4-27

I blink and it's pday again. It's been a fun week, we did lots and lots and talked about the temple til the cows came home.

I'm trying to soak up this great time that is just leaving my hands like sand! My companion, Elder Lloyd will probably leaving after this week, so who knows what kind of new things, adventures are coming my way here in Trujillo. It looks like I'm going to be staying in the Trujillo South Mission, but, we'll see!

As I said earlier, this week has been all about the Temple of Trujillo. We have been having tons of Family Nights with members in our ward with their friends, neighbors and relatives. All we do is talk about the temple and schedule a day to go with them together to the open doors. Next month is going to be a ride literally, we'll be riding in a bus to the temple every day!! A specific dude we taught one quiet night, was hermano Juan. He's an artist, and super sophisticated. I drew the little knowledge I remembered from taking my Art History class and talked about Picasso and stuff hahaha, it was funny. He is super active in his church, and when we started talking about eternal families and being sealed, he said, "doesnt the person who does that ordinance have to be authorized by like the prophet or an apostle or something??" I just looked at my companion, and we were both thinking... most sophisticated investigator in the world!! he's great, hope to see more of him soon.

We also went on one of the busiest streets here in our area, called Avenida Espana and just passed out invitations for the temple, experiencing like 100 rejections and maybe 10 people who really were looking forward to come and were receptive. I enjoyed it though, it was funny being rejected and finding those little diamonds in the rough as well, those people who our Father in Heaven had prepared.

Well, thats about it for this week, just templos templos templos no mas, pero, I miss you all. A drunk dude fake pick-pocketed me this week, just put his hand in my pocket as I was knocking on a door. I turned around to look at him and he just laughed and walked away. I love Peru.

con amor,

Elder caldwell

ps. some good pictures this week. found my trainer, Elder Copa on the streets last pday! Burned my way over due 6 month tie (some kinda tradition in this mission) and one of the members in our ward made a photoshop for us that says, EVERY MEMBER A MISSIONARY. its classic.

4-20

Love you mom! and dad, and everyone!

this week was maravilloso. some ups and downs, but we keep going. We realized quickly this week that some answers to prayers were right in front of our face the whole time. We are back to square 1 with all of our investigators, we got a clean slate, but we realized that a member had been bringing one of her friends to church for awhile now, and we were able to teach her all week! Her name is Rut, supposed to be like Ruth, haha, but its been great. Her mother had passed away recently and so we immediately taught her that she could see her mom again and all the good stuff shes doing right now would make her mom happy. We asked her to pray at the end, and she just let everything go. we were all crying at the end, it was a powerful prayer.

also, a little update on some of our converts, esther and felix! They are doing super well, Felix has the priesthood now as a teacher, passes the sacrament every week and yesterday we helped him work on HIS DUTY TO GOD. He is so solid already working on that!!! Esther is doing well as well, coming to church every sunday and paying her tithing. I love seeing how sweet the fruits of the gospel are. 

I learned to take everything from a different perspective this week, some weird things happened. One of our investigators, andrea, totally hid from us after we knocked on the door, seeing her in plain sight and wont answer our calls. All we can do is hope that one day the missionaries can go back one day and that seed that mightve been planted can grow. Also, we met this random man from Lima who had met with  the Elders over there. He is super stoked to see us and talk to us and is a major blessing. Perhaps the Elders over in Lima thought they had lost some investigator by moving to Trujillo, but little do we sometimes know that God really has planned everything out, to give chances to everyone again and again.

a funny story for this week was that we were in a meeting with our ward mission leader, and his dad came up to us and was like "hey guys! ive been thinking, can you print me up a map of the area, I'mma go get you guys some investigators and go knocking on some doors!!!!" hahaha, well sure why not. excited to see what he comes up with.

Well, I love you all! we took a sweet trip to the almost done Trujillo temple last pday! enjoy the pictures!

Elder Caldwell

Date: Mon, Apr 13, 2015 at 7:51 AM Subject: tender mercies

"Courage becomes a living and an attractive virtue when it is regarded not only as a willingness to die manfully but also as the determination to live decently." - Thomas S. Monson.

This week was a difficult one in regards to the work, but also full of tender mercies. I learned to always look on atleast one positive thing that happened on a day. There were many that happened everyday this week, so truly it wasn't too difficult. We had been so occupied before on trying to get Esther and Felix to progress and get baptized, that we forgot to do other things we were supposed to do, haha, like finding new investigators.

woops! So, our solution was to just hit the pavement and contact our brains out. And we did, hahah! We've never contacted more in our lives, just talking to everyone, and it felt like a terrible missionary comedy because almost EVERYONE turned us down. At one point it just started getting funny because of how badly we were getting turned down. But, on the brightside, those tender mercies of our Lord we always noticed. At the end of one long day on the streets, we noticed a middle aged woman on crutches trying to close her door. We ran over and helped her close it, and she was one of the sweetest ladies Ive met. Super nice, and very ready to listen to us. In fact, she had had friends in the church and didn't call us Mormons, but The church of Jesus Christ. That was a huge blessing. We also found another dude, a taxista, who actually lives in our area. We gave him a little summary of what we do in his taxi on a ride home, and we asked if him we could stop by. He said, "that would be really great. Ive been needing something like this in my life." Hallelujah! We taught him the other day, Cesar, and he's doing well and reading. 

The temple is changing lives here. We have the open doors for the Trujillo Temple here in May, and we are getting super psyched for it and inviting everyone. We will have the ability to leave our area with investigators, less actives, or recent converts and go to the open house with them. DREAM. Just the other day, we were walking to our pensionista when a man we kind of knew stopped us. He is seriously inactive, like 15 years or so, and he told us that he heard about the temple open doors. He was sad because he said he couldnt go. We told him that of course he could go, anyone could go. He looked at us, with just a look in his eyes, and told us he remembered the Lima temple and when he got sealed to his wife. Just like a longing. We told him we'd love to go with him and now we have a date planned to go. As we started walking away, he said "I guess this is called my reactivation." :)

Funny story! I was on an interchange this week, with a gringo, Elder Nielsen from good old Utah. We were doing our thing, knocking on a door, when I swear I felt a rock hit my back. I looked around, but there was no one there... so, we went into the house, taught a lesson. As we walked out, Elder Nielsen started laughing hysterically. There ended up being a giant bird poop on my back. It was bloody! sooo gross. Ill send the picture of it. It was massive. Well, hahaha, hope that you all enjoyed this early morning email. Have a super good week. Much love,

elder caldwell 

Apr 6, 2015 8:57 AM

Date: Apr 6, 2015 8:57 AM

Subject: like christmas"A saint is a sinner that keeps trying."- Dale G. Renlund (Nelson Mandela)

woof! hello there fam and friends,

its been one heck of a week. ending it with conference was perfecto. It was honestly one of the best I heard, so much to draw from those talks. Holy moly the talk by Elder Holland!! It was like christmas. 

Besides that bright spot of the week, the work was a little harder for the week, we weren't able to see much fruits of our labor but we still tried. In specific, we have been really focusing on that single mother investigator, Andrea. so many good desires, prays and reads regularly, but just doesnt come to church. But now with these talks like from Elder Nelson and Uchtdorf we have a lot to draw from and help her realize that, for example, we are all in need of repair... that church is like our repair station. We don't come to church to hide our problems but to be healed from them. The gospel is the medicine to our lives. 

I love the simple truths to the gospel and how much comfort and warmth comes into our lives as we try little by little to live them, and truly be perfected in Christ. Life is good over here in Peru as a missionary, the work is coming along and there is a lot to look forward to.

Ill let you all know how this week goes when Pday comes around again! for now,have a good week and re read those conference talks for real!!

Love,

Elder Caldwell.