WE ALL REALLY DO...

LOVE SOMEONE PREACHING IN PERU!!



Happy New Year!

Hey everyone! Happy New Year! That's great that you guys had a great Christmas and I'm glad to hear that everyone is safe and happy. Did anyone get any awesome presents? Thanks everyone for the presents you´ve sent they are all great and in one piece!! haha Christmas was completely different this year. It was really hot and humid and there were mosquitos!!!! ha I had to spend Christmas Eve with another companionship in our room and I had to share my little bed with another elder. In Peru they have their Christmas dinner at midnight and then after they open their presents and stay up until around 3:00 to 6:00 am. Then the next day they just visit family members and hang out in the plaza, and if you´re not a member you drink, a lot!!! Everyone was drunk in the streets and everyone sets off fireworks until about 2:30 in the morning.

 Christmas Day I woke up and got to call my family. It was the best gift I've ever received to do that, and after we went to Pacasmayo and played soccer until 1:30. After soccer we had our Christmas lunch and watched movies, How to Train Your Dragon and Madagascar. After that we went back to our rooms and all the natives called their parents and we just chilled in our rooms until we went to bed. For Christmas dinner here they have turkey, which is really expensive for them to buy and tamales, paneton, bread and chocolatada or hot chocolate with real chocolate. Overall my Christmas was really fun.

 Does anyone have any fun plans for New Years? I don't think we do anything for New Years because i'ts dangerous to be outside. We have to be in our rooms by 6:00 pm I think.

That's crazy that in another 3 weeks or so that my mission will be 1/4 the way over. It's going by way too fast and I hope I'm doing what I'm supposed to because I still feel like I don't know spanish or how to teach yet, haha.

 For service projects here all we´ve done so far is help shovel dirt into someone's house one time, one time we did patch work on cement walls to prep the walls for painting and the other time I helped the pensionista in Pacasmayo cut out Christmas ornaments that she sewed for her friends and family. Overall I was able to have a really great Christmas because I had the chance to learn more about the Savior's birth and the blessings that we have in our lives because of his love and atonement. We truly should remember every day of the year the things he has done for us, but in these moments of the holidays we are able to strengthen our testimonies of this and make it our priority. I don't have my scrips with me but I think it is 3 Nephi 13:30-33 or something that says we shouldn't worry about worldy things and should put the Lord first. I know this is true and that we should do this during the holidays.
 I love you guys and hope you have fun this week,

love TY

3 Nephi 1:13

"Lift up your head and be of good cheer; for behold, the time is at hand, and on this night shall the sign be given, and on the morrow come I into the world, to show unto the world that I will fulfill all that which I have caused to be spoken by the mouth of my holy prophets."

On this Christmas Eve let us all remember and be grateful for the birth of our Savior ... the reason for the season!!

Merry Christmas from Guadalupe!!

Hey everyone Merry Christmas!!!! How is it there in Utah? Here it's just getting hotter and hotter. It stopped being nice weather about a week and a half ago and now its just too hot and humid. haha

 It's just a little bit different weather than I'm used to for Christmas.

 The mosquitos are starting to spawn now too so they are starting to bite....haha. My new companion is Elder Samayoa and he is awesome. He is very confident and has been zone leader for more than 9 months. He is from Guatemala though I must have mixed that up in the email.

What are you guys going to eat for Christmas dinner and for New Years? Everyone always asks me what we eat and I can't remember!! haha My mom said that the weather report says it's in the 70´s here but I don't know if that's right. There is a huge difference from Trujillo to Guadalupe. It's like going from central Utah to Saint George. So if you figure out what its like in Guadalupe let me know.

 I cant wait to call you guys!!! I haven't really thought of what to ask you yet but there isn't really much going on here that I can think of, so I hope you have questions to ask me. I know I haven't written you hardly any letters on my mission yet so I've made it my new goal to write you a letter every pday now no matter what. I enjoy getting letters from you and I know you would feel the same way.

 I bought a usb and saved all my pictures on it and plan on sending the memory card in the mail today if I can. There is about 350 or 400 pictures on it. When you get it don't plug it in our computer though because it might have a virus. My usb already has a virus and that might too. Everyone downloads things illegally here so they get viruses except its not illegal here I don't think. haha

 The program went great and Sister Turk was very coordinated and helpful. She did about all you can do to make 100 young men sound good and look like they know what they are doing. Elder Samayoa knew a lot of people that came so I got to meet a lot of people from Trujillo. I miss you guys a lot and wish I could be there for Christmas but I know I'm going to enjoy Christmas this year. Even though there is no snow here, and not many lights, and not many Christmas songs, and I'm not with my family, and I don't get to relax and have a vacation it is the best Christmas I've ever had. I have more love for my family and what they do for me than I've ever had. I'm grateful for every little thing that I have back home. Also I have more of the spirit of Christmas because I get to talk about the Savior all the time and give service to others. The other day when I got a letter from my dad I was happier than I've been in a long time. It made my Christmas! It said that his back is doing better than it has ever been since I left on my mission. It just made me know that my family is being blessed and that they are alright and that they are okay. If we have the Spirit of Christ in our lives we have the spirit of Christmas... always remeber in these days about the greatest gift we've ever received.

Our Savior Jesus Christ and his atonement. 

"We all enjoy giving and receiving presents. But there is a difference between presents and gifts. The true gifts may be part of ourselves--giving of the riches of the heart and mind--and therefore more enduring and of far greater worth than presents bought at the store." -James E Faust

Dear Lord who blesses us with love

Please send this day thy spirit from above

As this thy son, accepts a call from thee

Help him we pray to learn humility

Direct his footsteps everyday

And keep him ever walking in thy ways

Inspire him as he spreads the gospel plan

Lord, hold him in the hollow of thy hand

In the hollow of thy hand as he grows from boy to man

Help his understanding deepen and increase

In the hollow of thy hand as he grows from boy to man

Let him know the special blessing of thy peace

Dear Lord, who hears and answers prayers

Please keep thy servant always in thy care

As he prepares to teach his fellow men

Oh keep him safe and bring him home again

Protect him from all worldly ways

And always send thy spirit when he prays

Give him the courage of a righteous man

Just hold him in the hollow of thy hand

In the hollow of thy hand as he grows from boy to man

Help his understanding deepen and increase

In the hollow of thy hand as he grows from boy to man

Let him know the special blessing of thy peace

As he faces life’s demands

May he take a valiant stand

Give him shelter in the hollow of thy hand 

TEN REASONS WHY A MISSIONARY CHRISTMAS IS DIFFERENT
-Written by Sally Tielemans

1. Last Christmas we were counting our money; this Christmas we are
counting our blessings.

2. Last Christmas we were giving thanks for gifts from stores; this
Christmas we are giving thanks for gifts from God.

3. Last Christmas we valued things that were costly; this Christmas
we value things that are holy.

4. Last Christmas we were wrapping gifts; this Christmas we are
wrapped up in the work.

5. Last Christmas we looked into people's eyes when we spoke; this
Christmas we look into their hearts.

6. Last Christmas we prayed to obtain a testimony; this Christmas we
pray to share our testimony with others.

7. Last Christmas we were impatient with the weaknesses of others;
this Christmas we are working on our own.

8. Last Christmas we read the scriptures as a duty; this Christmas
we read them as a joy.

9. Last Christmas we thought it was enough to celebrate the
holidays; this Christmas we are finding ways to consecrate them.

10. Last Christmas, Peru was just a place on a map; this Christmas,
it is a place in our hearts.