Dec 16 2013

This week we taught barely any lessons. Elder Vasquez got a stomach in fection and we spent tuesday to friday in the hospital and then all weekend he still had major stomach pains and almost fainted sunday morning, then I think he went unconscious on his bed beause I tried waking him up by calling his name and moving his arms and stuff but he didnt move or respond at all for a minute or so. Today we are going back to the clinic to see his doctor. I'm nervous that we will have to stay in the hospital again but we'll see. I gav e a blessing of health to him and want him to get better cause we havent been able to do anything pretty much this last week and a half. The branch president visited us in the apartment a few times to check up on us but we couldnt  do any intercambios with priesthood holders in the branch because there are only 3 men that could help us, and two always work so we were stuck  in the room and couldnt get work done.

On a brighter note, today we had a zone activity in Catacous, a district in Piura, where a lot of tourists go to buy stuff and I bought a pretty sweet gorro, I am trying to send pictures from today but I cant access them on the computer for some  reason, I can only access the pictures I downloaded from dropbox, but I stilll have the pictures on my camera. The workers at a restauraunt called me the caballero, everyone else thinks I look like Indiana Jones or Levi Savage from 17 miracles hahaha. 

Oh and I think my spanish finally "clicked" because I can actually talk mostly fluently and understand people.  I noticed that I talk better than a few elders who have been out for 9 months so I feel better. I can't believe I already have 5 months down!

Oh and on saturday I will be playing Papá Noel *malo in the Christmas Program with 3 zones. I hope I can send a video of this act or whatever y ou call it. It´s gonna be great.

Thats about all for this week!

Love, 

Elder Evans, Paul

 

*Note from the mother: I asked Jim what malo meant and he said, "badly."

Dec 9 2013

Email to Dad:
All the homesickness went away out of nowhere this week. I still think about home at night but not in a distracting, longingly way like before. I can't believe its already been a year since I left BYU. I feel like I was there a month ago. My knee is still having its on and off days. some days it hurts or is realy uncomfortable and others its perfect. I just hope the 19 months left will continue helping it (i think its still improving because i dont need to wear any braces or the cloth sleeve anymore) because I still am going to try my hardest to make it on the byu track team, I miss running a ton. Anyway, I'm currently acting as 1st counselor to the branch president right now and i was going to conduct the meeting yesterday but my companion was sick so we were pretty late. I only jsut started this week so Im excited to conduct this sunday if possible. I gotta go now!

Love, Elder Evans! 

Email to Mom:

Hey mom! Yeah this week was way better! We were able to visit a lot more people and we're still working hard with a few teenagers to get them ready for their baptisms. Although two of the three have problems with getting permission from their parents. They both have moms that don't want them to get baptized so that makes it difficult. Wow that must be pretty hard for Grandma, I can't imagine all those things happening at once. Though Chipotle sounds really good right now since their is no such thing as fast food or anything like it here. In piura there is a big store sort of like walmart called Tottus but it's no where near as good as walmart or target. But 2 hours away here in morropon we just go to tiny little stores (inside people's tiny homes) to buy pasta and snacks and ramen and fruit and stuff like that. There is a big market in the plaza where they sell a ton of mangos and grapes and other fruit, the apples arent very good here though.

Elder Vaszquez got sick again on Saturday. He's 3 for 3 on getting sick on the weekends he has had in the field. He had a 101 degree fareinheit temperature and today we are going to a clinic in Piura to find out if he has anything bad. He needs to take blood tests and I'll be there to watch it...I'm excited to see those needles haha. Since nobody could go on splits with us we had a lot aof time to talk in the room and get to know each other more. My spanish is getting much better being the companero mayor nad talking so much with elder Vasquez. I thought a lot about my old running days and with my knee still hurting (though better because I dont use the braces or anything) I worry that I won't be able to run like I did before. Which brings me to my question. I figured out how to copy the fotos from dropbox onto my memory card (not all the fotos show up on my camera when i insert the card but they all show up when i put it in the computer or a dvd player) and was wondering if you could upload a few of my best running fotos from track and CC into dropbox, like from Minnetonka or PL or my section True team meet in Apple valley and st thomas. Also a foto of the house with all the snow and lights or something, may people here ask what christmas is like in the states so id like to show them. I think thats a lot easier, and cheaper, than sending fotos huh? :P Thanks a ton!!! I'll be sending another email fro the blog but it won't be very big, not a whole lot happened.

Love, Elder Paul

Dec 2 2013

Another week down of training my son and it has gotten a lot better. He is getting to know all the people we are working with so now he´s talking mre and having more fun. We have been working very hard this week with our less actives because our rama has 80 menmbers but only 15 are active so we were sort of told we should focus on less actives for a while and try to bring as many back as possible. One less active member and her husband who is active started yelling and arguing after we finished our lesson and I kinda freaked out inside cause I didnt know what to do and then she asked ¨que dices tu¨ and then all of a sudden I opened the Book of Mormon and found the perfect scripture to share. We aren´t allowed to take sides in the argument so I shared a scripture about havng patience and love one for another and stuff like that but I don´t remember the exact referecnce. She started crying and we challenged them to pray together morning at night and promised that Heavenly Father would help them work things out if they did it. It was intense, the spirit left when they started aruging but once I shared the scripture and Elder Vasquez and I shared our testimonies and such the Spirit came back.

Today we went to the waterfalls again but this time we went with the whole zone. One picture I sent is me on the back of the moto taxi after the waterfalls and if you look closely you can see Elder Mulford haha. To thinkof how it felt today, imagine walking through an oven or a sauna, take your pick, for an hour...going up. That was TO to the waterfalls, luckily the trip back was downhill so it was much easier, but still just as hot if not hotter. 

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!!! And have a great week in the snow!

Love,

Elder Evans

 

 

Nov 24 2013

So this week had lots of ups and downs. I picked up my new companion in Piura, his name is Elder Vasquez from Chile. He just came from the CCM in Lima. We got to go to chiclayo with the whole mission to see Elder Nelson speak so that was awesome!! All the missionaries from the mission Piura and Chiclayo were there and we all got to shake his hand. He talked a lot about how we can hasten the work of Salvation and talked about how our families will be alright and that we need to lose ourselves in the work. I saw a ton of friends from the CCM there and one of the friends I met there was at the conference as well and in his 8th day in the field he lost his finger playinng baksetball. He had a ring on and when we dunked the ball his ring got caught and ripped his finger off.

But anyway, after that we went back to Morropon and my companion got very homesick, and the net day he got physically sick for two and a half days so we literally did almost nothing this week. No priesthood holders could stay with him and go on splits with me to visit people, we only have like 4 or  priesthood holders in the branch in the first place. So I am super bummed with this week with our work in Morropon. He's better now so this week should me better! We did have a big activity with the ward and investigators and it was all about the family. The whole district came to help with referencias. The activity was super fun and we got some referncias now too so I am excited about that!

Have a great Thanksgiving! I'll try to remember and celebrate in the room a little haha.

Love, Elder Evans

Nov 18 2013

Hey everyone! This week has been a wild one. All week I have felt pressure on whetherI'll stay in Morropon and teach the area to an experienced misionary or leave. Then we found out that a huge group of new missionaries are coming in so that changed things. Either Elder Roman will stay for two more cambios or I will to train. I went on splits with Elder Chen in Chulucanas and that was great. He is a very hard working missionary and we taught a lot of good lessons. Then on saturday night we had noche de hogar in the ouse of a member, once we got back to the apartment the pressure was intense waiting for the call from the zone leaders. When they finally called they told us that Elder Roman is going to serve in Sullana and I will be staying in Morropon, to train a new missionary! I'm pretty nervous because I only just finishe my training, but I am really excited as well. Today I am serving with Elder Chen because his companion Elder Farnsworth and my companion Elder Roman left to their new areas. Tomorrow Elder Chen and I will go to Piura to get our new Elders, fresh from the CCM, and then sleep in Piura with other Elders because on Wednesday we travel early to Chiclayo (3 hours away) to go to the devocional with Elder Nelson. I'm so excited and pumped for this week, I get to start training and I get to hear another apostole.

This makes me think of Ether 12:27-30 because I am so new and I still have a long ways to go with my spanish but Presidente Rowley received revelation that I should be a trainer. The Lord does call the weak, so they can become strong. I know other americans that started their missions with me and some of them are being transferred to other areas instead of training or teaching the area to an experianced elder so it makes me wonder why I was chosen to train. I look forward to it and to learning and I know the Lord wants me to train now, so early in my mission so that's what I'll do, he has a way prepared for me to do it. Plus I love challenges, I'm always up for a new challenge, so here we go!

Have a great week and keep smiling!

Love,

Elder Evans (Paul)

 

 

Nov 10 2013

 So this week was pretty sweet. It was mainly two or three days so I won't write a whole lot.

We started teaching seminary classes this week to the 3 youth in the ward, we teach the classes el martes y el sabado a por 2 hours each class. And this month we happen to have to teach the book of revelations (since we started so late) so not only am I teaching seminary, I am teaching seminary for the book of revelations. Oh, and in spanish, so it's a little rough haha. Luckily though this past week my spanish has improved so much. I just noticed different grammatical frases or something that has made it so much easier. On martes only the branch president's son showed up though, and on saturday, no one did...

Then on thursday we had splits, Elder Farnsworth from Georgia came to Morropon to serve with me and it was so fun. He only has one more transfer so he was talking all about the classes he is going to take at BYU, it made me prettty trunky but we did a lot of good work that day. We challenged 2 people to baptism, both accepted for th 30th so we're hoping to close out the month with two baptisms. We taught 4 other lessons, 6 in total, which is rare in Morropon, we just need to find more nuevos investigadores. Anyway, that night Elder Farnsworth and I made a giant dinner of spaghetti and garlic bread (we just poured some liquid garlic on the bread and microwaved them because we don't have an oven) and the next morning we got up at 5:30 to go running and exercise an extra hour. We ended up running up a mountain and there were some ruins up there so that was way cool. The mountain wasn't super big, and there was no climbing involved so it was all good.

Hermano Clemente is doing great, he tried to bring his neighbor to church who we are teaching but the neighbor Miguel Angel is very shy so he didnt want to this week. We'll get him there though. Oh and on suday I gave another talk with a last minute notice. I spoke on the scriptures and how through them, we partake of the love of Christ (similar to Lehi's dream and the iron rod).

That's all for now folks, have a great week and do some good!

Love,

Elder Evans, Paul

I sent some pictures. One of my zone at the zone activity we had last monday, and one of Elder Farnsworth and me in my room after a very successful day in Morropon eating a spaghetti dinner and garlic bread and drinking milk. He only has one transfer left so I'll miss him. He gets home the 31st of december and the semester at byu starts the 6th or 7th for him. The next morning we ran up a mountain and those are the next pictures.

 

 

 

Nov 4 2013

Hey Everyone!

This week was not as successful as the last few but we're working hard. We only have two weeks left with this transfer so Elder Roman or I will be leaving most likely, more likely I will stay to teach someone the area. I have been reading the Book of Mormon like there is notomorrow (during my study times or before going to bed) because I want to get this language down quick and learn new things to share with my investigators and less active members. 

This week we walked into Hermano C______ outside his house again in his chair, and as always, he was reading el Libro de Mormon. It's awesome, he has learned a ton. And he wanted to tell us his life story, which is very sad. His parents both have passed away and his mom was blind the last 15 years of her life, one or two of his siblings have passed away as well and hes only 51 or so years old. He was a drunk before he joined the church but now he stopped drinking and reads el libro de Mormon cada dia. He bore his testimony to us and broke into tears and thanked use for all we have done for him and he thanked God as well. He told us he wants to take their names to the temple and be baptised for them and have all their work done. We are going to try to help with that. It showed me how reall and true the Book of Mormon is. It changes lives. It turns them around and puts them on the path to Eternal Life. I'm grateful for the opportunity to be out here sharing this message and this book with the Peruanos. 

Also, the branch is going through some major changes. the Missionaries will be starting to teach all the sunday school lessons on sundays, and seminary classes for the 5 youth (2 of which are investigators but we can't get them to church so we don't know if they will show up), and the Branch president doesn't have counselors because there are only 2 elders, the branch president and the elders quorom president so he wants us misssionries to be his counselors so we'll see how these next few weeks go. They will be crazy with teaching seminary and sunday school and if we do end up being called to be his counselors. Seminary, however, will only be two classes per week, 2 hours each class.

That''s abaout all from the southern side of the world. I'll be back in a week!

Love, 

Elder Evans, Paul