Caught in a downpour!

Monday, April 26, 2010

"I love praying."

April 26, 2010 - Halo mi Familia Linda y TRUNKASA!!!
We’re coming in on SIX MONTHS!!! WAHOO!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am always super duper excited!!! I have been counting down to Landon’s Wedding for my six month mark… I cannot believe that he is already getting married either. It’s crazy, but how good for him. He is going to be so blessed to get married and sealed in the Temple. Tell him “Hi” for me when you see him, and that Pucallpa is the best!!! He will laugh, I just know it…
I don’t have anything big to write that happened this week. We are working hard trying to find new people to teach and helping them get to Church every week. Please keep praying for my investigators so that they can receive answers to their prayers and so that nothing will keep them from going to Church on Sunday. Your prayers are the biggest help that I can have.
Interviews should be this week. President couldn’t come last week because of a conference he had so they are planning on coming this week. I really hope that Sister Pèrez comes as well, just so that I can see her. They only have one more change and then they are going home… I am really going to miss them. Oh my gosh, we had so much fun playing volleyball on Monday last week. The Ward members down here really know how to play, which makes it really fun. Last week, every seven points we switched teams and the team that lost every game got soaked with water balloons. It was a lot of fun. We might go and play volleyball again today with them. I love it. My companion is not a super sports guy. I don’t think he played sports a lot in Guatemala. It is funny to watch him play; he is just not that hand-eye-coordinated… It is a fun show… :)
Mom, Praying to our Heavenly Father is an easy topic. Have fun with it and be creative. I know that you now have an even stronger testimony of prayer having your special boy in the Mission. I have totally gained a strong testimony of prayer. I have taught some people how to pray because they had never prayed before. Some couldn’t do it because they believed that they were talking to air and not to a personage. What faith we have as members of the Church that there is a God that exists and listens to our prayers. Others don’t know what to thank God for and others what to ask Him for. Our prayers are perfect. Our prayers are sincere and we just express to our Heavenly Father everything that we need and want to say. I love praying. I feel closer to you guys when I pray, and I love asking God to bless you guys. He has helped us make it this far and will help us Endure to the End… I love you Mom!!!
I love you so much family. Have fun in school! Good luck in everything. Chase should be graduating from SLCC this week. How fun! Good luck Bud!!! Have fun at Landon’s wedding… I LOVE YOU!!! Never forget about me and take care. I love you so much. I pray always that God will protect you and watch over you and I know He is… I’ll talk to you next week…
Love you Forever, Coco
P.S. Two weeks until the phone call!!! WAHOO!!!

Monday, April 19, 2010

I can't wait to share it with you everyday....

April 19, 2010 - Hey Awesome Family,
Everything is going super great!!! It seems like the time is just passing too fast. You guys have so much going on in your lives. It really does make the time go by. I am so glad that you are all enjoying the new home and that you can now live comfortably with everything being new. How cool is that???!!! I still cannot wait to set foot in the new home, but it will come soon enough… Mom, don’t you dare go and set up Christmas before I get home…just kidding. I want to help set up Christmas. If you guys want to put up the Christmas lights on the house, and the trees outsider (that is if there will be trees in the yard), go ahead, but I want to help decorate the inside with all the Christmas decorations that we have. I want to decorate the Christmas Tree with you guys. I now have a lot of practice because I put up the Christmas Tree in the Offices when I was there… :) There are so many things that we have to do when I get home. We will be so busy inbetween catching up on two years of life, planning vacations, setting up Christmas, and everything else that happens during the Holiday Season. It is so close already. (Dad and Mom, get a head start on buying the gifts already…Hint…Hint…) Just kidding. I love you so much…
My companion and I are doing great. We are working hard to find new people to teach and help them attend Church and prepare to be baptized. Sunday is not a day of rest as a Missionary. In the morning before Church, we run around trying to find all of our investigators and getting them to go to Church. It is a big hassle, but we have to do it so that they can progress. I really need your prayers, especially on Sunday mornings. If an investigator doesn’t attend Church, then they can’t progress towards their baptism. So basically all of the work we do during the week leads up to Sunday. And if the investigators don’t attend, then we have to wait a whole other week for them to start progressing. Please pray not only for me, but also for the people that I am teaching, that they may receive answers to their prayers and that they won’t have any obstacles in attending Church on Sundays. Thank you in advance.
There are great Missionaries in my Zone here in Pucallpa. I have tons of friends here and we all get along really well. We laugh so hard. Honestly, we laugh so hard sometimes… I can’t help but laugh. I love to laugh and share my humor with other people. I always tell people that I inherited my Mom’s laugh, and that I can’t wait to laugh with you again. I am known for my laugh… :) I can’t wait to share it with you everyday…
Dallis and Dad, I’m sorry that baseball isn’t going super hot, but don’t worry. It’s all for the fun of it, for the family bonding, and just enjoying the fact that you have the ability to play. Love it and just keep going strong and you’ll see the change in the outcome of the games…
Chase, how much fun are you having. I know you are just soaring through your Senior Year… I loved Senior Year and hope that your’s is just as fun as mine was. I wish I could go back, but time is not ours to stop or to speed up. Have so much fun with MDT and Lucky Stiff. I’m sure you already told me, but what part are you? (Don’t forget to film it so I can see it…) Keep working hard until Graduation. Are you already in 4th Quarter? Wow, how time passes. I will keep praying for you to make Young Ambassadors. You are too good to be true Chase. I love you Bud and hope that you finish your Senior Year great!!!
Dallis…Daaaalllliiiissss…Dallis…are you there? Just kidding Bud. I just wanted to write and tell you that I love you and I understand the sometimos you get busy. Just keep going Strong to finish Junior High and don’t get in any accidents while driving. I’m sure you are just as perfect of a driver as I am… :)
Mom and Dad, just take care and have fun and enjoy life. I love you so much. You are my inspiration and I can never thank Heavenly Father enough for giving you to me… Life is beautiful, just like our family… I can’t wait to talk with you… Take care until next week, and keep praying for me… :) I love you forever.
Love, Coco, Troy, Bryan, Colyn, Elder Quinn, Tarzan, and Jungle Boy…
I LOVE YOU!!!

Ugh.....I do not like intestines.

Hey Family!!!
YOU MOVED!!!!!!!!!!!! WAHOO!!!!!!!!!! Oh my gosh. I am so excited for you guys. I knew it was going to happen this week. I am so happy that you can all start settling down and enjoy the new home. What a blessing it is to have a new home. But I really am sthuper-duper exthited to go home to a new house. It will be so much fun to bring friends over and just hang out in a comfy and new home. I can’t wait. I’ll be inviting Elder Steed over, Elder Santiago, Elder Evans, and all of my other fun friends that I have met in the Mission. You are going to fall in love with my friends. Honestly, the Mission is awesome. I have so many good friends here and we all get along so well. I love just being around other Missionaries. There is just something about seeing other Missionaries and knowing that they are doing the exact same work, that makes the Work much easier. I like knowing that I am not the only one doing it. There are more that 50,000 of us leaving each and every day to preach the true Gospel to God’s children. How awesome is that? I love it...
So, Hermana Luna went home on Tuesday night... Can you believe it? My best friend girl in the Mission just went home. She finished her Mission this week. She called me on Tuesday night from the Offices just before going to the airport to catch her flight. She was in tears as she was saying goodbye and I was on the verge of crying, but I held myself together. I couldn’t believe that the time had already come for her to go home. It seems like yesterday that we arrived at the Peru MTC together and formed our awesome relationship. Oh my gosh. How fast the time passes by. She was crying because she was so sad that she was leaving the Mission behind and also because of the happiness of being able to go home. I told her to not forget about me and to start practicing her Canasta skills becuase we are still going to have a Canasta Tournament in November when I get home. She told me to just keep going strong and to Endure to the End. And that’s what I plan on doing. It was a really sweet phone call and I was really appreciative that she called me to say goodbye for a period of time... :) Like I told you, I have made some awesome friends here in the Mission and it is really hard to see them go...
Change Day was the 7th and I had the day completely free. We went shopping, took a nap, and just had a really relaxing day. Do you guys realize the amount of time that I have left? The time that I have left is already less than the amount of time that I was in the Offices. Can you believe it? It is going to fly by like nothing...
Interesting and fun experiences this week: I ate mondongo again, which is the intestines of different animals. This time, I ate the intestines of lamb... Ugh... I do not like intestines. I do not like intestines. I repeat: I do not like intestines. But I ate them. It is possible to eat them and I do survive it, but I sure as heck do not like them... :) I had a fun time playing volleyball with the Ward this week. My team of 6 won. That’s right. My team won... We kicked butt. The Bishop’s sweet wife was on my team along with some of the Young Men and Women. I love to play volleyball especially when everyone else knows how to play and plays well. It was actually a competition. I plan on playing again sometime soon. :) Friday night, no one else was in our house except for me and my companion so I started singing for a while. I think I sang my heart out. I sang every High School Musical song I could think of and just sang to my heart’s delight. It was nice to be able to sing full out. It always makes singing that much more fun. Singing is what keeps me motivated to just keep going strong and not forget who I am. :) (Hey, please don’t forget to send me the lyrics the the HSM songs in Spanish. I really want to be able to sing to the Peruvian people and have them understand me.) :) I love you... :)
We worked really hard this week, but ended up having a really pathetic Sunday. We found tons of new people to teach and had some success in finding really nice people. Remember that a person has to attend Church two times to be baptized. So yesterday, all of the new people needed to attend to be able to be baptized in April, but no one showed up. We went and knocked on every door inviting every one of them to Church, but no one was home. So Sunday was kind of pathetic because none of our investigators attended Church. Please pray for my investigators this week that they will be able to attend Church so that they can progress towards their baptism. I really could use your help in prayers. Thanks family.
Keep going strong and enjoy the new home. (Oh boy, how much fun you must be having...) I’ll be there some day. Just don’t forget that you have a Stud Troy Bolton All-Star Missionary serving in Peru that misses and loves his family so much...I love you guys. Take care until next week...
Love, Coco

Monday, April 5, 2010

"It's not that hard....."

April 5, 2010 - Hey Fantastic Family,
I am so sorry that you didn’t get to move this week. I feel you. But don’t worry. You will be moved in soon enough. Just don’t let not moving frustrate you. Everything will come in the Lord’s time. We just need to have patience…patience with everything. In Preach My Gospel, it says that we should always have patience. And then it says “especially with your companion.” We are doing fine now. I think I was just a little overfrustrated last week, but that doesn’t matter. I talked with my companion and just told him that I like leaving the house excited everyday so that I have desires to work and contact people. If we leave the house without being excited, the day is not very fun, and not a lot of work gets done. I told him that we just need to always be happy and never get down on ourselves. He is fine. I was just focusing too much on the little things last week. Sorry for worrying you. I was a big boy and told him how things are and how they should be. I am just never going to get discouraged again.
I really hope things work out with the home this week. I want you guys to move. I get that nervous feeling when you're at the top of the tallest hill on a rollercoaster just thinking about moving into a new home. I am so excited. “Just keep moving, just keep moving, what do we do? We move, move…Ah aha ah ah ah I love to mooove…” That’s me quoting Dori from Finding Nemo… Let me know when you are all settled in the new house.
This was an amazing General Conference!!! It was Gringo Weekend. We all piled in as Gringos into the Stake President’s air-conditioned office to watch Conference. It was so much fun. We enjoyed every moment of it. It was so nice to hear President Monson speak. He is such a loving Prophet. I know he loves us and is always watching out for us and trying to help us gain Eternal Life. All we have to do is follow him, and how hard is that? It’s not that hard, especially with the Family that we have been blessed with. We are already on the path to Eternal Exaltation as a Family and I am so excited to live with you guys forever. :)
This week, I went on a work visit with Elder Evans. His first name’s Colter. He is from Idaho and is such a neat kid. He has so many desires to work and has such a good heart. We celebrated his six-month mark together. He is my new Gringo friend. Elder Steed is still one of the best guys I have ever met, but I need to have a good friend wherever I go. I absolutely love Elder Evans because he is just a good-hearted kid with great intentions here in the Mission. We did a service project on Friday as a District. We tore down a deserted house. It was absolutely disgusting with spider webs everywhere and huge spiders, but it was fun to just destroy the house and take it down. There was one spider that was the size of my hand with its legs stretched out and it ran so fast. Ugh, it was really gross. The good thing is...there are many spiders like that, but they don’t do any harm. They just live and eat the flies and mosquitoes. I don’t worry about spiders and stuff, but I sure don’t like seeing them… Dallis would have been freaking out… :)
So we just found out changes and…I’M STAYING IN PUCALLPA!!! I’m staying right where I am as District Leader, and with the same companion. I am so excited. :) My companion and I are so excited because we get along and we have a nice house, and we have great members in our ward. We also are not ready to leave the converts that were baptized during this change, especially the Vela-Panaifo Family. They are too sweet to leave them so soon. That means that I will be here in Pucallpa until at least the 19th of May, which means I will be calling home for Mother’s Day from the jungle of Pucallpa, Peru. (Remember last year that I was in the jungle of Iquitos for Mother’s Day.) Let’s set up the phone call at Dad’s work again. I have a pretty good phone that always makes clear phone calls so everything will be okay. I can’t wait to hear your voices again…
Just keep going strong family. Dallis, have fun driving and be careful. Get moved in this week. I am so excited. If you remember me, please send me a couple good treats with a couple bags of Doritos that are other flavors than cheese (cooler ranch, ranch and taco/buffalo wings, etc.). If you could also e-mail me the lyrics to the HSM songs in Spanish, I would really like it. The members ask me to sing a lot at Family Nights and I sing to them HSM in English and they love it, but I know they would love it even more if I could do it in Spanish. Send that to me as fast as possible please. I love you so much and I am enjoying the Mission. Only 5 Changes left, 1 more General Conference, 1 more Birthday, and one more Phone Call, and I’ll be HOME!!! I love you family.
Love, Coco

Saturday, April 3, 2010

"The Jungle is a Special place"

March 29, 2010 - Hello Family:
Just so you know, the computer 1 am writing on....the letter “i” and “k” and the comma don’t work so i have to use the alt key and the number pad. But other than that i am wr1t1ng you. 1t’s eas1er to use the number 1 to wr1te the “i” so just know that “1” 1s the letter “i” today. 1 really hate Computers… Anyway…
Mom 1 hope you had a great B1rthday and that you were able to relax a l1ttle b1t from school and work on the home. 1 want you to know that we celebrated your B1rthday down here. The lady who l1ves 1n our house and that takes care of us heard me record1ng “Happy B1rthday” when 1 sang 1t and recorded 1t on my tape recorder. 1n the n1ghtt1me she supr1sed me by throw1ng a surpr1se B1rthday Party for you… We ate Pucallpan p1zza and a huge chocolate cake w1th Coca-Cola. 1 felt so loved and spec1al. Mom 1 love you so much and hope that your B1rthday was wonderful. 1 th1nk you have also rece1ved the best B1rthday present ever… THE MOVE!!! 1t’s Mov1ng Week!!! How exc1t1ng!!! 1 am so exc1ted!!! 1 am go1ng to be so happy when you guys are all settled down and relaxed 1n the new house. 1 can’t wa1t to set foot 1n the new home… What a day 1t w1ll be… We m1ght end up mov1ng at the same t1me… Next Monday 1 f1nd out Changes. 1 w1ll f1nd out 1f 1 am stay1ng or go1ng. Th1s Change passed by so fast. Only 5 Changes left… Can you bel1eve that 1 now have 17 Months!!! Wahoo!!! And General Conference 1s th1s Week. 1 am so exc1ted. General Conference Number 3!!! Oh by the way Happy Easter th1s weekend. Don’t forget to send me down some of those eggs full of candy. :) 1f you want to send down some good-flavored Dor1tos 1 would be f1ne w1th that as well… :)
Can you bel1eve how fast March flew by?... 1t flew by. We ended the month w1th 11 Bapt1sms. Eleven Bapt1sms… We d1dn’t break our Record but we feel very happy for the success that we had. The jungle 1s a spec1al place. 1 love be1ng here 1n the Jungle… 1 can’t wa1t for you guys to come here w1th me and meet all of my fr1ends…actually all of my fam1ly. 1 love the people and 1 love the culture. 1 now honestly feel at home here…
1t ra1ned really hard th1s week. We were totally not expect1ng 1t and we got soak1ng wet. 1 actually fell down because the water got so h1gh that 1 couldn’t see the ground beneath me. 1t was totally embarrass1ng. We got back to the house to eat lunch and we got changed as well… 1t was way fun to get caught 1n a huge rainstorm. I don’t know what happened, but now the letters “i” and “k” and the comma are working. I really don’t like computers…
I have been having a couple troubles with my companion, but what can I do? Next week are the Changes and we’ll see what happens. I am just being patient and putting up with it. I have cried many times not having anyone to go to. (Where’s Mom and Dad?) But really I am doing okay… Just pray for me always and never forget about your little Coco… :)
Dallis is starting to drive?!?!? How crazy!!! That is so cool. I am sure that he will be a great driver because he takes after his oldest brother… :) I can’t wait to drive a car again. It’s now been 17 months since I haven’t driven, and I found out yesterday as well that I have forgotten the last steps of the Rubix Cube because I couldn’t do it yesterday at the Stake President’s house during lunch. (By the way, we eat lunch every Sunday with the Stake President. How cool is that?)
I love you so much family. Take care this week and have tons of fun moving… I am so excited… :) I love my eternal family. Never forget about me and always pray for me. I love you so much. I’ll let you know about Changes next week… I love you!!!
Love you Forever, Coco