Hola de Carhuamayo!!!

Well,

 

Transfers came and went, and I am now in Carhuamayo. This word is Quetchuan, it means Yellow Water or River!! HAHAH. Our water is not yellow though it is filtered and in a box, so dont worry. Last week I said goodbye to the nice warm humid green weather, and I have entered the Zone of Cerro de Pasco. Yes, the highest city in the world.... I am absolutely freezing my buns off up here but when the sun is out it can get really, hot, it is really weird.

 

 

 

 

My new companion is Elder Moraga, es de Nicaragua. He is really cool! Only speaks Spanish, it is ok though he is helping me learn spanish a lot more quickly than I was in Tingo. Elder Recalde is a very good missionary, we got along great but I didn't feel he was very good at helping me with the language and I didn;t feel I was getting the trainging that I needed, so I asked President Henderson kindly for a change of companions. I came here to be the best missionary I can be, and to help as many people as I possibly can.......SO now I am in CARHUAMAYO.

 

This week has been awful sorry to say. I have been sick becasue of the altitude. The first day was not bad at all, but then Thursday came around and I had a pounding headache, and body aches everywhere. The headache is slowly disappearing but the body aches are increasing. I can hardly walk my knees hurt, and my back has started to hurt too. My intestines have not taken kindly to the increased altitude either. So I havent been able to eat normally. I have been told it will pass. None of the medicine they give me seems to be helping. So I will be in contact with the Health secretary today. DONT WORRY I am still a live, just need a little help from the medicine man haha.

 

I dont have many photos this week so I probably wont be sending any. I hope everyone back home enjoys their Thanksgiving dinner and black friday shopping. I will just be praying to eat a whole meal haha.

 

I love you all and thank you all for your support.

Happy Holidays to you!

Elder Bell

Hello From Tingo with Love

Hello Y"all .....Sorry for being so slow in updating this week

How is everyone doing? Life in Tingo is great! It has now entered the Rainy Season here in Peru, and oh boy does it rain!!

So I think almost everyday this week it has rained at least a little bit. Some days a lot more than others that is for sure. But it feels really good because it use to be hot and humid now it is just humid. I have sent a few pictures of the mountains that i get to look at every morning. They are really pretty.

So anyway. This week was very interesting..

The beginning of the week I was super excited that I was going to get to baptize Amado. We went out to Aucayacu to visit and conduct the interview. After the interview Amado asked his cousin who had helped him meet with the missionaries, to baptize him. At first, I was a little upset I am not gonna lie. I was really looking forward to having my first baptism. But then after I thought about it, it doesnt matter who does the baptism, just that it is actually being done. Then, Friday night we got a phone call from Julio, Amados cousin, saying he would not be able to make it to the baptism that he had to go far away for a family emergency. So then I was told I would be the one donig it. What a quick turn of feelings, again haha. Anyway, the baptism was awesome, I said the ordiance correctly in spanish the first time so that was good too haha.It was a great experence to have.

Taylor's 1st Baptism November 15, 2014

Taylor, Amado, & Elder Recalde

Taylor & Elder Bush's 1st Baptism November 15, 2014

 

We now have 10 new investigators and 4 working towards baptismal dates int he month of November and the beginning of December. We have a ton of work to do here with our new Ward and helping them build a foundation that will last past the time us missionaries are here. But this is the fun part of missionary work. Leaving your mark, in a good way, on an entire ward by helping them build a foundation for them to work off of.

Anyway, other than that, not a whole lot. Transfers are tomorrow, but I dont think we will have any changes in our companionships here, since elder Bush and I aare still training. But we are getting two new missionaries in Tingo Maria tomorrow so that will be exciting. 6 missionaries will help a ton with how much work we have to do here. So I am excited for that change.

 

*** I thought I would share photo's of T's new friend, yes it is dead - thank goodness, but EWWWWWWWWWWW, icky!!!!

This week's NEW friend

Big and Icky!!!!!

 

I hope you are all doing good! I pray for you all all the time, Talk to you next week!!

Elder Bell

Just another week!!!

Hey all!!

 

Hope everyone is doing well back home, this week has been pretty good. Not a whole lot going on. We spent half of last week in Huanuco for the Multi Zone conference with President so we didnt have a whole lot of work when we got back.

 

Here are some Photos from one our P-Day's...

T at the Waterfall and "PhotoBomb" by Elder Bush!!!
 

T and his Missionary "Crew of Elders" :)

T on "Top of the World"

 

We are ready to baptize Amado this weekend!! I am way pumped and he is too! Such a cool kid! But we wont be doing it in a river. It was gonna be too complicated for his family so we will just be doing it in the font at the church. Still way cool!

 

We have 3 new investigators this week that are probably gonna join the church. They have a strong desire to learn about God and the book of mormon so I feel really good about them. Roxanna, Flor, and Jessica. They all three know the bible pretty well. Which is why accepting the book of mormon is fairly easy for them. They know that God speaks to all his children and stated that in the bible many times. So they are progressing very well.

 

I am doing really good. The spanish is difficult, I have an experience to share haha... So Roxanna lives in Aucayacu, which is about an hour away from Tingo, we go there once a week to teach members and investigators. Last week when we went out there, we taught her about the Restoration. As I was talking, she made a face as if someone had dragged their nails down a chalkboard, and said "your spanish makes me have pain in my heart." I understood the words, but apparently I didnt understand how she meant it. I was completely offended. I was like in my head, "yeah I know, I have been here two months, the gift of tongues doesnt work over night!!" But later that night, when my companion decided to finally tell me, she didnt mean it as an offense, she meant it as, I feel your pain in learning a language, keep trying, I feel your frustration, but dont worry it will get better soon. I wish he would have told me like 3 hours earlier because for the next three hours all I could think about was how bad my spanish was. But in reality in two months, I have learned a lot of spanish. So I am not frustrated anymore and understand what she meant.

Does anyone miss this funny face???

 

 

One last thing, Thunderstorms in Tingo rock! It is so loud and rains so hard. I love it. I think about home all the time when I hear them because I love thunderstorms a lot! Last night I swear lightning hit like next door because our room was shaking. It was way crazy! (don't worry mom, I am protected by like 2 feet think cynderblock walls in my room).

 

Other than that not a whole lot is happen here. Next week I will have pictures of the baptism to send home I am way happy about that.

"Say hello to my little friend"...

From Dogs to Monkey's

 

Love you all and hope everyone is well!!
 

Elder Bell

And the floods came roaring down the hills................

Hola awesome people!!

 

So this was a crazy cool week! We had two baptisms in our district and those were pretty awesome!! Richard and Daidamia. Richard was an investigator of E. Recalde and mines, He is like 13 I Think, and he is way cool. His older sister joined a few months ago and they are both really cool.

 

The other baptism, Daidamia, is really cool. She is like 45 or so, she has 3 kids, one is already a member. Anyway, she went through some difficult times in her preparation for baptism. Many doubts and concerns, especially in her family. But it was a wonderful baptism. All of her family was there to support her and afterwards she bore a very heartfelt testimony about how happy she is to follow the example of our Savior and to become a better person through the princples and teachings of Jesus Christ. Really really cool experience to help people come unto Christ.

 

 

Other than the two baptisms not a whole lot happened.... oh yeah wait there was something.

 

 

OUR CITY FLOODED!!

Yeah so Friday morning during breakfast it began to rain. Just a normal rain no biggie right? Well that rain increased to a serious downpour and it lasted for 2 hours!! Which in turn, resulted in the entire side of Tingo Maria we live on flooding! Our street had roughly 3 feet of rain in the middle of it (see pictures) it was crazy!!! After noticing that the water was beginning to go inside peoples houses because the river had risen so high we decided it was our duty as servants of the lord to go and to help people save their possessions. So, for the following 3 hours I was shoveling water out of peoples houses. It was a very humbling experience. The people didnt seem to care very much that their things were getting ruined and they couldnt do anything about it but I began to feel real sorrow for these people. They already have so little, and yet here they are losing their possessions right before their eyes. Really Really heart breaking. Anyway, they were very happy to see 4 helping hands reaching out to help them save some of their things. After that we were basically exhausted and retired back to our room for a little bit. Then went out and did more missionary stuff. It was a very interesting experience. But I am thankful we were able to help people that were in desperate need of a helping hand.

 

 

 

 

Other than that there really is nothing. We are still working with Amado and he is penciled in for the 15th of Nov. for his baptism in a river :) pretty stoaked about that!!!

 

 

Thank you all for the support and love! I can really feel it when I read your letters. Know that I can feel all your prayers and they are all needed while trying to learn a language!! But it isnt that bad really!!

Love you all and have a safe exciting week!

Elder Bell