May 25 2015

Hey everybody. Hope you're having a great Memorial Day! This week was pretty great. Sullana really welcomed my new companion Elder Garay in a way we never expected. Sorry for telling you guys but we saw in one week, a lady going number 1 in the grass outside the stake center, who then asked us for money, a man going number 2 in the grass in our area going to a lesson, and a naked boy coming out of the bathroom telling his dad (a new convert) to help him clean himself. Who knows what awaits in the next few weeks. We have to investigatores that are progressing right now, Maickel and Teresa. They both have baptismal date but it is really hard to help Teresa to go to church. She is married and her husband is a member who got baptized almost a year ago in Chiclayo. He works every sunday so it's hard to get them to go to church. Maickel is the 15 year old nephew of Rosita who we baptized a month back and he is excited to be baptized so we are teachig him two or three times a week. We read with him 1 Nephi 1 to get him going on his reading of the Book of Mormon. It was a pretty cool lesson.

I'm doing great here, my companion and I are great friends and he sometimes teaches me portuguese and his native language of Paraguay. He speaks spanish as well. 

Yeah Paraguayans speak much differently, sometimes it's hard to understand him ha. He also speaks another native langague from Paraguay and Portuguese so sometimes he randomly speaks those languagues to throw me off and joke around in the room ha. He is super cool. He looks Northamerican because he is white and some Americans came to our chapel for a auto sufficiency devotional and one of them spoke to Elder Garay in english but I told the guy he is from paraguay and doesn't speak english ha. My mind might wander back home a lot but we are working really hard and trying to help two progressing investigatores get baptized. I just sent you the flight plan. It'll be a much better trip I think, even though it's still planned to be about 24 hours. I'll be going to LA this time! 

Today for Memorial day we went to a restaurant with about 10 or more other missionaries and I ate lasagna, a milkshake and pop. It gave me a quick preview to home. The restaurant is called Rustica.

 

Hope you guys have a great week! I'll send pictures next week. Love you guys!

Elder Evans

May 18 2015

Hey everybody! This week was full of surprises! One of our converts Jairo has had a lot of health problems and fainted two times and was pretty bad. A missionary in the zone was also really really sick and we had to go help the both of them. We've bee visiting a reference of a recent convert, and the investigator, Cesar, is listening and accepted the Restoration and belives that God needed to call a new prophet. He is really cool but he has problems going to church on sundays so we have to work hard with him. And Teresa, a convert's wife is slowly progressing but goes to a different ward instead of ours because they recently moved and didn't know they changed ward boundaries and don't really want to switch wards. We are trying to help her understand that God is ready to answer any body's prayer, not just the ones who are 'close to God'.

Today we had transfers. Surprisingly, I will be finishing the mission here in Buenos Aires! And Elder Bradford, after only two transfers here with me, left to Talara. I am now with Elder Garay, from Paraguay. He will be the missionary that 'killls' me ha. 

Have a great week! Be happy! Love you guys!

Elder Evans

 

 

May 11 2015

Hey buenas tardes everyone! Hope everyone had a great time on Mother's Day, calling home perhaps or whatever you guys did. This week was great. We are working a lot with Rosita's (the girl that we baptized about a month ago) nephew who is 15 years old. He has been going to church constantly and is eager to learn and get baptized. He accepted the invitation to be baptized on June 6th so we are really happy. They gave us references and we contacted them and set up an appointment for tuesday so things are going well. Rosita gave the closing prayer in the sacrament meeting in our ward conference yesterday so that was cool. Jairo, who got baptized almost two months ago received the aaronic priesthood to the office of a priest so we're really happy for him and his family. He's awesome.

Today we had a fun pday, we destroyed Elder Eddington and Sister Ransom with eggs, flour, and water ballons and such becuase it was their last Pday. I'll miss them but they both go to BYU so I'll see them there. 

[I asked if Mother's Day is celebrated in Peru]  Sounds like Mother's Day was great! Here they do celebrate it as well and in the church they handed out baskets with stuff like rice, sugar, noodles, and things to the mothers. But only a select few because there wasn't a whole lot. The steak sounds good too!

Hope everyone has a great week! Stay happy! Love you all!

Elder Evans

May 4 2015

Hey everybody! This week was pretty cool. One of our investigatores Teresa, whose husband is a recent convert baptized in Chiclayo, is progressing pretty well. We gave her a Book of Mormon and she also asked us how she could be baptized in the our church. It's one of those dream questions on the mission! haha. So we explained to her all of the requirements and everything and her husband is awesome too. He helps a lot in the lessons and encourages her. She didn't accept the baptismal date because she doesn't think she's quite ready but she does want to get baptized soon. We still have to teach the lessons and stuff.

The other elders in our ward had a baptism yesterday and that was great. The guy Pedro is a dad who had been receiving the missionaries for more than a year but finally he and his wife were able to get married on Saturday and he was able to get baptized. His wife was an inactive member a long time ago but they have been going to church together for almost a year and it was a super happy day for the ward because he was pretty much already a member. He will be a great leader in the church I'm sure. President and Sister Rowley attended the baptism and it was really cool.

We had exchanges with the assistants and I went to their area with Elder Mendoza and they have a reeeeallly nice room, with hot water. We had a good time and found a ton of new investigatores!

Hope everyone has a great week and that all the mothers have a happy Mother's day! On Sunday afternoon I'll be calling home for the last time! I'm super excited! 

 

Love you all, 

Elder Evans

April 27 2015

Hey everybody! This week was bad but good at the same time. my companion got super sick on Tuesday and we couldn't go on splits so we didn't get any work done but he's al good now so we're good. We found some new promising investigatores this week. One is named Juana and she is really interested in the church because she talked to missionaries a long time ago. She lives with her husband but they're not married and she knows she should get married so hopefully we can help them do that. On Sunday I got to confirm Rosita a member of the church (the investigator we baptized last week). It was the first time I got to confirm someone so it was a really cool experience. Also we are getting the ward excited to work and do their visits. On Sundays we are now going out to work with the elders quorum to visit everyone who didn't attend church and the investigatores. The relief society also goes out to visit the sisters on Sundays. We're trying to reactivate all the converts of the last 2 years and as many other less actives as possible while also inviting the investigatores to come to church.

Love you all and I hope you have a great week!! 

Elder Evans

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