December 21, 2015

Hola Familia,

I am looking forward to calling you guys too. It doesn't really feel like Christmas though. The time is just flying by. We have been so busy that I haven't even been able to think about Christmas because we have been so busy. I will be calling at about 10 in the morning my time. I don't know what time that is for you guys there. It is either 8 or 9. I will probably be calling some time earlier in the week to verify the time I will call.

This week was pretty good for us. We had two investigators come to church with us this week. Nancy who came to church last week came to church again. We set a baptismal date for her for January 2. I am not too worried about her. She will be ready. She is really hard to teach though because she isn't very smart. She doesn't know how to read and loses focus alot of the time. The teaching is really slow at learning but loves going to church and wants to get batized.

Lilian didn't make it to church this week. We went by to pick her up but no one answered the door. We went by later that day and she asked why we never came by. She had woken up a little late, got ready really fast, and then waited for us. We must have passed by while she was getting ready. We were a little upset that she just didn't go alone but at least we know that she wanted to come. We are working with her so she can get baptized but we don't have a specific date yet.

With Christmas this week it will be a little harder to visit people and find new investigators. This week is what we call P-week instead of just P-day. It is kind of hard to work this week so we will just play a little bit. We will keep working with our investigators and try our best but it will be hard.

I can't wait to hear from all of you. I am really excited for Christmas and it will be great to see and hear from you.

Love,
Elder Isaacson

We are going to go out and work because we will be having our p-day on Thursday. Thursday we will get together as a mission and have a Christmas barbecue. Oh, I forgot to mention in my letter that the power went out 3 times this week. We were left up in the hills when it went pitch black. I am going to bring a flashlight with me from now on. I will be calling from a converts house. I have a lot of invitations for Christmas dinner. The thing about Peru, is that the Christmas dinner and celebration is at midnight on Christmas eve. Since it is so late, we can't go. We will just watch all the fireworks from our roof.

December 14, 2015

Hola Familia,

It sounds like everyone is pretty busy with Christmas coming up. With everything going on in school you are staying occupied. With Christmas here, that means that everything slows down a little bit. The people aren't in the house to much and if they are they are usually occupied. It will be hard the rest of this month to find new investigators and a lot of lessons.

We had a really good week. We ended up getting 5 investigators to church. That is the most I have had in a long time. Lilian went to church again and this time her daughter went with her. We had to take them to the other ward again but I will do whatever it takes. We are preparing them for baptism hopefully for December 26. Lilian's mom is a less active and she came to church too. We also had a new investigator that showed up to church. Her name is Nancy and we have only taught her once for about five minutes. If you saw her you would probably think she is homeless. She came to church for the whole three hours. We will start to work with her to see if she can get baptized in January.

This week was kind of long though because all four of us in the district got sick. We must have eaten something bad because all of us had upset stomachs. My DL and I got it the worst. We were with upset stomachs from Tuesday all the way to Sunday. We are finally feeling better.

Thanks for the Christmas package. I put up the tree to give our house a little Christmas spirit. I am enjoying the candy. My comp and I are waiting until Christmas day to open the stockings.

I have a package made up to send home I have just never called Vanessa's dad. I need to do that. I will call him up when I get my new phone. I have to get a new phone because the old one got lost. My pocket ripped through and it just disappeared. I feel so dumb but it's done now.

I still don't know when I will call. I will figure it out this week and write you next week or call you with the precall we are allowed to do. Don't worry though, you will know next week.

That is about my entire week,

Love,
Elder Isaacson

December 7, 2015

Hola Familia,

I can't believe that the Christmas tree is already up. It doesn't really feel like Christmas here. With the heat, no snow, and working really hard I don't really feel the Christmas spirit. Some people have put up lights in their windows and others have put up some Christmas trees but that is about it. The street market in my area is starting to get pretty busy.

This week was about the same. We did have a meeting with President that was really good. He changed some of our weekly goals. Before we had to have 100 contacts every week. Every Elder thought that was kind of dumb because contacts are not very effective. He changed the goal to just 70 contacts but now we have to work a lot more with members. That is kind of hard for me in my area because their are maybe just 5 active families that live in my area. I hope everything works out.

I did have a little more success this week. Nikol came to church again and so did Victoria. Victoria came with good news. She will be getting married at the start of January and then she will be able to get baptized. At least now I have something set up for January.

We also got a new investigator to come to church. Her name is Lilian and is a single mom. We have been teaching her whole family and been trying to get them to come to church for a few weeks now. She couldn't come to our ward at 8 in the morning so we went to her house to go to another ward at 11 but wasn't home yet. That still didn't stop us. We ended up taking her to a ward in the stake center at 2. I ended up going to 6 hours of church. It made me really tired but it was all worth. This is the first investigator I have had in church for a long time. It made me really excited and motivated my companion.

I am getting along with my companion pretty well but I am getting tired of listening to him talk. He doesn't know how to teach too well but he tries to just invent the lessons. A lot of times he talks about just random stuff for a half hour and you can see that the investigator is really bored. I will cut him off but then he cuts me off again and just keeps going. I will just have to get used to it.

The Christmas Conference was broadcasted here but I didn't watch it. They didn't even announce it. I also have a few places where I can skype but I haven't picked which one yet. I still have time and will use my precall to tell you when I will call.

That was about all my week. Hopefully I have even a better week.

Love,
Elder Isaacson

November 30, 2015

Hola Familia,

I will be sure to tell Elder SanJuan a happy birthday. Today is his birthday and we have a few plans. I made sure to tell a lot of members that today is his birthday so that he wouldn't feel bad. He only has a few weeks in the mission and it is already his birthday. I don't want him to get depressed.

I guess I should feel honored to be able to train again, but I do hope that this is the last time I train. It is a lot of responsibility and the last few months of my mission I want to be focused on teaching. SanJuan also loves to talk a ton but not always about the Gospel. Lots of times he starts talking about politics. The thing is though is that he doesn't know anything about Peruvian Politics. I know more about Peruvian Politics. We get along alright though. We were talking about music the other day and I found out he likes country music. He is the first latino that I have met that likes country music. It is kind of cool.

I am glad that Mom did well on her talk. I have some more ''Don't worry Mom'' stories but I will share them some other time.

This week was rough on getting investigators to church. We did not have one investigator in church. We had a ton of people promise us that they would come to church. I called them or went to pick them up on Sunday. One family that I called told me they were going to come but then they never showed up. Another had just shown up drunk at his house. Another one got sick and just things like that kept people from coming. I am kind of getting frustrated with this area because I have never had so much trouble getting people to come to church. I don't know what to do but I will figure something out.

I would love to see snow again. It is starting to get hotter here but my house is staying cold which is perfect. I can't believe that Christmas is almost here and that Thanksgiving has already come and gone. Before I know it I will be at home. President told us that is when changes are. I will be at home on June 21.

Oh, also this week in my ward we had a talent show. It was pretty fun. There were a lot of cultural dances and other fun talents. I did have five investigators show up to that activity. It was fun and all my investigators got to know a lot of members.

Sorry that this weeks email was kind of boring.

Love you lots,
Elder Isaacson

PS. I get all of Harrison's emails. I have heard about all of his crazy experiences.

Elder Isaacson Tiene 20 Años!

Hola Familia,

Thanks for all the birthday wishes. The people here took really good care of me. On Saturday, we went and helped the zone leaders move to a new house. Afterwards, they attacked me with eggs. The smashed three eggs on my head. I wasn't expecting it at all. On Tuesday we ate a cake as a zone to celebrate. Then on Sunday, a ton of people wished me a happy birthday. I don't know how they all found out. After I went and ate the most delicious cake with a recent convert. It was a Sublime flavored cake. After at night, a member invited us out and we ate cake. I feel super old now that I'm 20 years old. It feels really weird.

As for the news you have all been waiting for, I got a new companion, and guess what, I am training again... This is the third time I will have trained a new missionary. To be honest, I am kind of tired of training. I would like to have a companion with some experience so we could focus on the people and make the ward El Progreso, progress. My companion is Elder Sanjuan from Columbia but has lived in Ecuador since 2009. He is 18 but his birthday is November 30. This transfer I will have my birthday, my comps birthday, and Christmas. It will be super fun. Elder Sanjuan is cool but he talks a ton. He loves to talk about himself and he talks about a lot of random stuff in the lessons. I will have to dedicate a lot of time to studying and practicing with him because he doesn't know that much. It will be a little difficult but I will make it work.

This week got a little better with investigators. We had 5 investigators in church. 3 of them are basically eternal investigators. But Demy, Nikol's sister came to church this week. This was the first time she came to church. She is 12 but looks older. I am going to try and baptize her with her sister in January. Also, a members son came to church this week that is not a member. His name is Carlos. We are going to look for him and visit with him. Hopefully everything works out and he can get baptized.

I also got some great references this week. One was to a less active woman but she is traveling. We met her daughter who is 35 years old. She is a single mom with 3 kids. one who is 14, 12 and 7. They are all really cool and I can see them getting baptized in December. We also got a reference to a family that wants to learn more. They also could be baptized in December but they need to get married. They are really poor and it could be difficult for them to pay the fees to get baptized. We will just have to make them realize that baptism is neccisary and that they will need to get married to get baptized. If they know this they will be willing to make some sacrifices in their live.

That is how my week went. Thanks again for all the birthday wishes.

Love,
Elder Isaacson

PS President just told all the missionaries that there will be one transfer of 7 weeks. That means that instead of going home on June 14 like I thought it will be June 21. Don't get too trunky Mom.

PSS I don't know what you should tell the ward. I just would tell them that I have learned so much on the mission. The experiences are priceless. I have learned from good and bad moments. The spirit is so important and that even in the worst trials of their lives they are never really alone. They will recieve strength and blessings after and during the trial.

November 16, 2015

Hola Familia,

Thanks for all the birthday wishes. It is still a little early though. I think for my birthday a few members are going to invite me over to eat and have cake. I haven't told a lot of people but a few people know about it. I haven't got my birhday package yet but I am sure it is just waiting to get sent out from the mission offices.

Elder Lopez went to the airport and flew off to Provo last night. I went and worked with a member at night and stayed with my DL and his comp at night. I will be with a member all day today and I will get my new comp Tuesday morning. I am really excited for a new companion. I hope he is cool . I am relieved and sort of happy that Elder Lopez is gone. He never really wanted to listen to me or be obedient.

This area is not treating me too well. We had two investigators in church but they were the same two as always. Nikol came and so did another lady who wants to get baptized but has to get married. She has plans to get married in February and then she will get baptized. I committed a ton of people to come to church this week and they all accepted and said they would come. In the end no one showed up or they weren't home when we went to pick them up. I was with my ZL on Saturday and we taught some great lessons to get people to come to church but they just won't come. I keep finding new investigators but I feel like I find them just to leave them in two weeks. It is kind of frustrating but hopefully everything will get better.

We had to leave one of our best investigators this week. Her name is Lucero and she is 16. She was a reference from one of her friends. Her friend had given her a book of mormon and Lucero had read almost 200 pages. She loves reading it and wants to get baptized and we had only taught her twice. I went to go visit with her with my ZL and she came out and told us that we can't visit with her because her parents don't want her to. Her parents are die hard Catholics and think her listening to us will seperate their family. Some people just don't understand.

I am sure this week will be a lot better.

Love,
Elder Isaacson

P.S. Something that would be fun to give out to people are the colorful elastic band CTR rings. That is the special thing I want in a Christmas package. I also want to buy a suit for a Christmas gift. Just some ideas...

November 9, 2015

Hola Familia,

I will start by apoligizing for any mistypes because the keyboard doesn't work so great. Also, Mom, you are super trunky. I have know idea how many more days I have left. I haven't been keeping track or counting down. I just know that Christmas is coming up and I will be able to call home.

I hadn't even heard about the facebook controversy about children of gays being baptized. I didn't even know that the children had to wait until they were 18. But if that is what the prophet said then that is how it should be.

I can't believe that Kenzie is already preparing for college. It is weird to hear about all these things happening back home. I haven't even been thinking about school. I trust you that you will figure everything out for me. If I need anything you will do it.

My week was alright. Monday night I went through all our investigators and talked with my district leader. We both decided that there are no investigators worth working with in my area. I spent all week looking for new investigators. We found 18 new investigators. That is a new record for me. It kind of pushed me out of my comfort zone because I don't like to contact too much and search for new investigators. Hopefully out of all our investigators we will get some people to start to progress.

Next week is transfers. My comp will be going. He went and got everything ready for his visa last week. This week we will have to go pick it up. I am excited for changes and getting a new companion. i have definately learned a lot of patience. He still annoys me but it doesn't get to me as much and I don't let it show anymore.

After writing today we are going to go work because tomorrow is the big soccer tournament. i am excited and it will be super fun. And something that makes it even better is that it is in my old area in Indepedencia. Hopefully I will be able to go see some people there. I hope I can.

Nikol was the only investigator that we had at church. She is doing good and I might tryand change her mind so she getsbaptized this month. I think the area that I am in is cursed. It didn't have any baptisms from March to August until I got here. It looks like it might go into another baptism drought. I hope not and I am working hard so that that doesn't happen.

I hope you have a great week,
Elder Isaacson

November 2, 2015

Hola Familia,

It is great to hear from you again. The days just seem to fly by now. I can't believe today that I hit 16 months in the mission. It doesn't feel like it has been so much time. Before I know it it will be Christmas and I will be talking to you all again. I am really looking forward to it. It is good to hear that everyone is doing well. Those shots sound like they were painful but it would have been cool to watch. I am glad that everyone is doing well. I can't believe that winter is coming again. It will be super cool to see snow again but that is still more than a year away.

I had a pretty good week. We started off our p-day by going to a huge park outside of Lima. Since our zone is at the end of Lima, we could get in a bus and drive for about an hour and leave the city. It was so nice (and trunky) to get out of the city and into the country again. There were horses, grass, and even a river. We played ultimate frisbee for a long time. Thanks for sending me a frisbee again. That was a great idea. The Latinos have never seen one before.

The week was pretty normal. Like normal, my patience was tested but I have learned to control it better. I tried to sit down and have a conversation with my comp about how we can get along better but he just ignored me the whole time. Oh well, at least I am doing my part.

This week, the zl came to work with me for a day so he could meet John. When we got to his house, his mom came out and told us that he had left the city for about a week to go work. Since he was out of town, he didn't come to church yesterday. That was kind of a downer. He is supposed to get back today so we are going to go look for him.

Nikol came to church again. We don't visit her that much but she always comes to church. I wish she would just get baptized but I have tried so hard for her to get baptized that I think we are just going to wait until January to baptize her. It is kind of sad to wait but at least she will eventually get baptized.

Nikol was one of two investigators in church. The other one is a lady who is not married and will not be getting married until February. There is not much happening here right now.

Since yesterday was the day of the dead, a lot of people didn't come to church. Also, there is a cementery in my area. There were so many people in my area coming and going to the cementery. It was packed and it made it harder to get to our lessons.

Hopefully this next week goes a little better.

Love,
Elder Isaacson

P.S. I am glad to hear that Uncle Si still works.

October 26, 2015

Hola Familia,

I am glad to hear that you had a good birthday. The week sounds like it was pretty normal and calm. With just one kid in the house it seems like it would be pretty boring. Between Dad's physical therapy, Kenzie and school, and Mom's class, it seems you are pretty busy but not doing anything too interesting. It should be a fun week with Halloween. They don't celebrate Halloween here too much. A few kids will go around asking for candy but not too many. A lot of people think it is Satan's Holiday.

We had a pretty normal week. I am still trying to work with my companion. I am trying to teach him everything he needs to know but I feel like he doesn't even listen to me and is wasting my time. He is more holding me back from working hard than helping me. For example: We were doing our extra hour of study. We are taught to always to practice role plays. He said no and just went to go sleep. We ended up leaving late because I was not going to let him win. We finally did the practice when I threatened to call the zone leaders. But the whole time that I taught, I would ask a question to see if he was understanding me and I would see that he wasn't even paying attention. I tell him this everyday but everyday he doesn't pay attention. I even told him he was wasting his time, my time, and the Lord's time even he wasn't going to try and learn. Hopefully his visa comes through and everything gets better.

As for our investigator Jhon, he is the one that came to church on his own last week. Anyways, we met with him a couple times this week. We had a super good lesson with him and was able to set a baptismal date for him for November 14. It was all going well and then we started to talk to him going to church this week. He told us that he had plans and wouldn't come. He is super cool but he likes to do a lot of other things on Sunday. That will be the hard part with him, getting him to come to church.

As for Nikol, she came to church this week again. I asked her why she didn't want to get baptized and she said that she wants to get baptized but not this year. This year has been really rough on her. Her mom died and she has had 7 more relatives that have passed away this year too. We have helped her a lot but we might just wait and baptize her in January. I hope I can be here for that. There aren't any more investigators worth telling you about. They just don't want to progress.

Also, I don't understand why people always confide in the missionaries so much. This week I have helped one sister stay with her husband and not move out with her kids. I have helped another one whose family member has passed away and a lot of other things too. I am so thankful for the Spirit because when they tell me these things I don't know what to say but I start to talk and something always comes out. I know that I didn't say those words that helped them but that the Spirit did.

Love you all so much,
Elder Isaacson

October 19, 2015

Hola Familia,

Well, to start off... ¡Feliz Cumpleaños Mom! I hope you have a great birthday Mom. You are going to be super old. Just kidding. That is great that Dad is finally out of his sling and getting back to normal. Hopefully he will be completely healed up in no time.

I can't believe UEA has already come and gone. It sounds like the school year is going by pretty quick. It seems like you just went back to school. It must have been nice to be able to get a break. Sometimes I wish I could get more than just one day of rest. We are always working so hard sometimes I feel super tired. But it is a good kind of tired.

Like always, thanks for the sports update. I can't believe that the Utes are ranked #3 in the country. That is amazing. They must be playing amazing. It sounds like almost all of the Utah sports teams are doing pretty good.

I feel bad about Aunt Jill. Tell her I wish her the best and hope she gets well fast.

The weather here is starting to warm up. We have some days that are really hot and the sun just bakes us. The next day can be cold and chilly though and I go out in a sweater or long sleeves. But I can tell summer is coming. I am not looking forward to it because it is so hot and about kills me.

I am sure they are sending Elder Lopez to the Provo MTC so he can learn English there. His training is going well. I am not going to lie... but he is probably my most difficult companion that I have had. I have already trained one elder so I wasn't too worried, but this is a different story. A lot of times he doesn't want to listen to me or do the things that I tell him. I would think he would like to get some advice from me so he can be prepared to teach the Gospel after I am gone. Also, where he is an only child, everything has to be about him. He has started to invade my space too. I think he likes my desk better or something, because he always sits in my chair and at my desk even though all my stuff is there. I think I am just going to pick up and move desks to not cause any problems. I will be alright though, I am going to talk with him and try and get along with him.

As for investigators, we are doing pretty good. We had a few investigators in church this week. Nikol, the one who's mom passed away, was at church again this week. She keeps progressing but doesn't have a lot of desires to get baptized. We are going to keep working with her so she can get baptized. Also, this week a guy just showed up at church. He told me that he had talked to the missionaries before but had never gotten baptized. He came yesterday and stayed the whole three hours. I have my first lesson with him today so I will see how that goes.

Other than that, my week was pretty normal.

I love and miss you,
Elder Isaacson

October 12, 2015

Hola Familia,

Like always, it sounds like you had a busy and exciting week. That is great that you should be losing the sling this week. Hopefully your shoulder will start to heal even quicker now. AYSO soccfer sounds like it was really fun. Kenzie needs to stop bullying all the boys when she plays soccer.

Life for me here in Peru is good. Sancarranco did have a transfer. I was kind of sad to see him go because we got along really well. Where he got changed I got a new companion, and gues what? I am training again... crap. I really didn't want to have to train again but that is what President wants. I actually won't be doing the full 12 week training because my companion, Elder Lopez, is waiting for his visa. His real mission is in Wisconsin. He will only be my companion for six weeks. It is still really hard to train him though because he never went to the MTC. He is going to go to the Provo MTC when he gets his visa. He has no background on being a missionary and I have hard to start from square one and teach him everything. Elder Lopez is from Lima, Peru. He lives in The Molina, where the temple is and is one of the richest parts of Lima. He is an only child and it kind of shows. I am just trying to help him get used to the mission and not miss home too much. I have also learned to try and walk slower. He is really short and kind of fat. He walks super slow. I have to stop all the time to let him catch up. I think we are both learning patience right now. Also I am trying to teach him english. That is really hard too. Both for him and me. It is now hard to speak english.

The area is doing alright. We are teaching a family that is really cool. About 12 people live in the house. Only two are progressing but it looks like they might be able to get baptized in the coming weeks. Nikol, one who is progressing, Mom passed away two months ago. The whole family was suffering a little bit. It was cool to be able to see the blessings of the gospel in their lives and help them understand God's plan.

We are teaching a few other people right now but not great potentials for any baptisms this month. Other than trying to train another new missionary my week was pretty normal. Just walking around trying to teach people. I felt kind of stressed due to all the responsibility but now I feel a lot more relaxed.

Yes Mom, I am still the same pant size. My shirts are fine right now and my socks are doing fine too. I know I said my shoes were holding up but this week the rockport's started to give in. The shoes from Brasil are doing great. They will make it to the end of my mission easily. If you want, you could send me another pair of the Brasilian shoes size 10 with the soft inserts. I don't know anything special that I want but I don't need hot chocolate. That is already here. Maybe Nutella.

Les Amo,
Elder Isaacson

October 5, 2015

Hola Familia,

It sounds like you have all had quite the busy week. It sounds like almost all of Utah's sports teams are doing good. It is always fun to hear what is going on back home. I can't believe Homecoming has already come and gone. It sounds like Kenzie had a good time at the dance. It is good to hear that your arm is getting better. It seems like it is taking a long time to recover, but that is probably because it is. I am sad to hear that Keith Anderson passed away. I always loved listening to his stories. I will never forget when we went over to his house and he showed us all of his antiques. He was such a cool guy and he will be missed.

Conference was amazing like always. It was fun to finally find out who were going to be the new apostles. I really enjoyed all of their talks. I didn't get to see the last session on Sunday because there was a small problem and we never made it. I will just have to read it later. So like always, I would like you to send me General Conference in English. I really liked (I think it was Holland) Talk. He talked a lot about Mom's and parents. It was kind of a trunky talk but I enjoyed it a lot.

I was able to go to the temple on Thursday. It had been ten months since I had went. I love to go to the temple. It was really needed. I just needed to destress a little bit and feel the spirit a little stronger in my life. It was kind of like a purification. We left super early. We left at 5 in the morning and went to a session and 8 in the morning. Afterwards we bought a few things in the temple and a few things in a store by the temple. Afterwards we went to subway. That is the first time I had Subway for more than 15 months. It was so good. They even had chocolate chip cookies. I haven't had cookies like that for a long time either. Maybe I could make them one day but I don't remember the recipes.

We are going to stay away from Jose Sandoval for a littl bit and let him revaluate what he is doing. I will probably go back and visit him in a few weeks. The area is kind of slow right now. We are trying to find a lot of new people to teach but it hasn't been going so well. This week I will manage to do better though.

Transfers are this week. I can't believe six weeks have already passed since I got here. There is a good chance that my companion will have a change. Where he has had a problem in this area before I think he might go. But you never know what is going to happen. He could still stay. I don't really care if he stays or goes. If he goes I don't have to worry about his problem but if he stays I will be fine because we get along really well. I will just have to wait and see.

les amo,
Elder Isaacson

P.S. I took a little money off my card this week to go to the temple.

September 28, 2015

Hola Familia,

I am so glad that it is Monday again so that I can read your letters. It sounds like everything is going well back home. That is good that Dad is starting to get better. It sounds like everything is pretty normal back home and that everyone is staying busy. I am sure that you will be able to figure out what to do with your class and they will start to progress. Thanks for all the sports updates. I can't believe that Utah is ranked number 10 in the nation. That is crazy.

I had a pretty good week. Andrea was baptized this week. She was supposed to be baptized last Saturday but she coudn't. This week she could and she got baptized on Thursday and I confirmed her on Sunday. She was super excited. Her mom was baptized a couple of months ago and Andrea has been going to church since then.

Jose Sandoval had a problem. We couldn't find him all week. We found him Friday night, the day before his baptism. He told us that he wasn't ready and that he was worried he would give into temptation after his baptism. We sat down and taught him a really powerful lesson. If I had heard our lesson I would have been baptized. At the end he still said no. We went back the next day and his brother told us that he came home drunk. That is the second time that this has happened. We might have to leave him.

Other than that we had a long week of finding. We found a lot of new investigators this week. We will start to focus on them. I am doing good on clothes and don't need anything special. The only thing that I could use would be a new pair of blue pants and maybe gray ones too.

I didn't go to the temple this week but I hope I go this week. I am excited and I keep working hard.

Love you a ton,
elder Isaacson

September 21, 2015

Hola Familia,

It sounds like you have had a long, good week. Your shoulder should start getting better now. Just keep taking care of it and don't push yourself or it will make it worse. Like you said, it sounds like Kenzie is the only one in the house that has an interesting life. Her internships sound super fun. I remember when people went to school and sat in classes, but it is cool that she gets to do so many cool things.

My week was kind of boring. It started out deep cleaning the house on Monday. We had room revisions and interviews with the President on Tuesday. It is always a pain to clean the house because there is so much dirt and dust in Lima. It just gets everywhere. Then on Tuesday we had interviews. I always enjoy the interviews with President because I come out really motivated to work. He also told my companion and I that we need to go to the temple while we can and don't have leadership positions or are training. We will probably go to the temple next week. He also told me that he put Sancarranco and I together because we both have a lot of experience and wants the ward to progress. It made me feel really good.

We were supposed to have a baptism on Saturday, but the lady never showed up. Her work ended up obligating her to stay late. We ended up having to reschedule her baptism for this week. We also have another investigator, Jose Sandoval, that should be baptized on Saturday. He has been an investigator for quite some time now but was struggling with an alcohol addiction. We have kept working with him and it has been a long time since he has drank. He should be good to go this week too.

We found a few new investigators this week but not a ton. One of them, Jonaton, was a missionary for la iglesia Aventista for 5 years. He knows a lot of stuff. It was kind of hard to teach him. We then started talking about the Book of Mormon. He then proceeded to tell us that he has read the whole Book of Mormon. He said he liked it and learned a lot but wasn't sure if it was true. We are going to start working more with him. The only problem is is that he is only at home on Sundays. Oh, he also came to church with his family.

We had 6 investigators in church this week. We were super excited and we are hoping to have a lot of success in these next few weeks and October. I get along really well with my companion. We have a lot in common and we usually don't disagree.

Love,
Elder Isaacson

P.S. I will stay safe around the motos.

September 14, 2015

Hola Familia,

I am glad you are starting to feel better Dad. It sounds like everything is slowly getting better. Just make sure you take time to let it heal properly. I hope Mom is taking a few photos of you in the sling. I want to be able to enjoy your pain a little when I get home.

Speaking of being in pain... I about got to go to the hospital this week. On Tuesday, we were coming down from lunch to go to the church for a baptismal interview. The hill is really big so we always use mototaxi's. A mototaxi is like a 3 wheel motorcycle. Search in google images to understand it better. So we (The 4 of us in the ward) got in the mototaxi and started to go down the hill. Three of us in the back, with Elder Rosales (DL) up front, and the driver (a lady). As we got close to a speed bump, the lady screamed and we hit the speed bump at speed. This caused her to lose control and we left the road and smashed through a pile of rocks. After that we smashed to a hault into a wood post holding up a net to a soccer field. We were all a little bruised, and Rosales had hit his head, but everyone was ok. We were actually pretty lucky. Things could have been a lot worst. We barely missed flipping or rolling the moto down a hill, or smashing into a wall at speed. We are all a little scared to use motos now though. I did learn that women can't drive in Peru either.

It sounds like it was another great sports week. It sounds like you are enjoying all the sports. Also, I didn't know Scott was getting married. That is super exciting.

We had a problem with getting people to church this week. We only had one. Also our converts went down a little bit too. We are going to try and visit all of them this week and see what happened. The good thing is that we should have a baptism this Saturday. Andrea, is the daughter of a recent convert. She has gone to church for almost 4 months now. She couldn't get baptized because she had some problems with some of the commandments. We have now overcome all of her problems and she should be baptized.

Other than that, this week was kind of boring. We worked hard and are searching for new people to teach. I have never been in an area where the people are so tough to teach. I have probably had it easy my whole mission. This is probably how most missionaries feel like. I guess I have to experience it at least once in my mission.

Yes Mom, I saw your letter and I have had anticucho. It is cow heart and is super good. We aren't supposed to eat ceviche because it is raw fish drenched in lemon. I have had a little though and it is also super good. I haven't tried suri yet but I have been trying my whole mission to get a hold of it. It is from the jungle and there is not a lot here in Lima.

My area is along a street going up the hill called Manuel Prado. One corner of my area is Manual Prado and Tupac Amaru. Maybe that will help you find my area.

I hope you have a great week.
Love,
Elder Isaacson

September 7, 2015

Hola Familia,

I am glad to hear that Dad's surgery went well. It is kind of crazy that he was in surgery for 2 hours. I hope he recovers quickly and completely. I will keep him in my prayers. He has to be completely healed up for the time when I get home so we can go do a bunch of fun things.

Good luck with your class Mom. It sounds like it will be a pretty rough year. I don't like to tell people that their dumb, but your students sound pretty dumb. Only two registered a score on the reading test. But don't worry Mom, you will figure something out.

I can't believe all the sports are starting up again. I got to see quite a bit of the USA vs Peru game. It was pretty good. I recognized and knew more players from Peru than I did from the US. I was cheering for the US. I had a bet with Elder Rosales, my DL. With the US win, I won dinner.

I had a pretty good week. Last week I wrote that the area was kind of bad off. We went to work this week and worked really hard. We found a lot of new investigators. I don't know if many will progress. We started to go back to old investigators too. In the end, all payed off when we had 5 investigators in church. I was super excited because we didn't have much to work with when I got here. We also had 21 of 25 converts in church this week between the two companionships in the ward. At the end of the week we were super excited.

I get along pretty well with Elder Sancarranco. He feels bad abouut how he has wasted some of his time in the mission. He has settled in and we have started to work hard. We still have fun and do fun things, be we are obedient now.

The ward is kind of bad off. It is a bunch of old people. They don't really want to help us out at all. I am not used to knocking on a ton of doors to find lessons. Normally we will get references or people will let us in. Here, all the old people are stubborn and don't want to listen to us. Even with all that, we had some success this week. I hope all goes well next week too.

I hope you all have a great week and that Dad gets better.

Love,
Elder Isaacson

August 31, 2015

Hola Familia,

It sounds like your life is pretty busy again with school starting. I can't believe school has already started. It sounds like Mom has a pretty rough class. I can't believe that almost all of them are under level. It sounds like she has a lot of work to do this year. Kenzie's schedule looks really rough. AP Lit takes a lot of time. I don't think there are any study books that she needs. She will need a few classic books that she will need to read. It is a really hard class and requires a ton of time. I didn't really like it because the books we read are not my type of book. They were all really boring for me. Maybe she will like it but it requires lots of time sitting down and reading.

That stinks that you have to have surgery. At least you will be able to sit and rest for two weeks- Maybe I should dislocate my shoulder so I can get two weeks of rest. I hope everything goes well.

I already new that the USA and Peru are going to play. I am pretty excited and the trash talking started about two weeks ago. Everyone is talking trash on me and I keep telling them that we are going to win. It should be a really good game. Both teams are really well. I hope I can at least see a few parts of the game or at least the highlights.

As for the news you have all been waiting for... I was transferred. I have finally left my second area and moved to my third area. My ward is Progreso. It is in Carabayllo. It is on the edge of the mission. There are two ends of the mission and I am on one of them. I am really far away from everything. My companion is Elder Sancarranco. He is from Trujillo, Peru and has almost one year in the mission. I am the senior companion and I am not District leader.

We did have a baptism Saturday. It was a nice service but everyone showed up almost 2 hours late. I am a little nervous about the ward I am in. My area is kind of rough. My comp got in trouble the last change for disobedience and I think they put me in here to try and straighten everything out. There are hardly any investigators. We have spent a lot of time contacting trying to find new people. The people here are also a little harder. They aren't as acceptive as my old area. It is alright, I will just help the area out and I can't leave it worse then when I found it.

I hope you have a great week,
Elder Isaacson

I almost forgot. This week, we got to go see Elder Bednar. It was amazing. He talked a lot about Faith. He taught that the faith is something that makes us act. The investigators have to do things so they can show faith, AKA go to church, read the Book of Mormon, Pray, keep the commandments.

I really liked something he said. A lot of times we pray to find new investigators. But we should pray that our mouths will be filled when we speak. That means first we have to show our faith and open our mouths. I really liked that quote and it made me think a lot.

Elder Isaacson

August 24, 2015

Hola Familia,

It sounds like life is starting to get pretty busy again. I can't believe school is already starting. It doesn't seem like a whole school year and summer have already passed by. I hope everything goes well with Dad's shoulder. Keep me updated on it.

Transfers are today. I will be finding out if I go in about an hour. I think I will be going because I have 6 months here and I just finished training Elder Orbegoso. I am ready to go but it is always sad to have a change. I will have to say goodbye to a lot of people today. I printed out a lot of pictures and wrote a small message to all the people I have taught here.

This week was pretty good. We had a baptism Saturday. Mariana was baptized, and Elder Orbegoso baptized her. He was just as nervous as she was, but he did great. She was super excited. We also had a lot of support from the members since Mariana has gone to church for almost seven months.

We did a big service project by ourselves on Wednesday. We had a family that are recent converts haul bricks so they can build onto their house. Just the dad, Elder Orbegoso, and I were there. We hauled more than 500 bricks up more than 50 stairs and then about 50 more yards down a trail. It about killed me. Afterwards my comp and I fell into our beds and didn't want to go out and teach. But we went teaching anyway. I slept super good that night.

I went on a work visit to the companionship in my district this week. I was able to help them out a lot. I had to do three interviews. In the end, all of them came to church and will be baptized. I was physically exhausted after the interviews because they were pretty rough with some major doubts about the gospel. I am super thankful for the spirit that helped me out because I know I didn't say a lot of the things that came out of my mouth.

My area is doing pretty well. We have a lot of investigators right now. A lot of them are progressing.We have a lot of investigators progressing. We have two that are ready to get baptized but their dad doesn't want to sign the permission slips. Their mom is a member but want their dad to let them get baptized. We will work with him. My area has a lot of potencial for September. The next missionary that gets here should be able to have a lot of success. I trust Elder Orbegoso that he will be able to take over the area. He has learned a lot. He finished his training yesterday. I feel like he is ready to take on more responsibility.

I hope you have a good first week back at school.

Love,
Elder Isaacson

August 17, 2015

Hola Familia,

I can't believe school is getting ready to start back up again. It seems like summer just started a few weeks ago. When does school start exactly? Life just seems to keep going so fast. I can't believe Kenzie will be out of high school by the time I get home. It sounds like she has enjoyed her summer playing soccer, camping, girls camp, and helping out in the hospital. It sounds pretty busy too. I am glad to hear that you are starting to get better. With Bev at the house I am sure you stayed busy. I always loved her visits. With winter coming you have just over 10 more months to get the barn cleaned out and completely ready for when I get home.

I had a pretty good week. Due to that we need to teach all the lessons before someone gets baptized, Mariana ( 13 year old referral) will get baptized Saturday. She is super excited for her baptism and the members are helping her out a ton. The family of four is driving me crazy. The dad doesn't want to sign the baptism permission slips. Their mom can sign the permission slips but she is scared of her husband. This week I have studied some scriptures and am going to burn her a little bit until she signs the permission slips.

We are teaching a lot of people this week. Not a lot of people were at church this week. The main school were most of the people go that live in my area had a party to celebrate something. A lot of members, converts and investigators had to go to the party and coudn't go to church. I am sure a lot of them will get baptized. Transfers are next Monday. I have six months here and am finishing up training Elder Orbegoso. I am sure I will be going. The new missionary should have a lot of success as soon as he gets here. I have already started saying goodbye to all the people. I am going to print some photos today and give them to some people.

I got my last package a while ago, don't worry. My shoes are holding up really well. The ones from Brazil are in great shape and will make it to the end of my mission without problems. The Rockport's are holding up well and could probably make it to the end also. If I need new shoes, I could probably buy them here. I will probably pull a little money off of my card this week. I don't have any personal money so I will do that. It is easier to pull off a lot and just store it because of the fee to change it from dollars to soles.

We did have an interesting day with two drunks yesterday. While we were searching for a reference, we contacted a lady and asked for help. While we were talking to her, a drunk walked by and hit us and walked right between my comp and I. Right after that, he turned and spit right on my companions back. We both just about punched him. I don't know how we kept our cool. Right after that, he threw a rock right through a window. A big guy came out I think beat him up for us. We didn't stay around to watch. Some people just don't show respect. That was the only interesting thing that happened this week.

Have another great week.

Love
Elder Isaacson

August 10, 2015

Hola Familia,

Wow! It sounds like you had quite the exciting, adventerous, and fun week. The Dexpedition sounds really fun. I can't wait to be able to get home and go camping with you guys. We will have to go back there when I get home. It will be so fun to go hunting and fishing again. You decide to do all the fun things soon as I'm gone. It sounds like the fishing was way good and there were a lot of animals and pretty scenery. It's too bad that it rained so much for a couple of the days. At least you got to play in the mud.

It is too bad that the camping trip had to end going to the doctor. Two camping trips in a row that end in a trip to the doctors. Dad still doesn't believe me but I dislocated my shoulder once playing basketball with him. It hurt so bad but fell right back in place. Ever since then it has popped when I move it in a certain way. It sounds like Dad dislocated it a lot worse. At least it will get better and be able to heal completely. Now for these next three weeks, who is going to mow the lawn and do all the yard work around the house. There is not one capable man in the house. Maybe I will just come home for a little bit to help out... Just Kidding.
But seriously, you should buy a trailer and four wheelers for next year.

I don't think my week was quite as exciting as your week. It felt pretty normal to me. We worked super hard and were really diligent this week. In the end, we recieved so many blessings for working so hard. We ended up having 7 investigators in church yesterday with a family of four. The mom is less active for about 16 years but she has started coming back to church. We want to baptize her two daughters and her husband. The only problem is that her husband doesn't want to sign the baptism permission slips and the parents aren't married. We are going to work on that this week. We also taught a girl one time and she was ready when we got to her house. I think that might be the first time the investigator has been ready when we got to her house so that was super exciting.

God also gave us a special blessing this week. Yesterday in church, the bishop presented me to a 13 year old girl who I thought was a member. Turns out she has been going to church for the past 7 months and isn't a member. We went and taught her yesterday and it was great. Before, her parents didn't want her to get baptized but have seen her wake up early every Sunday for the last seven months to go to church. They signed the baptism permission slip this morning. She might be able to get baptized Saturday but we will have to see.

We also had a really good training by President Erickson about knowledge. We always need to keep studying the scriptures and preparing ourselves to return to God. I really liked an example he did about diminishing value. The law of diminishing value is a law that means you will get more out of something the first time you do it or read it. The second time you read it you get a little more but not as much. But this law doesn't apply to the scriptures. The spirit will help us understand and learn even more. We always have to read and study the scriptures.

I just found out that Elder Bednar is coming to visit the mission the end of this month. That is super exciting.

Also, ¡Feliz Cumpleaños Papa! Happy Birthday Dad. I hope you have a great birthday. 55 years old. Now you can get the special senior citizen deal in restaurants and other events. I hope you have a great birthday even though you are in a sling.

Stay safe this week.

Love,
Elder Isaacson

P.S. I had one of the best lunches of my entire mission this week. Crab. It was a huge plate with a full crab, a huge fish, mussels and a few other things. It was super good. It is probably the only time I will eat that in my entire mission. I didn't have my camera so I couldn't take a picture.

August 3, 2015

Hola Familia,

It sounds like you had quite the exciting week. It sounds like you had a ton of fun in California. I can't believe you did so many fun things there. You even went to a concert. If you weren't the oldest you had to be close to the oldest, just kidding. I hope you took lots of photos. Maybe you could send me some of them. I would love to see what you were up to out there.

I guess I will answer some of your questions. It is getting colder here right now. August is one of the coldest months according to the people here. Everything is so humid too. At night, when I get into bed, it feels wet and sticky and cold from all the humidity. I can't wait until I can put on dry clothes again. That is something I haven't done for a while. I do use the sweaters almost everyday right now. My area is really muddy right now but both pairs of shoes that I have have held up really well. I think I might be able to make it to the end of my mission with just these two pairs.

I had a really good week. I was super motivated to work really hard this week and I did. We worked really hard this week and taught a ton of people. We had so much potential Saturday night to have a ton of investigators in church. I did everything I knew how to get them there. I sent a text Saturday night, called them in the morning, and then went to their houses. We should have had a ton of people there. In the end, only one investigator came to church and it is a young kid who his parents won't sign a baptism permission slip. I felt pretty frustrated but I know I did all that I could.

We did find a few really cool new investigators this week. While contacting, I met a lady whose daughters got baptized three years ago and went inactive about one year ago. She wanted to get baptized too but couldn't because her husband didn't want to get married. She just broke up with her ''husband/live in boyfriend'' this month. She was so excited when we contacted her because now she can get baptized. She was going to come to church but had a fight with her husband which kept her from coming.

We have a lot of other investigators progressing but I don't know If I will be here for their baptisms. Transfers are at the end of this month and I will probably be going. Hopefully I can get some of them in the water before I leave. We have basically quit teaching Rosalinda. She knows the church is true but feels comitted to her other church because it has helped her a lot in her life. I told her all that yesterday and hopefully it will make an impact. Hopefully she will recognize the difference in her life and want to get baptized. I might not be here but at least I planted the seed.

I hope you have a fun week camping and send me some pictures.

Love,
Elder Isaacson

July 27, 2015

Hola Familia,

Well, I don't want to lie or anything, but it sounds like you had quite the boring week. I can't believe that Tyler is already going on his mission. Wow, time sure does fly. He will enjoy it so much. Wish him the best of luck for me and you will have to keep me filled in on what is happening in his mission. I don't know why you asked me for a theme for conference because it sounds like you already have a great one.

I am finally settling in to being district leader. It still feels like a huge responsibility. In my zone we verify what has happened everyday. I have to call my district and get there numbers daily. I then have to call the zone leaders and tell them what is going on with my district and I. It keeps me from my sleep. I guess it is just one sacrifice I have to make to keep the mission work progressing. I have now done a few trainings. I think they have went well. I am still scared that now I have to worry about more than just my own area.

Rosalinda has a lot of doubts right now. She is really scared that all her friends will look at her weird and won't be her friends if she gets baptized. She was also super busy this week and we couldn't hardly teach her. But when we passed by her house we met her cousin. She is really cool and is reading the Book of Mormon. She even came to church with us and really enjoyed. Hopefully we can baptize both of them together.

We also found a really cool family this week. We were contacting them and found out the mom is a member. She got baptized 22 years ago and became inactive about 15 years ago. She now has her husband (although they aren't married) and her two daughters. We only taught them once this week but the mom and two daughters came to church. The husband, Juan, couldn't this week but told us he will come next week. Now the only problem is, like normal, getting them married. Hopefully they can get married and get baptized. I would love to baptize them as a family.

Nothing really interesting happened this week. The only interesting thing happened this morning. There was a car crash not too far from my house between a mototaxi, a small car, and a garbage truck. One guy got sent to the hospital in an ambulance. We hope he is ok. Other than that, it was just a long week of contacting and looking for new people to teach. We are cleaning out our old investigators that aren't progressing and replacing them with new investigators. This is what we have done for the past couple weeks. We are now going to settle down and start working with all the new people we have to teach.

I hope you have another fun week and stay safe in California Mom. I want a full report of your trip when you get back.
Love,
Elder Isaacson

July 20, 2015

Hola Familia,

It sounds like summer is treating you really well. The family campout sounds like it was pretty fun like always, although it is too bad that you had to go home a day early. It is crazy to think that I will be there for the next family campout. It also sounds like you will have a super busy rest of summer. I can't believe that Mom is going to go to California to visit Cousin Bev. That sounds super fun. Then you will be going camping, and then Bev will come visit you guys. You just have to do all the fun things before I get back. You'll just have to do it all again when I get back.

Feliz Cumpleaños Kaylee. I remembered it was your birthday last week right after I got off the internet. I felt super bad that I didn't right you. I hope you had a great birthday and a great year.

I had a pretty good week. I didn't get changed and I stayed with Orbegoso. The big news is that my District Leader got changed and now I am the new District Leader. Even more responsibility. I would prefer to just be junior companion my whole mission. It would make everything else a whole lot easier. I now have to help out more missionaries, do a weekly training, and baptism interviews. I already had to do my first interview. It went really well. I am not sure why I was so worried. It went really well and seemed pretty easy.

I had a rough week with investigators. We have left Juana and Miguel but will go visit them in a few weeks to see if they can feel the difference in their lives. Hopefully they will notice it and want to progress. Rosalinda didn't come to church this week because there was a giant party in her house Saturday night. Some family members came over and drank all night. They didn't go to bed until about 5:30 in the morning. We aren't sure if she will be able to get baptized this week. As for our other investigators, we only had one in church. There were a bunch of parties Saturday and nobody came to church. It was kind of sad. Maybe we will have better luck next week.

I hope you keep having a great summer,
Love,
Elder Isaacson

July 13, 2015

Hola Familia,

Well, this week sounds a little bit like yours. Nothing too exciting happened and it was just a normal week. We worked really hard like normal this week. Every night, I come home and fall right into my bed after we plan. The mission is the only place in the world that can make 18-21 year olds want to go to bed before their bedtime.

Transfers are today. We are going to go see who gets transferred right after we get off of our emails. I really don't think I will get changed because I am right in the middle of training a new missionary. But, you never know. The mission president is always full of suprises. You will just have to wait until next week to find out if I stayed or went.

I am a little sad this week because I think I have to stop teaching the family that got married. They were progressing so well, but now they just don't want to come to church. Miguel is really cool and wants to get baptized so we might keep working with him, but his wife holds him back from progressing. We have been working with them for a long time now and I don't know if they will ever get baptized. The good thing we have got from visiting them is that we got to know Juana's neice, Rosalinda. She is coming to church and has a date to be baptized July 25th. When we first met her, she was going to another church and I thought she would never get baptized. Now she is reading the Book of Mormon and tells us everytime that we visit her that she knows it is true. Maybe she is the reason we got to know this family. It still hurts a lot to let a family go that you have gotten super close to.

We worked really hard this week and found 10 new investigators. I am sure that at least one or two of those investigators will progress. I feel really pressured in my area though because the AP was in my area almost a year ago. He is always on my case saying that I have to be better than I am. Hopefully he will help me be a better missionary.

Have a fun Isaacson campout and don't be so trunky Mom. ''You'll be home for the next Isaacson campout.'' I think you are more trunky than me. That is still at least one year away.

Love,
Elder Isaacson

July 6, 2015

Hola familia,

First off, I have completed one year in my mission. How crazy is that? It has gone so fast. Before you know it I will be on an airplane home. I have learned and grown so much in just one year. I can't even imagine how much more I will learn in one more year. I can't wait to learn it all. For my one year mark I didn't do anything special. I was going to burn my shirt but did not have any time. I will just burn it this week. I also am going to buy Trix cereal to celebrate. I saw it in the store the other day and told myself I was going to buy it to celebrate one year.

Sorry Kenzie, but it looks like you will be doing the dishes for 2 weeks. I didn't see hardly any of that game. I saw about half of a few of the games, but not the one against Columbia. I didn't even see one minute of the semi-final or the third place games where Peru played. I knew the score though from everyone screaming and setting off fireworks. Peru ended up taking third place. That is really cool that the US women won the world cup. You don't hear anything about women's soccer here. They don't care at all about women's soccer.

I can't believe that they legalized gay marriage in the whole country. How dumb is that? It is good though that the church has sent out the statement on the standard of marriage.

My week was pretty normal. My comp has gotten a lot better at teaching and can almost teach on his own. I put him to the test last night when I got sick for the last 3 lessons that we taught. He had to teach all three of them on his own basically. I felt so awful that I couldn't even focus. I had a bad headache and an upset stomach. On our way home, I ended up puking in someones flower bed. They will have a suprise for them in the morning. But, don't worry Mom, I am feeling a lot better now. It has pretty much all passed.

We had a couple new investigators in church today. I can keep getting new people to come to church but I can't seem to get investigators to come back. I don't know what the problem is. I have at least 8 investigators with at least one attendence but only one with more than that. I am going to focus in these 8 people this week to get them to come back to church. I just don't know why they won't come back. It makes me kind of frustrated. Hopefully we can get them all to come to church this week.

It is starting to get colder here. I am using a sweater almost everyday. This week, the ''rain'' started. It just made everything really muddy. My shoes and bottem part of my pants get so dirty walking through the street. It should be like this until about mid September.

I still haven't got my package but assume that it is just waiting there in the offices. I should get it soon.

I hope you have another great week,
Elder Isaacson

June 29, 2015

Hola Familia,

It sounds like everyone is staying pretty busy even though it is summer there. It also sounds like sports are the center of your life right now. Soccer is the center of Peru right now. Peru is now in the semifinals against Chili and play today. Chili and Peru hate each other. It is kind of funny because everyone talks bad on Chili all the time. Everyone will be watching the game tonight. We have had a lot of people tell us to come over tonight to watch the game but that we won't be able to teach anything. It looks like I won't get much done tonight.

I had a really great week. It started off with room revisions and an interview with president. We have an interview and room revisions every 3 months. We stayed up super late cleaning the room until it sparkled. I don't know why exactly because Hermana Erickson didn't care too much. The interview was quick and simple. President maybe talked to me 5 minutes. It was super fast and just asked how I was doing. I said that I enjoyed the mission and that was about it.

Then on Friday, I got to go to another wedding. Juana and Miguel got married. In the mass marriage or ''masivo'' there were 146 couples getting married. 19 were from the mission. It was a huge marriage. It was really fun and really pretty. I took a lot of pictures of the marriage and of the Parque de las aguas. I didn't miss out too much on Kyle's wedding I figure because I have now gone to two weddings.

The week got even better when on Saturday we had a baptism. I don't remember if I told you about Max. He is 19 and we met him through his girlfriend who was less active. This week, we were able to reactivate his girlfriend and he was baptized. I baptized him. I wanted my companion to baptize him where he is new, but I didn't get the opportunity to tell him that. A girl was also baptized Saturday that the other missionaries in the ward taught. We had a good turn out and lots of support for the new members.

We had a good Sunday. We had 3 investigators in church. We had a less active that we reactivated about 2 months ago bring her sister to church. She is super cool. We went to her house last night and taught the restoration with her. It was a great lesson. We also had Juana's neice, Rosalinda, in church. We have taught her a couple times but she is a strong member of another church. We are working a lot with her and trying to help her get an answer to her prayer. She told us that she has prayed about other churches if they are true and just felt more confused. We are making a lot of progress with her and hopefully she gets baptized in July. Juana and Miguel weren't at church yesterday and we don't know why. We went to their house and called them all morning but they didn't answer. We are going to find them and teach them some more this week.

All in all, I had a really good, successfull week. I know what I am doing is true and that I am where I am supposed to be. Thanks for all the love and support you all give me.

Love,
Elder Isaacson

Juana and Miguel in El Parque de las Aguas

Max ready to be baptized

Happy Father's Day! (June 22, 2015)

Feliz Dia Papa,

Well, like the title says, Happy Father's Day Dad. I hope it went well. With the way transfers work out I will probably be home for the next fathers day. But, I don't want to sound trunky or be thinking about that. It is still a long time away. It sounds like it was fun with the whole family there. It is always fun to get the family together and talk, laugh and play games.

Like your email, it seems like there is just soccer, soccer, soccer here too. Right now is the Copa America and Peru is playing. They played yesterday, and like normal, it is impossible to teach when they are playing. They tied with Columbia and are advancing. That means one more game at least where it will be impossisible to teach. Everyone gets so excited for the game and so into it. I can listen to the games in the street because every tv is tuned in, and if there is a goal, the whole country screams.

The old restored town sounds really cool. That is something I would probably love. I love to drive up into the mountains and see cool, old stuff like that. We will have to take more drives and go hiking a lot when I get back. It shouldn't be hard for me to hike because I am always going up and down hills in this area.

This week was stressfull and kind of rough. It all started on P-day after internet. We went with the family that is going to get married to sign some papers and get them signed up for the marriage. It should have taken just less than 2 hours but there was a problem with his birth certificate. We had to go get that fixed and then go pay a fine that they had too. What should have been something really fast, ended up being an all day affair but in the end they were finally signed up for the marriage. We ended up getting back to my area at 8 o'clock at night. So, I went without p-day and a recharge for this week.

The next days we worked really hard just trying to get everyone ready to be baptized. Then, Juana and Miguel started to doubt about being baptized. We went over there and found their neice there. She is an Evangelista and keeps putting a lot of doubts in there head. She really started to get on my nerves because she wouldn't even let Juana talk. They didn't go to church this week because of the temple dedication and the meeting that the missionaries planned was late at night and there 2 kids were already asleep. We are going to work really hard this week with them and get them to be baptized the first week of July. Their batism date just jumped one week.

Max, our late night investigator, is doing great. He is doing super great and really excited for his baptism this week. We were a little sad that he didn't come to church this week but it was because it was fathers day and he was helping his dad who was drunk. We had a lot of other people planned to come to church with us this week but they all stood us up too. It was a rough end to the week when it looked like we had so much coming.

The Trujillo Temple dedication was really nice. President Uchtdorf came with Elder Bednar. They shared some really great talks. It was nice to hear their voices in English again. It has been a long time. The talks that were shared really helped motivate me to work harder. The goal as a missionary is not to baptize a lot of people to let them go inactive but to help them get to the temple to be a family forever. There were some really great examples and stories shared also. I really enjoyed it and it helped give me a little boost for a rough week.

Everything was in the package that you sent me. It hadn't been searched. When I send the package home I will ask how I should package it. I should probably get the package this week within the next few days that you sent me.

I hope you have another great week,
Elder Isaacson

June 15, 2015

Hola Familia,

Wow, soccer is starting to get pretty big in the states. I can't believe the US men beat Germany and Holland back to back. That sounds great. Also the US women sound like they are doing well in the World Cup. I haven't heard one thing about the Women World Cup here in Peru. They really don't care about women's soccer. This week the Copa America started in Chili. It is a huge soccer tournament of all of America. People have been watching soccer all week. Yesterday, Peru played Brasil. We could here the game walking down the street because every television was tuned in to the game. We were just about to knock on a converts door when I think all of Peru shouted ''Goal!'' It was so loud. They ended up losing 2 to 1 and everyone was pretty depressed the rest of the night. Peru will play again and still have a chance. It will be hard to teach while they are playing.

I feel like I just had the most crazy week of my entire mission. I ended up going on about 3 work visits this week with the zone leaders and the AP. They ended up helping the area a lot. I was super scared to go out with the AP but he wanted to visit my area because he was here about 6 months ago. He kept telling everyone that he will be coming back. I kept thinking, Oh great, that means I have to visit with the AP again.

Everything is going great in my area. We are teaching a ton of people and finding new people everyday. We have been going to bed late every night because we have to teach one investigator at 9 ocklock at night. We have been given special permission to stay out till about 10 to teach him. It is all paying off now though because he has come to church twice and should be baptized before the end of the month.

Juana and Miguel keep progressing. I will be missing a lot of my p day because I have to go with them to the Center of Lima to sign them up for the marriage. They came to church this week and really enjoyed it. They already knew a couple people in the ward and they should be able to help them out and progress even more for their baptism. They have a few doubts about being baptized but we talk about their doubts every time we are at their house. Hopefully all goes well and they get married in a couple weeks.

Oh, I finally got my package that you sent in March. It finally came through or something. I was super excited to get it and my companion was too. I have accumulated a lot of things that I would like to send home but I don't have the phone number of Vanessa's dad. If you can find it and give it to me that would be great. I will be looking for the package you sent me.

Hopefully this next week won't be quite so stressful. I feel like I am at the end of a tied soccer match in extra time. We are going all out and aren't leaving anything on the line. Between training and teaching so many people I am super tired. Hopefully I can sleep more.

Tenga una buena semana
Elder Isaacson

June 8, 2015

Hola Familia,

Wow, It sounds like you guys had quite the busy week. That is kind of sad that you guys don't get to go to the Dominican Republic. What a bummer. You probably can't go because I am not there. You never took me to any cool places. Besides, Kenzie has already gone to Puerto Rico. I am sure you are going to enjoy the summer. It must be nice to be able to get away from teaching. Also, I forgot to wish Kyle a happy birthday last week, so... Feliz Cumpleaños.

It sounds like this was a big sports week for you guys there and this week will to. That is really cool how the USA could beat Holland. It sounds like it was quite the game. Also, I hope the US women can win the World Cup. I wish I could see it. Saturday was the Champions League final between Barcelona and Juventus. Everyone here was watching the game. It was impossible to teach during it. People had talked about the game for 2 weeks. We ended up seeing a lot of the game going from house to house looking for a lesson.

Well, transfers were this week and I got a new companion, a BRAND new companion. Yep, that's right, I am training a new missionary. His name is Elder Orbegoso from Arequipa Peru. He now has 6 days in the mission field. I can already say that I never want to train again. It is really hard because my companion doesn't know the lessons so I have to teach it all. When I let him teach he teaches just part of the key points and misses some of them. I then have to go fill in the blanks and tie it in to what he said. It is really hard but it is a really good experience for me. It will help me become a better missionary and eventually a better person. We are dedicating a lot of time to study to learn all the lessons.

My week has been full of meetings, studying, and teaching. I feel exhausted right now. Because I am training, we had to go to more meetings this week that took up a lot of time. We also have to study at least one more hour each day. We are studying a lot so my companion can learn the lessons quickly and be a great missionary. We worked really hard this week and found a lot of new investigators. We kind of swept out any old investigators that weren't progressing and filled in their places with new people.

I can't wait for June 21. The Trujillo Temple in Peru will be dedicated. They are going to broadcast the temple dedication to all the stake centers in Peru. I am super excited because the missionaries get to go to the dedication. It should be a really pretty dedication. All the members are really excited too.

I also found one of my new favorite foods. They are called Juanes. It is like a tamale but with rice and they are amazing. They have the best flavor ever. If you put a little salsa on top, they are even better. It is a food that comes from the jungle of Peru. Not too many people in Lima make them but when they do, they are super popular.

Well that is about all my week,
Elder Isaacson

June 1, 2015

Hola Familia,

It sounds like you had a great first week of summer, for Kenzie anyway. Just one more week Mom. At least you get to have a summer break, I don't get any type of break. At least Dad now knows where he can find his murderer's grave site. He just doesn't have a head stone. It sounds like Kenzie will have a fun time going to Lagoon all summer long. I can't wait to hear all about your summer. Don't forget to write me all about the fun things you do and I can't wait to hear about your trip to the Dominican Republic.

My week was pretty good. Do you remember Carlos, my convert in Comas who lives in Independencia? Well, I found him at stake conference. He transferred his records to the ward in Independencia to go to church with his mom. His mom was baptized on Saturday. She was super excited. Also, Carlos got the Melchezadick (I know it is spelled wrong) Priesthood after stake conference. I was able to talk to him a little bit and he is preparing to go on a mission. It is so cool to see how my efforts will extend to even more people through the work of Carlos.

The soccer tournament was pretty fun. Our shirts are pretty cool, but they spelled my name wrong. ''Esaacson'' It is alright though. I don't care that much. It was really fun to see all my friends that I have met in the mission and catch up with them. We didn't have that good of a team and only won one game. We lost the second one to the second place team one to zero. Oh well.

The mission work keeps progressing. We met a really cool family who wants to get baptized and married this month. I am super excited to help them get married because the wedding is going to be in the center of Lima in The Parque de Las Aguas. It is a park of water and light designs. I have heard it is really cool. The family is super cool and are trying to turn their life around for their two kids. God has prepared to meet with us.

Other than that, my week was pretty normal. We did help a family put the sheet metal on their roof one night in our church clothes. We decided to help them out since it was just 3 ladies. That is about my week.

Love,
Elder Isaacson

May 23, 2015

Hola Familia,

I can't believe that another school year has come and gone. It feels like just last week I was reading how everyone was getting ready for school to start, and it is already ending. It will be nice to have another summer. I am sure Mom is super excited to get away from the ''little devils'' in her class. Soon as they are gone she will miss them though. It will be fun to go to the Dominican Republic. Kenzie always gets to go to cool places. I can't wait to travel when I get home.

I am super excited for the soccer tournament this week. It should be super fun. We made another jersey as a zone. It should be pretty cool. We used a Peru jersey as the base and then added our own design. I hope we are the only zone with a Peru jersey, because it seems like someone always uses Peru. I hope our zone does good and wins, but it is highly unlikely. We aren't the most talented soccer players in this zone. We will probably get destroyed.

This week has been pretty normal. On Wednesday morning, we woke up early and decided to climb to the top of the mountain for our daily exercise. It wasn't really that hard to go up the hill. When we got to the top we couldn't see that much. It was all foggy. It has been getting colder here. It has ''rained'' every night this week. When I say rain, I mean it gets really misty and humid and everything gets wet. I still have not seen true rain.

When we came back down the hill, we went and did some service for an investigator's family. We prepared her door and window frames to be painted. We then painted them afterwards. It was a fun service activity and it is always nice to be able to help.

As for our investigators, everything is about the same. We keep teaching them and are helping them to get married. I don't know who is progressing yet because we haven't had church yet, and to be a progressing investigator, you need to go to church. We should have a few more investigators in church this week because it is stake conference. I just had stake conference in my other area so it feels kind of weird to have it so soon again. Hopefully we have a lot of investigators there and that I will be able to learn something new that will help me out.

Transfers are June 2. I will be staying but I am sure that Elder Rivas will be going. He has 6 months in this area. He started his mission here. He will go and I will be getting a new companion. I still feel like I just left my old area but I almost have 3 months in this area. Time is just going by so fast. I can't think of anything else that I would need in a package besides gloves. I will be waiting anxiously for this package.

Love,
Elder Isaacson

May 19, 2015

Que tal,

Well, It sounds like this week was a lot calmer then last week. With calling you, the wedding, and a bunch of other stuff, this week sounds pretty boring and normal. I can't believe that it is already the last week of school. It seems like school just started. I can't believe that Kenzie is going to be a senior in high school. Before you know it you will be empty nestors. Time is flying by. I can't believe that Maddy and Lexi are leaving on their missions in three days. Also, the photos you sent me loaded fast. It didn't take anytime at all. You will be able to send as many pictures as you want and I will be able to see them rather quickly.

My week was a pretty normal week. Nothing too exciting happened. For P-day we went to a members house as a zone and they did a firepit lunch for us. We had chicken, pork, cow and GUINEA PIG I have finally eaten guinea pig. I have some photos but don't have my computer cable so I will have to send them some other day. It doesn't taste bad. It taste like a mix between chicken and pork. It is a little fatty and chewy, but still good. The only problem is all the little bones you have to eat around. Other than that, I liked it.

We were able to get a lot of missionary work in this week. We are teaching quite a few people right now that love learning about the church. They just don't keep the commitments to come to church or read the Book of Mormon. We just have to pick the ones we should visit and the ones we won't. We got a really great reference this week. His name is Enrique. He just had a son who left on his mission 2 weeks ago. He wants to know what his son is doing and really know if it is true. We had a really good lesson one with him yesterday. The only problem is, like the rest of Peru, he isn't married but lives with his wife. Just one more family that I will have to try and marry in the upcoming month. Why can't people just get married before they live with someone!!!!!

Zonia, Rossmeri's mom, really wants to get baptized but can't because she isn't married and her husband doesn't want to get married. In the Gospel Principles class, they talked about how we need to be baptized. Zonia teared up and almost started to cry. We are going to teach her about fasting this week and invite her to do a special fast so she can get married.

Well, that sums up my week,
Love,
Elder Isaacson

This week I will write you on Saturday morning because the soccer tournament is going to be Monday and we are going to start early. I will write at about 10 am my time. I hope I have a letter to read on saturday.

Happy Mother's Day! (May 11, 2015)

Feliz Dia Mama,

It was so nice to see all of you yesterday on skype. This letter won't be that big because we talked yesterday. It was nice to be able to see all your faces and to hear your voices. It was nice to meet Megan (that is how you spell it, right?) Even though Kyle and Megan were all mushy-gushy on the couch. I am glad that will have gone away by the time I get home.

They wedding sounds like it went super well and I love all the photos you sent me. I was able to see them all. I saw all the extended family in some. It was nice to be able to see all their faces. That is great that Kyle and Megan got moved into their new house last night. Maybe you can send me the video that you showed at the reception. Maybe I could get it and see it here. Also, I hoped you saved some wedding cake for me. I'm expecting it when I get home.

My week was kind of a crazy one. It was just go... go... go... We ended having a meeting almost every morning. We couldn't leave to go teach in the mornings once this week. That made it a little difficult to reach our goal of lessons. We also had a talent show in the ward to help out the mission work and get people excited to come to church. It was really fun and lots of people came. It ended up starting late, like usual, and we had to leave early due to the mission schedule.

We had 3 baptisms this week. They went really well. One of them almost didn't get baptized. When she went under the water the first time, her big toe poked out (so close to perfect). She got scared and didn't want to do it again. We ended up making everyone leave the room besides the witnesses and she was eventually baptized. My comp put all his weight on her and forced her under. She was happy the next day when she got confirmed though. We were also able to have a lot of converts at church too. I don't quite know what we did different, but I hope they keep coming.

I did get kind of sick this week like I said in the video call. I ate some bad food at night and felt sick all night long. I wasn't able to sleep. The next morning I woke up and just vomitted it all out. I felt pretty good a couple hours after that and now I feel great. My comp had some problems calling yesterday and was never able to call. We were able to work out all the problems and he called his family this morning. He was kind of sad last night but it is all good now that he called.

I can't wait to see the rest of the wedding photos,

love,
Elder Isaacson

P.S. Just 7 more months until I call again.

Karter on Skype with his companion, Elder Rivas.

May 4, 2015

Feliz Dia de Madre y Matrimonio, casi...

It does sound like it has been a pretty crazy week and it will probably be 10 times as crazy this week. I can't believe the wedding is this week. It feels like I just found out about the wedding a couple weeks ago. Time really does just fly by out here in the mission. I can't believe I am already at 10 months. Woohoo, double digits. I hope everything goes well with the wedding and you need to take lots of pictures, especially of me. Why do you always say that I look like I have gained a little weight? I am not fat. I have only gained about 12 pounds, and I am actually skinnier in the waist.

That is really great that Kyle was able to get an internship in Salt Lake. It sounds like it should really help him out with his profession and it should be good to help him settle in to the married life. That is cool that you got to see where Kyle proposed. I still don't know how he asked her. I have not got a card or anything explaining it. I thought one might be in the package you sent me but I still have not gotten my package. It is either in the mission offices, or has been stolen there in the post office. I have kept waiting for it but it has just never gotten here.

I had a pretty interesting week. On Wednesday, all the mototaxi drivers went crazy. They started a protest that the people lower down the hill would not let them pass through. They all got really mad. Background information, they didn't think how they would protest and did an awful protest. They started to stop other motos from taking other people down the mountain. They started to punch out the plastic windows in other motos. They then started to kick people out of motos and were reaching into the bags of the mototaxi drivers and robbing them. It started to get pretty crazy. We were about to get into a moto to go up the hill but saw that and we decided to walk. It was a little scary walking. We were a little worried we might get robbed but nothing happened.

Then, on Friday morning, I was on a work visit with the ZL. One of the ZL's had went to my area with Elder Rivas and I was with the other one in his area. In the morning we were both a little confused. There were a lot of people passing by the house and there were a lot of police officers. When we went outside to teach, we stopped and asked someone what was going on. They told us the president of Peru was coming to open up a new staircase. About five minutes later his car passed by, and about five minutes after that we saw him come running down the hill to where he was going to give a presentation. I have now seen Peru's president more times than the President of the United States.

Sunday was really good. We had 7 investigators in church. Three of them are going to be baptized this Saturday. A lot of them are progressing but need to get married to be able to be baptized. Sonie, our investigator who got married but there is no documentation of her wedding, will probably be going to the place she got married to go to her husbands, grandpa's funeral. Hopefully while she is there she will be able to find documentation of here wedding. Sunday afternoon while we were out teaching, we ran into some recent converts hauling bricks up the stairs to add onto their house. We ended up helping them haul bricks for about an hour in our white shirts and tie. I am pretty sore this morning.

That is about all that happened this week. For skype, I remember how to get in, I do it through facebook. I will probably be calling at about 4 oclock here, which is 3 o'clock there. I am not a 100 percent sure where we are going to write because the computer we were going to use broke and we are not sure if it will be ready or not. I am going to buy a camera this week to use to skype. They are only about 20 soles. I will find a place to skype and will call you during the week to verify the time and place.

Love you lots and can't wait to see and talk to you,
Elder Isaacson

April 27, 2015

Hola Familia,

It sounds like everything is crazy with the wedding coming up. What day is the wedding, I forgot? With all the wedding preperations I am glad I am not there, although I think I will be sad I miss the luncheon. You will just have to take me there when I get home. I am going to get a new suit before I go home. I think I will do it for my birthday present. Custom fit suits here are really cheap. No more than 80 to 100 dollars.

I had a really great week. Transfers were this week and I stayed with Elder Rivas. We should have a great six more weeks together. The other companionship in my ward had a change. The missionary who stayed is now training a elder from SLC. He is studying to be a mechanic. He is really cool and we get along really well. I have kind of a funny story about him. Last night (Sunday) I got a phone call from his companion. His compaion said ''my companion got sick. What to I do?'' It made me laugh really hard. He is just getting used to Peruvian food and didn't feel so good. It reminded me when I was getting used to all the food. I am used to it now and the food doesn't get to me anymore.

I won't need to be there to celebrate Kyle's wedding because I was able to celebrate a wedding this week. Everything worked out. They didn't have any more arguments before there wedding and they were married Friday morning. I wasn't able to take a ton of pictures but a member was and I am going to get the pictures from him. The wedding went really well. Violeta looked really pretty in her white dress and her husband, Jimmy, dressed really nice too. Their whole family came to the wedding and afterwards everyone went back to their house to celebrate. They served everyone lunch, including the missionaries. Everyone then started to dance. It was a little trunky to go to a wedding and then not be able to dance, but it was really fun. Now we are going to help them prepare to go to the temple.

As for investigators, they are doing great. We had 10 investigators in church this week. That is a new record for me. Two are going to be baptized May 9. We were planning to baptize another family May 9th but we ran into some problems. Sonya, the mom of the Crisostomo Family, got married in the sierra but there are no papers to prove it. They will now have to get remarried to be baptized. The problem is, they are kind of seperated. They haven't slept in the same room for almost two years but they live in the same house. I am not 100 percent sure what we are going to do. To get baptized she will either have to get married or get seperated from her husband. We don't want to break up a family so we are going to try and marry them. We also had another family in church but they also need to get married so they can get baptized. It looks like I will be focusing a lot in marriages this coming month, too. Don't worry Mom, you aren't the only one in the family planning wedddings right now.

I am glad you were able to get the USB. I hope you enjoyed the photos. And, fyi, I did write down the phone numbers. I gave it to the kid her copied all the photos for me onto the USB. He must have just given the USB and not the phone numbers. I hope you enjoyed all the photos and I will tell you what they are when I get back. I also hope you enjoyed the Peruvian candy. That is the only chocolate they have. They don't eat a lot of sweet things here.

Con mucho amor,
Elder Isaacson