Experiencing Conference Talks First Hand!!!

How is everything. I´m missing you a lot but I finally feel like I´m getting lost in the work. Really though... for a long time everything was so stressful and busy and new that I went through withdrawls pretty much more or less. I can´t explain it now but I´m having the best time of my life.

The people are amazing. Yesterday was one of the best days ever. We baptized Hermana Angelica. She was the last in her family to be baptized. She´s my age and she´s great. It was the first chance I had to help someone from the very beginning to hear our message all the way through, make commitments, and be baptized. It was my second baptism here, and we have more dates too. That´s exciting. I didn´t do the baptism prayer but I was able to bear my testimony and it felt great. We did the baptism and confirmation yesterday during conference because of the saturday sessions. President Perez gave us all permission to watch all the sessions, cool beans.

I play the piano in Sacrament, and I direct a lot because nobody knows music here. I´m teaching my pension, Hermana Silvia, to play piano, so we´ve been doing a little theory during meals and stuff. Hermana Silvia´s the best ever. She´s very involved in the ward so I love her for that.

Oh…about conference. That was sweet. In the Sunday afternoon session that Area Seventy (Elder Eduardo Gavarret) that talked spoke about my exact area! Puente Piedra. I just talked with the Stake President he talked about just yesterday. Also the man that spoke right after him was in our area two weeks before, and the closing prayer was given by President Nash who just came and talked with us because he´s over our mission. He told me that he came to Bend when he was an Area Authority there several years ago. (And that answers the question that I posed in the last post.)

Anyway, I´m talking a lot about me. The people here are so chill. Most of the time they just stare at me after I go off in Spanish because of how gringo I am. They have a good sense of humor though. Some are humble… others aren´t. People are basically the same everywhere… except for the crazy people we saw last night. We were just leaving our apartment and this chic was beating up her boyfriend and he just took it…crazy….I probably shouldn´t have told you that but it was pretty bad. (more on this below). They´re normal for the most part. I love you all. Let me know what´s going on. I´m glad eric and briana went to Prom. Hopefully they had a fun time.

Nothing Elder Layton has brought up has really concerned us. But his first companion, Elder Griffin, who is also serving in the Lima Peru North Mission, ( he has a blog found at http://taylorlimaperu.blogspot.com/) recently had an interesting post . (This is a picture of Elder Griffin at the right.)

I actually had a gun experience this week. DONT FREAK OUT I AM STILL ALIVE...but it scared the .... out of me. All 4 of us were on the bus, I was in the back and this guy sat next to me a normal looking guy. I started talking to him about the church, when he started saying stuff that I didn’t understand. I said NO entiende -I don’t understand. He pulled out a hand gun out of his jacket secretly and said entiende esto- understand this...I said ya. He put his finger over his mouth not to say anything...I thought I was going to get robbed and shot. Once more he asked me if I understood what it was but this time he did the action of death the finger and the neck thing....I honestly thought I was dead. He asked who I was with and I said the two other gringos and my companion. He said yo su amigo-I am your friend. I didn’t understand because one second he had a gun pointed at me and the next he is saying he is my friend he pulled out a badge (secret police) and smiled..

I still don’t know if he was an actual police man or what but I know that the lord protects us every single day and that every single day is a blessing because I did not know if I had another day. I pray for protection every single prayer and I am alive. That was a good testimony builder. AGAIN I AM ALIVE DONT FREAK.

So, Peru looks like it will hold a few challenges along the way. But he's doing the work of the Lord and we are not really very worried.