Weeks are Flying By......

Ø       Hey dad, i pretty much said all that there is to say to you guys
> yesterday haha. But yeah it seems like talking about my mission for
> only 10 minutes would be pretty impossible because i just love it so
> much and would probably explain alot more than anyone would ever want
> to know haha. But a ten minute return talk sounds perfect to me. You
> all look great and sound like your enjoying life alot. Without me and
> cache there now you must be saving thousands on food and gas money.
> This week we should be working hard as usual and trying to find more
> people to teach and try to help this part of the world out as much as
> we can. Thanks for everything dad, love you.

Just some pics. It was great talking to you! I hope caches prime
proselyting hours werent completely ruined... ;)

Hey mom whats crackin?
                                     So the last week went by flying
indeed. It was full of us working and trying to get some members to
come out and work with us.. And it worked! Kind of.. We did start a
calender for people who could leave with us and visit our
investigators, which is a true revolution in the mission, and we are
way pumped to use the members as awesome tools to help people come
unto Christ. Today we went to a place called El Cerro de la Gloria.
Its on a small hill and its like a tribute to something insignifacant
i think. But it looks cool and we got to run a bit up the hill and
enjoy our short ours of rest outside doing productive things. Diego
got the priesthood yesterday and is a priest now. He is so cool, i
think that he is the best/coolest/greatest convert i have had my whole
mission. Time is going by too fast, thats a fact. The pics are of our
trip to the hill of glory. They kind of explain themselves :) except
one where i am by a fence, that is just a mind bottler.. Im doing
great. Love you lots mom!

Sup dad,
>              That is way cool what is going on with the guy who asked
> for a Book of Mormon! He sounds pretty golden to me. In this past week
> i hit my big 18 month mark in the mission. I didnt really celebrate
> this one, even though its a missionary tradition thing i decided not
> to conform and do things my way :) But i did treat myself to some nice
> icecream so that was fantastic. There is a new elder in the pench and
> he is from Uruguay. It is nice because my comp and the other elder,
> who are gringos, wanted to learn spanish better so having a latin come
> was perfect for them, and for me. It is really nice to be able to see
> how much i have progressed in the language, i know it wasnt at all
> just on my efforts, but i was recieving a bun load of help from above.
> In the language right now i am just trying to expand my vocab and
> perfect the accent. I will have no problem helping you out when i
> return, but i only know mendocinan spanish and it might be way
> different from anything you have ever witnessed. I feel great and cant
> believe that time is just so fast. Keep gold panning in the snow like
> that and your bound to get something... Love you dad, stay awesome and
> be prepared because me and fischer are going to take you down! Old man
> strength only helps you so much.

Do Not Delay.....

Yeah it was cool. Well im happy to know that fischer is doing good in
track and getting better every time. I dont really know how good it is
when you say he threw it 114 feet, good or great? Im not so sure. This
week was slow because it was full of stuff that was tough indeed. But
the most important part is that we finished this week, its behind us,
and we are looking at this next one as an automatic better one! We
should have a baptism at the end of the week and it is a way studly
dude. His name is Diego and he is just a boss. I just love this work
so much and its insane and crazy and unpredictable and basically the
best thing ever. We cooked german pancakes this morning to celebrate
my comps birthday. For some reason i couldnt get them how you cook
them mom but they were okay, i made a syrup too and it was okay as
well, i mean at least it filled us up :) Me and my comp get along very
well, he was a track guy himself and did jumping stuff for BYU provo,
he is a little frog man. I really appriciate all of your support and
for sending another package! We will see if it ever gets here.. I have
faith it can happen, the impossible is possible!. Love you!

Hey dad,
My week was good, i got a lot of reading done, my comp got sick,
we all are getting sick and it is just lame-o. Even our mission
president and his wife and getting sick and having to stay indoors for
days at a time. We arent goint to die, but its annoying all the same.
The video of fischer running makes him look beastly, that kid is going
to be able to break me in half when i get home. But the older brother
always wins in the end, thats a fact. Thanks for your support dad,
this next sunday will be the last time i talk to you guys until i see
you in the anchorage airport in november, its going really fast now
and i cant seem to slow the time down. There is so much to do and so
little time! Like Elder Holland said in conference, ´Do not delay, its
getting late´ That should be a wake up call to us all that it really
is the last days here. Well with that i´ll end and i´ll talk to you on
sunday! Love you dad.

I Was Blessed......

Hey there momma,
                             Okay well just for you mom i will call
the sickness by the fancy name of food poisoning. So yeah i really am
happy to have my comps changed right now. He has 9 months in the mission

But anyways, i have one exciting story from our
first week as comps here. On saturday we had to go and clean the
church in the morning so we went there and cleaned it up. We usually
dont take our cell phone with us anywhere but i had to bring it with
me this day. We left the cleaning thing to go and pick up a lunch kind
of a long walks away. We got there and they gave us lunch to take home
in a bag. We headed home and it was just a straight walk to the main
road we lived on. We walked on this street and saw 5 teenagers on the
side of the road in front of us pull bandanas over their faces and put
their hoods on, we knew at this moment we were toasted. We tried to
walk by them and they waited until we had gone by them then came
running at us. I looked back and my comp was surrounded by them and
they started searching his pockets and asking for money. I pulled out
a peso or two from my pocket and got them to leave him alone. They
started searching my pockets and taking things out and keeping them.
They took all they wanted and left us alone. We were shocked by what
had just happened but we looked down at the bag of food and we still
had it so it wasnt a complete loss. Little did we know that not even
200 yards down that same road was another punk. He shook our hands
then stole our food and the little dignity that we had left. We wanted
to fight him but mission rules says no to that, and he had a bag that
he kept his hand in so we decided to let him just take the food. They
ended up stealing my comps leather gloves, our cell phone, the map to
our area, the watch that dad gave me, our food, and our innocence
haha. They didnt hurt us but we were and are still really mad at them.
The craziest thing was that they robbed us with a smile and it was
kind of creepy. Later that day we had one of the most spiritual
baptisms that ive seen my whole mission. Saturday was quite the
rollercoaster of a day that one only hopes to avoid, but it turned out
really nice. We got robbed twice in 5 minutes on the same road. The
guy taking our food at the very last was like the final slap in the
face to us, the cherry on top, the kick in the shins after your
already on the ground, but we didnt resist even though we wanted to.
It was a good time and im fine dont worry about it :) I was blessed
that they didnt find my personal credit card, mission credit card, my
document, or my 50 pesos that i had in my back pocket so there is one
miracle out of maybe alot that happened that day. So i just wanted to
tell you that im all good and am looking forward to finding more
people that are waiting! Love you mom!

Hey dad,
>              So i kind of exlpained my week to mom and my whole
> robbing incident. But the watch that you gave me i remember you
> telling me that if it gets robbed it wouldnt be a big deal because it
> was cheap haha, well it happened at long last. The road that we went
> down, we have learned since saturday, is basically walking right into
> the lions den. They rob everyone there with revolvers and take
> everything, even cars that go down that road get robbed and messed up
> bad. So we will no longer be going down said road ever again. The
> members here once hearing that that happened to us got really soft
> hearts and we very kind to us. Me and my new comp,
> compared it to if two mexican missionaries came to our wards and
> hardly knew the english language and got robbed how bad we would feel
> and would want to help them, thats kind of what is happening to the
> members here right now haha. In a space of a few hours on saturday we
> got to witness the very worst scum of this place and also the
> brightest nicest spirits there could be, what a blessing it is to
> notice what the gospel can do to people and a family if they are just
> to live it. Our church really is in the world but not of the world,
> its simply the church of God, no questions asked. The story of the 70
> and fish and maddy is way sweet! I wish i couldve seen it live and
> felt that power. Have a good week old man. Love you dad, peace out!

Now we are 4.....

Yeah im am over my days of crappiness, thank goodness. But now i am in
the position of not being able to eat as much as i used to. It is
really great for me! But for the families that we eat with they think
i just dont like their food because i dont ask for more haha, oh the
things to be dealt with on the mission :) My comp is being transfered
to another part and i get another gringo who has little time on the
mission. It should be wonderfully great to have a change here. We are
now 4 tall gringos in the pench and in our part of the earth here, as
if they didnt stare at us enough with just three tall guys, now we are
4 :) We had a couple people in church and it was a good day yesterday
indeed. I´m feeling fine, the weather is cooling down, the work is
tough and i love it. If it was too easy it wouldnt be right for me.
That story about the 70 is way cool! If that really came to pass it
would be fantastic :) I love baptisms no matter where they come from,
well as long as they are in our church haha obviously. Its a few weeks
from mothers day and im pumped to see and talk to you! Love you mom :)