This week passed well, and we have been inviting a lot of people to be baptized.  Normally they turn us down, but we always teach them and try to help them understand the necessity of being baptized and the blessings that they will receive when they make this important step in their lives. This past week for p-day we played Futbol and messed around a little, then we went home and slept and then worked. On Tuesday we had our District Conference and on Thursday the ZL got back from Lima and I got letters from Grandma-J, Josh and a package from Emily. WOOT Thanks for all of the love. I loved the picture from Josh and Amberly with the little guys.

On Saturday Elder Samayoa visited me and we invited three people to be baptized. They all said yes to be baptized, but not on specific dates.

So we will keep working with them and finding new people to teach.

One of the things that passed this week is that we taught John Pastor and he told us that he had prayed and had received his answer. Yeah!!!

The church is SOOO true.The Gospel of Jesus Christ gives our lives purpose and helps us to return to our Fathers presence. I love you soooo much. 

Elder Joe

P.S. It is hot right now, and we are going to the stadium of Iquitos to play Futbol.

Hola from under the Equator and in the jungle!!!!

Thanks for the packages that you have sent me and all that you do for me!!!! I love you all!!

Transfers were last week, and I am staying in the same place for another change.  I am doing good, and the work is going good.

This week we were going to have a Massive Marriage, but it got canceled for the city council. This meant that we had to go and tell the couples that they would not be getting married on Friday.  There were some problems, but we were able to help two of the couples from our area settle their problems.  God helped the other one overcome their problems and everything is OK.  They will be preparing to get married on the 12th of February. We also found some great people yesterday and they are sure to progress, one of them is Royter, the brother of another investigator.  He assisted yesterday and we taught him in the afternoon, and he is really willing to receive the gospel! He has been prepared and we will be teaching him on Tuesday to invite him to be baptized!!!!

We taught Grecia, the cousin of a sister that is here from Lima, and we felt the Spirit strongly as we taught her.

I have also been reading in the Ensign from conference and there are amazing things there! I love the conferences!

Love you all and I know that the Gospel is true!!! Love you allll!!!

Love Joe

Hola! From under the Equator!!!

Recently, I have gained a large interest and passion in the Holy Scriptures.  I have felt many times that the topics and doctrines that they teach and that I am reading, apply directly to me and my life.  As I have studied, I have found a way to spread out my time so that I can study what I really need and what I would like to learn.  Every day as a missionary I have an hour in the morning set apart to study the Scriptures, and I have learned something very important about this time.  I can use it for what it is meant, and gain knowledge and experience, or I can waste it very easily and do other things that appear to be “important”, but aren’t the “most important” things.  I have learned from this that, to gain the knowledge that I desire, it is of utmost importance that I apply myself and that I focus on what is most important. 

Well, this week Rusbel Shapiama got baptized!!! WOOTTTTT!!!

It went well except we didn’t have water, so we started to fill up the font in our other ward and then one of the members said he knew how to fix the pump.  So he did, and we were able to fill up the font and Rusbel got baptized!!!!

Also, sorry for not writing more, there isn’t any more time. I love you all!!! The gospel is true!!!!!

Love Elder Joe!!!

HOLA! from under the Equator!!!

Happy Bday Lexi!!!!!!!!

Sorry the email came on Tuesday, but we were in interviews with President Blunck on Monday! It went well and Tuesday we went to the Quistacocha tourist site here, it was cool and there were a lot of animals there, some that I had not seen before. At the end I ate the yummy SURI!!!!!! jajajaja I bit off it's head and put it in my mouth and..... took a picture... ate half of it and then started up the gag reflex... and I gagged a lot... I then threw it up, AWESOME!!!!! I can now say that I have eaten half of a suri.... jajajajajaja Sorry if it’s very full of imagery. :) 

We then went and received Elder Morales from Tarapoto and he stayed in our apt. for the capacitations that President Blunck gave us and that Elder Morales and my comp attended.  On Wednesday started the capacitation and my comp had two ingrown toenails operated on. Then we went to our room and I left to proselyte with President Blunck!!!!! He had given us two references to visit, and I went with him to teach them. Well, they both fell through, so we started to go with our plan B’s and they didn’t work out either, so we did contacts in the street and we found two families! One of them with 9 kids!!!!! It went well and I learned a little from him and about him. COOL!!!!

Thanks for the packages!!!!! They were/ are great!!!!!! Thanks for the tape!!!!!

Responses to moms questions: The Mission offices will stay there in Carlos Izaguirre124, on Pday we can do what we would like after lunch, but before lunch we always have time to email and an activity as a zone. For service we fix stairs, paint, clean, wash dishes.... :)

Our investigators we find through contacts and references, the references usually progress, while the others sometimes do.

I sleep in a mosquito net that is really hot!!!! With a fan all night. But I sleep all night and sometimes I sleep talk.  jajaja

I know  that the church is true!!!!

Love Elder JOE!

HOLA!!!!! DESDE ABAJO DEL ANILLO DEL MUNDO!!! (Down under the ring of the world) !!!!!

I’m great and my comp is “SUPER EXCELENTE!”

Well, this week has been amazing. We have been working really hard to help two couples get married so that the husbands can get baptized. We also had a ton of lessons all week and were working all week with members. Only two of our lessons were without members and we had 27 lessons with a member present which is really good! I haven’t ever had that many lessons with a member in one week before!!!!! We have also been hit almost every day with rain and something funny that happened is that Elder Sanchez has boots and every time he uses them it doesn’t rain and every time he does use them it doesn’t rain!!! Jajaja  

On Thursday we received a reference from a member and we taught her on Friday night, her name is Gabriella.  Before we started teaching her, we asked her if she had a question about God, and she asked us why she was here on the earth!!!! It’s what we know in the mission as a question of the soul, and we taught her about the plan of salvation and the Spirit was so strong there. She said the final prayer and was crying, soooooo cooool and she attended on Sunday!!!!! The work moves forward!!!

I know that the church is true and I am so thankful for the Gospel in my life. I am thankful for the Atonement that makes our salvation possible.

Well, I got a lot of packages this past week, thanks for all, and thanks to all, that helped send them!!!! Everything rocks!!!!!

Love Elder Joe!!!!!

(Joe says that he is working mostly in the city. There are 6 missionaries in his district and 10 in his zone.)

HOLA!!!  Yehaw!!!  From under the Equator!!!

Well, my New years Celebration went like this… we worked all day, and at about 8:30 p.m. we went to the ward party and they gave us rice and chicken, mmmmm. Then we went to our room and we watched outside as they were throwing corn starch at each other in the street, and they burned clothes stuffed with hay and fire crackers, that looked like mannequins. We were up until 1 a.m., because you cannot sleep here with all the fireworks that are going off. 

We also have had some good lessons.  Yesterday we went to teach the bishop’s more or less nanny, that helps in his house. She had felt the spirit in church yesterday and we invited her to be baptized. She told us that she is going back to her house today and that she won’t be in Iquitos for two weeks, but she was excited to hear about the gospel and will listen to us when she returns.

I’ll have to try the mazamorra morada with pancakes, sounds good!

The church is true!!!!! I read an article today from an Ensign of 2007 about the Book of Mormon and the fulfillment of it’s promises, and the story took place in Armenia. It was a good story and I felt the peace of the Spirit as I read.

I LOVE THE GOSPEL!!  Fidelidad Hasta El Fin!!!!!  God Lives!!!

Elder Joe!

Hola from under the equator!!!!!! woooo hoooooooooo!!!! and sweating a lot!!!!!!! jajajajajaja 

Well I am great, it’s a new week and I am soo excited to get out there and work hard. Last week we were working and I started thinking a little bit about work and I thought to myself “me gusta trabajar... I like to work” and I remembered when I was little and growing up that I hated work, that it was horrible. I had to laugh to myself because I really do love to work and the more I work here the better I feel, it is a cool feeling!!!! I love to work!!!! (and it took me twenty years to learn that) jajajaja

Also this week Jovita Padilla got baptized!!!!!  The bishop baptized her because he is her grandson, and it went well, she left smiling and when she received the Holy Ghost was also really happy and smiling, sooooo coooolll!!!!! Her grandson will be baptized on the 8th of Jan. and we are working with him and helping him to get prepared.

Something cool that happened was on the 25th we were teaching and my comp, was trying to say that we should be firm like a rock and at the same instant we had the same thought and said the same words and, wow it was soooo coool and the Spirit was there sooo strong. I love the gospel!!! I love being a missionary!!!!!!

I know that the truths I am teaching are changing lives and have changed my life. God lives. Love you alll!!!!!

HaPpY NeW yEaR!!!!!!

Love Elder JOHNSON!!!!!!