people say to us. Its definitely something I have been trying to work on here in Peru.
I hope everything continues to go well at home, and you keep getting opportunities to share the gospel with those around you. I love you all and hope that you can be the hands of God in blessing the lives of others.
Tyler

June 25, 2011

Hey family,


Its great to hear that you are doing well and that Megan survived the wisdom teeth experience. (I hope you filmed some of the experience. :) ) I will give an AMEN! to getting it done before college. During college was pretty terrible. Sounds like the end of school was good for everyone. And now that school has ended it means one thing.... I am getting way to close to the one year mark in my mission. Just so you know, I have decided to permanently be a missionary. Im never coming home. ha ha. These days are pretty awesome, but still lots of work and kind of frustrating sometimes, however, the good outweighs the bad. :) This week we have had a lot of surprises and a lot of days that were kind of long, but all were filled with good experiences.
Tuesday we had interviews with President Tyler. It was pretty awesome. It was actually kind of interesting. All of my other interviews with him in my mission so far were like 3 minutes. This one was 10. And I see him more now than I did before. It was cool though. He made sure that we are studying and practicing teaching and getting out in the field sometimes. And he made sure I wasn´t being incredibly overwhelmed. Basically, he cares about all of the missionaries a lot. I have a lot of respect for him. Sad story is that he will finish his mission and go home 3-6 weeks before I do. Kind of sad, but I´ll get over it.
Wednesday we wound up going to the airport with President Tyler and a couple of missionaries that needed to go home for medical reasons. It was kind of sad, but at the same time, we had the opportunity to ride back afterwards with President. It was good to talk to him. Although we just talked about soccer and the difference between Maradona and Pelé, (President Tyler really likes sports), it was still a pretty sweet experience.
Thursday we had a pretty interesting experience. We had to go to Tail Loy which is an office supply store to buy some ink pads so that the different Elders in the mission can do fingerprints for different legal documents. On the way back, Elder Noriega was teaching the taxi driver and as we got out of the taxi he forgot about the ink pads. So we had to go back to Tai Loy and buy some more. It would up being an awesome experience because we had the opportunity to teach like 8 more people and to give out a few copies of the Book of Mormon. Needless to say none of these eight people actually live in our sector, but it was still an awesome opportunity to teach.
Friday was an interesting day because we had to go and clean the warehouse where we hold the things like beds, mattresses and dressers for the missionaries. Basically after the big change where we had to shut some sectors to open up the two new zones, we left the place in a disaster. We cleaned and organized it and it was all working well, and then we got a call this morning at 9:00 that a water faucet had been left kind of running and had flooded part of the warehouse, so we got to go back this morning and clean it up. It basically killed our study time, because it split it in half, but in the end it was interesting at least. We had to be creative about where we were going to put the different things to dry them. We also took advantage of the fans that we have in storage. They are helping dry out the other things.
Today we also had an awesome opportunity to teach Diego. Diego is between 20 and 25 years old and he was pretty awesome. We taught him about the restoration and he is open to learn more, he is one of the awesome investigators that, after we had contacted him a week and a half earlier, had actually read the pamphlet that we left him, so when I said that the great apostacy ended with a young prophet, he said "Smith, right" The thought that ran through my head was, "Either this guy is awesome and read the pamphlet or he has heard from missionaries or heard about the church before and is going to try and argue with us about Joseph Smith." It wound up being the first one. It was a great experience. He accepted that when he receives an answer he would get baptized. He also isn´t catholic even though his parents are very catholic. That´s not normal here. 90 percent of the people we talk to are catholic so it was a different experience. He just believes in reading the bible and following Christ as best as he can (99.9 percent of the people here believe in Christ, its pretty awesome). We told him he could come closer to Christ and its something that he really wants. We are excited to keep teaching him.
Lately I have been reading in the book of Mormon about the wars in the end of Alma, and it has been a great learning experience for me. I learned about the faith and diligence that I need in my mission from the 2000 sons of helaman and the faith and confidence in the Lord that I need from Helaman himself. Helaman found himself in a tough spot, but trusted in the Lord and was guided in what he needed to do. We are trying to do that here in our sector, and when walk around the street, we knock every door that looks like a good door. Basically as we are walking, Ill look at a door and the thought will pop into my head, (you should knock on that door), and I we do it, we don´t worry if its the spirit or not. We are trying to do our part and we know that the spirit will lead us to the doors we need to knock on. Its happened at least twice lately, and its bound to happen some more.
I love you all and hope that everything continues to go well. I know that Christ lives and loves us, and that He restored His gospel through the prophet Joseph Smith.
Good luck in your fun summer activities.

Tyler


Photos
Elders flying through the air:
1. Elder Bate
2. Elder Noriega
3. Me
4. Me with book of mormon


Other picture with a story behind it. Sister Tyler wants all the missionaries to have a white board to write about their investigators, Elder Noriega and I brought the Assistants into the apartment and drew them a picture with nicknames we have given them. Elder Pineda has gained a lot of weight in his mission, so we called him watón. Its slang for big stomach, and Elder Bate goes home in 3 weeks so we called him trunky (missionary slang for a missionary who is thinking about home too much.) We als drew pictures to fit.
I think we are pretty good artists.
1. with everyone
2. the drawing
3. me and elder Noriega


other
E. Noriega and me at the ocean.

June 18, 2011

Hey family,
Glad to hear that everything is going so well and that Megan has accomplished the great accomplishment of surviving High School!! Yay!!! The Canada/Idaho experience sounds pretty awesome as well. It´s always way cool to have the family around and to be able to visit. Youth Conference sounds like its going to be awesome. To me Youth Conferences when you are within driving distance of Palmyra and the other parts of church history sound really fun to me. I think it would be sweet to get to go to one of those. I think from my view point the best part of the week was your temple session. I´ll be honest, I wish I had gone to the temple a lot more before the mission and I plan on going more after the mission. (I plan to do a lot of things after the mission, we´ll just have to see how that works out. :) ) I also would like to officially wish mom and dad another HAPPY ANNIVERSARY! And while I´m at it, I should just wish everyone a happy birthday now, Merry Christmas, Happy Easter, Happy Thanksgiving, and Happy Toss Up Candy Day. (Just in case you don´t remember, I made that last one up in like 2nd grade. Now that I think about it sounds like a pretty lame holiday to me.) I do this now, because I am bound to forget about it later... Oh ya, and Happy Father´s Day Dad!
This week in Peru has been pretty cool, temperature-wise, but I still haven´t found a use for a jacket or those thermal garments I bought before my mission. This week we went all over Lima again, and I had the opportunity to go the Area office and do a bunch of legal paperwork again. We are working really hard right now and we are seeing the blessings. Remember the 2 out of 4 taxi drivers being from Lince? By Monday it was 4 out of 6, and one of them said that he would come to church tomorrow. Its pretty exciting for us. Monday we also had a great lesson from Elder Wilson and Elder Zapata, the zone leaders. They talked about demonstrating love and charity for the people we serve and teach. It´s something that I feel like I still lack and so I like to learn a lot on how to improve it. Elder Zapata and Elder Wilson both teach with the spirit and its great to hear the lessons they have for us.
This week wasn´t loaded with opportunities to go and knock doors because we were so busy, but Elder Noriega continues to be an example for me with his desire to teach everyone he comes in contact with. Because of him, we have been able to teach small lessons to tons of taxi drivers throughout the city of Lima and to help a few converts in their testimonies.
The best experiences of the week though, happened today. The scripture of the week and the spiritual experience of the week. And both on P-Day. :)
1. I got to read the scriptures a little bit more today than I had been able to in the past. I read about the sons of Helaman in Alma 53 and it was great. The best part about it for me were the two verses that I call, "The way all young men should try to become!" It says that these young men were exceedingly valiant for courage and strength and activity. They were also true in all times in whatsoever thing they were intrusted. They were men of Truth and soberness. I like this a lot. They were valiant, they were strong and of good courage and the part that stuck out to me... They were true in all times in whatsoever thing they were intrusted. I imagine Moroni asking them to do important things or Helaman or the leaders of the people of Nephi and having total trust that they would get it done. I want to be that way. I want people to be able to have that confidence in me. We all know the rest of the story, when they talk about how their mothers taught them and things like that. I also liked when I read verses 13 to 15 where the fathers of these young men were going to break their oaths to never again kill someone. They showed their love for the people of Nephi by being willing to break this oath to help protect their liberties. (I´d imagine that they taught the importance of their liberties to their sons) These verses also show the love of the Helaman for them. He didn´t want them risking falling into sin again for the protection of the people. It doesn´t say that they definitely would have fallen again into sin, but it was a risk that Helaman didn´t want to take. He cared more for their eternal salvation than for even his own life. I found this important. We need to lose ourselves for the salvation of others.
2. The spiritual experience that we had today was awesome. We met Marco. Marco is actually one of the investigators that the sister missionaries in the ward are teaching. He had met them in the street and had given them false information because he wasn´t really interested. Then he read a little of the Book of Mormon and felt really bad about his dishonesty. He wound up calling the office because the office number is on the back of the cards, and asked us to help him get in contact with the sisters. We did. Then tonight we went to help the sisters with a baptism, and he was there before the baptism to talk to the sisters. They asked us to sit with him while they went to look for the baptismal clothes because he decided to say and see the baptism. We took the opportunity to teach him a little. He was very repentant, and he has had a pretty hard life recently, and the spirit was really really really strong. It was an awesome opportunity for us. We talked about God´s love for him, and that through faith in Jesus Christ he can receive the help he needs. We shared with him the promises that come through prayer and repentance. We can all get better. To see this mans humility was astounding. He went from not wanting to hear much about what the sisters were going to say, to wanting to listen and hoping that our church could help him come closer to Christ. I learned from his humility more than I think he learned from me. And the spirit definitely taught all present more than any of us could have done. It was an awesome evening.
I know that this church is true. I know that through the power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, men like Marco and like me can be forgiven of all of our sins and receive the peace and warmth of his love. I love this gospel. It´s days like today that remind me why I am serving as a missionary. I love you all, and I hope the best for you all in the upcoming week. Remember that God loves you, Jesus does too, and they both showed that amazing love for us. (John 3:16-17, John 15:13) The gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored to the earth. I have learned the truth of the words of Ammon in Alma 26:12-13 and 26-30 when he says "I know that I am nothing." And then in 27 says "when our hearts were depressed...the lord comforted us." I have seen both happen. As for myself, I am nothing. I am weak. I am not the best teacher and do not know the scriptures perfectly, however when filled with the spirit I can speak the will and mind of the Lord (D&C 68:4). And as a representative of Jesus Christ, when moved by the spirit, I can promise blessings in His name, and can bless in His name, and can teach and testify in His name. I love the gospel and love my Lord, my Savior and my Redeemer. I bear witness of Him daily. It is one of the greatest blessings to have and I cherish this time I have to do it. Its a short limited time. I wouldn´t trade these two years for the world.
I love you all,

Tyler

June 11, 2011

Hey family,
Its great to hear everything that´s going on at home and its great to hear about what everyone is doing. Glad to hear about Alex´s heroics in soccer. I think its way cool that you had the opportunity to play goalie. And its cool that you were involved in the penalty kicks. I´m gonna have to say, I don´t like being goalie. I´m kind of afraid of the ball. Sounds like everything is still busy, which is always a good thing.
Before I go into the craziness of the week Im gonna talk about the less spiritual things, I like finishing spiritual. First things first, Good News. I am winning the elevator game 35 - 20. Basically I am creaming Elder Noriega. Don´t worry, Im humble about it. Other good news. We get along great. Other interesting news. Ollanta won the national elections for Perú. I know that means almost nothing to you, but its interesting. We also forgot to pay our light bill so we were without lights for a day. Pretty cool huh? And finally I learned a Liter of Chocolate Milk and 100 grams of Peanuts is not a good dinner. Neither is over-eating anticucho.
Now onto the spiritual.
This week has been really busy for us. We have been taking things to different parts of the mission that missionaries needed, and we have been trying to do everything that we can to get out and teach in our sector. Its been really great because we have focused on planning and preparing to go and teach, we just haven´t had hardly any time. In our mission President Tyler has focused on the process of faith that both missionaries and investigators have to go through in this life the baptize and to retain members of the church. It consists of five steps that we have to pass through. I have seen this process this week in my mission.
1. The hope. We have had a lot of hope this last week. Part of this hope was praying and setting a goal of 2 baptisms this month in a sector where we currently have 1 investigator and there hasn´t been a baptism in 7 or 8 months. (Speaking of the office elders, not the ward) We have the hope that we can have success here and still be effective in the office. Elder Noriega has a great attitude and we have focused a lot this week.
2. The hope brings faith. Faith is believing in things which are hoped for and not seen. This means we have to believe in the miracles we have yet to see. We know it is possible to see these miracles.
3. We must act. Faith without works is dead. We know this line of scripture that comes from James. But what does it really mean? Does it mean that I have to show my faith that I find someone to teach by knocking on 2 doors? 5 doors? 10 doors? I would say that none of these are the answer. I believe that the action is a never ending process. It means that I am doing everything in my power to make the miracle happen. I very much agree with a statement I once heard, and Im not even sure where. To be successful we have to work as if everything depends in us and have faith in the Lord as if everything depended in him. Because both are true. This scripture in James 2:17-18 tells us that. We must show our faith through our works. We must give it our all, and at the same time get on our knees and pour out our souls to Him who created all things. This is something that has happened for us this week. We have worked hard. Working quickly, but we were almost never able to leave and work in our sector. So what did we have to do? Elder Noriega and I made a goal to talk to everyone we could. We talked to ever taxi driver and Elder Noriega took it to heart and talked to everyone: The lady who cut our hair... The lady who bound some small books for us... the security guards in the building... Everybody. He is a great example for me. You think that´s tough? Having to do everything in your power? It´s tiring yes, however next is the hardest part.
4. The trial of the faith. We have seen these. From taxi drivers who don´t really want to talk to us, to never being able to leave because we were super busy, to getting a little sick. The trials come. Dad sent me a video with parts of talks from Henry B. Eyring and Jeffrey R. Holland. Jeffrey R. Holland talked about this. Its not always going to be easy. If dad still has that video, its definitely worth watching for everybody. Missionaries and non-missionaries (and future missionaries) :). We it gets tough for Henry B. Eyring he gives himself this rallying cry.. "Remember Him!" Jesus Christ suffered all for us. Jeffrey R. Holland talks about Salvation never being easy. It wasn´t easy for Jesus Christ so we should even begin to think that it would be easy for us to do the work. We may have to suffer a little bit. It hasn´t been easy for us. However we can always "Remember Him" our Savior and Redeemer Jesus Christ. The last part is the greatest part. Its the part we love to see.
5. The miracle. When our faith and our prayers are answered. We have had miracles. One example. Today, we went in two taxis. Both taxis were men who lived inside our sector. That had never happened even once before. But this time we ran into two men that lived in the same small area of Lima. One of them wasn´t very interested (Elder Bate had actually taught him in his taxi about 2 weeks before), the other gave us his phone number. The other example came in an interesting way. If I haven´t said it before, Ill say it now. President Tyler is an incredible man. He may have noticed we were a little stressed or overworked or he may have been guided by the spirit, but today for P_Day he took us to lunch and bowling. I´ll explain how this was a blessing. 4 stressed Elders were able to forget about the mountains of things we need to do. We were able to relax and have a good time. President is always like that. He notices how we are doing all the time.


That was my process of the faith this week. We will have to keep going with it, but I know we can have success, I have seen a little of that success this week and I am certain I will see more next week.... Hopefully things can slow down a little bit too. :) I haven´t had time to even write in my journal or study much. But thats what our planning is for. We continue praying and working. I hope the work is still moving along there, and that Trevor isn´t going to ruin the dating world. (Yes buddy, I did realized you are 16 now. The world had better watch out. jk) Just remember that respect is the most important in dating and that you don´t need to spend a ton of money. (And if dad pays for gas, it is possible for free) I love you all,

Tyler

May 21, 2011

Hey family,


Glad to hear that everything is going well at home and that you are all doing well to finish up the school year. Congratulations to megan for graduation high school in a few weeks. That´s way cool. Im glad to hear about all of the experiences you are having at home and that you are a ll trying to do your best in school, and sports, and with you friends. It was great to talk to you all last week and get to hear how everything is going. And before I forget.
Happy Birthday Dad. for 2 days ago, and Happy Birthday Trevor for tuesday. Its crazy for me to think that Trevor is going to be 16 this next week.

This last week has been pretty tough here in the office. We have had a lot to do. The crazy thing is that we are 1 and a half weeks from the next transfer, and I don´t feel like Ive even been in the office 2 weeks. Its been going so fast because Ive been so busy. Elder Olivera and I have been running all over the place, and trying to help wherever we could. Lately I have been feeling a little down, but I am hoping to start feeling better soon. I think my solution is to just get out and find someone to teach. It is also interesting to see all of the things that have been going on in the office, and I have had the opportunity to get to know a few more people. I hope that everything continues to go well for you, and that the last few weeks of school will be good.

Sorry this is short, but I don´t have a whole lot to report. I love you all.


Tyler

May 15, 2011

Hey family,
Well it was great to talk to you this last week, and hear all of the changes that are happening, and all the things that hardly change. Its been really interesting to see the differences that come with more maturity and more responsibility for me and for everyone in the family. Im also glad to hear that I no longer hold the record for the most time at an intersection trying to get the car to start moving in first gear. (Thanks Trevor) Glad to hear that you and Megan are both learning to drive manual cars. Ive found the manual cars are a lot more fun to drive. You´ll learn to like it, I promise. Glad to hear that everyone is staying busy. Its weird for me to think that my little sister is going to college in a few months and that number 3 has started driving. I would just like to remind mom and dad that you should start feeling old right now. :) Although, out of all the Elders here in the mission, I don´t think I´ve heard of an Elder yet with younger parents, so I guess you´re still doing pretty good.
This last week has been filled with work... again... I was hoping that about the 3rd or 4th week of the transfer, things would start slowing down a little so that we could go out into our sector and work some more, but I was wrong. This week we have been doing lots of things, although we have had the opportunity to get started with a few plans to work with the members. We are planning ward activities with the ward and planning ways to bring more investigators to church. We have had to buy things, take things to the areas of missionaries, pay legal payments, and do a multitude of other things. I have learned here how the Lord helps us when we do what He requires of us. Sometimes I don´t feel much like a missionary in the office, and we don´t have a lot of time to teach people, but the Lord is blessings us with good people to teach. We are teaching Lourdes, well kind of. We have only had one lesson with her so far because she can only meet with us on Sunday and last Sunday was Mother´s Day so she was with her mother, but we called her during the week and she told us that she had read the whole chapter that we assigned her. I think it was the third time that someone has told me that my whole mission, so we are excited for her and we are going to meet with her this Sunday and hopefully we can invite her to be baptized. She is awesome. Monday we also found a woman named Gloria to teach. She is awesome. She has 2 little daughters, one who is 9 and the other who is 4 and she is really humble and really wants to listen. We are hoping to have a lot of success with these two sisters. I learn new things here every week. We also have had the opportunity to help with a few of the investigators of the sister missionaries that we share the ward with. We gave a blessing to a little boy and his mom. (his mom is getting baptized later in the month) and they were a great family to talk to. The mom´s mom and sister are members and the family is really great. We also have had the opportunity to help the assistants out with their investigators a few times when they were prepping for conferences.
I have learned the truth of the work here. I have learned a few things about myself and what are the important things in this life. I have learned the way that I need to go with my life, and how I can have success in my life. My patriarchal blessing says somethings about me having success in my life, and before, I didn´t feel like I could. The school wasn´t easy, I didn´t do well in college and I didn´t have a direction. My friends definitely helped me and definitely, you my family helped me, but to be honest, I was a little bit lost. I have learned about the importance of families. I have learned about the love that people who have almost nothing have for each other. I realized yesterday when I was thinking for a little bit, that I know why I came to Perú. I know that part of it was so that I could teach the people here. There is at least one person here that I can help in a way that no one else can, however, I believe that God sent me here for me as well. To teach me these lessons. To help me realize what was really important. I know I´ve changed. I´m not exactly sure how, because it has been a slow and steady process, but I have changed, and I believe it has been for the better. I know that Jesus Christ lives and loves us. I know that the most success that we can have in this earth is inside our families, and then outside our families the most important thing is not how much money we make, what our business card says, or even if we have a business card. The most important thing for us is to show our love for other people to love the people around us as Christ loves us, and to have a positive effect on peoples lives. I read a story called "Pato o águila, tu decides" which is the story of a taxi driver who makes a change in his life from the life style of the Duck (Pato) that just makes noise to the eagle (águila) who soars above. I think we should all strive to be a little better or as I think President Hinckley said. "Try a little harder to be a little better." It may have been President Monson. I´m not sure. This story taught me that the effect I can have on people can be great and my attitude in whatever situation Im in is essential. I love you all and hope everything continues to go well. I know the church is true and it blesses the lives of everyone. Good luck this week and remember that smiling is the best medicine.

Tyler

PS
PICTURES!
1. This is what happens when two Elders try to cook hamburgers in a frying pan. My companion is doing his best to cook without getting burnt by popping oil.
2. The little boy we blessed. He is awesome.
3. The time we have to study. When we are waiting for someone, or in a brief break for five minutes.

May 8, 2011

Hey family,
Glad to hear that everything is going well, and that the kids are all staying involved in things. And about the shoes, don´t worry about it. I came with 2 pairs of shoes and I have only really worn one of the two. I won´t need shoes at all for my mission, and being in the office I have learned that it is a pain to get packages in the mission. The office has to go to the post office and it takes like 2 hours to get a package from outside the united states.
This week was pretty good. We had a multi-zone conference during the week, and it was pretty sweet to hear. I had the opportunity to watch Elder Bate and Elder Asqui plan for their training, and it was really good. My favorite part about it was what President Tyler said. He spoke about the importance of prayer in the work. He said that we are working in a world of repetitive padre nuestros (The Lord´s Prayer), dad can explain what it is. He talked about the importance of really praying and helping our investigators understand the importance of really praying. He pointed out that prayers are the way we can communicate with a supreme being. People want to talk to the famous people... Sports players, celebrities, presidents... but we fail to recognize sometimes that the most powerful being of our universe is just one prayer away and he wants to hear our prayers.
We also had the opportunity to start teaching two more investigators. Lourdes who is 20 and Jasmine who is 12. They both are interested. We actually thought Jasmine was a member, but it turns out that her mom, who is a member, won´t let her get baptized because of what her ex-husband, who was also a member, did. I think she blames the church. Lourdes is awesome and we hope to get a baptismal date with her soon. We are also still working with a teenager named Wilson and a man named Rafael.
The office is still tough, but it is really interesting to do something different. And I know I am serving the Lord in the office by trying to help the missionaries in the mission. I love you all and would like to wish a happy birthday (late I know) to Trent and a Happy Mother´s Day to mom.


Tyler

April 29, 2011
Hey family,
Well, this week went really fast. We have had a whole lot to do. I have been all over Lima a few times and I have had to pay a bunch of legal documents and things like that. Elder Olivera and I have had a lot of things we have had to do because of the recent changes. Changes for rooms, sending letters to families of missionaries. Sending letters to the future missionaries of the mission, but it has been a good experience so far.
One of the many things I have noticed since I got here were the huge difference in the areas. It is only 20 minutes but I went from run down rooms that didn´t have their own water to apartment buildings and houses with water heaters. I went from only knowing 3 people with cars, all old and beat up to seeing a Ferrari in the street one night. (It was a sweet Ferrari). It was interesting to see the difference between wards. I love it here in Lince. I miss being able to teach more people, but I still hope to teach a bunch of people.
To start the week of, we went looking for a reference which we were given on Monday and then we knocked some doors. To make a long story really short. A lot of doors got slammed in our face. Actually to be honest no doors got slammed in our face. They just all turned us down from their 2nd floor windows and their intercoms.
Tuesday we didn´t have any lessons. We happened to be in the office or doing things for the office all day. We had three missionaries come in during the week. 2 who finally received their visas to come to Peru from the United States. (looks like I got here at a good time.) Because of that, we were really busy.
Wednesday was pretty cool. I had a cool experience. Elder Bate (assistant) and I went out to help some Elders look for a new room. Its kind of hard to find rooms that follow the rules the church wants to keep the spirit with us and keep us save. (Things like a bathroom inside our room, avoiding living in the same house as young women and mostly just keeping us in a place where we can feel the spirit.) We didn´t find a room for them, but in the search we stumbled across an 82 year old lady who had assisted the church in Miami for a year and a half. We taught her again, and she invited us to come back. We won´t be going back personally, but we both felt like she was ready to be baptized. She was awesome.
Thursday, Elder Olivera and I had the opportunity to drive to El Augustino (one part of the mission) to San Martin (other part, other side of the mission) to take things to missionaries. During this time we were using a small truck, and we were able to teach Caileb a little bit. Caileb is basically our mover guy. (I will later be sending a picture of his truck. Its pretty awesome) Caileb has been moving things for missionaries for 4 or 5 years and has never really been invited to come to church. Caileb is awesome and we hope he will progress to the point that he gets baptized with his family. We also met with an inactive family and it was a great experience. We had a great lesson with the children of the family. They are interested in coming to church again, and I really felt like they felt the spirit.
Friday was by far the best day as far as proselyting goes. As I mentioned before (i think). As part of my responsibilities in the office President Tyler also asked me to be a District Leader in the mission, which means I will have the opportunity to do baptismal interviews. Yesterday I had my first one. It was a young man named Fernando. He was awesome, and he was really prepared to be baptized. He has made mistakes in the past, but really understood the meaning of Repentance. I loved the opportunity. While I was doing that, my companion went with one of the other two missionaries there to a lesson in my sector. He found an inactive woman who´s husband isn´t a member of the church. He challenged them both to come to church Sunday and they both said they would.
I have learned this week of how the Lord blesses us when we strive to do his will and we accept the responsibilities he has given us. I know that this work is important and I want you all to know that same thing. I love you all,

Tyler

April 22, 2011

Hey family,

Well this is going to be another short one.

This week has been pretty much the most hectic week of my life. I have had so many responsibilities here in the office. I am hoping things will slow down a little bit next week so we can go out and proselyte. I have been helping missionaries with medical things, I took two elders to the airport who have finished their missions and are going home, I have been to Callao and back 2 (40 minutes each way), Condevilla and back (45 minutes each way), San Luis (30 minutes each way), and all over San Isidro. Basically, I do all sorts of things.

I am curious. Did you ever receive a letter from the mission that had a picture of me with President and Sister Tyler in it? We send one to the parents of all new missionaries, but I haven´t heard of many elders whose parents actually receive the letters.

About the office.
There are 6 missionaries in the office. 2 of them are the Webbs... The Webbs are from Arizona and don´t speak very much Spanish. Sister Webb speaks almost none. Which is hard, because I do some translating.

The next two are the assistants... Elder Asqui and Elder Bate. Elder Asqui is from Ecuador, and he has been an assistant way too long. He is starting his 6th change in the office. To give you a reference, I was in my first sector 5 changes. He will be in the office up until about 8 and a half months. A long time.
Elder Bate is from Springville, Utah. He is really cool. He is really humble and he has helped me a lot since I got here.

Next is us.
Elder Olivera is my companion. He is from Jaén, Perú. If you want to know where that is, It is about 2 hours south of the border with Ecuador. So go to where Perú meets Ecuador in Google Maps, and then go south. Its part of the Department of Cajamarca. So if you can find the city of Cajamarca, go north and you will find Jaén. He is awesome. He is way humble, and he wants to work hard. Its really cool. We get along great. He takes care of packages for Elders and things like that.
Then there is me. I am the President´s Personal Secretary, which basically means that I do anything and everything they ask me too.

Lately we haven´t had a lot of lessons, but we have had a few good lessons with Taxi Drivers. This is a new learning experience for me. Its hard. But I can do it. Im excited and hope that everything continues to go well.

I hope that everything is going well at home. I know the gospel is true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet. I know that Thomas S. Monson is a prophet and he leads us and guides us through revelation from Jesus Christ. I know the Book of Mormon is true. In the 9 months I have been on my mission, I have found the truthfulness of it more every day. I love this gospel. And I love you all.

Tyler

April 16, 2011

Hey family,

I would like to start with a question. The family is going to Florida? And if yes... Why are all the cool trips to places like Kirtland, Ohio, part of new york and Florida all happening after I´ve left?.. Being the oldest stinks.

Well now that Im done whining.

Quick update... I got a change!!! I´ll explain that a little later...

Ok, its a little later...

If you can´t tell by the fact that Im separating a lot of my sentences, I don´t have much to say about this week.

Monday...
I don´t remember. But my agenda tells me that we that we had a lesson and we challenge Naomi and Maria to baptism. And they accepted! Yes!

Tuesday...
A normal day as a missionary... We visited a few people and we did our thing.

Wednesday...
Now about the change.
Wednesday morning at about 7:00 I got a call from President Tyler... But I was in the shower so I had to call him back... When I called him he asked me to be his Personal Secretary in the office for the next few changes. Wednesday I started in my new sector. Elder Linares has been working in the sector with a member for the last few days.

Thursday.
So here I am.

So Saturdays will now be my P-Day. always.

I have to go do responsibilities now.

Sorry about the short letter. Ill write more next week.

Tyler

April 11, 2011
Hey family,
Well sounds like everything is going pretty well in Maryland. I do love to hear about all of the things that are going on there. And way to go mom for passing around the word about the missionary work. I like hearing missonary experiences a lot. Being on a mission has changed my view of what missionary work truly is. I also feel a little bad that I didn`t want to go with the Elders in the ward every day while I was there. I have been analyzing it, and I figure there will be a three week intermission between mission and a job and studies, and maybe another job, so for 3 weeks I want to go work with the missionaries a bunch... and swim... and watch movies... and do all the other things I can`t do now. But thats not for a long time, so I won`t worry about it now... ha ha...


I am pretty worried about the general population of Maryland right now. I hope that Dad and Mom are calling the neighbors, the fire department, and the police everytime Trevor practices. Although, I am going to have to say that mom and dad should start feeling pretty old about now. Child 1 is in the mission, child 2 is prepping for college, child 3 is driving. Child 5 has the priesthood (sorry alex you kind of aren`t at a major rolemark. You`re stuck between the 12 and 16 without landmarks. I guess we can say teacher. :) ). And all of your children are baptized (That`s just awesome) Although, congrats to Trevor on learning to drive. Just remember I will be heckling you through e-mails since I can`t do it from the back seat.


Id also like to thank the people who sent me e-mails for my birthday: Jared, Jennifer, Elisa and for the card that was sent by Melinda and Elisa.


Now about Perù.


We are having more success setting baptismal dates. We have 4 now, and we plan to set a few more in the next couple days. Transfers are next week. By the way, I do have 6.5 months in my first sector. I started here back in September. I think its pretty cool. When transfers happen I`ll be 2 days short of 7 months in my first sector. I am thrilled. When I got here our sector was almost dead, and with Elder Kasat and Elder Linares I have been able to help bring a little fire to the sector. There is still work to do, but I feel like I will definitely be leaving the sector better than I found it. Our Zone has improved too. Right now, our zone has 33 people with baptismal dates. Our goal is to have 50 with dates by next week. The Zone goal is 20 baptisms in April and 40 in May. It`s too bad I probably won`t be here in May... But it will be awesome to see. The power of the gospel on lives here is amazing. All of these souls that are brought unto Christ by a bunch of people in their young 20s is amazing. For us we have Jhonathan Robles who is going to be getting baptized this Friday. Tracy and Florencia two others might also as well. We need to confirm with Tracy and challenge Florencia. Florencia is the mother in law of David Robles. She has been challenged to baptism by a host of missionaries, but recently she has been coming to church, so we will see what happens.
We are still working with Laura as well. She has a goal for the 23rd for baptism. Lucero, one of our newer investigators accepted a baptismal date for the 23rd as well, and Andrea, a 17 year old accepted a baptismal date for the 30th.

Needless to say, Im excited.


About Elections.

Yesterday we had another day of study. We couldn`t proselyte because it was against the law. They had elections. Here there are about 10 candadates with 5 who are actually given a possibility of winning. (5 kind of like our 2 parties, and 5 others like the independents that run in the USA.) Yesterday they had a first round. If no one gets above 50% of the votes then they have a second round with the top two candidates in May. The highest percentage was 31. His name is Ollanta Humala, and second was Keiko Fujimori, she got about 23 percent. What does this have to do with the missionary work? Well, Ill tell you.


Ollanta Humala is kind of radical. A lot of people in the provinces and parts of Lima want him because they want a change. He is militaristic. He wants to stop crime... Which Perù does need... However he is kind of radical about it. Everyone compares him to Jorge Chavez in Venezuela, and the people who are worried about him being president call him communist and compare him to Fidel Castro from Cuba. He also doesn`t want there to be Americans in Peru, so we will see what happens. If he wins it could slow down the number of Americans who come to Peru for their missions. Times like this are why before my call, we hadn`t heard about a lot of missionaries from the US in Peru. Its because there are times when they aren`t permitted. It could be interesting. Im not worried. Because God always wins. (Temple in Rome for example. Who thought that would happen?) Just thought I`d add an interesting side note about what`s going on here in Perù right now. It`s kind of all anybody talks about.




I love you all. Never forget that God loves you. Good luck with school sports jobs and all the other fun stuff. And please, Trevor, try not to damage any fences, posts, dogs, or children with the car.





Tyler

April 4, 2011
Hey family!
I'm just going to say right now that General Conference was awesome. More on that later


Glad to hear that everything is going well at home. Sounds like Megan is in the final parts of her responsibilities for the play. I remember feelings like that, although, mine were based around Homecoming activities, assemblies, and sports games. Sounds like the play is going to be pretty good. I`d imagine that Megan is loving it.




I asked Elder Baez and he said that he is from pretty close to Rama Los Boulevares. I think that`s pretty cool. I asked him and about the names of the places and he said "Claro". For those of you who don`t know what that word means. Sorry, I don`t know what it means in English. I just understand it. It is one of a few words like that. It means something like of course. He lives about 30 minutes away from Barrio San Vicente. He is from a ward named Barrio Aruello.


This week was pretty good for us. We set a few baptismal dates and we worked really hard. We finally got Jhonathan Robles to accept a baptismal date. He is going to get baptized the 15th. Its going to be awesome. I can`t wait. I also finally had the opportunity to do a work visit for me! As companion of a District Leader, I had yet to do a work visit that was meant to see how I was working. Before the Zone Leaders never did them and because my companion was District Leader, I didn`t have a district leader to work with me. It was awesome. I was with Elder Berrett, one of the Zone Leaders in his sector. He is awesome. He goes home with Elder Linares in less than 2 months, and I learned a ton from his experience. He taught me ways to teach with the Book of Mormon and how to be more effective knocking doors. He also showed me what being a Zone Leader was like. We had about 10 minutes of companion study because he was busy the whole morning on the phone with other Elders. The assistants, the district leaders, authorizing service activities. Basically, I learned that I would be okay with never being a Zone Leader. We found a bunch of new people for the sector. We got lost in a hill. We climbed a hill to the top (I miss hiking a lot by the way). Overall it was an awesome experience.


Elder Linares and I also worked really hard to bring people to conference. The sad part. 1 person came. But 1 is better than none. :) Conference is hard because it isn`t in our chapel. Its in the stake center. They have to take a bus to get there. It was a little hard. But we are still excited. Our Zone has the potential to have nearly 40 baptisms this month. (Don`t worry, Im probably leaving before it finally happens.) In May we have a goal for over 40 baptisms. Im way excited for the Zone. (Even though I probably won`t be here). President Tyler basically told me and my companion that I was leaving.


Conference was awesome. I watched in English. ha ha. Elder Berrett talked to the Stake and we were able to see all of Saturday and Sunday afternoon in English. (Sunday morning they needed all of the tvs and classrooms for Spanish) I learned a lot more in English. As cool as it is in Spanish. I just can`t understand some of the examples they use in Spanish. For example, I can`t tell you how to say crust or loaf is Spanish. Its not really important. We just talk about bread (Pan). Its the little things like that. Sometimes we don`t understand the weight of the words.

I learned a lot from conference. I liked when Boyd K. Packer talked. He said this (Im paraphrasing): "If you are looking for a church that requires very little... This isn`t it." He also talked about the fact that sometimes we should let things go. He talked of a stake president who said that sometimes we have to look at situations this way... "Nothing will bring it back. Anything you do will make it worse." Leave it alone. Be humble. Forgive. Repent.


I liked what Russell M. Nelson said. We shouldn`t let fear overcome faith.


President Uchtdorf in the Priesthood session talked about the priesthood. I liked when he said something like. Somewhere between conference, when you say you`ll do it and you write it in your smart phone, and actually doing it... Your "do it" switched gets turned to the "later" position. This is so true. We need to keep our "do it" switch in the "now" position.


Being with Elder Berrett who was listening for things that will help him when we get home. We noticed that there were a lot of people who basically chastened young men who aren`t focusing on getting married after their missions. They kind of destroyed my mindset of "Focus on school and if an opportunity comes along take it." They said that is the wrong mindset. We have to focus on marraige when we get home. But Im okay, I don`t have to worry about that for 17 more months.


Now that I am finishing up I would like to give my quote of conference...

Its from President Monson...


And it is...


"The gift of the Priesthood is priceless."


I love you all. Have a great week. Look for something from conference for each of you. If you don`t think there is anything. Listen to Elder Holland`s talk again and then look again. I promise you that there is something.


Elder Tyler Rasmussen

March 28, 2011

Hey family,
To start off with, I would like to thank you for all of the e-mails and for telling me happy birthday when I wasn`t there. And if you could also pass the word to Jared and Elisa for their short messages of happy birthday that would be awesome!
I am also thrilled to hear that the Final Four is an awesome collection of nobodies. (Well not really, just lower seeds). Just to let you know, I am cheering for Virginia Commonwealth and Butler. I really don`t care which one wins or who wins between Kentucky and Connecticut. I just want the winner to be Butler or Commonwealth.

Glad to hear that everything is going well at home. Congrats to Megan for winning in Church ball. Its probably not that big of a deal, but I think its cool. Its also awesome that you are putting lots of effort into the orchestra pit of your school play. I wish I had gotten involved in something cool like that. I was too busy attending every sporting event that I could.

Its awesome that Trevor is progressing in Piano too. I just have one thing to say... Trevor, you may be better than me at the piano when I get back, but you definitely won`t be better than me at playing "Jesus Once of Humble Birth" on the piano. I swear, Ive played that song about every other week for the sacrament hymn in my ward. That and Called to Serve. Hymns in general, because its pretty much all I have to play on the piano.

Props to Alex for making your schools soccer team. It will be tons a work, but I bet it will be pretty awesome too. I also noticed that Alex is doing pretty much everything. I hear. 2 Soccer teams - Alex, Drama class play - Alex, Science project with menthos - Alex. Wow dude. Do you ever have time to just relax. Awesome.

Bad break for Adam in his soccer practice with the bloody nose. Way to be awesome about it. Bad stuff happens sometimes. And after the cleanup, I bet the soccer was fun. I am also interested in your Da Vinci project. That`s pretty cool.

Other note: I need Trent and Trevor to back me up. Right now it looks like our family is turning into a soccer family. Now soccer is a great sport. But I just can`t be okay with that. I hope to hear that Adam continues to be awesome at basketball too. And of course, Trent can play whatever he wants, but I am pushing for basketball. :)

And for Trent, way to be a good sport with your car races. I am way proud to hear about my little brother Trent and his desire to have everyone be happy. Its way cool.

About Lima.
This week started out well and finished a little rough. Needless to say, I am never telling anyone here what day my birthday is. I feel like we wasted a bunch of time on my birthday, (The day I wanted to have tons of success). Its one custom of Peru that actually bugs me a little bit. Our pencionista actually got a little offended when I didn`t want to spend 2 or 3 hours of our time on my birthday in her house. And then at 6;30 my companion was thirsty, because its hot, and he sugested that we go to the pencionistas house for a little bit of our dinner time to get a drink. The little bit of time turned into 2 and a half hours as my companion sided with the pencionista. Frustrating, but its what happened. Saturday was just rough. Nobody wanted to listen. We witnessed someone chasing someone else with a gun. (don`t worry, we walked in the opposite direction.) And it just didn`t finish well. But Sunday was awesome. 10 people came to church. We are also planning to set a bunch of baptismal dates this week, again, since last week it didn`t happen for a couple reasons.
Betty and Joel are progressing. Joel told us he isn`t going to drink anymore. We are going to work with them this week.
Julia, Enrique, and Tracy are also progressing.
We set a baptismal date for Miguel for the 23rd of April.
Lucero and her brother (New investigators) came to church.
Delia came to church. She just needs to be married and she can be baptized. She wants to do both.
A couple inactives came. it was awesome.

I hope everything continues to go well. Im pushing forward here.
I wanted to give an invitation to all of the kids, and to mom and dad, but mostly to the kids:
Bear your testimony to your friends. Members and non members.
I was thinking about it, and when I was in junior high and high school, I didn`t do it. I also didn`t ask about my friends testimonies, and now I kind of wish I knew what their testimonies were. I kind of wish I had heard about their testimonies. In college it was a little easier in a student ward. But its a great feeling to know your friends testimonies.
I love you all.
Tyler

PS. Dad.
Elder Baez, who is from Cordoba, wants to know what stakes or wards you served in. His parents were baptized in 94-95 so they won`t know you, but we are still curious.

March 21, 2011

Ha, I just rhymed in Spanish. Yes, I am pretty proud of myself. It only took me 8 months in the mission to do it. :) I won`t let it go to my head though.
The seasons are changing. Its pretty awesome, or sawsome, as I like to say.
It has cooled down a little bit, so now its not quite as terrible to walk the miles that we walk everyday. It also actually rained yesterday. It really just sprinkled, but I am so used to the "magical place where it never rains" that it was pretty awesome.

These last couple weeks have been a little bit hard for us. We aren`t having a lot of success getting any of our investigators to progress. They haven`t been coming to church, and they don`t have a whole lot of desire, but we will keep pushing on and trying to find ways to help them keep their commitments. We had a low for people in the church in a long time. The only people who came were Laura, who is still working with the pills so that she can be baptized, and Florencia, which was actually pretty awesome. Florencia is Dora`s mother. Dora is Davìd Robles` wife. Florencia has had all of the lessons from missionaries in the past, she just didn`t want to be baptized, and she had never come to church, but now she came, so hopefully we can get some progression with her.

This week we found a few new investigators, the problem is that none of the people we have been trying to visit have followed through with their appoinments. We have a list of about 20 investigators, but a lot just like listening a little bit. We are trying to find some new people to teach who will progress a lot more. We are working with members and we are contacting more than I have contacted my whole mission, but it seems to be helping us find some other investigators to teach.

We are still working with Jhonathan and his desire to be baptized. We have talked about baptism and he says the only thing he would like is to attend church a few more times. The problem is that he goes to stay with his grandma every weekend. Which means that he is not here to attend church. But he likes being taught and he is getting closer and closer. We just need a little bit more of a push.

Julia and Tracy are progressing little by little as well. Enrique isn`t, but Julia and Tracy have the desire to be better, they just have little things holding them back, and I am not sure what they are. We are hoping to set baptismal dates for them in the next week for the middle of April. Hopefully they will be able to overcome whatever problems they are having right now.

Betty is just waiting for her husbands health to improve. He isn`t allowed to leave his house, and she wants to attend church with him. We are hoping to get a good lesson with them and set baptismal dates in April for them as well. They have both had witnesses of the power of the spirit and Betty, at least, recognized the spirit in her experience almost before I did. She is awesome, and had Joel not had the problem she could have been baptized in March, but now we hope to be able to see them both be baptized in April.

April is actually going to be really weird. We will only have 1 sunday in the chapel the whole month of April, and it will be after transfers, when I am almost certain I will be transfered. Run down:
First week: General Conference
Second week: Elections. Remember in October when by law we couldn`t proselyte or have organized meetings? Well its happening again. So April 9th and 10th, we won`t be having any meetings. Its a Saturday and Sunday of only studying. No baptisms and no church.
Third week: Stake Conference.
Needless to say, baptisms are going to be hard in the first part of the month. We are trying to plan baptisms for the 15th which is a Friday, so that we can actually have baptisms. But if not they will have to be the 23rd.

And, for why I am pretty certain I am leaving. We had interviews this week and President Tyler mentioned to my companion that I would probably be leaving. he also mention in a letter to me 3 days before interviews, that he feels I have the ability and the experience to take on more responsibility, and he has confidence in me. Great feeling, but nervewracking at the same time. I think I will be seeing a few changes in my mission pretty soon.

Well, to finish up, the church is true. I love this gospel, and am learning to love the scriptures more all of the time that I read them. I have been reading in the bible and the book of mormon and have learned tons. My goal is to have read the entire standard works and as I have read the Acts, and Romans lately, I have learned many things about Jesus Christ and His gospel through the words of Peter and Paul. I know that Jesus Christ lives and he loves all of us. As we approach the time of Easter, we should remember his sacrifice and his resurrection that have made it possible for us to be resurrected and live again with God and our Savior. I love you all.

Tyler

March 14, 2011

Hey family,
Its great to hear that everything is going pretty well at home. Everyone seems to be pretty involved in things at school and at home, although, I haven`t heard a lot about what Trevor has been doing lately. Im just assuming is busy writing awesome songs on the piano. :) Glad to hear that Trent is getting involved in the epicness of Pinewood Durby. (I think a Keegan word just showed up in my e-mail. "Epicness" ha ha) :) And it sounds like by the time I get back, Adam will be a Champion Trumpet player. Alex should also definitely be a pro soccer player. And of course, Megan is still involved in music, and oh ya, is going to be an Aggie. ha ha. I may have to remind her of that every once in a while. Being an Aggie is awesome. And Trevor is just being awesome.
Sad to hear that the Aggies continue without their respect. I don`t think it will change until they knock off a 4 or 5 seed. Hopefully this year will be the year so that in a year and a half when I am there, they will be an epic 3 seed. Changing conferences would help too.

This week was crazy in Perù. It flew by really fast. We had our transfer meeting. My Zone has grown and now has 20 missionaries, 18 elders and 2 sisters. Its pretty cool. Our mission has grown with the amount of missionaries we have and it is pretty awesome. Interesting news for dad. The first Argentine ever came to our mission (or as far as President Tyler knows). Needless to say, he is the only Elder from Argentina in our mission. He happens to be from Cordoba, and he happens to be in my Zone. Argentine Spanish is really weird. Just saying. I`ll stick with my Peruvian Spanish.

Clarification: Elder Linares has one more transfer after this transfer. So I will probably leave at the end of this transfer. Sorry if my typing is hard to understand.

Last Saturday we had an activity with the missionaries from the CCM here in Peru and they gave us a ton of references, so we worked with them all week. I was more tired at the end of the week then I have been my whole mission, but it was good. We found a few new people to teach. The sad news is that we lost 2 baptismal dates. Elisabeth and Betty didn`t come to church yesterday. We know why Betty didn`t come, I`ll talk about it a little bit later, but we have no idea why Elisabeth didn`t come. So we will have to move back their baptismal dates. We also have interviews with President Tyler tomorrow. Should be fun. I had heard about the earthquake. Perù got hit by the Tsunami that was caused by the earthquake. When it got here it only wound up being about a meter in height, but the afternoon that it happened all of the stores closed at 4 in Callao and the people were told to go home. Lima is actually pretty safe from tsunamis because most of the coast is cliffs. There are beaches below the cliffs, but no one lives there so the tsunamis hit the cliffs and then stop. Callao is the only dangerous place because there aren`t any cliffs. Its all flat. It also happens to be the poorest part of Lima, so the houses aren`t incredibly built. I think Ive talked about Callao before because its the most dangerous Zone in our mission, and I really want to go there. ha ha. Missionaries don`t get robbed there. a whole lot. Its okay though, Ive had someone try to rob me, and now he`s one of my friends. He always says hi to us as we pass. Ive found being friends with the thieves keeps you safe. Other missionaries have found the same thing.

Spiritual experience of the week. Betty.

I think I have told you about Betty`s husband, Joel, who drinks a lot.

Thursday we were planning to have divisions so that we could contact more of our references. We had been planning to meet in a members house, but they something fell through and we met in Hermano Chaing`s house (Below our room). Betty lives 3 houses down. We then had more fall through when one of the members was a little slow getting ready. We wound up leaving, and I believe that we were led by the spirit with these "holdups" We left and Betty and a neighbor were in the street asking for help because her husband, Joel, was having some kind of attack. He had pnemonia or something with being diabetic and he had been drinking. He was literaly dying. We helped load him into a taxi and they left for the hospital. Quite frankly it was a very nervewracking experience. He wound up being treated and he is going to be ok. But because of her husband, Betty wasn`t able to come to church. I know we were led there, and Betty knows. She said that she didn`t know what to do, and out of the blue came the missionaries, with 2 members, to help load her husband into a car. The spirit guides us and sometimes we don`t know it.

I love you all,
Tyler

March 7, 2010

Hey family,
So for those of you who don`t speak Spanish, the title of my e-mail says, "Ha ha, I stay one more transfer." I was informed on Saturday night that I will be staying in Porvenir for a 5th transfer. Which in real person language means up until 7 months. (My mind works in transfers.) I will be in my first area up until the 9 month mark of my mission (because I was in the MTC for 2 months). And after that its almost certain that I will be going home. Because my companion finishes his mission at the end of the next transfer (one more with me, one more with someone else). They usually don`t have two missionaries leave a sector at the same time, so if I stay one more, Ill stay two more which would leave me here 7 transfers or until July. Not likely.

I`m glad to hear that everyone has finished the sports pretty well. And it sounds like everyone had a pretty fun time in their basketball this year. For Adam, I would talk to Adam about whether or not he wants to keep playing the recreational basketball. Recreational basketball will give him more experience than church ball I think, so if he is interested in play High School ball staying in recreational might be better for him, even if he can`t go to the practices, the competition is a little better. Or at least as far as I have seen. I probably don`t have any idea what Im talking about. While we are talking about basketball, do you happen to know the name of the BYU player who isn`t playing anymore. Just curious. And I am really glad the Aggies keep winning. Hopefully they will get out of the first round of the tournament this year. (I know, first they have to make the tournament).

Here in Perù, everything is going pretty well. We have been working really hard to invite people to be baptized, because we have lots of people who just need a little bit of a push to come to church and be baptized. We also finally had the opportunity to talk to Fernando`s mom about being baptized. She told us no, but she said we could come back and talk to her another day, so hopefully she can find the gospel herself and they can both get baptized. Fernando is ready. Lately he has come to chruch in slacks and a tie, and Sunday he came in a suit. Frankly he was dressed better than anyone in the church Sunday, including the missionaries. It was pretty awesome. He has been waiting 2 years to be baptized, and I hope he won`t have to wait 1 year more. I also think its better anyway if his mom is okay with it.

We also had an activity yesterday that was pretty awesome. Remember the activity we had 4 of the 6 saturdays when I was in the CCM? The missionaries came to my ward for this activity. We had 20 missionaries knocking doors all day Saturday, so we have a ton of references to look for from them. It is going to be awesome. And one of the people taught by them came to church yesterday too. I also ran into a few Elders from Utah, one from Layton, and one from Bountiful. The Elder from Bountiful is named Elder Child, and when I got talking to him, he told me that he was related to Child`s in Syracuse. Im not sure if it is the same family of Child`s that we know, but was pretty cool. Turns out he also knows Spencer Cook, who I know really well, so we had something to talk about for the few minutes of rest that we had.

Im glad to hear everything is going well. I hope the work continues to progress in Maryland. I love hearing about the baptisms that are happening there. I have found more and more faith in Christ every day of my mission and we hope to be able to continue to feel his love. We learned about charity today in our Zone Meeting, which was awesome! We have to have charity to be successful and we read a few scriptures about charity. One of my favorites is Moroni 7:44-48. It talks about why charity is important and what exactly is charity. I love you all. I hope the next week will be amazing, and you will have a few opportunities to do missionary work. The Book of Mormon is true, it testifies of Christ. Jesus Christ is our Savior and our Redeemer. He knows us better than we know ourselves and he loves us. He loves us so much that he gave the perfect example of love (John 15:13) We always need to strive to be more like him. Never, never, never forget about his love and never stop pushing forward in this live and remember that we need to Endure to the End.

Tyler