David has not been very adept at getting pictures to us via email

We got to speak with David, live from San Pedro, Peru, yesterday, which was fun and crazy at the same time.  Quite the adventure.  Coincidentally, we received some pics from David as well, which I am sending along.  Some are from this past week, during the zone Christmas party, others date back to the MTC in Lima, Peru.  The picture of the finger in the sky is David touching the moon his first night in Peru.  The apartment pics are of his present abode, with his trainer Elder Yuppanqui, who has since completed his mission.  David told a story yesterday of his first day in the mission field.  He said he was walking with Elder Yuppanqui when a couple of guys called them over to their house.  The guys had been drinking.  As they stood there talking, David - who could not understand the conversation - had a hand in his pocket.  One of the guys at the house stood up and began speaking to David in Spanish to get him to take his hand out of his pocket.  David did not understand him, but noticed Elder Yuppanqui speaking in his defense, getting nervous.  The guy at the house then pulled a knife on David.  The situation did not escalate beyond that, and David laughed about it.  Elder Yuppanqui told David that he had never before been threatened by anyone with a weapon of any kind, after 22 months in the mission field, and thought it strange that David would have such an experience on his first day.  (David loves relating events like that.)

 

It was impressive hearing David's Spanish to people in the background.  Occasionally he would say something to someone there with him, have a brief conversation in Spanish, then get back to the phone.  We put him on speaker phone and had him say a blessing for our food - in Spanish, of course.  David seems to be very happy, doing very well - despite the fact that he is spending his first Christmas holiday away from home, in a foreign land.  It is quite the blessing to be able to speak with him by phone, and to receive regular email communications from him.  We would like more pics, though.  David has not been very adept at getting pictures to us via email.  Still working on that.

 

It is a wonderful thing to see our young men in the mission field, growing, serving.  I have to admit, as much as I love having David out there, I miss him - but I am grateful that he is willing to serve and look forward to all the growth he will receive through his mission experience.

 

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and continue to enjoy the holidays.

 

Mike

 

P.S.  For those of you who do not know, David's cousin, Cody, was called to serve in the Iowa Des Moines Mission - English speaking.  David was sure Cody would be called to serve with him in Peru and that they would both be fluent in Spanish, so a little disappointment there.  Cody leaves in mid February.

Anyone who waivers about serving a mission is out of their mind. Just do it. It’s so cool.

December 22, 2008

Alright sorry ya'll, we are late coming to internet again. I guess you can just make a general rule for now that if I don't email at the usual time, about 10:30ish for me...you can assume it will be late because we are doing something.

So . . . this morning we had our normal meetings and then had to get read for mission conference with the president at 12:30 p.m. We were running around the centro of Piura doing a bit of shopping and stuff beforehand, and didn't have time to do internet first. I almost bought a guitar, but the one I found last week was gone, because I didn't have the money last week, and pretty much all the rest are way too nice or . . . um . . . way not nice. Soooo, I didn't get a guitar for Christmas. :( Maybe next week. Anyway, we had about five or six zones all together today, and saw a few guys from my group that I haven't seen since the first day in Piura over three months ago. That was cool. We had a big lunch together with the president - chicken, mashed potatoes, and veggies. Yum, yum, so much better than rice. A nice change for a good Christmas dinner. Then, everyone did a special musical number, or something. So there was a lot of music, singing and what not. It was a little sad that I wasn't able to get a guitar because there were like 4 other gringos with guitars that did stuff...and I was depressed. Okay, not really, but I was...wanting to play something, too. So it was a cool conference. Lots of fun. The president and his wife took a little bit of time at the end too, and of course we got lots of pictures...which I was planning on sending right now...but the USB card reader I have mysteriously disappeared today from my backpack. Lameeee!! Hopefully it just fell out when we went back to our cuarto afterward...otherwise...not really sure what happened to it, because I had it at the church...know that for sure...anyway... a fun conference. Good Christmasy stuff. Oh, and I received a letter from the Footes today, Christmas letter, that was great, and I got a bunch of dear elder letters from like...September. Not sure where those suckers have been. But hey, it's mail. I'll take it.

Speaking of guitars. . . umm . . . I uh . . . have a question. Hmmm, how can I say this? Jordan is playing my guitar??!! Hmmm, that means he is probably playing my ukelele too . . . . Jordan, I love you. We both love music. So, you will understand when I say that I also love my beautiful, wonderful instruments - even more than banana cream pie. So, well, don't make me choose between you. Take good care of my little children. They are precious. ;)

San Pedro continues to be good to me. I am really liking it here. It's cool to run into brand new gringos at conferences now and see how my Spanish is coming. (haha.) Maybe that sounds mean, but it's true. You know, I felt so lost when I first arrived here, unable to speak the language, so it is awesome to speak to someone in the early stages of learning who will admire my great grasp of the language. ;) And I love learning Spanish. It's so cool to study and learn a different language. I'm sure I'll keep saying that, but really, it's the best. Sure it's a struggle, but I'm motivated, and I study it A LOT, so it's coming along, and it's way sweet! It's also getting warmer here. Summer is just starting now. So, to be honest, it doesn't really feel like Christmas. More so at night when it's cooler and you can see Christmas lights. But either way, it's different. But people are starting to complain about the heat. I'm doing alright. Vegas did a good job prepping me for that. In fact, the heat here can't even touch Vegas yet. So, we'll see what happens in the next couple months because I hear it gets pretty intense.

Alright, now to people. We did have one baptism this past week, a young girl of a less active family. We are hoping that with her baptism we can help the whole family start coming back to church. They have nine kids, all of which have now been baptized. A few of them came to church the last couple weeks, so we'll see. Hopefully it gets the mother motivated to get everyone there. She is kinda disconnected, though. She didn't come to her daughter's baptism or to see her confirmed in church the next day. That doesn't help much. But, we'll see. The most important thing for those children is for their mother to become converted to the gospel of Jesus Christ. We are also teaching a couple other families that live just a few houses down from them, all friends of the kids, so things are looking good on that block. Hopefully, we'll see good things there in the future. One of the new ladies we taught is a widow. She is really great and is scheduled to be baptized next week. (Fingers crossed!) I do not like to see people rushed to baptism at all. We work with them and do our best to ensure that true conversion is taking place. That is so important, and is something both Elder Calderon and I feel strongly about.

Let's see . . . we also had a big reactivation event yesterday where we went around to all the members in the area with all the missionaries in our zone, and leaders and young men of the ward - just for San Pedro. We did it once a week for two weeks with the missionaries, one ward at a time. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. But it was funny because we announced it during church and told the young men that they needed to come join us and got the usual groan of after church activities...and I was just like...c'mon guys you get the help the less active members!! Don't you realize how cool that is?! And then I realized...wow I have become a nerd. Because three years ago, I would have been one of the groaners. (ha!) But anyway, I found some interesting things with those members...really very sad some of them. It's amazing how easy it is to stop living the gospel, and to fall away from the Church - to become ensnared in the world from all its pitfalls . . . and how difficult it is for so many to follow the Savior, live the gospel, and allow Heavenly Father to pour blessings upon us. Weird, huh? Because, the key to happiness is always right there before us. We know what to do; yet, we so often ignore it, resist, rationalize away our choices, then follow a path of defiance and destruction. Human nature is just so strange. The plan of happiness is, in reality, so easy and simple. It is a matter of merely doing the right thing, following the right way. (See 2 Nephi 25:28-29.)

I also was called on the spot for some more piano play recently. (Ahhh. Thanks for those "mission prep" piano practice sessions, Dad.) The other ward needed me for the primary presentation. Well, I thought I was pretty smart, and knew the electric keyboard in our church didn't work, because we tried several times before, even three days earlier, and . . . nothing. So I thought I'd humor them, plugged it in, and oh, look at that the light . . . is . . . on? Uh oh. At that point, I wanted to run. My first thought was: Wow, that is not being powered by electricity, that is the pure power of God and He is forcing me to play the hymns today just like Dad forced me to play back home. Wow. Heavenly Father has a good sense of humor. Luckily, I didn't butcher the song too bad.

And I wasn't gonna tell you this one . . . but . . . a guy got shot and killed in my area, even on the street where I live. Ahhh! Mom, don't be scared. It's ok. But crazy, eh? Apparently this guy tried to rob another guy, shot at him, so the guy that was getting robbed pulled his gun out and put him down! Crazy! And guess what?? We were walking home and missed it by like two minutes! Woah! It's okay, Mom. (Maybe I should erase this . . . . nah.)

At any rate, let's get to the highlight of my week - when my companion fell off the seesaw. We were at a little school party on Friday with the zone, and riding seesaws for a few minutes. And ...my comp fell off. And I got it on video! It's hilarious. And I probably woulda laughed more on the video and stuff but I thought he was seriously hurt, so turned it off. But it's so funny! And I was gonna send it too you...but...read above about the USB thingy. One day you'll see it and laugh with me.

The Church is true. Being a missionary is awesome. Anyone who waivers about serving a mission is out of their mind. Just do it. It's so cool. Hope everyone has a good awesome, Christmas. Love you all. Thanks for the love support, and letters. Sorry for the bad grammar, Dad. I know how much you don't like it when I don't try harder with all that. But hey, Merry Christmas ya'll!

Elder . . . um . . . Royal

Elder "Seriously Loving Peru" Royal

    Heyy Fammmy

    Okay, I have a slight headache right now, from a slightly stressful morning. So last week I probably should've sent home the Christmas stuff I have for you, but didn't. So I am trying to get that done today - pictures, tape, and some letters. The problem this morning was trying to get the pictures on a DVD for you...not working out...few technical problems. So hopefully I'll get that done before the end of the day and get it sent out...seeing as you probably wont get it by Christmas...but it will get there eventually.

    Uh... Mom. I got all your boxes, but I wasn't sure if they were meant for Christmas day, so I opened all of them and I thought it was a pretty cruel joke that there were directions for a razor but no razor, until I opened the cookie box a week later and found it hidden in there. Funny. And the new temple announced is in Trujillo, which is the closest mission south...probably a few hours on a bus away from Piura at least. And don't stress about the Christmas call. I'll be calling from my pensionsitta's phone, so it should be easy. So don't worry Mom (although I guess I kinda like it when you worry about me).

    I'm pretty excited this morning about finding a song that I sang with Cody, Karalyn Hastings and Brook "Skittles" Taylor on the Church history trip. It's called: "My Shepherd Will Supply My Need." I love it! It's wonderful. Beautiful music is an awesome thing. My pensionsitta is downloading it to my mission music Ipod. Awesome!

    My 3^rd transfer officially started, which means I am no longer a "greenie" and being trained. So, hooray for me. Spanish is still...fun. To think that I'll be fluent in it someday is a happy thought, but until then I'll continue to try and figure out how this language works and what not. Kinda funny though. Now I understand why native Spanish speakers speak English the way they do, because they directly translate their Spanish into English, like English speakers do with Spanish. Doesn't work out too well either way, sounds weird. Nonetheless, it's funny.

    We still struggle a bit to get people to come to church, which means we haven't baptized in a while. But my focus is on giving my very best effort at all times. I cannot control how other people act or make decision, but I can control my own faithful diligence and have faith in blessings associated with that. There is a great amount of joy and satisfaction in this work. I say that because, well, at times I have to really push my companion and it gets frustrating for me on occasion, but once he kicks into gear we can actually get a lot done. I had another interesting dream this past week. I don't remember what it was about, but I remember that I had been stressing about the lack of accomplishment, feeling that we were not doing enough. Then a voice in the dream said: "Many of us worry about what to do or how to do it, instead of actually doing it." I don't know if that's a real quote or not, but I woke up right away and thought it sounded kinda cool (General Authority material even!), so I realized that as long as I am personally moving forward, doing things towards improving, working harder, then I can still feel satisfied in the work...even if that means just studying the scriptures and Spanish while my companion takes the morning off. But, it's all good.

    So, I received another tape from you guys. That was cool to listen to. I really enjoyed Brad attempting to pray in Spanish, if you remember...you really just did English with a Hispanic type accent. It got me laughing pretty good, though. Let's see Brad Welch was on there too...and . . . not dating. tsk tsk. (haha). But that was cool. And Dad talked a lot...and it was funny because after the BYU/Utah game...not gonna lie... Dad sounded really, really sad. (haha.) But life goes on.

    Heard about Trevik's mission call to Lubbock, Texas - Spanish speaking. Cool man! We can speak Spanish together when we get back. Hooray! Speaking of missions...where is Cody going? Man ... been waiting on that one forever...and did he ever get my birthday card? I sent a big thing of letters to Brad and Whitney with a bunch of stuff for people up there....still waiting to see if they got it. Oh, if you guys can...give my love and send a how's it going to my buddies in the missions...if you have found them...Elders Brown, Higley, Hoyjberg, TJ Gibson, and of course, Jack and Aaron. That would be sweet.

    Dad, I love hearing about the mission preparation class. Please help all of these young men!!! I can't stress enough of how important I know a mission to be now, and no young man should deprive himself of the blessings - especially my friends. Dad, I love you very much and I loved Elder Yupanqui very much too. He was technically my "father" in missionary lingo (my trainer), and I respected him as such. I am a young missionary, but I don't know that I will ever met another missionary that I love and respect more than Elder Yupanqui. He recently went home this week, and returns back to his home life. I meant to bring his email to give you to contact him, and he speaks fluent English and may even be going to Provo sometime next year...and you could maybe meet him. But, I have to admit, going from Elder Yupanqui to my present companion was quite a change - and challenge. Sometimes life gets difficult and I come near to a breakdown and really need comfort from someone. Always, besides having Jesus Christ himself sit and talk with me, that person is you, Dad. I have a huge amount of respect for you, for your knowledge, and wisdom. Nowadays I miss the times when you would walk into my room, sit on my bed, have me put the guitar down and visit with me. I didn't always like that, sure, but I'd do anything for it now. I love you Pops, and love getting your huge amount of letters each week, which is always a huge spiritual boost to start the week. Thanks for that.

    Well everyone... I don't know what it's like to read my letters... I have a feeling that it's kinda weird because I just throw out all my random thoughts...and don't really talk about the mission too much, or the area and all that stuff...but...the people of Peru are awesome. My area, San Pedro, I love it. And my companion, although annoying at times, really is a great guy, and I enjoy working with him. The blessings of the gospel are real, and there is no greater joy than serving the Lord and being a missionary. I love being here, and I wouldn't trade it for anything. I urge all young men to stop contemplating whether or not to serve a mission, and decide right now that you're going to serve, and begin preparing hard now. It's one thing that you will never regret. I can promise you that. The Church is true. I love my family, and friends. Thank you for all of your love and support for me. Friends of mine...please join me in the mission field! Thank you mucho for your continued love and support. I love you guys like crazy. Thanks for the letters. You guys are awesome. Love you. Talk to you in 10. Bye. Peace out.

    Elder "Seriously Loving Peru" Royal

How is My Guitar Doing? I Miss Him/Her/It

    Hey Ya'll:

    Alright, so an interesting week, interesting morning. The whole week I was kinda stressing, all worried about the cambios (transfers) for this week, which we found out today. Good news, I am staying in San Pedro for six more weeks! I doubt I'll be here any longer than that, but at least I'll be here for Christmas so that's cool. Other news, Elder Calderon and I will still be together for the next cambio as well, and our zone, which is...well kinda drives me insane, is not changing much. However, the zone leader that does most of the driving insane...is leaving! So...woooo! Things may be looking up for zone miraflores.

    Well, I know this will sound strange, but the theme for this week was my companion's birthday. It was (and I'm not exaggerating) a week long celebration. (Oy.) So, after celebration day no. 3, I began to feel like I was living out a missionary version of that episode of "the Office," where it's Michael's birthday but everyone else is concerned about whether Kevin has cancer and it drives Michael nuts. (Ha). Looking back, though, we did actually get some work done, and found some really good people to teach - which makes it even cooler that I get to stay and hopefully see them progress. We had two baptisms fall through yesterday, a mother and daughter, because the mom (Karina) drank on Saturday. But, I'm pretty confident that they will both be baptized soon, along with many others during December and January hopefully. We'll see.

    Mom, got a bunch of stuff from you this week. That was cool! There was like, two boxes and two folder packages things, with like the CTR ring and what not, and the book you sent, the Brent Top book, awesome. I started reading it on Tuesday and finished it Friday morning. I haven't read a book that fast since Harry Potter! It was way good - lots of good stuff in it.

    Oh, so we haven't had water in our cuarto all week...because we drank it all, and never called anyone to get more. Sounds so simple...yet... we are a week without water. So I have just been buying some everyday which is silly because I know we can easily get more delivered to us. So that's something I'm trying to get resolved. Alrighty...well I guess that's about it. Everything is still going good. Learning Spanish is cool. Learning a different language in general...pretty cool, quite the struggle and frustrating...but man once it starts clicking...it's so cool. So it's coming along. Still a lot that I don't understand, but it's cool to understand more without having to think so much about what people are saying.

    I am very happy to be a missionary. The good times, even the bad times that I have had so far, it's all so cool, and so worth it. How much I have learned is amazing to me, especially knowing that I am going to learn so much more before my time is done here. There is definitely no better place for me to be. This Church is indeed true and the power of God is more real than anyone can imagine. I love it, and I love you guys like crazy. Thanks for all the mail and packages. Mom thanks for the stuff for my pensionistta - she'll be thrilled. and yes she is taking excellent care of me. You'd be proud. Love you guys. Say hi to everyone for me.

    Elder "How is My Guitar Doing? I Miss Him/Her/It" Royal

    P.S. By the way, not sure how much this matters but on a lot of the letters and packages I have got, the address says Mz. H Lp. 4...when its actually Lt. 4...not sure if its holding anything up cause I still have got all Mom's packages...but... thought I'd toss it out there. Bye!

Elder "I’d love some of the Provo snow right now" Royal

    Hey family and Ya'll:

    Well, I'm getting an early start on the emailing this week. Glad it's finally P day again. Last week was kinda long because we had a lot of weird things going on in the zone, guys going to Lima with visa problems and stuff, so we had a lot of splits, and trios and what not (got kid of annoying actually). My zone is a bit weird (as you may have figured out after the baptism of the 15 year old I described last week). My zone leaders drive me insane sometimes, and we are constantly with them because they are all close buddies with my companion. Let me give you an example of why they drive me nuts. Saturday night they called us and said we had an "emergency transfer" to take effect the next morning, that I was leaving to Tumbes - city up north - and that Elder Calderon would be going South to Chiclayo. Then, about 20 minutes later they called back laughing, telling us it was a joke. (Pretty lame.) I was not amused, since it was very disappointing to think that I would be leaving my area before Christmas. I really love it here - the people, the ward. It would be sad to leave. Transfers are next Thursday and I am really hoping to stay in San Pedro longer. Anyway, what happens, happens.

    Okay, enough of that. We had a pretty good week for the most part. We did not have a baptism this week for the first time since I have been in the field. (Okay, that brings up one more thing that bugs me about 80 percent of the missionaries here - they are way too focused on numbers and have the belief that higher numbers equal increased righteousness. I am not really interested in baptizing hordes of people who will never come back to church. And yes, that happens a lot. Fortunately, I use Alma 8:15 as my personal measure.) We did have a few investigators come to church yesterday who look like they might be getting baptized in the next week or two, which is very cool.

    Let's see, we did a lot of door knocking to find new people this week. Knocking doors can be pretty fun at time. Sometimes I create really awkward situations, or my comp will make it awkward and want me to say something. (Yeah, I really don't need other people to make awkward situations for me, though, pretty much my specialty.) Anyway it's fun. It's what makes for good stories. And knocking on doors reminds me of my days selling for APX - good and bad memories there too, but all funny. I'm thinking about implementing the APX skills into my work here, because getting inside the house is always important. Something like..."so do you guys have a bible in here? you do? k perfect, lets take a quick look at that...and walk in." It's bullet proof. (That will probably only be funny to APX people.) Knocking doors on the weekend is fun, because it's nearly impossible to talk to people. Everyone and their mom is blasting music and getting drunk. And I don't mean that as an expression like "a lot of people are getting drunk" - seriously, everyone and their mom. It's crazy. And people walk around dressed up worshipping the saint people and stuff like that. Very interesting to see.

    Oh and you guys had Thanksgiving this past week.... Yeah, not gonna lie, that was slightly sad. I like Thanksgiving a lot (those days with the huge Kelly family gatherings playing all kinds of games in the gym, hanging out with my cousins, watching all the ladies stress about whipping up a fantastic meal). So I hope you all had lots of fun, and that Cody ate my share of turkey and what not. Speaking of Cody, has he received his mission call yet? Man, it seems like forever ago that he put his papers in.... Oh, and he has a girlfriend? Really? Hmmm. Well, he's always been the lady's man.  If I got the kinda attention from girls in the states as I do from the girls here...I'd be like the cool guys in America: guys like Brad and Cody...  Unfortunately, it's not that way...so I have to live with little Peruvian girls whistling at me...not so much what I'm looking for... ;) Has Brad said anything about getting the big letter I sent for him and other Provo people? I received a letter from Al Cruz today, too, which was awesome! Please send him my regards. So cool.

    Well, overall things are still going good. Elder Calderon is cool, too, and we are getting along, and having fun together. Yes, my zone is weird, but the Church is still true. So it's all good. My Spanish is definitely coming along, which makes me feel good. And...I am really learning to appreciate America, too. Good place we live in up there. I always remember hearing to not take America for granted (is that how you say that?)...but even though I tried to appreciate our country, I think I really did not realize the greatness of it all. I guess it takes a change of circumstances like this to really help bring that realization home. So yeah, America is very cool. Hopefully, it still will be there when I get home (and not sink into the depths of hades). ;) Okay, missions are way cool.  Wow, I have to say that I'm looking forward to reading my many Dear Elder letters later today. Everyone is sooooo jealous of me. It's great. Love you tons Daddy (the biggest Dear Elder client in the history of www.dearelder.com), and I have a ton of respect for you and Mom. You guys are awesome. Hope everyone is happy and doing great. Until next week!

    Elder "I'd love some of the Provo snow right now" Royal

So this week was cool. I got punched in the face!

Heeeeyyy ya`ll:

 

            So this be Elder Royal, calling in.  Sorry it's kinda late.  We had a pretty crazy day today.  We went to a town outside of Piura called Moropon.  It was awesome, 'cause it had mountains, and I love mountains, and miss mountains very much.  So we hiked up through that a bit, got some waterfall action.  Yes Mom, I got some pictures and what not.  I have plenty of pictures that I am working on sending you along with a letter, and no I have not yet sent anything - to the family at least.  (Oooooouch.)  But I have some some to Brad and foos out yonder in Provo, so holla back if ya'll got what I sent.  Don't worry Mom, yours is coming too - just taking longer 'cause its extra special. ;)

 

            So this week was cool.  I got punched in the face!  Yeah, seriously...got in a little run in with a mugger, and one thing led to another...but I got the best of him.......no (jk).  It was actually from a seven year old kid that I was playing with.  I was holding him upside down and he just took a swing right into my face...pretty good hit, I might add.  But yeah, so there is my first punch in the face in Peru.  So far nothing real with a mugger or anything...but I have had some pretty shady looking dudes come up to me and say... "Hey you're the guy from Las Vegas, right?"  Soooo...not sure how I'm becoming so popular here in San Pedro...must be from all the people whistling at me.  Oh yeah, I'm a big attraction, at least for the 9-10 year old girls.  Sometimes I get a whistle from the old maids (the 13 year olds - ha) on a good day.  Probably a good thing that I'm unattractive enough that they lose interest in me a few years after hitting age 11 - one thing less to worry about.

 

            Alright, we had one more baptism yesterday - 15 year old kid named Humberto.  It was a bit weird, because although we had permission from Humberto's parents to teach him, we did not yet have permission to baptize him.  Humberto was with us at a baptism held by the zone leaders and they were like: "Hey, let's baptize Humberto now."  And they did - just like that.  Now my companion is a bit freaked out.  It was definitely not done according to proper protocol, but I just do what I'm told (assuming I understand it in Espanol).  Anyway, I'm sure it will all work out.  By the way (and I really don't mean to complain), but my companion, Elder Calderon, can be a bit on the slightly annoying side.  But, I don't say anything because I don't wanna get into arguments or anything.  He is cool sometimes, and usually when I get frustrated with him, he does something nice for me, so I end up feeling bad for being frustrated, even though I never show or tell him.  Yeah, anyway, so I'm trying to learn to be more patient.  This week I studied the Christlike attributes a lot, and I think it really helped me.  That's one thing I plan on studying more, hoping to become more positive, Christlike in general.  Overall, Elder Calderon is a good guy, and I'm doing fine with him.

 

            Let's see, I'm trying to make this interesting...yeah we are teaching a lot, and have a lot of good investigators right now, and personally I think we should have at least one baptism a week for the remainder of the transfer (especially if they are the impromptu kind with Humberto - ha).  We'll see.  In other news, I lost my CTR ring, which was chained to my oil thing and I walked around all day with the ring on my finger flipping and twirling it around.  Really, all day.  And it's really quite depressing. to make up for it.  (Remember how the guy in Castaway was hooked on the Wilson volleyball?  "Wilson!!"  It's kinda like that.)  But man it was such a cool one, not a fan of the shield CTR.  But it was a solid band with CTR in different languages.  Man, so sad.  So, to make life more interesting, and take my mind off my loss, I started a new game where I step over dogs that are in the road.  It's fun, because they are all super paranoid and for the most part, afraid of people.  The first day I did it, I got over five without any freaking out and running away.  Pretty fun - gotta admit.  So the second day I just had Brian Regan in my head. (". . . Alright, record's 5, record's 5 Brian, Ready?  Go!") Yeah, so one dog...wooo boy, I got a little running start and just leaped over him and, as I was suspended like Michael Jordan in mid air, he got up, and I thought he was just gonna swallow me whole.  (Pretty big dog, too, haha.)  He went nuts, and about 50 other dogs started going crazy, too.  I got scared and ran as my companion laughed at me.  It was funny.  So Mom, anyway, if you could find it within your tender heart to please get me a CTR ring chained to a new oil vile.  It might keep me from participating in my new sport of dog leaping, and ultimately save my life.

 

            Oh and a shout out to Mom for finding Elder Brown's family!!  Woo!!  That's so exciting.  Best part of the day so far probably.  Oh, and please keep it up with the Dear Elder letters.  Man, it is so awesome getting like 20 of those each week.  Everyone is SOOOO jealous and I just feed off of those.  So much fun to read and such a boost.  I do get real mail every once in a while...sending mail is kinda a hassle, only because I don't really wanna write.  Oh so lazy.  But I did get a letter from Jordan's friend's sister, Liz, who I went on a blind date with.  Kinda random, but I guess Jordan can alert her somehow to let her know the mail system is working.  But seriously, getting letters is just awesome...so thanks a ton to everyone.  Oh, and I'm glad to hear another tape is coming.  They are so fun to listen to.  I am still working one that dates back into the CCM.  Oh yeah, my pensionistta is really awesome, and I want to get her something for Christmas.  Last year an elder gave her a calender with temples for each month, and she loved it.  I know Mom is good with that stuff, got something little in mind that you think would be possible to send also?  Just wondering.

 

            Alright, well this is getting long.  I miss everyone, that's for sure.  Dad told me that David Robertson and Jack's sister are engaged.  If that's true . . . well cool!  And if it's not, well that's not a very good joke, Dad. ;)  The people of Peru are awesome.  I've met so many awesome, humble people.  I can't wait until I can fully understand everything, but in the meantime the Spanish is really coming along, and I'm very happy to be here.  But things are good.  Peru is quite the country.  Oh ya, know what.  I had a really interesting dream this week.  I had a dream that I was with you guys here in Peru, at the end of my mission, finishing up, and had my coming home interview with President Davie, was released and everything.  I even remember President Davie telling me that I could remove my badge.  How do you say . . . .uh . . . it was the most vivid dream I have had in a long time.  I woke up and remembered everything and expected to feel just downright homesick.  But amazingly enough, I felt so good because I think a lot about what kind of quality missionary I am, and whether I am a good, faithful, worthy servant, and I have prayed a lot the past few weeks for comfort, for everything really, all aspects of missionary life - but mostly to feel the spirit, to be comforted, to know and feel that I am a worthy servant and that God will accept my sacrifice and in the dream when I went home I knew that I had been faithful, and that my sacrifice had been accepted. and, well it was pretty much just a really nice dream - a direct answer to prayer, really. 

 

            Very sad to hear about BYU and the loss to Utah - sounds like a very sad day for Max Hall.  (Ouch.)  On that note, the Church is true.  Love it.  Live it.

 

            Elder I'm gonna buy myself a guitar for Christmas Royal

knocking a door which sits alongside of this putrid canal thing

    Hey family and ya'll who gonna read this:

    Well, myldsmail is lame - yet again - and its not working today. So I had to open up my old email to get this done today. So many unread messages! Think it was almost 400. Pretty good. So, I'll have to read and respond to all of the 3000 or whatever it will be in 2010.

    Alright so we had a pretty good week. Three baptisms! Yeaaaah that's going pretty good Íd say. Man its really disappointing that my other mail isn't working...can't see what anyone sent me (sigh). Oh well. Back to business. So we baptized three people - young kids actually. Daniel - 9 years old. This was a good one because his family is all active and he was actually baptized a year ago or so....but there is no record of it, and no one could remember the date or anything....sooooo... we baptized him again (or for the first time, who knows?). Hopefully, there will be a record of it this time. So we got him taken care of on Saturday, and then yesterday we baptized Tatiana and Kimber, the two kids we met last week with the inactive mother. Their dad came up from wherever he is living right now - think he was kinda freaking out about his kids getting baptized - but he calmed down after we talked to him and it was all good...baptism went through. It was a much better week for the zone, think we had 11 total this week, after only have 3 the first two weeks. So that was cool.

    Oh and I forgot last week to tell you about zone conference. I had my first one and...guess who got to play the piano for it? That's right - ME. (Woo hoo.) Oh and guess who was going to attend the conference? Oh that's right: The area authority. Perfect. So that was awesome news with 12 hours notice. Haha. It went alright I guess. Coulda been better on the ivories. So Jordan, I'm serious this time - learn to play the hymns - so you can play anything whenever. Seriously. Save yourself the embarrassment of loping through a hymn. Or just don't tell anyone you play. (haha! jk.) Go practice (do as Dad says and everything will be cool).

    Earlier this week we were knocking a door which sits alongside of this putrid canal thing, and while waiting I picked up a big rock and chucked it in the canal - but we didn't hear a splash, which I thought was odd...and then about two seconds later I heard the familiar sound of a dying, moaning, duck. Soooo....lucky throw I guess. We both thought that was pretty sad, well, and funny (in a sad kind of way). So tell Uncle Dan about that. If anyone likes that story it will be him. Then about 30 minutes later, we were walking along side this highway and this lady starting screaming - her two year old child was in the middle of the street, and man cars go crazy fast on this street and cars were flying by and seriously coming within inches of the kid. Woooo boy. It was crazy! Somehow the kid managed not to get hurt . . . as far as I know is still alive and well today. Yay!

    Alright well, I think that's about it for this week. Things are going good. Wére getting work done - I think - so that's good. Spanish is still coming. I guess I have to give myself more credit because a lot of guys tell me that they thought I had at least six months in the mission because of where my Spanish is at. Kinda cool I guess. Just trying to be patient. And hope that eventually the awkwardness of someone saying something to me and my dumb blank stare with no response will eventually end. Elder Calderon is cool . . . most of the time. He's not Elder Yupanqui but it's all good. I try not to get annoyed because we are working well together and I don't want to mess that up by getting annoyed with something dumb, being petty. So, it's great! I am still eagerly awaiting my first mugging, but be sure to tell Dutch that I around at night with chapstick in hand - just in case. :) (haha)

    Happy four months to me yesterday. Time is going by pretty fast - for sure. Something I thought about this week is how we as young men prepare for this our whole lives really, and it's not something that we can treat lightly. So, I try not to be lazy. I always try to be doing something, since I waited my whole life to do this - so I need to give my very best. Hope all is going well back home. The Church is true. By the way, the "U" button on this keyboard doesn't work too well on this keyboard so I might have a few of those missing. (Perhaps that means the "U" won't be playing too good against BYU on Saturday - I'm just sayin'....). K bye!

    Elder myldsmail is lame Royal

--
rjp

Elder "I Seriously Hate This Keyboard" Royal

    We did receive an email from David today - which was a nice change from last week (when we got no email).  He tried to resend the one from last week, but apparently it just got lost in cyberspace.  But, nice to know he's happy and excited about the work.  We just returned from Provo for yet another BYU game.  (We made all home games and the game in Seattle this year - a new attendance record!)  It is always fun to get together with the family.  David references his cousin Cody's broken arm - actually, it is a broken collar bone from flag football.  Cody is trying to heal and get out on his mission soon!  Brad and Cody are in a band and we got to Provo early enough to listen to them play on Friday.  Anyway, we now have to find other excuses to get to Provo.  (I hope BYU has a good basketball team this year - maybe go to a few games at the Marriott Center?)

 

 

    Enjoy the week. 

 

    Mike

________

 

    Hey Hey Fam!

    Alright, so I just heard that you didn't receive my email from last week. That's ok though, 'cause really it wasn't anything special, and I didn't really say much. But yes Dad, you were right, it had been a rough week - so that might be why I didn't have much to say. Anyway, this week was much better. Let's see, guess I'll start with people we are teaching. Holy cow, I think I'm using the worst keyboard on the planet right now.... (Seriously, I have to punch the C key and the backspace key hard to get them to work.)

    So we found some cool kids this week. .... Kimber and Tatiana - 13 and 11 years old and their mother is a less active member. We taught them the first lesson on Thursday and their mom was really excited to get them baptized. Tatiana was WAY shy at first, hiding behind her mom all the time, but she opened up slowly and the next time we came she was like...the elders! Hey come in !! (in Spanish of course), but that was cool. The kids are like sponges, very interested and completely accepted everything. (Pretty much like: "So, we are going to teach you about Joseph Smith, who was a prophet. Do you believe he was a prophet? Si? Perfect, let's fill up the font.") So they should be getting baptized next Sunday. Oh, and we had six investigators at church yesterday after going almost a month without having one, so that was cool - very exciting.

    We found another kid - Michael - who is about 14 years old. The problem is, well, he's a total momma's boy. He really likes the lessons but when we asked if he could come to church his mom said no because he is studying in a Catholic based school. Michael likes what we are teaching him, but his mother is presently an obstacle. After she told us he couldn't go to church, when she wasn't looking, Michael leaned over and kinda whispered: "so what's church like?" So hopefully we can keep teaching him because he definitely wants to learn more.

    And now about Sonya. She has a daughter in our ward and two young boys ages six and seven. So funny. Coolest little kids I've met in the Southern Hemisphere. The problem with Sonya is that she has kind of a husband but they aren't legally married (hence the kind of). And of course no one can get baptized unless they are married...but the thing is, she doesnt' want to marry him because they have problems with each other.....soooooo that's the obstacle there. I'm not sure what we'll do about her. Guess we'll see with time.

    So things are going good here I'd say. My comp, Elder Calderon, and I are getting along and working hard. Actually we taught this one family this week, really shady actually, who I visited a couple times with Elder Yupanqui and even helped one of the sons with some homework. We knocked their house earlier this week and when the mom saw us she came out like, "Hermano! que tal...and hugged both of us. I didn't think anything of it at first but like two minutes later I was like...wait she just hugged us...and felt really awkward. It was the first time since I hugged my mommy goodbye...awww...don't cry Mom. But anyway we saw her again today and in Peru people greet with a kiss on the cheek...so my comp got kissed today by her...but I dodged that bullet...haha...it was so funny... and awkward. haha. Couldn't stop laughing afterward. So, I'm not sure how much wéll actually teach them because I think they actually have some problems with the law and should be...in prison. Sooo...wéll see.

    Not much else really...uhh... I ruined a couple ties, kinda. I got super glue on one of them...don't ask me how...and mango juice on another. Mango juice for some reason turns black and is really hard to get out. So that was lame. Fortunately, I was able to clean that one. But of course I managed to maim my two favorite ties. (Heaven forbid I get super glue on a tie I don't like. haha.) Oh well, life goes on.

    Let's see, I took your advice Dad...got some random notes written here to tell you about. Alright, well there is a guy in our ward that looks just like Brother Scott Taylor, Mike's dad, so I thought that was funny. And yesterday I saw a little white boy with blonde hair and did like a triple take. That was so weird. And I also wanted to tell Aunt Kathy that even though she thinks Cody should go somewhere I the world other that the Peru Piura Mission, I think that we would tear it up together in here, and baptize at an exponential rate. That or buy guitars and sit in our room and play all day. ha! jk! Okay, that's it. Oh, and what about Cody's call anyway? And why is his arm in a sling? Hmmm?

    Wow, this was long. Well, that's all folks. I love being in Peru and I love being a missionary. It's so awesome. The Church is true.

    Elder "I Seriously Hate This Keyboard" Royal

Elder Can’t Think of Anything to Put Here Royal

    Hello Everyone:

 

    David is going through his first transfer, losing his first companion (a Latino fluent in English).   I figured I would keep the Elder Royal communication options posted each week, since he's always whining about mail.  ;)

 

    1.    Dear Elder (my favorite): www.dearelder.com - go to "write a letter", then to Piura Peru, then just write in David's name, type or cut/paste - whatever, hit send, and hope it eventually gets to David).  (Post by Thursday at 11:00 a.m. PST.)

 

    2.    Snail Mail

 

    Peru Piura Mission

    POB 30150

    Salt Lake City, UT  84130-0150

 

    3.    Packages and Air Mail Stamps

 

    Los Naranjos Mz H, Lp 4

    Urb. Los Geranios

    Piura PERU

 

    4.    Email

    royal_d@myldsmail.net

 

    Enjoy the week.  AND PLAN ON GETTING OUT TO VOTE.

 

    Mike

 

______

 

    Hey Family (and all others that shall scan this email)!

    So I'm finishing my first transfer this week! Fastest 6 weeks of my life...and the second one starts on Thursday, I guess. Elder Yupanqui has been awesome. I don't think I could have asked for a better trainer. Unfortunately, he won't be with me for his last transfer before going home. I was hoping he would stay in San Pedro with me, but he is going somewhere else, Sullana, to be Zone Leader again. Kid has been Zone Leader for like 9 months of his mission. Really awesome guy. I was lucky to have him. But he says that he his happy with the missionary replacing him, to finish my training....whose name I can't remember. So I'll tell you that next week.

    Anyway, the last few days have been kinda sad I guess, just trying to accept that my world is going to change again. I had a feeling Elder Yupanqui was gonna leave, so that's that. But if its one thing that I've learned in the past year and a half, it's that Heavenly Father does not allow me to stay comfortable, but for good reason. I was excited to go to BYU the summer I graduated from high school, but it was really difficult for me - being away from home for the first time. I was way excited to serve a mission, but I admit, it was hard to enter the MTC and get that all started - leaving my life behind. The CCM was different though. That place drove me up a wall. I couldn't wait to leave. Ha ha. Getting to Piura was difficult, freaked me out, and now I'm comfortable again here. Sooooo, time to change something and challenge me again. I've thought about that the last few days and have seen a nice pattern of this actually, in the last few years of my life. But also, I noticed that in the end, when I endure, I always turn out happy, so no matter what happens, I know it's going to turn out okay. And each time we are forced to leave our comfort zone, we grow and learn, comfort zone then grows, and things become easier. That's my new philosophy, anyway. So, as hard as it might be for me, for a couple days, Íll be alright, I'm sure of that. Soooo, bring it on! haha.

    Well, some fun stories from this week...that I can't remember. But Friday night during a lesson, around 6:30 pm probably, all the power in Piura went out - everywhere! It was awesome. Seriously just pitch black everywhere...so we ended up going to our pension at 7:00 pm to eat, and stayed there for two hours cause we couldn't do much else really. So we just talked with the family there. They are awesome. Oh and all of this with a bunch of candles...so cool. I always wanted a big black out in Vegas or something. It's pretty sweet! And then we got to walk home in the dark at 9:00 pm. Thought for sure I was gonna have my first mugging! But no. We didn't, but...we bought some candles and matches, and while I was paying for it my comp hid behind a corner...so when I turned around... I was totally alone. It was weird. Right then my thoughts just went to thinking about walking home alone from campus at BYU and stuff like that...and it seemed so weird. Because I'm always with someone. So, I can definitely understand why missionaries are weird at first when they get home. I hope I can avoid that weirdness somehow. Anyway, my comp came out like 10 seconds later and we went home, but it was just funny...maybe you had to be there. Yeah, you definitely had to be there.

    Still teaching a lot, but still hard to get people to church, and without two times going to church, they cant get baptized...so...that's still a problem here in San Pedro. We did have one though! That was exciting...for the first time in 3 weeks I think. Finally got someone to come. So yay! And ... I guess I'll be continuing to work with our investigators with my new companion by next Sunday, que triste. But, it's fine. I know we'll still work hard and have success, and I'm not too worried about getting along with a new comp. It's all good.

    Well, this is random...but with all the walking around, mixed with my awkwardness, I trip a lot, like normal...and I'm really surprised I haven't broken or at least rolled my ankle like 50 times...so I think angels are catching my feet when I trip. haha. That's my new joke anyway. If only I wasn't so awkward........

    Well ... that's about all folks. Didn't get my usually 30 Dear Elder letters today...mostly from Dad about BYU football, haha...but that's ok. I did get a letter from the Bringhams. haha... it was cool. So I dunno, the address off hand, but sending it to the mission office works GREAT, because I have gotten a couple now with that address. I think I gave it to Brad, so spread that around, maybe have Jordan put it on Facebook or something. Whatever works haha. Thanks for all your support. Sorry that I am bad at actually writing people back. I'm trying to get better. I have a couple letters in my room right now for people that I'm trying to finish. If I don't write you back, please don't hate me. I try, seriously. So, family members, uncles Dan Bringham, Dan Royal, Kelly family, all y'all that write me that I can't think of everyone right now off hand ... but thanks a ton. :) Can't get enough. And for Jordan, sweet little Jordan, I hope your life is good: school, v-ball, all that good stuff. How are you? And ..how is the Zelda assignment coming along that I gave you? :) The Church is true.

    Elder Can't Think of Anything to Put Here Royal

Elder It’s Warm in Peru Royal

    Good evening all:

 

    Received the following email David's Pensioner (attendant) today.  (She cooks and cleans for the missionaries.  I actually think the missionaries live with her family, but not sure.)  She wrote the following:

 

    Hello:

    I am Sister Ynes. Pensioner de Elder Royal. We are happy for having to Elder Royal in our home. He is excellent missionary. They did good work like parents. Not English. I hope to understand me.

    Affections.

    Sister Ynes

________

 

    David is still apparently craving real mail.  (Seriously, though, can any missionary really complain about being buried in a wave of Dear Elder letters?  I think not.)  Tia, your package made special mention this week.  Nice job. Looks like David's Spanish improved enough for him to speak in church.  That is nice to see.  So, anyway, he's upbeat as usual.  Here are the Elder Royal communication options:

 

    1.    Dear Elder (my favorite): www.dearelder.com - go to "write a letter", then to Piura Peru, then just write in David's name, type or cut/paste - whatever, hit send, and hope it eventually gets to David). 

    2.    Snail Mail

 

    Peru Piura Mission

    POB 30150

    Salt Lake City, UT  84130-0150

 

    3.    Packages and Air Mail Stamps

 

    Los Naranjos Mz H, Lp 4

    Urb. Los Geranios

    Piura PERU

 

    4.    Email

 

    royal_d@myldsmail.net

 

    Have a great week everyone.  And now, (drum roll) heeeeeerrrrrrreeeee's ... DAVID!  (Cue music.....)

 

___________

 

    Howdy ya'lllll:

    Sooooooo. I just read Dad's email about TCU putting the smack down on BYU. Ouch.! How disappointing. But, on the bright side, Dad's right - now I don't have to worry about missing the greatest season of BYU football in the world. Maybe I'll miss the greatest season next year. Oh, well. On with life we go.

    Alright, so....let's see, there is like an army of Jehovah Witnesses in this place, wow. They walk around in packs here, like...lions, and they all dress funny (no, wearing white shirts and ties is not funny), and give us weird looks. So, I smile and give them a nice friendly wave. Actually, during a lesson we had this last week... about 10 of them (I told you they walk in packs) walked up to the door while as were teaching. They approached kinda slowly, and in the middle of saying..buenas tardes...the lady saw us and kinda trailed off...made for kind of an awkward moment. It was funny. I laughed. Anyway...they're everywhere. It's fun.

    We had a much better week this time around - taught a lot more, found more nuevos, and...got more done I guess. We had two baptisms scheduled, only one ended up going through...the 16 year old Yakory. The baptism of Maria (the 300 pound mother) and her two children didn't happen. Maria had her interview, but then had a change of heart. That was kinda disappointing. But, we'll see what happens this week. However, Yyakory is way good. I can tell that she'll remain active and all that good stuff. So we have had five baptisms so far...all girls. It's pretty rough trying to teach the guys here... especially teenage boys - no idea why, they just sit there when we teach with a look like...dude I really don't care. It's the same with younger boys too, and older...grandpas I guess you could say. Totally the opposite with girls for some reason...most of them usually listen pretty well, and have a desire to learn and know. But we did find one kid this week who actually liked what we taught, 16 years old, Jesus (hay-suess)...so hopefully that will start a trend. We have another guy that we have taught, Rodolfo, he's like 24 or so, but he is pretty difficult. He enjoys our lessons, reads everything we give him, but he doesn't want to pray because he won't pray in the name of Jesus Christ, and he is not ready to attend church.

    Anyway, we did find a lot of good people this past week that hopefully we can help progress. But getting people to church is SO HARD. People have to go to church at least twice before baptism, but it is absolutely the hardest part about working with these investigators. My companion says this varies from area to area, some hard, some not so hard - like the guys not listening...he says he also had an area where they baptized more guys than girls, getting people to church was way easy, and so on. so....just challenges that we gotta work with.

    Hmmm...oh this was exciting! We finally got an awesome fan for our room. It just cooks in there during the day, and we die, and our district leader had two. Seriously!? So...having the fan is nice - that's for sure.

    Not really sure what other stories I have right now...I'm sure I'll think of more in an hour when I'm no longer on the computer. Oh, I gave my first talk in church yesterday, in Spanish. Holy cow was I scared! But it actually turned out pretty good...and was a good experience too...because I had been kinda frustrated Friday and Saturday ... just with Spanish ... good days and bad days, ya know...and all morning on Sunday I was trying to think of things to say, but really had no idea, and I just wanted to give up and not try. But I couldn't let myself for some reason...I have all these ̈pick me up̈ scriptures in the back of my scriptures that I read a lot, and all morning I had a couple going through my mind. One was: For it shall be given unto you in the very hour, yea, in the very moment, what ye shall say. (D&C 100:6.) So, I was just praying for that...but at the same time being really hard on myself and...dunno how to explain it really. Um... my head was about to explode. That works I guess...lots of different emotions. So I got up, gave my talk, didn't really have to hesitate much to think about what to say...and in all honesty, I can't remember much of what I said. Anyway ... good experience...and I think I needed it for a nice confidence boost.

    Okay, I think that's about it. Oh and I received a nice fatty letter today. First actual mail in...probably almost two months. Pretty exciting. So it was a huge thing from Tia, with something from Cody, Brea, and Gian. Sweet!!! But to be honest, I haven't finished reading all of it yet. There's a ton. But, it's sooo cool. And, of course, I received the usual 100 Dear Elder letters from Dad, mostly BYU football articles probably. Haven't read them yet. But, seriously, I love those. They are way fun to read. So thanks for all your support. A nice uplifting word is good to have sometimes...and I'm very glad to be out here and to have all the great support from home. Thanks a ton y'all. Church is true.

    Elder It's Warm in Peru Royal

San Pedro from space

  When I awoke this morning, we had a second email from David. Apparently, his preparation day was interrupted by a district meeting yesterday and he was given additional time to complete the email he started yesterday.  He included the enclosed picture from Google Earth which displays the area in which he is presently working.  (Pretty cool.)  Sorry to bother you again with more . . . .
________

  Well, we were given a few minutes this morning to finish up reading and typing any emails, because our time was interrupted yesterday with a district meeting. I just got on and see that I failed to give some love to Jordan in my email yesterday. Sorry pal. ;( But yeah, love you! Anyway, things are really are going great here. You know, we are met with a lot of disappointment when people we teach find it so difficult to make and keep commitments. Rosa, for example, choated us (stood us up) three times this week. That, unfortunately, happens a lot. It got me thinking a lot about why people won't just accept the gospel and live it? I dunno ... it just makes so much sense, and these great people we teach clearly feel the spirit, but then many then run from it (and us). It is just not a high enough priority for many and, from what I have seen so far, most I've met who have an interest in religion are motivated by offers of ease and convenience. So, sacrifices required to follow Christ are viewed as great (and often unnecessary) obstacles. There is a talk by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland about missionary work that I recalled this past week. In that talk, Elder Holland stated: the way of the Savior was not easy, salvation is not easy, so what makes any of us believe it should be easy? Following Christ has always required effort, sacrifice. He walked a very difficult path, and then invited all to come, follow me. Of course, the rewards are immeasurable. Elder Holland, after recounting the challenges of following Christ, states: welcome to the pathway of a disciple of Christ. Ooohh, so powerful. I love it. Anyway, on that note, I should now . . . officially close my letter for this week. I probably have sounded a bit down, but that is not the case. In fact, it is just the opposite. I have been incredibly happy. Every morning I wake up and the day is just amazing, and...everything is just awesome...even with the daily rejection we face with people who do not begin to appreciate the Plan of Happiness established by the Savior. Walking as a disciple of Christ is absolutely the best thing in the world - ever!
  Oh, and be sure to tell Mike Taylor that not everyone in Peru thinks the missionaries are angels. There are still plenty of people that despise us. (haha.) It's fun.

  Elder Royal

Why isn’t my bed as comfortable in the southern hemisphere?

       Here's the latest email from David aka Elder Royal from Piura Peru.  No comments about his Spanish, so I guess that means he is picking it up well enough. I thought David was loving the "Dear Elder" letters, but now he's longing for "real" letters.  (Whatever.)  We just sent him a package with a tape, so he can't complain too much.  ;)  Me?  I'll remain a "Dear Elder" man.  Just too easy to pass up.  (www.dearelder.com - go to "write a letter", then to Piura Peru, then just write in David's name, type or cut/paste - whatever, hit send, and hope it eventually gets to David).  David's physical address for letters is as follows: 

 

Peru Piura Mission

POB 30150

Salt Lake City, UT  84130-0150

 

or for packages and air mail stamps:

 

Los Naranjos Mz H, Lp 4

Urb. Los Geranios

Piura PERU

 

    Also, David says he can receive emails, too, at royal_d@myldsmail.net.  I keep emails very short, since he has limited time on the computer to read/send emails.  Thanks for your love, prayers and support. 

 

    Have a great week.

 

    Mike

 

____________

    Hey Fam!

    This be Elder Royal . . . shouting out from the southern hemisphere. My companion hates when I say ̈southern hemisphere.̈ I always use it to blame things that go wrong ... like, for example: Why isn't my bed as comfortable in the southern hemisphere? Just dumb stuff like that . . . to annoy him. ha. It's fun. Anyway...just a side note.

    This week was kinda...strange, to be honest. We weren't able to teach very much and got ̈choated̈ a lot. Choated is what we say when we show up for appointments and people drop us on the spot...or say come later...not today...get away from my house...that kinda stuff. However . . . we did have three baptisms...so I guess I can't complain too much. In fact, when I think about it, I really can't complain at all!! Anyway, our baptisms were interesting, memorable. They involved the Mendoza family that I think I mentioned a couple weeks ago: a very poor family...but so nice - happy. The mom and two daughters, 9 and 10 years old, got baptized. Sister Mendoza was easy, but I knew the girls were gonna be tough. They are just kind of crazy wild. I am not kidding when I tell you that I was in the water for a good hour Wednesday night trying to get these girls baptized. After a lot of coaxing, Kathy got in, but when I baptized her, her hand shot up and grabbed my shoulder, and she absolutely would not do it again. She was crying, very upset, scared of the water (I guess), and it was kind of stressful (for everyone). Mercedes, the younger girl, got baptized in about only 20 minutes. Boy, it was crazy. We tried soooo long to get Kathy back into the water, but couldn't. So, we eventually left without baptizing her. I felt kind of empty after the baptism. I know it sounds strange, probably because . . . well . . . it was. Two nights later we tried to baptize Kathy again. My companion got in the water with her this time and we actually asked everyone to leave the room because Kathy was so afraid of the water. She eventually got into the water...with everyone else out of the room. Kathy was crying and really freaking out again...so I was started making all these dumb faces and stuff to try to distract her (you know, like photographers using puppets and stuff), ...which miraculously got her down the stairs...and through the prayer. Yes, I have to admit, during the prayer I continued making dumb faces to help Kathy relax. But, as soon as the prayer was over, Kathy started freaking out again, and ...wow, so difficult (and my face was about to break after all the facial contortions). My companion finally got Kathy to calm down after about 45 minutes, to where she was no longer clinching the edge of the walls with her tiny fingers, and was able to complete the ordinance. To get er done, my companion literally had to go all the way down into the water with her, surprising Kathy. It totally took her off guard. When the baptism was completed, we were all high fiving and stuff. Oh, and when Kathy came up from the water... she was completely calm. She quietly left and got changed, and then returned to us dressed, back to her crazy, wild, happy Kathy self. It was quite a memorable experience. But, we weren't quite finished. Before we left, a mother there asked us to put her four year old son in the cold font water to help cool his fever down. Of course, we aim to please, so we did. Imagine four missionaries holding onto a feverish four year old boy who also doesn't want to get wet, screaming at the annoying situation, as we kind of soaked him up a bit. Very funny . . . again. I felt bad while he was screaming, but he was totally calm afterwards. (I guess moms really do know best.)

    So those baptisms were great, of course - but a bit stressful, out of the ordinary. Mercedes and Kathy were not at church to be confirmed on Sunday because they went to a birthday party instead. (Grrr.) Tell ya what, Sunday is a very challenging, tiring day because we spend the entire morning before church running around collecting all the investigators and members to help them get to church...and we are presently running at about a 10% success rate there. The only investigator to show up yesterday was Yakori - a woman we did not even visit. So, that was very cool. She is actually getting baptized on Wednesday, which is exciting. We have another baptism on Wednesday as well...a woman named Maria with two sons that...who might be baptized with her, hopefully. Maria's baptism will pose another unique challenge. She weighs about 300 pounds (mas o menos), and I will be performing the baptism. It will make for another very memorable experience, I'm sure. We are looking for a good week, and excited about finding more great people to teach.

    I feel like I am leaving out a lot of stuff this week, but I can never remember. I am starting to receive the "Dear Elder" letters pretty regularly now (weekly). So, of course, I get to read about 50 pages worth of BYU football (awesome blossom), and 10 pages of family letters. (Haha.) I received letters from Brad, Cody and Tia, oh and some post cards from Whitney. Cool stuff. I dunno if anyone has used that address that I sent a couple weeks ago to send real letters, but that`d be sweet to get some - especially since Tia said she has a bunch, and I haven't received an actually physical letter since like the 2^nd week in the CCM! It's all good though, not really a huge deal, and the Dear Elder are sweet, too.

    Alrighty. Well, I think that's about it. It's amazing out here...and I'm now thinking of more things I wanted to say...but don't have time. (Rats.) Hopefully, I'll remember for next time (and I won't get so caught up in relating so many details that I forget about everything else). But, in short, I love the work, I love Peru!

    Love you all.

    Elder the Yellow Dart Royal

Today we are in Catacoas

    Here's David's latest email.  Maralea has been communicating with the mother of a couple of other missionaries in Piura, and David got to meet the missionaries over the weekend.  That was fun for David.  Interesting how much it meant to David to be with other American elders, watching General Conference in English and singing in English.  Amazing all we take for granted, and how quickly perspective changes with circumstances.

 

    We love hearing from David.  Good to know he actually receives the Dear Elder letters.  FYI, if you decide to write him via www.dearelder.com, the deadline is Thursday at 11:00 a.m. PST (they go out once a week), so I always send mine main one Thursday morning (although I send other stuff during the week, just for fun).  His email is royal_d@myldsmail.net.

 

    Thanks for all your prayers and support.  There is nothing like hearing from our missionaries.

 

    Mike

___

 

    Hey Family!

    Well, I got some mail from Dad last week, about 30 Dear Elder letters, so that made up for a lot of lost time. (I figured Dad would be happy to know they finally arrived.) First off...today we are in Catacoas, little place right outside of Piura. Cool, cool place, too. It's pretty much the souvenir capital...so if you guys decide to come pick me up after the mish ... this would be a good place to come get little whatever thingies you want. And I dunno if Brad and Whitney would come too, but I can see Whitney having an absolute blast here, and spending lots of Brad's money.

    Alright anyway...got a couple good stories from this week. First one is kinda sad, but at the same time hysterically and ironically funny. Maybe. Well, I think so. Alright, so we are teaching this guy named Jorge whose wife and two daughters were just baptized. He has accepted everything and is ready to get baptized, too. One day, we taught him the commandments, Law of Chastity and the Word of Wisdom. He was totally cool with it all... He's kind of a drinker, but he said he was ok with giving all that up. So we go another night to teach him....and.....he's drunk. What made it funny is that I asked Elder Yupanqui earlier that day if he'd ever dealt with something like that before...investigators having Word of Wisdom problems.... "Not really," he said. So Jorge was his first drinking challenge...and, of course, mine too. We still had a nice lesson with his family and...to be honest his wife was pretty upset and she was ranting about something and was talking and I thought she said that she saw Jesus outside her house smoking one morning. And I just thought..."oh great we get to deal with this now"...and then I figured out that she was referring to some guy she saw smoking...so that shows how good my Spanish is coming. Actually, I almost understood it.... Let's see, she said there was a man smoking outside her house one morning.... Yeah, I'm just not sure how I got so mixed up about who was doing the smoking ...anyway...Jorge will hopefully not mess up again and we'll get him baptized soon.

    Another good story, we were walking the other day and these two young boys were struggling to carry a big sack of potatoes, so we helped them and carried it for them to their house, where their mother, older brother, and his wife were waiting for them. We ended up teaching all of them and they were all so thrilled by the message of the Restoration. The mother, Rosa, said that she had been praying lately to have God tell show her the truth! :0) So that was way cool...we haven't been able to see them since Friday or so from when we found them, but we should have another lesson tomorrow and see how golden they are. Good, good stuff.

    Alright, besides that...let's see ... we are teaching a lot, and really have a ton of people just SO close to baptism...which by the way...the waist on my baptism pants is like a 28 now... I have no idea why...but they are so tight...but none of my other pants are and I really don't think I've gained any weight. Kinda confused...so I might have to pick up a new pair of white pants for that. Just a side note...um. Oh, and we got to watch some of General Conference. I was so looking forward to that, the great instruction about the importance of prophets and apostles... I was dying to watch it! We didn't get to watch any of the Saturday morning or Saturday afternoon sessions (que triste), but we did get to watch the General Priesthood session. It was a bit challenging to listen to in Spanish translation, not gonna lie. But the American missionaries got watch the Sunday morning session in English, which was pretty much amazing. The Sunday afternoon session was in Spanish again...but it's all good. Actually...question...was Scott Nelson singing in the MTC choir Saturday night? I dunno if he started his mission yet, but I swear I saw him singing in the choir....but I could be wrong.

    Well, that's basically it. I'm still doing really good out here...it is starting to warm up a bit. Spring time here. It's really nice in the morning cause its always overcast, and then from about 12:00 noon to 5:00 pm is when it's hot. But right after 5:00 pm it starts cooling down...feels nice. So I dunno how much that will change...but it's definitely getting warmer here. We'll see. I'll miss the snow, I know that much. But it's all good. Jordan, keep doing good in school, working hard, jumping higher and getting taller (just not taller than me). Good to hear from Jack, and to know he's in the mission field now. It's a great place to be. (Hurry up, Cody. I'm hoping you get called to Piura and I can be your trainer. That would be so cool!)

    Okay, that's it. I think I covered it all. The Church is true. Love it. Live it.

    Elder David "Stud in a White Shirt" Royal

Songs for David

    I got kind of creative and wrote a couple of verses to familiar songs while awaiting David's email on Monday.  Thought I'd forward them.  See if you can sing them (but will first have to figure out the tune/song for which they were written).

 

Song One

 

Oh where, oh where has our little Simba gone?

Oh where, oh were can he be?

As I wait for his email I get no work done.

Oh David, please email me.

 

Maralea frets that his P-Day has changed,

And I've got somewhere to be.

My schedule has now been all rearranged,

So I hope Simba soon emails me.

 

Song Two

 

Ain't no sunshine without e-mail.

Oh these feelings are so frail.

The hours pass by like a snail,

And my heart just weeps and wails,

On P-day, without e-mail.

 

I'm on "Dear Elder" everyday.

Never strain for things to say.

I know everything's okay,

I can feel it when I pray,

Still I want e-mail on P-day.

My second week..ish..in the field is behind me, and I still haven’t been robbed...

    Here's the latest email from David aka Elder Royal from Piura Peru.  He is doing well, was involved with his first baptism this past week, and is very upbeat.  I was surprised that there was very little discussion about his struggle with the language, which indicates it is probably coming along pretty well (that's our take, anyway).  Mail appears to be arriving slow.  Perhaps it is taking a while to catch up with him.  I still send David letters via www.dearelder.com (go to "write a letter", then to Piura Peru, then just write in David's name, type or cut/paste - whatever, hit send, and hope it eventually gets to David).  David's physical address for letters is as follows: 

 

Peru Piura Mission

POB 30150

Salt Lake City, UT  84130-0150

 

or for packages and air mail stamps:

Los Naranjos Mz H, Lp 4

Urb. Los Geranios

Piura PERU

    Also, David says he can receive emails, too, at royal_d@myldsmail.net.  I send him short emails on occasion (you know, BYU scores), but have learned that he has little time on the computer, so I try to keep them brief, save all my rambling for the letters, but David loves hearing from family/friends. 

 

    Have a great week.

 

    Mike

_________

September 29, 2008

 

Family!!

 

            Alright, so my second week..ish..in the field is behind me, and I still haven't been robbed...threatened...shot at or stabbed.  So, we're in good shape.  I can't remember everyone I talked about last week...but...we had our first baptism here in San Pedro Saturday night!  It was way cool.  And of course...because I'm being trained I have to do (or rather I get to do) all of the baptisms...so...yep.  I was the one doing it.  We baptized the girl Silvana...whose whole, entire name is crazy long... I can't even begin to remember it and I practiced by literally reciting it 50 times in the font before we did the actual baptism.  But, I said the prayer right...did the dunk... a perfect 10 ;) ...and it was pretty much awesome.  And I was way nervous too, so I was really happy that I got through it without messing up.  There was a very strong spirit at the baptism, I can tell you that.  Really cool experience.  I am very excited to have many more of those.

 

We are teaching a very cool family.  The Mendoza family.  Every time we go it's quite the adventure.  The father is a less active member so we are teaching all of them and their...6 (or so) kids.  There are lots of little guys running around...and for some reason...Sister Mendoza decides...oh the elders are here - come here baby girl time for breast feeding.  Wow, talk about uncomfortable.  So, during every lesson so far, I have had to teach gospel principles by looking away, at the ceiling, stuff like that.  Anyway, they are cool and I believe they will get baptized soon.

 

            I love it out here.  Doing great!  Did you guys get all my letters?  I sent a bunch a few weeks ago.  Hopefully, you did.  I haven't received any of your mail for the past month, but we are going to the mission office today and I hope to get something there.  Mom, I was going to have you send me more ties, have you get into my stash of cool ties, but I think I'll wait on that – because I can't remember where I put them.  By the way, you can give my email address out (which would be nice, since I don't get many physical letters here).  I can receive emails, but I cannot respond directly – only to immediate family.  (Mom, I know you are worried this will cut down on my writing home time, but I promise to be good about all that.)  Jordan, great to hear you made the grade in geometry.  Keep working hard there.  Mom, see if you can get me contact information for TJ.  Just want to send him a letter since he's leaving on his mission soon.

            Anyway, I am sorry to say that I have only two minutes left!  Ah!  Yeah, I spent a lot of time reading through emails – all good (great actually).  But really, life is going great, awesome!  My comp is sweet.  Life is great!  Mail has been incredibly slow, but I am not discouraged.  Well, sorry I have to go so soon.  Lost track of time, but I'm loving it here!  I love you all.  Keep working hard with all your stuff – school and all that...and...love ya.  Yep.  And I look forward to hopefully getting some letters tonight (crossing fingers).  It's all good.  Thanks fam.  You're the best.  Tell my friends to write me.  The gospel of Jesus Christ is true!  Bye. ;)

 

            Elder Son Royal