March 14, 2011

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

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

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

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

Spiritual experience of the week. Betty.

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

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

I love you all,
Tyler

March 7, 2010

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

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

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

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

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

Tyler

February 28, 2011

Hey family,


Well, this week most likely going to be my last week in Porvenir, which is really sad, but we are going to work hard this week and we will see what happens.


Glad to hear that everything is going well at home, although I think you may have made a bad decision by letting Trevor get behind the wheel of a car. :) Just kidding Trevor. It sounds like basketball is going pretty well on the college level and on the home level. Im gonna have to say, that Trent`s game was probably the lowest scoring game I have seen in my life, and Ive seen some low scoring games... But Im glad to hear that Trent is a really good defender. That was a skill that I never really had a whole lot of. He should definitely keep practicing that. Its weird, but as far as the family goes, I am more excited to hear about the soccer that will be happening in the spring. Basically because life in Perù revolves around soccer. (Although there is a member in my ward who likes basketball more... HA HA.) Eventually basketball will take over the world... I just know it...


Sounds like life is more calm now that you don`t have the Blue and Gold banquet to work on. I am also becoming more and more shocked every time you tell me that someone else my age is getting married. Im glad I don`t have to think about anything remotely related with dating, getting married, or basically... life, for the next 18 months. HA HA.


Well this week was a little bit slow for us. Not a lot happened during the week and Laura`s baptism fell through. We are setting goals with her so she can get baptized un poco màs adelante. Sorry about the Spanish. I can`t remember how to say that in english. Something like , so she can get baptized a little further on. A little later. Basically in a month or two. No sè. (I don`t know).


We did have something awesome happen on Sunday. Julia, Enrique, and Tracy all came to church which is great. We hope to set a baptism date for March 19th today with them. They didn`t want to get baptized before, but we have to be persistent. We are also working with Jonathan Robles, who we hope to set a baptismal date for for the end of March or the beginning of April. He is 16 and he wants to be sure about the church before he sets a baptismal date, which is okay with me, because is dad, David Robles (remember him? Baptized October, 2nd counselor in the bishopric, awesome!) was an investigator for like 7 years before he got baptized, and Jonathan wants to be prepared before he gets baptized.


We also have been teaching Betty, and hope to set a baptismal date for her as well in March. Basically, we want to set lots of baptisms for after I leave. Although Im hoping that I can stay here a month and a half longer. It`s not likely, but it could happen. :)


I love you all and hope the next week is great. For my spiritual thought of the week, I would like to talk about missionary work. I have noticed that in Conference the opening message by President Monson was about the fact that we need more missionaries. The first presidency message in the last two Liahonas were also about missionary work. For some reason, God is telling us that missionary work is really important, and it is essential before the second coming of Jesus Christ. I invite you all to look for someone to invite to church, to give a book of mormon to, or to share your testimony with. The Church is true and the message is important. Books of Mormon aren`t expensive, you can buy a few to have to give to people, and if you have someone in mind, Id imagine that the missionaries would love to give you one to give to someone.


I would also like to address each of the groups, the parents, the boys, and the girl (Megan get`s her own group, but any sister in the church can have this message too.) You can share it with people in the ward, the family, and in general people. First the boys, because its the easiest. Prepare for your missions. Now. Read the scriptures, preach my gospel. You can practice with each other to invite your friends. Just be prepared. It will be the hardest thing you have done in your life up to the point. It will also be the best experience you have had. It`s not only a commandment of God, but a great experience.

To the parents, Mom and Dad, you should prepare as well. I have been told by both of you that you would like to serve a mission together once you finally get rid of all the kids. (1 down, 5 to go, ha ha). President Monson says that the church needs more Senior missionaries. Start preparing now. Start practicing now. Mom can learn spanish a little from Dad so you can serve in South America or Central America. Ha ha. The best misisons are in South America, and the best mission is in Lima, Peru to be exact.


Now to Megan. You have said that you don`t really want to serve a mission, but President Monson invited you as well. I don`t ask that you serve a mission. I ask that you honestly think and pray about serving a mission to know if its the right thing for you. You can receive many blessings for giving 18 months of your life to the world, and it will be a great experience. I invite you to serve a mission. But if you don`t. Prepare now so that you can share the message with your friends, and when you have a family, you can teach them the power of the restored gospel of Christ and the healing power of his atonement. Seriously pray about it. If you pray and come to the decision to not serve a mission you will never have regrets. But if you don`t even think about it. In 20 years you might look back and regret not thinking about it at least. God will give you the answer for if you should serve a mission or not.


This is what I have been thinking about a lot lately. The blessings of missionary work, and I want all of my family to have these blessings.


I love you all. Good luck this next week.


Tyler

February 21, 2010
Hey family,
Im glad to hear that the blue and gold banquet went really well. I think I may need to repent of the pride I felt when I saw the pictures that you sent me. Im gonna have to say that the wall you made is pretty awesome, but my pride was that the tunic I made for my 9th grade English class is still being used. Although, with it next to the dress that Megan made for the same class, I feel pretty beaten, but thats okay! Im gonna have to say though, it sounds like a few people put on a few pounds in the Blue and Gold. Its good that you threw some carrot sticks and apple slices in there to make it look healthy. Needless to say, I want some brownies. My mouth was watering when you told me that. I have everything else on that list here, (And they really like hot dogs here. I still don`t.) I just would really like some brownies. You can add that to the list of things I want to eat when I get home.
Glad to hear that the sports are going well. Everyone needs to always remember that winning is less important than having fun... Although, winning helps. Im also glad to hear that Utah State beat St. Mary`s. St. Mary`s beat us last year in the Spectrum and I was pretty bitter, so Im glad to hear they won. Im glad that ESPN wants to give them a 9 seed too, which would be awesome! They just need to win out to do it.
About Perù...

This last week had its ups and downs. for the most part it was good, but our work slowed down for a few things. My companion was a little sick on Saturday which was rough, but Saturday finished awesome!!! Ruby`s baptism went great. She has a really strong testimony. We also set a baptismal date in stone por este Sàbado, 26 Febrero. (He he, spanish) We also have lots of plans to set baptismal dates this week with a few investigators. Its cool to see that we are getting more baptismal dates, although Ill probably be leaving before most of them happen.

This Saturday we had a really cool activity. We had Free Car Wash. It was really cool. We had a bunch of missionaries and the 16 missionaries in my Zone and we washed cars for whatever person that wanted to have their car washed. It was really cool, because... When we were washing their cars we had a group of 8 missionaries teaching them. We got about 35 references for missionaries. Its cool, because, we are washing their cars for free and for about 10 minutes they are just standing there waiting. Its not like they are going to say no to a brief message. We are washing their car for free. There were lots of good experiences that people had.

Thanks for all the help you have given me, and thanks for the recipes (i like dad`s versions the most), although Im not sure if I have everything I will need for pancakes, but french toast will be fun.

The church is true, I love you all. I hope you can find times to share the gospel. Its an amazing feeling to bring someone to Christ. My scripture of the week is actually in the Liahona from conference. Its the talk by Russell M. Nelson from the Priesthood Sesson. Its called, Be an Example of the Believers. Its awesome. Keep the faith, and remember when life gets tough that Jesus Christ will help you with any problem you have.

Tyler

February 14, 2011
Hey family!
Glad to hear that everything is going well, even if it is really cold.
Glad to hear that Adam is getting better at basketball and is doing
well. Just remember, everything will come, don`t get frustrated. And
remember, when there are really big kids on the other team... They
just grew early and in 2 years you will be way taller than them. :)
That`s what happened to me... Then there is Trevor who will never be
tall. ha ha. Just kidding.
Hopefully for all the effort that Mom and Dad have put in, the blue
and gold banquet will be awesome. I have found that when we put a
lot of our effort into something that we really care about, God helps
us with all of the rest. It has happened here in my mission. For
example, this month we started with a goal of 5 baptisms, with names.
3 of them told us they aren`t ready to be baptized, and the other 2
didn`t get married, but we worked our hardest with our faith and now
we have the opportunity to possibly baptize 3 or 4 completely
different people in February. More on that later.

This week has been pretty much, the best week of my mission up until
now. On Monday they cut the power in part of Lima to try and fix the
power, and where we live happened to lose power, which in Perù means
that we showered with frigid water in the morning. That wasn`t the
cool part, and actually, that was pretty terrible, but it was all made
up for after. On Tuesday we had an amazing day when we found people
to teach, we taught our investigators and we committed Ruby to
baptism. She is going to be getting baptized this Saturday, which is
awesome. We also received 14 references from members throughout the
week. These came through a sport activity that brought lots of youth,
and a Missionary Night that we had on Friday. We also had a Multi
Zone Conference on Thursday. I learned a ton. Elder Asqui, one of
the two President`s Assistants taught about true sacrifice. He taught
that true sacrifice isn`t giving something up, it`s doing something.
He gave some scriptures and quotes from people, and he taught with the
spirit. For example. Giving up work on Sunday isn`t the sacrifice
of an investigator. Giving up work on Sunday to go to church is the
sacrifice. Its the going to church part that completes the sacrifice.
Giving up work is just the method to get there. This week we also
gained 2 new investigators who have both been to church a few times.
Laura is about 50 years old and she really has a desire to listen. We
want to challenge her to get baptized on February 26th. She is
awesome. We will see what happens. We also can start teaching
Jonathan. He is one of the children of David Robles from a previous
marraige. He is 16 and he is awesome. He has been coming to church
and church activities, and we weren`t teaching him because we thought
he was just visiting. He had been living with his mom in a different
part of Lima and so we sent a reference there, but he is going to be
living here for a while so we are also going to challenge him to
baptism this week for the 26th.

I learned a lot about faith in Christ and how we can become better
every day. I have learned how I can be a better missionary and I have
begun to have more confidence in myself.

In the Book of Mormon I have been reading in Alma about the missionary
experiences of Alma, Ammon and Aaron. You can learn so much about how
to teach from them. I love Alma 26. It is loaded with scriptures I
love. It talks about what we should do if we get discouraged and it
talks about the incredible joy we can feel through the work of the
Savior. We can feel such a joy through the work of the Lord.
Because really, this is the Savior`s work. It isn`t the prophets
work, it isn`t the church`s work, it isn`t my work. It is his work.

I love the gospel, and I am so grateful for the opportunity to be here
in Perù sharing the gospel with people who need it.

I love you all, and hope this next week will be a great one with a few
missionary opportunities.

Elder Tyler Rasmussen

February 7,2011

Hey family,
Well, this week was pretty slow. We didn`t find any of our
investigators at home. We had some lessons with a few inactive
families and a few ouf our converts here, but other than that not much
happened. Betty`s husband continues to drink more and more which is
making it a little hard to find time to teach her, and Kevin and
Miguel are moving so we won`t be able to teach them anymore. We also
have lost a lot of contact with Lourdes. She is never home and when
we called her and set up another appointment, she wasn`t there for
that appointment either. We also are having a hard time with the
three women who need to get married before they can be baptized.
We did have a few highlights this week. Laura came to church. She is
a new investigator for us who has a son who is a member in our ward.
We are going to start teaching her this week, and I hope she will be
able to progress pretty rapidly. We also found Silvana again which is
great, and hopefully when we have a lesson with her this week, she
will decide that she wants to go to church again and wants to be
involved. As of right now, I think she had a disagreement or
something with her friend thats a member. I hope it doesn`t change
the way she looks at the church, although I am not terribly worried
because she was friendly with us and she told us that we could come
back and talk to her.
This week is going to be a tough week for us. We have to work really
hard so that we can have some baptisms this month. We have lots of
people who are close. They are just missing one little thing. We
hope to have 4 or 5 or 6 baptismal dates set by the end of this week.
The hardest thing right now is getting people to come to church. But
Julia and her son Enrique are close, they just need a little bit more
desire. Betty as well is a ray of hope. She wants to learn more, she
wants to progress, but right now, her husband is holding her back.
The last time we talked to him, he was really, really, really drunk...
I hope that the Spirit can touch his heart so that he will find the
need to stop drinking and change his life.

Im glad to hear that everything is going well at home. Glad to hear
that the Aggies keep winning. I really hope that they will be able to
push forward and win a few games. Sounds like the winter is hitting
pretty hard there. We had a family with a son in Utah tell us that
the winter in Utah is a lot bigger than it has been in the past.
Which is sad. Because I want a really big winter. :)

Congrats to Megan for deciding to go to Bridgerland for school this
next year. In the small amount of time I have spent in Bridgerland
with friends and in Jared`s apartment, from what Ive seen, Bridgerland
is awesome! And since thats where Im going to live when I get back, we
might wind up being in the same ward!!! And I can spend all the time
in the world doing the dorky things I do to embarass my younger
sister! :)

Glad to hear that Dad and Mom actually had the opportunity to go on a
date. :) That´s pretty cool. I bet its been a really long time since
that has happened. And the temple is always a good idea. I love
going to the temple in every opportunity that I have. And I am
definately going to take advantage of the opportunity when I get back
to Logan and live really close to the temple.

This week started what are called Carnavales in Perù. In Lima this
means that every Sunday, everyone gets wet and gets every random
person in the street wet as well, which means that the work slows down
on Sunday. Yesterday we tried to find our investigators, but this is
hard when we are avoiding certain areas to avoid getting drenched, but
we did find a few people. We also had two water balloons thrown at
us in the street. They weren`t very good aims and they missed. Im
not sure if thats good or bad. As a missionary its probably best if I
am not really wet, but at the same time... It was really hot...
Needless to say, I am not too excited for February 27th. On this day
they bring out paint and shoe polish and dirty water and dirt, and
needless to say, I may have an interesting picture to send.

I hope everything continues to go well at home, and that you can all
have a good week, and hopefully you can find someone new to talk about
the gospel to this week. I love you all, and hope you can always
remember that the Church is true, Jesus Christ is our Savior and our
Redeemer and he loves each and every one of us individually.

Tyler

January 31, 2011

Hey everybody!!!Well we finally had a change in my sector. Elder Kasat wastransferred to Zona Condavia... which is in Lima... like all of thezones in my mission. The interesting thing is that he started in thatZone so he his headed back to the Zone he came from, which is prettyfunny because about 2 days before transfers we talked about how hewould like to spend some time in as many zones as possible. (Thereare 10 in the mission). So his number of different zones in themission is still only 2. :)Well as you know, I am starting my fourth transfer here in Porvenir.And the best news is, I´m still junior companion! :) Well, sort-of.My new companion obviously doesn`t know anything about my sector so Iam pretty much in charge of the area right now as far as what we do.My companion´s name is Elder Linares. He is from Tacna, Perù. If youlook for tacna on a map all you have to do is look where Perù turnsinto Chile and thats about it. Lots of people here joke about howTacna is as much Chile as Perù, and Elder Linares lived in Chile for15 years of his life, so I have another (partly) Chilean companion.He is awesome and has been in the mission for 20 months now. Heactually started his mission in the Perù Lima East mission, and whenthe missions divided and changed a little bit he changed missions tomy mission in Perù Lima Central. He is awesome and wants to do a lothere in the ward. Its really cool because we have a goal for Februaryof 5 baptisms, and really there is no doubt in my mind we could haveas much as 8. :) About home,Sounds like everything is going pretty well in Washington D.C. even ifthe earth is a little frozen there. (Better than really hot.) That`ssomething Ive decided. As a missionary cold has got to be better thanhot. You can always put on more layers. You can never lose the tieand the dress pants. Needless to say it feels really hot here.I like the fact that everyone is doing well in basketball. Soundslike the ward teams are pretty good. Keep trying hard, and rememberthat sportsmanship is more important than winning. I wish I hadlearned that a little better a little earlier.Im super excited to hear that Utah State is still undefeated in theWAC, even if its not incredibly impressive. Hopefully they can keepit up in order to get a seed better than 13. :) Although unlessHawaii is a whole lot better than they have been in the past, I am notterribly impressed with the Aggies´ 2ot win.Im glad to hear that you have been getting the opportunities to sharethe gospel with people in the communities and in dads work. These arethe people who progress the most. The one`s who know people in thegospel and can see the effect it has on their lives. Biggest news about Perù:I FINALLY FOUND A USE FOR VALENTINE`S DAY!This one use is that it convinces people in Perù to get married. Herein Perù they have what are called Matrimonios Massivos, whichbasically is a really cheap way for a lot of people to get married allat once, and we happen to have about 6 people that need to get marriedbefore they can get baptized. 3 of them are Sandra, Elizabeth, andSislet. Sandra is ready and is currently gathering information.Elizabeth, I`m not sure, but I think it will happen, and for Sislet,if there is one in La Victoria her husband has agreed to get married.Which means 3 marraiges, closely followed by three baptisms, and 1year later Sandra and Elizabeth can be sealed in the temple. It`ssomething really special. We are also teaching Julia and Enrique, amother and son, who have progressed quite a bit. We are teaching Bettyand halfway teaching her husband, Joel. We are still teachingLourdes, although lately she has been a little difficult to find. Wealso found two teenage cousins, Kevin and Miguel, who could becomereally good.The list goes on, which is something awesome here in Perù, but theseare the people I am most excited about. We are planning lots ofactivities to get members involved and this should be an awesome monthand an awesome transfer. Its probably my last transfer here whichmakes it even better.I don`t have pictures this week, but I do have a scripture to share.My scripture is in Helaman 10:4-5 which talks about Nephi who wasgiven the promise of anything he said would be bound on earth and inheaven because his will was the same as God`s will. He was given tonsof power and tons of promises. And if we follow his example theblessings will come. They will quickly and they will be many.I love you all, and hope that everything will continue to go well at home. Tyler