6-27-16

times a tickin y tengo que trabajar duro.

I felt a lot better this week. God answers prayers! We opened our mouth a lot this

week and found refuge in some homes to teach the restored gospel.

I just looked over at what my companion Elder Kung Fu Panda was writing and it

made me happy to see that he is focused and dedicated. He was writing to his 

family quotes from Bruce R. McConkie and General Conference. I am blessed.

This week was funny. He is learning a little english and one night we were  walking

along the dusty Panamerican to somewhere and he said to me simply, "Walk is 

love. Walk is life." I just busted up laughing.

I feel the need to be frank and simple in all that I do, especially when teaching.

And writing this letter home. Im thankful for the Atonement and that it does

not simply erase our sins and burdens and weakness but helps us grow and 

master them. As my good friend Justin Moyer wrote to me "We are fighting Satan!"

I still got a ways to go but I love this place and the people. They enrich my life.

I dont have a special story I can recall right now but tonight for a Noche de Hogar

we are going to have a bonfire, its getting chilly here in Peru. We will talk about faith.

Ill send the pictures next week and more stories. I love you all.

Elder Caldwell.

6-20-16

hi

not sure what to say this week. haha. if I could I would take a picture of my face right now

thinking about how this is already my last transfer in the mission. its ridiculous. 

but here I am, and I cannot stop this train. 

elder gavidia was able to push through his foot problems with the miracle of a lot of ibuprofen,

ice, and foot cream to put down the pressure so we are back to working one hunnid percent.

we have been reading a lot about prayer together and in the manual they give us, Preach

my Gospel it honestly just rules at talking about how to get better in our prayers. I think

awhile ago I shared a quote that I liked. Prayer is like sitting before a warm fire. you dont

have to be smart to sit in a fire, or anything. you just sit there and soak in the warmth. 

I felt the impression this week to stop thinking about myself already. stop thinking about

my problems and just focus on others as much as I can. Im going to try to do that in my

prayers and truly pray for those we are teaching and serve them. and for you all back home too.

there isnt any huge memory that sticks out in my mind to talk about today, just we´ve been

working with a lot of less active members here (and believe me there are a ton) and yesterday

I had to direct the hymns in the branch so as I was in front I was able to look at everyone. 

I was able to see a man we have been working with for 3 months now who hadnt come to church

in years. Hanibal. He was happily sitted there with his wife and child and it struck me to see it 

and realize that he truly was making a change in his life. He tried to escape after the 1st hour because he was embarrassed (haha) but we were able to go out to his car and persuade him to 

sit with as another two. He came. grateful for the little things right now. onto another week!

Elder Caldwell

pics:

out in the boonies. found the soccer goal that looks like the scene from Walter Mitty when he plays futbol with the natives.

6-13-16

my friendskis,

we keep truckin along here. haha, its sad but humorous how my companion and I are falling apart all of a sudden. Elder Gavidia twisted his ankle and now walks with crutches so he can heal (or he will have to go home) and i still have some sort job in the bible kind of trial with many things going on with health. we are dealing with it though and learning the virtue of patience and long-suffering. a friend recently wrote me and said something that really rings true right at this moment: "the mission isnt what I expected it to be, but its what I  needed it to be." I can say the same. and Im sure a lot of you can say the same about just life in general.

rough times but just bearing and grinning it seem to be the theme of the lives of our investigators and all the other people we teach as well. I had mentioned Mirella recently I believe who just found out she is pregnant from her boyfriend, and she is utterly alone. now she is having problems with her boyfriend and we were able to sit down with them last night, and the rest of their fam. they live on a farm right by a canal so it was a perfect landscape to teach them and help them visualize the dream of Lehi with the tree of life, and the iron rod. They told us they havent been reading absolutely nothing and so we compared them and put them into this dream. we told them of how easily the vapors of darkness can come and get us lost and how we need to grip the iron rod, or in other words, the scriptures. a spirit of reflection of life and the seriousness of the matter entered into the room and they were pretty quiet after we read that dream with them. they commited however to read the scriptures every day, and I really am praying for them.

im happy for you all and love to hear that you are doing good, thanks for writing me. we are excited to keep pressing on. love you.

Elder Caldwell.

pics:

last pday we went to a castillo (castle) made out of mudbricks straight out of Emperors New Groove. We loved it and took many pictures

5-6-16

herro,

another week in the life. Ive accepted the fact that time is going by faster than I want it, and there isnt much I can do about it. Thanks for all your letters of support and love this day.

There are a lot of things that went well this week. We had a really stellar one, working with members and my kid Elder Gavidia is learning to teach better and better. Its all a process. Things were really looking up and after a sweet training I was feeling a lot more motivated and happy. Haha, then yesterday happened and I had some sort of stomach bug and it all went downhill, had to stay in the room all day but thats ok, what matters is that its over and I am becoming the more refined and better for it.

I know I mentioned this yeah awhile ago, about a mormon message I really like about the will of god. I couldnt stop thinking about it yesterday battling sickness and some discouraging thoughts and how God sometimes cuts us down like how sometimes we trim our grass or gardens. Its so we can grow to be better and bloom. An experience we had I think 2 weeks ago that I wanted to mention but I forgot kind of illustrated that with a Less active man we are teaching, Antonio. We hadnt planned to visit him that night but everything dropped and I thought, well lets go see him. We got there and let us in immediately really happy to see us. That doesnt happen often in missionary work haha. But he sat us down and we read a scripture with him about the importance of going to church. He broke down and told us how things were going so bad in his marriage and that his daughter was sick and he was blaming it on himself and he told us that this was the thing he needed to hear, to go back to church and try it out again. He then told us that he had been praying for days now so that he could find us so that we could give his daughter a blessing of health because he didnt feel worthy to do it. We did and he was so grateful. I was grateful for him, and that he was so sincere. I know God had cut him down in that moment, and he is in the process of growing into something much better. He came to church on Sunday. Im rooting for you, Antonio. If any thing can be changed, it is due to applying the teachings of Jesus in our lives.

Im thankful for the experience of the mission to teach me my weakness and to convert them into my strengths. And to help others on the way. Im still in the process on a lot of things, but I know that there is hope and happiness ahead if we just turn to Him. 

Only got a few weeks left. Its go time.

Elder Caldwell.

pics

forgot to take pictures again. But here is one with our lider misional. He is a swell guy.