Well, this week flew by, really really really fast... yesterday me and my comp were running through our numbers for the week and we both felt that we'd skipped days cause we couldn't believe it was Sunday! Not much to report this week. We have a few new people to teach but not enough. Were fighting with our ward to get refrences, its really hard to get them to give us a name, its like they don't want their friend in the celestial kingdom with them. We had a record attendence this week of 87!! We almost have enough to be considered a branch.. even though were a ward. They're still trying to find trust in our new bishop and new leadership. But its getting better, little by little.

My English class is in full swing. We have about 15 people there every Saturday, and the only thing they seem to learn is the slang... but thats alright, its english... Well, i permitted a bit of apostasy to go on in my class.. we start and end with a prayer... in english if they can. We had a young girl there for the first time and she volunteered to say it... I knew she couldnt do it in english, so I accepted  Spanish... She did it in English... but said the lords Prayer.. Our father who art in heaven, hollowed be thy name,thy kingdom come... etc. I guess she memorized in in school... So yeah, im an apostasitic Elder that permitted such wickdness to go on in the house of the Lord... its okay though, the only one that understood was Elder Falslev, and we both had to choke back laughs. 

Its really hard to program a baptism, and have it go through... our first baptism fell through cause the dad couldn't be there all of a sudden, and now we have to reschedule it for a while down the road.. about two weeks... they're a little upset, but there's nothing we could do. 

Things are looking really good, Chacon and I are working better and better together. We are getting good at recognizing the spirit, and its the reason were doing so much better. 

Not sure who the Elder in the middle is??

W/Elder Chacon

One cool story, we have a little family, very humble, very receptive.. The wife asked what happened if she drank after she was baptized... We told her there as always repentence but that she could get through whatever situation with the help of the holy ghost... She then told us that her, her sisters, and their mom who is special needs, go to their little field in the country and drink together. She told us it was really hard to say no in a situation like that. I was still trying to grasp the fact that her, and her sisters took beer to their mom to get drunk together. This lady was so sincere in telling us this though. It was really a concern that she wouldn't be able to get through that situation... Her husband just sat there shaking his head. She was so funny about it though, then we got spiritual with her and got it all taken care of. After we left, Chacon and I just laughed at the situation they put themselves in... all to have a good time and dance. We also found out that she couldn't read, she was so honest with us about it but told us her husband has been teaching her, and she can now read some of the headlines in the newspaper... both Chacon and I had the thought that the Book of Mormon was gonna help her to learn. I told her about the help of the Lord in things like these and how I was an example.. 5 months back I was lost.. but now, with the help of theLlord, im fluent in this language.. they were really surprised that I had only been speaking castillano for 5 months. But she really belived she could do it and is really determined now!!

So yeah, all is well, hope the same for you all!! Stay safe and keep on keeping on .

With love, Elder Wright. 

March 16th, 2015

Well, I did my first service for someone in my area. I've done service before, but never for any of my own investigators or for any of my less actives.Guess what i did... I didn't wrangle llamas or alpacas, I didn't help them pull their potatoes and quinhua out of the field, I didnt help them fix anything, nor build a house, nor clean, nor anything like that... I colored... my first service for one of my people, was coloring. School just started back up, and all the kids have their subject sheets that they gotta tape to the front of their notebooks, and they have to be colored as well... so i got to color everything that has to do with America, cause im from America, and I know how all of it should look. I colored the Statue of Liberty, eagles, American Flags, Military things, trucks, the golden gate bridge, mountains, etc. So yeah, took about 2 hours to color everything, and they were super grateful. Not what I tought my first service would be... but thats alright I guess.

Our baptism last saturday fell through, but I think well get it rescheduled soon and get'm dunked. We have a new inves. that might progress faster than all the others and we might get him baptized within the month. So pray for us!! 

Were working very slowly to build up the attendence in our ward. They've been through a lot these last 4 years, and they've lost a lot of members cause of leadership change... we are trying to convey to all of them that we go to chruch for God.. not the bishop.. but they got some grudges and are very chismoso/ gossip. So the lesson for today is don't be chismoso, it really hurts the kingdom, and really doesn't get us anywhere. Speak kind of others, be honest, and make your word your law!!!

Love you all!! Stay safe!! 

-Elder Wright

Mar 9

Well, Elder Chacon and I are newbies. We have very little expirience and don't know a whole lot. But we learn our lessons little by little, always. We forget things, like to schedule another appt when we finish a lesson, and we don't quite know how all the processes go. But I dare say were always with the spirit and always offering it to our investigators. 

A cool expirience, we were trying to decide a baptism date for some of our investigators, and we came up with the idea to pray about it to get an answer. So we got down on our knees and prayed. We each said one and we each presented the Lord with the dates we had in mind and asked for which would be best. We both got the same feeling that both were great, But he leaned more towards the later, and I the earlier.... So we decided to put the later, and as I was writing it down, I wrote the earlier without even noticing. It was rather wierd. Then it hit me, we ask our investigaotrs to ask a specific question to get a specific answer.. such as, is jo smith a prophet, that way they they get the answer yes. Our question was which was better, which isn't a very specific question.. So we didnt get a specific answer. So we learned our lesson, that everything we teach applys to us as well. We can get wisdom from God, we just have to ask in the right way. So in another prayer we asked specifically and got  a specific answer and during the time presented this date to the investidagotr, the date felt right. So yeah, were learning, little by little, but were defintly learning. 

This applies to eveyone, ''do it right to get the result''. So yeah, were headed to Puno today to play soccer with another zone, so that should be fun, anyways, thats the reason for the short letter. love you all. Stay safe!

-Elder Wright 

Well, things look great!! Me and Elder Chacon work great together. We started with the plan to talk about each lesson after we leave. So far I feel like I've grown a ton. I've realized im pretty much fluent in spanish. Chacon and i make a really good team. We have three with baptism dates already. Neither of us says to much and we recognize the spirit together. 

Jesus, one of our investigators got up and bore his testimony in sacrament. He told everyone Christ was the reason to change and the way to change, then thanked me personally for bringing that to him.

Sandra moved to the jungle.. we think so we'll see about when we'll baptize her. 

The Murillo girls have a date for the 14 pray for it!!! And their mom told us she was talking to Joel about gettig married!! So things are moving along!!!

Sorry for the short letter, love you all!!!

-Elder Wright

Last week together in Cusco.

Goodbye to Elder Conception..

New Comp Elder Chacon!

Cusco Airport w/ Elder Conception

Today at 11:37 AM

Well,this week was carnival... that means every decent person left the area to get away from the indecent... we didn't teach anyone, find anyone, contact anyone... Nothing.

Our streets were filled with the drunk dancers, and the regular old drunks. The dancing they do before they start drinking is cool, and has culture to it... but the purpose of the dancing is to drink... so its sad to see the culture being taken over by the things of the world. They have this tradition, they put up a tree in an open space with lots of gifts hung in the branches.. then they dance around it while they take turns chopping it down with an axe... when it falls, everyone, kids included, run and grab a gift. At least thats what its supposed to be. My comp was telling me that thats how it used to be and it was a good time for everyone... fun for the families and especially the kids. Now, its an excuse to drink. The drunks make it a horrible enviorment for the kids, so they dont really come anymore, and the ones that do, are without the rest of their families. So yeah... Its kinds sad. But they still have that bit of culture before the bad starts and its very cool to see!! 

For my comp's last day, we got to go to Lampa and go to the catacombs!! They weren't really catacombs, more like a sepulchur... they had a little mosselium where they hung bones and skulls and people threw money down there for luck. I still dont like how dark the catholic church is with all its apostacy, but its was cool too see. Observe the Picture where im kissing one of the skulls.. ;) 

Well, its transfers today, my old comp is on his way home, and my new comp is Elder Chacon. Its not official, we haven't gotten our emails with the changes yet, but my old comp called me from Cusco this morning to let me know. Elder Chacon was in my MTC group, so were both pretty new. He's coming here to my area, and yeah... Hes a cool kid, very very good at soccer, and i think we'll have some success to gether. 

Thats about it for the week, I'm happy and healthy

CARNIVAL!

Catacombs in Lampa

Kiss of death!

, and hope everyone is doing well!! 

-Elder Wright

The Work Goes On.....

Well, not much happened this week. We had a companion exchange, so i was with Elder Reyes from Honduras for a couple days. He's a good missionary, says some funny stuff at times, and wants to know everything he can about everyone he meets, especially their little details... but then forgets their names. So had a good time with him.

Our investigators are stalling a bit, baptisms have ben put off, again, but thats how it goes. We keep working and helping them along. One of our investigators really opened up to us this week. She told us that she believed that Jesus and God were sinners as well... we told her that the sacrafice had to be perfect and if Jesus was imperfect, the atonement wouldn't have worked for us.. and we know that it worked so he was obviously perfect. But I think she's really starting to get it all. She's the only one of our investigators that is reading the Book of Mormon like we asked her too. But she's slow to pray about it. We think she might know though. Everyone else was out of town this week.. so we contacted a lot of families.. like 41 families.. most dont live in our area, but the other areas hopefully will get some new families cause we were able to talk to them and give the invitation.

This week is Carnival!! Which means I, as a gringo, have to watch my back and always have a water baloon in my bag, and a water gun on my hip. And look out for the matacholas ( roughly translated means ''killer field/country woman'') They carry around nylon stockings with a rock or fruit in them with a whole bunch of baby powder. Like they do in prisons with a sock and a bar of soap. They call their weapon matacholas as well so its not just the killer field women, but everyone who has one. So yeah they wail on people and they have a certain desire to kill gringos. So this week ill be fighting for my life. Pray for me. Supposedly the drunks get worse as well, really really bad. And im told  they pee everywhere and get in lots of fights. They cant hold their fire water. So yeah, its all a big party!! With lots of dancing and parades! 

Thats about all I got to say this week, hope y'all are well. I love you guys, when you're thinking you dont have time to do your calling, remember who gave you the time you have. I've had to teach this lesson to a lot this week, so I hope my people back home understand it.

 

-Elder Wright

-District-

 

Pancakes!!

Well, not much happened this week. I had some pancakes on the 6th casue i felt like it, as well as a little tres leche cake.

We had  zone conference this past week and got to see president for a day. Its about every 6 weeks we see him. So that was fun. He talked about going through trials and how they make us stronger. Its very true, they make us who we are. So Never bad mouth a challange, cause God is trying ot make you better. 

Our investigators are well, still progressing, and we have some baptism dates set. Pray for them. The most exciting thing is Jesus and his family. He's an alcoholic, and wants to change.  He's proving it to us every day we talk to him. He's one of my favorites here cause he's got a back bone... and his wife has one to match him. He had a trip to Arequipa saturday to deal with famliy emergrencies and would have had to take a car at 4 A.M. to get back for church, which we understood. But his wife tells him that he otta make it to church if we has to take a van, bus, or ass. I almost busted a gut laughing with everyone. Anyway, his family problems were a little more than he anticipated and he's still there.But its all good. He's a stong man. 

I have a dog now.. his name is Milo. He's the dog of a member and always follows us around these days. He's a big dog and its funny to see the reactions of the people when they see the big Gringo and his big dog. Milo gets the other dogs worked up and they always try to fight him, but we calmly tears them apart.. so thats funny to watch. 

So yeah thats about it for this week. I hope to baptize someone this month so were workin on that. Pray for it. The

President Harbertson and wife

Pancakes!

Happy Birthday to me! Tres Leche:)

Our new dog 'MILO"

Lord loves us even when he throws a little hell at us. Its all for our good. 

-Elder Wright