Oct 6th, 2011

Hello Family and friends

Well this week was a week of a lot of traveling.  I went to the two farthest zones in the mission.  I went to Nazca which is basically like the hottest driest desert in the world.  There its 90 degrees durring the day in the winter.  You can only imagine what it would be like in the summer.  I had a good time there.  It was nice to be in the sun.  It was an 8 hour bus ride to get down there though.  The buses that go long distances in Peru are pretty intense.  They are two storied buses and they are huge.  We sat in the front seats of the second story so we had a panoramic view of everything.  That was neat.  We got to Nazca at about 930 that night and then went straight to the room of the zone leaders to get ready for bed.  It reminded me of
sleeping in Hawaii.  here in Lima it gets really cold at night.  I sleep with 3 big heavy blankets at night.  When i was in Nazca i didn't use anything.  It was nice and warm the whole night.  The next day we did an 8 hour long training with the zone.  Then after that we worked with the zone leaders in their proselyting area and went to bed again. The next day we woke up and studied like normal and then went to the bus station for another 8 hour bus ride.  We got to Lima about 7 that night.  We had to take care of a few things in the office then went home and went to bed to wake up at 300 in the morning the next day to catch an airplane to Ayacucho.  We got to Ayacucho at about 6:15 in the morning.  When we got there my companion and I changed and went for a little run.  Ayacucho is a city that lies at 9000 feet above sea level.  Im way out of shape and I've lived at sea level for the better part of the last two years.  To say the least i was breathless.  We ran to the top of a hill and got a view of the whole city.  It was pretty neat.  Wish i would have taken a Camera.  Supposedly it rains a lot in Ayacucho.  I was really excited because i havent seen rain in over a year.  But it didn't rain.  It was a little disappointing but thats alright.  After the run we got ready and repeated the training
we had done in Nazca.  By about 6 in the afternoon i was losing steam.  We worked with a couple of companionships in their areas for the rest of the day.  at ten thirty exhausted, my head hit the pillow and i instantly fell asleep.  Then we got up the next morning at 5:30 to
catch a plane back to Lima.   That was basically my week.  It was a long one.  I really enjoyed the general conference on Saturday and Sunday. Lots of fantastic messages.  I hope you were all able to watch it.  The talk from Elder Waddell was a lot of what he taught us when he was here.  Interesting.  Well thats all for this week.  Miss and
love you all.

Elder Hesselgesser

Sept. 24th, 2011

Dear Family,

Well im ending one of the most eventful weeks of my entire mission. It has been a really great week.  First of all on Monday we had Family home evening with a family in our ward.  their last name is Hooker. The dad of the family is a returned mission president and an area 70. That was a fun family home evening.  It was kind of funny because what he did was pull out an old powerpoint from when he was a mission president and lectured us on it.  It was pretty funny.  It was great though because we were able to gain the confidence of the family and the mom of the family trusted us enough to give us the reference of her mom.  So it payed off.  That was a neat experience.  the next day we started a "mission tour" with Elder W. Christofer Waddell of the first quorom of the 70.  On Tuesday morning president went to pick him up from his house and met us in a chapel in Lima.  We had to go early to get everything ready.  Then him and President Manning showed up with their wives.  From 9 in the morning to 3 in the afternoon was
just him speaking to us.  It was really awesome.  The spirit was super strong.  But that wasnt even the best part.  After that we went down to Pisco which is a town about 3 and a half hours south from  Lima. We rode with President Manning, Sister Manning, and Elder Waddell.  It
was a really neat experience because we could just speak with a general authority in normal conversation.  It was funny because he seemed more eager to answer our questions than we were to ask questions.  But we got to learn a lot about what it is like being a general authority and some of the experiences he had been able to have.  It was nice to see more than just the general conference side of a general authority.  He was just a really great man.  And the neat
thing is he will be speaking in the priesthood session of general conference.  So keep your eyes open. W. Christofer Waddell.  We had basically an identical meeting the next day and then headed back up to Lima.  then the third day we had another conference in Lima for the
remaining zones that had not participated earlier.  One of the other neat things was that my companion and i were able to sit on the stand with him because we were conducting the meetings.  Never thought that i would be conducting a meeting of a general authority.  Wierd.  But
super awesome at the same time.  The area that im supposedly working in right now, (Even though we dont get much time to work there) is completely different then the other areas ive been in and has been a good learning experience.  The biggest challenge no longer is people understanding basic doctrine because the people here are generally educated and quite smart.  Also the people in this part are some of the richest people in Peru.  It is definitely one of the richer parts of Peru.  The people are not as open, but the church is a lot stronger here because there are good leaders.  The people are much more educated as well.  Interesting how that works.  We are really close to where the church started in Peru.  There are many members of our ward
that 40 years ago were part of the first branch in the country.  now there is 98 stakes in Peru.  Talk about rapid growth.  So thats whats going on in my area.  I did get the tape recorder.  Thanks a lot that was great.  I loved hearing from everybody.  I especially loved hearing Keagan talk.  thats crazy.  Im starting to realize how much things have changed since I've been home.  I think i have missed the births of 5 going on 6 babies since I've been here, not to mention the entire remodeling of the house.  I looks a lot different by the way. Thats a lot.  But i am having some really great experiences.  Today we have a baptism!  Im really excited for that.  It has been almost two months since we have baptized.  turns out as assistant we have no time to find people to baptize.  Its a little depressing but we are doing what we can.  So tonight a guy named Angel is being baptized tonight.  He was an orphan.  He is 22 years old and has finally found something to fill the big hole he has inside of him for not being raised by parents.  Im really excited for that.  This week that is coming we are going to be traveling a lot.  On Monday we are taking a 7 and a half hour bus ride to one of the furthest zones away thats called Nazca.  then the following day we are doing a training there. and the day after taking a bus back. The day after getting back we have to get up at 3 to take an airplane to Ayacucho.  The mountain city, to do a training and we will come home the next morning.  So lots of traveling.  Should be fun.  Miss you all tons hope everything is going well.  See ya

Elder Hesselgesser

Sept. 17th, 2011

Hello family

Well the recorder came i found out about 10 seconds ago.  I opened it up to try and turn it on and  the batteries are dead.  I will go and buy some today and start listening to it.  Well this week flew by really really fast.  It was a super busy week.  Ive been running on little energy.  We have had to stay up late a few times to get things done. This week were the changes.  On saturday and sunday we spent basically all day working on the changes.  We were doing that until 12:30 at night sunday night and woke up at 6 on Monday to go to the changes meeting.  The rest of the day was insane trying to get about 100 missionaries to where they needed to be.  On top of that my companion and i had a change.  We are still assistants but we went and are opening up a new area.  Talk about a lot of work.  We are weighed down with a lot right now.  But at the same time having a great time.  We have already had some great stuff happen in this new area.  It is one of the richest areas in the entire mission and there is even a member of the seventy in our ward.  Kind of crazy. The missionaries were pulled out several months ago and now we were put back in.  The ward responded really well and we have had a full weak of
appointments.  Well only at nights.  So then on Tuesday we started at 5 in the morning to go and pick up the new missionaries from the CCM. From then on tuesday was training the new missionaries and training the trainers of the new missionaries.  Then on Wednesday we traveled down to a city called Pisco.  Stayed in a really nice hotel.  That was awesome.  Then the next morning we woke up at 5 again to do a leadership training for all of the zones in the southern part of the mission.  That lasted 8 hours and my companion and I ran the whole thing.  After that i was pretty exhausted.  We took the bus back to Lima got back about 10:30 and went to bed.  Got up at 6 the next morning and had to do the same 8 hour training for all of the missionaries that are here in Lima.  So to say the least we have been really really busy this week.  I just got up from a nap and feel much better now.  Things are not going to slow down either this week we are going to be accompanying Elder Waddell a member of the area presidency all around the mission.  We will be organizing three different meetings in which he will be speaking with the missionaries.  then the next week we have to go to Nezca which is about 8 hours away by bus and then come back and fly to Ayacucho the next day so we can do the same leadership trainings.  Its busy but im loving it.  Im having a ton of fun.  Im learning a ton and im having oportunities that most missionaries dont have.  Thanks a lot love you all tons

Elder Hesselgesser

Sept. 10th, 2011

Dear Family,
Well this week has been a pretty good week.  Busy still. This week we didnt have to do any trainings but we did do some interchanges and spent and are spending a lot of time getting ready for the changes on Monday.  I truly had no idea how much time we would be spending on the changes.  Yesterday we were at president Manning´s house all day working on the changes.  It was a pretty neat experience to be able to work with him and watch the spirit work in him as he chooses each and every one of the companionships.  I had no idea exactly how much time mission presidents dedicate to doing the changes.  In his house he has a giant board.  Each missionary has a little card with his picture that says where he has been and the assignments he has had.  And using that he rearranges the companionships.  He did about half of the changes with us.  We spend a full three days with him working on them.  It was really neat.  It was really a very spiritual experience for me.  Now we are organizing all of the travel information so that all of the missionaries can get to their new areas.  Its definitely a new experience.  Im learning a lot about how the mission and the church function.  Well other than that not a whole lot has happened this week.  Sorry for the short letter.  The next two weeks should be a little more interesting.  We will be traveling more and we are going to take one of the area seventies for a tour of the mission in two weeks so that ought to be fun.  Anyways i miss you all tons hope everything is good at home.  thanks for the thoughts and prayers.

Elder Hesselgesser

Aug 26th, 2011

Hey Family,

Well this week has been pretty awesome.  I have had some really fun experiences.  We spent Monday and Tuesday getting ready for Elder Anderson of the quorum of the twelve to visit us.  He came to talk to our mission, the Lima central mission, and the Lima West Mission.  So Its enough to say that we were a lot of missionaries.  It was a lot of fun.  Our mission was in charge of making a choir.  So we made a choir of fifty missionaries.  I was in the choir.  And we got to sit in the front rows.  It was awesome.  So i was in the third row.  It was pretty much a really great experience to be able to hear from him.  He speaks like 5 languages and i think the last one he has learned is Spanish. His Spanish was more or less.  It came out as a combination between French, Spanish, and portuguese.  Anyways,  He Took the time to shake all of our hands.  That was really awesome.  The first time i have shaken hands with an apostle.  A phrase that he said that is still echoing in my mind is, "I know with a certainty that Jesus Christ lives..... Because I am his witness."  It just brought me to think about the reality of his calling.  He is called to be a witness of Jesus Christ.  I don´t know why but when he said that it just kind of blew my mind.  After that President Manning went out to dinner with him.  Im not too sure what they talked about but I´ll have to ask president manning about it tonight.  My companion leaves on Sunday. I´m a little bit sad about that.  He is going home.  His mission time is up.  But he has been a really good companion even though he has only been my companion for a week.  Well thats about all thats going on here.  Yesterday i went to visit a companionship that lives way out in the farms.  They use bikes.  My rear end hurts really bad today for
sitting on a bike all day yesterday.   Other than that all is good. Tomorrow we are going to a city in the mountains called Ayacucho.  It will be my first time out of the desert part of the mission.  It is the only zone that isn't in the desert part of the mission.  We are going to be flying there in an airplane.  So that should be a good time.  Well miss and love you all hope everything goes well for you. PS you can still write me this week even though i wrote you early. Write me tonight and next friday night too.  Just plan on writing me every friday night.  Also tell Grandma and Grandpa to write me i havent heard from them in a very very long time.  I would also like their email address so i can write them.  Thanks!

Elder Hesselgesser

AUg 20th, 2011

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

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