Monday, February 6, 2012
Dear Family January
2, 2012
FELIZ AÑO NUEVO!!!!!!
(That means Happy New
Year)
Glad to hear that you
had a good week last week and that you have been enjoying yourselves there in
Maryland. Sounds like everything is going amazingly.
This week in Peru was
interesting. We had a few rough days because of the Holidays. We also learned
something... Bars aren`t friends to missionary work. Neither is alcohol... (Its
like I learned something new... :) ) Saturday night going into Sunday was
terrible. We slept... almost nothing... There is a bar on the other side of the
street and they had a New Years party that lasted until 8:00 Sunday morning and
at 9:30 when we were out trying to get investigators to come to church, there
were fights happening outside of the bar. Sounds like a great way to start the
New Year...
This week also had a
few great things. We were able to set baptismal dates with Anabely and with
Hugo. They are both planning on getting baptized in January. Anabely is a young
women who is 17 and she is pretty awesome. She learns quickly and has a great
desire to know more about the gospel. Hugo is the opposite. He has been
receiving the missionaries for over a year and finally has decided that he
wants to be baptized. The Lord blessed us for our efforts, even when we
struggled a little bit with homesickness.
We also have been able
to meet a few new people and the members are getting excited to help with the
missionary work. Sunday we received 3 references from the members in the ward
and they even set up appointments with us to be able to go and visit the
references. The change in the Bishopric has also been good although the New
Year has made things a little bit difficult. Elder Jimenez and I are excited to
keep working. These last few days we have set some goals for this transfer and
for this year, and we are working on many things to improve. I think that there
is always something that we can improve on. The blessings come when we are
humble enough to recognize our faults and repent. Then the Lord helps to
improve and move on.
I love you all and
hope that this New Year becomes a great one, and if you ever are feeling down,
just remember that your favorite oldest son, (or brother) comes home this
year... Ha ha... I know that the gospel is true and that through faith in
Christ we can achieve things that we never would have imagined. The Lord will
guide our steps and direct our paths. The Lord who knows us better than we know
ourselves and who knows exactly what we NEED will help us find it, even if it
is a little bit different than what we want. I know that as it says in Ether
12:27 our weaknesses will be made strong.
Again, I love you
all...
Tyler
2, 2012
FELIZ AÑO NUEVO!!!!!!
(That means Happy New
Year)
Glad to hear that you
had a good week last week and that you have been enjoying yourselves there in
Maryland. Sounds like everything is going amazingly.
This week in Peru was
interesting. We had a few rough days because of the Holidays. We also learned
something... Bars aren`t friends to missionary work. Neither is alcohol... (Its
like I learned something new... :) ) Saturday night going into Sunday was
terrible. We slept... almost nothing... There is a bar on the other side of the
street and they had a New Years party that lasted until 8:00 Sunday morning and
at 9:30 when we were out trying to get investigators to come to church, there
were fights happening outside of the bar. Sounds like a great way to start the
New Year...
This week also had a
few great things. We were able to set baptismal dates with Anabely and with
Hugo. They are both planning on getting baptized in January. Anabely is a young
women who is 17 and she is pretty awesome. She learns quickly and has a great
desire to know more about the gospel. Hugo is the opposite. He has been
receiving the missionaries for over a year and finally has decided that he
wants to be baptized. The Lord blessed us for our efforts, even when we
struggled a little bit with homesickness.
We also have been able
to meet a few new people and the members are getting excited to help with the
missionary work. Sunday we received 3 references from the members in the ward
and they even set up appointments with us to be able to go and visit the
references. The change in the Bishopric has also been good although the New
Year has made things a little bit difficult. Elder Jimenez and I are excited to
keep working. These last few days we have set some goals for this transfer and
for this year, and we are working on many things to improve. I think that there
is always something that we can improve on. The blessings come when we are
humble enough to recognize our faults and repent. Then the Lord helps to
improve and move on.
I love you all and
hope that this New Year becomes a great one, and if you ever are feeling down,
just remember that your favorite oldest son, (or brother) comes home this
year... Ha ha... I know that the gospel is true and that through faith in
Christ we can achieve things that we never would have imagined. The Lord will
guide our steps and direct our paths. The Lord who knows us better than we know
ourselves and who knows exactly what we NEED will help us find it, even if it
is a little bit different than what we want. I know that as it says in Ether
12:27 our weaknesses will be made strong.
Again, I love you
all...
Tyler
January 9, 2012
Hey family,
Glad to hear that you
survived New Year´s. Sounds like the whole family is involved in different
things. I still haven`t decided if I like New Year`s or not. For a missionary
its pretty boring. We sit in our room and normally we sleep. New Year`s is also
tough because of the amount of power that the adversary has on this day. There
is a bar in front of where we live here and they had a party until 8 a.m. on
the New Years Day. We left to go get ready for church and it was a sad scene.
The streets were a mess, there were people fighting in some areas. Drunk men
crying on street corners, and not very much attendance in church. It`s sad for
me to see how Satan takes the good things that New Year`s could be...
Resolutions to be better people, time with family, and a time to think about
how we have been living, and he turns it to be the opposite. Drinking and
entering into a stupor and many mistakes that seperate families... It`s our job
as members to show the world how it could be and not participate in what the
world has made it. It`s similar with many holidays....
This last week has had
its ups and downs. We went through a lot of trials during the week, but we were
also able to make plans to improve in the future. The life of a missionary is
never easy, but it is worth it. This week we were able to meet a bunch of new
people to start teaching. We met a woman named Ericka and she invited us to
come and teach her family. She has four kids, Estefani, Erick, Jean Pierre, and
Lex (yes, named after Lex Luther from Superman). They are pretty awesome. She
actually contacted us in the street instead of us contacting her. She had
attended church one time and the missionaries who were in the ward where she
attended never passed the reference or the Elders here didn`t look for her or
find her.
We also found a man
named Javier. He is an example of what New Year`s should be. He talked to us
telling us about the desire he had to change his life for the better, and we
are happy to help him do that. He is very honest with us, and has a good
desire. We also started working with a 9-year-old girl named Carla. She is
awesome and wants to get baptized. Her mother is a less-active member and Carla
has great desires. We are working with her mom and her so that they can start
attending church and Carla can be baptized.
We keep working with
Anabely and with Hugo. They both have great desires, we are just trying to help
them progress a little bit further to their baptisms. We are also working with
many of our other investigators to help them progress a little bit more and
become ready for their baptisms.
I have made many New Year`s goals, but only until July... ha ha. I decided that
the Lord would help me set good goals when I arrive home and help me achieve
them if I choose to focus in the mission and not in what my life will be like
after. It is amazing how quickly the time goes by, but the Lord blesses us when
we strive to do as He wants. The trials come, but they pass. As it says in the
New Testament... "We can do all things through Christ, who strengthens
us." This is the Lord`s work and so it must be done His way. There is no
other way to do it. I know that He loves us and wants us to succeed. I have
felt the power of the Atonement here and I am learning to love Him and know Him
more personally. I love you all and hope that you can continue to see His
blessings in your lives.
Tyler
Hey family,
Glad to hear that you
survived New Year´s. Sounds like the whole family is involved in different
things. I still haven`t decided if I like New Year`s or not. For a missionary
its pretty boring. We sit in our room and normally we sleep. New Year`s is also
tough because of the amount of power that the adversary has on this day. There
is a bar in front of where we live here and they had a party until 8 a.m. on
the New Years Day. We left to go get ready for church and it was a sad scene.
The streets were a mess, there were people fighting in some areas. Drunk men
crying on street corners, and not very much attendance in church. It`s sad for
me to see how Satan takes the good things that New Year`s could be...
Resolutions to be better people, time with family, and a time to think about
how we have been living, and he turns it to be the opposite. Drinking and
entering into a stupor and many mistakes that seperate families... It`s our job
as members to show the world how it could be and not participate in what the
world has made it. It`s similar with many holidays....
This last week has had
its ups and downs. We went through a lot of trials during the week, but we were
also able to make plans to improve in the future. The life of a missionary is
never easy, but it is worth it. This week we were able to meet a bunch of new
people to start teaching. We met a woman named Ericka and she invited us to
come and teach her family. She has four kids, Estefani, Erick, Jean Pierre, and
Lex (yes, named after Lex Luther from Superman). They are pretty awesome. She
actually contacted us in the street instead of us contacting her. She had
attended church one time and the missionaries who were in the ward where she
attended never passed the reference or the Elders here didn`t look for her or
find her.
We also found a man
named Javier. He is an example of what New Year`s should be. He talked to us
telling us about the desire he had to change his life for the better, and we
are happy to help him do that. He is very honest with us, and has a good
desire. We also started working with a 9-year-old girl named Carla. She is
awesome and wants to get baptized. Her mother is a less-active member and Carla
has great desires. We are working with her mom and her so that they can start
attending church and Carla can be baptized.
We keep working with
Anabely and with Hugo. They both have great desires, we are just trying to help
them progress a little bit further to their baptisms. We are also working with
many of our other investigators to help them progress a little bit more and
become ready for their baptisms.
I have made many New Year`s goals, but only until July... ha ha. I decided that
the Lord would help me set good goals when I arrive home and help me achieve
them if I choose to focus in the mission and not in what my life will be like
after. It is amazing how quickly the time goes by, but the Lord blesses us when
we strive to do as He wants. The trials come, but they pass. As it says in the
New Testament... "We can do all things through Christ, who strengthens
us." This is the Lord`s work and so it must be done His way. There is no
other way to do it. I know that He loves us and wants us to succeed. I have
felt the power of the Atonement here and I am learning to love Him and know Him
more personally. I love you all and hope that you can continue to see His
blessings in your lives.
Tyler
January 16, 2012
Hey family,
Glad to hear that Megan got back to Utah State safe and sound, but not so glad
to hear that Trevor can now drive a car without supervision.... That should
never be legal....
Well this week was one word... AWESOME!!! We were able to get a ton of work
done here in the sector. On Tuesday we had a Multi-Zone conference and I
learned a lot from President Tyler about the Book of Mormon... He reemphasized
(Hope thats a word) the importance of the Book of Mormon in our teaching and
taught us that our teaching should be focused in the Book of Mormon.
Thursday we were able to go to the temple again.... So refreshing... And I
spent like 15 dollars of the money you sent me on ties and awesome videos. IT
was pretty sweet...
About the investigators...
This week was a great improvement for us...
Anabely is doing great and is progressing towards her baptism and she is way
excited to be getting baptized... She wasn't going to be able to come to church
because she was going to be gone from Friday until today, but Saturday we felt
the need to pray for her... In our room we said a prayer... I was able to offer
it, and I felt good afterwards... We then arrived at her house 4 hours later to
try and call her and find out what her needs are, and lo and behold, she had
come back two days early... Our prayer was answered and she was able to attend
church on Sunday...
We are also working with Liliana, Anabely's aunt. She also came to church and
is excited to be baptized as well...
We are also working with Javier more... He was unable to attend church, but he
is still progressing slowly and wants to do what is right...
Hugo also was able to come to church on Sunday and we were able to see that he
is learning a lot... We are doing our best to help him resolve any doubts that
he has... and he is moving along.
We also were able to meet with a young woman named Fiorella on Sunday... She is
awesome, and wants to learn more about the gospel... She had come to chuch the
last two weeks... But I thought she was a less active member (oops) Well we
talked to her and we were able to set a baptismal date for her for the end of
February... She is going out of town for two weeks, so we will have limited
contact, but she is awesome...
We also have good news about Lex (He's 4) He came to church too, with his older
siblings and his mom, and we weren't planning on them being there because we
thought that his mom Ericka would be working... But the Lord blessed us there
as well..
We saw a lot of blessings this week... In total 10 of our investigators came to
church on Sunday... That is the highest amount that I have seen in all of my
mission and more than double the amount that I have seen in this sector.
The work is progressing, and the Lord blesses us for our efforts... The Church
is True... The Savior loves each of us individually and wants the best for us.
I love you all and hope that you can continue to see the blessings of the Lord
in your lives....
Tyler
Hey family,
Glad to hear that Megan got back to Utah State safe and sound, but not so glad
to hear that Trevor can now drive a car without supervision.... That should
never be legal....
Well this week was one word... AWESOME!!! We were able to get a ton of work
done here in the sector. On Tuesday we had a Multi-Zone conference and I
learned a lot from President Tyler about the Book of Mormon... He reemphasized
(Hope thats a word) the importance of the Book of Mormon in our teaching and
taught us that our teaching should be focused in the Book of Mormon.
Thursday we were able to go to the temple again.... So refreshing... And I
spent like 15 dollars of the money you sent me on ties and awesome videos. IT
was pretty sweet...
About the investigators...
This week was a great improvement for us...
Anabely is doing great and is progressing towards her baptism and she is way
excited to be getting baptized... She wasn't going to be able to come to church
because she was going to be gone from Friday until today, but Saturday we felt
the need to pray for her... In our room we said a prayer... I was able to offer
it, and I felt good afterwards... We then arrived at her house 4 hours later to
try and call her and find out what her needs are, and lo and behold, she had
come back two days early... Our prayer was answered and she was able to attend
church on Sunday...
We are also working with Liliana, Anabely's aunt. She also came to church and
is excited to be baptized as well...
We are also working with Javier more... He was unable to attend church, but he
is still progressing slowly and wants to do what is right...
Hugo also was able to come to church on Sunday and we were able to see that he
is learning a lot... We are doing our best to help him resolve any doubts that
he has... and he is moving along.
We also were able to meet with a young woman named Fiorella on Sunday... She is
awesome, and wants to learn more about the gospel... She had come to chuch the
last two weeks... But I thought she was a less active member (oops) Well we
talked to her and we were able to set a baptismal date for her for the end of
February... She is going out of town for two weeks, so we will have limited
contact, but she is awesome...
We also have good news about Lex (He's 4) He came to church too, with his older
siblings and his mom, and we weren't planning on them being there because we
thought that his mom Ericka would be working... But the Lord blessed us there
as well..
We saw a lot of blessings this week... In total 10 of our investigators came to
church on Sunday... That is the highest amount that I have seen in all of my
mission and more than double the amount that I have seen in this sector.
The work is progressing, and the Lord blesses us for our efforts... The Church
is True... The Savior loves each of us individually and wants the best for us.
I love you all and hope that you can continue to see the blessings of the Lord
in your lives....
Tyler
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
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
Hey family!!! January
30, 2012
Glad to hear that everything is going
well for you there in Maryland and that Megan is surviving the life in
Logan.... :) Life in Lima is like living in a tanning salon... I am constantly
sun burnt.... My fault really, because I don`t use sun screen, but it is still
sad...Every Saturday we have activities with our investigators so that we can
help them be more excited, and every Saturday I get sun burnt...Then Monday,
P-Day, I got sun burnt again... I finally heal completely by Thursday just to
get burnt again on saturday... Awesome right? I guess I should start using sun
screen...
This week was crazy.... And now of
course, I can`t remember everything that happened... It all just blew by so
fast... The mission is blowing by and I can`t keep up... It`s kind of
frustrating sometimes....
This week I had two trainings that I
had to go to. The first one Tuesday was for the leaders of the mission, and
because I am a district leader, I had to go, but the adventure didn`t start
there...At 7;00 in the morning my companion had to be in the office to go to
the immigration office in Lima to finish getting his residence... So we had to
get up at 5;00 in the morning to get there, and then I went to the meeting
which was in a different part of Lima... At the end of the meeting I went back
to the office to get my companion (I was with another Elder while he was in
immigrations) and then we had to rush back to our sector because we had to do a
change with the missionaries in my district so that I could do 2 baptismal
interviews in their sector...
The second training was on Friday for
all of the Elders being trained and their trainers... And since I am currently
training, Elder Jimenez and I had to go... It was pretty good, but it made our
life crazy, because the baptism for Anabely and Liliana was at 5:00 that
afternoon... We finally got back at about 1:30... We had to go eat lunch really
fast and then we had to run to the church with our ward missionaries to
decorate, clean, and prepare for the baptism... At 5:00 we were rolling and the
baptism was ready to go with only one problem, because the baptism was at 5:00
on a weekday we needed one
more priesthood holder to be able to
be a witness for the baptisms... So we had to wait until 5:30 when the 2nd
counselor of the Bishopric got to the baptism... The baptism ended at 6:30 and
we had to hop on a bus to get over to my districts chapel again to do another
baptismal interview at 7:30.. The interview ended at 8:00 and we had to flying
back to our chapel to do clean-up... Basically crazy.
At the end of the week we looked back
to see how it went... It was a pretty crazy week, and we had a few struggles,
but in the end the Lord blessed us because in our district we had 5 baptisms...
2 in my sector and 3 in the sector of the Elders in my district... The Lord
blessed us to be able to have the time to take care of everything that we had
to take care of.
Sunday we also saw many blessings...
We wound up with 5 investigators who came to church and a large group of
inactives who we have visited... The Lord blessed us a ton and the ward
attendance was up above 130 or 140 people in attendance, which is at least 20
to 25 people above the normal... The spirit was strong and the talks were
good... The Lord is blessings the ward right now... The new Bishop is doing
everything he can to improve the ward and change the small things that need
changing, and he is great to work with... the members are also getting more
excited with the work...
I love this gospel, and I know that
the church is true... I know that Christ lives... The blessings that come
through the gospel are incredible... The Lord guides us in our lives and the
Spirit brings peace to our souls when there is no where else to find it... I have
seen that here in San Martìn... In the 5 and a half months that I have been
here, I have seen more trials in the lives of the people I am teaching and I
have had more trials than in very possibly any other part of my life, but the
Lord has brought me peace and joy and has helped me when the trials come... I
have seen people who have suffered from abuse, alcohol, violence, and many
other horrid things, but through Jesus Christ we are able to help them find
peace... The Lord loves them and they begin to feel this love... As it says in
Doctrine and Covenants "The worth of souls is great in the sight of
God" Everyone needs to know their worth, and the gospel helps them find
their worth...
I love you all, and hope that this
week is filled with blessings from the Lord.
Tyler
30, 2012
Glad to hear that everything is going
well for you there in Maryland and that Megan is surviving the life in
Logan.... :) Life in Lima is like living in a tanning salon... I am constantly
sun burnt.... My fault really, because I don`t use sun screen, but it is still
sad...Every Saturday we have activities with our investigators so that we can
help them be more excited, and every Saturday I get sun burnt...Then Monday,
P-Day, I got sun burnt again... I finally heal completely by Thursday just to
get burnt again on saturday... Awesome right? I guess I should start using sun
screen...
This week was crazy.... And now of
course, I can`t remember everything that happened... It all just blew by so
fast... The mission is blowing by and I can`t keep up... It`s kind of
frustrating sometimes....
This week I had two trainings that I
had to go to. The first one Tuesday was for the leaders of the mission, and
because I am a district leader, I had to go, but the adventure didn`t start
there...At 7;00 in the morning my companion had to be in the office to go to
the immigration office in Lima to finish getting his residence... So we had to
get up at 5;00 in the morning to get there, and then I went to the meeting
which was in a different part of Lima... At the end of the meeting I went back
to the office to get my companion (I was with another Elder while he was in
immigrations) and then we had to rush back to our sector because we had to do a
change with the missionaries in my district so that I could do 2 baptismal
interviews in their sector...
The second training was on Friday for
all of the Elders being trained and their trainers... And since I am currently
training, Elder Jimenez and I had to go... It was pretty good, but it made our
life crazy, because the baptism for Anabely and Liliana was at 5:00 that
afternoon... We finally got back at about 1:30... We had to go eat lunch really
fast and then we had to run to the church with our ward missionaries to
decorate, clean, and prepare for the baptism... At 5:00 we were rolling and the
baptism was ready to go with only one problem, because the baptism was at 5:00
on a weekday we needed one
more priesthood holder to be able to
be a witness for the baptisms... So we had to wait until 5:30 when the 2nd
counselor of the Bishopric got to the baptism... The baptism ended at 6:30 and
we had to hop on a bus to get over to my districts chapel again to do another
baptismal interview at 7:30.. The interview ended at 8:00 and we had to flying
back to our chapel to do clean-up... Basically crazy.
At the end of the week we looked back
to see how it went... It was a pretty crazy week, and we had a few struggles,
but in the end the Lord blessed us because in our district we had 5 baptisms...
2 in my sector and 3 in the sector of the Elders in my district... The Lord
blessed us to be able to have the time to take care of everything that we had
to take care of.
Sunday we also saw many blessings...
We wound up with 5 investigators who came to church and a large group of
inactives who we have visited... The Lord blessed us a ton and the ward
attendance was up above 130 or 140 people in attendance, which is at least 20
to 25 people above the normal... The spirit was strong and the talks were
good... The Lord is blessings the ward right now... The new Bishop is doing
everything he can to improve the ward and change the small things that need
changing, and he is great to work with... the members are also getting more
excited with the work...
I love this gospel, and I know that
the church is true... I know that Christ lives... The blessings that come
through the gospel are incredible... The Lord guides us in our lives and the
Spirit brings peace to our souls when there is no where else to find it... I have
seen that here in San Martìn... In the 5 and a half months that I have been
here, I have seen more trials in the lives of the people I am teaching and I
have had more trials than in very possibly any other part of my life, but the
Lord has brought me peace and joy and has helped me when the trials come... I
have seen people who have suffered from abuse, alcohol, violence, and many
other horrid things, but through Jesus Christ we are able to help them find
peace... The Lord loves them and they begin to feel this love... As it says in
Doctrine and Covenants "The worth of souls is great in the sight of
God" Everyone needs to know their worth, and the gospel helps them find
their worth...
I love you all, and hope that this
week is filled with blessings from the Lord.
Tyler
Monday, July 25, 2011
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
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
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
Monday, July 4, 2011
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.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
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
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
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
Sunday, May 22, 2011
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
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
Monday, May 16, 2011
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
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
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
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