October 10, 2011

Dear MOm and Family,

So we didnt go to the temple this last week, bummer!!!! because there was a problem with the scheduling the guy who answered the qhone for us was somebody from secuity and he said to come saturday but saturday is the day that all the people from provinces come, they come from the jungle and from parts that are really far away. so we rescheduled and we are going on friday! it should be really great we are going with Jarlis and some other converts and we are bringing some members too. i dont know it we will go to a session but it would be really awesome if we got to do it well see.

yesterday we had a baptism, it was really cool! this little girl, Olenca, is awesome everytime we got to her house she had her pamphlets adn her book of mormon, and in the little books we give people there is a part in the back that has questions and a place to put your answer kinda like a workbook or something, and guess what... she even filled that part out! NO ONE ever does that. haha it was really awesome! the cool thing is that all of her uncles and grandma and great grandma came it was really cool! they are all members but only the grandma and great grandma are active that is the sad thing. all of the other aunts and uncles havent come to church for like 18 years. that is the sad part. but now i hope that her dad comes back to church, he was crying in the baptism service, he wants to come back but he works on sunday and its hard to change his work, this wednesday he is coming to play futbol at the church withthe memebers and so well see how that goes. now the next part is we have to get him and his wife married! haha

my companion is doing good he is kinda up and down one day he is relly happy and the next hes mopping around and a little sad. it kinda ticks me off a little but i need to be patient because he is going through a lot and i need to understand that, next week he will have his surgery i think. he hasnt told his mom anything about the surgery i think that is why he is worrying so much. I think that hell be ok!

I havent recieved the letter from grandma and grandpa yet i dont know why it is talking soooo long ive been waiting for it im sure it will come soon. I hope! and I' ll ask pedro about the package he is the one that picks up the packages so he might know when ill get it. Thank you soooo much for sending it! I love you soooo much.

we had changes this last week and I m still in faucett and my companion is still elder perez. ive been here about 6months and with elder perez i will have been with him for 4 months at the end of this exchange. and ill get to pass my birthday here which is awesome!

I Really enjoy teaching the gospel and I am soo glad that I am able to serve. I know that this chuch is true and I know that joseph smith was a prophet, I feel the power of the story of the first vision every time that we share it. I know that it is true!

I lOve you all and i hope that you look for opportunities to share the gospel
Good luck in your training for your race! its comming up right?

Love Elder SAWYER

September 26, 2011

How are you all doing? wow i cant believe that meagan and jared went to homecoming that is kkinda scary haha. i hope they had a great time. they have definately changed in the last 7 months jared is a lot skinnier and meagan looks older. i hope they had a great time! and i hardly recognized the front room it looks a lot diferent from the little part i saw in the picture.

How is the training for the big race going? and no i havent tried ceviche because as missionaries it is a rule that we cant eat it because it is raw fish that is cooked in lemon juice. they dont want us to get sick. and i have my journal still but it has been a little while since i have written in it i need to get back on track with that. but sometimes there just isnt enough time in the day to get all of that in. and thats cool that Elder hatt has a blog too he is pretty cool he spent 24 hours with me he was doing a exchange for 1 day it was fun! he is from canada, i think it is really funny because he doesnt like when people call him gringo he thinks that only gringos are from the USA idk he is still a gringo.

so my companion had his first baptism yesterday it was awesome i was so proud of him! im training him and so the other missionaries call him my son and i am his dad its kinda funny, my litttle boy is growing up! hahaha but it is for sure that he has to get surgery, and he might have to go back to costa rica the recovery time for his surgery is like 2 months its really hard, he doesnt want to go home, he was supposed to enter the ccm in febuaray the same time as me but he had to get surgery on his knee so he came in june, and now he has to get another. he is having a tough time right now but he always puts a smile on and is really trying to just go to work. i really hope that he doesnt have to go home.

Right now we are teaching hermana concession and she has a daughter that is member and she wanted to get baptized but now she is having some doubts and its sad but some of the memebers have been saying mean things about her and its not cool and so we are trying to work with her on getting over her fears and doubts. we are also teaching a family where the father is member but he got baptized when he was 14 and then he didnt go to church and his spouse( they arent married) and their daughter who is 11. they are really awesoeme adn yesterday they all came to church except the dad jesus, because he has to work, but roxana the spouse really like the church and olenca the girl has been coming for a few weeks now and now we are cordinating olencas baptizm and hopefully the matromonio of roxana and jesus. they are awesome!!!

today we are going to play volleyball and we made shirts, they look dumb, but it is not too bad, it should be really fun im excited to play volleyball. they play volleyball a lot down here but we arent really aloud to play except for pday. i miss volleyball a lot! it was so fun playing vball with my friends my senior year!! im gaining weight and its really funny! they call me gordito sometimes haha i hope im not too fat when i come back to play volleyball.

i am always praying for you guys! and i know that our heavenly father has a plan for us and that if we live the gospel then the trials that we WILL have will be easier to bear. I know that church is true! I hope that you guys are sharing the best thing that we have to share, the gospel, with your friends and that you are looking for opportunities to share this amazing message with others, i really wish i would have opened my mouth more when i was at home!

I love you soooo much!
Elde Sawyer

September 19, 2011

Dear Mom and Family,

Como Estan? this week has been a pretty awesome week.first we went to the zoo for Pday that was really fun and we saw a bunch of different types of animals from peru. and some of them are Very INTERESTING! haha. it feels like Pdays go by a heck of a lot faster than the other days, but all the days go by realy fast! there were soo many parrots in the zoo! and i have alot of pics but i dont think i have time to send them all to you right now. so next pday.

we changed times to go to internent because the site that we use to write president is being weird and we think it is because when we are using the page the other missionaries in the other parts of the world are using it too and so there are problems. so it is just an hour earlier.

Its is starting to get warmer, the sun actually came out the other day haha. and im not wearing my sweater as much anymore. so while you guys are going into fall we are going into spring, how weird. Well this week we were really busy preparing everyone for there baptism, we had 5 yesterday and the other elders had 4 it was really awesome. and i need to get the pics from yesterday from elder hatt so ill send them next week, but there were a lot of people atr the baptism it almost looked like a sacrament meeting it was really an awesome experience. All of these kids are active but some of them there parents arent active so we are activating them, we have a lot of work here in barrio faucett and thats the way we like it! Yesterday we had stake conference, all of peru had stake conference. and guess who spoke, elder ganzalez de the presidencia de los setenta elder christofferson a apostle sister beck president of the relief society, and .....the prophet. we listened to it via satalite it was really awesome and the whole thing was on missionaries and how the lord needs more missionoaries and a lot of it was also on how that missionaries need to return and get married and so i guess i know what im going to do when i get back haha theyve been talking about that a lot lately, in the last conference too haha. I cant believe that general conference is almost here it comes so fast! it will be another great experience.

Im really glad that you had a great time in t george and that you saw leann and kim wow i havent seen them in a LONG time! wow that brings back some good memories! thats awesome that they have their family now. wow time flies! Make sure to tell the m Hi for me on facebook or something!

I hope all goes well in the job thingy! ill pray that you dont have to work on sundays, that is really important to be able to go to church! I hope that all goes well with the homecoming dance! make sure to send me some picks! hey so have you aleaddy sent my Package????? when did you send it?????'

I love you ALL

Elder sawyer

September 12, 2011

Good Morning Mother,
I hope you had a safe trip to st george and that all of the family is doing good even tho im sure everyone is sad that aunt pearl passed away. that was a shock to me. but its something that comes to everyone. and it is so great to know that this is not the end and there is a plan and that we will see each other again! when did you find out that she passed aways?

well... im glad that you all had a good time in meagans orchestra retreat and im glad that they all played well, and that meagan stuck with the violin! im also really happy that you are still goofy! hahaha i wouldnt have it any other way! i hope that you never change that!

well this week has been good but we got some bad news that elder perez has to get surgery again on his knee but what we are going to do is he is going to go to more thereapy to strengthen his muscles so that the recovery isnt as long and hopefully he wont have to go home but we will see and so he has been a little down about that. things will get better.

elder ochoa and elder hatt had some baptisms this weekend and guess what happened.... we get to the church and we find that there are people cleaning the tank that holds the water for the baptism font and the water that is coming out is really dirty. why they did it on a saturday in the afternoon i have no idea!!!!!!!! but we had to fill the baptismal font with a hose and it toodk forever but we finally got it filled and all went well!

This week we have 5 baptisms they are the kids that dont show up in the system and this week we will be busy all week preparing these kids for their baptism its going to be a good week. and this week we have our zone conference and it should be really good! we are really excited for it! and today we are going to a zoo and it has all the different animals from the different parts of peru it is going to be really fun i will send some pics next week.!

and i havent finished the book of mormon yet i kinda got side tracked and started reading the other books in the missionary library our heritage and search for happiness they are both really good and i finished them both but i need to get focused on the book of mormon again.

hey a question for you did you send me this latest missionary news letter? and have you sent me the package yet? My birthday is coming up and i would like to ask for a volleyball and a rubix cube and another wash clothe, i lost one of the ones i came with i think it got lost in the wash but they dont sell them here.
Well i realy hope that all is going well with everyone and have a great week!

well i love you all so much

Elder Sawyer

September 5, 2011

Dear mom,

How have you been? how was your birthday? im glad that you are training! It's awesome just keep it up! and remember that it really doesnt matter how fast you go it just matters that you finish! keep it up mom!!! i love you!!!

The past couple of days my comp had been a little sick with the cold/flu and he was kinda getting bad. so he took some pills and we rested yesterday and today he is a lot better and we are ready for this week of work!!!

Yesterday we had about 20 investigators in the church it was awesome we had some new people and also some people that are menos activos that came it was a good day! and this month we are preparing people to get baptized there are like 10 kids that dont show up in the system and so they have to be baptized again and we are teaching them again. obispo pedro said its a good chance to strengthen there testimonies and to look for there needs because all of them are going into the young men and womens programs this year and so they could use a little boost haha.

and also we found a guy who hasnt been to church in like 15 years and we are reactivating him and teaching and preparing his family for baptism. we still have to work with them a little bt they are really awesome.

so how are all of you guys? for reals! how is jareds arm? but i know that everything will be alright! im glad that you all have good health and that the kids are getting settled into school!

love you Elder Sawyer!

Zone Conference

August 29, 2011 Report of Elder Andersen's visit

Dear Mother,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I love you so much and i hope that you have a great birthday!!!!
Mom thanks for the pics! wow that is amazing, its crazy mom!!! just keep it up!! dont stop!

well sorry i didnt say anything about the doctor it was just a check up for my apendix thing that i had, and the doctor gave me a copy of my surgery i was really happy!!!! sorry that i made you worry! hahait wasnt my intention.

This week has been pretty awesome we got to listen to an apostle of the lord elder Neil L Anderson it was sooooooo cool. First of all he served his mision in france and he lived in brasil and germany that is something that i didnt know abut him, him and his wife spoke in spanish, i dont know if his wife knows spanish or if she was just reading the talk but she did a great job! and we also got to hear a little from the new presidency of the area here in the south america northwest area. that ws cool too, and then we got to listen to Elder Anderson, the coolest part was that he never told us that he knew spanish but he had to have learned some of it somewhere, he told us he didnt know spanish but he would try to speak to us in spanish. it was really a mixture of french portuguese spanish and a little bit of english. the cool thing is that all of these languages are so similar that we all undertood. It was so cool, there were parts that you could just feel that he wasnt the one doing the talking and that the spirit was helping him out and i have no doubt that the gift of toungues and the gift of the interpretation of toungues were in a ffect in this meeting. He told us he didnt come prepared with a written talk but that he had recieved revalation on what he was going to talk about. He talked about what the first presidency and the 12 are expecting from us and what they hope for us. The main point was that we have a firm testimony in Christ and in the restoration and in the gospel in general. he said that it is really sad to see people that have served missions and then after there mission they decide to leave the church or arent active in the church. and they dont want this and that if we have a testimony of these things that we are teaching then this wont happen to us its kinda like helaman 5 verse 12. It was a really awesome experience. and there were 3 missions that went to this meeting the central mission the south mission and our mission. and so i saw a few people that i knew from the mtc and the CCm. I saw elder Quiroga that was so cool to see him he is a really good misionary and it was awesome to see him and funny story he left his picture of the savior in our room in the ccm and so i took it and i tried to return it to him because i knew he was going to be there but he said to keep it to remember him haha it was really awesome to see him. and i also saw elder wright from AZ i didnt talk to him tho, and i saw a sister that was in my district in Utah.

Right now we are teacing a few young people that want to get baptized but we are waiting on permission from there parents and we had a baptism for this last sat but it fell through and he didnt come to church and we cant go to his house because he lives outside our area but he wants to come to church in our ward so we have to find someway to contact him, and we visited a less active member who plays the piano and we visited him and then he came to church on sunday and played the piano finally we had hymns with a piano. that was really cool. and we found a part member family that the dad is member but is inactive for years! and we are going to teach them this week and we will find out more when we visit them. but the work is going good we are a little down because our baptism fell through but we are doing good and elder ochao went to another area and now elder hatt is here and he is from canada and he is pretty cool he is here withthe other newer elder ochoa and im still here with elder perez.

Well i hope everything is going good in AZ!
Love Elder Sawyer

This was a great Birthday for me! Despite missing him, It was a blessing to have an email on my birthday.

A trip to the Temple August 22, 2011

Dear mom,

The temple was awesome! it had been 4 months since i had been and it was really awesme to go back and partake of the spirit there. it was all in spanish of course and this time i could understand mostly all of it!!! it was really cool! it was really cool it helped me remeber that everything has an eternal perspective and this time that i went i stayed a good while in the celestial room just thingking about stuff and i was thinking about our family and how it will be soo cool to enter the temple with all of you and with our future families. it was really cool! i love the feeling at the temple and im glad that we get to go to the temple, because in other places they dont get to go to the temple.

on wednesday we will get to hear elder neil l anderson and i cant wait to hear that! it is going to be awesome!!! and i think that i will see elder quiroga because we are going with the south and the central missions. so that will be oool. but we had cambios and elder ochoa is going somewhere else to be leader de zona so im a little sad about that but its ok we will still have a good time in the house with 4 missionaries. elder haught is coming and he is from canada.

the work is going good we are finding new people we just need some baptisms now. we have a date for this saturday and i hope everything goes well but well see, he didnt come to church this sunday and so i am realy sad but i hope everything is alright with him. and we are waiting on permisos de some niños and we have some familiesthat are interested and we just need to teach them and see how thingsgo.

oh but elder ochoa it turns out had cancer in his bladder, everything is fine and they took it out but he has to do some treatment and everything is fine and he can serve his mission. the babys name is steven mosiah he is awesome and he was a little sick he was throwing up blood but everything is fine and i think it was a problem withthe milk or something on that side of everything you probably know whats going on more than i do, with your experience.

tell grandma that i am waiting for their letter and i love you guys and

i love you and hope everything is alright!
Love
Elder Sawyer

August 15, 2011

Dear Family,

I hope you all are doing well! Im glad to hear that meagan gave a talk and that she did really well! sonds like you guys had a fun sunday! we did too sundays are always really crazy in our ward everyone wants to talk to us and we need to talk to different people. we have been teaching this guys named cesar loiza and we is really awesome he is dating a returned sister missionary and he has been coming to church almost everyweek but the problem is that he lives in another ward but he really likes it in our ward and so we have been teaching him on sundays in the chapel after meetings. and he accepted a baptismal date for the 27 of august its awesome! he was afraid to get baptised because he wanted to know more about the scriptures and he thought he had to be pretty much perfect to be baptized. and he was unsure. but we showed him some scriptures in alma and also helaman 5:12 because this says if we buid our life on the rock of the savior we cant fall and we promised him that he would have the strength to push forward and that he wouldnt fall. and we asked him how can we build our lifes on the lord, and the answer is being baptized. it was really awesome and he is an awesome guys and he and his girlfriend are going to get married soon and that is also really cool!

Im glad that Harry and Brooks did a good job and that you were able to go to there farewells they are awesome! and im glad that you saw brian and vee tooo! they are all awesome people and i hope you said hi for me. has jared got his lisence yet haha

youll never gues what happend to us while we were writing on the internet all of a sudden the power went out and I lost my letter to the president but luckily i had just started and i didnt loose this leter to you. hahaha

Me and my companion are doing good we are learning a lot and we have found some awessome families that want to listen to us. last night we followed up on a contact that we had the day before and the old lady that had answered the door on saturday said she wasnt interested and she was catholic. so we returened yesterday and a little girl answered the door and we told her who were were and if she could call her mama and she came back and said we could come in, we were kinda shocked but excited at the same time. it was a big family that was living in this 4 story house, and they all listened to us. we taught them about the restoration, and they really liked it! they started saying how they didnt like how the catholic chrch worshipped saints and that they really liked what we were talking about and that we teniamos razon. it was so awesome it seems like latesly every sunday that we have had we have found a new family to teach. its a testimony to me that there are peope here that are prepared for us we just have to find them.

I love that you guys already bout me a car so that i can drive it when i get home!!!!! haha im joking. but that s awesome! it looks nice! BUt i dont like that somebody put crud in the trailblazer. tell them to watch out when i come back! haha

Tell Grandma and Grandpa i love them and to get better. I hope they are doing alright.

Tomorrow we are going to the temple Its going to be awesome! and on the 24th we are going to lesten to an apotle Niel L anderson i cannot wait our mission and lima central y lima sur will all be there it is going to be awesome!!!! this month is awesome the temple and then an apostle and then in october we have conference i cant believethat it is so soon! time flies!!!
I love you guys sooo much!!! say hi to harry and brooks for me and tell them goodluck on the mish, have you heard about cody yet?

Elder sawyer

PS elder ochoa had another operation he was peeing blood and i guessthere was something wrong with his bladder and so they operated but he is doing great now!!!!


Sorry this is out of order.

Pictures of Conference time

General Conference in Peru

HELLO MOM AND FAMILY,

Thats soooo awesome that Terri got BAPTIZED!!!!! i was thinking about that reciently i was asking to my self, when is she going to get baptized?
Im so glad that she was able to do that i am soo excited tell her hi for me on facebook or something! that is soo cool!

I cant believe Duke died! that is soo sad! tell sonia and Austin and the whole family hi for me! I still rememeber that day like it was yesterday, they i was sleeping over and they put us both on the couch and they said that they had a surprise for us we were getting excited and we were waiting and then Duke just ran into the room. then i stood up and duke got scared and ran away it was soooo funny. I have some Great memories with that wonderful family Tell them I love them Mom!

Conference was soooooo awesome i cant believe that it is already over it went by sooo fast! we were talking about it all week and then it came and went. and now we are waiting for the liahona that has all of the talks! I loved that they talked soo much about Peru! We got to watch it in english it was so cool, what a treat to be able to watch it in English. we brought a tv into the stake presidents room and they hooked it up for us and so the 4 gringos in my zone got to watch it in english, we bought some chocalate milk and oreos and stuff to share while we watched it! It waas soo fun! And when they talked about Peru we got a little crazy! It was kinda like going to a high school sports event we would say/ yell " YA Peru, we are in peru right now" or " thats our president!" haha dont worry we were still able to feel the spirit we were just so excited. I'm so glad that you were able to watch conference and that jared and dad went to priesthood meeting and to baskin robins i was thinking about that while i was watching it, and i was remembering the good times we had gong to baskin robbins. it was cool that we were all watching it at the same time! ME IN PERU AND YOU GUYS IN AZ!

The work is coming along well, this Sunday we have a baptism. On Saturday, we are taking some converts to the temple to do baptisms for the dead. We won't do baptisms but we are bringing members to help them and we are going to a session. It is going to be awesome!!!!! Yesterday it was my comps birthday. So i bought him, on saturday, a 3 liter bottle of coke and a thing of ketchup becuse he loves those things so much! It was soo funny we woke up and he went to take a shower and while he was in the shower me and the other elders got eggs and when he got out we hit him withthe eggs it was sooooo funny!!! the eggs got everywhere and it was a big mess but we cleaned it up dont worry mom! haha it was a really great day and then after conference we went to a memebers house and they made a cake for him it was really fun! It cheered my companion up a lot!!!! Either this week or next week he will have his surgery and so we are hoping for the best!!! He is worried about calling his mom. He doesn't want her to worry but I think it will be alright.

You should ask Dr Johnson where in callao he served! I hope tha Ryan is doing well!

That's awexome that cody got his visa. Did he have to serve in the states for a week or something or did he just stay in the MTC?

Im so glad that you are still training and that everything is going well with you guys i can t wait for my package! keep up the good work and keep me posted on everything. this week we have exchanges but i am 98% positive that i will be staying in faucett with elder perez, because the bishop knows the changes like a week before and he told us but it sould change. but i dont think so. those are the blessings of living with the bishop!!!!! haha steven mosiah is doing great and getting fatter and he has a lot of hair on his head, he just turned 2 months I can't beleve that time is going by so fast.

Love you All
Elder Sawyer

August 8, 2011

That is so awesome that Chris and Suzette moved in so close! that means we will have some more hawks in the family!!!! YA!!! Tell that to Sarah and Aunt Jodi, haha no tell them i love them!

I'm feeling good today i had a bit of a stomach ache but it went away and I'm pretty much 100 percent otherwise. and my comp is doing well he has therapy 3 times a week in the morning at 530 and i get to stay at the house with the other missionaries while he leaves. and i need to remember to walk slower because he cant walk fast and i like to walk fast. so that's something i need to work on.

Funny story, last night we have to pass numbers at 830 and we were teaching this awesome family that we just found and they are really interested and they are married!!!! but were talking to them about the book of Mormon and they thought that we didn't read the bible and so we were explaining this to them we finished and it was 900 usually we have till 930 if we are in a lesson, we said the pray and we were like we have to go like now, and they told us no you have to stay and have some manzanilla and some bread and ham, we told them we were really late and we had to go, they said nope you have to stay so we ate really really fast and had to run home!!! I forgot a part they first offered us coffee and we explained to them that we don't drink that. OK we got home at 925 elder Ochoa our district leader was mad! we hurried and passed him the numbers and he passed them to the leaders de zona. and then he asked us where we were and we told him we met this family that was supper cool and they were MARRIED! and so he cooled down. but to mess with him we told him that we drank coffee because they offered it to us..... he believed us hahaha.... he started saying you guys made covenants and that we cant go to the temple and we were like shoot what do we do elder Ochoa can we talk to the president? we were pretty god actors but i don't think that we should have joked about something like that but it was really funny! we finally told him and he was a little mad still because he believed us.it was hilarious!

But this week me and my companion are trying to work on how we can be guided by the spirit more. that is what we are studying and we are trying to make our prayers more sincere, because that is what we are teaching to the investigators and we need to apply that to us. and we aer also trying to better the way we contact people, by not being robots and asking questions that make the people think about our message.

I'm definitely learning from my companion. he was a little quiet when he first got here and so i had to strike up the conversations and before the mish i was not really good at that but that is something that i am learning. how to just talk to the people and gain their confidence. and my companion is stepping out of his shell. and we are learning together because i only have a little more time than him and i don't know everything.

well I love you guys and I'm happy everything is going great.

I'm happy that you are doing this and riding your bike. tell Jared to put some training wheels on his bike haha (Jared flew off his bike so Jacob was getting after him.) jk tell him i love him and everyone else too
LOVE
Elder sawyer

The view of the appendix from Peru

Pictures in the hospital and letter from August 1 2011


My puncture wounds are healing just fine.

I'm done taking medicacion and it was for my stomach and idk what else sorry.

The doctor is awesome! I got to see my operation it was awesome! And he said I'm perfect and can work like normal!!!! yay!

It was cool to see my operation, y appendix was swolle and a little bit of stuff was coming out and he used these little pincers to cut it and something that like burned or something and the he tied a knott and cleaned up and then it was good. But he didnt give me a copy of the surgery. dang;( so i was wondering can you email the doctor and ask him for a copy of the surgery? por favor!

You will never guess where I'm at or what has happened in the last week..................

I was with Elder chitic until Wednesday. Then me and Elder Martin had changes and we went to somewhere else. BUt I am once again in Barrio FAUCETT! I was so happy when I heard that I was going back to my old area!!!! and also you wil neer guess that there are now 4 missionaries in this area. Elder ochoa is still here and his companion comes this Wednesday and I am here with Elder Perez from Costa Rica, where Kevin (Kevin is actually going to Peurto Rico) is going i think. I am now senior companion which is really cool! Elder Perez only has 1 month in the mission and I am training him whch is a little scary because I am still learning myself! But we are learning together. I am teaching him what I can. Elder Ochoa lives on the 4th floor and me and Elder Perez live in the 1st floor in the same house as Hermano Pedro. oops excuse me Obispo Pedro. haha And guess what? Today the baby is going to be born! The other day Gabis blood pressure rose and so thyey are doing a C-section today! She askesd us for a blessing last night. We gave her one and i'm sure everything is going to be alright. I'm excited to be here in Faucett again and I'm here for the birth of the baby too. That is way cool! And right now we are working with some recent converts that haven't recieved the priesthood. We are preparing them to recieve it. one kid i feel so bad for he is 15 he was baptized recieedthe preisthood and eerything but his records werent in the computer so he was baptized again before i got here and he had to recievethe priesthood again. its really sad.

I'm so glad that Cody gave his talk and is ready to leave. I hope you gave him a hug for me! Im so glad that you are still riding your bike and everything that is so awesome! keep it up! Im glad that jared had an awesome time on his hike and that everything went well and yes he is a great kid! wow they start school soon that s crazy! good luck with that! haha I hope youy all had a great tme celebrating dads bday! !! i really miss enchiladas and beans and rice!!!!!!

well i hope i answered all of your questions! i love you guys so much!

Elder Sawyer

For the Bishop

The Bishop asked the Missionaries in the field to share the importance of member referals. Here is Jacob's response:

well yesterday we went to church and it was really cool that even thought we didnt do like anything this week we still had some investigators show up it was really cool.

oh and for the bishop... getting references from the members is so important. without getting references from the members the work here would stop. By getting references we are truly finding the people that are prepared and interested in the gospel. it is something that we as missionaries cannot do on our own! in my last area it was awesome to see all the support that we got from the members. everytime we went to church it was so crazy for us because there were so many people that would tell us that they had someone for us to teach. and the last sunday we were there a member came up to us and said that here nephew wanted to get baptized, we were so suprised we had never visited this family before but we went and taught him and it turned out he had 2 other cousins and an aunt that were interested in listineng to us. and i heard last week that the 3 kids got baptized on the 23rd of july. its awesome to see the sucess that one reference from a memeber can do.

Life in the hospital

A Breathing treatment! I think he was trying to scare his mom!

Then he got a picture with him in the latest fashion in Peruvian Hospital Gowns


I think this next picture was before his surgery. He didn't say who is in the picture .

Back in the field.

Dear Family,

im still in the same area still i havent moved yet buti havent been doing anything ive been stuck in the house and i only left yesterday for church and to eat. its not that fun but i get tired easy so me and elder martin have been in the house while our companions have been out working. I feel really spoiled because i got to talk to you guys every day last week. thats really weird to me that i got to do that on my mission.

They gave me a but load of pills that i have to take but i havent taken very many of the pain pills because of what you told me and i dont want to feel anymore down than i already do. it sucks being sick and not being able to do anything but once this passes everything will be alright. and i ll be in a new area and i have to start over again meeting people and stuff. Elder martin was supposed to get an mri today but the machine broke so he doesn't know what is going to happen either because he probably will haveto go back to the states.

well im glad that you had a great time at grandmas and that was a treat to get to talk to everyone. in 2 years ill be right there with you guys. sorry i dont know what to write i have been talking to you guys all week and there isn't much to say. but when i got back everyone was suprised that i am back and that everything is alright. and everyone is telling me what i shouldn't eat and what i should eat i think it is really funny. but i need to send you some fotos.

thats awesome that you went to kevins farewell and im so excited that he is starting his mission that is so awesome! well im getting better and i have an appointment with the doctor this week and i still dont know where im going to be and i will definately take my meds and vidamins. i hope everyone is doing alright i love you all and im so glad i got to talk to all of you but it kinda made me homesick for a min but haha oncce i get back to work it will all go away! haha love you guys and ill see you next week same time same place.
Love Elder Sawyer

Bustin' out of the Hospital!!! Hooray!

Jacob is going back out today! He is doing so much better. We feel so grateful that he is doing so well. We are grateful for many prayers! We had the awesome experience of talking to him this morning! He sounds like a million bucks!!! We are so grateful for Dr. Borda, President Dorius, and all of the sweet Elders who have had to stay with Jacob in the hospital! We are also grateful for the Clinica Anglo Americana and their staff. He didn't know where he was going but we do know where ever he goes he will be in the Lord's hands. He got to talk to Grandma and Grandpa Bryce and Uncle Keith too! I miss that boy and it feels like thunder!
I wouldn't want him anywhere else! Our hearts are full!
On Wednesday, I received a wonderful e-mail from Jacob's Doctor. See below.

From: Tomas Borda Sent: Thursday, July 21, 2011 5:36 PM
To: Sawyer, Maryann
Subject: Re: Elder Jacob Sawyer

Dear Mr and Mrs Sawyer, first I would like to thank your prayers and blessings, I know you must be worried, but I can tell you now that Jacob is doing very well, his got no fever, eating, and walking, may be a little pain yn the operating aerea, but thats kind of normal for what he had.

His appendix was completly necrotic whith a little puncture but not broken and with a regular amount of free pus in the abdomen. We where able to take it out with no complications at all (thankfully)

We did a laparoscopic peritoneal lavage that was very satisfactory.

I believe that he is going to be at list 2 more days hospitalized because of the IV treatment (antibiotic) that is requiered for this cases.

Please try not to be worried, we are treating him as the nice person he is.

Feel free to get in touch with me any time, i´ll be glad to keep you posted.

Sincerly

Tomas Borda MD

----- Original Message -----

From: Sawyer, Maryann

Sent: Thursday, July 21, 2011 9:32 AM

Subject: Elder Jacob Sawyer

Buenos Dias, Doctor Borda,

I apologize that I am unable to speak or write to you in Espanol.

I am writing to you today regarding my son, Elder Jacob Sawyer. We have spoken to Jacob and the Mission President, President Dorius, and he sounds very good. We hope that his recovery is going according to your expectations. We feel very blessed that he is in your expert care.

May we ask a couple of questions?

1. Was Jacob’s appendix ruptured?

2. How long do you expect him to be in the hospital?


We would like to express our families gratitude for the excellent care that you and the staff at Clinica Anglo Americana have provided to our son. Especially, we are grateful to our Father in Heaven for your expertise, Dr. Borda. We pray for you and your staff every day as you care for Jacob. We are very grateful!

Thank you again for the expert care you are providing to our son,

Kent and Mary Ann Sawyer (Jacob’s parents)

Appendicitis in Peru

Late last night my cell phone rang. The voice said "Sister Sawyer?" I said "yes" The voice said "This is President Dorius". My guts hit the floor with my heart. He told us that Jacob was in the hospital and needs his appendix out. Jacob's white count was 17,000. Significantly elevated. He said they had done a CT scan and all of his organs looked perfect but the appendix looked like it needed to come out. So President said he would call us when he was done. We got a call this morning around 430 am from him and he said that Jacob did well. The companion said the doctor reported that Jacob's appendix had begun to burst a little. He said Jacob was sleeping and he wasn't able to talk.

President Dorius called again this morning to say that they will be moving him to a regular room later this morning and Jacob would call later. I am looking forward to it.

We called both of our families to let them know. Come to find out, Grandpa Sawyer and Abi both had to have their appendix out while they were on their missions.

We are very grateful for all of the prayers and know that he is in the Lord's hands. Our hearts are full!

This is his surgeon.



Dr. Tomas Borda Noriega
Cirugía General y Laparoscópica

Hoja de Vida

Facultad de Medicina:
Universidad Particular San Martín de Porres

Internado:
Hospital de Apoyo María Auxiliadora (1996)

Residencia:
Cirugía General, Hospital Clínico San Borja Arriaran, Escuela de Post-Grado, Universidad de Chile (2000-2003)

Pasantía:
Cirugía Digestiva, Hospital Clínico José Joaquín Aguirre, Universidad de Chile (1999)
Laparoscopic Surgery, Institute de Recherche Contre les cancer del appareil digestive. European Institute of Telesurgery, Strassburg, France (Septiembre 2005)

Interés Especial:
Cirugía General y Laparoscópica
Cirugía Hepatobiliar, Cirugía Gastroenterología, Cirugía de Urgencias y Cáncer Gástrico

Certificación:
CMP 30254
RNE 19113

Artículos publicados:
Apendicitis aguda

We are grateful for his expertise and training! We pray for him!

Another Snake Story

Dear Family,

Mom you really are a snake magnet, everytime a snake has gotten out you have been the one to find it hahaha. im happy that you and meagan are getting in shape for the big race. it sounds like fun! dad told me that your back is hurting, i hope that that doesnt last a very long time! just keep pushing through i know that you can do it!

Well my new area is collique in the san felipe stake, and my new companion is elder chitic and he is another guatemalteco, i have had all of my companios from guatemala and one from argentina. hes pretty cool and in his family in guatemala they speek another language which is really cool i cant remember the name of the language but he taught me a few words and its aweome. he has about 17 meses so he is close to finishing his mission. im definately learning a lot more on how to teach. and in our area before i got here they were baptizing the most in our zone, which is really exciting i think that we are going to have a lot of success este cambio. thereare a lot of menos activos and we are trying to activate them and in most cases there are members of the family that arent baptized so we are reactivating and we are sacando fechas.

Thats cool that chase tooler is going to california. i wonder if the missionaries can go to disneyland? i heard that in florida they getto go to disney world. spanish speaking that is really cool! my zone leader is from AZ he went to mountain View Elder chamberlain and he grew up with kyle chapman that was pretty cool! and another elder in my zone has the same time as me but he couldnt come to the ccm because he didnt have his visa yet. he had to serve a week in az tempe mission. Elder martin, he reminds me a lot of Jeff Lutes its funny ill send you a pic sometime. haha

My are is all mountains and hills and sometimes we have to climb pretty steep and right now i am not in shape and im huffing and puffing when we get to the top. and we live in our own apartment and we eat with a member that lives like a block away. they have a little store and the food is really good and they said that we could have whatever we wanted. and we eat with the zone leaders. in this zone there are a lot of gringos and they definatley speak a lot moreenglish than in my other zone, i hope that my spanish doesnt get worse, im trying to speak spanish to them.

Idk If i forgot anything but i love you all

Elder Sawyer


On Mon, Jul 18, 2011 at 8:09 AM, Mary Ann Sawyer wrote:

Good Morning, Elder Sawyer!

How are you doing today? How is your new area? Where is it compared to your old area? How is the new Comp and where is he from?

Well, son, we hope you are doing well!

So, I have another snake story for you. This time it is an annonymous snake story. Well, Meagan and I are trying to ride our bikes as often as we can so I can get in shape for the race. (Meagan is already in shape. hahaha) So it is late around 8 pm. Still a little light. We rode down the backside of the Riparian Preserve and we were riding on Guadalupe Road. I have my bike light on. There is some sticks and debris from the recent monsoon. So I pedal, pedal, pedal. Meagan is behind me. All of a suden I see this thing coming at an angle across the road. All I can see is black and white slithering right at me. I pedal, pedal faster. I say "Meagan, there's a snake" as my heart hits my guts. SILENCE! So I pedal, pedal really fast knowing that if I swerve into the road, I could die and if I take my feet off the pedals I might fall over and if the snake touches me, I would die too. So I just pedal for all I am worth. Meagan says "Oh, It IS a snake!" I think she doubted me! WHY DON'T YOU KIDS BELIEVE ME? hahahahaha We pedaled by without any trouble you'll be glad to know. So I have officially declared myself a "Snake Magnet"! What do you think? As for the snake, I think he had been over to get some gelato at the Langley Market after a hot day in the Desert. However in the future, I hope he waits until later when I won't be on the road. (I may have dear eldered this too you but I can't remember.)

The next day we went to see 17 Miracles, a new movie about the Mormon Pioneers Willie and Martin Handcart company, and there was a place where there were a bunch of rattle snakes. Scared the Pee Waddlin' out of me!!!

Saturday, Meagan and I rode to Southern, over to Ellsworth and down to Baseline, about 14 miles. We did okay. We did it in about 1.5 hours. We are getting there!

Also on Saturday, there was a baptism for Alexis Barron Concklin and Troy Concklin. It was beautiful!!! Sister Marchant gave a talk about how to hang on to the rod. She talked about things that make you let go, like anger and being mad. She said that she didn't understand the Atonement until much later after she had been baptized. I don't think that is a bad thing because it says in the scriptures "line upon line." Anyway, she encouraged them to pray and to read their scriptures because the scriptures are the instruction manual for life. She talked about overcoming anger and feelings that might make someone let go. She said the Spirit helps her hang on and when we are feeling mad an angry at someone, the Spirit can't be with us. She said she learned that if she feels that way, she prays that Heavenly Father will help her feel love towards that person she is mad at and through the Holy Ghost she does!!! She didn't know it, but that is exactly what I needed to hear!!! Isn't it amazing how messages are sent to us all the time if we are listening? I love the Holy Ghost and the Gospel!! I love our Father in Heaven and His Son, Jesus Christ! I know the Gospel is to help us get back to us and by remembering that they love us and that we can repent, and do repent, we can get back!

On our bike rides, Meagan usually rides behind me. She thinks its funny when I talk to myself. YOU would too! Meagan though is my second set of eyes. Because I don't see out of the left side of my head so good, sometimes I can't see what is coming up the side of me. So when we need to turn left, she helps me on the blind side and tells me when it is safe. Kind of like the HOly Ghost!

Well, I better get to work. I will be thinking of you and looking for you on line. Abi, Pa and Mommy na say "Hello!" and that they love you. Abi sent you a letter about 10 days ago. I hope you get it. Did you ever get our letters? Harry was glad to get your e-mail. We went to Chase Tueller's Farewell yesterday. He is going to the "Disneyland" mission, as he calls it. He is going to the Annaheim mission speaking Spanish. It was fun to see them!!! It brought back a lot of wonderful memories!

Okay, Now I will go to work! :) I hope you are enjoying your new area! Tell us all about it. Are you still on foot or are you bike riding?

Have a great day!
Love YOu!
LOVE YOU!!!
CTR!
Love you, Elder Sawyer!
MOM

July 11, 2011

Dear mom and Ffamily,

Im sooooooooo glad that everyone wrote me this week! and im so sorry that we arrived late to internent and so im trying to hurry and write everyone and read everything that is goig on at home! im excited every monday to hear from your guys!

Well i will be going to a new area and i am really sad! for reals! I really love this ward and the people here and when hermano pedro me dijo que tenia cambios tenia ganas para llorar. but luckily i held in the tears haha. and last night we found a family that had just moved here and the mom is member and she has some nieces and a son that want to get baptized and the cuñada wants to get baptized too. and so im leaving like 8 baptisms in this area. i really dont want to go and its really hard to say goodbye to all these people. but thats how the mission is i guess and itll be the same in every area. tonight we are havng a noche de hogar and i think that some of the members are coming to say goodbye.

yesterday i had to give a talk and i was so nervous but i think it went pretty well. i talked about our theme as a mission and how the members can apply it to themselves bevause we are all his hands and we should all share the gospel.and there was a missionary that had been in my area like a year ago that was finishig his mission ad he came to say goodbye to some of his coverts and he was relly happy with the state of the ward that it is in now. he had to ope the back part again it was awesome! hermana gabi said that this is the most people that have been in the sacrament meeting since before her mission so like 3 years. i am so happy that i was able to be apart of this ward and that there were good missionaries to pave the way in this ward because it really wasnt us it was the mssionaries before us that paved the way. and i hope that i left the area better than i found it!

It sounds like you guys had some crazy weather in AZ i wish i was there i miss the monsoons. it has been reaining here but really its not rain it just spits on you and it does that all day! its not fun! and im on a crappy computer today and so the pics came and they are way too big so i didt see everything that clear!

MOm im so proud of you that you are keeping on track and riding your bike with the padded shorts!!!! hahaha keep it up!

Tell grandma Hi for me and that i love her! it makes me sad to heaar that she has to use a walker a lot, she was always really active! but im soo glad that she is able to still go to the temple! pedro sent my letter and in it there is a letter for grandma! and he sent it with a seguro whih means that it will get there for sure!!! And tell Caden Hi for me!! thelittle boy that we were c}making pizza with reminds me a little of caden, he is different but i think of caden when i see him.

MY new zone is san felipe andi dont know where that is so ill tell you next week and ill tell you about my companion too. Elder ochoa is awesome and im sad that we only had one cambio together! buthis knee has healed up and we have been working hard! my new leader de zona is from AZ Elder Chamberlin he has been out a year and he went to Mt View and he grew up with Kyle Chapman! que chevere!

Its crazy how time flys! this next cambio meagan and Jared will start school and some of my riends will leave on the mish!.

Elder Ochoa says hi! and what is the last name of that hermana that you were talking too? I love you a lot!!!!!!!!! and i know that i forgot a lot of stuff and im still here for like 30 min maybe.

LOVE
ELDER SAWYER

June 27, 2011

Hi mom.

give my love to grandma and grandpa! and i have a letter for grandmas bday and im sending it this wednesday! so hopefully it will get there haha! have you still not recieved the other letters? its been like a month! and i didnt recieve your letters either. how sad! but
whatever theyll get here eventually.

this week has been pretty crazy. we had to rest a little bit because my companion had surgery a week ago so we had to stay in our house for a couple of days but he is doing a lot better and the past 2 days we worked for the most part normal we just have to walk a little slower.

I cant believe that tyler kirby is home wow it seemed like time just flew! tell him Hi for me. thats awesome that he got to see him get baptized i bet it really meant a lot for that man after waiting a year. in the ward that we are in right now we have kinda the same situation one brother wants to get baptized but he is under probation right now and i think that the church lawyers are looking into his situation but i think he might have to wait until he isnt under probation which is like 2 years but well see how things go. he has already been waiting a long time! and he hasnt come to churh since i have been here either but we are still visiting him and we are trying to get the ward to support him and make him feel more comfortable.

and Something really sad happened this week! the family we have been teaching and wanted to get married, well i already told you that they went to cuzco because here brother died so the had the services there. and while she was there she got baptized........ and shes still not married and they were still living together. i really dont know what those elders were thinking she had been living in our area for like 3 months and they didnt know the situation. we explained to them that they had to get married or seperate si o si. those were the only options they had. and the thing is she dosent really love him, that is what she told us, this whole situation is really sad and i dont know what happened. in a home where we saw so much happiness and now its anything but. so now they are seperated.

well today we are going to play futbol and after we are going to make pizza with hermana gabi and pedro it should be fun. hey do you think that you could send me your recipe for your pizza dough for future reference. today we are going to buy pre made dough but in the future that would be fun!

I got a letter from hayley, finaly, the date on the envolope was 18 of april. she said she got in to BYU for the fall that sounds like a blast!! so i need to send her a letter too. Hey Abi sent me a letter and said that her friend is coming to Peru and that if i needed anything that she would bring it. and i was Craving BANNANA NUT BREAD, so if you could ask her to send a loaf that would be the BEST!!!! hahaha and maybe you can print some fotos and send then with her too, or maybe that would be too much. idk Tell everyone that i love them!

oh and meagan sent me a message while she was in summer school doing her project. DONT GET MAD AT HER! because when i was in summer school me and cody and steel played video games the whole time in summer school when we were supposed to be doing our project HAHAHAHAH now you knowHAHA

LOVE YOU LOTS
Elder Sawyer

June 20, 2011

Good morning Mother and family!

How are you doing? this week has been interesting. on friday my comp had a surgery on his knee, he had a cist and they took it out and all is well but we stayed in the hospital until sunday. we were suppossed to leave sat. but on the way out my comps blood pressure dropped and almost fainted so the doc had us stay longer. actually we werent even supposed to leave when we did but nobody told us what was going on so we just walked out, the both of us. we got down stairs and the doc told me to go back up and get his meds that the nurses didnt give to us and when i got back elder ochoa was sweating like crazy. the doc had him go to the ER and we stayed there for a bit and they moved us up to another room. it was horrible we were able to watch TV and we could sleep haha. we watched nacho libre and cars and some beach volleyball. i had forgotted how much of a waste of time tv is haha. and now we have a couple days that we have to rest but he can use crutches and walk a little. its really not that fun.

but at this hospital is were all the rich people go we talked to a couple people that had traveled all over the world and stayed in really fancy hotels and i ate lunch in the cafeteria and the doctor joined me and he said he had been to AZ and stayed in the fancy hotels we have and he went to tucson for some kind of rock festival.

and yesterday we still had the baptism, it was pretty crazy we had exchanges with the ZLs and one of them stayed with my comp and i went with the other zone leader. to the baptism. but the thing is he had a baptism at the same time as mine. and so we had to split again with somebody from the ward. and since i had not gone to the house since the hospital i didnt have the clothes or anything for the baptism. and guess what i forgot the keys to the house, my comp still had them. and we got to the capilla and i kinda felt like i had the keys for some reason and i looked in all of my pockets in my back pak and i found them, i felt really dumb! so we went back to get the clothes and all was fine and we had the baptism and all was well and my comp came home yesterday evening. but while i was with elder thurman in his area we were eating lunch and there was a family that was invited that the couple was deaf, but they could read lips and talk a little. and we were talking to them and we taught them a little and gave them pamphlets and a book of mormon it was really cool!

yesterday we saw the pictures of hermana gabis baby. i forgot what you call those, but it was really cool he already looks like his dad it was really funy, and hes really healthy and all is fine!!! he should be arriving in august. and we did get a new baby brother i think friday he was born. i forgot his name but we need to visit them this week, if we can.

Im sorry that aunt jodi isnt feeling good, i hope she gets better soon and we will pray for her.

im sorry that it is 110 thats hot! its getting cooler her. and it rained yesterday but really i wouldnt count it as rain! it was little tiny sprinkles and really you couldnt even see it. it was just really humid.

I love you all!
Elder Sawyer

June 13 2011 letter.

Dear family,
first of all the pictures are of our baptism of paola rios linares and of the birthday party of allison ramirez, the lady that is pregnant is our mother in the ward haha and allison is our big sisterhaha. the 2 girls are 8 and 9 but they look like they are like 12. and we will have a new brother in this week. she knows english and quechua tambien. so she is teaching us a little quechua its really funny. imata jutiki, is what is your name? haha

Like i said we had a baptism and that was way awesome i got to perform the ordinance and that was an awesome experience! my second baptism woo hoo! it is so awesome to see the change in peoples lives and it is a priveledge to bring this message to the people. We have another baptism scheduled for this week Irrving millas, he is lo maximo! he just wants to keep on learning, he is reading the book of mormon he knows its true and he really is teaching us too. we are learning more together. He asked us the other day about a noche de hogar, he had heard about it but never had been to onne and he wanted us to teach us how to have one so that he could have one with his family. so we are going to have one with him this sunday. when we taught him for the first time my companion was in shock he had never had met someone like him that just wanted to learn and just had the iniciative it was funny. he had come from barranca where the people are a little more duro and we were joking and saying, oh wow... we are actually in a house.haha

Im sad to hear about elder mcbride! that totally stinks but its awesome that he is alright! im happy that it sounds like hell be alright and i hope nothing is permanent.

Did you get my letters that i sent yet? i will try to send a letter to grandma! so that means that i will! haha wow i cant believe that she is turning 80! tell he that i love her so much! and everyone else too! and tell her HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! and mom im sorry i think that i forgot to say HAPPY MOTHERS DAY when you called me im sorry i love you so much!

I cant believe that we have 12 missionaries out in the field that is nuts! i loved growing up in our ward and with all of the youth that i am priveledgd to call my friends. i dont want to sound trunky but it will be awesome to get together with all of them after the mish. haha and one more thing how is jeff despain any more robberies? haha i hope not!

I love everyone!
elder sawyer

Dear family,

I'm so glad that I had a lot to read today! I will try to answer all of your questions. haha. I'm so glad that Meagan and Jared are out of school and starting summer school! Meagan, I can't believe that you are a senior and have senior pics on the 15th!!! Time is flying by your senior year will fly by have fun and provecho(I think it means take advantage of it) something like that haha. Definitely keep your hair short!! haha and why didn't you have shoes on when you were being chased? not smart! jk haha and I want to get both e-mails and letters and you are off the list now so everything is good! haha Love you Meagan!

MOM, my new companion is Elder Ochoa he is from Guatemala and he is 19 years old and Elder pop is 25. Both Elder Ochoa and Pop are from the same group from the MTC. Elder Ochoa is awesome we are having a good time getting to know the memebers and preparing the investigators for baptism. I'm so sorry to hear that bro Poole passed away!! Actually strangely enough that same thing happened to one of the families that we are teaching. the family that wants to get married. Hmna Jessica and Hmno Wilson. Hmno Richard is the brother of Hmna Jessica and he has already been baptized but he had a tumor in his brain and he had surgery and he didn't wake up and it was really scary and he passed away yesterday it is really sad!!!! I'm pretty sure it was the doctors fault it sounds like it was a bad surgery, or atleast that's what I understood. we haven't had a chance to talk to them and i don't know if we will because they might be going back to Cuzco because they only came so Richard could be closer to a hospital. I really hope that everything will be OK and that this will only make them stronger. It is really sad!!!

Yesterday they had the elections in Peru and we had to spend the whole day in doors it was boring at times but it was nice to be able to recharge the batteries a little. I don't know if you are up to date with the politics of Peru but ollanta won the election and he is friends with Hugo Chavez and from what I hear he doesn't like the USA and so there is some talk of that all of the north American missionaries might have to leave or something. But that might be just some gossip I guess well see. He doesn't take office until the 28th of July. We'll see how things go, I really hope this doesn't worry you! If it does just remember that missionaries have special protection and we'll be fine haha.

I'm glad to hear that you guys still have break the fast and I miss having break the fast with you guys! We had something like that yesterday it was sooo good!!! The Elders from the offices came and had lunch with us and the whole family that we live with too. We had chicken, beef, corn on the cob, potatoes, fried bananas, and anticucha which is cow heart, it was so much food and it was soo good!!!

The other day we went to teach this guy his name is irrving and he is one of the coolest guys I've met. He is like 24, and he has such a strong testimony!!! And the cool thing is he wants to share the happiness that he has found in the gospel with his friends! And when I said that we went to teach him really he was teaching us, he was showing us stuff that he liked in the Book of Mormon, he would already be baptized but he has a child and is con viviente and is trying to work things out with his novia to see if they can get married. Really they are seperated but he wants to have a strong family for his son. But if he cant work things out he is going to find another place to live and get baptized on June 18th.

Dad, I'm so glad that you got to go to church on Sunday on my mission I'm starting to understand more the importance of family. and I wish that before my mission I would have spent more time with my family and I wish that I wouldn't have been mad when you and mom made me spend time with you guys. You guys are always in my prayers and I love you so much!

Love Elder Sawyer!

Jarlis

Hey what's up family!

Guess what! Yesterday we had a baptism. We baptized Jarlis, the young guy that we have been teaching. It was so awesome! I got to baptize him. My first baptism!!!!! I really can't explain how I felt it was so cool. After he came out of the water he was letting the water drip off his face and then he wiped his face and then looked at me with the BIGGEST smile that i have ever seen! Oh wow it was so cool! Its so awesome to be a part of a change in someones life. He is 21 and so if he is active he can serve a mission in a year that would be soo cool. I was thinking when we were teaching him that he could be a missionary and he could help people and share this awesome message. He is an awesome guy!!! But the funny thing is when we were going to take pics.... my camera died! Talk about opposition in all things right! haha. But i'll get the pics from my comp and from the family that we live with and I'll send them to you.

That's so awesome that Kevin got his call and that's funny that he leaves before everyone else. haha. Trevor! Chile? Thats sick too! Tell them congrats for me!!!!I have videos that i need to send you i hope i can do it today. I'll try to figure it out.

We have cambios tomorrow and im staying in Faucett and Elder Pop is going to another area and my companion will be Elder Ochoa. I've met him before he is a cool guy! We have a lot of potential in this next cambio there is a possibility that we could have 6 baptisms, and hopefully the 2 couples will be married this cambio and they can be baptized. But please continue to pray for Elder Pop he is still sick, he has taught me so much! I'm going to miss him!

I cant believe that schools out for you guys! I hope everything turned out well! Pretty soon the next school year will be starting haha, enjoy the summer. I'll try to send some more letters this week. and you should get some from me soon. I sent some like a week ago.

Meagan wrote:
Your camera died? Do you need a new one or do you just need nuevo batteries?

P.S. This is Meagan. I wrote. I am off the naughty list! :) Love you!

Jacob wrote:
You cant get off that easy meagan!!! I'm trying to get more fotos to send to you guys and I dont know how to send the videos.! No i just need to charge the battery, I charged it a couple days ago I dont know what happened.

Meagan when i get your next letter I will take you of the list!! haha
exacto!!! walking on sunshine!!! i love that feeling! well i got to go and be expecting more fotos next week I love you and the thing that i have learned about goals is they need action! that is the key! I know that you can do it i love you and i will keep you informed on the my progress aswell

Mom wrote:

I am excited for the people you are teaching!!! Definitely, Walking on Sunshine kind of day!

Jacob wrote:
Exacto!!! walking on sunshine!!! I love that feeling! Well I got to go. And be expecting more fotos next week I love you and the thing that I have learned about goals is they need action! That is the key! I know that you can do it! I love you and I will keep you informed on the my progress as well.

Ironman, Baptisms on the horizon.

Dear Family,
How are you guys doing. I hope all is going well. I cant believe that Sarah is graduating! This year has gone by fast! Tell her Congratulations for me!! What is she going to do after graduation, go to EA. haha
There isn't a fund that you guys can donate to for the marriage, and I'm not supposed to ask for you guys to donate I don't think you can. Its in the white bible. haha

This week has been an up and down week. My companion has been in the clinic for some check ups and exams and the president told him that he has 2 weeks to get better and if not he has to go back to Guatemala. Which is really sad i really hope hope he gets better!!! He was really depressed that day but he has cheered up since, he talked with some other missionaries and it cheered him up. We are just trying to work as hard as we can and put our trust in God, its really all we can do. The members are so nice they all want to help him! I now understand why they like him so much. he has been here his whole mission, 5months, so when he got here he didnt have any support from the members and he had to work really hard with his comp and then slowly the members starting helping them and they love the missionaries now. We had a Noche de Talentos in one of the wards this last week and that was really fun! In one of the skits we did as a zone I was Iron Man! I have some videos I'll try to send next week. But we had to make some kind of costume and we had no idea how to do it so this one family helped us out a lot! It reminded me of when i had to do something creative for school I always asked you or Meagan to help me haha. But this family is hilarious the shereibers, idk how to spell it, but there are 2 sisters and they are hilarious they remind me of you and your sisters when they get together.

I've been reading trying to read the book of mormon in spanish and I'm in the part where Nephi has to build the ship and i think that it is crazy (Crazy in Jacob language means really cool Like saying "Totally Awesome!") that anything the Lord wants us to do he will prepare the way for us to do it. and we really cant do anything without him!!!

Thank you so much for sending the fotos and the mp3! i cant wait to recieve them. I got a letter from Abi and from the Mia Maids from out ward today. I thought that was really cool! there was a little note from Sis Sellers in there and that was awesome it reminded of the good times i had in her class! tell her thank you for me!!!! Hopefully youll get my letters in a couple weeks.

We've been teaching this guy, Jarlis. He's 20 years old and he had a baptism date a long time ago but we knew nothing about him because he wasn't in the binder but somebody told us about him and we stared visiting him again and he wants to get baptized. He had some troubles with some friends and that's why he didnt go through with baptism before. But now he understands when we have desires to come closer to Jesus there isn't anything that can impede us. He has a job that doesn't allow him to go to church on Sundays and he wants to go to church and he doest know what to do. We told him to pray and he can find his answer and that the Lord understands. i told him the story of when dad had to work sundays and we prayed all the time that he could come to church with us and we fasted and finally he awas able to change his schedule and he could come to church with us! I love that! We set a date for him to get baptized the 5 of June. We haven't had many baptisms but there are a lot of people that are being prepared for baptism and the next cambio they will be baptized. this cambio ends on 31 of May. And every Cambio is 6 weeks I can't belive my first one is almost over!

Well I'll be on for about 20 more min so if you want to talk. but I LOVE YOU GUYS SO MUCH!!!
I hope that Meagan and Jared have a great last week of school!! Have fun this summer! It's so weird that it is winter here haha

LOVE
Elder sawyer

PS. Tell Meagan that she doesn't have to move out anymore I changed my mind. haha





We are at a place where they have computers that we can use for internet. I don't know how to explain it but we pay to use the internet. I'm excited for Meagan and Jared to finish school.

And I dont think I will ever live that down, putting the sugar in the flour. haha I miss you all a lot. but the homesickness I think has worn off and I'm starting to just love the work.


I can't wait to get the dear elders! Oh can you put my address up on facebook. the one that says to los olivos that's to the office and that is the fastest way if you arent going to use dear elder.
if you feel inspired to but some disney songs on there dont be afraid haha

A Slitherin' Stroll and teaching a nice family

A letter to Jacob from Mom-Please see his response after my letter.
Good Morning!!!!

How are you today? The weather is nice and cool this morning. It is in the 60s but will warm up to the 80s later today. It is odd for this time of year but we will take it!

Well you'll never guess what happened the other day! It was 4 am and I heard Miss Hope stirring around in her cage and doing a slight whine. I thought "Hope settle down." But she just kept going. So I got up in a drowsy stupor and went to let her out. Hope had her feet about 3-4 inches out of the cage and her tray that her blanket sits on was pushed out of her kennel. I thought odd but oh well. Hope darted for the door. I let her out. I went to get a drink and thought I need to push her tray back in. As I was about to the cage, something caught my eye. It was this long reddish thing. I thought "Hope doesn't have a toy that looks like that. Does she?" I looked a little closer and I saw IT!!!! It was the SNAKE!! My guts and my heart hit the floor. I looked again. YEP! It was a snake! I went to get dad. I whispered really LOUD-"KENT, I think the snake is out. It is in Hope's bed." At that moment I thought, "Was that really the snake or am I dreaming?" I went back and looked and sure enought it was trying to get under the pad where it is warm from Hope laying there.

A little bit later, Hope scratched to come in. I went to the door and she came in. She went to her kennel very cautiously. She sniffed around and backed out and said "Nope! I'm not going in there right now!" So I think I will write a letter to President Monson requesting that all boys with slithering creatures be allowed to take them on their missions if they don't get nice homes for them before they leave. hahahaha Just kidding! Dad confessed that he thinks he didn't put the pin in right! hahahaha


Yesterday, was Steele's farewell. It was awesome! You have amazing friends ya' know! He talked about throwing a golf ball at his sister. He said he got in trouble. He realized that he learned that his deciscion to become angry affected more than himself and he could have hurt his baby sister really bad. He carries the golf ball with him to remember that his decisions affect others. He talked about being in the Easter Pageant when he was a senior. He was in the multitude and in the mob. He said how hard it was when he was in the mob to yell "Crucify Him! Crucify Him!" He decided right then that he would always be a disciple of Christ! He never wanted to be on the other side.

Jacob, I hear your growth in your letters. We are so thankful that you are making decisions for yourself. You are learning for yourself so many things. I loved when you said "I know if I open my mouth the Lord will fill it!" Thank you for sharing the gospel! It is hard but it is so necessary!!! I learn so much from your example. I know that it is not easy to leave your family but it will be well worth it. You will have us forever but this opportunity to serve the people of Peru is only for now. You will plant seeds and reap rewards that are eternal! Stay the course! Continue to seek the Lord in all you do! I know you are!

How did your skit go? Any lessons coming up? Any baptisms on the horizon?

I LOVE you sooo SOOOO much!!!!
Mom

PS How old is Elder POP? How is Hermana Gabi? When is her baby due? How is Hermano Pedro? Please send our love and gratitude to them from us. Also send our love to the Hermana who does your Laundry and her husband too.

Jacob's Response:
Dear Mom and Fam,

I want you to know that i was laughing so hard when i read this letter. i cant believe the snake got out! was it sampson or sasha? thats so hilarious! im sorry i didnt find a home for them before i left and that my room is a mess!!!! im suprised that you havent taken them to the pet store yet! whats the deal? hahajk oh and i cant believe that hope is such a pansy! haha

I hope all is well at home. i got your letters that you sent on the 1st of may that was an awesome suprise!!! thank you for you encouragement i will " hustle to the very end" haha. its turning into winter here its not that cold but its chilly, and some days its cloudy all day and foggy, and it doesnt rain hardly at all but its weird sometimes i can feel little drops of water hit my face but its not raining. it has to be really humid, and its probabaly the fog.

Im so happy that steel is starting his journey im so glad that i had such good friends and that we are all going to serve missions. tell him hi for me and good luck, oh and ask him if he ever got my letter? i sent him one while i was in the provo mtc thanking him for picking me up and stuff but i dont know if it got to him.

Hmna Gabi is due in August, and the family that we live with is the best! and i sent letters to you and its kinda expensive to send stuff so i sent a buch of letters in one envelope, can you distribute them? just give them all to Harry except the one to Brylee can you give that to her? i dont think that harry hangs out with her so it wouldnt get to her. and i was thinking and it might be better if i just buy an mp3 here and i can get music from the other misionaries, i think that it is a lot cheaper here, but if you already sent it thats fine. just let me know, but i deffinatley still need a bunch of pics of you guys!!!!!!! PLEASE!!!!

this week was an amazing week we taught this family that really wants to get baptized but they have to get married or seperate. and they were having problems so they were going to seperate for good. so we watched this movie about families and how if we look for our answers in the world we arent going to find our answers and the world tells us that divorce is the answer but if we look for our answers in the gospel we will find our answer and our relationships will be strengthened and when we put our confidence in God we will be blessed. we watched the movie and we had to leave right after for the baptism of the bishops son in another ward. bit we went back the next day to talk more and everything changed. the day before the father was mad that they had to seperate inorder to be baptized and he didnt really understand and he really didnt have anywhere to go that is his only family. but everything changed they understood everything and the movie was exactly what they needed to hear they had been looking for their answers in the world and not in the gospel. and they want to get married and then baptized but they dont have much money so we are trying to work that out. But mom, and family, I felt so happy when they said that they were going to work things out and be a family, i really dont know how to explain it. but this is the reason why im here to teach the importance of families and the way they can be eternal. it was so awesome! at that moment it just hit me that this is why im here and i just feel really good!

LOVE YOU LOTS!
Elder Sawyer

PS tell meagan to write me!!! whats her deal? haha jk she probably wrote and it just hasnt come yet. and im looking forward to the essays that they wrote for seminarY!!

Mother's Day Phone call-Best Mother's Day Present

We actually got to CALL Jacob yesterday on Mother's Day! Best Mother's Day!!! We called him at 4 p.m. and we got the answering machine. I was worried for a second but Kent interpretted the message. Then we called again. The circuts were busy-of all the nerve!! Finally we got through to Jacob!!! It was so awesome to hear his voice!! He sounds really good. They had two baptisms on Saturday. Which is way cool!


We talked and talked. The time went really fast. If he couldn't understand us he said "Como?" Meagan and Jared got the giggles when he did that. Then we told him about the Highland Volleyball teams bleak season. He said "Enserio?" So it sounds like he is doing better and better with his Espanol!

The rest of the story on May 9

On Mon, May 9, 2011 at 11:48 AM, Mary Ann Sawyer wrote:

You thoughts are my thoughts. Check out alma 17. I was thinking of Hannah and the boy Samuel. She totally gave her son at age 3. I see your growth. It is priceless.
Please let your comp know we are praying for his health. We are praying for your success. I love you!!!

Mom
I gave hime a big hug and said it was from you guys! haha thanks mom i love you. and i hope that you have an awesome day!!!


welll i have to get back to work an i think you do too. say hi to the girls at work for me haha!!!
LOVE mucho

Jacob