Conference and Baptisms

Week 62 (Sept 18, 2017)

Well, this week has been a good week. A lot of walking around. And failed appointments. But some cool experiences. 

Multi-zone conference:
We went to Cusco this week for our multi-zone conference and it was SO trunky being in Cusco again. I miss it.  But we received a lot of good teachings, but nothing out of the ordinary. haha. 

BUT

NOW WE CAN WATCH DISNEY MOVIES ON MONDAYS. 

Nelly´s Baptism:
Nelly got baptized this week!!!! Actually its not that big of a deal... because she´s already a member. Her papers just got lost. haha. oops.  But the night before her baptism she told us that she was really grateful to be able to get baptized again. She had made a lot mistakes and took her first baptism really lightly. She didn't really have a testimony and through taking the lessons again she was able to get a firm testimony. It was a special moment to see how the Lord changes people through ways we never ever thought would´ve been possible or likely. 

The rest of the week we were looking for people to teach or find investigators we already have. There isn't a ton happening yet but we have faith to see a miracle! 

This week we were contacting a little bit trying to find some people. We walked up to a door and started knocking but heard from above someone say, "Oh no. Ya found me". So we looked up and saw this middle aged woman we had never even met before. She said, "I know you want to share a message. But you need to know I'm not one for church." And started to tell her whole life´s story. Which actually isn't that weird because everyone will do that here. But this time we sat and listened to this chick for an hour. She convinced herself to take our lessons. And set her own appointment. After an hour of talking to her we didn't even know her name. But she thanked us and we´re planning to go back next week. Just a little story for ya. 

Sorry its short today guys! But there's a ton of pictures to look at. 

Welcome to Sicuani

Week 61 (September 11, 2017)

Sicuani
Welllll everyone I'm officially in Sicuani. Its way different from Cusco.  There is like nothing here. haha. But there is a lot of people to teach so that's good! haha. 

Sicuani is pretty much the much smaller version of Cusco. There is one stake and 5 wards. (Two of the wards are pueblos that are an hour away) Its been a huge change but its also really cool to see how far I've come in the mission. 

We have some awesome investigators. My comps old comp didn't really like to put baptismal dates (don´t ask me why) so I got there and we have like 3 people with a date to get baptized. We´re having one this Saturday! 

The Big Turkey
My new companion´s name is Elder Pabon. If spelled with a ¨v¨ his name would literally mean, "Big Turkey." So of course I´ve been calling him that. 
He is from Bolivia and is a really really good person. He´s been through a lot of stuff in his life and has changed from his past. Its going to be awesome to get to know him more! 
He just finished his training so he´s still a greeny. Bu his trainer didn't really help out to learn much about missionary work. So I´m helping him out with that. We´re going to do amazing things here! 

There isn´t much to say or write about this week because we've just been meeting people, I´m trying to get the feel of the new sector and what we need to do to see miracles. We´re just going to keep working and pushing along. 

In my studies this week I´ve been reading in Alma. I read about Alma and Amulek. They were treated horribly and imprisoned. But they were faithful. I also was listening to a talk by Elder Neal A. Maxwell and heard a quote that I like a lot. 

"The cavity that suffering carves into our souls will one day be the receptacle of joy." 

Love you all so much! 

A Good Week

Week 60 (Sept 4, 2017)

This week was a good week. 

Shoe shining. 
This week we had a shoe shining activity with the whole zone. We set up chairs on the sidewalks and we shined shoes for free to contact people. It was a super fun service project to find the elect of God. (Hay fotos)

Chapel Open House
We also had a church open house kind of activity this week on Saturday. It was fun, we gave tours to people who wanted to. Not a ton of people came but it was awesome for those who did. We had a class given by a member about The Godhead. Afterwards, we showed them the Baptismal Font, went upstairs and had a class about The Plan of Salvation, and then about the Restoration, and to end we showed them the Chapel and explained the sacrament to them. Then we had refreshments in the cultural hall. It was fun! 

David´s Baptism
FINALLY, DAVID GOT BAPTIZED. After having to cancel his date three times we got David to enter the waters of baptism and make covenants with his Father in Heaven. Not many people were physically present in his baptism, but I could feel there were many on the other side of the veil watching and rejoicing for David. (hay fotos) 

Changes
Well, I just finished my time in the Santiago Cusco Ward after being there for 7 and a half months. It was a great time where I learned a lot. Here´s one thing that I learned. Success doesn't come easily or sometimes at all. Most people in South and Central America usually can get baptisms pretty easily. In Cusco it's not really like that. The numbers are low and the people are uncommitted. It's really hard to find people who will actually take serious what you teach them. So as you can imagine it was really frustrating to not see the success I expected when I got here. I tried everything from setting high goals to completely trusting in the Spirit to guide what we did. But it was all the same. We found wonderful people, but their baptismal dates fell through. We contacted GOLDEN people, but we could never find them again. Everything that could have gone wrong, went wrong. But now looking back I see the good that actually happened. Maybe I did not see what I WANTED to see. But God helped me see what I NEEDED to see. 

In life we aren´t going to get what we want, sometimes even when we do everything we can to get it. But soon after we recognize that breaking our muscles down, only brings them back twice as strong. 

Audio Letter

Week 59 (August 28, 2017)

Slow Progress

Week 58 (August 21, 2017)

Hey everrrrybody. Me again. 

This week we`ve been doing a lot to help the investigators that we already have, we didn`t find hardly anyone new to teach but next week will be better. 

The Peruvian Religion
So here in Perú there are so many different Christian religions. So much in fact that the people (mostly the men) here have begun to believe that ALL of the churches are true and that they ALL lead back to heaven. This is a big problem for us because no one believes that baptism is really that necessary. They believe that faith without works can save them. But we know that that isn't true. God requires covenants and ordinances to one day inherit His kingdom. So that is the Peruvian religion. 

Mariano
Mariano is one of our investigators. He comes to church every week. But every time we have set an appointment with him it falls through. Until this week we caught him in his store! We finally sat down with him, and he told us his story of how he found the church (because he just showed up one day in the church). He told us that his whole life he had been searching for the best path for him to follow. Or which church taught the best doctrine. (Kind of like Joseph Smith). He told us that in his time in Cusco he always wanted to visit the Mormon Church. But every time he tried to go something came up. On Sunday, he came! And he told us that in the priesthood meetings he felt so good. He felt a warm sensation in his heart. And he knew this was the religion he needed to follow. Afterward, he went to his Catholic church and guess what, they talked about the Peruvian Religion. SO when we went to visit him, he had a lot of doubts. But we taught him the Restoration and we felt the spirit so strong. He once again felt what he had felt that one day in the church. And now he`s going to get baptized! 

We`re starting to see a lot of little miracles! Its been absolutely satisfying to finally see the work progress here in Santiago. I love this work! I know it is true! 

Our purpose
In my personal study this week I was reading about Alma when he gave up his judgment seat to preach to his people to save them from destruction and condemnation. In my mission, I`ve seen a lot of missionaries who go on a mission for the wrong reasons. Maybe for the girlfriends, maybe for their parents, maybe because they felt obligated to do so. What I`ve seen is that the happiest missionaries are the ones who have CHOSEN to come. The ones who really understand why they`re there. 
    
This doesn`t only have to do with missionaries. We all came to this earth for a purpose. Unlike the mission, we ALL WANTED to come. And yet, we see people very unhappy to be here? I was reading why Alma went on a mission. He went because he loved his people. Because he loved God, and he loved his Savior. He wanted to be there. I want you all to think about your purpose here on this earth. Because after all, YOU CHOSE TO BE HERE. 

I love you all so much! KEEP IT REAL. 

Families Are Key

Week 57 (August 14, 2017)

Hey everybody another week is gone and I'm not sure what happened. Actually, a lot happened so we´ll get started. 

So we have been teaching a teenager named David. He is the best we love this kid. And is getting baptized on the 26th of this month. We went to his house this week and he was there, so we went in his house and sat down, then his mom came in (who I never met), we quickly introduced ourselves and asked if we could talk for 5 minutes. She agreed and also called her daughter, Angela, (David´s sister) to come listen too. So we taught a little about prophets, and about joseph smith and then the Book of Mormon. It was all really quickly explained and set another appointment to come back. Then we invited them to pray and read what we had shared with them. And when I invited them to do it I felt the need to invite them to baptism. So we did. We said something along the lines of, "If you come to know this message is true, will you be baptized someone who holds the authority of God?" Then they said something that I wasn´t expecting. 

"But what if we already know it's true?" 

Yeah, they said that. Awesome right? We didn't set any baptism date with them. But I know that they will be baptized one day. Maybe really soon too. 

We´ve been searching a lot of experiences lately. Our mission president invited to help our investigators have more spiritual experiences lately. And the results have been miraculous. I haven´t just seen an increase in my investigator´s faith. But also in my own faith. I´ve seen and experienced a lot of things this week. You read just a little of it.  But there is so much more that goes on. 

An old man has been coming to our chapel for a few weeks now named Mariano. So we´ve started teaching him. He´s been investigating churches for his whole life and just recently has found the church of Jesus Christ. We had a visit with him yesterday where he told us his whole story of how he was raised Catholic but realized it wasn´t true. He thought that salvation was personal for everyone (which was true) but didn´t think that there was any true church. Until he found the true one. He told us that he was simply walking by the chapel and felt like he wanted to go in. So he went in. And he told us that in the priesthood meetings he felt a burning sensation inside of him that he never had felt before. He knew what we did was true. So we have an appointment with him tomorrow and I´ll let you know how it goes. (: 

I love the gospel! I LOVE YOU ALL! Keep praying, keep believing (: 

Good Week

Week 56 (August 7, 2017)

Cusco Zone with Elder Uceda

Well, This week has been full of investigators and lessons. It's been awesome! I`ll just tell you about a quick miracle we had this week. 

We have two investigators whose names are Silva and her daughter Vivian. Silvia has been listening to us for a little while already. But she hasn`t made a lot of progress. Her daughter Vivian is a new investigator we found this week. They came to church last week! It was cool because they came in and I didn't even think they would ever come! So we made some space next to us and they sat with us. But we had the most boring sacrament meeting of my life. They almost fell asleep. So did I haha. SO after the meeting, we were gonna have our class for investigators. But Silvia and Vivian were gone. And I felt the most distinct impression to run downstairs and find them. I was just in time. They were walking out the gate and we caught up to them and begged them to stay. So they reluctantly agreed to stay. 

We had an appointment with them later in the week, and we asked them what they thought about church. She replied, "Do you want me to be honest?". And I knew we were in trouble. She continued and said, "Elders, Vivian and I were ready to leave and never come back to church. We were ready to even tell you that we didn't want to know anything else. But when you came and got us and we listened to brother Erick`s class about the Sabbath Day, we felt something, and we are going to keep the Sabbath Day holy every week now." 

My jaw dropped to the floor. If we hadn`t have gone to keep them from leaving, they probably never would have joined the church. I am so grateful for the Holy Ghost. 

The whole week has been so full of miracles I can`t begin to even tell you about it. We have 6 teenagers we are preparing for baptism now when we didn't have a single progressing investigator 2 weeks ago. The Lord blesses those who are patient. 

I didn`t have a whole lot of study time, but I read this week about Alma the Younger and his conversion. If you have time this week, go read Mosiah 27! and Underline all the principles of repentance that you can find. 

Love you all so much! 

Elders Haws and Iza