3.1.10

This week was retarded as far as doing work. We were in sullana monday and tuesday for meetings, wednesday we did service all day and didn't get to go out teaching, Thursday my comp went to mira mar and i stayed with elder montes, for 4 baptismal interviews, 3 passed but kenny failed she has to visit with pres. Chippman on saturday, so that kind of sucked and yet again we didn't go out teaching. Friday came and we had a birthday party for a member and we made tacos and cleaned her house. Then afterwards for the first time for the whole week we went out prosalitiyng at 4 p.m. on friday, we went and visited a really cool guy named iban, he was really cool and gave us a huge 3 liter coke and a bunch of food, we taught him a little but some people came in during the lesson and gave him a turkey, then before we left he said something like if you guys need anything at all my door is open and if anyone bothers you, you come to me and i'll take care of it. So we left and didn't think much of it then on saturday morning the we saw some members and they asked us if we were teaching a guy named iban and we were like yeah, and they said their friends (the ones with the turkey) told them that we were teaching him. Well to make a long story short, turns out he’s like the mob boss for talara. Turns out he’s like a vigilante, like batman. But he has killed a lot of people so we won't get to baptize him but he’s pretty cool, hopefully we can get a pic with him this week.

As for baptisms we had 4 set for saturday, one fell through with kenny because she failed her interview, carol and haiti passed and gustavo bailed on us the day of the baptism at 7 in the morning, hopefully we can fix some things with him. But we went ahead and baptized carol and haiti but we sure missed not having gustavo there he’s like the coolest person we've met yet

well thats all for now

2.22.10

This week was so hot, every day had to be at least 105, this is the hottest time of the year in peru. We spent all day wednesday doing service, first we fixed the holes in someone’s roof in the morning and then in the after noon we went and painted a members house and her roof had problems. All the water would pool up and drain into her small house so we took off her roof and raised up one wall and put the roof back on. That was a fun day, especially because we didn't have to put on a tie. We are teaching some triplets right now (me and them have the same b day) and they introduced us to their aunt and cousin and they are way cooler then they are. They asked what church was like and if they could go on sunday which was amazing. Their names are Olga and Haiti so we are excited to teach them. Next week we should baptize Gustavo, who we've been teaching since christmas and we are way pumped to baptize him after all the teaching. He’s 22 and wants to serve a mission in a year too. Carol 15 who is cool too and then there’s Kenny, who is a single mother of a child from the devil, sometimes we have to leave because he’s to dang annoying, every time he sees us he says Mormons and makes the slitting your throat motion and this kids is only 4 years old haha. We got her off alcohol and tea, now we got the baptismal date and we went to talk to her yesterday and she got a nose ring. We flipped because it was ugly and she wants to get more too and a tattoo. Freak i don't know what we're going to do with her, we have to give her a Come to Jesus talk this week and straighten her out if we want to baptize her. So we got our hands full for now, wells thats all for now folks

2.15.10

This week was different, we had a late start on it because we went to sullana for monday and tuesday and had a multi zone conference with the president and his wife, that was cool but took a ton of time and almost all our pday! Then wednesday me and my comp spilt up to baptize people in different cities! My comp went to Mira Mar and baptized two kids in the river and i stayed here in talara to baptize victoria moran. Victoria comes from a part member family that was less active but me and comp had been visiting them since my first week in december trying to activate them with no success. Then two weeks ago the mom and her daughter came, then that night we visited her and they told us victoria wanted to be baptized and we had no idea she wasn't a member so yeah that was cool and a reward for our diligence.

The rest of the week was hard, we had to find new investigators and had now success at all! This was frustrating because we have a goal for 20 baptisms by march 14 and we only have 5, the goal is crazy but so are we. So pray for us and we'll see what the lord wants to happen.

2.8.10

I'm doing good today, as always on the p days, today we aren't doing anything for pday, we had a really big week and are really tired. But have an even bigger one coming up haha. Saturday we met with the pres. and sis chippman, that was cool and we're about to leave for sullana for anther zone conf with them. This week was crazy because it was like 105 friday, so freaking hot and then on saturday it rained for like 12 hrs straight and all the roads were underwater, so we went out prosaliting in our sandals and then the power company turned off the power so nobody would die with all the water that was running into three houses. We didn't have power for a couple days and sunday was fast and testimony meeting, i shared my testimony but there wasn't a microphone so i was half yelling. Then we baptized bryan and angie after wards. That was cool but i messed up on the baptismal prayer 5 times with angie and then she slipped when she was coming up out of the water haha still learning a lot, but bryan was perfect. Then after church we changed closes and went around and helped people put up there roofs up after the rainstorm and get ready for what’s about to come. We have a baptism wednesday in mira mar and in here in talara too and about 5 roofs to fix this week so we'll be busy

elder culp

2.1.10

This week was a roller coaster, It started of really good when we went up to a place called El Alto which is 15 minutes south of mancora, which is the cancun of peru, because we had a reference from missionaries, that a nurse that is living that heard about the church and was really interested. We went up met her, taught 1st, 2nd, third lessons, word of wisdom, tithing, chastity and prayer in 3 hours and committed her to baptism. She was supposed to come down sunday and be baptized but because of her work she couldn't make the trip, it was really cool because of other missionaries and the lord she was already prepared and we just had to ask her to get baptized. The hard part of the week was when president told me i was going to go to tambo grande, a small farming village because he needed to send my comp to chichalyo. I wasn`t down with that at all because i love the area I'm in and me and my trainer just starting to be effect. So i told him i didn't want to go and begged him for anther change. He said he'd think about it and call back sunday so for 2 days we were stressed out and he called back and said it would be fine if we stayed here. I don't think i scored any points with the pres. haha but life is good now. Today we went to this beach, negritos where there are some awesome caves and some crazy religion that worships in this one cave. We went to go take a picture but this crazy fat guy chased us away with a stick.

1.25.10

This week was pretty crazy. We had a rough start to the week because we went to a small farming community a couple hours out of talara, called mira mar. Its like a 1hr car ride but it takes about 2 hours because the roads are covered with sand. Mira Mar was really cool because its straight up farming there. There probably is more donkeys than people there. We talked with a bunch of people that could be baptized but there’s only like 10 members there so its going to be really hard to teach and start up the church over there with out a lot of help from the members. We had some meeting until 9Ñ30 and i was way pumped to go home after a long day but found out we couldn`'t because the cars stop coming at 7 and so me and my comp had to stay the night in a members house and sleep together in the same bed, which really sucked. Then we had to wake up at 5 to go back to talara. The ride back sucked and the rest of our day did too, we were so tired and it made the rest of the week really hard to catch up because we didn`t talk with anybody until thursday afternoon, because we had p day monday, meetings in sullana and went to mira mar.

But yesterday day was sweet, which fixed the crapy week we had. I got my first baptism. We baptized Claudia and i got to do the baptism. It was a train wreck for the most part, but it was awesome too. It was way tight because We never did get her dad`s permission to baptize her, but we asked her if her dad would throw her out of her house and she said no. So we said you wanna go for it and she was like yeah of course. And as far as i know her dad has no clue what happened. But yeah, she was way pumped after the baptism and super happy to finally get baptized.

Its taken three months to experience this and it's been worth the wait to be a part of something like this. All the learning spanish, home sickness and culture shock, started to go away just a bit and a desire to work harder has started to grow. So yeah, it just feels good to have some success and watch somebody grow closer to the savior and feel his love for us.

1.18.10

This week was pretty awesome we had a ton of success and a big pay day for a

ll our work. We met some really cool people and committed 8 people to baptism. Sunday was sweet we had 11 investigators come to church and 8 come to

a baptism after church. A couple people got really excited about baptism and all their fears they had before left and now there ready to get baptized

and give up some things of the world they were having a hard time to get rid of. Next week we could baptize claudia if her dad gives permission and belce if she is in town. Then the next week we could baptize Juan (17) and his mom.

This other family who is really cool but has some issues that we think they

have but we aren`t positive so who knows what will happen with them. Kenny

(22) single mother, Carol(14) and Catey (18) all girls. Then we have Gustavo who doesn`t have a date yet but is way cool. He is definitely one of those people who have been prepared. He’s had a lot of experiences with bad things but never been addicted to drugs and alcohol. And was like i totally agree with the word of wisdom when we taught him about that. Last night we taught him the plan of salvation and he pretty much bore his testimony to us about the church with out even knowing it. Then in church he was telling us that he felt a peace that he'd been searching for and that he knows the church is true. So hopefully he`ll get baptized and even go on mission. We also have anther guy who has been trying to bring the church down for a while, kind of like alma but is starting to listen to us and read the bom. I didn`t think to much about teaching him and that we would go very far with him because he was so bitter. But the next day at church (he’s a chain smoker and heavy drinker by the way) said that he went to light up his first cigarette and choked on it and didn`t have a desire to smoke after that or today (sunday). So hopefully we can help him change and become a happy person again but who knows what will happen. If i have time time next week i’ll write about how we went to a house and cast out evil spirits and witch

craft and what not hahaha. (we actually did do it but i don`t think it was

all to real)