Very Large Toad

Hey, 

So I can work with your new system. I feel bad. I just don´t have money to print off the emails so I prefer to try and read as much as I can in the Locatorio. But really, the longer your emails are the better. I try to answer your questions but I admit I could do a better job :) It´s a really good idea to put the important important stuff in the first paragraph though. Alright. 

I don´t know if you were aware of how this works, but transfers fall every six weeks. Exactly. It never changes. We have 23 days until the next transfer. (OCT 16) So you could send the package whenever. It doesn´t take three weeks. But I am almost for sure leaving this transfer. If you are super concerned, you could always send it to the mission office. It will get to me usually in a month if sent to the mission office. I would just send it asap. It only takes like a week to get here. Planning on sending spencer´s card tomorrow. I am just trying to write a letter too, but my comps really hate watching me write letters in the piso on p days. I don´t know why but missionaries don´t really write a whole lot of letters anymore. Erickson hasn´t written one. Or received any. But he just does everything by email. 

Sounds like everything is going well. You sound super busy mom. Haha and honestly every flipping email I read something that Brigham is asking you to do. You spoil that kid like none other. Well you spoil all of us. But I feel like he asks you to do really huge favors for him more than Spence and I did. I thought he was grounded from Homecoming?? What happened?  Some new revelation from this interesting little parenting book you guys have read, I presume :) Brig is looking like a stud. That picture of him looks really good. I don´t think it looks much like me, but it´s definitely a fantastic foto!!! I love the fact that you´re putting on an eagle court of honor for them. I think it´s hilarious. I can imagine that neither of them really want one. I thought about my eagle court of honor today actually. Today I held a falcon and it made me think of when I held that eagle. Mom and Dad put SOO much work into my court of honor. I don´t think I ever thanked you guys enough. Remember how you made the homemade cookie ice cream sandwiches?? That was so awesome. And it was a ton of work. Not to mention the decorations and organzing everything. It was kind of expensive as well. You guys really spoil your children. It´s insane. We´re so dang lucky. At times I think of it and just miss home so much. Other times I think about the people that are eating one meal a day here because they don´t have money or a job. And then I just feel sad. There are lots of things I don´t understand about God´s plan, but I do know that we are where we are for a reason. I think a lot of it might have to do with what we did in the life before this, but we also all need to learn and progress in different ways. It´s interesting to think about. Anyway :) Thanks for that wonderful court of honor. It´s a really awesome memory :) 

I love seeing pictures of all of you. I miss you a lot. A lot. Clayton looks really tall in that 6 finger picture, but Im not fooled. I am sure he´s grown a lot, but he´s totally on tip toes in that one ;) Plus I have already accepted the fact that by the time all of us are back together again, they will all three be taller than me. Quincey and Lincoln no. Not yey anyway. I think Quince and me will be the shortest. That´s ok though. As long as we´re all taller than Dad. I laughed a lot at Lincoln´s dentist thing. Hahaha. That kid is growing up so much. 

Well the food sounds amazing. Super jealous. And you sound as busy as ever. I hope you all really enjoy this vacation. It sounds like it´ll be really awesome. Spencer´s lump on the neck scares me a little. I just want him out in the field. I really hope he gets out on schedule. Super excited for him to speak in church. That´s really really crazy to think about. I feel like I just barely left. 

Our week went well. I suppose. The baptism yesterday was SO great. P is so amazing. There were TONS of people there. That is definitely the biggest baptism I will ever attend in my mission. It´s just cause all of the members love P, because he is always with D and R (the members that are the aunt and uncle of his girlfriend) and also all of P´s family came. It was cool. I got to confirm him. Still nervous when I do that. But I don´t think that will ever go away. D baptized him. P bore his testimony and talked about how he came to know this church was true. He said things that newly baptized investigators don´t usually say. It was powerful. I REALLY felt the spirit as I watched him enter the waters of baptism :) It´s all true. And then P had some Books of Mormon that he had written his testimony in and put a photo of himself and he went and gave them to his close friends and family. He gave one to me too. I was just really touched. He is just a really amazing person. He chose this, which means changing EVERYTHING in his life. The only member in his family, even his girlfriend isn´t a member. He is now living the law of chastity and doing everything like a normal disciple of Christ. I just have so much respect for him. He was really happy yesterday. I love this guys. I don´t know if you know that or not, but I love this with all my heart. It´s hard. Sometimes it´s discouraging. Like now. But I wouldn´t give this up for anything. It´s difficult to explain. But I could do this forever. Good thing too, cause I will be doing it forever. Maybe not as a missionary, but missionary work is always going to be my responsibility as a member of God´s church. I seriously love this. Spencer I hope you´re excited :) It might be really hard at first, and it might even suck (doubt it though, if you will be in a car or a bike, not to mention the fact that your mission is tiny), but I promise you will come to love this work with every part of your soul. It´s just pure satisfaction. The best thing I have ever felt. Watching someone you have taught stand at the pulpit and tell everyone that they know and love that THIS is Christ´s church on the earth again, and it was restored by the prophet Joseph Smith. :) Indescribable. You´ll get to feel this really soon though. Don´t worry about not being ready. I don´t think you can be ready for this. Almost like being ready for life. I am sure that we did a lot of preparation before we came to this world, and some progressed more than others, but in the end, we are start out as new born babies. Kinda like the field. You´ll get the hang of it really fast. Especially in english :) Lucky son of a gun. 

Elder Chavez is a good missionary. He´s just a shy, smart, humble little peruvian. Kind of hilarious sometimes. He is just a sweet guy. Super nice. I like him a lot. He is really obedient and teaches well. I really like teaching with him.He is from my group. He has six months as well. It´s kind of weird being in a trio though.  And it´s also weird speaking Spanish in the piso. He doesn´t really speak English at all. So that is a little different. But it´s really good for Erickson and I, so we don´t waste time arguing about pointless things and so we get better at Spanish :) I seriously love Elder Erickson. We have very different opinions and sometimes he does things that really irritate me, but I think of him as a brother. That´s how we treat each other. Except Spencer and I get along way better than Erickson and I do. Just cause Spencer and I are more similar. But Erickson is hilarious. And he´s real. I definitely will cry when I say goodbye to him! Which is weird to think about. Haha.  Pardo is super great too. He is coming to Jerez tomorrow to do some residency stuff, so I will get to do intercambios with him. Kind of cool :) 

They called me today and told me that we need to split the area AGAIN. Two more elders will be here this next transfer. It´s exactly what happened to me. I will split the are and then leave it, just like my dad did. Sad. I don´t want to leave here. But I am also excited to work in a different place. I am worried because although we have baptisms, we have zero other investigators. Well we have four or five. But they aren´t progressing very well. So I am stressed. We have to find and we´re trying. But it´s hard. Sometimes I get a little discouraged, but I need to count my blessings. J and A are getting baptized on Friday, and P was baptized yesterday. Things are going really well here. I am really sad that I won´t be here to see P get baptized. I just hope that she does it. She is doing alright. We´re going to start focusing in on her more after J and A are baptized. 

I don´t know what to tell you. Well this week I laughed harder than I ever have in my entire life. I think it was a combination of stress and insanity, and it was just kind of funny. We were in this guys house, and he was super old. Kind of creepy. Very large man. Very round. He reminded me of a very large toad. He didn´t have much expression on his face, and his eyes were definitely bulging. And none of us could understand him. Not even Chavez. He just talked the whole time. He was an old investigator apparently. So we just sat there for a half hour and tried to talk. It was hard. So finally I just decided to end the lesson because it wasn´t going anywhere, and then we asked to close with a prayer. And we asked him to say it. So he said yes, he would. And we just sat there for two minutes straight, in silence. I looked up and he was just staring right at me with his huge eyes with absolutely no expression on his face. Then Chavez asked him to pray again, and he said si, and then did the same thing. I was just looking down at the ground, feeling the tension in the room. I could feel him just staring at us, and then I just BURSTED out laughing. I have seriously never laughed so hard in my life. I tried to hold it in but I couldn´t. After a while of that, Erickson just broke the silence and said, my companion elder sharp will say the prayer. So I kind of stopped laughing and tried to prayer but I honestly couldn´t keep myself from laughing. Elder chavez started laughing as well, as we are all folding our arms and bowing our heads with our eyes closed and everything, trying to pray, and I am literally laughing so hard that I am crying, so I decided to pretend like I was just randomly sobbing whilst trying to pray. And Chavez is just laughing super hard (but it´s all somewhat quiet, cause we were trying to hold it in). Erickson just sat there. He never laughed once. After like a minute of me trying to pray whilst laughing so hard I was crying, Erickson finally just said Ï´ll say it. And then offered a short little prayer with me and chavez still laughing. This old guy had literally never broken the silent stare. I don´t even know why I was laughing. It was just an awkward situation. Erickson said later that he was seriously concerned. He said ¨one of my comps was laughing, and the other one was fetching CRYING!¨ so he had to be the hero and get us out of there. We just got up and shook this guys hand and left. After we walked out ERickson was like ¨what the heck was that!!??¨ and I probably laughed for ten minutes straight. All three of us did. It´s honestly been years since I have laughed that hard. Seriously. Years. I was crying!! And I felt so stupid. It was humiliating. This old guy didn´t want anything to do with us anyway, but I really should not have acted that way. I am representing Jesus Christ. It was so unlike me too. I am usually pretty serious and calm. ESPECIALLY when we are in someone´s house like that. It was super bad. But I can´t even think about it without laughing. Erickson was so weirded out. 

Weird stuff. I was told that on the mission you would laugh harder than you ever have in your life, and also that you would cry harder than you ever have. So far I can check off the laughing part. And I think the crying will happen more towards the end of my mission. Although I shed my fair amount of tears right now. Well I love you all and I miss you. I hope you are all doing well. You´re in my prayers always. 

Preston