April 7 2014

 Esta semana fue lo maximo. This week we had a zone conference and learned a lot there and we are all trying to start praying on our knees with our investigators more often after a lesson. Here in Peru the floor of all the houses are usually dirt so barely anyone ever prays on their knees in the lessons but we started doing it this wee and even though everyone gets their pants dirty it has brought the spirit more and more. Also I got to go to Ecuador this week. Solo for a little bit though. We had to fill out papers for 30 or 40 minutes or so. There was a guy who went with us from Lima, he works in the church general offices in Lima and he said he would try getting us to lima in a few weeks to continue working on our papers and to send us to the temple! I dont know if we'll actually be able to but he said he would try getting permission and all that.

This week we found a joven and taught him and his family the restauracion. Then, two days later he and his grandma went to general conference, the saturday afternoo session. The grandma found it really interesting that we do baptisms for the dead and that we have a huge library database for family history. She is a Testigo de Jehova but is very interested in the temple and family history work. We are going to work hard with this family, we've got high hopes!

General conference was great as always, on saturday they quoted the apostale Pablo so many times, the epistles  that he wrote in the new testament are some of my favorites (and not for his name haha) so I thought that was pretty cool. Also in the Priesthood session, President Uchtorf asked a question "Are you sleeping during the restoration?" He said that we all need to work and spread the gospel and quicken the spread of the message of the restoration. We can't just let others do it and "sleep" during the work. We all need to do our part so we can  say in the judgement seat that we worked gave it our all, instead of saying that we were asleep and didn't do anything.

I am sending some fotos from the youth activity from a week or two ago. When all the youth served as missionaries for a day. They had fake plaques that said futuro misionero.

That's about all I got for now. This coming week nothing too special or cool will happen, we just have a multi-zone conference on friday, but that is pretty cool actually.

Hope everyone learned something new in conference and that you'll apply it and have a great week! And don't sleep during the restoration ;)

Love, Elder Evans

March 31 2014

Hey everyone this week was pretty good. We had more appointments than the last week. On saturday there was a youth ward activity where they all served as missionaries for a few hours. They did studies in the morning and we 4 missionaries taught them how they need to study and such and then they left with us to go visit less actives. The missionaries seperated to go with a group of youth (there was always at least one priest in the group so we could go on 'splits'). We found a bunch of new less actives to visit and the youth bore such strong testimonies and shared a message from the 1st presidency in the liahona. It was awesome. It made me remember the days during missionary week when the youth left with an adult to visit a family and practice teach the Restauracion. I remember going with Bro Giblette and Haden and Nathan Johnson and this activity made me think of that day many years ago.

Also,last sunday one of our baptisms fell through, the lady told us she doesn't want to hear anymore from us and said she won't get baptized, so we stopped visiting her this week to give her time and yesterday she actually showed up to church!!! She said she will start going to church every week and was much happier than she seemed when she told us she didn't want to hear more. I know it was for sure a miracle that happened and we hope she can keep up with these desires to go to church and get baptized, she just needs to attend church one more time before the Sacrament. 

Can't wait for general conference! I'll be watching here in the stake center in tumbes Peru!

Oh yeah, and on wednesday I'll be going to Ecuador because I still don't have my visa*, other missionaries are coming with me too. It'll be only a few hours but it'll be cool because I'll be able to say I also went to Ecuador! I'm pretty excited for that! We'll contact and share the gospel there too in the market or something so I can say I served in two missions! Haha. 

Anyway, thanks for all the prayers and everyhting you all do for me, have a great week!!

Love,

Elder Evans

 

*Mother's note: Jim explained to me that because Elder P E is technically in Peru on an expired tourist visa, he has to leave Peru for a day and then re-enter on a new tourist visa. Hence the quickie trip to Ecuador.

March 23 2014

Well this week was a little on the crazy side, and thats an understatement. We surprisingly received two new missionaries to open another area in my ward here, Elder Stanley, who served for 8 months as secretario financero and Elder LLanos, he's only here for a week and already left to his new area. We taught Elder Stanley his new area and went on splits so I could go to our appointments with Elder Llanos. Elder Stanley is excited to be out of the office and train a new missionary.

On saturday we had two baptims! With help from the miembros and the Lord, we were able to complete a family and baptise the last child of the family. And for the first time in many many years the WHOLE family came to church to see her get confirmed a member and receive the Holy Ghost. It was awesome! I was given the blessing of baptizing her. I was really happy to. (She is the girl who reminds me of Annie and Mimi). 

Also Elder Villena baptized a teenage guy named Denizon, Denizon has waited 2 years for permission from his parents to get baptized. He always has gone to church and seminarios and even mission prep classes. After thse two years he got permission and he got baptized and confirmed this weekend. It was a great way to end the transfer.

This new transfer starts today, and nothing changed, except Elder Stanley and his new companion are new additions to the district here in Los Angeles. I've been a little stressed about being district leader and all with all the responsiblities and duties but I have read a lot of scrptures about the Lord callng the weak to do his work. I especially like what the apostle Pablo said but I dont remember where it was. He says that he glories in his weaknesses because the Lord works more with the weak and makes them strong.

I hope Hayley had a great birthday! It's weird to think she is 17 ya. 

Wow sounds like a good week! I wanna se frozen, Ive heard its good! And it's cool Kathy is going to church, I remmeber seeing here there antes de la mision. 

I dont remember the songs we sing. This sunday was very stressfu, no one had keys to the builidng, and some other funnny things. No I never knew there was an earthquake. And I went to a store called Romero but barely baught anything cause I dont have much money at all. The penisionista is named hermana Dora. and yes the building has a font.

 

Anyway, I hope everyone has a great week as always! Love ya all!

Elder Evans

 

 

March 17 2014

This week flew way fast. We have two baptims planned ofr theis week! One is a young guy of 14 years and he has goine to church for 2 years but never got permission from parents to get baptised. Theyfinlly gave him permision this past week so his baptism is already scheduled and one of his best friends will baptize him! We are wayexcited for him. Also, a 9 year old girl will be getting baptized on saturday as well if we can fisnish the lessons this week. She is the girl who reminds me of annie and mimi. She is still just as excited for her baptism as she was a month ago. Her family are less actives but have returned to the church and are progressing. 

Today we went to Zarumilla (super close to th ecuador border) and played futbol with the 4 missionaries there and we brought a less active teenager to play too. This less active guy named Luis hangs out with us on Pdays and also is returning to the church and expressed interest in serving a mission! 

I guess Jimmy had it coming*, he had'nt played in two years so he had to win. It's like the last time we played killer bunnies before I left, I won as well. It's good to know I can do whatever I want in the games and know I'll win because i havent played for 2 years. I have destiny on my side.

This week we sang llamados a servir and a few others I dont remember. 

In the district meeting we just sing, pray, something from the manual misional, spiritual thought, repetimos el proposito misional, then we give accounts of our investigators and what they need to progress, and then a small class, a video from preach my gospel, the we do some small practices and roll plays, then someone shares experiences from the mission and we finish with a song and parayer.

This next monday we have transffers .Itll be really interesting. Anything could happen.

I' m hoping everything and everyone is all well, or at least getting better! Know that I miss and love you all! Oh and today I made my 8 month mark. Time is flying! Next week we have transfers already and we're receiving 2 more missionaries in my ward so we'll have to show them their area, it'll be interesting but fun! We don't know if their sisters or elders yet. Oh and Hayley, have a happy birthday this week!!! :)

Estoy muy bien hoy. Pude jugar un poco de futbol esta mañana con otros elderes y miembros. But at times my knee still hurts while proselyting and all. Ive been taking a lot of ibuprofen but I dont notice a big difference. 

I bet all of minnesota hates the snow right now but I would love a 1/2 foot of snow haha. Today is super humid, theres no sun but the humidity is intense and we've been super hot all day. 

Sounds like Jimmy hasnt goten a whole lot of rest with all those talks ha. But I'm sure he loves them so it's all good. Here in the mission the missionaries and leader misional give talks every 3rd week of eace month with the topic being obra misional, or missionary work. One joven told me he really like my talk, I read a little much from apostles but he said my talk really helped him and got him more excited for his mission (he plans to leave for the mission in august). I tallked about the lost sheep and how we all need to look for the one lost sheep and help bring them back. 

Love,

Elder Evans

*Mom's note: I mentioned in my letter to Paul that we played Setters of Catan with Jimmy for the first time in over two years and Jimmy won. Also, this email from Paul was cobbled together from three different emails from Paul. One to the general populace, one to me, and one to Jim. 

March 10 2014

This week went pretty well. everyone is progressing pretty well so I don't have a lot of new things to say now. but on sunday the stake presidency of Tumbes was reorganized. We had two members of the seventy here, elder Waddell 8american) and EldeR Godoy ( from peru). Their talks were sooo good. elder waddell gives talks about as good as the apostles. he is super tall too. ive met him a few times in the ccm already but it was really cool to see him again on sunday. And Elder godoy told me that he was taught by an Elder Evans around 1985 in peru. He said that this Elder evans now owns some restaurant in the states but i don't remember the name. and eht eElder evans was from california, like dad, so I don't know if there could be family relation or not ha.

After stake conference we had a training meeting with the members of the seventy and the mission president in the evening with all the members of the ward councils of the stake of tumbes so there were quite a few people there adn the training meeting was super cool. I took a bunch of notes because everything they said was way good. All these meetings made me realy excited for general conference next month. I can't wait!

also in the stake conference the mission president President rowley shared some of the miracles that are occuring in Tumbes with the help of the members. He shared our experience of finding the pacherres family. A member of the ward brought us the house of les actives and introduced us and because of this member doing that now this family is going to church, the teenagers are going to seminary and the littlest child is getting ready to be baptised. he and the elders from the quorom of the 70 really encourage the members to work with ussa  lot more and promised that much more miracles will occur if they work with us missionaries. the pacherres family was there int the congregation and they met president Rowley and Elder Waddell adn Elder Godoy. it was a really cool experience. 

Today in the morning we prepared cookies called alfajores. Theyre super good. It was a district activity with the zone leaders and the sisters in the district. that is what I was doing in the picture with the other elder and the rolling pin. he is one of my zone leaders.

Hope everyone is doing well at home and getting ready to hear from the prophet and general authorities in a month! Love ya all!

elder Evans

March 3 2014

This week has passed quite well in a few aspects and not so well in others. First the bad, or funny stories: Number 1, we forgot the keys to our room in our room. We have two back up keys as well, and usually the zone leaders have those in case we lose ours. But we forgot to give those back to them so that was also in the room. There is a balcony in our apartment building with one of our windows up high but its only a screen netting so i got up on a chair and popped it out and it fell on my bed beneath. Then I used a long flexible tube to push the door lever open and we got in without damaging anything. The screen netting we just had to put back and that was easy. It's nice to know our room is vulnerable to attack haha.

This week the family Pacherras went to church again. The less active family with a nonmember 9 year old daughter. This week we set her baptismal date for the 15th and is super excited. Also, another lady 78 years old accepted the same baptismal date as well. She has a ton of energy as well. She still goes swimming!! And she sings really well. She sang for us this week ha. Her pastora evangelista visited her and said that its a sin to get baptized twice but we helped her with her doubts and really wants to get baptized and recieve the Holy Ghost. Another guy, named Luis, is 17 years old and has been inactive for quite a while but we found him and he has now gone to church twice in my 3 weeks here and is interested in serving a mission. He said he will go to the mission prep classes here and help us clean the chapel. He came with all the missionaries from Tumbes and Puyango zones and his older brother to the beach "La Cruz". His older brother might start coming back to church but I 'm not sure yet. He's super friendly and wants to come with us to our appointments on Wednesday. He is a big muscular guy and we talk a lot about training and weight lifting. I obviously am not as strong but I know a lot of exercises from track and cross country and stuff. This area gets better every week it seems!

The house [we worked on last week] is not complete yet. I left my 16gig flashdrive in there but it later got robbed at night so I dont know if its still there. I sent most of those fotos home or printed them so I have the majority of them at least. It is cool at night. The last few days have been pretty hot but there is usually a nice breeze, something we didnt have in Morronpn. We dont have street names here. Its a lot different. The name a quadrant of the city and then they say Manzana R Lt. 12, R is the block and 12 is the number of the house. I don't know the address to the apartment. But it's really close to a stadium that is being built in Puyango.

I hope everyone is doing great or that they are getting better. And that you will have a great week! Keep on Keeping on!

Love,

Elder Evans

 

Feb 24 2014

This week was crazy! On tuesday morning we gave service in which we helped build a house, but we`re still not done yet. It is pretty fun.The house is just made with bamboo like wood and clay of some sort. My companion has all the fotos but I cant find my flashdrive so hopefully when I find it I can pass the fotos and send them. Then I led the district meeting without a plan but they all said it was great still haha. Then later I left with the other district leaders from Tumbes and Zarumilla for Piura, a whole 5 hour bus ride, for our training meeting. We arrived at Piura at night and slepped in the mission office, and then had the meeting in the morning until 3pm. Then leftt for Tumbes. Then one missionary in Zarumilla (right on the border with Ecuador, had an appendicitis so he and one of the zone leaders went to piura and the other zone leader stayed with Elder Villena and me. We had a blast and got a lot of work down.

We met a family of inactives last saturday. A memeber of the stake high counsil invtied us to visit them with him. They are wonderful. They stopped going to  church when they moved to Puyango but we visited them on a saturday and the next day the dad and 3 of his kids went to churc hthe next day. One of his daughters is 9 years old and hasn't been baptized yet, but now she reeeeeeally wants to get baptized. The man's wife goes to a diffferent church but is a member of our church. We have our goal that all 3 or  that still live in their house (many of the children have already moved out; there are 10 children in total but only 4 still live in the house) can be rescatadas, or 'rescued' and we hope that the dad can baptize his daughter in a few weeks. 

I have never been this excited on my mission yet. The family always is super excited wehen we come over. The wife never is home but the rest go to youth activities already, and they have only known us and the members for a week and 2 days. And the 9 year old girl reminds me of Annie and Mimi because she is super energitic and hugs us missionaries and all. I thought of Annie and Mimi a lot when I first met this girl. I'm sure we'll take pictures with this family soon and I'll send them so you can see.

Well I am tired from writing so much but the experience with this family makes me really glad I'm on a mission and I couldn't be in a better place for these 2 years. With my last 17 months I will work my hardest because I want to find families like this one. They are ready to come back to church and the daughter is ready to be baptised, she just needs a few more lessons and the interview.

In church we sang a lor of good songs but it's hard to think of the english names haha. One was Now let us rejoice (ya recocijemos or something like that). The roads are mostly paved but there are a lot of dirt roads as well. There are a lot of little ponds in the roads after it rains. And normalmente we dont have to walk too far. The family that I talked about in my other email lives about 7 minutes away walking. Or a litle more. 

Ha supongo que le toca a él. (Ha I guess it's matt's turn) for braces. 

I'll try sending some pictures now from the house building project

Hope everyone is having as good of a time as I am!! You all are in my prayers. Love ya!!

Elder Evans