Birthday Central

April 7, 2014

Kodi I think there is more danger with you driving in the street than me here with the earthquakes and stuff. You have the worst luck with tires.  More than anyone I know! :) I´m really grateful and happy to be ok and that you’re all praying about me! I am safe and I want to thank you for the recipes (see enclosed) they were amazing and I loved them a lot :) I also have a super market so you can pretty much send me anything I can make in the microwave. I´m especially interested in lasagna or a muffin, or a type of cheesecake, or a small casserole and then all the breakfast pancakes or cookies yep :)

Anyway Conference was amazing and I hoped you received your answer when President Monson promised God would never leave you solo, I testify of that :) I love you. Thank you for your concern. I was filled with warm fuzzies inside just with the image of you on the internet searching Spanish Twitter worrying about me. Your card is the cutest thing ever I showed my companion and he wonders if you have a rich business yet :) I love you girl with all my heart.
I am situated here in Patevillca Peru. It’s a little town nestled between the coast and a desert and full mostly of sugar cane fields for the nearby cities. It’s famous for the Liberator San Bolivar, who came here when he was sick and went on to free South America. It’s a mild climate ranging to a hot climate, in the nights off the coast a dense fog rolls in.

The land is mostly dry dirt and there is an abundance of mosquitoes (like things that LOVE white flesh :)

I’m in a little apartment house on the edge of town, in a room with one window (its hot) and a fan :) Our area is really hard because it’s all nestled into pre-fabricated or hard dirt (called adobe) or cement houses ( I will take this time to glory in Peru, of ALL the things they have here nothing impresses me more than cement. They sell a bag of cement for a little under 6 dollars a 50 lb. plus bag! It’s amazing all the structures that are cement, it is really impressive) Anyway it’s really hard cause they are all poor and pass their time working in the fields and no one is married (due to the cost that you actually need to pay to be married here civilly (a huge pain for us)) but we find success. There is a huge Catholic Church and 2 Jehovah Witness groups, 4 Baptists and 11 Evangelists in our little town are.  We can walk from the beach to fields to desert in under an hour.  It is not very big. The rama is 67 people, mostly women and kids.

Well this week started off, with a glorious birthday! We went out to eat with my companion and I bought a hat.  Later on we invited the whole ward to come eat cake… When we couldn’t find a cake…. I bought a little slice of bread with a Dulce frosting.  The ward was shocked; we all laughed when we split it up and shared it. :) It was a pretty good birthday I loved passing out the gifts to the little kids but some people here have never had their picture taken and are a little scared. The rest of the week flew by visiting and trying to bring people to the Conference, full of spiritual experiences and searching. An old man with Alzheimer’s escaped his house, and we were unable to help much.  We knelt down and prayed, seconds later he was found. The earthquake hit Chile for the most part.  When we got the first news people here were actually more happy than scared showing their distaste and hatred for Chileans (something about a war I’m not so sure) but we are fine other than strange weather.

Preparing for the Conference, we traveled to Baranca.  Few people assisted because there was a big town bingo game going on here in Patevillca. It was one of the most spiritually uplifting Conferences I can remember. I was so happy! I was overwhelmed with joy! Oh how glorious it truly is that the heavens are open and God speaks to us! I pray that you all found what you were looking for because i did!

Today we woke up at 4 (against my companions will, who agreed to doing so only because I rarely wake up on time.  He was shocked and a little surprised when I was up and gunning to go fishing!  The pictures are included, no success but it was fun :)

I conclude my letter with my testimony that God lives, that in His plan for us, divine guidance is a necessary and eternal gift!  The honest seekers of truth and Heavenly help will always find it. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Love,
Elder Jed Grow