Aaron

Hey family and friends!  Hope all is going well wherever in the world you all may be!  Sorry for not writing last week....  This past week was a little crazy for me.  A lot going on.

Well, as you all have noticed, I will be home for Christmas.  Well, before Christmas.  Yep!  This is the last email I will be writing from here.  A little crazy...  Time has flown by and I´m a little sad that it is coming to an end, but at the same time, excited to see you all again!

The mission has been the greatest experience of my life.  It has prepared me for so much more than I could have ever imagined.  I really have grown to have charity for the people down here in Peru and I wish the best for them.  I wish that all would just accept the gospel!  But I will leave that all up to them.  I have learned so much that I can´t wait to put into practice at home.  I really love the mission and I know that it will help me face bigger challenges in life.  I really don´t know what to put in this last email!  There are just a lot of things and too little time.  I love you all and thanks for all the support and love you have all shown me during this whole time.  It hasn´t been the easiest thing I have done, actually it was rather hard and exauhsting, but it was worth it.  Each trial I have passed has helped me for the better and now I feel like I am more of who my Father in Heaven wants me to be.  This is God´s work.  He is our Father.  Jesus Christ is His son who knows us perfectly through his perfect atonement.  And I have felt just a little bit of his love through this work. I love you all and will see you soon!

PS: Here is a note from my mom!  Elder Aaron Augat is returning from Cusco, Peru, after honorably serving a 2 year LDS mission. Please join us in making Aaron feel AT HOME at an open house Welcome Home Party on October 7th between 6:00 - 8:00 PM. Don't feel obligated to bring food to share. We won't make you feel guilty. He will be so excited to see you!

Everyone is invited to come listen to Aaron speak in church on October 16th at 9:00 AM at the church house on 4500 West 11800 South. 

Hey everyone!  Hope you are all doing well.  Everything is good here!  Final stretch!  Not a whole lot happened this past week but I will see what I can write you guys.

First off, we got to Sicuani on Wednesday because we had some meetings in Cusco.  Good but long meetings.  There were some good things to learn.  But we finally made it back to Sicuani!  There hasn´t been much but we have been ablel to do a few things.

We have 2 people with a baptismal date, Jerson and Fernando.  Jerson is super prepared and ready for the gospel.  He  came to church for the 3rd time yesterday and for the 3 hours as well.  Fernando wasn´t able to come due to work or something like that.  We are going to try to work more closely with him so that he can get to his baptismal date for Oct. 8th.

We also went on divisions with the asistants.  I went with a Canadian, Elder Fritz.  He is awesome!  It was good to talk English to someone for the whole day.  After 18 months with Latins, I´m not going to lie, it was good to talk English.  We were also able to talk about the mission and some ideas that could help.  Right now, we are really focused on ´´raising the bar´´.  President wants to set high expectations which I think is pretty good.  We just have to take it in the right way.

Other than that, it has been pretty hard with meetings these past weeks.  I hope you all have a great week and sorry for the short email!  Love you all!

Title Cred: Elder Ludlow (@zludlow_4) Follow on Instagram

Hey everyone!  Hope you are all doing well!  Right now I find myself in Cusco with not so much time!  So I will try to write as much as possible!

So this past week was great.  We have been walking a ton.  But out of that we have been able to get 2 investigators with a baptismal date!  Jerson and Fernando.  Jerson is a members´ brother and is super cool.  Fernando is a 19 year old kid that ´´doesn´t believe´´ in God.  They both attended church yesterday which is awesome!  They both have baptismal dates for the 8th of October!  Also, I shook an Area 70´s hand on Sunday with out even knowing.  Elder Agüero (not Kun Agüero).  It was pretty cool.

So today I´m going to play soccer with President so that will be great!  I´m sure we will beat him.  We want to make a gringo team so that would be awesome.  

Well, I´m not entirely focused today for some reason.  Random note: We met some Canadian members this morning.  Everything is going well here in Cusco!  Sorry for the short email!  Love you all!

Hey everyone!  I hope you are all doing well!  This past week was a little strange, but not too much.  Just a few events that happened!

So this past week we have been working with Percy, the guy that told us that he couldn´t wait to meet us.  We put a baptismal date with him for the 24th of September.  We will be working really closely with him on that.

We have also been working with a lot of less actives.  A lot of which are in the process of coming back to church.  It´s really cool to see the gospel work in their lives!

Random note: A dog bit my companion this past week.

A couple days ago I was reading in 3 Nephi 11 when Jesus Christ visited the America(s).  It was really cool to read because even Jesus Christ as a resurrected being visiting the America(s) testifies of his atonement.  The atonement is an amazing thing that ´´allows us to reconcile with God´´.  ´´I stand all amazed at the love Jesus offers me.´´  

This past week has been a pretty basic week.  With 4 greenies straight from the CCM (MTC) and 1 other still in training, we have a lot of work to keep up on!  

Thanks for all the support!  I love you all and hope to see you all soon!

Zone Conference

Hey everyone!  It´s good to write y´all again!  I hope you all had a good week!  This past week for me was pretty good.  Not too much happened but it was cool!  We have been working trying to find people to teach and also babysitting missionaries at the same time!  It´s a fun job!  Well, with 24 new missionaries in the mission, there will be 4 of them coming to Sicuani!  That will be interesting.  There are a lot of changes in the mission with the new mission president.

So yesterday, my companion and I were looking for the investigators that we are teaching and we started heading to an investigator that we knew wasn´t going to be home until today.  I don´t know why we started going to that family but we did it anyways.  We knocked on the door and their nephew came out.  We asked him if he had time and he told us that he did!  When we walked in the door he said, ´´I can´t wait to meet you guys!´´  It was really weird but really cool!  God really does prepare His children to hear the gospel.

Other than that, we are just working as usual.  Trying to help out the ward and doing the best we can!  Hopefully we can find even more of God´s children that are prepared to hear the gospel

I love you all and have a great week!

Hey Everyone!

First off, I´m sorry for not writing an email last week.... It totally spaced my mind.  But this week I remembered so no worries!  These past week have been pretty good and tiring at the same time!  There has been a lot of things to and we have been all over the place!  We have also been having to babysit some missionaries which is a joke...  I don´t know why some people just can´t take  care of themselves and be responsible!  But I guess that´s just part of being here!

So there hasn´t been a whole lot of new things going on here and nothing out of the usual.  We have been able to find a few new people to teach and we have also been able to put baptismal dates with a couple of them as well.  They seem pretty cool.  One of them is named Raúl.  He is about 50ish.  The other is named Fernando and is 19.  We are working with them so that they can get to their baptismal date with no problems!

Other than that, we have been visiting a couple named Benji and Helen.  They are both from here but they have lived in New York for some time (although they don´t speak so much English).  We have been working with them so they can get married and it just so happens that the rest of Benji´s family came from New York (who do speak English) and he decided to get married!  We still don´t know when, but we are excited.  Also, I forgot to mention that Benji is a less active and Helen isn´t a member.  So this means that Helen will be able to get baptized if they are able to get married!

Speaking about marriages, someone in my old sector in Sicuani (who I was able to teach while I was there) got married this past week and got baptized!  That was cool to see as well!

So just a cool experience that happened this past week.  We were talking with some recent converts about baptism because there son is 8 so he can get baptized.  As we were talking to him about that I was able to talk a little bit about why I got baptized and why I am gratefull for that choice.  It was really cool to feel the spirit confirm to me that it was the correct descision in that moment.  I was talking to an 8 year old kid but yet, I was able to feel the same spirit that I have felt in a lot of other places as well.

Well, thanks for all your support and love!  I love you all and hope you have a great week!

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.  Today is Monday and today are changes!  I have been here in Sicuani for a good 6 months but now it´s time for me to go.  I have been changed to Puno.  Even higher and even colder.  But it´s pretty cool.

This week was pretty interesting.  First off, everybody was making bread.  Someone even asked us to help her make bread.  I was wondering why all the bread.  Second, there was a bunch of people selling things to put on grave sites.  I still didn´t get it until Friday.  I finally realized that we were close to El Día de los Muertos (day of the dead).  Basically it´s a day where everyone goes and visits those who have passed on and leave on the graves things that they liked in their mortal lives.  I knew Spanish class would come in handy.

As for teaching, we just got a lot of falling through and rejection this week...  It was interesting.  Some people even thought we were salesmen.  I don´t get it sometime.

That´s really about it.  Nothing too special except making bread.  Love you all and thanks for all the support.  See you in Puno.

Hey everyone.  Hope you are all doing well wherever you may be.  Right now I happen to be in cusco.  We just got done with playing soccer and now I am here writing.  Not much going on this past week because we could barely work.

On Tuesday we had to come to Cusco for mission stuff.  I think I have been to Cusco once a week this change.  A lot of traveling!  After we got back from Cusco, Wednesday, there was a strike and they didn`t want us to leave our rooms.  So there was another day gone.  Crazy people.

Thursday I finally got to work but I went on divisions with one of the zone leaders.  There wasn`t much going on because technically the strike was still going.  So there was almost nobody in their homes.  What a fun week!!

Friday was the first day of actual work, but we were only able to talk to a family that is partly less active.  It was pretty good.  We talked about the iron rod.  Hopefully they can get back on track.  

The following days we went contacting and looking for new investigators.  We were able to talk with a new investigator in Marangani.  We gave her the baptismal challenge and she accepted.  Hopefully we can put a date on her in the next visit.

That`s about all that happened this week.  Not a whole lot, but it`s work.  Next monday are changes.  Will I stay or will I go?  You never know.  Hope you are all doing well.  Thanks for all the support and love.  Love you all!

Hey everyone hope your week has been good.  This week was pretty good.  At the beginning of the week we had a multi-zone conference in Cusco so we traveled there.  The conference was really good.  Basically we talked about leaving our weapons of rebellion.  Also, our president showed us pictures from his mission and when he went back to his mission.  That got me excited to find baptisms and converts. 

After the conference we just had a full week of finding.  We were able to find quite a bit of new people to teach.  The only problem is that they have a very catholic background so they don´t want to accept any commitments.  Even if they aren´t active in the catholic church.  We found a family and invited them to baptism, but they just kept saying you can only be baptized one time, so we left it after the 3rd or 4th time.

We also helped somebody in our ward move this week.  It was pretty fun to ride in the back of a big truck.  Afterward she invited us pizza which was awesome.  Other than that, we have just been finding more and more people.

That´s about it this week.  Thanks for all you do for me.  Love you all!

Mark 14:38  "Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation.  The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak."

Hey everyone.  This week was a full week of work.  I went on divisions with a couple elders in my district.  One of them was one of the zone leaders.  He is awesome.  The other one is training in my sector.  Both are doing well.

This week the zone leaders frustrated me like crazy.  On Thursday, there was a meeting with the stake president and nobody told me, so I wasn´t planning on anything.  When I didn´t show up at 7 they called me and asked where I was.  I told them we were walking and the got frustrated with me for not going to the meeting.  If they wanted me to go, it would have been nice to know about the meeting.

Then later, they called me and told me that a missionary was leaving from Cusco at 11 and they wanted me to go pick him up.  It takes about 2 and a half hours to get to Sicuani from Cusco, so I was going to go at about 1:30.  They called me at about 1 getting frustrated with me because they said he had been waiting there for about an hour.  Sometimes I don´t get the people here.  Use a little bit of logic.  It goes a long way.

This week I got a little frustrated with some investigators.  Sometimes they don´t understand.  They say that they trust God but they will work on Sunday because they say they need to provide for their family.  TRUST IN GOD!  So I went through my head about what it means to trust in God and it helped me understand what it means to trust in God completely.

That´s about it for this week.  Keep ponderizing.  Keep working.  God loves you all.  Thanks for everything.  Love you all.

Romans 12:21  "Be not overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good."

Hey everyone.  Hope you are all doing well wherever you all may be.  This week I thought that I was going to be able to stay in my sector the whole week when the zone leaders called and told me that I had to go to Cusco to do paper work.  FUN!  It wasn´t that bad.  I just signed 2 papers and put my fingerprint on them and that was it.  Now I will be legal for another year!  Just about..

In Cusco we went to some restaurant called "Fuegos" and it was super good.  They have a burger called "The Stroke" and it was super good.  It would even be good for the states.  That was probably the best part of going to Cusco.

When I came back, I went on divisions with some other elders.  I was still in my sector so that was good.  We found a lot of new people lately and they all seem to have problems with Joseph Smith (what a surprise).  If only these people would give a sincere prayer to our father in heaven, maybe then they would know that these things are true.

Not a whole lot more happened this week.  Just the usual people not coming to church when they say they will.  I´m also getting really sick of everybody being late to everything, even the leaders.  It´s something that needs to change here.

Have a great week and a safe one.  Love you all and thanks for all the support!  Bis später.

Hey everyone.  It`s Monday again.  Not a whole lot has happened this week because I have been traveling and with other missionaries, but nevertheless, it`s been pretty good.

The Tuesday after changes, I traveled to Cusco because I had to go to a training on Wednesday.  While I was waiting for the training, I just hung out in the office so that was pretty boring.  But the training was pretty good.  I learned a lot of new things from my mission president that I hope to put into practice.

Right after the training, we traveled back to Sicuani.  We visited a lot of people and we have a lot of appointments with a lot of new people so that`s good.  The only frustrating thing is that nobody comes to church.  Even when they promise.

This week should be full of work because I have a full week in my sector so that should be good.  Thanks for all the support.  Love you guys.

Hey everyone!  It`s been another week.  And to be honest I can`t remember a whole lot of what happened this past week because it went by so fast.  And for the most part, I have been with the zone leaders most of the week because my companion had been traveling a lot.

This week we were able to teach one of our investigators, Katerin.  She is progressing really well and she follows through with every commitment we give to her, we just have a problem getting her to church..  She said that she was going to be able to but then canceled last minute.  It was sad that she wasn`t able to come because she is one of our best investigators if not our best.

The less active family we have been teaching are now coming to church every Sunday which is awesome.  Now they just have to get married.  Hopefully they will be able to do that soon.

Other than that, I have been on divisions with the zone leaders and in their sector so I haven`t been able to work a lot in my sector.  Changes happened today and I`m staying as I thought.  My new comp is from Peru, some part of the Jungle.  Everything is pretty good.  Peru is the same.  Hasn`t changed.  Thanks for everything.  Love you all!

Hey everyone.  Hope you are all doing alright.  I`m doing pretty good.  Sometimes the food gets old but I`ll live through it.  Right now I am in Cusco (almost exactly where the address says below) and we are just here to play soccer.  Also right now I am with the zone leaders because my companion is at Machu Picchu right now.  How fun.  Well this week was pretty good.

First off, on Wednesday we had interviews with our mission president.  It was pretty good.  And while he was interviewing other missionaries, we had a training from the assistants that wasn`t all that bad.  Anyways, after the interviews, President came with us to an appointment.  We set up an appointment with some less actives that have been having some problems between each other.  The lesson wasn`t all that different from how we taught it, but there was definitely a strong spirit there and it was pretty cool.  Everything went good and now they seem more excited about coming back to church!  Pretty cool.  Now we just have to get them married.

On Thursday we went to an appointment in the morning to one of our investigators.  But instead of talking with her (because she left) we talked to another girl that works in the store.  In the end we gave her a Book of Mormon and challenged her to read 3 Nephi 11.  We then asked when we could come back to see how it went with the reading and how she felt after praying, and she said, ``tomorrow.``  So we went back the next day and she had read what we left and prayed about it.  She also understood what she read!  It was pretty cool!  At the end of the appointment on Friday she also said something pretty cool.  She said that she was tired of being catholic because everyone lives in their own way and she wants to belong to a religion.  Pretty cool.

So that`s about all that happened this week.  Other than that we had the regular investigators failing to come to church and not following through on commitments.  And my favorite phrase of the week is:

Me: Do you belong to a religion?

The people: No.  I`m catholic.

I hear that all the time...  Anyways, hope you all are doing well and thanks for everything.  Love you all!

Hey everyone!  Today is Monday.  Today is Monday.  Monday P-Day!  I have no clue if you guys know that song but we use that to teach English here.  Anyways, hope you all are doing well.  As for me I´m pretty happy that the States beat Peru in a friendly match.  Otherwise I would be hearing a lot of crap from everyone.  And I also got a pizza out of it.  Pretty cool.

Not much happened this week.  Today we had our zone meeting and there were some pretty good insights there.  Mostly what I liked was when we read in Alma 18 about Ammon

​ 16 And it came to pass that Ammon, being filled with theSpirit of God, therefore he perceived the thoughts of the king. And he said unto him: Is it because thou hast heard that I defended thy servants and thy flocks, and slewseven of their brethren with the sling and with the sword, and smote off the arms of others, in order to defend thy flocks and thy servants; behold, is it this that causeth thy marvelings?
 17 I say unto you, what is it, that thy marvelings are so great? Behold, I am a man, and am thy servant; therefore, whatsoever thou desirest which is right, that will I do.

18 Now when the king had heard these words, he marveled again, for he beheld that Ammon could discern

​ ​his thoughts; ​
​More than anything this is what I liked.  As missionaries this is what we need.  We need to be able to discern the needs of our investigators to be able to help them best.​  And to be able to do that, we need the spirit with us.

There was a lot more in that chapter that we learned from as well.  So this week we visited one of our investigators Marco.  The appointment we had wasn´t so great...  It seems like he doesn´t really pay atention or something.  He also cut us short for an ´´emergency´´.  Hopefully we can get better results with him this week.

So this coming week our Mission President is coming to have interviews with the zone.  After the interviews he is going to go with 2 companionships for an hour to an appointment.  It just so happens that he is going to be with us from 7-8.  We are going to go to some less actives that aren´t married so hopefully President can help us with them.  Pretty excited for him to come with us.

That´s about it this week.  Have a good one.  Take care, good luck.  Love you all, thanks for all the support.  The church is true.