After the Mother's Day Phone Call...

Haha Im glad that it went well, sorry I got on so late, I was running from internet place to internet place and finally we remembered that one of the members had it so we went there and he was happy to help out. thanks for the pics

So Idk what we can do with the camera, no I didnt find it, went back and looked but its gone. long gone. I had taken a few pictures that werent baptisms but there werent very many. So yeah I could definitely buy one here but idk how much it would be. I could look around but im assuming itd be about the same price. I think i just lost a few pics of my comps and what not but ill have them on facebook, no biggie.

Anyways I pretty much told you everything that went on for my week. Today at about 1 am the assistents called up to tell me about transfers and what not so im like reallly tired. I had people calling me from about 1 to 2 or 2:30 with questions and stuff and then again all morning long. Man its tough flying solo as a ZL but I thnk i got most everything figured out and should be good to go until tomorrow. hopefully haha.

My new companion is Elder Stewart also form Arizona, also has 8 siblings but he isnt the oldest. I guess he has like 12 nieces/nephews a few of which have been born recently so kinda similiar to what im expierencing right now. I think we will be able to work really well together.

Yesterday I was with the bishop (obispo) most of the day and it really amazes me at how sensistive he was to the promptings of the Holy Ghost. We were able to really work well together and help out a couple people to be understand more about the gospel and be more excited about getting baptized.

It was tough to get anyone to come to church because it was Mothers day and all. Arequipa is SUCH a party city. Like any tiny little thing that they can celebrate the make a huge drinking fest out of it. With tons of really bad music haha. But its even worse on big holidays like mothers day or christmas. So yeah I spent a lot of the day keeping away from large groups of drunk people. Thankfully nothing happened and we could work. I really cant understand how people can just do that, but I guess thats just because I´ve been born and raised in the gospel and most of my friends are good members as well. Im so grateful for that blessing in my life.

The president decided to re-open an area here in the zone which means that the biggest zone in Arequipa just got bigger. 15 COMPANIONSHIPS! Wow. 2 companships are the asistents so we dont have to worry about them very much haha. Except for when they call me right after sacrament meeting with some sort of request for baptismal clothes or interview or both haha. But its all good as missionaries we will do anything just to get a baptism. Any sacrifice is worth it to help someone else make an eternal baptismal covenant with our Heavenly Father.

Anyways love you guys and ill talk to you next week!

Elder Patrik Connole

Mom is the Best (Mom couldn't resist that title. hee hee)

Thanks mom, you're the best! I´ll print it off just in case. BTW I got a package from you a little while ago but I dont think I ever told you....oops.

Just found out that one of my best friends from BYU got sent home from the mission due to chronic depression. Kind of a shocker so I hope that the fam can give a little prayer for him. Im once again rememinded of how lucky I am to be here with good health and that I havent had many huge trials to overcome.

This week started off with me losing my camera...which really sucks...but thankfully I´ve sent off all the important pictures to you guys already. And we ended it happy because we had 2 baptisms of a part member family. The mom and dad are members but they have been inacative for over 8 years. The two kids were great, the older kid is 14 named Hostin (pronounced like Austeen) and his younger 11 year old brother is Daniel. We were very happey for them and now we hope that the family will be spurred into action and go get sealed in the temple a year from now.

We had our Zone Conference on Thursday and it was a quite enlightening, this month we didnt improve in baptisms as a zone nor as a mission but we did do alright. We are very excited for the possibilities we have in May and we will work hard to accomplish our goals.

Yesterday one of our investigator families (the Toledo family) opened up a snack bar and they invited us to come over and be present. We only made a brief appearance because we knew that there would be a party afterwards. Anyways we showed up and they gave us some free food, (always nice) and my companion and I presented ourselves to the 20 or so people there and gave a prayer to bless the business. It was a pretty fun expierence

sorry its short this week but Ill talk to you on SUNDAY!!

Elder Patrik Connole

Shrimp Soup Anyone?

Haha, I´ve kinda gotten known for being bold around here. A few weeks ago a couple elders were having troubles with a couple who are both RMs but they wouldnt let their 9 year old kid get baptized. Actually the mom was cool with it but the Dad would not do it at all. He just kept on saying that his kid was too young to make the decision. So I went on splits with E. Petersen and talked to the guy and just basically told him that he knew that what he was doing was not right and that the sin would fall on his head. Lol this guy wasnt even going to church ever. Long story short, the kid got baptized 2 weeks later and the man thanked me for calling him out to repentance.


Anyways you asked what we did for easter, well basically the same as usual, go out and preach haha. but our pensionist did make us a special dinner (its called chupe de camarrones or in english shrimp chowder) SO GOOD!!: haha. pictures are included for your enjoyment.


My comp was kinda sick all week so we didnt get much done during the week because we were running to and from the clinic. (actually more like taking a taxi here and there but yeah) But he got to feeling better on saturday so we went out to work praying hard that we could find some people that the Lord had been preparing all week just so that we could go visit them. And the Lord always provides. We found a 23 year old kid who had been going to church a few years back but never got baptized. But now he wants to do it. But he wasnt gonna be able to come to church the next day because he had a ton of work to get done. (he is a carpenter) anyways we came back later that night and helped him finish up what he needed to do and he came to church on sunday and felt the spirit really strong. So we are verrry excited for him.


On Sunday we had an awesome day. We decided to go on spilts all day with the members and just contact and make up for what we didnt do all week. We had nearly 200 contacts that day and the members really felt the spirit of missionary work strongly. In fact the two of them told us that they will call us during the week because they want to feel that same spirit once again. It made me realize how lucky I am and sometimes I dont even recognize it because we as missionaries do have an extra portion of the spirit with us. Now we just have to help non members recognize that and act on their feelings. The people who are Latter Day Saints, I honestly believe have a better comprehension and sensibility to the Spirit. Thats why any Saint is a member because at on point in their lives they have felt the Spirit testify that the BOM is true and that this is the only true church on the face of the planet. That is really the only reason that anybody would join this church. We were talking with the 2nd counselors wife who was a member of the Missionary World Movement church before she joined and she just told us that really the only way she knew the church is true is because she followed Moroni´s promise.


I am so glad that I have also done that in my life and that I have felt that impression in my mind that this is the truth. Anyone can do it and if they´ve already done it once and perhaps have just lost that feeling they can do it again and they will receive the same answer and as we follow the spirit we will be happy


Love you all


Elder Patrik Connole

Super Diligent & Total Craziness!

Anyways so yeah here went my week

So we were super diligent this week and we did a TON of work, hopefully it starts paying dividends. On wednesday we went on splits, I went to Characato with Elder Ruggiero (Side note, his dad was or is the pro at thanksgiving point in UT idk if Dad knows him but yeah just thought Id throw that in there) and we had 2 service projects moving rocks and bricks so that was tiring haha. In Characato they are just starting with the church there since Jan. so they dont have very many members or anything yet. But they did baptize a girl who wants to be a missionary and now her mom is getting baptized this week and is there pensionist. Way cool. So we were there about to eat dinner and we found the pensionist´s son who always tries to avoid the missionaries when they are there but this time we didnt let him escape, sat him down and just read the intro to the BOM with him, really really neat experience and now the elders made a return visit and he has a baptismal date for the 30th. so cool

That same day my comp found a family that is already married (a first!) and they want to get baptized, came to church and everything this week (we kinda had to drag the husband away from a soccer game and we got there a little late but hey they loved it!).

On friday we did splits with the missionaries with whom we share the chapel and the day before they had a baptism all set to go but the investigator never showed up. She was supposed to get baptized over a month ago but every week something has come up. So we headed over there at about 1030 or so and found her there. Turns out that her son wouldnt let her leave that day so she didnt go. So I asked her if her son was there, and when we found out that he wasnt there, I told to get ready because we were gonna baptize her in an hour. So she was like ok lets do it. So we go running to the bishop to get the keys to fill the font, and he isnt there so we call the counselor, he says he doesnt have keys but he will be able to go to the baptism. Then we decide to go up to my bishop and grab the keys. Fortunately he was there so we grabbed the keys ran back down to the chapel and started filling the font. The lady shows up to be baptized right then and we realize that there we dont have the baptismal clothes. so we run back up to my room, grab the clothes (still damp from the last baptism) and head over to where my comp and his comp were teaching a lesson. They had just finished so we grab them and head down to the baptism. Finally we got everything all good, dunked the lady and she got confirmed on sunday. whew total craziness.

Sunday we had a tight activity that was stake wide. As Zone Leaders we always talk to the Stake President and we planned a stake wide activity that on sunday all the bishops and ward mission leaders would go out and contact and look for new people, like do splits with the missionaries in their ward. So we headed out with them, in total we had about 130 contacts, 2 lessons, a few new investigators, a bunch of potential new investigators and we got 5 references from them. Great activity that we did from about 3 until about 545. So yeah it was pretty exciting

Anyways thats all for this week,

Love you all

Elder Patrik Connole

Looking Ahead

So Im assuming that the weekly email must have either gotten lost or it just hasnt arrived yet. I need a favor from you. I need you to call up BYU and see what all needs to go on so that I can get back to school. But I think there may be a problem because my return date is the 18th of Jan. but school should start somewhere around the 5th. I talked to Presidente Fernandez about it briefly and he said that I can go home a couple weeks early if need be to get home for school, but I would like stay and finish up the full 24 months if possible. So if you could find out if its possible that I just stay here to finish out my mission and I just end up going to spring term (which starts in late april or something like that). Idk if I would need to call them or what. Anyways what would be ideal is if you could have that info by mothers day when I call and we cna talk about it then and there. Anyways we didnt get to go out and work very much this week because we had zone leader council on tuesday which meant all day monday was spent getting prepared for it and tuesday was spent all day sitting down lisiting to the pres. and we didnt work sunday very much because it was election sunday and its against the law to go out and have meetings during the elections. And Thursday we went to a baptismal interview like 35 min away and so we didnt work much that day either. But in the little time that we did have we had 3 really fun experiences. The first one was on wed. morning we went knocking doors and finally came to a 16 year old kid named Javier. He professes to be atheist but we gave it to him good with Alma 30 (Story of Korihor) and he committed to pray and ask God if he exists. We found him again on sunday, actually we were walking down the street and he spotted us, came over and told us that he received an answer that God exists and he wants us to come and teach him! way cool. Then on Saturday night we were on splits with the members from 530 to 900 and at about 6 it started to rain, the ward mission leader and I toughed it out for like an hour and a half without much success. Then finally at 8 we had an apt with a lady E. Frias and I contacted a couple days back and she was there with her whole family, we committed them to being baptized and it was so awesome because they all accepted. They just gotta get married first. Then Sunday night we went to the house of an investigator we had been teaching for a while and we know that he has felt the spirit but he wont accept it. he is the only non member in the family and is the dad. Turns out that he got apendicitis and is now a lot more humble. We are gonna pass by every day to visit him and he will be baptized soon Love ya Elder Patrik Connole

Yes! No!

Thanks for sending me that bit about how missionaries are only baptizing on average 4 people a year per missionary...it was quite humbling to hear that. As a mission we baptized a record amount of people this month, (163) and 5 of those were ours, and in the zone we had 27! So that was way cool.

As far as my glasses go the reason Ive been wearing them is that often times in the mornings I havent had time to put in the contacts lol, we finish up whatever we can do of study and then we rush off to a meeting or an apointment or whatever it is. haha but i got them in today and I think things are gonna calm down this week

Way way way good conference, even though we were hoping for a temple announced here in Arequipa and it didnt happen, I still really liked the conference. We are gonna work extra hard so that we can hear the announcement in october. Thats our goal as a mission anyways. I loved priesthood session that was amazing. and the best part of it all is that we got to watch it in ENGLISH!!! yes!

Anyways we had a way cool expierence this week. We had been teaching an 18 year old girl who we had found contacting and turns out we baptized her cousin my first week here...anyways she was kinda being iffy on the whole baptism thing and going to church because she was just fine being catholic. So we were gonna give her a bit of a break before we went back and tried again. Just after we made that decision the phone rings and its the girl´s aunt who had set up a FHE with her family and the girl, so we were like alright cool lets do it. (this never happens that the members call us because they had set up an apt with an investigator) So we get there and they had the tv set up and everybody there ready to go, we were kinda surprised that her mom let her go because they are super catholic. anyways so we started watching a DVD called Introduction to the Church but we had to book it early because we had a meeting with the stake president. So we left them with the dvd and said yeah we´ll check how it went tomorrow, chow.

We go back the next day and we talked with her to see how it went and I asked her if she had any questions about what she had seen or anything. She asks us what all does getting baptize entail and how long does it usually take. So I explained it real quick about having faith and repenting and going to church and praying and then asked her why she had asked us that, and she was like well...I think that watching the movie and talking with my family has shown me that this is the true church...WOOHOO!! She asked me how soon she get baptized and i was like, uh how does next week sound...she was like alright cool sounds good. Way cool

But then comes sunday morning and her parents wouldnt let her go to the conference, her family members went to pick her up and the parents just wouldnt let her go...NOOOOOOOO

But yeah we are gonna work really hard with her and her parents so that she can fulfill her desire

Im outta time so cya

Elder Patrik Connole

No Changes at Transfers

So yeah thanks for all the updates and stuff haha. Im attaching photos of the baptism we had on saturday. The guy who got baptized is the one wearing a belt. oh yeah and imagen 001 is my whole zone haha.

Anyways wow so transfers came and went with hardly any changes in the zone. Only 2 missionaries left and neither was my comp so the zone stayed basically intact which is good becuase now we can helpe everyone to keep progressing at the same rate.

Anways we were very excited about the baptism because that puts at 5 for the month which was the goal that Pte. Fernandez put on all the ZL and the assistents and so far we are the only ones to get to that goal. This kid was way cool. I found him on splits with our ward mission leader my first week here, he committed to baptism for the 12th but then we couldnt find him and he didnt come to church, finally we found him again turns out that he was just working ridiculous hours and couldnt do anything about it so we recommitted him and he came to church that week and got baptized the next. He has a lot of friends that are members and are either rms or on the mission so he really fits in well with the ward. His mom came to the baptism to and really liked it so hopefully she will want to follow suit here pretty quick.

Oh yeah Miguel already signed up for institutes that start today as well haha We have a whole bunch of members, mostly future missionaries that are helping us out every week now. They really have caught the missionary spirit. Like 15 dudes for the ages of 16 to 23 are helping us out all the time. 5 or 6 of which we have gone out and activated and they are now getting themselves worthy to serve missions. It so awesome to have the members there helping us out because they mean a lot to the investigators especially when the missionaries are gone. its so essencial.

Anyways we are so grateful and we are getting references from them as well of their friends who arent members and also families that part member families. We are seeing results. We had a fun experience at the baptism as well because the older guy Marcos Antonio that got baptized last week came to the baptism this week and was able to be a witness with his son in law for the ordinance. Way cool!

Love ya

Elder Patrik Connole