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