November 30, 2009
Hey hey hey!
Ok so sorry that I am getting around to this a little bit late. We had our zone counsel today, and that went all morning into the afternoon. But it was way cool! It was the first zone counsel that I have participated in as a zone leader, and not the financial secretary. Haha. Elder Ibarra is really doing a good job, though. He will probably end up being a better secretary than I was. But that’s how it should be…always improving.
So this week went pretty well. Our zone had three baptisms. I was able to report to the president last night with a bit less embarrassment. I’m not satisfied with that by any means, but things are coming along here in Piura Central. Things should be even better this week by the way that things are looking. I know that there are still a lot of things we need to do better as zone leaders, especially after going to the conference today…but the biggest thing I see right now is setting the standard in our area. Now, I’m not one to make excuses…but our area is kinda rough. It’s a nicer part of Piura where God is not really the "first" thing on everyone’s list. But, we are working on it and I am really enjoying being in the field again. Also, we have a piano in our capilla so I am playing on Sundays for sacrament meeting. It’s cool but I wish I could play more hymns with both hands. Lots of times I end up playing just the right hand…but it’s better than no piano. So…young future missionaries that know how to play…get to practicing that. Piano playing pays huge dividends - especially outside the states, where few people play.
And since I’m handing out advice for future missionaries, here’s something to the future Elder Kevin Foutz (hopefully my companion in April) (although this advice works for any Spanish speaking missionary). Practice the hymns a lot if you play piano. Get a Spanish Book of Mormon and start reading it. You won’t understand hardly anything, but that’s not the point. Read out loud and try to learn the pronunciation. Understanding the book in Spanish isn’t that important. You can do that in English for now. But read out loud in Spanish to learn the language. It really helps and if you start now it will be a huge head start. I didn’t start until my first area but it helped a ton. I probably read the first 100 pages before really understanding much...but it helps A LOT. Do it!
The heat is coming back. That has become evident in the past week – besides the obvious signs, such as shiny skin from the constant coat of sweat we now carry around…well I guess that’s pretty much it… I started that sentence with the intent of ending with something profound, but that didn’t happen. In short, summer has started. The summer heat here is like Vegas - pretty intense. We do not have AC in my room...but we our place is much cooler because we are on the first of a three story house with only one or two windows, so there is not much sun. It stays a lot fresher. By the way, July is beautiful weather - so you guys will have the best of Peru weather when you pay us a visit. Oh, my new pension is awesome. Her food is ok but she is way cool and does live close. We eat there three times a day. I go to the office...2 or 3 times a week. It will be easy to get my Christmas package because I am still in Piura. Hey, I saw Elder Walker today! That was cool and I told him that you were planning on meeting his family. I totally forgot to ask you to send me a dorky Christmas tie. Pants: Don’t get pants that roll up at the bottom. Just normal pants that don’t have any special kind of cut or fold. Pants like that are dirt pockets and when you take them off it gets dirt EVERYWHERE.
Funny story…here in Peru everyone throws trash right out the front door. Normal. As we were walking down the street, I happened to walk in front of a door just as a lady was throwing a bunch of orange peels into the street. And she hit me with them. I laughed, she hid around the corner of the wall in embarrassment. Does anyone remember the song Hey There Delilah?...the one that was played like 50 times a day on every radio station for three years? The Latino missionaries are convinced that it is a Church song. One of the elders that lives with us is always playing his Church music, and in the middle of hymns and other religious stuff, Hey There Delilah always comes out of nowhere. And no matter what I say… as far as he’s concerned - it’s a Church song. I just find it funny. So I get to listen to that about once a day at least. Still.
Glad to hear BYU beat Utah. I’m sure that was exciting. Hope your Thanksgiving in Provo was fun. Well, I think that’s about it for now. Things are going great out here. I’m happy and healthy and just enjoying my time as a missionary. Elder Ibarra saw fotos of me from when I started the mission and says that I have more of a "man face" now. Wow, I’m growing up. Hooray. December starts tomorrow and that is crazy! I hope that you are all happy, safe, having fun, and following Christ, as you should be. You are all in my prayers. The mission is still amazing and I absolutely love being here. Young men, plan now to serve a mission!! And heck, older young men ( my buddies, classmates, quorum members - you know who you are!!), let’s get them papers in now, ya hear? Jordan, you make sure you’re ready when the time comes. The Lord needs you! Keep being cool, buddy. Well, you guys are amazing and I couldn’t ask for a better family. I love you! Have a great week y’all. Let’s not just profess to have faith in Jesus Christ. Let’s show Him we have it by how we live. The Church is true. Live it.
Elder "Tan Arms" Royal
Monday, November 30, 2009
Monday, November 23, 2009
Happy Thanksgiving Peeps
November 23, 2009
Hey hey hey
So I completed my first full week as a zone leader. I made it out alive, just barely - that was one big dog. Haha jk. But seriously, we went to an investigator’s house this past week and when we knocked on the door, the biggest dog I have ever seen in my life came barreling at us and tried to jump through the window of the door. If he wasn’t the size of a small bear he probably would have squeezed through pretty easily and bit my head off. After that our investigatoŕs mom told us to go away. I was ok with that, though.
We have been working a lot with the zone – and results are slowly coming. We started the cambio with 10 of our 14 missionaries completely new to their areas, so everyone was a bit lost for the first week and the numbers last Sunday were kind of embarrassing. This week was a lot better. However, I still was not able to report much productivity last night to the president. That’s two weeks in a row, and . . . wow. I wonder if President is having second thoughts about putting me in as a ZL. I doubt it. I think he put me here mostly because I’m good looking. Maybe. (Ha) But the missionaries are definitely putting in a lot of effort, and I am expected at least a few baptisms to go through by the end of next week. The number of lessons and nuevos found last week was much higher, so I believe that the results will start showing quickly. We had our first zone meeting last week too, which also went very well. Elder Guerra is a really good missionary and is helping me a lot. I am learning a lot from him.
Our area is pretty interesting. Brenda did not get baptized last week, but we are still working with her. We went around visiting a lot of the members last week. There are A LOT of less actives. One of them hasn’t been to church in about 15 years, and asked how to have his name remove from the records. We talked to him for about an hour. That was pretty frustrating, to be honest. We were pretty direct with him – he had some problem with a member or two, blames them, hasn’t gone back, is completely miserable and doesn’t think that happiness exists. We told him to forget about something so little and dumb that happened so long ago, forget his pride, and remember his covenants. He said that God knows why he stopped going to church, and that he had very good reasons. I told him very bluntly: “You’re right, God knows why you stopped going to church, but that doesn’t mean he will justify it.” It’s interesting to see how easily someone can throw away the gospel, to become so blinded and then wonder why they are so miserable. He said he might come to church, but he did not. I wasn’t really expecting him to, but I’m gonna keep visiting him. Surprisingly enough, he was not the only person I met with a very similar story. In fact, there are several (fast approaching the double digits), and we still have only visited about half the listed ward members. I just find it so very sad that people can throw it all away and decide to walk down such a miserable road. It’s so easy to walk down that road, but very difficult to get off.
Everything is going great. I am having good experiences and loving my time as a missionary. I received a letter from Elder TJ Gibson this week. That was cool. And I heard about Kevin Fouts getting a call to serve here in Piura! That is crazy. He should arrive here in April I think, if he is starting in February. So…that means I’ll have about two transfers left when he gets here. Maybe I’ll train him! Oh, I would own him so hard. ;) I’m gonna ask the president to let me train him, and oh boy . . . he’ll let me (because President Chipman loves me). ;) Mom, I’d love a dog whistle if you can find one that’s not too expensive. There are so many dogs around here - I just wanna drive them crazy. I could use some new CDs or something - just some more piano music or whatever. Great music is just so sweet. Good to hear that BYU beat Air Force. Have fun at the BYU/Utah game this weekend. Congrats to Elder Cuz Cody with his new assignment. I’m sure he’ll tear it up. And how is Elder Cuz Jason doing? I haven’t heard much about him lately. Hope he is doing alright. Ok, well I’m out. The Church is true. Live it. Oh and have a mighty fine thanksgiving. I would tell Cody to eat all of the turkey for me...but he isn’t with the family, either. Soooo, I’ll turn that assignment over to...Brad. And Jordan can finish what Brad doesn’t of my plate.
Elder Real Turkey and Mashed Potatoes Royal
Hey hey hey
So I completed my first full week as a zone leader. I made it out alive, just barely - that was one big dog. Haha jk. But seriously, we went to an investigator’s house this past week and when we knocked on the door, the biggest dog I have ever seen in my life came barreling at us and tried to jump through the window of the door. If he wasn’t the size of a small bear he probably would have squeezed through pretty easily and bit my head off. After that our investigatoŕs mom told us to go away. I was ok with that, though.
We have been working a lot with the zone – and results are slowly coming. We started the cambio with 10 of our 14 missionaries completely new to their areas, so everyone was a bit lost for the first week and the numbers last Sunday were kind of embarrassing. This week was a lot better. However, I still was not able to report much productivity last night to the president. That’s two weeks in a row, and . . . wow. I wonder if President is having second thoughts about putting me in as a ZL. I doubt it. I think he put me here mostly because I’m good looking. Maybe. (Ha) But the missionaries are definitely putting in a lot of effort, and I am expected at least a few baptisms to go through by the end of next week. The number of lessons and nuevos found last week was much higher, so I believe that the results will start showing quickly. We had our first zone meeting last week too, which also went very well. Elder Guerra is a really good missionary and is helping me a lot. I am learning a lot from him.
Our area is pretty interesting. Brenda did not get baptized last week, but we are still working with her. We went around visiting a lot of the members last week. There are A LOT of less actives. One of them hasn’t been to church in about 15 years, and asked how to have his name remove from the records. We talked to him for about an hour. That was pretty frustrating, to be honest. We were pretty direct with him – he had some problem with a member or two, blames them, hasn’t gone back, is completely miserable and doesn’t think that happiness exists. We told him to forget about something so little and dumb that happened so long ago, forget his pride, and remember his covenants. He said that God knows why he stopped going to church, and that he had very good reasons. I told him very bluntly: “You’re right, God knows why you stopped going to church, but that doesn’t mean he will justify it.” It’s interesting to see how easily someone can throw away the gospel, to become so blinded and then wonder why they are so miserable. He said he might come to church, but he did not. I wasn’t really expecting him to, but I’m gonna keep visiting him. Surprisingly enough, he was not the only person I met with a very similar story. In fact, there are several (fast approaching the double digits), and we still have only visited about half the listed ward members. I just find it so very sad that people can throw it all away and decide to walk down such a miserable road. It’s so easy to walk down that road, but very difficult to get off.
Everything is going great. I am having good experiences and loving my time as a missionary. I received a letter from Elder TJ Gibson this week. That was cool. And I heard about Kevin Fouts getting a call to serve here in Piura! That is crazy. He should arrive here in April I think, if he is starting in February. So…that means I’ll have about two transfers left when he gets here. Maybe I’ll train him! Oh, I would own him so hard. ;) I’m gonna ask the president to let me train him, and oh boy . . . he’ll let me (because President Chipman loves me). ;) Mom, I’d love a dog whistle if you can find one that’s not too expensive. There are so many dogs around here - I just wanna drive them crazy. I could use some new CDs or something - just some more piano music or whatever. Great music is just so sweet. Good to hear that BYU beat Air Force. Have fun at the BYU/Utah game this weekend. Congrats to Elder Cuz Cody with his new assignment. I’m sure he’ll tear it up. And how is Elder Cuz Jason doing? I haven’t heard much about him lately. Hope he is doing alright. Ok, well I’m out. The Church is true. Live it. Oh and have a mighty fine thanksgiving. I would tell Cody to eat all of the turkey for me...but he isn’t with the family, either. Soooo, I’ll turn that assignment over to...Brad. And Jordan can finish what Brad doesn’t of my plate.
Elder Real Turkey and Mashed Potatoes Royal
Friday, November 13, 2009
Zoning Out
November 13, 2009
Hey hey hey:
Alright. Well, I guess I gotta cover the last 10 days or so, but I don’t really remember…again. So let’s see. Last week we pretty much jumped right into transfers. My replacement showed up to the office a week ago yesterday– and that’s when our little training session began. We really didn’t have much time and I felt kinda bad, because the whole week we had to take care of transfer stuff and I didn’t really have time to relax and train him, and he has just been completely lost. Such is the life of the mission financial secretary. His name is Elder Ibarra, by the way, and he is from Lima. He has about four months in the mission. A youngin.
Transfers actually went pretty well. They were much smoother than usual. Maybe it’s just because I have been through them so many times now. Elder Ibarra came around with me the whole time and watched everything go down pretty much. Early Wednesday morning we went to the airport to send the old guys home. A 4:00 a.m. trip to the airport is always fun. But this time we did get to sleep a little bit afterward, a power nap from about 6;00 a.m. to 7:00 a.m. A big group of new missionaries arrived, too, about 15 or so, which included eight Americans. Two of them already speak Spanish pretty much perfectly – which is lame because they show up and speak better than those of us that have been here 16 months. (Speaking of which – happy 16 months Elder Royal!) But good for them that they don’t have to go through that amazing struggle of picking up the language. It’s a pretty good looking group of new missionaries.
Normally I would have gone to my area Tuesday afternoon to get rolling with everything, but I stayed in the office with Elder Ibarra until Thursday morning. I think I finally left to my area Thursday afternoon. Being a zone leader has been interesting so far. Nothing too spectacular or interesting yet, but it has been good. My new companion is Elder Guerra, also from Lima. I am excited to be his comp because he has been a zone leader for a really long time and I should be able to learn a lot from him. Our zone is very new right now – I think 10 of the 14 missionaries in our zone just arrived here. It was kind of a slow week as everyone was trying to get settled in and get to know their areas. We also opened a new area, and that took up a lot of our time trying to find a room, a pension, and a laundry place. We are so spoiled here in the Southern Hemisphere. Well as luck would have it, I reported last night to the president for the first time with a not so great zone report of 0 baptisms and 0 confirmaciones, which is a big slap in the face here in this mission. That was kinda sad. Hopefully, we will be able to really get things going this week and help the zone out a lot. We are teaching some good people in our area. One of them is named Brenda, who is 32 years old and has a daughter named Brendy. They recently accepted a date to be baptized this Sunday. Hopefully all goes well.
My new room is pretty nice, comparably. It’s like a cave, which is nice because it’s not as hot. But things are going just swell out here…no problems whatsoever. I sent a letter to Cuz Cody this week for his birthday. Woo hoo! And for my wonderful little Cuz Becca Payton…I haven’t forgotten about your postcard. That will get to you. I hope. That’s it for this week. I’m outta here. I love you guys like crazy. Have fun. I’m healthy and happy. Hopefully next week I have something cool to report. The Church is true!
Elder DRoy Royal
Hey hey hey:
Alright. Well, I guess I gotta cover the last 10 days or so, but I don’t really remember…again. So let’s see. Last week we pretty much jumped right into transfers. My replacement showed up to the office a week ago yesterday– and that’s when our little training session began. We really didn’t have much time and I felt kinda bad, because the whole week we had to take care of transfer stuff and I didn’t really have time to relax and train him, and he has just been completely lost. Such is the life of the mission financial secretary. His name is Elder Ibarra, by the way, and he is from Lima. He has about four months in the mission. A youngin.
Transfers actually went pretty well. They were much smoother than usual. Maybe it’s just because I have been through them so many times now. Elder Ibarra came around with me the whole time and watched everything go down pretty much. Early Wednesday morning we went to the airport to send the old guys home. A 4:00 a.m. trip to the airport is always fun. But this time we did get to sleep a little bit afterward, a power nap from about 6;00 a.m. to 7:00 a.m. A big group of new missionaries arrived, too, about 15 or so, which included eight Americans. Two of them already speak Spanish pretty much perfectly – which is lame because they show up and speak better than those of us that have been here 16 months. (Speaking of which – happy 16 months Elder Royal!) But good for them that they don’t have to go through that amazing struggle of picking up the language. It’s a pretty good looking group of new missionaries.
Normally I would have gone to my area Tuesday afternoon to get rolling with everything, but I stayed in the office with Elder Ibarra until Thursday morning. I think I finally left to my area Thursday afternoon. Being a zone leader has been interesting so far. Nothing too spectacular or interesting yet, but it has been good. My new companion is Elder Guerra, also from Lima. I am excited to be his comp because he has been a zone leader for a really long time and I should be able to learn a lot from him. Our zone is very new right now – I think 10 of the 14 missionaries in our zone just arrived here. It was kind of a slow week as everyone was trying to get settled in and get to know their areas. We also opened a new area, and that took up a lot of our time trying to find a room, a pension, and a laundry place. We are so spoiled here in the Southern Hemisphere. Well as luck would have it, I reported last night to the president for the first time with a not so great zone report of 0 baptisms and 0 confirmaciones, which is a big slap in the face here in this mission. That was kinda sad. Hopefully, we will be able to really get things going this week and help the zone out a lot. We are teaching some good people in our area. One of them is named Brenda, who is 32 years old and has a daughter named Brendy. They recently accepted a date to be baptized this Sunday. Hopefully all goes well.
My new room is pretty nice, comparably. It’s like a cave, which is nice because it’s not as hot. But things are going just swell out here…no problems whatsoever. I sent a letter to Cuz Cody this week for his birthday. Woo hoo! And for my wonderful little Cuz Becca Payton…I haven’t forgotten about your postcard. That will get to you. I hope. That’s it for this week. I’m outta here. I love you guys like crazy. Have fun. I’m healthy and happy. Hopefully next week I have something cool to report. The Church is true!
Elder DRoy Royal
Friday, November 6, 2009
I'm Movin' Out - Lovin' Life
November 6, 2009
Hey hey hey:
Say goodbye to Elder Royal, financial secretary. My days as the mission money man are officially over! We had a good run. So, here’s how everything went down. This last week was as busy as ever. It was the last week of this cambio, and we hit transfers this coming Tuesday. Monday was a day of zone counsel – so that kept us busy most of the day. I started feeling nervous on Monday, just had a feeling that I had a change coming up. President Chipman likes to do things differently than President Solis. I figured that I would be here in the office during an entire cambio with the new secretary to train him (which is how I was trained), but that isn’t how things are gonna happen this time around. President Chipman told me Tuesday morning that I would be going back to the field next week. We discussed how that would be possible – and the only way is to have me stay here in Piura to work and come in on probably a daily basis to make sure that the new secretary is getting along fine and understanding it all. He didn’t tell me exactly what I would be doing or where I would be going, but I found out later that night that I am going to be a zone leader here in Piura Central So that kinda freaked me out. It is not something that I feel at all ready for at all. Life is gonna be nuts!
Now, I wasn’t supposed to find out about the details of this new change until later in the week. But, circumstances got the information to me earlier than planned. It was kind of funny. I went to the mission home with Elder Velez de Villa and another elder who was going home the following morning, and was getting interviewed by President. He called us in and asked him to accompany him in giving a blessing for the other missionary. That was a very cool experience to be side by side with President Chipman as he gave a blessing. And really, while that should have been the highlight of the night, I realized at the end of the blessing that I was in the office with the “wall of missionaries” displaying all the changes for the upcoming cambios. I looked at the board and started looking for my change. I found it and then Elder Velez de Villa yelled: “Elder Royal! You can’t see the board!” Too late! (What did Elder Velez de Villa mean? Of course I could see the board. It was right there in front of me.) So that’s how I found out my next challenge in mission life.
This entire week I have been trying to get myself ready for change. I have never been great with change. Ím freaked out to be a zone leader, but it will be a good experience, and it will be good to get back to the field and get working. Apart from that, the thought of how I am going to train the new secretary is interesting, too. I will be really close to the office, the Piura Central Zone – and I think I will be coming in every morning of this change to train him and help him get used to it. Ya know, it was always a joke when I got to the office that I would leave and go to Piura Central - just because now I will have been in the three zones here in Piura, thus far living and working my entire mission in about a 12 kilometer radius. How many miles is that? It’s okay. I love Piura.
So ends Elder Royal’s tiempo as the financial secretary. After five transfers of receiving angry, whinny phone calls, dealing with all kinds of problems, I will be leaving to be a zone leader – and will probably still get angry, whinny phone calls. Dang. It just never ends. But that’s fine with me. But we are opening up a new chapter here, as the mission continues to get more and more interesting. I had a love/hate relationship with my office responsibilities, but I really enjoyed my time here in the office. There are some extra high quality missionaries here right now and I loved being among them. So while I see some personal struggles down the road, as change (at least for me) can be pretty difficult at times, I don’t feel as concerned with my personal success as I do with the success of our zone now, and I want to be able to help the missionaries by the example that I set for them. By the way, my new comp is Elder Guerra. He is from Peru - not sure exactly where yet - and has been out 19 months. Elder Guerra has been serving as zone leader over the Piura Central Zone for the past two cambios, so I am very glad to be assigned to someone with that kind of experience. So I will be here in Piura until at least December 23rd.
By the way, how was Halloween? It gets celebrated here. Lots of people, pretty good decorations, somewhat similar to an American Halloween. We attended a baptism last Saturday and they asked us to play a song. So, Elder Escobar and I left (because they asked us just as it started) to get my guitar. We thought of something we could do and then left to play the song after half practicing it once. We played Families Can Be Together Forever with a nice guitar part that Elder Escobar made up. It actually went pretty well for winging it again. Only problem with that, when we wing it we are more hesitant to sing/play loud and I’m not sure how well it gets heard. But, we received compliments later, so I guess it was fine. But, I love the fact that we can have guitars. I think that is the case because there are so few pianos here. I wish there were more pianos. It would be nice to be able to practice but there are like three in the whole city. No joke. They are hard to find and I hate playing keyboards - but even those are hard to come by.
Sorry I feel like this is kind of a boring weekly report. My Prep-day will change back to Monday, but you won’t be hearing from me until the 16th I guess, because I won’t be writing again in two days. You can start using Dear Elder and stuff again I guess because I won’t be here to check the email whenever. Quick thought on that, Dad, with the Dear Elder letters. If you could mark them with page numbers that would be great, because I get them all out of order and when you send me a huge letter that takes like 4 or 5 pages, it’s hard to piece it together sometimes...so just a little reference at the top to help me out. Um, yeah, and we will go from there.
I'm really excited for what the future my hold for me here in the mission. Its cool to be getting back to the field. I loved the office, I must say, and I will miss it. I love being a missionary, love the experiences and challenges that come along with it, and I love the missionaries. Almost all of them :] I think there are a few that will be glad to hear that I will no longer be the financial secretary. I was pretty hard core and some people are just not down with that. Haha. But, like father like son, and I shall teach the new secretary the strict financial law and how not to get taken advantage of by people. Love it. I grew a lot in the past seven months. This job really taught me a lot. Okay, I’m out for realz. Thank you everyone for your support, love and prayers – I might need even more pretty soon here. The Church is absolutely, positively, most definitely wonderful, glorious and true!
Love, Elder Royal
Hey hey hey:
Say goodbye to Elder Royal, financial secretary. My days as the mission money man are officially over! We had a good run. So, here’s how everything went down. This last week was as busy as ever. It was the last week of this cambio, and we hit transfers this coming Tuesday. Monday was a day of zone counsel – so that kept us busy most of the day. I started feeling nervous on Monday, just had a feeling that I had a change coming up. President Chipman likes to do things differently than President Solis. I figured that I would be here in the office during an entire cambio with the new secretary to train him (which is how I was trained), but that isn’t how things are gonna happen this time around. President Chipman told me Tuesday morning that I would be going back to the field next week. We discussed how that would be possible – and the only way is to have me stay here in Piura to work and come in on probably a daily basis to make sure that the new secretary is getting along fine and understanding it all. He didn’t tell me exactly what I would be doing or where I would be going, but I found out later that night that I am going to be a zone leader here in Piura Central So that kinda freaked me out. It is not something that I feel at all ready for at all. Life is gonna be nuts!
Now, I wasn’t supposed to find out about the details of this new change until later in the week. But, circumstances got the information to me earlier than planned. It was kind of funny. I went to the mission home with Elder Velez de Villa and another elder who was going home the following morning, and was getting interviewed by President. He called us in and asked him to accompany him in giving a blessing for the other missionary. That was a very cool experience to be side by side with President Chipman as he gave a blessing. And really, while that should have been the highlight of the night, I realized at the end of the blessing that I was in the office with the “wall of missionaries” displaying all the changes for the upcoming cambios. I looked at the board and started looking for my change. I found it and then Elder Velez de Villa yelled: “Elder Royal! You can’t see the board!” Too late! (What did Elder Velez de Villa mean? Of course I could see the board. It was right there in front of me.) So that’s how I found out my next challenge in mission life.
This entire week I have been trying to get myself ready for change. I have never been great with change. Ím freaked out to be a zone leader, but it will be a good experience, and it will be good to get back to the field and get working. Apart from that, the thought of how I am going to train the new secretary is interesting, too. I will be really close to the office, the Piura Central Zone – and I think I will be coming in every morning of this change to train him and help him get used to it. Ya know, it was always a joke when I got to the office that I would leave and go to Piura Central - just because now I will have been in the three zones here in Piura, thus far living and working my entire mission in about a 12 kilometer radius. How many miles is that? It’s okay. I love Piura.
So ends Elder Royal’s tiempo as the financial secretary. After five transfers of receiving angry, whinny phone calls, dealing with all kinds of problems, I will be leaving to be a zone leader – and will probably still get angry, whinny phone calls. Dang. It just never ends. But that’s fine with me. But we are opening up a new chapter here, as the mission continues to get more and more interesting. I had a love/hate relationship with my office responsibilities, but I really enjoyed my time here in the office. There are some extra high quality missionaries here right now and I loved being among them. So while I see some personal struggles down the road, as change (at least for me) can be pretty difficult at times, I don’t feel as concerned with my personal success as I do with the success of our zone now, and I want to be able to help the missionaries by the example that I set for them. By the way, my new comp is Elder Guerra. He is from Peru - not sure exactly where yet - and has been out 19 months. Elder Guerra has been serving as zone leader over the Piura Central Zone for the past two cambios, so I am very glad to be assigned to someone with that kind of experience. So I will be here in Piura until at least December 23rd.
By the way, how was Halloween? It gets celebrated here. Lots of people, pretty good decorations, somewhat similar to an American Halloween. We attended a baptism last Saturday and they asked us to play a song. So, Elder Escobar and I left (because they asked us just as it started) to get my guitar. We thought of something we could do and then left to play the song after half practicing it once. We played Families Can Be Together Forever with a nice guitar part that Elder Escobar made up. It actually went pretty well for winging it again. Only problem with that, when we wing it we are more hesitant to sing/play loud and I’m not sure how well it gets heard. But, we received compliments later, so I guess it was fine. But, I love the fact that we can have guitars. I think that is the case because there are so few pianos here. I wish there were more pianos. It would be nice to be able to practice but there are like three in the whole city. No joke. They are hard to find and I hate playing keyboards - but even those are hard to come by.
Sorry I feel like this is kind of a boring weekly report. My Prep-day will change back to Monday, but you won’t be hearing from me until the 16th I guess, because I won’t be writing again in two days. You can start using Dear Elder and stuff again I guess because I won’t be here to check the email whenever. Quick thought on that, Dad, with the Dear Elder letters. If you could mark them with page numbers that would be great, because I get them all out of order and when you send me a huge letter that takes like 4 or 5 pages, it’s hard to piece it together sometimes...so just a little reference at the top to help me out. Um, yeah, and we will go from there.
I'm really excited for what the future my hold for me here in the mission. Its cool to be getting back to the field. I loved the office, I must say, and I will miss it. I love being a missionary, love the experiences and challenges that come along with it, and I love the missionaries. Almost all of them :] I think there are a few that will be glad to hear that I will no longer be the financial secretary. I was pretty hard core and some people are just not down with that. Haha. But, like father like son, and I shall teach the new secretary the strict financial law and how not to get taken advantage of by people. Love it. I grew a lot in the past seven months. This job really taught me a lot. Okay, I’m out for realz. Thank you everyone for your support, love and prayers – I might need even more pretty soon here. The Church is absolutely, positively, most definitely wonderful, glorious and true!
Love, Elder Royal
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