September 28, 2015

Hello Family! 

Well this week has been pretty dang sweet. My new companion, Elder Delgado who is from Trujillo here in Peru, arrived on Tuesday. The altitude gave him a nice slap across the face but nothing too bad. He just had to rest a bit. Funny thing is that he also came from Juliaca. We were there together but I just couldn’t remember who he was until I saw him. But even in Juliaca, I didn’t get to know him very well. Also, the other elder who stayed with me, Elder Alan, is training a new elder from Chile who is super excited. He is also trying to learn as much English from me as possible right now because after the mission he wants to go study at BYU and then live in the states for the rest of his life. Speaking of which, it’s a lot different now going from three Americans and 1 Latino and speaking a lot of English to now only 1 American and 3 Latinos whose English are very limited. But I like it this way because it will allow to really better my Spanish before I go home. But other than that, this week has been pretty awesome. Even with the changes we were all able to work really hard and we had more success than these past few weeks. 

Also, Saturday we had a talent show which went really well. The young women and young men did a few dances that were really cool and then the other organizations just did some skits that were funny. We were able to have some of the people that we are teaching assist as well and we were able to contact a lot of people that came from being invited from friends that are members. As for those who we are teaching, nothing big has changed with them. We have had to move some people’s dates back a bit because they have been traveling. But as for the Yuca family, the date we have set with the parents and one of the daughters for October 24 is still holding. Actually, if all goes well for this next month, we are planning on having around 5 baptisms. As for the ward, it’s still slowly getting better. This week we had an attendance of 114. It’s funny because we actually have the strongest ward out of the whole Sicuani stake with the best attendance even though we are so far away from everything else. A lot of our success has to do with our bishop who is working really hard.

But it kinda sucked this week with one of our investigators named Gladys. She has attended 2 now and is a relatively newer investigator but is really excited to learn. However yesterday we had a really good lesson with her but at the end she told us that she is going to move to Arequipa for the next few months to work and so we are really hoping that we don’t lose her in this time. She doesn’t know exactly where she is going to live so we are going to have to wait until next week to call her to be able to pass her information to the Arequipa mission. But with another investigator we are teaching, Luz Marina, she attended for her 3rd time yesterday and this is her second time attending on her own. But she is progressing really well and we are thinking about putting a date with her the next time we go to visit her so that will be pretty awesome.

Man that’s crazy though all of the people going on missions right now. Most of which are sisters. But as for Richard G. Scott, I did see that this morning on lds,org. It really surprised me. Especially so soon before conference. But me and my companion will be going to Sicuani to watch it. Mainly it’s all for me just so I can see it in English. The other 2 elders are staying here in Espinar so they can watch it with the people who they are teaching. 

Hey but dad should try and learn how to not just cut glass but bend it to make little glass statues. Of course we would have to get a blow torch but that would be cool to see him get into something more, arty. XD  It’s funny though, because Aaron sent me one of those invitations a few months ago when they first made them. Actually, I think he said I got the first one. Aren’t I just pretty dang special. XD  

But I’m still working hard here and trying to stay as focused as I can with the time I have left. It’s really starting to scare me though with how little time I have left. But I’m glad to hear all is good back home and I love you all! But until next week!

Elder Halverson

All pictures from the talent show: