Monday
I called home during internet today, or tried to at least. Why, you ask? When the church came out with this new announcement, I told them I'd only really call home on birthdays and holidays. Yesterday was Selection Sunday. March Madness is a pretty significant holiday where I come from. Por lo tanto (Therefore), I called my mom to make my bracket with her. The mic wasn't working on my end though, so I just had to type. It was cool though. I told her not tell me the seeds. I obviously didn't watch any games this year. Watch me win though. It'd be pretty funny. Today was P-day de distrito. So we all met up and went to a member's house. I found out later that that member turned out to be President Hurtado. Interesting surprise. While we were on our way there, we got doused with laundry/paint water, I'm not sure which. The owner of our building was the one that did it too. It was an accident though and just a few drops too. After finding out about Elder Shupe's cooking abilities, we decided to put it to use. He made some dang good hamburgers from scratch. On mine I had caramelized onions, pineapple, the standard sauces, and fre shavac ado. It was kind of a really messy hamburger. Not even the all so proper Brits such as Benedict Cumberpatch or Princess Diana could escape that burger unscathed. I fell American again between that and yesterday. It's so good to have grease flowing through my veins again. We all brought pictures from home to see each other's families. It kinda weirded the Hermanas out that Elder Cabral is engaged. They were like, "Does President know?" Bruh. He talks about her multiple times a day. Everyone one the southern half of the River Rimac knows. We all watched Ratatouille. During the movie, Olga called me and informed me that Dante went to the ER. That's not good. Something about his pancreas and bladder. I had to make a lot of phone calls after that. At night, we were contacting and there was a girl that came up to me and started talking and asking where the church was. She moved two years back and went inactive, but she's looking to come back and her cousin is interested in taking lessons. So that was the miracle of the day. We were going to have a cita with Lucero, but instead took her to a NDH with Mafer and Oswaldo. Then we went to another NDH with Jessica, Marcelo, Meguimi, and Octavia, as well as a bunch of ward members.
Tuesday
Today flew by fast. A little too fast. We did weekly planning this morning. My biggest weakness is my face. My normal facial expression looks like I'm mad or bothered. I feel happy on the inside, but I still look bad on the outside. It's a work in progress. We went to go and visit Arlette today. Her parents were home, so we decided to talk to them too. We taught about the Plan of Salvation. It wasn't our best lesson though. Arlette's 5 or 6 year old brother was playing Slitherio and GTA and he screamed every time he lost, so that was really distracting for me. Then we went and picked up Oswaldo to go and visit Marjorie, the girl that talked to me in the park yesterday. She is 19, so that's important to remember for later. We got to know her a bit. She told us about how she's studying English, then will study civil rights. Once she's done with her studies, she wants to move to the USA and marry a gringo. I was just kinda like "yeah, ok" because that's what a lot of people down here want to do. But then she started asking about my friends and asked me for their phone numbers. Then we reviewed the Gospel of Jesus Christ. When it was time to leave, I asked if there was something we could do for her. She just told me, "Please don't forget your friends' numbers." When I asked if there was anything else she said, "Give their Facebooks too. Dame todo (give me all)." We left that cita and Oswaldo and Elder Cabral gave me that look, and I gave them the same. We laughed about it and then Oswaldo told me, "Well Elder, if you ever happen to need to get married fast, I know a guy." Funny stuff. Nelson is leaving to work on a boat again, so he came with us to the rest of the night after that. He's a really good guy. I'll miss him. We visited Rosa Leon since she's had some problems recently. She's one of those people that want us to visit them all the time, so that's kind of uncomfortable for me. They just don't understand our job as missionaries very well. "It's a trap!" -Admiral Ackbar. Then we went to go and visit Jeannina and her family. At almost the same time, Juan and Johan went to the church to have interviews with the bishop. Everything is looking good for Saturday. To finish the day off, we went and visited la familia Astuhuamun. Mario's uncle just passed away. It seems like they've had a lot of death in their family. We sat down and talked to mostly Elva about it for a while.
Wednesday
We had a district meeting this morning, our last of the transfer. This district has been pretty fun to be in. The hermanas all wore pants. When I walked in and saw that, I stopped and said, "What the heck is going on here? Is it P-day again?" They were pretty happy though doing the splits and kicking and doing lunges and what not.
When it came time for the counsel though, I decided to do a 2nd pensamiento espiritual (spiritual thought), so I dropped Deuteronomy 22:5 on them. That was pretty funny. They were all like, "How do you know that one?" An excellent missionary knows the scriptures inside and out. I'm only a great missionary though, so that doesn't apply to me. I know it because the other day Elder Cabral and I were making a good contact and then he randomly asked us what is says in that scripture. We were just kinda like, "Uh...," but he was cool so we looked it up. Elder Cabral read it and we were just like, "?" The dude was just like, "I like to memorize passages from the Bible," and offered no further explanation. I can summarize the weekly video from President in one quote: "Arrepientanse! (Repent!)" -President Amato. It was basically just 10 minutes of that. I guess a companionship got sent home recently. He talked about how we have to be responsible for our companions. My thoughts immediately went to Elder Mayta. Even though I know I did the right thing, it was a good confirmation because I think about it a lot. Why did things have to go down like they did? We spent almost the whole day contacting. Nothing exciting to report today about that. I called Elder Myers and got him to come with us to visit Flormira. We went and there and were like, "No one in the ward has a picture. That means you've got to get baptized again. How does this Saturday sound?" She was just like "Ok." So, surprise. We're actually have 2 baptisms on Saturday, in addition to Johan. Flormira doesn't seem overly excited about it, but I think she'll go through with it. Later, we had a noche de hogar com barrio (FHE with the ward). There weren't a lot of people that came though because there was a JAS activity. We got Flormina to come thought and it turned out well.
Thursday
This morning we had to get together as a zone for a mandatory meeting of deportes (sports). We played soccer for a bit. But then the hermanas arrived and we had to change to volleyball for an hour or so. My volleyball skills were MIA today. It's ok though because I was on the stacked team. We started a bit shaky, but then we went on a 30 minute win streak. That was pretty fun. But I also wouldn't mind getting together with the gringos to play a game of 21 sometime. Elder Cabral is that guy that I hate playing against on the other team. A lot of pride and excuses. (Elder White Mom note here: sounds a lot like how Elder White used to be!) It drives me crazy. All the other 3 Elders fell asleep during study time, but not me. For some reason I don't really get tired a whole lot anymore. Actually, tired yes, sleepy no. #Bendiciones (#Blessings). But the other guys not so much. I'm an obedient missionary and I try to help the others be obedient too when necessary. I try to be funny about it though. For example, a couple of years ago there was a kid in my Spanish class that would sneak up on people and nibble their ear. So I tried that today. Not gonna lie, it was kinda weird. After lunch we did a 12 semanas (weeks) marathon to do our best to catch back up. The people in the building in front of ours are digging a huge hole in their house. They cut a 6' x 6' hole in the concrete and started digging. This is no joke probably more than 8 feet deep. It was kinda crazy to see the dude in there with his shovel. I don't know what or why they're doing it, but I respect it. We went to go visit some twins in the ward that aren't going to seminary. We basically just talked to them for a minute, promised blessings and then took off. Jeannina had her interview tonight. She passed everything ok. I forgot to mention this, but we met with Mafer this morning. She answered the door and was like, "Elders, ¿Como estan (how are you)? Hurry and come in before my grandparents get home." My first thought was was, "Wait a second. I've seen memes about this." Her boyfriend was with her though, so we went in. She's been having family problems with her grandparents recently. They're super Catholic and not very supportive of her going to church. As a matter of fact, we had barely started to teach when they came in and we had to leave. We had a lesson with Lucero tonight. That went pretty well. She agreed to move her fecha baptismal up to the 30th of March. Cool stuff. We got Yure and Aylin to come with us to visit Flormira. She wasn't home so we were going to leave after waiting around, but she showed up just in time. I've taught the law of chasity 3 times in 2 days. Teaching Jeannina that was weird, not gonna lie.
Friday
We did intercambios (exchanges) with the zone leaders today finally. They've canceled on us like 3 times before, but I'm glad we finally get to do it. Elder Carrera came here with me and my comp went to Vitarte with Elder Moreno. Before that though, I had a long morning of paper work and getting stuff ready for baptisms. I finally sat down to study a bit and what not, but then I looked down and realized that I had a huge rip in the crotch of my pants. So I had to take those off and stitch that up. So there went my whole morning. When Elder Carrera got here, we went straight to a cita with Elliot and Lisabeth. Elliot got baptized as a teenager, but then went inactive later and now is convivient with his pareja. They've gone to church the last few weeks though and word on the street is that she wants to get baptized. When we entered that cita though, I felt like I was in my training all over again. Elder Carrera talks a lot. Not that that's a bad thing by any means. It's just that I sat there feeling powerless as he taught almost the whole time. He's a really good teacher though. She's got pretty good desire to be baptized. They only problem is that they want to do a big party for their wedding. They've got money for the wedding, but not for the after party. That's the problem right now. We'll see what happens though. We spent pretty much the whole day contacting. We were supposed to go visit Daisy and Rocky, but long story short they were having marriage problems and didn't want us to pass by. It's a sad situation. The thought that that could possibly happen in my marriage someday horrifies me. From there, we wen to la capilla to do Flormira's interview. It took a while to do it. She was still kind of unsure about getting baptized again and it took a bit of convincing on Elder Carrera's part, but she agreed in the end and is ready to go for tomorrow. After that, we had correlations. Everyone got there late again, which is kinda frustrating. I learned a lot of invaluable information in that short time though. Marcelo and Arlette are finally enrolled in school. Also, Marcelo apparently has some desires to get baptized and that the source of the problem is actually Arlette and not him, which is surprising. He's going to seminary at night too. I made a really cool contact in the park right before curfew. We'll see what happens.
Saturday
While I was praying last night, I had some incredible revelation to me on how I can help my family get involved in missionary work. I'm excited to tell them about it and can see great results from it. Today was one of my most stressful and exhausting days yet. It's kinda hard to explain, but it doesn't really seem that way though. It's cool to see God's hand like this in my life. Today's a day I can't forget. We finished intercambios and picked clothes up from Tilda on our way home. I spent every last bit of my free (ish) time to do stuff to plan the baptisms. We took Daniel to go and visit Lucero today. Everything was pretty normal there. We tried looking for the people I contacted in the park last night, but I couldn't find them. Then we went to go get stuff ready for the baptism. The permission for Flormira was a bit complicated. Her aunt, who's a member, is in charge of her. She's been on a trip in Piura all week and her cell phone's been turned off the whole time, so we couldn't call her for vocal permission. So we decided that since she was all aboard the first time we taught, we'd count that as vocal authorization. The zone had a noche blanca (white night), but we did it at our own capilla because we can. Flormira was kinda super nervous and was almost crying, but Paul is a good friend to have, so he helped a lot. Juan was kinda grumpy about his jumpsuit being kinda small. He baptized Johan after a couple of tries, so that was real good for them. Jeannina saw that Johan took a couple of tries and got scared I guess. PTSD. She was crying so we had Flormira go next. That went smoothly. Jeannina was still pretty scared, so we decided to pray with her. Demetrio tried to cut me off while I was praying and tell me it was better to wait, but I kept right on praying. It took us a while to get her to touch the water, like 20 minutes. I didn't think she'd get in. She hesitantly stood by the side for 10 minutes. Before that happened, Demetrio got mad and went home. Yure straight up jumped in the water in his church clothes to get Jeannina in. I was busy nervously pacing the whole time outside. But another 10 minutes later, she got baptized. That was a relief. Pictures of the baptism:
Sunday
Welp, today just got awkward. Turns out that I'm staying a 4th combio (transfer) here in Alameda with Elder Cabral. I thought I was leaving, so I kind of already said bye to everyone. I kinda put a couple of things off for later for the next guy that would have come. It was judgement day today and the whole room is staying actually. As much as I love Alameda, I felt like it was time for me to go. But oh well. This morning we called for a consejo de barrio (ward council). We went there and I just kind of let Elder Cabral take the wheel because I thought I was leaving. Elder Cabral gets kind of extreme sometimes with high expectations and demands a lot from everyone. So after that, the bishopric took us aside and we talked to Elder Cabral. He had kinda showed a huge lack of respect to everyone. So Josemar did a very smooth job of putting him in his place and telling him to chill a little. I felt kinda bad. I should have controlled him better. The bishop got really teary eyed during that conversation and didn't say anything until I asked for forgiveness at the end. Elder Cabral just stayed silent. We got the 3 baptisms confirmed during sacrament meeting. Lucero was there at the baptism yesterday. While I was busy freaking out about Jeannina, she came up to me and told me that she was super excited to get baptized and wanted to do it this next week. I was just like, "Cool! That's when your fecha is." She also told me that she wanted me to baptize her. Her mom, Norma, came at the end of church. She introduced me as "the Elder that's going to baptize me on Saturday." I'm down. On the way home, I noticed Elder Cabral was silent so I just said, "I guess we learned a couple of things this morning." He stayed quiet and after a bit of pestering said, "I already knew all of that." He was being so unreasonable and extreme. Not everyone is living the law of consecration. I had to burn him a bit. After that we went to go and visit Juan and Evelin a bit. Then we went to go eat lunch with la familia Quinto. They're some pretty cool people. Then we went to a PF attack in Tilda. I had to bring my white pants because there was a dude my size that was going to baptized someone. We knocked on one door and a lady come on the intercom and started screaming stuff about Mormons. So I pushed the doorbell to see if that was for someone else and the same lady on and said Satan or Demon like 20 times. I was half surprised she didn't come running out with a cross in her hand. Elder Cabral talked to President Hurtado, but I didn't go over because I thought I was leaving. We finished the night off by going to visit the familia Astuhuaman. Jean Franco showed us this weird conspiracy video about dinosaurs in the Bible.
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