Nola :D

Everyone.

Wow. its been a great week. 

I have a story.

We have an investigator who is getting ready for baptism. and we are so excited. his name is orlando and his wife is named  eli. Eli is a member but is less active. 

Eli is a very strong woman, but very quiet. Her and Orlando are the poorest family i have seen here in peru. they live with only 4 walls of straw adn have a floor of sand. Eli this last week told us she needed a blessing of health adn so we gave her a blessing and afterwords she told us that she and orlando  had been talking. Elli is really sick and she said the doctors said she needed surgery but she told orlando that they had no money and they needed to trust in the lord. so they made some decisions. Her and Orlando have decided to turn their lives around. they are going to get married, attend church, and pay tithing (even though they have nothing) and orlando decided he wants to be baptized. We are estatic. We are hoping to see the Lords hand in their lives.

I know this story is breif. but i wanted to share it because it is such an example of faith to me. this young couple have nothing but they have decided to give everything to the lord. I wish i show everyone one in the world what miracles are taking place here in the mission feild. 

Im sorry this is so breif but i have one other experience to share.

This week we had our english class. and we have decided as a companionship that we want to strive to teach a gosple principle as well as english every time we have our class. but we want to do it in way not to scare people away.

This week we learned christmas words.

As we were teaching i was struck with an idea. We were approaching the end of the lesson and i told everyone i wanted to share a neat thing about the english language. I explained that the english language is a combination of many different languages.

I then wrote the word "Christmas" on the board and explained that there were two parts to the word. the first "Christ" and the second "mas": "mas" is a spanish word that means in english "more". 

I then began to explain that when one says Christmas in english, they are really saying More of Christ. And that whats Navidad (or Christmas) really is: it is to have more of the spirit of christ in our lives. The room grew silent and the spirit entered. and i could tell what i was saying was begining to sink in.

I hope we all can remember this christmas what christmas really means. More of the spirit of christ.

I love you all

Always turn outward and keep smiling

Elder Bunker

ps i have a new baby sister!! Nola sadie! cant share all the details right now. but heidi can explain more. :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

New Area

Hey Everyone!!

K, First. Grandma and mom. Thanks for the packages. Mom, i got package number 5 today. The one with the hello kitty card from molly haha. Made me a little sad at first. I hope she remembers me when i get home. And Grandma Schellenberg, I died laughing when i got your letter. Im so happy for you and grandpa that you got to come back to peru to visit. I hope i get that chance in the future. I know what you mean about peru becoming a home. its going to be weird to leave. I will be happy to see my family again but it will be weird. but i can forget about that for now. i still have 18 months! :D What made me laugh so hard though was your comment about the ´white lamanites´ in Cajamarca. I have met a lot of people from Cajamarca and i always think they are from the united states haha. The joke here in the mission for all the people from the united states is when we can speak well enough to tell everyone we are from cajamarca. I have only been able to do that a few times. My accent still gives me away haha.

This week we had a conference with Elder Camargo. He is a newly called 70 from this last general conference i beleive. (speaking of general conference i still havent seen that magazine... I might have a photo in it... not sure yet though). It was a great conference and he said a lot of things i really needed and really motivated me to work harder and get to know the scriptures better. Im finding more and more the scriptures really are my best freind.

So big news from Morrope!! we are growing!! Morrope is a small fishing town and its kind of the forgotten village of peru so its an area completely different than any other. But its been so amazing to see the work take off in only the two weeks i have been here. This week we broke records. We had the highest asistence we have ever had this week of 31 people in the house -church (we still dont have a building because we dont have enough people) but we almost ran out of seats and hymn books this week!! We have to ask the mission to send more supplies so we can help even more people.

And its all because we had a few great activities this week in which the Lord blessed us to have success. This week we had an activity of vollyball which was really fun. we played in the street and we set up the net between two light posts. it was almost like beach volleyball because the street is just dirt and sand haha. And we had a few new investigators show up there. We also started a english class this last week... and guess who is the teacher.... haha. yep! im teaching english now haha. it was alot of fun and we are starting to see the area really open up more. One of the hardest things we have to deal with is other churches teaching their members to turn us away. a rumor was spread before i got here that we are actually theives and we steal things from people during lessons... im pretty sure thats never happened. (im only the fourth missionary here and the other missionaries i know are good missionaries) so its been really interesting to work with that. The Lord has really blessed us with a lot of oppertunities to serve this week. We have been helping people all over town. We helped the wife of one of the investigators the other day pull water out of a well and set up a time to teach her and her family later that afternoon, and as we were heading to our next activity we ran into a guy who was tryign to load a dresser into his motortaxi so we helped him with that, and then we ended up offering another service immediately after that. It was amaizng to see that only within half an hour we were able to serve 3 different families and change their perspective of us. I love the mission for that reason. We get to serve ALL the time. I hope we find more oppertunities this next week.

We have a goal of setting up three baptismal dates this week! i hope they workout. They will be the first 3 baptisms of Morrope Chiclayo Peru Mission!!

I love you all

Always look outward, and Keep smiling!!

Elder Bunker

Pictues 1.5

Morope The Edge of the Vinyard

Hey Everyone!

First before all, Michelle Perry I just got your letter this last tuesday!!!!

Natalie Cameron congrats on your call!!!!!!!!!!!! holy cow im so excited for you!!!

And michelle i havent had time to write back yet, but I am expecting to hear the big news from you, not from my family haha. so DONT FORGET TO WRITE ME! haha Im waiting for that letter about your call!!! 

Wow so i have a lot to write haha. This last transfer has been crazy. I am in a place I never expected to be. I have been sent to Morope, its a small village about 20 min from Labayeque and about 40 min from Chiclayo and about 20 min off the coast of Perú!

This area is going to be really different. Morope is a small fishing-farming village. Everyone owns animals or Chakra wich pretty much means feilds of crops. There has only been four missionaries here, and i am the fourth. The people here are very poor, but still reject us a lot. I guess this is known to be one of the harder areas of the mission. there hasnt been a baptism here for at least 5 transfers which is 30 weeks. but just in this last week we have seen a lot of progress. I cant beleive it my new room is now a 3 story house haha. (mostly because we live in the church) there is only 4 families in our family group (there is no ward or branch out here) so i guess i will be giving a talk every sunday for a few months now haha. 

We are pretty much the pioneers out here. there isnt much to work with but we have had progress. I like to joke around that the lord has sent us to the edge of his vineyard haha.

 Our area is actually pretty big because we have our small town morope, but we are also assigned to all the little casarías in the area. (or small small villages around us) we got to visit one of them this last saturday. The village is called Caracucho. HOLY COW i have never seen anything more beautiful. we have two families out there and one of the owns one of the most beautiful chakras i have ever seen. and the best part... its FULL of mango trees haha. Mango has become my favorite fruit in peru. We will hit mango season in January or Februrary from what I hear and I will be here for it! :D We have already had a lot of mangos. 

So thats my new area, my new companion on the other hand is just as awesome. His name is Elder Cordero, He is from Chile and he is my first Latino companion and I am his first Gringo companion. So he has been helping me a lot with spanish and I have been helping him a lot with English. He is a really layed back guy. He likes to play soccer and he has 2 brothers. From the first day we have been laughing. He is funny guy and its fun to joke around with him. I will probably only have him as a companion for one transfer, and so im kind of bummed but its fun for now. 

This last week we have been teaching like crazy. Even though the people in general are rough, we have been really blessed to be able to find people to teach. 

we are teaching a couple named José y Deisy (yes its spelled like that). And they are awesome. I think they are going to be the first baptism in Morope! but first we have to help them get married... we are praying we can do it this month. the river next to their house has been full lately so we have been joking around that we need to get them married and baptized before the river dries haha. 

we had an interesting experience with José this week. we were teaching them one night and after the lesson José asked if we could help him understand something, and of course we said yes. He went on to explain that the night before he had a dream about us (the missionaries) he said that we came to help him finish his house (he doesnt have a roof and a few walls still, because he needs to earn more money) and we started digging a trench around his house and at first he didnt understand why, but then he saw that the river started to overflow and started distroying all of the other houses but when it got to his house it didnt pass the trench we dug. he said he took it as a sign to keep listening to us. 

One reason why they love listening to us is because we stop to talk. they said they can see a difference in the missionaries. that we dont just stop by to hand out pamplets but really were here to help.

well its time,

Love you all

Always turn outward, and keep smiling.

Elder Bunker

ps... i think this is the first time a lot of people have seen a gringo. (They all think its so funny i have arm hair haha)

Cambios... Me Voy...

Hey all.

So... This week we have transfers, and its mine turn to leave... wow. This has to be one of the hardest parts of the mission. I have been in Latina for 4 months and two days now. And even though it doesnt seem like a whole lot of time this place has really become my home. the ward has become a family for me, my companion is my best freind, and the converts have become my brothers. For some weird reason it feels like im at the point of being dropped off at the MTC again, there is a huge void ahead, and im not sure what it holds, all i know is im going to charge into at full speed like i did before and trust the lord is on the other side.

In Latina I have grown so much. Some say that the Mission is Life and if that is so I have grown from 10 years old to 20 years old here in Latina, Its here I was a ´teenager´ in the mission and learned how to speak, how to walk, how to conduct myself. I cant beleive that i have already had 6 months in the mission... 1/4 of ´Life´ has already passed right before my eyes.

this week has been a week of wrapping up everything. we had more lessons this week than in all the other weeks of my whole mission. and we challenged more people to baptism this last month that all 5 months before put together. Right when i feel like we are going to change the world the world has changed on me haha. Part of me would like to feel like its not fair but the other part knows that its more than fair, and that the Lord is in charge.

Somethings that have really brought me comfort this week. On my mission plaque I asked that they put the scripture D&C 6:32-37 the lord explains in this scripture that what one sews he will reap and that one should not have fear to do good. This has definately been the case here. I think i can leave this area and honestly say that i have done everything that i have been able to do. even though i wont be able to see the results or the people get baptized i feel confident i did my part.

the other thing that has really brought a lot of comfort is talking to our ward mission leader. He said that this área has really changed in the time that i have been here. that before i came it was closed and a few other missionaries had opened the area with only a few baptisms, and that Elder Larson and I have been able to prepare it even more and that we are going ot see many more baptisms.

Im sad to leave and i will be praying for the people here. But i know the Lord is calling me to another place and im anxious to see what experiences lie ahead.

I sent a letter home about goal setting this last month, and i want to share the results of our labor. Our zone had set a really high goal of baptisms this month and we had prayed fervently to know if we should set a goal as high as we did. We felt impressed that it was the right thing to do. We have worked as a zone really hard together to realize our goal, and to be honest, we didnt make it. some might look at our zone and think we had failed this month because we didnt make our goal, BUT this last month we led the mission in baptisms. We had the highest baptism amount that we have ever had before.

The power of goals is great and the power of goals with inspiration from god is greater.

I love the quote that ´two men can acomplish ANYTHING together, as long as one of those men is god´

I know this is true, i feel like all too often we forget god is all powerful and sometimes the only that is lacking in miracles is our faith. (we must remember that all things will be accomplished according the will of god as well)

this week we found a man that has been inactive for two years. well... i shouldnt say we found him, he found us. we were walking in the street one day and this man came up to us on a bike and began speaking to us in broken english, he told us he was baptized in our church and he would like for us to come to his house to talk to him more. we tried to go to his house the following sunday but we were swamped with appointments, we finally had time this sunday to go visit him and what he told us broke my heart.

He told us that he was a convert to the church and explained how his freind introduced him the missionaries. The missionary who baptized him is named Elder Scott from California, Im assuming he has already returned home. He told us that elder Scott had become his best friend and they shared a lot of good times together. He said elder scott went to his house every week and they would teach the gospel in english and spanish and Genaro (thats his name) would help them with their spanish and read the book of mormon with them. He would often tease elder scott and tell him that he should marry a girl from peru and live here in Latina.

After his baptism Genaro went on a trip and Elder scott was assigned to a new area, but before he left we tried to contact Genaro and when he couldnt find him he ended up leaving a note.

Genaro pulled out an old sticky note with a message written on it. it said that elder scott was glad to have genaro as a freind and that he needed to continue in the faith.

Genaro told us that he tried to talk to Elder scott but he had lost contact. Genaro looked as if he was about to cry, i think i have only begun to realize the importance of the missionaries to the converts.

Genaro told us that he was afraid that we had forgotten about him. and he was waiting all day on sunday to talk to us and when we didnt come he was really sad.But he was glad we came this sunday.

I hope and pray that the people i have taught here will never feel forgotten

Love you all

Always turn outward and keep smiling

The Lord is in charge.

Love Elder Bunker

Sewing for others to Reap

Hey everyone,

Im going to apologize in advanced if this is really short.

First, Happy thanksgiving to all, i almost forgot until i read the email from my mom. we dont celebrate thanksgiving here so i wont be doing anything different besides the normal. I dont know maybe my companion and i will offer a prayer of thanksgiving but we wont have time to do anything other than that. 

This week has been really good. something suprising has been happening in our area. we have been finding more and more people who are ready for baptism. there are only a few... road blocks. I have been here for almost 4 months now and I have really grown to love Latina. Im scared that im going to be sent to a new area. i feel like things have just started to get good. I feel like if my companion and i could just stay a little bit longer we could change this area. I have heard it is a lot harder than a lot of areas but then again, i feel like this is the best area i could of hoped for. we have cambios (changes) this next week so we will see what happens.

One of the things that has made me the most excited for this area is the families that we are teaching. We have been teaching two girls for a little while now, Paola and Mirely. who are 16 and 18 and they have been progressing really well, but its hard to find them durning the week. they had a baptismal date for the end of this week (we had to change it, they are not quite ready yet), but the miracle with them is during one of lessons their older sister Karla came in to listen. She is attending a catholic church and is studying medicine. we had left 3 nephi 11 with paola and mirelli to read before the lesson and when we arrived they had a few questions about baptism and how it works. we explained we are baptized the same way jesus christ was baptized and asked they beleived if it was important to be baptized in the way jesus christ taught. They all afirmed that they beleived this was the way we should be baptized. we were able to later in the week challenge karla to baptism. so the three sisters have a goal to be baptized the 15 of december. and their little brother is going to start listening to us too. their mom is a member, the only hard person to teach will be their dad i think, but i shouldnt judge the situation yet. I havent been able to talk to him too much. So we have a whole family to teach!!!!! im so excited. (and sad becaus i might not be here to see them all be baptized.)

(Karla is an investigator of gold, she reminds me so much of junior, she has a really tender heart and we have had some really great lessons with her. every time we teach her we can feel the power of the spirit. she knows what the spirit feels like, and that is the most powerful tool anyone can have as they look for answers)

somehting else interesting has been taking place here too. There have been a lot of trials in the lives of the people who we are teaching but it seems to be opening up the hearts of their families and the members of the ward.

I wont be able to share a whole lot because a few of the situations are a little delicate and i dont want to be throwing personal information everywhere. but i will share what i can.

Junior´s family has been passing through some hard times. His sister had her baby, but there has been complications. The family is really heart broken and humble right now. I have taught this family the whole time i have been here in latina and its been hard to help them progress. they are a wonderful family and they keep their commitments and listen to us and invite us in their home, but their hearts havent been always open. They arent hard hearted, they just havent seen why our message is so important. We had the opertunity to go to the hospital (its nothing like a hospital in the united states, healthcare is REALLY different here) and give a blessing to natalies baby. ( long story short, i know these little ones are straight from heaven because of the spirit in that room ) and the ward members have been stopping by their house to offer help to the family. we have really seen a change in the family. their hearts are more open and i know its been an answer to our prayers. I hope we can continue to help them. 

The other miracle is with a man we are teaching named franko, franko has had a really crazy past. I wont go into everything, but he hasnt always been a church going guy. he really wants to change his life and we are so excited to teach him. he loves when we visit and he never wants us to leave and he loves to go to the church. the only problem is his wife is super catholic. she sometimes doesnt let him leave. this last week she had an accident. she got burned really bad by boiling water so franko has been taking care of her. we stopped by to visit franko and she was there. she has always been nice to us, but has never wanted to talk much with us. we started talking to her and asked if we could help her in anyway.  i think it softened her heart.

she let franko go to church this week

I love you all

always turn outward adn keep smiling :D :D :D

Sincerly Elder Bunker

Desafios

Hey everyone,

Before I begin i want to say "Happy Birthday" to Jean (my brother-in-law). I hope its a good one,

So... this week... wont lie, its been hard and good and full of new experiences. The mission is a rollercoaster. 

This week all of our baptisms fell through. None of the people with a baptism goal showed up to church, and we dont have much time before their baptismal date. Nobody said missionary work was easy. Please be praying for the people who are listening to the missionaries right now. they need all the help they can get. And if you have missionaries in your area offer them your time and prayers, they also need all the help they can get.

I am starting to understand how much missionary work really is the front lines of the battle we are fighting in this world against the advesary, the comforting thing is that we know who in the end will turn out the victor.

I wanted to share something cool that i got to see this last p-day. I havent had a chance to send a picture, but maybe for those who are reading this if you have time you can look up. Its called the Árbol Milenario or in other words the Melenial tree. it is a tree that is incredibley old. it is in the polmac forest near chiclayo. this tree has split in half and fallen over, but it has a unique ablility to turn its branches into roots and for that reason it is still living. i was looking at this tree and i noticed how the branches dissapeared underground and reamerged as smaller tree a small distance away from the origional trunk. and how no matter what obstacles it encountered it continued to grow. 

I wont take the time to make the connection, but i want to invited everyone to ponder this idea. that faith is like a seed, and sometimes we are expecting our testimony to grow tall and perfectly straight with symetrical braches and the whole 9 yards, but life isnt that way, we face obstacles, we are subject to sin, and we have trials in this life. Although this tree in the forest has grown in the most unorthodox way it is by far one of the most magnificent trees i have seen.

I wish i could share more of a mission experience but im out of time

Thanks for your letters (Brandy Mayo i just got yours this week, Im excited for you and all the decisions ahead!!)

Always turn outward and Keep smiling!!

Love you all 

Elder Bunker

ps its mango season!! seriously the best!! haha I have had mango like 3 times this week. (it also means its the begining of the rainy season... haha wish i had photos of what happens in our house when it rains...one of our hallways doesnt have a roof...)

pps we are also due for El Niño this year. (giant flood) should be fun. only happens every seven years from what i hear. 

ppps im still learning the customs here. I learned this week never to turn down food even if you are full... they get really offended here if you dont accept food. they usually understand when we tell them we cant drink coffee, but to turn down a plate of chicken... wow. that, and i learned that brushing your teeth in the kitchen is not ok.

Elections, Choices, Baptisms.

Hey everyone!!

K, first, thanks again to everyone who has sent letters and emails i really appreciate them. If you sent an Email I just will say im sorry I havent been able to reply. We cant email people besides family, but thank you all for the updates. I love hearing from home and for the support. Sometimes we really need it. 

K, so biggest things going on. (list from less important to most) Halloween, they have halloween here, but nobody does anything. Everyone is scared to dress up because alot of churches preach its satanical. second, what is going on with heritage tours now that the mission age has changed. Is brother Eliason still doing it? Third, Elections are tommorrow!!! Its going to be really interesting to see how this changes our country. I think we might be seeing a few more divisions after this next election no matter who wins. 

and finally, but most importanty, we have FOUR baptismal dates placed! Im so excited. Four children of god have commited to prepare for baptism the end of this month!! I think we are going to be able to challenge 4 more people this week too! Now, i hope im not too excited about everything, nothing is set in stone yet, but wow, i never thought i would see this area progress so much. there is so much to do. 

One of the things that i am seeing more than ever is the principle of oposition in all things. the four people who have a goal to be baptized this end of month have all been experiences great opposition from family members, family tragidies, or doubts from other sources. they are still progressing, but wow, there is opposition. Just like we are working hard so is the advisary. 

Im confident they will all be baptized, but i think this is my last cambio here, so maybe its a little selfish but i would like to be here to see them be baptized. Its amazing the love that grows when you pray for someone. I want to ask everyone to pray for these 4 people, and all the people who are being introduced to the gospel. its not an easy thing to change ones life, and we all need help, but everyday i am seeing that through the atonement of jesus christ its possible. 

one of our investigators has had a really crazy life. I will avoid to explain everything he has been through, but i just want to say i have experienced and seen the power of the atonement in the lives of the children of god. He has changed a lot, and for that he is receiving a lot of opposition from family. I am praying we can help him overcome these obstacles. 

I have a lot experiences i really want to share but i am afraid to, i dont want to offend the spirit of the events that have taken place this week. so i think it is sufficient to bear my testimony that i know god is in this work, I have seen his power in the lives of the people. sometimes i wonder why we arent baptizing 8,000 people like the sons of mosiah, but i remember the words of Elder Uchtdorf about missionary work.  He said that the work of saving souls was never easy, it wasnt easy for Jesus Christ who had never done anything wrong, and we cant expect it to be easy for us to help others either. The worth of a soul is great in the sight of god, and i think im only begining to understand what that means.

I love you all, thank you all for your support,

the church is true tell your freinds,
always turn outward and keep smiling.

Elder Bunker

GENERAL CONFERENCE

Hey everyone,

Ok this has been burning a hole in me to write home about these last two days.... is anyone else freaking out about the announcements of general conference???????? what??? that is so crazy!! girls can now serve at 19 and boys at 18. where was this rule when i was 18?? hahaha i was thinking the entire time of thomas, and also of a few HT girls i know who will probably be returning home from missions when i get home now haha... Im sure there was a few telefone calls made with some tears and freaking out. If im right i think i deserve a DearElder...

k so i have way too much to write and no time to do it. Pretty much the biggest news of my life is general conference. I dont know if its because im on my mission but 1. it was waaaayyyy to fast and 2. I think this was the best general conference i have ever heard. My heart was pounding the whole time. It was hard to focus on other people during the conference because i wanted to take notes the whole time. I love though, that the talks are recorded. I have found one of my favorite things to do while im waiting for my companion in the bathroom or during small moments of the day is read the conference talks in the liahona. wow... lo maximo!

oh and they are building a temple in arrekipa!!! ahhh

This weekend was one of the most stressful i think i have had in the mission (baptisms are by far the most worrying) because i wanted everyone to go to conference and hear the profet speak so we were running around all over the place trying to get people to attend. and praying the whole time that they would be able to feel the spirit. we will see what happens this week.

Good news!!! we have another baptism coming up. some times i wonder if i really do anything in this work because the people we baptize just want to be baptized and it doesnt seem like we do a whole lot, even though there are other people who we work with ton and pray for a ton and nothing happens. I think it goes to show 1. I have a lot more to learn 2. this is the LORD´s work not mine. and 3. this wonderfully-irratating thing called agency is still working its wonders haha.

sorry thats all i can write today.

Love you all,

siempre doble afuera, y continua a tener un sonrisa

Elder Bunker

Sancuros

Hey Everyone.

First, I got a few letters the other day that im not sure i will have time to repond so this is the fastest way. thank you everyone that sent letters. (Krysta Thompson, and Elisa Logan, Matt Leach, and others) just to let everyone know the fastest way to send me something is through dearElder.com, its free. The second is through a normal letter. and last is pouch mail. I found out it takes about a month for something to get here from the united states through pouch mail. Better just to send somehting via DearElder.com

Second. If you would like to see where I am right now, my area is called latina, it is in the city chiclayo, its kind of the suburbs. you can type: Jose Leonardo Ortiz, Lambayeque-Chiclayo to see it in GoogleEarth. I have a huge parque and a Municipalidad close to my apartement.

This week it rained a few times so thats been nice, it doesnt rain often here, mostly just overcast. But because its warming up the Sancuros or Mosquitos are starting to come out. Saturday night I got bit 11 times on my left hand alone by the same bug I suppose. Kind of irritating but its alright. Have to find a way to hide from the bugs at night.

We had intercambios with the zone leaders this week. it was great. I learned a lot and got to enjoy the life of the Zone Leader (haha its a lot busier than normal missionary work - glad im just a missionary without leadership assignment) What was really nice though was I helped my Zone leader Poner un Fecha or invite someone to baptism, and they accepted haha, my zone leader likes to joke and tell everyone if it wasnt for me they wouldnt have a baptism to perform. Nice to have zone leaders who are uplifting and edifying even if i didnt really do anything.

we got a distrurbing note from the office this week thougth. The office elders sent back one of our baptism records with a note on the back that said that it wasnt valid. "read moroni 8" it said. it turns out the record we turned in said that a girl we baptized only was 7 years old and the others elders were joking around saying that we had several baptisms in our area and 1 catholic baptism because we baptized "a baby". haha my companion was really worried we had commited apostasía. we ended up asking the parents and it turns out the year they told us the wrong year and she really was 8 years old. haha what a releif! it would be kind of embarrasing if we had to baptize her again.

Speaking of baptisms. we had another baptism this weekend. it was amazing. we have been teaching a young man (19) named jordy. Jordy is a really nice guy who is really interesting. He works with computers and dresses like a skaterkid. I remember the first time we taught him I was suprised he showed up to the lesson He just didnt seem like the type of person who would be interested in the gospel. Shame on me for judging.

Jordy has had a really intersting life. I wont go into detail everything he has gone through, but he has really turned his life around. I have been so blessed to witness this kind of change in someone. I remember the 4th or 5th lesson we had with jordy, we showed up the house and he just looked different. At first i thought he had cut his hair or somthing, but I watched him a bit longer and i realized he was dressed the exact same, something just looked new about him something bright. and I remember being hit by the realization that he had been repenting, and had received forgiveness. just the lesson before we had taught him about repentance and a few of the commandmants. He really had changed and turned his life around.

I just want to let everyone know the process of repentance is real. there is no-one who is reading this who has commited a sin they cannot repent of.

k a small tidbit about what i love about peru. Before the mission i had a pair of blue converse that i loved to dance with, and here everyone, everyday, for almost every ocasion wears converse of some sort, but the most popular is blue converse like the ones i had. haha the BEST!

Im loving Peru, the people the food, the work.

The mission really is the first 2 years of the best years of life.

Always turn outward, and keep smiling (I am :D )

El Elder Bunker

Explanació​n, Exhortació​n, terremoto.​..?

Hey everyone,

So i have to explain something really fast. I titled my last email me quedo. because im still here in latina!! haha the bessstt!! i really didnt want to leave this last Cambio and im staying, but that means im leaving this next cambio, sooooo im going to make the best of it.

Im sorry if my last letter might seemed a little down i had to write something really fast. really im loving the mission! There are moments, because i am only a weak servant of the lord, that the mission seems hard. Really i feel like the most unable missionary here. I want more than anything to become like the Sacred Missionary i have read about in our HT pakets.

anyway only to explain.

so...

We have a BAPTISM planned for this weekend!! :D His name is jordy, and he has been progressing every day. I have been experiencing something different in these last few weeks with jordy. He is a great youth and he is very intelligent, but there is a different light about him. everytime we meet he seems a little different. On time, after a lesson about repentance he showed up to the the house of his freind (where we were teaching him) and he seemed brighter, im not sure how to describe it really. but wow. this last lesson he showed up to the house and he seemed a little down. we asked him how he was doing and he said fine, and then we asked about his reading he said he didnt have the time to read and he would like to read with us (first thats the one of the greatest things we can hear as missionaries that someone wants to read) but i realized then that the lack of light he had wasnt from sadness, but it was from the fact that he hadnt been able to read.

EVERYONE wherever you are, whoever you are, I CANNOT stress enough the importance of the Book of Mormon in our lives everyday. The book of mormon and a lot of prayers on my end and from others is the only way that i feel i have been able to make it through everyday feeling as happy as i do. there is a light in that book that is not seen with human eyes. I wish i knew how to describe it.

I havent only had that experience with jordy, i have had that experience with various persons. when the members, investigators, or converts are not reading we can tell as missionaries most of the time. because they lack a little bit of that light. I hope Im not throwing my sprititual experiences to and fro, but really, i just really want to let you all know how important that book is. I dont think i have begun to understand that book, because there is something more in that book than the words on the pages.

I want to share a short experience really fast.

In the beginning of my mission we were teaching a young girl named lucero. she is a member now, but if some of you remember that wasnt all that easy to accomplish. she is 16 years so when she got baptized we needed to get permission. So you may remember my email about getting permission from her mom, Long story short, through a series of miracles and tender mercies of the lord she was baptized. Her mom (the woman we had a hard time getting permission from) still was pretty closed to the church. we always approached her with kindness and an invitation to learn more, but there was always something that kept her from being open with us. Then came my companion Elder Larson. Elder Larson is extremely giving. sometimes he suprises me. in the beginning of our first cambio he always was asking people if we could help them mop or wash dishes or sweep or somthing like that. at first i thought that he bothered a few people by his insistance to serve.

we stopped by the house of lucero to see how she was doing and we ran into her mom who was washing clothes outside. elder larson as usual offered to help her and she, like most other people politely turned us down. This time however, elder larson decided to not take no as an answer and began drying the cloths by wrenching out the water. Luceros mom, or Luz, immeadately started to laugh nervously and told elder larson not to worry.

In my mind i thought great we have just allienated ourselves even more from this woman who we want to help.

this last week i found out the results were a bit different. we stopped by as usual to check up on lucero and luz greeted us very warmly and as we taught lucero, luz listened very carefully, she told us that she was so glad we were teaching her daughter and helping her.

wow.

anyway love you all

always turn outward, adn keep smiling!!

Elder Bunker

ps has thomas started driving yet??

pps i have heard a few of the people back home are ingaged, i think i made everyone i knew promise to tell me if anything big like that happened, shame on you for forgetting, you know who you are. haha.

ppps congrates to those people who are ingaged, and congrats to those who have decided to serve a mission (michele perry cough cough) it really is the work of the lord. :D

me quedo (i'm staying!!!)

Hey Everyone!!

So this is going to be really really short. I dont have any time at all haha. this week has been good. and long. and a veces stressful. but that is the typical week. haha. We had a confirmation yesterday. One of the youth we baptized a few weeks ago was having a hard time and for some reason didnt have a huge desire ot get confirmed so we have been praying for him for a while, and yesterday he found us at church and dragged us (almost litreally) to the bishops office to do the confirmation. I was asked to do it. It was my first confirmation. wow. what an experience.

Junior is doing well, Im glad i get to stay here because I have a great companion, but i also have a great friend = Junior. He just received a calling as the president of the young men and he is really excited. (im not going to lie sometimes i feel unworthy to have taught Junior. He is the most prepared person i have met) we are starting to teach his family more now. Im hoping we can help them all receive the gospel. Junior is always praying for them.

Its been interesting this last week though. I have been looking back on my mission and sometime it seems long and sometimes almost the blink of an eye. But the thing that has suprised me most is that I dont feel a whole lot different. I know i have changed a ton, but I feel like i still have sooooo many imperfections. I think before my mission i was just expecting the nametag to erase all that. I looked at all the returned missionaries and how they were completely different. I think i was expecting to become some sort of superman here on the mission, but in reality im still a weak servant of the Lord, BUT what i have found is I personally have not gained any sort of special power here, but I HAVE gained the confidence in the lord more in my life. and for this we have been able to do amazing things. haha I probably have felt a little bit of what moses said, "i now know man is nothing" haha.

Everyday seems to be a message to me that i need to humbel myself more. If someone was to ask me if i am a humble missionary i would immediately tell them no. because if i responded yes sincerely, it would mean that i needed to be humbled.

I found this week i have overcome/am overcoming one of my greatest fears. That is to ask the lord to humble me, because that means trials. I have been praying that heavenly father will help me become the man i need to be regardless of the trials that come, because in the end the Lord only has the best instore for us.

Another discovery of mine, trials are the lords way of improving us, but some trials can be avoided and still have the same progress. The hardest trial of this life is sin. Really when it comes down to it, sin is the hardest because in that trial it is difficult to feel the lord is on your side.

I am learning a little by little what the lords sees in us and i hope i can become who he needs me to be.

Love you all

Always turn outward, and keep smiling!!

Elder Bunker

ps found this week there are a TON of chinse people who live here!! I always wanted to go to beijing

Pictures 1.4

Hey everyone!!

So finally i have a chance to send the pictures. These have to be my favorite pictures so far of the mission. Junior is such a funny guy. He hangs out with us on pdays and when we do our reports every sunday and we are going to start having a FHE with him and his family every sunday. We have been trying to teach his sister, but she has taken too much of an interest. I dont know what happened. We are teaching two other girls (family of a convert who just returned home from the mission) but they are hard to teach as well because of the influence of freinds. they are still too concerned with what their freinds will think about the mormones.

We were supposed to have a meeting with elder pino (a seventy) this week but something happened (something aobut general conference comming up) so it got postponed to october. he is going to be doing interveiws with the missionaries and visiting some of their rooms... kind of freaky thought to have a seventy in your room...

All the missionaries are excited for general conference. it is a great oppertunity to help people feel the spirit and gain a testimony. All the missionaries tell it me its a time when you get the most homesick though because its like christmas, you usually spend the time with your family. I thought about that a little bit and i realized i have been developing a family out here. the lady who owns our apartment is like our grandma, our pensionisto is like our father and his wife is like a mom, and junior has become a an older little brother... (haha i finally know how martin and thomas feel!! haha) Im going to be so sad when i have to leave this area. I dont think that will be until november though.

Elder larson has been a little sick this week. so i have been doing my best to watch his health and walk a little slower. i like to walk fast and he is used to latino companions who are a little bit more laid back (not always a bad thing, need both in a companionship). he had something growing on his foot for the last month so we got permission to take him to the doctor and get it checked out. He was really nervous because we always hear horror stories about the doctor offices here. it turned out good. The doctor ended up just burning a hole in his foot... haha. it looks better than it sounds. haha we are going back today for a check up. mondays are the most hectic days...

Something different about this week... we did a lot of looking for old investigators to find people we could teach because in the city knocking doors isnt super efective always. Especially cause every one has gates... anyway while we were looking for old investigators of previous companionships to teach we ended up on a street that was on the edge of our area. its a bit more getto than the rest of town. the road is made of dirt and the houses are a bit more run down. (an area we avoid at night). we were on our way to find one of the last persons on our list when a big semi truck out of nowhere passed by on this dirt road (fist semi i have seen) carrying a ton of flour. some of the bags of flour started falling out and so i walked up to help.

( going to finish later out of time. funny story though sorry wasnt watching the clock)

anyway, another hard week. but the mission, as always, is the best!

Love you all,

siempre doble afuera, y continua a tener un sonrisa

Elder Bunker

Estoy Engordandome

Hey Everyone,

So as usual there is a lot to write and not enough time to write it all. Everyday is always so busy... even though almost all of a visits fall through haha.

before i start i need to finish my last story though:

Something different about this week... we did a lot of looking for old investigators to find people we could teach because in the city knocking doors isnt super efective always. Especially cause every one has gates... anyway while we were looking for old investigators of previous companionships to teach we ended up on a street that was on the edge of our area. its a bit more getto than the rest of town. the road is made of dirt and the houses are a bit more run down. (an area we avoid at night). we were on our way to find one of the last persons on our list when a big semi truck out of nowhere passed by on this dirt road (fist semi i have seen) carrying a ton of flour. some of the bags of flour started falling out and so i walked up to help put the bags of flour back in. But as i was approaching the bags a moto-taxi with three men inside pulled up. I thought oh these guys are nice they are going to help the truck gather the fallen bags.

The men worked fast and put four or five bags of flour in the moto taxi. I heard some yelling and the men started to panick and piled into the mototaxi did a u-turn and took off. haha... yea... to be honest i wasnt exactly sure what to do besides keep walking. I looked towards the truck (which had now stopped) and saw that two men were ascending into the open doorway... there was a man in the truck the whole time throwing bags out the back...

It suprised me how quickly these men were to rob another and it almost made groan out loud a little bit. people arent very honest here... at all. two of the members in our ward had their offices and houses broken into and everything stolen in the last 3 weeks. It really makes me sad sometimes.

So that was last week.

I heard elections are coming up and things are starting to get a little heated. I still havent got my email to vote yet, but we were supposed to start the process three weeks ago.

This week has been interestings as week because we havent been able to shower much. The reason is because a sewer pipe broke under our street and flooded it with sewer water, and for some reason it got into our water in our shower, sink, and toilet so all the water that was in our house smelt like sewer. (looked perfectly fine but smelt terrible) It kind of scared me to do anything with it. My poor companion didnt know that the water was bad so he took a shower in bad water...

The pipe broke early last week adn the street has stunk ever since. but the water is back to normal... i hope.. still smells a little bit. not sure if i feel comfortable using the water yet. just goes to show... you cannot drink the water from the tap here...

Also this week we helped our pensionisto with his job as a service. he is a chicken vender. so we gutted, riped the heads off and chopped off the feet of 300 chickens this last friday... my camera is dead so i dont have any pictures but im going to ask my companion to send me a few. honestly one of the most interesting, if not the most interesting, service projects we have had. He had a huge order to fill because a church group (los testigos i beleive) ordered a ton of chicken. we gave him a hard time for enlisting our help to serve chicken to "the enemy" haha we dont really beleive them to be the enemy, but they sure do make this work hard. haha. (really we were happy to help our cook with his work, i dont think i can ever eat chicken the same way though...)

Ok...now here is the news-breaker while we were working with Hernan (our cook) we were using a scale to weigh the chickens. I got the chance to weigh myself in kilos for the first time... I weigh 69 kilos... now if my calculations are correct I have gained in the last two months 7 kilos.... or 20 pounds...

AHHHHHHH..... 20 pounds???? Haha its been interesting because lately a lot of people have commented on my small belly i have now and i didnt think much of it. but I have gained 20 pounds and i guess its starting to show haha. i weigh the most i have ever weighed in my entire life. (160 pounds, last time i hit my max it was 146 haha) k enough about that now.

(im hoping some of that weight is mucle tooo. my legs are alot stronger now thats for sure.)

Its interesting here because a lot of people live in a state that in the united states would be considered unaceptable. They are a lot pretty humble homes here. But almost everyone seems to have really nice, namebrand clothes, a lot of namebrands many poeple in the US cant afford, and they buy them for cheap here. haha i finally realized why, here there arent a lot of copyright laws so everyone owns a lot of movies and music because they share all their music and can buy it cheap from the streets, and it is the same with the clothes. a lot of clothes have the brandes stitched in them and they are the same quality as the united states, only illegal. It made me think about how silly namebrands really are. haha. a lot of people buy really expesive clothing when in reality the only difference is a few feet of thread... I really like namebrand clothing but it its been interesting to take a new perspective on it.

Although there are a lot of things that arent so wonderful about the city (i live downtown) and about the state of living here, I love peru. some times i think peru was constructed perfectly to be the place i would serve my mission, but then i realize its just the opposite, Heavenly father has constructed me (or has been preparing me) my entire life to serve here. The people are beautiful, the food is great, and something feels right about being here. (even though a lot of days are difficult)

Really this is the work of the Lord,

I love you all, I am praying for all of you and for our country,

Siempre doblen afuera si mismo, y sonrisa a todos

Con Amor,

Elder Bunker

ps on the great things i love about peru is even though a lot of things are pretty modern they still live in the 80´s :D

The hair, the clothes, the music... all eighties. there are a lot of little kids here with afros, and there is a mechanic shop that is down the street from the chuch that is always playing Journey and other 80´s music. Temptation... haha

pps i forgot!!! we had 2 baptisms yesterday!! i will hopefully send pictures later from my companions camera.

Pictures 1.3

First Baptism

Hey Everyone,
so i have zero time to write today. we went to the mountains today as a zone and took picutures and hiked and got back late. I just need to say peru is only second to the united states when it comes to beauty. grandma was absolutely right about the moutains here. they arent as tall as colorado, but they are just as breathtaking. they shoot strait up out of the ground. soooo beautiful. this is definatley a handpicked mission by heaven for me. I dont think i have seen many other places as beautiful


So biggest news of this week. MY FIRST BAPTISM!! I had one last cambio but this is really my frist. Junior asked me to baptized him. to be breif. it was the best experience of my mission thus far. but the good experiences dont come without a little bit of oposition. to say the least we had a lot of impedimientos to work around. Like for one, the stake president forgot to fill the font haha. so we had to fill it by hand with buckets. Junior was supposed to get baptized at 4:00 but he ended up getting baptized at 6:30. and there were a lot of other things as well like the bishop being sick. the primary having a party in the gym next door with blasting music and other things like that. it turned out great though and the spirit was really strong, I think it is mostly due to the faith of Junior. He is the golden investigator. He wasnt to start FHE with his family this week


We have 5 new investigators. one is named Jamy, he is a handicap 25 year old. dont know if we can baptize him because he is practically a little kid. but he says hi to us everytime we walk by and we have already had a first lesson with his dad. we are hoping we can teach them both soon.


my new companion is named elder larson. he is from arizona near mesa. He is a great missionary, very strict with the rules and so he keeps us both in line. I have to admit it is hard to adjust to every new companion but there is always something great about each one of them. Elder Larson is always sharing his sweets with me (he buys candy all the time haha) . so thats a plus. I have definatly put on weight, but i can still see my ribs so im not chunky... yet.


another neat experience was yesterday. I dont know how much to share because sometimes these experiences are sacred and we shouldnt share all of them. but i think this is ok.
Saturday my companion and i went to go ask the bishop for the keys to the church so we wouldnt get locked inside (that happened earlier this week) and so we could have keyes for the baptism. The bishop was sick and we had given him a blessing the day before but he still seemed out of it.


sorry so short,
Love you all
always turn outward and keep smiling!!
Elder Bunker

First Cambio

Hey Everyone,

So alot has happened this last week... A lot. This has been one of the best weeks of my mission. Last P-day we went to the beach to take photos and chat. So much fun.


This week has been really good though because we have been able to work with Junior more. He is the coolest guy. One of the greatest fears and dissappointments as a missionary is when we have the oppertunity to baptize someone and they end up going innactive. Junior, I am confident, will be an active worthy member his whole life. There is a few reasons I say that.
First, we taught the last lesson of the discussions in PMG which for us was tithing. We were confident Junior would commit. We taught him and the lesson seemed to go well and the spirit was there and he understood everything perfectly. So at the end of the lesson we were a little bit suprised when he was hesitant when we asked him to commit to obey the law of tithing after he was baptized. We waited in silence for a while and watched him think, and I thought this is it, this is where we lose our golden investigator, he then looked up and started laughing and he was like just kidding, of course i will! haha chistoso. I didnt know whether to laugh or freak out.... I ended up laughing too. haha funny guy.
The other reason i am so confident is because the other day after church he started asking me how missions work and how one applies to serve and things like that, and how much it costs. What?? I was shocked. Junior is always suprising us. He has really become one of my best freinds here on the mission as well. even though its still hard to say everything i want to he is patient.
Also this week I found out that here in Peru they changed the age for young men to apply for missions. Here they can leave at the age of 18 now!!! Is anything changing in the states?? And no, HT sisters, they havent changed it for the young women, still the same. sorry
This week we also had a fake christmas with Junior and our pensionista Hermano Hernan. I still havent had christmas here so they thought it would be fun to cook-buy christmas food. we had Platano and Flan. Both I love, sooo good. I dont think i would have liked them before the mission though. My sense of taste has been changing a lot i have noticed.
This week we also had a talent show with the sister missionaries ward. We used my idea from heritage tours to do the arms and face to get ready in the morning. We had to shave, brush teeth, put on the misisonary tag, and tie a tie. So much fun. I was the hands so i didnt get too mess y haha but my companion, Elder McAllister got smothered in Shaving Cream. Activities like that just make the mission a blast.
On the way back to the house where we eat dinner though we almost got robbed. I say almost because the moto we took was heaven sent. It was about 9 oclok and we still had to eat dinner so we were pushing it for the 930 curfew and we were riding back via mototaxi. about 4 blocks away our driver yelled back at us and told us to be careful because we were being followed. we looked back and there were 3 other motos following us. Our driver must have met the misisonaries before because he addressed us as elders was kind enough to flip a few u turns and drive a few extra blocks to throw the other motos off our tail.
Heavenly Father really protects his missionaries. (although I dont think we will be taking moto at night anymore)
This week we had intercambios as well. I was working with a gringo named Elder Driggs. He is a fun guy. We did a lot of contacting that day because alll our visits fell through (which was really hard because i was really sick) but we ran into a Nun at one of the doors we knocked on. The cutest lady i have ever seen, she is 87 years old and has been a nun for 72 years. Sweetest oldlady, she turned us away though. (how in the world do you convert a 72 year nun?)
This week was hard too. Like i said i was sick, I throughup and had diarreha for a few days but im over it now. In fact I think I feel better now than i did before i was sick. I guess its just all apart of adjusting to the food.
The hardest part of this week though was last night. we had a misisonary dinner with all the missionaires in our district and it was really fun. we enjoyed eachothers company and did our weekly reports. After however, we received our transfers. My trainer is leaving. I cant beleive it. This is going to be one of the hardest weeks of the mission because I have to direct the area and teach my new companion the area as well, and my new companion will be my second trainer. I feel like i have just gotten used to working with elder mcallister and we are really efficent now. our numbers have been great, and we have been really blessed.
sometimes its hard to understand, but I feel confident this is what needs to happen.
The Lord is in this work, because it is His work.


Sorry if this is a Bit short.
Love you all
The church is true tell your freinds!
Always turn outward, and keep smiling.


remember humility is not thinking less of ourselves but less about ourselves


Elder Bunker

Lo Maximo! y Menos

Hey Everyone!!

So, this week been full of by far the best days of mission thus far, and some of the most dead days as well. It seems like the Area Latina caught fire and then had spiritual relapse haha.

This week... we challenged a lot of different people to baptism. We are always challenging people to baptism haha. But this week we had two commitments to a date! in one day!!! It was the best day of my mission up to this point. Junior, my investigator friend, and the sister of a recently returned missionary both committed to be baptized on September 8th!! I'm confident Junior will be ready, so far we haven´t been able to have a second discussion with the girl so I'm not sure, but she has a testimony of the savior and the book of Mormon, and that is what everything is built off of. So she is already there as far as a basic testimony goes. She just needs some friends in the church and more knowledge about the gospel, and a testimony of Joseph smith.

One thing I have been discovering here in the mission and especially this week is that there is true POWER in the book of Mormon, I have heard that all my life and I have even read the book of Mormon, and I have felt the spirit while reading but to witness it working in someone else is completely different. Junior is our Golden Investigator and I hope we stay in contact. I wouldn't be surprised if he served a mission one day. He is just simply pure in heart, he wants to follow the Lord. He has read everything we have given him and more. He says he can´t put it down sometimes haha. At first he was expecting us to be upset he read more, but we were excited for him and now he is taking in everything he can. He has had a hard time with gaining a testimony of Joseph Smith, and I don't blame him. I was thinking about what the Joseph Smith story would look like to an investigator and it is really different. He is not the only one who has a hard time with it.

But, yesterday, (Sunday) we watched the Joseph Smith movie with him at a members house and we started and ended with prayer. I gave the opening prayer and he prayed after the movie. :D it had to be one of the most sincere, childlike prayers i have heard in my life. After the prayer, he looked at both of us and started to smile. He is just a smiley guy and he reminds me of Tanner Bunker, and Tanner Browning. He smiled and he said he knew Joseph Smith was a prophet and he had this growing feeling inside that was hard to explain. He knows what the spirit feels like. Something that took me a long time to find for myself. Ah! absolutely awesome!!

I'm sorry this is kind of short.

One last funny. So in Peru everyone is really short, obviously. But i haven't really noticed, (for some reason in my mind I am Peruvian and then I am reminded I'm white when someone shouts gringue!! haha) but this week I had like 20 people comment on how tall me and my companion are. hahaha made my day. I don't know what i will do when I come back and martin is nearing 7 feet haha. Everyone asks how tall I am, but I still don't know my height in meters haha.

I love you all,

The church is true tell your friends,
always turn outward and keep smiling!!

Elder Bunker

3 months!!!

Hey Everyone,

I cant beleive it. Already and eigth of the way through the mission!! What!! Sometimes it doesnt seem very long, and sometimes it freaks me out its going by that fast!!


So I promised some stories last week. I have a few.


First, the food here is a little different. I probably metioned that. (its amazing though, just took some time to get used to...) There is a dish here called masamorra. It is really good. It is pretty much fruit soup. they mostly have it for christmas, but our pensionista (Brother Hernan) likes to cook it for Family Home Evening with our recent converts. Anyway, I didnt realize, but this soup cleans out your system pretty good. haha, I love the stuff so I ate a lot and... we ended up running back to the apartment because I had to go haha. I thought i was going to die...


Second, I mentioned last week there are a lot of look alikes... haha all the little boys here remind me of tanner. They are so funny and innocent. Its the funniest thing. Makes me sad though. Tanner will be almost a teenageer when i get back!!
That and alot of people remind me of Thomas and Uncle Jake. haha There is just a look about thomas and jake i guess. Also we have a less active we are teaching who is just like lily. (except a 25 year old verson... super skinny and complete tomboy haha)


We have 3 people we are hoping will accept the baptismal invitation we have already extended. Hermana Judith, Hermana Vilma, and Junior. Hermana Judith just had a son return from the mission but is not a members so we have big hopes for here. the only problem is she is living with someone... marriage is no small deal, even when your already living together i guess... rggh. not my favorite thing in the world when we find that out about someone, specially when we have been working with them consistently for almost a month...
Hermana Vilma... she is the sweetest lady. and often i think of grandma when we are teaching her, not because they look anything a like, but just little mannerisms. Herman vilma has 2 kids on missions right now! We are close with her. She just lacks the confidence and faith to make a few sacrafices. (like close her store on sunday and attend church all three hours) We extended the baptismal invitation last week and she said she wants to, but she is afraid of failure... like all of us really. I think having kids in the mission really helps her. She has a hard time reading the scriptures because even in spanish they can be hard to understand. But she adores the Liahona and from that she has gained a lot of faith. I hope and pray we can help her get baptized, because she is someone who would make it to the temple after we leave. And that is ultimately where we want to be.
and Junior... Junior has become one of my best friends here in the feild. He is 21 studying, working, and helping his family run their store. He is lo maximo to put in local terms. pure gold. So far he has read everything we have given him. Attended all three hours of church, and a fireside for the prophets birthday. he really wants to know if the church is true. We have been praying he would receive an answer. Im not sure if he has been able to intentify one yet. We have visited him everyday for the last 5 days, and we will visit him again tomorrow even though he started school today and he is so busy. last friday we taught him the word of wisdom and he accepted to live it. the next day we visited him and he told us a story with a huge grin on his face. His story was that after we had left friday night he went to a party with some freinds where there were some drinks being served and he had promised not to drink and he remembered and asked for water. He said while he was there he realized all the blessing we promised from the word of wisdom were true! And that the gospel has already blessed his life immensly! :D Him and I get along really well because Im trying to learn spanish and he is trying to learn english, so we are patient with one another.


Last story, This week I think i have grown a lot. Especially in confidence, not in me but in what the Lord can do through me.
I was reading in the Liahona this last week Elder Eyrings talk about Mountains to Climb. I wanted to ask for a challenge from the lord to help me grow, but i wasnt sure if i was ready for it. I was/am still struggling with a lot of things. So i asked for a small challenge, and I received it in full haha.
My trainer is the District Leader and so as such he has to go on splits with all the other missionaries once a month. this last week he left to go on splits and I was paired with an elder who is from Ecuador and only speaks spanish. So I had to direct the Area. Meaning plan lessions and where we were going to go and such. I was really nervous because our area is huge, and i dont know it very well, and we had appointments all across our area. I did a lot of praying haha. I studied the map of our area the night before, and prayed for a miracle. it was something that I had been dreading the whole week, (Elder McAllister told me what was going to happen the day after i read the article and prayed) the day I had to direct the area was one of the best i have had thus far. I was able to get to know junior more because i talked a lot more with him and I was able to extend the invitation to go to chuch, and the fireside with us. and my comp for the day asked about baptism. so within the 24 hours my trainer was gone I had 2 lessons with junior, had comitted him to come with us to a fireside, church, and he said he would pray about baptism. I really hope it works out with him. but the greater miracle was that the lord was able to give me the confidence i was lacking through something i was dreading.


That is all I have time for!
I love you all,


The Church is true tell your freinds,
Always turnoutward, and keep smiling because the mountains we climb provide a better veiw. :D
Love Elder Bunker

Pictues 1.2

Poco a Poco

Hey Everyone.
K, So first. Im sorry if there has been confusion with letters. I guess there is a vuelga (strike) with the postal service in peru so there isnt much being shipped in the country. so I apologize.
second, I forgot to tell everyone. Andrew Law is in My mission!! from Pleasant Grove. Haha we were in preschool together and went to the same gradeschool and had a lot of the same teachers. So cool to see him again. I guess he was only here for a transfer or two before me. Crazy!!
Third, I think everyone in the states is related to someone in Peru. haha. There are so many look alikes. This Last week I saw someone who looked like George Bush, David Archeleta, and Mystery Guitar Man. Hahaha weird. Wish I had my camera. Especially yesterday. Every sunday there is a train that travels around and plays music with a whole bunch of disney caracters painted on it. It is called "my happy world" (or mi mundo feliz). interesting. still havent gotten the point but it looks like fun.
Last week we were visiting a member family who own a Mariachi band. Sweetest thing ever. Anyway they have a little girl and she was watching tv when we walked in, and she was watching the Backyardigans, So lizy Fish, Backyardigans exists in Peru too. Haha actually this little girl who was watching it reminded me of alice, it was somewhat surreal.
K now for the serious bit. So this week, like others has had some ups and downs. Mostly with the Language, I can understand most of what everyone is saying but there a few people with a lisp in our ward, and some of the youth combine their words, so it gets hard sometimes, and a bit frustrating. But the hardest part is speaking the language. I can say most of what I want to, but it takes me a while to congegate all my words, and so sometimes people lose interest in what im saying or become impatient. I want more than anything to talk to the people here, but Im not there yet.
One thing that has helped me though, is this saying they have here. "poco a poco". I have come to love this saying. I love it because it has taught me patience. I think that is one thing I have been lacking but have been blessed with as I have been working this week. Poco a Poco is how heavenly father works with his children. line upon line, precept upon precept, sometimes unnoticable, the trick is to be doing the small things. This week I have been reading the Liahona outloud everyday, and not only did i learn gospel principles but my toungue has been loosed a bit more and i have been able to speak with more clarity, I have to work on it everyday though because every morning it seems like I almost have to start over again.
The other great lesson i have been able to take away from this week is having a greater perspective. I got a really encouraging letter last week from aunt lizy (thanks lizy, sorry I cant email you directly and thank you) that really helped me. one of the pieces of advice she gave me that I feel will apply to me for the rest of my life is to see the bigger picture. Sometimes its easy to feel down when people turn us away, stop keeping commitments, and ignore us (or make fun of us cause were two gringos in a foreign country) but I have learned to look at it in different way, a bigger picture.
Right now I am here in feild!! something i have dreamed of my whole life, and sometimes i have forgotten that. I am helping people who are brothers and sisters return to heavenly father and receive eternal life. there is nothing greater than that!!!
I thought about that even more, and expanded it even farther. The truth is, life is amazing. We are here on earth, being tested, and all of us, have already kept our first estate. We have a body!! and we are working to do the things the lord comands to return to his presence, and even better, we have a savior for when we do make mistakes. And as far as the things we cannot see, Im sure we have concourses of angels behind us every step of the way.
Im sorry this is shorter. but we are going to leave to proselyte in 5 min.
one last thought. One of the greatest struggles of the mission is help people have the desire to learn more about the evangelio de JesuCristo. gospel of jesus christ. sorry, spanish and english not good. Because it is the desire to know about these things that drives them to pray with a sincere heart. I have been searching, but I have not found a clear answer and Im not sure if there is one cause everyone is different, about how we can help people develop a desire to know. I have found those who truly want to follow jesus christ those who truly beleive in god, already have that desire and they are ready to hear the gospel and test the book of mormon with a sincere heart. It begins with their desires. I think that is what the scriptures mean by pure in heart.
sorry I didnt share many stories about investigators. I will have some next week.
all I have to say is i whish i was peruvian cause it would solve a lot of problems haha.
the church is true tell your freinds,
always turn outward and keep smiling. Because we have kept our first estate.
Love
Elder Bunker