September 28, 2015

So this week was good. We went to the Huacachina and it was super awesome.

um, yeah. We did exercise like crazy this week so that was good. We have some awesome investigators that are progressing really well so we´re really excited and everything is going super good.

Fasting was awesome, 10 out of 10 would recommend.

sorry today was even shorter than last week, THANKS FOR THE EMAILS

I love you!

Elder Mitchell

September 21, 2015

So sorry I just like to spend all my time in internet like on lds.org and stuff so now I have like no time.

Everything is going AWESOME! The work went REALLY REALLY well this week and after 8 weeks and I´m still basically in love with my companion. So glad I got 2 transfers with him. 3 will be unlikely but maybe maybe.

Um, yeah. We still do excersize just like crazy all out every day and today we just killed ourselves again with chest and arms so that was super cool. We taught a new investigator last night whose name is carlos that´s just the coolest kid on the block.

Probably the greatest thing about the mission is just LEARNING HOW TO LOVE PEOPLE. 10 out of 10 would recommend.

We´re going to the Huacachina today, go look it up on internet because it´s gonna be awesome.

I LOVE YOU GUYS

Elder Mitchell

September 14, 2015

So this week was not super eventful. Actually I don´t remember really anything so it´s probably just going to be a disappointment.

Sometimes I haven´t told you is that we´ve been doing a lot of exercise. Like, we get up at 6 every day, then we run like a mile, then we lift weights with a member in like his back yard for 30 minutes, then we run the mile back to the room. So that´s pretty exciting. The other day we helped him grab one of the chickens the member had so my companion could hold it by it´s feet while the member chopped into its neck like some kind of barbarian to kill it for lunch while the poor white kid just stood there absolutely horrified but whatever.

Actually that´s everything that´s happened. Except the pension bought a new puppy and it´s my best friend and we had that baptism but that´s it :D

Sorry I used all my time already lo sientooo

Love you, team!

Elder Mitchell

September 8, 2015

So first off, transfers were this week again because 6 weeks just went by real quick. Gonna have explain some things before telling you what happened so you´ll understand.

So where I am in Ica is a place called Tinguiña. Tuinguiña is the very furthest our part of Ica, so it´s the poorest area and most of it is just dirt and sand, but that´s ok its still awesome. We share  a ward with another area of missionaries. The other area is called Parcona. The ward is called Achirana. So like, our two areas make up the ward Achirana. Our areas are connected. So us and the missionaries in Parcona have been really good friends and we´ve been spending time together basically whenever we can find time and  we call each other all the time to go do stuff for p day and for coordinating the missionary work in the ward and stuff so we´ve been really close. Also, both of our areas are pretty huge. At least a good 30 or 40 minutes to walk across each one. I don´t know distances I´m sorry.

Anyways, so what happened in the transfer is they closed Parcona. So they took out both of those missionaries and sent them to other areas and left us with all of their investigators and everything. So now our area is just absolutely incredibly massive and we don´t even know how to navigate half of it. Yesterday we spent all day moving the other room´s furniture and everything to our room to store it so that was super exciting sitting inside of a 3 wheeled motorcyle with a mattress on top holding on to it so it doesn´t fly away with another guy from colorado (who´s super awesome). Actually the whole thing was improvised but that´s okay. There´s probably going to be a baptism on Saturday for someone that we don´t even know because the poor guys missionaries just got taken out so sad.

Everall everything is going really well. I get along better with my companion than any of my other ones I think. I don´t even know why maybe we just connect or maybe he´s just humble enough to put up with me or something but either way we´re basically breast buddies and everything is awesome.

Last week I had agreed to play the piano for a relief society activity so on sunday I had to do that. It actually went really well even though I forgot to play the second page on one of the songs one time but that was mostly it :D Then afterwards they set apart a missionary who´s leaving on a mission this week. The bishop like leaned over to me during the program and asked me if I could play called to serve and I was like "well I haven´t for a long time but I´ll do it anyways" Then they did like a whole program thing and it was super depressing because the missionary is the only member of his family and his mom and sister were there and they were just crying like crazy and they didn´t understand who all these people were supporting their son or why he´s leaving them or anything and it was the worst but he´s pretty excited and has a ton of support from the ward and he´s just incredible so everything was cool.Then they invited all returned (and current) missionaries to come up to sing call to serve and I played and everything went really well and everyone was all excited and it was super strong and awesome and fun and yeah.

Had one of those moments where I looked into the mirror this morning and realized I´m going to be 20 in like 2 months and how it´s weird because I actually feel like I´m almost 20, I guess the mission just kicks your butt until you get mature enough to not die emotionally so that´s always exciting :D

Good to know I´m coming home to texas instead of Switzerland just because that would be a ton of stress so thanks so much :D

Everything is going great! Super excited to start this new transfer and everything!

Thanks for all the support,

I love you guys!

Elder Mitchell

August 31, 2015

So this week was actually very eventful and I´m going to try to cover everything and I have a ton of things to do and no time but I´ll do it all anyways asldhañlihgasdgf

So Monday we didn´t actually do hardly anything. What happened is that we left from internet and went to like a huge mall place to go to papa johns to eat lunch because that´s all we ever do, but when we got there we saw there was a whole family of white people. Then I remembered that there was a missionary who was going to come back to visit peru with his family that week and turned out that it was them. So me and another american missionary went over and were like talking to them and turns out they were from lindon and I got unfocused as buns just talking to them and their peru experience. Poor people had South America take advantage of them in horrible ways but I think they had a good time. So we were like talking to them for a while and their son was actually in the area that i´m in now like a year ago and I knew that we were going to have like a "ward mission night" at the church with them that night. We ended up going with a less active and it was neat but idk nothing super special. The dad started crying and everything was super presh so yeah.

Tuesday they ended up coming over to eat lunch with us with our pension. So we got there and they showed up and we were like talking and everything and THEY ARE SUCH NICE PEOPLE and so we just had the greatest time speaking in english for a really long time and that was just the greatest thing that has ever happened to me ever in my life. They were basically the most Utah Mormon family you´ll ever see in your life and it was super refreshing  I told them my family was leaving me to go to switzerland and that i had no idea what was going to happen when I got back so they offered me to live with them for a few days when I get back while i look for an apartment or whatever. I gave them my email and they sent me this letter this week:

   Hello Elder Mitchell!  We made it home after 24 hours of travel safely and are grateful for our experiences there in Peru.  Brother Lundberg and I wanted to extend an invitation to you that when the time comes to move to the Provo area we are happy to help pick you up at the airport or give you a room to stay while you get situated here.  Just let us know if we can help.  We want you to be able to relax even though your family won't be near so you can focus on your mission and know everything will work out when the time comes for the next chapter in your life.
        Take care and thank you for your service to the Lord and the people of Peru.

Sis. Lundberg

basically the greatest people ever, so yeah.

WEDNESDAY I woke up at 4 AM, got everything ready and in a hurried scramble got everything ready and took a taxi to the center of Ica where a bus came to pick us up for the 5 hour drive to Lima for the meeting with Elder Bednar. There were 3 missions (North, West and South Lima) that attended along with the Peru MTC. So basically Elder Bednar is the greatest person I´ve ever met in my life even though I was on the very back row and could't really see him but that was okok.

Main things that he said that I think would help you people:

 Don´t take notes, if you write everything a speaker says then you´re impeding the spirit from teaching you. Write what the spirit says instead. I tried it. It works.

Another interesting thing is how many times he started a sentence with the words "in the culture of the church..." He has very strong feelings about how many silly things we do in the church (he used the word "stupid" but sister bednar didn´t like that :D)

At one point somebody asked him "how can somebody be more firm in the gospel?" or something like that. He replied by saying "Go buy a cheap, paperback copy of the book of mormon. Read throught the whole thing, from the first page to the last page, and every time you read something about being firm or constant, mark it. Then when you finish the book, take out a normal piece of notebook paper, and write a 1 page (1 face) summary of what you learned. Fold the paper in half and leave it in the book, then grab a piece of tape, put it on the spine of the book and write "firm" Then go buy another cheap, paperback copy of the book of mormon, and do exactly the same thing, with the summary and everything. Then take out both summaries and look at the differences."

Also he asked the translator one time "how do you say "to freak out" in spanish?"

He was super funny but really i learned so much and I´ve been having spiritual experiences all week since the visit.

After the meeting we left the building and got into a bus and drove another 5 hours back to Ica where we arrived at 11 PM, 11 hours in as bus, 3 hours waiting, 3 hours in a meeting with elder Bednar. Worth it.

ALSO, when I got into the bus I saw GEOVANA AND HER FAMILY THAT GOT BAPTISED IN PACHACAMAC and I was SO HAPPY it was INSANE! Like i was out of my mind to see them and they were super happy to see me and they took pictures and everything was just awesome. I LOVE THE PEOPLE SO MUCH I CAN´T EVEN EXPLAIN! So yeah.

Thursday (runnin´out of time here). So we had service in the morning and I ended up carrying buckets of dirt and sand and rocks up and down stairs for a while. We finished a little bit early so (it was also my 1 year in the mission) so I was like "hey, lets go run up that massive sand dune-mountain" that there is just like in the middle of the city.

So we did. And it was awesome. Just took a lot longer than expected because we kept sliding down but we made it up eventually. Then we ate pizza that night because celebration.

Anywayssss, I don´t have more time, so sorry.

I love you guys!

Hope you had a good week and I hope that this one is even better!

Elder Mitchell

August 24, protip, if you're going to go inactive, don't call the missionaries to tell them you're going inactive

So this week was mostly uneventful.

Monday we played volleyball again because that's all we do as a zone, but it's fun so I'm not complaining.

The proselyting went well but we finished the week with not very good numbers so that's disappointing but motivating to do better this week.

Yeah I don't remember anything else that happened like the whole week lolol. Saturday we had a baptism so I guess that happened. His name is Bruno, his mom is a recent convert so that's neat.

Sunday morning we got a call from a different recent convert named flor. She called and I was like "hello how are you" and she sounded not that good and she said that she was having problems emotionally and told me that she was going to stop coming to church and then hung up. So I didn't want to call her and didn't think she would answer anyways and then she didn't come to church. We went to go visit her after church like at night and she was just kinda panicing and stuff but we helped her to not make it a reason to stop coming to church, so that was neat.

Also in gospel principles we were learning about the word of wisdom and the teacher lady was talking about alcohol and how it it causes organ damage, drunk driving/accidents, birth defects and things like that. Then she talked for a while, then to verify our understanding she asked, "so what kind of things are caused by alcohol abuse?" and everyone started giving answers like accidents, organ damage and then somebody yelled "pregnant women" and I thought that was pretty funny but I guess nobody else was listening so whatever.

That's pretty much everything,

have fun in texas, tell me when you find out if I'm coming home to Texas or switzerland,

I LOVE YOU, TEAM

Elder Mitchell