Elder Paul's New Groove: March 16 and March 23

March 16

Hey everybody! Hope you're all doing awesome. I am enjoying and taking advantage of all the time I have left. I am super happy because for about 50 weeks (two weeks short of a year) I haven't had a baptism but now on Sunday we have two planned. Alejandro already passed his baptismal interview and on Wednesday Jairo will be having his. The following week Rosa is planning on getting baptized. Elder Bradford and I are working and praying incredibly hard with them and doing everything we can to help them make their goals. It's been a little hard to find new investigators this week because we're constantly visitng the investigators we now have to help them get baptized. We will try focusing more on finding new investigators this week because we need to improve on that.

Today we played volleyball in the stake center as a zone and it was pretty great. Next Monday we will be going to Paita (one of the biggest ports in Peru) to watch Meet the Mormons with President Rowley and the Paita zone, I am prettty excited for that.

I am now almost finishing 1 Nefi and marking all the scriptures that have to do with the principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Atonement and it is great. I feel like it's more eficient to read the Book of Mormon searching and marking all scriptures that have to do with a certain subject. Normally a subject you want to learn more about. You can always ask the missionaries at home to give you a paperback to do that type of study.

Love you all, have a wonderful week, and Hayley have a great birthday! Happy 18 years. Have fun in Relief Society!

Elder Evans

March 23

Hey everybody, hope you're all doing well. And Hayley I hope you had a great 18th birthday!

This week was pretty crazy but it all turned out well. It rained super hard this week, for the first time ever in the mission I used my raincoat. It was extremely dificult walking through the dirt roads. Our investigator Alejandro seemed to have fallen off the face of the planet for a few days and we couldn't get a hold of him but then one day he answered the phone and we set up an appointment to finish the lessons. He and Jairo got baptized on Sunday after church. It was great. A TON of the members were there to support them. We had to do the program in the Sacrament room and then go over to the baptismal room and people watched from outside the windows as well because there wasn't seats for them. Jairo's parents were so happy he had finally decided to get baptized. I baptized him and the bishop's son Brygham (named after Brigham) baptized Alejandro because they are super close friends and are in a band together.

Today we went to Paita and saw Meet the Mormons with the missionaries there. The chapel of Puerto Paita is right on the beach. We walked a block along the coast to go to a big dock and talk and eat lunch and visit. It was a great time, many of us got sunburnt even though it was all cloudy today. Oh well.

Hope everyone has a great week, love you all!

Elder Evans