Hola from Peru!! Feliz Navidad!!!

         

 

Hola from Peru!!! Feliz Navidad!!!

 

So I am going to type really fast today because I want to send some pictures. So not much has happened in this past week, we didn't get the chance to go proselyting Saturday because the Latinos were too new to missionary work, so that was a bummer, but yesterday on Christmas Eve was a blast!!! We got up, and we went to the orphanage at like 9 in the manana, and it was really eye opening seeing the poverty that these people live in and it really made me think of how truly grateful I am for all of the things that I have been blessed with en mi vida. At the orphanage we didn't even get to work with the kids, who were really depressing, but we did get a lot of other stuff done, I was in the group working in the corn field. We picked up rocks, tilled the earth, and sorted through bad corn stocks, while a herd of goats ran around us! ha-ha it was great. I am very sore though, I have no idea how farmers do that all day every day!! Some of the other things that we helped with were filling sand bags to line the bank of the stream by the orphanage, we painted tables, fences playground sets, and we did all sorts of other cleaning and chores, such as feeding all of the animals. They are a self-sustaining facility so they have a ton of goats and sheep, all sorts of ducks, and chickens. They have a couple pigs, and they have about a billion guinea pigs (cuy) and some rabbits. Apparently all the Latinos love cuy because whenever we would pass them they would tell me ¨´muy rico´´ or in other words, very delicious!! I can't believe how run down some of the houses and buildings are here and how little the people have, but how happy they can still be.

By the corn field at the orphanage there is some old ruins that I got pictures of, they are so cool; you can decipher each house and the doors and windows. It's crazy how preserved things can still be.

The weather here has been perfect!!!!!! sunny but not to warm, it is quite humid though The effect of the food finally hit about me and half of my district these past few days, and let me tell you, it is not fun going to the bathroom so many times in a day.

So last night for Christmas Eve we watched a video in Spanish about Christ, and then we were able to watch the first presidency devo. in English. I love listening to the words of the prophet; you can tell that he truly is inspired from God. After we watched that they served us cookies, and hot chocolate along with panatone, which is kind of like fruit cake, the Latinos love it!! but only like two North Americans like it. I think it is the sickest thing ever!!! for dinner we have like a regular American dinner, but the food was ten times better than in the US. They have some pretty quality food here. But if you don't like rice then don't come here, we have rice, potatoes, soup, and meat for every meal, and hot dogs for breakfast even on some days. But all the food is so good that it doesn't matter how much of it you eat.

Today we have normal study time and everything this morning, but now we have free time for 4 hours, and then we basically watch movies, and stuff the rest of the night. I am so excited, it doesn't feel like Christmas, but it is like the best Christmas I have had because I am so focused on Christ and the true meaning of why we have this holiday.

Last night all of the Latinos stayed up until 1 in the morning screaming and running around, so no one could sleep, plus Latin America likes to do fireworks and it sounded like world war 3 here!!!! it was insane they were so loud and the noise was coming from all sorts of directions! so it was a pretty sleepless night.

I hope that you all are having a fantastic Christmas!! I would challenge all of you to sit down

Sometime today and forget all the hustle and bustle either as a family or as individuals, and to try and learn 5 new things about Christ to really remember why we are celebrating today.

I started reading Jesus the Christ and it is so amazing the things the Savior did for us!!!

Well I want to leave some time to send pictures, so I am going to go.

How is BJ doing! I haven't heard anything about him. Also tell Mallory that I was the same way about the food. But she just needs to eat it. Tell her to get a wrap from the wrap bar; those are what got me by in Provo. But she needs to eat to have energy to focus on her purpose. Also tell her to memorize the first vision if she hasn't yet, we use it so much in missionary work, it is great to know it by heart, and let me tell you memorizing it in Spanish is so nice to have!!!

Well I love all of you so much! I look forward to reading your emails next week, and to tell you about my experiences!

Only dos semanas mas until the field, its crazy how time flies!! I love you!!

Feliz Navidad!!

con mucho amor

Elder Goaslind!!!!!!!

PS tell my friends I won’t be able to write anymore until the field.

 

PERU!!

Hello, I am sorry if this letter is confusing but I want to write fast so I have some time to send you some pictures because I am sure that you want them. Well this has just been the time of my life! I am so happy to be here in Peru. I sent you a letter so hopefully you get it for Christmas. The food here is amazing! I love it, I still haven't got sick like everyone said I would, the food is so good, compared to American food this is delicious! I am not looking forward to eating U.S. food when I get home, it's to good here. I got your dear elder mom on Friday, so that's the time frame! That is crazy about Justin's call!!!!! we are all over the world! I assume that he is speaking Spanish as well? I am not excited for one reason, because Spain, Spanish speakers develop a lisp, and it is super annoying! ha ha. but that is awesome! tell him congrats! About how he got his call, that is sad, but at least he got it!

So the Latinos here are hilarious, they are my favorite people ever! I love them, we are getting all new Latinos today, and the CCM is going to be packed to over capacity. the weather is amazing, and I am starting to get some of my skin color back, and a nice watch tan line. we play futbol, like everyday!!!! As gringos, we suck at it! They have this soda here called inca cola, and it is amazing!!!It is like a mix of cream soda, and bubblegum! it is the best tasting thing ever!!!!

We got to go proselyting on Saturday for like 5 hours, and it was the best thing ever! my companion for that was Elder Varas! we placed two Books of Mormon, and I did one of them on my own, the language is coming along very well, and I am so happy to be immersed in the culture here! the time I have been here has been amazing, but I am so excited to get to the field.

We got to go do endowment sessions at the temple today and I didn't use the translator and I actually understood it!! I love this language, and the people here are so nice, they will just stop you on the street and ask who you are, so we always get to share the gospel.

The way we get to the Temple is by public but, those are fun they just zoom up by the curb and you pile on, it doesn't matter how many people are on the bus as long as you get to squeeze in somewhere! it is quite an entertaining ride.

Don't worry about my weight, I have gained back about 4 pounds since being here, so don't worry about that!

So about Christmas, first, we get to go do service at an orphanage on Christmas Eve day, it is going to be the best thing ever! I am so excited for it!

and Christmas day, I don't think that I am going to be able to call home, but they did say that we get to email home, and I think they are changing my pday anyways because we are being moved to the advanced class tomorrow since we will be the oldest in the MTC so I might get to email twice that week. but I don't know. umm about letters, I am not sure how well letters work, but dear elders seem to work well here.

I don't really know what else to say. I am really sorry if I didn't answer all of your questions, the timer in the corner is very ominous! is scares me haha.

I hope that you have a great Christmas, and remember that it is about the Savior! I love you all so much!!! keep me updated on mission calls that are received, it is fun to here where everyone is going. Again congrats to Justin tell him not to develop the lisp though!!!!!

I can't believe that I only have 3 weeks left here, my seventh week begins tomorrow! I really hope that I can continue improving on the language! I love you so much!!!! MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! I look forward to your email next week!!! mom and dad thank you so much for the best example ever that you set for me growing up!! I love you!!

Love Elder Gasolina (that's how the Latinos pronounce my name)

con mucho amor.

 

P.S. 

I forgot to tell you, my companion is from Washington that's for you dad, I know you love to know about my companions. I hope you enjoy my pictures. so many fun things are going on here.

well I need to go now, I have to go finish doing my laundry and getting our room ready for the new missionaries coming in today. We have like 100 or more Latinos and 12 north Americans, so in total there is going to be like 49 or 53 north Americans here which is more than they have ever had it should be interesting. I am so excited to get the field, you have no idea!!! I really want to go so bad I just want to shout the Gospel to the world!!

Love Elder Goaslind!!!!!!

 



 

In Peru!!!

Hey everybody!! I made it to Peru!!! So I am going to warn you right now, you won´t be getting any pictures this week, because we didn´t even know that we were going to be emailing! So you will have to wait until my next pday, and we have pdays on Tuesdays!! PERU IS AMAZING!!!!! I hate to say it, but I am not going to be coming home, sorry!! I love it here and I have barely even been here! It is so pretty here! I can't wait for you to see the pictures that I send home next week, I love this MTC so much more than the Provo one, it is definitely smaller, but it is amazing! So what is new in Salt Lake City since I last talked to you yesterday? I actually have to follow emailing time limits here because these computers keep a tally for you! so I have to type fast! I don't even know what to say to you! we got into the airport in Lima at about 11:00 pm and we got all of our bags, everybody's came through! We then got through immigration and customs easily, and as we were going to find our ride to the MTC there was a HUGE group of Peruvians in the airport waiting for people coming off the planes, and as we walked past them they smiled and yelled hola at us and shook our hands! it was awesome! Peruvians are the nicest people ever! and the city is insane, nobody follows traffic laws so we were on our nice big bus going to the MTC, and it was like a roller coaster ride with people honking every 2 seconds! I love it! We got to the MTC and we got our room assignments ect. and in my room I have my companion and I, and then there are 4 other native missionaries, so we woke them up when we got there at like 12:30 a.m. and finally went to bad at 1:00 a.m. My companion is Elder Brey's old companion. His name is Elder Johnson, he is really nice! so far we have been getting along good, so lets hope it stays that way! It was so nice, since today is our pday and we got in late last night they allowed us to sleep in until 9:30 and then go to breakfast and stuff once we got up. We gave our visas to the administrators here and they keep them for us until the end of our missions! Now I don't have to worry about losing it. Sorry if things seem spelled wrong or punctuated wrong in my emails now, the keyboards here are different because they moved all of the punctuations around to make room for the Spanish accents and stuff, it is very difficult to get used to.

Tonight we are going to meet our branch president, I am way excited. I saw elder Allen this morning and he seems to be doing really well! I haven't seen Elder Gallegos yet, but I should because there is like no one in this MTC. I have seen a couple of other missionaries I knew in the Provo one though. So it is good to see familiar faces. There were 13 missionaries that came here yesterday from Provo, and they have put all of us in a district together, so we don't have any native speakers in our district but that's okay, because I can't even understand them when we are talking to them in our room. The weather here is so nice!! its like 70 degrees or something like that, and it feels perfect, we leave the windows and doors open all day so we get a magnificent breeze wherever we are, it's beautiful here. The courtyard of the CCM has a fountain and is amazing, plus it has a ping pong table out side. The one thing that is weird here, is the elders and sisters are all in the same residence building and there is just a door in the middle of the hallway separating us, in Provo that would have never been okay. So it is a little different here. I haven't really tried any of the food because all we have for breakfast this morning was cereal, but the milk here tastes different, apparently they put sugar in all of there milk in South America, or something like that, so it tasted kind of tart, but it was good. I feel bad that I didn't get to call a lot of people yesterday at the airports but our layovers were very short, and get this, after I talked to mom and dad in Miami we boarded then plan at like 4:15, and then we didn't even take off until 5:30!!!!! it was ridiculous!! oh well though. haha, the lady next to me on the plane had to translate my customs form for me because they were all in Spanish, she was getting very frustrated because she couldn't translate certain words into English, so she finally said "that's all I can do" haha she was so nice, one of the missionaries in our group placed a Book of Mormon on the plane, the guy next to him asked who we were and he explained and the guy was really interested and took the Book of Mormon, and he told the Elder that he would read it!!!

Oh mom, I am sorry but they told us not to have people send us packages in the CCM. it's really sad, but oh well I am only in here for like 4 weeks, so it won't be bad, and everyone here is super nice!!! Everyone who came yesterday in our group is going to somewhere in Peru and all of them are way jealous because Cusco has Machu Pichu in it!!! Is there anything else that you would like to know, I can't think of anything else to write, but I am so extremely happy to be here right now, I know that this is where I need to be, and that going on a mission is definitely the right choice for me!! Tell everyone back at home that I say hi, and hope they are all doing well. I can't wait to find out where Justin gets called to. How do my friends feel that I am in Peru now ??? it seems so unreal!! I love it here, this is the best thing in the world!!! I hope to here from you soon!! Mom I think the MTC address is in my mission booklet that I got with my call, because I have no idea what my address is here, so I am not sending out any letters until I get them from others. Will you please find out my address, and tell people, don't worry about the PO box, it will still get to me, and don't forget about dear elder pouch mail!!! I only have like a minute left!!! I love you all so much!! I can't wait to here back from you!! this church is true!!! missionary work is the best, and Peru is the best!!!!!!

I love you!!

con mucho amor

Elder Goaslind!!!

 

Salt Lake Airport

(Thank you Kevin Vilchinsky for the wonderful pictures)

 

 

IT'S BEEN A MONTH!!!!!

 Quick update 

Alex received word that his Visa came through and will be flying out to the Lima Peru MTC Monday, December 10th at 6:00 a.m., when we talked to him late Friday night he was thrilled and said to tell everyone hello!

 

Hey Y'all!!
I love Friday's, they are so much fun because I finally get to write back after receiving things from people all week! :D But honestly it feels like Pday was like a day ago, the time here flies by so fast, it is insane!! I can't believe that it has already been a month exactly from today since I got to the MTC!! It feels like I have only been here for like a week! This week has been so good, it seems like the language is starting to come along really well! Just for fun my district and I will have full conversations in Spanish while with other people just so they don't know what we are talking about, and it is way fun to be able to do that! (we have to find some way to entertain ourselves here, because there is not much else to do :D) Yesterday I had a break through with how much we need to focus on our investigators! I always knew that I needed to understand their needs and not be selfish, but yesterday we were doing a practice teaching and talking about the needs of investigators, and the spirit taught me so much in how we need to go about doing that. It is not something that you can describe, or explain how to do, it really is something that missionaries need to find out for themselves. But it is so important that they do find that out because if they don't they are going to have a hard time teaching!

That is so exciting that Mallory is so close to coming to the MTC!!! I know that she is going to love it here! And if I am still here on the 19th I will definitely look for her!
But ya not much happened this week other than Elder Gallegos left Monday for the Peru MTC. That was sad because we grew so close together, but I know that the Lord has a plan for each of us and that is where he needed to be.
Okay, well now to answer all of the questions that build up over the coarse of the week :D (and I just want you to know that I have to write down all the questions to remember them, and they take up half a sheet of paper)
I am so sad that I am missing JaNae's birthday! Tell her how much I love her and miss her! How is she doing? Is her health okay? Let her know that I am always thinking about her :D
And I am really sorry to hear about Grandpa Van, I promise that I will keep him in my prayers, and that as we all have faith and pray for him that the Lord can bless him. But I will keep him in my prayers. Tell Ali that I hope everything goes well with her wisdom teeth, it is not fun to get them out, but on the upside, you get to lay in bed all day! She is so lucky, I get like 7 hours in bed everyday and that's only when I sleep, other than that we are never in our residence hall.

That stinks that Justin's call didn't come! I am really hoping that he gets called to Cuzco! How cool would that be!!!!! Haha :P we can have wants can't we?! :D As soon as it comes through you have to let me know where he is going.
Well like I said the language is coming along very well, and I am loving learning a language. Yes it is very difficult at times, but I know that the Lord called me to speak Spanish because He knew that I would be able to teach the best in that language and to the people of Peru!
Thank you so much for sending me my Line of Authority mom, I have never really looked at one before, but it is so cool to look at and realize how I was able to receive the priesthood!
As pertaining to the visa thing. Elder Gallegos found out his came on a Thursday, and then that Monday he left. So they usually don't give you much time. BUT if mine does come I get to call home for like 5 minutes :D it would be so nice if it came! :D so I will try and pick a good time to call when I think both of you would be home, so lets cross our fingers and pray that it comes!
My district loved the nativities mom! thank you so much for sending those! you truly know how to show others you care! Mine is on my desk so that I look at it every night as I write in my journal! Oh and it is a good thing you didn't end up getting a Christmas tree because Elder Hoods mom sent us one that we have in our room now, I will send some pictures in the email so you can see it :D
Speaking of Elder Hood, him and Elder Wilson are my new compeneros! They are awesome, it has taken some getting use to being in another trio, but I think it is more difficult for them because they haven't ever been in one.
Also in our little district of 5, we had Hermana Ellsworth join us because her flight plans got delayed because of her bad knees, so her district left and now she is a solo sister and we have to escort her everywhere.
Sorry if my thoughts are jumbled today, I don't feel good, I have a sore throat and am very congested and stuffed up, but everyone here is very nice and has been helping me out, so I don't think my letters today are going to be very long because I need to sleep during personal time.
We did get to watch the Christmas devotional and it was so good!! If anybody didn't watch it then they need to!!! There were so many good messages in there that we can all adapt to our lives to help us draw closer to Christ and to help us become more like Him. If I could I would watch it over and over again!
Fast Sunday in the MTC is amazing! the spirit is so strong when missionaries are bearing their testimonies! A cool story! on Monday I got to go off campus to Elder Wilson's chiropractor appointment, and while we were waiting for the shuttle to take us back to the MTC a guy passed us on the side walk and shook our hands and said "it's always nice to shake the hand of the Lord" That was very eye opening to me, because we truly are representatives of Jesus Christ and we need to understand that and live our lives to be worthy of that title! :D
Well I love you guys so much! I hope that you all have a fantastic week, and that you remember Christ in your lives always! especially at this time as we celebrate his birth!
I love you so much! and I am so grateful for all that you have all done for me to get me to this point in my life!!!!! :D I hope to hear from you all soon!!!!!!!

Con Mucho Amor!!

Elder Goaslind!