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!!

Friday, September 25, 2015

Dear Baker Family,

 I wish to take this opportunity to inform you that Elder Baker has been assigned to serve as a District Leader in the Peru Lima Central Mission.  He has distinguished himself as an outstanding teacher and as a diligent worker.  He is a great example to his fellow missionaries and has gained their love and respect.   His worthiness and leadership abilities are a tribute to himself and his family.

 Elder Baker will lead a district which will consist of four to eight missionaries.  He will have the stewardship of administering to the spiritual as well as the temporal needs of his missionaries.  He will meet with these missionaries on a weekly basis to train, uplift and edify them.   As he serves, he will gain valuable experiences which will assist him in the future as a husband and father, and in leadership callings in the Church.

 I appreciate your continuing support of him as he serves his Father in Heaven here in the Perú Lima Central Mission.  We pray that you, with him, will “lift up your heart and rejoice,” for the hour of this important phase of his mission has come (see D&C 31:3).

 Warmest regards,

 Stephen J. Larson

Presidente

Misión Perú Lima Central

Monday, September 21, 2015

So this week was good.  One cool story...  To start off.  There is a lady that works in our sector but doesn't live there.  She lives about 2 hours outside of the mission.  Anyway, we have taught her and she liked the message but she always said that the church was not where she lives in jicamarca.  And she said that there are not missionaries.  Anyways, this lady had a big problem that happened where someone went to take a car to their lot (they rent out a little lot they have so people can put their cars in there) and someone brought a car that was robbed but the owners, our investigator, didn't know that.  So they stored it but the police came and took her husband to jail.  So we talked to her and were trying to help her and she said that she really felt our spirit and she wants to learn more and she took the Book of Mormon to her husband and he is reading it.  Ok, so we had an intercambio and I was kind of questioning it because we had already had an intercambio and there wasn't really a reason for it.  So just about the whole entire day nothing happened.  I was still questioning the reason why I was in the other sector.  But then in the very last hour of the day this mother and her daughter stopped us and said that they were members in JICAMARCA.  My mouth completely dropped.  I could not believe it.  So from them I was able to get the direction of the church over there and the number of the missionaries and now they are going to go and visit her.  So The Lord answered my question that night about WHY I was in the sector Las Flores all day long for "no reason at all".  Haha I immediately just thought.  Sorry.  Shouldn't doubt.  So my testimony grew this week that the Lord puts us in the place we need to be and the time we need to be there.  

That was one story this week.  Another story is from the intercambio also.  When my comp and the other Elder were going to the sector I was in to change again they got in a little mototaxi and the guy in the mototaxi started talking to them and he got interested in the message and said he wants us to go to his house to visit him.  Anyways, turns out his mom, was a lady we already knew!  One of our investigators and this guy is married and has 4 kids!  Seriously it was such a miracle.  I dont think I will ever doubt ever again the reason for an intercambio.  

One more exciting thing is that Samantha, our recent convert, had an interview with the bishop on Thursday.  She had the interview and we are going to the temple with her on Thursday.  Honestly it is such a good feeling when a convert goes to the temple and you can see their progress.  They always tell us here in the mission that we should start with the end in mind.  Or that we should imagine our investigators in the temple.  We imagine them in the white clothes of baptism and in the white clothes of the temple.  I also like to throw one more thing in there....  The white clothes in heaven.  It is nice knowing that the people I am teaching can grow to have a testimony and serve in the temple for the rest of their lives to be able to become perfeccionados.  Don't know how you say that in English so look it up on google translate haha.  

Also, I might have a change.  We have changes tomorrow and they are going to tell us tonight if we have changes or not so I will find out later if I will continue in Zarate or no.  but just like I learned this week -  A donde me mandes, ire.  (Translated by Mr. Google:  Where you send me, I will go.)  

Monday, September 14, 2015

Ok, so this week was great we had one baptism!  Samantha.  It was cool because her son baptized her who just got back from his mission!  The spirit was so strong during the baptismal service.  We were scheduled to have the baptism at 5.  The bishop told us at 3:30 it would be sufficient to fill up the font so we went and it was not sufficient.  They had recently changed the font and put new tubing in or something and so we went there with an hermano and he didn't really know how to work it.  All my baptisms in this sector have been in the stake center but this was in our ward so I didn't know how to work this font either.  But luckily la hora peruana (basically Mormon standard time in Peru) exists here because just about everyone came late so we had time to fill up the font.  If they hadn't come late we would have been done for.  But it all worked out ok and the spriit was strong so it was all good.  

Also, this past week we had a training with President Larson.  It was awesome, we were there just about all day.  It was a good experience though.  And I think it was Hermana Larson who made chocolate chip cookies and WOW, that was heavenly.  I had not tasted a chocolate chip cookie in about 15 months so that was incredible.  That was awesome.  It was a good meeting.  We met with the president and we had hours of training and practices so it was a full day and tiring day but it was good.  

I love you all.  I hope that you have a great week.  You are my favorite family in the whole world!  

Have a great week! 

Monday, September 7, 2015

Happy September to everyone.  This past week was awesome and to find out that BYU won it got even better!  On Saturday night, the secretary of the mission called us and said that he was just informed that BYU had won the game on a hail mary pass in the last second.  So I found out just about right after it happened haha.  I thought he was going to tell me something important but nope haha, just that BYU had won the game.  Well, that is important, but important mission-wise.  

First story, ok so this week we had a list of people that we really just wanted to focus on.  One of them is  _____ .  So she is going to get baptized this Saturday.  I don't remember if I told you all about her last week but her papers were lost and she went less active.  But her son got back from a missin and she now wants to get baptized!  So that is pretty cool for us.  We were focusing on her and her sister-in-law is a member also, but her daughter no.  And her sister-in-law came up to us on Sunday and said, "Elders, I want you to baptize my daughter."  So we obviously replied that we were happy to do that haha.  So this saturday it looks like we are going to have two baptisms!  

Also, this week, we are going to possibly have 5 reactivations.  That is when someone is less active, but then we find them, they start going to church and then we teach them all the lessons and they have an interview with the bishop.  This week we are possibly going to have 5 of those!  So hopefully that all goes well.  

On Wednesday we had a nice surprise.  Well, Tuesday night.  The zone leaders called on Tuesday night and said that we were going to go to the temple the next day.  So it was kind of a bummer because we had to cancel all of our appointments but it was cool because we got to go to the temple!  It was so nice to be able to go to the temple.  Seriously every single time we go in it is so peaceful.  I love it.  Because once again, Lima is so busy and there is no silence ever so when we have the opportunity to go to the temple it is incredible.  I always think of the primary song I love to see the temple.  Because here you are in a bus on a road and BAM the temple just kind of pops up out of nowhere.  

That is about it from this week.   I hope that you all have a wonderful week and that all goes well.  I love you!