Week 22

5 months today! It's hard to believe that time has gone by so fast. It sounds like he is doing good. Still struggling with stomach things, but hopefully time will help. We still miss him like crazy!

"Hi, I cant believe that I have been gone and on my mission for 5 months now! It is already almost half of a year. This week was alright, not a whole lot of new things. I am still having problems with my stomach and don't really know how long it will take to get better, since it has been almost 2 months like this. We did not have any baptisms this week. We had a person but he told us that he was not ready and that he needed to wait a while. We do have another planned for this Friday that should be pretty certain though. My Spanish is getting better, but  I still have a long way to go until it is perfect. 

That is so awesome about Austin's mission call, I emailed him, he told me that he leaves on May 23. Hopefully he is pretty excited. Sometimes I wish I could be in the united states with members and lots of good food, and normal things but I think I just need to keep going where I was called to. I know I am here for a reason. Also my stomach is not really getting better. I got your package with snacks too. It was pretty awesome. Also do you think that you can find more songs by david archuleta in Spanish? I really like to listen to them to help me learn more things. I am going to write the president and then the weekly letter and then pictures.

Even if I get transferred, I can get the tie to my companion. I think his family is sending some of the Peru ties that Ican get for Andrew and Eli and dad. Do you know what I can do for my stomach? I feel that I have done everything. now the presidents wife is just having me eat a bunch of weird stuff. It is so hard to walk around and think and talk when my stomach is hurting a lot.

On Thursday i got my card for being in Perú, which is pretty cool even though it has to stay in the office. There are slowly getting more people in my English class, even though now they are mostly members. Our goal is to have these classes to find more people to teach. The rest of the days were pretty normal, Today for Pday we went to a mountain and hiked up it, that was pretty fun. I don't really have a whole lot to write about, but I will try to send more pictures instead. 

Con amor, Elder Lamb

Ethan's birthday message to Eli. How sweet of him to remember!

Ethan hiked for pday. Found some old Aztec ruins.

Top of the hike.

Week 21

Another week gone by! Another baptism for Ethan. I loved how he told us that she chose him to baptize her. He's so good with kids! Such a sweet and kind hearted soul! Oh how I miss that sweet boy! It's so good to see him happy and serving the Lord. Now if we could just get his poor stomach to heal...

"Hi how is it going? This week we didn't really have a whole lot of new people to teach but we have quite a few other ones that are getting pretty much ready for baptism. We had a baptism for a girl whose family is members except for her Dad who just recently gave us permission to teach her and he has been listening too. It was a little crazy since we had it planned for Saturday and on Friday the bishop called and said that there is an activity for the primary on Saturday and we couldn't have it. So we just decided to do it Friday after her interview. Since my companion is the district leader we have to have the zone leaders come and do the interview. One is new Elder Lott from Lehi, you'll have to see if the Weeks know him? After the interview we asked her who she wanted to baptize her and she wanted me. That felt pretty awesome, and I got another person to baptize. Wednesday we had companion exchanges and one of the elders from the other area came with me. He has only been out for 2 weeks so I had to do a lot of talking and teaching, but I was able to do it, actually better than I thought too. 

My stomach  hurts pretty much all over my stomach now, but mostly upper in the middle and lower in the right. Also the sun is really strong and makes my head hurt everyday too and I've had a cold almost the whole time so yep it is pretty sucky, I kind of just want to be better right now. President said that I need to drink cold drinks but everything is hot and we don't have refrigerators or stuff to cook. I think i might ask him if they could give us one to help me. It's hard to drink cold things when everything here is hot.

We call our pension hermana sugey. The names are different here. a first name and middle name but two last names, one from their dad and another from their mom. But they usually just use the first one from their dad.

Also can you send me recipes for cookies or some food? And the music for the song piano man? so my companion can play it?
Yes or email if you can find them. Also for the song Gethsemane in English and Spanish. Also if you can find one of those ties that you got me for Christmas with the moronis my companion really likes it. in green. Then I think I can send you guys some of the Peruvian ties that they sell at the temple which is 5 min from his house. His family can buy things on Monday send them Tuesday and they are here on Thursday that is crazy

Thursday we had interviews with president and it went good. He is pretty happy how I am doing and is excited that I am improving a lot. Saturday was a baptism in the other area and we came and did a special musical number that was alright but not so special ;)  Also Elder Smith came from his area in Chiclayo to baptize the person since it was someone that he started to teach. It was fun to see him again. The rest of the week was pretty much the same, a lot of walking and teaching. It is exciting that Austin and Tanner and Chance and all these people are getting ready to get out on their missions. It will be fun too when we all get back and have a million stories to tell. Hopefully everyone else is doing alright. 

Con Amor, Elder Lamb

Ethan's 2nd baptism. 

I miss this face!!

Some kind of pday get together by a drainage ditch? Looks like fun!

Week 20

Twenty weeks! Time is flying by. Ethan did his first baptism Saturday. He was so excited! He has such a way with little kids. I knew that it would be such a blessing to him on his mission. Here is his letter for the week:

" Hi how is it going? This week was a little bit better. I still am having stomach problems and none of the medicine that they gave me is really working so I might just have to stay forever with a hurting stomach. Also my head hurts a lot, but I think that it is just because of the sun and the hot. I told president this so maybe he will send me to a place in the mountains that is cold :) The rest of the week was pretty similar to all of the other weeks though. 

     

Wednesday we went to Chiclayo so that I could get my DNI which I guess is like a citizenship card, but I have to come back in 2 weeks since it wasn't ready yet. We got a new investigator who is 9, and her Dad finally gave her permission to be baptized. She has been going to church with the rest of her family for a while now so it is pretty easy to teach them. We teach her and also her 7 year old brother who is pretty fun. She will be baptized this Saturday. I also had my first baptism on Saturday. It was the kid that we play marbles with and that we had been trying to baptize since I first got here, only we couldn't since his parents were less active. He was so excited and nervous too he told me. I told him that I was pretty nervous too. But it all went well and he was baptized and I got all of the words right and we had cake after and it was pretty awesome experience.

The picture with less people is his mom and dad and little sister, and the other is with his uncle and aunt. They are both members and return missionaries. They are pretty nice and help us all of the time, and they were pretty excited to see my first baptism and to have it be their nephew.

    

I think that my Spanish is getting a little better. I have had to teach more and contact and talk more since my new companion wants me to learn faster and be ready to train people or other things. That is good even though it is hard sometimes. Being able to talk more really helps, and now I have more people that are friends in the ward.  My English class was only one person so we changed it for next week. We will have to get the word out to all of the people for the class this week. I will have to let you know how it goes. 

Also I was wondering if you could send some of those things that are like post its but are plastic and an arrow for marking scripture spots? In a lot of different colors.

    

That is pretty much all for this week, I will have to write down some more things for next week and take some more pictures.

Con amor, Elder Lamb

Week 19 - New companion

We were excited to hear about transfers this week. Ethan is staying in Ferranafe, but he did get a new companion. He's still having stomach issues, so any prayers would be appreciated! Here is is letter for the week:

"Hi. we are writing now. My companion got changed up into the jungle, and I am a little jealous. I am still here with a different companion, Elder Espinoza from Lima. He is also the new district leader since Elder Smith left to Chiclayo. He told us that we have an hour and a half to write our families and president. I am writing another letter now that is longer with more details, I just thought that you would want to know.

My new companion is pretty good. It is a little different to be with someone else after being with another person for 12 weeks straight. He is good though and teaches really good, and I think the members trust him since he is from Peru. He also can play piano so this was the first Sunday with piano for a long time. We also have permission to teach English classes and piano classes to members to try and get more references and people to teach. Our first English class is this Thursday so wish me luck!

Hey how is it going back at home? First with the changes. I am still here in this area, but i think that it might be might last change here. My companion left to San Ignacio, which is way up by the jungle, so yes I am a little bit jealous, but I will probably have one chance to go there. My new companion is Elder Espinoza from Lima. He was literally neighbors with the CCM and his uncle worked there as a gardener. He gave me one of those cool ties that you can by from the temple there, but the missionaries were not allowed to go since it is just outside the fence. I might give him some money to have his family send some more to send to you guys, that is what his last companion did too. His last area was Chachapoyas and he has all sorts of cool things from there, and the pictures too are really awesome. He is the new district leader too, so there is a lot more stuff to do which helps me to feel better. Both people from the other district left and one from the other area, so it is just me and Elder Remigio that have been here the longest. We also have to new new people. a gringo and a latino. Elder Chura form Bolivia, and Elder Witworth from thousand oaks California, which I think was in Dad´s mission. We  had a pretty crazy week and a baptism on Saturday. We also have another one or two planned for this Saturday, and another for the next and for the next. Not a whole lot of new things happened only those, just the same things teaching and preaching. 

My Spanish has had to improve a lot for this week though. My companion works really hard and has almost finished all of the books to learn English, but still doesn't understand a whole lot. Also i have had to talk a lot with the people since they know me better. It is so hard, but it is getting better. My stomach is still hurting pretty much every day. It got a little better on Wednesday but then went back down. I haven't had things with milk or soda for like two weeks now which is a bummer. Also i a¿have a pretty bad cough that is like the bronchitis I had a year ago. One day I might get better though. Other than that not much new. I had a guy fall asleep on me in one of the vans when we were coming back from Chiclayo today. He also opened the door a little because his bag was stuck and later he was sleepy and the door opened and I had to catch him. That was pretty crazy.

Con Amor, Elder Lamb

Ethan at a baptism. 

Ethan on the day of transfers. He got a new companion last week. He's going to miss Elder Smith like crazy! Hopefully they meet up again sometime in the next two years :)