Monday, August 31, 2015

So this week was just awesome.  It is hard not to have just an awesome week when an apostle comes to your mission!  It was so cool.  So Elder Wadell and Elder Bednar ended up coming.  It is cooler meeting with them as a missionary than it is in gerneral conference because they can be more loose and be themselves.  So weeks before Elder Bednar came he sent us a couple of his talks to read and to examen so that we could be ready for when he came.  So we had to study them and when he got here he asked what we thought about them and what we wanted to share.  Most of the time he made us do the talking.  He would ask us questions and we had to answer them.  Then after a while we had the chance to ask him questions.  I didn't answer any of his and he didn't call on me.  We were about 700 or 800 missionaries and I was in the back but it was still awesome.  We got to hear the voice of an apostle.  What the hermana of our mission told us was that even though we were in the back we still got to hear the voice of a prophet.  The world had gone so many years without a prophet on the earth so it was a privilege just to be able to hear his voice.  

This week we had another cool experience.  So another joven in our ward got home from his mision from brasil and we were talking to him and he said his dad was visiting for that day and that he wanted us to teach him.  So we got to teach a lesson to this kids dad with the kid.  Because he hadn't been released yet so we all had name tags on so it was pretty sweet.  It was crazy, because they always tell us that we should love the people as if they were family.  And I could see how we should really act if we actually think of the people as family.  Because this youth was teaching HIS dad.  At the end it was so powerful when he bore his testimony to his dad.  It was awesome.  The kid's dad afterwards went back to his house that is hours away from here but at least we could plant a seed. 

Also, another cool experience happened yesterday.  So a missionary got home to our ward 3 weeks ago and we went to teach his mom yesterday.  Turns out that everyone had just told us she was less active and didn't go but ever since her son got home she has beeng oing to church and so we went to visit her yesterday and turns out she isn't a member.  She was but her papers were lost so she needs to be baptized again.  It was a great lesson.  Because once again we were teaching with a recently returned missionary who wants one of his parents to join the gospel.  Two times in one week!  Seriously those lessons that we had were super cool and super powerful.

We also had a reactivation this week.  An hermano who is less active and his wife are listening to us and the husband was reactivated yesterday.  He also has a powerful testimony.  We were talking about it saying that it was sleeping and he just had to wake it up.  We were teaching him and his wife and his wife's sister and her husband and it was a lesson to all four of them but then he started teaching too.  And he showed that he has a testimony deep down inside so that was a cool experience.  It made me remember that everyone has the light of Christ.  No matter what anyone does it will never go away.  We always have a part of him in our lives.    Those are the main stories from this week.  I hope that this next week for all of you is wonderful and that you are all healthy and safe.  Love you all!

MORE PICTURES AT THE BOTTOM AFTER THE ENTRIES. 

Monday, August 24, 2015

Hola mi hermosa familia, I hope that you all had a wonderful week!  Here in Zarate I had a good week.  We just got to work again and had another great week.  This week we just really focused on inviting people to get baptized.  We did GOOD with that so that was fun.  We had a bunch of people accept but the only problem now is that they need to go to church.  In my mission I have seen that this is a struggle of a lot of people.  hay a lot of people that want to listen and they accept and they like the mensaje but they don't have that big of a desire to just go to church.  The church for my ward is a little bit far.  We have to leave the mission every single week to go to the church so that is a littl exciting.   Anyway that will be our focus this week, getting people to church because that is what we need.  We have people accepting now we just need to get them going.  Faith needs works too.  

Ok, so we have been teaching a less active family ever since I got here.  They have been less active for a while because they had some problems with certain members in the church and for this reason they don't want to go so this whole time we have been trying to help them get over the awkwardness of seeing these people and up to Sunday it had been to no success because they haven't really wanted to go.  THEY CAME.  it was serioulsy a miracle.  Mom, like you said that you were turned around every 15 seconds looking to see if they were going to walk in, that is the life of a missionary.  My neck always hurts after the meeting because I turn around so much to see if a family is going to walk in.  Right now the family is contemplating a baptismal date for their son that is 10.  He wants to, but now we just need the permission of the parents.  So hopefully that happens and hopefully they keep coming back to church.

So also, I have some super exciting news...... WEDNESDAY  Elder Bednar is coming to visit us!!!  We have a meeting with him on Wednesday with our mission, the south mission and the west mission.  And the CCM.  It is going to be huge but I am so excited.  Elder Bednar, Elder Soares and Bishop Stevensen are all coming!  It is going to be so cool!!  An apostol is coming to the mission!  We had a meeting with our president on Friday to prepare us for it.  We are all super excited.  it is going to be a once in a lifetime experience.  Love you Family! 

Monday, August 17, 2015

Hello family so I was actually really nervous about this past week because I was getting a new comp and we didn't have a lot as far as investigators go because we just had three baptisms.  So, change meeting and I am sitting really close to Elder Aroni and we were talking and they announce the changes: Elder Baker va a recibir... Elder Tauma.  Elder Aroni (I trained him) was companions with Elder Tauma in the CCM.  So Elder Aroni looked at me and was like en serio???  It was hilarious!  So I already knew my companion a little bit so that was cool.  But anyway we hit the ground runhing.  It was such a good week.  We got to work.  I honestly dont know if I have ever been so tired here in my mission just from walking around so much.  But it is awesome.  Especially on Saturday we were seriously just exhausted.  But then every time we are exhausted it makes you feel good because you know you worked hard.  And I remember that when I was set apart as a missionary in the blessing he said that if I work and am obedient the Lord will give me energy to keep going the next day, IT'S TRUE.  Seriously it was awesome.  I would wake up in the morning and still be tired (because you are always tired in the mission) but I somehow would just go and do it.  

My companion is Elder Tauma from Chachapoyas Perú.  It is the first time that the country where my companion is from has repeated.  First Bolivia, El Salvador, Ecuador, Perú, Estados, Y ahora otra vez, Perú.  He is awesome.  He is 21 and was baptized about 5 years ago.  He is really little so it is fun sometimes, I feel like a giant.  

So this week we focused a lot on finding and inviting to baptism.  We were able to compltete the goals that we had in both of those categories.  So that was fun.  Also Frank, my convert, was confirmed yesterday and then got called up in sacrament meeting to give his testimony.  He is seriously awesome and he has a big testimony.  Everyone tells him that he is going to be big in the church someday.  I told him that in a lesson and he told me that in his interview with President Larson, that President Larson told him the same thing.  Va a ser grande!  

Last night we also had a lesson with this little old lady who is less active but mostly just because she can't go to church alone and her son doesn't really want to go right now.  She is a lady that is normally really hard?  Like, hard to crack.  And she likes to make jokes and not really be serious.  She told us about a problem she had and she was fine up until the very end.  We started teaching her and she cracked.  She told us more of her story and she just started crying and it was really sad, we helped her out and gave her a blessing, then after that my companion and I sang a hymn for her.  Soy un hijo de Dios.  And like you all probably know when I sing I like to just mess around and do whatever but man I don't know if a choir of angels was helping us out or what but we sounded pretty dang good. haha Singing is cool and invites the spirit even though I am not the best at it.

Anyways, that was this week.  Haz lo justo!

Monday, August 10, 2015

So pretty much this week was just awesome!  It is hard not to have an awesome week when it ends in three baptisms!  Frank was baptized.  The whole week he was so excited and then on Saturday he worked until  late at night.  We honestly were not expecting him to come to church he even told us he wasn't sure if he was going to go.  Then with about a minute left he walked in.  It was seriously so cool!  We were so excited to see him.  He sits down and just goes I am so tired.  But happy to be here.  He said he was only going to stay for an hour so he could go home and sleep but then the classes came and he stayed for all of them.  He is seriously so awesome.  He showed up early to his baptism and was so excited.  Afterward he shared a powerful testimony about prayer and that God really does answer.  Two weeks ago we had a class in church about how we should wake up early and that we should pray early and that the spirit can be there and this past week Frank did that, woke up early prayed and said that he received a clear answer.  Seriously I would hang out with him at home, we get along so well.  I know that I knew him in the pre earth life. I am so happy that I am here in this part of the world and have the opportunity to know him. 

Ok, now for Ana and Jennifer.  So they are sisters 26 and 15.  They are a reference of members and are the sisters that I wrote about last week saying that they lived outside of our sector.  So it turns out that they actually have a house inside of our sector!  It was so cool, when they told us that my companion and I looked at each other and we were like no way!  So we got to have 3 baptims this weekend!  Basically the whole time they just accepted everything!  They were reading praying and going to church and it was seriously perfect.  They were excited to get baptized and they are already saying that they want us to teach their family and their friends and giving us some references.  So we will see if it works out with any of the references they give us.  

Basically now that they are baptized we don't have that many progressing investigators so we are starting from almost 0.  We have to find a lot of people so hopefully this week we will be able to contact people and people that are interested!  

Last Monday we went to Rodizios and it was incredible.  Basically everything here is just rice and chicken.  So to go to Rodizios and just eat a bunch of steak and meat was awesome.  I was full for a couple of days.  

Today it was weird.  We were in the rich part of Lima so a lot of tourists.  Like A LOT.  We got on a bus and I payed the guy and he gave me the money back and said come on in Elders!  So first of all that was just cool.  After that we started talking to people that were getting on the bus and we ended up  helping these tourists from Germany and Italy who spoke English find their way of where they needed to get off.  It was cool.  There are opportunities in every moment to share the gospel.  

That is all I have for this week.  Love you all!  

Monday, August, 3, 2015

This past week was Peruvian Independence Day and here they celebrate it for 2 days - the 28th and 29th.  So It was kind of a long week.  Everyone went out of town the past weekend and so they weren't there until Thursday then the ward went to the temple on Friday so then there wasn't any body that day either.  So some parts of the week were kind of slow.  But other parts were really good.  

First of all, Thursday Fran had an interview and he passed it to get the priesthood...  So he has one week and a half of a member and he got the Aaronic Priesthood.  So that was really cool!  We are planning on trying to go to the temple with him on Friday but we will see what happens.

 

Next, ____, the investigator had an interview with the mission president on Sunday so he could be baptized.  We were waiting in the offices and they came out and he had such a big smile on his face.  He was so happy and it was incredible to see!  Seriously he came out and he was completely 100 percent happy.  He is so ready.  We are going to have his baptism this weekend!  We can't visit him as much because he started a work schedule where he is working Monday through Saturday from 6 in the morning until 10 at night.  But he has sundays free so that is important.  He is really excited and we are too and this week will end in a good way!  

After that we had two sisters that were a reference of members.  Anyway, we were teaching them and thought that all was going well, they work in our sector and had gone to church in our ward.   We were teaching and they were really interested.  But then we found out that they don't live in our sector....  It was such a bummer.  Because they accepted a baptismal date for this Sunday.  So we have to pass the reference to the elders in their area.  it is right next to ours so we will still be able to see them get baptized.  At first I was really sad that we were going to pass the references and not have the baptisms but then thinking about it I know that God is a God of order.   And his church is a church of order.  Everthing and everyone has their place and we need to obey.  So thinking more about that it made it a little less of a bummer to pass the references on.  But ya, that is about it, tonight we are going to meet with them one more time to get all their information and pass it on.  

That is about it for this week.  So have fun, be safe, choose the right.  I love you all!  

Monday, July 27, 2015

The news from this week is definitely the baptism.  Fran was baptized!  It was really crazy though, first off we had to do it in another building because ours was shut for maintenance but we got there and we were setting everything up and we had it planned with another ward but then a different ward showed up saying that they had the baptism for their daughter planned.  So they made this whole big deal about it because we were in the building and they had their baptism and they reserved it.  So we were saying ok, start your baptism because we had all apparently planned it for 5.  So they weren't starting and weren't starting until it got to 540 and I pulled out the dad of the family and started asking him if they had a program set up and he was like no, we don't and then he said that nobody was there from their ward so they couldn't start it so I asked him if we could do ours and he said yes, so then we got ours done and WOW.  It was wonderful.  The spirit was so strong in the room.  When he was baptized it was incredible.  There was just a warm feeling in the room and he was so happy.  His family was there and they aren't members but they really liked it and said that they felt good.  Everyone always feels good at the baptisms.  So that was an awesome experience.

Next I will tell you all about ____.  He is our investigator that is progressing a ton and he is so cool.  So he is still reading and doing everything and this week.  But on Sunday he started working at like 4 in the morning and he ended at 2.  So another ward starts at 230 so we were going to take him to that.  Normally when people work late night or early morning they prefer sleeping over going to church but we called him to see if he could go and he said yes.  He didn't eat lunch and didn't want to sleep so he could go to church so he can get baptized.  His baptismal date is for the 8th but he is about to start a crazy monday through saturday work schedule and the 8th he won't be able to so we possibly might be moving his date to this Sunday!   He is already ready to be baptized.  We taught him all the lessons in the first week that we knew him.  He is having some problems right now but it motivates him that much more to go and get baptized and do everything in the church.  Teaching him has literally been such an incredible experience.  I will be putting in pictures of the baptism of Fran and a picture of me and ____.  

And another cool thing is that Fran was a reference from a girl who lives in the ward who recently got baptized and that same girl brought two more friends to church the other day who are also interested in learning more.  Everything is so much better in the mission when the members help you out.  Your life is made so much easier because if people have a friend they are so much more likely to listen.  

Monday, July 20, 2015

Ok, so I feel like you all won't be able to understand how good this week was.   Seriously it was a complete turnaround from the last week.  It was incredible.  I think that I told you last week about the guy that went and searched for us at church the last sunday.  Ya, so we contacted him and put the baptismal date with him in the first visit and after that he wants us to come back and visit him EVERY SINGLE DAY.  It is awesome, I wish it was like that with all the people that we teach.  Anyway, one day we were planning on teaching the word of wisdom, we went into the lesson and he started asking questions about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon and all those types of questions so we were answering them and we started getting on the topic of how Christ commanded his disciples to go to the whole world and preach the gospel.  We started talking about our mission as missionaries and it was awesome.  I pulled out the picture of me with all my friends and started saying all the missions that we are in (all over the world) and I started saying that really the mission can be hard but if we can just help one person it is all worth it.  And then I told the story of the dirty little Irish boy and seriously the spirit the whole entire time was so strong.  After we finished the lesson this guy told us that out of all the lessons he had listened to from the missionaries that this was the most powerful lesson and that he thinks that is his answer from God.  So ya, it was a good day.  He came to church all three hours and loved it.  So all is going well with him and the 8 of August is his baptism.  

After that, we had a lesson with an investigator that has been progressing for the past couple of weeks and it was also another good one.  he told us that in his past he had some problems with these things but for a while now he had been trying to live these standards even though he didn't know about the commandment.  It was incredible.  He is seriously so ready.  He is reading and praying.  He is going to be baptized this Saturday so it will  be cool.  After his baptism there is a dinner that the stake planned for the converts and investigators and we are going to eat and watch Meet the Mormons.  So that will be a memorable day for him.  Hopefully all goes well this week so he can get baptized.  

Also, we had a family night with this one family this past week that is less active but super close to coming back and we made tacos with them.  They loved them.  And I took my can of salsa over to their house and they loved it so it was a successfuly night.  They have two daughters that havent been baptized but are going to be soon.  Seriously this week was incredible.  We got a lot of work done and this week will also be good because it is always good when you end with a baptism.