March 31, 2014

So something kind of cool happened with our family we are working with. Olga (the mom), Eufemia (the grandma), Cesar (the Dad), and then they have like 3 kids and a few cousins who we are also teaching. Anyway, so this Saturday and Sunday we had a district conference with some of the leaders, the mission’s president, his first counselor, and then the local leaders. But we invited the family and so on Saturday the grandma and mom showed up at the door but saw all the people and got scared and left. Anyway, we talked to them that night and invited them to the next session on Sunday in Ayaviri. Anyway, they said they were going to be in the compo (country side) but the dad is a combi driver (like a van driver) and he said that the church hired him to be a driver the next day. Man we really saw the Lord’s work in that one.

So the next day him and Eufemia, the grandma, showed up and attended the conference. The whole time me and Elder Nicholls were just praying for them to be able to feel the spirit. After it, we talked to them and asked how they were feeling and we also have another appointment this Thursday to invite the family to watch general conference at the church in Ayaviri. All the American elders watch it separately in English. Also we had 12 investigators in our district go to the conference. Also we are starting to get references from the members which is good.  So yea this week is pretty sweet.

We also got some new sister missionaries in our zone so we now have a total of 10 in zone Ayaviri. One has been out for a while and the other just came out of the MTC. It’s funny though because i now know more Spanish than someone else.

Also I didn’t get any pictures of the adobe house but I’ll try to this week. And basically all we did was get water and move bricks. They actually hire a maestro to build the house and direct the work. I also ate chunyo for the first time which is basically rotten potato.... Yum.... Anyway we had a really fun and good week this week.  We also set a goal to have 12 baptisms in our district and 6 rescues. 

Well that’s about it for the events of this week. As far as weather goes, it’s really hot when it’s sunny and then 30 minutes later we get a hail storm. But yea I’m loving it here.

Love Elder Halverson

March 24, 2014

So this week we me and Elder Nicholls fasted for more success and we are starting to get back into our normal amount of lessons. Also we fully rescued Leoncio. We also fasted for this family we have been teaching a lot and we showed them the church and baptismal font and it was a super cool experience.

Also, many potatoes are basically what I eat each day. XD

We have a change today but no one is leaving. It’s been a pretty lax week, though. Not much has happened. Though the family we were working with, we had an awesome lesson where the mom said she really likes the Book of Mormon and she believes it’s true and we asked them all if they would be baptized when they came to know it’s true and they all said yes, which was pretty cool.

We also taught Seventh Day Adventists and as we were teaching them they said yeah we believe everything you’re saying so we should just combine our churches. We were just like um, it doesn’t really work that way. He said, oh well I was baptized in this church so I can’t switch. And we were just like but you just said that you believe everything we are saying. We find a ton of people like that here and it’s a little frustrating.

Oh I also got to help build an adobe house. A house made of mud blocks. It was super fun but super dirty.

Anyway that’s like how my week has been going.  Until next week.

Love,

Elder Halverson

March 17, 2014

Hello,

This week has been really tough. Almost every appointment we had this week has fallen through and we didn't have much luck with any of our investigators progressing or finding new people. The up side is, however, that the guy we are rescuing (Leoncio) is progressing really well. I think he really wants to change his life and as we teach him, he is accepting everything really well. He has also been coming to church and meeting with the branch president. By next week he will be considered a rescue because we only need to teach him once or twice more. I think one reason our week didn't have much going on is because they had elections this week and so everyone was busy with that. In fact, the branch president said he was going to cancel church and we were just like ummm you can’t do that... Anyway we only had 9 people at church yesterday including the 4 elders in our district. It was kind of a cool experience for us though because we got to lead church and we all gave talks to the 5 members who went. The other elders in our district got to baptize the daughter of a less active family they rescued so we also had a conformation yesterday. Last night we talked about what else we can do to have more success and so we watched The District 2 and there is an elder companionship who had the exact same problem we are having. I think this week though we are going to try to go out with members and find a lot of less actives to talk to.

Other than that though we hiked Mount Pucara and it was the most tiring thing ever because I couldn't breathe. It was also super steep, but it was so worth it when we got to the top. Also we were helping our pensionista build her house again and when they were done all the workers (except for her family... Well most of her family) got drunk. Anyway, while my companion was talking to someone, I taught a quick 5 minute lesson of the restoration to about 10 drunk guys. I’m not sure if I count that as a lesson, though, or if I count them as new investigators... Anyway that’s how my week was.

I love you guys.

Elder Halverson

March 10, 2014 - Carnival

Hello family!

This week was pretty hard and slow because it was carnival for the whole week here in Peru. They would have these huge parties in a different part of the city every night where people would get super drunk. We didn't have many lessons or appointments because everyone was gone and when we did have an appointment they would never be there. It was a little discouraging but we still tried to work as hard as we could. We are a lot more hopeful for this week though now that it’s over. Sometimes it can be hard with people because you work as hard as you can with them and you want so badly for them to listen to your message but then we meet with them once and they don’t talk to us for a few weeks. There is this one less active, though, who we are working really hard with to reactivate because he wants to repent of what he’s done because he was a huge drunk. Anyway we are slowly re-teaching him the lessons trying to get his testimony back. We asked him why he thinks our church is important and he just told us that it was the church he was baptized in and that was it. However after teaching him a bit he started to realize more of the church’s real importance. Anyway he’s come to church these past 2 weeks on his own and I think he’s started meeting with the branch president, too. There are also a few investigators who we are moving along with pretty well and one we asked if she thought baptism is important and explained Jesus’s example and his commandment. Anyway we asked if after she got an answer to if this church is true if she would be baptized and she said she would. We are still working hard with the members because if we want people to come back and stay active, the leaders need to start doing more of their job. Yesterday the young woman presidency had a meeting on their own which is like the first time in a long time that they have done that. My companion was also teaching a class in priesthood and was teaching about the oath and covenant with the priesthood and was teaching doctrine and bearing his testimony about it. One of the men said that what he was teaching was really harsh and he said it’s only harsh to those who aren't doing it. We see this same thing in the Book of Mormon all the time when the prophets teach clear doctrine and all the people think the prophets are speaking harsh to them but the prophets just tell them that they are only teaching clearly.

Anyway, something cool we did on Saturday was have an activity with the branch where we had lunch and then had a water and foam spray fight. It was really fun and it was a good way for us to build our relationship with the members. Something that they do here for carnival is spray everyone with foam and throw water balloons from their roofs. So you could imagine everyone wanted to peg a pair of gringos. In the morning though there was a parade in the plaza in Pucara and the other elders’ home looks out on to the plaza and church and so we filled up a ton of water balloons and completely soaked everyone below. We weren't able to hike that mountain though last week because of the weather and the other district couldn't make it so instead we just played some basketball. We are gonna try to do it today instead though. Anyway that’s pretty much how my weeks been. I love you guys.

Elder Halverson

March 3, 2014

Hello Family! 

This week was kinda slow as far as lessons we had, for 1 because there aren’t that many people we can teach and 2 people flake out a lot on the appointments we make with them. However, there are a few less actives that we are getting closer to rescuing and they have been coming to church and a few investigators that we have been working hard with. It’s hard to do stuff with the branch because there are only like 50-60 active members in the branch and they don’t like helping out very much but we are slowly trying to help them get involved. The church building is tiny; the sacrament chapel part is only as big as like one of the overflow rooms in our church. There are also only around 8 classrooms. I think Choquehuanca is higher than Cusco but I’m not sure.

There are a lot of mountains around us but we live in a valley. We also walk out to the country occasionally to visit some people. This week has been relatively warm because we haven’t had any storms and it’s been clear for most the day. As soon as night comes, though, it gets really cold. The cool thing is that occasionally every few days the power goes out and so one day we were walking back to our house at night and the lights went out and so the stars were super vivid and it was amazing, it was also scary though because we couldn’t see anything.

The blood soup is actually a normal thing here. We are working with the Spanish still while in the streets. The only time I talk English is when I’m telling a story or we are in the house. I’m getting better at teaching the first lesson. What we are doing is I start each point and then he finishes it. Anyway we are gonna go hike a mountain today for p-day that overlooks Choquehuanca and Pucara (the town right next to ours) but normally for p-day we just play sports. 

I love you guys! Hope you’re all having fun at home and I’m having fun here!