Week 83 (February 5, 2018)
This week has been super strange! But very good for me personally.
Monday- P-day with President. We just played games and stuff.
Tuesday- We had our Zone Conference with President and The AP´s.
Wednesday- Wednesday was rough! We had appointments for every hour of the day, but only one was ready to receive us! It was Liliana. As you know, Liliana is the only non-member of her family but has been refusing to get baptized. Well on Wednesday she accepted a baptismal date for the 17th of February. MIRACLE. I´ve been teaching her for 6 months here in Sicuani. And to be honest. I was losing faith that she would ever get baptized. PRAY FOR LILIANA.
Thursday- A rollercoaster day for sure. Danery told us that she has been having dreams with Satan in them whenever she reads the Book of Mormon. So that's been rough. But she hasn´t lost the faith and still came to church with us on Sunday!! The rest of the day was weird, we would find a great contact one minute and then everything would go down-hill the next. We were contacting and I get a call from Jorge, so I answered. And it turns out he was drunk. that was super disappointing for me. After the day was over we went to the Plaza de Armas and just sat on a bench and thought and tried to just be calm. It was that crazy.
Friday- On Friday we found a new investigator named Veronica. She owns a beer deposit store. So that's an interesting place to teach. Then we traveled to Ayaviri to do a baptismal interview.
Saturday- Another slow day. We taught Liliana about the importance of reading the Book of Mormon. Again. haha.
Sunday- We taught a family from the campo. They aren´t super educated in the campo so we have to teach them a little differently. Its literally like teaching a child. Then we had a lesson with Liliana again. But this time we talked about the commandment of following the prophet. I testified about President Monson, and then about President Nelson. Such a powerful spirit entered that room when we talked about them. I know God calls Prophets. And I know that they say what he would have them say.
Its been a solid week!
I love you all so much!
Week 82 (January 29, 2018)
Well, this week compared to last week was incredible!! I don`t have a lot of time so I`ll just fill you all in quickly.
Danery- Turns out that Danery went to church in Espinar last and we didn`t know! So we were super stoked about that. She came with us to watch a baptism and during the service, she leaned over to me and said: "Elder, I want to get baptized too". WHAT. Holy cow. So we put a date with her for the 17th of February. She came to church here for the first time! The only bad thing is that she has another family that lives with them that are from another religion and are telling her lies about the church. That`s gonna be an obstacle.
Marleni- Marleni wasn`t really an investigator who was progressing, but this week she also accepted a baptism date for the 17th of February. We had a SUPER spiritual lesson with her and we felt prompted to invite her to baptism, she accepted. So now we have to work with her a lot more!
Jorge- Well good ole Jorge. He`s great! He`s basically a member who isn`t baptized. Yesterday the Elders quorum organized a service project for 5 o`clock in the morning today. We went to. And to our amazement. Jorge was there too with shovel in hand ready to help. I was speechless. That was a cool experience.
Well, those are our all-stars. They are amazing and we love them so much. I wish I could give all the details about these people. But there just isn`t enough time! Maybe when I'm home hahaha.
I love you all so much!
Week 81 (January 22, 2018)
Well this week has been great!
Tuesday- We watched the announcement from Pres. Nelson! So cool. He gave some awesome advice about staying on the covenant path. If we´ve made covenants, we should keep them!! And always remember them!!!
Wednesday- We had a lesson with Jorge. Good lesson, we explained the plan of salvation. We asked him to which kindgom of glory he would want to go. He said, "Terrestial", and we asked why, but he just laughed and said "Im kidding elders, of course I want to go to the celestial kingdom. The other two don´t look so happy." Hahaha. I love Jorge. Then we had a lesson with Patricia and her mom. We talked to them about why we teach people the restored gospel and why it was so important to read the Book of Mormon. It was super spiritual. We hope that Patricia´s mom reads.
Thursday- Remember the investigator Edith?? The one who recieved her answer in less than 24 hours?? Yeah we found her again. Little miracle there. So we talked to her and challenged her to read the book of mormon and keep praying about it. After that all our citas fell through. We tried to contact a while, had a few but nothing really great.
Friday- Visited my favorite old Peruvian, Margarita. We talked abot the plan of salvation with her. Still trying to get her to come to church.
Nothing happened on Saturday hahaha. A lot of contacting. and trying to visit members.
Sunday- We had an awesome FHE with a family in our ward! They´ve had some troubles and almost got separted. But something amazing has happened in that family. The gospel of Christ has completely taken over and kept them together. The gospel is so real guys.
Thats been my week! Im running out of things to talk about haha! Not a lot really happens here, as much as we contact and knock doors nothing really happens... We´re going through a slow patch. But we´re getting through!!
We have some great investigators who are progressing decently but not enough haha.
I was reading in the BoM and I came accross a scripture that I love. ! Nephi 11:17--
17 And I said unto him: I know that he loveth his children; nevertheless, I do not know the meaning of all things.
That is so important!!! Maybe we don´t know a whole lot. Maybe we doubt sometimes. Nephi admitted it! He didn´t even know everything! But he did know one thing. That God loves us. And if you can know that, wow, there is nothing that can stop you. No obstacle big enough. Nothing could make you doubt. This week I have felt the love of God, not just for God´s children in Peru, but for all of you. He loves you. How do I know?? Because he´s made me feel that way. I feel his love for all. And for that I love you all. Have a great week!!!
Week 80 (January 15, 2018)
Well guys, not a ton happened this week! We´ve only had one day that was really productive. Wednesday we had 5 lessons, 4 new investigators, and 2 references. Twas a good day.
Monday- FHE with Joel, and Diana. Good times.
Tuesday- We had a lesson with Margarita our grandma who loves WWE. She is the best.
Wednesday- The good day haha.
Thursday- We had absolutely nothing. We knocked doors all day but were rejected by everyone haha.
Friday- We had a lesson with Daneri. She got permission from her mom to be baptized!!! So we are trying to get her to attend church. And receive a testimony.
Saturday- We went out and worked in the morning and it was great. We taught a joven named Gabriel. He doesn't really have a religious background so we teach him a little different. We invited him to pray about Joseph Smith on Wednesday so we had to see if he did it. He did. But his parents were fighting so didn´t know if he received an answer or not. His parents are going through a rough time and it's affecting him a lot. We taught him that the Gospel can heal his family. So we set a time to visit with all of this family. We hope they are there.
Sunday- Everything failed haha.
This week I was reading in 1 Nephi 9. I read verse 5 and 6 and I loved it. Sometimes we don´t really understand the Lord's purposes. But we just need to have faith that everything happens for a reason. We just have to trust that he knows the way and that we can all follow him.
5 Wherefore, the Lord hath commanded me to make these plates for a wise purpose in him, which purpose I know not.
6 But the Lord knoweth all things from the beginning; wherefore, he prepareth a way to accomplish all his works among the children of men; for behold, he hath all power unto the fulfilling of all his words. And thus it is. Amen.
I love you all so much!
Week 79 (January 8, 2018)
This week was literally a rollercoaster of emotion.
I don`t have my daily Planner so I can`t remember what we did each day. But its been weird.
We found out that Jorge has a big drinking problem. So we have put some goals with him.
One of our investigators, Danery, accepted a baptism for the 27th, but its not super set.
Patricia`s baptism fell through because of her parents.
We went out and worked one morning, we found 2 new investigators in 2 hours. great time.
We played four square with some kids in the rain. Gonna go teach them.
Jorge came to church by himself yesterday, and that was a miracle.!!
Those are only a few of the things haha. We´ve been working hard! We just haven`t been seeing the results we`ve wanted to.
Thats all I have for this week!! I love you all!!
Week 78 (January 1, 2018)
HI people. this is gonna be a short letter.
This week was a good one! We spent most of our time trying to find investigators that we lost contact with during the holiday season. So not a lot happened!
We have an investigator named Patricia. She is 14 years old. and this week she accepted a BAPTISMAL DATE for the 27th of January (my dad´s b-day lol). We´ve been working with her family for a looooong time, but with Patricia we´ve only known her for 2 or so months. And she is the best. She has a little sister, Lucía, and she is the funniest little girl I´ve ever met. We love them so much!!!
We also have a little old lady named Margarita that we do service for. She´s a die-hard Catholic, so she doesn´t really accept the gospel but its fine. Margarita is very very sick. The doctors say she won't live through this year. She stays in bed all day long and doesn´t do anything. All of her kids leave to work and leave her alone (her kids are all members) and they´ve asked us to go twice a week to keep her company for an hour or so. Its been a fun experience. One day we walked in and she was watching WWE. She knew all the wrestler's names and even has a favorite wrestler. JOHN CENA. I love little old ladies who love to watch people fake fight and think its real. (people here love WWE.)
That's been my week. Also, I´ve been studying the new testament this week and here's a verse I loved.
1 Corinthians 2:2
2 For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.
I think that's something we all need. If we want anything in this life. It should be to get to know Jesus Christ. That's the best thing we can do to find happiness. Especially as a missionary lol.
Love you all!!!
Week 77 (December 25, 2017)
Wellllll another Christmas here in Perú. I also talked to the family today. I love them.
This week has been full of activities. We basically didn`t get to work at all.
Tuesday- The elders from Ayaviri came over to our house to stay until we went to Cusco, my comp doesn`t know the sector so I had to take turns taking them out to work. Good time. The sad thing is that it rained and no one answers in the rain here.
Wednesday- We went to Cusco and had our Christmas party. So fun. We all had to do a number or like a talent, so our whole zone got together, and for an entire month, we practiced a dance that we choreographed ourselves. We danced to "Nearer, My God to Thee" By BYU Vocal Point. It was legendary. I´ll try to send the video.
Thursday- We had to get everything ready for our ward Christmas party since none of the members would do it. So we took all day to do that. We gave a good message about the true meaning of Christmas. Good times.
Friday- We had our Stake Christmas concert. And we participated, so we had to do that all day as well. It was awesome. The gringos all performed, "Christmas (Baby please come home)" by Michael Buble.
Saturday- Our only day of work we had. We went out to work, but there wasn`t a lot of success. But we found a new investigator named Victoriano. He's super Evangelico and has a lot of faith. He believes that God operated on Him and healed him a dream. Don`t know about that one.
Sunday- Christmas EVE. We didn`t work. But we made GINGERBREAD HOUSES THAT MY MOM SENT ME. That was good.
This Christmas, I`ve actually done a lot of reflecting on myself, and on my mission. Today I enter the last 6 months of my mission, and I just want to do the best that I can.
I love my mission. Its hard, but its awesome. LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH. KEEP IT REAL. MERRY CHRISTMAS
