Sunday, February 22, 2015

02/16/15 Articles of Faith

Elder Diaz is my new companion, he is from Peru with 17 months in the mission.  He is a hard worker and a pretty funny guy, still getting used to him but he's great!  He pushes me a little more in morning exercise with which we both wish we had a pull-up bar haha. He cares about learning English a little more so that's pretty good during language study we each explain the pronunciation and meaning of what is being said in parts of The Book of Mormon. 

While my former comp was gone and he was coming I worked with Elder Sandoval, one of the other missionaries in our district (whose new companion was my companion in the MTC).  We had to come to Lima today so I could do immigrations and I forgot my camera in Huaraz so no pictures sorry. 

Larsen is worried about the cold (his cousin is trying to decide if he should go to BYUI or not, he hates the cold) haha I'm worried about when I get transferred down here to Lima, it's hot and humid here. That would be awesome to be roommates with Holden (his cousin who is currently serving in Brazil).


We were talking with a new investigator, named ______, and he has a conception for himself of what the church of Christ should be like and because of that he hasn't joined the congregations he has seen so far. He was questioning us, among other things, about whether we can perform miracles; incidentally, his wife who wasn't there at the time has cancer. So it should be interesting to see what the Father has planned for him and how we might be utilized in that. 

In today's letter from the president he said we'd be starting to teach about the Articles of Faith to recent converts which will be great considering that there are certain basic beliefs outlined there that aren't always directly spoken of in church lessons or plainly said in other scriptures such as that we believe in being subject to the law or the literal gathering of Zion. Anyway it's been a pretty good week. les amo y nos vemos

Monday, February 9, 2015

02/09/15 His Testimony of the Healing Power of the Preisthood

I told Chad that I had not received an email from him last week... here is his response.

(Last week's email that I didn't get)

I sent this, in fact it's listed under sent mail not drafts:

At our last visit with the S----  family they told us they would be going out of town until the 20th so we won't be able to see them until then of course. Umm, we didn't get to see the A------  family this last week but we will be visiting them this week I believe. But yeah the young couple married on Saturday at the church and pretty much all of the ward council helped in one way or other with the wedding which was good and then they were baptised on Sunday morning. 

Brother Salazar (our old zone leader who recently finished his mission) visited for their wedding and baptism and will be with us for part of P-day today.  He had the opportunity to baptize the wife whose name I have trouble spelling haha it's said 'Jadira.'

Anyway, last Saturday we went to "la punta olĂ­mpica" which I guess is the mountain from Paramount pictures, and we got to play with snow. we threw snowballs at each other and all it was awesome. 

"Anyway ----, whom I've mentioned before, did not come to church in spite of our visiting her yesterday morning and her seeming animated about the gospel so we're a little confused and will have to ask her what the problem is this week. ------- and -----, the less active couple, did come to church but they are separated, at least for now, so we're going to visit him this week and hopefully we can help him to understand how important it is that his son have two loving parents in the sight of the Lord. Also the bishop's second councilor talked with us and asked us to come with him to a member of the ward's house to give a prayer saying something about there being a "malignant spirit" there. ------ overheard and asked if he could come too, imagining that we were going to go exorcise someone and he'd see something like some movie he was talking about "Constantine" so my companion had a pretty fun time explaining that we would really just go offer a prayer and that's it."

(This week's email)

This week one of the Zone Leaders, Elder Norton, finished his mission and should be back in Arizona tomorrow. And yes transfers are today or tomorrow... I just know those going from Huaraz to other areas will be going tonight late and those coming here from Lima will be getting here Wednesday morning. My companion is going and I'm staying.  Elder Lunt and his companion Elder Castillo are going, Elder Jensen, Elder Quezada (my DL), Hermana McKnight, Hermana Ahern, and Elder Reese are all leaving too.  The DL is going and one of the ZL's, the other ZL will still be the same (Elder Poveda from Bolivia who by the way started his mission in Venezuela but obviously couldn't stay there and was switched to this mission part way through) we don't know where any of them are going nor who is coming, all we know is who had to pack their bags and will be leaving tonight. I am excited to get to meet my new companion!

Yes, we do have fun as a zone, we went up and had a snowball fight in the mountains with the whole zone the week before last, but most of our pictures don't turn out very well.  Today we met up at the DL's house after playing soccer and before coming to write and so I didn't have my camera with me.  Here is a picture that I have of our zone.


That sounds exciting that Devin and Diana are going to Costa Rica!  Will you guys be watching Krew and Holland for them during that? What's going on with Brittany and the coming baby? How is all that? 

I'm not sure if I mentioned before that our pentionist's (the ward member who makes lunch for us) daughter-in-law is an English teacher and named their little baby Matthew.  The 'th' doesn't exist in Spanish so when they refer to him they usually say Matew and she said "no it's not Matew it's Matthew" so now I say his name and in an American accent and it feels funny in the middle of a sentence in Spanish.
Which reminds me... as far as understanding everything everyone says: no. especially when they're drunk or using sarcasm. 

Larsen is home? Have you gotten to talk to him? How is he?

Chad's email to his father:

In the way of spiritual experiences this week we talking with an investigator whose father has cancer and whose parents are separating. My companion's parents have separated and gotten back together a couple times (and received the gospel separately at the same time during the last of those). I've, of course, seen a little of the effect of cancer but also the healing power of the Priesthood and prayer and fasting, so we were each able to testify to part of the problem and I do testify that the Lord is watching and knows what he's doing to help his children and whom he sends to them as well. 

Phil didn't make the cut? I guess that sounds like him. He's 5'6"?  How far does he drive at that height  Either way I wouldn't mind making $130,000 from a round of golf, I mentioned that to my companion and his jaw dropped and he said, "I think I'll take up golf".  My district leader didn't believe that he could have won that much for 11th place haha. Yeah, I'll let you caddy if I play in a PGA tournament (I'd need all the help I could get)

No I haven't received any package but the Zone leader is in Lima so maybe when he gets back. I have, however, received a few Christmas cards so please tell Derek and Brittany, Uncle Brent and Aunt Melodie, Grandma Measles, and Sister Shear thanks for me, it's awesome to receive cards.

02/02/15 Traditions of Their Fathers

It was a bummer... I didn't get an email from Chad this week, I am not sure why.  I did read that many missionary mom's didn't get emails this week either, something was wrong with the Internet.  BUT, luckily we did get a short little email that Chad sent to his dad...  Brad had told him about his friend who is serving in Micronesia.  He doesn't have access to the Internet but luckily his friend who works in the mission office will email his family once in a while.  His father had told Brad on Sunday that his son had 13 baptisms that week!!  But, they have a hard time retaining them... here is Chad's response to Brad's email.


13? Wow I hope those are all retained, I've heard that can be hard, luckily my few so far have retained. So my companion was talking with one of the recent converts and the 3 magi came up and he said something about their names and I asked him about that later, really baffled about the idea of what their names were, he insisted that the bible said their names, it took taking him to the zone leader and having him corroborate my statement to convince him that it doesn't even so much as say they were three. Anyway it's interesting to see how deeply the catholic view of some things is ingrained as part of the culture, such as that they may accept without problem that to Joseph appeared the Father and the Son as two individuals but then after explanation of addressing the Father in prayer and doing so on the name of Christ, it still arises that sometimes they address Christ like the conception of them not as interchangeable names is hard to get used to... anyway that is just interesting to me! chao