October 28th Letter

Wow mom it’s great to hear from everything! I’m serious! To answer questions, first, Halloween- well that will come in my letter. Things are better with my companion and yes. So first did Jacie look up vocation for me? How about that family history? How about the elks lodge scholarship? How’s Kodi? Tell Jacie good job on the math (snicker ;) is she cutting the comics? love hearing about our ward sounds great!

First off, this week i got robbed, don’t worry no big deal they only took my camera. so i had to buy another one. But i feel really bad especially with you guys financially supporting me, so the instructions are only put money on my card from that 500 dollars in my account. that way the money i spent on this camera, and souvenirs is mine and not your hard work.

Second you asked about Christmas and i figured I’d clear that up in this letter. When i made a Christmas list this is what i have:

tacos}cinnamon rolls pancakes waffles mac and cheese banana bread pigs in the blanket, cereal peach pie crepes scones ham tetrazzini Christmas candy homemade cookies oatmeal a big salad scalloped or cream corn pie goulash frosty animal fries milkshakes and MILK

Ha-ha so as you can see i don’t need much for Christmas ;)

No this list is

Legos :) of course Mo- tab cd}

just some jeans a plaid shirts for post mission, Shaun white gum, a banana chair, 50 cent piece toothpicks roller skates, a white plog, pet fish, harmonica hockey stick toaster oven and waffles iron money for piano and banjo lessons, I’m serious about those when I get back, and
oh and a tandem bike for dates ;) no but as you can see i don{t really need much for Christmas, all i want is maybe 20 dollars for some souvenir for you guys, and yeah set the rest aside for post mission (speaking post mission i want Twinkies ;). or spend it on yourself and have a great Christmas. all i want is maybe a package with lots and lots of Christmas cards and letters, from all the family friends etc. lots of pictures yeah :) cause food like ginger snap cookies or stuff will get stolen so just put some money [(small) and send me cards. and after the mission I’ll go on a long walk or golf trip with dad;), bake cookies and piano lesson with mom, and movie date with Kodi, double date Kelsee, and basketball game Jacie, oh and work in grandmas yard ;) that’s all, oh and save the toys are r us big toy book with the comics too ;) enjoy Christmas packages and mail works here it gets here pretty fast, and you pick it up in lima. but since were in Huarez we get mail once a month, probably why haven’t gotten stuff yet. so first little bit won’t get stuff.

Now the letter}

This week’s been like trying to tell a joke in sacrament meeting in a Latino ward, it really stinks and it’s just bad... but in the end you’re still the only one laughing ;) and that’s all that matters ;)

First off right after writing you last week i got robbed... by a girl... of 11 years of age yeah picked up my bag and she reached above my computer grabbed my camera and took off..... Yeah sucks I know, but it’s all good, we all have trials, I’ll just have to get a new one. no worries:) can{t keep a good man down, and cant wipe the smile off Elder Grow’s face:) after this we went to yungay oh I wish i could show you pictures. santo campo yungay look it up online. but it’s a city north of here. The story is 2 elders of the church were killed and drug around the town, a member of the 70 came and took off his shoes, 1 day later and enormous earthquake buried the whole town, killing everyone instantly. The entire place is a giant graveyard over the city, very eerie and quite... so a Latino brought a soccer ball and we played on the outskirts :) after this, well, Elder Zavala wouldn’t talk to me, wouldn’t eat and yeah we were having major problems, something was wrong, so i called for cambios. i switched with the district leader, and dad remember the story how you ran to every appointment my cambio companion had the same idea.. never been more tired in my life. but i got to eat with their pinchanista, and wow she’s amazing they had omelets and pork and fruit juice.. we just get rice. so the bad news food is (machu pichu) and i hate it, good news it will get  better :) after this we went to the capilla to wait for an investigator she didn’t show and we were about to move on when we thought we should wait for 5 min, exactly 5min later a man came crying begging for our help to change his life, we taught him and he’s getting baptized this Saturday :) after that i taught ingles classes in the capilla every miercoles for 2 hours i love it. But it was interrupted by a long trip to the bathroom. the leche here is disgusting and comes in a can, i tried some and well yeah i miss my milk. After this the next day my companion was fine! he was wonderful! great! fantastic! whatever they had a talk about and his family problems well they are so much better now! :) We went way up in the mountains this day. Our area is about from Kaysville to Clinton and encompasses the city of Huarez and Lomas way up in the Andes; we trekked up there and visited an old lady and here child. no one goes there cause she’s crazy, she started off talking about how she had stabbed herself in the hand with a crochet needle and Christ came down and removed it from her and said now you know how i feel, well when we showed up and gave her the restoration pamphlet she flipped she keeps having this dream that Jesus visits her and gave her this book in a black bag like mine, interesting, we taught her and her daughter and when we got to the picture of Christ baptism the girl flips, shed had a dream 3 times the night before some guy in white was trying to drown her in a river, we explained the man she dreamed of was Jesus, the one in the photo, and she and her sister our getting baptized  god works in mysterious ways. After works walking down they warned me of the big white dog, i told them its ok I’m big and white too,

this had a huge almuerzo and well Saturdays our exhausting cause the next day the Hermana’s cooked us French toast which was great and i lifted rocks all day and threw them in a river :) anyway than taught a lessons sitting POW wow with a woman that only spoke quechwa, trying to learn that it’s hard. Look it up. But yeah Sundays are the worst; the hardest thing about us is getting people to just come to church. And well plus this Sunday i gave a talk. It went really great and i was blest with the gift of tongues, just not jokes ;) ha-ha but good news i have found my true laugh, its loud long and low and jolly :) ha-ha anyway than went to a members house for lunch they served us what... well looked like brownies,.. I’ve really learned the meaning of please bless this food... anyway that we sat for an hour looking at their wedding photos yeah that a consejo de barrior for 3 hours and accomplished nothing ha-ha those are always long, than went way up into Lomas where we past a bunch of drunks blasting Hotel California :) anyway we have 3 fechas for this Saturday and 4 for next weeks! :) I love it and the work is progressing. we have a really good investigator tonight who we got all the young single adult ward to come with us to the lesson, 6 people ;) anyway this week I’ve taken hit after hit, door after door, and trial after trail but still smiling and loving the work :) oh and Spanish doesn’t have the palabra shuck as in to shuck corn or shucks it doesn’t exist :) love you all

Elder Grow

Love you all send me more photos of you smiling having a good time more photos! :)

October 21st Letter

ok I’m settled in, my house is above a boutique and we cleaned it this week, story to come, money is fine haven’t used anything on my card, only the money i get my cards stayed cleaned (which is also a problem i think I’ve forgotten my pin) as far as sending stuff, just send it and pray it gets here :) ha-ha i honestly don{t know but i haven’t even got your letters yet so were waiting on those. But yeah don’t worry too much about that.  the little car treated me well :) i think you just have to know how to drive it ;) ha-ha we did get a picture but as the whole mission not individually thought i sent it to you but re sending just in case. i have been sick since i got here, nothing major just stomach and well bano problems :) and by problems it’s in reference to nacho libre Easter quote (Jacie can fill you in ;) rice every day and walking well keeps the work going smooth ;) anyway my companion is the only member in his family.

Think that’s al the questions now my turn}

How’s America :)

How’s dad’s heart great to hear about lawn mowing}

Heaven help us all Kelsee coaching basketball :) HAHAHAHAHAHHAHHAH i think that made my entire week: D

What’s the name of the royal baby ;) you know that’s what I’m worried about

And wasn’t baby Mike Mazowski the cutest thing ever!!

and well I’ve been really touched by the spirit of Elijah especially helping these people get to the temple, taught about family history and yeah i know grandpa had a lot of photos and stuff make sure they don{t go missing I’d like to work some when i come back :)

Ok now for the letter :)

Ups downs BLT’s and fleas :)

this week started off really great after my legs regained the blood flow our district decided to have BLT’s (photos included) it was really delicious it was so good I almost died (by the way hearing about all the American food almost put me into a comma ;) hah no but so my companion wasn’t to happy about it, but we ate like kings and went back home, he complained the rest of the night he’d eaten garbage. this week our relationship and me have been tested, I’ve realized I’m an extremely friendly and nice person, but living with someone is entirely different}

This would be so much easier if he was a girl ;)

anyway we had the worst family home evening ever we went to this part members house they fed us “food” i prayed the fact it was still moving wouldn’t prevent me from walking home ;) anyway but the baby was crying dog was jumping on us and the joseph smith movie was skipping and then well the lady took of her shirt and began feeding the baby ha-ha the culture is a little different hear, anyway so that night walking home in the rain was a little tough. Its rained here consecutively for 5 days and then rained off and on the next 2... and for some reason i just can{t stop thinking about goulash:) we than had companion exchanges the next day, i was with elder Rau our district leader and it was glorious, we challenged 3 people to baptism and they all accepted i loved working with him, than when we got put back together my companion well just seemed a little off, he really doesn’t like north Americans and loved being with a Latino, so the next day (also found out he’s having some family problems back at home) the next day walking in the rain he well didn’t say anything and when i say this I mean anything :) so I talked to myself :) all dayyyy in Spanish you know to practice and finally near the end of the day I lost my patience and slugged him in the arm, i told him we needed to work this out and get the spirit, he walked on :) so you love him and move on :) this week has been up and down with him, but were getting along. he likes the food and Spanish music and movies and well not a really rule kind of guy, he loves just talking with the members and being friends, not always working, and a little flirtatious, but the good which we always look for in a person is he’s amazingly friendly and genuinely cares about everyone. speaking of which we got a call from our investigator baptism for this week and she said she didn’t want to be baptized and not to come back... ok kind of rough that one, that night we had companion exchanges again cause we were teaching an investigator who her and her husband had issues the district leader needed to be in, anyway so than that night i taught a lady with elder Leiva the other Latino elder and bore my testimony, the next day we got a call, the lady had passed her interview and requested a one elder grow baptism her, she had been touched by his spirit. it was really exciting and touching experience. also i had to res start the baptism 5 times cause of her name ;) the next day we went to Lomas, in the Andes 523 cement steps later we arrived at our investigators house, and you better believe i sang (and i would walk 500 steps and i would walk 500 more) all the way up :) anyway than we cleaned our apartment, the toilet was having issues flushing cause of the mold buildup.. i have not included pictures :) ha-ha but its clean now, than i prepared to teach a class Sunday.. gospel principles.. in Spanish.. and NAILED IT :) chapter 42 and well the gift of tongues is real :) than we had a capacitation on la obra de salvacion should be implemented in your wards too! at one point a guy in the back row stood up and said

I’ve been reading in the teachings of Lorenzo snow and it says this about missionary work..... i turned around.... IT WAS OUR INVESTIGATOR!!! We contacted in the street and invited to church!! he got a priesthood manual and read the whole thing!! HE HASNT EVEN HAD THE FIRST DISCUSSION!! He’s amazing ... we’re going to baptism him this week or next...after we give him a book of Mormon ;) :)

Missionaries here don’t teach the 2nd lesson, mostly because it’s really hard for these people to comprehend without the Holy Ghost world of spirits and all, but i love it because my testimony lies in the fact god is real and has a plan for me, so i slip it into the other lessons. last story yesterday knocked on a door of a man with the biggest house in our area, about the size of ours:) maybe smaller but he answered the door, very educated in all religions and well bashed us pretty good, i held my own and bore my testimony, and well we have another visit, but then we visited another man up the street a carpenter, we asked him if he would like to be baptized like Jesus Christ he said ... si can my wife be too, I’m free this Saturday.... that day i learned a lesson on humility and to be learned is wise only if we follow the council of god. This week’s been a little tough, i got fleas but there no big deal :) so ups mostly downs, but i love it, Wednesday in noted my cheeks hurt from smiling so much. Christmas down here has already started, at least the food, they have this fruit cake thing its actually really good, i think Christmas is going to be really hard. But i love the work and its moving fast we have 9 people with baptism dates :) love you all and hope everything is going good. Thanks for keeping me in your prayers i pray for each of you every day :)

also more about the culture, cars are crazy been clipped by a mirror or a car twice, dogs are everywhere- hundreds, it’s really sad and gross they skinny eat everything each other and well yeah kind of makes you not want to have a dog, people here shake hands really soft and weird, and if they dirty you shake their wrist or elbow, but everyone hugs and I like that. the funny story was walking by the college in our town the girls cat call you and whistle and you just turn around AND I LOVE YOU RANDOM CITEZEN... cause well they don’t understand English ;).. Ok no not really but I’ve thought about it a couple times when it happens :)

Con Amor

Elder grow

October 14th Letter

If you’re going to play in Texas you got to have a fiddle in the band, and if you’re going to baptize in Peru, start 2 hours early ;) Relief society! Oh awesome! Wow our ward sounds great! can{t wait to come back and see them all!! my visa I haven’t seen, the mission had it, my pants are great the holes are fine thanks to my fine sewing skills, the pictures haven’t come yet, i don{t know whether there in the mission office or whether they are on their way I’ll let you know :) I had a similar scary experience this week I’ll tell you about later in my letter. Peru is great there’s dogs everywhere and in Huarez it rains about every day which i love, and the nights it gets cold, i miss snow and well let’s put it this way :)

This week i never once thought that i would go home... but i definitely thought i just might die ;) ha-ha keep that and remind me about it in 2 years along with my [chapman proselyting story[ its one you got to hear in person

So the week started out with an amazing interview with the mission president, i love him! Literally the man is my president for a reason, so much i can learn from him. We had a wonderful interview and through his keys i found out a lot of stuff i need to work on and I’ve implemented them and the work goes great!! He even pulled a golfing and Alabama football reference, me and him get along great! The focus of our   mission is to baptize retain and reactivate specially all three, we were working with a lot of part member and menos activos families too! the work goes great and well our mission goal he told me to have a baptism every week, they establishing my mission goal of 100 baptisms, and well were off to a good start :) 2 baptisms this week!!! You know how everyone has cool first baptisms stories well my first baptism tops them all... :)

so we baptized a 11 year old actually 2 but the second one on Saturday my companion told me i should baptize him, so i worked on Spanish and got ready, well a little note about Peru specifically Huarez all the water is feed to us via glaciers, it’s the coldest thing every and usually comes out in brown chunks, similar to the boy meets world episode where Cory and Tapenga move into their new apartment ha-ha anyway so i got in the water and literally jumped out, it was like the polar bear at scout camp! So cold!! it froze my butt off, but i turned around looked in to his frightened eyes prayed and stepped in, well i quickly lost feeling in my legs, and well he was scared 10 min of cozying and everything we eventually shut the doors so no one saw but the witnesses in the adjourning bathroom and i baptized him, when i went to go out however, :) i couldn’t move :) ha-ha the bishop pulled me out to see my feet well a nice purple gray color :) ha-ha we spent the next 20min rubbing my lays warming me up! I hobbled home through on my thermals and blankets and winter stuff and bundled up that night, however the next day i got up to see frost bight :) ha-ha frost bite from a baptism! anyway i couldn’t move my hip my muscles were so tight so i stretched it out and go t a blessing from the district leader (his first one ever in English) I and well I’m all better now :) faith is an amazing this and every day i exercise my hip and its coming a long still pops but all part of recovery process ha-ha but yeah frost bite from a baptism! Anyway yeah we start baptisms an 1 hour late than we say because everyone’s late. but the work comes great, we had an investigator not pass the interview with district leader and president of the stake, my companion and me were talking to the investigators husband, who was obviously concerned and a little and bashing our leaders, and well from what i understood my companion (who is really great and loving me and him our getting along) tried to console him, but sounded like agreement so i prayed and bore my testimony of Christ and persons and priesthood power, through the spirit my Spanish is coming along great, it didn’t affect him but i was just happy to for my testimony of the priesthood you guys have installed in my, thanks dad thanks mom, you guys are truly amazing :)

this week i learned a lot about the law of compensation as well in revelations 21:4 it says god will wipe away all tears, and this give me strength to know that god blesses us 10 fold, knowing that god can’t lie really helps especially... every rice dish i eat i now that my wife will be that better of a cook :) every step i take she’s that much prettier :) every missed peach pie, or breakfast where all i get is a piece of bread :) well that’s ten- fold breakfasts ill have with homemade food and a wonderful wife who makes homemade jam and Christmas candy and tacos and yeah :) i think that’s how it works right ;) the work goes great and all though every night i fill like I’m going to die (we literally hike the Andes for investigators every day) every morning i wake up and can{t wait to serve :) don{t forget the challenge to contact at least one person before Christmas in general conference and we work a lot with the ward council don{t forget the importance of this and the importance of members in missionary discussion and work :) love you all so very much! 2 (possible 3 with the last transfer) months down :) love you all ! god be with you till we meet again

i really have grown to appreciate my family, please i know grandpa had a lot of family history, make sure it doesn’t go to waste, if possible keep it id love to do some research when i come back, i taught a gospel principles class in church the other day (in a different language now that was scary mom ;) ha-ha anyway and my companion (a member for 1 year) was saying how hard it was to understand certain gospel topics, thank you for teaching me from a younger age i love tall the knowledge i have and love you with all my heart}

Elder grow :)

Also i keep a budget, all the other elders laugh at me :) but you raised your son right :) love you 

also the bananas here are called plantaes de la celba  (bananas of the jungle) and are orange :) i love you all with my whole heart i feel your love and prayers and means a lot ,K this week two years looks like a long time but can’t wait to see you all in 2 month Christmas call!! :) So literally I’ll be home for Christmas :) anyway love you al  l :) also the Peruvians love my curly hair :)

October 7th Letter

Answers: well stomach yeah ;) sorry I didn’t respond to your emails I have a hard time reading and then well responding no I heard about our ward and am happy to hear about bishop Russell. You’ll do great in your calling! And it’s great to read about the family. Well... I could be packing meat... hahahhahahahhahahhaha. Yeah. that was about the theme of this week :) after the first week jitters rolled off well I’ve had a lot of… well yeah :) first day this week we had 9 appointments fall through and we just ended up walking around for ever and ever.. Kind of rough, but one day was especially hot and I was sitting leaned up against a pole taking a break and just busted up laughing. My companion couldn’t get me to talk! Ha-ha it just hit me. I could be still packing meat :) it’s funny how a little perspective can change our mood! So a little bit about Peru, the doors and people are small, all about 4ft the people talk quietly and grab your fingers when shaking hands. If there a man they hug you, and a woman they just shake hands... unless they know you or think you’re cute then they kiss you ha-ha well needless to say I thought warding off my friends about a first kiss. I found it almost impossible to ward off these girls. Every girl tries to kiss me ha-ha but don’t worry, 18 years… why break that streak :) ha-ha no I’m fine, so I’m really grateful for everything you got me from the thermals down to the umbrella (explain in a second). So the days were a little longer but well it’s hard to keep Jed Grow from being happy especially in the service of god and I’ve been enjoying every minute. Wednesday we went up to a house way up in the Andes, and built a house out of adobe bricks for service, it was great but quite the hike. My companion is a little lax, and well I’m having a hard time expressing my opinion on how we should work harder because well my Spanish… but I try my best. He’s the most loving and caring guy, and really great but sometimes that’s a problem because we spend a lot of time just talking for no reason to his friends in the ward and no preaching but there is a line. We are here to serve and build up the ward, but through ensana and well were working on that. The next day’s blended together… long… filled with a lot of walking. Ha-ha I have broken 2 chairs since I’ve been down here! Ha-ha yeah I really don’t fit in. Anyway than Saturday I woke up sicker than a dog puking… yeah it was rough (probably the food, which I’ve realized is useless to complain about cause… well it’s still the same ha-ha) and but we still had to go to conference so I spent all Saturday in the church bathroom listening to all Spanish conference, after dragging my companion to priesthood session. We got to listen to it... IN ENGLISH I was really happy. Tell dad I didn’t sleep at all! It was a great session even though I was sick. Then Sunday I woke up feeling great! It was a miracle. I went to conference and had a really spiritual experience. Then I was able to accompany the bishop and do a lot of teaching and visiting people in the ward! It was a really great time and the work goes great... love you all