Elder Peter Puertas: June 2014

June 30th 2014

Okay Monday was crazy this last week. Mexico played and won and they were just going nuts on this big street called Pacific. No worries I took lots of pics! :) They were jumping on cars and there were so many cops! 5 helicopters over it all! But now they are out!! The World Cup is sick I hear! So tempting!! I'm rooting for USA though. I hope they can get far! I know they will! Well let’s see I got a fresh haircut that day as well. I went with a .5 on the side. Almost shaved!

Well on Tuesday I had my 12-month training. It’s official! I am over a year on the mish. We had some sweet blessings last night and this morning. We met this girl named Stephany for the first time last night and she was telling us about her dreams that she was in this forest and there was a book. Well we showed her the pic of Moroni in Book of Mormon and she was like, "That's it!" So she feels like she found what she is looking for, we testified and now she is getting baptized on the 27th of July! So awesome. We are also teaching the 2nd counselor's father-in-law and he is just a super humble man and he is so ready as well. We set a date for him on the 27th as well.

Things here in L.A. are going pretty good! Got to love it! Love you all! :) USA USA USA USA USA!!!

Oh and I burned a shirt for my 1 year mark :)

Elder Puertas

June 23rd 2014

Wow it's been a whole year now since I've been out. So much has changed and there is still so much I can improve on. This last year I have come so much closer to my Heavenly Father. I know he's there. He has helped me so much to be the person I am now and I know he will keep helping me be the person he wants me to become. I have learned to gain the love for others even when I don't know them. I have come to love my savior Jesus Christ so much as well. I love the Atonement. It's the best gift he has given us. I am still working on improving everyday like I said, but I love my mission. I love the scriptures so much as well. I know the Book of Mormon is true. Joseph Smith really did restore God's true Church. I never would have imagined I would be here in this moment. ONE YEAR has past already and I have learned SO MUCH! I really understand the WHAT, WHY, HOW AND WHO of things. I have seen and been through a lot on my mission. I've seen families at their lowest points to their highest as well as families at their highest point to sadly their lowest. If we LIVE the Gospel of Jesus Christ EVERYTHING else will work out. I have come to be sure of things. My testimony has grown by a mile and it will keep growing. I know there is a GOD and I love how I can tell that to everyone with his Authority to do so. I Love it.

So things here in L.A. are going great but of course we have the crazy parts of L.A. as well. On Friday I was on exchanges with another Elder. So it was crazy, we saw some kids jumping this other kid down this street/alley so we debated in helping out or not to break it up. Well the kid that got beat up got away and just ran, and then he walked past us and then we saw the other kids (3 of them) running at this kid again to get him again (The kid that just got jumped is on the phone while running) and all of the sudden this truck came flying in and some more guys came out to fight (the friends of the kid that just got jumped) so we backed off a little bit and this was all in this alley type of thing and then all of the sudden some kid jumped in the truck and just floored it at the group of kids (which was us as well) so we all started running while this truck is behind us trying to hit everyone.... well he ended up hitting one guy though, actually his own guy. Ah man! CRAZY stuff but I love it here.

Well I’m just letting you all know I am still alive :)

Well I love you all! Thank you so much for everything and for all the support! 1 year will fly by!

WORLD CUP WORLD CUP WORLD CUP!!!! AHHHHHH

USA USA USA!

June 16th 2014

Hello Family!

Well the World Cup started and it's crazy!!! I love it but then I hate it at times.

It's not as crazy as I thought but when Mexico plays it does get a little nuts. We live in an apartment complex so everyone is just yelling going crazy throughout the game and they have it super loud so I always know what's happening. When Mexico scored though, everyone screams, there are fireworks going off! I love it! I'm all updated as well so I just talk soccer all the time to get conversations going.

Well honestly other than that everything else has been good here in LOS ANGELES! We have this investigator that came to church and he is so cool. He loves clothes hats, and loves keeping his hair fresh. We get along just great!

HAPPY FATHERSDAY TO MY AWESOME DAD!

Te amo negro y gracias por todo! Cuidate en Peru!!! Love you!

Here's a pic of a dog laying down funny and Elder Suarez... a new missionary I met last week!

Love you all!

Elder Puertas

June 9th 2014

Hola!

Wow ya tengo 20 años!! I’m so old. This week was good. On Monday we played soccer and street basketball for a bit and it was so much fun. I haven't played in a while. We played with some of our investigators so it was good to show them a thing or two ;) ha-ha. So now I am going to jump all the way to Saturday,

MY BIRTHDAY! All right so we actually had exchanges that day. I was with Elder Schwalger! We started off the day visiting a less active woman that just had her baby. The baby is so cute and tiny! Super super cute, anyways they came to church on Sunday as well. It was good to see them then we went to a member’s home that threw a BBQ for us and it was so good. There family is so great! That was around 1, then we visited some more people and taught a few lessons. Elder Schwalger (Shh-wa-ger) has a Uke and I had my Uke so we walked around, played a little bit, made up some songs and actually we taught a lesson while playing.

Then we had dinner with some of our investigators, we had "Posole" So good! And we ate sooo much. THEN we got a call from another member whose daughter was having her Quinceñera and there was a family there that lives in our area that wanted to meet us. So we went over for about an hour, ate MORE food (I was already stuffed with Posole and BBQ) and the good news is now we have a new family to teach :) After that we headed home because it was about 9pm, planned, played some more Uke and just talked for the rest of the night. Super chill/hardworking/lots of food day. All this on my birthday! Ahhh I’m 20! Well I’m not a teenager anymore. Yesterday were TRANSFERS again. Man time flies and long story short, Elder Kimball and I are once again Companions :) round 2. Here we go. Some GOOD Elders are leaving the mission on Wednesday though. Now it’s weird to see people you really know leave. Wow. Well that was my week!

I love you all and remember God loves you too! :)

Love, the 20 year old. Elder Puertas

June 2nd 2014

Wow what an amazing/busy week.

First off we went on exchanges with this Elder named Elder Smith and he is a baller. We were riding in the park tryingto find people to talk to and literally we were having no luck. There were a ton of people in the basketball court playing street ball so yes, we went over asked to play. They chuckled a bit and let us play and.......... we beat them two times. They were way cool after and asked us what we did and we explained that we were missionaries and everything. It was so much fun. We played in our missionary clothes too.

Another cool thing was that when we were teaching a girl named Heidi, her husband who is 19 (they are a very young couple) was in the next room and didn't want to hear us out. I kept telling her, "Let me just walk into the room and talk to him" she's like no, no, he's not going to want to talk to you guys. Well I kept thinking what could be the icebreaker to walk in and start talking to him... okay so the door opened a little bit one time and the TV was on and it was soccer!!! Uhhhhhhh I got this! The best part that the teams that were playing were "Germany vs. PERU” I ended up talking to him for like 30 min about soccer at the beginning and eventually leading it to the Restoration. He is super cool and we are teaching him now. Actually today we are going to play soccer in about an hour.

This week we had so many people to teach and so many new people we meet. We found 12 new investigators this week and it was crazy! It is a struggle getting people to church though, but we did have one. We don't know what’s going on, we find and teach a lot but we can't get them to church :( well Elder Ballard, of the 12 came and spoke to our mission yesterday. It felt so peaceful there, the spirit was so strong and I really got a lot out of it. He really focused on "calling the powers from Heaven" by Praying and really asking for God's help in all things. Truly "Walk" by the spirit in all things. We all know the best teacher is the Spirit, we should never be afraid to slow things down and just listen, wait for the spirit to testify to their hearts that these things are true. With that, they will FEEL something and they WILL want to keep commitments JUST because of the feelings they have felt. With this, it will help our investigators really feel the love God has for them.

Elder Ballard is so funny! He really is just a normal person, just like all of us. He honestly loves us so much as well and really wants us to be the best that we can be. I am so grateful for everything, especially this Gospel we have. I know we have a living day Prophet and that we have 12 true apostles of God to help and guide us through these times. "It's all spiritual connection" I love it. I love the Lord and I love my mission.