One more thing

ps... So i have a bit more time... so i want to share one more story. 

Kati. (our new convert.) is amazing!! we have been visiting her and her family to see if we can help the rest of the family as well. 

we have been talking to kati about her recent struggles. its hard because she is a single mom and doesnt have a job so there isnt much money to go around. but this last week she asked us about wearing skirts in church. she normally wears jeans. and we explained we dress up when we go to church to show respect for the lord, we also explained it in a way not to presure her into wearing a skrit to church. we knew she didnt have a skirt or the money to buy one...

to our suprise kati came to church in a skirt. 

I wanted to cry when i saw her because i knew the sacrifice she must have made to buy that skirt to be more respectful in church. Ive never seen anyone glow so much. She truley an example of faith.whie everyone else commented on her new skirt i was silentley cheering for her inside.

after church she came to find us and asked us where she could pay her tithing she hasn´t payed yet...

There is so much more i need to do and be better at....

Pictures 2.1

Family,

Ahhh! I dont know if my last email sent...

im just going to send picture this week i think. there isnt much to report.

a few of a baptism dates fell through... im not sure whats happening with our goals...

but we will be baptizing this next month i think. we just need some help from the members and a few more prayers to make everything work out i think haha.

This week we met a young man. just want to share this story really fast. He had met the missionaries before, and when we asked where he said when he lived in another city about six hours away when he was 11. we asked him if his family moved there and he explained that no, but when he was 11 his father died and due to a few family problems he was forced to live alone and provide for himself at the age of 11.... talk about a true nefite. He blows me away. he is seventeen but acts like he is 20... he said the missionaries helped him as a little kid know what to do and what path was right he was going to get baptized too. He now is reunited with his family and he is about to leave again, but this time for college. His story made me realize the lord has a hand in everything.

well love you all.

Always turn outward, and keep smiling,

Elder Bunker

Mother's Day

Hey Everyone,

So... to be honest there is only a little to write from the work this week, but its been great! 

This week has gone by super fast and i feel i have gotten very little done, but when i look back its been a very good week. Elder Molina (my comp) and i are working hard with a few people that we have found. This last week we have challenged lots of people to take the step of baptism. Many have accepted! wow its been a rollercoaster with a few of them.

Our biggest enemy right now seems to be their studies in the university... most of them are students and have very little time. We would like to teach them more so they can progress faster. 

So far we have 5 solid people who could be getting baptized the end of this month or the beginning of the next!

We are teaching:

Pedro Pablo. He is one of the coolest youth i have met. He is a young guy our age who is studying to be a chef. we contacted him with an activity that we did with a table and pamflets. He works in his brothers car shop and every time we go over we get to see some really cool car work going on. (almost makes me want to be a mechanic) haha his brother scared me when we first met them because he looked really scary, but hes just a giant teddy bear haha. Pedro wants to be baptized. our biggest taske with him is to help him stay motivated. He will have to make a few adjustments these next few weeks.

Thalia. Haha she is really funny. haha our second lesson that we had with her we asked her if she had any questions (we had left a chapter in the book of mormon about baptism) she said yes, and  then she asked us what she needed to do to be baptized. You can imagine the look on our faces ahaha. we tried not to act too suprised haha. we explained baptism and made a goal for the 18th of this month. It might be a little too soon because she has been studying a lot so we will have to move the date but im sure it will work out.

we are also teaching 3 more people who are awesome. :D Sharon, her sister Roxanna and Roxanna´s son Jaime. They want to be baptized and know the church is true, just to help them strengthen that testimony.

Well just one last thing,

Yesterday was a great day to be able to talk to my mom and get so much great news.

Love you all,

Always turn outward, and keep smiling!

Elder Bunker

Lima

Everyone,

Well I apologize, but i dont have any pictures this week. Im a little bit in a hurry to write. i dont have my cord with me to upload pics. 

First off, today has been crazy. Like really insane, we have been hiking for the majority of the day. Our district decided that we would go check out some caves and see some bats and things like that. Tunrs out the caves were really small and there wasnt much to see. but it was neet to see some bats.

When we left the cave we decided to hike a little farther up to see if there were more caves. When we got to where we thought there would be caves we found that there wasnt anything but big rocks. so we took a few pictures and apreciated the veiw of the valley. It was so pretty we decided to hike a little father up to see a little more. after we hiked a little ways we saw the top of the mountain we were on and decided it would be possible and fun to get to the top. (the hike took a little longer than we had hoped haha) on the way up we saw some of the coolest plants and bugs I have seen here in the mission. (at one point we found a spider I had almost stepped on. It was super crazy looking, gave me goosebumps to look at it, it was all shiny, black and yellow, and looked like it could leave a pretty nasty bite) (There are also really cool tarantulas here XP)

we finally got to the top of the peak and took pictures of the whole valley. It felt amazing to be in the mountains again hiking and soaking up fresh air. Im afraid i got a little fried. I didnt really plan on hiking uip there, I was planning on caves. 

as we took pictures though we saw a little white cross right across the mountain range. so... we took another short little hike (that lasted a little longer than i thought it would) to get to the cross. Haha its funny here in peru because they put random little things on mountains like that all the time. after visitng the cross we headed down the mountain, (we ended up in someones back yard for some reason haha) and headed back to central Cajamarca.

so that was pday.

This week has also been pretty crazy. Like i mentioned in my other letter this last week i traveled to lima to fill out some papers. wow what a trip. It turned out to be super long. so we headed out monday. took a six hour bus ride to Chiclayo from Cajamarca and rested at the mission office for a bit and wrote a little home. then we took a plane from chiclayo to lima which is like a 1 and half plane ride. when we got to lima a guy picked us up in the airport and gave us dinner there. we headed to the hotel where we would be staying and got to sleep around 3 in the morning. we woke up the next mornign at 5 and stood in lines until 3 in the afternoon to get our pervuian ID. Wow what a day. I met a few new missionaries while we were waitign in line though who were still in the CCM (pervian MTC) it was fun to see some new missionaries. They always seem more excited than the misisonaries that have been out for a while. They were all nervous about the language (which is natural) but i got to assure them that it would come with practice

wow seems like I was there yesterday... that was almost a year ago for me. 

after waiting in lines all day we were hoping to get to go to the Lima temple which usually happens on these kinds of trips to take pictures. Since i was never in the peruvian MTC i never got to visit the temple. they told us however that they didnt want to risk missing our plane.... I hope when i go home the mission president can set up a long layover so i can go in and enjoy it before headign back to the states. 

we got to the airport and we ended our mini half day fast around 5 when someone showed up to help us out and buy us food. at that point we were really tired. 

we got back to chiclayo that night, and sleeped in the office elders apartment. (haha missionary sleepovers... epic) we woke up the next day with the suprise that we would not be going back home that day, because it was dia del trabajador or Pervuian Labor Day there were no busses to take back to Cajamarca, so i hung out in the office all day and read some inspiring talks one of the office elders (Elder Davis - coolest missionary ever) found on the byu devotional website. I cant beleive I have been a member my whole life and there are still SO many things I dont understand that would be considered basic in the gospel. Its just SO AMAZING. I want to read church literature THE REST OF MY LIFE. Its amazing the things one can find by reading the teaching of the prophets. 

so that was the trip. after the day had ended i went with some elders to a family home evening with one of the goofiest peruvian families i have met (they dont know what burritos are here. I had the miscomception that all south america ate burritos before the mission. They told me about their trip to the united states and that they got frustrated because it was hard for them to find a place that sells rice, and they ended up eating burritos.... haha they didint know what to call the burritos and so they decribed it to us in the funniest way like it was the strangest foreign barbaric food they had eaten hahahaha...) I fell in love with that family. haha.

So i got back and zoom. 

Love you all, 

always turn outward, and keep smiling.

Elder Bunker

Heading to Lima... 8 hour trip

Hey everyone,

im sorrry this is so short. But i have to write fast because my plane will be leaving soon. 

Im on my way to Lima to gain my Peruvian Citizenship. :D

so some crazy amazing wonderful things really fast about whats going on in the mission.

First Kati got baptized!!!!! I cant hardly beleive it. It has been the craziest dreamlike weekend!!! its... wow.... surreal. This has been one of the hardest but best baptisms i have had one the mission. The reason it was so hard was because it took us an entire day to fill up the font. I cant explain all the set backs but it went something like this.

so first we got up in the morning knowing that we needed to fill up the font. so we called the brother who had the keys to the church so we could clean the church and fill up the font so we could heat up the water later that afternoon. (we have a water heater!! but you have to fill up the font first) he told us he didnt have the keys but he would pick them up for us so all we would have to is pass by his house and pick them up. 

when we passed by the house.... no keys. he wasnt home. his dad told us he wasnt sure where the brother was, but told us the keys were with a particular brother who only lived a few blocks away.... he didnt live a few blocks away.... he lived an area away...

so we spent the next 3 hours looking for keys... we got to the church opened it up and found that we were missing the keys to fill up the font.... so we called arouind for 30 minutes usign a public phone (so much money....) until we found the brother who had the keys.... he agreed to drop them off at the church so we headed back and started cleaning. 

the brother arrived and we started to fill up the font. (normally takes 1/2 hour) we sat there for 1 hour and realized the water pressure was going down and nothing was coming out of the pipe.... so we had to call a sister to turn on the extra water support because the first tank was empty.

we left to eat lunch and change and when we came back.... still no water.... haha ahhhhh!!! so stressful.... we ended up filling the font with a hose and heating it up later.

the baptism started late but it went really well. kati came looking pretty sad, her family didnt approve of her decision to get baptized, but the elders that came where able to help her a little bit. After the baptism she couldnt stop smiling. she said she knew she made the right decision and she had a big feeling she couldnt describe. im so happy for her.

welll sorry so short i love you all!!!

Love you all.

always turn outward, and keep smiling,

Elder Bunker

Cajamarca.... First Baptism?

Hey everyone,

So im going to have to write fast because i dont have much time. 

Today has been a good Pday we played basketball (we never play basketball... always soccer!! haha) and explored a little bit more of cajamarca. (Cajamarca is one of the more turistic places here in cajamarca)

So crazy things from this week. haha first, we had almost twice the amount of contacts this week that I have had in almost any other week of the mission. haha. we are finding some good people, but we are still in the finding process. What we did is we set up a table in a small store of one of the sisters in our ward with pamflets, and handouts, and we placed a giant poster on the door with common religious questions haha then we starting stopping people in the street and bringing them into the store to hear more about our message. It was fun. we got a vareity of responses from the people. Im hoping we are going to be able to progress with a few of them farther down the road. 

Were definately using the table method again; its a lot more effective than knocking doors all day haha. 

Now what i didnt mention yet is about a interveiw i had with the president a few weeks ago (it will probably the last time i see him for a while because we are so far away) but he told me that he is putting a lot of trust in me and my companion by giving us the privelege to open an area, and that in six months or so he is hoping to open a small branch out here... wow. talk about pressure haha. 

This week we are hoping to have our first baptism in Cajamarca!!! The young mom, Kati, who we are teaching is progressing really well and she says she loves the church, she is still hesitant but thats normal. We had a really interesting experience with her this last week.

We were teaching her about the word of wisdom and keeping the sabbath day holy, and she had a ton of questions (she always has a ton of questions) so we helped her find the answers, and then started to leave a commitment with her. I felt impressed that i should comit her to attend church every sunday. and as I extended the comitment i could feel my companion stiffen haha he didnt feel super comfortable with that. but she accepted. My companion then asked her if we could call her in the morning to remind her about church, haha she replied and said, "im trying to follow god, I dont need a reminder to do that." haha

Katy is the best. i hope we can baptize her.

Love you all,

Always turn outward, and keep smiling! 

Sincerly,

Elder Bunker

Time Flies when working HARD

Hey Everyone,

So finally for some pictures. :D Im going to try to send as much as possible.

This morning we got to visit CumbeMayo which is a very famous ruin here in Cajamarca. Soooooo  Cooool!!!! if i thought i was goign to miss the mountains in the united states i was wrong. there are some really cool mountains here in Peru. (i wouldnt mind coming back to rock climb... but that would be a really expensive rockclibing trip haha) Cumbemayo is one of the places where one can see all the ruins of the incas. they were super smart. They figured out a way to make a canal go UP a mountain to make it to the other side. --- Born engineers let me tell you --- I hope the pictures turn out allright. its super green and pretty here in peru. sometimes i have a hard time beleiving im here.

There is a lot to see here in Cajamaca so im sure i will be sending some nice pictures these next few months. I hope im here for a while, even though the work is a little more difficult. Pictures always seem to the best suveneer to bring home. 

So... this week... welll... its been good. not my best week, but not the worst either. im getting over being sick and im getting used to the altitude and the wet and cold and everything. Im still getting adjusted to the people though. I dont remember people ever getting so angry with us before haha. but thats the work. 

Here in Cajamarca people are really catholic... thats not a bad thing necesarly... im really glad people have a basic beleive in god, but it kinds of kills us when it comes to the work. Many dont want to hear anything from an Evangelical faith (even though were not Evangelical in the root context haha) so we have been looking for a lot for the members so they can help us.... There isnt many in our area.... My companion and I really are opening an area, because the missionaries havent been here much.

so a few stories. oh, but first to share the good news! we have 2 people gettign ready to be baptized the end of this month!! wow, cant even tell everyone how excited i am. We have been here less than 3 weeks and we already have people getting ready to be baptized. The Lord has really blessed us. im a little nervous though because they hardly know the members and we have had conferences for the last 2 weeks (So they dont really know how Normal sacrament meeting goes.) so please pray for us. we have a lot of thngs to do to help them before they feel comfortable making that big step of baptism. their names are Kati and Luis. Kati is a mom of 2 little girls who is super exited to listen to us haha she practicallly bounces in her seat like a small child when we answer her questions and explain more about the book of mormon. she WANTS to know its true. I hope we can help her recieve and recognize an answer soon. Luis on the otherhand is super funny. Hes become a good freind. He is super intelectual and loves analyzing the Book of Mormon. He remembers details that amaze me. He really reads to know. I hope they make it to their goal these next 2 weeks. 

I feel like we have worked super hard this week. and its been stressful mentally as well as fisically. we have been praying a lot to find people to teach as well as for Kati and Luis. I really hope we can do the lords will here in Atahualpa.

This week we taught a family whos father died in overdosing in acohol. wow, thats hard. I cant explain how great it was to explain the plan of salvation. (knoledge that only comes through the restored gospel)  and seeing in their faces new hope. i hope we can keep helpign.

Well love you all,

sorry so short.

Always turn outward, and keep smiling :D :D :D

Elder Bunker

Pictures 1.11

Investigators... y la conferencia general

Hey Everyone,

 

so first. there are a few people i need to thank.... Grandma and Grandpa thank you for your package of beef jerky. It got here fine and i enjoyed reading your letter. Ive been sharing the beef jerky with one of the bishops here haha. he is a big beef jerky fan (one of the other american missionaries shared some with him years ago) and i think i won some brownie points with that haha.

 

Next, Bree Hutchings, I finally got your letter and when i opened it, it was a like the craziest blast to the past. Haha I had olmost forgotten that we drew up the BYU plan of salvation. hahaha it was right after a zone meeting and all the missionaries wanted to know what in the world was so funny. I about cried. I do my best to get back to you, no promises though.

 

next. general conference was awesome, and it was amazing to see some familiar faces (apart from the general authorities) I saw Krysta my dear freind from heratage tours, and little Willow from the BYU dorms, and Camille from 108th singles ward at BYU and a few other people as well. I hardly recognized everyone, but there they were on the big screen. crazy.

 

So this week i have been a little under the weather but I have been super blessed as well.

 

This week we have found new investigators that are amazing. One that in particular I am super excited to teach is a young mom named Kati. She is super nice and has a heart of gold, and she is very interested in learning about the gospel. We explained about the restaration and, having a catholic background, listened to us very intently. She could hardly beleive what she was hearing. That the true church was LOST and then RESTORED.... When we invited her to read the book of mormon and ask for herself. She said, "yeah, im definately going to have to read the book of mormon and pray about this... how much does the book cost." haha I love telling people that the book of mormon is a gift....

 

Im really excited about Kati because even though she doesnt beleive much of what we are saying, she wants to know. And she is willing to go to God to find out. I know she is going to get an answer. XD (She also came to general conference this weekend!!!! and brought her sister!!!! and said she enjoyed it!!!!!) :D

 

we also have a investigator named luis. He is a very interesting young man.... haha. but he has quickly become our freind. His mom is a member of the church, but is inactive because she has to work on sundays.... but her testimony is still strong and intact. she has shared some really amazing experiences with us as we teach Luis. I know heavenly father led us to that family. We taught luis about the restoration and he says he knows the book of mormon is true and has always known it due to the strong testimony of his mom, we returned later that week and taught him about the doctrine of christ, about faith, and repentance and baptism. We invited Luis to be baptized. He is still hesitant. But i feel confident he will be baptized someday. I feel he is hesistant to leave behind a few habits...

 

Luis however, also came to general conference with us. He also brought his cousin. haha. (already a missionary and not even a member...) I think he really enjoyed conference, but he had to leave early due to the fact that his cousin was feeling a little sick. I hope we can help him this week.

 

Some thing that has struck me this week is how much the missionaries need the members. I wont lie. over the course of the mission up to this point i have been dissappointed in a few of the members, but at the same time I have been really impressed by others. Its made me really ponder on what kind of member i was before the mission. I hope i wasnt that kind of member who was unwilling to help or was afraid to participate in missionary work.... i have a feeling it was a little bit of the latter. I hope i can change.

 

This conference seemed to have 2 distinct themes to me. first the Peace in our homes and in ourselves and Missionary Work.

we will see what the next few months have in store....

 

well sorry so short, i cant figure out how to upload pictures yet....

 

Always look outward and keep smiling,

and dont forget to share the gospel!!

Love,

Elder Bunker

 

 

Park City, Peru

Hey everyone,

 

Well... wont lie this has been a really long week of the mission, and everything that has been happening is really unexpected. The mission is truely a rollercoaster sometimes.

 

first, I said goodbye to morrope this week... i dont think i have ever cried more on the mission. Saying goodbye to the fiestas family was one of the hardest things Ive had to do in the last 10 months. I felt like i was leaving for the mission again. I asked my companion later if it was always going to be that hard to have transfers. He said it gets a little easier with each transfer. I sure hope he is right. I dont know if i can do that again. I hope and pray i will get the chance to come back and see them again.

 

so that was monday, tuesday we had a transfer meeting. this transfer 36 missionaries arrived!!!! about ten of them are waiting for their visas but wow 25 new missionaries!!!! that meant the mission needed to find 25 new trainers!!! wow. the mission is growing.

 

so here is the big news:  "Zona Lambayeque.... Elder Bunker.... leaving Morrope, your new area is Cajamarca, Atahualpa 2.... its a new area and your companion is Elder Molina. Your bus leaves Chiclayo at 2:00pm."

 

so there it is... my new area is a new area, or in other words i am in the mountains opening a new area.... as a senor companion.... wow, this is going to be fun...

 

so really fast about my area... its called atahualpa 2 because we are the second pair of missionaries to be in this ward in other words there are 4 missionaries in our ward. our area is fairly new, there were missionaries before, but there havent been for a long time. we have no investigators yet, which means this whole last week and probably this whole next week we will be contacting....

 

My area is the richest in Peru, im pretty sure. Cajamarca looks just like Park city (with a little old-spanish fling) All the men here work in the local goldmine so everyone is loaded and they have huge houses. i cant beleive it. i feel like im back in the states. It makes contacting really hard, because the people are a lot more "busy" or in other words rich-and-closed-hearted.... (i can only imagine the work in Highlands Ranch... I hope its not so hard) the trick here will be the references from the members. I hope and pray the members will accept us and help us in the work.

 

It rains a ton here because we are in the mountains (is sooooooo beautiful here), but that means we are normally soaked by the end of the day. i left my other shoes in my old area so i hope my  companion sends them through the mission office.

 

My new Companion Elder Molina is great. He is a new missionary with only 6 months in the mission but he already teaches well and we get a long great. he is from Ecuador, and i am teaching him english. Hahaha he already says to all the Elders "You little Cuti-Pie!" clear as a bell, and many other phrases haha. He is really great. I can tell we are going to have a lot of fun. I hope i can be a good senor companion, I dont feel prepared to open an area, and we are so overwelmed somethings. haha so we are walking (as it says in the bible) by faith alone.

 

This is going to be a big learning experience. we still dont have anyone to teach (we have been here 5 days) so please pray for us.

 

I love you all, thank you for your prayers and words of encouragement

 

Always turn outward, and keep smiling,

Love you all

 

Elder Bunker