We had a pretty good week this week. Last Saturday we were able to have the baptisms of two of our investigators, Juan Pablo and Carmen. It was a nice service that we had for them. The spirit was strong. I always enjoy feeling the spirit that accompanies us every time we have a baptism. The work is going well in Covima. We're just looking for some people to teach right now. I've been adjusting to the office life here. I like it. I feel like there's a lot of blessings that come from fulfilling all of the responsibilities that the Lord has given us. I feel like as we are able to recognize this, we will be more willing to do what He has asked of us. Be obedient to God and keep the commandments and we'll see blessings. That's the biggest thing I've learned this week. In the Book of Mormon it says a ton of times that if we keep the commandments the Lord will help us and will be on our side. But if we don't keep His commandments, we have no such promise. So it's better to be obedient! Have a good week!
-Elder White
Saturday
Baptism is the gateway to heaven. It's also the gateway to our blessings here on earth. If someone's living a life without baptism, then God isn't able to bless them like he wants and they're not living to their full potential of happiness. I know that when you're baptized you sins are washed away and can begin to truly live the kind of life God wants you to live. Repentance without baptism is like washing a shirt without soap, only water; it doesn't benefit you much. This morning Elder and Hermana Lindstrom, the self-reliance missionaries assigned to our mission, invited the 5 office elders over for a district breakfast.) The assistants are assigned to La Molina, La Molina and we're assigned to Covima, Mayorazgo.) They made scrambled eggs and French toast, so that was pretty tasty. From there we went back tot he office and hung out there almost all of our p-day. We watched a lot of movies. We also played a 3 vs 3 game of Risk. It was fun. Elder Tenney got dealt a pretty good hand and was dominating the game. Elder Leite was on my team (Elder Napier too). He got to be pretty salty that we were losing. Someone reminded him how he lost last week too despite having a huge advantage. He said, "My teammates were playing and thinking like little girls!" *Elder Tenney laughs.* "Hey shut up, you were one of them." That was pretty funny. The sushi place was closed, so my wallet was saved. Instead, Elder Pardo and I went to Big Chicken and got food there. Throughout the day I got a lot of random phone calls from zone leaders with questions about taking out money. They were mainly common sense questions I feel like. It got to be kinda boring just sitting around the office all day. I opened up excel and watched some tutorial videos and started to make a Fantasy Missionaries thing (Like Fantasy Football), but then decided that that probably wouldn't be such a great idea and deleted it. We went to the park and played 2 hand touch football. While that was fun, it probably wasn't the best thing to do while fasting. Our ward had the 4 baptisms tonight with Juan Pablo and Carmen from our part. It was a really nice service. President Amaato went with his family.
So dude named Andre called me before hand and asked if I could talk while the others were changing. Then at the start of the meeting, he said, "Our first message will be by Elder White and the 2nd by President Amato." We both were kinda surprised, but, ya know, YOLO. Elder Hales and ELder Rineon were there. Hermana Amato shook Elder Hale's hand and was like, "Wow, you're freezing! President, give him your coat." So Presdient gave him his suit coat and made himtake it home with him. He wasn't even cold hahaha.
The office Elders
Sunday
I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet called of God. I know that God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, appeared to him when he was 14. I know that the spirit testifies to us strongly when we recant the first vision because God wants us to know that it's true. Because if that and the Book of Mormon are true, its all true. Today we went to church. We tried to go pick up a dude in our taxi, but we couldn't find him. Covima is a pretty cool ward. All of the other wards around it have grown out of it. A year ago was the last split, and the ward was left with only 80 members. But today the attendance was 142. I'm not quite sure how since from January-June the Hermanas baptized 3 and the office Elders have baptized 7 since July now. But that's cool. The ward used to be called Santa Patricia when I first got here, but the name change has left some of the members a little salty. One of the things that I noticed was that there was a respectable umber of old people there. That's something that I've never seen in Peru before. The only downside of that is that one of them had a broken hearing aid that would occasionally let out a high frequency beep that all the kids and only a few of us Elders could hear. Everyone got confirmed ok and Juan Pablo even got ordained as a priest afterwards too. We went to go eat lunch with Obispo Dipaz after. His brother is the Dipaz in Manchay. In church he seemed kinda cold and serious. But in his home he was super sacrastic and funny. He was teaching us all sorts of slang. For example, calling someone a carrot is like calling them a fool. The dog was barking so his wife said, "Shut up dog!" and he responded by saying, "Hey, you can't talk about Elder Tenney like that." He calls us whities and him and his wife call each other cholo. So that was a fun lunch. His mother-in-law is our pensionista. We had a full day of contacting.
Monday
I testify that Jesus is the Christ. I know that He loves us. I know that through his atonement, everyone can repent and be saved. I know that he is the son of God and that he directs the church, His church. I know that because of His sacrifice, I and everyone else, can become as Him: a perfect being. He is my savior and I love him. My number 1 priority is to please Him. It is him that I am serving as a missionary. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Well, Elder Tenney talks frequently in his sleep. He doesn't just talk though; he straight up trolls me. Last night I woke up to him talking and was gonna fall back asleep when he said, "Wait." I looked over at him kind of confused, but he was asleep. I was about to sleep again when he said, "Hold on a sec." But he was still sleeping without moving at all. I made a 30 sec effort to stay awake in case something supernatural happened, but nothing did. Today was P-day for everyone else, but not for us, which was super weird. There's a chiropractor that we hire to come to the office every Monday morning for an hour so that everyone in the mission that needs it can go. All the guys in teh office got me to go get a 3 min session with him. Elder Peterson was there because his companion has a bad back. The two of us walked out right as President walked in the front door. Elder Peterson told him that we had just been in there and that it felt good. So President said something along the lines of, "Oh man, I want a turn!" and went in and plopped himself on the dude's table. That was pretty funny. Every Monday there's a meeting with all the office Elders, the assistants and President and Sister Amato. One of the things that President brought up was that the area was doing something with the transfers and long story short, we're all going home a week earlier. Then they started talking about departure plans, which was kinda weird. Hermana Amato said, "Les avisamos (We will let you know)," because Elders Napier, Armstrong, Wilcox and I (as well as 12 more or so) have the same release date as them. The office and assistants teamed up for lunch and the waiter ripped us off by selling us an extra churrasco. Elder Sanchez had surgery and is on 30 days rest, so he's with us in the office. Elder Tenney and I had a good night of contacting. We put the goal of visiting 1 member/day, but it looked as though we wouldn't be able to day. But then we were blessed to run into a member that we were then able to visit right at the end of the night.
Tuesday
I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. I know that it contains the fullness of the gospel. By reading and studying it daily, we will gain a true conversion unto Christ and we will not falter. I know that Joseph Smith translated it by the Gift and Power of God. I know that it's true. I have received revelations from the Book of Mormon many times. I know that it's the keystone of our religion. And because it is, everything else is true as well. That's how God talks to us. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Well, this morning I showed the other Elders the video of me running and jumping into a locker. That was pretty funny. I had a productive day working this morning. For lunch we went to the 12 week training, which happened to be held in the Amato's home. It was my first time there. They have a tiny little dog. I didn't know that they had a dog. For lunch she made spaghetti with beef, which high key destroyed all of our white shirts. Hermana Amato is kind of a big health fanatic. She had a big 'ole bowl of big 'ole pieces of broccoli so I took 2 just to avoid being called out on it. It's ok though because they had Root Beer and a tasty Brazilian dessert. They did it there because there were only 3 people in the group. Things are kind of crazy in the way that we only have 140 missionaries right now (we had 200 in May) and there's not a whole lot more scheduled to come in; just 5 or so at a time and they're almost all hermanas. But yeah. I went back to the office and did some work there. I had some extra time at the end of the day before I could leave to proselyte, so I opened up a Duilingo account and started to learn some German. Brot und wasser (bread and water)! That's the only thing I really remember. Elder Tenney made the claim that pollo a la brasa is the tastiest and most eaten dish in Peru, but I knew otherwise. So we would ask people in contacts what they thought the best dishes in Peru were and not a single one said pollo a la brasa. I rest my case. It is tasty though, don't get me wrong. We did another short member visit tonight. What we do is go in, take a minute to introduce ourselves, explain Jesus isn't there right then but that we're his personal reps, ask "What would you ask of Jesus if he were here with us?" talk about that for a few minutes, say a good prayer for what they told us and then leave. It works well.
Wednesday
Ich bin ein Mann (I am a man). Ich trinke Wasser (I drink water). Das Brot (The bread)! Du bist ein Junge (You are a boy). Nothing like a little German to start your day hehe. Imma tell you a summarized story and the nits spiritual application. When I was 14 or 15, I went scuba diving for the first time. One of the things they teach you is that when your tank has 500 psi left, you have to tell your guide so that you can start making preparation to go back up, and the guide would ask occasionally how you were doing on air. I was new, so I used more air than the rest of the group. We were swimming along and got to a big, cool, underwater arch. He showed that we were going to go through it, bu then asked us how we were doing on air. I looked at my gauge and saw that I had just under 500 psi left. But every one else was ok so I didn't say anything. I didn't want to be the reason every one else didn't go through. So we did it. Shortly after, I noticed that my air was getting thinner. I began to panic. I signaled to may partner, and then to the guide, that I was out of air and was going to surface. They guided handed me his extra air hose. I rejected it at first, partly because I was embarrassed and also because I wasn't totally out of air yet. But he insisted. When we got out of the water the guide told me, "Never reject air." Takeaways? Obedience. Don't succumb to peer pressure. Don't hide your serious problems--get help from the bishop and other leaders and don't push them away. Don't push the limits. For lunch we went on over to the leadership counsel. They had donuts there, so that was pretty dope. Right after that we went to the Area Office to drop off the monthly expense report, which is a whole lot more tedious than it initially seemed. I now know why every past financial secretary that I've known has complained about it. All the area office had to tell me about it was that I need to be more specific on my descriptions next time. First time there and they're already burning me. DEP. We had a solid work night though. We even visited an ex-mission president in our ward. We found some cool people whose numbers we wrote down and I was able to schedule a cita (she might live outside our area though). I almost have to relearn to contact because contacting in rich areas is a lot different than contacting in pour areas.
Thursday
There are blessings in going to church. God WILL bless us if we go. It's literally a commandment. In the Book of Mormon, we read a bazillion times that if we keep the commandments, we'll prosper in the land. But if we don't keep them we have no such promise. It's that simple. If we make that sacrifice of time, God will bless us with more success in work, more unity in our families and will make us happier, etc. We bless and fortify each other and learn as well. We also renew our baptismal covenants through the sacrament so that we can be cleansed weekly of our sins, which easily makes it the most important part of the week. Asistir (attend) is a critical part of the OLA (Orar (pray), Leer (read), Asistir (attend)). As a personal representative of Jesus Christ, I promise you that if you go to church this week and every week after, the Lord will immediately bless you in a way you never thought possible despite how much of a sacrifice it might have been. Don't just keep the Sabbath holy; sanctify it. Jesus loves you. The quicker you obey this and other commandments is the quicker you'll receive the subsequent blessings. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Today wasn't that exciting of an office day. I'm caught up on all of my work, so it was another great day to learn some German. I was doing really well up until the point where I realized that there's more than 30 words in the German language. We went to Subway for lunch. I was really proud of myself for putting some healthy looking stuff on my sandwich. We had a solid work day today. We had a correlations meeting with Andre, the new ward mission leader. Yesterday I contacted a 19 year old named Shirely. She seemed super cool and stuff so we took out a cita. Afterwards someone told me that that was an address in Mayorazgo, the adjacent area. We decided that it'd be best to have a mini cita and then pass the reference. She showed up with her 18 year old friend Tania (not quite as excogida since she typically works Sundays). We went to a park to talk. They both met on a bus on their way here from 4 hours outside of Lima. Shirely is the oldest child in her family, the which is falling apart back home. She's here alone with Tania trying to study and work to help her family back home. We promised that going to church would bless her and her family and she teared up a bit. We prayed for them and then left. Not gonna lie, I'm kinda really disappointed that I'm not the one that's gonna teach her. But at least she's going to accept the gospel.
Friday
Elder Napier was telling me about how he was in the car with the Amato's today. A taxi stopped in front of them and President flashed his lights. Hermana Amato told him to honk the horn and he said, "I can't." Then he smiled looked at everyone and said, "It's one of my charity goals." Hermana Amato said, "It's not one of mine!" and reached over and honked the horn for him. That's pretty funny. I know that revelation hasn't ceased; we have a prophet to guide us in these latter days. I know that Russell M Nelson is a man called of God. Through the inspiration of Jesus Christ, he leads His church. As we follow his counsel, we will find more happiness and peace in our lives. This morning we had a district counsel. Good stuff taught and learned. The zone leaders made a jeopardy game thing that was pretty fun. Team office won hehe. The church released a trailer for the new Book of Mormon series that's coming out. We all freaked out about that and watched it. It straight up looks like a Netflix series. Not gonna lie though, it seems super cool. Super cool. We've been waiting for this forever. It's officially more anticipated than the new hymn book that's coming out. For lunch we met up as a zone and went to go eat some pancha manka a la holla at somebody's pension. That was pretty good. We didn't have all that much office time today, but that's ok. We had a solid night of contacting that I really enjoyed. It's likely that once I leave the office I'll only have 2 or so transfers left. If I could choose my last area, I'd go back to Huaycan 2. I didn't have too much success there. I'd like to go back, work my heart out and enjoy the fruits of my labors.
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