Great Week !!!

-----Original Message-----
From: Dylan Paolacci
Sent: Monday, July 11, 2011 9:52 AM
To: Kristan
Subject: Re: Happy Monday Elder Paolacci
HEEELLLLOOOOO FAMILIA!
im so sorry i didnt write last week. we were supposed to do our email after the temple on tuesday but i got the chance to go to MANCHAY! it was so awesome. i only had an hour so i went to go visit blanca (pensionista) and the fam. it was so amazing. i got to congratulate carla for her baptism (she got baptized 2 days after i left). she is way awesome, she already has an insanely strong testimony and is miamaids president. but the crazy news is that, i dont know if you remember me talking about her brother carlos, but when i got there the first thing he told me is that he got baptized too! and he told me that me and elder vizcarra seriously changed his life. he used to walk around with the gangs in manchay and always got in alot of trouble, fighting, and just not on the right path. now hes going to church every sunday, going to seminary, and who knows maybe he will serve a mission someday. im so proud of him, and really just proud of the whole family. i love them so much, idk why but they have just been so important to me my whole mission. so i figured it was worth the little sacrifice to go see them. i have a pic that i wanted to send you guys but i forgot my cables in the room.
oh ya today i complete 11 months!!! cool huh -well lets see if i can answer your questions from last week -
yes i got your packages with the shirts and stuff, and all the letters i think. i am in love with my packers shirts just to let you know.
well last pday we just were on a bus to lima,sounds like fun huh.
today we are thinking about renting out a turf feild that they have here in tarma and play some real soccer for the first time since the ccm.
um im pretty sure you already know but theres about as many dogs here in the streets as there are people. so about everyday theres a little dog threat, but ive got my ways to scare them away....cough cough(rocks). haha lets just say playing baseball is paying off.
well my pensionistas name is hermana gina. shes awesome, she cooks really well and she doesnt make me eat food that i hate. she cooks all of our meals and does it good. the only bad thing is that she lives like 10 minutes from the house in taxi, so we have to spend a majority of our travel funds on that. she has a family of like 5 or 6. all boys, but they all are older and have their own families now.
haha not sure if i told you but this is probably the funniest branch on the face of the earth. alot of old people that like to talk, imagine a ward full of ingas. they are still lacking alot of leadership and orden, but we are helping them get better.
hmmm so lets see the people im teaching...first off we are working alot with less actives and inactives here and are having alot of success. we have found a couple family members that arent members so we are activating families and baptizing at the same time. one girl we met this week that has a baptismal date is named diana, shes 11 years old. haha shes really cute and loves going to church. we are also teaching a family whos mom was just in the hospital, and they are all gonna get baptized pretty soon.
hmm well anything i need... well if you could it would be awesome if you could send a pack of uno, skip bo, phase 10, and those card games like that.they are fun on pdays and at night when me and my comp cant sleep. um as far as money goes im trying really hard to save, i dont buy as many sodas now as before, but that doesnt make too huge of a difference because they cost like 40 cents haha. but ya if you cant find some of those pilot g2 pens those are nice. and ya just snacks i guess, i loved the graham crackers with frosting, maybe go to costco and get their boxes of skittles and snickers. haha thats what elder madsens dad sent him. just send what you feel like sending i guess.oh except the cliff bars, i have all the energy i need.
so lets see, heres a little summary on the zl conference.we got to lima monday night, stopped by a place that sells ties cheap and bought 2 ties. monday night in the office saw some of my buddies. tuesday morning had conference from 8 to 1. it was insanely long, but learned alot. after that we went to lunch at some chicken restaurant, it was good. after that we went to the temple, awesome as always. after the temple took off to manchay. we slept in the mission home
again tuesday night where we bought our pizzas. and wednesday morning took off to la oroya. this was the first conference of pres, and hna ardila (R-dee-luh) haha. they are awesome, we miss pres. leyva but the ardilas are gonna be awesome too. hna ardila is super nice, like crazy nice haha. so ya im excited to have them as our leaders.
well oh my goodness logan just sounds like you guys are killing it out there on the baseball field! thats awesome i so wish i was there. all stars is seriously gonna give you some of your favorite baseball memories ever. good luck bro. oh and thats sick that the next level is in flagstaff. hope you make it. beat pv north for me would ya if you play them ! Play hard tonight for me and have mom send me some pictures of you. I will be totally cheering you on in spirit tonight and sending you all of my big bat vibes from Peru !!!
Grant told me coleton is getting huge, just make sure he stays out of my good clothes. So coleton what did you decide on as a sport ? Man totally get out there and play Golf. You can use my clubs. Just do it you would be awesome. Then I will have a golfing buddy when I get home.
Karleigh I need to hear about your life. I love you little sister. I cant believe you are going to be a senior in high school. WRITE ME !!!
I bet Morgan and trent are excited about the new baby. That is crazy I will have 2 neices when I come home. Malorie will be old enough to hang with me so that will be cool.
Tell marissa I am excited about their move to chicago. I would love to go visit chicago when I get home.
Dad - how ya doing ?
Please tell everyone thanks for their letters. I got steve & karens card too! Love the support I get from my family. You guys are awesome.
let the grandmas know how much I appreciate them. crazy you havent heard about grandma harpers call. a good lesson in patience. And mom thanks for everything, i love ya. thanks for all the support you have been giving me. i tell everyone i have the best mom in the mission!
 oh ya heres my letter to prezi
Buenos dias Presidente!
este semana ha sido muy bueno. estamos trabajando bastante aqui en marcavalle y estamos ayudando mucho a las personas aqui. estamos reativando y encontrando bautismos a la vez. hemos estado enfocandonos mucho en la manera de solver las dudas de las personas como hemos aprendido en el consejo. mis estudios nunca han sido mejores. estoy enfoncandome much en las experiencias de alma y amulek, y estoy aprendiendo como ser un mejor misionero y compañero. estoy muy agradecido por el ejemplo que ya esta haciendo para todos de nosotros y estoy animado por la conferencia viernes!
Elder Paolacci
Good morning President!

This week has been very good. We are working hard here in Marcavalle and we are helping people a lot here. estamos reativando y encontrando bautismos a la vez. We have been focusing a lot on how to resolve the doubts of the people as we learned in the council. my studies have never been better. I enfoncandome much on the experiences of Alma and Amulek, and I'm learning how to be a better missionary and companion. I am very grateful for your example already and what you are doing for all of us and I am excited for the conference Friday!
oh ya and later this week we have multi zone conference in la merced! i get to see sheridan again, and my hijo parada! (that is the missionary he trained) well i tried typing a good letter this week. i love you all. time is flying, in one month ill have a year out here. i am loving it more than i ever imagined.
love Elder Paolacci
p.s. oh and ya i promise you that pics are on the way. im sure you guys are dying, im so sorry, ill get them done asap.

P-Day

I'm Loving It Out Here

wow I had no idea that had happened. I saw Elder Diaz like halfway through his bus trip because everyone passes through la oroya when they go to provinces.. but ya the assistants called me asking if i had told people what happened to elder diaz, haha i was kinda surprised because i had no idea what was happening, lol but they were convinced i knew something....but i didnt. um im not sure if they want me knowing anything more but when i go to Lima for the zl counsel next week I will talk to them about what we can do. thats really sad and ill do my best to help him out. thank you so much for your love and im sure everything will turn out alright. What a great group of moms we have back home. The strength of our mothers doesn’t surprise us and everyone should be aware what our moms can accomplish when they unite. Thanks mom for all you do.

well about the whole bank thing. i got permission to call chase, but they were not very customer service friendly and didnt help me at all. so ya thanks for helping me keep track of things, should help alot. i figured out i get charged 5 bucks everytime i take money out, no matter where or how. haha i had no idea it would be so lame with all these fees and stuff, we have lost alot of money due to this and im really sorry. but theres nothing i can do about it now, just gotta be smart.

 

haha well that gets rid of the sad stuff.

 

lets see highlights of the week, wednesday was transfers and as the zone leaders in la oroya we are in charge of all province changes. i got to see lots of elders, including elder diaz and elder parada! haha my little boy is going to one of the coolest areas in the mission! hes going to pichinaki (la merced). i was so jealous haha. as far as the zone goes we just had a few, me and choqque are staying together.

 

I almost got killed by a dog, probably time to take out the dog dazer.

 

I ate the graham crackers and chocolate frosting that you sent me, that might be my favorite thing you have sent me lol. you know me too well.

 

haha so thats cool you got to chat alot this weekend with elder madsens mom, haha hes a great guy, he wants me to train or something to play rugby. ha i just said "look at me" and he responds with the best compliment i have recieved in my whole life..."but you got black man calves" lol made me so happy. he also gave me a snickers, awesome.

 

well i have completely forgotten what 115 degrees feels like, haha i tell the people here that it gets that hot in AZ and they freak out, they asked me if people melt, haha the people in provincia are awesome.

 

 well thats awesome that logan is on the all star team, im not surprised or anything. good luck bro and go do some work, all you gotta do is beat north and ill be happy (but if you dont ill still be happy haha). i wish i could be there to watch his games, i miss that.

 

i cant believe eric esplin is already coming home! goes so fast! wow, and tell matt breshears good luck and that hes gonna love latin america.

 

coy only has what like 3.5 months left?! dont wanna talk about that.

 

haha thanks for the pens and sudoku, my comp is on a crazy search for those pilot g2 pens, i told him id ask you to send some the next package.

 

Here is one of my favorite scriptures I want to share this week -

 

alma 44:4 Now ye see that this is the true faith of God; yea, ye see that God will support, and keep, and preserve us, so long as we are faithful unto him, and unto our faith, and our religion; and never will the Lord suffer that we shall be destroyed except we should fall into transgression and deny our faith.

 

this scriture clearly lays out what we need to do to be able to recieve the wonderful blessings that our father in heaven has for us. its a promise and our heavenly father will never fail to keep a promise, we just have to be faithful, and live his gospel and be true to the promises we have made.

 

Another one of my favorite scriptures that I want to share is -

 

Ether 12:12 "For if there be no faith among the children of men God can do no miracle among them; wherefore, he showed not himself until after their faith."

it just shows that we will not recieve any miracles unless we have faith. alot people that lose their faith start to lose it even more because they say that god has left them or they feel he doesnt care, when in reality its really due to our lack of faith.

 

well this is president leyvas last week in the mission. im so glad i got to have him as a leader and a huge example in my life

 

heres my letter to him

 

Buenos Dias Presidente,
Ya pues entonces parece que este es mi ultima carta que le voy a escribir como mi presidente de mision. Solamente quiere agradacerle por todo que hizo para mi, y para todos los misoneros que le conocieron. En verdad usted es un gran lider y mucho mas un gran ejemplo para mi. En mi corto tiempo aqui en la mision usted me ha mostrado muchos atributos que quiero tener, y que estoy esforzandome para tener. Quiero expresarle mi amor y agradacimiento por todo. Sé que usted ha bendicido bastantes vidas, y quiero hacer lo mismo. Siempre me voy a recordar de usted y su firmeza que tiene en este evangelio. Muchas gracias por todo presidente.
Elder Paolacci

 

 It seems that this is my last letter I will write to you as my mission president.I  just want to thank you for all you did for me and for all the missionarys that knew you. Truly you are a great leader and a great example for me. In my short time here in the mission you have shown me many attributes that I have, and more that I'm striving to have. I want to express my love and Acknowledgements for everything. I know you have blessed many lives, and I want to do the same. I will always remember you and your strength which you have in this Gospel. Thank you very much for everything president.

well thats all folks, thanks for everything, i love you all. im loving it out here.

Love

Elder Paolacci

p.s. we have alot of people we are teaching and they are awesome. we have about 4 people with baptisimal date for july!

EMAIL TIME !!!

email time!
well this week was great. started off with a sweet bday. we ended up going to that cave gain but we went like a mile in, it was way cool, also got some pics. so now i think im ready to burna pic cd and send it to you guys. ive been writing some letters and stuff, i just wanna get the best bang for my buck if im gonna send something home. so ya this week was great. we have been working way hard and we have found alot of people to teach. its crazy because when we got here we thought the area was dead, but it looks like we were way off. haha this is seriously an interesting place to say the least.
well heres my letter to presidente
buenos dias presidente!
este semana ha sido una gran experiencia aqui en marcavalle. en verdad hemos tenido bastante exito. es loco como el señor nos ayuda cuando trabajamos diligentamente. hemos encontrado muchas personas que van a tener fecha para julio. hubieran tenido fecha pero no pudieron ir a la iglesia. pero sabemos que este domingo que sigue muchos vana venir.
tambien hemos estado esforzandonos mucho para ayudar las areas en la zona a tener personas con fecha. hemos estado verificando todos las noches y en verdad esta ayudandoles mucho. estamos muy bien aqui en marcavalle y en la zona tarma y estamos animados para trabajar.
Elder Paolacci
good morning President!
This week has been a great experience here in Marcavalle. we have indeed been quite successful. it is amazing how the Lord helps us when we work diligently. we have found many people who will be prepared for baptism in July. They would be ready to set a date now,  but they need to attend church more. but we know that this Sunday after many of them will be attending. We've also been working hard to help other areas around us. I've been checking in with them every night and it is really helping a lot. well here in the area Marcavalle tarma things are good and we are encouraged to work.
well im gonna answer your questions first - yes i got the 3 packages with the thermals. we are encouraged to only listen to hymns here, not really even motab, so dont worry about buring me any special ones.well we arent really sure what its gonna be like when the new president enters, all i know is that we have zl counsel 3 days after he gets here - so thats gonna be i can't believe it is time for president leyva to go. the truth is im gonna miss him, hes an amazing guy.
sultan (the dog) was sick the other day, usually hes like way happy and crazy when he sees us but this time he just walked up to us and let us pet him. BUT after we were walking away a dog started barking at us and sultan came running down the hill and messed him up. haha hes such a cool dog. 
sooo ya thats awesome that logan made the all star team, i bet they will go to state, go pv east, o wait shadow mountain
i cant believe coleton went to efy, he cant be that old yet, and plus he never asked me permision to go so we are gonna have to have a little chat.

im actually really excited to hear about grandmas call, its gonna be way cool


well transfers are tommorow night, BUT im almost positive me and my comp are staying together, in fact there shouldnt be too many changes in our zone. im predicting and hoping that someone from my mtc group comes up to zl. but ya well see
so ya lifes great here in la oroya haha. the mission is going by way fast, but im loving it every single minute of it.
i love all you guys so much and keep being awesome!
love
Elder Paolacci

Officially half way to 40 !!!

Wahhhhhhhhh
ahhh well im officially halfway to 40, is that a bad way to look at it? haha i seriously cannot believe im already 20. i would prefer not to be but heh what can i do. thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes! i am gonna try my best to write a bunch of letters to everyone this week. oh ya about the whole mail thing, the strike is over so it should be safe to send stuff. if they kick us out they wont be doing it for another month or so. so ya its safe to send stuff.
so i guess ill start off with the zone leader conference we had. we traveled to lima monday afternoon, and got there monday night. that night i saw vizcarra, johns, and a bunch of elders i know, oh ya and fogleman with his dang aaron rodgers shirt haha. but ya we stayed up talking until 1 am, apparently thats not against the rules in the zl conference haha.
the next day we went to the temple with president and his wife, which was amazing. after the temple we had the zl counsel.
it was cool, we go over announcements, and rules and stuff that should be made or changed, and then president taught. He's an amazing teacher. dont be surprised if he gets called as a seventy after he gets released.
After the counsel i went on splits with the assistants. it went really well and we taught some pretty interesting people (we were in la molina, the richest part of peru haha). well after the splits we went back to the house and guess whati bought ????
PIZZZZZZAAAAAAAA hahah from papa johns, lets just say it was amazing. my first pizza in almost 5 months! haha i ate a whole xl pizza.
The next morning (Wednesday) we took off back to la oroya, and almost missed our bus. oh and ya i tried to go to manchay but it just didnt work out. maybe next time.
um so ya it was a good week here in la oroya. this weekend we had 3 baptisms, my first baptisms in like 2 months. it was way cool. in our time here in la oroya we have noticed that the branch is a little weak as far as orginization and stuff like that goes, but after the baptisms our respect grew so much for these people because we saw that they are some of the most loving and helpful people that we have met. it was pretty amazing
so ya heres my very short letter to presidente (since I was just with him most of the week)
hola presidente! este semana en marcavalle fue lo maximo. tuvimos tres bautismos este fin de semana y hemos encontrado various personas que aceptaron fecha.en verdad fue una semana muy buena y todo fue por todo el trabajo que hemos estado poniendo. se que realmente vamos a tener mucho exito aqui en estas semanas en marcavalle. tambien la zona tuvo una semana muy buena y los misioneros estan muy animados. Elder Paolacci
Google translate
Hello President!
Everything in Marcavalle this week was awesome. We had three baptisms this weekend and we found people who were looking for the gospel. Many have accepted baptism dates. It was indeed a very good week and we are happy for all the work we have been getting. We are going to have much success here in the following weeks in Marcavalle area. It has been a very good week and are very encouraged missionaries.
　
well today we are taking a trip back to that way sweet cave and we are gonna have more time to go deeper. its gonna be sweeetttt.
well i love you all and thank you so much for being so great to me.
ill try to have the best birthday i can. thanks again for all the bday wishes!
Love
Elder Paolacci
p.s. coleton dont have too much fun at efy, and stay away from the girls.

buenas dias a todos

wellllllll

buenas dias a todos

haha it was quite the week. first off we left last sunday after church for tarma and we stayed there until tuesday night. for pday monday we went to some waterfall where we had to pull off some gnarly adventure up a river just to get there. haha the funny part is that we couldnt get in the water so we had to jump from rock to rock or climb some boulders and stuff. it was pretty dang cool. after that we had some other stuff to do, like a maze, and a slide, haha i got videos. and we also played soccer afterwards on some terrible field they had. but it was fun.

well the next day we had district and zone meetings and after that we took off for LA MERCED! oh my goodness that place is amazing. haha i was thinking there is no way manchay and la merced are in the same mission. but for real there are so many trees there! it looks just like the movies when they go to jungles. but ya that night we had our last interviews with president Leyva. I'm going to miss him, he is an awesome mission president. 

after the interviews we were all hungry and went looking for some food (accepting the fact that none of us know anything about la merced). we found a restaurant that makes hamburgers so we tried it out. it was way good, the hamburgers were huge. 

after that we headed back to the room of the zls in merced and gues who was waiting in the window! SHERIDAN! haha it was so cool to see him, hes doing great, hes a dl and hes finishing the training of his kid. i told him next change him and rider are going up to zl. that would be so cool to see them every month for meetings. so ya me and sheridan stayed up a while catching up. i told him he has the best luck going to two of the prettiest areas in the mission, juaja, and villa rica. where i have gone to manchay, huanuco (which isnt half bad), and la oroya (industrial town)haha. but it doesnt realy matter where we are cause the work is the same no matter where we go. 

Elder Paolacci & Elder Shaeridan

This is the Victory shot during the conference. Re-united at last. Now we have to wait until we are in the same zone. THAT will be a blast.

(Elder Paolacci & Elder Sheridan spent the first 9 weeks training together. They were part of the fab five that all reported on the same day entered the field to serve in the Peru Lima East Mission together)

See them here in the begining

October 2010

The Fabulous Five

Five Amazing Young Missionaries Called to Serve the Lord

The next morning we had the multi zona conference. and guess what, i had to direct it. not gonna lie i was super nervous. also me and my comp had to give an hour long training. haha it was interesting but everything turned out great. thankful for the Lords hand in my life cause that got me through. It was an amazing day. after the conference we said our goodbyes and headed back to our areas.

but the adventure doesnt end there. when we got back the owner of our room said that we owed him like 700 soles for some reason, and if we didnt pay him we had to leave immediately. so guess what we did ? we packed our bags and took everything out of the room and we hit the dirt road. at this point it was late and we werent really sure what to do or where to go but we are always up for an adventure so we went to a members house and knocked on their door. we told them what happened and they let us sleep there for 2 nights until we found a room. finally on saturday we found a room and got moved in. 

but wait, the adventure doesnt end there. yesterday was elections here in peru, so we couldnt leave the room the whole day. the winner of the election was a guy called ollanta humala some here in peru relate him to Hugo Chavez, hes kinda anti gringo so theres a possibilty that they will have all north americans leave the country. its not for sure but its very possible becuase that is what he has been saying he will do if he wins. and he won.

figured i would tell you because i didnt wanna email you one monday and say im in mexico or something.

but dont worry we are perfectly safe. all will be well becuase we are in the lords hands.

well thats the shortest i could sum up the week - happy bday coleton!

i got 1 of the thermal packages, the others didnt arrive because the mailmen are on strike.

oh ya heres my letter to presidente

Buenas dias presidente! todo esta muy bien aqui en marcavalle. estamos trabajando muy bien y hay mucho exito veniendo. ha sido un poquito dificil en cuanto los bautismos porque no ha habido agua aqui en nuestra capilla por casi 2 semanas. pero nuestra area y la zona vamos a tener muchos bautismos en este mes. estoy seguro que sabe sobre la situacion de nuestro cuarto anterior. fue un poquito dificil porque quito casi todo de nuestra semana. Pero vamos a vencer ese desafio y se que vamos a lograr mucho aqui en marcavalle y la zona tarma.

Google translate - Good morning President! everything is fine here in Marcavalle. We are working very well and much success veniendo. was a bit difficult as baptisms because there was no water here in our chapel for almost 2 weeks. but our area and the area we will have many baptisms this month. I'm sure you know about the situation of our previous quarter. was a bit difficult because it removes almost all of our week. But we will overcome this challenge and we are going to achieve much here in the area Marcavalle and Tarma

well family i gotta go, we are taking off to lima in 1 hour for zone leader council. we are gonna be there until wednesday, and maybe, maybe ill get to go to manchay for a little bit. ill let you know how it goes. i am excited !!! i love you, the lord loves you and we are all going to be okay. keep the faith. keep being awesome.

love you all!

Elder Paolacci

Multi Zone Conference