Monday, February 15, 2016

So this week was AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We seriously had such a big miracle.  God gives us miracles when we are exactly obedient.  So I don't remember if I told you about this last week but...  Our investigator, ____ had permission to get baptized but then he didn't (get baptized).  His parents didn't want him to get baptized so we decided to fast with him and he did it.  So we had a cita (date) with him on Tuesday and we asked him if he had permission and he said....................... YES!!!!!!!!!!  He got permission from his parents.  It was awesome!  Such a big big big miracle.  He was so happy.  So we got him ready, he passed his interview and he got baptized and confirmed this past weekend.  He was so happy and this week we are going to get him an interview with the bishop so he can get his temple recommend.

Another miracle!  So we were knocking on doors this past week and this lady came out and started telling us that she has a brother that is Mormon but she was too wordly and hard of heart to change.  And we got an appointment with her and honestly just talked to her very directly for like 20 minutes, after we saw that all of that was not working we decided to try something else.  We gave her a card with the steps to say a prayer on it and she started praying and she said the shortest prayer I have ever heard but started crying so hard.  Saying she wanted to change.  The spirit was so strong.  Honestly it was a HUGE change from when we first started talking to her.  It made me really realize that we are not the ones who teach but it is the spirit that teaches and can get to the hearts of the people.  It was another miracle.  

One funny story that I forgot to tell you all last week is that whenever we walk past a big group of people here everyone always starts yelling HELLO HOW ARE YOU?   Because we are two white kids walking around in Perú and the other day we past a group of kids that were boxing in the street and They all stopped to say HELLO.  And one of the kids that was fighting stopped and said hello then BOOM.  The other kid came over and hit him in the face and knocked him over and oh my word.  It was funny.  So then after we helped him up we told him he was a champion and got his direction to go teach him but that was funny.

 

Monday, February 8, 2016

This week was much better than last week.  Last week we worked super hard but we didn't really see any success in getting people to church.  This week we were super worried the whole time that we were going to work super hard again and then otra vez not have anyone in church.  But those worries were taken away when we got to church and there were investigators there already and when we were sitting down more investigators came in.  It was so nice.  A load was taken off of our shoulders.

On Monday we met a really cool guy named ____.  He is 22.  He had just barely moved here from Chiclayo and has been here for a week.  And that same day we knocked on his door he said he had found out that one of his best friends had just passed away.  So that was a bummer but we kind of just said like HELLO.  What more do you need?  Like the same day that this happens two missionaries knock on your door, a random house that we didn't know and we found you.  So we have had a couple lessons with him this past week and they have all been super good.  Especially focusing in on repentance and baptism.  We read 3 nefi 11 with him and it was the best.  The spirit was so strong and we made him some pretty cool promises if he fulfills his commitments that we gave him.

We also met a really cool guy one day just contacting in the street.  He has been the administrator in his church for like 10 years but was super open to listening to us.  He even at the end of the lesson accepted a baptismal date in March.  We have a follow up lesson with him today so hopefully it all goes well.  Hopefully he read and prayed.  It is a little funny thinking about how simple it is for someone to get an answer.  We tell them just to read, pray and go to church and it is so easy.  God just asks the people to act and he gives the answer but sometimes people just get lazy or who knows what happens and don't do it.

Also I have been thinking a lot about all of the seeds that we plant on the mission.  Like sometimes we don't always see all of the success that we have.  We contacted a couple this past week and started talking to them and he starting telling us about how he like 6 years ago was going through something really hard and he met the missionaries at a friends house who was a member and said that the missionaries helped him out a lot and for that reason he really respects missionaries and loves them.  So when we went in his house he just like exploded with excitement.  So even if we don't always see everything we do, some day it will have an affect on someone's life.

Monday, February 1, 2016

Hola familia!!   This week was AWESOME!  I got changed to la zona condevilla ward -Jorge Chavez.  Elder Clark is my new companion and we are the zone leaders, he is from Alpine Utah and is awesome.  Except for the fact that he went to Lone Peak but it is ok I already expressed my feelings to him about Lone Peak.  But seriously he is awesome. He was going to go to Ukraine on his mission but while he was in the ccm he got changed to Perú because of the war over there.  He has 1 change more than I do.  It is a little different having a white companion.  We just understand each other and talk about cafe rio a lot haha.  So my sector is half Callao and half San Martin.  The people here are so much more receptive.  The whole week we were just running around like crazy just talking to everybody and being super energetic and making people laugh then teaching them repentance and inviting them to baptism.  I love this place.

This past week we had a bunch of people that we contacted that were really interested in listening to our message.  We found one guy in the street and sometimes to make people laugh we ask them really dumb questions but there was one guy drinking a peach juice called pulp.  And we asked him if he liked it then if he liked inca kola or pulp more and he said inca kola so then it was hilarious because the next question was sooo why did you buy pulp instead of inca kola?  it was seriously hilarious and we had him laughing and then we told him we were missionaries, got an appointment went to his house and he accepted baptism so this month we are hoping he gets baptized.   

We teach good together, me and my companion.  Like we have really just been asking people a lot of questions this week that make them think and then they basically teach themselves.  It is really cool.  It is like what Christ did to the people, he asked them questions that made them think and then after thinking and answering Christ taught more.  So that is what we have been trying to do this week.  

This week has been seriously awesome.  It was a little disappointing at the end because we didnt have very good attendance at church.  Not as many people went as we would have liked but it was still good and even though we were sad we were happy because we had done all we could have done in the week so we were happy because we worked hard. 

Now we just have more meetings with the President and the stake president to coordinate the missionary work and then after those meetings we teach the zone what the mission president wants us to teach the zone.  So it is fun.  My room also is awesome.  In my other room in Santa Cruz it was liike an oven in there.  But this room it is cooler so I can finally sleep now.  

Those are the stories and updates from this week.  The work is awesome and I love it.  

Monday, January 25, 2016

So this week flew by again and this change flew by.  We have changes tomorrow, we find out in the night if I get changed or not so we will see what happens.  I wouldn't mind getting changed to a more humble place haha.  

This week was another good one.  We had our interviews with the president this week and it was strange because he told me the date that I go home.  And started talking about that and all of that stuff.  The interviews are always good.  The President is called of God.

This week there are not that many exciting things to say.   It's just getting hot and hotter.  This week the people have told us that it is supposed to get up to 95 degrees but the humidity is also at 95 percent.  Our ward mission leader bought a machine that sucks the humidity out of the air that is in his house.  And in a couple of hours he had a full bucket of water to dump out.  It gets super hot because of the humidity.

Also this past week we had a devotional for all the missions of all the world!  We were trained by apostles and other general authorities from the church.  It was really cool and a neat experience to have a meeting knowing that all the other missions in the whole entire world were watching the same thing.  

We were going to have a family night with a bunch of people this past week.  The missionaries in the ward and we invited EVERYONE.  And EVERYONE said that they were going to come.  We got there and we were waiting and waiting and nobody was showing up.  There were 3 people there and we had already waited like 45 minutes so we decided to start it.  We ended with the same three people.  So even though not that many people went it was still a good experience.  We taught the restoration with candles.  Pictures included.  It was great and the spirit was strong.  

That is my report for this week.  I love you all!!  Have a great week!

*****NEW PICTURES at the bottom (after all the little side pictures).  His mom finally figured out how to do the file on the semi-new computer. *********

Monday, January 18, 2016

This past week was great.  On Wednesday we had a meeting with Elder Uceda, all the missionaries and leaders of ward council.  It was seriously such a great meeting.  The Bishops left the meeting very happy because Elder Uceda talked about how the bishop is responsible for the youth.   So if older people have family problems and things like that then it goes to the elders or the sumos and the stake so it was interesting and the Bishops were happy.  

Also, in the meeting, I was amazed the whole entire time.  He started telling us the story of the church here in Perú.  Perú is the country to make it to 100 stakes faster than any other country.  Faster than the US, faster than Mexico, Brasil, any country, the fastest.  And this past week Stake number 101 was opened.  So the church is growing fast here and Elder Uceda was talking because the people have the blood of Lehi.  So I feel very blessed to be able to be here in Perú teaching these people.

After that Elder Uceda called a family up.  Well a mom and a dad that were converts (and have 4 kids and 1 in the mission), then he called the ward council up from the ward of this couple.  He then talked to everyone and asked the ward council how they helped this family (that is now sealed) stay active in the church.  They talked about it all and Elder Uceda then called up 4 people to represent the kids and said that thanks to the ward council a family and many souls were saved.  Then he said the kids will also have kids and called up 3 kids for each child of the couple so 12 more people.  Then he said your grandkids will have kids and called up 3 people for each of the grandchildren and so it was 36 more people.  And he showed us that the work we do doesn't just save that one person.  It saves generations and generations of people.  He said that if a person makes a decision to leave the church they take with them hundreds and hundreds of other spirits because the next spirits will not be born in the church.  It was a very cool meeting.

The next day we had a meeting with him with our whole mission.  It was AWESOME.  It was from like 8 in the morning until 230.  He trained for almost 4 hours and it was incredible.  He has so much information in his head.  All these facts and everything and he didn't even use notes to teach us!  He just went based on the spirit.  It was truly incredible.  The general authorities and everyone in the church are called of God.  

We also got a triple in Russian yesterday!  Hermana Larsons son was asking RMs in Provo from Russia and he found one and sent it here and yesterday we went to the presidents house to pick it up then we went and gave it to _____. He is still very busy but he was happy to receive it and he told us that he could actually read and understand now.  So hopefully that helps him out in his progress.

I also got to go and baptize an investigator of some of the hermanas in my district this week!  The baptism was very nice and the spirit was very strong.  

Something I learned this week in the meeting with Elder Uceda is that repentance is a principle of perfection.  It is something sweet and should not be feared.  

 

Monday, January 11, 2015

This week there wasn't a whole lot that happened.  One exciting day was Wednesday.  a young man came with us and we found 4 new people to teach that day!  We told him that he was a good luck charm so I think that we will be using him more often.  Maybe every day haha.  Also this lady gave us free water bottles and ice cream!  (He says it's really hot now.) So it was a really good day.  So when I lived in Callao the family that we lived with had a bakery in Callao and in Miraflores.  They have a car that has a BYU sticker on the back of it and I recognized it here in my sector the other day.  So when we went in to a store to buy a drink, she was in there and recognized me and was the one who gave us free water and ice cream!  So that was awesome.

Also, we have another investigator that I told you all about last week who is 23.  Last night she accepted a baptismal date!  So if all goes well we are going to have a baptism on the 23 of this month.  So that will be good.  She is excited and really likes the church.  Also her husband owns a store that sells all these old items and watches and all this stuff.  It is pretty cool.

With ____ and ____, they are still good!  This past week they just didn't have much time.  Because ____ (the Ukranian investigator) found a job and he is basically gone all day long.  Because he cant have very many jobs because he doesn't speak Spanish so this job is good for him but he just doesn't have that much time.  They are still excited we just have to find an hour that we can go teach them!  

This week we are going to have two meetings with Elder Uceda!  One on Wednesday with our mission and members of a bunch of stakes and one on Thursday with just our mission!  So I am excited for that. 

Well, that is the news from this week.  Sorry, I didn't take any pictures this week.

But I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Monday, January 4, 2015

This week was a little slower than normal because a lot of people traveled for the new year but we were able to find some new people.  One new person we found was a less active and his wife that are not members.  They had been going to church and we had a lesson with them on Monday.  It was funny, she told us a story about how she was baptized and all that stuff but she didn't really remember much and we didn't really think she was baptized so we searched for her baptismal record and it wasn't there.  But she said she would like to be baptized again so that is good.  The husband is a lot older than she is but they are great!  

_____ the Ukranian and his wife went to church again!  They love it.  I am still trying to find a Book of Mormon in Russian.  This morning we got a text from Hermana Larson and she said that if we want, we can use some other Elders in the mission that speak some Russian to help teach him.  In our mission we have like 6 missionaries who were going to go to Ukraine and were in the MTC for 6 weeks learning Russian and then because of the war and everything they got changed to Perù and a bunch of them have been studying Russian here in the mission.  So in this week we are going to see if we can get one of those elders to come here for a lesson to teach him in Russian!  But we will see, this week or next week.

New years here this time was pretty boring.  We didn't do much.  A lady invited us over to eat at 7 but nobody invited us over to stay until midnight.  So we were just in our room which was better because I was tired.  We fell asleep at about 10 o clock and then randomly woke up at about 1130 so then we stayed up until the new year and then crashed again.  Where we are the people can get in trouble for using fireworks so there weren't very many.  Especially compared to when I was in Callao last year.  But it was good.  That is about it for this week.  I hope that you all have a great week!  I love you all!