A Transfer

Dear MOM, Well mom..., we found out the changes just now. The zone leaders told us before internent which is really cool! So i can tell you. Well,I'm going to a different area. I'm going to a zone called Santa Isabel. I am so sad that i am going to leave Elder Villalba and all of the wonderful people that we have found and are teaching. But the wierd thing is I am going to be a zone leader. I really don't know how or why. When the zone leaders told us our changes I thought they were lying and I still dont believe them but I gues that it is true. I think that everything will be alright! Well this week was probably one of the best weeks that I have had on my mission. WE FOUND A GOLDEN FAMILY. This lady in our area gave us a reference of Yoseline and Jose. They are 24 and 23 years old and they had listened to the missionaries before and they felt the spirit. They told us that the first time they prayed with the other missionaries they started to cry and they felt soo good. So we taught them about the Book of Mormon and a little about baptism they want to get baptized and we explained that they have to get married first and they are going to do it. They went to church on Suday and they are so excited. And now i have to leave them what a bummer!!!! As for Yadi she said she wants some time to think and so we are going back next week to see how she is doing. I hope that everything is alright with her!! On Sunday, we inherited 3 baptismal dates, the zone leaders had been working in our area and the people came to church and want to get baptized. We have an appointment with them today and we are going to meet them. Me and my companion were talking the other day about when we first came to our area. When we first came, there wasn't anything and the missionaries hadn't baptized hardly anybody in the lastd 6 months. But we came and now we baptize every month. It's so awesome to see the progress in the area and in the people. I know that the Lord has blessed us sooo much! Even tho we really don't deserve it. But i have a firm testimony that if we work hard the Lord will bless us. And it depends on our attitude. If we have a good attitude, it's much easier to work and to have hope and faith that we will have success. When we got here everyone told us " good luck in your area" but in a sarcastic way, we had a great attitude and we had success and I Love this area!! Well, mom I am sorry that you fell on your bike and that the dog chased you. Sometimes we get chased by dogs. It really stinks!!! Sometimes we have to throw rocks at them so that they will leave us alone. It's kinda funny afterwards but in the moment its a little scary, especially if it is un perro grandaso! haha. Im so happpy that Dallas is going to serve a mission! I'm so excited for him he is going to have the time of his life!!! Say hi for me!!! Here are some pictures at Ricardo's.

well I love you all soooo much!!! Love Elder Sawyer

Dear MOM! how are you doing? well to tell the truth I did have a big headache but it all went away! so that is good! i think it might have been because i got a lot of sun that day. well this week we had 2 baptisms vanesa and her daughter micaela. The baptism was great! We were so happy that we had baptisms. But the prep for the baptism wasnt that fun. we went in the morning to fill up the font and we find it full with dirty water and with mosquitoe larvae in the font. GROSS!!! so we go to empty it and the water was emptying really slowly so we left to go to an appointment and to eat lunch. we get back at like 230 because vanessa had to have an interview with presidente dorius, and we find the font half way full still, the water wouldnt leave! we tried everything and then we just had to empty it with buckets we filled the buckets and dumped the water in the overflow drain.

we got done with cleaning and everything at 6 and the baptism was at 7. so we hurried and turned on the water to fill it up. and then at 645 the water stopped there wasnt any water in the capilla. WHAT ELSE COULD GO WRONG!, was what we were thinking. the water only came up to my knees so we were worried that it wouldnt be enough but luckily vanesa and her daughter are tiny and so it all worked out great. and there were a lot of members at her baptism and it all turned out great!!!! and the family that gave us the reference was there and it was awesome.

yesterday we had a noche de hogar in the house of a member that lives in a part of our area. The neigborhood reminded me a lot of the states. it was really cool! i dodnt take any pictures sadly! but we had a great time we did divisiones with ricardo and roberto mache and we did a lot of contacts. it was really cool! ricardo is progressing a lot this next week he is going to teach the lesson in young mens! he is so aweosme and now his mom doesn't work sundays and so they both go to church! we talked to his mom yesterday and she said that ricardo was saying to her hurry up mom we are going to be late! haha it was sooo cool. and while ricardo was with my companion he told him that before he met uis he was doing drugs with his friends but no he doesnt do any of that but his friends make fun of him. that is something that he didnt tell us when we were teaching him but im glad that he changed his life around! i was thinking last night that if we wouldnt have found him his life would be soooo diferent! in a year he could be serving a mission, and if we didnt find him in a year he could have been in jail or something worse! its scary to think about! thanks for the info about school! I have been praying really hard about that decision. and i will continue to talk to president about that decision. the good thing is that i got a good chunk of time before i have to make a decision. I love you sooooo much! i am so glad that you always support me!! Love you! Elder Sawyer

April 16, 2012

Dear Mom,

well this week was soo aweosme! Yadi didnt get baptized this week but she has a date for this saturday. on tuesday I was with Elder Paulson our district leader and we had an aweosme experience con yadi. we taught her the plan of salvation. IT was one of the best and most powerful lessons i have had on my mission. we started talking about the premortal life and about the fall of adam and then her sister came in and yadi started explaining everything to her and she was so excited. it was something new for them to hear that the fall of adam was apart of the plan of God. but it made sense to them. and we got to the part about the spirit world and she asked about her uncle that died we told her that he was there. and something crazy is that we felt impressed to explain everything in the plan like the war in heaven which we usually don't, and we also explained that Jesus went to the spirit world and organized the missionary work there and that there are missionaries that are teaching her uncle. it was so cool at the end she started to cry. and we all felt the spirit she told us that jesus loves us so much! and her prayer that she did after was soooo powerful it was soo awesome. she asked us "why didn't we teach her this the first time that we taught her" it was funny we told her that it was necessary that she understand the book of mormon and the restauration first. it was such an aweomse experience.

this week we could have 3 baptisms, we recieved a reference from a memeber and we have been teaching Vanessa and her daughter micaela for 4 weeks and she has been going to church every sunday and she told us on Saturday that she wants to be baptized this week. it was soo cool.

we had entravistas with president this week. That man is sooo awesome I want to be just like him when i grow up!

well I love you allç
Elder Sawyer

P Day in the Center of Lima and Noche de Hogar

Dear Mom,

Well sorry that its a little late we went to the center of lima today and so we are doing internent in the tarde. it was pretty fun we wentto the catacoombas it was pretty fun it was the same as when the last time that we went. we had a goodtime and we wentto mccdonalds it was really good. there is an elder from utah this is his first transfer and we were talking to him in english and getting the scoop on whats going on in the states. his name is elder sines he is a cool kid!

well here we just had the semana santa and on friday, good friday, i guess your not supposed to eat meat only fish on this day and so everyone was asking us so what do the mormons do for semana santa? it got pretty annoying! hahajk we just told them we remember jesus christ.

well we had a noche de hogar yesterday it was sooooo big! there were about 40 people that showed up and 11 people that the members brought it was really coool! I took some pics.

well this week we had a interesting experience with yadi we got to the lesson on thursday. I was praying sooooooooooo hard that we would know what to say. my companion talked about the diference between good things that are in all of the churches and stuff that is true it was really good and i talked about the book of mormon i just remember thinking that she knows that the book of mormon is true, at the end of everything i really felt that we didnt gain any ground but when we were done she told her mom that she is going to be baptized on the 14th and so we were so happy and definately got an answer to our prayers.

we are also teaching a lady whos name is vanessa she is a single mom and is progressing a lot. we talked about repentance with her and we had a really great lesson with her and we really felt the spirit. she is preparing to be baptized.

welll i love all of you guys soo much!!!

elder saywer

Lessons from April General Conference and the Cake

Elder Sawyer and Elder Villalba

Dear Mom,

Thank you for the packages I can't wait to get them!!! I am happy that you got my letter and pics I will do better with sending you guys handwritten letter! Well I will answer your questions first so I don't forget. We don't see llamas all that often. Elder Villalba is 21 and turns 22 on the 13 of July. I think he has 6 in his family. He and his family were baptized in Paraguay like 5 years ago. All of his family got baptized except his older brother who doesn't live with them. He is awesome! He turned a year on Friday. Wow!!! I cant believe we have been together for six months now. That is nuts! You should send him a package from "dear elder" that would make his day!!!! haha

Well thankfully we got to listen to conference in English! It was sooo awesome! And I can't believe that its over for another 6 months! I am so glad that you all got to go! That must have been a really good experience! I liked it all it was a little scary when Elder Holland ended his talk with "We can all repent while the Master of the vineyard says there is still time but "its getting late"! That was crazy! They talked a lot about fathers and how they need to lead the family. I really liked a talk by one of the counselors in the primary presidency. She told a story about a mom and her kids weren't getting along and so she asked her little girl if she wanted to pray and ask Heavenly Father for help. And she didn't want to but the mom taught her about prayer. The little girl prayed and after she started to cry. The mom asked why are you crying. The little girl said she didn't know why. The mom taught her that it was the Holy Ghost. I really like that story. I hope that when I have kids my wife and I can teach our kids good things like that. haha.

There was a great talk from Dieter F. Uchtdorf about perdon(forgiveness) and it was really cool because an inactive family was at that session. Well they have been going to church for the past 4 Sundays. So I don't think they are in active anymore, but the mom is having problems with forgiving people and stuff like that. That talk was perfect for her, and after we talked to them and she said that she really liked that talk. We almost had a bad experience with our bishop on Sunday.

This week we worked with Ricardo 2 days. It was really cool! He worked with us all of the afternoon it was awesome! He told us he wants to go on a mission! AND so in a year and a half he can go on a mission. It was awesome! He really helped us in a couple of lessons with his testimony! We taught a lesson to a girl that is 20. Her name is Yadi( pronounced Jadi) and we have been teaching her for about a month and a half. Her doubt has always been the Libro de Mormon. We went to her house and Ricardo, if youi didn't know him he looks a little rough around the edges, she said he didn't look like he was baptized. She asked why he got baptized. He said he found peace in the church and he knew it was true and that he wants to be a missionary and so that kind of left her quiet. We shared with her a bunch of scriptures in the Book of Mormon about Christ. We asked her if she thought that this book helped her get closer to Him. She said yes and at the end she told us that the first time we came we used an example that the Libro de Mormon was like a cake and that we only need to try it to see if it is good and she said she likes the cake and that it is really good( the book of Mormon). It was really cool she accepted a baptismal date for the 14 of April.

We had a great week! I love you allll soooooo much!!!
Elder Sawyer

A white shirt and a tie

Dear Mom and Family,

Well, I didn't get transferred and I am with Elder Villalba again. So we were happy about that. Wow! We have been companions since October. That is a long time!!!! But it is aweosme and Elder Suntasig got transferred and so now the other missoinaries that live with us are Elder Cano and Elder Mcclure, from AZ!!!! He went to Mesquite and he knows BRETT Sevy. So I'm excited to have an Arizonian with me! Thats tight!!

This Sunday was sooo awesome! Ricardo recieved the sacerdocio, (priesthood). It was soo awesome! He told us last Sunday that he had a interview with the bishop and he wsa worried because he didn't have a tie or a white shirt. And so we told hime that we were goingto go to his house on Monday. So we went on Monday and explained a little about the Priesthood. And I gave him one of my white shirts and Elder villalba gave him a red tie. Itwas so cool!!! He is the best! He is so excited to bless the sacrament! And yesterday when the ward sustained him it was so cool for us to see that!!!! We felt so happy!! And yesterday we had 7 investigators come to church and some that have come for the first time! So that was a rally big blessing for us!

I can't wait for general conference! That is going to be soo fun! I can't believe that we are already at this time of year again! I'm so glad that you guys get to go! That is going to be soo fun! I hope we get to go next year. That is something that i really want to do. Hey, who is Haley going to marry? That is nuts! I can't believe she is getting married.

Well this week we had a really cool experience with Rodrigo. We watched the restoration and it was really cool. And we asked him how he has felt about it this time that we have been teaching him. And he told us that he believes it is true and that it all makes sense to him. And i remember in my experiences when i have prayed to know if everything is true i think my answer was just like that it just all makes sense to me. It is a testimony to me that the spirit works in different ways with everyone and we are probably gong to get an answer in a way that is reallly small. But it is still an answer. We are working with him so he can be baptized the week after conference.

Well, I have started to do some excersizes in the night with Elder Mc Clure we have been jump roping in the night so I hope I will stay skiny and strong. haha.

Hey so question. What is going on with Russia and Iran and israel and the states? I have been seeing a bunch of crazy stuff in the papers.

Well, I hope that you all have a great week! I love you all sooo much!!

ELder Sawyer

March 19, 2012 Another Noche de Hogar

Dear mom
how are you? well the noche de hogar was a success like the other one
that we did it was awesome! i am trying to send some pictures that we
took. it was awesome we did it out side in back of the house of the
hermana pando the mom of medaly jenifer and nicol. it was soo cool we
had a really good time and one girl that we are teaching came. her
name is yadi she had a really good time.

this week on saturday we asked victor if he could help us out and come
with us to soem appointments. we thought it would be good for our
investigators to hear a testimony of someone that just joined the
church and we also thought that it would help victor with his
testimony. we taught yadi and she has a lot of questions about the
book of mormon and it was great to have victor their because some of
the doubts that he had she is having right now. and we also went to
visit a member to plan a little about the noche de hogar and justo the
lady that works for him, he sews t shirts., was their and they were
talking about the church and sowe arrived just in time we got to know
her a little and then we taught her the restoration it was really cool
we had brother coral and victor there to testify with us and she said
that she would pray and read the book of mormon, and something really
cool is that she came to church yesterday and so that was really cool.
Ricardo is going to get the priesthood this week he has a entravista
with the bishop this tuesday and so that is exciting, he was really
excited he told us after church" im going to be able to bless the
sacrament" and while he said it he did a little cross in the air it
was funny me and elder villalba laughed afterward. haha the family
menos activa that we have been teaching came to church this sunday
again and so we are happy for them, they are going through some tough
family stuff and we are really said that they are going throught this,
the dad is a drunk! that pretty much somes it up. oh and rodrigo has a
baptismal date.... again for 31 of march.

well the multizone conference was awesome president talked to us about
the book of mormon and how it combined wit hthe holy ghost is the
instrument mas poderoso that we have for the conversion, it was really
aweoseme and then we talked about faith hope charity and humility and
he asked us which one is most important and we looked up a lot of
scriptures and they all say that we cant have one without the other,
and so we talked about we need to develop all of them at the same time
and we cant have one strong and the others weak they all go hand in
hand.

well this week in transfers and we will find out if we get changed
right after internent and so we are a little nervous i really dont
want a change elder villalba is awesome and he is an awesome companion
it will be tought if we have changes.

yes i have seen llamas!
tell ladawn that i say hi to the despain family and jeff!

LOVE ELDER SAWYER