Week 46 - "Helloooo mundo!!" July 18 - July 24 (Trujillo)

So glad that Jonah has a new camera and is sending pictures again.  At the end of this post are all of the photos that he sent this week.  Not sure how to explain all of them as no explanation was sent with the pictures.  Just glad to see his happy face!

Hello everybody, this past week has been quite interesting. I learned a lot about what it really means to be a personal representative of Jesus Christ. What it really means to act, say, and do what Jesus Christ would do if he personally was here doing the same work as us. It was a week of huge growth spiritually, and I've really felt the prayers of everyone this past week. It's really special to know that in 150 operating temples in the world with several sessions every day are each praying specifically for the missionaries in every part of this earth. You can really feel it sometimes. But yeah, this last week ha sido excelentacho. Plusssss,, I felt my first earthquake in my life!!!! That was pretty wild. Jaja, it was pretty minor, maybe like a 3.5 or a 4. It shook the whole building that we were in so we all exited out the door just to be safe. It was like a roller coaster!!! Sweetness bro.

But yeah, in this last week, Elder Reyes and I have been working super hard in the area and have been finding new people that are just SOOO prepared to receive the gospel. We found a joven named Jhon Zuluelta (hilarious how they spell John like that jaja), and he is just the best. He's come to church 3 times now, but recien we just taught him. I felt, and knew, in that moment, that we had known each other before this life. That I had promised him, with Elder Reyes, that we would come and teach him. Jhon and another sweet old lady named Luz, will be baptized on the 6th of August. I love Jhon and Luz so muchhhhh!!! 

Soooo....I might've forgotten a very important date last week....but mas probable que I didn't.... I'm so sorry Gabanator!!! I love you Gabe!!!!! Happy 15th Birthday!!!!!!!! Dude you are ripped what the flip happened lol jaja!!! I told Elder Reyes that you're gonna eat me when I get back jaja. But hey buddy I love you. Compórtate bien okay?

Alright, well sorry for being super vague, but I love you all so much!! I'm doing super great!!! I love this work demasiado!! I finally finished Alma so that's cool! Have a wonderful week, and enjoy your Peruvian Independence Day this 28th!!! Chau!

Love to all and also peace

Week 45 - "Hello!" July 11 - July 17 (Trujillo)

Birthday week for Jonah!  Happy 19th.  Thanks to the Marshall Family we were able to get a birthday package to Jonah.  They also brought him a big bag of American Candy.  One other fun thing is that they handed him a voice recorder and had him record a message to us.  It was great to hear his voice.  He finally bought a new camera right after he sent this latest email and should have some pictures for next week!

Hello all creatures of our God and King! This week has been splendid!! There have been a ton of changes and it has been a completely different experience. As always, it has been wild. I'm trying to say the same things at the start just so that Dad doesn't mock me jaja how rude. But really this past week has been incredible. We have been seeing some incredible miracles in the area and also in the stake/zone.

This last Saturday, Sebastian got baptized!! He's so great!!! So funny, definitely a great friend of mine. He's 26 years old and basically mi patasa. He's had some incredible changes in his life and a wonderful conversion. It's too bad he can't serve a mission for his age, but he will make a wonderful leader in the church. It was really funny too because we witnessed his first sin walking back from church the next day. He kind of knows English, but not really. Just the super basic stuff. But you always see stuff on the Internet so he asked me what the ''s'' word meant. Jajajajaj!!!  I was dying laughing and we all told him that it was his first sin after being baptized and that he has to repent! He was so embarrassed jaja but it was so funny!

We also have had several interesting experiences with the Marshall family this week. They are so great. Such loving people. They came down here to pick up Elder Marshall, but they spent all their time proselyting and visiting people. They are on the Lord's errand. A few times, we had the chance to visit people with them, which was a blast. They were also present for Sebastian's baptism and confirmation on Sunday. We love you Marshall Family!! Have fun in Machu Picchu!!

My new companion es la muerte!!! Jajaja, Elder Reyes is the best, I love him so much. He is from Lima and a convert of 4 years. He has 20 months in the mission, and will probably be going home after this area as he only has 3 transfers left. He's gained 20 kilos in the mission so now he's got quite the gut and it's all from gaseosa jajaja. He is HILARIOUS!!! Always making jokes and being crazy. But that's what people love. He loves the people so much. And he has such an incredible conversion. It's more personal so I won't share it, but let's just say that thanks to the Church, he is a new person, born in Christ.

I love this work! I can't get enough of it! It brings conversion. Conversion is such a cool word such an incredible concept. Conversion is daily. Conversion brings salvation. I love you all so much!!! Be more converted to Christ every day. Study conversion in the Book of Mormon Index this week, and I promise you all that you'll love it!

I love you all demasiado!! Have a converting week!! 

Elder Babbel and Elder Marshall

Final Farewell with Elder Marshall

Week 44 - "What a week diga?" July 4 - July 10 (Trujillo)

Cambios again.  Jonah said farewell to Elder Marshall and is getting a new Companion.  His new companion will be Elder Reyes.  He is from Lima Peru.  Elder Reyes will be a new zone leader so Jonah will be training him.  Jonah's first camera broke and he hasn't had a chance to buy a new camera.  I found an old picture from Elder Farnsworth's blog and am posting it.  Hey - Just received new pictures from the Marshall's and they gave a hug to Jonah!

Wowzers. This week has been a flash. It's flown by so dang fast. Time is the enemy in the mission. I hate time, it's the worst! So anyway, this past week has been kinda wild, with a lot of stuff going on. Elder Dykstra and Elder Marshall just finished their missions today, and have been doing a lot of stuff with that this past week. Elder Marshall's parents are here picking him up, and will be going around his areas during this week. I'll be meeting them on Miércoles which is crazy exciting!! I can't wait to get to know them. With a son that incredible, they probably would have to be incredible as well right?

So....if your companion goes home, that kind of implies that you're getting a new companion jaja. My new companion is ELDER REYES!!!! He's so great!!!! I love him so much...well I don't really know him and I've never seen him, but I love him so much!! We will be meeting each other tomorrow in the morning and will sit down and plan some stuff out. I'm pretty sure he's from Lima, Peru and that he is a convert to the church. He was a District Leader back in Porvenir, a different zone that's here in Trujillo, and so I will be training him as a new Zone Leader! I'm so stinking nervous it's crazy!! I can't believe it's already been 3 months here in Trujillo, I feel I just got here recién. These past 2 transfers have blown by, proving once again, that time is the worst and nobody likes it. But yeah, in the past, there were 3 gringos in our room with 1 latino. But now there's 3 latinos and 1 gringo... So I think the spanish might improve a lot in these next transfers! I'm so excited to be immersed in Spanish again! It's such a blessing. And we're all from different countries now! Elder Linares is from Bolivia, Elder Cogollo is from Colombia, Elder Reyes is from Peru, and I'm from the US! Such a cool and diverse room if I might say so myself jaja.

Well....so this last week has been great! Incredible! Super exciting, and full of twists and turns. Maria and Fernanado, the couple that we have been fasting and praying that they will get married.......are not getting married. They say they need some more time to think about it, but I say that they should just do it, no? So they won't be getting baptized for a little while, but that's okay. Everything has it's own time and place. But we have a different investigator that is going to be baptized this Saturday! His name is Sebastian and I love him so much! He is seriously the best, and is so ready. He's 26 and an odontòlogo. Forgot what that word is in English jaja. But yeah, he got up in 3rd hour this past week and announced his own baptism! That was hilarious! He just raised his hand at the principio, stood up, and then said that he was getting baptized that Saturday at 7pm. Super cool.

So I'm really sad to see Elder Marshall go, he has been so incredible. He's made huge changes to our area, and I've learned A TON from him. I love him so much. He changed my life. Love you buddy!

Alright, I'm shorter-ish on time, so I'll go ahead an finish up. I love you all so much!!! I hope you all have a wonderful week, and that everything goes great for you all. This past week, I read Alma 37 and Mosiah 3. They are wonderful chapters and I highly recommend them. Love you all!!! Besitos xx

Thumbs Up!

Elder Babbel and Elder Marshall

The old Cajamarca Zone

Week 43 - "Hello! Surprise! Happy 4th of July!!" June 27 - July 3 (Trujillo)

So the new Mission Presidents have arrived.  President and Sister Marble.  Sister Marble is one of Grandpa Gary's cousins.  She said she may try to give Jonah a hug for us.  Jonah was able to meet them and is pretty excited to start working with them too.  His camera is broken (but he will soon have a new one) so we are going to give the photo credits to his companion Elder Marshall.

Hello Americans of the World!!! Happy Independence Day!!! Contrary to popular belief, they DO celebrate 4th of July here....when all the mormon gringos are together!! Today we're having an American barbecue and the whole zone will be wearing American stuff! It's gonna be so great!! I can't wait. I'll have to send pictures next week of it....hopefully with a new camera jaja.

So yeah! This week was great!! Like super great. We had a super week. We met President Marble!!! That was crazy!! He is so wonderful..wow. We're super excited to get to work with them and I still can't believe that he will be my mission president for a longer time than President Marler. Sister Marble says hi to Grandpa and Mom! They are so wonderful, and have been doing great with Spanish so far! Sister Marble has just learned it these past 4 months, and it will be her 3rd language after English and German. It's going to be a wonderful 14 next months with them.

This week was so great! We have been teaching a lot of people and a lot of missionaries. We did a zone training this past Tuesday and it was lo máximo! We talked a lot about breaking mirrors and forgetting about ourselves. We bought everybody mirrors, and then told them to write the things that they want to get better with on to their mirrors (focusing on selflessness). Today, we're bringing our mirrors to the barbecue and we're gonna break them all on the ground! It's gonna be great. I'm so excited for this barbecue it's crazy. By the way, there's a lady here that buys american ingredients and makes american food in a restaurant called Gringo Loco and she's a member. And we bought Texas Burgers from her. I'm gonna go crazy jajaja.

Anyway, more about the week, we started teaching a couple on Saturday night and they are great! Alex and Gladys se llaman. Alex has a really bad leg and has a hard time walking anywhere so it was going to be hard for him to walk to church. But we taught him on that night and promised him that he could walk to church if he had faith and a Priesthood blessing. And he walked to church! It was such a cool miracle. He really struggled, but he made it, and even went up a flight of stairs. Such a cool experience. Also, we had a family baptism on Saturday! Aidee (76), Stephany (11) and Luis (8) all got baptized. It is a grandma and her two grandkids that have been waiting to get baptized for a while. We are now working with the parents of Stephany and Luis, and they will be baptized soon. They seem very excited for their kids and have a matrimonio coming up soon.

Alright sorry, I got distracted like a thousand times during writing today so I don't know if what I wrote makes sense jaja. I love you all so much! Fireworks wuju!! Have a great 4th of July! Love you more than barbecues!!!