August 22 2013

 I leave really early on Tuesday morning I believe but we dont know for sure yet. Most missionaries leave at 2, 3, or 4 in the morning. And the time here is the same as in MN right now because peru doesnt observe daylight savings, Its 3:30pm while writing this email here so you can see if it is actually the same. I dont know if we will be able to call home but i will try to if we get the opportunity at the airport. None of our district were able to buy phone cards at the stores because we couldnt find any.

I am so ready to go to piura but i wil miss the ccm because I run with another runner from california in gym hour and also we play ultimate frisbee and soccer. My district is the best district at ultimate frisbee, we destroyed everyone all the time. Only lost 3 or 4 games out of about 20 at least. This morning we went to the temple one last time for two years and we had a district prayer in the Celestial room and it was great. The Spirit was so strong and real. All of us are going to Piura except two are going to Santa Cruz Bolivia and one is going to Iquitos Peru. Itll be hard splitting up with them at the airport and when we Piuran missionaries leave the mission home.

This weekend is going to be a huge grand finale. Our district is having a sort of Christmas Party, weve heard they celebrate christmas here this week or something. and then Elder cook visits on sunday. We learned a ton about the Gospel this 6 weeks, a few misisonaries here, in and out of my district, have been very homesick and we have given blessings and helped one elder decide to stay on his mission and just get transferred to a states mission, originally he was already set to go home and had called his parents.

Love you all, have fun and work hard in school and work or whatever!

Elder Evans (Paul)

Excerpts from email to Jim:

Yeah Lima has its chilly days in the winter but ist starting to warm up because its getting closer to spring and summer here. The spanish is good! Elder Patterson and another elder and I helped translate for a devotional but the other elder who is from utah and spoke spanish to his parents actually translated the whole time, the time flew by so he just kept going, Elder Patterson and I just got the scriptures ready for him to read in english.

Thats awesome that matt skipped the freshman bands, tell him congratulations! Tell them good luck at school and get good grades, work hard and have fun!

Today was the last day I will get to go to a temple for two years most likely and we went as a district finally, so we got permision to say a district prayer in the Celestial Room. It´s really weird to think that in less than a week we will all be with new companions in Piura, Iquitos, or Santa Cruz Bolivia. It´s starting to feel like the same feeling I had a few days before leaving home. We´re about to leave the place we´re comfortable and going to a new place with new people but at least most of us are going together. Im really excited. 

 

Can you find Elder Evans 2.0? This is his group at the CCM

 

Aug 15 2013

Oh yeah I know her husband He also went to the singles branch so I have talked to him before. Tell Matt that´s super awesome, he jumped off 30ft cliffs, I´ve only ever jumped a 15-20ft bridge and a dam so he has me beat in that!I had no idea Taggart was engaged or anything, and that´ss great Riley is back! And it is pretty weird thinking hayley can already be a laurel president! She will do really well! It´s good she´s working a lot, hopefully she has a lot saved in a few years. If you see Sister Hadley again tell her I said thanks! I won´t be in the CCM for very long, I have one more full week and then I leave for Piura next Tuesday, so like 12 days or so.

    And Jeff P came today, I talked to him and got a picture, I'll send it in another email. He told me you guys had figured the card situation out, and thanks for doing that. I already shopped today so I just paid with my card instead of withdrawing money, I spent about 60-70$ today only because I bought a set of spanish scriptures for myself, not just those paperback ones that we hand out, and some cases for both, the book of mormon case has "peru piura mission" on it so it's really cool! Also, I finished the whole Book of Mormon in 17 days here, and read the Pearl of Great Price two days ago and now I'm on the Doctrine and Covenants. I already feel way more familiar with the scriptures and all the stories in the Book of Mormon. I went to the temple again this morning cause it opened.

    Last week my companion and I proseltyzed without a latino with us and it actually went really well! we handed out 6 Book of Mormons and talked about the restoration with everyone and I understood almost everything and was able to respond except for one old guy who had fake teeth that kept sliding out of place so there was no chance. Luckily his son came down and he knows a member and we talked to him a bunch and gave him a boook of Mormon.

   Last thursday on the night of Pday my teacher got us some Papa Johns! We paid him back but he got it in and my companion and i just stood watch in the hall to make sure no one saw haha. It was amazing to have some papa johns again, we then ripped the boxes and stuffed it in a bag and in the garbage. It was a lot of fun and the teacher loves us, which is why he did it. Pictures will be up sent too. I can't use dropbox in the CCM though.

   That´s about all I have here, love and miss you guys!!

       Elder Evans, Paul

Contraband, tasty tasty contraband.

EP and his friend from MN, Jeff, now also an Elder in Peru

Aug 8 2013

No I never went to boundary waters but I wish I did! He should love it though! And when do you get back? Because I´ve had a problem, the ATMs wont let me pull money out like eveyone else. My two only pin numbers that I would ever use are incorrect. Im not even sure if I set up a pin number for my travel card cause the pin numbers wont work. In one of the two big containers of my stuff I have my normal debit card (the light blue one, NOT the dark gray one). Jeff P leaves for the Peru MTC on Tuesday I believe so if you could try to contanct them and give jeff my normal debit card and have him give it to me when he gets here, that would help a ton because otherwise I can´t pull cash to use for buses and stuff.
        
Other than that problem, everything else is awesome, Ive been running a lot, working out, playing soccer during exercise hours. My spanish is really coming along. I don´t use translators at the devotionals anymore and I email Leroy Z in spanish only. We're proselyting again on saturday and the three-weekers might not get paired with latino companions, we're not sure because there arent't as many latinos as there were two weeks ago but Im a lot better than I was last time and I talk to people in the city a lot too, we have met a few members who love talking to us on pday haha.      

We also have been doing a Book of Mormon challenge, to read it through during our time here and I started about 10 days late because I didn't wanna do it but I am now in alma 50 or 51 so I am still way ahead of schedule and it´s been a week or so since I started it over. My district is awesome and I love being district leader, it helps with leadership skills I may need in the field. People have been getting sick here but not too bad. I have only had a cold or two. We have learned a lot more about the gospel and the Atonement and i´'s really great! I'll send some more pictures in the next few emails in just a sec. If at all possible, try to give my other debit card to Jeff P before he leaves so I can use it here! If that´s risky you can send it and have me email when I get it, but thats really risky too.   
 
Love, Paul

It's still weird for me, Mom, to think he's on the OTHER side of the world. The southern hemisphere.

hills behind the CCM

CCM grounds

the new missionary dress standards

August 1 2013 pictures

EP and his companion at the Lima temple

the latino with the hurt leg that Im next to is the one who would yell "ayuda ayuda!" to Elder Miles who looks like superman. Elder miles would then take off his glasses, spin and put his fist up and pretend to fly to the rescue.

And a bunch of elders in my hall. The tall big guy in the picture inside our dorm, we used to call him superman and one of the latinos would yell "ayuda! ayuda!" which means help help! It was super funny

My district outside a building at the CCM

The other elder in the picture is Elder P----. He is fluent in spanish but they didn´t ask him if he wanted to test out of the CCm until he got to the CCM so he started with us but is now switching to the latino districts and will only be here two more weeks. He just got switched to my dorm though so I will still chill with him before he leaves. He is from Lindon utah and knew my Freshmen mentor from BYU

Aug 1 2013

That's super awesome! and the House on the Rock sounds alike a really cool place to go to! The pouch or whatever sounds like a good plan! I think they just deliver the mail and stuff to us in our classes. Today is my p day and the lima temple is really cool! I have pictures that I will try to send you but I have to find my camera cord. Also, the temple is actually closed for a few weeks so we just went shopping for a few hours. I bought a two peru jerseys and soccer shoes because we play soccer almost every day. Luckily everything here is super cheap, the most expensive thing i bought were the soccer shoes for 90 soles, which is roughly about 30-35 dollars. My district is made up of 12 elders, no hermanas. One wave of missionaries left for the mission field early morning so the mtc was really empty for a few days but this morning the next big wave came in so its full again. There are mostly americans now, whereas last week was mainly latinos. We got to go proselyting and that was really cool. Our bus broke down though so we instead just proselyted in that surrounding areaa. And we were on splits with native spanish speakers but i still was able to talke about prayer and the Book Of Mormon in spanish. We placed a few of those and submitted referrals to the missionaries in their areas. I may try sending some pictures in email form because I dont think I can go to dropbox at the mtc but we'll see. Thats all I have for now, love you guys!     

Elder Evans (P.S. I may not use apostrophies or correct grammar because Im trying to type fast so I can get everything sent.)

July 25 2013

This will be my email to the family so i dont have to respond to everyone.    The CCm is great! and the winter here isn´t too bad but it does actually get kinda cold since I´m used to the hot humid weather. The weather is hazy and we only saw the sun the first two days we were here. I was called as the district leader our first night so I´ve been a little more busy than most. And classes are going great. I can now pray and testify in spanish as well as recite the missionary objective, baptism challenge, first vision, moroni´s promise, and proverbs 3:5-6 in spanish. I am good at memorizing so it came quickly. I met Jessica Naatjes´s (Chuck Naatjes´s daughter) cousin on her mom´s side. Her name is hermana Christianson or something close to that spelling. Tell Chuck if you ever see him soon. It´s kinda funny that I am one of the translators here for latin missionaries when they want to tell a gringo something. And vice versa sometimes. I went to the temple today and I got down the money system. We take a bus there. I was going to buy a watch but forgot but the running watch´s battery is doing really well so I´ll be good for a while. I can´t load pictures so wait a bit til I can. Telll me how to do dropbox but I might not be able to do that till im in the field. im not sure. I couldn't find many good peruvian ties today so hopefully next week it´ll be better. I am having a blast and can´t say much really. But there was one really funny story. One night my room was getting ready for sleep, my companion in bed already but our room was a little messy and all of a sudden one peruvian roommate runs in whispering in a yelling kind of way "el Presidente is coming! El presidente is coming!" so my companion jumped out of bed and everyone scrambled around the room throwing our luggage cases on the warddrobes where they were supposed to be and the latinos just kept freaking out and as soon as we finished, hearts stilll racing, the President peaked his head in and looked around with a satisfied face and said good night. As soon as he left one latino slowly peaked his head out to see where he was, then closed the door and we all burst out in laughter. It was hilarious. I will never forget that night haha.  That´s all for now. Say hi to everyone!                                                                                                    Love you Guys!!!

July 18 2013 First email

Hey! I made it to the CCM and I got all my stuff, and met my companion. I seem to be the one of the last missionaries to get here. And the driving here is crazy. Utah is nothing compared to Lima when it comes to aggressive driving. Some people told me that no matter how much spanish I think I know, I won´t know any when I get there; that was very true. The guy who picked me up only speaks spanish so I didn´t understand anything he said at first. I´ve met a lot of elders going to Piura so that´s cool. Most of them are from Utah, including my companion Elder Prince. I saw the temple on the way here but I haven´t gotten any pictures yet. I am pretty tired from flying all day and I have a full day today so we´ll see how it goes! I can´t wait to get started and get accustomed to everything here! Tell everyone I said hi and I miss you guys but this is where I´m supposed to be right now! I´ll email again with more stuff, once I spend more time here.

Love, Paul or Elder Evans or whatever