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