March 25, 2013

Dear Family,

Sounds like an awesome spring break. I´m kind of sad I wasn't there, but I think I probably had more fun here. Sorry, haha. I hope you guys will get home ok! 

Oh yeah, so I have covenanted with God and everyone to have the greatest week of my whole mission. So I'm pretty pumped. La noche blanca is this saturday, the classic uruguayan bishopric got a little overwhelmed with that announcement in sacrament meeting, so they just called me up and had me do it. So we had two baptisms lined up for that night from us, and there was like thirteen more in the zone. But then... opposition struck. So now one of our investigators can't get baptized this saturday and we're thinking about dropping her for a few weeks to help her realize that the gospel is more important than she thought it was. But the other one is basically a guaranteed baptism, EXCEPT for the fact that she got sent to her grandma's house for bad behavior, haha, so we had to beg the hermanas that live in that area to teach her the charlas until she comes back. And we might have to leave our area to teach her this week, but she's the daughter of an active lady, so she's basically already in the water. Our only other firm investigator is a seventeen year old kid named federico, who is in dire need of the gospel. He needs a lot of direction in his life, he's just kind of doing whatever comes up right now, and spends like 12 hours a day playing Call of Duty. But he recognizes the feeling of the spirit and loves God, so I think he'll put his life in line as he begins to excercise faith.

Yeah, and also we had the craziest sunday ever yesterday, couldn't even begin to tell you about it, but the highlight was that Elder Kempton and I had a really cool spiritual experience where I was able to give him a pretty special blessing. It just reminded us both that God really knows us. He watches over us and worries about our problems just like we do. The only difference is that he helps us to solve our problems and bear our burdens.

Oh yeah, it's starting to get quite chilly at night. And the cereal was divine. Everything disappeared really fast from that package, because I live with four elders now, so all the Christlike sharing really makes stuff disappear quick. 

I totally forgot to bring my camera with me, but Elder Kempton and I have been on this quest to get a picture with this legendary goat that lives in our area. And I got some really funny ones, so I'll send them next week. But that goat is sharp. It already knows what we're thinking. So most of the pictures are of me chasing it around, trying to be in the frame with it.

I got a letter from Halmoni today, but nothing from grandpa yet, I think she said that he wrote one...

Ok, so I had my interview with the president this week. I asked what his plans are for me. He gave me a bunch of confused ramblings. Well, he wasn't confused, but I was after listening to it. But the zone leaders got the lowdown. They say there's three options for me. 1)Elder Kempton leaves and trains somewhere else. I train here. 2)Elder Kempton stays for this next change, then he goes home and I train. 3) I go to the offices and become a secretary this change, and Elder Kempton trains. So...yeah. It'll be interesting, whatever happens. And I'm basically pumped and ready to go now. The language is flying, I've kinda caught the vision of the mission. I'm pumped to work. I would love to train someone, cause honestly i just love helping people. And this saturday is my seven month anniversary! Woo!

Ok, love you all, bye!

P.S. Read alma 32 and think about how many times he says that faith is not a perfect knowledge and also when he says it. Pretty interesting. 

March 18, 2013

Dear Da,

I hope you caught the irish accent i threw in for you there. This week was just great. As a zone and stake, we've been working on this thing called la noche blanca, where we're putting on a big old baptismal service the thirtieth, with all the missionaries in melo working the lights out to get a bunch of people. As expected, there was opposition. Elder Kempton and I were working with 4 people to get baptized that day, and not a single one decided to come to church. Even though we went to all their houses and woke them up. So...yeah. We're still gonna have maybe two baptisms that day from us, and the future looks very bright. The members love us, and they keep giving us well prepared friends to teach, so this area is just golden.

It is very good to hear news from home, as always, and good work Thunder. Tell aunt trisa that I just barely got a letter from them and it was very motivating! I am so excited for James, Jory, Jake, Ethan and all these other guys that are about to leave. They are going to have the time of their lives. Especially James. He's going to discover the legend of the Mate. Uruguayans and Argentinians run around all over the place with a thermos of hot water stuck under their armpit and a cup of mate, which looks and smells pretty weird. But they all drink it. Every single one. It's like pouring a bit of hot water into some fragrant grass, then drinking it through a strainer. Kinda gross, but I'm probably bringing some home.

So here we go, answering questions! My health is finally awesome! I'm good to go. But all the toe injuries took their toll. I'm weighing in pretty heavy, like 178. But I've been doing so many pushups and pullups, so a lot is muscle. I look pretty different now. I was just fat before I got to melo. I was weighing about 186, yikes. But I've been steadily losing weight for three weeks now, so the future is brilliant. Sleep has been getting easier for me. For the first six months, I was like I always was at home, just taking forever to fall asleep. But I've just been getting more and more tired through the course of my mission, so now I get knocked right out. And not being cold cause i'm in a toasty sleeping bag helps too. I definitely feel the Lord strengthening me all the time, because I am just exhausted every day. It's so mental too, because I just spend all day worrying about people. And spiritual experiences wear you out. And last night we found a new investigator at like 7:52, taught him a lesson, and then we sprinted home to be there by eight, so that made me pretty tired.

As to opportunities to teach, I teach. And we solve problems. I'm getting so much new experience here, and the best part is that the language issue is all but gone, so I just talk with people. I have really grown to love talking to literally everyone I see. It makes me feel like I'm not gonna miss any opportunity that the Lord would give me. Bearing testimony to random strangers and feeling the spirit touch them is so cool. So thanks for all the prayers, everyone, because I got soooooo much help learning spanish.

Elder Kempton and I do work. We get along great, almost too well, haha. I love working with him too. He's a great missionary, a real example of diligence. I just hope I'm not ruining his discipline too much!

Ok, last bit of news, basically all the email restrictions are gone. So anyone can send me emails now, and I can answer! But keep sending letters, I like those too.

LOVE you all!

Remember Ether 12:28

Love, Elder Pyper

March 11, 2013

Good day, everyone!

The week was just ok this week. It was obviously totally fun, but I´m still learning a lot of lessons about how missionary work goes. It´s weird, cause in Carmen it seemed like no matter how hard I worked, nothing ever happened. Here it´s the opposite. If I didn´t work as hard as I could one day, I feel awful, but still a member shows up and gives us six references basically just ready for baptism. So I am still working on my diligence. But we`re getting better. Living in a house of four elders makes it way harder to exercise discipline, but I`m off to a good start this week.

So the sister missionaries are there in enid huh? Are there only two for the whole ward or did they just replace one set of elders? Oh yeah, I didn´t even burn my sock. I totally forgot. But it's totally fine. I just didn`t want to burn a tie. 

So yeah, basically here in Leone the amount of people to teach that we find just depends on the amount of people we talk to. It´s very very interesting. So this week I´m trying to reacquire my good habits of talking to everyone, no matter how late you´re running. It`s the only way to show to the Lord that he can put those people in your path and you`re going to talk to them.  My comp's only got like two months left in his mission! So it's anybody's guess what's gonna happen to us here. I hope I kill him off, because I'm starting to get scared of responsibility. If he goes somewhere else his last change, that will just be very interesting for me. WE'll see what happens.

RACHEL. Happy birthday!!!! You're only one year from the best year and a half ever

I've been thinking a lot about familes lately as well, because I'm seeing firsthand how much better the plan of salvation works in families. The problem is, families are almost a thing of the past here. If you find a family that has kids, is married, and not separated, then it's just a miracle. The majority of the converts in this mission are teenagers. So I want to baptize families. I'll keep you updated on how the family search is going.

So here's the cool spiritual experience of the week. All four of us are getting ready to leave the house, and the zone leaders leave like two minutes before us. As we're leaving, they're coming back up the stairs to tell us that Angel (one of the converts here, a 15 year old kid) has run away from his house, and is waiting for us outside the church. So we go down there, let him in and talk with him a bit. His story is really sad, he's an orphan who's been shunted from foster home to foster home his whole life, and he had just had enough verbal abuse, I guess. So as he tells us this story, I'm desperately praying, asking to know what to say. The answer comes, "you can't say anything, you have no authority here." Then I thought, "Then we need the branch president here RIGHT NOW, please." And lo and behold, the man walks in ten seconds later, and didn't have a clue what he was doing there. Just purely following the spirit. So he went back home for a bit, we're still trying to figure out if he's gonna stay there... But it was awesome to see someone being an instrument in Gods hands as an answer to my prayers. Our president is a real stud.

So we do have daylight savings here. We accidentally all woke up an hour late last week. But this week it was for real.

DyC 75 2-5. Best scripture ever.

Read it everyone who's going on a mission.

Love you all! Have the best week.

Elder Pyper

P.s. I made a bet with a kid this week that if I made a penalty kick on him, he'd have to come to church. I buried it. He still didn't come to church.

March 4, 2013

Dear Family!!!

As an answer to your question, I did transfer this week. I transferred here to melo. I have kind of the outskirts area, but it's quite large and there's a lot of people. I love it. I love all the members and people here too. It's crazy, I almost became fluent overnight when I got here. I think it's because the people speak better, there's a little more education here. But what a contrast to carmen.

I feel as if the Lord has set me free out of the refining fire. He's given me all the tools I could ever ask for, blessed me with the gift of tongues, for real, and given me a huge opportunity. He's said, "Let's see what Elder Pyper can really do." I just gotta keep relying on him and working. I really think the only thing that could hold me back here is my own level of effort. The branch president is a twentyseven year old stud, there's a group of recent convert teenagers that are excited to share the gospel. The sky is the limit here.

My new comp is also great, another gringo. We have bonded quite well, and we're excited to work. I also live with the zone leaders now, which is way cool. One of them is my twin. We have a ton of weird similarities.

I got a sweet batch of letters today, including from Melanie, Chloe (Hood rat), and BRECK. It was inspiring to hear from you all.

But yeah, that's about it. I guess I'll ramble a bit more.

If you noticed that I took a solid chunk of money out of my account, it's because I ordered a sweet pair of scripture cases. If rachel goes on a spanish speaking mission, I'll totally bring her some scripture cases for her spanish scriptures.

Ok, two things for rachel. Can you tell emilie that I think she's good to do whatever? And also, can you send me the Phantom Goatee picture? It's the one of me and garret flexing traps shirtless and he looks like bane.

I can't believe sister missionaries are coming! It makes sense, because the number of sisters in our mission is going to double in the next two months, so they got to put them all somewhere. Yeah tell rachel to get out there. And tell her to start studying with preach my gospel. It's money.

That snow is nuts. Stay warm. I got the package as well. Everyone says thanks.

Also elder francis is here in the zone. I saw him today and we had a therapy session, haha. I love this man.

OK bye! Love you all! Take care of yourselves and watch out for drunk less actives! (No one's thrown or shot a rock at me in 5 days!)

Elder "El Fuego Inextinguible" Pyper (Mormon 9. Good chapter)