October 25, 2010

Hola Buenas Tardes

Well I have found that the mission for me so far is simply a large helping of humble pie.  Odr like 20 large helpings of humble pie. HAHA but anyways its been fun and difficult these last couple of weeks.  I appreceate all of the encouraging words in the emails thanks
so much it helps a lot.  

So  none of the members here can say my name so a select few of them have decided to rename me. I am now known to all of the single young adults and the woto family as Elder Vanhelsing.  HAHA  yeah why?  I have no idea.  There are about as many dogs on the streets here as there are people.  And since there is no grass the dogs like to leave their feces in the middle of the roads and sidewalks.  Its quite unpleasant but i am ajusting to that. Usually the dogs are pretty calm but every once and a while one will get a bunch of them all pumpled up and they will come running after us.  The further up in to the hills we get the meaner the dogs yet. When we are up there at night they hide in dark corners where we cant see them then jump out at us and scare the living daylights out of me.  But yeah im sure ill get used to that too.  

This past sunday without any warning in sacrament meeting the bishop announced that i was going to be giving a talk.  I didnt even know what was going on all i heard was the bishop say some deformed version of my last name and my companion start cracking up next to me.  So yeah that was an interesting experience.  Giving a talk i had not prepared for in a language i dont know how to speak.  But as far as i know it turned out alright.  

Anyways as far as the food goes I cant complain too much. So far i really like it.  Sometimes its a little bland but it is usually quite tasty. Except the fish.  Its not as good as moms home cooking but it is good and it is filling.  And sometimes they feed us ALOT.  But thats cool with me because it turns out i like to eat a lot haha.  

The one thing that is really hard for me is that in the mornings and evenings and nights here it gets quite cold.  Our room has no heater or ac or nothing so we just have to adjust.  But we dont have any hot water either so that makes it really hard in the mornings when its freezing enough to begin with.  My feet usually dont warm up until after noon.  unless we are climbing the hills then they warm up sooner.  Our apartment is small with bunkbeds a bathroom and not much else.  Its good enough for me i have no complaints about that.  

This week has been a rough one.  We had one investigator with a baptismal date run out on us.  She is randomely leaving for two weeks.  And the other one we had didnt go to churhc yesterday.  And the last two days every one of our appointments and backup plans failed.  So we havent
been able to do much teaching but we were able to do some contacting. Its not easy but its improving.  Im definitely happy to be here and to be in the Lords work.  I just need to work on my patience with the language i know it will come i just want it to come as fast as possible.  

But yeah anyways If you want to send a package keep it small.  Idk what i want.  Ohenrys would be awsome.  Ive been craving them.  But be creative.  Theres nothing i desperately need right now. My address as far as i know is the mission home i have no idea what my street address here is.  They do things wierd.  But yeah anyways thats whats going on with me this week keep me updated on sports and world news and stuff i have no idea what is going on in the world.  Miss you all a bunch and love you.

Oct 18, 2010

Once again sorry about the weird format. It must be how his email is set up!

Hello everybody!

Well this week was my first in the field.  It was a wake up and welcome to real life eye opening experience.  I feel really stupid because most of the time anyone speaks to me i have no idea what they are saying and I have to have my companion translate from me.  My companions name is Elder Leon.  He is a nice guy.  Weve been working hard.  

We live in the middle of a hill in an area of Lima called Pamplona.  It is a really poor area.  Most houses have nothing but cement floors and walls.  Some dont even have that.  Its crazy what epople have to live in here.  We do have a pensionista.  We go to her house for food twice a day.  The food is alright.  My body seems to be taking it really well which i am thankful for.  Its a lot of bread and rice and a little bit of meat.  They also always have a hot drink for breakfast and dinner.  Its kind of a nice thing.  Except there is always one hot drink that makes me gag every time i drink it.  Other than that the food is pretty good nothing to complain about.

Everybody is really nice to the missionaries.  Its just hard because half the time i have no idea what is going on at all.  I did get the oportunity to Commit someone to be baptized my first day and she said yes so that was kind of cool.  She has a date for the end of the month.  Most people let us in their doors.  We dont do a whole lot of prosoliting right now because we are trying to sort through the investigators and see which ones will progress and which ones wont. There are a lot of eternal investigators.  

We live in the middle of a hill with big steep hills on both sides of us.  Ill try and take some pictures.  We have been doing a lot of teaching.  A lot of people like to tell stories but if its not gospel related then i have no idea what they are saying.  It is really frustrating sometimes.  I just have to stick to it and keep working through the hard times and i know the
language will come.  

I do miss sweets.  The food here is real bland. I have been craving sweets a lot.  I miss the days of being spoiled with treats every day in the MTC in Provo haha.  But im doing alright its going to be hard for the next couple of months i know but im trying to perservere.  

The people here are way nice they all are loving and usually let us in the door.  If not they just come up with an excuse they usually arent straight up mean.  And a lot of people feed us which at times worries me because sometimes i have no idea what im putting in my mouth.  Yea Ill write more next week love you all thanks for the emails keep em coming

Love

Elder Hesselgesser

October 6, 2010

Hello Hello!
Well this week has been awesome
General conference was great they had an English broadcast for us! So that was awesome.  It had me thinking a lot of howun grateful I am for all of the wonderfully influential people there are around me.  Especially my family and more
especially my parents.  So thank you thank you thank you I cant describe how thankful I am for all of the valuable lessons you all have taught me. I feel like I am the most richly blessed child on this earth.  And that is because I was blessed with loving parents and family so thank you thank you thank you I love you all so much.  And anyone else that has helped keep me on the path that has lead to me where I am right now You have my thanks.  All my church leaders friends’ family and family friends thank you so so much. 
So this week I’m going to tell you a little bit about my new teacher hermano casanova.  He is about 4 foot 8.  Ill try and get some pictures with him.  But he is really really funny.  We played basketball with him yesterday and the best I could Describe playing with him is playing with a shin high brick wall. Instead of running into him you just trip over him ha-ha.  But yeah he is a pretty awesome guy.  And he speaks way fast Spanish so it is helping with my understanding of the language.  
Well a week from now I will be in the field I leave in 6 days next Tuesday.  I’m really excited to get out of hear and finally put into practice everything that I have been learning.  It will be hard I know but might as well get the hard stuff over with
now.  
Oh also those missionaries that were singing in the priesthood session. Three of them that were in that choir were from my old district.  Talk about extreme jealousy!  Crazy.   

Well also I want to talk about Elder Russell M Ballard’s Talk a little bit.  He said that every member should be a missionary.  I talked about this before I left but just remember to always look out for opportunities to share the gospel.  Think of how it has blessed you’re lives and don’t pass up  any opportunity for other people to feel the heavenly joy and hope that we have
felt.  For you mom and dad I want you to know that you are every bit of a missionary as I am.  Your support of me will allow many people ( I hope ) to come unto Christ and feel of the love that he has for them. 

For anybody that was in any of my Spanish classes at high school I want you to know that I heard Dimelo playing while I
was in the store today.  So it turns out that Enrique is as popular in South America as in the US.  HAHAHA anyway I miss you all a tons next week should have some good stories.  Feel free to send letters! 
I will be sending pictures home in about two weeks or so.