Selim and Juanita

Hola familia! wow, the weeks really do go by quickly. I feel like I just wrote home. The spirit also loves telling me to work hard because two years is not a long time. Anyways, this week has been really good and slightly disappointing. The weather has turned warm and I went from wearing a sweater everyday to sweating in my short sleeve shirts. 

Once again, this week involved a lot of splits. I feel like my Spanish is improving drastically because of them. It´s kinda cool because it gives me the chance to play senior companion. Also, the youth in our ward are outstanding, I can always fall back on them if I lose my train of thought or cannot express an idea.They are going to be awesome missionaries! 

So, random story time. One of the Elders here, Elder Oliva, made a bet with another missionary, Elder Pond, of who could teach the most lessons in one day. Elder Oliva taught 11, which is really great, however, Elder Pond somehow taught 25! So, Elder Pond and Hermana Moe, (who graduated from Lone Peak two years ago, go figure) shaved Elder Oliva´s head. yep. He pretty well cried the whole time saying how much he loves his hair. 

Our investigadores are great, but we have the hardest time getting them to come to church. Here in Peru a person has to attend church at least three times before they can be baptized, but it is a challenge just to get them to come. We have three youth with baptismal dates- Kilder, Selim, and Juanita. They are really accepting of the church and have great support from members and family, but we still need Selim and Juanita to attend more, and permission from the parents of Juanita and the grandma of Kilder. 

On Saturday Elder Bustamante y I had lunch with the Family Sanchez, one of many Sanchezes. Anyways, we were in charge of cooking our own food and I actually have multiple pictures from it, sadly Dropbox sucks here and so it may be a while before they all get put up. The youngest daughter though is named Milagro, which translates to Miracle. She is so funny and reminds me of Waverly and is about the same age. She is always trying to talk to me, and she is actually really successful too. She understands that I don´t know much Spanish and acts out a lot of words. It´s funny and sad at the same time. But I also got to try some green fruit that kinda looks like an avocado, but is white inside and is amazing! It's like it is the fruit that Lehi saw in his vision. I honestly now imagine it every time I read 1 Nefi 8.

Last night, Sunday, we had a reunion, meeting, with the stake president of this area. Basically, everyone with a calling even remotely related to missionary work was there. It started at seven and went till about ten. I hate to be critical, but it was pretty much a waste of time. Which is now a scary thought, because this is the Lord´s time, and I am convinced that one day we will have to give an account of our time on earth before the Lord, and I don´t think He will be as merciful to wasteful missionaries as He will be to others. 

Well, to close I just have some random thoughts that don't really fit in to anything. First, we found out our neighbors have a dog in their room, which is probably where our fleas came from. We´re currently teaching our neighbor, but I find it difficult to truly love them because they always blast music and they have that perro. Also, I know dad keeps saying how hard it is to end on time, but down here, it is almost impossible to start on time. We have Mormon time si? But here they have Peruvian hour. Baptisms have literally started one hour after they were suppose to. It´s pretty frustrating, but we are working on it. Oh, I now like avocados. I have one for breakfast almost everyday. Avocados, bread, and oranges are huge here. I finally found the scripture that I have looking for since my first day here. It came to my head my very first night and I just barely remembered to look it up. It is Jeremiah 16:16. I fall under the second type of missionaries. 

Yep, that is all I have in my planner for the week. Thanks for your emails, and tell Sister Trout thanks for her letters, they take a week or two to get here, but they are appreciated. I look forward to hearing about this next week, oh, and who ever got put in as YW President? Also, who is in Priests now? I pray all is well at home,

Elder Bradford.

PS. No, I don't have a new comp yet. Our area is being split at the end of this month, I think.