Chance's Email 7/28/2008

wow thanks for the letters! i love hearing about all of the experiences you guys are having! i got mom's, dad's and marcus's letter today, i dont know if london sent one this week but i got hers from last week today, the one with more info on ryan. first of all you guys keep asking if i'm warm and i am, ha ha so don't you worry. dad, i read that thing that jeffrey r holland said and its amazing. he is so intense about his mission it's inspiring, i know we need to follow his counsel. it's hard sometimes cause my comp has had a lot of success but he knows how to have success while not working his hardest. for example, yesterday we were really low in our numbers for the week so we worked like crazy and got 7 new baptismal dates and found 7 new investigators, it was awesome. if only he could have that mindset that we are always low in numbers, then we would really be amazing.

about the baptisms... they were awesome but satan was ridiculously tempting that family this past week cause he knew they were going to get confirmed. edgar, the dad, has been looking for a new job and one looked really promising. he had an interview this week but didn't get hired because he has an accent from peru. racism is such a problem down here. they had many more difficulties and on saturday we recieved a call from the mom saying that the kids were leaving for peru that night. what???? ridiculous! so we talked to them on the phone for a long time and later that night they called and said they were leaving on tuesday instead but were at the mall and getting piercings. what???? so we thought it was like ear piercing and we show up at their house later that night and the kids andrea and adrian had eyebrow rings and lip rings! so we shared some scriptures on how the body is a temple and asked them to take them out. Then we shared experiences when we heard commandments that were tough and how we overcame them and the spirit was strong and we said that the rings needed to be taken out for sacrament meeting tommorrow and the confirmations and we left them. Well, they showed up the next morning and hadn't take them out. it was really hard. the mom and dad got confirmed and the dad was crying after he got confirmed and described it as, "feeling an energy when they put their hands on my head." i thought that was so cool! we are sending the documents of the kids to peru and we are hoping they can get confirmed down there. baptism and confirmation are like pb&j one without the other is incomplete.

this week has been tough, but i have really recognized what a great comp i have. we are opposites completely but he really is a great guy. thanks for your prayer mom i didn't feel really sick but earlier this week my comp did feel sick and i felt a little something in my throat so i took an airborne and prayed for help and i wasn't sick, i am sure part of that was your prayer! you are in tune with the spirit. our president is awesome he is always telling us how important it is to have charity for the chilenos and first and foremost our companions. this was an answer to my prayer cause i always thought it was the people before the companion. but, first we need to have unity then we can help even more!

dad, about some advice for your class, i dont have a lot of time in the mission but i wish i would've known that first and foremost is showing love for your comp and being united, also not losing the fire of the mtc. so many missionaries say that's so mtc, but mtc spirit is what makes people be converted. also accept what your trainer teaches you and listen to him but write down the things you like and the things you want to do different when you switch companions.

if i have a testimony of anything here in the mission its that heavenly father answers our prayers.mom and dad thanks for all the motivation and everything i love you so much, along with marcus and london of course ha ha, and thanks for all you have taught me. i hope to be parents like you later on in my life, how did you do so good? well, im getting chubby i'm not losing weight that's for sure so in the near future i may need a new suit from missionay mall. hopefully i can figure out how to send pictures. i'm gonna try right now. gotta go i love you so much and talk to you later.

elder peterson