AT LEAST HE LEFT THE MONKEY WITH THE PENSION!!!

HEYYYYY!!!!! Merry Christmas!!!

So before I forget dad, I live on the street Saenz Pena and my wards name is Saenz Pena tambien (also). I´ll be calling you on the 24th to set up a time to talk on the 25th. I can only talk for 3 minutes on the 24th.

(Saenz Pena Street, Pucallpa, Peru)

Soooo, before I tell about my week I just have to say THANK YOU!!!! I love my family. On the 19th, President came with all our letters and packages. All I know is that I definitely received the most love in my zone.... which isn't something I was proud of. (Sean has a few overzealous uncles and aunts - sorry guys, you know it's true.) Actually it just made me feel bad, but I split everything with my compi. He was excited about that. Oh yeah.... so mom, you'll probably be mad but I opened the plan of salvation thing. (A very cool missionary gift from a good family friend, John Lewandowski) I left the others don't worry I couldn't help it. It's not the same. I should have more patience yeah? Haha.

We don't really have anything special to do on Christmas other than share the gospel, but we do have permission to be out until 10. I loved the packages from my family and my extended family those were the BEST!!! Thanks you guys. Hahaha, in particular the story of Brea eating those hotdogs with her sharp teeth made me laugh. Me gusta.

Also, just to let you know I bought a monkey (try to picture my expression right now - just try). It lives at my pension's house so Elder Hyde has fun with it too. Don´t worry you'd probably freak if you knew how little I bought it for. Almost nothing. We had an extra hour on pday! Don't worry it's not being disobedient either. (Which I interpret to mean that he checked in the "White Bible", "Preach My Gospel", AND the scriptures and he couldn't find any clear directions against a missionary purchasing a pet monkey if said monkey doesn't cost too much and lives with the pension. Curtis, our 10 year old, upon hearing of the missionary monkey, said, "A pet monkey??? That's AWESOME!! I wish he could send it home!! Dad, can I have a pet monkey?) It hangs out with us at breakfast and dinner and that´s all we see of it but whatever. I named it Andy of course.

We didn't have a baptism this week...... I'm really bummed about that. Really we had an okay week. (Of course he had an okay week even without baptisms - he has a pet monkey.) We got the members to have a fast for the missionary work on Saturday and we had 4 investigators in the Church. So many are waiting for a wedding and want to be baptized but there are barely ever weddings and the government here makes it almost impossible for the people if they don't have the right papers, and money.

I've really found though that working with the less active and recent converts is key. Really. As soon as we started doing that we had new investigators open up. Last night we gave a blessing to a man se llama Agosto. Todo su familia are members. Hopefully his health gets better so we can teach him.. (I think it's great to see him write when he's in a hurry - how he gets his English and Spanish all mixed up together. He said they gave a blessing to a man named Agosto. All of his family are members.)

Since I've been reading in the Book of Mormon in Spanish I've learned a lot since I have to read a lot slower and take my time to translate words I don't know.

Basically the mission is all about making a plan and trusting the Lord. Seriously sometimes I think our lesson went so well, and for sure our investigators will come to Church. But then they don't and I wonder why? Really there are two options. Either they rejected the gospel of Jesus Christ, or I failed. That's why it's so important to follow the Lord. We have to do EVERYTHING we can. Then we pray and hope for the best. I have so much to learn....

Well, today we brought all our mattresses to the Church. We're going to fight on them, and then I think we're watching a movie. President gives us permission to watch one movie as a Zone once every change that is approved by the offices. I think we´re going to watch Narnia 2!!!! YEAH!

Christmas in Pucallpa is about the same. Everyone has little Christmas trees. The houses don't really have lights but everyone's in the same spirit so that's cool. We really just have a normal day on Christmas, but that's good for me. I love it here.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!! WE LOVE YOU ALL!!!