Aaron

Hey everyone!  It´s good to write you all once again!  Everything is well here in Sicuani!

This past week was a busy week... We have been in Cusco for about 3 days of the past week so there wasn´t a lot of time to actually work in the sector.  First off, we went to Cusco to have a meeting with President (all the leaders of the mission) and it was cool.  There were a few minor changes to the mission then just a few reminders of what we need to be doing as missionaries.  President also talked about how we can do things our way and think that it´s easier, or we can do it the way that our leaders have told us and it will work out a lot better in the end.  We did an activity before they talked about this and it was a test.  They gave us two rules to the test and one of them was that we had 7 minutes to finish (21 ´´questions´´) and the other was that we had to read all of the questions before starting.  Luckily, I have had this type of test before.  The ´´questions´´ weren´t really questions but things we had to do like write our name on the bord or take off our shoe or suit coat or something like that but the last one (#21) said that if we were obedient and read all of them before starting, all we had to do was write our name on the paper and put it face down.  So that´s all I had to do while I watched others running around haha!

Also this past week we were able to have a baptism!  It was cool!  She was really excited to be able to be baptized.

So this past week we have also been teaching a lot about repentance.  We decided that we need to teach better the repentance and baptize converts.  So every lesson we go to now, we are teaching about repentance and it´s a lot different!  People seem more willing to keep their commitments!  It was way cool.

I love you all and hope you all have a great week to come!  Thanks for all your support and love!

Hey everyone!  I hope you are all well wherever in the world you may be.  This past week there really wasn´t much due to traveling.  I left Juliaca Tuesday morning and traveled to Cusco for a training.  We arrived Tuesday at 4 and we had the whole rest of the day to basically roam.  We went to eat and visit a few members.  The next day we didn´t have anything to do in the morning so we went roaming once again!  We had the training at 3 and it went until about 6ish.  It was too late to travel so I stayed in Cusco one night more!  Thursday morning, I finally got out to Sicuani!

Now in Sicuani, I have seen a lot of people and some have asked if I have finished already haha!  But it´s cool to see a lot of these people again.

Yesterday an investigator that we are teaching had her baptismal interview so she will be getting baptized this coming Saturday.  Also this past Saturday, one of the investigators I used to teach got baptized!  My companion sent me some pictures which is cool.

Everything is good here in Sicuani!  I´m really excited to be here and work!  Thanks for all the support and love!  I love you all!

Hey everyone!  I hope you are all doing well wherever you all may be!  This past week was awesome!  There was a ton of work to do and there is still a ton of work to be done here in Julicaca.

So this past week we put a baptismal date on a girl that we are teaching for this Saturday and she is going to be baptized this Saturday!  She also told us that it´s something that she has been wanting to do so it´s pretty cool that she has decided to take this step.

Yesterday at church we had a lot of progress!!  There was more attendance in the ward and a lot of people brought investigators to church!  I don´t know what impelled them to do that but it was awesome!  Now there is a full week here in Universidad!

Well, apart from all that, today are changes and it looks like I´m going back to Sicuani!  Deja vu!  I don´t know how that happend but it will be cool!  I´m really glad I was able to work here in Juliaca.  I love the people here.  A lot of the members are awesome here and I am happy to have been able to work here!

Well, these next months will be interesting but awesome!  I hope you all have a great week!  I love you all!

Hey everyone!  I hope you are all doing alright!  This past week was pretty sweet.  It was super crazy as well but all good!  This past week the zone leaders went to Cusco for concilio (I think that means council) so I promised them that I would work 100% this past week and I feel satisfied about it.  Now I am tired everyday.  It´s just something that happens after a while.

To start off, we have been visiting a lot of people but especially those who will be baptized this coming Friday.  We have 4 people that will be baptized and they complete 2 families (as in everyone in their family will be an active member).  All of them are awesome.  One of them is getting baptized because her baptismal record got lost somewhere and there is nothing to say that she got baptized so that was interesting.  2 of her kids are also getting baptized which will complete their family.

The other is someone called Janeth and her husband is a member that we recently rescued.  They have 2 little kids.  One is 3 and the other one about 8 months.  They are an awesome family.  Yesterday they invited us to eat dinner with them so we went and it was awesome!  Her husband also recently got a new calling which will be awesome for him.

Also this past week we had zone meeting.  It was probably my favorite zone meeting that I have had.  The best part was when a couple of people were giving their testimonies.  We have 3 people in the zone that are going home in about a week.  The 2 zone leaders and a sister.  They are all awesome.  I am really sad that they are going home.  I wish they could stay haha...  They have taught me a lot that I will never forget and even moreso through their examples.

Well that´s about it for this week.  This coming week we will be cleaning the chapel and keepin it clean for the baptisms on Friday!  I hope you all have a great week!  I love you all!

Speaking of 100%...Aaron giving 100% on the soccer pitch on his p-day.

Looks like a goal celebration!

Hey everyone!  This week has been pretty good!  I hope you all had a good week as well and look forward for the blessings to come!

So this past week on Saturday we had another baptism!  He is a cool kid named Alejandro.  He is 19 and is now the only member of his family.  He is a really smart kid.  He studies medicine and basically he is the guy that makes the drugs (the good ones) so he has to get exactly the right amount of everything.  If it`s too much, they die.  If it`s too little, they die.  So he is a really smart kid.  I also had the opportunity to confirm him member of the church so that was pretty cool.

After the baptism we went to a restaurant calld El Tablon and got a huge pizza!  It`s a meter long so that`s pretty cool.  The pizza wasn`t the best though.  We went with the other two Elders in our district so it was way fun.

On Thursday and Friday there was an activity about Family History.  A senior couple of missionaries came to help out so that was pretty cool.

This past week I went on divisions with an Elder named Elder Bird.  He is awesome.  He told me a quote that I really liked that said, ``A goal not written down is only a dream.``  So I was able to write down some goals that I wanted to accomplish this change and it`s helped me out a lot.  So if you guys want to accomplish something, write it down!

So this week was pretty good and I`m looking forward to the time that I will have in Juliaca.  I hope you all have another wonderful week full of cool things to do and see and service and all that jazz.  I love you all!

Hey everyone!  Well, I made it to Juliaca!  After about an hour drive!  Juliaca is pretty cool and I`m super excited to work here.  I also think I have the prettiest part of Juliaca so that`s pretty cool!  

So this past week we had a baptism!  It was a pretty cool surprise.  Her name is Helen and she is 14 years old.  Her mom is a member that the Elders before me had rescued so that`s pretty cool.  Now we are going to try to work with her little siblings that have a certain fear of being baptized.

We also have another baptism this coming Saturday.  Some guy named Alejandro.  He is 19 and super smart.  He is studying medicine.  He knows a lot and it will be really cool seing him be baptized.

Other than those two things I have just been getting used to the sector.  It`s huge.  The other day I think my companion took me to Bolivia.  We walk a ton here.  The ward seems ok.  It seems like there is a problem with the retention.  A lot of people go less active because of stupid little things like something another member said so it`s kind of sad.

Well, I`m really excited to be here in Juliaca!  Hopefully we can accomplish a lot of things here.  I love you all and I hope you are all doing well!  Have a great week!

Hey everyone!  I hope you all are doing well as always!  As am I!  This week was a pretty difficult week but I learned some good things and have also heard some good news!

First off, this past week there wasn´t a whole lot due to a huge party called La Candelaria.  It´s the second biggest party or festival in all of South America behind Rio.  So for that reason, there weren´t a lot of people in their houses and even less today because today is the actual festival.  I guess it´s pretty big because people come from all over just to see it.  And it´s in Puno!  So the zone leaders are going to lock us in a chapel pretty much the whole day.

On Friday I had a meeting with all the leaders in the zone, Puno Central.  It was really good.  We basically just talked about attitude the whole meeting and how important it is.  Things will happen in life.  We can´t avoid the inevitable and we can´t change the past no matter how hard we try.  The only thing that we can control is our attitude.  There was a quote that they gave us that talked about the importance of attitude.  That it can either build or destroy a buisness, church, home, etc.  The quote finished by saying, ´´I am conviced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I decide to react.´´  Attitude is everything.

So a couple of weeks ago I wrote an old companion of mine that has been at home for a while, but he wrote me with some good news!  In Puerto, we were teaching an investigator and right before I left, she decided to be baptized on May 30th, 2015.  I was never there to see her be baptized with her daughter as well, but that was the last I heard of her, that she got baptized.  I got an email today from my old companion that had been talking to her by facebook and she is doing great!  She kept thanking him (and me) because we were able to bring her the gospel.  It was super cool to hear that she is doing well!  It´s one of the best feelings to know that you were able to help bring the gospel into someones life and nothing can replace that feeling.

Well, I love you all and hope you all have a great week!  Thanks for all the support and love that you all show!  Stay safe and have a great week!

Hey everyone!  Hope you all had a good week!  This week was pretty good here in Puno considering we had a baptism this last Saturday.

His name is Oskar and was a reference from some members.  He was pretty cool and had a desire to be baptized from the beginning.  He was a gift from heaven.  He also shared a testimony that was pretty cool afterward.  He was really happy to be baptized.

We also were able to teach a family this week and the dad is an excommunicated member.  It was really cool to talk with them.  They actually contacted us so that shows their willingness to listen.  The mom is a less active member and they have two little kids.  From the moment we started to talk with them, I felt just a little bit of the love that Jesus has for them.  It was really cool to feel that.  I felt what is called charity or the pure love of Christ for them.  They also came to church this past Sunday so that was also really cool.  We will be working a lot with them this coming change.

We have also been working with a less active that has been less active for some time now.  Yesterday we were able to rescue him and he is now an active member.  He has been coming to church which is awesome.  He knows how good the church is for him and the blessings that it brings.

This past week we didn´t have much, but it was a good week.  I learned a lot in this past week.  Especially in a special conference that we had.  There was a satilite conference broadcasted to all the missions around the world.  We were able to listen to 3 apostles and other genereal authorities talk about the mission work.  It was really cool.  One thing that really stood out to me is that in the mission, we are the tools and the spirit is the teacher.  Sometimes we get those two mixed up, but it´s really important to remember that without the spirit, we will not have converts.

Hope you all have a great week and stay safe!  Love you all and thanks for all the support!

Hey everyone!  Hope you all are doing well and staying safe wherever you may be.  I´m doing pretty good here.  Today are changes and I am staying here in Salcedo, but I will have a new companion.  I don´t know a whole lot about him but he will be getting here around Wednesday.  Pretty cool!

So this week we just went out full on contacting people and trying to find new investigators.  We contacted a little bit more than 200 people this week so that was pretty cool!  Hopefully they will turn out to be new investigators!

We also had a baptism this week!  There were supposed to be 2 but one of them got scared or something like that...  But we did baptize the other.  It was cool!  He had a couple of friends go to his baptism as well so we contacted them.  They live in another ward so other missionaries will be teaching them.  He is a good convert.  After his baptism he gave a really good testimony that will help him be an example to his friends in the university.

This week, we had a small zone meeting.  More than anything to motivate us and it was actually really good.  I learned a lot.  One of the things I liked the most is a video clip we saw of Elder Holland.  He was talking about Peter and Jesus when He asked Peter ´´Lovest thou me more than these?´´.  Then Jesus responded ´´Then feed my sheep´´.  If we really love Jesus, we will leave behind our nets, or be it, all of the things that hold us back, and we will ´´feed His sheep´´.  And that is exactly what we are here to do as missionaries.  We need to feed His sheep.

Well, that´s about all that happened this week.  Hope you all are doing well!  Stay safe!  Love you all!  Thanks for everything! 

Hey everyone!  Hope you all are doing well wherever you may be.  I am doing pretty good!  Recently recovering from a cold that I had but it has passed so that´s good!  This week was pretty good!

We have a couple of investigators that will be getting baptized this week!  Awesome!  They are Joseluis and Ronal.  The good thing is that they are both over 18 so they could sign the paper for themselves.  But it will be good.  The other Elders in the ward also have one this Saturday so that should be good.  

This week we have been contacting a lot for the new cards that we are passing out, A Savior is Born.  We found some pretty good people and we also found some really angry people.  One of which called us devils.  Pretty interesting.

While we were contacting we stopped for a cool photo shoot.

We are also doing an activity with the 2 zones in Puno singing in the center and contacting.  I contacted a lady along with my companion and she asked us if we are catholics.  When we said no, she got scared an ran away.  It was pretty interesting.  We also talked to a few people from the states.  One from New Jersey (the only one I remember).  But it´s pretty cool.  A lot of people stopped to hear us sing.

That´s about it this week... Most interesting story this week, as we were going to eat dinner, a drunk prostitute asked us where we lived.  Pretty sketchy and really weird.  We just went inside of our pensions house and left.  Well, love you all!  Thanks for everything you all do for me!  Until next week.

Hey everyone.  Another week has passed.  Just wanted to let you know that.  This change went by super fast I can´t believe it.  It has been awesome working with my companion but now he has a change so I will be getting a new companion.  From Lima as well.

This week was pretty good.  Not much happened throughout the week.  Everything mostly happened the weekend.

First our mission president came to visit our rooms on Saturday.  It was pretty cool.  His wife gave  a training, mostly about English while he was giving interviews.  It was cool to get a visit from him.  I always love talking to him.

Later that day we had a baptism which was pretty cool.  It was the first baptism in this ward in 6 months.  He is an awesome kid.  He is 14 and the only one to be baptized in his family.  He has a strong testimony and will stay strong in the gospel.

Wow, now that I realize it, there wasn´t a whole lot this week.  We were really focused on the baptism.  That´s really about everything exciting that happened this past week.

Hope you all have a good week this week.  Love you all.  Thanks for everything.

Elder Augat

Hey everyone, yet another week has passed by.  It is really crazy how fast time is going.  Everything here is pretty good.  Nothing super crazy happened this week but it has been a good one.

There is one member that helps us out a ton.  Her name is Daniela.  She helps us out a ton in lessons, finding people, etc.  She gave us a ton of references the other day that we can now go contact.  She wants to serve a mission but her parents won´t let her.  They want her to finish her studies first, but she wants to leave as soon as she can.  But she is helping out a ton in Puerto.

This week we had a baptism.  Her name is Masiel.  Her family aren´t members but they gave her permission to be baptized.  We now want to try to contact her family and start talking with them.

This morning, we were up on the roof of our building just talking and one of the people that lives there went up to get her clothes that were drying.  When she was walking back she asked me what the steeple ment on the chapel.  I just told her it doesn´t really have a meaning, but it´s to identify the chapel.  Then she just started asking a whole ton of questions.  It was pretty cool.  We taught her the restoration and answered a ton of her questions.  It was really cool talking to her.

In other news, we put up a dart board in our room and the wall is pretty much destroyed.  It´s a cement wall so.... But the owners of the building said we could put up the dart board.

Nothing all that special has happened.  Next week are changes so we will see what happens!  Thanks for all the emails and support!  Love you all!

Elder Augat

Hello everyone.  Another good week.  Another baptism as well!  This guy is amazing and has an amazing story as well.

The first time I saw him, he was drunk, chewing on cocaine leaves.  We left him a pamphlet but I´m sure it didn´t do him good.  We would always see him on the street with his drunk buddies, drinking and all that.  He would always tell us that we are doing a good job, and we would invite him to church and invite him to change, but he said, ´´Only God can change me, but I don´t let him.´´  So we kind of just left him alone.  A little later we saw him walking down the street with his hair cut, he shaved, he just looked better.  So we said hi and asked him how he felt and he said he felt a lot better, and we told him he looked better.  So we set up a cita for the next Sunday and he came!  The first lesson was incredible.  He would talk about how he felt when he was with us and we told him that it was the Holy Ghost.  We invited him to be baptized that day and he indirectly accepted.

We have been following up on him, teaching him lessons, and we don´t even have to do a lot with him.  We just tell him what God has asked us to do, and he will do it.  He also told us that he has been a part of a lot of other religions, but this one just makes sense.  But about a week before he was going to get baptized, we ran into a little problem.  He had a pareja.  But his pareja lives in Germany so they don´t see each other often.  But he said that when they do see each other, they have a strong relationship.  So we gave him the two options.  First, he could be baptized and live the law of chastity until they could get married.  Or second, he could wait get married, then get baptized.  He chose the first.  Also when he showed up to his baptismal interview, he told us that he wants to get married in the chapel in about 2 years (for legal divorce reasons).

Ever since that first visit he has been a very strong investigator, and now he is a member and holds the Aaronic Priesthood.  He is one of the most converted people I´ve seen.  He will follow the prophets, and the church no matter what they say we need to do.  So he basically went from a drunk (the ones you see on the corner everyday passed out), to sober, to an investigator, to a member. It was incredible to see him grow so much during this time.

Other than that, this week we have a marriage that we were supposed to have last week.. But this time it is set.  Also my companion goes home, back to the states in a week, so I will have a new comp. pretty soon!  I will most likely be staying here though.

That´s really about it.  I hate the dogs.  A lot of them are really ugly.  Thanks for all the emails!  Love you guys!

Elder Augat

Hello everyone.  Everything is still great and hot.  Which has really been a bummer because the power has been out these past 3 nights so we couldn´t turn on the fan.  But it should be up by tonight.  Other than the power being out, like the title says, I broke a window.  Its a very interesting story...

So we went to the other Elders´ room to have a work visit.  All I needed to do was pick up an Elder and go back to my room.  But we started talking a little bit, then my companion found an aguaje.  All it is, is a little fruit that everyone in the jungle eats.  But it has been in their room for a while and my companion broke it open.  It smelt pretty bad.  So I said, I´m going to throw this out the window.  But I couldn´t throw it straight out because there were houses, so I was on an angle.  As soon as I let go of it, I heard the window shatter.  All the Elders were laughing their heads off because they couldn´t believe I just did that...  I don´t even know why I did that.  But we got it fixed so everything is good.

We had a baptism this last Saturday and I had the opportunity to baptize him.  His name is Bruno and he is 11 (and he is not from Mars).  All his family is inactive except his cousin Axel, who is 13.  We have been trying to get support from his family and they all came to the baptism, but they couldn´t make it to the confirmation the next day which was a little sad.  But everything is good.

Our investigator Salvador has been progressing really well, but we recently hit a road block.  We explained to him a little bit about the law of chastity and he had a question.  We figured out that he is legally married to someone who he can´t find to get a divorce, and he also has his pareja or partner.  But the situation with his pareja is interesting.  They have kids and everything, but they don´t live together.  If I understood correctly, she lives in Germany.  They don´t see each other very much but when they do, they have an intimate relationship.

So we explained to him his two options.  The first is that he gets baptized on the 14th (this saturday)  and explains to his pareja that they can´t have that kind of relationship until they are married.  The second option is that he gets married as soon as possible, then gets baptized after.  He told us last night that he wants to get baptized, but we told him to pray about it, and talk to his pareja.  

If he does choose to be baptized, and I think he will, he is taking a huge leap of faith.  He is the most amazing convert I have seen yet.  All we have to do is explain to him the commandment and he will follow.  He has kept every commitment he has made so far so he is progressing really well.  The best converts come to us, we don´t have to go to them.

We also have a wedding this weekend.  It is one less active and one investigator.  She has accepted to be baptized the following Saturday.

Everything is going well!  Thanks for all the support as always!  Love all you guys!

Elder Augat

Video chat with Elder Augat on Christmas Day!

Feliz Navidad a todos!  Hope everyone had a good Christmas!  It was a little strange here.  All the people do is light of fireworks at midnight which i dont really get... And on top of that there was no snow!  Oh well, it was good!

This week we had 2 baptisms!  We also had another one but she has been a member so that was just a branch baptism.  But we had 2 baptisms with converts!  We also confirmed them the next sunday.  They were so excited about their baptism that they showed up an hour early!  And we are on Peru time so I think that translates to 2 or 3 hours in the states.  But it was a cool experience.

Today we had some borrachos (drunks) call us the best most beautiful people here.  They all love the missionaries and love to talk to us but they never do anything about their problem.  They usually say that they arent good enough to change or something like that.  But we usually try to avoid them for time sake.

We taught one of our new investigators, Jhon Wayna, a couple times this week.  The second lesson we had with him we asked if he prayed and he said yes.  First off, that was surprising because usually nobody fulfills their commitments here.  Then we asked him how he felt after and he said really good.  We asked him if he believed what we were teaching him was true and if he believes that Joseph Smith was a prophet and he said yes to both.  The only problem with him now is that he needs to come to church.

Another investigator we have is Jewish.  He knows a lot about the Bible!  Way more than I do.  But he said before that he believes that the Book of Mormon is true and all that but he still has a lot of questions and wants to be sure before he is baptized.  That lesson we had to teach him that reincarnation is false.  It was interesting.

One of our recent convert families are the Marquez family.  We have had a few lessons with them and the biggest problem they have as a family is living the gospel.  They all know its true and they go to church and everything, but they want to do more.  We had a lesson with them on D&C 4 and told them that its not just a missionary scripture, its for everyone.  After that lesson one of the family members told us thank you and that things are changing in their family which is good!  I´m excited for them!  

The language is coming slowly but surely.  I can have basic conversations with people and understand most if they talk slow.  But everything is good except the heat!  If someone could send me some snow that would be awesome!  Thanks for everything!  Love you all!