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

Week #67- Transfer to Carapongo 2 & I'm a district leader now!

This week was great. I am now in the zone Campoy in the area Carapongo 2. I barely got all of my stuff to fit in my suitcases haha Im a district leader now so I am pretty excited for that. My area is all farms and a ton of dirt and dust. My new companion is Elder Tello from Chiclayo, Peru. He has about 3 months in the mission. My companion is a really hard worker and is an amazing missionary. We have been working really hard this week and have had some good success. We are going to have a baptism this week and the other missionaries of our branch are going to have one to, so we are really excited about that.. My first district meeting was awesome, I felt really good about it and I feel like I talked about something that our areas really need. I hope to keep getting better and keep helping my district even if it is really small. My pensionista has her own restaurant so the food is good, but she doesn't give us very much. Its been kind of hard getting used to my new area and its destroying my shoes haha. This area might be one of the hardest areas i have had as far as culture and appearance wise. We are having good success though so its alright. Today we are going to watch a movie, eat pizza and play soccer for p day.
Love, Elder Monson

Week #66- the missionaries from the MTC came to our zone to help us!

This week was good. It was fun having the missionaries from the MTC come to our zone to help us. They have so much energy and desires to work. They were able to help many families and find new investigators as well. It was awesome. We have been having some good success lately, but something that we could really get better on is finding new investigators and contacting to find these people. The leaders of this ward have been helping a lot lately. The bishop went with some new missionaries from the MTC and were able to visit 6 families. We were able to go to a baptism of a kid in our ward who just turned 8 and it was really funny. My companion baptized him and the kid left crying because the water was so cold and he was really nervous. Its really cool to see little kids get baptized. The worst part of this week is that someone stole my camera. We were playing soccer in the church and there were only missionaries in the church when it happened. I believe that one of the missionaries here stole my camera. It sucks because I lost all of my pictures and there is pretty much nothing I can do about it, because the zone leaders told me that we arent 100 percent sure that someone stole it. Other than that this week was pretty good and I loved the interview that I had with President Boswell and I am really excited to get better and to keep progressing as a missionary. Love, Elder Monson

Week #65- waking up early all this week to go running.

This week was a lot better than last week. Even though we are still having problems with our recent convert. We were able to have 2 baptisms this week and both of their testimonies are so strong. I felt the spirit extremely strong hearing them talk about how this gospel has changed their lives. This is why I am here, it is my favorite part of being here. Watching them change is so awesome. I love it, and now we are preparing them to go to the Temple. We plan on going this week, but we are still trying to find a day to go, because the convert that we want to take gets out of school at 3 and the sessions to do baptisms are at 3:30. We are trying to figure out what to do, but our convert is really excited to do it. Our baptisms went really good this week and we are really happy for them. I am getting ready for transfers this week, and I am really excited for interviews this week. Ive been waking up early all this week to go running with Elder Polo and we also bought chia to eat so that we can lose weight and its been awesome. A sister in our ward said that every week she sees me skinnier and asked me for the recipe. haha its awesome!
Love, Elder Monson

Week #64- Our convert is just awesome!

This week was very interesting. We were able to have an amazing baptism. Our convert is so great and is going to be an amazing missionary in 2 years. He came with us to a few appointments yesterday, just 2 days after his baptism and the people we visited listened to his words more than ours. haha He also told us that he wants to do baptisms for the dead. He is really great and wants to help us. He presented his aunt and cousin to us the other day and now we are teaching them. Our convert is just awesome! We also had a good ward mission night. We watched Meet the Mormons and we had about 150 people come and about 5 that entered from the street. The bad part is that we didnt have time to talk to them after the movie because we had to run to our room to make it on time, but i´m sure that they felt something on Friday.We are going to have one maybe 2 baptisms this week. Love, Elder Monson

Week #63- missionary work of members is so important!

This week was great, I loved going to the temple, I didnt want to leave, I felt so good and so much peace. I love going to the temple, its like you just leave every problem behind when you enter. I know that it is the Lords house and there is no place better to be than the Temple. We are so blessed to have a Temple so close to us here in the mission, and I am even more blessed to have many Temples close to me at home. We are planning to take a few recent converts to the Temple to do baptisms for the dead on the 21st this month. I cant wait to go back! We have great investigators that are really progressing. One of our investigators Mauro just told us that he believes in Christ more than ever now that we have been teaching him and he told us that he wants to get baptized. He has a baptismal date for the 23rd so we are really excited. He has really changed and he has seen the change in himself as well. We have a baptism on Saturday this week and he has changed a lot as well. He was a reference from the young men in our ward and he has come to church ever since they invited him. The missionary work of members is so important, we never would have known about him without them. We taught one of his family members my first transfer here but she wasnt progressing so we stopped teaching her. I never even met her family members. I helps so much when the members help us, and many times their help results in converts. This ward has been getting better and better with helping us with references. Its awesome
Love, Elder Monson