November 23rd, 2015

Hi guys! I feel like Jace's email needs a little bit of translation this week. First: Zona Sullana is the group of missionaries in his zone. Second: todo mi corazon means "All my heart". Third: Padre Celestial is Heavenly Father. Fourth: I have no idea what Cerro Mocho is, but a gringo missionary is a white/Spanish is not my first language missionar (Jace is a gringo missionary). And last: Hermano is Brother.

Bad news: the pictures he sent didn't come through. It  just said invalid image. I'll ask him to resend them next week.

On a Christmas note: We are sending Jace's Christmas package on Wednesday. If you would like to write him a quick "Merry Christmas" letter and send it to me, I will put them in a book and that will be one of his Christmas gifts. Don't feel obligated, but I'm sure he would love to hear from all of you. It doesn't have to be long. Sorry for the short notice, but if you could email it to me by Wednesday morning that would be great!

Everyone,

This week was great! We played in a mission wide soccer tournament today.  Zona Sullana won and is progressing to the finals next p-day!  I did however sweat more than is humanly possible and I know for a fact that I have smelled awful for at least three days. So, because I stink and we don't have much time, today's email is a little short.

First, we literally had an investigator ask us if he was prepared for baptism, and if not what else does he need to do. LOL. His name is Segundo and I love him with todo mi corazon.  We have taught him twice. We found him a while ago and taught him Lec 1. He loved it.  Especially the part about Padre Celestial. He literally loves Padre Celestial more than any human I have ever met. That and repentance. Hahaha. Anyway, we have been teaching his sons, and the other night we taught Segundo again as well. And well now he has a date for Dec 19.  He also hugs me for at least 10 seconds everytime we talk to him.

The other great thing that happened this week has to do with Julie Andrews and answered prayers.  Elder Vasquez is the district leader so we have to do exchanges with all the companionships in our district.  I have only done one other exchange and it was with a native speaker in his area.  During this exchange, I was staying in Cerro Mocho and Elder Coppin (a gringo missionary who is even newer than I am was my companion.)  I was so nervous.  To make matters worse, that day Hermano Santos couldnt join us because he hurt his knee.  We need Hermano Santos to not only guide us but to be the man present when we teach our female investigators (which is like half of them).  Anyway I was stressed and I prayed.  I told Heavenly Father that I didn't feel confident enough to do this.  I know a hymn or some scripture was supposed to pop into my head, but instead in her crystal clear angelic voice, Julie Andrews was singing 'I have confidence in sunshine! I have confidence in rain! I have confidence in confidence alone! Despite what you see I have confidence in me!'  For some reason this helped me so much.  Call it nostalgia, call it heat stroke, but to me it was a comforting answer to an anxious prayer.  The Lord was reminding me to have confidence!  He is with me every step of the way.  He was reminding me to stop doubting my faith.  He knows, that I know,  that He is with me and He will help me.  The day turned out fantastic. There was a man in every house so we could teach and we even entered into a house and got a new investigator!

All in all, this week was great!  My testimony grows every day and I love the mission.  The pictures below are of me and Elder V after our water fight (we are having a scaring contest and I am DESTROYING him.  One night he threw water on me because he was doing the dishes and got scared.)  The second is of my and Elder V in our uniforms right before we played in the tounie!  Anyway, love you all!