Almost transfers

So, two more weeks until transfers! I have this feeling that I'm going to be leaving Chachani this transfer. I dont want to leave, because I've really grown to love the area, the people, the ward, my pension, everything. Our pension told her kids the other day that the Elders are their brothers and that we are a big family. And its kind of true, we eat 3 meals a day together and Sunday the entire family, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, the whole shabang, gets together to eat Sunday lunch, and I feel part of the family and they treat us like family too. It's interesting, our pensions parents, who we rent a room from, are not members of the church (they are VERY devout Adventists) yet they always tell us that we deserve the best they have to offer because we are sevants of the Lord. And then we have Jorge and Vanessa in the ward, we go there when we're hungry because they always feed us haha, and they are also awesome and love the missionaries and we love them. We went there this week and Jorge was super excited because his dream finally came true and he was able to buy a machine that makes plastic bags. I guess that's his job, and he says he can finally work from home and spend more time with his family and have more time to devote to his calling. Golden converts!

So this was a pretty normal week, nothing super exciting. Our investigators are progressing, but progressing pretty slowly. We are teaching this girl named Alexandra, who we contacted a few weeks ago, and she's been to church the last 2 weeks and is loving it. She's 14 and the other young women in the ward have taken her in as their own and she is loving it. As of yesterday she was going to wake up at 530 this morning to go play soccer at the chapel. She has a baptism date for the next saturday so be praying for us! 

So something super funny happened this week. This drunk guy stopped us on the street (not that unusual, the drunks love the gringos) and told us that we wanted to buy us a soda (not that unusual either), so we were like yeah, sure, no problem. So we went to the corner tienda to get our soda and lo and behold, our drunk friend had no money. He was trying to pay with his credit card, and that doesnt work here haha. The lady in the store kept telling him, look, you need money to pay. But he just kept saying, no its ok, I'm paying! Then he looked up to the sky and said, Help me God! Then looked the lady in the tienda in face and said, I'm paying now. He still had no money haha. So he told us to stay there, ran (as well as plastered Peruvian can) to his house and came back with the money and paid. He asked me if he could pay with Soles where I come from, so I told him I was from Antarctica and that we pay with snow. Should give him something to think about this week. I cant really do the story justice, but you get the point haha.

Hope everyone has a great week! Love you!

Elder Matheson

Happy 2015

Happy New Years everyone!!! Hearing from everyone, sounds like you all had a great New Years and that it was the usual crazy stuff. I spent my New Years sleeping. That's right, for the world, it was New Year's Eve. For the missionaries, it was a Wednesday, so we went to bed at 1030, woke up briefly at midnight for the sky to explode, and then went back to bed. New Years day, President wanted us to meet together as a zone to read 90 scriptures from the Book of Mormon that he selected. That took all of the morning and a good chunk of the afternoon too, and then afterwards we enjoyed a lunch together as a zone at Papa John's. Not a bad day! Elder Larsen and I planned out the entire month between when we get home and when we go back to school. Should be a pretty busy month if everything we want to do gets done haha. 

As far as the work here goes, we have so many investigators that are SO CLOSE to baptism, but just havent quite made the leap yet. We're working with a family of 4 that is unbelievably prepared. Senovia and Roberto, and their two kids Roberto and Camila. We taught them lesson 1, and had just got done explaining the first vision and how through the example of Joseph Smith, we learn how to receive answers to our prayers. Then Senovia told us that she too had the question of which church was correct. She told us that all the different people who knock on doors (there's a TON of Jehovia's Witnesses here) all tell her different things, but that one of them has to be right. So she decideded pray about it. She said that night she had a dream in which a man dressed in white told her that the next day she would get here answer. So the next day she was on a bus, and Elder Dayley and Figueroa, the other elders in our ward, got on the bus. Elder Dayley told me that as soon as he saw her, he felt like he needed to talk to her, and Senovia told us that as soon as she saw Elder Dayley she knew that he was the answer to her prayers. So they're solid--but not married. But they are willing to do it so we're working with them!

We're also working with this elderly couple, Eladio and Lucia. They've been living together for 28 years, and arent married either. Eladio is also technically married to someone else but havent seen each other for 40 years. Once again, they're willing to get married to get baptized, so we're working super hard with the ward to get things set for them.

Pray for our investigators!! They need help haha. Hope everyone has a great week, love you all!

Elder Matheson

llama!!!

with Elder Ramierz

on a bus...

Mount Misti

Losing track of the weeks....

Hey! First off, hope everyone had a great Christmas! Mine was pretty good too! It was super nice to be able to talk to you guys for a while. It was good to see that nothing has really changed at home--still chaos and happiness haha. Even though this was the Christmas I've been farther away from home than I ever have before, it might be the best Christmas I've had. It was simple, but it was focused on the things that matter most. We sang in the Plaza de Armas and it was so nice to see a lot of the missionaries from my group from the CCM and talk to them for a bit. 

So Guido and Belarmina got married this week! Finally! We spent most of Friday with them at their wedding along with a bunch of other members of the ward that came to show their support, including Jorge and Vanessa, an awesome family in our ward who we ate dinner with X-Mas eve. Then yesterday Guido, Belarmina, and their 8-year-old son Jhojan (pronounced Johan) were baptized. I was able to perform the ordinance for Guido and Jhojan and the husband of the RS president here baptized Belarmina. The RS president and their family have been so helpful! Literally dropping whatever they were doing to help Guido and his family get married and baptized. I was also able to confirm Jhojan, and I was super nervous because we went up in front of the Sacrament meeting and the bishop asked who he wanted to confirm him, and he said "Elder Matheson." So their, in front of the whole ward, I had to remember how to do it. But I did it! And it was a really awesome experience. It was the first blessing I've given in Spanish but the words just came really easy and I was able to convey what the spirit wanted me too.

So Rodolfo.. that guy is awesome. He blessed the Sacrament yesterday and is helping us teach Ricardo, one of our investigators. Turns out, they live like one block away from each other! We watched the Restoration video and afterwards Rodolfo bore a powerful testimony about the Book of Mormon and his conversion to the church. And when Ricardo gets baptized, Rodolfo is going to perform the ordinance. I feel like a proud parent right now haha. 

Anyways, hope everyone has a great week! Keep me posted on the sports world, and dont forget to write every now and then!

Love,

Elder Matheson

Almost Christmas - 12/22

Hey guys! So this was a pretty interesting week with transfers and having a new companion and all that jazz. So Elder Ramirez is from Chimbote, Peru, and is a really interesting guy. He is literally the Latino version of Nathan Dougal. THE SAME PERSON. They look the same, act the same, laugh the same.. its weird haha. He's super quiet and we dont talk a whole lot when we're walking around, but he's a great missionary. We go to work! This might not be the most fun transfer I have, since we dont have a whole lot in common and he doesnt talk much, but we work hard and get stuff done. In one day this week, we had more new investigators that we found than I ever had in a week with Elder Perez. He just knows what to say and knows how to get to the root of the investigator. I learn a lot from him every day! 

So a miracle happened today! When a couple wants to get married here, they have to go and present all the paperwork and then the person who works for the Municipalidad have to accept or reject the paperwork and set a date. Usually after presenting the couple we have to wait at least 21 days to get them married, but we presented them today and the set the marriage for this Friday! It really is a miracle. We taught them about fasting this week and we fasted for them that the birth certificates would get here on time and that the people who set the dates would be able to set the date for this Friday and they were able to do it! I know the Lord had a hand in this, because if we would have had to wait for another date they would have had to cancel everything, tell their family not to come and all that bad stuff. So they're going to get baptized along with their 8-year old son this week and we couldnt be more excited for them. Look for some baptism pictures next week!

Rodolfo is a stud. We bought him the D&C videos and he already watched all of them, including the Joseph Smith video and some other church movies. He told us that the night of his baptism he faced more temptation than he ever had before. He drives taxis for his job and said that night some guy got into his taxi and was offering him free booze, a chance to meet a bunch of women, and other pretty bad stuff. Then he told us, "I told that guy to get lost, I was prepared for the crap." I almost died laughing! And then yesterday at church in priesthood meeting the teacher asked when the Relief Society was founded. I was like shoot, I dont know that, but then Rodolfo turned to me and whispered "1842" and smiled at me. How does he know that?! He's been a memeber for 3 weeks!!! And then he was talking to one of our other investigators named Ricardo and church and was telling him all about the church and how much he loves it and how happy it makes him, all that. We didnt know any of that until we taught Ricardo yesterday and now he wants to get baptized too. I swear, Rodolfo might be the prophet one day. 

Anyways, that was our week this week, hope you guys had a good one too! Merry Christmas! Everyone look up the video "He is the Gift" on youtube or mormon.org, its awesome! Really reminds us what Christmas is all about!

Love you guys!

Elder Matheson 

with President Zobrist

Christmas skit???

Ahhhh...we found carpet!!!

Transfers

Hey everyone! 

I guess I'll start with the big news of the week-- transfers. We got the call saturday night, Elder Perez is leaving for Camana and my new companion, Elder Ramirez, will be coming later today to our area. I havent met him yet, but from what others have told me he's really quiet and doesnt like to talk a whole lot, so I might have to kind of lead all the lessons and initiate all the contacting and what not-- pretty much the exact opposite of Elder Perez. It'll be an interesting transition for me for sure, because I'm not really used to all that stuff, but... so it is in the mission! So I'll let you guys know how all of that goes this week.

So this was a pretty depressing week for the work here. We finally got the birth certificates for Guido and Berlamina from the Cusco mission.. but they werent the right ones. We're scrambling to try and find a way to get these brith certificates as fast as possible because we're really pressed for time t get them married the 26th, and they're letting all the family know about the marriage so we're kind of freaking out. All of our important progressing investigators didnt show up for their appointments or werent there when we went, but there are weeks like that in the mission and I'm confident that the next week will be better!

Well guys, wish me luck with transfers this week, pray for me and Elder Ramirez! Love you guys!

Elder Matheson 

elder perez with the skittles we sent him 

Derek's zone

scripture case that derek had made

Happy Thanksgiving

Hey peeps! 

So this was a pretty good week! We had 2 baptisms, and the one that didnt happen this week should happen withing the next week or 2. Rodolfo and Jenny were baptized and I was able to perform the ordinance for Rodolfo, which was a really cool expierence. Literally. The water heater for the font wasnt working so the water was freezing. Like numbingly cold. I'm glad I was only waste deep haha. There was actually one little girl from the ward who was also supposed to be baptized, but she didnt go down all the way so they had to do it again and she couldnt do it because it was too cold. So it will have to be another week for her. But the service went great and they're both super excited to be members of the Lords church. 

Thanksgiving was this week! I really didnt realize that it was Thanksgiving until that night when I looked at our calender and realized it was Thursday. I was able to spend Thanksgiving with Elder Larsen because we were on divisions again, and it was actually super nice to spend an American holiday with another American. We talked until like 1130 at night on the roof of our building overlooking Arequipa and all the lights of the city. We had rice and what I think was a chicken hamburger patty for dinner. I was expecting turkey and potatoes with gravy so I was a little disappointed haha.

So we're teaching a new family right now that isnt married. Guido and Berlamina, with their 8 year old son Johan and their 7 year old son Jhon. We went yesterday to teach them with our Relief Society President and she was awesome. They have all the desire in the world to get married and join the church and set a date for the 27th of December for their baptism and marriage. She took down ALL of the necessary information and told us she was going to take care of it. To get married in Peru, you need a birth ceritficate, obviously. But they dont have digital copies of them here and so to get your birth ceritficate you have to go to the city were you were born to request it. Luckily, we have someone who works for the mission whose job is to hunt down these forms, but still. Just another way Satan is working to slow down the work here.

So, that was my week this week! Emma, happy super late birthday! Theres an Elder her from Utah who finishes this transfer and I'm going to send some stuff home with him to send to you guys for all the birthdays and what not that are coming up, so look for that in the mail. Love you guys, have a great week! 

Elder Matheson

PS: cant belive its already december!!!!!

Week 15

Hey everyone!

This week was kind of slow numbers-wise, but it was still probably the fastest week I've had on my mission so far. We're working really hard with our investigators that have baptism dates for this coming Saturday, and with any luck they all get baptized! Nothing remarkable happened this week. Just a normal week as a missionary here in Peru. We did meet this one really cool family who we're teaching now, but they, like every couple in Peru, aren't married. Nobody is married! We've already been robbed of like 4 or 5 baptisms because people arent married. Satan really is working super hard to destroy the family. I'm hoping we can get these guys married so they can get baptized and enjoy the blessings of an eternal family. 

So something truly miraculous happened this week in Chachani. Remember how we have a bathroom under some stairs? Well this week an announcement was made that the desague systems are working now, so we no longer have to go under the stairs to take care of our business. We have a real bathroom now! That toilet under the stairs doesnt even exist anymore, they removed it and put some pretty plants there. Really makes the entrance to the house that much prettier haha. 

Anyways, this was a pretty boring week. Pray for us so I can send a whole bunch of baptism photos next week! 

Love,

Elder Matheson