January 23, 2012

Hola familia,

¿Como estáis?

Glad to hear that you
finally got some snow... Although I don`t feel sorry for you, it has been about
2 years since I have seen snow... It`s tragic...
The Rich family is
going to Korea? Wow... That`s crazy... You do realize that with that
announcement... I now know absolutely no one in the ward... I at least knew the
Rich family from the Gaithersburg era, but that`s okay, Im not complaining.
Sounds like the things are changing a little bit... Alex should definitely at
least learn the hymns... It comes in handy when you are on your mission...
(Personal experience) And don`t worry mom and dad in six months you will have
three noisy teenagers and me... (We don`t get quieter when we reach 20 or 21
years old), And by the way 5 children over the age of 12 qualifies you both as
old... Just to throw that out... And depending on how life goes in 3 or 4 years
you could be grandparents... Ha ha...

This week has its ups
and downs, but we were able to push on and get past the problems... The Lord
blesses us when we put in our best effort in the mission and in life... It is
something I have learned a lot here in Peru... I have also learned a lot about
humility... Sometimes the Lord has to make us suffer to make us realize that we
need His help so that we will turn to him again... One classic case is the
pride cycle that is ever so common in the Book of Mormon. Nephites are
righteous, they become prosperous and wealthy, they get prideful and entire
cities are destroyed or taken by the Lamanites, they realize they need the Lord
and they repent, and they are blessed.... We just always have to remember where
the blessings come from...

This week was awesome
because Anabely, Liliana, and Hugo all came to church again Sunday, so we are
moving forward with the plans for their baptisms. Anabely passed another test
of faith that scared us to death... Her grandmother got to church and told us
that she had to return home because part way to the church her stroller
broke... She had become sad and wasn`t going to be coming to church... Well, we
didn`t want to hear that so we went running to the stake secretaries office to
call her 15 minutes before the meeting started... She came to church
afterwards... Late, but she came... Another miracle... Anabely is really
excited for her baptism and we are planning on doing everything we can to help
her get there...

Liliana is also
excited for her baptism... She is planning on being baptized with Anabely this
week... She has a great spirit and she wants to learn more... Its awesome
because her mother in law (Anabely`s grandma) says that Liliana is always the
first person ready to go in the house... She is progressing a ton... It is
amazing because we have been teaching her for almost 6 months now and we
thought she wasn`t very interested and one day she came out of no where and
said she wanted to be baptized.

We are loving the work
right now in our sector... We have passed through trials but the trials have
strengthened us and are helping us learn and grow... Elder Jimenez continues to
be awesome.

Fiorella continues to
advance... It was actually interesting because we thought she was going to be
out of town so she wouldn`t be able to come to church on Sunday, but she
came... It was awesome... She is moving along and has a lot of desires, and now
she has friends in the young womans program. She is still preparing to be
baptized in February...
We are also working with Javier still although, he has run into a few trials,
which is making it tough for him...
Ericka and her family are also moving along... Estefany and Erick loved church
last week an wanted to go yesterday... We aren`t exactly sure why the didn`t
come, but we are going to find out... They are a great family, we also found
out yesterday that Ericka`s husband was baptized in the church when he was
younger... So we have some work we can do there as well...

The Lord has blessed
us so much these last two weeks and we are trying to continue to be worthy of
these blessings... We are working hard and trusting in Him... I know that this
is His work, because I couldn`t have success without Him... We must follow His
methods...

The Church is true...
The Book of Mormon is true... I have learned to love the gospel during my
mission to this point and will continue to learn more... I love you all

Tyler