So my buddy Kevin Turek the Turok oughta be home from his mission in Ohio by now, right? Pretty sure. That's so cool. Tell him I say hi. I wrote him a letter when I was in the MTC, LAST JULY, and I have no idea if he got it. Can you ask him if he did? And if so, please ask a follow up question: Why didn't you ever write him back? Ok, onward.
This week seemed to go pretty well. Last Sunday, Elder Larsen and I started teaching a nine year old girl named Damaris. Her mother is an active member, and dad has not been active for about a year ago and doesn't seem to want much with the Church anymore. Anyway, Damaris is a cool little girl and knew pretty much everything – so the teaching part went pretty well. At first her mother was hesitant to have her baptized this week: too fast, she didn't have sandals or a dress. So, we bought her sandals and got her a dress from another member. I'm all about eliminating excuses. It turns out the mom was just a bit afraid of what her husband would think about it, but he just kinda shrugged it off like, yeah whatever, if she wants to. So we visited the family a few times this week and made sure that everything was good to go. Today (Saturday) finally came around, and we started getting things together. We went to her house at 4:00 pm to pick her up for her interview, took her to the church, Elder Calderon was late but not that big of a deal, since we planned on filling the font during the interview. The door to the faucet was locked, so we drove to another guy's house to find keys, couldn't find him, drove back to the chapel, and the amazing Hermana Armanda managed to find a key that worked. So we started filling the font, the bishop showed up on time. Oh, and had to go searching for the baptismal tunic that I had inadvertently left on the windshield of our car - which did not stay there for long after I started driving. That was an adventure. Anyway, Damaris's family showed up, we got changed, took some pictures, started the service. Bam. It was definitely the best baptism I have seen in Peru: very well organized, well done. It even included a special musical number. Yep – I played the guitar and Elder Calderon and I sang the primary song, "Baptism." It was cool. I printed off the lyrics last night and…never practiced it, so we just kinda winged it, and it turned out awesome. Then we had the actual ordanince (how you spell that?) and I got to baptize her. The rest of the service just went so well and afterward we had a bunch of refreshments. But, I even have a heroic tale about the refreshments. You see, someone had given the keys to kids, who went into the nursery area with the keys and locked the door. The refreshments (potatoes and cake) were in the nursery area. So, there is a small window above the nursery room door and everyone decided to enlist "Elder Royal because he is the tallest" to climb through the tiny window above the door and almost get himself stuck/killed. Oh yeah, and that didn't work so we had to go to Plan B, which consisted of going up and over the door via the ceiling. Conclusion: The cake was eaten, and it was delicious. Moral of the Story: Don't give nursery kids the keys, because they will likely lock them inside with the cake. Anyway, it was an AMAZING baptism and I couldn't be happier with how the service went, with an excellent turn out. Oh, Damaris's father came as well, which was SWEET, because he wasn't planning on attending - so that was a nice surprise, good turn around from the first time I met him. (We are all about changing hearts, minds and lives. It's all so good.)
We had cambios this week, which went much smoother than the last two that I have been apart of here in the office. In fact, so smooth in was almost shocking. No explosions. No major Royal pains. A good feeling. Good, good feeling. We were able to get out and teach a lot this week, always at least for 2-3 hours. I guess that may not sound like a ton, but it's certainly an improvement for this office. (This is really the first time I have not been slammed with some financial/computer crisis that kept me chained to the desk until the wee hours - so that has been very, very nice.) So we taught a lot and have some good people that we are looking to progress. We started teaching a lady named Karina a while back, a less active member, and this past Sunday she came to church with her entire family – few young kids and her husband. Her kids are all too young still, but her husband is interested. So that's pretty exciting. We are also teaching the Cordova family: Rosa, Edgar, Marilena, Claudilla, Aaron. They are a cool family, but we are just having a hard time getting them to the church. The two daughters, Marilena and Claudilla almost came last Sunday, but had a conflict. We're working on it.
Things are going great here. I'm trying very hard to keep improving myself in all aspects. I see areas of where and how I need to get better, and that's what I'm trying to do. I'm working on things like . . . patience, kindness, being slow to judgment - things like that. I'm trying really hard to get out and teach a lot. It's funny because I just take whoever can go with me (or whoever I have to force out of their office chair) so I have gone out with everyone at least once. People always ask me why I always come, but the "other elder" keeps changing. Haha. Luckily for Elder Bates, the times that he has come out with me we have talked with the Bishop - so he is just all about me and Elder Bates. (Ha.) We visited with him again yesterday and he told us he is really happy with the way things are going, and again apologized for talking bad about us before. In fact, he is now bragging about us in stake meetings, about how well the office is now working. That is exciting to me - because the little things we are doing have made a difference. (The Lord brings about miracles through small means.)
Dad, I really enjoyed your letter this week. Seriously Dad, it may be one of the best letters I have read my entire mission. That, or, just worked out really, really well for the moment. But, thanks for your help. Mom, if you have not sent the package yet, I got something else you toss in: Chapstick. I'm almost out because Elder Larsen took a tube and ended up giving it away to a little girl who needed it more. Now he'll probably take my last one from me. So, if you could? That would be great. Do you remember what kind I like? The Chapstick brand, of course, and it's like the navy, or royal blue color...ish. That would be awesome........my lips hurt real bad!
Time is going by incredibly fast – I'll hit a year this Thursday! Can you believe it?! Pretty crazy. I am happy to be here. I love the mission, Peru, and LOVE speaking Spanish. I love having a ton of friends as missionaries as well. So that's this week. Sorry this is getting to you guys really late. The baptism went late, and then we had appointments, dinner, and then had to buy things that we need for a conference Monday morning because we won't be able to get that done tomorrow (Sunday). So this is getting to you now. But before I go to bed, I want to say that I hope every young man out there will make the decision to do the best thing ever: serve a full time mission for the Lord! The Church is true. Live it. Love you guys. Thanks for your prayers, love, support and for blessing me with great counsel this week.
Elder casi un añito Royal
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