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

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