Week 82

I'm gonna shorten this email down because I don't have a ton of time. On Wednesday we did exchanges with Elder Halls again so he could interview our investigator. She barely passed, but she ended up getting baptized on Saturday which was good. Her baptism ended up being like 3 hours long because she couldn't decide at first if she really wanted to go through with her decision and so we had to take a member and she had to help us talk to her and then she had to get ready and take a shower and she takes forever to get ready so we ended up starting the baptism at like 7:30 when it was actually scheduled for 5...so that was an adventure. 

On Thursday we had interviews with president. They went well. We talked a lot about the future and what I wanted to do and be. 

Friday was normal as was Saturday. Sunday, we went to San Roque and had a zone attack there. They had taken all of the names of the part-member families and we went with a member to go visit each one of them. It was fun I guess. 

Today we are gonna cook up some hamburgers and idk watch a movie or something. 

We went and worked out with the member in my ward and it was fetching hard. I couldn't move my arms for like 2 days afterwards because we went super hard. I am doing well with the protein and eating a lot healthier so it's going well. But that is about it, I hope next week's email is more exciting.

--

Elder Mortenson

Week 81

We had our multi-zone conference on Thursday. President got there late and while our zone was waiting in the gym for a training he called me over telling me that he hadn't got the chance to say 'hi' to me. So he started talking about how I had asked for permission to go the gym, for like the 3rd time, and how it was against the rules. I told him that I really needed to start preparing to get back and he told me how he wanted to help me out and that was that. Then, when we started eating lunch, he looks at me from across the gym and points to the door out and then leaves waiting for me to follow and we went into a room and chatted about how he had called Blake that morning, ironically. He asked me what I thought about the conversation he had had and what I felt and I expressed to him my concerns and whatnot.  Then, he ended up using Tom Brady as an example for me telling me that if we were going to do this, that I needed to end up being like TB, the very best, and living a life according to the gospel(TB is married and is a better example than the majority) So ya, I now have permission to go the gym that a member owns in our area and work out. Pres. Amato took me yesterday to go buy protein and creatine and its going well. We went to the gym this morning and it was so fetching hard! The gym is a mix of those Power Plate machines that vibrate and weights and medicine balls and I did rope slams and stuff but ya I am super sore so that is a good sign. And then I am going to run the 3 days of the week that I don't go to the gym. 

On Wednesday we did an activity that, unfortunately, was my idea. Haha the sisters cut out some of those "kissing cam" type frame things and we took them to a super busy place and invited people to take pictures there and then offered them informational pamphlets and whatnot from a nearby table. It actually drew the attention of a lot of people, the only setback was that we just felt so dumb holding those things in public so we ended up just giving them to the sisters and they did it while we walked around and contacted. 

On Friday we went to the foot doctor and got our inserts. They are amazing. they are really helping my back and everything out so that is a good sign! 

On Saturday we had a huge Family Home Evening with the whole zone that turned out pretty cool I guess. We invited the family that we are teaching but when we showed up to take them, the husband wasn't home and so we waited. He ended up getting home like 10 minutes later and then had to shower and get ready and everything and we took a taxi and ended up walking in right as they said 'amen' to the closing prayer.... but ya we stayed for the games and refreshments so that's at least something. 

Also on Saturday, we got a call from president telling us that we were going to have emergency transfers! So on Monday, Elder Malca left and I received Elder Guanilo from Trujillo. He is super dope. He finishes his mission this next transfer so it looks like I will end up finishing my mission here in Surquillo as well, which is alright with me! But he came because his foot is messed up and he needed a bike and my area is like a bike-approved area or something so I'm with him. It is cool. 

That's about it this week. I got a package from Joyce Jensen the other week and that was a huge surprise! You'll have to tell her thanks for that. So I don't have a talk for you this week but the challenge is that you can all read 2 Nephi 29, its literally 14 verses so it shouldn't take long. 

#AggieUp

--Elder Mortenson

Week 80

To start this week out on preparation-day we went to KFC and then slept for a while after haha it was awesome. 

On Tuesday we had our district meeting and then I did exchanges with Elder Halls in his area so that I could interview one of their investigators, who was this little 9 year old boy. Luckily, he knew the answers to the baptismal questions so it went pretty quickly. I think his mom made him study hahaha. But ya it was pretty fun until the assistant's called us and told us that they were having an emergency leadership council meeting the next morning at 7 A.M. So we ended up waking-up at 5:20 to be able to meet up with our companions and leave. Luckily, we got back to our room at like 6:00 so I got to sleep for another hour. 

On Wednesday we had another English class that actually went pretty well. We had some new Venezuelan dudes show up and they participated a ton and were super funny. One of them raised his hand and said "if pollo in English is chicken, would you say that repollo is rechicken?" and it was super dumb but everybody died because repollo is cabbage. 

On Thursday my companion had an appointment with that foot doctor that I went to see that one time in Miraflores. It was kinda weird going this time though because part of my area is Miraflores and we took 1 bus and got there in like 30 minutes instead of 2 hours like the last time. I had her check my feet out to see what she would say and she tested them on this ink board thing that makes an ink copy of my foot and she told me that I have super high arches and that I'm putting all of the pressure on these bones and whatnot so she convinced me to buy some specially made inserts that are supposed to help. She told me that if I go play football when I get back without them that I'm gonna destroy my feet, so I might buy some latex ones for my cleats. 

While we were there at the doctor Elder Farnsworth and Elder Roberts came and I got to talk to them. They are in La Molina Vieja and so they told me all about the stuff that's going on. They told me that Joyci, the lady I baptized, and Liliana, the lady that got baptized my first week when I got there, had a huge fight. They were best friends when I left but idk what happened exactly but they said that in the middle of Gospel Principles class they were yelling at each other... so I'm kinda sad that I missed seeing that. 

On Friday we had a zone planning session.  Cool and dumb at the same time...

On Saturday we went and did service in Vista Alegre with the elders. Their investigator was moving and so we went and helped him. We had to move everything from the 3rd floor down to the bottom and like a full block away and then up to the 5th floor, it took forever! We moved his washing machine, bed, book case etc. The cool thing was that he is from Boston and so I talked to him a little about that. 

Sunday was a good day. Like everybody that we are teaching came to church. At night we went and visited one of the members that is super dope. He told me that he owns a gym that uses those power plate things that vibrate. He offered to help me get back into shape so I'm asking for permission from president. He said he could hook me up with all of his supplements and vitamins and minerals too. He studied nutrition and whatnot so we will see what he knows and if I can get permission. 

But ya that's it for this week. We have a multi zone conference on Thursday, and then next week we are going to the temple. I still don't know what day but it will be either Tuesday or Wednesday so I will be emailing one of those two days. I heard that there is some Brazilian UFC fighter that is a member of the church so that is cool. The talk of this week was given in the last general conference by Tad R. Callister and it was so boss. Its called God´s Compelling Witness: The Book of Mormon here is the link: 

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2017/10/gods-compelling-witness-the-book-of-mormon?lang=eng

--

Elder Mortenson

Week 79

This week i did the same things that I did the last week and the week before that... but I will tell you about it nonetheless. 

Monday we just slept and cleaned the apartment. It was awesome sleeping for like 3 hours. We also went to Dominoes again with the boyz. 

Tuesday was just a normal day for us because Elder Malca and I stayed together. But ya turns out the mission forgot to contract a second bus. Because the way it works is one bus starts at one end of the mish and another bus at the other end and they drive the opposite ends. But they forgot to get a second one until like 3:30 in the afternoon and so the elders that we share our room with ended up getting back to the room at like 10 because the one arrived at the stake center at like 9:30 and the other had to just sit there and wait all day.

Wednesday was the first English class that we held. We had like 6 people come which was better than none and better than actually like contacting 6 different people. So that was good. We've been handing out tons of flyers still and so I think more people will keep coming, at least I hope so. 

On Thursday we went and did service for the lady that washes our clothes. We painted a room in her house. hahaha the bad thing was that there wasn't much ventilation in the room and so we were breathing a lot of the fumes in....but we did a good job! 

On Friday I did exchanges with Elder Hernandez to go interview their investigator. It was a pretty weird interview.  They are from Venezuela and her husband is a member, he was inactive but they are good now. But anyway I got through the majority of the interview and I asked her, just to make sure, if she was married. And so she said yes but then started telling me that she was only married civilly and didn't want to get married in the church and everything and I was thinking "Why would you not want to get sealed?" and that maybe she was having probs in the marriage but turns out she just didn't understand what it was. It was super funny though because she tried to tell me, after having explained about the sealing keys and the temple and whatnot, that she didn't think it was necessary and that in God´s eyes, her baptism would assure her salvation as a family etc. So I shared D&C 131 and helped her understand so she finally agreed that it was necessary. 

On Saturday we did service again for one of the investigators in Surco. We went and helped her move. It was kinda fun because all of the elders in the zone went but it also sucked because we had to carry her stuff to the seventh floor of the apartment building. 

Got a good fast in on Sunday. Also, we went and talked to our ward mission leader who just got back from vacation in Florida. He is dope and told me that he´s a dental technician which is pretty cool. I talked to him about how I wanted to study Odontology and whatnot so that's cool. He was showing me how he makes the molds and rebuilds the teeth and whatnot it was interesting. I was wondering though, do you think the dude that Dr. Lambert sent me to so he could match the color of my teeth and the shape for my implant was a dental technician? 

Because that dude was loaded. 

Anyway everything is going great. A sweet talk that I was reading this week was by our Prophet about the Book of Mormon. I'll share the link with you and I hope that you guys read it and ponder the questions that he asks in it! 

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2017/10/the-book-of-mormon-what-would-your-life-be-like-without-it?lang=eng

--

Elder Mortenson

Week 78

Yup the last week of that transfer is down...Another 6 weeks to go with Elder Malca haha, because we are staying together! 

So to start the week out on Monday we went to listen to "the most successful man in Peru". It was a super good speech! He talked about how he started out with nothing and whatnot and how in his mission he read the Book of Mormon and noticed how its main promise is that if we keep the commandments that God will make us to prosper and how that gave him this huge motivation. He talked about why God wants us to be prosperous and gave us tips on how to do things and it was super motivational. 

Practically all of the other days were normal. We started going to this huge park this is right in front of the chapel here and contacting for like 2 hours in the afternoon and it is going well! We found this old lady that ended up coming to church yesterday, which was a surprise. We also found this former investigator that we had dropped because she just didn't want to progress, we read the Lesson 1 pamphlet in the park and talked to her and convinced her to come to church as well so that was cool! She has tons of problems with her family that we are gonna have to work with but I think she could be baptized. 

On Friday we went to the "Auto-sufficiency Training" and it was super cool! Wow, we were there from 8:30 in the morning until 6 in the afternoon. The good news was that we got to one of the Avenues where all of the buses stop super early and I saw my old ward mission leader in La Molina Vieja and he was waiting for Miguel, the RM that always accompanied us, and it was super good to see them. But in the training they made us take our Patriarchal Blessings and look for words that describe us, things it invites us to do, and promises that are made to us. Then we had to go through this whole process of seeing who we are, what talents and abilities we have, what are our interests etc... then we had to make 5-year spiritual, career, family, education, etc... goals and 1 year goals and immediate actions. But ya, it was cool. The couple that gave the training were really effective and let us ask like a million questions, which was helpful. So honestly, my plans for the future didn't change because of that, they are just more formulated now.  

We have been organizing an English class here for a while now. We finally got the system figured out with it. The Bishop printed off 600 fliers and we did a couple of activities with the Young Single Adults in our ward to help pass them out and whatnot. But what the person that receives it has to do with it now, instead of just showing up on the specific day, they have to call the number on the flier and a sister in our ward answers and asks for all of their information and then gives us the name and address and we go and "test" their ability to speak while contacting them. Then, we call everyone and send out an email the day before the class reminding them to come.  Because they have committed beforehand, they come and then its not weird for us to ask for their address and if we can visit them, because we already have the information and they already know us and then we just slide our way in, help them feel the Spirit, and baptize them! Its cool. And the good news is we already have a ton of people signed up and we have only been passing out the invitations for a couple of days! So I hope it will turn out better than it did in La Molina Vieja. 

Yesterday we went to watch Carlos, a convert, open his mission call! He just barely hit 1 year as a convert and he got called to the Chiclayo mission! So that is pretty cool. He always accompanies us. Also, his best friend is Venezuelan that is from the Barranco ward and that is Jake Willmore´s ward so I talked to him for a long time and told him to ask Jake about all of the stories of the stuff we did hahahaha. So ya it was pretty cool. 

Today we are gonna go take out money and then eat and clean our apartment I think, nothing much. But anyway, all is going well. I hope you guys read that talk that I sent you because I am gonna be sending them weekly now so you better start reading them. This week´s talk is brought to you by Elder Holland, probably my favorite talk given by him. I will put the link here but I also suggest watching the Mormon Message on it, it comes with more power...

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2009/10/safety-for-the-soul?lang=eng

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2010-03-08-testimony-of-the-book-of-mormon?lang=eng

--

Elder Mortenson