Sept. 12, 2012

hey familia.

(Please see down below for a nice spiritual thought)

The tour was a lot of fun. saw the white house of peru, and a bunch of pretty cathedrals. cant wait to go to the field!! were really tired of sitting in a classroom and studying all day. especially since our district is new, so 

Elder Jarrell and I are learning day 8 curriculum tomorrow, but its day 51. Our listening is getting a lot better. Through hand signals and context and tone of voice and the gift of tongues, we can understand anything they say, and we can say a lot now too. Our lessons with fake investigators are getting really interesting and fun, and were learning how to really teach well, teach in question, give very simple lessons that exercise the investigators faith, so and so. its awesome!!

We had a couple sad moments yesterday when two of the new elders that arrived last week had to go home to fix stuff. One has to wait a year, and one can return in a month. but its really sad to see them go. Please pray for these Elders that they can be strong and get back out here!!

On the tour, elder Durfey and I got a card out to a man named Javier in a market, and he seemed kinda interested. so pray for him too!!!!!

Oh yeah new companion. Elder Jarrell is a really tall lanky kid from utah first, and then from chicago, and speaks really good spanish. we're having a good time learning more, and discussing gospel doctrine and such. tons of fun!

SPIRITUAL THOUGHT: 

ok. read Helaman 5 for a crazy awesome story. Read about the man named Aminidab. Notice the people he hangs with before this experience, and then notice the chance he was given and what he does. Awesome story. Awesome chapter. Awesome book.

also, I encourage you to read alma 17, 18 the story of Ammon. I love it every time I read it, and its about a missionary!!!

Also today in Tottus when we went in there, they were playing a latino, jazzy remake of Aubrey, by Bread, with a woman singing it this time. Please someone go look it up, see if you can find it, listen and enjoy, and I will pretend that I am you.

Love all of you!!

Sept. 5, 2012 Amazing Mission conference

hey fam que pasó!!??

alright. ill send some pictures of my old latin roommates(they left yesterday, way sad). Also, were going on our much awaited, super awesome tour of the city today, and i will send those pictures next week. sorry for my first batch being so small, it was all i had time for to send off. they are crazy strict here about the 30 minutes and no less to read and write back!!

This week has been crazy. Friday we saw elder d. todd christopherson for our mission conference. which was awesome. He spoke perfect spanish, and gave some amazing insights. also, singing in the choir was fantastic too as well. we sang te necesito si, i need thee every hour, all verses in a beautiful arrangement with one of the older elders singing a solo intro which was beautiful. but elder christopherson asked us to sing it a second time as the closing hymn after he heard it the first time so that was awesome. But he had some amazing thoughts on repentance. 

Then saturday was dang awesome. we went proselyting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They drove us up to some city way up on the hill, about an hour and a half from lima. The bus ride alone was crazy because we drove through many very poor areas with people literally everywhere, and we were in one of those giant tour buses, so our driver literally squeezes through these tiny little allies and street with cars and mototaxis (little motorcycle taxi carriage things) passing him with inches to spare on all sides, people everywhere, no one follows rules of the road, every man for himself, CHAOS. haha so crazy but so much fun.

but then we got to an lds chapel and they sent us off. Elder Delgado and i just took off! we talked to a few older ladies on their porch, one was evangelic and none of them wanted to hear our message. but they reluctantly let us give our schpeal and took pamphlets. then we went up the street and there was a guy who came out and just started ranting to us about his atheistic beliefs about god being an extra-terrestrial (by the way i don´t understand most of what they say. its just too dang fast, slurred together, not very clear. crazy.) But then we found a guy, taught him through his window because he wouldnt open the door, and gave him a book of mormon and he said hed listen if the missionaries came back on sundays, so we got a reference card and gave it to the local missionaries! so cool. also, we gave a book of mormon to another lady, and she said she might try to read it. Awesome!!! 

it was a ton of fun, way crazy to be out walking the neighborhoods, mind blowing to talk to the people, and rewarding to give out books of mormon!!

ok. not sure if i have anything else to say. im sorry about no letters to any of you, as well. because they are really rude about time and kicking us off and everything, so three more weeks and hopefullly it will be better.

oh yeah i saw my mission president at the conference!! he looks really young, and elder durfey met him and said hes way cool. i didn´t get to meet him, but ill get the chance.!

and the food is amazingg. its all rice and chicken, and whatever sauces they use haha but its super delicious, and they have divine churros, wonderful soft serve ice cream that is seriously better than anything we have, and great soup and stinking awesome rolls!!

oh and i get to play piano a ton, hymns, which is beautiful. i play for like an hour while my district all studies quietly in the chapel in our classroom building. just playingg the h7ymns brings tthe spirit and it is so darn awesome. 

Goodbye!!!!!!!!

paz out.

Aug 29, 2012

alright awesome week.

friday, elder christopherson, of the 12 is coming to the chapel next to our property for a mission conference and it will be awesome. im singing in the choir, and it should be an awesome meeting. apparently he speaks perfect spanish, so they will be getting a translator for us.

futbol is stinking amazing here. the latinos are unbelievably good soccer players, and its a ton of fun playing with them every day!! im getting pretty good if i do say so myself.

while they may be good futbol players, they wreak havoc when driving. holy crap thought our bus was going to roll, flying around the roundabout this morning on the way to the temple. also, a semi nearly hit us, but thats not news haha

I love my roommates!! the latinos are amazing people. check this out-- elder condori, 21 years old, from cuzco, is totally a dj there, and djs big dances with a ton of north american tourists! how cool!! i talk to him about music. he loves bryan adams, and the spirit stallion of the cimmarron soundtrack! But i love those elders. Condori brought three ties on his mission. three ties. so i gave him two that i don{t care for too much. im learning so many lessons about what really matters in life. (hint--not money)

also, prayer works. the spirit is powerful. the gift of tongues is real. and the church is true. haha a few things ive learned this week.

umm... im joining a latino district for these last two weeks. that means that in class, it will be 100 percent spanish (for real because no one even enderstands english) and it will kick my butt but i am very pumped and very ready to trust in the lord. a couple other elders in our district are doing it too, because we feel like we need to push ahead. If the teachers sign for you, they allow elders to do it, so we got signatures and jumped in the deep end. well see if i can swim.

but please pray for me. Because this is not for me. this is for the people i can find. if i can speed up the language learning process, of course i would do it. So i will try. Ill be getting a latino companion also, so... please pray for me. 

ill let you all know how the elder christopherson thing goes!! oh and next wednesday we go on a tour of the city, and elder nash is probably coming!! so pumped. 

yo sé que esta iglesia es verdadero y que jesucristo es el salvador. cuando tenía preguntas y problemas in mi vida, y cuando quería saber si esta iglesia fui verdadero, he recibido una respuesta cada vec--sí. Le amo el Señor y sé que Él me amo tambien. por favor oren por las personas que encuentro en el campo de misional. Por favor oren por yo tambien, por que necesito mucha ayuda del espíritu santo, para que me ayuda aprender esta idioma. yo sé que jose smith fue un profeta de Dios, y creo que Él tradujo el libro de mormón para nosotros en este tiempo. ¡Les amo mucho!

Elder Hartvigsen

August 22, 2012 Love the Lima CCM

OK hello everybody!! Love it here in the CCM. Life is pretty crazy though, spanish all the time, crazy new foods and today we left the compound for the first time!! We got to ride a tiny little bus (12 of us elders got into an 18 person bus that had 15 people in it already. awesome.) then we drove down the street with the money collector guy hanging out the door holding on as we cruised at like 40 mph down the street as he yelled at us all for money. But then we went TO EL TEMPLO!! The temple was so awesome as it always is. got to wear the english headset and listen through those, but the spirit was still strong as ever.

After the temple, we went to this little store owned by a church member and I bought a sick grey alpaca corbata (tie). Way cool. Then we went to Tottus, which is pretty much a super walmart, with food court and eyeglasses store and everything written in what seems like another language, and ... REAL PEOPLE! Real people from the outside world. It was so awesome. Didn´t talk to anybody because as ´Principios,´ or elders that are still in their first 3 weeks here, we can{t do much and we had to hurry back. but they played real music and i have to be honest, i may have listened a bit in the store when they played keane´s somewhere only we know. Great song.

but teaching and learning is pretty fun too. All our teachers understand minimal english, so we get a ton of practice. one of my teachers said i speak like a latino! and i think i pretty much have the pronunciación down to an art, so i guess i just gotta spend a lot of time memorizing a few hundred more words and i should be good.

And our gym time rocks here. when i play basketball with the latinos, im flipping huge, and i look really good, and they tell me that i´m amazing at it, and it makes me feel really good haha. But when i need humbling, I just go down to the campo del fútbol and play soccer with the latinos, and they make me feel like a small child. un hijito. but it´s still a blast anyway!!

I have been gaining a wonderful new testimony of the book of mormon lately, as i am reading it in the first three weeks here. i´m on page 187ish, mosiah 27ish and it´s so awesome. never comprehended so much of it thus far en mi vida. I love the work but it´s kicking my butt, so i gotta call on the lord for more help and strength; just like we all need to do every day!!!!

my companion is elder Jacob Mangum from montana, whose father is a landscape architect who designs parks and recreational areas up there!! awesome, right??

Dearelder still works here, and is the best way for you to get to me, as i have limited time to read these emails and hurredly write back. and mail doesn't come. at least it hasn't yet for any of the elders in the district. we´re just thinking it takes a really really long time to get here. But don´t really send any packages anyway, because they tell us to tell you not to because it is very expensive and who knows if i can get it. 

ALTHOUGH if mom you would mail me a letter with american stamps (or brother Greer if that works... that would actually be awesome!!) because the only way i can write back is with american stamps with they did not tell us until we arrived in peru. also i´m trying to figure out how to get more money, because lots of elders have credit cards, which i don{t know why we didn't do that. also pardon the typos--spanish keyboard. maybe with the money thing, it might just be ok for you guys to deposit it into my church account and i can somehow get it out. for now i should be ok-my money converts into 2.6ish of their soles, so that´s very nice.

Love you all so much!!

I made it to the C.C.M. in Lima August 15, 2012

Alright, Estoy Aqui.  I made it here to the C.C.M. in Lima!  But Santa vaca! traveling was nuts. Imagine strolling through the atlanta airport in a group of twenty elders/sisters. Think of all the crazy looks. Awesome, haha but really though it was pretty cool. And we kept getting recognized by random couples or old ladies or whoever, and even when we finally got to the jorge chavez international airport, some guy was throwing spanish at us at 80mph, but he knew who we were, crazy right?

The weather is fantastic!!!!  65ish degrees with a little bit of humidity. I actually love the weather so much. Also, it is totally overcast, like I was told it would be. No sun in the sky, and even more, NO BLUE SKY in sight haha. 

I just got my haircut a minute ago. Fun experience when they call up all the misioneros americanos, select two thirds, send you to the right, and all of a sudden my cabeza is attacked by scizzors and razor, and now I literally have no hair. but whatevs, its a mission. Stuff happens haha. And I'm way tired because we didn't get to bed until 2 am, so 3am utah time? They did let us sleep in till 9. that was bonus. most likely the only time for the next two years haha.

And I thought that provo was bad on the all-spanish thing... this is totally all in spanish. everything. Supa fun.

But the Church is true!!!! Unfortunately I didn't get to sit by anyone on either flight, I was next to a missionary and an aisle both times (I really am actually kinda frustrated because I was ready to try to get a conversation going) but a couple of elders in the group got a Book Of Mormon out to a man who read pretty much the entire flight to lima! So cool!!

And also, the drive to the CCM. Holy Cow it was the craziest drive I have ever been on. We get in this big nice bus, easily the nicest one for blocks and blocks, and go cruising (pretty much disregarding traffic regulations and painted lines and such because it was late at night and there was hardly anyone out haha) down the main highway through endless blocks of rundown shacks and little shops and shanty towns all shoved up against the highway. Way crazy. And there's these little mini mountins that poke up in random places in the big city, and on the first third of their hillsides, lays a blanket of even smaller and more rundown shacks, like the poor of the poor. and there's just hundreds and hundreds of them. Quite a humbling sight. I'm already embarrassed at all the stuff I have and I can tell you right now that I will not return with all of it.

But the campus here is gorgeous! perfectly manicured landscape that looks exactly like it would at a nice hotel in hawaii. Same course grass too, ha. and the facilities look really nice although breakfast struggled. All I ask for is a nice meal to wake me up in the morning... but this morning my fruit loops weren't fruit loops. And the milk was a little iffy too ha. The Pineapple juice was good though. So that's promising.

But I love and miss you guys! all of you guys! I'll keep you posted on the craziness and whatev. Keep Deareldering me!! 

First week in the Provo MTC Aug 7, 2012

MTC is awesome as ever, (by awesome, I mean rigorous, unbelievably crowded, crazy strict and taxing, but VERY spiritual at the same time.) We have awesome devotionals where we all sing like six hymns, all verses, during each devotional, so I get to practice my singing plenty. Which is something I didn't think I'd even get in the field, let alone here, so that's pleasing. Also, I ran into Elder David Belnap, and Elder Cameron Jensen, and got to talk to both of them a couple times and it's really fun to be a veteran and get to give them advice. (yes here in the MTC, one week's time pretty much equals a decade of experience .-- the guys in our zone who have been here for six weeks literally seem to me, to be like 27 years old. IT's a bizarre phenomenon.)

I love studying. We've now learned a few days more spanish, than I ever learned in school. It's cool cuz we'll pick up a new verbe tense, and the teacher will teach it, and we learn it and practice it in the space of maybe an hour, where at school we'd work on something like that for weeks.

But I love doing the Lord's work. His spirit stands beside anyone who will give their life (even just a SECTION of their life, even a small one...) to work for his gospel.  Try it some time, give away a week, or even a day, or even an hour, and focus 100 percent of yourself on helping someone receive (be taught, understand, apply) a gospel principle, and SEE WHAT HAPPENS.

Also someone tell Mark Doney to dangit write me. I need some news about his impending call. Dearelder works just fine, (and it preferred) :D.

   Ok. so I DO NOT have my visa yet. It IS late. Which i'm not very excited about at all. Elder Nash and I don't have them, but the other two in our room got them, and the others we've talked to (just random elders in the MTC who are supposed to be leaving same day), have theirs as well, so we're kinda worried.  We could still get them by like, thursday, and still be good to leave by our supposed departure date which is, AUG 14, Tuesday next!!!! I don't really think they will come on time. I kinda feel like we'll be here another couple weeks. Which is a bummer, but it's ok nonetheless. Whatever happens I'll be ok with. And I guess you never know. They could come. But I'm pretty sure they have all the passports just fine; they just wait to get them to us until we have the visas and they buy the plane ticket and all that jazz. 

  

I will update you guys on the visa situation, and I'm mailing an extra SD card that was already in my camera home to you with a handful of pictures (there isn't really anything national-geographic-home-page-worthy here in the mission bubble (we're fairly sure it's a conspiracy and the church projects a simulation around the campus of the real world going on around us. We've even spotted the same red car leaving the parking lot every couple hours or so, in exactly the same way. We're pretty sure time just stops while we're here.

another phenomenon is the fact that when they show us movies like The Testaments, or Legacy (sunday night's movie), the movies are utterly HILARIOUS. It's probably because we get no media, of any kind, so anything at all is a strange treat . We literally laugh at all the cheesy romantic quotes from Testaments and quote them to each other ALL DAY LONG. 

Another detail that i'm not sure if I mentioned. Hermana Eyring, one of my teachers, is , yes, a granddaughter!! Way cool. her english voice is so soft and sweet, that we're pretty sure she's an angel from el cielo. (heaven.)

Ok done. I'll keep you posted. Keep me posted too. Even if you accidentally send me sports news or music news or NEWS, I will not be angry --just let me know what's going on in your lives!!!!!!!!!!

Church is true.

Love you all.

                Brady.

Farewell Elder Hartvigsen