A Good Week

The Elder Holland conference was so good!!!  I loved it. The trip there and back was ugly but worth it. Haha so crazy to see him in person. 

The baptism was very good, I can't upload pictures but I will next week. Our mission leader baptized Erick (he's his neighbor) it was really good. Nice attendance, his less active dad came,(we visited the family last night) the quorum bought him a birthday cake, and there was hot chocolate. He was so happy to be baptized, and then confirmed Sunday. I gave him one of my white shirts as a gift.  He's going to EFY this week so we're not going to visit him. 

So we have a new investigator Juan Carlos, he's super cool,  We talked and gave him some counsel and we got an appointment to come back. We brought the family the proclamation and he loved it!!!!!!!!!!!!  He understood it so well. He wants to apply it in his family, he went on vacation this week but he comes back in March. Were excited to help out that family.

When I was in Cusco I found the elders from my branch in Puerto Maldonado. I got a letter from my penisionista, shes going to get married!!!!!! I'm so happy, she wants me to come , but I probably won't be able to.  I sent letters to people in Puerto it was nice to do that. Have a little blast from the past.

Hope all is well; have fun in your calling, hey my pensionista here Shirley asked me what my house is like. Could you send pictures of like the living room kitchen and outside, she wants to see what California is like.

love,

Elder Wilde

Elder Holland is Coming to Cusco

Hey Dad.  thanks for the letter, it made me happy to read all the good news from home. I'm saddened to hear about (the passing of)  Merl (Ward), he was a real good guy. 

Elder Holland comes on Saturday (2/20). We're traveling Friday at midnight the Zone Leaders won't be there, so I'm in charge pretty much. The two zones from Puno are traveling on the same bus. It's a big logistic operation to bring the WHOLE mission to Cusco and get them out the same day.  A sister from my district in Abancay got a transfer to my ward here in Puno to finish. But it is not my district.  It'll be funny see someone 'die' (finish their mission).    

I'm still getting up on time or even early, but I've slacked on my exercises, next transfer I'm going to buy the dumb bells, if you approve the idea.     

WHAAAAAAAAATTTTTT!!!!!! we can park in the garage???  Wow the world sure is changing while I'm gone. You guys stored my weights, haha just lend them to Dad to use.    Keep up the good work so that I don't recognize the house when I get home.   

About the baptism it got postponed till Thursday because the mom (who is super Catholic) said she wanted to see it and was busy Monday night, so we changed it to her free day. We hope it will be super good and that'll be a shoe in the door for the family, the dad is inactive for years. we're pretty excited for this. I was really clear with the Ward Council, I said everyone that is here in this room needs to be there and Sunday we made fliers and passed them out,   

The other investigator is progressing well, she really likes the Book of Mormon and wants to be baptized but wants more time so she has a date for the end of March. The other elders in my District have a lady Martha that they're going to baptize Feb 27. I'm going to interview her this week.  

The work is progressing good here in Puno,   Take care in good ol CP

Love,

Elder Wilde

It's Been a Year

Yeah I was thinking about Grampy also (who passed away a year ago),  I'ts crazy how time flies, it's good your going to go do all the temple work for him. Death has no bite. I remember when Oliver's dad in Puerto Maldonado died in the jungle and he found the comfort in the Plan of Salvation. I heard the missionaries are teaching his mom. that made me happy.

I did divisions with Elder Melo, he told me where he was from but I forgot it's close to Bogota. but ready for this. HE MET ELDER MARRIOTT IN LIMA!!!  They were pretty good friends he said, its crazy how small the world is.  Elder Melo is a good kid. He gets up on time with me,  to do exercises in the room, because the Zone Leaders said we can't go to the gym anymore. I was really bummed, now I'm back to push ups. No more bench press or anything cool.  I'm thinking about buying weights to have in the room, I just 20 kilos, i'll probably spend about 140 soles,  a good investment, what do you think? I'll probably just sell them to another Elder when I finish.  

Christian is doing good.  We taught his grandpa. He has a bunch of Bible questions and that's when seminary comes handy answering his questions. I answered his Bible questions then I asked him if he wanted to know if the Church was true. he said Sí (yes) so I asked what he was doing to get that answer he didn't respond because he knew he wasn't doing anything. All he said was 'una buena pregunta hermano lider'  (a good question brother leader) and tried to change the subject. He said "admiro su inteligencia herman lider" (I admire your intelligence brother leader).  He calls me hermano lider  cause he somehow found out I was District Leader.  I don't know how but its pretty funny when he says that stuff.    

Hey!!  The week sounded pretty fun, I was looking at the pictures I had from the birthdays in 2015, Nah its fine about the money. I don't know why they charged that, it wasn't too big. Thanks for the belt its super cool. Wow, road show,  I remember those days and completely understand why Mary didn't want to do it, cause I didn't want to either haha.

The biggest news this week, is that our investigator Erick passed his baptismal interview yesterday!!!!!!!!!!!!!   Were all super happy for his baptism the 15th. Our other investigator Lizbeth went to Arequipa for a month so we'll see what happens in March.

Yesterday we had a surprise visit of two couple missionaries Elder and Hermana Poulsen,(they replaced the Johnsons),  We had a big meeting in our chapel for about 3 hours where members could come in and get family history help. At first I was just translating, but so many people came that, I just worked at a computer helping people fill in their family trees (cause I knew how to use the system).  It was fun to help the people. It's hard because the census here hasn't existed for too long. They mostly work with memory from their relatives.  I suggested to some to go to the little villages, and look in the Catholic churches for baptismal records to get names of ancestors. Their gonna go do it.   

Oh and another small thing, my bag strap broke the other day when I was walking, so in the next package you could send me the same bag strap. I'm just using my bag in fanny pack mode, or in my hand.  I'll be fine I won't die, it's just more convenient.  Elder Augat said there is a lady in Salt Lake that travels to Peru and has a business to bring packages for missionaries, maybe you could look into that for the future I heard its faster..   

I'm doing good.  Thanks for everything all the packages and letters

love

Elder Wilde

The Sabbath Day

This email is from last week 2/1

hey mom!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOMORROW!!!!! (2/2)

so to answer that question only 1 investigator came to church this week, his name is Erick, he has a baptismal date for the 15th (his 18th bday).   This week we had a combined meeting with another ward Inca Pachacutec, the church was full!!!  We counted 270 people, it was crazy. Yeh it was a special conference from the stake presidency, they only talked about the Sabbath day, and how to honor it better. It was really good.  I liked it a lot. 

                                        The pics are from setting up the chairs Saturday night,  

                                                       then Sunday in Sacrament Meeting. 

Okay here is a good story, so most the time when the zone leaders call me its some form of bad news, por ejemplo, emergency transfer travel to Cusco tomorrow, emergency zone meeting, etc etc, and they called me and said Elder Wilde Cusco just called you got to pay 16 soles' i started to flip out and i asked why? Elder Flores said, ' a giant package showed up for you in Cusco and you have to pay the overweight.'  I GOT SO HAPPY and at that point I don't care about 16 soles, cause I'm getting a package from cuscotopia this week!!!!!!!

Some good investigator news,  we have a new investigator named Christian he's 14 years old but super mature. He filled out an internet survey and I got a notification in my email with all his info, we went to his house, and we started talking, and he asked me ' hey i asked for a book of Mormon can you guys give me one?' he's super cool and wants to learn so much about the church, we have an appointment Wednesday, we'll probably put a baptismal date for him.   

I hope you have a fun birthday and that everyone's happy at home.  I'm doing good here, it's getting a little colder but i'm all right

The work is going good, we are working hard on finding more investigators. We had less this week, because we're working with all the people we've found so there isn't that much time during the week.  Our agendas fill up pretty fast with appointments for the week.  We had less numbers than last week, but not everything is in the numbers.

I'm doing divisions today with the zone leaders, and Wednesday with Elder Melo, he's a pretty cool guy. We go to the gym in my pensions house everyday.

Disneyland sounds fun,  people always ask me about LA and I have to explain that i live pretty far away from there. haha 

Next week for the Candelaria , we're all going to be in the Stake Center for pday, cause the city will be full of drunks. The next pday we're thinking of going to a village outside of Juliaca called Lampa, where there is a little cathedral, full of thousands of skulls and bones, from natives the Spaniards probably killed, its gonna be crazy.

love,

Edler Wilde