April 21 2015

Hey everybody, this week Rosa was finally able to get baptized. She has been ready forever but we finally finished the lessons and got it done. To help you all remember, we met her through a series of events all starting with some guy in the street yelling "Joseph Smith is not in the Bible." My companion months back Elder Arce contacted a lady who had no interest, but the guy walked passed us and yelled what I wrote above. Another lady came out of the house and said she had listened to missionaries a long time ago, and then she also introduced us to her neighbor (Rosa's older sister) and found Ivan (their inactive brother) and then he introduced us to Rosa, who now just got baptized. Ivan is now also coming to church as well. It was a great day. I know it is true when Alma says that through small and simple things many great things come to pass. We are slowly, one by one, helping this family accept the gospel. Most of her family attended her baptism and really enjoyed the service.

Today was Elder Beidleman's 21st birthday and had a barbeque with some members and it was super good. In the morning we played basketball and board games and a tiny bit of football (american). Everyone had fun. 

Hope you all are having a blast and remember to always be happy. Love you guys!

Elder Evans

 

 

April 13 2015

Hey everybody, this week was pretty full of meetings in Piura and also here with stake leaders to talk about how to improve the retention and how to get less actives back to church. We didn't have nearly as much time to be in appointments but we were able to visit Rosa and her family a few times to help her continue preparing for her baptism. Her older brother Ivan is a less active returning to church and he helps her and motivates her as well. 

Today for Pday we walked to a place called Marcavelica (about 30 minutes away walking. It was really cool. Just our district went and we played a bunch of games with a volleyball and stuff. And then finished drinking cocanut milk, which is great, and then we ate at a really good chicken restaurant.

I found out at least 4 of my group will be extending. It's a hard choice because I want to be home for all those celebrations like Hayley's grad party, my birthday, Jimmy's, and the 4th, and also so I could get back running quick and working as well. But I already told President Rowley I'd stay. I was talking to one elder in my zone and told him I was extending even though I have so many reasons to go home on the normal day and  he said that the fact that I'm extending helped him a lot because he was feeling homesick and wanted to be at home but he said I helped him a lot just telling him that and he felt better because I've decided to stay the 6 more weeks and miss those occasions. 

That's crazy that Jason is already home and that Danielle and Rebekah are coming home! I still remember when I left and it doesn't feel like it was long ago at all. 

Love you guys, have a great week and always be happy.

Elder Evans 

April 6 2015

I hope everyone had a great Easter and General Conference! I loved the general conference, it seemed to go much faster and I learned way more. It was my last general conference in the mission and we were able to watch all but one session in English. And when they spoke in spanish we changed it to the spanish channel to hear his actual voice. Elder Holland gave a great talk as always that made me pay more attention than I did in my physics class. There were so many great talks but that was the one that stood out to me the most as he talked about the Atonement and how he reached down into the abyss of death and rose out of it three days later to save us from our failings and fallings. He's always ready to reach out His arms to rescue us from our falls and everything. Our two converts Jairo and Alejandro attended with us, and three or more less actives. Unfortunately none of our investigatores went.

This week my companion has been sick and it was really hard fro him to work. He is now mostly better and we  are hoping that our investigator Rosa can get baptized this sunday or the next (our bishop only can attend sundays).

Hope you guys have a great week. Have fun and be happy!

Love, Elder Evans

P.S. We had transfers today and I am staying another transfer here in Buenos Aires with Elder Bradford (oh by the way I know a few of his friends from BYU). Elder Vasquez, who I trained in Morropon is here in Sullana and also Elder Mauricio, my companion in Jorge Chavez. My two "sons" are here in Sullana now haha

March 30 2015

Paul and some past companions

Skit time!

Drinking coconut water

Paul and his "son" and "grandson"

still drinking coconut water

Well, this has been a fun week. On Monday we went to Paita and on Friday we had a multizone conference in Talara, about an hour and a half away. In the conference we learned a lot about the importance of testimonies, both of the missionaries and of the people we teach. We also learned a lot about how to help people with doubts accept a baptismal invitation. Afterward we did a skit about Ammon and King Lamoni and it was awesome. It was really funny. The other zone of Talara had a skit of Alma and Amulek. We found a few new investigatores this week and one has gone to church before, to another ward. So we'll see how she wil progress. Her husband is a member so hopefully he will help her out. This saturday we will receive transfers. Some say I will leave Sullana, some say i´ll stay. I really hope I can stay one more transfer. I love it here. 

Hope you guys have a great week!! And enjoy General Conference!

Elder Evans

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

First time wearing his raincoat

The reason he had to wear his raincoat

baptism!

baptism!

group of zone leaders

Elder Paul and his companion, Elder B

Elder Paul and some missionaries he has known for a long time

Elder Paul says there is a cat in this picture

The prince and the pea (Elder Paul's bed for one night)

coming home from Paita

March 9 2015

Hey everybody. Hope you all had a happy Woman's Day this week. I don't know if it's the same everywhere but here it happened on Sunday if I'm not mistaken. Hope you are doing well. I had a pretty good week. We learned a lot htis week from President Rowley and the other zone leaders and sister trainers/leaders in our council. We had a great zone conference (pictures are below) and taught a lot more about some iniciatives we have started to work more with members and how we can be more involved in the ward councils. 

This week we found out that Jairo (an investigator who wants to get baptized) will be going to Paita for this week to work so he won't be getting baptized until the 21st of March but it'll be fine because that's when Alejandro will be getting baptized as well. They're 18 years old. We are super excited for them and they are doing great. They just lack a few lessons more. They're all ready and are reading the Book of Mormon. It's great to see how much Jairo has changed. Beforehand he wasn't very talkative and didn't participate much but now he loves the lessons and he participates way more and is excited for his baptism. 

Love you guys, I hope everything is going well. I have had a good p-day because we have an investigator who brought us to a gym for free because he works there and it is the nicest I've seen on the mission. I'll just say I got to run 4 miles on a treadmill. You can understand how excited I am. The administrator there is a member and told us we could go whenever we want without paying. We are very happy. 

Oh yeah, and President Rowley invited us to read the entire Book of Mormon before July 1st because that is when he goes home and the new President Rasmussen gets here. We will underline everything that has to do with faith, repentence, the Atonement, baptism, and the Holy Spirit. I started it and I realized every page so far has scriptures about at least one of those topics. 

Love you guys, have a great week!!

Elder Evans

March 2 2015

Hey everybody! Another week went by. Weird. This week was pretty great. Very eventful. One recent convert, the mom of Jairo who will be getting baptized on the 14th got super sick. Her heart swelled up and affected her brain and was suupper sick. We gave her a blessing on Tuesday night. Then President Rowley on Wednesday wanted to acompany us for the afternoon to a few appointments and we ended up going back to that family's house to see if she was better but was much worse. The husband and then President both said a prayer for the family and it was super powerful. We prayed for that family all week and visited them every night to see how they were doing and they all ended up going to church yesterday. She had gotten better and she and her husband and son Jairo went to church. We were super happy to see her better and with her family. Jairo is excited for his baptism and we are finishing the lessons.

This week will be pretty eventful as well with the mission leader council and a meeting with President Rowley and President Inga (the Sullana stake president) on Wednesday and Tuesday. Hope you all have a great week and make it the best it can be!

[Replying to some of his mother's questions] With my companion we do speak english, but in the street we speak spanish because we already call a lot of attention. Sometimes while talking in english in the room we'll accidentally say two or three sentences in spanish. It's strange doing that.

Ah yeah Dad told you about me getting robbed with my last companion. It wasn't really that bad. We couldn't tell if they had any arms or not. And that is true,  there are a lot of strange things that have happened on the mission that I'll save to tell you guys until I get home. I'm trying to get better to stay happy and calm despite the stress that comes from being the zone leader senior companion after just one transfer of learning what to do. It's not bad but sometimes it's stressful. 

Today we had a fun zone activity and everyone had fun. Elder Eddington is in my zone again. He was my zone leader in Castilla and now I'm one of his zone leaders here lol. He brought the game Bang to play as we did as a district in my last area. 

Have a great week. I pray for the family too.

Elder Bradford and Elder Evans

Love, 

Elder Evans