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
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