Monday, September 29, 2014

Today marks exactly two months in Perú!  Time is flying by and also we are halfway through this change already.  It is crazy.  Ok, so _____came to church yesterday and has his baptism date set for Oct 18.  He is progressing so good.  He is 21, has a younger brother who is 14-ish and a sister that is 26 or so.  His mom just had her 50th birthday and we ate lunch at her house for her birthday with the other missionaries in our district. At church she asked us when her sons  baptismal date was  and we told her and she just got the biggest smile and started inviting everyone who walked past to her sons baptism.  And then she was talking to us and she started crying and told us how we are angels in her life.  Seriously I feel so blessed to have the opportunity to bring this joy to people`s lives.  It is such a blessing and learning experience and I receive so much joy from it.  Then afterwards, oh I forgot to mention that she is in a wheelchair.  So after church she wanted to do her visiting teaching.  And nobody has cars here.  And nobody could take her to do it.  So we took her to the houses that she needed to go to.  At one house we stayed and taught a lesson to the lady she was visiting.  But seriously, she is such an example to me of being Christlike.  She can't travel to do her visiting teaching by herself.  But still, she does it and loves the people.  We all need to be willing to serve like she is.  

Lessons this past week...  we had two days when we had 9 lessons scheduled and another with 7.  All with a thirty minute time slot for each.  One thing about Perú is that everything starts late.  But also, people bail on us a lot.  One of the days that we had 9, literally every single one of them fell through.  It was rough.  But that is what it is like a lot here.  We go to our appointment and all the people are busy.  So ya, our teaching time each day is 11 to 12.  Then 2 until 8.  Then dinner.  So in this time we are just out trying to teach.  Yes we can knock on doors.  A lot of times that is what we have to do.  Also, one thing that we end up doing a lot is when the person is not home in a house - there are a lot of rooms in these casas and so a lot of people aren`t family but live in the same house - it is hard to explain.  They will tell us oh, ya, they aren't here so then we will ask if we can leave something with them.  They will come down and we actually get a bunch of investigators like this.  

English this week was hilarious.  Not going to lie, there were a couple of times that I thought I was going to die because I would be trampled.  We were in the street one day and we saw this one girl that is like 12 and the sister of this kid that goes on visits with us so we say hi then before I know it, I am literally surrounded by, I kid you not, 15 screaming children.  "Cómo se dice en Ingles?"  Over and over and over and over again.  My companion was literally just laughing and it was funny but terrifying at the same time.  

I am so blessed to be able to spread the gospel and to see the joy that it brings into the lives of everyone.  It is truly incredible.  Never shy away from inviting people to hear about the gospel.  Everyone needs it.  This is the only way we can live with our families forever.  Help out the missionaries in the ward and stake, and encourage the people in the ward to do so also.  We are having problems with that in our ward right now.  It is tough but we are working through it.  I don`t get to watch general conference this week because of the elections in Perú so enjoy that!  I love you all so much.