Hey Family, Hey guys hows everything going? It was good to hear from you this week :( Well i understand things are a little busy. You should plan on writing me every Friday because sometimes i will be writing Saturday and sometimes other days in the week but if your write me every Friday i will get it every time no matter what day im writing. Well the rest of the week went pretty good. Its definitely flown by. Since the last letter I wrote things have gone really well. We were supposed to be getting home from our super long road trip this morning but instead we came home on Thursday night. We met up with President Manning in Cañete to do a Multi-Zone conference and he saw that my companion was sick and sent us back to Lima to rest a little bit. It was a very tiring road trip. I was with 10 different companionships in 10 days. It was hard to adjust to so much change in so little time. My focus has changed from helping investigators to helping missionaries and its definitely a big difference. I had an awesome opportunity to return to my area in Cañete for a day. It was the best day of the whole trip. I saw one of the families that i baptized and now they are giving lunch to the missionaries every day. They are the pension of the missionaries. And they promised me that they would go to the temple to be sealed next July! It was awesome to see them again! Not only that the dad of the family whose name is Oswaldo came with us and introduced us to his friends and neighbors that night. It was Awesome! They are the greatest family ever. I cant wait to see them get sealed in the temple in a little less than a year. Anyways other than that today we ate doughnuts for breakfast it was awesome. Having a good time. Im not rested up a little bit and feel a lot better. I got a little worn out on the road trip, but also had a lot of fun. We were able to learn a lot from the missionaries and get to know almost the entire mission. This week that is coming i think i will be writing on Monday or Tuesday because we are going to the furthest part of the mission called Ayacucho to do another zone conference. We have to take a plane to get there. Weird. So i think we will be a little busy next Saturday but still just write me on Monday night. But just write me ever friday night Actually write me as soon as you read this and then write me again on friday night. Because im using my email almost every day to communicate with president so i can read emails i just cant write any to you. And send me the recorder i want to hear everybody. And have you been able to get into my BUUH account? And why havent grandma and grandpa written me.... I really want to hear from them. Or at least give me their email address. Welp thats all love you all and miss you tons bye bye Your son
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
AUg 20th, 2011
Aug 6th, 2011
Hey mom and dad and family
Well just so you know my prep day has changed to Saturday. From now on i will be writing you on Saturdays and if for some reason im not able dont worry too much ill be writing you soon. So you should start to write me on friday nights now. Anyways how is everything at home going? Good i hope. I hope you all have been taking the boat out and stuff. And i really hope that you are enjoying every moment of summer because im freezing down here. Its really cold. My feet just dont get warm. Now that im in Lima its a lot colder than it was in cañete. Its not snowing or anything but it sure feels like it should be. But im going to enjoy it now while i can because when summer comes around its going to be really hot. Anyways life as an assistant is a lot different than a normal missionary. We live in a carpeted apartment with a kitchen a washer and a dryer. Its pretty awesome. Oh yeah and it has hot water. And its an apartment complex with a weight room. So to say the least this is the area of Peru where only the richest of the richest people live. Its pretty insane. But everything is super expensive. There are also stores that are like Safeway, Well its not Safeway but something similar. And hey have things like milk and cheese and ice cream. So this week I've been eating ice cream, french toast, cinnamon toast, and grilled cheese sandwiches. Oh yeah and pizza too. Its been pretty cool. Its really cool to be in contact this much with President Manning. He is a spiritual giant and its cool to be around him as much as I am. Unfortunately this week things aren't going to be so comfortable. My companion and I are going on a trip for a week to visit three zones in the southern part of the mission so we wont be back until next saturday. We will be leaving monday morning. As far as actually teaching, we do have a proselyting area, but ive only been there once for an hour so we really dont go there that much. Anyways thats about all thats going on here. I definitely miss Cañete. It was an awesome area and Ill actually be going back there for a day later in the month in order to do a zone conference there. So that should be cool. Well thats all thats going on here. Im learning and eating a lot. Sometime soon ill start a diet to loose all the weight I've gained here.
Elder Hesselgesser
August 1, 2011
Hello Family and friends
Well this has been a pretty insanely crazy week for me. We spent basically the whole week traveling all over the entire zone and doing baptismal interviews. It was a lot of stress and a lot of things went wrong but a lot of things went right too. As a zone we had a great month and we have improved a ton. After getting done with some baptismal interviews on Saturday morning President manning called me and told me i was going to have a change. He called me here into the office to be an assistant. So basically i just got changed away from the best area ever to the office. Wel i probably wont be in the office that much i will probably be traveling a lot but i wont be in my area anymore. To be 100% honest im really scared because i just had a ton of responsibility put onto my shoulders and Im not even sure exactly what im supposed to be doing. In short im a little scared. But hey where the lord calls he provides a way. I just have to learn a lot of stuff really fast. On the upside i live in a building in down town Lima. I live on like the third floor and our apartment is carpeted with a kitchen. Oh yeah and Hot water. And since we are in the rich part of Lima American food is obtainable. So that will be fun. Well I hope everything is going well at home. We did have another baptism this week. It went really well. Im really sad that i had to leave my area because i had a lot of fantastic experiences there. I hope that everything goes well for you miss you all tons.
Bye
Elder Hesselgesser
July 25th, 2011
Wow well this has been a bit of a difficult week. But a good one as well. They cant all be great i guess. But we did have a baptism so that was really great. It was a lady whose husband died three years ago from Lucemia and she has a three year old little girl. I had the great privilege of baptizing her and she just came out of the water with a huge smile on her face. She was super happy and very excited to be a member of the church. We have basically run out of investigators. We have to go back to finding to be able to have more people to teach. But thats alright its a lot of fun searching for people. Other than the baptism nothing to out of the ordinary happened this week. I sent home the voice recorder and it should be arriving soon. I had to take out the batteries so it wouldnt weigh very much because it costs a ton to send things from here. But yeah you will just have to put in new batteries when you get it. Also it would be cool if you can record some Keagan and Carter and grandma and grandpa because i havent seen them in forever. Tyler sent me a bunch of pictures and i loved them thanks a lot. I cant believe how big Keagan is getting. He looks just like Tyler did when he was little. And Carter i dont hear much about him but i assume hes a pretty cool little baby. Anyways Update me on life and it would be cool if you could send me some pictures of the boating. Also some pictures of the house because from the pictures that kelly has sent me it looks like
it has completely changed. Also some pictures of some of the other new babyes in the family would be cool if you can get a hold of them. Thanks a ton miss you all bye bye
July 17, 2011
Hello friends and family. Well this has been another great week in the mission. Each one seams to pass by faster and faster. This week we baptized a family. A really awesome family. They are pretty much the type of family that every missionary dreams of baptizing. It was awesome. It was a family of four a dad a mom and two daughters. Their names are, Oswaldo, Yenny, Kristina, and Zaida. They are pretty much the best ever. Their baptismal service was a really powerfully spiritual. The next day the four of them were confirmed in the sacrament meeting. So that was definitely the highlight of the week. If everything goes well there will be three more people getting baptized next week. We are praying a lot for every one of them and we know that with the lords help everything is possible. On thursday we went to a house in the middle of a bunch of farm land and we basically knocked it down. It was pretty cool. We had shovels and sludge hammers and we just went at the walls until the whole house had fallen down. And it wasn't that small either. So that was a really cool experience. Im loving the mission right now and working hard. Im trying to not be satisfied and to just keep working and the more we work the more the lord is blessing us with success. We have truly seen a lot of miracles here. The changes are in two weeks. I dont know if im going or staying but regardless of what happens i will never forget what has happened in this area. I have learned so much and have been able to grow a lot. Instead of writing more this week im just going to load up pictures and let them do the talking. Love you and miss you all. I could use a letter or two from my friends once and a while :) TJ
July 11, 2011
Dear Family and friends,
Well i really dont know where to start for this week it has been a really really great week for us. We have learned a ton. We are in the middle of a big change here in our zone. Where i am right now in cañete 4 months ago was basically the Dead area of the mission. Nobody was having any success. Since that time we have been working really really hard to change that. We have had a lot of changes here and have been working really really hard to get the zone to a new level. Every tuesday we have a meeting with the district leaders to plan what we are going to do to help the zone improve and what we are going to do in the district meetings. This week we talked and learned a lot about faith. We realized that we were working without faith and that we weren't doing as well as we could be. We set a goal as a zone to baptize 36 people before the end of July. This is a zone that baptized 3 in March and 3 in April. So we went out and did everything we could between wednesday and sunday to increase our faith to find the prepared people to be baptized in the month of July. We had an absolutely amazing experience. In my own area we saw miracles. We had strangers showing up to church and other people asking us if they could be baptized. I honestly couldn't believe it. The Lord has worked so many amazing miracles here in this area and I dont know what we have done to deserve them. In my time here i have been able to recognize that as missionaries we basically dont do anything. But its the Lords work he does it, and as long as we are obedient and diligent we will complete our portion of the work. I have seen so many miracles in my area alone. yesterday was just a day of miracles for us. For example the money that we needed for the month of July had not come to the bank yet, we had to pay a fast offering, but i also needed enough money to pay for my bus pass to go do some visits in a village far away. I also needed to give a fast offering for a fast we had done earlier in the week. Then while we were at church i found 10 soles more in my backback! Exactly what i needed. That was pretty amazing. And that was the least of it. Yesterday three people came to church that we have never even taught before. Later in the day we taught two of them and one of them started the visit asking when she could get baptized. The both of them accepted a baptismal date in July. I´ve found that when we humble ourselves and search for the help of the Lord in the work that is his, he will either guide us to the people he has prepared to receive the gospel or he will guide them to us. Up until now we have had the great opportunity to participate in two baptisms this month. We have 10 more scheduled before the end of the month including two families. I am honestly living the mission dream right now. People are falling to the sky that want to follow Jesus Christ. We had 13 investigators in the chapel on Sunday! That just shows you something. Well between wednesday and today the zone worked very hard and with faith was able to find 33 people in 5 days and place them with a baptismal date. now we are just praying and hoping that each and every one of them can make it to their date and be baptized. My companion is a good missionary and we are working really hard together. We hardly have time to eat. Today we are going to travel to play soccer with another zone that lives about an hour away. Welp i hope that everything at home is going well because as of now everything here is going great. Thank you for all the thoughts and prayers i need every single one of them. Prayer is a very powerful tool in missionary work. Well i think thats all for this week i hope everything up in the states is nice and summery because im freezing down here! hahaha goodbye With faith everything is possible.
Elder Hesselgesser
July 4th, 2011
Dear Family and friends Well this week has been a pretty good week. Still extremely busy Time is just flying by. The weeks go by like days. And this week im sure will go by even faster. It has been a really good week though. The family i wrote about last week is doing really well. They are all really great people. Its amazing the change we have seen in them since the first day that we met them. Their names are Oswaldo Jenny Krisitina and Zaida. Oswaldo and Jenny are the parents. Kristina and Zaida are their two daughters. The four of them are going to be baptized on the 16th. Its been a lot of fun to see the way that accepting Christ in their life has helped them so much. I have been thinking and reflecting a lot about where true happiness in life comes from the last few weeks. I feel that i have found the answer. The big broad and obvious answer is that true happiness only comes from God. All type of worldly happiness doesn't last long and basically just makes us happy for a little and then we end of just a lot sadder afterwards. Being in this environment here and seeing so many people and talking with so many people every day, It is so easy to distinguish between who is happy and who is sad. And with about 100% of them their level of happiness in their life right now is based on the decisions they made when they were young. If they made good decisions they are happier. If they made bad decisions they are sad and a lot of times in really difficult situations. In the poorer parts here just about every girl has at least one teenage pregnancy. And they have to live with the concequences of their actions for the rest of their life. Instead of studying and progressing to get out of the poverty that they are in they just stay the same. Anyways in reading and searching the scriptures i´ve found that happiness comes from two really important things. number one is obedience and number two is the words of christ. Ill tag on the scripture references at the end. Anyways i have a ton of pictures today we also had a baptism this week of a girl that had a ton of problems. But we have also seen a huge change in her as well. Its amazing how much the Gospel of Jesus Christ has helped her and given her hope in her life. Thats all for this week. Ill try and explain the pictures. Love you all Elder Hesselgesser
June 27th, 2011
Hello Friends and family,
You will have to excuse the short letter last week. I didn't have too much time. This week was actually a pretty good week. I am still enjoying where i am very much. I really like my area. Its a really cool area. But its still in the middle of the desert and it never rains. The winter months are here so the weather is a little dreary. Its a little cold too i have to wear a sweater at night to keep warm. Theres no such things as air conditioners here or heaters so we just learn to live in the weather as it is. Daily life here is super busy. i dont think I've ever been so busy in my entire life. But it has helped me to be able to be more focused on what i want to do. It should help me a lot in college when i get back. Well We had a super cool experience yesterday with a family that we are teaching. They are a classic peruvian family with parents that work 12 hours a day 7 days a week. They sell fruit juice in the market. We challenged them two weeks ago to not work on sunday to just leave it completely and
that God would bless them for doing it. It takes a lot of faith to do that because Sundays in Peru people that sell on the streets sell triple what they sell on a normal day. So that is a big step of faith to just leave it. Yesterday the four of them came to church as a family and last night we visited them. It was then that we realized that yesterday was the first day they had ever spent together as a family. They all just had huge smiles on the their face and were so happy. They are an awesome family. It takes a lot of faith to do what they are doing. They are planning on being baptized on the 16th of July the whole family. Its amazing how the gospel can bring families together and its amazing the change we have seen in this family. Its awesome! So that was the great way that we ended our week. right now we have baptisms scheduled for 4 of the five weeks in July and all of the investigators that have a date in the first three weeks are progressing. So we should have a really successful month again like in may. Well thats the hope at least. We have the goal of 10 for the month of july. thats about all thats going on here right now im loving every minute of it but definitely missing summer at home. Its a different world down here. I now realize how much i had when i was a kid. And the kids here dont have anything. But in many ways they are a lot happier than the kids in the states. Its pretty amazing. Happiness does not come from material things but from a persons relation with god and with other people.
love you all
feel free to write me i havent received a letter in a while
Elder Hesselgesser
June 13th, 2011
Dear family and friends
well this week has been yet another successful week here in San Vicente de cañete. I really love my area and am having an absolute blast right now. Well its a lot of hard work but im loving every second of it even the hard parts. I can honestly say that we are seeing miracles happen here almost every day. I am so amazed at the trust the Lord has put into our hands at this time. Every week we are finding somebody new who is prepared to recieve the gospel. Every week we are having more and more success. Right now we have 10 investigators that have baptismal dates and i can honestly say that each and every one of them was prepared for us and that we have been guided to each and every one of them. Im am truly amazed. There are trials and its not easy but when there is success its awsome. We have investigators that are truly having amazing spiritual experiences and recieving answeres to their prayers. Its really awome! I really dont know what else to say i got a package this week! thanks a ton you have know idea how much i needed new insoles. My shoes are in more or less good shape but the insides were just torn apart. And know i feel like im walking on clouds with my new Dr. Scholls haha. The Zone leader things are keeping us super busy there is zero minutes of extra time durring the day. Sometimes i wish the days were longer so we could teach more people. The weather here is really cooling down. Its now going into winter and im starting to be really cold. Theres no such thing as heater or AC hear so we just live with what the weather is like. Right now im sleeping with a blanket and sweats a sweatshirt and a hat at night to keep warm. Its working pretty well. Its not exactly a washington winter but its pretty cold. Theres always a cloud layer over the town but it never ever rains. Every once in a while early in the morning it will be like midsty but it does not rain here. Ever. Its nice compared to the hot summer that we had before but its a little too cold i would say. anyways other than that things are great here. My area is huge and there area great investigators in every part of my area. We spend a lot of time traveling to get to little neighborhoods that are in the middle of nowhere. Something different about peru is that nobody lives alone nobody just builds their house alone like we do in the states. everybody has neighbors. They form groups of people called pueblos that live together. and so we have to travel far to get to some of the publos here to visit. But its okay i really like my area i hope i never leave. Thats all Ive got for this week hope everything is well in the states. Hope everyone is having a good summer. Love TJ
June 6th 2011
Wow well this week was yet another eventful week. Its amazing how much has been happening and changing in the last few weeks of my mission. First of all on Monday last week we went to the beach. Im not going to lie that was really awesome and a little depressing. The two senior couples that are in our zone brought us hot dogs and we made a fire and cooked hot dogs and smsmores. It was fantastic. Then we played soccer on the beach. It was probably the funnest Pday i have had since ive been here on the mission.´ Then that very night we went back to the room showered got ready and President Manning picked us up in his minivan and took us down to a town called Chincha to stay for the night. We stayed in a hotel that was pretty much unbelievable. Well it may have been somewhat normal for states standards but compared to what i have been living in here it was paradise. And the best part was it had hot water. Im pretty sure itook the longest and best shower of my life. And the beds were super comfortable. So that was fun. Also president manning took us out to a super expensive restaurant to eat dinner so that was pretty cool as well. After staying in the hotel for the night we traveled another hour and got to a town called Pisco. there we had a leadership training which was pretty cool. We got back late that night. So for monday and tuesday we weren't in our area at all. Then on Wednesday evening at 6 we had to go to Lima to a Zone leaders council. So we spend Wednesday night traveling as well. Then on Thursday morning we had the zone leaders council until about 4 in the afternoon and we got back to our area about 8 at night again. So basically we were traveling every day from Monday until thursday. Friday and saturday were great days of normal work but sunday was very different. There were presidential elections here in Peru and on election day by law every peruvian citizen has to vote and no church or any type of organization can hold meetings on election day. So We didnt have church yesterday. We were also not able to contact in the streets in order to avoid any problems. So instead we just visited a bunch of investigators and members. The work here in our area is going really well. Unfortunately in our zone its not going so well. We seem to be one of the only areas in this zone that can have any success. But im really enjoying the success that we are having. I have never been so busy in my entire mission and im loving it. We spend every minute of every day running from house to house to try and visit everybody and even then there isnt enough time. We have even considered cutting our pday way short to be albe to go and visit more people. Right now we have 8 investigators with a baptismal date and we have plans to invite more in the weeks that are coming. Peru is fantastic im having the time of my life down here. I just hope i can stay where i am for a while so i can keep on working the way i am right now. Love you all and miss you a ton Elder Hesselgesser
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
May 30, 2011
Hello Family, Well You could say that each and every week just gets crazier and crazier. I have absolutely no complaints. We have so many awsome people that we are teaching and we find even more new people every week. Its really quite amazing what is happening here. Im not sure what it is but there has been a huge change in this area and in the zone. In March and April the entire zone baptized a total of three each month with 12 missionaries. In this month of may we baptized 13 and we baptized 8 in the area that im in. And we have lots more that will be coming in June and July. The only thing that is hard for us is we have so many great investigators but not enough time to teach them all. Its basically impossible to teach all of the good investigators that we have. So its a little painful in that respect because unless we could be in two places at once it would be impossible to be able to teach everybody. So we are just trying to get to the best of the best and even that is proving to be hard. Like i said i love what is going on in my area but we just arent capable of doing everything that we want to do. This week we had a family get baptized. Their names we Carlos the dad Mery the mom and the two kids Anita and Cristhian. There were a few minor difficulties but the important part is that they got there on saturday and were baptized. They were them confirmed on Sunday in the sacrament meeting. It was fast and testimony meeting because there is elections here next week and there is no church the sunday of elections. and in the sacrament meeting we confirmed the four in the family and gave their two little ones baby blessings. So that took up just about the entire sacrament meeting. It was pretty interesting. It was great to finally see the family get baptized. I had the opportunity to baptize Carlos Christhian and Anita. So that was awsome. Something ive noticed on the mission is that something always happens the last week before the baptizm that tries to prevent them from being baptized. Always something happens. Its just a matter of preparing the people so that they dont fall when thier trial comes. But the family got through and made to the waters of baptism. It was a neat situation. It was funny because after baptizing the little kid he screamed out, ¨You almost killed me!¨ So that made everybody laugh but things like that are uncommon. The last kid i baptized a month ago screamed Dont Drown ME! HAHA. Anyways we had a great baptismal service and a great week over all. As far as responsibilities go this week we have to travel twice to go to two different meetings. Its going to be a little hard because like i said we have a tone of people to teach and now we will be out of town for two days this week. So that will be a little bit difficult but im sure we will manage. Everything usually just seems to work out. So we will hope for that this week. Okay thats all for now Miss you all a ton i hope everything is going well up there in the states. We are working hard and having a lot of success. Miss you all a ton and i hope that everything continues to go well. Keep me updated on the news and feel free to write me any time. Love, Elder Hess
PHOTOS1. The family plus the missionaries (The senior couple helped them get married so thats why they were there)2. The family plus us again 3. The family
4. After being baptized with a few of the members
More pictures
1-3. are from when we got lost looking for a members house to eat lunch it was really pretty so we took pictures but we walked around for three hours in farm fields looking for the house.4. a fruit called granada its one of the wierdest things ive ever eaten
5. we moved the guy is the branch president he has amototaxi. Its the peruvian version of a car. hardly anybody has acar here if they have something its a mototaxi.
6. With a little shopping cart!
Sunday, May 29, 2011
May 23, 2011
Hello friends and family, Well i just finished the craziest week of my mission. Things just get crazier and crazier each week. We have an emergency change in the zone this week. My companion left and the companion of the other zone leader left and now we are companions and they combined our areas. They called us at 1030 at night and told my companion he had to leave first thing in the morning. It was a little sad because i really liked my companion and i only had one week with him. Its been a really hard week to try and combine the two areas and visit all of the investigators. But that was the least of what happened this week. The next day after having the change the assistants came on a surprise visit to our area. That was all well and good but we had to take some time out of our day so taht they could do some errands. We were in charge of organizing and setting everything up for a multizone conference on friday. Then on Saturday we got lost in the middle of a giant farm trying to find the house of a member for lunch. All in all we were walking for 3 hours. In the middle of a farm field. So that was interesting. Lets just say that this week has been a little stressful for me. But im doing relly well. The area we are in is having a ton of success. There is a family of four that should be baptized this coming saturday. Im really excited for their baptism because we have been working with them for a long time so that they could get to this point. Today we have to move rooms. Im going to live in a different house now. So that should be fun.
My new companion is Elder Bruns He is from New York. He is a really good missionary. I dont know why but i always seem to get american companions. Its almost unheardof to have to americans together in the mission but its the second time for me. But its all good we are working hard and having fun. We had 10 investigators in the chapel this sunday which was awsome. So im hoping that we have a lot of baptisms in the weeks and months that come here. Ive said this from the beginning but i really like my area here. Its a great area and has a ton of potential. We just have to work. This week has deffinitely been the most eventful and maybe the most difficult of my entire mission but i know when we have the challenges we get the rewards. Im hoping that today we will be able to rest and take it easy a little bit so that we can recharge the batteries a little bit. The weather here is starting to cool down quite a bit. Im now wearing a sweetter at night to keep warm. We are in the desert so the temperature drops a lot at night. But durring the day its normal. Everything is going good i have nothing to complain about jsut hope i can find an hour or two more durring the day to get some stuff done. Love you all tons, Elder Hesselgesser
May 16, 2011
Hello Family, Well this week has actually gone pretty well. All the stress was on monday and after that we could finally settle down and start to get to work. We had a really successful week. As an area thigns are going really well for us. We have a baptismal date for a family on the 28th and they came to church as a family on sunday and stayed all three hours. It was awsome to finally get them all there. We also started to teach a super old guy this week. he is almost deff so the lessons are funny because we are shouting at him so he can here.
There is a lot of great things happening here. Its been a little stressful trying to help all of the new elders in the zone. Two new areas opened up here so the Elders dont have any idea where anything is. But its all a part of the process. I really really like my new companion. His name is Elder Fuentes he is from the northern part of Lima so hes not too far from home here. He is a really good missionary and is helping me out a lot. The only bad part is that this is his last change so he is headed home really soon. But hopefully we will be able to do some work while he is here. Nothing too crazy has happened this week i have just been working hard and very busy. Sorry for the short letter but i dont have a ton of time. One of the snior couples in the zone bought a ping pong table so we are all going to go and play ping pong today haha welp thats it miss you all tons and see you all later. Elder Hess
May 9, 2011
Hello Family Well this week has been extremely eventful and just like every day in the mission a learning experience. On Tuesday we had a meeting with the zone leaders and surprise surprise the assistants came without letting anybody know beforehand. Apart from that one of them came with me for the day. So i had a surprise visit from the assistants on Tuesday and he stayed with me until 11 in the morning on Wednsday. He told me on Tuesday that i needed to go to a meeting for all the zone leaders in the mission the next day. So the next day i got together with the zone leaders from here and we went to Lima together. We got there at about 8 at night and had time to go out to dinner. The mission office is in the richest part of Lima. Everybody that has money lives in this part and if they have money they have a lot of money. So all the restaurants in this area were super expensive. We went to a mexican restaurant and payed a ton of money for a tiny bit of food. The wierd part was there was more english speaking people in the restaurant than spanish speaking. It was really wierd. Im not used to being around other people that speak english. That night we stayed with the office elders in their house. They have an entire floor of a skyscraper as their house. So it was cool to be able to look down on the city from up high. The next morning we left super early and went to the temple. The temple was fantastic like always. I enjoyed it very much. After that we had a zone leaders council. And for lunch we had pizza hut! that was awsome. It was a really interesting experience and i learned a lot.
On Saturday night the changes came and more than half the zone left. In one of the areas president took out both of the elders and put in two new ones. It was really crazy and im not exactly sure how its gonna work but we will make it work. We have a lot of work cut out for us this change to get things going here. Im hoping that we can get the work going here because its been dead for about 6 months now. To complicate things more im not even companions with the other Zone leader. Im not exactly sure how thats going to work but its going to be a little difficult. On saturday two of our investigators got married. It was stressful trying to put their reception together but everything turned out really good. And at least, they are now married. Well thats been my life this week hope everything is going well for you miss you all and love you and happy mothers day!
May 2, 2011
Hello family. Well this week was a really crazy and hectic week here. I was to say the least sressed to the max with all the things that we had to do. We were after a lot of effort able to baptize a family of four. we have been working with them really hard for for about 4 weeks to help them be baptized of saturday. We had to plan all their interviews and baptisms and confirmations and coordinate with the leaders of the branch so that everything went according to plan. To say the least it was stressful. But it was great to see all of them as a family be baptized together on saturday night. It was a pretty special baptismal service. My birthday went pretty well. I didnt really do anything to celebrate. We were helping a couple of investigators get married that day so thats what we were doing all day was helping get a reception and everything ready for them. At night we went to my pensionistas house and she had bought a cake for me and they sung me happy birthday. After i blew the candles out they all smashed eggs and flower over my head. Thats a tradition here in peru is if its your birthday they crush eggs over your head. So after that pleasent experience I ate my cake and we went home for the night. Thursday we went up to Lima because my companion had a doctors appointment. He also had an appointment with the optomotrist. While we were there i had the guy look at my eyes and got myself a pair of glasses as well. On sunday we were able to confirm the whole family that got baptized a family of four. Then we gave babies blessings to the two babies in their family. We also helped give a babys blessing to another baby in the ward whos dad isnt a member. To say the least there was time for only two testimonies after all of that and one of them was the dad of the family we baptized. It was something really special. It was neat to finally help a family get to baptism together. Thats all thats going on here miss and love you all Elder Hesselgesser. Pictures
1. Me and the sunset cañetano
2. The bride the groom all their children and the wedding cake
3. Me and the wedding cake
4. Me and the birthday cake.
5-6. Me covered in eggs and flower. (My birthday present)
7. The family and us all dressed in our baptismal clothes
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