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.