November 7, 2016

Good times. Not much happened. Traveled a lot. went to Lima. saw Cusco. That was cool. Yah I didnt sleep for like 3 days straight cuz I was hanging with my boys from the MTC. Elder Ruekart, Elder Austin, Elder Bever. So good to see those guys. We had some good times, ate some Mcdonalds, and then on our last night together we were supposed to go eat at some pensions house, but we, us 4 asked, to go eat at Chilis. Hahah so we walked to the mall and had a nice sit down meal. Cusco is basically america its insane. My jaw was dropped the whole time, the plaza there is insane. And the mall is way nicer then Fiesta Mall hahah, but not quite Fashion Square. 

I was getting a little frustrated this week not gonna lie. I saw lots of disobedient Elders that were having tons of success. That was very annoying. Me and my companion are slaving away and aren’t finding results, and these dufuses do whatever they want and get the baptisms.

These thoughts stuck with me all week up until sacrament meeting. No one was in the meeting at the start. like 8 people. and i was so mad, we knocked every door called every person and nothing. Absolutley nothing. Then frank roles in with his family. Frank a while back had to go to Lima for work and we didnt think we would see him again. But he roles in and it was the best thing ever. Then it hit me. I knew why me and my companion were called to Ilave at this time. Since we first talked to Frank, he is now working with leaders to become a member again. We continued meeting with his wife after he went to Lima, and now she is a very strong member in the church, and we are giving there daughter the missionary lessons to be baptized on December 3rd. I was filled with so much joy, I knew our work had been worth something, and none of our efforts were in vain. Felt so good. Anyways lots of good times this week, not much happened. next week is transfers, me and my companion dedicated our fast to stay in Ilave one more transfer, and now we are gonna write our president and ask to stay one more change. We have like a bunch of baptismal dates next month and we really wanna be here to see those people make the steps to baptisms. 

Much Love,
Elder Garfield

October 31, 2016

This week was great. we hit it hard. Missions rule. Its been so cool the changes between me and my companion this past 2 transfers. I have gained alot of patience, and respect for agency. and my companion told me in our little memory journals that you pass around to other missionaries, he said, thanks for teaching me how to be a succseful missionary again. and its true his passion for the work is so awesome now. he always is an amazing artist so he drew me this sick mural of a pitch fork beyonce and dew. ill send a pic of some of it.

Anyways so our numbers got bumped up and the new requirments require alot of work. i think alot of missionaries were upset, but me and my comp just decided to get after it. so we did. and we have encountered some of the most humble, prepared people that dont work on sunday. Which is a miracle because everyone works on sunday. President was truely inspired.

quick recap of some investigators.

Antonio. piece of work in the classes at church, but total saint with us. he can memorize scripture so fast. he pulls out the scripture before we can sometimes. he is bout to get baptized next transfer.

Antony- his progression is insane, and we dont have to baptize the whole family to baptize 12 year olds, new rule in the mission. so he will be baptized soon.

Melissa- oh mellissa, melissa is backing out of baptism cuz she thinks she has to be perfect after baptism. she said,"i really like to sing and dance"... Im thinking, look melissa, if singing and dancing is a sin, i would already be the first one going to hell. she willl understand eventually, not worried.

MAMITA- i love her so much. the pension. the other day we were eating our lunch and she says"ive always had the question why there are so many churches in the USA." oh silly mamita no wonder you are inactive. so we lowkey, without her noticing, gave her lesson 1. she is gonna come to church next sunday i just know it. if she becomes reactived that will be the biggest miracle of my mission hands down. 

At noche misional i taught everyone how to play signs, they were all confused at first, but by the end they were all in love with the game. genius signs.

This week a less active member who we had just started teaching with her family passed away. really sad stuff. i dont want to try and force something on someone when they are weak, but the plan of salvation is so real, and i want this less active fam to remember that.

Anyways im loving it out here in Ilave York. I hope i can be here one more transfer cuz i wanna see the baptism and progress of lots of investigators.. but if i get transfered its all good, the work is all going to the same cause. much love

October 24, 2016

I know everyone says their mission is the best, and aside from the cute mission pride and i went to the best mission in the world, my mission really is the coolest. I dont cook, or do laundry, and on pday im just a tourist. We dont spend time playing soccer or bball on pday cuz we are in the most legit part of the world. serioulsy if you could visit anywhere you in south america as a tourist, it would me my mission. blessed.

It was a great week, very busy, I got the whole entire zone hooked on playing ninja, some people like it so much they do it for there excercise in the morning, lol.

Me and my companion are rocking and rolling, i hope we dont get split up, we have really figured eachother out. We are teaching by the spirit, going hard in the day, but we still laugh harder than anyother companionship. we rule and im way happy about it.

So i was rarely in Ilave this week, I started this week on splits with my zone leader, that was good times, then the yunguyo elders came in that night and we stayed up late and reminisced about good tunes. Elder Flores seemed to know all the songs i was talking about, weird cuz he was on a mission when they came out. genius. I always here sorry by jb and worth it by 5th harmony. worth it is like a mission joke cuz everyone hears it all the time.

So we had a sweet zone confrence, president herrera is raising the bar like crazy, im way excited about it. all our expectations and numbers are way higher. Its all good, and its more motivation. It will really help out city out.

We talked with the mom of the special ed kid bryan, she is way faithful, and she was telling us about how she doesnt do churches cuz she belives God loves all his children equally. I was like, NO WAY, i believe that too, and I am soooo mormon, so you gotta do this church.  Excited to see where it goes.

Also we are working with a 12 year old named anthony, his is marking his scriptures. nothing puts a bigger smile on my face when people follow through with commitments. He was reading about nephi and laman and lemuel, and he had writen in his scrips"be nice to your brothers and sisters". so cool.

So we had interviews and multi zone confrence this week too. Heard from president and his wife and the assistants. good times. way fun to see other elder and sisters. so a while back my companion had a stupid gringo companion that stoll 300 soles from him. well in my companions interview president looks at him and says,"your old companion, in his interview before he went home, wanted to repent, and gave me the 300 soles back". i have never seen my companion so happy, he was saying"repentance is real" in english, all night, and he was saying "Elder.... is my best friend" where as before he was always bagging on this comp.

So we had district confrence(steak confrence) and the assistants and president came. I really got to know president finally, and the assistants. THis confrence was a miracle. a big fat miracle. SO out pensionista, who is the best, old sassy lady, she is basically my mom i can tell her anything. She hasnt gone to church for 6 years, cuz she hates president in ilave. So we told her to come to the confrence. and she came!!! guys that is actually insane. after 6 yeras we were the first elders to get her to come to church. it was the coolest thing. when we went to get her, she acted like she wasnt gonna go, but she had her earings on and her purse ready. hahaha she put on a show, but she knew she was coming. it was so cool. i have never been so happy. .

Later that day we got a suprise visit from the assistants and presidents wife in our room. luckily it was spotless. then hermana herrera saw all my dew cans. and she says "my husband loves this drink, where did you find it". i always knew president was a cool guy. ghaha

Good times, loving this whole mission thing. peace out.

October 17, 2016

This has been a good week. Me and my companion are rocking and rolling , working hard, having fun, but the lame thing is, when I feel like we are peaking we are seeing the least amount of success. We have about 1000 investigators and no one can progress. This city makes it near impossible to go to church, the streets are filled with old ladys selling stuff, and the whole city participates, so no one can ever attend the church. However we had some good peeps this week.

Jason- Jason is 23 and he is too cool for school when he is around his family, but with just us he is way chill. He is the only nonmember of family Lupaca, who are the best people in the whole world. SO he was playing some nerdy computer game, but turns out my companion loves this game, and all of peru loves this game. SO my comp starts giving him tips, and then he agrees to talk to us. I love nerd games for that reason. This kid never talks to us, but the nerd game was the missing link.

Bryan- My heart melted this week. We were knocking a door of a less active, and then a door across the street opened. she said"hi my son is special ed, but he really really wants to be in a religion, all the other churches talk bad about how he was born, and i heard mormons is a good church." he attended church, and we have an appointment with his mom, such a sweet kid.

Antony-12 year old kid, gave us a perfect summary on how nephi killed laban, and now we are teaching his mom. We cant baptize him unless he has a member of his family in the church. lame, but his mom is awesome, but like i said this city makes it impossible to attend.

Antonio- Total loud mouth preacher mode in the gospel principles class, he confuses all the investigators and recent converts, hahah but when we are teaching him he is a saint with sincere desires to be baptized. but seriously you should see it, he puts on a show in the class, the dude can quote the whole bible.

Not much more going on in ilave, just slaving away on that mission grind. Ilave gets roasted, cuz all our zone is in puno. they were all going to this huge market on thursday, we asked to go, but because we are an hour away they said no. they all have fun and we just hit the grind. thats ok, that night we were feeling sorry for ourselves so we each bought a tub of ice cream and watched the Testaments on our mini dvd, in our beds. great night. I see miracles everyday, really everything is a miracle, im realizing that it just depends on how much you are grateful for God in your life. Good times. 

Elder Hatfield

October 14, 2016

Another week down. Killing the game out here in Ilave. This week was just so weird again, our district leader left, and he didnt have a companion, he was working with a mini missionary. Said goodbye to him, and then had to go show the new elders about their new area, which is funny cuz we know nothing about their area. Our district is so spread out. We had a sleepover party with the district leaders, in Puno, and then another sleepover party in Yunguyo with our district. The new elders in our district are great but one of them is a weird mini missionary and the other finishes his mission this transfer, so once again that area is gonna be closed and re opened. A little frustrating but thats ok.

I’m learning more and more of our area everyday. Turns out there were 3 packed wards in Ilave and now there is only 1 with 30 people that show up. We are playing clean up, this area had some serious problems with disobedient missionaries and corrupt leaders. Starting from scratch. Its great, we are finally gaining momentum, No baptisms. Agency, I wanna punch agency in the face some times. But it’s part of the plan so I’m rolling with it. I feel like we have so many people so close to baptism, but we can’t seal the deal. This city doesnt really allow for Sabbath day church attendance. Its a bummer. Also we were informed that we can’t baptize 12 year olds unless they have family in the church with them. So all our 12 year old boys we were gonna convert isn’t gonna work unless we baptize their families too. If it works we are gonna bring alot of families to the church which is great. 

If you havent noticed, ive become a little rapped up in the work, I get really stressed sometimes, hahah i take it personally, and if we dont have success i feel really bad. Sounds like my personality. I was getting a little bit numbers obsessed this week, but I had to take a step back and remember that we are here to bring people to Christ not to jack up the numbers of baptisms. I wish my comp got as crazy intense about the work, I’m for sure ocd, but thats ok, I’m ocd in a good cause. Anyways not much teaching this week seriously. We were in our area for maybe 3 days. But missions rule, its way fun and satisfying. Nothing much, go toros. 

Beers, Bands, Battle Star Galactica

This week was frustrating, I’m glad i got to end it with General Conference. It was kind of a fat waste of time, but thats ok. Still smiled and enjoyed it and at least we tried.

This week was the celebration of San Miguel in Llave. The city was absolutley insane. Every store was a beer vendor this week. Every store, internets, clothes, banks, hahah doesn’t matter, it sold beer this week. Everyone in the city was mad partying. The streets were filled with marching bands. They've got like 10,000 marching bands here. So weird. Everyone was dancing and jamming to marching bands and drinking. NO One talked to us.

Also we traveled to Puno twice cuz my companion had a doctors appointment, both times the doctor wasn’t there. Hahaha good times. Anyways. We went on splits this week. The other missionary in my district is not actually a missionary. He is a temporary 3 week mini missionary. So we were working together. Very interesting. I dont know spanish, and he doesnt know much about the mission, but we got it done and had some good success.

Anyways, really not much to tell this week. Last night I were teaching with Eduardo, the 12 year old, when we walked he is jamming to some Snoop Dog. Conference ruled. watched in Spanish but some how got some great notes out of it. I cant wait to watch in English and see if i actually understood. I loved how Thomas S. Monson got up in Priesthood, said obey the word of wisdom, and sat back down. Genius. So genius.  I thought conefrence was great, alot of emphasis on the plan of salvation and the atonement. And thats all we really gotta remember.

Finished the week with some major down poor, because God thought that Llave needed to be baptized after this nasty week of partying. Haahahhaha.  Me and my companion would yell in English " repentance, you all need repentance". Good times.Since the whole city was crazy, we took on a cool service project. We were painting this schoool out in the fields, we were painting a mural. I decided to go with mickey mouse and the gang, and my comp was doing his own artsy thing. Anyways I'll send pics next week, it was pretty cool. Yah nada mas. Good times, looking forward to a week of more success. Peace and blessings.

Elder Hatfield

Week 8....Hello!!

Yah so what a week!

Wow good times. A lot of progress, and a lot of steps backwards, hahaha but we are working hard and that’s what matters. Let me explain this week through people:

1. Sebastiana and Wilber, so last week we got a baptism date with them and this week they dont want to anymore, i have never been so sad. Hahaha they have faith, they believe, they sometimes go to church. But they can’t committ. I walked out of that house and cried the whole way home, I felt pretty dumb for tearing up in the lesson, but i was reminded of an elder holland quote,"this is eternal life at stake!!!" My comp patted me on the back as we trudged home and he said,"bienvenidos a la mission”.

2. Paula. Why cant we all be like Paula. Paula rules. She passed her baptism interview, she comes to every activity with a smile on, she started her personal progress. She is the strongest branch member and she isnt baptized. I’m a big Paula fan. She brought someone to church, a friend named Melissa. I asked Paula how she knows melissa, turns out melissa was someone she met yesterday. Paula is a better missionary than me. What an example!!! We had not taught the word of wisdom yet, and her mom asked us in a lesson,”it's normal to drink, why are Mormons like that??"... Paula turns to her mom,"no its not, our bodies our temples"... BOOOOOOOOMMM. LET’S FREAKING GO!!! Paula was my first person i ever talked to in my whole entire mission, and now she is getting baptized. So happy.

3. Eduardo. Miracles man. Miracles. Eduardo is the coolest 12 year old kid. We have taught him 3 lessons. after the 2nd lesson we gave him a Book of Mormon. We came back to find out that he had read all the way to 1 Nephi Chapter 15. He gave me a perfect account of the tree of life, and Lehi had 4 kids, and Jerusalem was about to get flushed, etc. and he even made tabs for his book of mormon. What a cool kid. He wears this sick Nike jacket, I’m totally jealous.

This work is sad, happy, fun, boring, hard, all of the above, but I love it and I’m having a great time doing it. It’s so awesome to share a message about our brother Jesus Christ, and the more we appreciate the gift of the Atonement, the more we will want to share it. Good times, not much more. no great jokes but a lot of great miracles this week. Peace out!

Much love,

Elder Hatfield

Week 7... Two Months Already?!

Wow 2 months marks today. Crazy. I better start writing my homecoming talk. Hahaha but seriously where has the time gone. Good times.

Last week I pulled a total Dad. Our room was a mess and it was driving me crazy, so i just started chucking crap on the floor, and throwing it away. My comp was confused, but when it was finished he was happy.

Peru rules. You never see them getting in wars or having world problems. It’s just a good peaceful time, and there is always a parade or a party in the streets of Mission Cusco.  Totally heard Its Tricky and Crazy In Love while walking in the street. oh man it took me back, I was holding back dance moves.

Taught my first English class, good times. We learned how to say I want, and I like. I’m basically a pro teacher.

The best joke of Peru is, "Do you participate in any religion.?" ..."No , I am catholic."?????? What? I get that answer about 3 times a day, so funny.

9/11 yesterday, didnt even realize til I went to write in my journal. Missions are weird like that.

We have 4 investigators with a baptism date!!! WOOHHHOOOO. It is so rad, one in particular is pretty awesome. It is the husband and wife, Sebastiana and Wilber. My comp told me they have been saying they want to learn more, and won’t be baptized till at least 2020. Well, we went in teaching the plan of salvation, and I just had so much faith, i was not gonna settle, and I knew the Lord would provide a way for them to say yes finally. So I ask him to be baptized, he says his usual 2020, and then all of a sudden I start quoting some Thomas S Monson quote I read that morning about how you haven’t learned everything of the church until you enter the temple. My study was inspired that morning by the Lord. And next thing you know. Wilber says, YES. Faith is so real. If you wanna see miracles, you will, just be obedient and allign your will with Gods.

Yesterday everything fell through but I read Helamen 10:5. I wanna finish this mission exhausted and tired. My companion wanted to rap it up, and honestly we could’ve, cuz there was nothing to do. But I made him read that scripture, and I dragged him out. Cuz whatever, if we dont have success, at least we know we went hard.

This week we taught honor thy father and mother to an investigator. She started crying because her parents weren’t great to her as a child. We asked her to thank them anyways this week and she would feel better. Well my parents and friends and teachers and leaders weren’t even mean to me, so I would be a hypocrite not to say something. I truely am grateful for examples that taught me the gospel, and prepared me for the mission. This is not braggin of myself because I’m thanking people, but seriously i have felt prepared and ready for this whole mission thing, and its cuz i had so many great peeps in my life.

Anyways Good times in Ilave Peru, Love it here. One last thing, We are all children of God. That has stuck with me hard this week. If we could all just look at a random person, and the first thing we see is a child of God, imagine how great the world would be. Seriously it would be great times. 4 Nephi is the only `peaceful part of the scriptures and it is because there are no "ites". MJ said it best in “It Don’t Matter if Your Black or White. Hahaha we are all children of God and that is just soo cool.

Elder Hatfield

Week 6 What did you gain from the mission... A SKIN INFECTION???

Hello people!

Last week I had a district meeting, and everything went well, (with the 4 of us in our district). All of a sudden this kid, that is being trained, like me, starts packing his bags. What?????? I didn’t think he was being serious, so I was cracking jokes. Turns out it wasn’t a joke. I told him that no duh the mission is hard, but we gotta make it through the next couple of weeks. Anyways I bet him 100 soles he stays. Turns out after an interview with president he is staying. Good roast. I’m the only white English guy of the four of us

Me and Elder Aguilar wrote on our white board Forget yourself and go to work. He wrote above yourself, the name of his girlfriend, and I wrote Lucy, cuz Lucy is always on my mind.

Speaking of Lucy, we taught this awesome recently converted family a lesson, and before we started, this little girl was totally dancing to shake it off, she was 6. Can you say lucy??? Good times. I totally jammed with her.

People are totally placed in front of our path by God. My very first contact in the mission, Paula, has gone to church twice already, and we haven’t even taught her a full lesson yet. So impressive. Also Solidad, a nice lady, literally said, I have been looking for religion. who says that?? idk, but it is not coincidence that we found her.

I had a bible bash. This lady was being so laaaame. I even proved her wrong. Eventually I cut her off and said no more, I know this is true, take it or leave it. There is a reason I am in peru with nice people. I probably would kill someone if i was in the US. I about punched a whole in the wall with that conversation.

Something cool I found in 3 Nephi. In the last days there are gonna be tons of peeps who try and claim to know Jesus, and Jesus will be like, Who are you? We can’t be on that Christ bandwagon. It may not be a number one seed now, but how great is it gonna be to finally have our 16 seed win the championship. I’m taking this cinderella story all the way.

Last but not least. So my face and body are scabby as ever. So gross. We met with the doctor in Puno. and he says uh you probably have some skin infection.  How in the heck. What the heck. Anyways we have another appointment later today. We shall seee. But the skin infection is totally worth it, because when we were in the big city for my appointment, we found a grocery store that was like the US. and guess what? I found DEW. I FOUND ME SOME DEW: Skin infections are totally worth it for some dew. hahahah jk, but my companion was probably so confused. Who is this gringo, that is infected, and now he is freaking out over some soda I never heard of.

Good times. I love you all. Things are looking up. I see Gods hand in my life everyday. Sometimes life is the hard, and honestly there is nothing you can do about it. But you just gotta see the light at the end of the tunnel, because you’re never gonna be permantently sad. much love. Elder Hat

Cusco or Bust! Week 6

 Good times in Peru, I am learning a lot and staying busy. You guys should honestly help the missionaries out in Mesa and invite them over. Cuz honestly nothing is worst then being bored as a missionary. When you are bored you have time to think about how much the mission kind of stinks. But when you are busy and losing yourself in the work and chatting it up with people its a good time and you forget how sad you are.

Finished my time at the MTC, some sad goodbyes to our hermanas, the presidents, and my awesome teachers. I honestly loved the mtc so much, wouldnt give that up for nothing. Anyways we left to cusco and let me tell you the plane ride was beautiful, insane mountains. I'll send pics. We arrived and everyone is just feeling sick with bad headaches hahahaha. We had lunch at presidents misssion home and I chated it up with his cute little daughters about princesses in Spanish. They both love Belle and Sleeping beauty. Spent the night in a hotel with Ruekert and Austin, and then we got trained the next day. At the end of the night we got our companions. Elder Aguilar is mine. Next 12 weeks with him. Cool guy from Lima. Spent that night in the mission office appartment with like 30 elders crashing on the floor. We were talking with the white guys and one of them didnt know what the whip nae nae was. I was shocked. hahahhaha thats how long he had been out. I was like, DUDE its the whip nae nae its totally basic and lame now. hahaha.

Anyways next me and Elder Aguilar left to my first area, Ilave, Puno. It's good times here. We got on a tour bus with a bunch of british people for 8 hours. There was a dvd player so we put on the Restoration. All the British people were so flost and they got a kick out of the love story between Emma and Joseph. Great roast on them.  Got to Ilave and met our Pensionista, and old sassy grandma but so funny. I dont really know what she is saying, in fact I don't really know what anyone says. I  spend alot of time in my own thoughts. Somehow I thought my Spanish turns on during lessons. Teaching by the spirit is a real thing. One night we met a recent convert family, the Lupacas, they were so sweet to me. We went around doing a toast, everyone drinks from the same glass, weird. And I taught them how to say cheers. Then they asked me about Obama, Iraq, Hilary and Trump. It was interesting trying to explain in Spanish. Los dos opsiones son malas. hahahha.  Everyone is fascinated by gringos, they all wanna know about the US, and they all wanna learn english.

Anyways, I had a great Sunday, found out one of our contacts, Paula, actually went to church, and was very interested. There are no coincidences, I know paula will be baptized. Anyways while we were in church, I was so lost, understanding nothing, when all of a sudden this white older couple missionary pulled me out. She didnt know Spanish very well, and needed me to help do family history work. I was able to get this old Peruvian couples information, and now they can do ordinances for their own parents, such a sweet moment. I have never really appreciated family history before cuz ours is so Mormon, but what a great oppurtunity for this couple. Finished the night with a first visit with someone we contacted. her name was Flora. we just got to know her views on religion, and asked her to be baptized. She said yes. I kid you not if you wanted you could get all of Peru baptized, the problem is activitiy and commiting to the church. Good times. Loving it here, it stinks al ot, but you get those happy moments, and you forget all the stinky ones. much love.

Week 5

Hello I have literally nothing new to stay. I’m hanging strong here, tell some good jokes, learn some spanish, feel the Spirit, good times. Sorry I’ve got nothing new. Me and Benito are always hanging out, that’s a fun time. President Moore and Hermana Moore are a good time.  Tomorrow we have the President of the 70 coming to talk to us, we thought it was gonna be an Apostle, cuz apparently Elder Rendland is in the area. But Prez of the 70 is tight too. 

I’m getting nervous to leave, but I’m ready and pumped. It’s really nice to just have all

these dope guys to hang out with all the time. In a week I’m gonna go to bed with one other guy in the room that probably won’t speak English, that is gonna get interesting, but I’m excited. I leave on Tuesday to Cusco, not sure of logistics. Everytime I tell someone I’m going to Cusco, and they know anything about Cusco, they freak out. Hermana Moore calls us the spoiled ones, the missionaries I went on splits with asked if they could serve our mission for us. Everyone is a big fan of Cusco. Way excited about

that. 

Also wanna hear something cool. The scriptures are pretty dang awesome for South American missionaries, cuz it always talks about how one day the Lamanites will except the word of God through the Book of Mormon. I’m one of the people that is helping convert the Lamanites, like literally helping convert them. I’m basically

in the scriptures, you could say I’m a big deal. Good times

I’ve had a pretty big humility theme this week. Our teacher pulled me and Ruekart aside and told us we are great leaders and stuff and that we have really good spanish, and if we continue to be humble, we will be able to do great things. Humility, probably not one of my stronger traits. 

Anyways not much more.  Good Times.

Elder Hatfield

Week 4

Wassup good times this week. Me and Elder Benito Brown are always hanging out. Its pretty dope.  And his companion is my teaching companions buddy, so we all just hang. It’s a great time. My district is still rad. Big fan of them. Last night for our district meeting we decided we would get to know each other better. We played the newly wed game but with companions. Pretty funny. 

I had some pretty real missionary experiences this week. So our teacher, Elder Velasquez, great guy, took us out to the field to naturally practice contacting
investigators. So we are practicing and then he stops us and says,”see those workers over there, they are not members of the church, who will try giving them a quick message and get there information?” Me and Hermana Kelley and Elder Ruekart raised our hands, so we walk over and we talk to this guy. His name was Jimmy, we shared a quick message about how Christ gospel is still on the earth today. We got all his contact information, then we took it to the front office so theycould send missionaries to his house. Haven’t even left the walls of the MTC and I’m doing work. I’m kind of a big deal. Hahah no but really way cool, Peruvians are so nice and are down to listen to anyone. Big fans of these peeps. 

So last Saturday we got to go proselyting with the missionaries of the Lima East mission. Lima east is like a South American New York, it’s way cool to see how many people there were hanging in the street. Me and Elder Austin got put with this cool Peruvian guy and this other Utah Elder. So I’mjust praying I get put with the Peruvian Elder, cuz I wanted to practice my Spanish, and I knew the Utah Elder would just wanna speak English with me. My Spanish was balling. I totally knew what was going on. We knocked a door and we got one guys information, once again, it is amazing how humble these people are. Then we went to a scheduled appointment to a kid who is 17, named Diego.  He was baptized 2 weeks ago. I’m not really sure what you have to do to be baptized, but he didn’t seem like he knew too much about the Book of Mormon. Anyways we get into the lesson, and my companion just stares at me. The only help I’m getting from this guy is the words “Exacto” every time I say something. So I am running solo on this lesson. It was so cool. I asked him what feelings he has had since baptism, he said he was peaceful. I then asked if he was reading the Book of Mormon, he said
no. I then asked what he has been praying for, he said just normal prayers. So I asked him if he would read and pray to build his testimony on the Book of Mormon. I asked him if he had ever received an answer to his prayers, he said no. Then I showed him Galtains 5 22-23. I said those feelings of peace he has had since his baptism was the Holy Ghost telling him this is the truth, and that if he feels those same feelings when asking about the Book of Mormon, he will know its true. I’m pretty good at Spanish, but not that good. The Spirit totally guided my words. Way cool. I hope Go Diego Go can start praying and reading, but good times. 

Also all the Peruvians love to say “freaking” my splits comp asked me what that meant in English, it was very interesting trying to explain. Anyways, Sundays was like the most crazy spiritual day ever, fast and testimony was great. Powerful spirit here at MTC. Not that many great jokes this week, but way cool spiritual experiences. Happy to be here, Cusco is calling my name. Every Elder in Lima East was so jealous when they found out I was going to Cusco, must be a big deal. Much love. Go toros. Peace out.

Didnt realize this was blurry. Whoops. I was rockin the sweater  suit combo.

Me, Bennett, Elder Kenney, and Elder Ruekart. Good peeps

DISTRICT

Vball Action Shots

Me and Bennito getting it done.

Saying goodbye to some of the older kids
leaving before us.  This is Elder Halls.

Well same old same old. Today is like the best day ever. I woke up studied a little, we were the first to breakfast, and I hung out with bennett for a little. That was sick, I feel bad, that first couple of days blows, then I got to play some intense vball, and now I am emailing some good peeps. I had some pretty sweet scripture study this week. I would have like random questions that our district would talk about, and then I would just start reading my scriptures from wherever I left off and there would be like clear answers to the questions, it was so crazy, God answers our questions with the scriptures, it was jaw dropping cool. One night me and my district were talking about temple and plan of salvation, and me and Hermana Kelley and Elder Ruekart from mesa were trying to find some scriptures to find out where the heck Satan gets his power. Later that night we were watching a devotional by Richard g Scott from 2009, and not gonna lie I was bored and falling asleep, and then all of a sudden he said, “You have all been to the temple, Satan´s power is an illusion,and he has no power over those with bodies and priesthood and prayer, Satan only creates fear” My whole district started freaking out. It was a DIRECT answer to our questions. Soooo cool. Another good time was this week was with my fake investigator, every morning and night we teach our teachers in these tiny rooms and we treat them like investigators. I had asked my investigator for the 4th time if he read the Book of Mormon, and for the 4th time he said no. I responded “En Serio!!!!” me and my fake investigator died laughing and I could not hold it back the rest of the lesson. Also I am switching companions for teaching. Me and Elder Ruekart are now teaching companions, so I live with Elder Austin, but I study plan and teach with Elder Ruekart. Kinda funny. But im pretty happy cuz Ruekart speaks way better Spanish, and Elder Austin and Ruekarts companion are similar levels. We are all pretty tight so it should be good. So far our lessons have been sweet. Anyways, it is a good time out here. Im pumped to see bennett, familiar faces are nice. Me and Elder Ruekart both had friends coming that are going to Arequipa, so we sprinted into there room and hugged them. Great week, Spanish rules, Church is true. It is getting to be the same old same old, but me and my district laugh a lot and have way good times.

Week 2, all the days are getting mushed together so i really cant tell what happened each day but ill try to explain some good jokes and cool things. Last week we went to the Lima temple. It was so tiny, like we stayed in one room the whole time, and it fit like 25 people in it. It was so tiny, and beautiful. Everything was in English, but we did everything in spanish. Super cool stuff. Later that night we were all kind of exhausted, so during daily planning we were all just chilling and laughing, because in the mission daily planning is a big deal, but we really don’t have much to do during daily planning at the mtc. Turns out one of our teachers was watching us through the window the whole time, we got a little grilled for that the next day. There is this one latino elder, he is like my best friend. He goes around yelling , GO TO SLEEP. He cant say his s very good so it sounds like GO TO LEEP. That kid is 90 percent of the reason my spanish is good. I have late night chats with him every night. Last night he tried to convince me that he had a girl friend that he just met at the mtc. Hahahhaha this kid is so funny. There is also another latino that just yells, donde esta mis gringos. He is pretty funny too. My favorite time of day is meals, cuz we just sit next to latinos and we chat, and they are so funny. We are getting to the point where we laugh at things that really aren’t that funny. But we laugh so hard them. One of the teachers here asked me where I was from and I said Mesa, and she said, wait really.. turns out she had served her mission in mesa, and her areas were on like lindsey and mckellips. We totally reminisced about los favs and tia rosas. That was pretty cool. Apparently the Peruvian first lady visited the mtc. So perus michelle Obama was all up in our business. I never saw her, but still awesome. They opened up the bball courts this week. It was not very fun. The diameter of the rims are tiny, and the hoops were slanted, and the court was slippery, but it felt good not look uncoordinated like I do in soccer. I look so dumb when I play soccer. Probably one of my coolest homies here in the mtc is Elder Ruekart, we were talking about dogs, and I was talking about penni cuz penni rules. And Then Ruekart says, my dog was a shitzu named dodeger. I freaked out. I KNOW A SHITZU NAMED DODGER. Pretty funny coincidence. Elder Bever is also one of my favorites. He is like half the jokes in our district. Every time something goes wrong, everyone gets mad at Bever. He takes it like a champ. Me and my companion have been killing our fake investigator lessons. I talk 95 percent of the time because my companion seriously struggles with the language. He works so stinkin hard but nothing is cliquing yet. He has got a lot of faith and patience, and he gets better everytime. I have gotten to the point where I just look at him and make him say something during the lessons. Cant get better if you don’t try. Sunday was pretty cool. We had an awesome atonement lesson from the prez, and then we watched a david a Bednar mtc devotional. It was so cool. He was talking about the question, how do I know if it’s the holy ghost is telling me , or just my own thoughts. He quickly responded, QUIT worrying about it, be a good boy and the lord will make it happen. Later that night the choir sang Armys of helamans mashed with called to serve. I had chills everywhere. Anyways I am loving it here, Its totally good times. Love the people I get to hang with, and love learning and doing work. Good times. Keep it real.

Me and Elder Austin at the MTC

The District doing some work!

Classic sitting in classrooms

Class heel clicking with my companion

This is the GO TO SLEEP Elder, he is my homie

BALL SO HARD!

I'm a photographer!

First Letter

Hola familia! Whats going on. So i am gonna type out a general outline of the week, and then respond to the emails, just to save time. Wow what a week. It has seriously been so fun. Chicken and Rice and Potatoes is sooooo true. Every meal, followed by icecream. I really like it though. Its seriously good, its just constipation on a plate. Anyways this week has been way awesome, and cool. There is about 120 people here most of them are latinos. They separated us by mission for districts. So my district is all guys going to Cusco, and 2 hermanas, one of them is hermana Kelly from mesa az. She was my first friend in the airport after the sad goodbyes. Anyways, there is like the perfect amount of people here. Enough people to meet new posse, but small enough to have good buddies. My district is sooo cool. I love them all, and that’s not just me being a happy missionary, we are seriously awesome. I feel like I have known these people for years, its funny how a week altogether can do that to you. I will tell some funny stories through some people in the district. Elder Haws is tyler haws third cousin, hahahh I asked him. He is a classic self righteous guy from Utah, but he is cool. So elder haws is incharge of the music every night in our dorm, and he starts play some symphony by David Arculetta. Next thing you know, I hear the song Beautiful by Christina Aguilerra, but sung by David Arculetta. HAhahaha I lost. I quickly asked if he had any beyonce or MJ songs, but sung by Arculetta. Apparently if David Arculleta sings it, its all good. Hahaha. Elder Coil. Elder coil is your classic hick boy, God, Family, Football. So one day I destroy my knee playing soccer, and Elder Coil of all people, whips out this big kit of Doteras. He loves Doteras. our whole dorm roasts him and calls him the witch doctor… Also Elder Coil has a promise ring, and another kid in my district has a promise ring. Remember when me and Dalllin spread the rumor about zach and Kacey…. Well its like that, but not a joke. Hahahhahhaha. Elder Ruekart is my main man. He is probably my best posse here, we are both pretty good at the language and we both got companions that aren’t that great at it. It was meant to be. Elder Austin is my awesome companion. He is like a less awesome version of Wilson. Because no one will ever beat Wilson. But I love this guy. He struggles with the language, but I have never seen anyone try so hard. He is short, optimistic and always trying hard. Just like Wilson. Glad he is mi compenero. Elder Bever. Elder Bever is the best, I can make good jokes to him, and not get dirty looks. One day we were having an intense argument about seahawks and cardinals, He is from Portland, day one seahawks, not bandwagon. We started getting loud, and everyone thought we were so mad and told us to chill. We quickly told them that’s just what you do when you talk sports, we weren’t mad. Honestly I love it here, the only complaint I had is BAD TAKES. But there is none of that with the people I see everyday. Some kids are just so obnoxious with there answers to question. But our district roasts them, we call them spiritual show offs. David A Bednar once said the doctrine is simple. Anyways other funny things, I survived my first earthquake, apparently it was like a 5.4 but it was in the middle of the ocean. I saw Jackson Davis!! And Peter Stratford, my favorite person ever. Peter was right before I left in the airport. But Jackson was so random. I was sitting in my class learning Spanish, and all the HEFY kids are walking through. All of a sudden I see Cole Crum and Jackson Davis, I gave them a big hug, but it totally shook me up. Hahah I didn’t know what to do. Alright just to end we had an amazing experience as a district last night. We had a very long day, filled with Spanish, Interpol, and studying, and service. Everyone was tired and we walked into our classroom to have a district meeting, which is usually just good jokes and chilling, even though its supposed to be spiritiual. But all of a sudden the wife of the president of the MtC walks in. So everyone turns on best behavior. The spirit was so strong. We were all talking about what it means to represent Christ. And Hermana Kelly told us about her dads conversion. And everyone was testifying of Christ love. There was not a dry eye in the district. It was so amazing. If there is one thing I have learned this week it is Christs Love, as we come closer to Christ, and as I represent Christ its all about love. Love is what Christ gave, taught, and was. I feel that love everyday. Everytime I read the scriptures I truly feel Christ with me. I have read so many inspiring things, that are so applicable to my life, from Patriarchal blessing, to Duet 31. 6 through 8. And so much more. Christ loves us all. Anyways, having a good time. Miss you all. Good times. Keep it real. Elder Hat

I Survived!

After lots of tears and hugs Elder Hatfield was on his way! Received this email the next day: Hey Hey Hey! I made it here in Lima Peru. I met up with about 8 missionaries going to Atlanta that was reassuring. I always imagined that day sad and lonely. But I settled in quite fast. Also I ran into Peter Stratford, hahahahhaha that kid is perfect. Got off the plane, booked it to our next flight only to be greeted by like 40 other missionaries going to peru. I sat by this kid from Arkansas, nice guy. He liked to chat. And this cool sister sat in front of us from Salt Lake. Anyways, I watched Zootopia over this kids shoulder, and played some sudoku. Good times. Rolled in late 3 am, met up with all the Cusco Missionaries that just arrived, and we all room together. Just barely got my missionary tag. I am official. I am learning to laugh at bad jokes. You gotta embrace the nerds, because we are all kind of nerds here. Anyways that takes me to this point. I had tons of company, It has been a fun last 24 hours. Much Love, (Officially Elder Hatfield)