email.from 12-19

Well Hello Everyone!

first things first.... MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!! I HOPE YOU ALL ENJOY THE SEASON OF THE BIRTH OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOR JESUCRISTO! NEVER FORGET WHAT ENORMOUS BLESSINGS WE HAVE BECAUSE OF HIM, IF YOU THINK ABOUT THE GOSPLE THERE IS NO OTHER WAY IN WHCIH WE CAN BE SAVED AND RETURN TO LIVE WITH OUT FATHER ABOVE, NONE!!!!

This week has been really good and really frustrating all at the same time!!!

we have the baptism of the 2 twins this week on wednesday and we are so so so excited! we cant wait to finally have some success in the hardest area in the mission so far, but we never give up and never stop working so that we can bring people unto christ! Well the two twins passes the baptism interveiws this week and everthing is all ready for the service this week!!!! pray for them and for us so that everything continues to go well and that we will keep them successful this week....

we get to change rooms this 28th of december and we are going to make a contract with the new land lady so that we can upgrade rom the room that we have right now because it is quite the humble living haha but none the less we are all excited for that one!

This week for christmas we will be going to a multizone conference in Talara, which is 3 hours from here, it should be a good time, we get to sing some spanish carols and eat some good food and then return to work so not a big deal! haha

another thing really cool that happened this week is that i got to go to Lima with the other North American elders in the mission! it was awesome we went on a little mini vacation! So we left here in Zarumilla wednesday in the morning and elder frame and i took the 6 hour bus ride to Piura together so that we could at least have some kind of company for the long ride. never before have i felt motion sickness but for some reason on this bus i was not feeling well, i think its because it was really bumpy the entire 6 hours... but we all servived so dont worry, we flew to lima that night at 9 and got into lima at 10 30... we were shuttled to a hotel and it was really nice! we finally got a hot shower!!!! THE HOT SHOWER WAS ONE OF THE BEST THINGS EVER!!!!! we shopped for a bit and mosied around till bed time, it was really cool, there were 9 of us elders and we all were having a blast just relaxing in the hotel talking. The next morning it was business as usual. we were up at 6 and ready to leave the hotel by 7.

Well i brought this little carry on bag so that i could haul around all the stuff for me and elder frame, when we were leaving the hotel non of the other elders really could communicate well with the manager and we needed to sign all the receipts for the hotel and so i was stuck talking to him for a while, finally we got it all worked out and while i was talking all the other elders had loaded up in the bus to take us to the immigration headquarters... they were calling me to hurry and i took off and grabbed my back pack and forget my bag at the hotel... when i got to the immigration i remembered i didnt have my bag and was so worried because it had my wallet and journal and all kinds of important things! talked to the Hermana who was our guide and she called the hotel and informed me that someone had my bag and would have it ready at the airport when we got to the lima airport to leave. so i wasnt worried anymore.

Immigration was not the greatest thing in the world it was litterally six hours of sitting in this little building hearing a bunch of angry peruvians argue random documnent points and make our wait a lot longer but thats all good thats why we have pacientce! haha we were waiting all day and didnt get breakfast so everyone was a little on edge when we were there! elder frame and i deceided to make the best of our time and read the scriptures together in spanish and spoke to some interesting people about the gosple! its amazing people have never heard about jose smith or the restauration!

we got all the paper work done after about 3 hours of line after line and then we went and sat in another waiting room for 3 more hours so that we could get our dni... which is basically a peruvian id, so ya you know that i am a leagalized peruvian citizen right now!!! haha i sent out a group of pictures of about 8 or so, so i hope you all get them!!!

well finally the day was over at interpol and we got to go to McDonalds!!!!!!!!!!!!! i forgot all about fast food here because people where i am at dont even know what mcdonalds is so that just goes to show how cool it was for us to go! we were all pretty excited! its not really the same here, they dont ahve chicken nuggets they are chicken feet but you get the jist its close enough!

then we got to go to the Lima temple for about 15 minutes and take some pictures and look around before having to leave for the airport, thats always a great experience! the temple is so beautiful inside and out! if you arent going to the temple know you should be!!!! got at least once a week!!!!! i promise you will receive blessing from the lord! after that we all got shuttled quite quickly to the airport and got unloaded so that we could prepare for our flight and get all our stuff done, we got to the airport at about 4pm our flight was scheduled to leave at 5.20 and board at 5...

i thought with an hour i had plenty of time to wait for the driver to bring my bag, to shorten the story, between a crazy anount of phone calls and 45 minutes later at 445... i was freaking out because time was short and we hadnt had any sign of the driver with the badg... we deceided to say a prayer and all got together and offered up a sincere pray to get the bag there in time. the other elders couldnt miss the flight and deceided they needed to leave to board the plane and if the bag didnt come i would miss the flight and call the president to get on the next flight to piura, being as we always needed a comp; elder christensen took the bullet and said he would miss the flight with me!! but we were going to need to miss the flight, because we had said a prayer and we had faith enough to move mountains... elder farmer told me the plane was leaing at 520 and if i wasnt on it by then call the president and wait for him... i began to run all up and down the car pool lanes watching and shouting for the driver!!!! i was so worried, this bag had all of my valuables! i couldnt leave it in lima.... at 525 i was felt so empty in my stomach, i was going to miss the plane, but my faith was still strong!!! i ran over in a corner of the parking lot and got down on my knees in front of everyone! i didnt care who was watching!!! i needed to plead to my lord above and thats what i did... in the exact instant that i said the word amen, i heard the voice of someone shout "elder!!!" i looked up and saw an older senor running with my bag in the back of the parking loit... this was at 530... i ran and grabbed it and thanked him and yelled for elder christensen who had just gone to tell the president we missed the flight... i yelled "elder i got it run!!!" we took off jumping over people and carts and trying not to hurt anyone! the escalater was full so we sprinted up the stairs.... at this time it was 535... the plane should be gone, but i knew the lord was testing my faith...

elder christensen and i took off running as fast as we could through all these people! we showed our tickets at the main gate and then had to go through security but i didnt have time for security and was thinking if i hopped the lines i could sprint to the boarding door and explain there, so thats what i deceided to do, i jumped the line ropes at sercurity and was to my suprise promptly tackled by a security officer! haha it didnt work to say the least, i explained the problem and they rushed me throught the line i literally stripped everything with metal as fast as i could! and ran through the scanner! after that i dressed with my blet and jsut grabbed my stuff and took off for the protal, gate 14... i got to the door as soon as they were shutting it, at this point i was sweating perfusly and looked like a beaten train wreck and was out of breath and just said, "pro favor, yo necesito hacer ese aveon." which means, please i need to make this plane, she let me through and i ran down the stairs onto the deck for the plane, when i turned the corner, i see elder frame stalling the entire crew trying to keep the door open as long as he could, because like me, he had faith i would come. faith is all you need! haha I MADE THE FLIGHT! there is no way it should have been there, it was 545, 25 minutes after departure time! the lord was looking out for me. i walked onto the plain with numbness all over my boy just exauhsted emotionally and physically. throught my hands in the air and smiled... i was greeted by 7 other smiling elders all happy to see me. the other passengers could see and it was apparent the struggle i had just overcome!

i sat down in my seat and with an overwhelming rush of emotions let out a silent prayer accompanied by a few small tears, the lord had promised me if i was faithful and endured to the end i would make that flight. when 15 minutes after the time the plane should have been gone, i had faith, when running through the lima international airport i had faith! everything was going to work out, the lord was testing me and my faith and i had passed. i was confiedent in my lord and savior jesus christ and my eternal heavenly father! i offered one of the most sincere and thankful prayers in my life and knew he was listening saying to me... "congrats my son, i am proud of you."

the lord will always test us, in ways that may be strange or we may not understand, but if we are faithful we will always receive the blessings he promises and we will be successful, as the lords sacred witness and servant, i know this church is true! without a doubt in my mind jesus is the christ! the atonment really happened! we are sons and daughters of our father above and he loves us! i know the book of mormon is true! there is no other way in which we can have the plenitud of the restaured gosple than through the prophet jose smith! this is the work of my master jesucristo! i spend everyday trying to share this joy with other people and it is the greatest life anyone could ever live.. we experience daily miracles in our lives, at times we are blinded to look for them but they are always there and we will always be protected! this is the devine kingdom of god, i know this without doubt and would die to share this message... this church is true, nothing else....

well i cant think of anything else and i am out of time so i love you all remember the truth of this gospel!

Romans 5:"