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

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

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

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

Heaven Must Be In Chachapoyas

Hey Hey Hey

Ok, sorry, so sorry. I’m sure to have worried you by not writing yesterday. But it’s all good, here we go. So as I mentioned yesterday, there is some pretty big news going on in La Victoria. To begin with, I am no longer in La Victoria. I’m in HEAVEN! But I’ll get to that here in a minute. First, we finished INCREDIBLY for the end of the cambio, completing 10 baptisms during the last week. That was great, and we finished the month of April with 18 for the entire zone. It turned out pretty well. I am very happy with that but more than anything for the incredible work of the missionaries. We really did have a good zone there. Well, at least for the month of April. As you may remember we had a few problems here and there at the beginning of the change, but we got that all figured out and really just had an all star squad for the last four weeks of the cambio, and it turned out great.

So we had a great time in La Victoria. Elder Vasquez and I did well together. It was an interesting time with him. I learned a lot about him, and a lot from him, and we got along great even though we are pretty different. We had an activity with the stake and it turned out really cool. We did a Night of Parabols, in which each barrio was to act out a parable. Well, only four of the seven wards showed up, so they asked us to put on a couple of little skits to fill in some time. Yeah, our skits were by far the best. Haha. Well they were funny and stupid, and that’s what’s important. We did the Good Samaritan, but pretty much took out all of the doctrine ... I was the guy walking alone until I got jumped by robbers, but ending up beating THEM up, until I got jumped from behind from a secret robber. It was dumb, but funny, and we all enjoyed it. We also created a parabol of two missionaries that get locked out of their room for the night and sleep on park benches, and get robbed - in a nut shell. But it was cool. Anyway, even though a few wards didn’t show up, it still turned out really cool.

Hey, I finally figured out why I never took out the Plan of Salvation puzzle you got me before now - because after using it for just two weeks, I already lost the Terrestrial Kingdom. (Dang it.) The weather started cooling down a lot in Chiclayo, and that was really awesome. The shower was even colder which, well, I didn’t like so much. But, actually now it’s even colder where I am . . . in Heaven!! Oh and by the way, I received the two packages that you sent me for by birthday. Thanks! I didn’t eat much of it yet. I am gong to save most of it for this Monday, and it’s gonna be cool. I am looking forward to it.

Ok, now I’ll tell you about HEAVEN. Elder Machacuay called me Saturday morning and said that I would be going to Chachapoyas!! That is pretty much the promised land of our mission and there are only four missionaries here at a time - so it’s quite the honor. My new companion is Elder Tietjen. His name sounds like he is probably some crazy jungle man or maybe Asian - but he’s from Kansas City. He is pretty new in the mission, and I am his second companion. He is way cool. He has a positive attitude about everything and whatever he talks about is, "The Best." He is cool and his Spanish is pretty good too for not having much time in the mission. It should be a pretty cool change with him. So I am the district leader here in Chachapoyas, which is far away from the rest of the mission. It’s pretty far from everything - four hours or so to the closest city, Jaen, about 10 hours to Chiclayo, and about the same time, maybe a bit more to Piura. So yeah, we are very far from everyone else. It is kinda sad in the sense that there are a lot of people, or missionaries at least, that I might not see again. I will definitely be here until the end of my mission, two cambios. Chachapoyas is sooooo beautiful. My room is incredible. It’s on top of a hill and upon walking out the door is just the million dollar view that anybody would die for. I guarantee a house like this in the states would probably cost a bundle, but we pay about $60 a month. Uh huh. It is very different in the sense that there are a lot of hills, whereas the rest of the mission is fairly flat, the majority at least. I ate a banana for lunch today and it was probably the most delicious piece of fruit that I have ever peeled. In one word, Chacha is AWESOME. We are gonna see how the work is here. That will probably be the difficult part. President called me Sunday night and said that I had a special assignment in coming here to help strengthen the unit, leaders, and members. It is pretty small, a branch actually. I am really looking forward to it. It should be awesome. Of the four missionaries, we are all Americans - which is another interesting fun fact. All of them have seven months or less in the field, so I am pretty much the big bad veteran - which actually scares me. I guess that means I should have all the answers and always know what to do...but . . . . Well, we’ll see. Oh, and since it’s colder here, I bought a hoody yesterday!! So EXCITED about that! Oh and I bought a handsome little proselyting vest, too. I am super ready for some cold weather. And since I have been here it has already rained. And guess what? After not needing my poncho for 21 months, I gave it to a missionary from La Victoria that was leaving for his mission in Bolivia, and I figured he was probably going to need it more than me. Oh well. That’s what I get for being charitable. Haha. JK! Charity is the best. I’ll just buy myself another. I’m sure I can find one cheap here.

Well, that’s about it. La Victoria was a good time. I would have liked to have seen more success in my ward there, but it was good. They have three baptisms planned for this month. So hopefully that all goes through. The ward and my pension and all those good people were sad to see me go because they wanted to throw me a birthday party, including kidnaping me from my room early in the morning without me knowing beforehand. Good thing I left. That would have literally scared me to death probably thinking I was getting kidnaped by La Victoria gang bangers.

Okay, I guess I should close this long, long letter. Pretty exciting news, I must say, and I am looking forward to my three months here in Chachapoyas. Should be a lot of fun. The elders here are cool and it should be a fantastic finish! Gracias por todo. Thanks for praying for us in La Victoria. I know it helped us. The Church is true! Can someone ask Elder Foote if he knows an Elder Delgado in his mission? It’s another connection from La Victoria and cousin of the Elder Delgado in Cody’s mission. Small world. Bye!!

Elder “No One Accepted Last Week’s Challenge” Royal

Water Balloons in Chiclayo are Way Cool

Hey Hey Hey

Today was pretty much the best Prep Day we have had in a while. We got the whole zone together and played water balloon volleyball which turned out SWEET, and then played water balloon ultimate frisbee (compliments of Elder Winn in Guatemala). That was pretty awesome as well and everyone left the church a bit more satisfied after doing something different. So that was pretty sweet.

We had a zone counsel with President Chipman last week and it was weird to be one of the older zone leaders. It’s just amazing to see how fast time has gone. I am in my fourth change as a ZL now and that’s just weird to think about. Does anyone else believe that? I don’t. It is hard to believe I will home in three months. Very scary. Looking back on everything that I have been through since July of 2008, yeah it is just . . . amazing. I understand so much better now how the missionary work functions, and I can’t wait to be a member missionary and help the missionaries at home. We are starting our final week of this cambio. So, my mind is kind of wondering how I will be spending my final few months. With only two changes left and never having trained yet, I think that is probably the best bet. Hello Elder Kevin Foutz, Hijo Mio! Elder Foutz (of Las Vegas fame) should be arriving in the mission next week. If I train him that will be slap doggity dog cool. So we’ll wait and see. Who knows, maybe President will keep me here in La Victoria until July. Fingers crossed on the first choice.

Our zone did not finish nearly as good as last week, which was kind of a bubble burster. But with the last week of the change ahead of us, I’m sure that everyone will put forth a bit more effort to complete our goals. We have one baptism (in my area) ready and planned, for May 1st, which is after the change. So, if I leave I won’t be here for it, but that’s not super important. We have been a bit frustrated of late with the lack of progress in some we are teaching. This week we are going to work differently and just focus on finding a ton of new people for the future, because working with the same people that progress only to a certain point feels unproductive. So, hopefully we can find some new people to teach in this week and prepare more for the future weeks. Sandra and Brenda are doing pretty well, but two of our main investigator that are halting in their progression.

Here’s an interesting personal story. My companion and I were saying prayers one night this week when someone knocked on our door, which is always open. At first I thought it was the first counselor in our ward, who rents a room next door to us and always comes over during prayers or study time (yes, it is a tad annoying at times). Whoever it was knocked a couple times and when we finished our prayers, I was about to say something along the lines of: “Why are you interrupting our prayer you dummy?" As I was about to say something likely regretful, I turned and saw that it was the owner of the house who had brought up our clothes for us. Moral of the story: think before you speak. Now, let me put a spiritual twist on what could have been a really embarrassing and even offensive experience. Sometimes the Savior comes into our lives, or knocks at the door, and instead of kindly seeing what He has to say, we treat Him as a stranger, and can even be offensive, because we fail to carefully consider our thoughts and actions. So, we have to learn not to offend Christ in the way that we treat others. I mess that up a lot, but if we were to treat all people, even strangers, as we would if Christ came to our door, imagine how this world would be!!

I have been working on becoming a better person, increasing my love for others. I suppose that is something I’ll have to work on for many years to come. I am so grateful to have been blessed with the opportunity to serve a mission and being the walk to develop Christlike attributes. Well, sorry this letter has probably been rather boring. I don’t have much to say this week. One last week of this cambio and we are gonna see what we can do. I ask that you all keep praying for us, and I’ll keep praying for you. You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours. Haha. Another joke. Full of ‘em today. Everyone have a good week! And Mom, Dad, Happy Anniversary - 27 years if I am not mistaken. And give my best to Grandpa Kelly - Happy Birthday Grandpa. The Church is true! Live it well. Serve well.

Elder “Please Send Mail!!” Royal

The Plan of Salvation is Awesome!

Did everybody pray for us this week? Because, WOW, the zone had a drastic improvement. It was just incredible. I have to give a lot of credit to all of the missionaries in our zone who are working like crazy. We ended last week with seven baptisms, which is the best we have had in a long, long time. Actually, that’s probably the best week we have had in my time in La Victoria. Speaking even more honestly, probably the best week I have had as all my time as a zone leader. We are working hard, and are expecting more results before the end of the month.

We had some ups and downs with our own investigators in our area, but things are improving as a whole. We dropped Yesenia this week. We taught her twice, she had a baptismal date, and then her mother threatened to disown her (not uncommon here when parents do not approve to really put the hammer down. So, even though she is over 18 years old, Yesenia is respecting her mother’s wishes (or threats, as the case may be). It is sad that it happened so quickly. She was doing so well. Maybe if she had more time listening to us Yesenia might have been able to gain a stronger testimony and explain to her mother why she wanted to be baptized - but we didn’t get far enough along, I guess. Hopefully Yesenia will reconsider one day in the future. The Sarate family is struggling as well. Oh, and I found out this week it’s “Zarate,” with a “Z.” That little bit of knowledge came to me after I wrote their name in a Book of Mormon incorrectly and the mother was like, "hey...its.." Ugh. Well, lesson learned. But since I use a pen, the “S” remained an “S”. Maybe that’s why they didn’t come to church yesterday. Dang (hopefully no Symonds Ryder issue there). We are still having a hard time helping them to keep commitments. If things don’t improve with them soon, will we have to drop them, sadly, because we have been teaching them for about a month now with little progress. I hope that we won’t have to do that, though, because they are a really cool family.

We are working with members much better as of late, and things are going good for us because of that. I finally decided to use one of Elder TJ Gibsons’ ideas of using Noah’s Arc to have members help us. Maybe no one else knows what I am referring to....but Elder Gibson is a genius and wére gonna see if it works here. On the plus side of investigators, Sandra is doing well and even bore her testimony in church yesterday! That was a surprise. We weren’t able to find her after church in the afternoon, but from another source, apparently she told another member that she wants to be baptized this week. So we will see. Brenda is another one that is coming along really well. I’ll tell you what, if she gets baptized and stays active it will be one of the greatest stories of my mission. Here it goes. We talked to a 12 year old deacon who was in the street to remind him about General Conference last week. The boy happened to be with his friend. We talked to his friend, a 14 year old who looked like he had no interest whatsoever in talking to us - but we asked him where he lived and said we would pass by the next day. We went and met his family. Brenda, his sister, walked by a couple times during the lesson and sat down almost at the end but outside of circle area where we were seated, just kind of listening. At the end she kind of popped up and said: "I think I found the true church." The next lesson we had with her she told us about how she had been searching for answers to many questions about the purpose of life that her faith/church could not address. She said a prayer one night asking to have God send her someone to help her gain an understanding - and the very next day we came to the door. HOORAY! So she is cool and coming along great. She went to church yesterday and for the General Conference. We have another one, Celeste, who is the younger sister of another member, who also has a baptismal date for the end of the month. So, we may end up with three baptisms before the month ends. That is very exciting.

Oh, remember the Plan of Salvation puzzle that we bought just before I started the mission? Yeah I took that out of the plastic this week for the first time. Hahaha. And it’s a huge hit. I probably should have taken it out a long time ago because people love it and it makes teaching that lesson really cool. People are all about putting that puzzle together. And it’s actually difficult if you don’t know how the Plan of Salvation goes, even though it’s only nine pieces. But it’s really cool.

Last story for this week, and it’s a sad one. We were introduced to a couple of investigators this week by a member. One of them is a 30 year old woman, sick, lying in bed, and the other also a woman, her sister in law, that was there to take care of her. We found out that the sick woman, Patricia Del Pilar Fiestas Rivera, had contracted (is that the right word?) AIDS. Apparently, her husband also as the disease but it hasn’t affected him yet. He contracted it from her, and when he found out he deserted her and left with their three very young children. It is a very sad situation, but we had a very nice visit with them. Her sister in law, Rene, was really great, as well. We taught about Christ and the Atonement, how His sacrifice can bring us strength and comfort in our diseases and sicknesses as well. It was a really cool lesson. We sang hymns with them (which I don’t think I have ever done that before in a normal lesson) and were able to keep things light and even laugh. At the end, we gave Patricia a blessing and that was kind of hard because I desperately wanted to follow the spirit as I gave that blessing. Obviously, she wasn’t able to come to church, being in so much pain, but we set up an appointment to visit them again Sunday in the afternoon. The member that presented us, Juana, told us Sunday in the morning that Patricia passed away Saturday in the afternoon. That was shocking, and left me feeling so sad. Even if she was going to die, I thought it might have happened a bit later. We went to her house anyway, where they had a little funeral viewing, I guess you could say, where people were visiting and paying their respects. It was sad to see, and we talked with Rene for a minute, but didn’t have a chance to sit down with her or anything because there were a lot of people. But, it is comforting to know is that she no longer has to deal with the pain, and I am all but sure that she will accept the Gospel in the spirit world. I also think Rene will be receptive to hear more about the gospel along with her family. She was very happy to see us yesterday and presented us to everyone that was there. That was kind of weird because I felt like everyone was waiting for us to do some kind of special blessing or something. But, I didn’t do anything because I don’t really know how funerals go down here. So, that was quite the experience this week. We taught the Plan of Salvation past week more than any other week in my entire mission. Perhaps it is because I finally put the puzzle to use. But I can definitely say that I have full trust and faith in the Plan of Salvation. But still, I would hate to have something like that happen to someone even closer to me. Death is difficult enough with knowledge of the Lord’s Plan of Salvation. I do not know how I would possibly handle it without that knowledge. It is strange that we experienced death during a week in which we were so immersed in teaching that glorious doctrine. I am so grateful to have that sweet knowledge, and love seeing the light come on in the eyes of another when they hear of the plan for the first time. Talk about hope. Wow. The truth is wonderful - and brings us all hope, which leads to faith and action.

The Church is true, and I am thankful to be here still as a missionary. I am trying very hard to stay focused with the little time I have left. Thank you for your prayers and support.

Elder “Staple Gun” Royal
(I am in the office as I am typing right now; hence, the “stapler” and “staple gun.”)