Congrats to Theodore Elias Thatcher! Im happy to be called your uncle! Number 13 eh? Wow.... I now have 4 nephews and nieces I have never met yet!!!! Guysss hold on!!!!!!! Im almost there!!!! Congrats to Josh and Ainsley!
So this week was tiring. We had the Baptism for Linda this saturday! She is so smart, she new everything about the gospel and the lessons! And her family came, which is nice!!!
I honestly dont have too much news for you. On wednesday there was a worldwide missionary broadcast that was pretty cool! Waddel spoke! Which is cool because last july he came to our mission and spoke to us!!! The spirit he brings is unreal!!
Im super tired, the mission is taking the energy out of me now.... We have some good investigators which is good!!
Love yall!!
Elder thatcher
Hey everyone!!! Well everything went well with the baptism
and transfers!
So on tuesday it rained all day in satipo,
which isnt good because when it rains the water system shuts down which means
there was no water to fill the font in church. I was upset because it was
almost time to start at around 6:30, yet there was no water. So i just
thought the baptism wasnt gonna take place, but then the whole ward said
vamos!!! Vamos al rio!!! Lets go to the river!!! So we all walked 30 minutes to
the river, it was pitch black and I baptized him in the river!!! So cool
huh!!!! I was so happy, it was a great night!!!
So on monday right after internet email time,
President called me to ask if i would be a zone leader in huancayo, and that my
companion would be Elder Bullock! I said sure. Elder Bullock was in Cerro when
i was in Cerro! I am good friends with him.
Being Zone Leader is hard, i have to do a lot
of stuff, but its not bad, i have 15 missionaries in my zone, its stressful,
but im doing good, just sleeping even less now. I will most likely end my
mission here, which is weird. We have a baptism this week of a 11 year old
girl, who all her family are less actives, but are coming back to
church.!°
So everything good!!!
Love
Elder Thatcher
First of all, I want to say how grateful i am for my package that yall sent me!!! It was amazing!! The christmas tree was definetly the best!!! Thank yall so much!!
This week has been good! Jonathan passed his baptismal interview and will get baptized tomorrow at 6 at night!!! Yayyy!!!
This week has been very tiiring as we are still working hard. I finished Elder Petersons training yesterday and now transfers are wednesday.... im most likely out of here, but who knows, transfers are weird!! If I do get transfered i will truly miss this paradise! It has truly been amazing! Not easy though, but has been amazing! Something that my patriarchal blessing tells is i will gain a testimony of gods creations, and let me tell ya, I sure do have a testimony that is strong, about gods creations. This is a beautiful place, and God created it!
Last monday, me and my companion went to a waterfall with a less active named moses. He is a good guy! The waterfall we went to is called gallito de los rocas, which is a waterfall named after the national bird of peru! It was super pretty and the water was so clean. It is incredible to go and to witness these creations made by our father, and to even think that i might be able to do that!!
Its good to hear that Wendy got a new calling as primary president! I have learned that callings help the person more than it helps the others that are involved! Being district leader has really helped me over time, catch and strive to catch and imitate the christlike attributes, i feel like in every calling, if we strive to magnify it, we will be guided in how to do it!
Well love you all and have a great week!!
Chau,
Elder Thatcher
This has been one of the most spiritual weeks I have had, and definetly one of the biggest testimony builders ever!!! So as you all know... I still havent baptized here in satipo! It has been really hard for me here, because we teach so many people, but I guess i was just getting prideful? or something would permit our ivestigators to get baptized, so thats where im at so far, and well, next tuesday there are transfers, and im most likely out of here, because i am finishing Elder Peterson's training. So a friend of mine, sent me an email a while back ago, about the mission and everything and about the purpose of missionaries, because i have been getting upset with myself for the lack of success in my mission. And I was truly grateful for that letter. This week, we have been working hard, trying hard not to get distracted in anything other than working. And we have this investigator named Yonathan, he is a guy that is about 22 years old, that has just had so many problems in his life. His wife and kid left him, his parents dont care for him, hes had a lot of problems. And we have been teaching him for awhile, and he has been coming to church every week recently, but didnt feel worthy for baptism, for all the things he did before.. These past two months... i have just kept praying for him, and well, me and my companion were about to give up on him because he didnt want to get baptized... but then I got this letter from my friend and i thought of what i was doing wrong, so that yonathan could get baptized. Was it something I was doing wrong? And I prayed again with my companion, and we asked how we could do better, so that yonathan could progress. And the answer was we werent treating him like a person, but more of a baptism.... Which is wrong.. We then started being more his friend and not pressuring him into baptism. Well, this week, he called us to visit him, and we went and he said he wanted me to baptize him, that he recieved his answer. Me and my companion were shocked!!! He is truly a great person. We gave him a baptism date for the 12th, transfers are on the 13th. He is ready, and im glad God answered our persistent prayers for him. Its not about baptisms as i have learned, its about these people... its about caring for them, loving them, working for THEM! Doing everything we can to show that they are children of God just like us. Thats our purpose, that i learned from my friends letter, its not about the baptism, its about working, following the rules, the commandments, showing the love!!! Yonathan is a great guy and friend, i talk to him daily even though we dont have lessons daily, because he is now my friend, and thats what my father wants, for us to be our brothers keeper. Miracles do happen!!! If we put our part. That means mentally as well! Striving to follow Christ in every aspect possible, im a huge believer in following the example of Christ, as yall can see in some of my last letters, i have been striving and studying hard to find these attributes of christ to help me be better. They are there in the scriptures!
I am pleased to here there is a new ward now in the stake, congragulations dad on all the hard work you have put in the stake. I still havent gotten my package... thats sad, but it is what it is, I have faith it will show up eventually! I love yall!!! The photos are me and my district and then, the huge photo the elders bought me for christmas!!! Pretty funny huh!??
Love yall
Elder Thatcher
It was great to be able to see you guys!!! I am sorry there was some internet problems! Thats how it is here in satipo!! It can be slow! And right now it doesnt want to let me send photos. The struggle is real here in satipo sometimes. Sorry.. we missionaries in the Peru Huancayo Mission, havent upgraded to ipads and iphones yet.... Haha. Wow!!! That is so scary that a tornado hit!!! I cant believe that!!! I hope everything is ok!
Soooo. The question is what did everybody do for christmas for some one else??? No one said much.. This whole week has been crazy with me and my companion!! We bought 5 boxes!!! of panetones!!! And this whole week we have been handing them out to people! It has been a great week!!! We handed some out to the homeless, to the members, to investigators! To everybody!!! One of the best experiences we had was we went to give one to a member, and right after a homeless guy on the ground asked for food. And well, we had a whole paneton, so we gave it to him, and he started crying afterwards saying he had forgotten the last time he had eaten paneton. He said he wanted just a little bit, but we gave him all of it, and he was very grateful. He wanted to give us something in return. But he felt bad because he didnt have anything! He offered us one of his socks... we told him it was ok and that he could keep his socks.. hahah. It was a great experience for me to of witness. All the people outside on the street were watching us as two gringo missionaries were offering paneton to a homeless peruvian. It was quite humbling. Then on christmas morning the other two elders came to our room and we did a gift exchange. I bought the elders some nice ties and in return i recieved a poem book (which i really like), a snickers candy bar, and my favorite.... A lifesize photo of me holding that big boa snake!!!! Its hilarious!!!! They found a place that makes lifesize photos!!!! Its so funny!!!! It was truly a great christmas. And what beat it all was that i got to talk to my family!!! So all in all, great peruvian christmas!! Ya the food wasnt that great, and nothing im used to back home, but it certainly was enough for me. My pensionista is a great woman, who serves us evry day, i felt bad for her, as she was talking about how she wanted a nativity scene, but they cost too much to afford. I felt bad, a nativity scene isnt much. So i went and bought her one, as a thanks of her service! She was grateful, and she as well wanted to give me something in return but she couldnt. I told her that her food was enough. She is a sweet lady.
So we have 4 people with baptism dates. But it doesnt look like any of them will get baptized any time soon, they still need time to progress. I hope they do progress though. I worry about them so much! It is weird, i worry about them more than i worry about my self. Which is a good thing i guess!!
Ok new years is coming... which means.... NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS!!!! My new years resolution is to do exercise everyday!! For at least 30 min or more, not including sundays! And then my other one, is to share my testimony every week with someone. And yes these goals are the same for when i go home!!! I think they are very manageable goal for me!! Think of your goals! And put them in a spot where you can see them every day!!!
Eight P's of accomplishment: Plan Purposefully, Prepare Prayerfully, Proceed Positively, Pursue Persistently.
There is a quote i like that says, "If you don't know where you are going, any road will take you there." So with that in mind make appropiate goals that will help yall progress as children of God!!!
Pictures from our Christmas Skype session.
Wow!!!!! What a week!!!
So I started the week , going to huancayo for a district leader conference, I was one of the oldest District leaders there. And one of the most experienced. There were so many elders there that i have never met, just goes to show you how big our mission really is!!! So that was good! We got to eat Pizza Hut!!!! YUMMM!!! Unfortunetly my stomach is not used to that food anymore, so i payed the price latter in the bathroom.... Hahaha. Then On Wednesday morning instead of packing my bags and headin back to Satipo I ended up going to La merced, for our Multi Zone christmas Conference! That was a blast! We had to play a skit for our zone for the others. It was called if Sister Missionaries ran the mission. I played as a sister missionary. I wore a skirt and had makeup put on me, and talked like a little girl! It was quite hilarious. And the good news is i got videos, but i dont know how to send them so i will show yall after!!! President talked to us about several things. And one of the things that i would like to share with yall about this christmas that is about to take past! It is a video called The First Gift, It has a message that is super powerful. "The First Gift, was not wrapped, had no bow, wasnt purchased online, or in a store. The First Gift of Christmas, was a simple gift, a sacred gift. It wasnt gold, or frankincense, or myrrh. It was a gift of love, and life, and peace, and hope. That was given to us by a father. To all his children. For God so loved the world, and so loved you, and you, and you, and every one of us. He gave his son. He is the Christ. He is Christmas. He is the Gift. This Christmas season, Discover the Gift, embrace the Gift, share the Gift. John 3:16" That message really helped me understand that the real gift of christmas was given to all.
One of the things i love most about christmas, looking back at it, is being with the family, chowing down on peanut m and m's, and watching the kids open and scream about there presents. Being with the family. Now there is another thing I would like to talk about and that is the charity we can give. Dad has been a great example to me in this part, I remember going with dad on christmas eve handing out chocolates to people, that dad would always be thinking about! "The world today speaks a great deal about love, and it is sought for by many. But the pure love of Christ differs greatly from what the world thinks of love. Charity never seeks selfish gratification. The pure love of Christ seeks only the eternal growth and joy of others" -Ezra Taft Benson
There is a video here.
http://www.mormontabernaclechoir.org/videos/what-shall-we-give-christmas-music-video.html It is called What shall we give. It is also powerful. As it shows people forgetting them selves. I remember one cold night i was with cameron. I dont remember where we were going, all i remember is we were busy and low on time. We were in the car driving one cold night. And we saw a lady stuck in the road, with her car and her kids. She was in the middle lane in Dallas. And instaed of passing by her like every one. We stopped and helped the lady. I remember asking Cameron, But we dont have time? But he didnt even think about my question, he got out, and so did i and we helped push a car up to a safer place. That moment impacted me a lot. As it goes to show, that we shouldnt even think twice about serving others! Especially in this time of year!!!! I challenge all of you to do something for someone else this week. It can be someone you dont even know!! But the thing is to just forget yourselves and do something for someone else. Sacrifice your things your time. All for the service of our Savior. It makes me think of the rich boy in the bible!? Remember? He had everything he wanted, he kept the commandments, But when the savior told him to give away everything he had. It was hard for him. But if we love the Savior, it wont be that hard. I want to hear stories of the charitable things you did throughout this week! And next monday I will share yall my stories!!! I love you all!!!!
Elder Thatcher
P.S. Skype will take place at 4 o clock your time!!! (Get your questions ready!!!!) I have a suprise for you all!!!
