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