Merry Christmas from the Vitarte Zone

Christmas

Christmas Week

wellll quite a good week i guess you could say Christmas is sneaking up on us! idk why but its been a little harder this year to have it sink in. its been kinda depressing because the people where I live don't go all out on Christmas lights like they did in Manchay. It's crazy how they people with less money are the ones that do more to create the Christmas spirit. I really hope this week the people around here stop being so rushed and stop to feel the Christmas spirit, because Christmas is a time of year that's really special, especially when you are teaching about the life and ministry of our Savior. It just seems like they aren't feeling the Christmas spirit yet. But in all other regards it has been a great Christmas season.
this week we have been working alot with Katy, the sister of Milagros.
she said she wants to get baptized but she feels like there's something stopping her. we are praying soooo much for her. that would be the best Christmas present ever to see her choose to take this step in her life. I feel like her and Milagros are like my sisters. It's crazy how Heavenly Father has put these people that seem to grow closer to me at this time of the year (at this time last year I met hermana Blanca and her family, what a true blessing that was for me). So if you will all just keep Katy in your prayers and I'm sure she will be able to feel the prayers of others on her behalf.
Our zone is working super hard. We had 5 baptisms yesterday and everyone is super excited to keep working hard and spreading the message of the gospel. We have got a great zone (except we are now really missing Elder Biliter).
Elder Quiñonez is seriously awesome tho. He's the only member in his family and was baptized 2 years before he came. He's got an amazing testimony and teaches super well, we are having a great time teaching together.
Well I hope you guys have an amazing Christmas week, it's my last in the mission. I'm gonna have the best time that I can sharing the gospel, keep me and the people here in your prayers. love you all! Talk to you soon !!!
Elder Paolacci

Amazzzzzzing Week

woooohoooo!!!!
new baby in the family! I'm so excited! Delainie is such a cute baby, I cant wait to meet her! well I just got back from the office and Sister Baldwin just dropped off the package so I now have it. I can't wait to eat the cookies. I'm gonna use these new shoes as my shoes for important stuff when I have to look good and I'll try to treat them well so I can use them when I get home. ahhh so excited!


well this week was ammmmaaaazzzzzing
Lets see Monday we watched Toy Story 3 with the zone and played basketball. We needed a down day and it was fun and relieved alot of stress. 


Wednesday was probably the coolest day of my mission. We found out on Tuesday night that the ward wanted us to go to the temple with them to help with baptisms. So we instantly called president and he gave us permission.
That night we called our converts and 3 said they might be able to go, Stephany, Yuri (its pronounced Judy, she got baptized like 2 days before i got here), and Milagros! But none of them were sure. In the morning we called Yuri and she could to go, stephany got permission from her mom so she was super excited but Milagros still didn't know if she would be able to make it work. After we called, Elder Biliter and I kneeled and prayed that she could receive the help to be able to go. We called her again awhile later and she said she had just prayed and felt that she had to go no matter what. it was amazing to know that we were praying at the same time as her and that God truly answers our prayers when we need it most.
Well to say the least, the experience in the temple was amazing, its hard to even explain in words how I felt. We got to be witnesses for the baptisms and I cried seeing Milagros get in the water. I swear, she is the most spiritually powerful person I have ever met. Let me just be the first one to say that she's gonna marry an apostle one day. I'm so glad she got in contact with you mom and you are talking to her, she loves you.
When she got baptized I told her that Logan had the same bday as her but apparently it was alot cooler coming from you . She came running up at church with the hugest smile asking me if I knew they had the same bday, haha I just acted surprised. She's so awesome and keep talking to her! (The bad thing is now that she knows my name)


Saturday we had two baptisms! It was a mother and daughter that got baptized like 3 years ago but they never got confirmed and fell away and so we were so happy to help them back and have them get baptised and confirmed. it was an amazing baptism and I got to baptize the mom and Biliter baptized the daughter, such an awesome experience.

Hey, so did you guys see the First Presidency Christmas Devotional last night?! amazing huh, I'm downloading the videos right now! those are gonna help us sooo much, what an awesome resource.
So when President Monson was talking I had the strongest impression and truly feel like we should start and end with a prayer when we open presents on Christmas, something small, but it'll help alot to keep the spirit of gratitude and the focus as to why we really give gifts.
Sounds as though grandma is loving DC and doing really well. Tell everyone I love them and send all my best.
I hope that you have a great start to the Christmas season! Loving it here in Peru !
Elder Paolacci

Best Thanksgiving Ever !!!!

woooooo familllyyyyy!

awesome awesome awesome weekend! starting off with Thursday, thanksgiving was AMAZING!!!! we went to the temple with the zone.

 we went to the ccm and ate with president and sister cavanaugh. president cavanaugh totally reminds me of john haha it was way funny. they would totally get along. for lunch we had turkey, stuffing, and a bunch of other good stuff that i don't know the name of. after the lunch i got to go see hermano casanova and hermana caballero! they were my teachers my last three weeks in the ccm. they are soooooo awesome. i love them so much. they said my Spanish was way too good haha. ahhh it was such a cool experience. after that the cavanaughs took us to a grocery store! they hooked us up with soooo much food! it was ridiculous!

 but ya ready for the highlight of the day?! so ya we were in the grocery store and biliter suddenly says ¨No! FOOTBALL!, NO! THE PACKERS ARE PLAYING!!!!!!¨. I'm sure you guys could imagine how happy your son was. haha dont worry i didn't stay and watch the game but i totally took pics with my hero Aaron Rodgers. ok i admit i totally watched one play but pres cavanaugh totally said it was ok and he watched it with me.

ahhhhhh best best thanksgiving gift i could have had. I'm always gonna remember that day. No, really I loved the Turkey too !!!! Please tell everyone thank you for the awesome messages.

 i also realized i needed to get alot better with my journal so I've been super good recently.

 so ya Friday was the baptism of a girl named stephany, shes 12 and she has the strongest strongest testimony. her uncle baptized her and she was super happy. the font was super dirty before he service so i had to mop it! so fun! but the baptism turned out amazing! 

on to Saturday...

awesome again. there was a multi stake dance festival. when i say multi stake i mean 8 stakes. it was intense. President Ardila asked us to set up some stands outside. we made a really cool Book of Mormon stand and we got a TON of references! it was a super cool activity too. 

Sunday was AMAZING too !!!

 in sacrament meeting i got to confirm Stephany, it was an awesome experience i will never forget, when i said recieve the holy ghost i just got slammed with the spirit and the words just came flowing out, it was amazing.

after church we had the baptism for a boy named Jesus. biliter baptized him and there were like 40 members there. i got to confirm him right there and then too, and had the same feelings as before.

confirming someone is such an amazing privilage and im so thankful to be able to take part of it and be a tool in the lords hands.

after church we had 4 lunches with members, I almost exploded. 

But ya , awesome weekend! unforgetable, I love the mission! most amazing time of my life.

give my love to everyone. 

love, elder paolacci!

Happy Thanksgiving !!!

welll holllllla!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!! 

number 2 in peru! so glad im with a gringo cause they totally don't celebrate it here. but we definitely started the day off awesome! today just luckily happened to be our pday and we had temple! it was awesome. after the session got some pics with the zone and got some that you can try for the christmas card! i will send them on Monday becuase they are not loading right now. 

i guess ill give you guys the low down on whats been going on the last week and a half last monday for pday we went to a market in our zone , it was pretty cool, super busy but its all good. ummm the highlight of the week was a multizone conference we had with elder waddell of the 70. he is absolutely amazing, super spiritual and taught us soooo much. afterwards we had a meeting with him with all the zone leaders and he taught us some cool stuff and really got us excited and helped to motivate us even more with things we can do to help the mission. 

also in the conference we had the long awaited mtc room reunion, me, rider, capps, and norris. sadly there was no time to take pics so ya sorry about that.

but it was awesome having us all together. 

what an awesome day it was.

this week we are gonna have 2 baptisms - a boy named jesus and a girl named stephany.

they are way awesome and im super excited for them. 

So I guess the plan today is that Biliter and I are eating Thanksgiving dinner with  the ccm president, we arent really sure. but we will get it all figured out.

well i have wasted like half my time trying to get my pics sent for the christmas card but its taking too long. ill get them to you on monday!

i love my mission and i love ya all! have a great day. give all the family my love. 

Elder W. Christopher and Sister Carol S. Waddell 

Family: born June 28, 1959, in Los Angeles, Calif., to Wayne and Joann Waddell. Married Carol Stansel on July 7, 1984, in the Los Angeles California Temple. Four children: Lauren Renee (Russel) Marsh, Rebecca Joann (Gerrit) Winkel, Marc Christopher and Jonathon William.

Education: bachelor's degree in history from San Diego State University; graduate work in BYU executive MBA program.

Career: first vice president of investments at Merrill Lynch, working in international division since 1986 with clients primarily in Mexico.

Community Service: board member of the International Community Foundation based in San Diego, Calif., and working primarily with philanthropy across the border in Mexico.

Church Service: full-time missionary in Spain Barcelona Mission, 1978-80; Area Seventy; president of Spain Barcelona Mission, 2006-2009; stake president and counselor; mission president's counselor; bishop and counselor

Thanksgiving Week

No email today because Dylan's p-day this week will be on Thursday. 

But one of the nice members in Peru posted this picture.

He looks Happy !!!!

November 14, 2011

made this pretty cool sign for 11-11-11 11:11 that ill send home for you guys

hollaaaaaa!
well, super super good week!
to start off, Monday we went shopping haha, got you guys some awesome stuff! so excited to send it off to you guys for Christmas!
well Tuesday was great, we had zl counsel, it was way cool, learned a bunch and ate pizza, what more could i ask for? i am a happy boy. ill send more pics of it next week, i forgot one of the memory cards in the room.
Then Wednesday was quite interesting, in the morning i was eating some candy and felt something super crunchy, haha ended up being my tooth! a part of my tooth broke off haha. so i went to the dentist to get it fixed and he said it was from and old filling and the wall of my tooth was super thin, and he just filled it for free. the funny part was that the office was super sketchy. he used an old microwave to store his tools. but everything turned out fine.
Thursday Biliter had to go to the doctor for something so we went to the hospital across the street from the u.s. embassy on the really really nice side of town. and we ate McDonald's. also elder rider was there with his comp so we talked a bunch. which was awesome.
now for the super cool part of the week. Saturday morning at 6am was the baptism of Hernan. it was amazing! we thought no one was gonna show up cause it was so early. but little did we know that like 20 people were there !!!! Milagros came, and a bunch of the single adults, it was awesome. he really was super prepared to accept the gospel and I'm so grateful for the privilege i had to meet and help him. now for the sad news. Saturday he told us that he's moving to Piura and might not be back for a long time. we talked alot and explained to him that if he prepares he will be able to serve a mission and that's his number 1 goal. we taught him that this is gods plan for him and that he has to help his family do the same things he is doing. he left Sunday, it was super sad but we know has gonna do what he needs to do. really was a testimony builder seeing what heavenly father does to prepare his children and how much he has prepared for each one of us.
last night we had a FHE in the house of Milagros. not exaggerating there were 27 people in her little house. the whole YSA organization went and it was an amazing experience. I'm loving it here in Vitarte and i never wanna leave. I'm so glad that I will probably be here for Christmas cause i feel like I'm part of a family here.
love you guys sooooo much and I'm so happy you guys are doing great.
Friday was the 15 month mark! its going fast! i am doing my best to make every moment count and make sure that i am doing everything the lord has planned for me. the gospel of Jesus Christ is remarkable and serving a mission is by far the best decision I have ever made. i am so grateful for this opportunity. 
Love , Elder Paolacci


Chatting back and forth this morning with him -
Dylan : hey mom i got a question I'm starting to learn Portuguese and i wanted to know if you could send me a little English-Portuguese dictionary and maybe a little book that could help me learn it. I'm reading the Book of Mormon in Portuguese right now but i might need some other stuff to make it a little easier.
Me : Portuguese ! Wow - that is awesome ! I am actually sending you out a little Thanksgiving envelope today and so I will go see if I can find one this morning. Are you finding people that speak Portuguese in Peru ? Did they come from Brazil. I am going to go ask Matt Hill if he has any suggestions.
Dylan : haha no i just wanna learn it, i have the goal when i get home to work hard and to save money and go to the world cup in 2014, so i figured this would be a good opportunity to learn it while on my mission.  

November 7, 2011

sooooo familllly!
awesome awesome week! really had alot of cool experiences.

monday we played basketball and volleyball as a zone, it was super fun, hadn't played for a longgggg long time. tuesday night we had a family home evening with the family of milagros and her dad came! she had been having alot of troubles with him, he wasn't wanting her to go to church but she's been strong and going anyways. it was a super cool experience. also this saturday we had an appointment with a guy named Herman. we have been teaching him for like three weeks and he's been way awesome. we have been kicking ourselves for never inviting him to baptism, its just we were kinda scared of scaring him off, which is completely the opposite of what we should be thinking. but saturday we sat down with him and read 2 Nephi 32 together, and it was amazing. he received so much personal revelation and he was so excited. but the best part was how strong the spirit was, it was stronger than i have ever felt. it was amazing being there witnessing his conversion right in front of my eyes. it was super cool. i could say it was the coolest lesson of my mission. the next day was sunday and he came super excited and his baptism is gonna be saturday! at 6 am!
other news is that i got a huge hookup on some new glasses. the ones i had have been hurting my head so this guy in my ward got me some super nice ones for like 30 bucks. haha they are like coletons, but i totally didn't copy him. they are just like pday glasses. i need new contacts asap
today we are going to a place called grau. its in the center of lima so that's gonna be fun maybe buy some Christmas gifts.
the zone is getting alot better, we have alot more missionaries that are willing to work hard and are having alot of success, there are 8 baptisms planned for this weekend so we are way excited.

i love my mission. truly the greatest experience of my life. the gospel is true and it brings so much happiness to peoples lives. i marvel everyday at the miracles i see as people live the gospel.

thanks for being such an awesome family. thank you for all your love and support. please continue to pray for me and the people here in peru. time is going so fast. i am still having a hard time believing coy is coming home next week. i don't want to think i only have 9 months left. haha this is crazy. i am loving every minute of my mission and i love the people of peru. i love you all

elder paolacci

here's my letter to president

Buenos dias presidente!
ha sido una gran semana presidente. primeramente quisiera pedir diculpa por no haberle enviado mi carta la semana anterior, tuve algunas problemas en cuanto de mi maquina. pero aqui esta mi carta para este semana. este semana ha sido muy buena. quisiera contarle que tuvimos una leccion con un investigador que recibio mas revalacion personal en una leccion que he visto en toda mi mision. leimos 2 nefi 31 y el su puso tan dispuesto de bautizarse. fue maravilloso. relment vi el poder de la conversion que da el libro de mormon. fue la leccon mas poderosa de mi mision y mi testimonio aumentó bastante. gracias por todo presidente, y cuidese mucho
Elder Paolacci

October 31, 2011

So this email came through sometime today . . . he must have been on a bad computer with major delays yesterday

little update

my computer is kinda lame

I'm with elder Biliter for another change! (so happy about that)

I felt my first earthquake ever! guess where I just happened to be.....haha the bathroom! haha it was so funny, scary, and awesome at the same time.

We had a crazy amazing service project this week. a lady is building her house at the top of a mountain so we carried her wooden walls up there. that slope thats in the pics is what we had to walk up with that wall.

Then we saw the ugliest saddest dog ever

Highlights of my week - we had about 10 investigators in church on Sunday and guess what ???? Elder Capps is in my zone again! I love him, he's a district leader - it's awesome - I am happy !!!

Happy Halloween

JUST PICS

Well Dylan was short on computer time this week so we just emailed back and forth a bit and then he had to go. Between our emails and Elder Biliter's (Dylan's companion) moms email I got a good recap of the week.

But we did get pictures. Always a plus.

First thing is Dylan is LOVING his companion. He continually tells us they are like twins. They have all the same likes and interests. I can also tell that they both are dedicated to working really hard. They know how to work hard and they know how to play hard.

They had a stake missionary movie night on Monday they were hoping and praying to have several investigators and new members there. 

Changes are this week and we are hoping that Dylan and Elder Biliter get to stay together at least one more change. They are working hard and there is great success ahead. They are working with a few investigators that are future missionaries and holders of the priesthood. They had 7 people at Sacrament meeting and 4 were guys who could receive the Melchizedek priesthood, which they are very excited about. We hope they get to stay in the area  and see their progression. One of the new members they have been able to help, Amador, received a calling in Young Men which they are SO excited about.

They have been visiting Milagros and her mom and sister a lot and last night they came to a FHE and it was awesome. They were able to help a family this week giving service by painting a house. They absolutely love it when they get to do service, and everyone gets a kick out of seeing them in their street clothes just out there working hard. 

They love the opportunity to do anything to serve the people of Peru.

 It is amazing to watch your son grow to truly love those he serves. He has grown so attached to them and I know he loves them with all his heart.

We will be excited to see what next weeks brings.

October 17, 2011

wellllllll
long time no talk haha. i seriously feel like i emailed 2 hours ago haha. the time is seriously going soooo fast its insane. i still don't accept the fact that coy is gonna be home in less than a month. when he gets home that means ill only have 9 months left! crazy huh. got a letter from Kelly last week, i cant believe he's already past 6 months, we are all just growing up huh, i don't like it haha. im so pumped for Shane, i was way excited this morning when i remembered i would be finding out his call. i started getting a feeling about Boston, but new jersey isn't too far off. he's gonna do awesome there, and im pumped he's gonna speak Spanish, Spanish is the BEST!
this weekend was good, super fast haha. Thursday after email we went to McDonalds to get lunch! it was so awesome, even tho i hate McDonalds back at home i thoroughly enjoyed this trip to the golden arches. the McDonalds was right across the street from the university of lima, and i just got the strongest impression that i need to come back and study here for a semester, i think it would be awesome. who knows, well see what happens. after lunch we went to the national museam, which was sweeet.
its huge and had a bunch of sick Peruvian stuff. the only bad part is that i started feeling really sick there and i was pretty dang sick until today, but im feeling alot better so everything is dandy. haha so ya story of the week has been that we are without pension (food) so we are having to eat off the street. the pensionista went to huancayo for a week. but we are fine, my stomach has been Peruvian for like 10 months now, im invincible! sunday was awesome again! cristina showed up with a friend and he loved it. carolina came and was super happy, idk if i told you but she is pregnant and 14 years old and the ward didn't know whether to put her in young women's or relief society.
The bishop prayed and fasted and she is now going to relief society with her grandma so she can know how to be the best mom to her baby, she seemed way happy to be there so i have no problem with it. now comes milagros haha, so the young single adults have officially stolen her from us.
she is so dang happy in the church it is insane. after the 3 hours she didn't want to go home. sunday afternoon we had lunch with a lady that got baptized right before i got there. she's the nicest lady ever and she cooked AMAZING, after that we watched the Joseph smith movie with her.
after that we went to have a family home evening with milagros and her family. we walked up to her house and she was crying outside. her dad had come home from work and he was drinking and she was devastated because she had been planning on it all week. so we ended up having a prayer outside and we took her, her sister and her mom to a members house and had a small family home evening. she was so happy after and had the biggest smile ever. im so glad i have been able to help people like her here in peru and i wouldn't give it up for anything. me and biliter were talking about the relationships that we get with these people and how close we get with them in so little time. it marvelous and im so insanely grateful to be here in peru. i seriously love this place and its gonna be so hard to leave, good thing i still have 10 months left haha.
Letter to President Ardila -
Presidente!
Que tal, ha sido una semana muy edificante y aprendi mucho. estoy estudiando bastante en el libro de 2 nefi y estoy aprendiendo muchos relatos que he podido aplicar a las vidas de mis investigadores, especialment la historia sobre nefi cuando el se aparto de sus hermanos con las personas obedientes por las iniquidades de sus hermanos. aprendi como podemos salir de la tentacion y recibir las bendiciones que necesitamos, y se ahora como puedo ayudar a mis investigadores y conversos seguir adelante en rectitud, jaja el libro de mormon es lo maximo. tambien presidente una pregunta, estamos enseñando a una hermana, su hija recien se bautizó. ella es super buena y quiere seguir el evengelio pero cuando le prometemos bendiciones le hablamos de la vida eterna y ella dice que no quiere la vida eterna. dice que este vida ha sido tan dificil que no quiere mas despues de esta vida. le explicamos que la vida eterna es en la presencia de dios con nuestras familias, y le gusta ese parte pero no quiere vivir para siempre. se que es falta de entender la vida eterna pero la unica cosa que le pudimos decir era orar. se que ese van a ayudar, pero tal sabe usted algo mas que puedo hacer para ayudar.
gracias presidente por su amor y ayuda
Google translation
That such has been very uplifting one week and learned a lot. I'm studying a lot in the book of 2 Nephi and I'm learning many stories that I could apply to the lives of my researchers,the story of Nephi especialment when he turns from his brothers to the people obedient tothe iniquities of their brothers. learning as we go out of temptation and receive the blessings we need, and now as I can help my investigators and converts continue in righteousness, haha ​​the Book of Mormon is the maximum. also president a question, we are teaching a sister, her daughter was baptized recently. she is super good and wants to keep the promise evengelio blessings but when we speak of eternal life and she says shedoes not want eternal life. says that this life has been so hard not to want more after this life. we explained that eternal life is in God's presence with our families, and I like that part but do not want to live forever. I know it's lack of understanding of eternal life but the onlything he could say was pray. is that this will help, but maybe you know something else I can do to help.
President thanks for your love and support

bye mom! love ya all and have a great week! keep praying for me and study the BOM. it will bless your life beyond measure. i love this gospel.

elder paolacci

Elder Biliter and I took our zone to the museum for

 last weeks p day.

Take a look at some of the cool art.

they had the cool exhibit on terrorism here in Peru over the last 20 years. It was really so sad. 

Doesn't that one look like a baptism font?

One time I was actually excited about McDonalds !!! 

I LOVE THIS PLACE !!!!

What a Week

wellll what a week! and a half haha
hmm so lets start with last Monday, we finally ended up going to that zoo, it was awesome. it was pretty small but it was way fun, not alot of people and no one in the zone complained (the best part). Tuesday we had zone counsel! it was awesome, went to the temple and ya, it was a great day. Wednesday thru Friday were kinda normal, we went on a couple visits with president Ardila, he is amazing. this weekend was one of the best weekends of my whole mission. Saturday morning we had a "helping hands" service with all of peru. each stake in Peru on Saturday did a huge service project. our stake did a bunch of stuff, they cut and washed kids hair, handed out clothes, picked up trash, and put roofs on houses. since I'm the tallest person in all of Peru (ha ha) i of course helped with the roofs. we put a roof on a house on the top of a mountain like the size of squaw peak, it was awesome. unfortunately i got super sunburnt tho. but Saturday night totally made up for it. that night we had the baptism for Milagros and Carolina, seriously the coolest thing ever. they are two awesome converts, Milagros is seriously one of my favorite people ever. her story is one i will remember forever and one that has strengthened my testimony soooo much. Sunday morning we had another baptism! it was the baptism of Cristina and her little brother Jeremy.
Cristina is soo awesome and has such a desire to learn and follow the commandments. sunday at church was awesome. Milagros and Cristina came to church super dressed up and pretty, i couldn't be any more proud seriously. that feeling when i saw both of them in the chapel just so happy was one of the strongest feelings I have had on the mission and in my life. we gave all of our converts Sunday their scriptures that the mission gives, and i also gave them each ctr rings. i told them they weren't from me but from you and they were so insanely happy. Milagros's says hi and she loves you. just seriously an awesome weekend and its super hard to explain how happy i was for them. i am sure being a parent you must understand the joy i felt. keep them in your prayers.
today we just went to the temple as a zone and we are gonna try and go to a museum. wish us luck on that one.
well i am going to send some pics real quick and then i gotta go! love you lots! ill update more on Monday.
keep being awesome - study your scriptures and keep saying your prayers !!!!
Elder Paolacci

(you can click on pictures to make them larger)