3.19.12

What up family!!!!
Interesting week. Haha the mission never seems to fail as far as craziness goes. Lets see on Monday we actually took things a little chill. Took a nap and wrote some letters to my converts. Good pday, needed the break.

Tuesday we had a great zone meeting. I talked about how the Lord has prepared people for us to teach since the creation of the earth, that there are people waiting especially for us. So we need to open our mouths and talk to everyone, if not we wont know who are the people that our Heavenly Father has put in place for us. It really is pretty simple. I really like a scripture in D&C 29:7 that talks about how we are called to gather Isreal and we will know who are the chosen people when they accept our invitation to hear more. In our mission we are starting to do something really cool. In our contacts we are focusing on our purpose more. We are are actually telling the people as soon as we meet them that we here to baptize people. Haha it is pretty interesting. A lot of times we get horribly rejected but we also are finding the people prepared by the Lord to hear our message at this time. It’s a really cool change we are taking in the mission. We have been having some struggles the last couple months, but as I said last week the work is always progressing and changing, so us as missionaries (the blood of the work) need to change as well. Also asked a couple missionaries to share testimonies about how the Lord has prepared people for them. I shared my testimony and story about Milagros and Katy. It was a really cool meeting.

This week we had a lot of splits with other areas. We are trying to focus on verifying the areas in the zone. This week I went to Huancavelica and did a baptismal interview. But it wasn’t your ordinary baptismal interview. First off, it was in a tiny tiny town like a half hour outside of Huancavelica. We were joined by two cows in the baptismal interview. But I haven’t even gotten to the interesting part yet. So ya the guy was deaf. 100 percent. It was quite interesting. I had to write everything. Eventhough sometimes he couldn’t understand my handwriting and got frustrated, it was a very spiritual experience. He has had a lot of trials in his life and has a very strong testimony. As I left his house I felt the most amazing feeling, standing at the top of a mountain, in the middle of nowhere, just getting done doing a baptismal interview to someone who cannot hear sounds but can hear the spirit as strong as anyone. Awesome experience!!! Eventhough the 4 hour taxi ride back to Huncayo was terrible haha.

This week we have conference with President. I am really excited. It is always an amazing learning experience. We are prepared and ready for it. I am pretty sure it is my second to last in the mission. Also super excited for general conference! Last one in peru . Trying to get spiritually prepared. You guys should do the same! General Conference is such an amazing opportunity to be taught and spiritually fed. If we do so the spirit will testify to us the things we need to hear and we will be given impressions that we should write down and act upon.


Oh ya,since Jade is 9 you guys should totally have her listen to the missionaries if she is going to be coming to church all the time! That would help her out a ton, along with our family.

I have also been thinking a lot about what dad said when we skyped and how he wants me to teach you guys the first lesson when I get home. So you can truly feel the spirit of what I have done these past 2 years. I think it would be awesome, maybe hard in English, but it will be an awesome opportunity. Even though leaving here will be the hardest thing I will ever have to do at this point in my life, the thing that helps me is knowing I am coming home to my family, I am excited to be back with our family.


Well have a good week! Today we are going to play a game of soccer between the zones! Gonna be sickkkkk! 

Love, Elder Paolacci

3.12.12

Well hello there familyyyy!!!
Great week! Started off with our journey to lima. Quite a trip haha.
Elder Biliter is the zl in the other zone in Huancayo so he was on the bus with us. It was a good time. I was still kinda sick but still had a great time. We arrived in Lima around 10pm but when I got to the house alllll of my buddies were there so I didn’t get to sleep until 3am. Haha bad choice because I was pretty much dead for consejo the next day. I was coughing up a storm. But I survived. As always Prez does an amazing job and we learn so much. After consejo we had the choice to play soccer or basketball. I didn’t wanna do either cause I felt like crud but all the gringos convinced me to play basketball and we had a great time. Surprisingly it went pretty well. I think I play basketball better when im sick haha. So ya that turned out fun.
After that you will never guess what we went to eat! Mcflurries from mcdonalds!!!! Oh my goodness it was soooo good. Haha the blessings of being a zone leader. That night we also ordered pizzas! I had to use the little money the mission gives me because I still haven’t been able to take money out of the bank. But that too was amazing!!!! Yet again that night we didn’t sleep until 2 or 3. It is pretty cool being able to talk with all my buddies like that (Rider, Biliter, Johns, Brown, Norris, Sheridan), good times. The next day we were supposed to travel at 8am but we missed our bus and the next one didn’t leave until 2 in the afternoon.
So we were sent to go verify the district meetings in guess where MUSA!! Not sure if you remember or if I ever told you but that’s where we had our district meetings when I was in Manchay! It was super cool being able to walk into that chapel and remember all those moments from when I was starting the mission. I also sat in on Manchays district meeting. It was really cool seeing them talk about some of the same people I have baptized or taught that are now giving references that are getting baptized. It was an awesome experience.
The bad news is that they told me that Blanca, Carlos, and Carla haven't been to church in quite awhile. The good thing is that one of my buddies is in that area now so he promised me he would go and visit them. Idk if you are still trying to do that picture book for them but I think that would help a lot. On the other hand I talked to Elder Quiñonez in the consejo and he said Milagros and Katy are some of the best converts he has ever seen. In this last transfer since I have left they have helped 2 of their friends get baptized and 2 more have a baptismal dates. It is amazing seriously seeing the effects of that one moment on the bus when we met Milagros. Everytime I think about it, it gives me chills. Well after all this we finally got on our way at 2. Now the cool thing about the bus company we take is that they always show movies and we have permission to watch them (of course we have to use our discretion). Most of the time I just sleep because I would rather not watch them but on our way back Wednesday they played a new movie called Moneyball with Brad Pitt about the Oakland a´s. Now I had heard they were making this movie about 3 years ago but I had completely forgotten about it. When I saw that they were gonna put it on I decided I had to watch it. What a great movie, seriously, apart from making me miss baseball like crazy I learned something that applies a lot to missionary work. There is a part in the movie where Billy Beane says that "if things aren’t going the way we want them to or the way they should, it makes no sense that we keep using the same methods or tactics. In change we need to find new ones, and that’s when things will change" Now I don’t know if that’s exactly how he said it but you get the point. It was one of those moments where it just helped me a lot to realize how we can help the mission progress. Or things in our lives in general. And by the way that’s probably my favorite movie of all time now.
Well as you can see we had Magaly´s baptism on Saturday. It was amazing. Super spiritual. She was scared to ask me to baptize her because she didn’t want me to get even sicker. But I told her I was fine and that there is nothing that would stop me from accepting the offer. It was an awesome experience.
Well family it has been a great week. Next week President comes for a conference so we need to organize everything. I have been thinking alot and I think I am gonna talk with president when he comes and ask him if I can train in one of the next changes coming up. Zl has been a great experience and if he wants me to stay ZL all the way to the end that is what I will do, but I would love the experience again before I go home of training a new missionary. So we will see what happens.
Have a great week! Love you all. Congrats to Tina and Jon. Those pics are soooo awesome. I love the pic with grandpa, dad and John. Congrats to Logan on playing such an awesome baseball game. Can't wait to get home and help him out too. Way to go Coleton hanging in there with track. I hated running. So Props to you kid. Karleigh hang in there, it is almost graduation time. It will be worth all the hard work when it is OVER !!!! Can't believe how big the little babies are.
I gotta go - I love you all
Elder Paolacci



well the whole 25th of july date isnt set yet becuase flight arrangements have not been made yet, but if its not the 25th it'll be the 24th or 26th.

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!