August 29, 2011 Mosiah 2:41

hey beautiful family!

Life is just dandy in Otuzco. Im enjoying the mission. I loved your letters. First corn fest i have ever missed i think. But no biggy. I loved dads funny witty comments all the time. I love hearing from mom too, she is such a good example. Courts seems to be doing good. i don`t miss homework. 

The scripture of the week is Mosiah 2:41. (if you want you can just read mosiah 2 through 5) 

41 And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and ^ahappy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are ^bblessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out ^cfaithful to the end they are received into ^dheaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness. O remember, remember that these things are true; for the Lord God hath spoken it.

I decided the key to the lives of members is this, keeping those commandments that God has given, to have never ending happiness. I love scripture study. I was thinking alot about Blaine this week and was wanting to write him, so if someone could send me his email that would be great. This week we visited this referall that an investigator told us to go to, it was a catholic family who had just lost a father. taught them the plan of salvation, the second time we taught the restoration, and third focused on the book of mormon. there is like 8 people there which is cool. I feel they are progressing, the first time one sister said i`m not going to commit to anything. (not even pray about the message) the second time she said yes to reading and the other said it was just a little to read. and they asked us when we could return rather than us having to try to get another appointment. pretty cool. But really catholic so it will be interesting. For dad`s comments about the adventistas, That guy I talked about before told us that story too, i thought it was interesting, cuz the prophesy didn`t come true. haha. but the prophesy they based the religion on in revelations, about the angel coming and Christ coming, did come true, through Joseph Smith. But really they are way similar to our church. Elder Contreras says they just need the Priesthood Authority and they would be our Church. haha. Went to Milluachaqui twice this week, the people over there are really awesome and I can feel growth coming fast, especially in this city Salpo that we proselite at also. Yesterday Elder Espinal and I went to the familiar group, taught commandments and the word of wisdom. This brother Jerman, has a ton of faith and He is preparing to be baptized mid september. He said ¨No tengo ninguna duda¨ (I don`t have any doubt.) pretty cool. I am really happy though. especially when we do physical service. We helpd this member carry bricks from the street to the roof of her house, and we are going to finish it today. One thing that bothers me cuz i Know it never works is when missionaries try to prove our belief`s with the bible, like 1st day worship how Jesus instituted the Sacrament on Sunday, and was resurected this day, but I have found with any objection the best way to go about it is by asking them who wrote the law originally, and they say a prophet, or moses. And then explain that God has restored these things completely, you can know only by reading the Book of Mormon. And also testify that there is a Moses that lives on the earth today that recieves direct revelation from God. And God knows everything. Yesterday we taught Santos, and I testified in this manner, shared that the spirit testifies of all truth and can`t lie and I told him that I have seen Thomas S. Monson a prophet of God and that the spirit bore witness to me that he was a real prophet, like moses, and if God (who knows all were to change anything, for example the day of worship to wednesday, he would do it through a prophet of God) I felt the spirit way strong as I shared that and I know he did too. Overall the spirit is the only thing that converts. I of myself am nothing. Just an instrument for the spirit to work through. I miss ya`ll and love ya much. Have a good week!

August 22, 2011 3 Nephi 18:19-21

Hello beautiful family,

Loved your letters as usual, mom, dad, and courtney win the prize for most faithful writers. (via email). 


The scripture of the week is 3 Nephi 18:19-21.

19 Therefore ye must always pray unto the Father in my name;

 20 And ^awhatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, which is right, believing that ye shall receive, behold it shall be given unto you.

 21 ^aPray in your families unto the Father, always in my name, that your wives and your children may be blessed.

 yeah. First to reply to ya´ll, for mama, yes i have huge conainers of water, and haven´t used a filter once. haha. and yes there is pineapple here. more then there. When we drive to Trujillo we can see all the pineapple plants growing and it reminds me of when we went to the dole factory in hawaii. Chevare. Speaking of fruit. I can eat bananas here. no idea why, but i am not as allergic to the bananas here and i love bananas. i think in the US i am allergic to whatever they inject the raw bananas with haha. Sounds like you all are doing good. My companion wants the recipe for those rice crispy bars that you sent last time, if possible mom :) Tell grandpa i hope he gets better and that i love him. I need pictures of the baby when he comes. I found out for christmas and mothers day, for our calls we can use Skype. So if that works out that would be awesome. The zone conference you saw was really good. I always feel refreshed after those meetings. I ran into an Elder Terry that looked way familiar and I talked to him, he´s from Highland and was a friend i used to talk to in middle school or high school. Cool. I attached some pics of my district with the president, and of Milluachaque. I promise you´ll get pics of Otuzco some day. This week was good. I am getting better at speaking from my heart in spanish. Which is good. The guy I said was golden last week, we visited him this week and his friend was there too. He was this really gospel smart adventist, seemed nice enough at first. But we didn´t get to teach much, he told us like all the history of his church, and was a discussion, and it got worse and worse, The best thing to do there is testify and leave. Elder Contreras and him went back and forth with the bible for a time. Eventually, this guy got to talking about joseph smith ( he was knowlegable about our church) but said he couldn´t have been a prophet because he worshipped on sunday and he believed the sabbath is saturday. anyways i had never experienced the church getting torn apart that much, and my testimony grew tremendously in this time. at the end I felt full of power and testified with all my heart to this guy, that we know if a prophet is true or not based on his fruits (Matt. 7:15-16) and that the Book of Mormon is the fruit of Joseph Smith and that I know without a doubt it is true. Invited him to read and pray, and then we prayed and left. Not sure if the ¨golden¨ planned that guy to be there or what but I still have hope for him. Taught english again. Getting more organized as a teacher, and we had more people attend this week. My music cravings have been more or less helped by this recorder in our pension home. (recorder as in those little flutes you play in 4th grade). Way fun to figure out songs, and getting better. from pirates of the carrabean to hymnos, it´s a good time. haha also played in sacrament meeting yesterday, hymns, i´d never played before that had 4 flats, did pretty well actually, i think that ability is increasing too. If you haven´t already sent the package, maybe you could send a cd of allred christmas, (my companion loves christmas music all year long and we can listen to the hymns every day) if you can find that cd haha. don´t worry too much about that though. Overall the work is good, now is my first change, ( transfer) but nothing changes for us. Life is good, have family home evening. I love you guys

Elder Hurley

August 15, 2011 1 corinthians 10:13

Scripture of week 1 corinthians 10:13


¹³There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

family family family, how do i love thee, let me count the ways.

I love love your letters as usual. they really mean so much to mean i miss you guys. to answer ma´s questions, I can´t drink the local water, but its not a prob, and i know freezing doesnt kill bacteria. there are little internet shops on the street, cost like 1 sol. but i only have one soul so its kind of a rip off. hahaha jk. I tried last week to send a bunch of pictures but i couldn´t get it to work, hope i can this time, i still haven´t sent any pictures of otuzco itself haha but i will in the future when i get them. I can see most the pictures you send, i love those too. i can prob send the camera card next month. we have a multizone conference tommorrow, but not at the mission home. im sure there will be pictures, sister turk updates as it happens haha. I think i could use my debit card here but there is no purpose really, and yes we pay her for food money. for dad, sorry i realized after i didn´t say anything bout the package, whatever is good, american junk food crap like snickers maybe, the peanut butter and wingers sauce was good, but whatever ya want to send, maybe some powder to mix with water, ( like crystal light type powder) maybe some physical pictures, Things are going good. maybe some physical pictures of ya´ll.

This week was good. I have a lot of confidence in baptizms to come. I made a list of people i really thing will be baptized and it was like 30 people. We´ll see how that goes. My language skills are gettin better every day, getting more where I don´t have to think as much about what i say. and I think my music training and ability to hear things has really helped me. at least to pick up on the pronunciation and stuff like that. Taught english for the first time this week, that was fun and cool. its gunna be a weekly thing now, me and elder mikesell are tag teaming it. There are things here that remind me of home a lot, like the fact that almost everyone are farmers, so i think of grandpa and the farm. and lots of people grow corn, the kernals are huge here and they make this stuff called cancha which is way good, like popcorn but better. but the corn fest is coming up and its the first one i will miss in my whole life I think. Also for random reason i have been loving to hum and sing the song ¨you are my sunshine¨ and think about how mom used to sing that to me every night as a kid. but life is good. I have decided there are things important to me (because they are important to the work) that aren´t important to most other missionarys, like being on time, and imma do my best to be my best. this week was good. We taught this guy Gilmer last wednesday, he agreed to a baptizmal date the 27 of august. when we returned 2 days later they were all drunk and partying. gunna be harder than i thought. but i have faith in him. milluachaki was good yesterday (the familiar group) we had 5 total, and it was just me and elder espinal (the other newbie) that went, that way we can have one from each companionship at church too for our investigators. the investigator in milluachaki wants to be baptized. we also hiked to salpa, a town a little further up the mountain by milluachaki, taught this couple and they said yes to baptizm too. I love the gospel and think i have taken it for granted my whole life. Its the best. I love you all so much and hope you have a great week. I hope you are enjoying the blog, last week was awesome , i got to see all the guys in my group that came with me from the CCM so that was cool to see the progression of everyone. See you next week, ill try to get some old pics sent. love Elder Hurley

Minute to Win it Any one? The Bean sucking winners of the Zone Conference August 1st, 2011

"Bean Sucking Winners"

There is probably a better title for this game but it's late.

Elder Contreras and Elder Hurley.

You have got some powerful lungs.

(from Sister Turk's Blog)

The East-Zone Conference August

Time for interviews with President Turk.
These interviews include starting on their knees in prayer, then they move on to their concerns, their goals, ideas, teaching, learning, testifying,

problems, training, goals, repentance, and a whole lot of love.

August 8, 2011 Doctrine and Covenants 58:26-27

Dear family,

Love love love your letters. It was great to hear from my grandparents this week. You guys have always been some of the greatest examples in my life. 


The scripture of the week is Doctrine and Covenants 58:26-27. 

26 For behold, it is not meet that I should command in all things; for he that is ^acompelled in all things, the same is a^bslothful and not a wise servant; wherefore he receiveth no reward.

 27 Verily I say, men should be ^aanxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness;

Really good to apply this one to life. Sounds like you guys are doing really good. Time flys. Glad you are enjoying the blog. Thanks for the scripture papa i{´ll read it soon. For the money thing mom, we have a debit card and the 1st of the month we take out all the money, pay for our rent, our pensionista for laundry and food, and we have certain amount for transportation and personal. The package was heavenly. thank ya much. it was funny cuz my companion told me to have you guys send peanut butter if possible haha and there it was. mmm. This week we were living in luxury. The family of our pension had been saving for a time and bought a fridge. first fridge ive seen in all of otuzco haha. can you imagine living without a fridge, readily clean water, no washing machines or dryers, ha and many other luxuries we enjoy in the states. but i had ice for the first time in peru (except maybe the airplane) this week so that was awesome too. The wingers sauce was brilliance. especially cuz we have chicken wings or some part of a chicken more than half the meals haha. thanks for that. The rice crispy treats were good. I think i am allergic to something you sent, i think the rice crispy treats, i dont know but after i ate it for the first time i started getting little bumps like hives all over my body. I will be fine though. also we had pancakes yesterday which was like heaven. We had a bird in the pension in a box, and i{m pretty sure we ate it haha. I miss max. prob the most out of everyone. sorry guys but max takes the cake. there are dogs and puppys that are way cute that i see every day haha. Yesterday was good. I played piano in sacrament, well the organ actually. ( ha we only have a keyboard, so i used the organ function ) my companion and elder mikesell went to milluachaqui the familiar group and so me and elder espinal taught in church yesterday. basically winged it in spanish. But it turned out good. It was on Charity. This is the attribute we should strive for the most. You hear charity is the pure love of christ. Which it is. But think how almost impossible that is, the love Christ had for us, i hope to achieve that some day. He loved us enough to suffer for all of us. Yesterday we had a really good lesson. Taught lesson one to this man. But the way the lesson went, it was really him teaching himself the lesson haha. It was cool. He would lead himself into the next point in the lesson. For example after we talked about joseph smith and being a prophet he asked, so since he was a prophet did he have writings too like the prophets of the bible. and it was perfect to explain the book of mormon after that. I think he´s golden. But i always think that. haha. We were going to only teach half the lesson but the spirit told us to stay. In general The work is harder than expected. i thought it would be cake down here in south america haha. But i really want to have more success. We do have a baptism date, but she wants to get baptized after her moms birthday in october. haha. The lifestyle is really different. Cool thing happened yesterday, when we were walking home to dinner my comp felt impressed to visit this ward member. When we went there she was in major pain. We helped her with dishes and gave her a priesthood blessing. I don´t think ive ever seen anyone suffer so much. It was a good thing we went. SPeaking of blessings, lots of sick people down here so we give lots of blessings. Life is good. I was reading in true to the faith and realized how important family history work is. ( D and C 128:15). And I hope the work for our family is done, if it is not, get to it. haha. cuz its the only way we can all be sealed together. Love you guys. have a good week.

Elder Hurley

August 1, 2011 Alma 5:45-47

Hey my lovely family

Imma start these email with a scripture that I like from the week and you can look it up later and apply it to your life however you want to. 


Alma 5:45-47

45 And this is not all. Do ye not suppose that I ^aknow of these things myself? Behold, I testify unto you that I do know that these things whereof I have spoken are true. And how do ye suppose that I know of their surety?

 46 Behold, I say unto you they are made ^aknown unto me by the Holy Spirit of God. Behold, I have ^bfasted and prayed many days that I might know these things of myself. And now I do know of myself that they are true; for the Lord God hath made them manifest unto me by his Holy Spirit; and this is the spirit of^crevelation which is in me.

 47 And moreover, I say unto you that it has thus been revealed unto me, that the words which have been spoken by our fathers are true, even so according to the spirit of prophecy which is in me, which is also by the manifestation of the Spirit of God. 


Firstly I love your letters. it is so good to hear from you guys. I decided this week to only think about home on p days when i write you, that way i can focus more on the work fully. moms questions. Food. i have rice every meal almost, with some kind of chicken, always with bone or something, i miss food that is easy to eat haha. every morning for breakfast we have bread, and sometimes eggs. we walk everywhere. everyone in trujillo does . i don`t think there are any bikes here at all. sister turk said they brought there bikes cuz they love to bike but havent been able to here. once a month we go to trujillo by taxi or bus. and get around here the same way. so i am in trujillo right now. and we come back tommorrow for interviews with the president. and i am fine with my blanket that i have, cuz they have some blankets here too. and today i finally got my package!! woot. i haven`t opened it but I will when we get back to Otuzco. Thanks for the pics. whit looks way different with brown hair. haha. every here has brown hair. on the way to this internet some girls stopped me and elder mikesell for a picture, and took a picture of my blue eyes haha. funny. Thats too bad about grandpa. and that`s cool Rachel and Megan came. They´re good girls. Love hearing everything that is happening. wish i could write you all personally but just don`t have the time. thank you for all of your examples and love for me my whole life. Especailly trust, i have so much trust in all of you and that has never been a problem in our family. now to my week. This week was really good. I focused on enjoying each day, rather than stressing about every little thing. This helped me in all aspects. Love my companion. He is so funny and we are doing good. You just have to realize people are different. I realized this week how important efficiency is to me. I think that is a Hurley trait, cuz it has always been important to find out how to do things in the most productive way possible. I think that is why i get frustrated sometimes when we are late to appointments or i feel like there is a better way to do things. But overall we`re doing good, lots of people I think will be baptized. We had a ward activity this week of a karioke night. (spelled it wrong I know). it was weird singing ^yellow^ by coldplay, never thought i would do that on my mission. but it reminded me how much i love music. The people of Otuzco have so much faith. it seems everyone at least has a religion. Otuzco is called the capital of faith haha. but I really love that town and all the people there, i especially realized that going to trujillo today. We also went to Trigopampa, wich is a part of our area we have to hike like an hour to get to. The lady there has a baptizm date now. . but for october haha. hopefully we can shorten that time. My language is improving every day. but i still just want to be fluent already. haha. We did some service this week. wheel barrowed these huge bricks from one place to another, (the people here literally make bricks out of dried mud for houses. yesterday me and my comp. went to milluachaque again, (the familiar group) the smalles church unit i think I will ever attend. for sacrament there was just 7 of us total. With the language I am really good at prononciation. one of the sisters i taught said she hears it perfectly when I read the scriptures. but not so much when i talk haha. When i have the spirit it is easier to talk. awesome. I love you guys so much. Today we got to go to the beach here. We played some futbol too. I love all of you so much. have a great week. !

Elder Hurley