Letter from May 12, 2011

Dear family,
Wow so the time is really starting to go by very fast. I feel like I was just in the Provo MTC or just starting in Lima. Now i have more than 3 months in Cerro De Pasco. I'm here for another change too so it will be more than 4 months before I leave. I'm happy though. Cerro is a cool place and this is probably the only time in my life I will be here so I'm making lots of memories and taking lots of pictures.
So they put a zone up here in Cerro. Now we have four more missionaries here. This change President opened up a ton of new areas. I guess he sent some missionaries to open little branches and put them as branch presidents. It's all pretty crazy. I'm Senior Companion now. My new companero is Elder Farfan. Remember that I had a companion in the CCM named that, but it's not the same guy. He has about 3 1/2 months in the mission. I actually saw him entering the mission field the night before I left Chosica. I don't know if I'm ready or not to be in charge, but I'm gonna do my best and just work hard. I just completed 9 months, but by no means do I feel like I know everything or that my Spanish is even that good. I still have a long ways to go.
You should see the sky I'm looking at right now. I fell like I could just reach out and touch the clouds. It looks like it could rain, but lately it just rains about five minutes then stops. It's really interesting the weather here, one minute it's colder than the North Pole, then the next instant it's all sunshine.
So I'm really bad about writing letters, I started this letter the 12th and right now I'm in June. Sorry about that. I think I should tell you about my birthday. My Pensionista is the wife of the bishop and a few days before the 24th they told me they had a surprise for me. I was thinking, just a cake or something. When Tuesday gets here, she has pancakes for breakfast. The pancakes here are a little different than what you're used to, but it was really good. For lunch she made mashed potatoes, up to this point I felt pretty spoiled. Then at dinner is when I got the surprise. When I walked in there was a cake with my name on it and next to it two Pizza Hut pizza's. In Cerro De Pasco there are no Pizza Huts, so the bishop had his family bring it from Huancayo, about 3 hours away. I haven't had pizza since before I left Chaclacayo. I couldn't believe they did that for me. First they all sang happy birthday and I blew out the candle. We nuked the pizza and me and Elder Farfan ate until we were stuffed. I don't think food has ever tasted that good as that pizza. We all ate cake afterwards. I was good and full that night. And they let me keep the leftovers, so I took the rest of the cake to some investigators and they ate the leftovers. It was just a really good day. I swear that it will be just as hard to leave this area as it was to leave Chaclacayo. I have so many memories and friends here that I don't want to leave, I pretty much know everyone here and I'm pretty well known by the people. I'm used to the weather and the altitude, I'll probably die if I get some place that really hot.
So today is Sunday and in all of Peru the people are voting for the next president. On days like these we aren't allowed to leave the room. It's actually pretty boring. I understand that it's for our safety, but still we can't eve leave to go eat. We have to have people bring us food. I've been doing a bit of drawing and writing. These elections are actually important to us missionaries. Depending on who wins, we might get shipped out of the country. One of the candidates doesn't like foreigners very much. I'll keep you posted.
The last P-day that we had we went and climbed up a hill in the zone leaders area. On the way up we found some caves and I climbed down into one. I got down and found a dead dog so I decided to climb back out. At the top of the hill there was a Peruvian flag, but it was a metal flag so I took some pictures hanging from it. It was an amazing view. On the way down we ran into a herd of sheep. The Shepherd talked to us a little while and we took some pictures with his pet Alpaca.
I did divisions a short time ago. I went to an area brand new int he mission, just a few minutes away. I was with Elder Quispe, he's brand new int he mission, just a few weeks, but he is a very powerful very spiritual missionary. We taught some great lessons and had a lot of success together. The first place we went we taught a family of four. The husband and his wife and two kids. At first they didn't talk much, but when we were finishing he told me that he didn't think it was casualidad that we had come by. The next lesson was a guy who has been listening to missionaries more than 2 years. Elder Quispe shared his testimony with him and we all felt the spirit so strong. It was incredible. The guy didn't say "baptize me" right then, but he told us he knew he would be baptized and wen he did he would call me. We had another lesson with a husband of a member. They have a son in the mission. This guy had some doubts about baptism so we shared some scriptures and at the end he said eh wanted to be baptized. It was an amazing experience for me and got me really excited to work in my own area. I feel like we are teaching with a lot of power and the spirit. We have 3 baptism planned for this 18 of Junio. I feel so much love for the people, I just want to help them. I want so bad that they can come to realized that God loves them and He sent His son Jesus Christ to die for them. That through the right baptism they can receive exaltation if they are faithful. Pray for these people, pray that they will soften their hearts and listen to us. Pray for us, the missionaries. Pray that we can find these people and help them.
Love you tons. Pray that all is well. Keep the faith and be an example of the believers. Take care.
Love,
Elder Capps