3.5.12

Welllll……
What a week haha. We didn't have the most adventurous pday because it was raining like crazy. Just stayed in and played chess. Tuesday we had district meeting, I played scripture jeopardy with the zone, It was pretty fun. Tuesday night we got the changes. My new comp is…..Elder Van Wagoner. I totally called it haha. He is awesome and he works super hard (the lord is blessing me big time in that aspect) so we are going to have an amazing time together. Wednesday were the transfers. Always an adventure haha. Thursday Friday and Saturday we got to work super hard in our area and Saturday night was our baptism. Originally it was planned that we would baptize Anthony, Junior and Gian Carlos. But only Junior ended up getting baptized. During the week Anthony decided that this Saturday would be better for him. So we were only expecting to have two baptisms, but Saturday night only junior showed up. They said that Gians mom changed her mind and made him go over to her house (he doesn’t live with her).
She wouldn’t let him leave. We even took a taxi to her house to talk to her but she didn’t wanna have anything to do with us. So that was super depressing. But the good thing was that junior got baptized. He is so awesome. After the baptism when we were changing he said "Brother Paolacci, I wish my cousin Gian was here too". I felt so bad, broke my heart, but Junior is determined to help his cousin get baptized too. Sunday was pretty awesome. The girl that’s gonna get baptized this Saturday, Magaly, came to church. And a girl that always had promised she was gonna come for like a month finally came. It was pretty awesome. It looks like this Saturday we are gonna have 1 baptism (Magaly). She is super excited. We had some super cool lessons with her this week. Anthony didn’t come to church on Sunday so he might be able to get baptized next Sunday. We are gonna try and talk with Gian Carlos´s dad this week. He lives with his dad so we only need his permission. It is super sad because he wants to get baptized sooo bad.
We have a lot of work to do this week. Pray for us! Jessica is doing great. She is noticing differences in her life due to praying and scripture study. Mayra might still be getting baptized this week. We will see. She kinda got unexcited, she is in kinda a rough patch right now not living with her family or anything. Just pray for her. Well ended this week kinda sick. I thought at first it could have been pneumonia again because I was just dead. But took some meds and I am feeling a lot better. Still got a gnarly cough, but I am fine. Well at 2 we travel to Lima for consejo. Nap time on the bus! Haha. Hope you guys have a great week!
Love Elder Paolacci
PS - hey so ive been talking with presidente these last couple weeks about my release date. Looks like it will be the 25th of July. I know it would be possible to do it with my normal release date but me and president both think it would be better to do things well and not pressured out. Elder Van Wagoner also helped me realize it would be better. I would have to be home at least a week or two before classes to try and get my scholarship again and I think it would be better to be able to pick a good schedule so I can work too. I know there are late start classes but I would prefer to do everything with calm and not rushed too much. What I have realized is that whatever happens is what the lord will want to happen. 

Well Hello There Family

Well hello there family!!!!

Crazy week, haha as always. Seems like I did a lot this week tho. Monday was pday woot woot, my first real pday in like 3 weeks. We went to this really cool place called Ingenio. Its really popular for its trout farms, but we also went to this really cool place that I am pretty sure was like a Nephite baptismal font. As you can see in the pics it’s a pretty neat place. I totally wasn’t expecting a pday that cool but I was definitely down with the surprise. It was Elder Novoas last pday so our pension and her husband took us up there. Haha they also took their baby and their dog. It was way fun. One of the best pdays I have had in a while. 

Lets see….this week we also ate tacos with one of the districts! First time in almost 19 months! We have a mexicano in the zone and he showed us how the experts do it. They were soooo good! 

Also this week happened to be your BIRTHDAY!! And guess what, it also happens to be the birthday of my pensions husband and hna elizabeths from vitarte! Pretty cool huh. That message you got on facebook was from my pensh hna patty. Shes awesome. For the birthday day she made pizza!!! I am always willing to eat pizza haha. 

The only sad news of the week happened on Friday. We were gonna help a sister get married and baptized on Saturday so we went with her to get all the papers ready. We went all around town and almost everything was set, until we went to take out her health certification. They said they couldn’t do it till Monday L. Pretty lame. But everything is set so she can do it Saturday. The stake is gonna pay for her wedding and she is super excited. She was kinda sad because she wanted Elder Novoa to be there, but we did all we could. This Saturday we are gonna have 4 baptisms! The sister thats gonna get married (julissa), and three cousins, they are the funniest kids ever. Their names are Junior, Gian Carlos, and Antony. They are all young men, so in a couple weeks they should be passing the sacrament. Im way excited! Last night we had an awesome lesson with them, we read 2 Nephi 31 and they loved it. They are sooo excited. Also yesterday we taught the girl that I said reminds me of Karleigh. Her name is Mayra and she accepted baptismal date for march 10^th! Shes awesome. We are also teaching and awesome girl named Jessica. She like 28 and shes been having a rough time believing in god. She explained how she felt that its hard to believe in God when life is so hard and so many people have so many different explanations. But she is progressing a lot. After a prayer she did the other day she said that we are helping a lot. And I am not gonna lie, that felt really good. But we also asked her if she was gonna go to church and she straight up said no -  haha. Little by little I guess. It is amazing being able to see the change in these peoples lives. Some come easy and some come hard. All of them bring me such a depth of gratitude, but its different seeing the people change that start like her.

 As you know Elder Novoa goes home tomorrow. He left for Lima yesterday and I will be jumping from area to area until Wednesday. I have zero idea who is gonna be my comp. It could definitely be Elder Van Wagoner tho, the elder that was in the hospital. Could also be Elder Capps! Who knows, I am just ready to have a comp again so I can get working in my area. As you guys said, these months are turning into the best months of my mission and I don't want to miss an moment that I can be working. I feel like I am helping sooo many people and I know that its not only due to experience but also obedience. I am loving it out here. I love all of you so much. Read the Book of Mormon.                   The promises are real.

Love,

Elder Paolacci

Interesting Week

Welllll….. crazy week to say the least.
As I said the week before on Monday I needed to go and check on a missionary that was sick in Huancavelica, well I brought him back and checked him into the hospital here in Huancayo. It ended up being a lot more than checking him in. He ended up having pneumonia and he was hospitalized. Missionaries cant stay in the hospital alone so guess who got to stay with him haha, yours truly! I was kinda bummed at first even though he is a good buddy of mine. But you know I don't love hospitals and because we were gonna have to miss some pretty important appointments in our area. But then I realized what the lord wanted me doing in those moments (the mission is a lot more comforting when you realize that). So I took advantage of our time in the hospital. And to my surprise we had a pretty awesome experience. We did a lot of studying together, we studied the allegory of the olive tree in Jacob and we learned a lot of new stuff. We really focused on how much the master really did for his vineyard. How much dedication he put in, and how much love he had. But in the end it wasn’t up to him if the trees gave good fruit or bad fruit. This made me think about a lot of stuff. About the zone, my investigators, our family, and my mission itself. A lot of times it makes me sad to see things go how I don’t want them to after I have put so much work into it, but as the master of the vineyard says "what more could I have done?" I also realized that the Lord put soooo much dedication into the vine, and I too need to do the same. Because when I do, that’s when I know that things turn out the way the Lord wants them to. It was a really cool experience being there. Gave me a lot of time to reflect and ponder things (haha a good 2 ½ days). We also taught about every nurse that worked there and made appointments with a few of them. So once I was released from the hospital (or atleast it felt that way) I was able to get to work in my area.
This weekend we found a lot of really awesome people ready to hear the gospel. I had a really cool experience with a family. On Friday I was with a member that’s preparing to serve a mission and we saw two parents walking down the street with their kid and I had the strongest impression to contact them. The thing was that they were about a block away. But that didn’t stop us haha. We started walking super fast, trying not to look weird or suspicious, and luckily the father stopped to tie his kids shoe. Taking advantage we started talking to them and they were totally receptive. I feel like they are totally prepared and I am hoping they progress. Its cool being a missionary. Always having Revelation going through me. I am afraid that I will truly miss that when I get home. But I guess that’s just how it is. This weekend we are hoping to have a couple baptisms, cross your fingers! Ohhhh haha last night we taught an investigator that looks just like Karleigh but latin. It was super weird, but awesome at the same time. Wellll, today is my comps last pday! Not sure what we are gonna do but I am sure I will have pics next week!
Love, Elder Paolacci

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.