Week #23- extremely happy with how strong their testimony is!

We went to the Temple this week and it was really awesome. I felt the spirit so strong and we had a great time. This week was a little bit harder than what I have had here, we didn't have the baptism we were supposed to have because the husband of the person who was going to be baptized had an accident and tore a tendon in his knee, so he had to get surgery and she has been preoccupied with him. She wants to wait until he can be at the baptism so we might have to wait a few weeks or maybe a couple months. We also have an investigator/ convert that hasn't been confirmed that has a grandma that is really sick and he says that if she dies that he will never go to the church again. Our last two baptisms are really strong in the church though and we are extremely happy with how strong their testimony is. They are making a lot of friends in the church and are going to be leaders in the church some day! My birthday is this week so hopefully we have a good week. This week will probably be my last week here in this area so that kind of sucks but I am also excited to go to another area with a new companion. We don't have any plans for my birthday yet but our pensionista wants to have a big party! The weather is a little bit colder it is in the 60's but the humidity makes it a lot colder.

Elder Monson's current district!

Week #22- finally seeing all of our hard work pay off!

This week was awesome!!! There are 10 zones in this mission with 2 districts in each one. we have about 20 missionaries in this zone but I have heard that ours is pretty big. we have over 200 missionaries in this mission and I don´t really know anyone from before my mission but there are 2 missionaries from Davis High School in my zone right now. We had 2 baptisms and Saturday was the best day of my mission so far. I was able to baptize one of our investigators that me and my first companion found and started teaching, she has an extremely strong testimony and is so awesome! My companion baptized her daughter and her other daughter told us she wants to be baptized this week, but she needs to come to church more before she can be baptized... but we are very happy that she has the desire to be baptized. We have another baptism this Saturday and this is an investigator that has been investigating for years. The thing that she wants the most is to be sealed in the temple with her husband and she says she has to do it in Salt Lake haha and she is serious about it. We are finally seeing all of our hard work pay off and if everything goes as planned we will have baptisms 4 weeks in a row after this ward didn´t have any baptisms for 8 months! We are going to the temple Wednesday so we don´t have p day today, but I can´t wait to go to the temple. We ate a ton of food this week because both of the Sister missionaries had their birthdays this week. Mine is next week so our pensionista is planning a party so we can eat even more! I love being in the mission and doing all that I can to help the people here. The members are amazing and help so much, they are kind of like our second family. I hope that we will we able to have more weeks like this one! 
Love, Elder Monson

Elder Monson's pictures don't send too well, but happy week!

Week #21- complimented by our leaders for how good we are doing!

My birthday is coming up!! haha I am going to try not to use to much money, but I want to do something for my birthday. haha the cake is pretty good here! The world cup ended so its a lot easier to find people at home and we have been complimented by our leaders for how good we are doing. We baptized one person and we have 3 more this week and 1 more in 2 weeks! we don't do much service but we ask every visit. Transfers are in 3 weeks and it is very likely that I will be transferred. We spoke in church this week and it went pretty good!  I have to speak spanish- my companion doesn't know any english- so all I do is speak in spanish. I only talk english when we are with other americans. We get our packages delivered to our district meetings tuesdays. Our lunch with president was great! That's all for this week! Love, Elder Monson

Elder Monson in front of the Catacombs!

Yay for baptisms!! 

Week #20- investigators are really progressing!

This week was good, we had a lot of our appointments cancel, but a few of our investigators are really progressing. We had lunch with our new President this week and he gave his expectations for us in the mission, and we are doing our best to do what he wants. We should have 1 or 2 baptisms this week depending on the next couple days so we are really excited we have been trying extremely hard on this investigator and he has been really hard. He is a little strange and we don't really know what his problem is, he knows the church is true and that the Book of Mormon is true, so we will see how this saturday goes. I love helping our investigators come closer to Christ and our Heavenly Father, I can tell in their faces how much happier they are, when they live in the gospel of Jesus Christ. My spanish is slowly getting better and better, but it is a little hard to pronunciate a few words. Other than that this week was pretty boring. I forgot to bring my cord to connect my camera to the computer, but I have really cool pictures of the catacoombs from last week for next week haha.
Love, Elder Monson

Week #19- an amazing experience that I will never forget!

This week was hard because a lot of our appointments were canceled or they weren't home when we had an appointment, but this week finished off really strong. Me and my companion had been fasting that our investigators would feel the importance of baptism and how much it can bless their lives, because we have one family that only the mother wanted to be baptized and is planned to be baptized on the 19th, but one of her daughters really didn't want to be baptized, and we had never taught her other daughter, until last night. Last night was an amazing experience we taught the commandments and answered a ton of their questions and were there for more than 2 hours answering all kinds of questions, at the end they all said that they want to be baptized with their mom, and they all accepted to be baptized on the 19th so right now we have 6 baptisms planned just on the 19th of July. I have no idea what changed their minds to be baptized, but it was an amazing experience that I will never forget. After we left their house me and my companion said a prayer to thank Heavenly Father for this miracle. We saw a huge change in them and they are great. This Sunday me and my companion recieved another letter that we have to give another talk in church in 2 weeks about our objective as a missionary. I don't know why they want us to give another talk about missionary work when we have 2 sister missionaries in our ward and we just gave a talk a few weeks ago, but this time should be easier, because it is a lot easier topic to talk about. Other than that our week was pretty normal. Today we are going to the catacoombs or something like that with our new president, its like a bunch of old dead peoples bones. I didn't get transferred so I have a few more weeks here. My birthday is coming up soon!
That's all for this week. Love, Elder Monson

All of our zone with our old President, his wife & daughter

Week #18- 100th stake in Peru!

I got the package this week and my companion has ate more of the food than I did haha but luckily he
doesn´t like my cinnamon bears so they are safe but almost gone haha THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! for the package my companion wants to know when the next one is coming haha. This week was good, and I reached the 4 month mark. We had to sing in Stake Conference, and this Stake is the 100th stake in Peru. This was their first stake conference and we got to meet our new president. The first thing that everyone noticed is that he is even bigger than me. He is extremely tall, and he is really cool. We had one of our investigators come with us for a few lessons this week and he helped a little bit, he is going to be baptized this 19th of July, we have 4 baptisms planned for this month so we are really excited. We did some service for one of our less active members and we helped paint a room, but it was my first time painting so we didn´t finish but she wants us to go back so I guess we did an alright job. This week was pretty normal so not much to really say. It is getting colder and rains almost everyday. My companion is dying in how cold it is, but its not even cold to me. My companion lived in an area here in Peru that is hot everyday so he is freezing. I really hope I don´t get transferred this week because I really want to see all of our work pay out. I actually have pictures this week but this computer can´t send photos, it sucks, We had a big meeting with our old president and I have a lot of pictures, they even allowed us to hug our presidents wife. Transfers are tonight but I dont think ill get transfered.
Love, Elder Monson

Week #17- pretty good success!

Well I didn´t have transfers this week but there are transfers again not tomorrow but the next tuesday, but my companion thinks I will stay this transfer because it is mostly for the missionaries that are ending their missions or the new missionaries. We had some pretty good success this week and we have 5 investigators with a baptism date so we are pretty excited. Our mission president leaves this week and we are getting an American president and everyone thinks that there are going to be a few changes so hopefully they are for the good. One of our investigators wants to be a missionary and he actually came with us for a few hours to help us, but he has given me a ton of stress because he says he has a testimony of everything but he keeps procrastinating his baptism because he wants more knowledge and more security so we have visited him everyday trying to help him have more confidence. Other than that all of our investigators are great, but a few just need to get married and then they can get baptized. Our baptisms are all for next month the 12th 19th and the 28th I think haha I am a little bit more confident in my spanish. I love being really direct with our investigators, it is really fun.
Love, Elder Monson