8/3/15

"Behold, are not the things that God hath wrought marvelous in our eyes? Yea, and who can comprehend the marvelous works of God?" - mormon 9.16

Hi there fammy fam,

love you all. this week was a week of just hitting the pavement, and finding people. find, find, find. there is a huge difference in me as a missionary. from otuzco, where I was super terrified and shy, to here, where im really feeling more confident with just talking to everyone. its a change that is a huge miracle to me, I just love talking to people now. I feel like I mention a lot about miracles in my letters home. to me, miracles can be a lot of things. miracles to me are the small signs, tender mercies, that God is intricatley apart of our lives, and that He is doing his part. they are the marvelous works like in that scripture I shared, and truly it is hard to comprehend how many there are in a day. 

an experience I want to share this week is about finding. Elder Mollo and I were walking the street, keeping our eyes peeled, our spirits open, on who we could talk with. The street we were on was dead, so I decided to look at the doors and see what door we could knock on. (normally we don't knock on doors here, we try to get references) this week was a little dry from the references, so in fact we had been knocking a lot on doors. its not recommended haha. its hard, but funny as well. I noticed a sign on one door that said they were renting out a room. I mentioned to my companion, "hey lets go pretend we are looking for a room to rent just so we can contact this person." he immediately agreed so we went. an older lady answered, and she took us up to this super small room (it was terrible), but we felt we could talk to her about the gospel. we told her we were missionaries from the church of Jesus Christ, and that we needed a slightly bigger room to do our studies. she replied, "I know who you guys are." we asked her how.  she then relunctantly told us that she had been baptized in our church 40 years ago, and had been inactive because she had married a catholic. we were stunned. I looked at my companion, and immediately started telling her that we werent here by coincidence, that God was giving her an opportunity to return and listen to us. She declined us. I was super sad after that. I know it was a miracle to have found her, though it didnt even feel like a spiritual impression to knock on her door. God really gave her that chance, but she rejected it. I know she will have more in the future. I left that tiny room kind of astonished by how embedded, how personal, how intricately involved God is in our daily lives, even when we dont realize it. how marvelous his works are!

another thing this week. I probably have mentioned in the past one family we had been teaching, and the parents werent married. Giovanni and Harumy. well, they still arent married and didnt want to do so, so we had kind of dropped them for a week. friday night as an appointment fell, I felt the impression to go visit the family. we went apprehensively, not expecting much, but we were so so wrong. We got there, and the spirit was immediately there as we said a prayer and started talking. The mission is organizing a day so that there can be a lot of marriages. we invited them, again, to get married and they accepted. a miracle had happened. they knew that it was a commandment of God and they felt strongly about it now. I asked them why their answer was different, what had changed their mind. they told us that a family in the ward had invited them to come over for family home evening. they had had an amazing time to watch a family, grown in the gospel, share their testimonies, feel the love and unity in their home. I am grateful for that family, and how simple of an invitation it was to invite them to a simple event of family home evening. I hope we can all do that, and change lives, in a very simple, loving way.

love you all so much. it has been an amazing time in my mission here. i dont know if I will ever see that couple get married, or baptized, but I know they will, because the spirit had testified it to them. have a super good week, and keep the obeso leon family in your prayers. 

LOVE YOU,

elder caldwell

pics: eating helado con mi amigo. 

alleyway lurking.

ps: i had a dream that jeffrey r holland came to visit the mission and I took a selfie with him. we'll see if that is a prophesy. hahah

7-27-15

"Therefore, come unto me speedily with a few of your men, and leave the remainder in the charge of Lehi and Teancum; give unto them power to conduct the wair in that part of the land, according to the Spirit of God, which is also the spirit of freedom which is in them." alma 61.15

Tomorrow is the independence day of Peru! This week we celebrated much freedom. There are peruvian flags on almost all of the buildings out here, the streets decked out in red and white. It's also getting slightly colder at night, hallelujah. It's almost as great as America, haha.

We also celebrated the freedom of sins we could say! This week we were able to baptize our 4 investigators, Rafael, Yolanda, Ariana, and Laurence. Oh man the spirit was so wonderful. We had planned like I stated last week to have a Noche blanca on saturday, but Rafael wasn't able to that day so we baptized him the day before on friday. It was the most tranquil and spiritually charged baptism. No one could really attend from the ward, because everyone was working, so there was about 5 people. We got changed into all white, and we held his little baptismal service in front of the font. I stood up and gave a few words, and shared a few scriptures that had impacted him during our time as we taught him. It was a really personal time, as I mainly just looked at him the whole time I was talking. The words and spirit was flowing. We then entered into the font, and I was able to baptize him. As we left the font to go into the bathroom, I looked back to see him paused on the steps. He was letting some drops fall off of him into the water, and so I asked him what he was doing. He replied, "Well, I'm just making sure all that sin is off me." What a wonderful guy. This is a gospel of change.

Then came the next day.thechapel was chalked full of people, awaiting to see the baptisms of our wonderful 3 and some others from the other Elders. A lot of other investigators and people were able to witness the event of baptism, just like Christ did it when he was on the earth. Everything went so smoothly, and it was hard not to cry I was so overwhlemed with how grateful I was to able to do all this, and how much our Father in Heaven had provided us with. I hope we can just keep on working our hardest to keep finding prepared people by Him. He loves us so much. Through helping others, we help ourselves. 

We were able to hear some other good news this week (how could it get any greater( and find out that our great friend, hermano Segundo, a man we reactivated not too long ago had recieved his endowments. He shared of his great spiritual experience, don't worry not too in detail, and I have never seen a man so ready to share the gospel and just keep learning more. He just eats everything up and comprehends everything. Why am I so blessed to be in this area! 

I hope this week is a great one for all of you, I miss you all a ton but I know that this work really is of the Lord, and that he loves us all so much. This is His church. 

Loveeeee,

Elder Caldwell.

DC 58. 26 thorugh 33. read it!

PICS:

the flag of freedom

rafael, greatest man on earth

yolanda, laurence, y ariana

7/20/15

"Now, when I think of the success of these my brethren my soul is carried away, even to the seperation of it from the body, as it were, so great is my joy." 

I wish I could describe to you all the happiness I feel today, but the scripture I shared is close to it. Before I go into this week, though, let me tell you all a little about my new companion Elder Mollo! He is from Arequipa, Peru, and is 25 years old. He was 7 when I was born, haha! He is only a convert of a little more than 2 years. That tells you a lot right there about his devotion. As a new convert, and missionary, he understands the gospel very simply, and I love that about him. It's perfect to teach people. There is a great joy in simplicity I have come to discover, about everything. 

I have yelled with joy a few times this week at what happened. The week was difficult, as I tried to teach my new companion a little about our area and our investigators. We didn't get into too many houses, but the ones we did, we felt the spirit helping us. A miracle approached us at the end of the week. I know I have described before one of my favorite investigators and friends we have, Rafael. He is an amazing human being who's past is pretty much full of crime and jail. He had his baptism interview the otherday, and HE PASSED. HE'S GOING TO GET BAPTIZED. Never in a human being have I seen so much change in someone. He prays, he reads, he goes to church. And his life is changing, and will change even more as he takes this step to baptism this friday. Holy moly. Wish you could meet this man. He's doing all he can, and we are too to help him! We are so blessed! This is the smallest area we have in all of the mission, and I can firmly say it is the area with the most miracles. I think I only have a few weeks here left in this area and I pray I can do the best before I leave.

We, also, as a stake and mission zone, are having an event this saturday called White Night, the Noche Blanca. Around 8 to 10 people are going to get baptized all that day, including our wonderful 3 people we teach. Yolanda, Ariana, y Lauren. They are the best. I can't wait to you all can see the pictures of us in white next week! They are so stoked for their baptism.

We are so blessed to be able to touch lives as missionaries, and I know that not only the missionaries have this opportunity. Every member has the ability to touch lives the way we do. Keep doing the little things, and God will present you with opportunities to do so. 

Love you all, 

Elder Caldwell.

pics:

elder mollo 

and the most legendary, this guy, Juan Alba, is a pioneer of the stake I'm in right now. thomas s monson gave him the priesthood

7-13-15

Me encanta este escritura. "yea, and cry unto God for all thy support; yea, let all thy doings be unto the Lord, and whithersoever thou goest let it be in the Lord; yea, let all thy thoughts be directed unto the Lord; yea, let the affections of thy heart be placed upon the Lord forever." - alma 37.36. its the little things.

wow, this week though. I bet I say every week how great the week was, how it was the best week yet, but this week I really mean it! This week was just straight work. Elder Lloyd's already going home, and I have a new companion. His name is Elder Mollo! I hear he is from Lima. I'm ready for a fresh start and to have a native companion. Full spanish! 

and may I add full chamba! I can't even describe how much joy this week gave me. It seemed like the Lord wanted to help out my companion, and me, and give us motivation. Elder Lloyd for home, and me still for working in the field. Let me start with an amazing experience we had with the spirit. We were in a big street, knocking on a door to visit an investigator, but they ended up not being there. We were kinda just paused on the street, looking at our planners, thinking of where to go next. I looked up, and there was a mother and son chasing around their dog that had escaped from their house. It was kind of a typical scene here, so I didn't think much. My companion noticed it too. We hesitated, searched our feelings and decided together to go try to help this mother get her dog back inside. We succeeded, and the dogs name was boby. haha! We started talking to her, and she just started talking about her life. Everything she said, EVERYTHING she said was just chalked full of things we could relate to the gospel, and every problem she told us about could be resolved with living the gospel. The spirit prompted me to share my testimony and how Christ could help us overcome such obstacles, we just need to ask him and strive to act. She responded positively by saying, "I believe that. we need to put in our part to recieve answers" we were blown away. our thoughts were that she was straight gold! Then, out of nowhere, came her husband (theyre married!) and he told us about the contact he had had with the missionaries years ago. He dug out a dusty book of mormon and told us he read half of it. He told us he loved how clear it was, and also the testimony of Joseph Smith. We were on the verge of tears, it was such a miracle to find this family. Their names are Jenny and Edwin Soto Cueva. We invited them to be baptized on the 1st of August, and also sealed the next year. Elder Mollo and I are going to be working with them a lot, I pray that they can achieve their goals and feel the spirit blessing their lives personally and as a family. Man.

such greatness!!! love my life as a missionary. also, the other families we are teaching are progressing great. Yolanda and her grandchildren are going to get baptized next saturday. They want me to baptize all 3 of them. I'm a little nervous for that! But also so grateful to take part of that step of their lives. they read the book of mormon everyday! Yolanda, the grandma, has to read it with her giant magnifying glass because her eyes arent too great, but she takes a lot of time to read each day. What patience and diligence she has. The people of Peru are truly amazing, and I know there are people like this all over the world. The Lord prepares the way for these people, and we have to prepare ourselves to help them and reach this goal of eternal life. 

Well, I send my love to all of you this Monday Morning. I'm still waiting around for my companion Elder Mollo. I hear he is serious and likes to work out. Fine by me haha. Love you all so much!!

Elder Caldwell.

pics: elder passey my homeboy from good old mesa az. he ends his mission soon.

rooftop gazing with the other elders

7-6-15

Hola dear loved ones,

The division is done! I'm officially in a new mission, the south. Elder Lloyd, my comp, got a shocking call last week. His mission is ending 2 weeks earlier, due to the mission split and travel changes. Next week I'll be saying who my new companion is! How crazy. I'm excited and nervous for change, but I'll miss Elder Lloyd for sure. He has a great passion to be a missionary. But off he goes to see his family again.

Speaking of families - our week is all focused on them! And we can see the gospel touching their lives. In our area we've never seen such success on finding families and having them as our main investigators. The Lord is woking behind the scenes 24/7. As such, we have a lot of baptisms coming at the end of the month. I'll tell a little about these wonderful brady bunches. Rafael and his two boys - our ex-convict investigator! He's come to church 4 times now and is ready for the change in his life with baptism. Yolanda Chavez, her mom, and her 2 daughters. She is the inactive mom we found through the temple - who is now completely active in the church and is reading the Book of Mormon daily. We also bought some books of Mormon in like drawn out pictures and stories easy to understand for her kids, for her daughters. They are a prized possesion to them. And also our new family, Giovanni and Harumy. the couple that randomly got interested in listening to us. they are very sincere. we're going to try to get them married before anything.

I wish I could take more time and write all of my feelings and details of the week, but this will have to do! I'm feeling the joy of the work and of the families.

With the passing of President Packer and Elder Perry, I noticed something - they both bore fervent final testimonies about the family and the importance and happiness entailed within. "Family is the center of life and is the key to eternal happiness." - Elder L. Tom Perry.

I love my fam bam, and though we aren't perfect in no way, and no family really is, through living the basic principles of the gospel, all will be made right.

Love you guys! hasta el proximo.

Elder Caldwell.

6-29-15

"O God, Aaaron hath told me that there is a God, and if there is a God, and if thou art God, wilt thou make thyself known unto me, and I will give away all my sins to know thee, and that I may be raised from the dead, and be saved at the last day. And now when the king had said these words, he was struck as if he were dead." - alma 22:18. kind of the theme of my week. Prayers have power, and I have tried to really just improve my personal prayers, and my connection with our Heavenly Father. Even the simplest of prayers, like this one, can change so much. Even it converted this king and the whole lamanite nation in the end. 

This week was a good one to us. We worked hard, didn't see to much results number wise but I felt so much of the spirit, and that's what truly counts. I was so grateful to have this abundance of the spirit, and we can owe it to our prayers, the temple, and just doing to simple things like living the commandments. 

I felt the spirit in one home. The door to this family and home is usually closed to us, but the spirit had worked on the mother of the home, and she let us in. We were casually trying to see if a convert was in this giant apartment building he lives in, and he wasn't. but they're neighbors were, the whole family. The sister, Harumy, looked at us for a second and told us to come in. We sat down with the entire family and taught a short lesson about prayer and our purpose as missionaries. Usually these people have never had interest in us before, and it was a shock to be able to enter into their home so freely. Since then we have visited the one more time, and we continued to feel the spirit guiding us as we testified of the Restoration. These are precious moments!

We said goodbye to my first mission president and his wife, Pres. and Hna. Marler. They have helped so much this last year, and I feel so close to them. They will be presiding over the Trujillo North Mission, and I will be in the Trujillo South Mission under the guidance of Pres. Rios. He will be great to have though, and I'm excited to have a new president and recieve so many more experiences. I'll be having to speak a lot more spanish!

I remember when I used to go on splits with the Elder's back home. The spirit with them was so strong, and everytime I went home after only have been one hour with them really touched me. Sometimes I feel like as a missionary this is just kind of my job. But these past few weeks, I have really felt more of the love for the work, and the desires to just keep progressing and moving the work forward. This is a huge answer to prayers for me! To have such great role models, like those elders, my friends on their missions, my parents, and of course our Savior, is helping me and I feel all of their examples as I apply what I've learned from them. I know we can all feel this, and feel the love for others and feel the love for God as we strive to do the little things everyday.

Thanks for everything, the best of weeks this week!

Love, Elder Caldwell

6-22-15

"Normal life is temple life." - Dieter F. Uchtdorf at the temple dedication.

Yesterday, we had the time of our lives. some elders waited for this their whole mission, I waited almost a year. but wow, how great it was. We were able to participate in the temple dedication and watch as President Uchtdorf came down to Trujillo along with David A. Bednar and other authorities here. The spirit poured out on us in our stake building with other faithful members, along some of our converts and people recently reactivated. Now the real work starts, getting people to go to the temple itself and do the work for their dead. Woo!

For that reason, the week went super quickity quick. We also got the privilege to have with us 2 elder's who are going to end their missiontomorrow, stay with us the whole week and proselyte with us. They used to be our zone leaders, Elder Zacarias and Elder Winterton, and boy it was a learning experience to be with them. It was also really funny too. Our house is a mess now. 

One experience I'd like to share from this week occurred in the middle of the week as I was our proselyting with Elder Winterton. We were out in the morning, the sun beating down on us and we were trying to find just someone to teach! like always. Everything fell through and we were without a plan basically. Right as we got rejected at a door, I looked down the empty street to see a member of the ward on his bike pedal to us. He is a super quiet guy, we never have talked to him much, but he stopped by us to see how it was going. We told him what was going on, and he mentioned a reference he had for us, in fact in his house. This angelic man took us to his house and we met the caretaker of his 2 old parents, Rosemeri. She's from a small village in the mountains, close to where I last served in Otuzco, and has had little education. We are now having a marvellous time teaching this small, honest woman principle by principle the gospel of Jesus Christ. We have to explain everything as if it were to a child, but there is a sort of beauty teaching like that, and learning like that. That was a great tender mercy we witnessed in a difficult week.

We keep chugging along here, doing what we can do. I pray for you all, and hope this week is especially good. We are super blessed as a church and as a people to have such wonderful leaders and prophets who guide us in a hard world. They have what we need to survive. 

loveee,

Elder Caldwell.

(sorry no pictures my computer is a little lame today)