Catching up on some pictures from Christmas!!

 

 

Christmas Day! 2014

We went to our pension (she cooks for us) "ranch" for Christmas day.

One more change down...

Well, we have 17ish changes in a two year mission. A change is every 6 week. And Im already two changes in. I've only got 15 changes left! We had some cool stuff happen this week. We found a new golden family that were gonna baptize. A mom and her daughter. Her name is Esmerelda. She has been looking for a church for a long while now. She knows a lot about the bible and always says her prayers. We had a 2 and a half hour first lesson with her! She's ready to be dunked! The Murillo family is kind of progressing... we found out that the mom and dad aren't married... so that's a problem, They have 4 kids together and are a very close family so its surprising that they aren't married. When we asked them to follow Jesus and be baptized, the two girls said yes and the mom said she would have to think about it and talk to Joel about it. So the girls will get baptized, but Im not sure about Yeni And Joel. Oh well i guess... we are trying to get the two to pray but its hard to get them to do something so easy! We went to Puno last week for p-day and I got to see Lake Titicaca, its pretty big, and the water is gross in the part that I saw. We climbed to the Condor, which is a look out point and that was fun ,ill get pictures of it to  you  guys next week. Its a mile climb of straight up stairs... it gets your legs burning pretty good! Were in Ayaviri this week for zone meeting and no one knows if they have changes this week or not so everyone is panicing.. except for me, cause they sent me an email telling me that I was staying where I am. We set a mission goal for 1200 baptisms... that turns out to be one baptism for every companionship every month.. which is possible... but hard to do. Last year i guess we had 700 or so baptisms. So yeah, that's fun stuff. A funny story... on Monday, I bought a churro... and while I was walking, we saw a family pushing their little moto to a gas station. The two girls were pushing from the back and the dad was steering and pushing from the front-... the mom had a baby and was sitting in the back seat... so, i put the churro in my mouth and push the little car for them. The two girls stop pushing, the dad says hay esta hijas! which means ¨there it is daughters¨, and the mom turns around to see how hard the girls are working to get the car going that fast... and sees a big gringo with a churro in his mouth pushing their car.... anyway, the dad doesn't look back and when i get them to the pump, I just walk by like nothing happened and the dad had no idea, the girls at this point are laughing at their dad confusion when he sees they're 30 yards back not pushing. I imagine they told him it was me, but i didn't stick around to find out. So yeah, that was funny. I am now a pro with my new sling shot... and could peg a turkey between the eyes at 100 yards. All the birds know my name, and the churro lady does as well. So yeah, Im doing good. and having fun. Love you all lots and hope all of you are happy! The gospel is true and miracles happen every day! You  just gotta look for them.

We played a game where you got to draw on the loser's

face. I made it the whole game without a mark....

I finally lost the game!!

Futbol!!

Elder Conception on the streets

MORE PICTURES!!

 

 

 

My first are is Juliaca

 

Pretty sure this is against the rules??

......and this!!

Elder Falslev from Clinton, UT

                                                                       District at the CCM

IM HERE!!CUSCO, PERU

December 29, 2014

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!!! So im in Ayaviri this p-day cause we were having our monthly movie night. We watched Ephriams Resucue. I love that movie. We're all blessed with certain gifts to share with the world, all we have to do is share these gifts. And try to be better and better each and every day. SO anyway, my internet is really slow cause were in a little pueblo so i cant get pictures off, sorry, next week. Anyway, apart from the awesome fireworks show we had christmas night, 360 degree firework show. We didnt get to do much these last couple days. Everyone didnt have time for the messengers of Christ in the time set apart to celebrate Christ... yeahhh oh well I guess. I had a companinon exchange with the zone leader. Elder Hyer from Moses Lake Washington. We had to do zone buisness stuff so we only got to teach one lesson in our two days but thats alright. We got to give a blessing of healing and i absolutly love blessings so that was awesome. Elder Concepcion and Elder Jara had a lesson with our golden family while I was gone and it went awesome!! Elder jara is super excited for us. Hes sure were gonna dunk em. They fed them tea while they were over and they didnt realize they were drinking tea till a little while later and had to give a little word of wisdom lesson and then had to repent this Sunday. Speaking of this Sunday, it was awesome!! We had 4 investigators at church! Thats the most for our whole zone. We had the family of gold there Murillo, and Alex, both loved it and Alex felt the burn to be baptized. We still have work to do with him and we have to get him hitched but i think hell make it. The kids of the family murillo absolutly loved it. During the break they came running to tell their mom how much fun they were having and then ran back to class. The older girls were scared to go to young womens but the bishops daughter jumped right in and helped out. Shes awesome, her name is Annie. It was exactly what those girls needed. Then the hom >Yeni, liked the lessons in class, one was on being prepared for the second coming, which i thought at first would be a bad pick, but turned out awesome for her. We also had our less active dad attened yesterday and get the fire and desire to get the priesthood. We only have 5 higher priesthood holders in the ward, and we need at least 25 to run a ward... our inactive list is very long and its now a goal to get them back to church to run the affairs of the kingdom, but Hermano Gulliermo look really sad that he could help and look resolved to get into the position to help. Heck Yeah!! So thats about it for the week. hope everyone has a good New Years and sets a goal to make a diference in one way or another!! love you all, stay safe!

Today at 11:44 AM

Hey everyone!! Well, this week was a stall week for our investigators, they havent progresed and they all have their problems. Our golden family, family Morillo, dogged us twice yesterday so we dont know whats happening there. As always well keep working on them. Tons more borrachos and a couple of them have been brave enough to act like they were gonna hit me as I walk by. I think the Lord is trying to teach me patience before he'll give me any success. Oh well, ill be pacient with all that I can. I find myself drawing on the patience of the Lord very often. We had stake confrence this week, only 20 guys in the priesthood meeting. The stake pres got up and told us we dont even have enough holders to run a ward, let alone a stake. They talked about reactivation work. In our ward we have 30 regular attenders, and over 120 less actives. Our mission pres was there and was next to speak. He told us the statistics for the missionaries in the area. This area is the hardest in the mission. and of the missionaries that leave from this area and return after two years... 10 out of 100 remian active.... i was amazed, these are return missinoaries. Then he had all 24 missionaries in the meeting stand up and he told the members these men have been called of God to do this work, they are the best, use them. It was a bit of a butt chewing for everyone. In the adult session there was about 40 in attendence. Sunday however, there were about 200. Which isnt great considering the thousands in the stake, anyway, we had 3 investigators promise to be there and one less active. One of the investigators came and the wife of the less active told us today that our less actve had attended. So yeah. 2 of 4. Me and elder were waiting out front of the church until 20 min after the meeting started, the less actve got there an hour late, and the inves, got there 30 min late. But we were glad they came. Pres Harbertson talked in this session as well, he held up a recipie for tres leche cake and said he was  terrible baker, but if he follwed this recipie to the best of his ability he could make somewhat of a cake. Then he held up the church admninistaration manual, and siad if we follow this, we can run the church the way Christ wants, and the cool part is that Christ, the master baker, will help us follow the recipie. Its was a good talk and good confrence. I just wish our other inves had attended . The choir sang and they dont sound all that well but they look really happy as they sing and invite the spirit well enough. As far as everything else goes, we had a lot of cancelations this week, one really good lesson that we taught in the doorway and one less active that has warmed up to us. I'll let yall know whats happenig with them next week cause there isnt anyhting else to report. No cool food yet but ill keep you posted. Navidad isnt much of a holiday here, its more of an excuse to get gifts... absolutly no decoration ouside. But lots of tiendas selling toys. We had out a lot of dadiva cards and people take them cause it has Jesus on them, im not sure how many of them watch the video though. Its not easy i guess cause they have to go to an internet shop to watch it, none have internet in their houses. but yeah not sure how much success the video has in this area. But it really is a beautiful video. Anyway, all is well. We jsut keep working. We forget ourselves and go to work. Spanish is at a stall for me at the moment but thats okay i guess. All is well, Im happy and healthy, and love what im doing. Hope all is well stateside, and i miss you all lots. Stay safe and Merry Christmas!! Dont worry, im gonna get myself a tresleche and inka kola for Christmas so im all good. And i hear were getting pizza for Christmas dinner which makes me happy that i get to carry on the tradition to some extent. its deffinitly not gonna be bald mountain pizza tho . Oh well adios!

-Elder Wright

 

Fight Ring....

Hey everyone, sorry i havent written in a while. they wouldnt let us and they told us they werent gonna let us call this time. Ive honestly never been so mad at a religious leader... Oh well i guess. I closed out the MTC with getting called into the office of presidente 2 times. One for sending that email to everyones families to let them know p-day was changed... and for the fight ring. Yeap. Its official, i started an underground CCM fight ring. aannnnnnnnd got in trouble for it. He said if id had another p-day there... he would have had to take it away. Good thing i didnt. anyway... Our last day as a district... we had a testimony meeting and 3 of our 4 hermanas asked me to give them a blessing. So that was cool. i dont remember what i said but it was spiritual. We left for Cusco at 3 am and got in about 9. We flew. Meet president and his wife, took that picture you've all seen then went to the mission home. We ate and had a testimony meeting then went to our hotel... which wasnt bad i guess. Then in the morning we had orientation, and meet out comps and learned our areas. My comps name is Renzo Concepción. Hes from lima and was baptized when he was 15. Hes a good guy and we get along great. Our area is Juliaca... the ugliest dirtiest area in the mission. but im loving it. Our apartment is just fine but the bathroom is a concret box.. we dont have hot water, and no toilet seat. None the less.. i dont fit straight on the toilet.. there isnt room so i have to sit sideways. Fun stuff. Our area is all city. We have one ward. Were in the san jose ward. Weve met bishop and our mission leader for the ward. our ward misson leader is supposedly a doctor... but i dont think hes a real doctor... ive seen his clinic.. his certificate looks like something he make in WORD doc. sooooo yeah. I think theres a dead body next door. We live one the 4th floor of a tall single stack building and everytime we climb the stairs we smell the smell from the other side of the wall... its gross. I'll tell ya, ive walked a lot farther for a lot less... but never have i felt the disappointment of finding none to teach... we have taught one lesson. but it was a good one. We were loooking for a less active member and were knocking on his door and his dad, in his barber shop next door, told us he wasnt there. So we asked if we could share a message with him. He accpeted and we came in and started to teach about prayer.. his wife showed up and she joined in. We pulled out a restoration pamphlet and he gets up and goes to his closet and pulls out a restoration pamphlet that looks at least 4 years old. its frail, sun faded and falling appart... Then we talk about the cover picture which is Christ holding a lamb.. he tells us that he knows that we are the lamb. Then asks if god hears all languages in prayer... we tell him of course and then i finally contribute by saying my first language is english and i know god has heard my prayer... he seemed to like that... then his son showed up... not the one we were looking for but one thats a member that lives in another ward. He joins in and adds his testimony.... then all of the sudden... i dont know how.. were giving a blessing to the mom. i did the annointing, Concepcion did the blessing. I did my part in english to go along with the part that god knows all languages, it was pretty cool. So we got a return date and were gonna go teach some more. We asked them to read the pamphlet and he really seemed like he was going to.so yeah. 1 really good lesson. Im healthy happy and doing great. our pension is a awesome lady and has a very cute family. Havent had anyhting weird yet. Today we had pday as a zone so we had to hop on a bus and go to our zone headquarters which is an hour and a half away in araviji. We're the branch of this zone. There is another zone that is soley in juliaca but were not part of it. We did get to sing with them at the stake christmas activity though.. We sang two songs. rejocidad jesus nacio. and I know that my S

avior loves me. We sounded a lot better than i thought we would. so yeah, thats about it . i miss you all a lot. more than i can express but im happy here. love you all lots i cant send pictures this week but will next week so expect a flood. adios!