"Got the call last night: Elder Arèvalo is outta here. I'm staying in Picsi, and I'm going to train another new missionary!"

Hola!

Wow, guess what? It's already time for transfers! Got the call last night: Elder Arèvalo is outta here. I'm staying in Picsi, and I'm going to train another new missionary! Honestly, even though I've done it once before, I'm way nervous, but whatever. I wrote in my journal: "President Risso seems to trust me a lot more than I trust myself, and it always ends up okay in the end." Still, lots of pressure! I could make or break this new kid's mission! But, it should be fun. Picsi is gonna be a way hard first area to serve in. But, maybe it will make the rest of his mission feel like a breeze when he gets transferred. My first area was pretty hard too. Anyway, transfers are crazy this time because 35 new missionaries are arriving tomorrow!! That's by far the biggest group of missionaries that's ever arrived! Before that, I'm pretty sure my group was the biggest group, and we were like twenty-something people. 35 new missionaries this time. That is nuts. Opening up a bunch of new areas this transfer! Pretty rad I think. Elder Arèvalo is also going to be training a new missionary in who-knows-where. I think Dad was telling me that something similar was happening in Eugene. Like a million new missionaries are arriving. Pretty cool stuff.

As for this week... Honestly... It may have been the worst week of my entire mission. But, that doesn't mean that there weren't good parts. There were just a lot of bad parts. However, I think I'll try to focus more on the good than the bad. I vented enough in my journal, so that I don't have to repeat it in my e-mail. Many angry journal entries. No problems with my companion or nuthin'. Arèvalo is still awesome, and I'm sad that he's leaving. Just a lot of problems with the members. This little group of members is struggling a whole lot.

So, I'll skip right on ahead to the best part of our week: we had another baptism!! I didn't tell you that we were going to baptize someone last week. That's because I didn't even know! On Saturday, our pensionista's 16 year old step-daughter Melissa was baptized. We've been visiting her every now and then since I've been here. She usually understood everything pretty well, but she never really read anything we left her to read, and she never wanted to accept a baptismal date. Basically, she's been investigating the church for a whole year, ever since Picsi opened up last March (March 21st. We celebrated the church's first anniversary in Picsi this week!). She's gone through a whole lotta missionaries. We already knew that one thing she did not like was when the missionaries tried to make her accept a specific date to be baptized. So, we never set a date. On Tuesday we had another lesson with her. Pretty normal. Taught about the Word of Wisdom. No problems. But one thing was different about this time. She had actually read the chapter of the Book of Mormon that we had left her, and she had even highlighted the verses that really stuck out to her! She read 2 Nefi chapter 31. She told us that she specifically liked verse 5. She told us that she knows that baptism is necessary for our salvation, and that all the commandments we've been teaching her are important to keep. She told us that she really believes that the Book of Mormon is true, because when she reads it she feels a peace, and she feels good. We knew that Elder Arèvalo was gonna get transferred this week, so Elder Arèvalo asked her if she was willing to be baptized on Saturday, and she said yes!! We were so happy! So, on Saturday she was baptized. The coolest. It was a double baptism. She was baptized with a sweet old lady from the Lopez Albujar ward named Mavila, who I interviewed for baptism on Thursday. So, there were a lot of people at the baptism! From Picsi and from Lopez. Elder Rich and Elder Sanchez were there, because Mavila is their investigator, and the zone leaders showed up too. We threw together a special musical number at the last second (so last second that I don't even remember what song we sang) which was pretty kewl. As we were outside taking photos, President Risso showed up too! And he totally joined us in singing the hymn! Haha, way cool. Some people recorded it, I'm gonna try to get the video from them. I actually have a bunch of videos, but I can't send them to you because they're either too big, or the computers are just too slow to send them. But, when I get home, you can watch some vidz from my mish! So, we were very happy about Melissa's baptism. I felt like it was a miracle, because for a whole year she's been listening to the missionaries, and not accepting baptismal dates. Now almost the whole family are members. The only one who isn't is Melissa's dad. We'll have to see what we can do to complete the family. Heh. Way awesome though. A great way to end a bad week!

"Melissa's baptism."

Also on Saturday, the zone leaders caught my by surprise and told me that I had to go and teach English again in that same university as last time. Except, this time I had to teach alone!! Uhh, no way was that going to happen! I've told you before how bad I am at teaching English. Let's just say that in my year and a half in Peru, I haven't been able to help a single one of my companions learn any English, and when I taught the English class before, I had no idea what I was doing, and I was just sorta following Elder Greene who mostly took control. Luckily for me, in the end Elder Rich came too, so we taught together. But still, same thing, he mostly taught, and I kinda just followed along, sorta lost. We all have our weaknesses I guess. One of my big ones is teaching English. I sure hate doing it. But it turned out well, thanks to Elder Rich.

Speaking of English, in our weekly zone meetings (which, by the way, isn't it kind of weird that we have weekly zone meetings? Preach My Gospel only talks about district meetings. I think zone meetings only exist in the Peru Chiclayo mission...) we have a 15-minute English class for all the latin-american elders taught by Hermana Lee, one of the sisters in our zone. This time she announced that from here on out the opening and closing prayers in our zone meetings are going to be in English. Aw great! And I was the one who was going to give the closing prayer! I wrote about it later that night:

03/19/13

When the meeting came to a close, I had to pray in English. I gave the absolute worst prayer of all time!! I had no idea how to say the things that I wanted to say. I was thinking in Spanish, and trying my hardest to translate it to English. Trying and failing. The exact opposite of how it was at the beginning of my mission! It was kinda like "and... bless us that... err... that we can help... many people today." Ha! And that's not even what I wanted to say! But it was all I knew how to say, so I said it instead. Bad, it was so stupidly difficult. Kinda funny. All the other gringos knew exactly how I felt. For some reason, even though we can still speak to each other in English fairly normal, praying in English is the hardest thing ever!!! I don't know why. Especially since I say all my personal prayers in my head in English just fine...

Lolol. It was the worst. I can speak English just fine to other missionaries, but trying to speak to anybody else in English is the hardest thing ever. When I was in the office, there was little I dreaded more than having to speak to the parents of some missionary in English on the phone. I felt like such an idiot because I had no idea how to even talk to them! Haha. And it was confusing the heck outta me, because one thing that's funny in español is that we just call everone "hermano" or "hermana." Not only members of the church. Everybody. And it really helps me a whole ton when I can't remember the person's name, because I can just call them hermano and it's totally fine. And when I say brother, I don't mean, like, an actual brother, but I mean it like the way black people use it. Which is more meaningful I think. Hehehehe. But seriously, I was talking to this missionary's mom one time on the phone, en inglès, and it was really awkward because I didn't know how to address her. I saying stuff like "oh yeah, thank you... err... sister..." Haha. I hate English!! Just kidding I love it way more than Spanish.

Hmm, well, I also got mail from you guys finally! Two weeks worth I think! It was so good to finally hear your voices again via my imagination whilst I was reading your Dear Elders in my head! Good to hear what's up in Oregon. As far as me being able to change into Bryn's same track at BYU-I, as far as I know, it's not possible, but, if you find out otherwise, DO IT! Fall/Winter is way better than Winter/Spring. Though, you also told me that Zach got into Winter/Spring. Ooh, depending on when I start school, perhaps Zach and I could take back our ol' apartment that we both used to live in, at different times. Ha. That would be fun!

Anyways, seriously? Another dog?? Well, I'm still waiting to find out if you're keeping him or not. Weird. And way cool about all the people you keep telling me who are going on missions! Basically all of them at this point I feel like are people I met at EFY who I don't actually know that well, but still, COOL! Espesh since they're almost all girls.

I'm way jealous right now that you're in California. Not fair not fair!!! How many times have you gone now without me? Like, three? I've only been gone for a year and a half!! Why didn't I ever get to go that often?! Anyway, do what you did last year, and buy me an In-N-Out shirt! And buy me an In-N-Out burger too! And strawberry shake. Mmmmm... It has been such a freaking long time since I've had a milkshake...

Well, I gotta get going. This week should be an adventure! New comp! Fresh off the airplane! Just think about how weird it is, now that missionaries are in the MTC for less time, this means that two weeks ago, my new companion was totally making out with his girlfriend!! Hahaha.

Okay, I miss you a heck of a lot of a ton! Talk to you next week!

-Elder Hemsley

Here are some other pictures that Victor sent this week:

"Melissa."

"Scary eyes!"




"Anyway, something different about this week is that it's been raining a ton!..And it's a problem, because the streets here are all made of dirt, and so when it rains, it turns into deep mud, and it makes getting around difficult."

Ooh boy am I tired!

Well, another tough week in ol' Picsi. Not so bad though. Just a ton of appointments falling through all the time! The people here just don't understand how to keep commitments, and it's a little bit hard for me to understand such a strange cultural difference. If people tell me they're going to do something, I believe them, and the fact that they never do what they tell us they're going to do is something I can't quite adjust to or wrap my head around. But eh, just gotta deal with it.

Anyway, something different about this week is that it's been raining a ton! Lots and lots of rain! Well, compared to Oregon, not that much rain. But still, for here, lots. And it's a problem, because the streets here are all made of dirt, and so when it rains, it turns into deep mud, and it makes getting around difficult. The streets sometimes are more like rivers than streets. Another big problem is that the houses here are not built for rain. Which, honestly, I don't understand at all, because it’s not like it never rains in Peru. It’s really bad though, because if it rains a lot, some people are in huge trouble because their adobe houses will fall down and they'll be left without a home. Why don't they build water resistant houses? Because it’s cheaper I guess. But is it really worth saving a few bucks (err... soles...) when the next time it rains hard your house will fall down? Ouch the mosquitoes are biting my ankles!!

This week we had what we call an "ataque de distrito" here in Picsi, which is where the whole district comes to a certain area to go tracting to find new investigators for the missionaries in that area. Kinda neat. We got a lot of names of people that we need to go visit now. Kewl.

Ugh, this computer is causing me problems right now. I'm not sure how much I'm actually gonna get to write to you guys... I'll do what I can!

Another fun thing about this week was that I ate guinea pig for the second time! Woo!! It’s actually pretty darn tasty. I don't know how true it is, but everyone here always tells us that it's one of the healthiest foods there is. However, these are also the people who say that drinking cold water is deadly, so, I don't really know when to believe people here on health issues, but still. It was tasty. Guinea pig is like a special treat for people to eat here. It’s one of those meals that everyone gets way excited about to eat. So, that was fun.

As far as appointments falling through, my journal does a good job of explaining what it was like:

03/15/13

Today was a little frustrating because of the four hour block of time in which every appointment we had fell through. Had fixed appointments at 3:00, at 4:00, at 5:00, at 6:00, and at 7:00. At 3:00, the people were getting drunk in the street in front of their house. At 4:00, the people were getting drunk inside their house. At 5:00, the lady was "doing her things." We said "but hermana, you told us to come at this time," and she replied "yeah, but I'm doing my things." Worst excuse ever. At 6:00, the people we were supposed to visit were in Chiclayo. And finally, at 7:00, Melissa was at home and we had a pretty good lesson with her.

03/16/13

It’s kind of sad how many appointments are falling through. More are falling through than aren't. Bleh. Frustrating.

Sigh, that's how it’s been. It's not just Picsi though, this has happened in every single one of my areas. It’s this country's culture. I don't get it.

Another thing I've been enjoying is that I've started reading the BoM a lot more again. I finished Jesus the Christ, and now I'm reading through the Book of Mormon again from start to finish. Wanna finish it one more time before I go home. En inglés though. No Spanish. I started it from the beginning a super long time ago in Olmos, but I was taking my time to mark and highlight every little thing that grabbed my attention, which was a ton of things! It was really slowing me down. I was basically spending more time coloring my Book of Mormon than reading it. But, this week, I got tired of that, and I put my highlighters down, and just started reading straight through without marking anything, and it's going a heck of a lot faster and I'm enjoying it a lot more. Got through Mosiah real fast. Now I'm starting Alma, which always discourages me because it's like 312987235807 chapters long, but whatever. Having some fun reading the scriptures. Also, Elder Arèvalo and I are still finding tons of great scriptures to use in our lessons during our companionship study. The other day we were looking up scriptures on prayer, but it ended up turning into us looking up scriptures about idolatry because too many people here worship and pray to idols! Found a ton.

Church is kinda chaotic on Sundays. First of all, it normally starts anywhere from 30-60 minutes late, because everyone shows up super late!! For the past two weeks in a row, the first counselor of the bishopric has pulled us aside after church to tell us about how worried the bishop is about this group, because it's just not progressing! Here's the jern entry:

03/17/13

Hermano Miguel, the first counselor in the bishopric, pulled us aside after church to "interview" us, and for the second week in a row he told us about how the bishopric is really concerned because the family group in Picsi is not progressing. It’s regressing even. Lots of problems. I want to help strengthen this group so badly, but it’s next to impossible when the members are unwilling to do their part. We really, really need to do all that we can to strengthen these members.

Yikes. He told us that if things don't get better they might have to close the group and all the members would have to go to church in Chiclayo.

However, there was one good thing about Sunday! Ten investigators came to church again!! Wow! Well, really eight. Eight people we're teaching came, but two of them brought friends! Way cool! So, that made us happy at least. Ten is a lot of investigators.

Shoot!! The computer has not been friendly to me this time!! I gotta go!! I still didn't get mail, but I'll get it tomorrow. Dangit, I wanna hear from you guys!

Anyways, I gotta get outta here. Talk to you next week! Miss you all!

Elder Hemsley

"For whatever reason, yesterday it was just so much easier and so much more natural to talk to people than usual. Pretty rad. Felt like I was being held up by something greater than myself."

OREGON! OREGON!

Yikes, y´know what just happened? One member started talking about how in two months we get to call our families, and it just hit me really hard that it will be my last call home! Anyway, that's a little ways off still. BUT STILL. Time is flying so fast!

Time is flying so fast, that last week when I wrote you guys I didn't even realize that Dad's birthday was coming up! I thought it was still farther in the future! I honestly haven't been paying much attention to the date anymore. When you start your mission, you're painfully aware of how many days you've been away from home, and the calendar sometimes becomes your worst enemy. Now, I just keep getting surprised when I notice what the date is and realize how fast the time is going by! Mega fast. Anyway, I hope you had a good birthday Dad! I didn't mean to forget it! Just sorta taking this one day at a time, and didn't realize that March 9th was going to happen before the next time I e-mailed home. Oops.

Anyway, wanna know something weird and honestly kind of scary that I learned about Picsi the other day? Doctors here don't work on Saturday or Sunday. They get weekends off. That probably sounds pretty nice to Dad, but for the rest of us, that's scary! What if you get really sick on a weekend?! Too bad, gotta wait until Monday. Hopefully you don't die before then! Yikes. We have an investigator who got sick on Saturday. We asked him if he had gone to the doctor, and he broke the news to us that he has to wait until Monday because the doctors here don't work Saturdays or Sundays. I assume (or, I hope) that doctors in Chiclayo still work on those days. Chiclayo's like ten minutes away from here.

This week was... also pretty tough honestly. People are just failing us all over the place, not being home when we have appointments scheduled with them. It's been sort of ridiculous. Let's turn to my journal to see what it was like:

03/05/13

Wow, these past few days I just feel like I've been let down so much more than usual. The work is tough!

03/06/13

Appointments are falling through all over the place. Kind of discouraging.

03/07/13

Its ridiculous how many appointments are falling through. I don't know what's happening. We've had to result to make people promise us they'll be at home when we set an appointment. We set a time, and they're like "yeah, see you then." And we have to be like "do you promise us you'll be there at that time?!" and they're like "yeah, yeah I promise." And then they're not there still! It’s frustrating.

03/09/13

Gah!! The people here make me crazy!!

Basically, that was how the week went. Haha. Man, I dunno what's up with the people of Picsi, but they just have no idea how to stay true to their word. Although, its not really just Picsi. This has happened in all my areas.

So, the teaching wasn't so great this week. Though, we did have some good moments. Probably the best parts of this week for me were our study time. Seriously. Teaching wasn’t good, but at least I was learning some good stuff from the ol' scriptures. One day Elder Arèvalo and I started studying and looking up scriptures to help us teach about tithing. There really aren't that many scriptures that mention tithing, so it’s not always the easiest thing to teach to people who are like "if it's not in the Bible, it's not true" (classic reason for not believing in Joseph Smith...). But, we actually ended up finding a ton of scriptures to use to teach the principle. Pretty neat. Tithing is a cool principle for me. It’s one of the things that God promises a very clear, very specific, and very amazing blessing for those who are willing to keep it. One of my favorite scriptures, Malachi 3:10. But, its a principle that a whole heck of a lot of people have issues with. Especially here in Peru. If you thought there were a lot of different churches in the United States, that's nothing compared to Peru. There are so many different Christian churches here it's ridiculous. Some of the more common ones that you might have heard of like the Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Seventh Day Adventist Church, but on top of those, there are tons more!! Anyway, lots of the people we talk to have problems with the law of tithing, because of their past or current experience with how their church uses tithing. So many people tell us about how in "the church they used to go to" the tithing went straight to the pastor for him to use on whatever he liked for his own personal benefit. When I was with Elder Choc, he told me about how back in Guatemala he had a friend who's dad was a pastor of some Christian church. Elder Choc asked his friend what her dad with the tithing that the members paid, and she said that the family uses it to go on vacations and stuff. Are you kidding me?! That's an even more literal application of a man robbing God of His tithing than members who don't pay tithing! "Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings."  But, that's how the vast majority of churches work here. The people don't like that, and they assume it’s just the same in The Church of Jesus Christ. Wrong! Anyway, now that I'm loaded up with some sw33t biblical scriptures on the subject (the BoM really doesn't talk that much about tithing...) I am much better equipped to tackle this issue. Kewl. Plus, this week I've been continuing reading Jesus the Christ, and I've almost finished it for the second time. So good!! And I've been reading the Book of Mormon again in English. I sure love that language a lot.

As for the good teaching moments of the week, they were few, but they were sweet. First, that Adventist couple I told you about before. Their names are Mardokeo and Anita. They are both so receptive to our message! Especially Anita. She is always saying "yes, I know that what you're telling me is the truth." They're both way great. Like I said, they aren't married (nobody in this country is married!!), but they're already making serious plans to get married! We're teaching like four unmarried couples (who all have children) right now. All four of them know that they have to get married, but the only ones who are actively doing anything about it are these Adventists. And, in part, because the Adventist church also taught them that they have to get married. However, it's not a requirement for baptism in that church. Anyway, this couple is progressing fast! They came to church on Sunday and we had a real good Gospel Principles class with them and some other investigators who showed up (much better church attendance than last week. Six investigators came!). They so readily accept all that we say, and you can just tell that they know in their hearts that it's the truth. Really cool to see them progress like this. We're excited for them.

Probably my favorite visit of the week was with Victor Mendoza, the inactive member. He had promised us that he was going to come to church this week, because he wasn't able to last week because he was caught by surprise and had to go to work (he has no solid work schedule. When his boss tells him he has to work, he has to work.). Well, we went to visit him on Saturday. The first thing he said to us (in English...) was "Bad news... I can't go to church tomorrow." Noooooo!!!! Well, his boss made him go to work again on Sunday. And Sunday was his birthday! Worked all day. Couldn't come to church. Anyway, we had a nice visit with him, talking about keeping the Sabbath day holy. I asked him what his Sundays were like back in Australia when he was an active member of the church. He explained in great detail all the things he would do on Sunday at church and with the members. He told us about how most Sundays he would go out and visit people with the missionaries. As he was explaining all of this, you could just tell that he missed it. Although he hasn't been able to make it to church yet, I think his desires to change and make the gospel and active part of his life again are sincere. Bringing him back to church would be even better than a baptism for me. Victor Mendoza could be such a huge help for the church in Picsi! And his own life will be blessed so much as he lets Christ back into it.

On Sunday for some reason they made me lead the sacrament meeting again. I don't know why, but I did it. I also gave a short talk. Using Christ's parable of how the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed (and makes it clear that the mustard seed is one of the smallest and most insignificant of all seeds) that starts out tiny, but eventually grows into a great tree. I used the scripture in Alma 37:6-7 about how by small and simple means God brings to pass great works for the salvation of many souls. Basically I applied it all to how Picsi is a tiny family group, and how a "group" is the smallest of all branches of the church, but how with time, the church in Picsi will grow into something great, for the salvation of many souls. Not to brag or anything, but I thought it was a cool talk. Haha. :p

Well, I gotta get going. Although this was another tough week, I definitely felt the aid of the Spirit in my teaching. Especially on Sunday after church. For whatever reason, yesterday it was just so much easier and so much more natural to talk to people than usual. Pretty rad. Felt like I was being held up by something greater than myself. Although, I am pretty great. Hehe. Okay, I really gotta go! I really miss you a lot! Didn't get mail this week, but maybe this week... I honestly don't even know.

Well, bye!

-Elder Hemsley

"...as we were strollin' down the street, talking about some sweet doctrine, some guy totally tried to rob us! And by "us" I mean "me." "

Hello,

Well, this week has been pretty rough honestly. Worked hard, but it was one of the tougher weeks I've had lately. All good though. Sort of. Haha. Just means this week is gonna have to be a good one to make up for it!

First of all, today summer vacation officially ended in Peru, and everyone is going back to school with their silly uniforms. I am so happy I never had school uniforms! Basically the guys all have to dress like missionaries without name tags, and the girls all have to dress... unattractive. Haha. But yeah, school starts today. I always hated school starting day!

This week sort of just punched us in the face with a fist made of cement dipped in acid. Something like that. The biggest bummer of the week was when we went to go visit Victor Retamozo, who is basically our best investigator who progresses so fast and kept every single one of his commitments (which is a miracle in Peru!). We visited with him, and he told us that he's really thankful for all the visits and everything, and that we're his good friends, but he won't be able to keep visiting with us. He basically told us that he's an atheist, and this entire time he's really been trying to change and to believe what we're saying, but it just never clicked for him, and he just can't quite accept anything he can't see. He returned his Libro de Mormon, all the pamphlets he had, and one Liahona magazine we gave to him. One investigator less. We're pretty bummed about it, because Victor is awesome! Maybe one day he'll give it another chance...

Speaking of Victors, the other Victor, Victor Mendoza, who is the inactive priesthood-holding member we randomly found knocking doors that one day, hasn't made it to church yet. He told us he would make an effort to reorganize his Sunday schedule to be able to start going to church again, but he hasn't made much of an effort as of yet. He plays club soccer on Sundays. So, a couple weeks ago he told us he would be at church on Sunday, but he played soccer instead, and while playing he hurt his knee really bad. Can't play soccer for another six months. Problem solved! God works in mysterious ways sometimes. So, basically he has no excuse left to not come, but this past Sunday he was also busy working the entire day. He says it was a random thing and that it doesn't usually happen on Sunday, but this week it did. I trust him, for now, but if he keeps not coming we're gonna have to talk! Haha. He's really cool though. He's been inactive for a few years and he's slipped into some bad habits, but he wants the gospel to be a part of his life again and seems willing to make the necessary changes. I'm just a little worried though, because when he was an active member in Australia, he was a member of a big, well-organized, functioning ward, right close to a temple. Here, it's just a little struggling group with a temple like a day away. It won't be the same. It won't be what he's expecting. But, we'll do what we can to help him.

On Tuesday I went to Chiclayo and had a work visit in Lopez Albujar with Elder Cuadros. Fun guy. The main highlight was that in the morning, as we were strollin' down the street, talking about some sweet doctrine, some guy totally tried to rob us! And by "us" I mean "me." We were walkin' and talkin', and then out of nowhere this guy sneaks up behind us and grabs by wrist, going for my watch. Elder Cuadros comes from a dangerous part of Lima, where this sort of thing is common, and he actually knew that the guy was going to rob us before it even happened. As the guy grabbed for my wrist, Elder Cuadros immediately pulled my arm away, turned around, and said to the guy "What are you doing?! We're missionaries. We don't have any money. We're missionaries." The guy just sort of stood there dumb-struck, and a little embarrassed that his plan was so easily foiled. He just stood there looking ashamed, and then calmly let us leave. I think he was drugged up. He was trying to steal my watch that I bought for 15 soles. Which is like five dollars or something. It doesn't even look nice! But yeah, that was exciting.

I went to Chiclayo again a few days later to finish up my office stuff. I think I finally finished everything in the office. I am no longer in possesion of 6,000 soles of the Church's money. Haha. I canceled my bank account. They destroyed my bank card. Awww, I kinda wanted to keep that as a souvenir. Oh well. I need to have less stuff.

Hmm, what else... On Friday I went to interview a nine year old girl for baptism in the Chiclayo Campodònico ward. Her name is Mayli. Nine year olds don't usually have serious sins that they have to take care of, so, pretty easy. Passed. Has a strong testimony for a little girl. She got baptized on Saturday. Kewl.

Anyway, time is short today. Gotta finish up. The other reason this week was rough was because normally we have tons of investigators come to church. This week only one showed up. Fifteen people who gave us their word that they would be at church on Sunday, didn't show up. Fifteen people! That was a mega bummer. This week is gonna be a better one.

Yikes, I had more stuff to tell you, but I gotta get going. Yes Bryn, I miss the cold, a lot. In fact, I can't wait to get back to the freezing temperatures of Rexburg. I am tired of hot. This week was the hottest week yet. It made fasting more of a sacrifice than usual (I was almost to the point of passing out...). Family! Help me decide when I should start studying again! I don't know what to do. If I don't start in September, I have to wait until January, which is a long time. But if I start in September, I get like no time with you guys! But I could start school with Bryn! I don't know. Both options are lame. My original date to come home was September 17th, but a week got cut off all of our missions, so my new date is one week earlier, but there is a group of missionaries who are coming home three weeks earlier than my group (so, four weeks earlier than my original date) and I was thinking if I'm gonna study I'd have to go home with them. Be home for Jacque's b-day. I dunno. I don't like to think about this stuff. I want your opinions. How the heck is it that time has gone so fast that I already have to start thinking about going home?!? Oh yeah PS, to answer your questions, yeah, the girls dorms at BYU-I are like a hundred-finity times nicer than the boys dorms. If Bryn wants dorms, it'd be an okay choice.

Mom, Peruvian Spanish is really slow, just so you know. They told me in the MTC that it would be easier for me to learn Spanish in Peru than in Mexico. Peruvian Spanish is really really lazy Spanish. When people talk fast it still confuses the heck outta me. And yes, I heard about all those missions that are opening, and I was excited about all the same ones that you thought I would be excited about! The Church is growing!

Okay, I really have to go now! Talk to you next week! I miss you!

-Elder Hems

"I was thinking about it the other day, and between all the members in my family (on both sides) that I know who have served missions (cousins, uncles, aunts, parents, grandparents, etc...), I realized that in total my family has given over 30 years of full-time missionary service. That's super rad."

Wow, the internet here is unbelievably, frustratingly slow. Let's just say I've been sitting here for 15 minutes and I'm just barely able to start typing to you guys. This is worse than the internet we had when I was like six years old. The fact that they're trying to charge me normal price for this internet is a little bit unreasonable, but whatever. I'm in Peru.

This has been an especially hot week. Unbearably hot at times. Usually in the morning. We are suffering here during the day. At night it cools down (and if we're lucky, it cools down in our room too... sort of.). Sadly, it's not going to get any cooler any time soon. We're right in the middle of the hottest part of Summer, and considering even Winter is really hot, I don't really have much to look forward to weather-wise. Also, the zancudos have become unbearable. I'm still covering my body in repellant at night, but I'm still covered in bug bites. And they're starting to hurt a lot worse than before. My legs are painfully itchy these days. I try not to itch that much, but, I don't have enough will-power or something, and some of the bites are turning into open wounds and... I don't know what to do honestly. There seems to be no way to escape it. We seem to be made to suffer. It's our lot in life. I like Star Wars.

Anyway, more baptisms this week! Anallely and Jhon were baptized on Saturday. Way super awesome. These two kids are great. Anallely is especially smart. She gets everything we teach her right away. Once we went to visit them, and Jhon wasn't there, but Anallely had all the right answers to all the questions. At the end we asked her if she was sure that she still wanted to get baptized. She got quiet for a second and thought about it. I was sort of worried about what her answer was going to be honestly. Haha. But she said yes. I asked her why she wants to get baptized, and her answer was pretty awesome: "Because I want to enter into the kingdom of God, and I want to live with my family forever." Yep, this girl gets it. Jhon is rad too, but a lot of the times he wasn't there when we visited them, so he was less sure about some of the answers. But still had the desire to get baptized. On Friday our zone leaders Elder Nova and Elder Lonsdale came to interview them. Before the interview Elder Lonsdale asked them "well, before we get started, do you have any questions for us? Like, where did God come from? Because, we don't know." Hahaha. Funny guy. He's from Canada. The only Canadian in the mish. Anyway, the interviews went great and the next day they got baptized. Their baptism was really nice. We took the dumb ol' combi up to Chiclayo like last time. Elder Rich and Elder Cuadros (from our district) were there and they helped us out a bunch. Elder Rich directed the baptismal program and Elder Cuadros gave a nice talk. Finally, Elder Arévalo and I both got to baptize. I baptized Anallely first. This girl wasn't afraid of the water, which was refreshing, so there were no problems. Except when I baptized her her clothes didn't go all the way under the water, so I had to do it twice. Haha. Oops. They each got a new set of scriptures, and the next day they were confirmed in sacrament meeting. Cool promises are made in priesthood blessings. These kids have some amazing blessings awaiting them in the future if they stay strong in their faith, I really love these kids and their parents. What a great family. Their parents just need to get married and then they'll be able to follow the example of Anallely and Jhon.

"Anallely and Jhon's baptism."

"Another." 

So, that was the highlight of my week. The rest of the week was pretty good too. On Monday night Elder Davis called and told me that our IDs finally got here, so we could go finish everything up in the bank. We went to Chiclayo on Wednesday, and... I didn't finish everything. But, we made progress. Gonna have to go back though. Got to see the new office. It's pretty nice. A lot smaller than the old one though. But it's in probably the nicest chapel in all of Chiclayo. It actually sort of reminded me as a chapel from the United States. Oh yeah, P.S., chapels are different here. They're... not as nice. And they're all fenced in with a super high wall or fence and a giant gate that you have to open to get inside. All the windows are barred. It’s kind of depressing and creepy. But that's what you gotta do I guess when you live in a not-safe culture.

After going to the office (and using it as an excuse to eat lunch with the Yataco family :D ) I had a work visit with the ZLs. I went to Cabrera, Chiclayo with Elder Nova, and Elder Lonsdale went and replaced me in Picsi. I like Chiclayo because there aren't as many zancudos. I always come back from Chiclayo less itchy. Elder Nova is also way cool. I've known him since I entered the office in July. So I got to spend the day with him, teachin' and stuff. We taught well together. He's been out here as long as I have, and it's fun when you have those rare moments to teach with someone else who's been out here a long time (not that Arévalo doesn't teach well, because he teaches awesome. Better than me. He should be senior companion by now) and there's not really a junior or senior companion. Just two missionaries who already know the drill and are just out to save some souls. Fun times. He and Elder Lonsdale live with Elder Rich and Elder Cuadros so I got to spend the night with them too. I miss living with other missionaries. It's really a lot more fun than just living with your companion, no matter how awesome your companion is. Anyway, it was pretty fun to go out and do something different and teach with Elder Nova. Thursday morning Elder Nova had an interview with President Risso, and so I got to talk to President for a few minutes too. He told me that for a group to become a branch there needs to be at least four Melchizedek priesthood holders. Right now we have two I think. And there needs to be like at least three... or five (I don't remember...) full tithe payers. I don't know how we're doing on that one. I guess the members here don't like to receive blessings so big that there isn't room enough to receive it. Anyway, they're seriously trying to turn this group into a branch, and if it happens while I'm still here, they said that most likely the missionaries would be the first and second counselors to the branch president. So, being a part of the branch presidency may be a part of my near future. Scary. Depends on how quick this group becomes a branch!

On Friday we had a multi-zone conference, and those are always awesome because we always get to eat pizza at them!... Except this time we didn't get any pizza! NOOOOOOOOooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So, that was a little bit sad. But, it was still awesome because President Risso's talks are the best. This time he just spoke a ton about the life of Jesus Christ, and about being representatives of Him. He asked "how can you claim to be representatives of Jesus Christ if you don't even know what Jesus Christ did?" Basically got me way stoked on studying more fully the life and teachings of Christ. The four gospels, and 3 Nephi. Coincidentally, a few weeks ago I started reading Jesus the Christ again, and I'm loving it even more than the first time. Gotta learn more about Christ if I really want to be a worthy representative of Him.

That night we had a "noche misional" activity where we played makeshift bowling with all the empty bottles of Inka Cola that we've been drinking. Which is a lot. I swear, I'm trying to cut back on the soda. But it's so freaking hot here and it's just so delicious when you buy it fresh outta the fridge. I've seriously become worried about my health here in Peru, because like I've said before, I never feel 100%, and my diet of rice, rice, and rice, with some chicken, is not giving me all the necessary nutrients I need. How do these people live normal healthy lives eating this food?!... the answer is, they don't. The people here are not healthy.

I was going to tell you about some of the frustrating things about having to deal with a highly apostate group of members of the church who don't even have testimonies or believe in modern day revelation or living prophets, but, I don't really wanna talk about that. I just have to remember that the church is new here, and like I read in an Ensign you sent me a long time ago, one of the apostles said that for the church to really be strong, it needs to have third and fourth generation members as leaders. So, basically, that won't happen here for another three or four generations, and until then, we just have to be patient and understand! It's the exact same thing that happened when the church was just starting with Joseph Smith. How many of the leaders of the new church were excommunicated? A ton. Generations later, the church has grown into what it is now in the United States, and I miss it a lot! Even in the times of Christ, or soon after his death, Paul marveled at how soon the members of the church fell away and started following "another gospel." Whenever the church is just barely starting, it is going to be difficult, but with time it will grow strong. With a lot of time.

I finally got mail this week! And wow! Tons of great news! I can't believe how many people are getting their mission calls! And I'm especially super excited for Zanna! The Philippines?! That is so freaking cool!! Speaking Hdaieasdfaljkeyieuidjjdnnd, or whatever that language is that I've never heard of. I was thinking about it the other day, and between all the members in my family (on both sides) that I know who have served missions (cousins, uncles, aunts, parents, grandparents, etc...), I realized that in total my family has given over 30 years of full-time missionary service. That's super rad. Super rad super rad super rad!

And Bryn got into Ricks College! WooOoOoo! Duuude, por favor let me know asap what track you get in. I feel like it would be really stupid if they put us in different semesters, but it could happen. I wanna know, because I feel like that would basically be the deciding factor for me in whether or not I want to start school in September, or in January. Both have their big pluses and their big minuses. I don't really like either option, which is why I can't decide (why can't BYU-I just have a normal semester system?!). But maybe I'll just copy whatever you do. Spring semester can go get dead really hard. Anyway, sounds like your senior year is especially easy, like mine was. That's how it should be. I loved senior year!! Enjoy it. Eat Carl's Jr.

You guyz saw the Hobbit, and basically all everyone said to me was that it was "good." Doesn't sound too promising to me. Perhaps the hype was just too darn big so that the movie could never really live up to everyone's high expectations. I'm still super excited to see it though! Even though The Lord of the Rings just totally copied Star Wars by releasing a first trilogy and then releasing the prequel trilogy after. I'm still wondering how they're gonna stretch one book into three super long movies. Anyway, stop distracting me from preaching the gospel... Just kidding.

I miss you all a whole heck of a ton of a lot! It's almost March. The sisters I started my mission with are going home. That is super weird. Those 24 never-ending months I used to have are all of the sudden coming to an end. But not quite. Still got enough time to help s'more families! I'll talk to you next week! Bye!

Elder Hems

"The gospel changes lives, and seeing those changes happen in families you're teaching is just the coolest thing ever."

Hey familia!

Bad news, I got stuck with one of those computers that has a really old not-working-that-well keyboard. Great. Mostly the "L" key doesn't work. Let's see what I can type here...

Well, before I forget, because I keep forgetting every week, my mailing address changed! The office moved to a new (way less cool) place this week, and now all mail's gotta get sent there instead of where you've been sending it too. The new address is this:

ELDER VICTOR HEMSLEY

MISION PERU CHICLAYO

CALLE LOS ALAMOS #128

URB. SANTA VICTORIA

CHICLAYO, LAMBAYEQUE

PERU

So yeah. Jus' remember that. But, my mail paranoia continues, and, even though it's like way cooler to get an actual physical handwritten letter from someone, I feel like the absolute best way to write me is through Dear Elder, because the church sends those right to the mission office by FedEx and it's way more reliable than the post office. Just a tip. However, if you wanna send me a nice card or a photo through regular mail, I won't complain :) Just don't get too angry if it never gets to me!

Anywayz, so yeah, the office moved this week. That means I will never again set foot in the office I spent six months of my life in. Kinda weird. The new office is way worse (actually, I've never been to it. I just know that it's in a church building now, and it's smaller than the old office, and it's in a way worse location. But it's cheaper, so that's why they moved). I'm super glad I wasn't around for the moving. I hate moving! Moving from one apartment to another in Pacasmayo was like the worst thing in the world! I left just in time. Duude. Elder Perea should have been transferred this past week, but he's totally staying in the office. His fifth transfer in the office! He's gonna be in the office for seven months! Poor guy, he's wanted to leave ever since he got there. Weird transfers.

This week was Valentine's day! Woo! Got your package (however, I still haven't gotten any mail from you guys. My zone leaders should be giving me a few weeks worth of letters tomorrow.) and opened that on the 14th. Thanks for the candy! Elder Arèv says thanks too. We sure like candy. And the photos! Wow, you sent a ton this time!! Way cool photos!! Especially the pictures of mom on her mission! The Guatemala pics were really cool too. All the pictures were way cool. Thank you thank you! I miss you guys!

Well, this was a pretty normal nothing-too-special-happened kind of week. However, one really cool thing did happen. Allow me to share, por favor. So, remember how last week I said it's been a personal goal of mine to find future priesthood holders in Picsi? Well, I found something even better. Once upon a time we were tracting in an area called Vista Florida. It was an especially hot day, and tracting was especially boring that day. After a bunch of unsuccessful door-knocking, we come up to this one house that's front door is already open. There's a guy inside watching TV. Usually at this point in my mission I tend to want to skip houses where people are watching TV because they almost always ignore us or want nothing to do with us because they're watching something really really important on TV!!! But, this time I stayed. We didn't knock, we just said "buenas tardes...". The guy turned around, and without us even saying anything else he invited us right in, and he started speaking to me in English! Broken English, but still. He told me that he went to live in Australia for five years and learned to speak English there. He said a few other things I didn't quite understand, and then I realized he was saying the name of our church in English. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Weird. Then he told us that he's a member of the church! He was taught by the missionaries in Australia, and got baptized, got the priesthood, went to the temple, did baptisms for the dead, baptized some of his friends from Africa, and a whole lot more stuff. Whoa whoa whoa. We ask if we can visit with him for a minute, and he said yeah and got up and went into the other room for a second. He came back out with his King James version of the Bible and his Book of Mormon in English. Haha. Wow! The ward he went to in Australia was English speaking. He doesn't even own Spanish scriptures. He was really active in Australia, but when he came back to Lima he sort of started going a little inactive, and then when he came to Picsi he went completely inactive, because the church didn't even exist in Picsi at that point. We spoke with him for a while. He's a way cool guy. And his name is Victor! Yes, my name is extremely common in Peru... Victor Mendoza. He told us he had no idea that a small congregation had started here in Picsi, and told us that he's never seen missionaries here before. He said he was really surprised when he turned around and saw members of the church he had joined in Australia at his door. He said that when he saw us, it was as if Jesus Christ spoke to him and said "Victor, here I am at your door. Please, let me back into your life." Wow. Sometimes you just have some way awesome experiences in your mission. That was one of them! It was no coincidence that we found Victor that day. Just as I was thinking about how badly we needed to find future priesthood holders to help the church grow in Picsi, we find someone who already holds the priesthood in some random house. The coolest thing ever. I hope we can help this guy. He was very thankful that we found him and shared a little bit of the gospel with him that he had lost. Very cool. That was the highlight of my week.

Some other things... Well, on Thursday I got to interview somebody for baptism. An investigator from Lopez Albujar. A 21 year old named Heber ("Ebber"). Basically, he was super ready to get baptized and has a strong testimony and desire to take this step in his life. No problems. He had some good questions that I was able to help him out with. He got baptized on Saturday. I wasn't there, but still, cool.

On Friday night we had a big ol' soccer activity here in Picsi for the members and investigators, and also the members from Lopez Albujar. It went real well. Everyone had fun. It was stupid though because we rented the place out from 7PM-10PM, and when we got there at 7:00 there were these dumb dance lessons going on until 8:00 and even though we were paying for that hour they wouldn't let us play until the dance class finished. And there was this gigantic stage set up right on the soccer field that took up like a third of the field! It had been set up earlier that day, knowing that we had rented the place out to play soccer that night. I was super frustrated, but nobody wanted to argue with the owners except for me, so I keep quiet too. You just have to get used to stupid things like that in Peru.

On Sunday for some reason they asked me to lead the sacrament meeting. I don't know why, but I did it. Kind of weird. I've never done that before. Cool experience though.

Not much else happened this week. We're still visiting Daniela and her family. I'm seeing big changes in their family, and it’s making me so happy. The gospel changes lives, and seeing those changes happen in families you're teaching is just the coolest thing ever. The family seems way happier than they were before. The gospel really changes lives. It's a miracle.

"Daniela's Baptism!"

We're also still visiting all the other people I usually talk about. Edgar and Jacqueline's two kids, Anallely and John, are going to get baptized this weekend. We're way excited! This is another amazing family. All of our visits with them are so great. It's always been my dream in the mission to teach entire families, and I've never been able to do it in any of my areas. Always just one or two people at a time. Here, I have two amazing families we're visiting all the time. It's just what I've always wanted to do.

Anyway, I gotta get going. I'm trying to not ask the lady at the front desk for extra time this time after my regular hour runs out (that almost always happens every week because I just write too much!) so I can save some serious soles (to spend on soda).

I'll hopefully read your mail tomorrow and so next week I'll be able to comment on all the silly things that are happening at home. Did Grandma and Grandpa get their mission call yet?!?! I want to know! Perhaps I will find out tomorrow. Maybe not.

Alright, until next week! See ya in less than two years!!

-Elder Hemsley

Here are a few more pictures that Victor sent.  The rest can be seen by clicking the slideshow at the top of this blog.

"More rice planting."

"In the rice plantation."

"Ugh. Air conditioning would solve all my problems. I wouldn't die of heat, and I wouldn't die of bug bites because we would never need to open the window to let the breeze in."

Yo dewds!

"Planting some rice."

P-day got changed this week, and they didn't let us know until the last possible second. Sunday night they told us that Monday wasn't p-day, and that Tuesday is gonna be our p-day this week. Oh great, thanks for giving us plenty of time to plan for that! We had a bunch of appointments scheduled for Tuesday, and nothing scheduled for Monday! That was sort of annoying. But it's all good. I'm currently in Chiclayo because my district decided to go out to lunch at Norky's for P-day. Mmmm. So, I'm actually in my last area right now, which is weird.

I think this journal entry serves as a good intro for this e-mail:

02/10/13

My room is so stupidly hot. I haven't slept with sheets since I got to Picsi. Which has left me vulnerable to zancudo bites all night long. I've actually been covering myself with bug spray every night before going to sleep. It helps, but it feels disgusting! And I'm running out of bug spray real fast. I've gone through an entire bottle already just in my short time here. Ugh. Air conditioning would solve all my problems. I wouldn't die of heat, and I wouldn't die of bug bites because we would never need to open the window to let the breeze in. Wouldn't have to bathe in repellant.

Yes, there are way too many bugs that like to feast on my delicious blood here in Picsi. Just the other day I walked outside and this mosquito landed on me and started sucking my blood. But then I realized that it was no ordinary mosquito. It was a green mosquito. AND GREEN EQUALS POISON!! And then I realized that it wasn't actually sucking my blood, but it was kicking my legs really really hard! It broke my legs and I passed out. After who knows how many days, I finally woke up sitting in a wheelchair.

Actually that didn't happen. But it sure makes a good story.

Anyway, transfer week! You know what that means right?... I'm not extremely busy because I'm not in the office! Woo! I was real nervous about transfers though. I've been with Elder Arèvalo for only like three weeks, and he's been in Picsi for a while, so there was a strong chance he was gonna get booted. But, luckily, the transfer gods had mercy on me and let me keep my companion one more transfer! Woo! Except there's actually going to be transfers again in three weeks, so its possible he might only be here three more weeks. But still, three is better than zero.

This week was pretty good! Lotsa stuff happened. The best of which was that we had a baptism! I baptized an eleven year old girl named Daniela. Her parents aren't members, and they aren't married, so they can't get baptized yet, but they agreed to let Daniela be the first in their family to take that step. Way rad! More on that later.

I still haven't gotten any mail from you guys. Probably won't until like next Tuesday. I expect to be handed a huge pile of mail from my Zone Leaders. But until then, I have no idea what has been going on in real life lately.

This week we've been busy teachin' lessons! I like it. We're still visiting Victor, and he's still awesome! This week we taught him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and at the end we asked him if he was willing to prepare to be able to be baptized, and his answer was so awesome! It was basically "Isn't that what I've been doing this whole time?!" Haha. So cool! We also taught him the Word of Wisdom the other day. I was a little worried about that lesson, because the first time we met him he was a little drunk, and one of his neighbors also told us that he has a drinking problem, but ever since that first visit every time we've seen him he's been sober. Anyways, he totally accepted everything we said, and he even started teaching us about exactly how tea, coffee, and beer damage our bodies. Haha. Too cool. He said he'd have no problem keeping the word of wisdom. Somehow I believe him. Rad!

This week was another first for me: I had my first work visit as district leader. I went to Campodònico, which is in Chiclayo, with Elder Sainsbury. Rad guy. Had a fun ol' time speaking English and talkin' about music n' stuff. And working hard of course! Knocked a lot of doors, because here, it’s just normal that your appointments fall through, and they all did. Did some good work with Sainsbury. Way cool guy. Then, when that ended, we had a district tracting activity in Lopez Albujar, the other area in my district, also in Chiclayo. We split up and went searching for elect souls. I was paired with Elder Bracho. He's from Chile, and I was in the Lima MTC with him. He's way fun. We actually had a lot of success together in the short few hours we tracted. We talked to a ton of people and got into a few houses n' everything. Good day.

Anyway, let me tell you about Daniela. She's this little girl we met not that long ago because we've been visiting her aunt Thalia. One day our appointment with Thalia fell through, and so we knocked on the door of Daniela's house and talked for a little bit with Daniela's mom, Jovana. Made another appointment, and from there things just took off. My journal explains it pretty well:

02/05/13

Visited another cool family who came to church with us on Sunday. The Bautista Ramirez family. Valdomero and Jovana, and their four kids. The parents accept the baptismal invitation, but they're not married yet, and it doesn't seem like Jovana is too big on the idea of marrying her boyfriend. She seems depressed to me, and I think their relationship has had a few rough points in the past. But, they're cool. They accepted supporting their eleven year old daughter Daniela in getting baptized first. Rad! This is a good family. I wanna help them in whatever way I can.

02/07/13

Daniela is still set to get baptized this weekend. Visited her and her family tonight. Her mom has a lot of doubts and trust issues. I feel sad for her. I feel like she's suffered a lot, and she just looks so sad all the time. But, whenever we say something that makes her smile, it’s like the best thing in the world. Seeing this sad lady smile just for a second makes me feel so good inside. That's what being a missionary is all about. Making people happy. It's the best.

02/08/13

This has been a weird past few days. No normal days. Work visits, district activities, baptismal interview... that was today! Today Daniela was interviewed, and totally passed! She's getting baptized tomorrow. Rad! Stoked on that. Hope her parents can follow her soon. We had a visit with their family tonight, and we watched a video, and as we were watching it, I just looked at this family, and pictured them being sealed and being an eternal family, and it made me so happy to think of that. I want this family to be together forever. I want them to have all of these blessings. That's my goal. Daniela is taking the first step, and being the example. Someday I hope the rest of the family can do the same.

02/09/13

Baptism day!! Today was a nice day. Since there is no baptismal font in Picsi, our baptisms have to take place in the stake center in Chiclayo. We all got in a big ol' combi to go to Chiclayo. Us, Daniela and her family, Edgar and Jacqueline and their family, Harly, and a few other members and non-members. But hardly any members! First of all, there are barely any members in Picsi, and second, none of them could come today. Boo! But, there were like seven investigators there, so it was kewl. We showed up in Chiclayo, and los asistentes were there waiting for us. Good ol' Elder Infante and Elder Insaurralde. Rad! Elder Juergens and Elder Nova also showed up because they had the baptismal clothing for Daniela. The baptism was nice. The were lots of investigators, and very few hymnals, which was a little silly, but whatever. Elder Arèvalo gave a short message, and then I got to baptize Daniela! She, like most kids here, was a little nervous, but was brave and I baptized her without any problem. How come the only people I've ever baptized are kids?! Sam, Haylander, Piter, Daniela, and the sister's investigator Milagros, who was 14 years old, and is the oldest person I've ever baptized. Haha. I'm honestly afraid to baptize a big person. I don't know if I could do it! But anyway, the baptism was nice, and Hermano Miguel, a member of the Lopez Albujar bishopric, gave Daniela a Bible and a triple combination. Cool! A little later in the day we stopped by Daniela's house and re-taught her a little about prayer. Her seven year old brother Fernando totally knew the steps to pray too and was excited to show us. Haha. During the visit Daniela told me that I'm her godfather... what?! Haha. I didn't really know what to say, so I didn't really say anything. Haha. But, I guess if she wants me to be her godfather then I guess that's okay. Honestly it just made me feel happy that she said that. This family is really opening up to us and accepting us more little by little. The kids now get excited when we show up at their house, and even the mom who's still really quiet and awkward and sad seems to be smiling more. Short smiles that come and go in like two seconds, but whenever I see that smile I feel so thankful that somehow we're doing something to make her feel happy for at least a short moment. I know what Daniela did today is going to be a huge blessing for this family. The gospel will bring light and joy into their lives. Their family will grow closer, and grow happier. Daniela took the first step. She's the leader, and the example, and God will bless the entire family for this choice she's made. This family will see changes and receive blessings. My greatest desire for them is that they can one day be happily sealed together for time and all eternity. The first step was taken today.

02/10/13

Today was cool because Daniela got confirmed! We went to her house to go to church with her and her family. Her family wasn't ready yet, but church was gonna start and we at least needed Daniela to be there, so we went to church with her and her brother. Her dad said they'd be there in five minutes. Fifty minutes later they showed up. Welcome to Peru. By then Daniela had already been confirmed, so they all missed it. The confirmation was pretty cool. Miguel, one of the members of the Lopez Albujar bishopric confirmed her. I got to participate in the laying on of hands. The blessing he gave to Daniela was really cool. He blessed her that in the not-too-distant future that she would be able to make sacred covenants in the temple and serve a regular mission. Wow!! Daniela the missionary! I can't wait for that day. Way rad.

So that's the story of Daniela. She's so awesome! I love her and her whole family. I hope we can keep helping them, because they're the awesomest. We have a bunch of women and children who could get baptized really soon. Nayeli (who the other day I learned that her name is spelled "Anallely") and her ten year old brother John are both gonna get baptized on the 23rd. The thing we really need in Picsi though is priesthood holders. There's one melchezidek priesthood holder in the... groupo familiar... and he's like 80 years old and a little slow. My personal goal is to find future priesthood holders, because we can baptize all the women and children in Picsi, and the groupo still won't grow until there are more members who hold the priesthood. We'll see how the search goes. Excited about Victor!

Anyway, I gotta get going. Valentine's day is in two days. Whoa! Happy V-day! I haven't gotten any of your letters, but somehow I did get the package you sent me. I assume it’s for Valentines day, so I haven't opened it yet. No me gusta spoiling surprises. Excited to see what you sent though!

On a completely random note, this extreme heat I'm suffering through messes with my brain and makes me think about being in California at the beach too much. Seriously, that's like what I most wish I was doing right now. Hangin' out at Newport Beach or something, listening to some legit Ocean Avenue. It made it way worse at lunch today when Elder Greene told me about how right before his mission he went to Newport Beach. Haha. Me too! Anyway, that's random. I want to go swimming.

On another kind of note, and speaking of notes, or letters, I'm just super paranoid that none of the mail I send to the states actually makes it to the states. I know a few letters that have been sent to me have never made it to me, and I feel like the same thing happens the other way around. So, just in case my very few precious letters that I actually get around to writing don't make it to the United States, just gonna throw it out there that in the past... I don't even know how long, I've sent two letters to the states. One to Tyler (Balkman... because I know like 100 people named Tyler...) and the other to Keegan. Tyler's should have already gotten there a while ago. Keegan's might not have yet, but if not, it should get there soon. Just so ya know. If you never get those letters, at least you now know that I tried. Haha. I'm seriously legit paranoid about mail here. It is not trustworthy. That's why I put Jesus stickers on my letters. Peruvians are less likely to open and steal my mail if it has Jesus on it. Maybe I should try putting the virgin Mary on them, it would probably be twice as effective.

Okay, I'm outta here. I miss your dumb faces! And I also miss Cheez-its! A lot!! See ya!

-Elder Hemsley

P.S.: Didja know that exactly seventeen months ago today was the last time I ate Carl's Jr.? Sad fact.

Here are some new pictures that Victor sent this week:

"Chillin' with Elder Sainsbury at Norky's on p-day."

"My Casa Capilla! Where we have our church meetings!"

"My comp and I."