7/4/2011

New address for packages! for letters, just don´t use the name above mine

Yonatan Monzon Puma

(Elder Justin Cox)

Yonatan Monzon Puma

(Elder Jacob Hatch)

Misión Perú Chiclayo

Manuel María Izaga #690 piso3

Chiclayo-Lambayeque

Perú

Hey Everybody!

First off, did dad get the little gift i sent him for his birthday? I totally remembered his birthday and i hope you get the letter and gift.

Well, this week i had a huge shift of my point of view. From the start of this transfer i honestly wanted to be changed. I love Campodonico, but i wanted to get to know a new area, see new faces, etc. So i was a little bummed that i would be staying here, and i was scared out of my mind at the prospect of being co-companion. By the way, my companion had two months exactly when we became companions, and together we have three transfers in the mission, officially the youngest companionship in the mission. Anyway, naturally i was really nervous. And the first few weeks were TOUGH. Every night went by way too fast and i felt like i was just treading water, scrapping through every lesson, and definitely had "second companion syndrome" as casey told me. I didn´t even know it either! I absolutely worshipped how elder orcohuaranga taught, his style, and i was just used to it. When elder insaurralde and i started teaching together it was a struggle, and still is, but not as bad. Obviously because we´re super new, i´m learning spanish, etc. But i´m learning to like a lot of the things my new companion does and i´m finding my own style as well. More than anything these weeks of hardships have made me so grateful for the Lord. I have been humbled in so many ways and been brought to my knees time and time again. My prayers are much more sincere, I´ve begin to recognize His hand in the work so much more, and elder Insaurralde and i are already a lot closer than orco and i were. Looking back, these two weeks have been awesome. We still have tons of work to do with our lessons though. Elder Insaurralde is kind of timid, he doesna´t like talking with people in the streets, knocking doors, etc. And those are things that don´t bother me at all, but i´m not that good at them because orco always contacted people before, so we´re learning more and more every day. Everyone (seriously everyone) we´ve found knocking doors is "conviviente" or living together with someone they´re not married to. It´s really frustrating, because to get married they need what i think is a birth certificate that´s always in the city they´re born in, and they can almost never get them in time for the massive weddings here. We´ve got one couple that looks like it might happen, but her partido de nacimiento is in Lima, so it´ll be tough to get.

Friday officially began the mission Perú Chiclayo! And saturday morning we had a meeting with three zones and president and sister Risso. They are such amazing people, i feel honored just to know them! for the sake of time i won´t explain much about them, but what casey told me is all correct. He told us about hosw he was called as mission president: first of all he got an email from elder holland´s secretary saying elder holland wanted to have a video conference with him. He said that´s when he knew his life was going to change haha. In the video conference elder holland was in his house with his wife walking around in the background and she said hi, etc. Then elder holland whispered "don´t tell anyone, but you´re going to be called to a mission presidency" and he and his wife freaked out. Later pres Uchtdorf had a video conference with him and said it was really comfortable and then all of a sudden he got really serious and said something like "on behalf of the first presidency and the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints and in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, i call you as a mission president" it sounded SO COOL! It was great to meet them. This thursday we have interviews with him, and i´m excited for all that stuff.

Last night we went to visit the Floreano Family, an amazing family who we baptized the father and one daughter. Still the daughter Katia isn´t a member, she´s 17 and never even listened to elder orco and i. She came to church last week though and we taught her earlier this week but she barely even listened. Last night we watched the 20 minute joseph smith movie and after i started asking her questions, the spirit was strong, but she didn´t seem very interested. Then i just felt really strongly to challenge her to be baptized, so i did and she said yes! She has a date for the 17th of July and i´m so excited to work with her and i really think she´ll do it! Her family is the best support i can think of. it´s perfect, and then we just need to baptize her niece, pierinna.

Another cool experience was that we went to visit a member family and when we were knocking on the door two ladies came up to us and called us elder (almost never happens) and long story short they were searching for the bishop´s house to give their father, who is in the hospital, a blessing. They found us and i know we were guided to be there and they were guided to us, it was so cool. We went with them to the hospital which is in our area, and gave their father a blessing. He had a stroke a few days ago and was breathing really shallow, and looked really close to dying. (i know from my experiences in oncology in the hospital) and they just wanted us to give him a blessing of comfort. Elder Insaurralde gave him an amazing blessing and the family felt really good afterwards. Awesome mission experiences.

Mom and dad i´m so so jealous of your trip, it sounded unreal! and casey thanks so much for your letter, i loved it. Have a great week everyone!

Ooh almost forgot, Birthday shoutouts to Maddie Crawley and DAD of course! we changed pensions this week because our old one, hna frida, was too stressed out with work and her kids. So now we´re with hna socorro and her house is like two blocks from our house which is a lot nicer. But i´m still not used to the foods she makes us.. So far, two of three breakfasts have been tuna with potatoes. the first time it was 50% tuna, 50% onions. I downed it all. Oh, and the old pensionista said i´m the first gringo she´s ever had who eats everything she makes! I´ve completely grown up in the eating sense. And i want to say sorry to mom as sincerely as possible for being the worst ungrateful stinky eater ever. I love you mom

Elder Hatch