MAR_5_18_MOM_GBRG

 Mother!!

Yay, Ammon was baptized! That seems to be the talk of the community this week, as I got several other emails about it this week.:) That honestly makes me so happy to hear that he entered the waters of baptism with his father. I'm glad that they did it here rather than in Peru, as the Bishop is the one who has keys over all baptisms within the ward, and they strongly discourage doing baptisms outside of the home ward's area. Just a couple things that you pick up on when you're serving on a mision. I wish I could have been there, though. Tell him "Felicitaciones!" For me!!

Hey. I hope you're feeling a little bit better by now. As it so happens, I have a bit of a cough this week as well. Nothing super serious, but I found that interesting. It's like we're CONNECTED somehow. Yup. I have a connection to my mother. AND I' M NOT AFRAID TO ADMIT IT. 

I'm glad you liked the video that Sister Quigg sent  you!! We really are blessed to have them in this area. She is one of my favorite families that I've met on my mission. Same with the Stanley's (we ate there last night). The Lomo saltado was good, but it was clear that it was her first time making it (if you get my drift). We're going over to their house again this week, and she's going to be making dumplings for Elder Lin, and German pancakes for Elder Petersen. Such a blessing. Also, you should send me that video that Sister Quigg sent you! You can just share it through Google Photo's.

Speaking of Elder Petersen, he has recieved his Visa!! He will be traveling to the airport next Monday, the 12th. He is super excited, but at the same time, very sad to be leaving Pennsylvania and all of the people he's gotten close to. That makes me happy. I know I wasn't the perfect trainer, but I at least managed to teach him to LOVE THE PEOPLE. That's the single greatest part of the mission experience. 

We find out transfers next Saturday at 8:30pm. Odds are, I'll be staying, and Elder Lin will be headed somewhere else. In President Bednar's words, " I feel like Elder Lin has crossed over the bridge to a new place in his mission. He was able to make that Crossing because you steadied him." I'm gonna miss that guy. We all bought matching ties today. We're kinda corny, I guess.

Regarding your question on my health: I'm feeling pretty goods. The headaches are a lot less frequent now, and when they do occur, they're more manageable. The anxiety is a lot more manageable now as well. Either that, or I've just gotten used to it after almost 9 months on the mission. I still take the medication every single day. And my guess is I'll continue to take it for the remainder of my mission. Hey, if it ain't broke, don't fix it, right? Better safe than sorry. I'm hoping me and my  next companion get along okay, though.

Let me know if BYU manages to pull off the win against St. Mary's tomorrow. That would be a quality win!! And then you should TOTALLY send me a March Madness bracket!! And then you can send me a garbage burrito in the mail? Sound good? Good?

In terms of missionary work, it's been a great week. Our investigator, Samantha, showed up to Church on Sunday!! She's one of the only investigators to come to church since I've been here, so it was super sweet!! Admittedly, she had a bit of a hangover from the night before, but she STILL CAME. We'll talk about the Word of Wisdom in a couple lessons.... I'll save the rest of the Samantha story for my weekly email.

A few other tidbits from this week:

- We taught Bri, and she fully accepted the Word of Wisdom!! She's progressing like mad!! Only one problem. She still has yet to come to church. That's the one hump. We''ll find a way to get her there.

-We also taught an old lady named Tanya who is awesome in a  sarcastic old lady type of way. She's seen like ALL the church movies. Best Two Years, Other Side of Heaven, Legacy, etc. She just feels like she can't be baptized because of her tattoos and her smoking. But she wants us to come back, and we'll be watching Joseph Smith: The Prophet of the Restoration with her. Then hopefully committing her to be baptized! She told us that she's really been able to see God's hand in her life since we came over, which is cool.

-In that video I sent you, try to count how many times Elder Petersen asks an inspired question. I told him to just keep the conversation going. He took it to mean JUST KEEP ASKING Questions. It's quite hilarious. We had a good laugh over it.

Well, that's all I've got for you this week. Can't wait til next week when I get to tell you the results of transfers!! I love you!! The church is true!! President Nelson is a prophet!!

Elder Jake Gonzales

On Mar 4, 2018 11:19 PM, <perucalica@aol.com> wrote:

Sunday, March 04, 2018

Hey Buddy!

It’s already almost 8 o’clock and I’m just now getting around to writing you your letter.  It has been a busy day.  It started, of course, with our meetings this morning as usual.  Dad ended up not going to meetings today as he is not feeling good and so it was just me.  I stayed until that was over and then we were invited over to Lucy and Jesus’ house for lunch.  She prepared tallarin verde today with meat and it was delicious as usual.  From there, we went up to the Stake Center for Ammon’s baptism.  This caught us slightly off guard as they had always said that they were going to wait and baptize Ammon when they went to Peru during the summer. But then a couple of days ago, they called us and said that they were baptizing him today and so we went to that.  After the baptism, they invited everyone back to their house and fed them.  They served aji de gallina.  That’s the first time that I have eaten aji de gallina for a looooong time.  I always used to call it “chicken baby food” when I was on my mission as that is what it reminds me of.  It was good, however.  So you can say that we’ve had a day full of Peruvian food.  Not too bad!

Everything here is going with or without us.  I was actually off work on Monday and Wednesday because I wasn’t feeling well.  I feel as if I’ve been coughing up a lung so on Monday I actually went to urgent care.  The doctor said that he felt like mine was more like an asthma attack rather than an actual cough.  I would tend to agree with that diagnosis.  They gave me a breathing treatment at the actual office and then sent me home with a prescription for a medicine for the cough.  They also prescribed an inhaler.  I am beginning to feel a bit better now although the cough is still lingering.  In the meantime, I think that I got your Dad sick. 

It was nice to get the video from Sister Quigg the other day and to see a picture of the lomo saltado that she made.  It looked pretty good.  She mentioned that she really liked it and was planning on keeping that recipe for future use.  They seem like a really nice family.  You are lucky to have them.

I was curious, how have you been feeling these last few months?  You haven’t mentioned anything about headaches or anxiety for the last little while.  I am assuming that that means that you are no longer experiencing headaches or that you have learned how to deal with them.  Are you still taking your anxiety medication?   I am grateful that you are learning some coping skills.  Those will be valuable to you throughout your life.

As for BYU news, they are in the middle of the WCC tournament right now in Vegas.  BYU played yesterday against San Diego.  I’ve noticed the last two times that they’ve played San Diego that they play really rough and are a little bit dirty in their antics.  Fortunately, we were able to overcome that and we won by about 6 points.  It was a nailbiter though as the game was close the entire time.  Tomorrow they go up against St. Mary’s .  I’m not sure how that is all going to go down.  I guess we’ll know tomorrow.

Tomorrow is Briana’s birthday and I haven’t talked to her yet today since we’ve been busy so I think that I’ll sign off for now and give her a call.  I hope you know that I love you soooooo much.  Be good and do good.

Love,

Mom