Hey hey hey:
Well I am feeling pretty tired right now – we played a ton of basketball today after a couple weeks of not playing. It was way fun. I am getting good at basketball again. I only air ball it like half the time now…and the other half is nothing but net, just scraping the outside, so I should be hitting the rim soon. No just kidding. In all seriousness, I was playing like Michael Jordan today. And now my body is upset with me. There was some lady there kinda “supervising” us I guess, and she left after about an hour. When we finished about an hour later, we went to leave and the whole gym was locked. How did we get out? The window above the door. That was ridiculous. Darn that lady and her key.
We had a pretty good week. We taught a lot of people, found some good new people, and things are coming along pretty well. The family we found last week, Arturo and his wife and two kids, unfortunately were nowhere to be found and that was kind of depressing. Hopefully we can find them this next week. Lucero and her family are doing ok. Sadly enough, she told us she didn’t want to go to church anymore and that came as a shock to us, and we dug a bit deeper to find that she was a few problems with a couple members. AHHH! C’mon! It’s bad enough if problems exist between members, but with investigators? Seriously? So we tried to get all of that worked out, and I think we might have most of it taken care of, but that has been pretty annoying. It has resulted in a halt in her progression, along with her children, so that’s just…peachy. We are hoping to fix that up this week. Cecilia is doing really well, though, and may even be able to get baptized this week. She is just wonderful. We have another guy named Antonio, older man, who understands really well and completes with the readings and stuff and has a testimony, so we might have some luck there with him soon as well. We have another single mother that we are teaching, Maria, with her 13 year old son Eddy. She has two older children that study in Lima. She is really cool and is also coming along well. She told us eariler this week about how she was in a terrible car accident when her children were young, in which her husband died and she was left in a coma. So all of the doctrine that we have been able to explain up until this point has been really great for her. She will be coming along I am sure.
The biggest story of this week with investigators is Rosario and William, an older married couple. Rosario was literally ready to curse God and die after going through such a tough life, trying to have faith in God, pray, go to church, but was just never able to find happiness. We taught her three times and had really good lessons with her, but always at the end just not really willing to do anything to improve her situation, as if she is waiting for us to create some big change within her. I was kind of frustrated with her Saturday night when we taught her because she didn’t want to pray, read, or go to church. And I explained that we cant really help her just by talking, but she needs to take action. So we left a bit frustrated. Yesterday we were having no luck and pretty much walking in circles and ended up running into her and could tell she was pretty flustered. She asked if she could talk with us but she didn’t want anyone to see her. It was obvious she was about to burst into tears. We took her to the chapel and she started crying and saying that she had just argued with her husband and things were just going bad. We were able to teach her again about just giving herself up to God and putting her full trust in Him – but that means she must be willing to do her part. We had a really good lesson with her and she asked us for a blessing. (The member we teach her with had told her that in the church we give blessings of comfort.) We finished and she said for the first time that we have known her that she felt good, even at peace. So, it might be a small step forward. We will definitely see, and hopefully she will be willing to do what she needs to do to make changes.
Oh, and in the Yay me! portion of the letter: I fixed the toilet this week. Next story, my five dollar Wal Mart watch is invincible. Through my whole mission that little guy has been dropped who knows how many times, stepped on, even robbed from me (no I haven’t told you guys about that yet) and retrieved, and now, it has passed yet another test. We were walking when I dropped it again, and it fell into a street gutter with a metal bar covering type thing. I thought that was it, but after a few minutes of effort, we were able to pick it out with a couple of sticks. BOOM! Invincible. Just gotta hold on to him a bit longer…knock on wood.
I think that is plenty for this week. We are planning a big talent show this week for the branch, but inviting pretty much everyone in this town. It should turn out pretty cool. At least, we can hope. So we are gonna be working a lot on that this week to make it as awesome as possible. My comp and I will probably ended up playing and singing at least a couple songs, but there are a lot of people that are really excited about it. So we are having fun here. Alright, this is way long. Everyone, thank you for your prayers and support. I know it has definitely helped me here. As time winds down I ask that you keep praying for us. I want to finish strong! Please give my love to the Crampton family. Kolby is in my prayers. Also, tell Grandma Kelly happy birthday, and . . . tell her thanks for writing me on my birthday. Tell her I love her for being such an excellent Abuela. By the way, just a heads up, I sent you guys a couple letters and some pics so keep a look out for that. Okay, we are very good here. The Church is true and Jesus Christ is our Savior. I firmly know that to be true. Let’s all stay true, live according to truth, and follow the Savior in all we think, say and do. Then no matter what happens in life, we will find peace, comfort and happiness.
Love,
Elder “David the Plumber” Royal
Monday, May 31, 2010
Monday, May 24, 2010
Shakin' and Bakin' in Chacha!
Hey hey hey
Elder Tietjen had what we thought was a good idea for a short lesson to contact a family: Street surfers, I think they are called – a “newer” skateboard kinda thing that only has two wheels. Ok, so these kids were trying to ride it in the street without much luck, and Elder Tietjen tells me that before his mission his was really good on those. So I say to the kids, “Hey let my friend show you guys how its done.” Elder Tietjen rides about 15 feet, looking all cool like, before the front wheel hit a tiny rock and broke off. OOPS. That was pretty much one of the best moments of the week. The kids left after that. Plan failed.
We had a pretty dang scary experience this past week when I woke up Tuesday in the middle of the night because my bed was shaking uncontrollably. Now, people always talked about after shocks in Vegas from California earthquakes, but I have never really been through one myself. But I knew right when I woke up what was going on. We live on the top floor of our building, the third floor, and boy was it shaking big time. That was kinda nuts because the first thing that went through my head was…I have no idea what I can do about this. We are completely at nature’s will right now. It shook the room pretty hard for, maybe 10 seconds before it stopped. There was a big flash of light at the electricity went out in the whole town. The best part was that Elder Tietjen woke up about three seconds after me and started yelling, “Elder Royal! What are you doing?! What are you doing to me?!!” Amidst the fear of death I couldn’t help but laugh. Hahaha. He figured out it was an earthquake. Ok, the good part, no damage done, everything is fine. There was some damage in the city, though. Had it lasted another 5-10 seconds and there were definitely gonna be some problems. It was pretty nuts, and it definitely shook hard. Walking around the city the next day we could see a lot of cracks in walls, fallen roof tiles, and even a wall that fell over. Luckily nothing has been too bad, though. Another wonderful experience for the book.
We did two more service projects this past week – one cutting down sugar cane trees, and the other digging out and clearing out a nice solid piece of land that lied in front of a member’s house. I’m not sure why it was built like that in the first place, having the front door right in the side of a hill, but either way, we dug it out a few feet to make it possible to pass through. The sugar cane stuff sure was fun. The four of us got into this patch of 200-300 sugar cane trees, I’d say, that were all between 15-30 feet tall, and just started whacking at them with machetes. Oh man, good stuff. The digging out the hill wasn’t nearly as fun and my body hurt afterward. But we felt good about ourselves, and that’s pretty important.
Church went pretty well yesterday, even though we only had one investigator showed up. Cecilia, who came last week with her two kids, came again. That was awesome because we didn’t see her all week long, and couldn’t find her, apparently she was sick and staying in her mother’s house. So, crossing our fingers, we went to her house Sunday morning hoping for a miracle after not seeing her since the past Sunday. Her little daughter answered the door in a dress, and that was a good sign. Cecilia came to door nearly ready and said she would meet us there. That was awesome. Elder Tietjen and I taught the second hour about the priesthood. It went just extremely well and was kinda sad that not more members and investigators showed up for it. I really enjoy teaching like that. I dunno, it’s kinda been a surprise to me but my teaching skills have gotten so much better, especially in class situations like that. So it was an enjoyable class. As far as investigators go, no one else came to church yesterday. Some people were still using the Tuesday night earthquake as their get out, which, well - c’mon. Lucero and her family are still doing pretty well. With some luck we will be able to have Lucero baptized on June 5th. Her kids will follow her eventually, if she can just make the decision to do it. She is a good lady, but just scares herself out of it. So, hopefully we can help her through that. We have another baptism planned, Leidy, but at the end of June, so we still have some time for that.
I don’t think I mentioned Arturo Tenorio yet. We found him a week ago and finally were able to teach him and his family Friday night. We ran into him twice during the week and reconfirmed the day and time. It’s always a toss up, but this just worked out great. We went to his house and his son answered the door, his wife, who we had never met yet, came to the door and says, "Youre here! Come in!" That was just...I dunno, like walking on air. We talked with them and Arturo had talked to his wife, Edith, all about the Book of Mormon and what we had taught him previously. We had a lesson with them and their youngest son, Napolean, so I am totally gonna look for that movie, and had a really good lesson. I see an incredibly bright future there, not just baptisms, but future leaders here in Chachapoyas. So, hopefully all goes well with them.
Well I think that’s about it for this week. Life is good here. My comp and I are doing great and working hard. I can’t believe how fast time is going, but I love just looking back and seeing how far I have come. I have really changed a lot, I think. I know I still have a long way to go as far as improving myself, but the change I have seen up until this point has been just tremendous. The mission is definitely a great experience that no young man should let go to waste. I can’t say that enough. At the same time it just can’t be understood in the slightest by the mouth of another - so get on out there and experience it. I know that Jesus is the Christ, my Redeemer, and this is His true gospel and church in the earth. Have a great week!
Elder Super Cheesy Chicken Lunch (mmmmm) Royal
Elder Tietjen had what we thought was a good idea for a short lesson to contact a family: Street surfers, I think they are called – a “newer” skateboard kinda thing that only has two wheels. Ok, so these kids were trying to ride it in the street without much luck, and Elder Tietjen tells me that before his mission his was really good on those. So I say to the kids, “Hey let my friend show you guys how its done.” Elder Tietjen rides about 15 feet, looking all cool like, before the front wheel hit a tiny rock and broke off. OOPS. That was pretty much one of the best moments of the week. The kids left after that. Plan failed.
We had a pretty dang scary experience this past week when I woke up Tuesday in the middle of the night because my bed was shaking uncontrollably. Now, people always talked about after shocks in Vegas from California earthquakes, but I have never really been through one myself. But I knew right when I woke up what was going on. We live on the top floor of our building, the third floor, and boy was it shaking big time. That was kinda nuts because the first thing that went through my head was…I have no idea what I can do about this. We are completely at nature’s will right now. It shook the room pretty hard for, maybe 10 seconds before it stopped. There was a big flash of light at the electricity went out in the whole town. The best part was that Elder Tietjen woke up about three seconds after me and started yelling, “Elder Royal! What are you doing?! What are you doing to me?!!” Amidst the fear of death I couldn’t help but laugh. Hahaha. He figured out it was an earthquake. Ok, the good part, no damage done, everything is fine. There was some damage in the city, though. Had it lasted another 5-10 seconds and there were definitely gonna be some problems. It was pretty nuts, and it definitely shook hard. Walking around the city the next day we could see a lot of cracks in walls, fallen roof tiles, and even a wall that fell over. Luckily nothing has been too bad, though. Another wonderful experience for the book.
We did two more service projects this past week – one cutting down sugar cane trees, and the other digging out and clearing out a nice solid piece of land that lied in front of a member’s house. I’m not sure why it was built like that in the first place, having the front door right in the side of a hill, but either way, we dug it out a few feet to make it possible to pass through. The sugar cane stuff sure was fun. The four of us got into this patch of 200-300 sugar cane trees, I’d say, that were all between 15-30 feet tall, and just started whacking at them with machetes. Oh man, good stuff. The digging out the hill wasn’t nearly as fun and my body hurt afterward. But we felt good about ourselves, and that’s pretty important.
Church went pretty well yesterday, even though we only had one investigator showed up. Cecilia, who came last week with her two kids, came again. That was awesome because we didn’t see her all week long, and couldn’t find her, apparently she was sick and staying in her mother’s house. So, crossing our fingers, we went to her house Sunday morning hoping for a miracle after not seeing her since the past Sunday. Her little daughter answered the door in a dress, and that was a good sign. Cecilia came to door nearly ready and said she would meet us there. That was awesome. Elder Tietjen and I taught the second hour about the priesthood. It went just extremely well and was kinda sad that not more members and investigators showed up for it. I really enjoy teaching like that. I dunno, it’s kinda been a surprise to me but my teaching skills have gotten so much better, especially in class situations like that. So it was an enjoyable class. As far as investigators go, no one else came to church yesterday. Some people were still using the Tuesday night earthquake as their get out, which, well - c’mon. Lucero and her family are still doing pretty well. With some luck we will be able to have Lucero baptized on June 5th. Her kids will follow her eventually, if she can just make the decision to do it. She is a good lady, but just scares herself out of it. So, hopefully we can help her through that. We have another baptism planned, Leidy, but at the end of June, so we still have some time for that.
I don’t think I mentioned Arturo Tenorio yet. We found him a week ago and finally were able to teach him and his family Friday night. We ran into him twice during the week and reconfirmed the day and time. It’s always a toss up, but this just worked out great. We went to his house and his son answered the door, his wife, who we had never met yet, came to the door and says, "Youre here! Come in!" That was just...I dunno, like walking on air. We talked with them and Arturo had talked to his wife, Edith, all about the Book of Mormon and what we had taught him previously. We had a lesson with them and their youngest son, Napolean, so I am totally gonna look for that movie, and had a really good lesson. I see an incredibly bright future there, not just baptisms, but future leaders here in Chachapoyas. So, hopefully all goes well with them.
Well I think that’s about it for this week. Life is good here. My comp and I are doing great and working hard. I can’t believe how fast time is going, but I love just looking back and seeing how far I have come. I have really changed a lot, I think. I know I still have a long way to go as far as improving myself, but the change I have seen up until this point has been just tremendous. The mission is definitely a great experience that no young man should let go to waste. I can’t say that enough. At the same time it just can’t be understood in the slightest by the mouth of another - so get on out there and experience it. I know that Jesus is the Christ, my Redeemer, and this is His true gospel and church in the earth. Have a great week!
Elder Super Cheesy Chicken Lunch (mmmmm) Royal
Monday, May 17, 2010
Machetes, Waterfalls, and Lots of Chacha Love
Hey hey hey
Ok, so it’s been a CRAZZZZZY WEEK (and all those Z’s don’t stand for sleeping). In fact I am very tired. First off, today we went to Gocta, the nearby waterfall, which is apparently the third biggest waterfall in the world. IT WAS SO AWESOME!!! (Side note – I HATE Reggaton. IT’s music, and it’s terrible. Just thought I would add that…as it’s playing over the speakers in the internet café.) Ya pues, so Gocta was awesome. And I’ll have you know that hike was no pushover. Once we embarked for the waterfall it was about two and half hours walking through the most beautiful scenery you’ve ever seen…some real thick green jungly type stuff. I got plenty of pictures but nothing as good as actually seeing it. Dang cool. The waterfall was amazing and we were able to get pretty close, which resulted in us getting slightly wet by the mist, but on the plus side we had ponchos which were pretty much ineffective. Good stuff. So that was cool. The walk back was torture. Another two and a half hours back when the body is pretty much ready to just take a nap. It was fun but it definitely puts you to a physical limit. At least I can say I did it, and without crying (too much). And, I only slipped and fell in the mud four times. Not a bad number compared to the number the three other elders with me had: 0. (Yeah, that would be zero.)
Alright so last week was pretty much the best week we have had here so far. We decided after having about 15 members show up to church the week before that we needed to actually take focus OFF investigators and put it ON the members. I know, weird. I have never physically worked before in my mission like we are working now. We pretty much spend half the day if not a bit more looking for members and teaching them as if they were investigators, leaving them reading assignments and the whole nine yards in an attempt to give much needed help to these members. We are doing a lot of service projects, too – for members and investigators. And…..WE BOUGHT MACHETES! YES!! Everyday here in Chachapoyas I just feel like my mission is more and more complete. I just never know what new thing we are gonna do here. So we bought machetes to help people cut their grass and do all sorts of yard type clean up. So that’s my new favorite hobby – service. Have I done any good in the world today? Oh you can bet your bottom dollar I have. We are having a lot of fun with that and have even more stuff set up for this week. Service is just the best. It looks like all that border line child abuse yard work I had to do when I was younger is paying off. It’s awesome because the Latinos seem to have an idea that Americans have never used their hands to do anything besides eat pizza and play with electronic devices – so they are totally down with seeing us completely own hard physical work. “Look! Those guys are from a different country and are helping that lady clean up the grass and bushes! Wow!” So thanks Dad for teaching me to do yard work. Oh, and good ole Uncle Dan too, of course, who made me and Cody worked until we started whining and dropping wheel barrows full of grass and dirt – and then took us for In N Out and a movie.
Sorry, there is just so much that happened this week. We had an investigator schedule us for one day in the afternoon, and when we showed up she had just happened to have two other missionaries there from another church. That was a tad awkward. She pretty much made a little lunch of hot chocolate and bread, and then left the four of us there to eat together. Not really sure where she was going with that but it sure made for an awkward visit. They gave us a little folleto, or, uh, newspaper thing to read and study about their religion. I read it. They have some interesting ideas. But thanks to that old lady we met her granddaughter – Cecilia who is about 35 years old, has two young kids, and is now one of our best investigators. So I guess it did have a purpose after all.
This past Sunday was easily one of the best Sundays I have been a part of my entire mission. We visited about 10 people in the morning before going over there. I have never had investigators ready an hour early – but it happened with two of them – Cecilia, with her two young children, and Sheyla Mori, who is also about the same age and came with her 13 year old son. Besides them we had Lucero and her 13 year old daughter come as well, also progressing investigators. The talks and classes all went over smoothly and everything was just great. There were about 45 people there in total, a great boost from the previous 15 or so from the prior week, and there were a lot of less actives that showed up as well. So church was pretty awesome. I was extremely happy with how everything went down - and that the missionaries didn’t have to give all the talks and what not. The members did a great job yesterday with teaching and fellow shipping and it was just great. One of our investigators, Sheyla, Luceros other daughter, was sick and couldn’t go, but her mom told her about a dream she had about picking up her cell phone after getting a text message and it said, “Sheyla, I want you to pray, pray, pray, not ‘rezar.” I don’t know what rezar is in English, but it’s pretty much recited praying. So it was kind of interesting to hear about that. She has come a long way, actually. She is kind of proud to be honest, but she is a lot nicer with us now and is doing well. It’s driving me nuts that this family isn’t getting baptized yet, but we’ll see. We have other people that are just doing great. Celcilia really liked church and her young kids LOVED IT. They asked if they could come back every week and I said no. Then I said I was just kidding. They are really cool. So we are doing well here in Chachapoyas and I am just loving life right now.
Oh and I forgot to do this last week. I’d like to send a shout out for all the birthday cards I received. If I remember well...thinking off the top of my head so if I forget anyone, I AM SORRY. But thanks to the fam, of course, the Barlows, the Stewarts, the Flaggs, the Footes, Nalani, the Zafratos (did I spell that right?) and...I hope that’s all of them. If I remember bien that should be it - well, and a host of youth there who signed those cards. And of course, Chad Lewis. Haha. If someone can tell him thanks in Spanish that would be cool, because I think he wrote happy birthday in Chinese. Tell Jordan congrats on a great volleyball season. Too bad Silverado lost that close match to Vegas, but it sounds like they played their hearts out. And Jordan, awesome making all conference. He be da man. Anyway, life is good, and I am just loving being in Peru as a missionary. I completed 22 months yesterday. Wow. I don’t even know what to say about that. It’s crazy talk I tell ya. My testimony grows more each day, I love this church. I love Peru. I love being a missionary, and I love having this gospel in my life and knowing that Jesus Christ is my Savior. I especially love being able to spread that good news to other people. This Church is most definitely true.
Love,
Elder "Crazy Machete Handling Man" Royal
Ok, so it’s been a CRAZZZZZY WEEK (and all those Z’s don’t stand for sleeping). In fact I am very tired. First off, today we went to Gocta, the nearby waterfall, which is apparently the third biggest waterfall in the world. IT WAS SO AWESOME!!! (Side note – I HATE Reggaton. IT’s music, and it’s terrible. Just thought I would add that…as it’s playing over the speakers in the internet café.) Ya pues, so Gocta was awesome. And I’ll have you know that hike was no pushover. Once we embarked for the waterfall it was about two and half hours walking through the most beautiful scenery you’ve ever seen…some real thick green jungly type stuff. I got plenty of pictures but nothing as good as actually seeing it. Dang cool. The waterfall was amazing and we were able to get pretty close, which resulted in us getting slightly wet by the mist, but on the plus side we had ponchos which were pretty much ineffective. Good stuff. So that was cool. The walk back was torture. Another two and a half hours back when the body is pretty much ready to just take a nap. It was fun but it definitely puts you to a physical limit. At least I can say I did it, and without crying (too much). And, I only slipped and fell in the mud four times. Not a bad number compared to the number the three other elders with me had: 0. (Yeah, that would be zero.)
Alright so last week was pretty much the best week we have had here so far. We decided after having about 15 members show up to church the week before that we needed to actually take focus OFF investigators and put it ON the members. I know, weird. I have never physically worked before in my mission like we are working now. We pretty much spend half the day if not a bit more looking for members and teaching them as if they were investigators, leaving them reading assignments and the whole nine yards in an attempt to give much needed help to these members. We are doing a lot of service projects, too – for members and investigators. And…..WE BOUGHT MACHETES! YES!! Everyday here in Chachapoyas I just feel like my mission is more and more complete. I just never know what new thing we are gonna do here. So we bought machetes to help people cut their grass and do all sorts of yard type clean up. So that’s my new favorite hobby – service. Have I done any good in the world today? Oh you can bet your bottom dollar I have. We are having a lot of fun with that and have even more stuff set up for this week. Service is just the best. It looks like all that border line child abuse yard work I had to do when I was younger is paying off. It’s awesome because the Latinos seem to have an idea that Americans have never used their hands to do anything besides eat pizza and play with electronic devices – so they are totally down with seeing us completely own hard physical work. “Look! Those guys are from a different country and are helping that lady clean up the grass and bushes! Wow!” So thanks Dad for teaching me to do yard work. Oh, and good ole Uncle Dan too, of course, who made me and Cody worked until we started whining and dropping wheel barrows full of grass and dirt – and then took us for In N Out and a movie.
Sorry, there is just so much that happened this week. We had an investigator schedule us for one day in the afternoon, and when we showed up she had just happened to have two other missionaries there from another church. That was a tad awkward. She pretty much made a little lunch of hot chocolate and bread, and then left the four of us there to eat together. Not really sure where she was going with that but it sure made for an awkward visit. They gave us a little folleto, or, uh, newspaper thing to read and study about their religion. I read it. They have some interesting ideas. But thanks to that old lady we met her granddaughter – Cecilia who is about 35 years old, has two young kids, and is now one of our best investigators. So I guess it did have a purpose after all.
This past Sunday was easily one of the best Sundays I have been a part of my entire mission. We visited about 10 people in the morning before going over there. I have never had investigators ready an hour early – but it happened with two of them – Cecilia, with her two young children, and Sheyla Mori, who is also about the same age and came with her 13 year old son. Besides them we had Lucero and her 13 year old daughter come as well, also progressing investigators. The talks and classes all went over smoothly and everything was just great. There were about 45 people there in total, a great boost from the previous 15 or so from the prior week, and there were a lot of less actives that showed up as well. So church was pretty awesome. I was extremely happy with how everything went down - and that the missionaries didn’t have to give all the talks and what not. The members did a great job yesterday with teaching and fellow shipping and it was just great. One of our investigators, Sheyla, Luceros other daughter, was sick and couldn’t go, but her mom told her about a dream she had about picking up her cell phone after getting a text message and it said, “Sheyla, I want you to pray, pray, pray, not ‘rezar.” I don’t know what rezar is in English, but it’s pretty much recited praying. So it was kind of interesting to hear about that. She has come a long way, actually. She is kind of proud to be honest, but she is a lot nicer with us now and is doing well. It’s driving me nuts that this family isn’t getting baptized yet, but we’ll see. We have other people that are just doing great. Celcilia really liked church and her young kids LOVED IT. They asked if they could come back every week and I said no. Then I said I was just kidding. They are really cool. So we are doing well here in Chachapoyas and I am just loving life right now.
Oh and I forgot to do this last week. I’d like to send a shout out for all the birthday cards I received. If I remember well...thinking off the top of my head so if I forget anyone, I AM SORRY. But thanks to the fam, of course, the Barlows, the Stewarts, the Flaggs, the Footes, Nalani, the Zafratos (did I spell that right?) and...I hope that’s all of them. If I remember bien that should be it - well, and a host of youth there who signed those cards. And of course, Chad Lewis. Haha. If someone can tell him thanks in Spanish that would be cool, because I think he wrote happy birthday in Chinese. Tell Jordan congrats on a great volleyball season. Too bad Silverado lost that close match to Vegas, but it sounds like they played their hearts out. And Jordan, awesome making all conference. He be da man. Anyway, life is good, and I am just loving being in Peru as a missionary. I completed 22 months yesterday. Wow. I don’t even know what to say about that. It’s crazy talk I tell ya. My testimony grows more each day, I love this church. I love Peru. I love being a missionary, and I love having this gospel in my life and knowing that Jesus Christ is my Savior. I especially love being able to spread that good news to other people. This Church is most definitely true.
Love,
Elder "Crazy Machete Handling Man" Royal
Monday, May 10, 2010
Happy Mother's Day to All (and, of course, Mom)
Hey Hey Hey
Alright, so wonderful to have spoken with you all yesterday!! Life is pretty good here in Chachapoyas. Elder Tietjen is doing just swell, and we are having fun. Besides getting kicked out of the basketball court today by a 6́3" Cuban woman teaching children to play volleyball, it’s been a great Preparation Day. Anyway, so this will probably be shorter for having talked yesterday - but for the sake of having my life typed and saved in computer files, I’ll probably still work in most of it.
So it was a good Mother’s Day. Church was definitely interesting. There were about 20 people in sacrament meeting - including four missionaries (us!) and five investigators. Wow. That was a bit rough. Why such poor attendance, you ask? Somehow word got around that church was cancelled due to Mother’s Day. (Yes, they recognize Mother’s Day here.) I discovered that one of our investigators heard that rumor and did not come to church as a result. Yeah, not too excited about that...but, what can ya do? Sooo, three of us gave talks during sacrament meeting, and for the 10 people that decided to stay after sacrament, my companion and I taught the first hour class, while Elder Russell and Elder Wariner taught the second hour. Oh man. I can’t imagine what would happen if we weren’t here. But, I do love it, I must say. And I also say that while I like giving talks, I love teaching the classes so much more. Just a fun environment. So that was church yesterday. We are considering putting about half as much work into investigators and putting a lot - a lot - a lot more into fellowshipping members. Because...if we baptize and no one comes back...what’s the point? I think there were nearly 50 baptisms last year and how many are active? Hmmm. So, we are really trying to figure out what we can do to strengthen the members. It’s a bit difficult, but really we just need ways to build more confidence and unity among the branch members. We’ll see what we can do. It’s a bit of a struggle, but it’s cool. It makes the work really interesting. Apart from that we do have investigators coming along. We have a family (or most of it at least) that is coming along, and the mother, Lucero, gave the best prayer ever the other night when we taught, asking God to help her family unite and be members of the Church. I can’t figure out why she doesn’t get baptized! But she will. I can feel it. And when she does the rest of the family will follow. She is a great example and is putting away coffee even though it’s been a struggle for her. We have a few others: Maritza, Leidy, Katy, Percy, and our new hair cutting lady Sheyla, who is SO cool, and has two sons that are way cool too. She will be an awesome member if we are able to help get her there. It’s hard to find people that progress, but we are managing to find a few, and actually have quite a few good people to contact this week, so we’ll see. But things are going good.
Oh, animal stories! We got chased by a dog last week, which marks the first time that has happened to me as a missionary. We were trying to find an investigator at her house, but to get to the door you have to really invade their property and that was a bit uncomfortable. So we started shouting a bit and got the dog’s attention. He started growling so I figured if we could get him barking it would get someone’s attention to come outside. Sooo, my comp and I started growling at the dog, who seemed to take it personally. He shot up real fast and chased after us - and we ran away in different directions screaming like little girls. We haven’t gone back there yet. Oh! Even better! I got to play with a monkey on Saturday!! We went to Jaen for interviews with the president and on our way back to get a car for Chachapoyas, we found a guy in the street who had a monkey and we asked if we could play with him and take pictures! It was definitely the highlight of the week...maybe of the mission. Haha. Ok maybe not but it was pretty dang cool. First time I got to play with a monkey. Mom, you know what to get me for my first Christmas back home. :) That monkey was crazy cool. His name was Chavo.
Life is going great here. I finally bought a raincoat today and that was a score - 35 soles! Oh man, that was a good find today. Oh, and since we keep our shoes outside of our apartment to keep it clean, my feet FREEZE during study time and what not - so I went looking for slippers, too. Pretty hard to come by, but I found some today! The only ones that were my size were brown with the face of a cat on them. I didn’t have money at the time so I asked the guy if he could hold on to them for me until I came back. He said sure and then when he saw what it was he started laughing sooo hard. But hey, they are wonderful. And now my feet will be warm. We call them my Peruvian Hello Kitty slippers. Cool stuff. I am pretty excited about them. Ok so that sums up my life right now. Everything is going great. It was great to see President Chipman and talk with him again, I just can’t say enough about how much love and respect I have for him. The mission is going great. No worries, I am sprinting to the finish with awesomeness. We are working good, working hard. The Church is true. I hope we all know that and have the desire to tell someone else.
Elder "Handsome Sweater and Slippers" Royal
Alright, so wonderful to have spoken with you all yesterday!! Life is pretty good here in Chachapoyas. Elder Tietjen is doing just swell, and we are having fun. Besides getting kicked out of the basketball court today by a 6́3" Cuban woman teaching children to play volleyball, it’s been a great Preparation Day. Anyway, so this will probably be shorter for having talked yesterday - but for the sake of having my life typed and saved in computer files, I’ll probably still work in most of it.
So it was a good Mother’s Day. Church was definitely interesting. There were about 20 people in sacrament meeting - including four missionaries (us!) and five investigators. Wow. That was a bit rough. Why such poor attendance, you ask? Somehow word got around that church was cancelled due to Mother’s Day. (Yes, they recognize Mother’s Day here.) I discovered that one of our investigators heard that rumor and did not come to church as a result. Yeah, not too excited about that...but, what can ya do? Sooo, three of us gave talks during sacrament meeting, and for the 10 people that decided to stay after sacrament, my companion and I taught the first hour class, while Elder Russell and Elder Wariner taught the second hour. Oh man. I can’t imagine what would happen if we weren’t here. But, I do love it, I must say. And I also say that while I like giving talks, I love teaching the classes so much more. Just a fun environment. So that was church yesterday. We are considering putting about half as much work into investigators and putting a lot - a lot - a lot more into fellowshipping members. Because...if we baptize and no one comes back...what’s the point? I think there were nearly 50 baptisms last year and how many are active? Hmmm. So, we are really trying to figure out what we can do to strengthen the members. It’s a bit difficult, but really we just need ways to build more confidence and unity among the branch members. We’ll see what we can do. It’s a bit of a struggle, but it’s cool. It makes the work really interesting. Apart from that we do have investigators coming along. We have a family (or most of it at least) that is coming along, and the mother, Lucero, gave the best prayer ever the other night when we taught, asking God to help her family unite and be members of the Church. I can’t figure out why she doesn’t get baptized! But she will. I can feel it. And when she does the rest of the family will follow. She is a great example and is putting away coffee even though it’s been a struggle for her. We have a few others: Maritza, Leidy, Katy, Percy, and our new hair cutting lady Sheyla, who is SO cool, and has two sons that are way cool too. She will be an awesome member if we are able to help get her there. It’s hard to find people that progress, but we are managing to find a few, and actually have quite a few good people to contact this week, so we’ll see. But things are going good.
Oh, animal stories! We got chased by a dog last week, which marks the first time that has happened to me as a missionary. We were trying to find an investigator at her house, but to get to the door you have to really invade their property and that was a bit uncomfortable. So we started shouting a bit and got the dog’s attention. He started growling so I figured if we could get him barking it would get someone’s attention to come outside. Sooo, my comp and I started growling at the dog, who seemed to take it personally. He shot up real fast and chased after us - and we ran away in different directions screaming like little girls. We haven’t gone back there yet. Oh! Even better! I got to play with a monkey on Saturday!! We went to Jaen for interviews with the president and on our way back to get a car for Chachapoyas, we found a guy in the street who had a monkey and we asked if we could play with him and take pictures! It was definitely the highlight of the week...maybe of the mission. Haha. Ok maybe not but it was pretty dang cool. First time I got to play with a monkey. Mom, you know what to get me for my first Christmas back home. :) That monkey was crazy cool. His name was Chavo.
Life is going great here. I finally bought a raincoat today and that was a score - 35 soles! Oh man, that was a good find today. Oh, and since we keep our shoes outside of our apartment to keep it clean, my feet FREEZE during study time and what not - so I went looking for slippers, too. Pretty hard to come by, but I found some today! The only ones that were my size were brown with the face of a cat on them. I didn’t have money at the time so I asked the guy if he could hold on to them for me until I came back. He said sure and then when he saw what it was he started laughing sooo hard. But hey, they are wonderful. And now my feet will be warm. We call them my Peruvian Hello Kitty slippers. Cool stuff. I am pretty excited about them. Ok so that sums up my life right now. Everything is going great. It was great to see President Chipman and talk with him again, I just can’t say enough about how much love and respect I have for him. The mission is going great. No worries, I am sprinting to the finish with awesomeness. We are working good, working hard. The Church is true. I hope we all know that and have the desire to tell someone else.
Elder "Handsome Sweater and Slippers" Royal
Monday, May 3, 2010
Rain, Basketball, and Warm Showers!
Hey hey hey!
I AM LEGAL IN EVERY POSSIBLE FORM! – I think. Take that world! So I am pretty excited about turning 21 today. Pretty cool to celebrate my birthday on Preparation Day. I am so down with that. The morning was pretty chill. We were gonna go to Gocta, this big waterfall not to far from here, but we decided against it - just not taking chances with the weather. President Chipman said the decision to go was up to me, but reminded me that I am responsible for the welfare of all four of us here . . . . soooo, yeah. Gotta be careful. But we judged well because in the afternoon it started raining and hasn’t stopped, so it could have been a rough hike. We have more Prep Days, so we’ll we`ll make it there eventually.
We played basketball this morning, which was AWESOME. It was by far the BEST basketball I have played my whole mission, seeing as we are four Americans here (and everyone knows how to play). Not to dissss on anyone, but basketball with the local Latinos is pretty much like it is for them to have Americans (at least the majority of us) step onto the soccer field – we just get in the way. So to be playing basketball with these guys is awesome. And wow, it is sooooo hard at this altitude. Someone can research it but I think its about 7,600 feet above sea level, and Chiclayo is pretty much right at sea level. So man, my lungs are really getting worked in this place – even just walking through the week because this place is nothing but hills. But it’s absolutely, totally indescribably AwEsOmE! So I think my lungs will be twice as big here by July. We’ll see. Maybe I’ll be in excellent shape after all by the time I finish. We had an awesome lunch today, too, and I almost got a free haircut today when I told the cutter it was my birthday. I still had to pay but they gave me a little tester bag of cologne for my birthday – score! It’s only enough to use once or twice, but hey, my charming 21 year old face totally got the job done.
Chachapoyas is amazing. It reminds me a lot of Pine Valley, Utah, at Grandma and Grandpa Royal’s cabin – just even more green and, well, jungly. And it rains a lot. I think it has rained everyday so far – with the exception of one day maybe. And I still don’t have a rain jacket. I might get one soon. But, I am rocking the sweater vest. I love that thing. Elder Tietjen (pronounced “Tee Jen,” it’s German, I guess) is awesome. He is doing great with Spanish and teaching for someone having had so little time in the mission – and this past week I pretty much let him run the show entirely. It’s really nice having someone with a lot of confidence who knows what they are doing. I still help him, obviously, with some things, but he is way cool, and we are having a lot of fun together. It’s not very likely that we will be together for two changes, but that would be pretty interesting. Doubtful, though. I think I might build a summer home here in Chacha, when I am super rich and can fly here in my own personal jet. That’s what it’s all about. This is, without a doubt, without the slightest question, THE most beautiful place that I have ever set foot in. It is so clean and organized, I can’t even describe how the sky looks - so pure and clear, it’s amazing really (well, that is, when there aren’t rain clouds and you can actually see the sky, it’s its pretty impressive).
We don’t have a ton of great investigators right now, but there are some. Besides being a beautiful place, the missionary work is a bit more difficult. But that’s not slowing us down at all. We are working hard, and we found a lot of people last week that have potential to progress. We have a family that we are teaching that will most likely get baptized this change, I believe. The mother and her three kids who live with her at home are pretty interested, and have been coming to church for the past few weeks. Her daughter came to church with her mother yesterday and that was pretty cool since she started out really cold with us at the beginning of the week when we first met her. We had five come to church yesterday. The branch revolves around the branch president and the four missionaries. It’s not very strong – and President Chipman told me that our number one priority right now is to strengthen the branch. There were between 30-40 at church. We teach the second hour every week, usually at least one of us gives a talk in sacrament meeting, and we don’t always have to teach priesthood, but we have to be ready just in case. Haha. But it’s all awesome! I love it so far, anyway. This place is just so cool. Elder Tietjen and I are definitely going to make the best of it while we are together. Things are great, we are safe - cold and wet sometimes, but safe. Our apartment is the best I have had. We can shower barefoot!! And it’s WARM WATER! Thank goodness. If it wasn’t, I probably wouldn’t shower. The tap water is sooo cold. Don’t ever take warm showers for granted. I really hope you guys can come to Chachapoyas. Seriously, this place is gorgeous!!!!!!!!!
Anyway, family and friends, we are doing great out here, but challenges surely await us as we try to strengthen the branch. Please pray for us that we will be able to do something. Oh, and I got to participate yesterday in a baby blessing for the first time, that was cool too. Life is good, hopefully I didn’t forget anything. My birthday has been great. Thanks to all those that emailed me and have written me to congratulate me making the adult age. What an accomplishment! The Church is so very, very true. Live it, love it, share it!
Elder “Legal But Under Control” Royal
I AM LEGAL IN EVERY POSSIBLE FORM! – I think. Take that world! So I am pretty excited about turning 21 today. Pretty cool to celebrate my birthday on Preparation Day. I am so down with that. The morning was pretty chill. We were gonna go to Gocta, this big waterfall not to far from here, but we decided against it - just not taking chances with the weather. President Chipman said the decision to go was up to me, but reminded me that I am responsible for the welfare of all four of us here . . . . soooo, yeah. Gotta be careful. But we judged well because in the afternoon it started raining and hasn’t stopped, so it could have been a rough hike. We have more Prep Days, so we’ll we`ll make it there eventually.
We played basketball this morning, which was AWESOME. It was by far the BEST basketball I have played my whole mission, seeing as we are four Americans here (and everyone knows how to play). Not to dissss on anyone, but basketball with the local Latinos is pretty much like it is for them to have Americans (at least the majority of us) step onto the soccer field – we just get in the way. So to be playing basketball with these guys is awesome. And wow, it is sooooo hard at this altitude. Someone can research it but I think its about 7,600 feet above sea level, and Chiclayo is pretty much right at sea level. So man, my lungs are really getting worked in this place – even just walking through the week because this place is nothing but hills. But it’s absolutely, totally indescribably AwEsOmE! So I think my lungs will be twice as big here by July. We’ll see. Maybe I’ll be in excellent shape after all by the time I finish. We had an awesome lunch today, too, and I almost got a free haircut today when I told the cutter it was my birthday. I still had to pay but they gave me a little tester bag of cologne for my birthday – score! It’s only enough to use once or twice, but hey, my charming 21 year old face totally got the job done.
Chachapoyas is amazing. It reminds me a lot of Pine Valley, Utah, at Grandma and Grandpa Royal’s cabin – just even more green and, well, jungly. And it rains a lot. I think it has rained everyday so far – with the exception of one day maybe. And I still don’t have a rain jacket. I might get one soon. But, I am rocking the sweater vest. I love that thing. Elder Tietjen (pronounced “Tee Jen,” it’s German, I guess) is awesome. He is doing great with Spanish and teaching for someone having had so little time in the mission – and this past week I pretty much let him run the show entirely. It’s really nice having someone with a lot of confidence who knows what they are doing. I still help him, obviously, with some things, but he is way cool, and we are having a lot of fun together. It’s not very likely that we will be together for two changes, but that would be pretty interesting. Doubtful, though. I think I might build a summer home here in Chacha, when I am super rich and can fly here in my own personal jet. That’s what it’s all about. This is, without a doubt, without the slightest question, THE most beautiful place that I have ever set foot in. It is so clean and organized, I can’t even describe how the sky looks - so pure and clear, it’s amazing really (well, that is, when there aren’t rain clouds and you can actually see the sky, it’s its pretty impressive).
We don’t have a ton of great investigators right now, but there are some. Besides being a beautiful place, the missionary work is a bit more difficult. But that’s not slowing us down at all. We are working hard, and we found a lot of people last week that have potential to progress. We have a family that we are teaching that will most likely get baptized this change, I believe. The mother and her three kids who live with her at home are pretty interested, and have been coming to church for the past few weeks. Her daughter came to church with her mother yesterday and that was pretty cool since she started out really cold with us at the beginning of the week when we first met her. We had five come to church yesterday. The branch revolves around the branch president and the four missionaries. It’s not very strong – and President Chipman told me that our number one priority right now is to strengthen the branch. There were between 30-40 at church. We teach the second hour every week, usually at least one of us gives a talk in sacrament meeting, and we don’t always have to teach priesthood, but we have to be ready just in case. Haha. But it’s all awesome! I love it so far, anyway. This place is just so cool. Elder Tietjen and I are definitely going to make the best of it while we are together. Things are great, we are safe - cold and wet sometimes, but safe. Our apartment is the best I have had. We can shower barefoot!! And it’s WARM WATER! Thank goodness. If it wasn’t, I probably wouldn’t shower. The tap water is sooo cold. Don’t ever take warm showers for granted. I really hope you guys can come to Chachapoyas. Seriously, this place is gorgeous!!!!!!!!!
Anyway, family and friends, we are doing great out here, but challenges surely await us as we try to strengthen the branch. Please pray for us that we will be able to do something. Oh, and I got to participate yesterday in a baby blessing for the first time, that was cool too. Life is good, hopefully I didn’t forget anything. My birthday has been great. Thanks to all those that emailed me and have written me to congratulate me making the adult age. What an accomplishment! The Church is so very, very true. Live it, love it, share it!
Elder “Legal But Under Control” Royal
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