Monday, October 19, 2015

Buenas tardes!  Como estan todos?  This week was great!  To start off, I got the package!  Thank you mom, that package definitely saved me yesterday during lunch because the people we had lunch with forgot and they weren't there so my lunch was some, a bunch, of Oreos!  But hey I like Oreos so I was fine with that.

We had a super cool experience this week.  We have a new goal for contacting people in a week and so we were in the street contacting people and we ran into a couple that was carrying household objects in the street so we ran over and asked if we could help.  At first they kind of rejected the help but then after we insisted and insisted they said ok ya, you can help.  Then they said you guys are Elderes right?  And we said yes and they started to tell us about how they lived in Maranga before and they were going to get baptized but they moved.  So we got kind of excited and we asked how many are in their family.  SIX.  Seis.  Wow.  So we helped them moved and then we taught them a lesson and they are super happy and they have a desire to go to church and learn and they now have a baptismal date for the 21 of November!  It was such a blessing!  They are awesome and we were so happy that we stopped to help.

Immediately after this lesson we had an appointment with this guy who was going to be a new investigator.  We walked in and he said, my family is also interested in listening!  So three other people came and sat down.  Turns out they had a cousin who served a mission in Mexico.  They were really interested and we have another lesson with them today in the night time.  

Last night we had a lesson with a part member family who went to church and they had received lessons for a long time.  Anyways, we explained the plan de salvation and they really liked it.  They said that it was the first time they understood anything about it.  Before that, the missionaires had taught about it but they didn't understand anything.  After we left, their daughter who is a convert, sent us a text saying that her parents were super happy and they were actually excited about everything.  

Haha Carla, our convert got called on out of nowhere in the Sacrament meeting to give her testimony and she looked at us and said i hate you.  Haha she thought that it was us that had planned it but we had no idea.  But she gave a great testimony.  She is doing great and her testimony is strong.  We are now also teaching her cousin and her aunt.  

All is well here in Zarate.  Time flies by.  I love you all!

Monday, October 12, 2015

Helloooo family!  Glad to hear that you are all doing alright.  I am doing great!  This week we had a baptism .  It was an awesome baptism.  She shared her testimony after and it was super strong.  I think that I mentioned to you that her boyfriend lives in the United States because he is studying but he called before the baptism and thanked us for the work we had done so that was cool.  It was funny because Carla was saying that she didn't want a lot of people to be in her baptism.  Did not happen.  There were a ton of people.  All the family of her boyfriend went and a bunch of people from the ward so it was FULL.  But its ok, that is how we wanted it in the first place haha.  Anyway, she is doing good and progressing and now her family is interested.  

We challenged the members of the ward council to each week bring 1 reference to the consejo.  Then we set the goal with them as 50 for each month.  So we didn't reach 10 but we saw some progress!  A bunch of people had talked with a neighbor and we got a couple of references and one of the members took us to their friends house and we taught them and they were super interested.  A lot of times here in the mission the people don't really act until you ask them to.  But then there are a lot of people who are willing.  This is what we have learned.  When you invite the people, they do it.  It was a good challenge and hopefully it can spread to the rest of the people that are in the ward.  Missionary work is a lot easier when you have the help from the members.

So today our p-day got cut two hours short.  From 10 to 12 we went as a zone to one sector to find new people.  So we were all in the street knocking on all the doors on each street.  I was not excited to do it at first but we were able to see just how many people are actually willing to listen to the missionaries.  It was incredible.  There are so many people but we just don't think to talk to them sometimes.

Last little miracle of the week.  We were far away from our sector today in Miraflores and we normally take a bus back but we were a little behind so we took a taxi and I had very little money haha.  So we got in and the guy told us that he was searching for a church.  Then we explained our message to him and he liked it and he said that 2 hours before he prayed to God asking for him to send people to preach him the gospel.  So he took us for his answer and the missionaries are going to go visit him.  Then because we were his answer, when we got to our destination, we didn't have to pay!  That guy was so cool and I hope that the missionaries get to his house with the direction we give them.   Miracles exist. 

Monday, October 5, 2015

Hello family!  This was a great week.  How can it ever be bad when you have general conference to listen to?  The talks were awesome and it was cool to be able to see 3 new apostles but also sad.  You could tell that all the general authorities were saddened by the loss of the apostles.  The talk about the sharks was one that I liked a lot.  Good interesting story but my favorite session of all the sessions was Priesthood.  It was probably one of the best Priesthood sessions I have heard.  One quote that I liked was that If we put in our best effort, God will add his powers to our effort.  That means a lot especially as a missionary because we always have to try to do everything possible in the short time we have.  Honestly these past couple of weeks we have been full.  We have not had enough time to do everything.  I wish there were more hours in the day.  

On Wednesday we had interviews with the Presidente!  Normally in the past we have had like 2 minutes to talk with him and then that was it.  But this time we all got more time to talk so that was fun.  The president is awesome.  And I got to talk a bunch with Hermana Larson because she was testing all the Latinos English and they didn't understand that much and she didn't either when they spoke spanish so I was the translator for a little bit.  

But ya, all I have to do is teach a class every week in District meeting.  It is difficult to teach the gospel to other people who teach the gospel all day every day but it makes you learn a lot.  I also just have to call everyone to make sure how they are doing. If they need anything and all that stuff. 

Ok, before I forget, in President Uchtdorf's talk he said the word FLAMED.  He said something about internet and that word so my question is what does that mean?  Is it a new slang or something?  Because he said that and me and all the other elders just looked around kind of confused because we had no idea what it meant.

Also this week we were just teaching _____, our investigator who is going to get baptized this Saturday.  Well when I say we were teaching her I should say she was teaching us.  She knows pretty much everything haha.  And she is giving us references and we are going to baptize her cousin tambien.  Other than that it is a little sad, our convert Samantha is going to Chile for two months.  She is going to work because they pay better in Chile than they do her in Perú so she will be gone and I probably won't see her again until I end the mission.  

Seriously being here in the mission you just develop a love for the people.  It is awesome  I love it here.  Being able to help people change their lives and just better themselves is the best thing that I could do.  I hope that you are all doing good and having fun and working hard.  I love you!!