May 28, 2018

Dear Friends and Coaches, 

I will be returning home from serving an LDS mission in Lima, Peru the first week of June. In honor of this event a homecoming will be held for me in my home ward during the worship services where I will talk about the experiences that I have had and the things that I have learned while in the service of our God. You are all invited to attend. The details are below:

Date: Sunday, 10th of June

Time: 9:00AM in my old home ward & 1:00PM in my new ward (lasts about 70 minutes)

Where:  The chapel is the same for both times: 1550 E 1900 N, North Logan 84341

--

Elder Mortenson

April 30 Letter

So it was a good week! I'm training a new elder named Elder Pardo from Santiago, Chile. He is pretty cool. He is really excited about the work and wants to get out and do it so that is a pretty notable change from my last two companions. We are doing like 100-150 contacts together daily so that is dope. 

This week we had a baptism! Abraham, the Venezuelan dude that works in the gym that we go to and is the employee of the member who owns it, got baptized. He was super ready this week so we bumped his date up and it was pretty sick. Hamilton, the member, baptized him and it was cool! 

Hamilton also gave us a reference this week of a lady that goes to the gym as well and that will probably be getting divorced here soon... anyway, she accepted a baptismal date for the 12th and came to church so that's nice. She has been super prepared by the hand of the Lord. 

It was super cool this week, Elder Farnsworth, the elder that I shared a room with in Manchay and that is from my group, is my new zone leader and we did exchanges so that he could interview Abraham. But the best part of it was that he was the elder that replaced me in La Molina Vieja and they invited him to a baptism on Saturday morning so I got to go with him. Hahhaha it was great to go back and see all of the "homies" from that ward. In that ward there are a ton of MTC teachers as well, so I made sure to let them know that buckwheat (Brock) is gonna be there in July and to look for him hahha. 

That is about it for this week. Honestly, I am too lazy to write you guys tons of details because I'm going to be calling soon, anyway. But Tuesday is Elder Call´s birthday, he is in our room and today we are gonna go hit up this sick buffet that we went to my first Christmas here in the mission. We are going with Elder Fagg, Elder Morris and Elder Farnsworth and his comp because they are all in the zone now too so that should be fun. Anyway peace.

--

Elder Mortenson

April 16th Letter

        

A good week I guess.  On Wednesday we had a multi-zone conference which was good. I got to see all the "homies" there.

Friday we went to the gym and my comp afterwards couldn't even move from his bed. The problem that he has with his ankle has been affecting his back and on Friday he kinda threw it out. So he and Elder Lopez went to the doctor on Friday while I stayed with Elder Vazquez and went and taught some lessons and then the zone leaders came to do Virginia´s interview, so that went well. We met a dude that has double citizenship here and in the states and fought in Vietnam. He told us how he couldn't find peace in this world because of all of the people he had killed...pretty sad. 

But ya, so Virginia got baptized! I officially baptized someone from Arequipa before Brock ever did hahaha!  It was a full day event: We had to go and fill the font, but because she is like 70 years old we couldn't just throw the cold water in, so we had to take a little heater thing to boil water on, and every 5 minutes we would dump boiling water into the font while it was filling up so at least it would be lukewarm. It took us like 2 1/2 hours to fill it up that way. But then I got to baptize her and I think we did a good job. The water wasn't ice-cold like it normally is! She was super hyped for her baptism and it turned out great. 

But because of my companion´s back problem, he has been given 5 days of rest by the doctor, which sucks. It's literally the last week of his mission. So we spent Saturday, after the baptism in the room and yesterday too. It's so boring. But on the bright side I got to read from the scriptures a lot. I started the Doctrine and Covenants and I'm already in section 30 now. 

So today we might go to Grau so my companion can go buy clothes and whatnot before heading home. That will be cool. Grau is the place where I went like my first transfer where all of the stuff are name-brand knock-offs, so that will be cool. I might pick some stuff up as well. But everything is going well! Thanks for the package with the Mio, I am so stoked to drink something besides water. 

--

Elder Mortenson

Week 88

https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/david-a-bednar_strength-lord/

Here is the talk of the week

Last Monday was the farewell of Carlos. He is going to the Chiclayo mission and entered the MTC on Wednesday so that was cool. I had a really interesting experience at his farewell. This kid approached me and asked me if I spoke English and I said yes, and he sat down next to me and started to speak to me in really good English. Anyway, he started to tell me how his mom is Peruvian and was baptized in our ward a long long time ago, but that he was born and raised in Venezuela and had just recently come back. He told me how his goal was to go to Utah and live and work there but that it was hard for him to get his Visa and whatnot. Anyway, after the farewell I asked him if he was a member of the church and he said no and that he didn't find it very interesting and that he had some agnostic beliefs. So I told him about Pascal´s Wager and some other stuff and about Mosiah 2:41 and how if he wanted to go to the states God could help him, but only if he kept the commandments. He ended up feeling the spirit and started crying really hard.  Unfortunately, he is from another ward here in our zone but I'm sure the missionaries will end up teaching and baptizing him now. So that was the highlight of my week. 

On Tuesday we had to leave at like 11AM and go to San Roque to help the sisters look for a new apartment. It really sucked! We literally walked around in their area until like 5:30 just looking for places that said ¨apartment for rent¨ and their area is super rich and we couldn't find anything. But anyway after that when we got back to the room my comps ankle had swollen up a ton because he pulled a bunch of ligaments a long time ago and that's why he has a bike.  He couldn't even walk so we ended up staying in the room all night, which was boring. And we may have to help the sisters move today but we still don't know for sure. 

On Wednesday we did exchanges with the zone leaders again because I had to interview 2 more of their investigators. One of them was super cool. His friend had shared the gospel with him, she is a girl, and they ended up going to the eternal marriage class at the institute and so ya they taught him everything in like a week and a half and he got baptized, so that was cool. 

Friday, I had to do exchanges with Elder Morris from Layton. It was super fun! Both of our companions are finishing and they went to the temple with president and went and ate lunch and everything so we were together all day. It was super fun! His dad is like the vice president of marketing for the company Lifetime that makes a bunch of plastic stuff so it was cool. 

That's about it for this week. It was a little more exciting than the last one. My comp is getting trunkier now that he leaves in like 2 weeks. We should have a baptism on Saturday and then we are working on a couple more for this month. We have so many people that are so close, they just need a little bit more time and they'll get baptized. 

--

Elder Mortenson

--

Elder Mortenson

Week 87

So another good week you could say. We are now on preparation day number 3 in a row so I can't complain, I love general conference. 

The first couple days of the week were normal. Until Wednesday when the assistants wanted to do exchanges with us. Elder David, from Colorado came with me in my area because he just really wanted to go to the gym hahaha. Unfortunately, it was closed on Thursday morning because it was a holiday. But he is going to train to become a Navy Seal and all of that stuff so we went and did a huge workout in the park anyway and had a big long chat about stuff. It was super cool and helpful. Let's just say that the vision that I have and the way that I now think have been changed. 

On Thursday, we had interviews with president and I talked to him a lot about what happened and he also helped me out a lot. I'll put the link to the talk in this email that Elder David shared with me. Its all about the mind and doubts and stuff, super cool. 

Anyway, on Friday we took our money out in the morning and then we had Fiorella´s interview that night. It was literally 10 minutes long because she was already a member, there had just been a problem with her baptismal registry and so she already knew everything. I was gonna have another interview on Friday from the elders in my district but the guy ended up not wanting to because he felt like he hadn't received an answer about the Book of Mormon yet, so we had to go and teach him and see if we could help him out. We will see how it goes. 

On Saturday and Sunday we watched conference. My companion had set a goal to watch it in English, so on Saturday we went to all of the sessions at the stake center to watch them in English and then on Sunday we watched them in Spanish because we had investigators go to our chapel to watch it. It was a super interesting conference. They mainly just talked about the changes that were going to happen in the organization of the priesthood and with the Home Teachers and then just about how everyone sustained the prophet, it was a good conference. I think my favorite talk was given by Lynn G. Robbins where he talked about developing Christ-like attributes and whatnot and how it would take us maybe a thousand or a million tries to get it right. A phrase that I really like was when he said that "success is GROWING from failure to failure with the same amount of enthusiasm." And I think that is super true, it's not just going from one to another but learning from then and progressing. 

I also thought it was interesting that there´s gonna be a temple in Layton now, and also one in India and in Russia, so that is cool. 

Anyway, all is well. This week my companion is going to the temple and having his last lunch with president on Friday so I will be on exchanges that day. On the bright side, I can tell that I am getting in better shape, so that makes me happy. Bye, until next week. 

Link to talk: https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/craig-manning_power-words/

--

Elder Mortenson

Week 86

So good week this week I suppose. Haha idk why I even keep emailing you guys because it's the same every week. But anyway some really good things happened this week so that is exciting! On Wednesday we went with Juan, the father of the family that we are teaching, to the municipalidad(i have no idea what we would call that place in English because it isn't the municipality) But ya anyway we went and talked to the dude that's in charge of marriages and whatnot and we now know all of the requirements. Juan is super hyped to get married and he told us that on Saturday he felt like he finally really received an answer that the church was true and so now he is super decided on getting baptized with his family so we are just trying to hurry up and get them married. That was the first good thing. 

The second was that in ward council yesterday, the bishop told us that they weren't able to find any information about a girl in the ward and that she has to get baptized again. What happened was that she got baptized in Chiclayo when she was 8 like normal but there was a problem with her baptismal registry and she was never actually registered as a member of the church. Anyway they were looking for her information but couldn't find it so we have a free baptism this Saturday in between the afternoon session of conference and priesthood. 

Friday we had a district leader meeting in La Molina. It was cool I guess. All of the zone leaders went as well. It was like a huge leadership council pretty much but president presented some new software programs that he has been working on for converts and to keep track of all of the investigators and whatnot and that was pretty cool. We got free Krispy Kreme doughnuts so that was even better. 

On Saturday my companion got invited to a sealing of some of his converts that he had taught at the beginning of his mission. The parents were just getting sealed to their two children and so we got to go to that. It was pretty interesting. Elder Peterson and Elder Mayfield got invited too so that was sick to hang out with them all morning. And then we saw two white families and talked to them both and turns out that one was from Brazil but living in Utah. So they were excited to talk to us and she volunteered to send a pic of us to our moms so you're welcome, Trish. We also had a huge family home evening with the zone on Saturday night so that was cool. 

Sunday was a good day because like I said we have been visiting members and trying to work with them more and we witnessed a fetching miracle on Sunday. The super strong family in our ward whose children all served missions but are like 40 now and single, love to help us out and the daughter went back through all of her old journals and daily planners and whatnot and cut out every name, number, address etc. that she had ever written down of someone that had gone to church, or that the missionaries had visited, or that she personally had contacted. Hahaha she gave us a full bag of them and offered to contact all of them with us so that was what we were doing last night and we already have a couple of appointments scheduled with some of those people. So ya that's like the first time in all of my mission that a member has given us a reference so it's pretty sic. 

Other than that there is nothing new. Still going to the gym and getting wrecked by Hamilton(the member trainer) And just wrecking myself running a couple times a week. But ya that's about it. Thanks for everything, love you guys. 

--

Elder Mortenson

Week 85

So this was another good week! Kind of weird to think that I just started my 12 weeks over again because like in your training you have "the first 12 weeks" program that help you learn a bunch of stuff and now I have just started the last 12 weeks so that is kinda sad...

Anyway, nothing super cool happened this week. We didn't have transfers so there is no news there. On Wednesday in the district meeting we got to meet all of the new missionaries so that was fun. There are two brand new sisters in the zone and one of the elders in our room is new as well. He's from Argentina. 

On Thursday we planned a Movie Night in the chapel for the members and for the investigators to go and find friends. It was pretty cool, we watched Coco. It was a good movie. Hahah my companion cried, which was pretty weird, but he said that it reminded him a lot of his family so that was kinda awkward....But it made me just want to go Mexico even more and see a Dia de los Muertos celebration. 

On Friday nothing really happened and then on Saturday we went and did service for a member in the other Elders´ ward and it was cool. His name is Brother Bacon and we helped him like clean off his ghetto roof and stuff. There was one wall of his house that didn't have any columns in it at all and literally if you leaned against it you could see it wobble so that was super dangerous. Idk why anyone would build their house like that when they live in a place where earthquakes are super common but who am I to judge... Then, later, we went to El Augustino because my comp got invited to a baptism there and that was cool. I saw elder Hunt and got to talk to him for a while. They have a cemetery there that is sic! Well they are actually catacombs that are above ground and it is super cool and hugeeeeeeee.

But ya that is about all that happened this week. We went to the gym this week and got destroyed but it was fun. Everything is going well just chugging along. Love you guys. 

--

Elder Mortenson

Week 84

Ya so another good week! To start out, on Monday we went to some member's house in the zone and cooked up like infinity hamburgers and ate them and watched a couple of movies. We ended up not going to the abandoned church because they couldn't get us in but it was chill. 

Tuesday was a fairly good day. I gave my training in the district meeting on some sports psychology and how we can apply it to the mission. I talked about setting high goals and mentally visualizing them daily and then using some other techniques to help us achieve them. It was a pretty cool training.

Wednesday and Thursday were just normal days. We did divisions that night so that we could go to both the correlation meeting and to an appointment with the family that we are teaching so that they could go get their documents to get married. They ended not being home because that had to go to the dentist with their daughter. They are taking forever to get everything done because she is super scared of not being able to keep all of the commandments after she gets baptized. So we took this member from our ward with us yesterday and visited them and we talked them through their worries and it was pretty cool.  I think they could start doing better now. 

On Friday I went and did divisions with Elder Halls again so I could interview 4 of their investigators that were going to get baptized. I interviewed a little girl and then on Saturday morning when I was in the shower, the mom of the family that was going to get baptized(her with her two daughters) called and told Elder Halls that they wouldn't be able to do it for different reasons. So we went to her house and were trying to help her and whatnot and the other Elders came and suggested that she just have the interview so that I could help her out. So we went to the chapel, lets just say that I spent 2 hours trying to help her out. I ended up not passing her because she didn't even have a testimony.  It was interesting. 

Yesterday was kind of a sad day. This guy stopped us on the street and told us that he had family that was part of our church and that he just wanted us to read him a verse of the Bible. He told us that he was living in the street and that he just earned money to eat and to do drugs. It was really sad he was crying super hard while he explained all of that to us. Not that its the first time that it has happened to me, because it happens fairly often, but it really made me think about how there are people that literally live in a hell on earth and to see how strong Satan's chains really can be and how hard it can be to escape them. It was a testimony that the gospel really is freedom. 

Anyway, me and Elder Guanilo are staying together, no surprise. Today we are gonna go to Burger King and clean our room. Everything is going well. We are hitting the gym 3 times a week and I really am liking it. We try to run the other 3 days of the week. So that's about it. Shout-out to the little bro for getting his call to Arequipa!!! I'm gonna have to tell Elder Garate to be on the lookout for you. It should be a super cool mission! Arequipa is considered here to be a different country because it is the richest part of Peru. But I'm hyped that we will have served in the same country!! Time to get started on the Spanish...

--

Elder Mortenson

Week 83

I feel lucky to have gotten through this week. To start the week out on Monday we just watched a movie and made hamburgers. Tuesday was normal as well. But then on Wednesday morning was when stuff started going down...Idk what happened but we planned out the English class that morning and then went and ate lunch and then when we got back to the room I started feeling pretty funny and then we spent the whole day in the room because I couldn't get out of the bathroom. It was so bad. They told me to take all of these antidiarrheals and stuff but they didn't really help. I was like that all day until about Thursday afternoon I got to the point where I wasn't in the bathroom like every 10 minutes and so we went out and proselyted. hahha but ya now I'm fine, I ended up losing like 10 lbs so that's not good either. 

So anyway we went and visited the bishop on Tuesday and asked him where we should proselyte to be able to find the people who really want to know the gospel of Jesus Christ. Its a new thing that we are doing in the whole mission- considering the fact that the bishop holds the keys over the area. So he told us a specific little part of our area where we should go and so that is where we are focusing right now. We started out by visiting one of the really strong families of members there and inviting them to fast and to pray to be able to invite one of their neighbors to listen to us. The daughter is a ward missionary and she ended up doing it and coming to church with a whole list of references for us so that was pretty cool. We have yet to visit another one of the other really strong families that live there and then we are going to look for the less-actives and whatnot but I think it should go well. 

On Saturday I had to go interview a little girl that the zone leaders are going to baptize.  It was an interesting interview. She was super shy so I really had to focus in on things just to see if she had actually understood anything that she had been taught, but at the end she opened up more and it was fine. 

Yesterday we did a "zone attack" in an area of our zone. It was pretty interesting, we all did splits with some members and I was talking to the guy that I was with and he was telling me about his conversion about a year and half ago and I asked him what elder had baptized him and he said that it was an Elder from Utah and so I asked what part and he said Logan and then he told me that it was Elder Pearson. Hahahah I told him that I knew him and that he had graduated from SV when I was a sophomore and whatnot and the next thing I know he is handing me his cellphone telling me that Kolton is on the line. So ya, I ended up talking to him for a sec so that was weird but cool. 

But that's about it for this week. Today we are going to an abandoned church that some member owns hahah it seems sic and it has catacombs which should be cool. But ya that's about it. SKYBI out. 

--

Elder Mortenson

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

Week 77

Yeet. So its been another good week here in Chicago Chico. Just lightin´ the place up with the gospel. 

So to start the week out, on Monday we went and ate buckets of chicken at KFC here in my area and then we watched Moana again but this time in English so that was cool. Hahah I got this random call while we were in the chapel watching it from this lady that spoke English. She told me that she had a package for a missionary in the Lima North Mission and that she couldn't get it to him and wanted to know if we could. I told her yes and so she told me that she was in Miraflores and could come find us so we gave her the direction to the chapel and she came with her husband. They were the Oakeson's from Sandy, UT and her husband said he had tons of family from Logan and Hyde Park which was cool. Anyway, she gave us the package and her husband gave us $21 and told us to go buy dinner. They took pics of us that mom should've got on her phone but anyway we went and bought Krispy Kreme with the money. 

On Tuesday we went and watched President Nelson´s message and press conference. That was cool... My favorite part was when that lady stood up and asked him about women in the church and why all the apostles were white men and Elder Oaks gave her a great answer. Haha We also had a lesson with the family that we are gonna baptize. We taught the Law of Chastity. One thing I have learned is that people don't understand what you are talking about or what they are doing wrong unless you are direct with them so I told them that they were fornicating and their 14 year old daughter ended up crying because she was laughing so hard at them, but ya they are definitely gonna get married now. 

On Wednesday we did exchanges. I went with Elder Halls to his area because they needed me to do 2 interviews but both of them fell through so we just ended up having a lesson with this one lady who wanted to be baptized but had problems forgiving her husband because he had pretty much abandoned her son when he had cancer and ended up dying. So we shared some good scriptures from Doctrine and Covenants about the Atonement and how Christ suffered not only for sins but also for sickness, pain, and every other type of suffering. And then we talked about how he did it for the people that he knew would never even accept him and then we talked about forgiveness and how her son would want this for her and she decided to be baptized after having been taught for like 5 transfers. I had to stay with Elder Halls all of Thursday practically as well (which I wasn't mad about) and then interview her and another lady.  Turns out that lady that we had talked to about forgiveness wanted me to baptize her, so on Saturday morning I went all the way back to their area and baptized her, so that was cool! Ill send pics. 

On Friday we had our Multi-zone conference. It was a good. They gave us pizza and talked about having the same vision. Sister Amato shared 1 Nephi 11 I believe and how Nephi desired to see the things which his father had seen and how we need to be able to desire to have to the same vision that our leaders have. That goes with the prophet, mission pres., bishop, etc... Then we can align our vision and work toward one single goal. It was a good message. I saw Elder Hunt there and all of my other homies. 

Saturday was the baptism and then Sunday was a funny day. So I really had to go to the bathroom so we were walking lightning fast through the streets to go to a member's house. And anyway like I said my area is pretty ghetto and all of the dudes are in the streets drinking all the time and sometimes fighting and whatnot. So we are walking and this dude yells ¨Whats up!? Where you from? ¨ and I'm like ¨Utah¨ and he is like ¨F"#"#$ you are a long way from  home!¨ and so I walked away and went and used the bathroom but then we went back to talk to him and he told me how he had lived in New Hampshire for 12 years and worked for Fidelity and how he always visited SLC and he had a friend that was Mormon and how his friend told him that when he went back to his country that he would see foreigners walking around in the streets that were called Elders and that he should talk to them in English and that they would be super hyped so he was just fulfilling his promise to his friend. But ya he told me all about the economic system of Peru and why the states are better and whatnot. And he had his homie there and at the end they were like ¨Yo, you ever get in trouble around here you tell them that you know Junco or Bayona and they'll leave you alone.¨ hahaha so ya lets just say that I got some hood-rat friends down here now so that is sic. 

But ya everything is going great! Today some dude is coming from Trujillo to talk to everyone that has less than 6 months left in the mission. He is like the most successful guy in Peru and is a returned missionary, so we are going to go listen to him. On Friday, I am going to an "Auto-sufficiency training" where they talk to us all about life after the mission and we set goals for work and studying and all that stuff so that will be cool. Anyway, SkyBi out.

--

Elder Mortenson

Week 76

So ya ´nother week down. To start the week out on Tuesday we went and bought the cake that I owed the family that we are teaching. I told the lady in the store to give me the type of cake that they like but she ended up giving me a tres leches and supposedly they don't like tres leches so the contract didn't really work out because my companion and I ended up eating the majority of the cake, but ya it was alright with me hahah. 

On Wednesday we received a message on our phone with a reference that lived in Miraflores, the super rich part of our area and it said that her husband was American so we went to look for the family. We ended up finding them and he came out to talk to us and it was a really interesting experience. He was from San Diego and was pretty cool and all but then I asked him what he did for a living and he went off on this whole thing. He told me that he had studied natureopathic medicine and so I asked him what that was and he explained to me that they study nutrition and all of this stuff and how doctors don't study nutrition, they only study how to treat a sickness and not how to cure it. He told me how they had found a cure for the AIDS virus through electrical pulses in the blood and how they can cure arthritis and diabetes and cancer and all of this stuff. He then continued telling me how I shouldn't eat wheat, barley, rye etc... because the protein chains that they contain are too complex for my body to breakdown and that gluten is dangerous, and how I should never cook things in oil because it is cancerous, and how I shouldn't eat corn because it is cancerous and all of this stuff.  My companion just sat there playing with a nearby bush because we were speaking English. But then he told me all about this company called Longevity and how I need to be on this 90 vitamin and mineral thing so that I can be healthier and all of this stuff. Just thought you M.D.'s at home would like to hear about that conversation. hahah 

On Friday we had interviews with president. They went really well. He talked to me a lot about going to play ball at USU and whatnot. He told me how I needed to be prepared to stay strong. I mentioned to him that the coaches wanted to call him and talk to him and he said that was fine and that he would be happy to work out that situation because he honestly loves ball.  He always talks about how in his ward at home, the new bishop is the Nike CEO´s bodyguard or something and how all of his kids play ball and he always shows me pics and videos on his phone so that is pretty cool. 

Sunday was a pretty good day. Haha we had a good attendance to church. The only thing is that Jorge, the dude we were gonna baptized this Saturday is going to Huancayo for his business all week so we gotta baptize him next week or in February now. But we were walking in the street and I saw this old dude working on an old Slug Bug so we went over and asked if we could help him out.  We ended up changing his mirrors and doing all of this stuff on the interior because he is fixing it to be able to sell it soon. We also helped this lady in the ward fix the electricity in her house. She burned a couple of cables and we went to one of the members that owns a tool store and got more and then went and changed them out, so that was fun. 

Outside of that nothing else really fun has happened. They changed some of the rules in the mission again and so now this is our new schedule to get on email. Its from 9-11 the morning here so I think that's 7-9 there. I like it because doing it in the afternoon kinda sucked. We also no longer have to wear suits to meeting and to church in the summer, which is awesome because sometimes we suffer! But ya that is about it. This week we are gonna watch and sustain the new prophet and then we have a multi-zone conference on Friday. Also the pope is gonna be coming here to Surco on Thursday. Idk what that day is gonna be like because everyone is gonna be in the street celebrating and wanting to see him so it could be dangerous. I saw in the street that they got their pope-mobile done and idk if I told you already that they are gonna spend like $40 mil on his visit alone so ya pretty interesting...

--

Elder Mortenson

Week 75

Yo waddup!?

So it was a normal week again. Just the same thing everyday but ya its chill! On Wednesday Elder Gozalvez did exchanges with me and it went pretty well. It was pretty weird being together again with the elder that trained me but it was pretty cool this time. He was in Surquillo, my area a long time ago and so he came back and showed me all of his old investigators and old references and whatnot that he had received when he was here. It went well. 

We ate lunch with the Llanos family and it was pretty sweet. They cooked a turkey they had saved from new year's so they gave us some. It was good. 

Last week I made a contract with some of our investigators. We are teaching a family that has never been to church. The aren't married and have 3 daughters, 2 of which are old enough to be baptized, but the elders have never been able to get them to church before which seemed weird to me. So I made a deal that if they went to stake conference by themselves, without our help, that I would buy them their favorite type of cake. But if they didn't go they had to make us some crazy food from the jungle that my companion loves. So anyway they went to stake conference and President Amato (the Mission President) spoke! In his talk, he invited everyone to get baptized, so it went really well that our investigators were there to hear that. Jorge, a dude that we are teaching, went as well and he is gonna get baptized pretty soon. Later, we introduced an "eternal investigator" to president and president invited him to get baptized, too... so ya its going pretty well. We should have some good baptisms for these upcoming months. 

Today was a good day though. We watched Moana, which was pretty cool and that's about it. I just hung out with Elder Brooksby and Halls all day. I had a dream last night that I got home with Elder Halls´ group so that was weird, not saying it was a sign.  I've been actually writing in my journal lately which is going really well. I'm trying to remember what happened in the last 8 months because that was the last time that I wrote hahhahhahah. Lets just say that being a Zone Leader for all of those months didn't leave me much time to write, but I am writing a lot of the past experiences I had so that I can at least have something to remember them with. 

But that is about it. I'm just enjoying my time here in Surquillo. 

--

Elder Mortenson

Week 74

It was good to talk to you guys on Christmas. Idk if anything has changed other than the fact Brett (Bryce's older brother) is now rocking the Thor look haha. 

So even though you guys are off from school the work continues onward. This week was actually normal. Now that I don't have so many responsibilities I don't have as many stories to tell you guys about either because it is 100% work in my area now. All is going well though as far as my companion and the area and everything. I found out that part of our area used to be called Chicago Chico because of how ghetto it is, so that is cool. I don't feel like it's that bad though...

So reflecting on my time as Zone Leader, I think the biggest thing that I learned was that you just gotta act like you know what you're doing and hope it will turn out fine. That was one of the biggest things Elder Garate taught me and so I'm applying it as a district leader now because when I give trainings I just act like I know what I'm doing, even though I've never been District Leader before. hahahha. 

I was just reading some things about Christ during these last couple of weeks and would like to share them with you guys. Christ had one single mission. The miracles he performed, the teaching he gave, nothing he did was of greater importance than the mission he had to fulfill. He understood why he had come to the earth when he testified of his mission before Pilate saying that unto that end had he been born. I was thinking about Amulek's teachings in Alma 34 about the atonement and what the words "infinite atonement" means. The atonement was infinite in every aspect; the being that performed it, the depth, the coverage, everything about it was infinite. That is why God could forgive sins before the atonement had even been performed, because he knew Christ would be faithful no matter what and would complete his mission. It doesn't matter where, when, or how we have done something, there is no gap in all of the universe that the atonement does not reach. Celebrating his birth, we celebrate his mission and what he did for each and every one of us. 

I would also like to share a couple of talks with you guys that really strengthened my faith. One talks about the book of Mormon and how it was translated and the other about the organization of the church. I will put the links in here. 

So all is well! It is now officially the last year of my mission. That is a kind of scary thing to think about. Weird to think that I didn't stand on American soil in all of 2017. But ya I hope that you guys really study the talks and that they can strengthen your faith as well. Sorry I don't have a ton of stuff to share in this email. 

	12/23/17 (9 days ago)

https://www.lds.org/broadcasts/article/ces-devotionals/2014/01/what-is-the-blueprint-of-christs-church?lang=eng&_r=1

https://www.lds.org/ensign/1997/01/by-the-gift-and-power-of-god?lang=eng&_r=1

Week 73

Don't expect this email to be too long because we are gonna talk on Christmas anyway. But so Thursday night we had Mauricio and Andre´s interviews and they were good. Oh but I guess I should tell you what we did for pday. We went and took pics at the temple with the whole zone and then afterward went and ate at Pardo´s chicken palace place and that was good and then we had gingerbread house making competitions and then they gave us some sick new flower ties and after we went to an orphanage and played with little kids and sang songs so ya it was pretty fun. 

On Friday we had to go get a mini-missionary to come with us but we only ended up going to the Municipalidad and then to the mission offices because we had to do a ton of crap for our Christmas caroling activity that we won't actually be able to do because we went back to the municipalidad and they said that we can't have permission to do anything religious, so that sucks. But ya I felt bad for the mini-missionary. But then we had to go interview one of the elder´s crazy investigators that read the Book of Mormon in 3 days and was screaming during her interview, she is so crazy. Luckily, my comp did the interview. But ya supposedly she is going to start proselyting every Wednesday now that she has the Holy Ghost and bringing references to the elders so that is interesting. Then, later Friday night we went to our ward Christmas party and that was fun. 

On Saturday we had the two baptisms. They went well except for the fact that Mauricio showed up an hour late! But we got some members to baptize them and confirm them. Then, at night we went into like the busiest spot in our whole mission and put up the banners we got and tables and free cookies/candy with Santa hats and contacted people. It was super cool and worked out great, we got like 85 references in like 2 hours. But supposedly we aren't allowed to do that so we won't be going back haha but they didn't get mad at us. 

 

Then Sunday was normal. Today we went and played basketball in the morning and then we had to clean our room and I had to pack because I have been  transferred. Then we went back to the municipalidad and that was when they told us that we can't do our activity. Then we went to Papa Johns with the La Molina zone leaders and now we are here. 

But ya so anyway I am being transferred. I'm going to an area called Surquillo. Its like a rich zone but my area is like a half and half. I am gonna be companions with Elder Malca...I'll tell you about him when we talk on Christmas. I'm gonna be the new District Leader there. So ya I'm super hyped about not being zone leader, it is super stressful and I've never been DL before so we will see how it goes. My district is made up of the zone leaders, and another companionship of elders that are in my room so I don't think it will be too bad haha thank goodness. 

But love you guys. Hope you are having a great Christmas season. Ill talk to you soon. 

--

Elder Mortenson

Week 72

We had a good week. On Friday we had breakfast as a zone where we planned and stuff.  We made chicken sandwiches which were super good. 

On Saturday we went to San Borja and had a zone attack there. The bishop of the ward planned the whole thing and brought like 100 copies of the movie "Meet the Mormons" so we just passed those out in this subdivision. I went on splits with Brother Hooker, so that was dope. He was mission president in Piura and then an Area Seventy afterwards and now he works in the area offices as their manager of planning. He knows a ton of stuff so I got to talk to him about some cool things. 

Sunday was a normal day. We are just visiting tons of members in these weeks so that we can invite them to participate in the IluminaElMundo (Light the World) thing. It is going fairly well. 

Monday and Tuesday were just normal days as well haha. The nice thing is, that the ward members bring tons of people to sacrament meeting so we just set up appointments with them during the week. There are a lot of Venezuelans that come because they have cousins or other family that are members. The assistants found a Venezuelan mom and her daughter that had escaped by walking all the way across Columbia, freaking crazy! The Venezuelans that we eat with always tell us about the circumstances over there and it is pretty sad. 

On Wednesday we had our district meeting and it was pretty fun. We told everyone to bring like a funny present so that we could do a white elephant gift swap. I used those weird plastic hands that you sent in my package and gave them away. hahaha Elder Fagg bought a Pokemon-go photo album and we put tons of random pictures of us and our families and whatnot in there hahaha it was super funny. 

Oh ya i forgot to mention that I got the package! Thanks a ton for all the sick stuff in there! I really enjoyed it! I haven't gone through the whole thing yet because I am gonna open it on Christmas! 

But ya today is the mission Christmas activity prep-day thing. Idk what we are going to do. But we are gonna take the zone on Saturday night and go either to the temple or Avenida La Molina where every single bus passes by and we are gonna sing Christmas carols. It is gonna be sweet. We got permission to spend a ton of money to buy light up hats and we bought two huge banners that say Ilumina el Mundo on them and we bought a stamp with the address of the stake center and our phone number so we can stamp tons of cards and whatnot it is gonna be sweet because literally thousands upon thousands of people go by there everyday from every part of Lima so we should get tons of references to send out. 

But I guess that is about it. Next p-day will be normal on Monday. Transfers are this next Tuesday but I don't think that I will be leaving, I think Elder Fagg and I will stay together. I'm excited to talk to you guys on Christmas, we already have everything planned out. Idk when we are gonna do the pre-call but it should be next week I think, so be ready for that!  Talk to you soon!

--

Elder Mortenson