Miracles in Lurín!

Hey all!

This week was wonderful! Learning and growing a ton. Difficulties are what make us grow.

President Richey invited us all to make a list of SMART goals for 2020. I had a ton of fun and learned a ton from the exercise.

Christmas in Peru, you don´t open the presents Christmas morning, you stay up and open them at the stroke of midnight Christmas Eve, right after the huge fireworks show. Then you eat Christmas dinner, at like 1 in the morning. Also, totally would not be legal the kind of stuff they do with their fireworks here.

This week we need prayers that Brucelid can move, that Ali can gain a testimony, that Medalid can get her personal problems worked out.

Love you all! I´ll do better with my journal this week to have more good stories.

This Church is true, and Jesus is our Savior.

Elder Child

Chapter 2

Hey all!

The big news, I got transferred! After almost six months in Nueva Esperanza and four months with Elder Crane, I am now in Lurín, Pachacamac. My new area is a little bit nuts, it´s the biggest in Lima for our mission. We basically have four small towns, but from the town we live in it´s 15-20 minutes to the next one, 30 to the next, and an hour to get to Pucusana. Very different from my very walkable, very urban, home of Nueva Esperanza. We also live an hour away from the stake center, which means that every Tuesday, Saturday, Monday, and occasional Sundays we have two hours of sitting in a combi. Good times.

My new companion is Elder Maza, who is just leaving training, Peruvian, and awesome. We are going to get a ton of work done here. The area is booming, we have tons of awesome people progressing, the members are very warm and welcoming and are AWESOME about participating in the missionary work, and I love the quiet feel of this place.

We live with some members, which is super-duper different. Same house and they feed us too, but we´re looking to move rooms, because it´s a little weird.

Last week in Villa María was awesome.

Love this work!

Elder Child

Summer

Hey family,

For those that aren't aware, summer comes during december down here, and it's quite hot.

We're filming a Christmas video as a zone. It has no purpose whatsoever, they're just funny and we share them with the whole mission during the Multi-zone. At the beginning of this transfer I prophesied that Elder Crane would break a bone, and it just about came true when he took a flying leap off the stage on camera. It's gonna be a great video.

The other day Elder Crane also decided to try his hand at training a rooster. We went to this member's house, and it was totally a cock-fighting den. They had this rooster puppet on a stick and you just swing it at the rooster and it like attacks it. It was actually super cool.

This week's inspiring story is Ana and Pepe. Possibly the poorest house I've visited here, she's a half-blind, uneducated widow living with her middle-aged son, who's sufficiently autistic to not be able to work. They accepted baptismal dates and it was so powerful. Their faith comes from their friend, whom we baptized a couple months ago, because he looks out for them and finds them new apartments when things get rough. So powerful, testimony builder of the power of fellow-shipping and of the power of humbling circumstances humbling people. Alma 32.

Love this work and my Savior :)

Have a great week!

Elder Child

More Miracles

Hey all!

This week was amazing, super fun, tons of amazing experiences, spiritual growth, hard things, good things. For this week´s newsletter, we´re going to highlight a few of the new people we´ve found to teach.

Kadhú is the nephew of a super devout member, 17 years old, understood the first lesson perfectly. His uncle bore a super powerful testimony of the Book of Mormon and the power of attending church, super powerful.

Also we took some paint off the walls. Here´s a fun pic of me after doing that. Sorry I´m kinda out of time :)

Have a great week!

Elder Child

Abish

Hey all! It´s been a good week, but one in which I was a little bit less diligent with my journal, so this email´s going to be a short one. I´m finally gonna put in some pictures though! :)

We had interviews with Pres. Richey, and I had a really good conversation about goals and what I want to achieve in the mission. I sent president that list that I wrote about a few weeks ago, and we decided that if I accomplish all the goals, he´s going to sign my journal with it. That´s pretty sweet

I didn´t eat that cake, but I appreciated it enough to take a picture. It´s literally just three gigantic cookies with frosting and stuff in the middle. Found it in like our equivalent of Wal-Mart.

There was once a Peruvian dog that got a little bit enamored with the missionaries of Nueva Esperanza. It just started being our friend and accompanying us, even after we visited several houses, walked past plenty of food-filled piles of trash, and crossed six lanes of traffic (I mean, it would be six lanes if there, uh, were lanes). We named it Abish, after that sick Anti-Nephi-Lehi woman. After a few hours of proselytizing, Abish left us.

More Miracles!

Hey dearest friends and family,

Here are a few updates from the week:

First and foremost... Mirella got baptized! So, so cool. Powerful experience, the Spirit was so strong, she was super happy. All that after running around for a few minutes trying to find some baptismal pants that were clean and/or dry. That was a little bit interesting. Our ward mission leader wound up running to his house and bringing his old mission pants. The memories.

The new transfer started, my fourth in Nueva Esperanza and third with Elder Crane.

One super cool spiritual moment from the week: not sure how much I´ve talked about how we found Maria, but she´s had several experiences of being up just super late at night and finding solace through prayer or through the Book of Mormon, which has even been what´s helped her get to sleep a couple times. One phrase of this scripture came to my mind during comp study and after going to the Topical Guide I dug up D&C 6:22-23, read it, and it blew my mind how applicable it was.

Also this member was accompanying us and picked up this random ladle in the street, and then Elder Crane and I were like, hey we could use a ladle in our apartment, and we stuffed it in my bag without breaking a stride. Thought you´d appreciate the story :)

Love you all! My parents have more pictures if you want to see stuff.

Elder Child

My Life in Chistes

Hey all!

Thought for this week it´d be fun to do a newsletter of some of the funny moments in my life.

This week we were teaching the first lesson with this older woman, and she was getting super into it, we were excited, till she cut us off so she could go to prayers at the Catholic Church, got a kick out of that.

My comp did this call in FRONT OF some members, contacting a reference, and all we hear is like, Can we visit you sometime? Oh you can´t walk? Oh, you spend a loot of time in the house then. We were dying. Haven´t been able to contact him again.

My zone smashed a cake in my face for my birthday.

Here Halloween is like 50% normal american holiday and 50% people shutting down the holiday because they call it devil worship. I got this handout that was like, say no to Halloween! We worship God, not the devil!

Prayers this week for María, who´s progressing a ton but just found out she´s got lung cancer on top of a million financial problems and rough family situations and kids without work and .... lots of stuff.

Love you all!

Elder Child

Miracles, Episode 23

Hello friends and family,

This week has been wonderful! So many amazing and miraculous things going on. Here are a few of the highlights.

First and foremost... The Primary Program!!! Yesterday we had it and it was absolutely wonderful. I got to play the piano and it was such a privilege. One of the daughters of one of our investigators participated; she gave two articles of faith. Super wonderful. All the little boys had boutonnieres and the girls had flower wreaths, and they got to do solos, since there´s only about 20 kids in the Primary.

Second, a super cool experience with a new investigator. She had been going through a ridiculous number of difficulties with her family and financial situation. One night, she was up at 2 in the morning, on her knees, just begging for an answer, somebody to be put in her life that could help her through what she was going through. A couple days later, we had two extra minutes while we waited for somebody and we were like, let´s go knock that door. And we did. So so cool.

This Church is true! It changes lives. We are so so blessed to live in America, and the Book of Mormon is true. I learned a lot about joy in my personal study this week.

Love you all!

Elder Child

This Week

Hey all!

Few quick highlights:

In an exchange to another area, I had a visit with this member that was 95% blind, 100% deaf, diabetic, and working on reactivating. Super cool. We communicated by writing stuff on a little whiteboard and he would hold it right up to his face and squint, and then respond in something between talking and yelling. He had a testimony and wanted to come back to Sacrament Meeting just to partake of the Sacrament.

We had a sweet activity based on Lehi´s dream. We read the chapter, watched the video, and then went through a maze blindfolded in the dark that Elder Crane and I made in the overflow, of church benches and chairs (the benches move here).

We did a bunch of contacts with the question: What do you want to achieve in life? Strengthened my testimony a lot of the value of the Church in our life. So so cool that we have that much guidance on what the purpose of this life is.

So so grateful for everyone and everything in my life!

Love you all :)

Elder Child

Week the Next

Hey all!

Couple neat stories from the Southern Hemisphere this week.

Our pensionista told us that like a few houses down from his, there had been a death recently, and so we just went for it and knocked some doors like, hey we heard there was a death in the neighborhood, was it this house? And after like four doors we found it, and taught the Plan of Salvation, and it was one of the best lessons me and Elder Crane have taught together. Super powerful, felt the Spirit super strongly.

Immediately after that visit, we walked basically across the street to knock the door of an old investigator, somebody that we'd had one lesson with and never been able to find again. TWO. MONTHS. AGO. We knocked the door this time, and she came out and told us about how she'd read the chapter we'd left her, prayed, and felt super good inside when she did it and wanted to learn more. Miracles happen in missionary work.

Loving my life! Things are super good here. If you want to learn the true meaning of the word stairs, swing by some time. I got you.

Gratefully yours,

Elder Child

Week 16

Hey all!

Sorry about last week...... I promise I´ll do better haha.

Conference was every kind of amazing! I got a ton of questions answered and received a bunch of guidance. If you haven´t been able to watch it, please go do it, it will help with whatever you have going on right now.

My big project of the week: Goals. I recently finished my training (first two transfers), and I figured it was a great time to put some stuff down on paper. I have sets of goals for the mission, and I also have laid out goals for my life, which the goals for the mission are a subset of. I have like a big tree of goals feeding into goals that´re for my whole life. It´s an exercise I´d recommend for all of you. I´m posting my papers in the apartment.

Prayers are felt and appreciated.

Love you all!

Elder Child

Talking to Eli

Hi Family and Friends,

Eli has such limited time on the computer each week, if you haven't guessed. He has 30 minutes to read all his email and respond, then 30 minutes to talk. He and the other missionaries meet at the church and use a member's computer so they are strict on the time. He will stop mid-sentence, both in writing and speaking and say that his time is up. I am grateful he is being obedient.

Last week, he told us about his new favorite fruit, a granadilla. He held one up and showed us.

He then showed me how he hits it on a table and eats the fruit out of the thick skin. He had just gone shopping so he told me what food he purchased for the week: bananas, 2 mangoes, eggs, bleach, "a gigantic head of broccoli", hot dogs, mandarins, a bag of milk (he showed me that one too), 2 soup flavoring packages, green onions, 8-9 tomatoes, and 8-9 apples. He still juggles the oranges and is going to try the soup experiment this week. I asked him is he has enough money. He said that he is doing just fine. So many of the other missionaries waste so much money on junk food, he had left over money at the end of the month. They get their money once a month. He plans for 90-95 soles per week for food and transportation. He said this week he has been doing a pancakes experiment, making them often. He also made scrambled eggs with chopped hot dog in them and topped it with a tomato and an avocado. 

This was all reassuring for me as his mother to hear. The first few weeks out of the MTC were a big learning curve for Eli. He is learning to be an adult, shop for himself and to be a missionary at the same time. He was hungry because he hadn't purchased enough food. Luckily, he gets one good meal per day. They have a pensionista that cooks lunch for them and does their laundry (ok, so I guess he gets broken into adulthood slowly). He is responsible for breakfast and dinner. They can't eat with members because the members would give them their best food and their children might starve. They love the missionaries.

He also told us about talking to his mission president. He asked him how he learned Spanish so well, he has been impressed. Eli told him that his Dad practiced with him before he left. President said, "You have a great dad!" I agree wholeheartedly with that.

Eli and his companion were thrilled with 11 new investigators at church last week, and this week not so many. He just said, "So, we have work to do." He is good friends with his companion and they are goth gringos with red hair!

He loves being in Peru and loves to hear details about what each of his siblings are up to. He hasn't been able to talk to them for almost 2 months because he calls during their school day. I often don't know what time he will call, but need to start checking out one child at a time, so he can see them and they can talk to him.

It is so wonderful to see his face and hear his voice. He is happy and working hard. So many new little cultural differences and experiences are just an adventure to him. We are so proud of him. He loves to get letters, even if he has to speed-read them!

Thanks for all your love and support for our missionary!

Love, Angie

We also finally got pictures from him!

Pictures of Peru!

The Swimming Pool of the Dead

Hey all!

Here's a couple updates really quick.

This morning we visited the largest cemetery in the Americas (which is in Nueva Esperanza), where there's this random swimming pool that happens to be owned by a member, so we have keys.

We need prayers for Justo and Nilda more than anything. Still super-duper desirous for the baptism, it's just her cancer and stuff that's keeping them from coming to church.

I love my life, I'm super blessed to be here. This week was a bit rough for getting to teach lessons, but we're in amazing spirits and working super hard.

We got to go to the beach again, to pick up a bunch of trash in Mormon Helping Hands pinnies, it was sweet.

Love you all! Sorry if I haven't responded to your emails.

Elder Child

Re: Life is Wonderful

Oh bahaha the PS is that a bird did its business on my face and my suit the other day. It's a testament to how the Lord changes people and the Spirit is with the missionaries, because I was just able to laugh it off, no problem. I realized afterwards that that probably wouldn't have happened before my calling as a missionary.

On Mon, Sep 16, 2019 at 5:26 PM Elijah Child <elijah.child@missionary.org> wrote:

Hello my dear friends and family,

This week was amazing. Kinda hard, because we walked a ton (which is mission code for we didn't get to teach a lot), but it's so incredible to be a missionary here and get to serve the Lord.

For this week's newsletter we're going to do some highlights on the people we're teaching. Your prayers are always welcome and appreciated; we see miracles out here and I'm sure tons of it is answers to prayers.

Justo and Nilda are married and progressing a ton. They have super strong testimonies and want to get baptized, they're just being held back because they haven't been to church much, because she's got cancer and it makes life a little nuts. They're so cool, he just takes notes every time we teach him a lesson. The last time we met with them we just talked about how the Book of Mormon could improve their marriage (there had been some struggles) and the Spirit was so so strong.

Mirella, Karol, and Lilu are recent finds, a family, and they're wonderful. Progressing fast (Mirella's been to church TWO SUNDAYS STRAIGHT!), and super great. We're working on getting them to read the BoM and keep receiving lessons.

And looks like we're cutting the list there because time is ridiculous here haha

Love you all! I'm really doing wonderful out here :)

Elder Child

Life is Wonderful

Hello my dear friends and family,

This week was amazing. Kinda hard, because we walked a ton (which is mission code for we didn't get to teach a lot), but it's so incredible to be a missionary here and get to serve the Lord.

For this week's newsletter we're going to do some highlights on the people we're teaching. Your prayers are always welcome and appreciated; we see miracles out here and I'm sure tons of it is answers to prayers.

Justo and Nilda are married and progressing a ton. They have super strong testimonies and want to get baptized, they're just being held back because they haven't been to church much, because she's got cancer and it makes life a little nuts. They're so cool, he just takes notes every time we teach him a lesson. The last time we met with them we just talked about how the Book of Mormon could improve their marriage (there had been some struggles) and the Spirit was so so strong.

Mirella, Karol, and Lilu are recent finds, a family, and they're wonderful. Progressing fast (Mirella's been to church TWO SUNDAYS STRAIGHT!), and super great. We're working on getting them to read the BoM and keep receiving lessons.

And looks like we're cutting the list there because time is ridiculous here haha

Love you all! I'm really doing wonderful out here :)

Elder Child

Crazy and Wonderful

Don´t have a ton of time to write, this week has been amazing. We found 11 new people to teach, which is like huge blessings.

Your Peru momnt of the week is that it´s totally normal to pass construction guys on the street throwing bricks to each other. And not just on the ground either, that´s how they get the bricks from the ground to the third floor scaffolding. Also lots of construction guys are drunk.

Annndddd, time. Church is true! This work is wonderful, amazing, and so so so fun. And hard. And worth it. I love my life and all of you guys!

Elder Child

Libre de virus. www.avast.com

Stake Conference and more blessings

Hey all!

This has been a crazy week, mostly because my new companion is a first-time district leader, first-time trainer, and I´m directing the work here because he doesn´t know where everybody lives and everything. So it´s been pretty new and pretty nuts for both of us.

Stake Conference was this weekend and it was super cool. Tons of amazing talks, the Spirit was so strong. Not going to say that I stayed awake for all of it, but it was great.

Elder Crane is super great. I attached a pic of the baptism of Hermann. Super outta time but my testimony has been strengthened a lot of the gift of tongues and answers to prayer. This church is true!

Love you guys!

Elder Child

Libre de virus. www.avast.com

Visiting Villa El Salvador today for Stake conference

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Seis semanas en la misión!!! Six weeks training with these wonderful missionaries!!!

Transfers

Hey all!

Crazy to think I've been in the mission for two months, yesterday, and in the field for 6 weeks already. Transfers were yesterday, and I've got a new companion, Elder Crane. He's super cool; it's going to be an awesome six weeks. He's doing one of the hardest things in the mission; training a gringo, in an area he just got to, as a first-time district leader.

More importantly, two baptisms! Hermann last Saturday and Rodrigo the week before. Sorry for not writing last week. The baptisms were so so cool. Hermann is this 60ish guy and so wonderful. He's always happy, but I've never seen him happier than the moment when he came out of the font with that gigantic grin on his face. I'd like to relate his story. He was praying for a while to find the true church, because he felt like he'd been looking for a long time. He was praying really fervently one day, and felt like he was going to get his answer. Meanwhile, Elder Felix (previous comp of my last comp) had a feeling during their daily planning that they needed to go to an area they didn't usually go to. They pass ten people on the street, don't feel like they need to contact anyone. Then they both are like, let's go talk to that guy. Sure enough, it was Hermann, he'd just left his house. Before they'd finished the first lesson right there on the street, he was like, I have my answer. This is the Church of God.

No more time, but hope that that story inspires you all to follow your promptings.

Love you guys! The mission is the best, and this Church is true.

Until next week (hopefully),

Elder Child

PS I love getting emails ;)

Villa Maria Zone

To the Work!

I Love My Life

Hey all :)

Let's keep this brief. The mission is absolutely the best. I love being here, even when it's hard and even when we mess up.

Cool story from this week: We taught the second half of a lesson 4, tithing/word of wisdom/fasting, to Herman, a wonderful guy who's so so excited and has an awesome testimony, and it was one of the best lessons I've taught in the mission. I went to teach him tithing, and literally just went and taught me the principle. One of those times where you can't decide whether to laugh or cry, the Spirit's so strong. Then we taught fasting, and he's like, great! I haven't eaten since lunch (we fast lunch to lunch) and I'll start right now.

Inspiration for the week: Hermana Tatafu. A sister missionary who's in my group (it's her first transfer) and in my zone. She's from Tonga, and right now learning English and learning Spanish from her English, and her English is, uh, not wonderful. Here's the thing though: she never stops smiling. At any service project, she'll outwork any three elders, and she's more bold with her contacting than anyone, even though she doesn't understand hardly any Spanish. It's awesome.

Peru moment: here, instead of door-to-door salesmen, there'll just be a dude marching through a neighborhood with a monster of a bullhorn, announcing a deal to buy cell phone plans. Or chicken.

I'm going to have my first baptism! Rodrigo Herrera wants me to do the baptism, an 11-year-old with such a strong testimony. He's wonderful and really wants to follow Christ even though his family is quite inactive.

We built an awesome floor for this service project. Wish I'd had my camera, but you'll have to take my word for it that I deserve "brick-layer-extraordinaire" added to my list of titles.

PLEASE we need your prayers for Luciana to get permission to be baptized from her mother, and for Erick to get work that lets him come to church on Sundays. And while we're at it, prayers are appreciated for Paola, Teresa, Herman, Rodrigo, Lucero, and Reina also.

Love you all :) the pic is a decent overlook of my area.

Elder Child

Miracles and Blessings

Hey all!

Sorry about the last, uh, two weeks. It's a little nuts learning to manage extremely limited computer time.

I love my life! This is such an incredible work, and I'm so blessed to be a part of it. Here are some descriptions of the people that make my life wonderful:

Lucero is a 14-year-old golden (knock on wood) convert. She took the first discussion off a referral from a member. Two days later we go back, and we're like, did you read? Yeah. Did you pray? Yeah. How'd it go? I got my answer; this is the true church. What?!? So cool.

Rodrigo is an 11-year-old who's just wonderful. He has a baptismal date for the 10th of august. He really wants to be baptized and follow Jesus Christ even though his entire family is extreeeemely inactive.

Erick is 20 and here from Venezuela (there are so many Venezuelans here - they're just pouring out of their country as fast as they can). He'd had his spikes in his ears two years, and with just a lesson on the law of chastity, and one very simple question, he was like, sure I'll take them out.

Luciana is an adorable 9-year-old and HERE is where we really need your prayers. She's gone to church for years and lives a lot with her grandma, who is a devout member. When her grandma found out she hadn't been baptized, she called us up, but right now Luciana's mother is quite against the baptism. Her permission is all she lacks to get baptized.

Elder Espinoza is awesome and a very unique. How many professional Ecuadorian soccer players do you know that love chess, rap, and Dragon Ball Z? He's a great trainer and I'm learning a ton from him. Also he'd only read one chapter of the Book of Mormon before leaving; that was all that it took to convince him to serve.

I've had to give four blessings of health now, and let's just say my formal Spanish is a little iffy haha. Your funny Peru moment of the week is that the crosswalk has a little walking man instead of a still image, and he speeds up as the number counts down.

I love this. The Church is true. Jesus Christ lives and can change lives. The gift of tongues is real. Please reach out to someone this week and invite them to come closer to Christ.

Love you all :) Thanks for the prayers

Elder Child

Letter from the Mission President

Dear Child Family,

Sister Richey and I thank you for trusting us with your son.  We are thankful that he is serving in the best mission in the world.  We know that missionaries are called by revelation and that your son is where the Lord wants him to be at this time in his life.  In 3 John 1:4 we read, “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.”  We testify that your son’s service will bring joy to you all and bless the lives of thousands.  We love your son and we will do our best to take care of him.

Sincerely,

President and Hermana Richey

Peru Lima South Mission

The Field

Hi all!

Really out of time, so just a few important things.

I´m in the field! Nueva Esperanza in Villa Maria Triunfo, Lima, if you wanna Google Maps it.

Dogs are everywhere.

I love this work. Like love, love this work. All six hours of it that I´ve done so far haha. It´s going to be way hard, but awesome. The Peruvians are so open to the gospel. The first door we knocked that got opened was this guy named Miguel that was very not interested in having visitors, but when he heard we were representing Jesus Christ, we got like half an hour of deep conversation and the whole first lesson in.

My companion is a professional soccer player from Ecuador.

Buses don´t stop to pick people up, they just slow down a bit. Also they don´t have much suspension, and there were more than a couple inches between me and the chair when we hit some of those speed bumps.

This Church is true! The Gospel can change lives.

Elder Child

Blessed

Hey all!

Since today is the day in between when the Declaration was signed and when it was published, I thought nothing would be more appropriate than sharing some of my experiences via gratitude for our wonderful country. Saturday, we did missionary work outside the CCM, which prompted this discourse.

In America, we don't have bars on our windows, walls on our streets, or spikes on our fences. Our churches don't have prison fences, and our dogs don't live in the streets. We don't sleep above our shops, and we can drink our water. We trust our police, and we have traffic laws. Our most mentally unhealthy live largely in institutions, not roaming the streets. Our cities are clean, and our homes are safe.

I was only out contacting for a couple hours, but it changed my view of the world. I can only imagine how much more it's going to change in the next couple of years. So grateful for my country, my situation, and the fact that I speak English.

As blessed as we are to live in America, it pales in comparison to how blessed we are that the gospel of Jesus Christ was restored to the earth, and I'm learning every day how fortunate I am to be able to share that message full-time.

The gift of tongues is real.

Love you all! I'll have more stories and such once I'm out in the field; classes are very fun to be in but not much fun to email about. Also, I had to repent this week for not doing more as a member to help out the missionaries before I came... and I live in Provo. Give that a bit of thought ;)

Until next week,

Elder Child

Hi fam!

The following is my newsletter I want to send out for the week. I didn't get the list put together before I left, so if you could throw that together using my Google group, the comments on my Instagram post, the list in my Google Keep (you might have to text the people who don't have emails in there, just names, sorry), and the paper from the open house, that would be amazing.

Holy cow!!! I love being a missionary. I've never used any week better in my life. There are no wasted minutes or free time; everything is one crazy flurry of classes, study, classes, meals, exercise, devotionals, lessons, and classes.

I'm in the three-week Spanish program, otherwise known as the MTC for native Spanish speakers, and it's been insane. Almost all of my day, I'm the only English speaker in whatever room I'm in. Scriptures, Preach my Gospel, everything is in Spanish. The first few days were really rough (imagine getting only 60% of all the directions on how to do your laundry, where everything is in the MTC, where we're supposed to go for class, etc). Now, it's a lot better, but I have a long way to go in not too much time.

I love this Gospel!!! On Sunday, we got to hear Elder Holland speak at the devotional for new mission presidents, and holy cow, if you thought he was powerful in General Conference, come to the MTC. Of all the topics he could choose with which to address every MTC in the world and 160ish new mission presidents, he chose the Atonement of Jesus Christ. It was so powerful.

Cool story: when we arrived, it was crazy overcast. Still is, but the first time we spotted the sun was Saturday night, shortly before it set. Then, on Sunday morning, the clouds parted, and the sun was so bright you couldn't look at it. It made me think of the Nephites on Resurrection morning.

My companion is Elder Rojas, whom I am so grateful for, and I've taught him about half of the English he knows. He's a former semi-professional soccer player who has some crazy stories and scars from his mandatory Bolivian military service. He's also been a temple worker and Seminary teacher.

I'm doing really well. This is the place I'm supposed to be and the work I'm supposed to be doing. This Church is true, and I'm so grateful for it.

Until next week! When I have more time I'll figure out how to get pictures off my camera.

Elder Child 

I Made It!

First off, this keyboard is wack.

I`m well, and I`m writing from the Peru MTC. Things are interesting here. Haven`t really started the whole baptism by fire language immersion, but that will probably be in like an hour. All the teachers have said my Spanish is great, but also they only say that after I use my memorized: Tres años de escuela y mi padre habla con fluencia y me ha enseñado mucho spiel, so thinking of things on the fly is going to be a little more difficult.

My companion is Elder Rojas, from Bolivia. I haven`t really talked to him yet, since we`ve been in different places this whole time. He got in at a normal hour this morning; I arrived at about 2 a.m.

I`m the only white person in the 3 week program, and I know more Spanish than any of the other Gringos. The interesting thing I was thinking about is how that means that I am actually the least prepared of anybody for their language program, which is funny. I feel good.

And... apparently this was only supposed to be a quick, two minute email haha. My first real preparation day will be a week from today.

Hope you guys are doing great!

Elder Child