7.9.12

(to preface this letter - Dylan's best friend Coy got engaged this week - and I was the one who told him the news this morning)
Familyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!
Well as you guys know my universe was just shattered to pieces.
Definitely wasnt expecting that one. But congrats to Coy! Seriously, that takes guts hahaha. I am so excited to meet the girl that stole my best friend from me. Sure she is great if she got Coy. Haha what a stud.
Taught him everything he knows tho. Wow, still cant believe it. Haha funny thing is that today I was thinking that I have nothing to write about, well haha there we go. September 28th huh? Well I hope they have gotten to know each other well enough by now cause after I get home she won't be seeing Coy until September 26th or 27th. Haha sorry, I just have no idea how a best friend is supposed to respond to this kind of news! Well congrats Coy for real. Big step in your life and I'm glad you are taking it. I'm pumped to get to see ya in a couple weeks, I am pretty sure we have both changed a ton, it is gonna be awesome getting the band back together. But dont worry I understand now that I am gonna have to be content with being #2 on the list. Well Coy don't let me forget to sock ya when I get home, and dont forget I love ya man. Congrats bro, way to go. Thanks for waiting for me.
Well my life was still intact until about 15 minutes ago so I guess I should let you guys know how my week went. We had changes on Wednesday, IM STILL IN JAUJA. Sadly Elder Janco left. What a great kid. He is gonna be an awesome missionary. My new comps name is Elder Choque, sound familiar haha. Not the same kid but almost the same last name (the other was spelt Choqque). He is awesome. great kid. He has 6 months in the misión and wants to learn ton. Also, on Saturday we had a baptism!
The sister that was baptized is named Emelda. It is a pretty cool story too. Her daughter got baptized with Elder Bean about six months ago when he was in Villa Rica (the jungle). When the missionaries visited her she didn't want anything to do with the church. About a month ago they moved here to Jauja. When they got here her daughter sent us a message with their address so we could visit her. Long story short, she went to church with us a couple times but still didn't wanna get baptized. Until Tuesday night in our lesson with her we challenged her and she sat thinking for awhile and She said "you know what I think it is time". I was soooooo happy. One of my goals was to be able to baptize her before I left. The baptism was awesome, she ended up crying when she gave her testimony. It was a really cool experience, and I hope I can have a couple more of these experiences before I go. It is just awesome.
Well I am gonna go now and try to recover from this insane news. Pray for me haha.
Wanna know something crazy? Only one more letter!
Have a great week. CONGRATS COY! Logan have an amazing game tonight. At 7:30pm your time I am going to be saying a prayer for you and I will be thinking about you guys all night. Go get em !!!
Love
Elder Paolacci

More Pictures . . .

7.2.12

Famillllllyyyyyy!!!!!
Great week. Monday we played soccer with the district. It was fun, we just messed around the whole afternoon. Tuesday we had a great district meeting, I was kinda sick but everything turned out great.
Wednesday up till Friday I was busy doing baptismal interviews in the district, it was cool working with pretty much all the missionaries in the district. Saturday was awesome, we had 7 baptisms in the district.
Isabel was baptized Saturday. She is such an amazing convert. I am so glad we got to help her. I had the privelage of baptizing her, it was an awesome experience. Oh I forgot but on Tuesday we went and did her pre interview and she told us she wasnt sure if President Monson was a prophet. I was kinda surprised because she pretty much had a testimony of everything we had taught her. So what we did was we went to the room and searched for something we could give her to help her out. And as a matter of fact I am pretty sure we found the best thing posible. It was the Liahona from March I think, the one where Pres. monson is on the cover. Inside theres an article that I am guessing is called have I done any good in the world today in english.We dropped it off to her and asked her to read it for the next day.When we went to talk to her on Wednesday she said she had read the article twice and recieved a strong answer that he really is a Prophet of God. What an awesome experience.
Well after the baptism we went and ate dinner with a bunch of members. had a great time.
Everyone thinks I am gonna leave and they are all super bummed. I still have hope that I can stay her till the end. I have been praying for it, we will see where the Lord needs me these last 3 weeks.
GOOD LUCK LOGAN! I wanna see you play when I get home! 
I'm super nervous, scared, anxious, and just a little happy about the fact that I only have 3 weeks left. I am giving it my all and I am taking advantage of my last moments in Peru. 
Well I love you all, have a great week, it's weird that I will only be writing 2 more times.
Love
Elder Paolacci

Pictures . . .

6.25.12

Familyyyyy!
Wow this week went by way too fast. Monday we went to some ruins for pday, they were awesome beside the fact that it was like and hour and a half hike to get there. Haha everyone was making the joke that I started my misión there haha (back when it was a city). So ya it was a good pday, definitely worthwhile.


Tuesday and Wednesday I was with the missionaries from Concepción. If I havent told you yet Elder Parada (my first born son) is there. I went to be with them because Elder Janco had to go to Lima for a training that all the new kids have. So it was cool being with him for a couple days. He has progressed alot and is a great teacher now.


Saturday was the multizone conference. Awesome. They surprised me and asked me to give my "last testimony". I was even more nervous than I was giving my testimony in stake conference.


Well bad news. I lost almost all my time today trying to send pics and it didn't work. I'm gonna see if there is time to go send them from a different computer. I'm super sorry. Wish me luck. I love you all so much - keep being awesome - reading your scriptures and praying !!!!
Love, Elder Paolacci

6.18.12

FAMILYYYY!!!
Great week. Monday we had the traditional multi-zone soccer game. Fun as always. But it also reminded me how long I have been around this city(Huancayo) for a long time haha. I think ive had like 4 of these pdays.
This week we've been helping out the people we found last week, really focusing on helping them prepare for their baptisms on the 30th. Kinda bummed cause I totally failed on my whole baptize once a week goal to finish but I am glad we have found the people we have. We have 4 baptisms that we are thinking are sure for the 30th but we are trying to not get ahead of ourselves. But the truth is that we have been super blessed with the people we have. One is named Isabel, she's the one that came looking for us and it took us like a week to find her. She is amazing, already has a very strong testimony and is excited for her baptism. She couldnt go to church yesterday because she got super sick and it made us super sad cause we really wanted her to experience stake conference (more details to come). We also are teaching another lady named Ingrid. She's super funny and we've grown to have a super strong relationship with her. We contacted her about a month ago in the store she works at and she's been progressing Little by Little and is very excited for the 30th. And the other two we have are mother and daughter named Gloria and Shirley. Haha they are great.
We were also bummed for them yesterday because they were super excited to go with us to stake conference but Sunday morning at around 3am glorias brother showed up drunk and she had to take care of him. Its funny how the opposition does his best to try to stop this work, but the truth is he cant. Last night we went over to their house and taught them about baptism and the spirit was super strong. They are so prepared. And they aren't gonna let anything get in their way before their baptismo n the 30th. Sooooo i need you guys to pray especially for them so they can be strong in these two week that are coming and also so they can go to church Sunday. So ya, well Saturday we had our multi zone conference with president. He's doing it kinda different here in Huancayo, he's doing it in 2 parts. The first was Saturday and the second is this Saturday. It was really spiritual and we learned alot.
Sunday we had stake conference and President was there with an area seventy named Elder Mestre. It was a great meeting and we wish all of our investigators could have gone. Haha but the highlight was that during Elder Mestres talk he said "well at this momento I am going to ask that Elder Paolacci come up here and bear his testimony" Oh man what a surprise! It was quite the experience. I have never talked in front of so many people in my entire life. But the spirit was sooo strong and the words just came out. What an amazing experience.
well my time is up. Have a great week! i love you all
Love
Elder Paolacci

6.11.12

No Pictures :(

Heyyyy fammmmm

Ay yay yay what a week. We are working super hard, trying to get our baptisms ready for these next couple of weeks. We fasted and prayed and decided last night that it would be better for us not to go to that little town of Chacrampa. We realized that even though there are a ton of people that wanna listen, it is impossible for them to go to church. The bishop is gonna try and find a way to start a little branch there to see how it goes, but it seems as tho this month we are gonna just stay here in Jauja to help the people we have here in a better way. It also made the decision alot easier when we had a ton of success here in Jauja this week. We found a family whose lifelong bestfriends are members in another stake and they are super excited to get baptized. They are super awesome and I am excited to help them out. We also had a super cool experience this week. I wrote it to president in Spanish and I don’t have time to write it again, but im sure someone will help you out as far as translating it goes.

Buenos días presidente!

Ha sido una semana excelente, estamos teniendo bastante éxito aquí en Jauja. Hemos encontrado una familia que esta bien animada y quieren bautizarse. También mi testimonio en cuanto de los susurros del espíritu y como escucharlos ha aumentado bastante. El domingo anterior llegamos a la capilla y el obispo nos dijo que una hermana vino buscando como podía bautizarse. Por su puesto fue un momento de gran gozo pero cuando le preguntamos sus datos nos dijo “ohhh eso me faltó” jaja. Bueno después de la capilla salimos a buscarla pero no tuvimos éxito. Le buscamos toda la semana pero nada. Y bueno ayer (domingo) en la mañana estábamos super ocupados recogiendo investigadores donde sentí preguntar una señorita en una tienda si conocía la hermana (solo sabíamos que su nombre era Isabel).Y la verdad es que toda la semana sentía preguntar allí pero yo siempre rechazaba el sentimiento al toque. Pero fuimos y le preguntamos y bueno, nos dijo que tal vez era su prima. Nos dijo donde trabaja y pasamos en la tarde. La hermana supuestamente fue informada por su prima que íbamos a buscarle porque cuando llegamos ella estaba super animada y nos dijo que estaba esperando. Ella de verdad está muy preparada y es una escogida. Nos contó que su papa en lima se bautizo hace seis meses después de ser alcohólico por 25 años y ha cambiado completamente. Ella ya tiene un gran testimonio y ahora tiene fecha para esta 30. De verdad hay personas preparadas y necesitamos buscarlas. El espíritu nos va a guiar, ya tengo un testimonio muy fuerte de eso. Solo necesitamos saber como seguir sus susurros, y si lo aprendemos se que todos encontrarán los que están preparados por las manos del señor.

( Translated )

Good Morning President!:

It has been an excellent week, we are having a lot of success here in Jauja.

We have found a family who is very motivated and wishes to get baptized.

Also my testimony regarding the whispers of the spirit and how to hear them has increased a lot. On the previous Sunday ( hes talking about Sunday the 3rd) we got to church and the bishop told us that a sister came seeking of how she could get baptized. Of course that was a moment of great joy, but when we asked him for her info he said "oh I missed that" haha. Well after church we went to look for her but didn't have any success. We looked for her all week but nothing. And well yesterday (Sunday) in the morning we were really busy picking up investigators where I felt I needed to ask a miss in the store if she knew the sister ( the only thing we knew was that her name was Isabel). And the truth is that I felt all week that I should ask there but I always rejected the feeling right away. But we went and asked and well, she said that it maybe they were cousins. She told us where she worked and we went by in the afternoon. The sister was supposedly informed by her cousin that we were going to look for her because when we got there she was really excited and said she was waiting for us. She is truly very ready and she was chosen. She told us that her dad in Lima was baptized six months ago after being an alcoholic for 25 years and has changed completely. She has a great testimony and has a date for this 30th. There truly are people who are prepared and we need to look for them. The spirit will guide us, I already have a very strong testimony about it. We only need to know how to follow the spirit's whispers, and that way we will learn I know that everybody will find that which was prepared by the Lord's hands.

(I am sure that promptings would be what he means instead of whispers, but just translated it exactly)

What an amazing experience. Helped me out alot.

Well I gotta go! Love yall! Have great week!

Elder Paolacci