Thought I would write you at the same time today to pack in more info haha. First of all sorry that I keep using the card, but I had to buy stomach medicine (more about that later) and I will try to not use it for a while haha! Oh, and I don't know if you guys can call them or visit the website to make sure they don't cancel it in Mexico or whatever. They told me that we have to let them know every 6 months that I'm still here to be able to use it, and its almost that time. Oh and to answer moms question, Damian Jr. is 11, but is years ahead maturity wise.
But now that's out of the way, here's what happened this week.
Everything was going well until I ate 4 gortitas one day with a lot of
salsa. The following day I thought I had appendicitis because they pain
was so severe in my stomach. We went to the doctor and it turns out I
messed up the stomach mouth or something. So I had to buy some medicine
and cant eat spicy food for 2 months.... Sad news. However I was
still able to baptize even though my stomach was killing me haha. We
had two more baptisms to end the transfer. Their names are Renata and
Valaria and are 10 and 14. Hopefully the rest of their family can join
later, but first they have to overcome some trials with the word of
wisdom.
We had transfers and I knew that I was out of Celaya. However I
was not expecting to become a district leader.I'm pretty nervous, but
excited as well. The hardest parts are giving the District lesson every
week and also handing the phone all the time, but I know my Spanish
will improve because of it. It was really sad leaving Celaya. Everyone
made me promise to visit them when I come back haha! It's weird being
here in a new area where I don't know where anything is. Hopefully I can
learn quickly. My new comp is Elder Cardona from Columbia. I'll send
pictures next week. My new area is quite a bit more dangerous, so we'll
have to be careful where we work haha. But yeah, that's about all
that's new. Hope everything goes well this week! Pray for my Spanish
haha! Love you Mom and Dad, talk to you next week. Oh, and my area is
called Leon Moderno.
Elder Cherpeski
10/2/2017
I loved General Conference as well! I watched most of it in English but
I watched Sunday morning in Spanish and they don't have to delay it or
anything. I understood most of it in Spanish but its still much better
in English haha! My health is better, but also I broke out in hives
last Thursday after the comida... I have no idea why, but we went and
bought benadryl and waited it off in the house. I don't think Mexico
agrees with my body haha! And yes, I loved Tad R. Callister's talk. He
absolutely destroyed everyone that doubts the Book of Mormon haha! I
also really enjoyed the talks by Elder Holland, President Nelson, and
Elder Anderson. It was sad to hear about Elder Hales, but also really
touching that he had prepared something, and ultimately it got shared.
Something really cool about my area here is that the first counselor in
the mission presidency is in the ward, so he invites us to do stuff
a lot. He had us over for breakfast, and fed us in between conferences
haha! Also every Friday we help him with a Pickleball activity that he
holds in his neighborhood. We definitely enjoy a lot of privileges
being in the area with him! Well, I'll talk to you next week! We have
to go to the Central in a little here to welcome in the new
missionaries!
I forgot to tell you about my new comp! He's from Columbia, and speaks a
little fast and quiet so we had a little trouble communicating at
first, but I can understand him now haha. He's a good missionary, and
he has about 8 months in the mission. He's also a convert of 6 years I
think. Elder Cardona and I are gonna get along just fine I think haha.
10/16/2017
Spanish has messed up my spelling pretty good. Everything in Spanish
is spelled and read exactly the way it sounds, so it throws off my
spelling sometimes. Bonny spelled in Spanish would be "bani" or
something close to that. My companion is nice, but a bit of a
germaphobe, and sometimes speaks really quiet and really quick so he can
be hard to understand. However we get along just fine, and he likes to
work and that's the most important part. The ward is nice, but it still
doesn't really feel like my ward yet. That will come with time.
There's about 120 people that attend every week, so it's a bigger ward
than my last. Some of the families we went to eat with this week thought
that I was a brand new missionary, and would start talking to my comp
about me and were surprised when I would reply to whatever they had
said. It was kind of funny. The area here is huge and I still feel
like I hardly know it. Google maps would be pretty useful haha. I'm
glad everyone is doing well. Everything well is going here. We don't
have too many in teaching right now, but we've been finding new
investigators and with time we'll get the missionary work here operating
smoothly. Love you mom, have a great week! Can't believe it's almost
been 6 months!
Hey everyone! Just a little update for you guys to let you know life is
going great! This Wednesday I'm going to hit 6 months on the mission!
It was definitely a quick 6 months, and it's only speeding up!
Preaching the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ has changed me in ways I
didn't know was possible. I left 6 months ago thinking and believing
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints was true. Now I know
that it is true, without a doubt. I've witnessed miracles in the
conversion process of people that I know here, and I will never be able
to deny that. I hope everyone is doing well, and if you have any
questions and want to know more about what I've been up to just send me
an email and I'll get back to you next week! Love you all,
10/23/2017
Thought I would write you all at once today. I want to talk to you a
bit about my area and the mission in general today. First of all, I'm
glad everyone is doing well, and it's crazy to think that the school
year is in full swing already. I'm doing well, and my health is back to
normal. I'm also back to eating spicy food again, and loving it! My
companion is Elder Cardona, and is from Colombia. He's nice, but speaks
super quick and quietly and is sometimes hard to understand. He's not
super talkative, and most of the time I do more of the talking when we
have comida with the members haha. He teaches super well though, and
loves to work, so we get along just fine. The house here is
interesting. It's bigger and cleaner than my last house, with just one
problem. Cochroaches. I really wouldn't mind them that much if they
didn't crawl up your leg and hide in every possible location haha. We
had the house fumigated, but it just made them come out of hiding. Oh
well, at least it's not like spiders or something worse.
The area was absolutely dead when I got here. They had 3
investigators, so we've been doing a lot of finding. We have one really
cool investigator though. His name is Pedro, and he's 67 years old.
He was a dentist, and has some of the grossest teeth I've ever seen.
Kind of ironic. But he's come to church 5 times in a row. That's
better than most members here haha! He has a ton of questions and
doubts, but this last week at church he told us that he received some
direct answers to questions that he had been thinking about. This week
we're going to try to put him on date. He knows a handful of English words, and he always tells me "Good morning," when we go to his house.
He's a great guy, and the sad part is that his family wants nothing to
do with the church. He's progressing well though, and told us that he
believes the church is true. He especially liked an example I taught
him when we taught the Restoration when I tore up a tarjeta (pass-along
card) and explained why there are so many churches today, and that all
have a bit of the truth but not all of it. He still refers to that
example and its been weeks haha. Also its been a little hard working in
the area since its so huge. It's like 10 times larger than my last
area. There are so many people out there ready to listen, it's just
hard finding them.
One of the largest upsides to the area I'm in is that it's the area
with Elder Beus. He's the first Counselor to Pres Williamson, and is
from Utah. He and his wife are super great people. Only he speaks
Spanish, but his wife is super kind and wants to feed us, which is super
nice. We go to their house twice a week. He lives around the corner
from Pedro, and goes to the lessons with us, and every Friday evening we
go and hold a Pickleball activity in his neighborhood. Lots of fun.
He's a very sarcastic guy, and loves to joke around with the
missionaries. The last few days, his 10 kids have been in Leon
visiting, and last night we had a little devotional with his family and
all the missionaries. It was great, and I realized how much my Spanish
has improved last night. The devotional was held in Spanish, and I
understood everything. Afterwards when I was talking to his family,
they said that they didn't really understand anything. I don't really
worry about Spanish any more, but I still study a lot, and keep working
on my accent.
Being the district leader has been a learning experience. The hardest part is giving the district meeting every Tuesday for an hour and a half.
Nobody else in my district speaks English, so I'm on my own as far as
speaking goes haha. It's been fun though, and I love giving baptismal
interviews. It's cool to see how these peoples lives have changed.
Another difficulty at first was talking on the phone, but I'm getting
better at that as well. Overall life here has been going great, and it
keeps getting better. We're receiving 20 new missionaries this change,
so there's a possibilty I'm going to train. We'll see what happens. I
hope you all have a great week, and if you have any more specific
questions about stuff, just send me it in your next email, and I'll
answer it! Love you all!
10/26/2017
We love your son. He is
doing great. Spanish is great, works hard, is fun and positive. This
is Elder and sister Beus with part of our visiting family with the
missionaries in Leon after a Christmas choir practice. Hope all is well
in Oregon. Love the Beus’s
Elder Cherpeski says happy birthday mom (yesterday)
Elder Cherpeski says happy birthday mom (yesterday)
10/30/2017
It was actually Elder Bues and his wife that sent that haha. They're
such great people! And you can remind Connor as well that Andrew and I
didn't get smartphones until our junior year haha. And I understand
what you mean about the junk at a Mexican market. They're called
Tiangis, and most of the stuff is kind of junky. I can't believe that
Octubre is almost over, I feel like it just started. We went to the zoo
for P-day today, and I'll send pictures next week since my camera is
dead right now. I'm happy to hear that Alli is doing well. I'm really
curious to see the Day of the Dead as well. Some of the members have
their houses pretty decorated for it haha. I'm also curious to see if
we can work Halloween evening or not... I guess I'll find out! Sorry
the email was so short today, but we're a bit short on time. We have an
appointment here soon, but I'll write you a longer email this next
week! Love you!
Elder Cherpeski
11/6/2017
Hey, so since I've been terrible at sending you guys pictures, here's a
bunch! Everything from going to the zoo on preparation day, to some of
my buddies here on the mission! Things are going great, and I just want
to let you know that our Heavenly Father loves you and I more than we
can comprehend! Take care everyone!
We had changes, and I'm here with Elder Cardona for another change.
Hopefully we can get a couple baptisms this next change. We were also
super busy this week. It went by incredibly fast, and I feel like time
has been picking up. Well, I'll send you all a nice long email as a
family next week, but one of my friends from college had her mom pass
away this last week, so I'm gonna go and write a bit to try to help with
that. It's a tough thing, even with the knowledge of the gospel.
