Week Forty-Three and Forty-Four: Chao

So last week, I had at ton of stuff to tell you all so I wrote a really long, interesting, funny message. However, when I tried to send it...it didnt. I knew it didnt but I didnt have time to do anything about it. A few months ago, I would have flipped my biscuits but I have been gaining a lot of patience.

Anyway, Chao is dope. It is a small Cartavio-sized town that is almost the exact same distance from Trujillo in a southward direction that Cartavio was in a northward direction. It has a little bit more of a hustle and bustle vibe than Cartavio. It is in a different agricultural buisiness however. Instead of hearing nothing but fábrica, fábrica, fábrica, now I hear nothing but Camposol, Camposol, Camposol. Camposol is a company that grows and harvests produce which means men, women, and teenagers alike all get paid minimum wage to pick avacados, bananas, and asparagus all week.

My pensionista is AWESOME. Her name is Flor and we eat in her restaurant. Thats right 2 restaurants in a row. Her husband, Overt, is the brach president and she has two daughters, Keyla and Maite. I love this family. They are so cool.

I live in a room with 2 companionships of missionaries. We all live in Chao but E McClellan and E Muguerza go to Nuevo Chao everyday while E Walker and I stay in Chao.

E McClellan: He is from Brigham City, Utah. He is actually from my group. When I first got to Cartavio, he got to Chicama (a neighbouring city). We already know each other and we have a lot in common so we get along super well. We are becoming super good friends.

E Muguerza: He is brand new. He started his mission when I got here to Chao. He was raisied in the city of Chimbote which is actually in this mission about an hour from here. He left to Argentina and got baptized there so he sent in his mission papers and they called him back to his home. Its a little hard for him because he is an hour away from his mom who he hasnt seen in years but he is doing well.

E Walker: He is from Springville, Utah. He has 6 weeks less than me in the mission and he is still in his first area. That means that we will probably only be together through August but we are going to work hard.

This is the first time ever that there have been 4 obedient, hard working misisonaries here and President Marler, our branch leaders, and pretty much everyone expects to see a TON of growth here over the next little bit.

Well, I hope that that was long enough to make up for last week.

Fun fact: Right here as Im typing, the internet place is playing, "I Kissed a Girl"

Love you all,
Elder Gonzalez

Week Forty-Two: In Which I Reference the Cup Song

I'm going to write this first because I have a lot to talk about so I am REALLY sorry if I don't get to respond to some of your personal emails but I'll get there next week.

I. A thank you: Thanks a ton to team #prayforfleming. He was baptized on Saturday. His brother came up from Trujillo to baptize him and even though he and his brother are the only members, his whole family came to support him. He and his brother shared their testimonies and the Spirit was super strong.

E Flores, his brother, his mommy, Fleming, me

II. An anecdote: This Sunday, we had a meeting and so all of the local leaders were stressing over the World Cup. Our branch president leaned over to me and asked me who I wanted to win. I said Argentina because everyone in Latin America wanted Argentina to win. And he said, "I want Germany to win because one of the Apostles is from Germany and the pope is from Argentina." I laughed way louder than I should have due to the reverence of the meeting that we are in.

III. Crazy life changing news: I'm leaving Cartavio. Bum bum bum. E Flores is going to train a new missionary in my place and I am going to...Chau. Chau is a little town in Viru that is where E Flores came from four months ago. I'm going to his old area to be with his old companion that he trained, Elder Walker. ¡Qué locaso!  

That's about half of all of the crazy stuff that has happened this week but my head's not on straight because I'm half packed, and I have to run all over Cartavio to pass out photos with my name and email. But I think that they're going to miss me when I'm gone. They're going to miss me for my hair. They're going to miss me everywhere. They're going to miss me when I'm gone.

Love you all a ton. I added pictures of the current entries for the Elder Gonzalez Loves America Contest. Keep sending them in. Take care.

By Paul and Debbie Gregg

By my mommy

By Karen Gale

Elder Gonzalez

Week Forty-One: Proud To Be An American

Dear America,

You are a pretty great country. I missed you this week. I hope that everything is good over there and that you are still free and stuff. Thanks for Costco and for liberty. Sorry about Miley Cyrus and contamination and other reasons that people complain about you. I still love you America. I think it's cool that we pledge allegiance to our flag. I think that the US dollar bill looks a lot more like real credible money than any other piece of colorful paper that can be printed. I think that it's kind of funny how big and powerful we are and I'm glad to be an American. Most of all, America, I just want you to know that I sang the national anthem really loud in the shower on Friday morning.

Photoshop contest: Whoever sends me the best 4th of July/America themed Photoshop of this photo will receive a hand written letter from Peru. Oooh.

Week Forty: ...Interesting...

This week was pretty...interesting. Our numbers would make you think that we did absolutely nothing this week but we actually just did a bunch of things that aren't reflected in the numbers.

The district playing pool

1. We helped in a family history fair for three hours helping people find information about their ancestors.

2. We had a stake conference which here since all of the different wards and branches live so far away, turns into a valley conference. We held it under a tent outside and it was the most pioneery/early Mormony that I have ever felt to travel with the Saints and then hold a conference under a tent and sing hymns and listen to our leaders address us.

3. Hipólito Lezama, a 90 year old member of our branch passed away when he fell on his face in the bathroom. My companion and I: cleaned the blood off of him, dressed him, put him in the coffin, attended the viewing, attended the funeral, carried the coffin on our shoulders from the church to the cemetery and then sang hymns while they slid him into the catacombs. So that was pretty wacky.

The Cartavian army in route to the conference

Also, I don't know why but I think that the Church's "I'm a Mormon" campaign might be one of the coolest things of all time and I really loved this video: http://www.mormon.org/amos?cid=HPMO062314269

Until next week: Love you all and don't go to the bathroom if you are home alone.

Week Thirty-Nine: #prayforfleming

This week I decided that I am going to tell you about one of the people that I am teaching. His name is Fleming. Lets take a moment to appreciate how funny it is that his name is Fleming.

Fleming is a man in his fifties who has lived in Cartavio his whole life. He works in the factory (surprise) and also owns his own little shoe store. He is friends with our pensionista Ligia from high school and knows a lot of other members that work in the factory.

He is married but his wife and children live in Lima. His wife earns a lot of money at her job in Lima and Fleming earns a lot of money at his job in Cartavio. Neither one has enough faith in the relationship to drop everything and move. They are still technically together but they each want the other to move which causes a lot of tension.

Ligia invited him to church and bore her testimony about how much it could help him and how much it helped her when she left the father of her kids. He came to church and is loving the lessons. His brother is a return missionary so he can see several examples of happy active church members.

The only problem: he is starting to fall in love with Ligia. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. But seriously though. She would never even go on a date with him until he gets divorced but it just makes the situation funny.

He has a really goofy sense of humor. Our goal is to change him from the main character at the beginning of a Jim Carrey movie to the main character at the end of a Jim Carrey who has a good relationship with his wife and son while still being goofy. He accepted a baptism date for the 12th of July.

So pray for Fleming. #prayforfleming

Elder Gonzalez

Week Thirty-Eight: Three Ways to Open a Bottle Without a Bottle-Opener

Hey everyone,

This week was a good one. On Friday, I got to go to Trujillo to see Elder Whitney Clayton from the Presidency the Seventy and President Uceda from the Area Presidency. Both were incredible. They asked to shake each one of our hands and we each had a little one minute conversation with them and their wives. They talked to us about how to help people in a way that when we leave, they will be okay. A lot of missionaries have left a lot of people that have fallen away from the Church and are in all kinds of trouble. There isn't too much of a point in two years of service if the results aren't permanent. It was a great devotional and we have a lot of plans to improve.

Also, I thought I'd let you all know that I know three ways to open glass bottles without a bottle opener. One, with a fork. Two, with a ring. Three, with a door-frame. I plan on putting that on my resume.

Hope that everyone had a good Father's Day. Everyone in Peru just gets drunk a little earlier.

Love you all,
Elder Gonzalez

Week Thirty-Seven: Lack of Crazy Stories

Not a ton to tell you all this week.

We are living in Hna Ligias house for a month while we look for something else. It's a full house instead of the little room that I was used to but I'm trying not to get used to it. The bathroom is teeny and smells weird but we have a kitchen that we only use to brush our teeth and we are living in the front room, haha.

I've crash-landed on a strange planet

Crazy stuff happens every week but I never know how to tell the stories over email. So just know that when I get home, I'll tell you all about when we sang praises with an evangelist or when a man screamed, "MY MOMMA LOVES ME!" in the middle of a lesson or when I spoke at a funeral or some other crazy things that happened just in this week.

Until then, I'll just tell you all that you are cool and that I love you.

Elder Gonzalez

PS. RIP The Lonely Forest