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
Monday, April 25, 2016
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
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