Thunderstruck

Well, another week in the books! Elder Nelson and I are working hard and getting stuff done. We now have 12 investigators with a baptism date, and we are working super hard to help them progress. One of our new families we found is a mother and her son. She is 58 and her son is 20. The mom, Feliza, used to be Catholic and worship the Saints and the Virgens and what not, until one day she was praying to the Virgen and was literally struck by lightning. So she kind of took that as a sign that God did not want her to be Catholic and she has been searching for the truth ever since. She has also had like 3 different dreams in which she has seen Jesus, and as we were teaching the 1st lesson with Joseph Smith, she told us, hey, this is exactly what Jesus told me in my dream! So she and her son have a baptism date, and they are golden haha.

President Zobrist gave a talk yesterday for District Conference, and based it on 1 Nephi 2:15 "and my father dwelt in a tent." He talked about how significant that scripture really is. We know that Lehi was a wealthy man, and that he enjoyed a life of comfort, yet as soon as he was commanded to leave Jerusulem, he did, and lived with his entire family, in a tent, in the middle of the desert, because it was God´s will. That scripture, as Pres said, is an indication that we need to be humble and live according to the will of God. It was super interesting, because I had never thought of that scripture in that way. 

Thank you for your love and support, I love and appreciate you all!

Elder Matheson

getting a ride back to town...aka..hitchhiking

deceased cow.....

there are some large spiders in Peru

Pedregal

Hey, what a week here in Pedregal! Getting used to the area is kind of interesting for sure. This area has its own unique challenges and difficulties, but i already love it here. there are 6 missionaries in this little branch (4 elders and 2 sisters) and we all share a pension and live on the same street. it really is super awesome to see the other missionaries so much, and they are all awesome. Most of the missionaries in our zone are gringos. Of the 16, only 6 are latinos. This zone is huge too. some of the missionaries have to travel like 2 and half hours to get to any zone meeting. We actually get extra money in this zone because we have so many travel expenses. 

My new comp is American, Elder Nelson, and he just finished his training. we get along just fine, no problems with that. he is kinda quiet, and super smart. we call him google because he knows just about everything haha. he knows pretty much zero spanish though. so i have teach pretty much all the lessons and contact all the people and what not. its tough at times, but i am learning so much and realizing that my spanish is actually a lot better than i thought it was. 

we are working super hard to find new people, and the people we have found are awesome. we had one guy just show up to church with a friend, and after the meetings told us, i like this church, and I havent been baptized, can i get baptized in your church? why yes, yes you can. Give us a few weeks to teach the kid and he'll get baptized haha. 

we have been waking up everyday at 545 to go to the gym, and it feels awesome. and its super hot here so i might lose a lot more weight here...

keep us in your prayers! love you all!

Elder Matheson

Transfers!

Hey everyone! So the big news of the week is that I got transfered. That´s right, after almost 6 months in one area, I am gone, out of here. And as much as I was hoping that I might get transfered, when we got the call, I was so sad to leave. I dont know if it is because I was ¨born¨ there in Chachani or not, but I have a really special connection to all the people I have been able to work with and help out. I spent most of Sunday going to say goodbye to all of the members and my converts and what not. It was seriously one of the hardest things I have ever had to do. We had a Farewell meeting in the zone last night too. We all had a chance to get up and say a few parting words, and it was a real sob fest, let me tell you. Elder Dayley, Elder Larsen, and Elder Moll are all from my MTC group, and we all had the chance to be in the same zone for the first 6 months of our missions. And we are all leaving together. Saying goodbye to all of my friends in the zone was just so hard. But that is the mission. In a way, it was almost harder saying goodbye to Chachani than it was saying goodbye to my family, not because I love the people in Chachani more than my family, but because I know I will see my family again, but most likely wont see anyone of the people I love so much in Chachani again. 

So I got transfered to Pedregal in the Siguas zone as the senior comp. I recognized the name of the area when they told me, because I guess it´s the ¨punishment¨ area in the mission. They havent had baptisms here for a while, and their numbers are all super low for some reason. My new comp is Elder Nelson, he´s a new missionary who just finished his training. I literally got here like an hour ago so I havent had a whole lot of time to talk to him, but he seems like an alright guy. I am nervous to be the senior comp, but I can tell this area needs help and I am ready to work hard to get this kid a baptism. i know the Lord will watch over us as we go forward in this work, and that as we work hard, we will see blessings. This will be an interesting change for sure haha. 

I finished my time in Chachani by working hard and trying to find more investigators for Elder Ramirez to teach. Another elder from my group, Elder Heaps, came to replace me, and the kid is a stud, I have no doubts that he will take good care of my beloved chachani. 

Love you all, have a great week, pray for Elder Nelson and I!

Elder Matheson

Marching on

Well, time is MARCHing on, as we are already in month 3 of this year. Seems like it was just yesterday I skyped home, and now we're more than half way to the next call home! 

The rain is slowing down, and the sun has come out finally. My shoes are dry and poop is no longer running through the streets of Arequipa. It still kind of smells though. We are working hard to try to find new investigators, because the ones we are teaching right now really arent progressing. They are super Catholic and refuse to accept anything that is not Catholic. The problem here is that a lot of people say they want to listen to us, we take an appointment, go back the next day-- nobody is home, they went to play soccer, they're washing their clothes-- long story short they're just floreando (saying a bunch of crap). But, I know that if we keep working hard to find these people that we will find people who are truly interested in the Gospel and are willing to progress. 

We had 2 baptisms this week! Alexandra and Janeth. Deyvis had a date for this week, but I felt like he wasnt ready so we postponed it a little bit longer. Hopefully this week we can get him baptized. The baptisms went well, and they were both super excited. 

We killed the family ducks this week. They were quacking too much, so the only solution was to chop off their heads and eat them. My comp apparently knows how to cook really well, so he prepared a classic Northern Peruvian dish. One of the ingredients is beer (dont worry, we cook all the alcohol out of it), but when he open the bottle, it exploded all over us and we kind of smelled like beer the rest of the day. Thankfully we didnt have to teach anyone the Word of Wisdom yesterday haha. 

Well, that was my week, it was a good one, hope you all have a good one!

Love,

Elder Matheson

'Merica

Hello fam! So this week we had an awesome activity as a stake. We have missionaries from Peru, Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, Mexico, and the United States in our zone, and each country made some typical food and had a presentation about how the Church is in our country. We gringos went to town on some pancakes and the Peruvians loved it. It was really cool to see all the other countries and their cultures and what not. Very apart from having the opportunity to preach the gospel, I have loved being able to get to know people from all over the world. Really a cool experience. 

We should have 3 baptisms this weekend! We just need to finish up a few things and it should be a done deal. 

Cant believe there was a flood in the house! Although knowing our family, it doesnt surprise me a whole lot. Is the damage reparable? Also, I am sure Christian is livid that he literally lost thousands of dollars with that YouTube vidoe haha.

So.. we kind of had flooding problems too. It rained so hard last week that the sewers overflowed, and there was literally raw sewage running through the streets of Arequipa this week. I WALKED THROUGH PERUVIAN POOP FOR A WEEK. But happens sometimes haha. Also, my pension figured that because I survived mata-gringo, that not only am I immune to it, but that I like it. So she served it to us again. And I emerged victorious again. It really is nasty though. 

That is my week, love you all!

Elder Matheson

6 months!!! I might need a life jacket!!!

First of all, happy 6 months to me! Cant believe that it has already been that long in the mission. I know I have a lot of time left, but it feels nice to know that I am not super super new anymore. But, as good as it feels to have 6 months under my belt, I looked at this brand new hermana missionary in my zone who has been away from her house for like 3 weeks, and realized that she would still go home before I do. And that was a depressing thought. Elder Larsen and I celebrated the 6 month mark just like all good missionaries should, by burning some ties that Elder Perez left. It was a good day!

Elder Ramirez and I continue to work hard. This transfer is half over, and I'm scrambling to try and get these people that we're working with baptized just in case I leave in 3 weeks. I'm just trying to work hard and not think about transfers! Because I know that the more I want to leave, the longer I will stay, that's just the way things work haha.

So we had stake conference this week, and an Area Seventy came to visit, and he gave some great talks in the Priesthood meeting and also the general session. The church is so weak here. We have 3000 members in the stake, and 700 are active. In our ward, there are 800 members on the records, but only about 150-200 come to church. Out of the people who are baptized, only 15-20% will stay active. It's depressing, but everyone has there own agency and we have to let them choose. 

It has been raining raining raining. Yesterday there was so much rain that a river was formed in the street. Some idiot in a taxi thought he could drive through and he and his car were swept off a cliff. My shoes are also wet and have been for like a week, and that is not so fun. 

Sorry, no crazy food stories this week. Just a lot of rice and a lot of chicken. Normal stuff. Not really a week of highs or lows either. Just a week of working haha. I got my package this week! Awesome, loved it. We had some extra time after lunch a few days ago, so I built my lego cat (finally had time), munched on some animal crackers, and played with my coloring books. Love you all, hope you all have a great week! 

Elder Matheson

Semana de Milagros

Well well well well what a week this was! We had our zone conference and our zone leaders promised us that if we devoted every ounce of energy to our work this week that we would see miracles. And oh, did we see miracles this week. Let me just start by saying that last week, our next possible baptism was for the 21st of February. We had 2 baptisms this weekend. We baptized our pensionistas niece, who has had quite a rough life up to this point. She is 20, a single mother, and is struggling financially. She had heard from the misisonaries before but it never really interested her. Most of her family are members of the Church, and this week, we got a call saying that she watned to hear from the missionaries again. We talked to her Tuesday, and she told us that she wants to get baptized as soon as possible, and that her motivation was for her 8 month old son and the fact that her cousin had returned from a mission not too long ago. She was baptized Saturday. Then the bigger miracle happened. We got a call from Rircardo, who we had lost contact with for more than a month, and he showed up at Diana's baptism. After, he told us that he received an answer to his prayers that the church is true and that he needs to go on a mission, and didnt want to wait any longer. So at 7 saturday night, we wisked him away to the zone leaders to get a baptismal interview and he was baptized early Sunday morning. Pretty awesome weekend for a missionary haha. 

Some other big events of the week, Rodolfo cut his hair! After rocking a pony tail for most of his life, he showed up at church with a solid missionary hair cut. He and Guido will be receiving the Mel priesthood this week and I guess he decided it was time to get a new haircut haha. Things continue to go well, and I will continue to work hard here in Chachani until I get shipped out of here. Although there was a missionary who was in this area for ONE YEAR in his mission, so I could be here a while haha. 

Love you all, take care!

Elder Matheson