Well we had another great week down here in Jorge Chavez!

We've got the baptisms of Danitza, Karla, and Yessenia,  and the reactivation of their mom Carmen coming up this Saturday! So we worked a lot with them this past week.

It's been a lot of routine down here. We're not contacting that much (which is a miracle considering Ango loves it so much) which is good; Although it does mean that we're trying to find the 150 or so old investigator forms we have in the Area book......

Which means we run into one of 5 scenarios;

-They're not home

-They claim to have never heard of us, and when we tell them that they must have because we have all their information and teaching records, they scream at us and say we're stealing all their info through satellites (what?)

-They politely decline to hear more of our message (that has happened about once)

-Or they say they would love to listen again (which has also probably happened about once)

Hahaha the days are long, but the work is good.

Other than that, the Pensionists dog (Negro, the one in the picture) has taken to following us anywhere and everywhere. He followed us 12 blocks to the bishop’s house and then somehow made it home safely. He also follows us to church every week......I guess if he keeps coming we can count him as a progressing investigator.....Haha,

I'm doing great and I hope all of you are too!!! I'm happy and healthy, and couldn't love the work more!!!

I'll try to have some interesting experiences next week.

Love you!!!

 

Augusto, I'm a licensed roofer.....practically, Other announcements

So, I would like to start off this e-mail with good news about one of our investigators.  His name is Augusto  and he's 80. He's a reference from a member; I knew he would be great from the first day! The first thing he said when he met us was

Augusto-"Hey, are you the Elders"

Us-"Yep"!

Augusto-"Good, I want to ask you something. Was Joseph Smith really a prophet of God?"

Us-"Yes".

Augusto-"That's great to hear we've got one of those again, it's been about 2000 years"!

Augusto has read the bible all his life, but what's more incredible than that is that he's UNDERSTOOD the bible all his life. He started talking to us about how the gospel has always been given in dispensations, and that God would always speak to his people through a prophet. Needless to say he's earnestly accepted everything we've taught him so far. We just need to get him to come to church now! Hahaha

Other than that, we had my favorite service project so far last Saturday! The Reyes family asked us if we could help them fix their roof, seeing as it was made of plastic, and a few wooden beams, and was riddled with holes. We happily agreed, although we had no idea what to expect.... Oh man.......

It was all but caved in, we told him we would have to build a new one, so we just tore it all down (into his house seeing as he lives on the 3rd floor of an apartment complex), and started anew. A few notes about Peruvian construction.

-It's a waste of time to carry garbage down, better to just throw it from the 3rd story window into the middle of the road.

-Wood is not a reliable building material, you're better off with sheet metal.

-If it works, it doesn't matter how it looks.

So with those notes in mind, we set about building a roof! We did it in a little over 6 hours. It was hard.....and I won't tell you how close I got to the edge of the roof, but it was a great experience and I learned a lot......although I don't know how much of that construction knowledge will carry over into the US.

And later that night we got to take our investigators to a movie night where we all watched "Meet the Mormons" It was great! That's a great movie! They learned a lot and seemed really happy with it!

Other than that the only thing I can think of is the baptism of the Falla family. Which, due to the attendance of Yessenia, we're going to postpone until the first of August....but either way they're still all looking forward to their baptisms, so it's all good!

That's it for this week!!! I love you all and I hope you know that I love this gospel and know it's true.

Elder Winn

T-364 days.  President Larsen

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'll be seeing you guys in 1 year!!!!! Wow! It's so hard to believe I've been out for almost a year now! That's so insane!!!!!!!!!!!!! There's so much I want to say! And I think it will and be a little more in place if I tell you about a great experience I had this week.

So, last Wednesday we had interviews with President Larson, which entails talking to the assistants, and having them review our agendas and Area book (which we killed by the way, we were like the textbook example of perfect missionaries), Talking to the President's wife about my companions English progress, Interviewing with the President, and having the Zone leaders review our rooms (which we also killed because our room is like a palace. A shimmering, glimmering, palace). Anyway after talking to the President's wife for 20 minutes about everything and anything, she said she was way excited to learn Spanish, but no matter what she tried she just couldn't get it down. It's like I was talking to Mom!!! She talked to Elder Ango with the few phrases that she knew, and it sounded just like Mom!!! I told her that my Mom was in the same boat and that she couldn't learn it that well either and she seemed really relieved to hear that....

Anyway; when I went in for the interview with the President. He asked me a few questions to get to know me and then asked, "How's the mission? What have you learned from the mission?

Now, up until that point, I had been living my entire mission knowing that I had been slowly changing, and that the mission was great and all.....but I had never really testified of the mission. So when he asked me....I didn't really know what to say.

So I just said what I felt.

I still can't remember everything that I said, but I do know that I bore out my heart and soul that the mission that I had served up until that point and that I will continue serving has been better for me, and made me happier than any other thing I've ever done. Tears easily filled my eyes as I told him about what a blessing it's been for me and my family. I told him that I loved every moment of my mission and I loved serving.

I felt the spirt stronger in that moment than I think I ever have before in my life.

The President thanked me and said he couldn't believe how much it meant to me, and how happy I was. He said he would like to reach the happiness he knows I have in my mission.

And I think that accurately describes my experiences up until now!

I'm a year out, and I wouldn't trade it for anything.

I love you all; I'll make sure to get some pictures out next week!!!

Stay strong! We're halfway there!

-Elder Winn

So we've got a new President now!!!

President Larson! They've got a blog that you guys can visit at

Larsonsinlima.blogspot.com

We had a big reunion on Sunday with the whole mission, and everyone was able to meet the President and his family! They're from Caldwell Idaho and seem pretty cool! His wife speaks Spanish about as well as Mom and is as happy about it as Mom too. Hahahaha, he has two kids who served missions and two younger kids. They're a great family!!!

Other than that, we were able to go to the temple this last Wednesday! It was great as always!!! The city is a lot cleaner in La Molina.......Still not close to the states but......cleaner. It's also one of the few places you can buy American anything!!! So I made sure to stock up on 5 gum, Juicy Fruit, Starburst, Skittles, and chocolate.

And lastly; I'd like to tell you guys about a wonderful family. We met the other week

Letter just stopped here

The next day we received the following

Hahaha; sorry about that....anyway.

Lastly; we met the familia Falla Hualinga (I wish you all spoke Spanish. At this point it would be so much easier if I could just write my e-mails in Spanish). They're the best!!! They came to church 2 weeks ago and it went down something like this.

Mother: "Hey, you're a missionary, right?"

Me: "Yes!"

Mother: "Oh good!" "I've been inactive for 4 years and want to come back to church, is this the right ward?"

Me: "Uhh....I think so.....I'll get back to you on that one.....I'm new here"

Mother: "Oh that's fine. When you find out can you let me know? My three daughters and husband want to get baptized".

Me: "Uhh........ANGO IS PERU AVENUE IN OUR SECTOR. I NEED TO KNOW!!!"

Turns out they are, and are looking forward to their baptisms in the coming weeks.

Life is good.

Everything's going great here!!! I'll send some pictures next week!!! Love you guys!!!!

 

 

We had a great week here in Condevilla! I'm getting to know the sector really well.....although the people are still a challenge to learn......they all have the weirdest names: Mirmiam, Earthan, Brisset, Indira, Rodolfo, Bonifacio......ugh......so.....weird.....hahaha.

Ooh! Fun fact; Turns out my slice of Condevilla isn't actually in Condevilla! I'm technically in Callao! So I get the pride of saying I'm living in humble Condevilla and all the danger of living in Callao! (kidding mother dearest, that was a joke, it can hardly be considered dangerous, it's a perfectly quaint.....erm.....shanty town.....) Hahaha really though, it's amazing!

Other than that.....Things have taken a turn for the better!

We'll be re-activating.....uhh.....some girl with a weird name.....this week! And In July I'm pleased to announce that we have the baptisms of Bridget (The cousin of a member (Solanch (that's right, that's a name)) whom we started teaching last week. She went to church last week and has gone to several of the activities) and possibly Lizzeth (if we can get them married, which is a pretty big if...)

We've started to find more investigators! Ango really likes knocking doors....I can't say the same but.....oh well.....we've found......0 so far with that method, but people have just started coming up to us and asking if we can teach them (Which is just as incredible as it sounds).....

Lastly I'll leave you with the best news!!! This Sunday a Mother and her 2 children (16 and 13) informed us that she had been inactive for two years and would like to come back to church. Her two daughters then chimed in that they would like to be baptized as soon as possible. And both of them have dates for this 18th of July. Making a prospective total of 4 baptisms for the month of July! Things are looking up!!!

I'm doing great and I love you guys!!!

Here's a lovely picture of me enjoying my oatmeal and ham sandwich breakfast.

Also......Elder Ango was sick for a day. Here's what my study set-up ended up looking like.....