5-30-16

yokefellows,

thats a scriptural term. Love you guys! I´m doing a lot better this new monday. 

there are a lot of tender mercies in life that we dont realize sometimes. I got a call

the other night from the doctor of the whole area, Elder Aysie I think and he gave me a lot of comfort. He basically talked me through a lot of nerves I was having and told me Im good and healthy (though still skinny) haha. Recieving that call from a complete stranger that I never talked to before and him talking to me and giving me words of comfort with a kind voice really helped me. I know that he had an impression or something to do that because in all ways he really had no reason to call me. Sometimes all we need to feel better is to be heard and to listen by others and to others. 

Last night Elder Gavidia and I had recieved the news that a very less active woman in our area, Julia, had heard recently that she had cancer, and that an operation was soon for that reason. We had been teaching her here and there, not with much frequency. We felt to go and give her a blessing yesterday. We went, and right before we went, we got a call from a woman in our branch. Asking us where we were going and if she could accompany us to Julia. We said sure! She came, and we met Julia. She was looking obviously a little nervous and unsure of her future. We tried to comfort her the best we could with our words. Then all of a sudden we heard a knock on the door and there was priesthood holders from our branch also there to give comfort to the hermana Julia as well. They sat down and we laughed at the coincidence that we were all there. Then another knock. The relief society president and her counselors were there also for hermana Julia. Now it was serious. they shared their feeling with her and there was a beautiful spirit in the room because we were all there just for her, to help out. The two men gave her a priesthood blessing and soon after we left. But it impacted me to see how many people cared. That even though she wasnt the most well known person in our branch or even the neighborhood, somehow the spirit had impacted us all so much to go and visit her that day.

Helping others and giving them comfort when comfort is needed helps and comforts us at the same time. Im thankful for the mission for trials and learning to get past them, and serving others. 

Love you guys! We will keep working.

Elder Caldwell. 

pics:

forgot to take pictures so I told Elder Gavidia take a quick picture while I eat some icecream today.

5-25-16 crazy fast life

hey there skips.

its good to see your emails and feel the love. we are writing late today because we went to the templo de trujillo. it was a different experience for me, i really loved it. It was good to have Elder Gavidia there too, his first time in the trujillo temple. he´s doing great. still eating like a horse and sweating like one too. haha.

Ive been honestly having a lot of difficulties out here on a personal level. I wont go into details but it has to do with health and anxiety. Going to the temple though and searching the scriptures for alivio has helped me too. in our area of chanquin we are still fighting the battle. hard time to see people progress but we are trying our best with patience and love. we have been visiting a certain family ever since I got here to the area, and they started from basically ground zero on a relationship level. the parents are members, active, but all their kids had fallen away due to some hard times in the family and misunderstanding. one of their boys, who is only 19, had been living with his girlfriend in the house and now she is expecting a baby. they are so young. they are my age. we have been teaching them, so much. at first jon wanted nothing to do with us, but after visiting his parents and his girlfriend so many times, and inviting him to listen. he began listening to us. then the rest of his brothers, and his sister. now we are having family nights with the whole family, playing games, teaching small gospel messages, and seeing their ashes of their faith incite again. it has been a tender mercy for me to see this small but slow progress. the parents now are planning to get sealed. we hung up a family proclamation in their house, and now they are so excited to see and converse with us. Jon and his girlfriend now have plans to get married before the baby is born and we are happy for that plan. i know that keeping the commandments of God helps us to be happy, even though they are not popular to do so and sometimes a little begrudging. 

to end I wanted to share a quote from a talk i read last night that helped me. 

[In the Bible we read of Christ’s visit to the home of Simon the Pharisee.

Outwardly, Simon seemed to be a good and upright man. He regularly checked off his to-do list of religious obligations: he kept the law, paid his tithing, observed the Sabbath, prayed daily, and went to the synagogue.

But while Jesus was with Simon, a woman approached, washed the Savior’s feet with her tears, and anointed His feet with fine oil.

Simon was not pleased with this display of worship, for he knew that this woman was a sinner. Simon thought that if Jesus didn’t know this, He must not be a prophet or He would not have let the woman touch him.

Perceiving his thoughts, Jesus turned to Simon and asked a question. “There was a certain creditor which had two debtors: … one owed five hundred pence, … the other fifty.

“And when they [both] had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me therefore, which of them will love him most?”

Simon answered that it was the one who was forgiven the most.

Then Jesus taught a profound lesson: “Seest thou this woman? … Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.”²⁴

Which of these two people are we most like?

Are we like Simon? Are we confident and comfortable in our good deeds, trusting in our own righteousness? Are we perhaps a little impatient with those who are not living up to our standards? Are we on autopilot, going through the motions, attending our meetings, yawning through Gospel Doctrine class, and perhaps checking our cell phones during sacrament service?

Or are we like this woman, who thought she was completely and hopelessly lost because of sin?

Do we love much?

Do we understand our indebtedness to Heavenly Father and plead with all our souls for the grace of God?

When we kneel to pray, is it to replay the greatest hits of our own righteousness, or is it to confess our faults, plead for God’s mercy, and shed tears of gratitude for the amazing plan of redemption?^25¨)

^{love you guys. have a great week. im thinking of you.}

^{elder caldwell}

^{pics: temple, sunset as always, and the family i was talking about. la familia castillo rojas.}

5-16-16 going and doing no más

hi,

week 1 of training. it has been glorious. I met my new companion about a week ago and he

came really prepared, I am very blessed to have him. He is from the jungle called Pucallpa,

Peru and his name is Elder Gavidia. He is so humble. Quick story with him. The first few

days I think caught him by surprise by how fast I walk. He walked pretty slow, and I dont blame

him because he is just starting his service. So I told him "Goal number one: Walk with

dedication and work with dedication. Walk at my speed. Its hard work but we need to show

God we want to work." It was slow at first, but day by day he started catching up and now

is walking like a pro. He always asked me "Am I walking better? Am I teaching the people better?

What can I do better?" His humility made me want to straight cry because he is so willing.

We truly faced a lot of opposition this week unfortunately but they are lessons learned. I honestly

feel so lucky because my companion never complains, it is a dream come true. Yesterday

was a crazy experience for him and I. We met some very, VERY devote evangelicals and we

decided to sit down with them and try to teach them. They resisted though and actually started

shouting at us and insulting us, trying to force us to listen to them and they were very dramatic.

I told them straight up, we are out of here my friends. This is enough. The crazy guy (not in his mind) actually tried to like hug me and put me back into my seat but I forced myself out of that

place haha. It was nuts, my companion was half traumatized but now we just laugh about it because we learned to be better. Im thankful to laugh about past failures and to move on from them

to be a better person.

Wish I could say more, its hard. so many things going on in my brain. Ill say more next week

about the adventures of Elder Gavidia and I. We are putting our all into it and im thankful for

him and his willingness to do so. 

Love,

Elder Caldwell.

pics: walking zion

chacra selfie

the night i met the next dragon warrior 

5-9-16

Yeeeeeaahhhh doggy.

It was good to see you mom and dad, I love you! Thanks for raising me. And loving me for who I am. 

My friends. I tell you, that God hears and answers prayers, even just our silly desires sometimes. For the longest time in my mission I have wanted to train and last night I got the call that I am going to train for my last 3 months. I have no idea who my trainee is yet, I get himtomorrow but Im so excited to have a son (mission son). yeah boy. Elder Henao is leaving me to go to the distant land of Huaraz to become a leader. Im so happy for him, he has helped me a bunch and his provided some good times out here in the boonies of panamerican land. 

Really great experience we had this week that I gotta share with you all: So we were with one of our zone leaders for a day because his companion ended his mission, and he taught us just the important lesson of working every second of the day, it was so exhausting but at the end of the day we could say we did everything to talk to people and to be our best. So the story is we recieved this reference from a member, her next door neighbor. We go out side to go find this lady, and she is outside her house with about 25 people, getting ready to open some Pepsi and have a "compartir". When I wouldve normally just talked to the lady and left to come back another time, our companion said, "how about we get the whole group together and share something real short?" she said, "why not?" and so we got everyone to turn around, sit down and we said a prayer and we taught them quickly about the Restoration. They had a mountain of questions for us and we were able to answer them and give them some more to learn in the scriptures and pamphlets. We all ended up leaving there very edified and more excited about the work, and visiting the giant group of people we taught. It reminded me of maybe how the Lord mightve taught in His days. I got some pics. 

Well, next week you will be able to see the great face of my new son, im excited to tell you all about him. 

Love you guys!!

drink water.

pics:

the group of people we taught. not all are found in the picture.

failed group shot

teaching our friend, Maria who is 85 and loves pictures. 

5/2/16

i cant believe im back here already. does anyone feel like they are in a strange time vortex like me.

cherishing the moments out here in viru. Writing a little later today, we had to have a surprise moveout. We got kicked out and had to find another apartment real quick and move out. Haha just kidding it was a little more planned out than that. But we love our new pad. Fresh paint of yellow in our study room. 

Elder Henao is one of my best companions Ive had out here, we are turning this place upside down. Siento un poco amargo that ive been forgetting so much to take more photos out here, especially our family home evening groups we have on mondays and the other hoots out here. 

One lesson learned: is turning our thoughts always to virtue. When I think of the Atonement and the infinite ability it has to make us more happy in this life, it truly lifts me and makes me so much more happy. I feel a buoyant peace when I think that I can be free of my errors and sins each day I make them, and I can look forward to that relief. It is truly amazing. The adversary is sometimes so good at trapping our thoughts that we are never good enough, that we will never get better, and tempts us to go back to our old ways like dogs to their vomit. But I know that through the sacrifice of our Lord we can turn into new people. 

Its a slow process out here in this area, to be honest. There are many less actives as I said before I think. Recently we found the ex-branch president of the branch here that was president 16 years ago, and has been inactive since we was relieved. He has gotten himself into a little trouble with addiction and I can see the healing process take place in him. It brings me much hope. We said a prayer with him last week, and he offered it. After a thoughtful prayer, he looked up at us with his squinty eyes and said in his rough, farmer peruvian voice, "It´s coming off." He motioned to his back, referencing to the weight he has felt all these years. I know that if we try, we can all feel the same as that man Carlos. He´s the come back kid. So are we. 

We keep battling out here. We are seeing a lot of opposition in much of our work that puts us back, but we are trying. 

I love you guys! Have a sweet month of May. May the fourth be with you on the 4th. And enjoy cindo de mayo por favor para mi. Coman mucho choclo con pimiento y otras cosas mexicanas. 

Im still drinking lots of water. 

Elder Caldwell.

pics: cheesy ones.