Hey guys well how was your week?  This week was good but it was also kinda stressful. Last night when I was trying to skype my family skype wasn't working eventually I called someone else to see if they had a computer so we went over there and had absolutely no problems except when the power went out for about 5 minutes but other than that everything was good. Mothers day is surprisingly big here in Peru.  It's called mothers day but it's not celebrated like mothers day at least not for the majority. Its celebrated more like drink alot of beer, blast music and vandilism day but whatever,I guess everyone has there own idea.  This week was good, we taught about a good 35 lessons and well they were all pretty good. We don't have alot of new investigators but we do have a lot of recent converts that I am working with.   The 2 that I baptized are active, comming to church, on time if not early participating, and learning. Max is reading the Book of Mormon as well as the teaching of one of the prophets right now. Well the sad news is that the converts of the missionaries before me well they are not attending church but they are super cool guys  they just are not doing the things that they should be doing. It's kinda frustrating since they combined our area we have about 30 recent converts that we are working with and trying to keep active or to reactivate. By the way for you future missionaries when you baptize someone don't just leave them and move on to get another baptism . We invite all people to come unto Christ by faith, repentance, baptism, and receiving the gift of the holy ghost and ENDURING TO THE END! Sorry I know it better in spanish but I think the point is the same.  So ya the president wants us to stick to our converts like freaking glue and right know. I learned from Elder Rios only baptize if they are keeping there commitments. Why? Because that is how you can tell if they will remain active in the church or not! Numbers are not important.We are really working hard with are converts and trying to only focus on our progressing investigators. Well anyway I've been out here in Peru for about 6 months more or less and I still can't speak this language. By the way mom when you send me the dictionary can you also send me a spanish for idiots book please our grammer book is crap i really hate it . All it does is say how to do something like conjugate a verb but it doesn't tell you in what situation to use it . That is really bugging me because well I'm not the smartest kid on the block so I need people to dumb things down for me a little so please send me a spanish for idiots book I really need it, also tons of prayers wouldn't hurt. Anyway I don't know what else to say so love you all bye.

Elder Atwood

Well what's up Texas and the rests of America?  First congrats to my cuz Trayden who got his mission call to Tahiti. Well first off I'm glad I'm not learning that language cuz well heaven knows there´s no way I could.  Things here in Peru are pretty good. I really love it here and right now Trayden I can promise you that if you dedicate yourself to the work you will love it too.  Well I write for my friends John,  Brandon, and my Brother River.   Guys what can I say,  I miss y'all like crazy but I love the mission and I love what it has done for me.   I know that I wouldn't be doing you guys any favors if I went home, but heck I don't want to go home.   It's awesome here and there's only a couple of things I would change: 1) the dry dirt to green plants, 2) the dogs,  I hate the dogs by the way do we still have timber? , 3) the open breastfeeding and that's just because it just gets straight up weird.  Other than that I love it. Well first I want to talk about two cool experiences. Well my first day with my new comp Elder Condori  we went to his house too drop some stuff off then he asked if I could say a prayer before we go to work.   So I offered a prayer asking God to guide us to the people that are ready to be baptized.   We left out of the house and 30 seconds later some school girl about 14 years old yells, " Hermanos".  She says hi I'm Milagros and my aunt is a member of your church and my cousin is on a mission and I want to be baptized what do I need to do . I was like wow Lord what took you so long? haha.   That was truly amazing!   We taught her twice and she is great but the 3rd time she wasn't there, apparently she was working so that may be it. Well the other one happened this morning.   Here in Peru and as a missionary everyone tells me about there spiritual dreams.   Everyone always tells me about them and asks what about yours.  I haven't had any but this Sunday I was fasting and praying that God would give me a greater witness that I may know that Jesus is my savior and that the Book of Mormon is true. Well as Alma the younger said to his son Helaman,  I have fasted and prayed many days that I might know of these things. Well last night about 5 minutes before the alarm went off two numbers kept popping into my head, 110,5 105,10 .  So I went to the only book that had that many chapters, D&C and read them. I freaking jumped out of my bed to read them and I was just freaking shocked.  I wrote it down in my journal immediately.  I don't know what y'all will think but for me that was pretty cool so I am just pumped for the day.   I learned that God really does answer prayers .  I haven't just been praying and fasting for this for 1 day it's been like months but it was well worth it.  Then Lord tries patience guys especially mine with the companions that he has given me and the stuff that's happened.   It is not one of my virtues but hopefully it can be. Well I am kinda getting mad at my zone leaders.  They said speak only spanish .   I am the only gringo in my district and the only time I speak english is P day. I told them that I will only speak english p days and they got mad. Well it wouldn't have been a problem if one wasn't lazy and if the other didn't talk english this morning . I really don't like hipocracy oh well . Other than that they just gave us a freaking 2 hour lamanita. Which is like they come to your house in the morning and make sure that you are awake studying and all. Well we were but the new zl wanted to do a practice lesson and read in the Book of mormon and all. The lamanita is normaly only 30 minutes if that.   I wouldn't mind it except it takes out from my study time.   I wanted to at least finish my personal study but my comp wouldn't let me . It s kinda been a problem I'm going to have to set him down and talk to him because there are 2 study times that I absolubtely need to have: personal and language.  Lately he just wants to reach the goal for lessons and we have been lacking time for language. Oh well,  hes a nice guy but just well no companionship sees eye to eye or very few. My favorite comp Elder Rios got on my nerves some times so it's normal. Well I love it here!!!  A bit of advice for my friends, brothers, family,  and those preparing for a mission. Read the Book of Mormon it truly is a Marvel.   Say your prayers and when you pray don't hide anything from God, it's impossible, put everything on the table with God . Tell him everything about your day your life struggles,  temptations, and let us never forget to thank our Father in Heaven.  One more thing: laugh, smile, and don't take things to seriously.   Life is meant to be enjoyed not just endured as Gorden B Hickley said. Laughing is a disease and it's contagious.  If you laugh you will feel happy and make others happy and happy people are always the best to be around .  Alright I got to go but love you all. 

Elder Atwood

Hola Texas how are y'all ? Well this week has been cool.   I was really sad that my companion Elder Rios left home he ent there it was awkward at first and my comp kept trying to talk to him. I got the impression that he didn't really like my comp so I noticed that he was wearing a flash superhero shirt so I started to talk to him about that and he is apparently like really into superheros.   He has like every superhero shirt then he told me about the new star wars movie and the batman vs superman and the new movie that will be out, Joker with Jared Leto.   By the way dad and mom you guys are forbidden to watch star wars without me. Well anyways,  we started talking and we have a lot in common.  M comp says lets leave we cant talk about this apostacy!   I was kinda mad when he did that because  its not bad to talk about it, it's bad to watch it like a movie but its not bad to talk about it, oh well.   Saturday I had the privilage of baptizing our investigator Max while a member in our ward baptized Fillipe.  It was a very wonderful experience and they where both confirmed the next day during sacrament meeting.  Fillipes  grandmother came to his confirmation, she was baptized 4 years ago and Sunday she celebrated her 95th birthday.   People at church celebrated it with her after sacrament meeting.   I think everyone just wanted to know what the ark looked like when it landed haha. Well I am having the time of my life here in the mission. things get hard sometimes but i will stick with what dad said,  "the bad times will outnumber the good, but the good times will out weigh the bad. 

Go on a mission, it's great and I have really seen it change me.   I am trying to be the 4th missionary and just give my will to the Lord, it's hard and I am a work in progress but I am 10 times better than I was before.  I love it here and I love all of you guys,  stay safe!

THE KINDOM OF GOD OR NOTHING

ELDER ATWOOD

Hola Texas whats up? Well this week was good, sad, frustrating, and about a mix of a billion other feelings.  My companion leaves for his home in Iquitos tomorrow so I am sad about that because he was my favorite companion.  This week we spent alot of time visiting our converts and investigators. I was really mad yesterday when we stopped by our 2 converts homes they are like 15 and 21  and they got dressed and ready for church and I said ok church startes in 15 minutes we will see you there and they said ya ok cool. Well they didn't come. I cant snap at them for not reading and praying but man come to chuch the building is on the same freaking street. Oh well!!  This week Brother Fellipe left the hospital on Sunday but we still need to find out and make sure.  I think with my new companion we will give him a week to kinda rest and relax then on Saturday not this one but the next we will have his baptism. He is really prepared but I am a little worried becasue he reads alot of religous magazines. He showed us a photo of like 300 people baptized and he was really exited about that until we told him and explained to him that baptism without the proper authority is well useless.  I will keep praying for him and visiting him although it will be difficult to find his house because I've never been there. He's been at the hospital this entire change. Well yesterday our 2 investigators Max and Christian attended church again and had a baptismal interview.  They are both 25 years old.  Max is a cool musician guy kinda chubby and when we teach him he pays attention but doesn't always comprehend very well but he has a real desire to learn and he really feels that it is true.  He really loves what he learns and he is very humble. Christain is cool kinda, a rich guy in the neighborhood but I think he has a crush on this chick in our branch to whom he is friends with. He is sharp, very intelligent, knows the bible well, pays attention during lessons, and even takes notes sometimes and he reads the folletos I don't remember how to spell it in English.  I think its like pamphlets.  He reads them before our lesssons. He pays attention but at the same time he is just looking for evidence looking for knowlednge that it is true. Well anyway Max is ready to be baptized and I believe that we are having the baptism this Saturday while Christain says he needs a little more time. Thats all good and all but I am trying to figure out if Christain is just doing this for the girl or for the knowledge or for eternal life - either way he will stay in my prayers and we will continue to teach him.  This week I have been reading Jesus the Christ and it's a great read very educational but the whole time that I was reading it I just kept thinking about the Book of Mormon. I just didn't feel the energy that I felt when I read the Book of Mormon. So this week I decided that I am going to read the Book of Mormon at least 2 more times until I start Jesus the Christ. I can't leave words to describe it but the Book of Mormon just gives me strength and I love it it makes me feel like I can resist all temptation like I can do anything.

LOVE 

Elder Atwood 

Well whats up America, land of the free home of the green !!! Oh I miss that color so freaking much . Well this week was dope as usual. I'm kinda sad though because my comps dying soon ( missionary speaking).  This week we actually had a baptism. This lady named Herman Clara or Sister Clara. Well she is like 4 feet tall and she was born in 1937, yep you guys read heard right . 19 freaking 37 man thats like just before the dinosours died. I will have to ask her what they look like next time I see her. Well anyway we have been teaching her for a while and well she knew the church was true all along but would always give us the," but I'm catholic." Well we finally conviced her to accept a baptismal date which was this last Saturday. Well about 2 hours before the baptism we went to get her and bring her to the baptism, and well she didn't want to be baptized but my comp in his freaking awsomeness said [ well lets ask GOD and see what He says].  She offered the prayer then I asked her so what did He say? she said," he said yes."   Apparently that wasn't enough to convince her so she wanted to call her friend and ask him if she should be baptized in the restored church . Well he said yes so she changed and went with us to the stake center because our building is a branch above an internet station and it doesn't even have a font.   It is actually built to be a home like where people live there with a shower in the only bathroom. We get to the stake center, she changed and my comp started to practice with her and tell her to plug her nose and stuff. Well she understood.  By the way she is short like 4 feet tall, Ridge is taller than her ( see in the pictures). Well my comp took here into the font and all seemed well. He baptized her and she plugged her nose but forgot to close her mouth so like ALOT of water entered in an she started coughing so another elder who was in whites because he just baptized jumped in to help carry her up to the bathroom where a bunch of women that where members helped her to the bathroom. I heard like alot of coughing and just thought OH MY GOSH WE JUST KILLED HER. I told the people that we have like 2 witnesses that can say that my comp killed her and I was inocent. Well I was freaking out because she is like 78 years old so I asked this dude Elder Pitcher if he could come with me and say a prayer that she wouldnt well die-. Well she didn't die and everything was cool and she was confirmed the next day on Sunday. I'm trying to think about what else to  write... I leanred something cool this week, lunch has to have rice or chicken if it doesn't it is not lunch and you cannot call it lunch and by the way lunch here is huge it is actually the biggest meal.  The people here they are very well open.   The other day I had a zit, and maybe your mom or someone will tell you or maybe like someone else will quitely or at least discreetly that you have a zit. Well here they say," WOW that is huge what is that massive freaking thing on your face?"  They also will call there wives fat like in front of them . I also learned that skinny here is bad fat is good.  Fat means healthy even when your like 300 pounds.  If it is not diabetes its not bad.  Also did I tell you how many continents there are... 5.   There are 5 continents according to them . I told them 7 and they looked at me like I was a freaking martian. Well they believe that North America and South America are 1 continent because they are connected and apparently Antarctica doesn't exist. I explained to them that Europe and Asia are connectied by a massive piece of land and I said why is that not 1 continent what's the difference between that and America?  I lawyered them soooo hard but here only response was nnooo no nooo you american you don't know anything. I had to explain to this lady for like 20 minutes that if I pay something with a 100 she is not going to loose money but again nooo noo you dont know anything you gringo. You know they dont really call me Atwood actually funny thing they can't even pronounce Atwood.  They say atood, atood, atwit, atsit ,but never atwood.   People here don't even say elder they say hey gringo america or elder gringo.  What else, well to answer Oakley's question we don't drive its about 99 percent walking but sometimes when we are in a rush we take this thing called a motortaxi.  If that doesn't scream safety I don't know what does.  Also to go to other cities  we take a bus which we always sit in the front because people will push you to the back and its hard to get out, it gets really crowded and I can never actaully stand up in the buses. We actaully did service the other day and I wanted to go buy sunscrean but they said no gringo thats why your so white so ya i got fried.  I will actually send pictures of it next week the worst part was my comp left the keys at the zls place so we had to wait for them to bring us the keys they said hey were almost here for like 2 hours so I got even more fried.   Funny it took them that long when they live 10 minutes away bus ride. . Anyway our goal is to teach 32 lessons a week minimum and we find most of our investigators by contacting and by part member families. We actually have 2 new ones that are references from this girl Nataly in our branch. There names are Chistain and Max and they came to church the other day. Anyway I got to go right now, I love you all and I love being a missionary.  Btw maybe next time I will tell you how much weight I gained. 

Love y'all 

Elder Atwood

A recent convert Jovani.  He was running and fell and rolled

down a hill so we went to visit him.

 This jar Canyon is holding is tea in a glass called sporade.  It's the good tea though and I've actually had more tea here than water.  I think it's  insane the people here love it!

 We sent packages to Canyon and his companion.

 They were rewarded with skittles for passing room inspection.  This was the first time his companion had skittles!

This is Hermana Clara!

We bought Canadian socks for these 2 boys.  You can't see it but has the Canadian flag on the back of the socks.

Ok guys so whats up this week was dope. Well first I have to tell you what happened this morning so I don't forget because it was so freaking awesome. Ok so here it is. Well every Monday morning our zone goes to play soccer at this field nearby.  We have to pay to play but its cheap and its well awesome. We try to bring converts and less actives and investigators. That's not important this is...Well I am in Peru and everyone plays soccer here even the fat 90 year old dude, yep he plays soccer.  They are all pros and I'm not.  I am in shape and decently fast and I try hard.  So today there was this latino, Ithink he is from Chille or Bolivia and he isn't very good but he is still better than me.  He was getting ready to score when I blocked him and stole the ball.   I am just sprinting as fast as I can with the ball . I got past all of these latino soccer players some how, my comp says it was through the holy ghost haha!! I  just to give you an idea of how good they are,  one member played semi pro then broke his leg and I guess a dude in my zone is looking to play pro after his mission. Well back to the story.  So I crossed over this guy and knocked him over then right when I was by the goal two guys came to me trying to block me so i just kicked it like soooo  hard and GOAL!!!  I was so freaking psyched everyone was like wait, wait was that Elder Atwood. I just ran, went on my knees and screamed DOYCHLAND!!!  I wanted to do a back flip but for some reason i didn't oh well I know for next time. Well ya definantly a shirt tear moment. 
This week was good our investigator Fillipe is getting out of the hospital today so we should be baptizing him on the 11th. Well we also had an investigator Max who attended conference and liked it and we had this girl Nataly in our branch bring a friend Christain who we never taught before but he was apparently really curious about the church. He went with her to conference and ate lunch with us at the branch presidents home after and guess what he said he wants us to teach him so that he can be baptized because he knows that this is the true church . Lesson learned, YOU can put your money on the prophet, haha.   We were super psyched when we heard that. Well lets see I had an interview with President this week like we do every 3 months.  He normally asks questions like how you doing hows your area hows your comp anything I can do for you . Well the first thing he askes me is Elder Atwood how has the mission changed you. I just thought for a moment. I have changed a lot. I am alot more social and I actually smile, not enough but I am actually trying to show my happiness  more that s the goal .   We started talking and he asked me how he could be of help to me.   I said i just had a couple of questions. Im not going to state them all but i said, "President I have something bothering me, I finished the Book of Mormon for the second time : Read it again he said. Well I said here is the thing, I read it and I love every bit of it and I know its true but I don't think I have got a spiritual feeling or confirmation that it is true. He immediatly said do you know its true ? Yes I said . Pres replied," then don't doubt it."  When it comes down to it you either know it or you don't." That was awesome. Then I asked him on last question . You know how we will have spiritual moments that are well just overwhelming but then in an hour that feeling is gone, how can I have the spirit with me continually?  Well Pres said you can't . MY heart dropped . He said that is part of life. In Jesus The Christ we read that during the atonement in the garden Christ asked God to remove this cup from me. Well he said that at that moment God his father removed ALL of his spirit from Christ . He asked me why I said so that he would know what it was like to be one of us and so that he could say I have been there during our trials.  Pres said yes and even more so he could have a victory over Satan and I believe that is why maybe God removes a little of his spirit from us so that we can have a personal victory over Satan and become more like Christ. That just blew my mind he told me many more things that I don't think I will write to you guys but I really wish that I brought  my notebook in there with me because I learned so much it was crazy. I can't even describe to you guys how happy I am to be here, please do me a favor and don't tell me how much time I have left or anything cuz I get super sad . Well a quick shout out to River and Oakley who should be celebrating there 8th and 17th birthdays this week.  Quick advice River mormon prom sucks, you didn't miss out on anything trust me .  There is always next year so keep lifting and drop the roids.  I need some here in Peru.  Maybe if your awesome enough you can score a goal on pro soccer players like I did. Well actually River I really miss you  man we always were hanging out and out of all people you were my closest friend . Well I miss you man and maybe if you don't get your mission call before I leave you can come down to Peru and I can show you around my areas and maybe visit the more beautiful parts of Peru . I don't know if i would bring mom dad and the kids because open breastfeeding is kinda awkward and I wouldn't want anyone picking up any bad habits hahha.  Oakley Mockley you will turn 8 and you will have the opportunity to be baptized make sure you stay clean after baptism or at least better than I did . Dad had to baptize me twice because God knew i was a little EXTRA dirty. A little more about the culture here . I told you they breast feed in the open right well ya it gets pretty awkward when they are breast feeding there 5 year old kid about 2 feet from you during the lesson. Like we were teaching lesson 1 the Restoration in my last area and this lady just startes breastfeeding while I am trying to say the first vision. I usually like to make eye contact during that part of the lesson and really bear testimony after but I just couldn't.   I learned something the other day from a peruvian dude who knows english.   I guess when he was a kid missionaries lived in his home and taught him english, he is the Branch Presidents son. He said that for lunch if it doesn't consist of rice, potatoes, and chicken it is not lunch.   He told me how he has been trying to Americanize his family and has changed things like lunch and the breastfeeding . Anyway we have to go!!  Love you guys!! River and Oakley happy birthday!! Ridge, Ireland, Mom, Dad love you guys so much too love you all!!!

Elder Atwood

Hey guys whats up.

Well this letter will be super short because the email account wasn't working for all the missionaries, we actually had to call the assistants to have them fix some stuff and had to change my password and a whole lot of other stuff.  Well this week was good but honestly kinda slow in terms of progressing investigators.  We had this investigator Denis who was the mother of a recent convert, Luis. Well we taught her 2 lessons and gave her a Book of Mormon then she dropped us . She said she believes that all this is true but I'M CATHOLIC!! I get that phrase a billion freaking times a day. It kinda gets on my nerves . We had this investigator Clara who went to church like  4 times, read the Book of Mormon and told me flat out She believes  Joseph Smith was a Prophet and this church is true because God always worked with prophets in the Bible .  I challenged her to baptism and she said," NO I'M CATHOLIC!!" I said," but you know that this church is true why not be a member of the TRUE CHURCH?"   She explained to us that she was born into the catholic church and doesn't want to change which I thought was weird when she came to church for the whole 3 hours yesterday.  We are going to keep making frequent visits with her and try to help her progress but if she doesn't we might have to drop her this week. We have an investigator Fellipe, he is getting baptized tomorrow. He would have been baptized like my first week here but he has been in the hospital.   He is getting skin grafts for his leg, I don't know what happened and I wanted to get pictures of that but I didn't think that it would have been very respectful. We are teaching this guy John he is a pretty cool guy and he accepted a date for baptism . We taught him all the commandments and he is going to have to get married first.   He said he didn't have a problem with the word of wisdom but when we went to get him Sunday to bring him to church he was passed out from all the alcohol he drank the night before. Note on that I see so many freaking drunks here. We actually went to teach a lesson to one of the recent converts, a family actually.   The dad was flat out wasted.  He started screaming at his wife so we had to get him to calm down, he started waving his arms around so I was thinking in my head I might have to beat this guy up.  I'm not a big guy like River but the people here are like a head shorter than me. Well we ended up being able to calm him down without the use of force which kinda sucked for me because I was feeling a little Bruce Lee at that moment haha!!! Well the family was thinking about getting a divorce so we are working and trying to resolve there problems.  They are family Cañote by the way. Anyway, I see so many drunks here like yesterday we were walking from lunch and these people were moving this giant rock so that they could build a house there . Well they weren't having very much luck so we decided to help them out. Well they were all fat and week by the way. In this area I have not seen one skinny girl, some skinny guys but the girls are all fat.  I told them to move out of the way and told them to watch how we do it in TEXAS!!  I basically moved a 3000 pound rock with my guns which I have now knicknamed THUNDER and MORE THUNDER, pretty creative right haha.  I don't have a name for my pecs yet so River will have to help me out on that one.  I want to tell you a little about the culture here.  First they only eat two types of food chicken and rice and more rice. Like it doesn't digest very well so it takes like a week to get through my system so my dumps weigh like 3 pounds each.  They breast feed in the open here.  During church a women will just flip them out and start feeding the kid.   At the hospital yesterday I saw this kid running around screaming he was about 4 or 5 years old,then this fat lady just grabbed the kid flipped them out and the kid started drinking. I was like lady is that even your kid! Any way I gotta go the zl are barking at me.  Love you all!! 

ELDER ATWOOD