Week 10 (September 19, 2016)

Howdy ya'll!! It's me again just telling you about my life here in Peru. 
How's everyone doing?? I hope so well. 
I don't have a ton to write this week, so sorry hahaha.

Spanish is painfully slow. ha. its ok. One day I'll be good at it! I'm doing a lot better! My body is adjusting. Honestly Chuño is so flipping nasty. wow. and we've had chicken feet. That's fun. We have maté all the time. It's only good when loaded with sugar lol. every thing is so cheap haha. and we get to have salchipapas which by the way are legendary. lol. and alfajores wowowowow.

Chuño is an ancient Quechua food made of fermented potatoes

Maté is an herb drink that tastes a lot like grass clippings and dirt

We walked a lot this week. My legs are starting to really feel it. My comp spent all of his money so we can't actually take any buses. 

If there's anything I'm learning here it's patience. There's so much that happens everyday. And so many things that make you want to say something you shouldn't or sit down and just wait until you can go to bed that night. But I've noticed that right as things start to get to the point of just pointless, something will happen that can get you through the day or the week. 

On Tuesday we had been contacting people all day long. I was sick of not being able to say anything. It's a very frustrating thing to be somewhere and not being able to talk very much. But we had been very unsuccessful. All of our appointments had fallen through and I was sick and tired of that day. I WAS DONE. But, we decided to contact one more person. Only one then we could go eat dinner and go home. So stopped a girl on the street and started to talk to her. We told her who we were and what we were doing and that we wanted to share a message with her that would change her life forever. She was SUPER interested. and she very excitedly made an appointment with us for Thursday. Right before she walked away, she asked us this, "I've been having a really hard time with my purpose here. Why are we here?"  HA GOLDEN. 

So as you can imagine we taught her the plan of salvation, and about Jesus Christ and His atonement. It was incredible. I know she felt the spirit there that I felt. It was an awesome experience. Because that's what a mission is all about. Not about anything else. It's about bringing people to see the light of the gospel. 

anyways yeah the days are long and weeks are short. I'm starting to get used to it. 

I love studying the scriptures. Its so cool. This week I was reading in Helaman 10. If you haven't read it, the prophet Nephi (not THE Nephi) had been preaching to the Nephites because they were wicked and they had accused him of treason and tried him for all sorts of stuff. anyways. He proved he wasn't guilty, prophesied a bunch of stuff and went home. On his way home he received a great flipping revelation. and went back to preach. I really recommend you read it. There's a principle I learned in there that I feel like we can all benefit from. 

ACT, PONDER, RECIEVE. 

Before we see or get anything we have to act. We have to put our trust in God that He will provide for us. Then you have to think about what you acted on. Whether the outcome was good, or bad. Then we can receive the greater blessings that lay in store. 

Always remember to act. and then to ponder. And I promise you will receive greater things than you can imagine.

Love you all. You're cool. Stay fresh and American. 

I'm proud to be an American (September 12, 2016)

Week 9

To start off this week I would just like to say that America is the greatest country on earth. This week was 9-11 and I had some time to think about my home country. Really it´s the greatest. Being down here made me realize how much I took for granted back on US soil. God bless the USA.

This week was... interesting to say the least. Tuesday and Wednesday I got pretty sick. And was bed for both those days. Pretty bad luck. oh well(: Yeah those who are or have been missionaries knows what that is like. And it sucks. Way bad!!! 

So yeah I don´t have a ton of stuff to write about sorry fam. lol. 

This thursday and Friday I went on splits with my Zone Leader,  Elder Vance! He´s white. and it was so nice to be able to spend 24 hours with someone who I can understand!! Anyways, Thursday night Elder Vance took me up to the highest point in Puno, I swear by it, and we taught an investigator there. His name is Carlos. (keep in mind that he isn´t one of my actual investigators.) But Carlos has some.. weird ideas. We decided to read from Alma 32 about Faith. So we start and we have been reading and talking for a while, when all of a sudden he asks this, ¨How do you think Joseph felt when he found out Mary was pregnant?¨ 

..... Huh...? Yeah so we told him we could answer that later and went on with the lesson. but we never answered it. 

Then we get to the part of the lesson where we ask him questions about what we read. Somehow we got talking about the power of God versus the power of Satan... yeah weird.... He told us that he didn´t know if God was 100% perfect and if Satan was 100% bad... and sooo yeah we didn´t really want to stick around very long at all. So I bore a very sincere simple testimony to get rid of the bad feeling there. And we prayed and left. Yeah way cool fun times (: 

Every lesson is a new adventure!! haha. 

Im starting to adjust here. The air is so much thinner, the people are so much shorter, and the food is full of rice. But it´s a way good time. 

I know that God is 100% perfect, merciful, and good. I´ve seen way too many things to think otherwise. I know Christ knows each and every single one of us. I know that He´s coming back soon too. and we´re only getting the people of the world ready for it. 

I love you all and miss you dearly. Keep living, breathing, and loving(: 

Hasta luego!!

Whats up friiiiiiends and fam(: (September 5, 2016)

Week 7

So. Week 2 of the field in the books. There´s so much that happens it´s impossible to write. haha. anyways.

Here in Puno, Peru. It is very hard to breathe at times.

The nights are very cold. and the people are very nice. Well a lot of them are. 

This week was pretty sweet. We had a dance festival. For some reason those are a thing here. But hey it was cool. Culture man. 

And also Puno has a street market that happens every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday called La Cochina. It´s like the D.I. dropped their unwanted stuff off there. So yeah it´s pretty freaking amazing((: I bought some of the most amazing ties you will ever see in your life on Thursday. 

I´ll just tell some stories now. 

This morning we were walking to our P-day futbol game. All was well, then all of sudden this older lady we were passing just stared at me like she had never seen a white person in her life. (There´s a lot of tourists here. and everyone wants to be white.) But she says to me, ¨Ohh. Hermanito blanco.¨ and she reached out a carressed my arm... Yeah weird. But that´s all(: it was great.

It´s funny to get so many people staring at you because you´re white and taller than half the population. 

Ya know everyday is full of just the smallest miracles. It´s really quite amazing. This week we were teaching a less active member in another member´s home. And lucky for us, the grandkids were home. It wasn´t a big problem, until one of the little girls decided she wanted to watch very loud obnoxious youtube videos on her mother´s phone. Mind you the videos were in english so my brain was translating the lesson and the video at the same time. Very difficult. anyways, The entire lesson we had to talk over these dang videos, because the little girl would throw a fit everytime they took the phone. So yeah as you can imagine I was a little frustrated! but typically, missionaries see miracles. We were going to say the closing prayer to the lesson, and for 5 minutes they tried to get the phone away from her. No luck. So we said whatever and asked our less active, Joseline, to pray. and as soon as she said the words, ¨Our Father in Heaven¨ (In spanish of course), 

Silence. 

There was absolutely no noise. No sound. No annoying youtube video. And as soon as we said, Amen. The little girl got up, walked to her room, and slammed the door. Almost as if someone had chastised her. 

You know little things like that will grow testimony like nothing else. 

There´s no other place I would rather be than here in Puno right now. Because I know I have a work to do. I know that miracles happen for reasons. And I know that no matter how hard this is, or no matter how much I can´t understand. One day I will be able to say, ¨I did that. That was hard, but I did that.¨ And I´m not doing it alone. Heaven is pushing me along. Jesus Christ is carrying me on his back. The work of heaven isn´t about me and my worry´s. It´s about eternity. 

Love you all dearly. Keep pushing through life(:

(sorry pictures won´t load today... double next week(: )

I Can't Breathe (August 29, 2016)

Week 6

Well hello my dearest friends and family. Im not in the CCM anymore! Im in Puno!! A city that sits on the shore of Lake Titicaca. It's at about 12,500 feet above sea level. It's pretty different lol. 

Elder Haws in Puno

It's been a while since you all heard from me, so i'll just catch you up a little bit.

Last tuesday we traveled to Cusco!! I got a pretty pounding headache along with the rest of my Cusbros. We met the president and then we got to check into a hotel, order pizza, and sleep. That was fun.

Wednesday we met our new companions and found out where we were going to be serving for the next who knows how long!! My comp is Elder Diaz. Hes a native of Peru, so it's been interesting trying to learn how to do things in spanish. whoops. He's a nice guy, and it's hilarious to teach him english. Basically I've taught him how to say like 3 phrases.

1. Shut up man

2. I love Jesus

3. Hi welcome to Chili's

It's hilarious. 

Thursday we had an 8 hour bus ride to Puno, which was great to sleep. There was a bunch of weird british people on the bus with us. They thought the dogs were adorable..... gross..

Friday we started working!! I met our pensionista, her name is Chirley, she is the sweetest lady in the world. I love their family so much, even though we can't communicate super well! haha. We teach mainly less active people. Theres a lot of work to be done there. We have 4 investigators. Jimmy, Olga, Enrique, y Amparo. They're all really good people. 

Funny story. We were teaching Jimmy the Plan of Salvation when all of a sudden Olga walked into the room we were teaching in and she wanted to hear our message! So we started from scratch. Elder Diaz talked with her about stuff that I honestly couldn't understand. Then he looked at me to say something. I had a mini panic attack. So I just kinda stared blankly hoping that I would know what to say. We probably sat for 5 minutes not saying anything. Lol it was embarrassing but now its really funny. It got better and I figured out what to say eventually. Good times.

The mission as I'm finding out is not a walk in the park. It's not easy. But there's a quote by Elder Bednar that has lifted me this week. "I do not have the strength alone to be an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. Only with his help can I fulfill what he asks." I like to put the word missionary in there instead of apostle. I can't do this by myself. Some nights walking home after a long day. And I have no motivation to do anything more. I can feel an extra push. That push is Christ. That push is Him brushing me off, and telling me to keep going. 

I love you all so much and I miss you! Sorry it's not very long today! it's a busy day!

CCM Group

Last Week Here..? (August 17, 2016)

Week 5

Oh my HI.

So, It’s my last week in the CCM!! Pretty weird that I’ve been here for 6 weeks.. It feels like I left yesterday!! Anyways if I’m being honest not a lot happens here, we do the same thing everyday! Not that it’s a bad thing! It just drags on ya know? It’s awesome here and I’ll be sad to leave, but I’m pumped for Cusco. Everyone is jealous of the Cusco missionaries. Legit. It’s amazing.

Life is one of those things where all you can say is just, “Life man… it’s weird..” Which is probably my favorite thing to say ever. No one knows how to take it. I say it all the time to the new missionaries and they always say, “Oh. Um. Yeah same.” So that’s been my life this week.

Our district teacher, Hermano Velasquez is the best person in the world. He is an amazing person. He doesn’t speak a lot of English(wow someone in Peru doesn’t speak English? Shocking.), but he’s a convert of the church. He was baptized at 17, went on a mission at 19 and left a professional Soccer career behind. He is also probably one of the funniest people I’ve ever met. He jokes around with us so much. Whenever we “break the rules” he smacks our hands with his belt. What a guy. I would tell you more. But it wouldn’t be funny to you lol.

There’s a lot of things that I want to talk about, but they’re all such small and simple things that happen every day. Things that I couldn’t explain because they wouldn’t make sense coming from my mouth. A lot of people will say that in the MTC you don’t have any experiences. Which is completely false, the only reason they don’t have any is because they don’t look for them. That also goes for you people back at home. You might think that “Oh well I don’t really have any of those experiences.” Or, “You have to be missionary to have those kind of things happen to you.” FALSE. Oh my goodness that’s false. LOOK FOR THEM. And I promise you WILL find them in your life. I look back at my life before I left, and every single day here, and there’s no way that I would be here without some sort of help from Heavenly Father. All you need to do to find those things in your life, is look for them. You’ll find them.

Everyday is the same, but everyday I’m learning so much about myself, and about my Savior. I’ll just share some of my personal study this week. I guess. Alma 24 is one of the greatest chapters in the Book of Mormon. It’s the story of the Anti-Nephi-Lehies, or better explained the Lamanites (Who were nasty, wicked people) who were converted to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Including their King. This story is the ultimate story of repentance and having faith, and being a true disciple of Christ. These people were once horrible, wicked people. But, are now made clean through Christ. The last line of verse 19 says, “they buried their weapons of peace, or their weapons of war, for peace.” If you don’t know the story the people buried their swords and their weapons, because they were ashamed of who they used to be. Think about that though, what is a weapon of peace, and what is a weapon of war? In those times a sword was your protection, it was everything. And they willingly got rid of them. If you read more you’ll see that even when the rest of the Lamanite people came upon them and killed a lot of the people, they still left their swords in the ground.

FAITH. It’s quite something. We all need more of it. J

I love you all. Look for those small things. LIFE IS REALLY REALLY COOL. TTYL. See ya next time… In Cusco (: BYE.

What we eat for breakfast everyday

Elders Fife, Haws, and Moon

Elders Fife, Haws and Tillman

Volleyball

Yo whats hip-hop happening ya’ll!?!? (August 10, 2016)

Week 4

This week… Well. The same as all the rest. Food is the same, the walls are the same, the people are the same. It’s amazingly fun though. The only thing different from that was that we actually went out will missionaries in the field and did real proselyting. So that was cool. Lol.  

The first time proselyting. What an experience that was. We were in the Lima East mission and there were about 45 missionaries going out to do splits all over the mission. It just so happened that I got to go to one the poorest parts of the city, and if any of you know what a South American Capital city is like, then you know what I’m talking about. The streets are kind of paved, the ground covered in dust. People’s houses aren’t exactly 100% intact. It’s a humbling sight. My companion was Elder Pizarro who was a native of Vina Del Mar in Chile! (I’ve been there.) He didn’t speak English but luckily I know just enough spanish to have a conversation. Anyways, We spent the entire day knocking doors and making contacts with people. When we left the CCM in the morning they gave us all 1 Libro de Mormón (Book of Mormon) to hand out to someone. I went all day and I hadn’t even thought about handing it out. Everyone we talked to was Catholic. It was kind of weird. ANYWAYS. The last house we got to we waited for probably 3 minutes for someone to come out, Elder Pizarro wasn’t taking no as an answer since they were obviously home. Eventually a man named Claudio answered the door. Claudio is Catholic. He knows a ton about the Bible, well at least he knows the concept of it. It was hard to get a word in because he just wanted to preach to us. Elder Pizarro was patient about it, but I was annoyed. Then I heard something almost audibly yell at me, “Give that man a Book of Mormon.” So I reached in my bag pulled out that Libro de Mormón, and in my broken Spanish I told him what it was, I told him that if he read it and accepted the message, he could live with his family forever. Kind of astonished, Claudio took the book, promised to read it, and set up an appointment with Elder Pizarro to be taught the first discussion. After we left the doorstep Elder Pizarro put his arm around my shoulder, looked at me and said, “Cusco is very lucky.”  What an experience that was. Missions aren’t about sight seeing, missions aren’t about having an excuse not to go to college for 2 years. Missions are service. Missions are about saving souls. I love it here.

Most of the time its basically just a big Mormon party with testimonies and teaching. We keep it real here at the CCM.

So many things happen that I wish I had time to write about, but I simply just don’t. Just keep in mind I love you all so very much! You’re in my prayers and thoughts! Peace ya’ll. 

Week 3 (August 3, 2016)

HI EVERYONE!!! How’s everyone doing? I hope  you’re good(:
Ya know I wish I could say that I had an experience that has changed
my life forever this week. But. Not really. Every day is the same.
Lol. We’re learning Spanish little by little. It’s definitely a work
in progress. But it’s fun(:

My friend Elder Sanchez left yesterday for the field and now I’m sad.
He was my favorite. Along with all the American Elders who welcomed us
to the CCM! It’s weird to think I’ve been here for three weeks. It
feels like three days because every week is just one big day. We go to
the temple every single week here in Lima. It’s amazing. It’s all in
Spanish though. Soooooooo it’s a bit interesting(: What’s super cool
though is that the only days that its ever sunny here is on Sunday for
church, and P-day when we go to the temple. It’s sunny right now.
Kinda cool right? Heavenly Father looks out for His missionaries with
a little sunshine now and then!

The mountains here are 2x as big as the one’s you look at every day. I promise.
Everyday during our language study session we talk about all the weird
grammatical things in Spanish. And this past week we’ve been studying
Indirect and Direct object Pronouns. So.. stupid right? No. We’ve been
arguing about it for like a week straight and we just can’t get it.
Spanish is so fun(:

Volley ball. The sport that will  tear friendships apart, or it will
make you hate everything, OR you will absolutely love your life
because it’s different than futbol. That’s what it is to me anyways.
We play volleyball now instead of soccer, mostly because we got sick
of playing it every single day. It’s intense stuff. We have
tournaments of two on two beach volleyball. And let me tell ya, my
calves are really feeling that volleyball burn. I love it.

The rice is clogging me.

Now for a spiritual thought.
On Sunday we talked about faith. All day long! And we learned some
amazing things. (Alma 32:26-43.)  Faith isn’t a noun, it’s not a
passive belief that we hope will someday grow into huge knowledge.
It’s a seed. Like we learn in primary. Faith is a verb. It’s an action
that if executed correctly, Heavenly Father sends us miracles. So how
do we utilize it? Get up. And act on what we feel. Like I talked about
last week, if we’re living righteously we can have the spirit to guide
us. You never really know in the moment that you’re having a spiritual
prompting.

So what am I saying? Just live.
Not only just live, but live the gospel. What an incredible blessing
it is to have the restored gospel here on this earth. Holy cow. I
know, and I promise you that if you live right and you get up and move
and not be idle.  You’re going to see amazing things happen to you.
And you’re gonna be blessed beyond belief. HAVE FAITH for things to
come.

“Don’t you give up, Don’t you quit.
You keep walking, You keep trying.
There IS help and happiness ahead.
It will be alright in the end.
Trust is God, and believe in good things to come.”
-Elder Holland.

I know this gospel is true. I can never deny it. I love and miss you
all dearly. Keep moving forward. God is good(: