Hey guys! The changes are here........and I'm staying here in Guadalupe for at 1 more change. The news though is that Elder Perry is going to Primavera, Trujillo. My new companion is going to be Elder Samayoa from Guatemala. Everyone tells me that he is a great missionary and very nice. This is going to be his last change so I'm his last companion. I hope I don't ruin the last few months for him haha. Now I have to remember where everyone lives all by myself and lead the area for a while. Also I won't be able to speak english at all anymore because I finally have a native companion. This will pretty much be my first native companion because my other native companion was Elder Rojas in the CCM and it was for 3 weeks and I pretty much didn't know any spanish then. Also I think that I'm going to be the only gringo in my district. Elder Samayoa is going to be the district leader also for my area.

President Turk did come to Guadalupe for the priesthood meetings this last week but Elder Perry and I had appointments and we had to go to teach.

Elder Perry says that we pretty much get to pick when we want to call on Christmas so I will try to call 7:00 Christmas morning unless Pres Turk has other plans for us. We go to the Christmas pageant on the 19th I think in Trujillo and I don't know if we will be staying there or coming back because Guadalupe is 2 1/2 hours away from there. I got your boxes and presents and everything and I will wait to open them on Christmas and share with Elder Samayoa thanks!!!!

The fair was fun... it was pretty much a bunch of booths selling clothes and different kinds of food from Cajamarca. There were a few ladies from Cuzco that were selling sweaters made from alpaca wool and Elder Perry and I bought some. Also they had a bunch of carnival rides and foosball tables and we played foosball with one of our investigators the first week of the fair on pday.

 I bought a flashdrive so I'm now going to save all my pictures today and send you the memory card. You don't have to send me anything more in the mail because I don't really need it and I don't have room anyway. I'd rather you just save the money for a vacation or something when we get back or for the mission fund.

It doesn't really seem like Christmas here yet. People somtimes put out one string of lights in their front window and like 5 or 6 investigators have Christmas trees out, but that's about it. I'm glad I was born in a place where they celebrate Christmas a lot. I'm glad you guys get to go to the Christmas dinners and I hope you enjoy them. If you do anything fun for Christmas let me know. Also I need to come up with a few ideas for ward activities to do an activity with the ward where I can invite investigators so if you have any ideas let me know.

Tell Steve I said hi and thanks and make sure to tell Grandma T to say Merry Christmas to Grandma Selma and Lecta too. I hope Grandma Wilk had a good birthday and you guys had a good anniversary and I hope this next week is fun for you guys. I miss you guys and love you a lot. I think about you all the time and wish I could be there for Christmas. I pray for each one of you whenever I can and I hope you guys are happy. Good luck in this next week and enjoy your breaks with school and work.

Also this week I learned the strength of the hymns of the church. a lot of the inactives here don't remember hardly anything about the church or what we believe because they have been inactive so long but when we talk to them for a while they tell us that they remember a few of the hymns and even some of the words still. The hymns are very powerful ways of getting messages across and learning about the gospel and they invite the spirit very strongly. I know that songs are prayers to our Heavenly Father and that every time we sing we feel the spirit of the lord.

Well I have no more time to write so I better stop. Good luck this week and stay happy...Elder Wilkinson 

Fair in Guadalupe!