BUILDING THE CHURCH ONE CHILD AT A TIME...

Email from 11-11-2013

Hey everybody,

So everyone was asking about the riots, there haven’t been any more as of now, haha, thank goodness. And let’s keep praying that it stays that way!!!!

Oh, and what is this about the typhoon in the Philippines!!! That is crazy!!! I am pretty sure there are quite a few kids from my graduating class that are in the Philippines!!! Let’s all keep praying for them!! The nice thing is to know that those 80 missionaries are on the lords service, and the lord will protect I am sure of it!!! 

So, big news this week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I HAVE A YEAR IN THE MISSION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How crazy is that!!!! I couldn’t believe it, it all seemed a little unreal, but now thinking about it I just know that the time is going to go flying by!!! my comp brought to my attention that I only 8 changes left in the mission, and I did not like that comment at all because the changes are the things that seem to go by the fastest for me and I don’t want it to go by fast!!! But oh well I will just have to keep moving forward and working as hard as I can to make every moment worth it!!!! 

So mom and dad you were wondering about changes, well they are the 19th, so we will know Sunday the 17th who has changes, but we are almost positive that me or my comp are having a change because we have been together now for 3 changes and that is quite a long time. But we have no idea who is going to leave so we are all kind of worried because neither of us wants to leave this ward because we have been having so much success and the ward is starting to progress so much!!!!  But whatever the lord needs we will make it happen!! WE ARE MIRACLE WORKERS!!!!! HAHA.  

So good news!!! ALAN WAS BAPTIZED!!!!! It was an awesome baptism!!!! I had the chance to baptize him and confirm him, which was cool. So the good news apart from the fact that he got baptized, is that a ton of people from his family were there supporting him and we now have appointments to go teach them and reactivate them!!!! Also the primary president basically threw a party for him so that was pretty awesome!!! I love baptisms and seeing how happy the people are doing convenios con dios (covenants with God). 

So this week Brenda supposedly has her baptism date, but it is not for sure yet, we are going to meet with her tomorrow and talk about it. So I will let you know next week what happens. 

But there was a cool experience this week!!!! So after the baptism, we had an appointment with our eternal investigator Alex, who we have been teaching since we got here in Juliaca. and we sat down in the appt. and after the prayer he looked at us and said ¨elders I want to get baptized, it’s my time¨ me and Elder Bentson both just looked at each other like What????? Did he really say that????? And we found out he had already chosen the day and time and who he wants to baptism him, so looks like if everything goes well on Friday at 9 in the morning Alex is going to be baptized also!!!!! And he wants to do it in a river so we are in the process of receiving the permission for that. But Elder Bentson and I wanted to give up on him many times, we just felt like we shouldn’t  and we kept going and now look what’s happening,.... THE LORD WORKS IN MYSTERIOUS WAYS!!!!!! 

Our ward is progressing a ton, 4 months ago when we got here we had 85 people attending regularly, and now we are up to 120 each week!!!! And that’s why I don’t want a change, I want to stay here!!!!! Also we are doing this thing where at 5:30 every morning we go and play futbol, or basket or volley every day, and its super fun and its good for us because it gets us up and helps us get going for the day!!!

Now for the fun story of the week!!! So an investigator had us do a service for her, and after invited us to breakfast, or sweet bread and a fruit smoothie so we ate and drank it all, and after that’s when she told us that the smoothies contain BEER!!!!! For the first time in my life I had beer, and I felt absolutely horrible after!!! NEVER DRINK!!!! IT’S HORRBILE!!!!!! 

Well that’s all folks!!!

I love you all and can’t wait to hear from you next week!!!

 

Con Mucho Amor

ELDER GOASLIND 

 

NO MORE RIOTS FOR NOW...

Email from 11-4-2013

Hey Folks!!!!

 

How is everything going!!!! So just so you all know, there were no more riots this week, we worked like normal, but that just because the riot people are giving the mayor 10 days to decide so next week maybe we will see things start back up again but who knows. Haha.

 

So first off I want to congratulate Steven and Kristen for their new baby boy!!!! He is so cute!!! I can’t believe that I won’t get to see him for a year!!! That’s Joshua and Karson that I still haven’t seen in person, but that’s alright!!! Haha. But that’s awesome! You guys make such a cute family!! 

 

So how was everyone’s Halloween this week??? I hope it went good for everybody!!! Here it was not quite as good as in the USA but it was alright, a member gave us Jack O’ Lantern things with candy in them and invited us to lunch, so we were pretty happy! Haha, whenever there is food involved my comp and I are happy!!!!

 

FYI mom to answer your question, you did a great job on the birthday ties thank you very much! And yes I did get my drivers license it was weird to see a Utah driver’s license again after not seeing mine for so long. 

 

So not much happened in this week, very few things, we taught a couple of people, but some sad news, Brenda won’t be getting baptized this week because she wasn’t able to attend church yesterday, so we postponed her baptism and it looks like it will be for the next week, but she is still progressing, it’s just because she went on vacation that she couldn’t attend but everything is going well with her!!!

 

But this week we are going to have a baptism it looks like, for Alan. He is the son of a less active member that we are trying to activate, Alan is 11 years old, and his baptism is planned for this Saturday, so let’s hope everything goes well and we can get everything planned and set up to go!!! and let’s hope that we can get some help from the members, ever since we started teaching Alan he has been faithful to all commitments we have left and always shows up at church by his own will 30 minutes early!! It’s awesome!! We are hoping that by his example that we can activate his whole family, because his mom grandma grandpa, aunts uncles, all are members but nobody goes except his grandpa, and that’s only every once in a while.

 

This week there was a holiday called Dia De Los Muertos, or Day of the Dead where everyone worships there dead, its actually kind of creepy, but we were teaching a reference (Senovia is her name) on that day and she told us about her laugh and then due to the holiday wanted to know what happens to us after this life, so we explained plan de salvacion, and she LOVED our message!!!! We invited her to church and she came and was participating in all the classes, and kept asking us questions and what not and is very interesting in the church now, so we have an appointment with her tomorrow, and she actually asked us if we could teach her about tithing tomorrow in her second lesson because she is curious about why we do that, so we are going to see what happens tomorrow!!! But she is a very nice lady, and has some real potential to progress!!!!

 

So that’s really all that happened this week, other than an investigator somehow found out where we live and came to our house to find us one day because he says he messed up and wanted us to explain to him again how he can repent, this investigator we thought was an ¨eternal investigator¨ but now we are actually seeing some progression. 

 

Not much more to tell you guys, but I love you so much!!! Those of you who leave in the mission this week and the next week don’t be scared, trust in the lord and love the work!!!! It’s an awesome work that we are a part of!! And as we bless the lives of others god blesses our lives!!

I love you all with all my heart!!! And I hope the best for you!!! Can’t wait to hear from you all next week!!! 

 

Con Mucho Amor

ELDER GOASLIND 

Riots, all over and the Juliacan people want to kill the mayor!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Email from 10-28-2013

Hey everybody, so I am sure that mom is already freaking out just from reading the subject title of this email, but don't worry I will explain it in a little bit. Because it's quite a good story!!! jaja 

So before I start, I want you to know that I did get my birthday package finally, I got it today, this morning in our zone meeting, and I was so excited to open it!!!! I felt like a little kid on Christmas!!! jaja, but thank you to everybody who sent me stuff, letters, gifts, lo que sea. You guys are all the best, and even though it got here a week after my birthday it's alright, I bought a gift for myself, and I also had 2 different parties thrown by members, and a member gave me some gloves and a scarf, hand knitted!!!!! They are pretty awesome!! Peruvians are like the most loving people ever!!!! So all in all my birthday went really well and I really enjoyed it, and from the emails it sounds like Annika's birthday went well also, I can't believe that she is 5 years old already!! thats incredible!!!! The scary thing that my comp has been saying all week is that I am now going to be home in less than a year, and I will be home for Annika's next birthday when she turns 6!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So this week there was not a whole lot of work that happened, and the reason why is because of what the subject title says. ....... haha so I am sorry if this email is short because there will not be a whole lot to say, and I am not going to update on investigators today because even I don't know what's going on with them. 

So this week on Monday for my birtthday, my comp, Elder Yellico, Elder Reyes, and I we all went to SILLUSTANI. It's these ancient ruins in between Juliaca and Puno that are off in the middle of nowhere surrounded by some random lake, (dad the lake in the picture is NOT Lake Titicaca just so you know) so we went there, and I am sending you quite a few pictures of it because its way cool!!! I don't even know what types of ruins they are but, they are these cylinder things and you can enter all of them through these tiny little entry ways but they are awesome!!!! So we went there to spend the entire afternoon and I bought myself a gift for my birthday with the money grandma sent me so tell her thank you,

So when we got back from Sillustani we went to a family home evening with some members, and we had our lesson and all of the sudden they walked out with a big chocolate cake and sang happy bithday to me, and just so you know they sing it in English here in Peru. They sing the entire song in English, and then do a version in Spanish and they always turn all the lights off while doing it. It's way cool! So they sang and then like always they smashed my face into the cake. We were all taking pictures and there is another tradition here in Peru that I had forgotten about, where they ¨make a cake on your head¨  so I was standing in the kitchen and out of no where I was attacked by several members with them smashing eggs on my head, throwing flour on me, and confetti, all with the chocolate still on my face. So I sent some pictures of that, needless to say, it was a mess, but it was very fun. So I had a great birthday!!!!

Then the next day is where the fun story begins, so we had heard rumors that there was going to be a small strike this week, so we didn't think much of it. But as we left Tuesday morning to go by stuff for breakfast we found out that the strike was quite large, by large I mean ALL OF JULIACA LARGE, THE ENTIRE CITY WAS SHUT DOWN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  They shut everything down, none of the stores were open, and there were thousands of people in the streets for this strike, but a strike here isn't like the USA with your picket sign out front of target saying ¨shame on target¨ or anything like that. But here they burn things, they rob, they break glass bottles all over the street, and a ton of other stuff, also if stores opened to sell because someone needed food the people in the strike would invade the store, destroy it, and steal everything. So it got quite out of hand, and all of this because they don't like their mayor, all over the city is written the words ¨muerte al alcalde¨ or in other words, ¨death to the mayor¨ and they all say they want his head. It's quite interesting. jaja. Also during strikes if there are cars buses, motorcyles or any type of transport they stone the car and the person. 

So our leaders called us and none of the missionaries in Juliaca could leave their rooms for 4 DAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We were locked away for almost the entire week, and guess what they never came up with a solution to the problem for the reason why they were striking, so they say its going to begin tomorrow again and we won't be able to leave our house for anything, so everybody is buying a ton a food storage today, and that's because they say this time the strike won't end unless the Alcalde resigns, so it will be another interesting week!!!

But don't freak out mom!!!!!!!!! I am alright!!!!! 

Well that's all that happened this week I love you all and hope you have a great week!!!

Con Mucho Amor

Elder Goaslind

LET'S HAVE A HAPPY BIRTHDAY IN ALICE IN WONDERLAND WITH THE MAD HATTER, AND WHOEVER WANTS TO...

Email 10-21-2013

 

Okay, so as you can tell by the subject title for this email, I may be 20 years old now, but that doesn't change a thing because I will forever be a kid!!!!!! First to start off I want to thank everybody for the awesome birthday wishes you sent me, I feel so blessed to have such wonderful family and friends surrounding me.!!!! I CANT BELIEVE I AM 20 YEARS OLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IM NOT A TEENAGER!!!!!!!! JAJAJAJAAJAJ!!!!!!!! well as you can tell I am very excited that nobody can call me a teenager now, because I am in my 20´s and yes mom and dad that does mean you guys are old, but I still love you and forever will!!!!!!! Sadly  to say, mom I still haven't got your package, who knows when it will come, I blame the fact that Peru is not a developed country yet, how rude of them!!!! jaja. that's alright, when it comes it comes. I don't really care. So it sounds like you all have had great weeks thats awesome!!!!!! mom those pictures of Annika and Emma in the Disney store are so cute!!! I miss them so much, and I cant belive that Annie is going to turn 5 this week!!! How crazy is that!!!!! When I get home she will be 6!!! Speaking of home, I will be finishing my mission  A YEAR FROM TODAY!!!!!!! just thought I would let you know!!! I am going on the down hill slope!!!! 

So this week has been better than others, our work is starting to pick up a little bit more. We are progressing in finding more investigators. That girl Brenda who I told you about last week who didnt believe in god but received a testimony of him, she is progressing very well, she has a baptismal date for the 9th of November, and she told us when we asked if she had prayed about what we taught she told us that she did but it wasn't neccesssary because she already believes everything that we teach her and she knows it's all true!!!!! How awesome is that!!!!!!! So we taught a couple other people this week, but nothing to exciting yet with them, Brenda is the only one who is progressing so far. 

So everything went good for the week until Saturday when I woke up with a raging migrane to the point where I was stuck in bed all day because when I got up I wanted to rip my head of the pain was so strong. So we stayed in the room all day Saturday. And then Sunday we went to church like normal in the morning, and in the afternoon guess what!!! my comp planned with some members and threw me a small suprise party! so they sang to me, and then like every Peruvian birthday they smashed my face in the cake which was interesting, they got me good!!! it was everywhere!!!! after the cake we ate, and had some fruit salad! and then they blindfolded me and made me break open a SPIDERMAN PIÑATA!!!!!! jaja. It was awesome!!!!! So I cant complain the members here know how to celebrate. The only bad thing is, a member was looking at my camera and accidently erased ALL of my pictures, more than 700 pictures.
So mom, please save all the pictures I have sent home because I don't have anything, the pictures I sent home today I stole from my comps camera!!! but I guess thats life. I can't really be mad these types of things happen. Oh well!!! So that's what happened this past week, tonight we have a noche day hogar, and my comp said they are going to do something for my birthday so we will see. Also a member said that for my birthday, tomorrow night they are going to take us out to dinner. yummy!!!!! The members here always feed us!!! So I can't complain!!!!
So today I think we are going to go to this tourist sight I can't remember what its called. But it should be fun, so I will have to let you know more about it next week!!!!
Well honestly there isn't much to say today. I am just so grateful for the family and friends I have that make my life so aweomse!!!!!

I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!!!
Have a great week and talk to you all next Monday!!

Con mucho amor
Elder Goaslind

SNOW!!! AGAIN!!!

Email from 10-14-2013

Hey everybody!!! How are things going?

So this week went pretty good. Things are starting to pick back up a little bit after having about 3 weeks of hard work before us without investigators. 

So first off to answer some questions, dad, there really aren’t any trees in Juliaca, and the ones that are here are just pine trees that look like they are dying. We are so high up in the mountains that hardly any plant life grows. Just a lot of dust. Or in this season now, a whole lot of mud. So no I do not get to see the changing colors of leaves which makes me sad. But it’s alright. 

And thank you dad for the story about Captain Moroni, I actually read that story recently in my studies, and you´re right it is a very good story. I love it. I just finished reading the Book of Alma this morning. And I was very sad. Because there are so many things that we can learn from all of the stories and battles that it talks about. But I am anxious to continue reading ahead in the Book of Mormon. I love this book; it is my favorite in the entire world!!!!!! 

So I was thinking about some extremely random things this week. First off having to play the piano in Sacrament Meeting I have decided is like a game to me now. I always just wait and see how many mistakes I will make in every song. And the best part is whenever I make a mistake I always see the bishop just grinning at me, and I always end up laughing in the middle of the song while I keep playing. 

My other random thought is the difference between a 3rd world country and a 1st world country. So this morning we had to go up to our roof like normal to see how much water we had in the tank to know if we needed to store more water for the day or not. Because the water only comes at certain parts of the day so you have to fill up a tank on the roof that’s attached to all your water sources shower, sink, toilet, etc. My comp made the comment that if we were in the USA we wouldn’t have to worry about this, and we would be calling the water company for a situation like this even if the water was only shut off for 30 minutes. Those are first world problems. You guys have it sooooooo easy!!!!! Haha. 

So this week we had a cool experience teaching. We had a member named Mary Luz. Who told us she wanted to present us to her cousin who is passing through some difficult times. So we went to visit her, and we taught her the Plan of Salvation. And we didn’t even think at the beginning of the lesson to ask if she believes in god because everyone here does. So we taught the whole lesson, and you could feel the sprite so strong. Probably the strongest I have felt it in my mission. And she asked us at the end if she could make a comment. And we told her yes. And she stared at us for a minute and said ¨when you guys first got here I didn’t even know god existed, I didn’t know we had a Heavenly Father¨ then this is where it gets epic!!! She stares at us and got a little bit emotional, and said ¨after listening to you guys, I know that we have a Heavenly Father, and right now I can feel his love for me!¨ I was shocked!!!! And I didn’t know what to say to her, I sat there smiling for a minute. And then we expressed our testimonies and it was such a spiritual experience!!! I love the mission!!!! It is the greatest ever!!!!!! The experiences that I have had here are once in a life time and there is nowhere else that you could experience these things!!!! I love me Padre Celestial. And I love my Savior. I know that with them we can progress in the life. And everything will turn out all right. 

I love all of you guys so much, and I want the best for each and every one of you!!!!

Have a great week!!!

 

Con mucho amor

ELDER GOASLIND

General conference, what do the members need to do now??? Hahahaha.

Email from 10-7-2013

So first off I want to say, happy birthday to some people. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO PAULA, TYLER, KATIE, ASHLYN, AND NICOLE. Sorry if I forgot anybody, my brain is starting to forget a lot of things after being a way for so long. 

So General Conference was amazing!!! I absolutely loved every single minute of it closed in a room in the chapel with 6 others gringos watching on our plasma in English!!! Haha. It was great!!!!! I really love conference time and I am always way sad when it is over because I always feel so uplifted during it, and then when it ends I feel something is missing inside of me, but it helps me to realize all of the things that I need to get better at, I realize that I am in no way perfect, and the talks help me to understand how I can be perfect, while listening to the prophet talk I had a very spiritual experience. I listened to him and I could feel that he was talking from the power of god, and that he really is called of god, and then after his talk listen to the choir sing "we thank thee of god for a prophet" I felt the sprit like I never have before in my life, and it was so strong that I was almost brought to tears and I was just speechless after and I didn’t want to move, it helped me to gain such a stronger testimony of the church and the power of god here on the earth helping us throughout these last days. I love the church, and the priesthood that we have, I love the fact that we can feel the sprit in our lives, and that it can testify to us of the things we need to do, and the truthfulness of the things we need to learn. This church is true and I know it with all of my heart, and the apostles testified of that to us over these past 2 days. I really liked one talked in particular. From Elder M. Russell Ballard, about the member’s duty they have to help the work of the lord move forward. I know you are all rolling your eyes right now because a missionary is about to tell you that as members we all have something to do in the work, but it’s because it’s true, and here in Peru I get frustrated at times because certain members don’t think it is necessary to help us out. SO I DONT WANT YOU GUYS TO BE THOSE MEMBERS!!!! HELP THE MISSIONARIES!!!!! 

I don’t want to be mean about it, I just want to make my message clear. Elder Ballard gave us an invitation, he said from this date, until Christmas we should all PRAY for an opportunity to share the gospel with someone. IF EVERYONE SHARES IT WITH JUST 1 SINGLE PERSON MILLIONS OF PEOPLE WE BE ABLE TO HEAR OF OUR GOSPEL MESSAGE, AND WE WILL HELP THE LORD MOVE HIS WORK FORWARD!!!!!!!! Please take this invitation from an Apostle of Christ to heart and pray for someone so that you can share the gospel with them, present them to the missionaries, bring them to church, or a church activity, AND I PROMISE YOU ALL, YOU WILL SEE MIRACLES AND BLESSINGS IN YOUR OWN LIVES, AND IN THE LIVES OF THOSE YOU LOVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There is no way that we can deny this invitation; if we deny this we basically deny the power of god. 

I love this gospel and I want other people to love it too. These are the last days that we are in and we must help EVERYONE be prepared for their personal interview after this life. Conference helps us to know what we need to get better at and obviously as a church of god; this is something we need to get better at. 

So a little bit more from this week, so VERONICA GOT BAPTIZED!!!!!!!! It was so special; you could tell this is something she wants in her life. but as I was baptizing her, she didn’t really understand the concept of plugging her nose, she just kind of face palmed herself, and then she didn’t want to go backwards into the water, she just kind of tried sitting down in the water, it was kind of interesting but she got baptized that’s the important part!!!!!!!! Not much else happened this week other than the stuff I told you on Wednesday. But guess what I did this morning. Our pension who we live in the same house, brought home an entire dead pig today and put it on the kitchen table, and said she is going to prepare it to it, but she was having troubles cutting off the head, so she asked me to do it, so I got to cut a pigs head off today, IT WAS AWESOME!!!!  I also gave it a kiss on the forehead haha. I know you are all disgusted by that, but welcome to the life in Peru!!!!! 

So I am sorry that nothing else happened but that’s because I just emailed you on Wednesday. So I don’t have much to say. Haha. But I love you all, and I hope you all continue studying the conference talks when they become availed.

 

Con mucho amor

ELDER GOASLIND

 

Ps. This week was transfers and I will be staying in Juliaca with Elder Bentson for one change more. And guess what there are so many missionaries now, they are dividing our zone!!! It’s awesome the work is growing!!!! 

Pss... Also it’s awesome that there are more than 15,000,000 members of the church now and 80.000 missionaries!!!!!! 

SORRY FOR THE LATE EMAIL!!!

Email from 10-2-2013

 

Hey how are things going?

So first off I’m sure you want to know why I didn’t email on Monday, and the reason for why I am emailing today, so this week Presidente Harbertson was here in Juliaca and we were with him the entire time!!!!

so on Monday we had interviews with him, from 10:00  in the morning until about 4:30 in the afternoon, so they told us we couldn’t email, that we would have to wait because there postponed pday until today, then on Tuesday we had our zone conference with Presidente where he spoke to us also his wife, and it was really good, but IT WAS SO LONG, we sat in the chapel listening to him from 10:00 in the morning until 5:30 in the afternoon!!!!! It was so freaking long, but it was so inspiring!!! I honestly learn so much from Presidente, he spoke to us about temples and the importance of them and showed us a ton of scriptures that explains why we do certain things in the temples, and then he talked to us about the blessing we will have if we are diligent in our work to receive a temple in Cusco!!! I hope they announce one soon that would be such a huge blessing for the people here in Peru, to have a temple in Cusco, the members there are awesome and they deserve something like that. Also during all these trainings the assistants were there, so I got to see Elder Neff which was really good, I can’t believe how much time he has in the mission it’s ridiculous!!!! 

So also Presidente told us of a new site we can use in our mission to send pictures home, it’s called DROPBOX.COM so you should set up an account and next Monday be on the site at like 10:30 or 11 in the morning so I can send pictures faster to you, but you have to be taking them off the site as I send them through. But I guess that would be 10:30 my time so like 9:30 your time. That will help a ton to back up my pictures so they don’t get lost. 

So about the tiger head from last week, it was a gift to me that my pension gave me, the lady who cooks for us. I am not quite sure why but I have no clue what I am going to do with it because it is ceramic, and it weighs a ton!!!!!!! 

I think I said this last week, but congrats on Karsons blessings, it really is such a blessing to have the priesthood in our family. And I know that god blessings us for living his gospel, and keeping worthy of his blessings, I have seen so many miracles in my life from the priesthood, and I know god gives it to us because that’s the way we can return to his presence. President also talked about being sealed together as families in the temples. And that is because we have the priesthood keys to do it. This gospel would be nothing without the priesthood, and we should remember it always, something I have seen in my mission is the members here really rely on the priesthood because they don’t have good medical treatment here, and they trust in god all the time asking for blessings, and that is something we would do well to remember is that the priesthood is stronger than anything here on the earth, and if we want to receive the fullness of its blessings in our lives and for our families, if we want to see that things work well in our lives, we need to live worthy, read our scriptures, pray, ATTEND CHURCH AND PARTAKE OF THE SACRAMENT, and do all they things that god has taught us to do. These are the only ways that we can receive blessings from god. 

So just like you guys were saying, I am WAY EXCITED!!! Because GENERAL CONFERENCE IS THIS WEEKEND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I think I get more excited for general conference now then I would get for Christmas as a child. I absolutely love being able to listen to the prophet of god, and to his apostles, because they really do receive revelation to help us in our lives, and if we listen to them we will know the things we should do to receive gods help. something we should do before conference is pray and write in a notebook or something questions or concerns that we have, and then remember these things during conference and we will be able to receive more answers than ever before because we will have something specific that we want to learn. I challenge you all to watch conference with something in mind because you will see how he can answer!!!!! And holy crap, that’s weird that you can watch conference in your house now!!!!!! But don’t do it. It would be better to go to the stake center because like dad told me, it’s something more special that you can feel!!!!! But that’s cool!!!! The way we watch conference here, is everybody goes to the stake center and they broadcast it, and sometimes they have a separate room for the gringos to go to Para mirarlo en ingles. So I hope we watch in ingles it more powerful. But either way it’s good!!!!! But I think we have a good chance there are 7 gringos in our zone. 

So dad had asked me how we work normally here, really what we are doing now is the church doesn’t want us to be working without a member, so we are starting to get accustomed to that, it will help a ton I feel. Also they are put that half of our time working is dedicated now to less actives, the sheep who have strayed. we have 500 members in our ward here, but only 95 attend every week, the average attendance rate for the mission is 25%, it really low, so they changed a ton of stuff like the numbers we have to report to Presidente every week, they don’t even asked us a ton, mainly lessons taught with member present, lessons taught to less actives, and a couple others, but not much, so the work is changing now, tracting here is frowned upon by our Presidente because it doesn’t help with anything!!! So we are trying to get accustomed now. But I know that it will be good!!!! 

So everything is being set up for the baptism of Veronica on Friday. I think it will be good but because it’s general conference she won’t be confirmed until the next Sunday, because all coverts have to be confirmed in the sacrament meetings. But she is very excited we finished teaching her everything last night, and we got rid of all the little tiny doubts and questions she had. So her interview is set up for tomorrow, and I think everything will go good!!!! But other than that there still isn’t anybody, we have a member who has given a couple references, so we are starting to work with them, but not much yet. 

So that’s basically what’s happening here in Juliaca!!! Wahoo!!!

Also I thought you might want to know that all the members here have started telling me that I have gotten a lot fatter than what I was when I got to Juliaca, and they were looking at some of my pictures from early in the mission, and now they are telling me that I look old like an adult, so apparently now I am old and fat, which I don’t see but oh well, you gotta love Peruvians they are very blunt about everything!!!! Haha. 

Well I love you all so much, and I hope you enjoy conference this weekend!!!! Also that is awesome about Carly and Rex's farewell!! It’s a little weird to think, but its way cool!!!!!!!!!! And congratulations to Lauryn on her mission call!!!!!

I love you all and I can’t wait to hear from you next week!!!!!! 

 

Con Mucho Amor

ELDER GOASLIND