Still has his finger

Questions:
1.  How is the "invasion"
     It's good. Oh man I must be terrible at these letters.....

 2. Are you still with Elder Rivera? Will you be till the end?
     Yes. Yes.

 3. Can you look at BYU.edu to see what classes you can take?
       I don't know......... I will check

 4. What time do you come home on the 28th?
       I don't know

 5. Have you ever had a baptism in a regular font?
     Of course I have.................... I REALLY must be bad at letters.......

 6. Do you have any families right now that you are close to?
     Yes. The family of the bishop. Our other family had to move away because they were tired of getting robbed all the time..... ha ha ha

 7. Are you still writing to your friends?
     No....... I don't. I figure they are like me, and don't have much time to respond anyway. But I plan on writing those still in the mission field when I get home.

 8. Do you do splits in your area with members?
     A recent rule passed says that we can't do splits anymore. Something bad must have happened in the mission with that.

 9. How much help do you get from members?
     It's decent here. The church is new in this part of Perú, so the members struggle a lot. Most of the members of ward counsel are in actives themselves. Thats how it's been my whole mission. It's a frustrating work, but these people need help that way. EVERYONE in Perú is inactive, has recently been inactive, or soon will be inactive. Ha ha ha ha. Very few members actually get a hold on the true nature of the Gospel here. That it is something we can never leave behind. This call to be a member is forever. But in a world where there are many churches on every block, it's hard to see the church as something "different." Trujillo has an activity ratio of 2/10. Meaning, that 2 out of every 10 registered members is active. It all has to do with what happened in the 80's and 90's when people thought it was a good idea so hike out to the farthest camp and baptized a hundred small children who have no support, and expect that they would stay active after there were no missionaries in those far-out reaches. That's what President Uceda explained to us. Missionaries came in for a long time thinking that they needed to go home with a huge list of converts. What they were missing was that a CONVERT should be focused on becoming CONVERTED instead of BAPTIZED. It's just that the vision was different then. We understood the work differently. It has evolved and become even better than it used to be. It is the same great work, just phase 2. "the rescue."

 10. What kind of a church building are you meeting in there?

        A standard Peruvian chapel.

 11. What is the name of the city you are in?

       Alto Moche

 12. Did you get your bday package? It was in an envelope so I didn't think it would have to go thru customs.

       YES! Thank you so much! Dad's beard is ridiculous. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. And Grandma Boekweg, thank you for your letter! You will have to let me know when we can go. Grandpa Thorpe, thank you very much as well. I look forward to interviewing you for a family history project. For that matter, you will all get your turn.

 

I almost cut my finger off this week. I was being dumb trying to use a Gillette razor to cut off part of my pen that doesn't let me put it in my pocket, when it slipped and left a centimeter deep slice wounds across the tip of my left pointer finger. I am lucky the skin didn't detach completely, or it may have been a problem with guitar in the future. Ha ha ha ha. Idiot............ It bled a ton. 

 

That's it for this week.

Love,

-Elder Boekweg