Feliz Dia de La Madre!

Family!

I am so excited to Skype this week, but I am sad to hear that I can't Skype Sam too.

So this week flew by and we had a lot of great/interesting experiences as usual.  We leave and teach with the youth who are preparing for missions a lot which is a huge blessing.  This week we visited Jose, a new investigator, and as we were talking about the Gospel of Jesus Christ he had no fear to speak about his need to be baptized.  I love when people don't know exactly why, but have a humble desire to follow Christ into the waters of Baptism.

Also this same day we walked by the house of an old Spanish lady who we had taught before.  We talked for a little bit and i gave her "The Family: La proclamación del Mundo" and she kissed my hand.  It was weird for me because I feel like hand kissing is super old timey.  I am sorry Becca, if you are reading this, that a lady kissed me (just on the hand) on my mission.

My favorite part of this week was when we cleaned the chapel with the Bishop.  There was un Monton de dust in our library and our bishop kept saying "Que lastima" which made me giggle inside.  But what I really enjoyed is after we mopped the floors (we have tile, not carpet) we sat outside waiting for everything to dry.  While relaxing a little bit our bishop talked to us about just about everything, the mission, his life, what it is like to be a bishop.  It really gave me an appreciation for everything that bishops do throughout the world.

Love,
Elder Perryman

Pie de Manzana!

So this week has been loads of fun.  I am going to start off by talking about food so I can focus on more spiritual matters latter.  This week the pensionista of Tarapca, Hna Irma, wanted to know how to make apple pie so we made apple pie with her one day this week.  It was fantastic.  But it was fun to help Hna Irma because she helps the missionaries in Ferreñafe so much.

Sunday we were walking home from a members house and a member, Jessica, passed by and told us to visit her son Fabricio in the hospital.  We went over and visited her son and bumped into the Bishop from the other ward (Ferreñafe).  As we left I thought of the impression it might have left on the people to see how the members of this church look out for one another.  It dawned on me that even visiting the sick can have an impact for missionary work.

This week we visited a lot of members with Omar, who recently got back from his mission in Guatemala.  When we visited the teachers quorum President, Jose, we had such a great lesson.  We explained to him the importance of his calling, and that out of every person in the ward only four members have the keys to minister and delegate in their quorum.  It was great to see him think of how much good a young teacher can do.

We had a multi-zone conference this week, and it was great.  President Risso gave a fantastic talk about why the church is true, based on the doctrine, the restoration, and the ordinances.  He focused a lot on temples.  That when people see temples they know that they are houses of God, and that we have a duty to explain why they are sacred.  Also it was great to see a couple of great missionaries from my group and talk about how the mission is going.

Love
Elder Perryman

PS: one of the photos is of me with my gemelos (twins) they help so much with the work here, and I can not wait to see them go on their missions one day.

Brothers!

This week a missionary returned from his mission.  His name is Omar Cordova and he is amazing.  We are teaching many people in his family because they are not all baptized yet.  He is super nice and when he came home he told every member of his family the importance of going to church and reading the Book of Mormon.  He has such a rock solid testimony.

This has been a strange week.  I am not a huge fan of holidays in Peru because it usually means that people start drinking in the street.  It makes me sad because so many people are missing the point of religious holidays.  They are always there to help us remember, reflect, and better the world.

This week our P-day is split up.  This morning we had our zone meeting and tomorrow we are going to a museum because it isn't open on Monday.  I am excited because Pedro, one of our members will be our tour guide, and he will combine the history with the Book of Mormon.

So today we went to my favorite restaurant in Chiclayo.  It is called Brother’s and it is like a little slice of the USA.  The owner loves the missionaries and it was fun to go as a zone.  His restaurant is tiny so it was funny to see so many people crammed together eating.  The owner (Mike) took a bunch of pictures with us and is a super nice guy.

This month our area has the challenge to read the Book of Mormon.  It has been such a blessing to talk with all of our members about the Book of Mormon.  I have really learned that we can learn the history of Christ through the Bible, but if we want to grow Close to Him we must read the Book of Mormon.

Love,
Elder Perryman

Feliz Pascua!

Happy Easter

So this months Liahona was amazing!  I love when there are so many things focused on our Savior.  Please watch this video about the impact Christ has on the lives of everyone. http://easter.mormon.org/

This week went by fast.  I am happy I am still here because I love my ward.  Willy, the Young Men's President is moving to Lima for work so we went to his house to eat on Saturday.  We had a scrumptious Peruvian plate, but had PB&J's for "desert."  I gave Willy one of my boxes of peanut butter because it is [his] favorite thing on earth.

Also this week I helped Pedro with his homework one day in the morning.  He is doing the BYU-I online classes and his English is really good.  It was a lot of fun because it reminded me a lot of school.

Today I went exploring with my companion and we found a small museum in the municipalidad.  I remember being young and loathing museums and now I just want to find museums every P-day.  Though Chiclayo lacks art museums it has a lot of cool historical museums.

I feel so blessed around this Easter season.  We are blessed by modern day prophets testifying of Christ in these days.  I have seen the Priesthood work miracles and I know that the power of God is on the earth.  It is important to remember in this Easter Season that the heavens are not closed, nor will they ever close.

Love,
Elder Perryman

Conference!!!

So to start off, no I do not have a change.  I will probably stay here until May.  But I am really happy because I love this area and I want to help the young men here progress toward there own missions.  I will also be going on my third change with my companion which is a decent amount of time together.

And conference was AMAZING! Especially the first session, last session, priesthood session.  Basically it was all amazing.  My favorite parts were when Holland spoke about defending the faith and about how Richard G. Scott spoke about being faithful examples in the lives of others.  I have been so blessed by so many examples in my life.  I was able to watch all of conference in English this time.  Every gringo in my zone got together in the stake office and watched conference on TV.  It was fantastic.

I love conference.  I always feel like the messages are meant for me.  There was so much about obedience and love for our savior it was inspired.  But one thing which I thought was crucial was when M. Russell Ballard spoke about how every member should have and read Preach My Gospel.  I would like to challenge everyone reading this to read PMG this month, it has simple and perfect doctrine that can guide and direct your life.  It is a tool for life, not just missionary life.

Love,
Elder Perryman

Pimentel!

So this week was great.  It is finally getting into the fall "season".  I am so glad that summer has passed.  I know it is weird to think that it was summer here.  But since summer time is gone we have permission to go to the beach again!  So we went as a zone to Pimentel this week.  It was so much fun because we played frisbee and AMERICAN Futbol on the beach.

This week Elder Riddle bought a basketball last pday so we have been getting up early to play ball at the church with our companions.

My bishop has a lot on his plate right now so one day while we were at his house I offered to help him with his job in the morning.  He builds houses and makes adobe bricks.  I enjoy learning how to do different things so this was fun for me.  I know that I will never make adobe at home, but it was super fun to learn how to do it.

One of my favorite youths in the ward is Armando.  He is incredibly Christlike and is a fantastic member missionary.  This week when he left us one of our recent converts, Joan, offered him a job.  He later said that he has been looking for a job to help him prepare for his mission.  The Lord always has his hand in everything.

This week was fast and testimony meeting because of conference.  One sister in our ward bore the most humble yet strong testimony.  I know that when the gospel of Jesus Christ takes root in the heart of people, it can change their lives.  As a missionary I am extremely blessed to see this happen day by day.

Love
Elder Perryman

PS this is a photo of my area, I have so many photos but right now the computer isn't loading them

Cambio Focos, Limpiar Techos

I love service, it is my favorite thing in the world.  This week we went out with everyone who is preparing for a mission and it was great.  I went to visit Hna Jessica, one of our less actives and we ended up helping her family clean there cambi (those big minivan things).  It was super fun and really good because we were able to gain more confidence with some of her family who are not yet members of the church.  Also I got to play with her kid, Fabricio, who is the happiest little kid in the world.  While cleaning one of my companions was joking that I also change light bulbs and clean roofs, because I am tall for Peru.

Something really funny that happened this week was that one of my recent converts, Gerson, came up to me and asked me "Is it alright to date?"  I was confused because we have taught about the "For the Strength of Youth" and the Law of Chastity, but I talked with him a bit about what the For the Strength of Youth says.  After that he told Armando, the young man who baptized him, "Elder Perryman says its alright to go on dates."  And Armando just said "yeah, but not with my sister" and stormed off.  It might have been one of the funniest moments on my mission because the youth here all treat each other like brothers and sometimes its super funny.

Also we went out contacting, looking for new people to teach and it was a great experience.  We visited a widow and her daughter with three members and we had an extremely good lesson.  Hna Estephania, one of our members, gave the closing prayer and the woman we were teaching started to cry.  I know that she needed our message.  I don't know exactly what she was going through, but I know that the gospel of Jesus Christ helped.

Love,
Elder Perryman