Elder Chandler Haws: Hi, Welcome to Cusco

Week 31 (February 13, 2017)

Well, I'm now in the city of Cusco itself and holy cow it's amazing! I love Cusco so much. It is absolutely gorgeous. The view from my house is incredible, even though there is a big building in the way.

This week was a little crazy, we had to go and pick up all the missionaries who had changed to Cusco, or who were just passing through. So all day on Wednesday and Thursday we were stuck doing that.

My new zone is huge. There are 20 missionaries in it and the sectors stretch from the center of Cusco to Urubamba, which is about an hour and a half away. It's big. My sectors name is "Santiago" and its been a big change from Puno, but it's awesome! and my zone is "Zona Cusco".

My companion, Elder Montero is the freaking best. I love this guy. He's not crazy, or prideful, but he is humble, and a very loving person. I'm so happy to have a good comp. My new pensionista is Marilena. She's a spunky grandma. Quite a change from Hermana Shirley. But I'll get used to it.

We've had quite a few experiences this week that have been quite eye opening. I'll start with Katy. Katy is an investigator that Elder Monti (Montero's nickname) found a week before I got here. She is incredibly intelligent, but also incredibly self-contradictory. In our lesson this week she started by saying she doesn't believe in God. Great, I'll be honest, I was kind of mad at her. I wanted to right then and there give her all the reasons why God exists. All the undeniable facts. She told us that there was no concrete method to know that he exists and that no one has seen him so why should we believe. She told us that evolution was the best explanation for life that there is. At this point, I was just ready to blow up. She wouldn't listen to us. But Elder Monti took over, or should I say the spirit took over. Elder Monti was patient. All he did was ask her questions. He made sure that we understood what she felt when all I wanted to do was inflict what we felt and knew upon her. In the process of this whole conflict, Katy started feeling something. Her whole demeanor changed and she started to look confused. She felt the spirit testifying to her that God exists. But she is stubborn and she tried to deny it. She tried to repeat what she said at the beginning of the lesson but her words were hollow. At the end, we finally got her to say, "fine, I'll pray". That was difficult, haha, but I learned a lot about myself in that short moment.

Elder Monti

We have an investigator named Pierina, she is awesome. She is going to get baptized on February 25th. She is a very straight forward person. She says what is on her mind and is not afraid to voice her opinion. This week someone tried to rob her on the street, but she fought whoever it was, off. She is the freaking best. But yeah, that's Pierina. I've mad a lot of fast friends here, and I know I'm supposed to be here.

Scriptures of the week

D&C 111:8

Alma 32:21, 27-28

2 Kings 2:23-25

Elder Haws