This blog was from October 2, 2017

Oh super cool thing happened this week. We were just walking at night super far away from our house and we had just picked up our churros (we get churros every Monday and Thursday from this one churro truck). We were walking home to do some language study. I was like "Hey let's go see Pablo (this one drug addict who's basically given up on life) We were pretty close to his house (his mom is a convert and he lives in the house behind hers) and they have a gate and pit bull and I knew the mom wasn't home but I just felt like I should go talk to Pablo, so I just opened their gate and walked around Coco the dog and walked back there. My comp was like "Elder Helske! You're trespassing! We can get in trouble!" But I just yelled back "Nah, we're fine! They love us!" I walked back there and found him. I gave him a churro and asked if we could come inside and share a scripture with him. He said "Yes" with a mouth full of churro and then I shared with them 1st Nephi 3:7 (yeah I went old school one them) and promised them (he has a roommate) that they can get over any problem doesn't matter what it is, with these 3 steps they can overcome any problem! Step 1 pray for strength when tempted Step 2 read daily for strength Step 3 go to church on Sunday for tons of strength because its a commandment of God, and the more commandments we keep, the more blessings we get. Commandments aren't rules, they're blessings!!  

Mark's letter of September 26th, 2017

     This week has been pretty chill. There's a bakery pretty nearby where I live. Well, actually there's one right up the road from where I live where I go sometimes in the morning for breakfast, but there's another one I like to hit up if I'm out and about. They're super tasty! Also it has a super cool vibe to it! My favorite thing about it is the cat that chills in there! Also, no one wears gloves while they prepare food. I think its awesome!! My trainer doesn't like it as much as I do. I also went on splits with the zone leader this week. His name is Elder Paulson and he's super cool. He taught me a ton. He's super cool! Elder Vera from Peru who lives in my house is being made district leader now but not of my district, but the other district in my zone. He lives in the same house as us though and my "grandpa" the trainer of my trainer is going to be our new zone leader! While I was with the ZL we went and visited this one "menos activo" and invited him to come play soccer and he totally did which was super awesome!  He apparently hasn't gone to a church activity in over a year! We also got 2 new invenstigators with baptisimal dates. One alcholic named Ruben for 19th oF October (his birthday) and then this super solid kid for the 20th of October and we're probably gonna baptize his grandpa as well. We're gonna invite him to pick a date to get baptized this week as well. Our other investigators are doing well as well! That's about it for my week! Thanks for all the prayers!! 

-Élder Helske

This is Mark's post from September 18th, 2017  (Sorry I got really behind!)

     Well, this week was pretty chill and super short. We had P-day on Tuesday and we didn't really get to go out and proselyte at all because we didn't head home till like 6. It was like a 2-hour bus ride. We lost our phone but someone found it and gave it to our zone leaders. Then our zone leaders dropped our phone and it broke. We got a new one on Friday and went to the "Oro Congerence" which is like a greenie conference. That was super fun!  Friday we also didn't really get to go out either because we were gone all day, and then we left around 5 to go on a 2 hour bus ride back home again. Then Saturday we had a service project that took up a big part of the day as well! We painted our district leaders house which was really fun and the hermanas cooked us some super bomb food!! Bless up they make such good food! We always have them come and cook for us when we have zone activities. (this was a zone service project) Oh, my trainer also hit his 1-year mark this week so we threw him a fat old party. I don't have any pics of that because my camera was dead and the Peruvians didn't send me the pics yet, so hopefully next week I can send you all some pics but we'll see. A lot of our investigators are just kind of treading water rn and that's frustrating but we have this one new investigator Julio. His son died in car accident and it's soo sad. We've visited him a couple times. He also had surgery this week. He's such a humble, nice person. I'm so glad that I know that the gospel will be able to help him and his family so much!! Well, that's everything from me this week. next week P-day is on a Tuesday due to changes so don't worry!!