Week #74- emergency transfers, new companion: Elder Piscoya!

This week was crazy; my companion had emergency transfers so I am with Elder Piscoya from Chiclayo, Peru. He was in the same branch with me and his companion also had transfers so now it is just us 2 in this huge area. Me and Elder Campos were having a lot of success this week, we had two days in a row with 40 contacts and 4 lessons. It was awesome and we hope to have a lot of new investigators from these contacts. I felt really good in the Temple this week. I went in to the Temple with a question like you taught us and I feel like I received an answer. My question was what I could do to be a better leader. I felt that I just need to continue as I am and be more direct with other missionaries and be more confident in myself. I wish we could go to the Temple more often. I always feel so amazing in the Temple. It helps me relieve the stress that we have as missionaries. The emergency transfers that we had have been hard. In both of our areas we had appointments so we have had a hard time deciding what to do and where to go. We are still trying to figure out how to do things here. I feel like it will be harder to contact because we will be using more of our time in a bus going to the appointments. The members were pretty affected by the transfers, but our branch President didn’t seem to care too much and is kind of mad because he thinks that they have been helping us and supporting us a lot. He is a great president but he just wants numbers and baptisms, not really converts. We have amazing investigators in our areas but there are a lot that aren’t married. We should have 2 couples that are going to get married this month to be able to get baptized so we are pretty excited for that. I have been changing my contacts pretty regularly. The last time was about 2 weeks ago. They clean the church just like in Utah they assign members to clean it.
Love, Elder Monson

Week #73- new companion: Elder Campos!

This week has been pretty good. I got a new companion and I am training now. My companion is Elder Campos from Costa Rica. I think he is the tallest companion that I have had but he is still pretty short compared to me haha. I have kind of had a hard time guiding the area but I feel like we had a decent week. My companion is getting better at teaching every day, but I feel like I need to let him talk more even if he only gives short parts. We have been doing a lot of practices in the 12 week program and he is getting better. I feel like I have set a good example for him in doing things right, but I need to teach him how to do things better. I am still getting used to training, but I know that little by little I will get a hold of it. I now have a new record in contacts after this week. I have never talked so much in my life, and it’s awesome. My companion is a little shy with new people and I was too when I started but I hope to help him lose his shyness so that he will be able to have more success. It is kind of hard having to do everything and trying to teach my companion at the same time, but it’s fun and I’ve always liked to do things my way haha. I have never worked so hard in my mission and I’m loving it. Training gives me more motivation to do things right and to set a good example. The weather here has been really cold, and my hands are always freezing.
Love, Elder Monson

Week #72- the Book of Mormon is true!

This week was good. We were able to find more investigators that are amazing. This week we had some help from the branch as the branch President came with us to teach a few of our investigators, and to be able to enter houses to be able to teach. The women are always more receptive of the gospel so we have had problems getting into houses to be able to teach. Our branch president tried to remember how it was in his time as a missionary about 35 years ago and he taught me a really cool way to teach. It was awesome to hear his missionary experiences and how different it is now. He told us that back then it was all pretty much memorized lessons, but he showed us that they taught with pictures and visual things so that they could understand better. I loved how he taught and I want to apply it into my teaching, but change it a little to be more focused in the need of the investigator or the person we are teaching. My companion got his P. blessing yesterday so we did divisions so that we could still have our lessons. Also we had our zone meeting this week and they taught us about our studies. I loved it because it helped me improve in my studies to be able to be more prepared for the day. I really hope that I will be able to continue with my scripture study at home. I know that it is an important part of our lives, and that without it we will be lost. I have learned to love my studies in the morning. I have learned so much and have had great spiritual experiences during this time. It has strengthened my testimony a lot. I can now testify strongly that the Book of Mormon is true and that it has all of the answers that we need in our lives.
Love, Elder Monson

Week #71- looking for new investigators!

This week was good. We have been looking for new investigators, because pretty much everyone that we are teaching needs to get married. We want investigators that are going to progress and that will be able to get baptized. Our biggest problem is that they don't go to church, they will all say that they are going to go, but when Sunday comes, no one goes. We have tried teaching them the importance of the Sabbath day, but they don't come. We are going to look harder for new people to teach that will go. We want to use our time more wisely and teach people that will actually progress. Our investigator that was going to get baptized, doesn't want to make sacrifices for this change. I don't feel like he has a testimony of the church, so we are going to hold off on his baptism for a while and prepare him better. We should have more baptisms but they don't come to church or they aren't married. I am a little frustrated with this. I feel like we have great investigators, but they all need to get married. We have had success in finding a good amount of new investigators every week this transfer, but after the first lesson, they lose the excitement to listen to us and don't make time. I know that we need to contact more and I know that we will find at least one person that is ready to hear this gospel and that is willing to act to be able to progress.
Love Elder Monson

Week #70- obey no matter what happens!

This week was good. We had a multi zone meeting with our President and it was awesome. We learned that we always need to have the same face, never have more than once face, and to be the same in all places. It helped me to want to improve in a lot of things. That I can obey no matter what happens. Also we have been teaching an investigator that is really awesome. We have taught him about 3 times now and he acted on what we taught him. He prayed and read the book of mormon. He told us that he recieved an answer and that he knows that it is true. He found a scripture in Mosiah that talked about baptism and repentance and he wants to be baptized. The only problem is that he isnt married and lives with his ¨wife¨ we are trying to help him to get married so that he can get baptized. That is one of the biggest problems here in Peru. No one is married so they cant get baptized. We have many investigators with this problem. Its been hard this week to find people to teach because Peru has been playing in a soccer tournament, and are going to play Chile now. So everyone has been busying watching the games. Today for p day we are probably just going to play uno and sleep, because a few of us are sick and we are exausted from the week. I am ready to keep working hard this week and have more success. I am really glad that I chose to come here, I have been extremely blessed and have learned so much.

Love Elder Monson

Week #69- Temple dedication!

This week was one of the harder weeks that we have had. A lot of our appointments fell and not very many people were home or were having parties for Fathers Day. I feel like we worked hard but we just didn't have much success. We were able to find a few new investigators that are really awesome and should progress. We were able to go to a cultural event on Saturday and watch by satellite people dance in Trujillo for the Temple dedication. It was really cool to see all the different dances that they have here. Then on Sunday we went to the stake center to watch Pres. Uchtdorf dedicate the Temple, it was awesome and you could feel the spirit really strong. This week I studied a little about chapter 4 in Preach My Gospel about the importance of the Holy Ghost. I loved this study because I learned a ton and it makes me want to always be able to follow the spirit. I have changed a few things so that I will be able to receive more revelations for my area. I am trying to be more sincere in my prayers and really ask for the guidance that I need. The spirit is so important in every part of this work. We need it to find people to teach, to teach people, and to know what to do and where to go. We hope to have more success this week and to work even harder. I want to talk to more people this week and find new people to teach. I plan on teaching about that tomorrow in our district meeting, because we cant have success if we don't have people to teach. I am ready to have a great week this week! Love, Elder Monson

Week #68- my first baptism interview!

This week was awesome. I was able to do my first baptism interview with an 11 year old girl. I loved it and felt the spirit so strong, the elders did a great job teaching her and she did her part as well to gain a testimony of the church. I can’t wait to do more interviews, I loved every second of it. This week was the first week that I have done all 3 of our goals of excellence. We had some really good success lately and we have many people that are close to baptism. We didn’t have our baptism this week, because the investigator wants his family to be there and called us at the last second saying that he couldn’t be baptized on Saturday.  Working with the missionaries from the MTC was pretty fun. I left with a Chilean and we had some good success. We were able to find a new investigator and a less active family. It also helped me with my contacts. I wanted to help him learn how to contact so we were able to have 15 contacts in about an hour and a half and I felt that they were really good contacts. We met some really cool people and it made me want to contact even more in my area. Elder Batty helped me in our division as well to have better contacts and how to correct the missionaries in my district. This week was awesome!

Love, Elder Monson