8/15/16 Baptisms!

There were a couple of problems with J_______'s baptism last week so the date is now for this week. O_____ is doing well he went to church on Sunday and he too will be baptized this week!

The B______ family is continually confused but we are going to visit them tonight and should be able to clear things up for them. We also found M______ on Monday, he studied in a Catholic seminary to be a priest but left the seminary a little while ago. We found him through a member who I assume is his girlfriend, he went to church on Sunday and is progressing well. The district had 1 baptism this week. I interviewed the guy who was going to be baptized last week in Huaura, you could say he is agnostic.. I have no clue how he accepted a baptismal date. Y______'s baptism was changed for this week so now there should be 3 this week. Yesterday I interviewed V_____ who is going to be baptized in Huaura and he is ready to go! His daughter is a member and he is going to be great. His date was for the 27th but when I got into the interview and I conversed with he decided to be baptized Sunday morning. 

I have some meetings with president and a self-sufficiency training on Thursday and Friday so that gets in the way of the work a bit, but I have all of Saturday and then I have to go back to the offices on Sunday. I'm not sure about the others' flight schedule. My zone leader Elder Eschenberg is from LA but because of his school schedule at BYU he went home this week so he won't be with me in the terminal. Elder George who came with me on the first flight probably has the same itinerary but I don't know if he will be getting off in LA.

Too bad about the family reunion but I'll see plenty of pictures I imagine. 

Here are all the Elders in my zone that going home with me next week. Elder Pankrats, me, Elder Eschenberg, and Elder Prisbrey. 

Thanks for everything. que tengan una buena semana. nos vemos la proxima semana. chao. (Have a good week.  See you next week.  bye)

8/8/16 Sacrament & and The Sabbath

We have one baptismal date for this week, J______, who is a single mom and has attended church quite a bit. We taught her again Sunday evening and she will be prepared for baptism this week! We have O_____ set of baptism for next week. The B______ family has continued to come to church too, we have a lesson with them tonight. They went to the ward activity last Thursday night but because of an all-day school training thing for their kids' school and the mom's work they couldn't go to church yesterday but told us about that early in the week and committed themselves to go this week. We taught them with the bishop on Sunday. After church Oliver asked us to explain why the Sabbath is Sunday instead of Saturday since someone had asked him about that. We taught him in the church and explained the Sacrament and a little more about the Sabbath. He told us that the week he had gone to church he did a lot better on his job (mototaxi) and last week when he hadn't attended it was horrible and he barely got enough Sunday morning for the whole week, he said as it was as if the Lord was saying, "go to church" so he's definitely going to go to church this week.

So we should be having two baptisms before I go and the family of 3 for the week I'm giving my home coming talk! It reminds me of when President Archibald told us of the winter quarters principle, that we are to leave things ready in your area for the next missionaries. If we can overcome some or R____'s doubts that'll be a beautiful gift, a family of 3 for the next missionary. The ward is doing well, the district dipped back down this week in new investigators and progressing investigators but we'll get that fixed... we have 3 baptisms planned for this week in the district. 

My companion is going to have an interview tonight, not me though since he isn't interviewing those who'll be interviewed in a few weeks (FEW weeks?  Does the kid not realize he will be home in 14 days??!!!  haha) but at least I'll get to see president. 

Here are a couple of pictures of our room, I think I forgot to take some beforehand.

To his dad:

That'll be fun to get to speak with Brady. I'll give plenty of thought to my talk after I get to talk to you about what the ward needs and what topic I should speak on. 

It sounds like some great destruction in the Olympic swimming, it sounds exactly like what President Archibald always wanted to inspire us to be like.

It's pretty cool that the US is winning, like always. Have you seen any Peruvians in the Olympics so far?

I'll keep working hard, thanks. nos vemos. les amo.

08/01/16 A Promise

O_____ went to Vegueta on Sunday and didn't go to church, however the B______ family went! We went to see them in the morning on Sunday and the wife A___ came out and said that her husband has been in bed all morning and that his leg was hurting a lot. My companion said that we promise that the pain in his leg will go down and it will heal faster if he goes to church. She thought he'd say no but we asked her just to tell him what we said and see what he says. So she went to ask him and came back out saying that yes they were going to go to church! They went and have a baptismal date for the 27th. The talks in sacrament meeting were on fellow shipping investigators and new members and they put that in practice after church, everyone was talking with them, it was great. The elder's quorum president who had accompanied us to teach them before took them home in his car. Also, in the week we found an old investigator (a single mom) who had gone to church lots but hadn't gotten baptized because she started living with a guy but she recently broke that off. She went to church too and has a baptismal date for the 13th!

The week was definitely better! It was better in respect as a district too, for example we had several progressing investigators and it looks like we're going to meet our district goal of 6 this month. 

Sounds like you gave a great class on Sunday, I would have liked to hear it. I have only seen the mission president once but we'll have interviews soon. He's a good president.

Here are a couple of pictures.

This one is from my companion's birthday a couple of weeks ago. The bishop invited us over. (the bishop is the shortest guy toward the middle, and the elder's quorum president is the taller guy on the left and the other guy is a new convert)

07/25/16 Do we have a living prophet?

The B______ family did not go to church, they called us at 11 am on Sunday saying that they wouldn't be able to go. We went straight to their house and they said they had some family members that live far away who suddenly come over without warning and they weren't going to go to church because they were going to spend time with them. I exhorted them somewhat about their ability to go in spite of whatever problem presents itself.   I have found that when one procrastinates obeying the Lord they are stopped by the enemy, whereas when one obeys right away his power is weakened. 

I___ said she is planning on going to Chile so we'll have to wait until she comes back to continue to teach her. 

On Saturday we taught a 28 year old man named O_____. he likes rock and wears his hair long and is a really big guy so much that one of the members said he was "Thor of Hualmay" (Hualmay is the place where he lives) haha. When we taught him he said that he has heard from the Daventists, JWs, and even the that "God-Mother" church (I'm not sure if I mentioned them before but they're pretty weird) and that what we taught made more sense than any of them and he was excited to hear that Christ visited the American continent! When we started talking about prophets he asked if there is a living prophet now and toward the end of the lesson he asked if he could go to church before being baptized and we said yes of course we were just about to invite you for tomorrow. He also asked why there is a place to play soccer behind the church and when we explained the midweek activities he asked if there would be one soon. There happened to be an activity at the church Saturday night with traditional dances so he went to that and to church on Sunday. He enjoyed church and we are going to teach him again tomorrow. He works as a mototaxi driver. When my companion showed him the names of the 3 witnesses of The Book of Mormon, he was super excited to his name there haha.

We also went for a work visit on Tuesday and I was with Elder Lara in his area and we found a family of 3 with whom I put a baptismal date for august 20th!

To his dad:

Sounds like a good sacrament meeting and like a fun time at Uncle Brent's, tell Holden what's up for me. 

The other day before district meeting there was a problem that made us late for the leaders meeting and we were told about a rule we hadn't heard before about doing push-ups if we were late, so we did 30 push-ups... well, I did. My companion couldn't finish and everyone was like, "how do you do them so fast when you're so skinny?" haha

Thanks dad for everything chao