18 months and lovin it !!!

FAMILYYYY!!!!!
Well it was quite an awesome week. Started off with our voyage on Tuesday to Lima, a good 8 hours in a bus.Tuesday night was quite awesome. Its always a party in the office home. Elder Edwards, my buddy that’s from Queen Creek was there because he left the next day to open an area in a small town near La Oroya. I went a couple times when I was up there, it is a pretty awesome area. Probably won't see him again until AZ, he ends next transfer. Haha but he said he's gonna be in the airport when I get home, haha so ya we shall see. But ya we had a great night, ate some pizza! That night we got to bed early so we would be well rested for consejo. 


The next day we had consejo with President Ardila and it was awesome and somewhat scary. The mission is kinda in a low spot right now so president really kicked us into gear. Such an amazing leader. You can really feel the love he has for us and he truly wants the best for each of us and our mission. 


The good thing is that we are gonna have an awesome month! The zone could easily end up with 30 baptisms this month! That’s the most there's been in like 2 years here in Huancayo. So were pretty excited down here.


Wednesday we traveled back to Huancayo and Thursday we finally gotta start working again. We have about 6 people that are gonna get baptized in these next 2 weeks and we are super pumped. They are all awesome people and they deserve it so much. I am sooooooooooo happy for them. You can already see the blessings the gospel is bringing to their lives. 


On Sunday 5 minutes before sacrament meeting they asked us to give talks, woohoo! But they turned out great. That is the best part about this calling, being a missionary I can just get up there and the spirit will guide me and everything turns out great. Its super cool. But I don’t know how my homecoming talk will turn out, I will probably have to write that one, especially cause it will be in English. Ahhh I don’t like thinking about it. But I still have 6 months so I am all good.


Well Sunday afternoon as you can see we had a baptism! Her name is Noelia, she is 15 years old and has such a strong testimony! The baptismal service was amazing, the young women sang a special number and it was just awesome.

Today we were planning on having another bbq but in a really cool park here, sad news is that we might not be able to because an elder in Huancavelica got really sick and we have to go to the hospital. Pray for him, he should be getting better soon. He just had a hard time breathing. It is like doing missionary work at base camp on mount Everest haha. Also, I prayed and fasted yesterday for Trevor's brother, I really hope he is getting better, tell Trevor I love him and I am praying for him, his brother and his family.


Well as far as the whole gnarly rain situation, we always have rain in the mountains. We are just getting alot more. Just in Lima, apparently they are getting more rain than they’ve gotten in 20 years. But I am not too informed.

So ya what's up with everyone getting engaged?!!!! I am totally not cool with this! Haha jk congrats to aliese!
Well as you know its been 18 months! Crazy! Its gone soooo fast! I don’t want it to end tho. This is seriously the happiest I have been in my entire life. This work is so real and so amazing. And don’t you guys worry, I will be giving it my all in these last 6 months! I am going to finish strong with no regrets. But I am sure when the time time comes I still wont be ready to leave.
I Love You all soooooooooooooooo much - keep being awesome - keep reading the Book of Mormon - where are you at ?
Until next week Elder Paolacci

Well Hello There Again . . .

Wellllllll hello again….

I just wrote like a 2 page letter and the kid next to me accidentally turned off my computer and it all erased. Gotta love the mission sometimes. Well I will try to wrap it up as fast as I can. I am really sorry. 

Let's see. Monday we played soccer with president and the 2 zones here in Huancayo. it was so awesome !!!!

Tuesday and Wednesday my comp and I spent a lot of time setting up a new drinking water routine for the missionaries here. We found a company that is gonna drop off those big water bottles like we have at home once a month to each area. It is pretty cool and the zone is happy which means "I am HAPPY".

Thursday I left to that town that is like 8 hours away to do a baptismal interview. The town is called Lircay. Its pretty cool, the farthest I have been from home - haha. The trip was awesome, half of it is on train. Full on Harry Potter Hogwarts style. It was super fun/awkward cause I was in a booth with 3 random people. I contacted them but they just looked at me like I was the weirdest thing on earth. Haha gotta love being a missionary. I tried taking some pics, I missed a lot of cool opportunities because every time I wanted to take a pic I had to unfog my window and by the time I finished like 10 minutes had passed. It was a fun experience. I have never been on a train so this was a first.

Got back to my area Saturday night. Sunday was awesome, a bunch of new people came to church and 2 already accepted baptism woot woot. It is so funny sometimes cause we can knock all the doors we want but the majority of baptisms happen when members bring their friends to church. 

Last night we had a meeting with the ward mission leader and the bishop. Its kinda sad because our bishop doesn’t wanna be bishop. He said "if I was young mens president or ward mission leader my life would be great". That was really hard for me to hear, I mean of course there are times when I think "ahhh if I was home things would be so much easier" but then I realize what I have been called to do and those feelings go away. And to hear that from a bishop really was saddening. The work is amazing here in Huancayo but you can only do so much without a good bishop. I really appreciate the bishops I have had in my life (Campbell, Waldrom, Davis, Dahl) all of those men are examples in my life and they have helped me grow so much. And the thing is, that I never once heard any of them complain about their calling. I know it’s a very hard calling, I don’t doubt it for a second, but a bishop has the opportunity to bless so many lives and it is so sad to hear words like that come out of a bishops mouth. So it is my goal while I am here in Huancayo to help him as much as possible, because he really is a great man and I know for a fact that the Lord called him for a reason. So we are going to show him all the support we can and possibly we can help to ease his load. Ahhh so ya got that off my chest. Sorry.

OH awesome news, yesterday a family from La Oroya came to my ward and I asked them about the Rodriguez Suarez family. You will not believe it, the dad Ricardo now has a calling in the district (its not a stake yet) and the mom is a counselor in the relief society! So awesome! And they only have been members for like 6 months! That seriously made my day. I know he is gonna end up being a great leader in the church and it is awesome thinking that I had the privilage to baptize them and be a tool in the Lords hands. I have to write them this week, I am so proud of them.

Well that’s all folks, have a great week.

I will be praying for Trevors little bro. that’s super scary.

I cant believe seth and taylor are engaged haha that’s awesome!

Have a great week, love you all! The gospel is true and such a blessing to our lives.

Elder Paolacci

p.s. im in 2 nephi in the Book of Mormon in Portuguese, hopefully you guys are ahead of me!

Awesome Week

Well hello there my fabulous family!

Crazy week. pday was awesome last week. We went to a place called miraflores, its like 30 minutes out of town. Its super green up there as you can see from the pics. We ate trout, which surprisingly was pretty dang good. Afterward we walked around and looked at the trout farm, the whole time I was thinking that the Dahl's would love that place haha. Afterward we went and took some pics jumping off a rock. Lol im getting desperate after missing 2 ski seaons.  It probably wasn’t the best idea, haha my legs were absolutely dead for like 3 days.  I felt like an 80 year old going down the stairs in my room. It was quite funny. But im fine now.  Thursday night one of the assistants got here to get everything ready for interviews and stuff this weekend. My comp ended up going to a town like 8 hours away to do interviews with the ap. It was cool, he's my bud. But this weekend was insane! Seriously we had soooo much stuff to do in so little time. Slept like 4 hours three nights in a row. But its all good, that’s the mission for ya. On Saturday I had my interview with president. It was awesome. Hes amazing, it was by far my coolest interview yet. I asked him about going home 3 weeks early and he said I could do up to a month but I wouldn’t be able to do it with anyone, all by myself. So idk now. It is such a hard decision. We also talked about how hard its gonna be to leave Peru and these people, but  he also gave me some comforting advice. I still don’t wanna leave tho. I don't even want to think about it. Yesterday we had a baptism of a girl named Leslie. Last Sunday she wasnt a 100% sure she was ready to get baptized but I went over with the assistant and we got her excited to get baptized Sunday. Her only problem was that shes super shy and she said she would get embarrassed if people saw her get baptized. The baptism was awesome, we invited Hermana Ardila and she gave her testimony at the baptism, she is seriously amazing, she has an amazing spirit and has so much love for everyone. After  the baptism my comp and I had a meeting with President Ardila and the stake president.

The stake president loves me for some reason and hes gonna help us out a ton with stake missionary activities and stuff. And that ended the week. Of course last night we had to take informes? How would you say that in English? Nor sure anymore - Haha - but ya that’s always tough because I don’t get to sleep until midnight, fun stuff. So ya crazy week.

Today we have pday with president and both of the zones here in Huancayo. It gonna be awesome - me toca estrenar mis nuevas zapatillas! (I get to wear my new shoes)

So I'm sure there will be a good group of pics next Monday! Thanks for being my awesome family.

Love ya all Elder Paolacci

Hello Huancayo

Wellllll crazy week!
First things first had one of the coolest experiences of my mission Tuesday. Katys baptism was amazing, seriously I will never forget it.
It was so spiritual and she was sooooo excited. I was able to baptize her and right after she came out of the water she started crying, and I have to admit I teared up too. The spirit was amazing. It has quite a struggle these last couple months to get her baptized, but once she decided, she was so sure. I am sooooo happy to have been able to have helped this family. They have undergone such a change and is it so awesome to see that they are receiving so many blessings. It is truly a testimony to me that when you follow the teachings of the gospel your life will truly be blessed.
welllll right after the baptism me and elder quinñonez ran to a place with Internet to print the transfers and sure enough....Huancayo. We ran back to the chapel so I could say my official goodbye to Milagros and Katy. It was sooo hard, I have come to love these girls like sisters. It is crazy, seriously how much I have come to love some of these people. It scares me to think about the day that I will have to leave them all, I don't want it to happen, I am not sure that I will ever be ready. So for now I will just continue to work as hard as I can and some how the Lord will help me when the time comes. When the final goodbye came Milagros was crying and told me how grateful she is for this gospel in her life. Katy didn't believe me at first when I told her I was really leaving Vitarte, it was seriously hard for me. but I was thinking about it, and I am just grateful I was able to baptize her, and I didn't have to go through what happened with Carla (blancas daughter). but ya mom those girls are seriously special. Milagros has been my strongest convert and I am sure Katy will be just as strong. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE keep in contact with them!

Then after the baptism that night I went and said bye to hna Elizabeth (my pension). goodness was that hard. shes sooo awesome. She has shown so much love for me and she taught me sooo much. she cried, alot. And that is so hard. But I assured her that there will be even better missionaries passing through and that she has to love them even more.

Well, after all those goodbyes were over the packing adventure started, haha it took me till 3:30 in the morning and I had to leave on my bus at 630.
got up at 5 to go to the bus station and at 6:30 the adventure began. I fell asleep right away and didn't wake up for another 10 hours or so haha (free rest day). I thought we were almost there but much to my surprise we were just outside of La Oroya, so I stayed awake as we passed through, it was really cool to see that place again. The bad news is that La Oroya is like 6 hours from Huancayo so we didn't get to huancayo until 9! longest day ever! when I got there it was raining super hard and I met up with my new comp Elder Novoa. You will never guess where he is from......Colombia, haha I swear I must attract them. But anyways he is awesome, he finishes this change so he wants to work like 5 times harder than before, cool with me. I am ready. But the truth be known, the first couple days I did not want to be here. I missed Vitarte sooo much, but little by little I am coming to love Huancayo. We live in a small room in the back of what LOOKS like a mansion. haha it is pretty cool. I will send pics when I have a functioning camera. Oh but the bad thing is that there are fleas, like really bad and it is super lame, they are killing me. Eating me alive. But ya my pension is AWEEEEESSSOMMME!!! haha she is sooo cool. she got married like a year ago and has a little 9 year old boy and a little shnowzer puppy (however you spell it). shes soo funny, she is super sarcastic (which I totally love and can totally handle) she loves joking around, so I am sure we will have some interesting stories these coming months.So I really am loving it here. The ward is great. The bishop is the brother of the sister that did my laundry in Vitarte so I had already met him like 10 times. haha my comp says that I know the bishop more than him because he is in Vitarte more than Huancayo. kinda true haha.
Let's see let me answer the rest of the questions
my area/ward is called LA LIBERTAD (liberty), so I feel like it is a goof fit for a gringo, I am actually wearing an American flag tie I bought last week haha.

Tell veronica to come visit on Sunday if she can, I wanna give her some stuff to take.

OH tell Milagros I am gonna go to Pucará, it is the town her mom is from, it is in my zone.

Please tell grandpa that he needs to get better, we have got alot of talking to do when i get back. I have so many cool stories to tell him.

oh ya and elder rider stayed in his area, haha poor kid hes been there forever, but who knows maybe he could be my comp next change!
well maybe next week you can tell me who is actually in the superbowl - haha the jets and patriots are in the same division.
well that is my letter for this week. today we are going to have like a cookout or something like 40 minutes out of town. I think we might eat trout so I am gonna have to man up today. I will take pics with my comps camera.

I love you guys sooo much Elder Paolacci

p.s. in your next package try to send some jerky for my pensions husband haha he wants some sooo bad, and maybe you can send her some oven mitts or rags too
p.s.s how is the Book of Mormon reading going ? You need to let me know where you are next week. We will see who is farther along.

1.16.12

well quite a good week! well apart from this terrible news i have just received about my packers - its alright tho, they are just saving the rest of their super bowl wins for when I get home. Dang it still stings tho. hmmm so lets see, this week I did divisions with Capps, he is such an awesome missionary and we also have so much fun together haha. He's awesome. It's really cool seeing all of us from our group now. We are all doing really well. It has nothing to do with us being zls or dls or anything like that, we are just all doing great as missionaries. Each of us are being so blessed out here. Missions are amazing. This week in our area we focused alot on finding new people who are ready to hear the gospel, we also taught Katy a couple times this week and guess what! she's getting baptized tomorrow!
I am so excited, she is awesome. I think the possibility of me leaving was the little push she needed to get baptized. But I told her if she's only doing it now cause I might be transferred she shouldn't do it. But she said that only helped her put things in perspective and she really wants to be baptized for her. But I really am happy that she decided to be baptized before I leave. My time here in Vitarte has gone soooooo fast! and I hope its not over, this is seriously an amazing place, the work is very strong here and the members are great, but on the other hand I am willing to serve where the lord chooses. so we shall see. well tomorrow we find out the transfers, im sure someone will tell you what happens before I get to on monday. I really hope I stay because I really do NOT wanna pack haha.
Today were going to downtown Lima to buy some stuff as a zone! I am gonna try and find a good deal on shoes! super excited. We should have a great time.
Tell everyone I love em. good luck sicki with track. I'll think about knoll, I have kinda been camping for like 17 months haha jk but we will have to see about that when I get back.
love you guys, have a great week! How is your scripture reading going ? Where are you at ? Keep going !
Elder Paolacci

January 9th

well this week was good, kinda rough tho. But tuesday was consejo (zone leader counsel) with president. that was awesome. he taught us about how he knows for a fact that the church is true and taught us about the dispensations and the restoration of the priesthood keys.it was amazing. i know this church is true and that the restoration took place and all but i feel like this helped me know more about what i was teaching. at the end of the consejo i was talking with president about it and told him that it helped me turn the foundation my testimony of the restoration from sandy to firm on the rock. (he liked like that analogy alot)
we were talking about how alot of missionaries need that, that alot of us teach the restoration, which we know to be true, with a testimony built upon the sand. its not necessarily bad to have a testimony built upon the sand cause the truth is that many don't even have that testimony, but we also need to try and form a strong foundation for when the hard times come so we don't get swept away. It is so important to have a rock solid testimony. And I truly feel that is what I have developed here on my mission. I know that the gospel that I am teaching is true. I have never been more sure of my testimony in my life. I have seen how the gospel changes lives for the better. I am so grateful that I was raised with it in our home. Just always remember, when things get tough, and they always do, we have a Savior who is there for us. He will carry us through if we just have faith in him.
As for teaching this week. Well Katy (milagros sister) is having a hard time, she has accepted baptism for next tuesday but she wasn't at church yesterday and she might not go this week either because she has a trip she is going on with her school. it is hard, we are putting so much into helping her but she keeps having her ups and downs. This has been hard for me especially because I might leave this change (i hope not - but one never knows where the Lord needs you to serve) and its probable that she may not get baptized before this change. If I can ask just keep praying for her.
hmmm - so about the package I am not sure that I need anything, but if you are going to send the battery charger maybe you can send me? A FOOTBALL haha i still would love a football down here. just buy one and deflate it. if you can.
what else... oh ya so if you could send me a tad bit more money, my tennis shoes finally met their maker, and i gotta buy some new ones this week.I would be eternally grateful.
So it sounds like we got off to a great week of reading. im super proud of you guys and how well you are doing with the book of Mormon, ive decided to read the bom in Portuguese at nights before I go to bed. its hard sometimes cause i don't have much time but im currently in chapter 9 of 1 Nephi.
hey so this week i was talking to rider at the consejo and we decided we were gonna try and do this 3 weeks early thing so we can get in school. i really feel like its something i need to do. i know I need to be in school fall semester. i feel like coming home the week before school starts wouldnt give me the time i need to choose my classes and really decide what direction I want to go with my classes. and plus i dont wanna be worrying about that stuff out here, I just want to focus on the rest of my mission and deal with school when I get home. have a fabulous week, I am so excited for Shane. He will do awesome. Seems like yesterday I was there. Man it goes fast.
write me letters please, i would love photos of everyone with the gifts i sent for Christmas if you want to send them.
Love you all so much , Elder Paolacci

FELIZ AÑO NUEVO

wellllll probably the FASTEST week ever! oh FELIZ AÑO NUEVO!!!!
haha i feel like i was just sitting here writing you guys, but i guess that was last year.. haha i cant believe its 2012 already, time is flying! its weird thinking that this year ill be coming home. meh, i dont like that thought. when it was about to turn midnight on saturday i got kinda depressed haha, lol kinda like when i turned 20. i think that i think too much about this kind of stuff. maybe its just a mission thing idk. but its crazy to think its a new year and a new start.
people down here are super serious about their new years resolutions. its super cool. it has helped me realize how great of an opportunity it is to start a new year. it actually helps alot of people have the desire to repent, because after all, thats what resolutions really are. goals to change, and repentance is a change that we make in our lives, actions and most importantly in our hearts. me and my companion are really gonna work on making resolutions, or goals to repent with our investigators and also ourselves this month. I think it is so awesome that you guys are going through with this challenge of reading the Book of Mormon with me. I was never the best at reading the scriptures back at home, but the amazing thing is that there is always time to change things and be better. That is what God expects of us. We can even look at it in the way that we are still here on this earth, God gives us another day, because there are things that we still need to change or make better, things that we still need to learn. I have really been thinking about that everytime I wake up and it really helps me be a better missionary and more than anything, a better son to my Heavenly Father. He loves us sooooo much guys and he wants us to be better. He knows that there are challenges that we each have, he knows that we have our faults, but thats ok. ALL we have to do is depend on him and have the faith that we can change. Repentance is truly amazing, the atonement is the most powerful thing to ever happen and that will happen. It is kinds crazy to think about. sorry for writing a talk to you guys, but i really felt like i needed to share these thoughts with you.
just remember that we can always change, and that we always need to be changing things, if not we wouldnt still be here. I love you guys so much! I'm totally going to be reading the Book of Mormon with you guys, although I haven't decided if I am taking up this challenge in spanish or portuguese - but I am doing it - its the same book no matter what language, that is the beauty of it. I will also start tonight.

Well I hope you guys have a great week and a great start to the new year. Remember you have a clean slate and a new year. I am pretty sure its bowl game season huh? so recommitt to sending you big brother scores next week of the bowl games haha.
love you guys a ton, elder paolacci