Hi there!
Love you guys. Today is a good day. We've been working hard here. We've made a lot of friends, and I'd like to talk to you guys about them today.
Well, I don't think first of all I've talked about my companion yet. His name is Elder Talbot, and he is from the great, almost unknown town of Cornville, Arizona. He is hilarious and looks kind of like Woody from Toy Story, haha.
As I've talked about before, we've made a lot of friends with our taxi drivers (we have to go around the whole mission a lot to do random things). One of them is named Joel. He is kind of like our personal chauffer now. He isn't a member of the Church, but he loves us and we love him! I know that the love he feels from us will help him one day to maybe make the decision to get baptized perhaps. He lives in a different area so we don't really get the chance much to sit down with him and teach him the gospel, but we have a great friendship. In fact he actually made us some Arroz Chaufa with his wife for us just to be nice recently.
Another friend, not a taxi driver, but a hard factory worker, is named Francisco. He works all day so we only get the chance to meet up with him a little later at night. He has come to church now a bunch, and we are excited about that. He was baptized not too long ago in another church but we sure enjoyed explaining a little about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Restoration. He is understanding as some of them do, little by little precept upon precept. Sometimes as missionaries, it's frustrating, to accept how slow they progress but it gives you... well, like a perspective on our lives. It took me a good 16 years to finally understand what I'm doing and if I thought this church was true. Imagine how Heavenly Father feels, I think sometimes. It is a miracle every day to be able to teach this stuff, and I treasure it a little more every day.
Regarding that, I like to think about a mormon message David A. Bednar was on awhile ago. Sometimes we recieve revelation, or answers to our prayers, like how a sunrises. Slow, but surely. Or sometimes it is like a lightswitch. It all depends on the Lord, and if we are truly ready.
I've also come across the opportunity to be able to visit one of my areas a bunch here. The area I was in for 7 months, called Intendencia. I'm close to that area here in Trujillo. The people there feel like some of my family. I had the chance to go to a family home evening deal there to help out a missionary who was without a companion. I saw the people I had taught, struggled with, prayed for, and it was kind of like a dream. I imagine how that'll feel in the next life when we see those who we love but haven't seen for awhile. It's amazing. It shows me, how worth it was the struggle. It was so worth it all those hours thinking, praying, trying, working. To see them again and strong in the church. Those tender mercies.
I also have a crazy amount to study. This is my third time reading the Book of Mormon here in Peru. The first time was all in Spanish, and I had marked that thing so much it looks like a coloring book. I had thought, well, that's good enough for my two years. Studied enough. Marked enough. But then I kept reading. I bought other books. It's crazy how much you can learn from just one book. How different it is for us each read. It shows me and adds to the testimony that it really is scripture from God.
I pray the week is good to you all. I want to share a favorite scripture I found today, in Spanish: "Orad a él continuamente durante el dia y dad gracias a su santo nombre en la noche. Alégrese vuestro corazón." 2 nefi 9:52.
I also shaved my head again.
Les amo.
Elder Caldwell.
pics.
I have made a goal to take a selfie with every taxi man. the first of many.
ceviche de pota. this is squid with a lot of onions. peruvians love it.
the whole office crew kickin it eating food poisoning. I mean seafood
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