Hola Familia,
Wow! Your week sounds like it was super fun and super busy at the same time. I am glad to hear that you had a great time on your cruise. It is even better to know that you are enjoying every last second of me not being there. You only have 8 days left before you will have to deal with me again. It looks like the two year party is over. The food you ate sounds like it was really good. I can't believe you didn't like ceviche. It is Peru's national food and it is amazing. That is almost every Peruvian's favorite food. If you ever come to visit Peru everyone will give you ceviche. Gaining ten pounds in 1 week is a lot. I have only gained about 12 in 2 years.
That is really sad to hear about the shooting in the US. I hadn't heard about it. Due to just a few really screwed up people it makes a lot of people suffer.
I had heard and actually saw quite a bit of both the US and Peru game. Soccer is so big in this country that if there is a big game going on it is basically impossible to do anything. Hearing about how the US have played, I am a little worried that they will beat Ecuador. Hopefully they can pull it off. I ended up seeing a lot of the Peru game because everyone was watching it and anywhere we went it was on. We would pause and watch a few minutes anywhere we went. They played really well but got lucky with the hand goal. At least all the Peruvians are happy.
I can't believe this is my final week. It still doesn't feel like I will be going home next week. It honestly feels like I will be here forever. I have to be in the mission offices next Monday at noon. I will probably leave around 10 from my area. I might come to internet just for a few minutes so that my comps can start doing all the paperwork for zone. After I get to the offices I will weigh my suitcases and make sure everything is all set. I will then go with all my group to the last dinner with President Erickson. After dinner, I will go to the airport and be on my way home. It feels really weird writing this because it doesn't feel real yet.
We had a really crazy week. First, on Tuesday we had a special training by President Erickson. It was his final training and amazing. I learned so much doctrine. I am going to miss his trainings. Then on Wednesday we had our district meeting like always. On Thursday, I went to the temple with my companions. It was my chance to go to the temple. I loved it. I love going to the temple. The next time I come to the temple in Lima, it will probably the other one. On Friday, we had a special meeting with Elder Rasband. Yes, the Apostle. Do get there on time, we had to wake up at 2:30 in the morning. I only got about 4 hours of sleep that night. Miracously I wasn't tired until the end of the day. While I was listening to Elder Rasband, he talked about that we are all divinely called to serve where we are serving. I had heard this talk before and many people had told me that but it made me think of a personal revelation I recieved a while back. Once while I was teaching a family that was struggling, I had the strongest feeling telling me that I was called to serve in the Mision Peru Lima Norte so I could help these families and learn from them on how I could make my family stronger and so I could know how I wanted my family to be. The mission has taught me how I should raise my family to not have problems and how the Gospel will help me get over them when there are. His talk was amazing but seemed really short. We also got to shake his hand. That was also really cool because we could feel the Spirit really strong.
We worked really hard this week in finding new investigators. Even though I won't be here to be able to see them get baptized, I don't want to leave my area with nothing. Cetia, the 17 year old who needs to get married, came to church again. I won't be suprised if she gets married in July. We also had two more of our new investigators come to church.
I am so grateful for this opportunity I have had to serve a mission. It definately has not been easy but it has all been worth. The good parts outweigh the hard parts by a long ways. I wouldn’t trade the mission for anything. Everything I have done has all been worth it. The mission has been amazing. My testimony has been formed here. I am going to miss a lot of things (Marrying and Baptizing Families, Seeing the change in peoples lives, The food, Even the Bible Bashing...)
I love you lots and will see you soon,
Elder Isaacson
I thought I would send you a few songs that will trunk you out a little bit. These songs have been stuck in my head for the last few weeks and I wanted to share them with you.
I'm coming home, Skylar Grey
Home, Daughtry
Who says you can't go home, Bon Jovi.
I hope you guys don't get too trunky
Monday, June 13, 2016
Thursday, June 9, 2016
June 6, 2016
Hola Familia,
It sounds like it was quite the crazy and busy week. I can't believe Kaden is already home. It hit me the other day that I don't have any time left. It has gone by so fast. I bet it feels great to have the house to yourself. In a few weeks it won't be like that because I will be there. That stinks that Kyle got rear ended and the guy ran. What is worse, is that that happens all the time here. I have been rearended while in a taxi two times in these last 2 years. It also sounds like you are working hard getting the yard all ready for my homecoming. You shouldn't worry to much. I am also jealous of Mom and Kenzie. They are living up every last minute while I am gone. They started my mission by going on a trip and are now finishing it with a cruise. They probably don't want me to come home so they can keep traveling.
We had a pretty good week here. It was a little slow and weird. It was the second half of the Peruvian Presidential Elections. That means that there was no church on Sunday. We did an activity Saturday night so the investigators could get a church attendence. It was the same time as the Peru soccer game against Haiti. We didn't have a real good turn out. It could be a rough month on baptisms in the zone, but we will have to wait and see.
Everyone here is going crazy over the Copa America. A lot of people have rubbed it in my face that the US got killed by Columbia. It sounds like they played pretty bad. Hopefully I will be home so I can see some of the games.
We have found a few new investigators that are starting to progress. One of them is Maria's daughter, Katy. She is 14 and pretty cool. Her cousin is Felipe's daughter and brought her to church. Maria wants us to teach her daughter and she likes the church so hopefully there will be a baptism there.
We are also teaching a part family. Stanley is a less active who is 21 and contacted us. He presented us to his live in girlfriend. They are really cool and both came to the activity this week. They also want to get married. The problem is... It that Stanley's girlfriend, Cetia, is 17 years old. She needs permission from one of her parents to get married but they don't want to give it. We still haven't been able to talk with her mom so we can help convince her but we are still hoping we can get them married so Cetia can get baptized.
That is about all that is going on here. The zone is trying to make me trunky. They gave me a countdown calender. 16 DAYS LEFT!!!!!
Love you lots,
Elder Isaacson
It sounds like it was quite the crazy and busy week. I can't believe Kaden is already home. It hit me the other day that I don't have any time left. It has gone by so fast. I bet it feels great to have the house to yourself. In a few weeks it won't be like that because I will be there. That stinks that Kyle got rear ended and the guy ran. What is worse, is that that happens all the time here. I have been rearended while in a taxi two times in these last 2 years. It also sounds like you are working hard getting the yard all ready for my homecoming. You shouldn't worry to much. I am also jealous of Mom and Kenzie. They are living up every last minute while I am gone. They started my mission by going on a trip and are now finishing it with a cruise. They probably don't want me to come home so they can keep traveling.
We had a pretty good week here. It was a little slow and weird. It was the second half of the Peruvian Presidential Elections. That means that there was no church on Sunday. We did an activity Saturday night so the investigators could get a church attendence. It was the same time as the Peru soccer game against Haiti. We didn't have a real good turn out. It could be a rough month on baptisms in the zone, but we will have to wait and see.
Everyone here is going crazy over the Copa America. A lot of people have rubbed it in my face that the US got killed by Columbia. It sounds like they played pretty bad. Hopefully I will be home so I can see some of the games.
We have found a few new investigators that are starting to progress. One of them is Maria's daughter, Katy. She is 14 and pretty cool. Her cousin is Felipe's daughter and brought her to church. Maria wants us to teach her daughter and she likes the church so hopefully there will be a baptism there.
We are also teaching a part family. Stanley is a less active who is 21 and contacted us. He presented us to his live in girlfriend. They are really cool and both came to the activity this week. They also want to get married. The problem is... It that Stanley's girlfriend, Cetia, is 17 years old. She needs permission from one of her parents to get married but they don't want to give it. We still haven't been able to talk with her mom so we can help convince her but we are still hoping we can get them married so Cetia can get baptized.
That is about all that is going on here. The zone is trying to make me trunky. They gave me a countdown calender. 16 DAYS LEFT!!!!!
Love you lots,
Elder Isaacson
Tuesday, May 31, 2016
Elder Isaacson's Homecoming!
Hola Friends and Family!
Elder Isaacson's homecoming will be June 26th at 9:00 a.m. We would love to have you come listen to him speak and come to our house after to eat a good brunch.
Our church building's address is
2200 S. 4300 W.
Ogden, Utah 84401
Our house address is
4380 W. 3300 S.
West Haven, Utah 84401
We are so excited for Karter to be home and to celebrate it with everyone he loves! Hope to see you all there!
Elder Isaacson's homecoming will be June 26th at 9:00 a.m. We would love to have you come listen to him speak and come to our house after to eat a good brunch.
Our church building's address is
2200 S. 4300 W.
Ogden, Utah 84401
Our house address is
4380 W. 3300 S.
West Haven, Utah 84401
We are so excited for Karter to be home and to celebrate it with everyone he loves! Hope to see you all there!
May 30, 2016
Hola Familia,
It sounds like it was a pretty crazy week. I had completely forgot that it was memorial day. It is always nice to get a day off. I can't believe you guys are doing so many fun things. Kenzie has now graduated. Her small senior trip sounds like it was pretty fun. I can't believe Mom and Kenzie are going on a cruise. That will be way fun. We will have to get back at them and go on some trip without them. I can't believe we didn't draw out for any deer tag. I thought we were garunteed to draw out. I guess we will just go elk hunting. I was actually hoping to do both hunts but now I will have more time to go duck hunting with Dex and see how well his dog works.
We had an amazing week here in Mariategui. The best part was probably Friday. Miguel and Gianina got married. The ceremony was in the mission offices. We were supposed to get there at 2:30. We left at 2:10 and it usually takes an hour to get to the offices. Felipe, my convert and Gianina's brother, drove us in his taxi. He drove a little crazy but we made it in 40 minutes. It was pretty impressive. Miguel and Gianina looked really good in their suit and dress. A lot of their family came and supported them. They were really happy the whole time. When we got back, they had a reception in their house. We were only their for about an hour and had to leave at 9:30. They told us that the party ended at 3:30 in the morning. We were a little worried that Miguel's family would make him drink, but he stayed strong. Also, a lot of members came and helped them stay strong. They next day was just as good. Both Miguel and Gianina were baptized. I baptized Miguel and Elder Page baptized Gianina. Sunday was fast and testimony meeting because there is no church Sunday due to the second half of elections. Miguel got up and shared his testimony. My comps and I were gleaming from ear to ear because we know he will stay strong in the church.
We also had a good zone conference on Wednesday. It was my second to last one. I always love hearing from President Erickson and learning from him. I always gain a ton of knowledge from him. I am going to miss when he teaches us.
We have found a lot of new families this week. We ended up finding 4 new families that are really cool. The bad thing is, is that they all need to get married. It looks like I will be doing a lot of marriage papers. That is always a big headache. The worst part is that the marriage is going to be on June 24th. I will have to do all the preperations but I won't get to enjoy the marriage. At least I will know that I helped these families change their lives. That is what is important.
I hope you have a great holiday,
Elder Isaacson
It sounds like it was a pretty crazy week. I had completely forgot that it was memorial day. It is always nice to get a day off. I can't believe you guys are doing so many fun things. Kenzie has now graduated. Her small senior trip sounds like it was pretty fun. I can't believe Mom and Kenzie are going on a cruise. That will be way fun. We will have to get back at them and go on some trip without them. I can't believe we didn't draw out for any deer tag. I thought we were garunteed to draw out. I guess we will just go elk hunting. I was actually hoping to do both hunts but now I will have more time to go duck hunting with Dex and see how well his dog works.
We had an amazing week here in Mariategui. The best part was probably Friday. Miguel and Gianina got married. The ceremony was in the mission offices. We were supposed to get there at 2:30. We left at 2:10 and it usually takes an hour to get to the offices. Felipe, my convert and Gianina's brother, drove us in his taxi. He drove a little crazy but we made it in 40 minutes. It was pretty impressive. Miguel and Gianina looked really good in their suit and dress. A lot of their family came and supported them. They were really happy the whole time. When we got back, they had a reception in their house. We were only their for about an hour and had to leave at 9:30. They told us that the party ended at 3:30 in the morning. We were a little worried that Miguel's family would make him drink, but he stayed strong. Also, a lot of members came and helped them stay strong. They next day was just as good. Both Miguel and Gianina were baptized. I baptized Miguel and Elder Page baptized Gianina. Sunday was fast and testimony meeting because there is no church Sunday due to the second half of elections. Miguel got up and shared his testimony. My comps and I were gleaming from ear to ear because we know he will stay strong in the church.
We also had a good zone conference on Wednesday. It was my second to last one. I always love hearing from President Erickson and learning from him. I always gain a ton of knowledge from him. I am going to miss when he teaches us.
We have found a lot of new families this week. We ended up finding 4 new families that are really cool. The bad thing is, is that they all need to get married. It looks like I will be doing a lot of marriage papers. That is always a big headache. The worst part is that the marriage is going to be on June 24th. I will have to do all the preperations but I won't get to enjoy the marriage. At least I will know that I helped these families change their lives. That is what is important.
I hope you have a great holiday,
Elder Isaacson
May 23, 2016
Hola Familia,
It makes me glad to hear that you are all staying busy back home. I am still in shock that Kenzie is going to graduate today. Time has passed so fast. I still remember Kenzie as a little sophmore. Everything has changed so much. That is good to hear that Steve and Coyte are doing well. Hopefully Coyte can stay out of trouble. That is crazy weather you have been having. I haven't seen wind or rain for two years. It will be weird to see it again.
We had a pretty good week here. Miguel and Yanina came to church and are really excited to get married and baptized. They had their final baptismal interview yesterday. They are all set for Saturday. They are going to be really strong converts. Miguel already pays his tithing and has a strong testimony of the church. They are a little stressed out for the marriage and the reception but everything is set up. I will be sure and take lots of pictures of the marriage.
Maria and Martin didn't come to church again. We are thinking about leaving them. We are going to stop visiting this week and hopefully they will realize how much they actually need this Gospel in their lives. They like to learn and have been able to see how much their family has been blessed from us teaching them but they don't want to change completely. We will just have to wait and see what happens with them.
We got a few new investigators this week that are pretty cool. Miguel presented us to his brother and we started teaching him and his family. They couldn't come to church this week but they said they would come next week. We also got a cool reference. A lady brought her friend to church. We are going to pass by this week and start teaching her.
We had a good meeting with Presidente Erickson. He gave us a great training on how to use the Spirit in teaching and helping our investigators recieve personal revelation.
I can't wait to see you, It won't be long now,
Elder Isaacson
It makes me glad to hear that you are all staying busy back home. I am still in shock that Kenzie is going to graduate today. Time has passed so fast. I still remember Kenzie as a little sophmore. Everything has changed so much. That is good to hear that Steve and Coyte are doing well. Hopefully Coyte can stay out of trouble. That is crazy weather you have been having. I haven't seen wind or rain for two years. It will be weird to see it again.
We had a pretty good week here. Miguel and Yanina came to church and are really excited to get married and baptized. They had their final baptismal interview yesterday. They are all set for Saturday. They are going to be really strong converts. Miguel already pays his tithing and has a strong testimony of the church. They are a little stressed out for the marriage and the reception but everything is set up. I will be sure and take lots of pictures of the marriage.
Maria and Martin didn't come to church again. We are thinking about leaving them. We are going to stop visiting this week and hopefully they will realize how much they actually need this Gospel in their lives. They like to learn and have been able to see how much their family has been blessed from us teaching them but they don't want to change completely. We will just have to wait and see what happens with them.
We got a few new investigators this week that are pretty cool. Miguel presented us to his brother and we started teaching him and his family. They couldn't come to church this week but they said they would come next week. We also got a cool reference. A lady brought her friend to church. We are going to pass by this week and start teaching her.
We had a good meeting with Presidente Erickson. He gave us a great training on how to use the Spirit in teaching and helping our investigators recieve personal revelation.
I can't wait to see you, It won't be long now,
Elder Isaacson
Monday, May 16, 2016
May 16, 2016
Hola Familia,
I can't believe everything is coming to an end. The school year is basically over, Kenzie is going to graduate, and I am almost home. The time has flown by. We have to live every moment because in the end we will miss all of it.
I can't believe you pulled a tree down on top of the truck. I about had a heart attack when I heard that. I was scared that you had completely destroyed it. At least it was just the cover and not the truck. The cover is a lot easier and cheaper to repair.
I had a pretty good week here in the ward. The best news is that Eva got baptized. The better part was that she didn't die in the baptism. She is 77 years old and there is only cold water. We couldn't heat up the water for her baptism. We were a little worried about her that she would be alright for her baptism. In the end, everything went well and she didn't die or get sick.
We were also able to reactivate a family this week. We had been working really hard with them and they have finally came back to church. They also went to the temple in the trip we took a couple of weeks ago. They have came back strong and they won't go inactive again.
Miguel and Yanina are doing alright. They didn't come to church this week so that made us kind of sad. They are still on track for their baptism though. We were also able to finish the marriage inscriptions this week. They are now all set to get married. We are now planning with the ward all the marriage and reception plans. Weddings are always pretty stressfull because we have to plan a lot of things.
Martin and Maria are doing better in their relationship but they didn't come to church again this week. They are starting to get on our nerves a little bit because they always say they are going to come. We then go to their house and they either aren't there or they come up with some excuse why they are busy. I think we are going to tell them we are going to leave them and that all the progress they have made will go down the drain. Maybe that will get them excited.
Other than that, everything is the same here in Peru. It won't be long before everything changes.
Love,
Elder Isaacson
I can't believe everything is coming to an end. The school year is basically over, Kenzie is going to graduate, and I am almost home. The time has flown by. We have to live every moment because in the end we will miss all of it.
I can't believe you pulled a tree down on top of the truck. I about had a heart attack when I heard that. I was scared that you had completely destroyed it. At least it was just the cover and not the truck. The cover is a lot easier and cheaper to repair.
I had a pretty good week here in the ward. The best news is that Eva got baptized. The better part was that she didn't die in the baptism. She is 77 years old and there is only cold water. We couldn't heat up the water for her baptism. We were a little worried about her that she would be alright for her baptism. In the end, everything went well and she didn't die or get sick.
We were also able to reactivate a family this week. We had been working really hard with them and they have finally came back to church. They also went to the temple in the trip we took a couple of weeks ago. They have came back strong and they won't go inactive again.
Miguel and Yanina are doing alright. They didn't come to church this week so that made us kind of sad. They are still on track for their baptism though. We were also able to finish the marriage inscriptions this week. They are now all set to get married. We are now planning with the ward all the marriage and reception plans. Weddings are always pretty stressfull because we have to plan a lot of things.
Martin and Maria are doing better in their relationship but they didn't come to church again this week. They are starting to get on our nerves a little bit because they always say they are going to come. We then go to their house and they either aren't there or they come up with some excuse why they are busy. I think we are going to tell them we are going to leave them and that all the progress they have made will go down the drain. Maybe that will get them excited.
Other than that, everything is the same here in Peru. It won't be long before everything changes.
Love,
Elder Isaacson
Saturday, May 14, 2016
May 9, 2016
Hola Familia,
It was really great to be able to see you all yesterday through skype. Everyone looks really good. I think the phone call on Christmas was more trunky. That sounds cool that you have planned a bunch of stuff to do when I get back home but make sure I still have some free time. I can't believe Kyle has been married one year and that Kenzie is about to graduate. Things have changed so much since I was home.
Oh, by the way, HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!!!!! I am glad it went well back home. I am kind of in shock that today I start my last transfer. The time has gone so fast. It doesn't feel like it has been more than 22 months. I just got the change list and I am going to be dieing here in Mariategui. My companionship didn't have any change. Page, Parra, and me are all still here as the zone leaders. I am super excited to be able to end my mission in a trio. It will be super fun.
Eva should be getting baptized this week. I don't see any problems that would keep her from getting baptized. Miguel and Yanina are doing great. They were in church again and participate in the classes. Miguel also paid his tithing this week. He is a lot better than most of the members here and he hasn't been baptized. They are still excited for their marriage and their baptism. I am glad that I will be able to still be here for their marriage and baptism. I am going to start pulling some strings so the marriage of Maria and Martin is before I go home. That would be sweet to have my last weekend in Peru be a marriage in el Parque de las Aguas and then a baptism the next day.
Sorry I didn't write much but I saw you yesterday.
Elder Isaacson
It was really great to be able to see you all yesterday through skype. Everyone looks really good. I think the phone call on Christmas was more trunky. That sounds cool that you have planned a bunch of stuff to do when I get back home but make sure I still have some free time. I can't believe Kyle has been married one year and that Kenzie is about to graduate. Things have changed so much since I was home.
Oh, by the way, HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!!!!! I am glad it went well back home. I am kind of in shock that today I start my last transfer. The time has gone so fast. It doesn't feel like it has been more than 22 months. I just got the change list and I am going to be dieing here in Mariategui. My companionship didn't have any change. Page, Parra, and me are all still here as the zone leaders. I am super excited to be able to end my mission in a trio. It will be super fun.
Eva should be getting baptized this week. I don't see any problems that would keep her from getting baptized. Miguel and Yanina are doing great. They were in church again and participate in the classes. Miguel also paid his tithing this week. He is a lot better than most of the members here and he hasn't been baptized. They are still excited for their marriage and their baptism. I am glad that I will be able to still be here for their marriage and baptism. I am going to start pulling some strings so the marriage of Maria and Martin is before I go home. That would be sweet to have my last weekend in Peru be a marriage in el Parque de las Aguas and then a baptism the next day.
Sorry I didn't write much but I saw you yesterday.
Elder Isaacson
Monday, May 9, 2016
May 2, 2016
Hola Familia,
I am glad to hear that you all had a great week and were able to try out the trailer. I thought the story of you cooking the pizza and smoking out the whole trailer was kind of funny. At least you were able to get everything figured out. It will be nice to have all the problems worked out for when I get home.
We are planning on calling Sunday night at 6 o'clock Peru time. I think that is about 5 o'clock in Utah. I will be calling sometime during the week to verify at what time I will be calling. I am pretty sure it will be at that time because in the morning we do baptismal interviews and then our church gets out a 5. I am super excited to be able to call you up and hear from you guys again.
We had a pretty good week. Miguel and Yanina both came to church this week. We had a good lesson and we confirmed and attacked their baptismal date. They are going to get baptized on the 28th the day after they get married. Miguel is still struggling a little bit with drinking but he is getting better. He told us yesterday that he quit drinking Saturday night after 5 beers because he had to be ready to go to church Sunday. I'd call that progress in the right direction but there is still room to improve.
We had a great lesson with Maria the other day about loving her husband again and getting back together with him. She was really ready to try and do her best... But... Her idiot husband went drinking Saturday night and got to the house Sunday morning. We got there right after him. He starting yelling and swearing at Maria, he insulted her and threatened to smash their new TV over her head. She left and the three of us basically just layed into him and told him how dumb he was being. Maria left and didn't go to church and we still haven't seen her since that happened. We are going to pass by and see how she is doing. It would be better if they got married but it is hard to teach that when I think she should kick him out.
We have a lady set to get baptized on May 14th. Her name is Eva. She is 77 years old and a reference from a recent convert. She has come to church three weeks in a row. She doesn't remember much. She just remembers that she has to go to church and that on the 14th she is going to get baptized. She really likes when we visit her and when she goes to church.
We moved houses on Saturday. Our new house is a lot bigger and in better shape.
I can't wait to see you next Sunday,
Elder Isaacson
I am glad to hear that you all had a great week and were able to try out the trailer. I thought the story of you cooking the pizza and smoking out the whole trailer was kind of funny. At least you were able to get everything figured out. It will be nice to have all the problems worked out for when I get home.
We are planning on calling Sunday night at 6 o'clock Peru time. I think that is about 5 o'clock in Utah. I will be calling sometime during the week to verify at what time I will be calling. I am pretty sure it will be at that time because in the morning we do baptismal interviews and then our church gets out a 5. I am super excited to be able to call you up and hear from you guys again.
We had a pretty good week. Miguel and Yanina both came to church this week. We had a good lesson and we confirmed and attacked their baptismal date. They are going to get baptized on the 28th the day after they get married. Miguel is still struggling a little bit with drinking but he is getting better. He told us yesterday that he quit drinking Saturday night after 5 beers because he had to be ready to go to church Sunday. I'd call that progress in the right direction but there is still room to improve.
We had a great lesson with Maria the other day about loving her husband again and getting back together with him. She was really ready to try and do her best... But... Her idiot husband went drinking Saturday night and got to the house Sunday morning. We got there right after him. He starting yelling and swearing at Maria, he insulted her and threatened to smash their new TV over her head. She left and the three of us basically just layed into him and told him how dumb he was being. Maria left and didn't go to church and we still haven't seen her since that happened. We are going to pass by and see how she is doing. It would be better if they got married but it is hard to teach that when I think she should kick him out.
We have a lady set to get baptized on May 14th. Her name is Eva. She is 77 years old and a reference from a recent convert. She has come to church three weeks in a row. She doesn't remember much. She just remembers that she has to go to church and that on the 14th she is going to get baptized. She really likes when we visit her and when she goes to church.
We moved houses on Saturday. Our new house is a lot bigger and in better shape.
I can't wait to see you next Sunday,
Elder Isaacson
Monday, April 25, 2016
April 25, 2016
Hola Familia,
It sounds like you all had a super busy week and that it was really interesting. I hope you have a fun camping trip. You have to get the trailer completely ready so that I won't have to worry when I get back and we can just go camping. The pictures of morp are really cool. It looks like they had a good time together. Thanks for getting everything figured out up at USU for me. If I need to do any corrections I will do it when I get back.
Los Olivos is right outside the mission. It borders it. The temple will probably right next to the mission office. That will be really cool. I think it would be really fun to come back for the dedication. I will have to see in five years.
I don't have a ton of time to write today because we are going to the center of Lima. Elder Page and I are in charge of leading the zone but we are not sure where we are going. We are basically going to wing it. It should be a fun P-day... Hopefully it all goes well. We have to take the zone to a couple museums and then go buy souveniers. I will be pulling out some more money soon because I will buy some souveniers and I also bought one suit. If I like it I think I will buy another one.
Our week went pretty well. Fatima and Felipe are doing a lot better. The ward is helping them out a lot. They are getting a lot of visits and they went and talked with the bishop this week. They are still a little stressed out and they both still feel bad about what they did. The whole family came to church this week. It was good for them. Korayma got there right at the end of sacrament meeting and missed getting confirmed. We talked with the bishop to confirm her in class and he got all mad and said no. I really don't like the bishop here. He likes to create rules that don't really exist. This isn't the first time we have had problems with him. This ward could be the strongest ward in the whole mission if it had better leadership.
Alicia got baptized on Saturday. I baptized her. She was really excited. She felt like she needed to be the example for her family. Miguel, Linda, and Alicia are all doing really well. They haven't missed one Sunday since they got married and baptized. I also baptized another girl this week. I did an interview for a district leader this week and on Saturday morning the elders called me telling me that I was going to baptize her. I would have rather had the elders that taught her baptize her but I am glad I could make an impression on her life in the interview.
Yanina came to church this week. Miguel didn't because he went drinking Saturday night. We are going to teach the Word of Wisdom next time. They are progressing but it is really hard to find time to teach them. We can only teach them for about a half hour at 8 in the morning. We are still on track to get them married though.
We talked with Maria about getting married. It went all right. She really hates her husband but we found a lot of stuff we can work with so they get married. Maria didn't come to church this week because her daughter got appendecitis and had to go have a surgery.
For Mother's day, I will probably be calling around 6 at night. With our church schedule, and doing interviews in the moring that is the only time we will have to call. I will be confirming the phone call though.
Love,
Elder Isaacson
It sounds like you all had a super busy week and that it was really interesting. I hope you have a fun camping trip. You have to get the trailer completely ready so that I won't have to worry when I get back and we can just go camping. The pictures of morp are really cool. It looks like they had a good time together. Thanks for getting everything figured out up at USU for me. If I need to do any corrections I will do it when I get back.
Los Olivos is right outside the mission. It borders it. The temple will probably right next to the mission office. That will be really cool. I think it would be really fun to come back for the dedication. I will have to see in five years.
I don't have a ton of time to write today because we are going to the center of Lima. Elder Page and I are in charge of leading the zone but we are not sure where we are going. We are basically going to wing it. It should be a fun P-day... Hopefully it all goes well. We have to take the zone to a couple museums and then go buy souveniers. I will be pulling out some more money soon because I will buy some souveniers and I also bought one suit. If I like it I think I will buy another one.
Our week went pretty well. Fatima and Felipe are doing a lot better. The ward is helping them out a lot. They are getting a lot of visits and they went and talked with the bishop this week. They are still a little stressed out and they both still feel bad about what they did. The whole family came to church this week. It was good for them. Korayma got there right at the end of sacrament meeting and missed getting confirmed. We talked with the bishop to confirm her in class and he got all mad and said no. I really don't like the bishop here. He likes to create rules that don't really exist. This isn't the first time we have had problems with him. This ward could be the strongest ward in the whole mission if it had better leadership.
Alicia got baptized on Saturday. I baptized her. She was really excited. She felt like she needed to be the example for her family. Miguel, Linda, and Alicia are all doing really well. They haven't missed one Sunday since they got married and baptized. I also baptized another girl this week. I did an interview for a district leader this week and on Saturday morning the elders called me telling me that I was going to baptize her. I would have rather had the elders that taught her baptize her but I am glad I could make an impression on her life in the interview.
Yanina came to church this week. Miguel didn't because he went drinking Saturday night. We are going to teach the Word of Wisdom next time. They are progressing but it is really hard to find time to teach them. We can only teach them for about a half hour at 8 in the morning. We are still on track to get them married though.
We talked with Maria about getting married. It went all right. She really hates her husband but we found a lot of stuff we can work with so they get married. Maria didn't come to church this week because her daughter got appendecitis and had to go have a surgery.
For Mother's day, I will probably be calling around 6 at night. With our church schedule, and doing interviews in the moring that is the only time we will have to call. I will be confirming the phone call though.
Love,
Elder Isaacson
Monday, April 18, 2016
April 18, 2016
Hola Familia,
I still can't believe you guys bought a trailer. It suprises me even more that it is new. I thought you had bought it used. I went through all the photos. It looks really big and really nice. I will have to take it out and test it all the time. I think we will really like. Now we just need four wheelers and we will have all our dreams come true.
To start off answering your questions, I took chemistry in high school. I got a 3 on A.P. lit test. I don't know what would be holding us back from getting me registered. You are probably right that it is a hold on the scholarship that we put for the mission. Thanks for all you are doing to figure these things out and thanks for signing me up for SOAR.
Secondary water would be nice but it is way to expensive.If we wait a year maybe the price would go down. If it is already put in they would probably willing to negotiate on the price just so we would hook up to it. You shouldn't sell the acre next to the house. I don't want neighbors. I am tired of living so close to other people and not having a yard or even parks. I like my space.
We had a really good week here in Mariategui. Jimy got baptized and confirmed just fine. It was a really easy baptism and basically a gift. It was a really small baptism because the Stake President didn't want people to realize the mistake that had been made. Jimy was excited and cool with getting baptized again.
Korayma also was baptized. I baptized her Saturday and then we went buy to pick her up Sunday for the confirmation. We found her and her siblings locked in the house. Felipe and Fatima had both gotten in a fight and both stormed out locking the kids in the house. We went back later and found one of the kids crying. Felipe had gotten back super drunk and hit him. The kid took us to Felipe and he just broke down crying. We took his last beer and dumped it all over the ground. We then sent him to his mom's house so he could sober up. We then went and found Fatima who is 8 months pregnant. She was also drinking but was not drunk. We sat down and had a calm conversation with her. Each one blames the other. We are going to have to visit them everyday to help them out. It was a really sad situation and we all felt bad after we left. Our ward mission leader, Erick, helped out a ton along with Omar. The members help us out a ton. The truth is though, is that I am sick and tired of alcohol. It causes so many problems. We dealt with such a big problem yesterday and then everyone that was drinking on the street just made us sad. Sometimes Peruvians are just idiots. They work just so they can drink. This morning we saw some guys drinking at 8:30. They are destroying their lives and it makes me really sad. My comps and I are doing all we can to help them but they have to practice what we preach them.
Other than that, we had a great week. We are teaching a young couple, Miguel and Yanina. They came to church for the first time this week. They really enjoyed it. They pay so much atention when we teach them that they were answering all of the questions in the classes. We got their ID's this week so we can start the marriage process. They will be getting married at the end of May. They are really excited.
Maria came to church again. She is really excited to get baptized but doesn't want to get married. Her and her husband don't love each other. They haven't had any relaciones for 2 years but live in the same house. It is a tough situation. Hopefully we can work through their problems so they get married. We try not and never advice someone to seperate their families. We found Maria crying this week. We were able to help her out and calm her down. That is the best thing about this gospel. It doesn't matter what trials or problems we have, the Gospel can help us. It can be money, alcohol, family relations, or any other problem this message helps. The gospel is universal and that is why I love it and share it daily.
Love you lots,
Elder Isaacson
I still can't believe you guys bought a trailer. It suprises me even more that it is new. I thought you had bought it used. I went through all the photos. It looks really big and really nice. I will have to take it out and test it all the time. I think we will really like. Now we just need four wheelers and we will have all our dreams come true.
To start off answering your questions, I took chemistry in high school. I got a 3 on A.P. lit test. I don't know what would be holding us back from getting me registered. You are probably right that it is a hold on the scholarship that we put for the mission. Thanks for all you are doing to figure these things out and thanks for signing me up for SOAR.
Secondary water would be nice but it is way to expensive.If we wait a year maybe the price would go down. If it is already put in they would probably willing to negotiate on the price just so we would hook up to it. You shouldn't sell the acre next to the house. I don't want neighbors. I am tired of living so close to other people and not having a yard or even parks. I like my space.
We had a really good week here in Mariategui. Jimy got baptized and confirmed just fine. It was a really easy baptism and basically a gift. It was a really small baptism because the Stake President didn't want people to realize the mistake that had been made. Jimy was excited and cool with getting baptized again.
Korayma also was baptized. I baptized her Saturday and then we went buy to pick her up Sunday for the confirmation. We found her and her siblings locked in the house. Felipe and Fatima had both gotten in a fight and both stormed out locking the kids in the house. We went back later and found one of the kids crying. Felipe had gotten back super drunk and hit him. The kid took us to Felipe and he just broke down crying. We took his last beer and dumped it all over the ground. We then sent him to his mom's house so he could sober up. We then went and found Fatima who is 8 months pregnant. She was also drinking but was not drunk. We sat down and had a calm conversation with her. Each one blames the other. We are going to have to visit them everyday to help them out. It was a really sad situation and we all felt bad after we left. Our ward mission leader, Erick, helped out a ton along with Omar. The members help us out a ton. The truth is though, is that I am sick and tired of alcohol. It causes so many problems. We dealt with such a big problem yesterday and then everyone that was drinking on the street just made us sad. Sometimes Peruvians are just idiots. They work just so they can drink. This morning we saw some guys drinking at 8:30. They are destroying their lives and it makes me really sad. My comps and I are doing all we can to help them but they have to practice what we preach them.
Other than that, we had a great week. We are teaching a young couple, Miguel and Yanina. They came to church for the first time this week. They really enjoyed it. They pay so much atention when we teach them that they were answering all of the questions in the classes. We got their ID's this week so we can start the marriage process. They will be getting married at the end of May. They are really excited.
Maria came to church again. She is really excited to get baptized but doesn't want to get married. Her and her husband don't love each other. They haven't had any relaciones for 2 years but live in the same house. It is a tough situation. Hopefully we can work through their problems so they get married. We try not and never advice someone to seperate their families. We found Maria crying this week. We were able to help her out and calm her down. That is the best thing about this gospel. It doesn't matter what trials or problems we have, the Gospel can help us. It can be money, alcohol, family relations, or any other problem this message helps. The gospel is universal and that is why I love it and share it daily.
Love you lots,
Elder Isaacson
April 11, 2016
Buenos Días,
It is good to hear from all of you again. It sounds like you were really busy and got a lot of things done. A lot of stuff has changed since I was there. I am shocked to hear that you bought a trailer... I would have preferred four wheelers. I guess I will have to buy a truck so you can pull the trailer up camping and I will pull up the four wheelers. I would like to see pictures of the trailer.
It is also a miracle that you guys are eating healthy. You haven't had soda for 2 weeks!? I haven't had soda for about 12 hours. I think it might be a new record. The people here are always giving us inca kola. I think I have an addiction. I don't know what I am going to do without my inca kola. It is so good. Even though it costs a lot in the states I think I am still going to buy it. Also I am always eating rice. I have lost muscle mass and gained weight because of all the rice. Hopefully I don't come home fat. The people here are so good to us but it just makes us fat. Elder Page, my compnanion, has gained about 30 pounds in his mission. We always make fun of him for it.
Everything is going great here in Peru. The government asks that no one works or has church meetings on the day of elections. It is an obligation that they vote. If not, they get a 90 soles fine. Since there were not any church meetings Sunday, President Erickson asked the zone leaders to prepare an activity Saturday night so some investigators could go to church. We planned a great meeting but in the end we couldn't get the DVD player to read our USBs. We ended up watching Meet the Mormons. It went well and we had a lot of missionaries bring investigators. Sunday was really weird. It felt almost like a Saturday when nobody is home. We ended up finding a lot of people to teach though. Because of conference and elections I haven't gone to church for 2 weeks. I think Bishop Cottle needs to put me on the less active list.
We should have at least 2 or maybe 3 baptisms this Saturday. We got a little miracle in our area. Jimmy, an active member, got baptized but doesn't have any registry of his baptism. It is like a free baptism for us. We also have Korayma, Fatima and Felipe's 15 year old daughter. She is the only one in the family who hasn't been baptized. We put a little more focus in her and she has accepted to get baptized. Alicia, Linda's mom, should get baptized too. She didn't go to church this week because of the weird schedule.
We have been working hard at finding new people too. This week we met Felipe's sister, Maria. She has a lot of problems in her life. She has 8 kids. 4 with her first husband who died, and four with her current husband. They aren't married and basically hate each other. Maria, is also an alcoholic. We started teaching her and basically burned her for drinking. Since then, she has not drank for almost 2 weeks. When we were teaching the restoration, she was so excited and asking us if we could feel that same peace. She started yelling that she knew it was true and then started to cry. It was a really cool spiritual experience. It is kind of like the talk in conference. We need the Holy Ghost in our lives to guide us.
We also had room revisions this week. We are so busy as zone leaders that a member volunteered to clean our room. Obviously, we accepted. I had to go around with Elder Parra and Hermana Erickson and check all the rooms. Mom, you would be proud of me, we had one of the cleanest rooms.
Also I got my Easter Package. Thanks for all the candy.
Hopefully you have another eventful week,
Elder Isaacson
It is good to hear from all of you again. It sounds like you were really busy and got a lot of things done. A lot of stuff has changed since I was there. I am shocked to hear that you bought a trailer... I would have preferred four wheelers. I guess I will have to buy a truck so you can pull the trailer up camping and I will pull up the four wheelers. I would like to see pictures of the trailer.
It is also a miracle that you guys are eating healthy. You haven't had soda for 2 weeks!? I haven't had soda for about 12 hours. I think it might be a new record. The people here are always giving us inca kola. I think I have an addiction. I don't know what I am going to do without my inca kola. It is so good. Even though it costs a lot in the states I think I am still going to buy it. Also I am always eating rice. I have lost muscle mass and gained weight because of all the rice. Hopefully I don't come home fat. The people here are so good to us but it just makes us fat. Elder Page, my compnanion, has gained about 30 pounds in his mission. We always make fun of him for it.
Everything is going great here in Peru. The government asks that no one works or has church meetings on the day of elections. It is an obligation that they vote. If not, they get a 90 soles fine. Since there were not any church meetings Sunday, President Erickson asked the zone leaders to prepare an activity Saturday night so some investigators could go to church. We planned a great meeting but in the end we couldn't get the DVD player to read our USBs. We ended up watching Meet the Mormons. It went well and we had a lot of missionaries bring investigators. Sunday was really weird. It felt almost like a Saturday when nobody is home. We ended up finding a lot of people to teach though. Because of conference and elections I haven't gone to church for 2 weeks. I think Bishop Cottle needs to put me on the less active list.
We should have at least 2 or maybe 3 baptisms this Saturday. We got a little miracle in our area. Jimmy, an active member, got baptized but doesn't have any registry of his baptism. It is like a free baptism for us. We also have Korayma, Fatima and Felipe's 15 year old daughter. She is the only one in the family who hasn't been baptized. We put a little more focus in her and she has accepted to get baptized. Alicia, Linda's mom, should get baptized too. She didn't go to church this week because of the weird schedule.
We have been working hard at finding new people too. This week we met Felipe's sister, Maria. She has a lot of problems in her life. She has 8 kids. 4 with her first husband who died, and four with her current husband. They aren't married and basically hate each other. Maria, is also an alcoholic. We started teaching her and basically burned her for drinking. Since then, she has not drank for almost 2 weeks. When we were teaching the restoration, she was so excited and asking us if we could feel that same peace. She started yelling that she knew it was true and then started to cry. It was a really cool spiritual experience. It is kind of like the talk in conference. We need the Holy Ghost in our lives to guide us.
We also had room revisions this week. We are so busy as zone leaders that a member volunteered to clean our room. Obviously, we accepted. I had to go around with Elder Parra and Hermana Erickson and check all the rooms. Mom, you would be proud of me, we had one of the cleanest rooms.
Also I got my Easter Package. Thanks for all the candy.
Hopefully you have another eventful week,
Elder Isaacson
Monday, April 4, 2016
April 4, 2016
Hola familia,
I am glad to hear that everything is going well back home. You are lucky that you get to have spring break. I would love to get a break. I wish I could have been there to see Bev. Hopefully she can come for my homecoming. It would be fun to see her and catch up on all that has happened. Even though your week was super busy and hectic that is the best. It seems to me that the busiest weeks are the most memorable. Just like this week was.
I will start with the best part and then go back to the rest of the week. On Thursday, Linda and Miguel got married and baptized. The marriage almost fell through and didn't happen. On Wednesday afternoon we still didn't have Miguel's birth certificate. We had been searching for it for almost 3 weeks. We finally got a hold of the guy who had sent it and he told us that it had gotten lost in the mail and that he would have to send another. I about died when I heard that. I thought that they weren't going to be able to get married. We started making a few calls and pulling a few strings. We managed to find a bus that was going to travel all night and come to Lima. We payed another 25 soles and had the birth certificate overnighted to us. It got to us at 8 in the morning and the marriage was at 11. Nothing like waiting till the last minute. After all the paper work was sorted out we had the marriage. It was very personal and very cool. The family really enjoyed it. I might add that this was the trunkiest wedding that I have been to. Afterwards we had the baptism that night. Elder Nielson came to the marriage but couldn't get permission to come to the baptism. Since he wasn't there I baptized both of them and confirmed them too. They were both very happy. Afterwards we went to the reception that the ward set up. It was small, maybe 30 people, but they made the family feel really welcomed. Their marriage and baptism was one of the best experiences of my whole mission.
We are working with Linda's mom, Alicia. She has gone to church a couple times and should be baptized at the end of this month. She is really sweet and has seen a change in her family and wants that change too. We are also working with Fatima's daughter, Koriama. She is 15 and the only one who has not been baptized in the family. She now has gone to church three times but still doesn't have the desire to get baptized. We are going to work with her this week and hopefully put a baptismal date with her. We also got a couple sweet references this week from an active family. Two of their kids aren't members but have more than 4 attendences to church. I thought they were already members. We are going to attack those two so that they can get baptized too. We are seeing a lot of small miracles in the area and zone. We are teaching a few families that we want to marry, but they aren't progressing yet.
Conference was amazing. Since next week here in Peru is Presidental elections, there will be no church next week. Due to that, saturday conference counted as one attendence and Sunday as another so we can help investigators progress and get baptized. The zone had good success and brought a lot of people to both conferences. I have never seen so many investigators come to conference.
I really liked conference. When President Monson announced that there was going to be another temple here in Lima, everyone gasped and started whispering. I am so glad that I have been able to help the church grow so much here that they are going to build another temple. Not that many missionaries can say that they have helped the church grow so much that they built another temple. That is amazing.
My favorite talks were from Uchtdorf about humbling ourselves. I also liked the one from the Young mens Presidency. He talked about how we can be the best leaders and followers. It really helped me out in the situation that I am in being a new zone leader and training two new zone leaders and having every district leader be new also. It helped me out a lot.
I feel even more tired being in a trio. I thought I would be able to rest more but we just work even harder. We are trying to do almost 2 work visits every day. We are running all over the place and working super hard. My companions are really cool and we get along great. We are always talking and joking around. I thought we did that a lot when we were just two, but now with three of us in the same room it is even worse.
Love you lots,
Elder Isaacson
I am glad to hear that everything is going well back home. You are lucky that you get to have spring break. I would love to get a break. I wish I could have been there to see Bev. Hopefully she can come for my homecoming. It would be fun to see her and catch up on all that has happened. Even though your week was super busy and hectic that is the best. It seems to me that the busiest weeks are the most memorable. Just like this week was.
I will start with the best part and then go back to the rest of the week. On Thursday, Linda and Miguel got married and baptized. The marriage almost fell through and didn't happen. On Wednesday afternoon we still didn't have Miguel's birth certificate. We had been searching for it for almost 3 weeks. We finally got a hold of the guy who had sent it and he told us that it had gotten lost in the mail and that he would have to send another. I about died when I heard that. I thought that they weren't going to be able to get married. We started making a few calls and pulling a few strings. We managed to find a bus that was going to travel all night and come to Lima. We payed another 25 soles and had the birth certificate overnighted to us. It got to us at 8 in the morning and the marriage was at 11. Nothing like waiting till the last minute. After all the paper work was sorted out we had the marriage. It was very personal and very cool. The family really enjoyed it. I might add that this was the trunkiest wedding that I have been to. Afterwards we had the baptism that night. Elder Nielson came to the marriage but couldn't get permission to come to the baptism. Since he wasn't there I baptized both of them and confirmed them too. They were both very happy. Afterwards we went to the reception that the ward set up. It was small, maybe 30 people, but they made the family feel really welcomed. Their marriage and baptism was one of the best experiences of my whole mission.
We are working with Linda's mom, Alicia. She has gone to church a couple times and should be baptized at the end of this month. She is really sweet and has seen a change in her family and wants that change too. We are also working with Fatima's daughter, Koriama. She is 15 and the only one who has not been baptized in the family. She now has gone to church three times but still doesn't have the desire to get baptized. We are going to work with her this week and hopefully put a baptismal date with her. We also got a couple sweet references this week from an active family. Two of their kids aren't members but have more than 4 attendences to church. I thought they were already members. We are going to attack those two so that they can get baptized too. We are seeing a lot of small miracles in the area and zone. We are teaching a few families that we want to marry, but they aren't progressing yet.
Conference was amazing. Since next week here in Peru is Presidental elections, there will be no church next week. Due to that, saturday conference counted as one attendence and Sunday as another so we can help investigators progress and get baptized. The zone had good success and brought a lot of people to both conferences. I have never seen so many investigators come to conference.
I really liked conference. When President Monson announced that there was going to be another temple here in Lima, everyone gasped and started whispering. I am so glad that I have been able to help the church grow so much here that they are going to build another temple. Not that many missionaries can say that they have helped the church grow so much that they built another temple. That is amazing.
My favorite talks were from Uchtdorf about humbling ourselves. I also liked the one from the Young mens Presidency. He talked about how we can be the best leaders and followers. It really helped me out in the situation that I am in being a new zone leader and training two new zone leaders and having every district leader be new also. It helped me out a lot.
I feel even more tired being in a trio. I thought I would be able to rest more but we just work even harder. We are trying to do almost 2 work visits every day. We are running all over the place and working super hard. My companions are really cool and we get along great. We are always talking and joking around. I thought we did that a lot when we were just two, but now with three of us in the same room it is even worse.
Love you lots,
Elder Isaacson
Wednesday, March 30, 2016
March 28, 2016
Hola Familia,
It sounds like you had a pretty great week. I can't believe that Easter already passed. I can't believe that it is almost April too. The time is flying by. Today I start my last 12 weeks. Transfers are today and I enter my second to last change. It has gone by so fast. I can't waste one minute. That is cool that Kyle got to meet an apostle. He probably sounded like an idiot. ´´I know you´´... He is just an apostle. I also heard about the bombings. That is really sad. Someone showed me an article in a newspaper here that talked about the missionaries that were in the bombings. I am glad they were alright.
Now for the good part. Fatima and Felipe and their 3 kids got baptized this week. It was a great baptism. This family has changed so much. They went from always yelling and fighting to finding solucions and compromising. It is amazing. While Elder Nielson has been here, he has married and baptized 10 families. That is unheard of. They all have different conversion stories. They all had different problems in their lives. The best part is that the Gospel in universal. It doesn't matter what problem or challenge you may be facing the Gospel always has a solucion.
Miguel and Linda are all set to be married and baptized on Thursday. We have had a lot of success in the zone this month also. We had put a goal of 22 baptisms but we will probably finish with 23. That is really good. The best is that these are not just numbers. They are people that have changed their lives and made a covenant with God. I love being a zone leader because I get to know every single one of these people.
We just found out that Elder Nielson has a change. I am really sad. We got along really well and we have had a lot of success together. We had made a lot of plans and were really excited for next change. I am going to be in a Trio this change. I will be with Elder Page from Colorado and Elder Parra from Chili. They are both new zone leaders so I will have to train them how to be a zone leader. It is going to be a fun change and we hope to have a lot of success. I feel like I will be even more tired though because we will be doing at least 7 work visits a week.
We are working hard to get set up for April. We have a few investigators progressing. We are trying to find some new families that we can marry and baptize. Even though Elder Nielson won't be here we are still going to marry and baptize families. The goal is to make the ward so strong so that it can split in just two years. It is definately possible.
Hope you have a great week,
Elder Isaacson
It sounds like you had a pretty great week. I can't believe that Easter already passed. I can't believe that it is almost April too. The time is flying by. Today I start my last 12 weeks. Transfers are today and I enter my second to last change. It has gone by so fast. I can't waste one minute. That is cool that Kyle got to meet an apostle. He probably sounded like an idiot. ´´I know you´´... He is just an apostle. I also heard about the bombings. That is really sad. Someone showed me an article in a newspaper here that talked about the missionaries that were in the bombings. I am glad they were alright.
Now for the good part. Fatima and Felipe and their 3 kids got baptized this week. It was a great baptism. This family has changed so much. They went from always yelling and fighting to finding solucions and compromising. It is amazing. While Elder Nielson has been here, he has married and baptized 10 families. That is unheard of. They all have different conversion stories. They all had different problems in their lives. The best part is that the Gospel in universal. It doesn't matter what problem or challenge you may be facing the Gospel always has a solucion.
Miguel and Linda are all set to be married and baptized on Thursday. We have had a lot of success in the zone this month also. We had put a goal of 22 baptisms but we will probably finish with 23. That is really good. The best is that these are not just numbers. They are people that have changed their lives and made a covenant with God. I love being a zone leader because I get to know every single one of these people.
We just found out that Elder Nielson has a change. I am really sad. We got along really well and we have had a lot of success together. We had made a lot of plans and were really excited for next change. I am going to be in a Trio this change. I will be with Elder Page from Colorado and Elder Parra from Chili. They are both new zone leaders so I will have to train them how to be a zone leader. It is going to be a fun change and we hope to have a lot of success. I feel like I will be even more tired though because we will be doing at least 7 work visits a week.
We are working hard to get set up for April. We have a few investigators progressing. We are trying to find some new families that we can marry and baptize. Even though Elder Nielson won't be here we are still going to marry and baptize families. The goal is to make the ward so strong so that it can split in just two years. It is definately possible.
Hope you have a great week,
Elder Isaacson
Monday, March 21, 2016
March 21, 2016
Hola Familia,
I know you were trying to not say anything trunky. I got my trunky papers though. When I saw the flight plans it made me feel really trunky. I think I might print them off and hang them over my bed so I can see them everyday. Also, another thing I just realized, is that if I go home on the 21st, and today is the 21st, I just have 3 months left. Time has flown by. I would be up to go fishing and camping that first week. I think it would be fun to do some family trip at the end of July too. I have a lot of things to see and do when I get home.
Your week sounds like it was pretty busy. March Madness sounds like it is pretty good. Too bad that the Utah teams are already out. I wanted them to win it all. An elder told me that supposedly next year part of the tournament is going to be in Utah. That would be fun to go to all the games.
People yelling at each other in the middle of the street doens't sound too strange to me. It doesn't happen a lot, but when you live in a big city it happens more than it does when you are in Taylor, Utah.
Now, for the great news of the week. Felipe and Fatima got married. The wedding service was really nice. It was in the biggest park that there is here in San Juan de Lurigauncho. Close to 60 couples got married. The district put the marriage on so as missionaries, we made the best of it and used their marriage instead of organizing our own marriage. It was nice and they were really happy. They have had some hard problems and aren't very nice to each other. They are almost always insulting one another when we are there. I think for the first time since I met them, I didn't here them insult each other. It was great. I sent some pictures of their marriage. I hope you get them. The next day they were at church with all their kids. This Saturday they will be baptized, Felipe and Fatima and three of their kids. It will be great.
Also, everything is going great with Miguel and Linda. They came to church this week and brought Linda's mom. Her mom was a wanted to come but couldn't because she had to stay to take care of Linda's grandma. Her grandma is in a wheelchair and can't walk. That doesn't stop us. We carried her down the stairs from the fourth floor so they could all go to church. We might baptize her mom when Miguel and Linda get baptized on the 31st. The wedding will be in the morning, then there will be the baptism, and then the confirmation(it is conference weekend) and then the reception. It will be a crazy day but will be really memorable.
I keep working really hard. I am so busy with my own area, trainings, or work visits that I don't have any free time. It would be nice to be able to rest, but I will be able to do that in just a few months. Like President Erickson says, ''Leave it all on the field'' That is what I am going to do. I won't give up or slack off. I will keep working until the end.
Gracias por todo,
Elder Isaacson
P.S. Thanks for signing me up for a room with Mitch. That will be super fun.
I know you were trying to not say anything trunky. I got my trunky papers though. When I saw the flight plans it made me feel really trunky. I think I might print them off and hang them over my bed so I can see them everyday. Also, another thing I just realized, is that if I go home on the 21st, and today is the 21st, I just have 3 months left. Time has flown by. I would be up to go fishing and camping that first week. I think it would be fun to do some family trip at the end of July too. I have a lot of things to see and do when I get home.
Your week sounds like it was pretty busy. March Madness sounds like it is pretty good. Too bad that the Utah teams are already out. I wanted them to win it all. An elder told me that supposedly next year part of the tournament is going to be in Utah. That would be fun to go to all the games.
People yelling at each other in the middle of the street doens't sound too strange to me. It doesn't happen a lot, but when you live in a big city it happens more than it does when you are in Taylor, Utah.
Now, for the great news of the week. Felipe and Fatima got married. The wedding service was really nice. It was in the biggest park that there is here in San Juan de Lurigauncho. Close to 60 couples got married. The district put the marriage on so as missionaries, we made the best of it and used their marriage instead of organizing our own marriage. It was nice and they were really happy. They have had some hard problems and aren't very nice to each other. They are almost always insulting one another when we are there. I think for the first time since I met them, I didn't here them insult each other. It was great. I sent some pictures of their marriage. I hope you get them. The next day they were at church with all their kids. This Saturday they will be baptized, Felipe and Fatima and three of their kids. It will be great.
Also, everything is going great with Miguel and Linda. They came to church this week and brought Linda's mom. Her mom was a wanted to come but couldn't because she had to stay to take care of Linda's grandma. Her grandma is in a wheelchair and can't walk. That doesn't stop us. We carried her down the stairs from the fourth floor so they could all go to church. We might baptize her mom when Miguel and Linda get baptized on the 31st. The wedding will be in the morning, then there will be the baptism, and then the confirmation(it is conference weekend) and then the reception. It will be a crazy day but will be really memorable.
I keep working really hard. I am so busy with my own area, trainings, or work visits that I don't have any free time. It would be nice to be able to rest, but I will be able to do that in just a few months. Like President Erickson says, ''Leave it all on the field'' That is what I am going to do. I won't give up or slack off. I will keep working until the end.
Gracias por todo,
Elder Isaacson
P.S. Thanks for signing me up for a room with Mitch. That will be super fun.
March 14, 2016
Hola Familia,
I am sorry I am writing this really late. I will explain in a little bit why I am writing late, but first off, Mom, You Are SO TRUNKY! I had no idea I had less than 100 days left. Thanks for telling me. You are keeping track and I am not. You should be more like me.
The NCAA tournament sounds like it is going to be great. If you fill out a bracket for me, send Weber State all the way. I bet they win with Utah in second place. I am excited that for the next march madness I will be home. I will also be home for the Copa America. Peru, USA, and other teams will be playing in the tournament this June. It will be hosted in the States. A lot of people keep mentioning it to me and that maybe I will be able to go to some of the games. I don't think there is anything special that I would like you to send me.
Now, the reason why I am writing so late. Instead of having Pday, I went to go write our last family in for the masivo marriage. As we got there, everything was going great. We were going to be back before noon, when the lady that was helping us realized there was a problem with the birth certificate(bc) The bc and ID didn't match up. This caused us a huge problem where they could not get signed in for the masivo marriage. The good thing is, is that a small problem like that doesn't hold us missionaries back. Instead of giving in and waiting for next month, we are going to do a private marriage. It is a little more expensive, which my comp and I will be paying for, you will notice that I took some money off my account today. I didn't use all of it on the marriage though, only about half. We ended up running around all of Lima today getting the paperwork ready so they could get married in a different district. Peru makes it a pain in the you know where to marry someone. I think they prefer that the people just live in sin and don't get married. In the end though, we got everything worked out when we talked to some of our friends and connections. We might not have done everything completely legally, but the marriage will be legal. After leaving at 7 this morning, I finally got back at 9 at night. It has been a long day without pday, but when they get married it will be worth it.
Actually this whole week has been pretty long. We had to help every family get signed in to the marriage. I went to the town center(?) or the place where you sign people into get married almost everyday. We went Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and now Monday. It was super stressfull and tiring but everyone got written into the marriage.
Fatima and Felipe's marriage is all set. They will be getting married in the masivo on Saturday. They then will be baptized the next week. Miguel and Linda, was a little more stressfull but they will be getting married on the 31st.
We also had a special conference on Thursday in the afternoon by Elder Lynn G. Robbins of the presidency of the seventy. It wasn't what everyone expected but it was still really good. Instead of sharing some special thing on how we should be or how we should teach, he just talked about how we should live our lives during and after the mission. It was inspiring and filled us with the spirit so we could go out and teach with it.
That is how my week went, Gracias por todo,
Elder Isaacson
I am sorry I am writing this really late. I will explain in a little bit why I am writing late, but first off, Mom, You Are SO TRUNKY! I had no idea I had less than 100 days left. Thanks for telling me. You are keeping track and I am not. You should be more like me.
The NCAA tournament sounds like it is going to be great. If you fill out a bracket for me, send Weber State all the way. I bet they win with Utah in second place. I am excited that for the next march madness I will be home. I will also be home for the Copa America. Peru, USA, and other teams will be playing in the tournament this June. It will be hosted in the States. A lot of people keep mentioning it to me and that maybe I will be able to go to some of the games. I don't think there is anything special that I would like you to send me.
Now, the reason why I am writing so late. Instead of having Pday, I went to go write our last family in for the masivo marriage. As we got there, everything was going great. We were going to be back before noon, when the lady that was helping us realized there was a problem with the birth certificate(bc) The bc and ID didn't match up. This caused us a huge problem where they could not get signed in for the masivo marriage. The good thing is, is that a small problem like that doesn't hold us missionaries back. Instead of giving in and waiting for next month, we are going to do a private marriage. It is a little more expensive, which my comp and I will be paying for, you will notice that I took some money off my account today. I didn't use all of it on the marriage though, only about half. We ended up running around all of Lima today getting the paperwork ready so they could get married in a different district. Peru makes it a pain in the you know where to marry someone. I think they prefer that the people just live in sin and don't get married. In the end though, we got everything worked out when we talked to some of our friends and connections. We might not have done everything completely legally, but the marriage will be legal. After leaving at 7 this morning, I finally got back at 9 at night. It has been a long day without pday, but when they get married it will be worth it.
Actually this whole week has been pretty long. We had to help every family get signed in to the marriage. I went to the town center(?) or the place where you sign people into get married almost everyday. We went Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and now Monday. It was super stressfull and tiring but everyone got written into the marriage.
Fatima and Felipe's marriage is all set. They will be getting married in the masivo on Saturday. They then will be baptized the next week. Miguel and Linda, was a little more stressfull but they will be getting married on the 31st.
We also had a special conference on Thursday in the afternoon by Elder Lynn G. Robbins of the presidency of the seventy. It wasn't what everyone expected but it was still really good. Instead of sharing some special thing on how we should be or how we should teach, he just talked about how we should live our lives during and after the mission. It was inspiring and filled us with the spirit so we could go out and teach with it.
That is how my week went, Gracias por todo,
Elder Isaacson
Saturday, March 12, 2016
March 7, 2016
Hola Familia,
Sorry I am writing this letter a little later than usual. We had a lot of forms to fill out this morning and we didn't have time to write anybody. It is good to hear that everybody is staying busy back home. I am really glad you were able to put us in for the deer hunt. I am super pumped to go. It will be so nice to get out of the city and get into the wild. I can't believe MLS soccer is starting again and that March Madness is next week. U of U sounds like every sports team is good. The presidential elections sound horrible. I can't believe that Hillary and Donald are leading. Our country is done for. Maybe I will just stay and live here in Peru. haha.
My area is pretty safe. You don't have to worry about anything Mom. Nothing bad will happen to us. It even seems a little more calm than my other areas.
We haven't been able to talk to Estellas dad at all. We haven't even talked to Estella. We have lost all form of contact. We had a long hard week. We worked really hard and a lot of our lessons just fell through. A lot of times we found ourselves in the street without lessons or without places to go. We just kept contacting and searching though. It payed off in the end though because we were really blessed. We ended up getting 7 investigators to church with two families. A few of our converts brought two new investigators to church that we met and will be able to teach. One doesn't live in our area so we are going to pass the reference off.
Fatima and Felipe also came to church along with their kids. They have one kid who will be able to get baptized. We made a lot of progress with them this week. We got their DNI's (ID) so we could start the marriage papers. We use the DNI's to find their birth Certificates. It can be hard to find the birth certificates but we found them right off the bat. We are going to go sign them up for the marriage this week. After that, they will be all set to get baptized.
I believe, because of our diligence, we had a huge miracle. When I was out on the street the other day, a young mother came up and asked us what time church was because her cousin was staying at their house and wanted to go. I told her the schedule and decided to take a lesson out with her. We normal don't contact or take lessons out with just ladies because we are focusing a lot on families, but I decided to do it anyway. We went to their house on Sunday morning and taught them the restoration. It went really well. They then came to church in the afternoon, and at night we went back to visit them. We had a really strong and spiritual lesson with them. We committed them to getting married and baptized. They gave us their DNI's and we searched for the birth certificates. Miracously, we found them and they should get here in a few days. Hopefully they get here quickly because the sign ins for the marriage end on Friday. Meeting a family and convincing them to get married is usually a 2 week process. We managed to do it in 1 day. It was a miracle. Hopefully everything keeps working out so they can get married and baptized this month.
Even though the week started out slow, it ended on a very high note. In the zone we are going to marry 6 or 7 families. We are really busy taking care of all the paperwork and working with the families so they stay motivated for their marriage and baptism. It is kind of stressfull but a good type of stress.
Love you lots,
Elder Isaacson
Sorry I am writing this letter a little later than usual. We had a lot of forms to fill out this morning and we didn't have time to write anybody. It is good to hear that everybody is staying busy back home. I am really glad you were able to put us in for the deer hunt. I am super pumped to go. It will be so nice to get out of the city and get into the wild. I can't believe MLS soccer is starting again and that March Madness is next week. U of U sounds like every sports team is good. The presidential elections sound horrible. I can't believe that Hillary and Donald are leading. Our country is done for. Maybe I will just stay and live here in Peru. haha.
My area is pretty safe. You don't have to worry about anything Mom. Nothing bad will happen to us. It even seems a little more calm than my other areas.
We haven't been able to talk to Estellas dad at all. We haven't even talked to Estella. We have lost all form of contact. We had a long hard week. We worked really hard and a lot of our lessons just fell through. A lot of times we found ourselves in the street without lessons or without places to go. We just kept contacting and searching though. It payed off in the end though because we were really blessed. We ended up getting 7 investigators to church with two families. A few of our converts brought two new investigators to church that we met and will be able to teach. One doesn't live in our area so we are going to pass the reference off.
Fatima and Felipe also came to church along with their kids. They have one kid who will be able to get baptized. We made a lot of progress with them this week. We got their DNI's (ID) so we could start the marriage papers. We use the DNI's to find their birth Certificates. It can be hard to find the birth certificates but we found them right off the bat. We are going to go sign them up for the marriage this week. After that, they will be all set to get baptized.
I believe, because of our diligence, we had a huge miracle. When I was out on the street the other day, a young mother came up and asked us what time church was because her cousin was staying at their house and wanted to go. I told her the schedule and decided to take a lesson out with her. We normal don't contact or take lessons out with just ladies because we are focusing a lot on families, but I decided to do it anyway. We went to their house on Sunday morning and taught them the restoration. It went really well. They then came to church in the afternoon, and at night we went back to visit them. We had a really strong and spiritual lesson with them. We committed them to getting married and baptized. They gave us their DNI's and we searched for the birth certificates. Miracously, we found them and they should get here in a few days. Hopefully they get here quickly because the sign ins for the marriage end on Friday. Meeting a family and convincing them to get married is usually a 2 week process. We managed to do it in 1 day. It was a miracle. Hopefully everything keeps working out so they can get married and baptized this month.
Even though the week started out slow, it ended on a very high note. In the zone we are going to marry 6 or 7 families. We are really busy taking care of all the paperwork and working with the families so they stay motivated for their marriage and baptism. It is kind of stressfull but a good type of stress.
Love you lots,
Elder Isaacson
Sunday, March 6, 2016
February 29, 2016
Hola Familia,
First off, to answer your question, I am sure I am going home on June 21st. Today I just got my ''trunky paper''. It is the paper the mission asks for with all our information so they can buy us our plane ticket. They asked for my whole name, your phone numbers, your email, and which airport I want to fly into. Talk about trunky. It doesn't seem like the time has gone by so fast. I am glad I get to stay here longer in the mission then my friends but I am also a little jeolous that they get to have a longer summer.
I can't believe you are going to go on a cruise for a senior trip. I never got to do that. I feel like just because Kenzie is the youngest you are letting her get and do a lot more things. That is not fair.
We didn't have that great of a week. Any bad thing that could've happened, did. First off, on Monday we got Estala's permission slip signed. Everything was good to go. Then on Thursday, her dad came out yelling at us saying we couldn't visit her. He changed his mind really fast. We think he was mad because his son moved away to live in another house. His son got married and baptized with his wife a few months ago. We think he thinks its the churches fault he moved away. He is taking out all his wrath on his daughter. He won't let her do anything. I feel really bad for her.
Next off, we had a great lesson Thursday night with Fatima and Felipe. They accepted to get married and baptized. It was the best. That same night, they got robbed. Felipe works in a taxi and parks it in front of his house. At about 3 in the morning they heard something. They tried to go outside but the thieves had tied their door shut. They saw that they were coming and ran off. They stripped his car. They took the cars computer and took the whole top half of the engine. If they had had more time, they would have taken the whole car apart and taken it in pieces. They were really upset. We were really nervous that they wouldn't want to get married anymore because it costs about 120 soles. We went saturday and they were still excited to get married. The bad part was that Felipe rented a taxi and went to work and didn't go to church. That is a little setback but we had a good lesson with them yesterday and he said he will go to church next week.
Saul and Jose Luis are doing good. Jose Luis had a small problem this week with a commandment but he came to church and we got everything worked out.
Our other family didnj't go to church either. They went to Johana's mom's house. It was sad that they didn't go. We are going to hunt them down this week and get them to start progressing. We need to find a lot new investigators. We are searching a lot right now.
We have a goal in the mission to keep 60 percent of converts active. A lot of people go inactive. The church is still pretty new here in Peru so the people don't work as well in retaining the converts. We work a lot with the members and ward council so they can get better and work on their own without our help.
I feel completely safe with a gringo companion. The only problem is that we get a lot of girls staring at us or yell some smart aleck comment.
Also that is really cool about Aunt Janet and Uncle Dick and Aunt Jill and Uncle Delbert. I am really excited for them.
Elder Isaacson
First off, to answer your question, I am sure I am going home on June 21st. Today I just got my ''trunky paper''. It is the paper the mission asks for with all our information so they can buy us our plane ticket. They asked for my whole name, your phone numbers, your email, and which airport I want to fly into. Talk about trunky. It doesn't seem like the time has gone by so fast. I am glad I get to stay here longer in the mission then my friends but I am also a little jeolous that they get to have a longer summer.
I can't believe you are going to go on a cruise for a senior trip. I never got to do that. I feel like just because Kenzie is the youngest you are letting her get and do a lot more things. That is not fair.
We didn't have that great of a week. Any bad thing that could've happened, did. First off, on Monday we got Estala's permission slip signed. Everything was good to go. Then on Thursday, her dad came out yelling at us saying we couldn't visit her. He changed his mind really fast. We think he was mad because his son moved away to live in another house. His son got married and baptized with his wife a few months ago. We think he thinks its the churches fault he moved away. He is taking out all his wrath on his daughter. He won't let her do anything. I feel really bad for her.
Next off, we had a great lesson Thursday night with Fatima and Felipe. They accepted to get married and baptized. It was the best. That same night, they got robbed. Felipe works in a taxi and parks it in front of his house. At about 3 in the morning they heard something. They tried to go outside but the thieves had tied their door shut. They saw that they were coming and ran off. They stripped his car. They took the cars computer and took the whole top half of the engine. If they had had more time, they would have taken the whole car apart and taken it in pieces. They were really upset. We were really nervous that they wouldn't want to get married anymore because it costs about 120 soles. We went saturday and they were still excited to get married. The bad part was that Felipe rented a taxi and went to work and didn't go to church. That is a little setback but we had a good lesson with them yesterday and he said he will go to church next week.
Saul and Jose Luis are doing good. Jose Luis had a small problem this week with a commandment but he came to church and we got everything worked out.
Our other family didnj't go to church either. They went to Johana's mom's house. It was sad that they didn't go. We are going to hunt them down this week and get them to start progressing. We need to find a lot new investigators. We are searching a lot right now.
We have a goal in the mission to keep 60 percent of converts active. A lot of people go inactive. The church is still pretty new here in Peru so the people don't work as well in retaining the converts. We work a lot with the members and ward council so they can get better and work on their own without our help.
I feel completely safe with a gringo companion. The only problem is that we get a lot of girls staring at us or yell some smart aleck comment.
Also that is really cool about Aunt Janet and Uncle Dick and Aunt Jill and Uncle Delbert. I am really excited for them.
Elder Isaacson
Monday, February 22, 2016
February 22, 2016
Hola Familia,
Wow, it sounds like it was quite and interesting week. I am sad to hear that Kyle and Megan didn't win the contest. I really wanted them to win so that they could bring me back to Peru for free. I hope they find out that the other people cheated. Mom's class seems like they still haven't gotten any better after 3/4 of the year has passed. That is really cool about Colten and Taylor. They must be really lucky to have a companion from basically the same ward. That is the first time I have ever seen that happen.
I had a pretty good week. Jose Luis and Saul were both baptized. They were both really well prepared and understood the significance of what they were doing. Jose Luis has lived a rougher life and has made quite a few mistakes in his life. He was so excited to be baptized so all his sins would be washed away. The baptism service was really nice and a lot of people came. There whole family is becoming members of the church. It all started with Omar and Carla and they have introduced us to all their family. One by one they have all been getting baptized. That family is the best.
As zone leaders, we try and do at least 2 but usually 3 work visits (splits) for 24 hours each week. We trade off on every single visit. I am normally in my area just 5 days each week. It is a lot different from just being a regular missionary. We are going to the other areas so we can see how well they are doing. We judge how well they teach and we try and get to know the people they have to get baptized. We also go with them to some of the harder lessons. For example, this week I went with an elder to his area so we could convince a family to get married and get all the papers to start the process. A lot of times missionaries are scared to be straight forward and to say the things the way they are. We go to the lessons so that we can say and do those things so they can have success in their areas. It can be hard at times but it is also really fun because I have gotten to know a bunch of new people and new places. We also figured out a calling schedule. It is working a little better but is still not perfect. If we call someone and they aren't ready, it throws the whole schedule off.
The church is part of my area. I also live right by the church. If you go down the side of the church, not the side by the soccer field, you will see a metal spiral staircase. I go up that staircase and live in the fourth floor. Now you know where I live. Our area is pretty flat. We only work in about a 5 block radius because that is where all the converts are. They give us references to their neighbors and bring them to church. After everyone in those 5 blocks are baptized we will start to expand our area.
We should have a baptism this Saturday. Her name is Estela. Her brother and sister in law are both recent converts. She really wants to get baptized. She is 17 and needs her mom's permission. Her mom said no and she started to cry. Afterward her brother called their mom and talked to her. We are going to go by tonight and see how it went. Something always happens to try and stop the baptisms but nothing too big that will hold us back.
Stake conference was this week. The conference was really good but every time there is conference it is hard to get investigators to church. We ended up only having three. Estela, Fatima, and her son Reuben. We are hoping that next week goes better for us and the whole zone. It was still a successfull week for us though.
Les quiero,
Elder Isaacson
Wow, it sounds like it was quite and interesting week. I am sad to hear that Kyle and Megan didn't win the contest. I really wanted them to win so that they could bring me back to Peru for free. I hope they find out that the other people cheated. Mom's class seems like they still haven't gotten any better after 3/4 of the year has passed. That is really cool about Colten and Taylor. They must be really lucky to have a companion from basically the same ward. That is the first time I have ever seen that happen.
I had a pretty good week. Jose Luis and Saul were both baptized. They were both really well prepared and understood the significance of what they were doing. Jose Luis has lived a rougher life and has made quite a few mistakes in his life. He was so excited to be baptized so all his sins would be washed away. The baptism service was really nice and a lot of people came. There whole family is becoming members of the church. It all started with Omar and Carla and they have introduced us to all their family. One by one they have all been getting baptized. That family is the best.
As zone leaders, we try and do at least 2 but usually 3 work visits (splits) for 24 hours each week. We trade off on every single visit. I am normally in my area just 5 days each week. It is a lot different from just being a regular missionary. We are going to the other areas so we can see how well they are doing. We judge how well they teach and we try and get to know the people they have to get baptized. We also go with them to some of the harder lessons. For example, this week I went with an elder to his area so we could convince a family to get married and get all the papers to start the process. A lot of times missionaries are scared to be straight forward and to say the things the way they are. We go to the lessons so that we can say and do those things so they can have success in their areas. It can be hard at times but it is also really fun because I have gotten to know a bunch of new people and new places. We also figured out a calling schedule. It is working a little better but is still not perfect. If we call someone and they aren't ready, it throws the whole schedule off.
The church is part of my area. I also live right by the church. If you go down the side of the church, not the side by the soccer field, you will see a metal spiral staircase. I go up that staircase and live in the fourth floor. Now you know where I live. Our area is pretty flat. We only work in about a 5 block radius because that is where all the converts are. They give us references to their neighbors and bring them to church. After everyone in those 5 blocks are baptized we will start to expand our area.
We should have a baptism this Saturday. Her name is Estela. Her brother and sister in law are both recent converts. She really wants to get baptized. She is 17 and needs her mom's permission. Her mom said no and she started to cry. Afterward her brother called their mom and talked to her. We are going to go by tonight and see how it went. Something always happens to try and stop the baptisms but nothing too big that will hold us back.
Stake conference was this week. The conference was really good but every time there is conference it is hard to get investigators to church. We ended up only having three. Estela, Fatima, and her son Reuben. We are hoping that next week goes better for us and the whole zone. It was still a successfull week for us though.
Les quiero,
Elder Isaacson
Monday, February 15, 2016
February 15, 2016
Hola Familia,
Well, I hope you had a great valentines day. I know I did. It didn't even feel like Valentines day. I was super busy. Well I would like to tell you a little bit about my new area, new comp, and new responsibilities. First off, the church you found online is not my ward, it is kind of close though. I am serving in the Mariátegui ward in the Wiesse Stake. To start off, I love this ward and my area. In the last year there have been 38 converts here. They have married and baptized about 8 families in the last year too. It is a literal gold mine of investigators. All of these converts help us out a ton too. They come out teaching with us and present us to their family and friends. We recieved close around 25 references this week and had about 20 new investigators. That is a new record for me. They also helped us get people out to church. We had 11, basically 12, investigators in church. We will have two baptisms next week. They are Omar's (recent converts) brothers in law. They are really cool. Omar and his whole family have always been involved in gang activity but now they are all cleaning up their lives and coming to church. We also got a cool reference to a new family. They are named Felipe and Fatima. Their whole family came to church but Felipe got their late so that's why we only had 11 not 12. We are going to work with them so they can get married and baptized in March. We are working with another family in the same situation. Their names are Cesar and Yohana. My comp went on a work visit this week and I stayed alone in my area. I had just two days in the area. I was amazed that I already new the area. It went really well. Our area is pretty big but we only work in a small part because that is where all our success is coming from.
I am getting along great with my new companion. Elder Nielson is teaching me how to be a zone leader. He has changed a lot since the start of the mission. He is one of my best comps. It is a little weird to be with an elder with experience though. I have been training so long that I don't remember what it was like to teach with someone who knows what he is doing. It is also weird to be with a gringo who speaks english. We speak a lot of english and I hope it doesn't destroy my spanish. I don't think it will though because we are always speaking spanish in the streets and lessons.
As zone leader I have a lot more responsibilities. We are in charge of 20 missionaries. First off, we have to make sure they are working and doing it well. Every night we have to verify about the people that have a baptismal date and then something else. We have been getting to bed pretty late. The earliest has been about 11:30 but it is usually past midnight. We are going to create a calling schedule so that we can get to bed earlier. We also have to do a weekly training, help get the families married, do interviews, get to know every person who is going to be baptized, plan p-days, fill out the information for the asistants and presidents, do work visits, help the areas that are struggling, and a lot of other things that I can't remember or am to lazy to list right now.
I just reread your letter again. That is great about all the scholarship offers for Kenzie. Hard studies pay off. Has she thought about serving a mission? Also, my new comp is from Arizona. The changes are on June 21 and so I will be getting home that day. Normally, I would be flying out June 20 at 11 at night and will get there at about noon. I should be getting flight information within one or two months. 4 months are still a long time away. I am not to worried about it.
I hope Kyle wins the contest. I voted for him. You should have all your school students vote for him. That would help him out.
To let you know, I did get my package. Thanks for all the candy, and don't worry, I am sharing it. I am going to miss my old area but I am glad that I came to one that is already built up.
Les extaño,
Elder Isaacson
Well, I hope you had a great valentines day. I know I did. It didn't even feel like Valentines day. I was super busy. Well I would like to tell you a little bit about my new area, new comp, and new responsibilities. First off, the church you found online is not my ward, it is kind of close though. I am serving in the Mariátegui ward in the Wiesse Stake. To start off, I love this ward and my area. In the last year there have been 38 converts here. They have married and baptized about 8 families in the last year too. It is a literal gold mine of investigators. All of these converts help us out a ton too. They come out teaching with us and present us to their family and friends. We recieved close around 25 references this week and had about 20 new investigators. That is a new record for me. They also helped us get people out to church. We had 11, basically 12, investigators in church. We will have two baptisms next week. They are Omar's (recent converts) brothers in law. They are really cool. Omar and his whole family have always been involved in gang activity but now they are all cleaning up their lives and coming to church. We also got a cool reference to a new family. They are named Felipe and Fatima. Their whole family came to church but Felipe got their late so that's why we only had 11 not 12. We are going to work with them so they can get married and baptized in March. We are working with another family in the same situation. Their names are Cesar and Yohana. My comp went on a work visit this week and I stayed alone in my area. I had just two days in the area. I was amazed that I already new the area. It went really well. Our area is pretty big but we only work in a small part because that is where all our success is coming from.
I am getting along great with my new companion. Elder Nielson is teaching me how to be a zone leader. He has changed a lot since the start of the mission. He is one of my best comps. It is a little weird to be with an elder with experience though. I have been training so long that I don't remember what it was like to teach with someone who knows what he is doing. It is also weird to be with a gringo who speaks english. We speak a lot of english and I hope it doesn't destroy my spanish. I don't think it will though because we are always speaking spanish in the streets and lessons.
As zone leader I have a lot more responsibilities. We are in charge of 20 missionaries. First off, we have to make sure they are working and doing it well. Every night we have to verify about the people that have a baptismal date and then something else. We have been getting to bed pretty late. The earliest has been about 11:30 but it is usually past midnight. We are going to create a calling schedule so that we can get to bed earlier. We also have to do a weekly training, help get the families married, do interviews, get to know every person who is going to be baptized, plan p-days, fill out the information for the asistants and presidents, do work visits, help the areas that are struggling, and a lot of other things that I can't remember or am to lazy to list right now.
I just reread your letter again. That is great about all the scholarship offers for Kenzie. Hard studies pay off. Has she thought about serving a mission? Also, my new comp is from Arizona. The changes are on June 21 and so I will be getting home that day. Normally, I would be flying out June 20 at 11 at night and will get there at about noon. I should be getting flight information within one or two months. 4 months are still a long time away. I am not to worried about it.
I hope Kyle wins the contest. I voted for him. You should have all your school students vote for him. That would help him out.
To let you know, I did get my package. Thanks for all the candy, and don't worry, I am sharing it. I am going to miss my old area but I am glad that I came to one that is already built up.
Les extaño,
Elder Isaacson
Monday, February 8, 2016
February 8, 2016
Hola Familia,
I am glad the Broncos won, I wanted them to win. It sounds like everyone is pretty busy. I am not going to comment much on your letter because I have a ton to write, so, here we go...
To start off the week, on p-day, we went and ate pacha manca. it is sort of like hobo dinners, but even better. You cook them on top of hot rocks. We ate chicken, pig, and lamb. I think the lamb was my favorite. Afterwards we were watching a movie downstairs in the members house as a zone and I realized that my comp wasn't there and 2 other elders weren't there either. They had stayed upstairs and started playing in a blow up swimming pool. The zl's found out and all of us had to go to interviews the next day with president. He didn't say anything to me.
Now for the big news... We got the phone call last night about transfers. I will be going to wiesse (Pronounced vee-say). It is the other extreme of the mission. It is in San Juan de Luriguancho. It is the farthest point away from the offices. But that isn't the most crazy part. President told me that I am going to be Zone leader. AWWWW. I am not ready. I have only ever been district leader one change. I have no idea what I will be doing. I will be with Elder Nielsen from my group. He was the one that kind of annoyed me in the MtC but he has changed a lot and is really cool. I am excited to be his comp and to be with a Gringo for a change. I am still really nervouse though to have to take care of an entire zone and not just my area.
The next big news... Yuliana was baptized this week with her 8 year old sister Ariana. We had reactivated her family and the two daughters weren't baptized. Their uncle was going to baptize both of them. Ariana went first and got scared and wouldn't let anyone baptize her. She then said that I baptize her. I had brought clothes just in case and ran and changed. She still wouldn't be baptized. Then her sister got in and with a little encouragement her uncle baptized her. That helped Ariana a little bit but she still wouldn't be baptized. We finally left the water after being in the water for about two and a half hours. I started to change when they told me that Ariana had changed her mind. I talked with her parents and asked if it was ok if I basically just tackled her into the water. They said it was fine. As I held her off her feet in my arms I said the prayer as she was kicking and screaming. As I said amen, I tackled her into the water. She came out and screamed. Afterwards I asked if she was mad and she said no and gave me a big hug. It was one of the craziest baptisms ever.
Oh, I also forgot to tell you that we had five investigators this week in church. Whoever is taking my place is super lucky. We have a baptism on Saturday, I was going to baptize her but now I won't be able to. We also have a baptism set up for February 20 too. There is a lot of potential here and the new elders should have some success.
That is all for my crazy week. Today I will be running around saying goodbye to everyone and leaving them photos and my information so we can stay in contact.
Love you lots,
Elder Isaacson
I am glad the Broncos won, I wanted them to win. It sounds like everyone is pretty busy. I am not going to comment much on your letter because I have a ton to write, so, here we go...
To start off the week, on p-day, we went and ate pacha manca. it is sort of like hobo dinners, but even better. You cook them on top of hot rocks. We ate chicken, pig, and lamb. I think the lamb was my favorite. Afterwards we were watching a movie downstairs in the members house as a zone and I realized that my comp wasn't there and 2 other elders weren't there either. They had stayed upstairs and started playing in a blow up swimming pool. The zl's found out and all of us had to go to interviews the next day with president. He didn't say anything to me.
Now for the big news... We got the phone call last night about transfers. I will be going to wiesse (Pronounced vee-say). It is the other extreme of the mission. It is in San Juan de Luriguancho. It is the farthest point away from the offices. But that isn't the most crazy part. President told me that I am going to be Zone leader. AWWWW. I am not ready. I have only ever been district leader one change. I have no idea what I will be doing. I will be with Elder Nielsen from my group. He was the one that kind of annoyed me in the MtC but he has changed a lot and is really cool. I am excited to be his comp and to be with a Gringo for a change. I am still really nervouse though to have to take care of an entire zone and not just my area.
The next big news... Yuliana was baptized this week with her 8 year old sister Ariana. We had reactivated her family and the two daughters weren't baptized. Their uncle was going to baptize both of them. Ariana went first and got scared and wouldn't let anyone baptize her. She then said that I baptize her. I had brought clothes just in case and ran and changed. She still wouldn't be baptized. Then her sister got in and with a little encouragement her uncle baptized her. That helped Ariana a little bit but she still wouldn't be baptized. We finally left the water after being in the water for about two and a half hours. I started to change when they told me that Ariana had changed her mind. I talked with her parents and asked if it was ok if I basically just tackled her into the water. They said it was fine. As I held her off her feet in my arms I said the prayer as she was kicking and screaming. As I said amen, I tackled her into the water. She came out and screamed. Afterwards I asked if she was mad and she said no and gave me a big hug. It was one of the craziest baptisms ever.
Oh, I also forgot to tell you that we had five investigators this week in church. Whoever is taking my place is super lucky. We have a baptism on Saturday, I was going to baptize her but now I won't be able to. We also have a baptism set up for February 20 too. There is a lot of potential here and the new elders should have some success.
That is all for my crazy week. Today I will be running around saying goodbye to everyone and leaving them photos and my information so we can stay in contact.
Love you lots,
Elder Isaacson
Wednesday, February 3, 2016
February 1, 2016
Hola Familia,
I am not quite sure either how my leg just got bruised. Maybe I just have really thick skin on my calf. This dog didn't have rabbis, because if it did, I would probably be really sick or maybe dead by now. So I am all good because I am not sick and definately not dead.
I can't believe that everyone back home is getting so old. Dex and Kenzie are now 2 years older then they were when I left. That is kind of crazy. I hope they had good birthdays. Wish them happy birthday for me.
I checked out Kyle's video. It is kind of funny but pretty lame. It is better then the rest of the videos though. If he wins the trip, he has to promise to bring me to Peru because I voted for him. It would be a really fun trip to come to Peru.
I will be looking for the package. Next week are transfers and I will probably be going. I have 6 months in this area and I am finishing Sanjuan's training. I only have 3 areas in my entire mission. President personally thanked me this week for turning this area around. He will probably change me and put me in another difficult area to see if I can turn it around. I have learned a lot in this area and there is a lot of potencial but I wouldn't mind a change.
It was our stake conference this week. It was really good and even better because we got 5 people to come. I was nervous that people wouldn't come because the stake center is kind of far. We arranged with members to bring our investigators and it all worked out. We should have a members daughter get baptized this week. She is 10 and has never been baptized. Also, all the references that we got last week are golden. One, Darwin, is way cool. He is 16 and we taught him once. We left a pamphlet of lesson 1. He read the only thing, took notes, and explained it perfectly. We didn't even have to teach the lesson. He should be baptized on February 13 if we can get his baptism permission slip.
The other day I ran into one of my old investigators from Independencia. She told me that she had just been baptized two weeks ago. I felt really good because I contacted her and started the lessons. It makes me wonder who else I have started teaching and planted that seed of faith that has grown and had fruits.
It is really hot here in Lima. I sweat non stop. I would love to see some snow and have it coold down a little bit.
Elder Isaacson
I am not quite sure either how my leg just got bruised. Maybe I just have really thick skin on my calf. This dog didn't have rabbis, because if it did, I would probably be really sick or maybe dead by now. So I am all good because I am not sick and definately not dead.
I can't believe that everyone back home is getting so old. Dex and Kenzie are now 2 years older then they were when I left. That is kind of crazy. I hope they had good birthdays. Wish them happy birthday for me.
I checked out Kyle's video. It is kind of funny but pretty lame. It is better then the rest of the videos though. If he wins the trip, he has to promise to bring me to Peru because I voted for him. It would be a really fun trip to come to Peru.
I will be looking for the package. Next week are transfers and I will probably be going. I have 6 months in this area and I am finishing Sanjuan's training. I only have 3 areas in my entire mission. President personally thanked me this week for turning this area around. He will probably change me and put me in another difficult area to see if I can turn it around. I have learned a lot in this area and there is a lot of potencial but I wouldn't mind a change.
It was our stake conference this week. It was really good and even better because we got 5 people to come. I was nervous that people wouldn't come because the stake center is kind of far. We arranged with members to bring our investigators and it all worked out. We should have a members daughter get baptized this week. She is 10 and has never been baptized. Also, all the references that we got last week are golden. One, Darwin, is way cool. He is 16 and we taught him once. We left a pamphlet of lesson 1. He read the only thing, took notes, and explained it perfectly. We didn't even have to teach the lesson. He should be baptized on February 13 if we can get his baptism permission slip.
The other day I ran into one of my old investigators from Independencia. She told me that she had just been baptized two weeks ago. I felt really good because I contacted her and started the lessons. It makes me wonder who else I have started teaching and planted that seed of faith that has grown and had fruits.
It is really hot here in Lima. I sweat non stop. I would love to see some snow and have it coold down a little bit.
Elder Isaacson
Tuesday, January 26, 2016
January 25, 2016
Hola Familia,
It sounds like it was a fun, busy week back home. Sports never stop. I can't believe it is the Super Bowl again. That is great that the Broncos are in it. I hope they win it. I can't believe Kenzie is going to turn 18. She isn't that old. Ice fishing sounds like it was pretty fun and at least you had a little success.
As a fisher of men, this week we also had success. We had a great baptism. There were 7 baptisms in the ward this week. 4 by my comp and I, 2 by the other companionship, and an 8 year old girl. The baptism was great. I have never seen so many people come to a baptism. Normally, people never come to the baptisms and we struggle to fill the room. This week, we had to move the meeting to the relief society room so everyone could fit in and then go to the room with the baptismal faunt. The baptisms were great. Everything went great and we didn't have to repeat one baptism. The Zavaleta family was so happy. Every single one was smiling and laughing. This is one of the best baptisms for my mission.
The next day, we went and got them so they would get there early for the confirmation. Andrea and her granddaughter, Andreita, were going to follow us down in a moto. We got to the church and only Andreita was there. She said that her great aunt had gotten to the house. Her great aunt is in a wheel chair and Andrea had stayed home to take care of her. After we confirmed everyone and took the sacrament, my comp and I ran to her house. We got her to church just in time to be confirmed. It was a close call but we made it.
While we were walking up to Andrea's house, a talk came out and started barking at us. That is normal. We just ignored it and kept on walking. It kept on barking and then out of no where it lunged at me and bit my leg. Luckily I reacted quickly and it didn't puncture my pants or my skin. It just left a bruise on my leg of where it bit me. The next time I see that dog, I am going to get my revenge.
We also got a few really good references this week of people that their friends have brought to church. We ended up having five baptisms this month and we have potencial for a lot more baptisms in February. There is a 10 year old girl that is a members daughter that was never baptized, Evelyn, a reference from a member, and Darwin, another reference from a different member. Hopefully everything works out well.
We had a lot of meetings this week. We had a training by President that helped motivate the whole mission. We also had a whorldwide training by the apostles. They helped us learn a lot more about finding new investigators and helped us improve our teaching techniques.
Hopefully next week is just like this one, minus the dog part...
Love,
Elder Isaacson
It sounds like it was a fun, busy week back home. Sports never stop. I can't believe it is the Super Bowl again. That is great that the Broncos are in it. I hope they win it. I can't believe Kenzie is going to turn 18. She isn't that old. Ice fishing sounds like it was pretty fun and at least you had a little success.
As a fisher of men, this week we also had success. We had a great baptism. There were 7 baptisms in the ward this week. 4 by my comp and I, 2 by the other companionship, and an 8 year old girl. The baptism was great. I have never seen so many people come to a baptism. Normally, people never come to the baptisms and we struggle to fill the room. This week, we had to move the meeting to the relief society room so everyone could fit in and then go to the room with the baptismal faunt. The baptisms were great. Everything went great and we didn't have to repeat one baptism. The Zavaleta family was so happy. Every single one was smiling and laughing. This is one of the best baptisms for my mission.
The next day, we went and got them so they would get there early for the confirmation. Andrea and her granddaughter, Andreita, were going to follow us down in a moto. We got to the church and only Andreita was there. She said that her great aunt had gotten to the house. Her great aunt is in a wheel chair and Andrea had stayed home to take care of her. After we confirmed everyone and took the sacrament, my comp and I ran to her house. We got her to church just in time to be confirmed. It was a close call but we made it.
While we were walking up to Andrea's house, a talk came out and started barking at us. That is normal. We just ignored it and kept on walking. It kept on barking and then out of no where it lunged at me and bit my leg. Luckily I reacted quickly and it didn't puncture my pants or my skin. It just left a bruise on my leg of where it bit me. The next time I see that dog, I am going to get my revenge.
We also got a few really good references this week of people that their friends have brought to church. We ended up having five baptisms this month and we have potencial for a lot more baptisms in February. There is a 10 year old girl that is a members daughter that was never baptized, Evelyn, a reference from a member, and Darwin, another reference from a different member. Hopefully everything works out well.
We had a lot of meetings this week. We had a training by President that helped motivate the whole mission. We also had a whorldwide training by the apostles. They helped us learn a lot more about finding new investigators and helped us improve our teaching techniques.
Hopefully next week is just like this one, minus the dog part...
Love,
Elder Isaacson
Thursday, January 21, 2016
January 18, 2016
Hola Familia,
It sounds like you have had a good week. I am kind of jealous. It would be really fun to go ice fishing. You will have to tell me about it next week. That is fun that the whole family will be going. The three day weekend should be nice too. I don't know what I would like to do for housing. I know Harrison is going to go to USU so maybe you could talk with his parents. I know of a few other kids who were going to go there but you don't know them. Until when do you have time to sign up for housing? I trust you to make the right decision.
Make week was pretty good. Lilian's whole family came to church again this week. Lilian, her mom Andrea, and her two kids, Andrea and Reynaldo are all set up to get baptized on Saturday. I am pretty confident in three of them but Andrea, the young one, is a little worried and we don't know if she will be ready yet. We will do our best though. If everything works out between all the people that have accepted baptism for this Saturday, we could have up to 10 baptisms in the Progreso ward this week. That would be amazing. We will probably have about 7 which is still amazing. Hopefully it all works out.
We only got to meet with the 12 year olds once this week because they went on a trip with their families. They get back today and we will go visit them tomorrow. They are pretty cool. They should get baptized pretty easily. The only thing that could hold us up would be getting the parents to sign the permission slips.
A less active showed up to church yesterday and brought his wife. He told us that he wanted to come back to church and wanted his wife to get to know it. She seemed really excited. It could be another baptism for next month. The only problem is, like always, they have to get married first. We will start working with them this week.
I still feel really tired but am starting to feel a little better. Today is the first day in a long time that I haven't woken up tired. It felt really good. Hopefully everyday will be like this.
Con amor,
Elder Isaacson
It sounds like you have had a good week. I am kind of jealous. It would be really fun to go ice fishing. You will have to tell me about it next week. That is fun that the whole family will be going. The three day weekend should be nice too. I don't know what I would like to do for housing. I know Harrison is going to go to USU so maybe you could talk with his parents. I know of a few other kids who were going to go there but you don't know them. Until when do you have time to sign up for housing? I trust you to make the right decision.
Make week was pretty good. Lilian's whole family came to church again this week. Lilian, her mom Andrea, and her two kids, Andrea and Reynaldo are all set up to get baptized on Saturday. I am pretty confident in three of them but Andrea, the young one, is a little worried and we don't know if she will be ready yet. We will do our best though. If everything works out between all the people that have accepted baptism for this Saturday, we could have up to 10 baptisms in the Progreso ward this week. That would be amazing. We will probably have about 7 which is still amazing. Hopefully it all works out.
We only got to meet with the 12 year olds once this week because they went on a trip with their families. They get back today and we will go visit them tomorrow. They are pretty cool. They should get baptized pretty easily. The only thing that could hold us up would be getting the parents to sign the permission slips.
A less active showed up to church yesterday and brought his wife. He told us that he wanted to come back to church and wanted his wife to get to know it. She seemed really excited. It could be another baptism for next month. The only problem is, like always, they have to get married first. We will start working with them this week.
I still feel really tired but am starting to feel a little better. Today is the first day in a long time that I haven't woken up tired. It felt really good. Hopefully everyday will be like this.
Con amor,
Elder Isaacson
Monday, January 11, 2016
January 11, 2016
Hola Familia,
It sounds like everything is going well back home. Everything is back to normal there and everyone is back in school and work. That is cool that Mayor Godfrey will be the new mission president. I remember a little bit about him. He should be really good. He will probably get here about right before or right after I go home. He will be really good for the mission though.
I had a pretty good week. I am super tired though. I know I have done a lot of vigerous things in my life and have felt tired before, but I feel so tired right now. I think this is the most tired I have ever been. We are working really hard so we can get more baptisms and to find more people so I don't leave the area with nothing. My body aches and I always feel tired but it is a good kind of tired. At least I know that I have done all that I can.
Lilian and her family are doing well. They didn't come to church this week. It was her daughters quinceñero. They held a huge party at their house and were setting up for it all day Saturday and Sunday. They were really occupied this week with the party but this week we will be able to visit with them a lot and help them get ready for baptism. We still don't know if we are going to have them get baptized this week or wait til the 23rd. We need to visit with them and see how they feel.
We also had two new kids in church this week. They are two references from a less active. They are both twelve years old and want to learn more. We were only able to talk with them for about an hour on Friday but they came to church on Sunday. We are going to work with them and maybe they will be able to get baptized before the end of the month.
We have so much potential for this month. Just the two companionships in my district have potential for 10 baptisms. That is a ton. We could baptize more than a whole zone baptized last month. We are working hard so we can do it but I feel it.
It would be fun to go out to the mountains when I get home. There are a lot of things that we could do but there is still a lot of time to plan it.
I hope you have another great week.
Elder Isaacson
It sounds like everything is going well back home. Everything is back to normal there and everyone is back in school and work. That is cool that Mayor Godfrey will be the new mission president. I remember a little bit about him. He should be really good. He will probably get here about right before or right after I go home. He will be really good for the mission though.
I had a pretty good week. I am super tired though. I know I have done a lot of vigerous things in my life and have felt tired before, but I feel so tired right now. I think this is the most tired I have ever been. We are working really hard so we can get more baptisms and to find more people so I don't leave the area with nothing. My body aches and I always feel tired but it is a good kind of tired. At least I know that I have done all that I can.
Lilian and her family are doing well. They didn't come to church this week. It was her daughters quinceñero. They held a huge party at their house and were setting up for it all day Saturday and Sunday. They were really occupied this week with the party but this week we will be able to visit with them a lot and help them get ready for baptism. We still don't know if we are going to have them get baptized this week or wait til the 23rd. We need to visit with them and see how they feel.
We also had two new kids in church this week. They are two references from a less active. They are both twelve years old and want to learn more. We were only able to talk with them for about an hour on Friday but they came to church on Sunday. We are going to work with them and maybe they will be able to get baptized before the end of the month.
We have so much potential for this month. Just the two companionships in my district have potential for 10 baptisms. That is a ton. We could baptize more than a whole zone baptized last month. We are working hard so we can do it but I feel it.
It would be fun to go out to the mountains when I get home. There are a lot of things that we could do but there is still a lot of time to plan it.
I hope you have another great week.
Elder Isaacson
Monday, January 4, 2016
January 4, 2016
Feliz Año Nuevo,
Well, to be honest, it sounds like your week was pretty boring. Who goes to bed at 10:30 on New Years. Even the oldest people here in Peru stay up to at least 1 in the morning. Usually they are all drunk. New Years was pretty fun. We had to be inside at 9 because it gets pretty crazy at night. I ended up falling asleep at about 10:30 but woke up at 11:30 to see all the fireworks. There were so many. We watched them from our roof. It was really fun.
I had a really good week. We started off the New Year with a baptism. Nancy was baptized on Saturday. We hadn't baptized for three months. It was really nice to baptize. The first baptism of the year shows just how good of a year it is going to be. Our church is now at 10:30 and we were a little worried that Nancy went to the ward at 8:30 but she showed up at 10:40. Just late enough to about give us a heart attack.
Lilian Zavaleta came to church again this week. She also brought her three kids. They all really enjoyed it because at the end of the meetings they were all smiling and talking with all the members. It is good that they are making friends in the church. They are all really close to getting baptized. It would be the best to baptize all of them together as a family. We are working toward getting them baptized January 16. I think we will make. They just don't quite feel ready to make that kind of commitment. I have heard that before so I know exactly what I am going to say. Hopefully everything works out and they get baptized in a couple of weeks.
Nothing really changed with transfers this week. I will be finishing Elder SanJuan's training and will be here in Progreso until February. I am excited to be able to stay because I will now be able to reap all the fruits that I have planted here. We have a lot of potential and it looks like we will have a really succesfull January. The only thing that changed is that I now have a new district leader. It is a new district leader and I feel like I am training him on what to do. It will be good though and the Progreso ward will finally progress.
We did a little service this week. We stripped the paint off of The Zavaleta's house. They are preparing for their daughters quinceñera party. They are super busy preparing for the party but they also find time to listen to us and come to church.
That is about my whole week. It was succesfull even though it was New Years. I can't believe it is already 2016 and that my black year has ended. Sometimes I wish I could go back in time.
Love,
Elder Isaacson
Well, to be honest, it sounds like your week was pretty boring. Who goes to bed at 10:30 on New Years. Even the oldest people here in Peru stay up to at least 1 in the morning. Usually they are all drunk. New Years was pretty fun. We had to be inside at 9 because it gets pretty crazy at night. I ended up falling asleep at about 10:30 but woke up at 11:30 to see all the fireworks. There were so many. We watched them from our roof. It was really fun.
I had a really good week. We started off the New Year with a baptism. Nancy was baptized on Saturday. We hadn't baptized for three months. It was really nice to baptize. The first baptism of the year shows just how good of a year it is going to be. Our church is now at 10:30 and we were a little worried that Nancy went to the ward at 8:30 but she showed up at 10:40. Just late enough to about give us a heart attack.
Lilian Zavaleta came to church again this week. She also brought her three kids. They all really enjoyed it because at the end of the meetings they were all smiling and talking with all the members. It is good that they are making friends in the church. They are all really close to getting baptized. It would be the best to baptize all of them together as a family. We are working toward getting them baptized January 16. I think we will make. They just don't quite feel ready to make that kind of commitment. I have heard that before so I know exactly what I am going to say. Hopefully everything works out and they get baptized in a couple of weeks.
Nothing really changed with transfers this week. I will be finishing Elder SanJuan's training and will be here in Progreso until February. I am excited to be able to stay because I will now be able to reap all the fruits that I have planted here. We have a lot of potential and it looks like we will have a really succesfull January. The only thing that changed is that I now have a new district leader. It is a new district leader and I feel like I am training him on what to do. It will be good though and the Progreso ward will finally progress.
We did a little service this week. We stripped the paint off of The Zavaleta's house. They are preparing for their daughters quinceñera party. They are super busy preparing for the party but they also find time to listen to us and come to church.
That is about my whole week. It was succesfull even though it was New Years. I can't believe it is already 2016 and that my black year has ended. Sometimes I wish I could go back in time.
Love,
Elder Isaacson
December 28, 2015
Feliz Navidad,
Well, it feels like I just talked to you but that is because I just did. It was so nice to see all your faces and hear your voices. I am glad to see that everything and everyone is doing well back home. It sounds like the rest of your Christmas. I had a good rest of Christmas too. We went and ate the traditional Peruvian Christmas dinner, which is a whole turkey. It was really good, even though it was served with rice. A Peruvian meal isn't a meal unless it has white rice. Afterwards we visited a few people to wish them a merry Christmas. Then my comp went and called the rest of the night. I sat and talked with the family that we were with in the other room. It was a great Christmas. I am glad that next Christmas I will be home but it is also sad that I won't be able to enjoy another Christmas here with these great people.
It sounds like the Maughan Christmas party was really fun. I enjoyed all of the photos of my cardboard cut out. It looks like I was pretty busy there giving talks, playing the piano, and just hanging out. I also love the story about Uncle Brent's tooth falling out. I loved so hard. It is kind of sad but at least it made me smile. Also Kyle is still the same even though he got married.
While Mom may have had one of her best lessons yesterday, I had my worse lesson yesterday. We are teaching a couple less actives. They are an elderly couple and her husband cheated on her. They were working through everything and were back together. Well, yesterday we were teaching them and they started to fight and yell at each other right in front of us. They were accusing each other of their faults. It was really, really awkward and uncomfortable. We didn't know what to say because we have never been in a situation like that before. We are thinking we might just quit visiting them and let the bishop deal with the problem.
We ended up getting three investigators to church yesterday. Nancy, Lilian, and Victoria all came to church. Nancy had one of her interviews and it looks like she will be getting baptized on Saturday. Lilian was up late with a visit but still woke up early to come to church. She is really showing her dedication but just doesn't quite feel ready yet. We are going to work with her on that this week. Hopefully she will have a baptismal date by my next letter.
Transfers are today but I won't find out if I am going until later in the day. I will let you know what happened next week.
Love and miss you,
Elder Isaacson
Well, it feels like I just talked to you but that is because I just did. It was so nice to see all your faces and hear your voices. I am glad to see that everything and everyone is doing well back home. It sounds like the rest of your Christmas. I had a good rest of Christmas too. We went and ate the traditional Peruvian Christmas dinner, which is a whole turkey. It was really good, even though it was served with rice. A Peruvian meal isn't a meal unless it has white rice. Afterwards we visited a few people to wish them a merry Christmas. Then my comp went and called the rest of the night. I sat and talked with the family that we were with in the other room. It was a great Christmas. I am glad that next Christmas I will be home but it is also sad that I won't be able to enjoy another Christmas here with these great people.
It sounds like the Maughan Christmas party was really fun. I enjoyed all of the photos of my cardboard cut out. It looks like I was pretty busy there giving talks, playing the piano, and just hanging out. I also love the story about Uncle Brent's tooth falling out. I loved so hard. It is kind of sad but at least it made me smile. Also Kyle is still the same even though he got married.
While Mom may have had one of her best lessons yesterday, I had my worse lesson yesterday. We are teaching a couple less actives. They are an elderly couple and her husband cheated on her. They were working through everything and were back together. Well, yesterday we were teaching them and they started to fight and yell at each other right in front of us. They were accusing each other of their faults. It was really, really awkward and uncomfortable. We didn't know what to say because we have never been in a situation like that before. We are thinking we might just quit visiting them and let the bishop deal with the problem.
We ended up getting three investigators to church yesterday. Nancy, Lilian, and Victoria all came to church. Nancy had one of her interviews and it looks like she will be getting baptized on Saturday. Lilian was up late with a visit but still woke up early to come to church. She is really showing her dedication but just doesn't quite feel ready yet. We are going to work with her on that this week. Hopefully she will have a baptismal date by my next letter.
Transfers are today but I won't find out if I am going until later in the day. I will let you know what happened next week.
Love and miss you,
Elder Isaacson
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