Week 9 in the Office

Last week ended pretty well. We had two of our investigators, Marleni and Ciara, get baptized. It was a really nice service and the spirit was strong there. Marleni was super excited and was texting us all day before and even showed up half an hour earlier than what time we told her to get there. This week was super busy for us, but it was also lleno de milagros and now we have a ton of potential investigators in Covima. One of the miracles we were able to see this week was from a dude named Mario. For his entire life, 65 years, he had been unbelieving in God. He's had a difficult life as of late. He's a native of Peru, but then 30 years ago moved to the states and it was there that he made his family. Things were going well and then 3 years ago, his mom got sick. He came back to visit her, but then she unexpectedly died. He then got an infection of some sort and has to have treatment, and he also never felt the urgency to file for US citizenship. So for those 2 reasons, he hasn't been able to return to be with his family. He was stuck here in a country that he wasn't accustomed to and went a year and a half without a job. Then recently a month ago he miraculously got a job working in accounting at the Universitario soccer club. He also found an incredibly merciful landlord that has let him rent a room for about three months for the equivalent of about a half months rent. Due to these miracles and the incredibly difficult times before, he's started to believe in a God. Then one night he said he was aimlessly wandering the streets when out of nowhere we gave him a contact card. He kinda took it and kept walking, but then saw the steps of how to say a prayer. So he prayed and he felt good, so he gave us a call and that's how we wound up in his house with him. After 65 years of unbelief, he's ready to accept Christ as his Savior and is willing to do what it takes to come unto him. It was a really powerful lesson and he was crying for most of it. I know that as we trust in God's grace to help us, we will improve through his atonement. I know that if we can be like Mario and recognize the Lord's hand in our lives, then we too will find lasting happiness like him. I know that God is good. He loves us and hears and answers our prayers! Take care!

-Elder White
 

Saturday

 I know that going to church is a critical part of our Sunday.  We go there not only to take the sacrament, but also to be spiritually nourished, to learn and to establish/fortify friendships so that we may help one another.  You know, the church is perfect.  The members are human and will, for that reason, still be imperfect, though we strive for it.  But when looking at the structure, organization, and programs of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, it's perfect.  I know that this is truly is God's church and that He is the one running it.  The Heavens aren't closed.  He continues to guide us with divine revelation.  I testify in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  This morning we went to go play soccer against La Molina.  We won by a good amount.  It was fun.  From there, we went to the office for our P-day.  We played 2 good games of Risk today.  I went 1-1.  For lunch we decided to go and get all you can eat sushi at Roll Star.  Super good stuff.  Tonight we had the baptismal services of Marleni and Ciara.  Marleni was super excited.  She texted me throughout the day and was there 1/2 hour early, which was kinda unfortunate because we started 1 1/2 hours late.  Ya know, Peru.  Hermana Lester (she found Marleni) and Elder Tenney were both there.  Gustavo performed the service.  The spirit was really strong and I really liked it.  They did too.

Sunday

I know that we are to endure to the end if we want to receive all of God's blessings for ourselves; to faithfully live the gospel and keep our covenants to the end.  It sounds simple in theory, but here's the catch: crap happens.  Everyone that will live upon the Earth will have trials.  Life here wasn't meant to be easy.  If it wasn't like that, then it'd be arguably impossible to learn and to progress, which would frustrate the plan of God.  I know that despite how hard the times may be, Jesus is right there with us the entire time bearing us up.  We just need to press forward and know that he is there.  Just follow the gospel.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  So yesterday when we went to Roll Star, the other Elders told me that we'd had our server before and that he didn't like us, so that it'd be good to leave a tip.  I never really got a good look at our waiter though, which was a problem because he had the same hat as and similar features as his friend.  When it was time to go, one of them was smiling by our table waiting to clean up.  My thought process was, "I don't remember.  I don't think it's this guy because he's smiling too much for someone that doesn't like us."  So I went and gave the tip to the other dude (since he seemed more of the grumpy type) and thanked him for his service.  He looked very surprised.  As told by the other Elders, when I walked away, our real waiter looked super surprised with a hint of being offended.  The guy I tipped went over to him, shrugged while smiling, and gave his friend a pat on the back.  We had to hurry and get another tip ready.  He seemed mad when I gave it to him.  They all thought it was super funny.  When I went to pay the taxi later, Elder Pardo said, "Wait."  "Why?"  "You've gotta wait until the next taxi comes and then pay him."  Oh gosh.  Well today we got Ciara and Marleni both confirmed as members of the church.  And Renzo came by himself too.  So that was all pretty cool beans.  We had some good fried chicken for lunch.  Weekly planning went well enough.  Then we contacted.  Bishop taught me how to do this thing called sacar un conejo (take out a rabbit).  Basically you just massage their hair and then pull on it in a special way and it'll make a pupping noise like when you crack your knuckles.  I did it to Huakim, his 9 year old son, and the pop was super loud.  He said, "Asu!  Un conejaso! (It's a bunny!)"  That was funny.  Today was judgement day.  Elder Wilcox just left (11:10 PM) to go pick up missionaries from the Provo MTC from the airport.  There's never been guys from Provo here before.

Monday

I listened to a talk from Elder Bednar.  I think it was called "In the Strength of the Lord" or something like that from BYU speeches.  It was talking a lot about how we can use the atonement to strengthen and enable ourselves, not only using it exclusively for repentance.  Christ suffered for all of our pains too, so we can find strength and comfort in him.  One of the major points in his discourse was that we, like the prophets in the Book of Mormon, should pray in faith for the power we require to change our circumstances instead of asking the Lord to change our circumstances for us, because that's how grace truly works.  We do our best and then the Lord will do the rest.  That could mean that he takes over, or that he gives us the help needed to finish the task required of us.  I know that as we look to the Lord in faith in every thought of every task, he will give us the things we need.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  This is the 3rd week in a row that the chiropractor hasn't come.  I'm kinda mad about that, especially since missionaries come from far areas on their P-day to do it.  This morning we did the first part of the first day training for the new missionaries.  They didn't eat very much of all the food that we bought for them.  We had our weekly office meeting via Skype with President Amato.  The main thing I did today was start the process to reimburse caja chica (the box of money).  It was kinda stressful because I started the day with more than 2500 PEN, but then some expensive stuff like a guarantee and 13 emergency bills happened, and all of the sudden we had less than 700 soles left, which is pretty low.  It's kind of a lengthy process to do all the paperwork for it.  After a long day's work, I finally got to the point where I just need to submit it to a dozen people for verification.  I found myself reading the red book and checking past secretaries' work the whole time because I was kinda lost.  They're putting Hermanas in Ñaña, so the zone leaders had to look for a new room.  They were right about to move in when I called the owner and wound up having to throw off the deal because he wanted double the guarantee as normal, which is totally unnecessary unless he was planning on stealing it.  So that stinks for Ñaña.  I took 3 of the new missionaries with me proselyting tonight.  Nice guys.

Tuesday

I know that this is the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  I know that Russell M Nelson is a prophet called of God and that Jesus Christ leads the church.  Recently I've looked a lot into the Restoration of of the church.  I had know that Joseph Smith was a prophet and restored God's church, that's never been too much of a doubt for me before.  But what I wasn't sure about was the transition between Joseph's martyrdom and Brigham Young becoming the next prophet of God.  There were a decent amount of small groups that split off from the church at that same time like the RLDS, Rigdonites, etc.  So I made it a matter of study and prayer.  Now I can say, based off of conceptual knowledge and spiritual witness, that this is the true and living church of Jesus Christ with his proper priesthood authority.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  Today was a crazy day.  A lot of the morning was us doing a bunch of stuff for the 2nd part of the 1st day training.  It's funny; this group is like 9/13 gringos, which is the most we've seen in a long time.  After that, Elder Wilcox and I ran to the area office to drop something off for someone, and it turned into us having to do things with an extra half dozen people.

Wednesday

I know that there is peace in the atonement of Christ.  He loves us so much.  God wants more than anything for us to do our best to obey the commandments to be able to return to him some day.  He wants this so bad that He sent his only-begotten son, Jesus Christ, to suffer for our sins in order to make that possible.  This makes the atonement the greatest act of love in the entire universe.  For that reason, the heavens rejoice every time the atonement is applied.  There is 0% guilt/shame/embarrassment involved.  As we apply the atonement, I know that we will feel ourselves change and become more Christ-like: we'll find true happiness.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  So apparently crap is going down in Chile right now.  Long story short, their government was super socialist for a bit and made studying at college basically free.  Now they're gradually making it more capitalist again in the way that it's not free anymore.  Then last week they raised train passage the equivalent of less that a sol city wide in Santiago (there's still student discount though).  The students started protesting super violently.  We're talking destroying trains, burning 3/4 of the stations, and in the first weekend there were 56 police officers injured.  But now it's progressed to straight up terrorism.  They're burning schools, ransacking cars/stores, and yesterday they burned down a huge super famous hotel.  I don't know why anyone would ever do that.  They burned the school of Elder Pardo's brother, so now he has no where to study.  Sad situation.  This morning Elder Wilcox and I went to a lesson with Renzo.  We spent almost the entire lesson talking exclusively about the Word of Wisdom.  That might be a struggle for him, but I know that he can do it.  We went to do a district counsel after that.  Nothing too exciting happened there.  I spent my night with Elder Peterson tonight.  It was his last night working as a missionary; he's got a flight at 6:00 AM tomorrow morning, so he's gonna have to leave here at 3:00 AM.  We had a nice talk.  We've spent a lot of time together, so it was hard seeing him go.  I had fun sacaring conejos (taking out rabbits) from all the office Elders tonight.

Thursday

I know that Russell M Nelson is a prophet called of God.  I know that he is the only man on Earth that has the authority to guide the church.  I know that he and the other members of the 1st presidency and quorum of the 12 are all prophets, seers and revelators and are here to help us and guide us so that we may return to live with God some day.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  I had to spend my first half of the day with Elder Pardo at the new leaders training.  I gotta say, hanging out in other people's meetings all day without doing anything is probably one of my least favorite parts of the job.  It's right up there with being audited (RIP Elder White 30-October-2019) and talking to angry dueños (landlords).  After getting back, I was a busy bee hehe.  It's my favorite time of the month: first week of transfers, caja chica (money box) stuff, and starting to file the end of month expense report.  You know what they say: turn up your hymns a little louder than nornal so that they can't hear you snoring/dry heaving/cursing in the background.  Haha, just kidding.  I haven't done any of that, yet.  So I did some research on this bump that's on my wrist.  It's not harmful at all, but easy to remove.  After a bit of reading, I found that there's 2 ways to get rid of it--an expensive operation, or hitting it really hard with a big book (nicknamed bible smash).  Some of the websites were like, "My doctor literally told me to do that and it worked great."  So Elder Wilcox was there in a baptismal interview and I was thinking, "Well, I don't have a bible right now, but his Nokia should do the trick."  So I took it out and "Whoop!" I missed.  But the 2nd time I got it.  Instant results: it is now a third the size it was before.  Cool beans.  Tonight we went to visit a 65 year old named Mario.  he's been really humbled recently.  He's lived in the states for 30 years, but 3 years ago, came back because his mom was sick.  Then she unexpectedly died.  Then he got an infection and had to get treatment, which prevented him from returning to be with his wife and daughters in the states.  He didn't have a job for a year and 1/2, but just recently got one working at el estadio de la U.  And the dueña of the room where he lives has been letting him live there free.  He was depressed in the street one night and someone out of nowhere handed him a card with Jesus on it.  He followed the steps to pray, felt good, then called us.  It was a powerful lesson.  After a lifetime of unbelief he's ready to accept Christ as his Savior.

Friday

I know that the Lord's grace is sufficient.  Through his atonement we can overcome any difficulty that life may throw at us.  I know that He is there watching over us.  All we need to do is surrender ourselves entirely to him and do whatever it is that he may ask of us.  I know that as we do this and follow His gospel, we will truly see him come into our lives and work miracles.  I love how spiritually nourished I feel.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  Yesterday, Elder Pardo said to me, "Ya know, people really do mature a lot here in the mission.  But at the same time we kinda get more crazy as time goes on."  It's true.  Later that night, he, Elder Armstrong and Elder Wilcox all got into an extreme game of monkey in the middle with Elder Pardo's stuffed Elmo toy.  That's the mission for ya I guess.  I listened to a super cool talk that had a lot to do with the restoration.  It was called "Missionary Experiences" by LeGrand Richards.  I've never heard the restoration taught so well out of the Bible before.  It was a very entertaining talk.  Elder Wilcox told me a cool story tonight.  He said that Elder Carrasco once told him of how his dad served in Paraguay.  He said that he once was assigned to this jungle area.  He was out there once cutting his path with a machete in the jungle and ran into some natives.  They took them captive and took them to their tribal chief.  They had a translator member of the tribe there.  The chief commanded them to state their purpose, so they started preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ.  They had obviously never heard of Jesus before, so they started preaching about the Book of Mormon.  The chief was moved to tears and commanded everyone in the tribe to listen to the missionaries.  They all did and all got very emotional as well.  Then the translator explained how they had a legend of a white God.  Then they all sang a traditional song, which the translator said coincided perfectly with the events they had explained from the Book of Mormon.  In the end, the entire tribe got baptized.  I thought that it was a pretty cool story.  Isn't it a coincidence how literally every Native American culture has a white God in it?  I mean, if only we had a book or something that would explain this to us.  And wouldn't it be cool if the natives wrote the book too?  Hahaha

Week 8 in the Office

I've really felt myself grow spiritually this week. One thing that I've tried to improve on recently is sharing my testimony more and more often. Someone told me once that the more that we share it, the more it grows, and that's absolutely true. I feel like we did a better job this week of trying to commit 100% to missionary work, leaving it all on the field. We have 2 investigators getting baptized tonight: Ciara and Marleni. Both are super cool and excited to make this covenant with the Lord. We also have another 19 year old investigator right now named Renzo. He's super good and is progressing well. He's kind of a goofball too. We asked him, "What is the biggest thing that's stopping you from being happy right now?" He replied, "My haircut." Jajaja. He's got a couple of Word of Wisdom problems, but all in all is progressing well despite he has a very occupied schedule. All in all, Covima is doing well and I'm doing pretty well myself I'd say too. I mean, the worst thing that happened this week was accidentally tipping the wrong guy at a restaurant jajaja. But yeah, have a good week!

-Elder White
 

Saturday

The biggest miracle of the week was that I somehow got those lug nuts off last night.   I was jumping on the wrench and everything in an effort to get them off.  I've got some blisters to show for it too, and one of them popped.  Anyways, I know that God wants us to be good citizens, which includes obeying the law and honoring the leader of the land.  It's just a basic thing we can do to be good disciples of Jesus Christ.  People always look at our example.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  Brother Romney was teaching about this once in teachers quorum.  We were like, "We're not going to kill anybody man, don't worry about about it!"  Then he explained to us that the speed limit is a law, which is why cops pull us over when we go too fast.  Then he said, "If you're speeding and don't get pulled over, you're still breaking the law, which means you're also breaking a commandment.  That means that speeding is sinning."  We all lost it, big time.  I mean he's right I guess.  I've got some repenting to do. haha  This morning we all got up at 5 AM to go play soccer in the hood--El Agustino in zone central.  I was like the environment surrounding the field: garbage.  I couldn't do anything.  It made me really long to play something I'm good at, like basketball.  Then I realized I'm probably trash at basketball right now.  It sufficeth me to say that we lost.  Elder Wilcox and I had to book it back because we had a cita with Renzo scheduled for 9 AM.  Everyone was like, "A cita on P-day?  Sacrifice!"  I don't really see it as a sacrifice; I'm just following what I know to be His will.  The cita went really well.  He was there, asked good questions, and accepted what we had to say.  The only thing is is that he doesn't quite understand yet that our church is the only true church; he sees all religion as good.  Right after, Elder Peterson, Elder Pardo and I went to go get 3 sol haircuts at a member's salon.  They washed our hair after too, so that was cool.  Then we went to go buy some stuff to make giant hotdogs for everyone for lunch.  We ate those and watched the new live action Lion King (the cartoon is better by the way).  Well, our 3 sol haircuts looked like 3 sol haircuts, so Elder Napier tried fixing it.  Mine looked like a bowl cut.  Looked good for his first time cutting hair, but...yeah.  Elder Pardo decided to fix the shower right then, so I only had an hour for all of my internet time.  We took Andrea and had a good cita with Marleni about temples.  Luis canceled on us.  We also taught Ciara and her friend.

Sunday

As we were sitting there in Sunday school today, the teacher shared Alma 5:27 as part of his lesson.  I've always appreciated that scripture.  It just makes you reflect on if you're constantly doing the things Jesus asks of you to be able to return to live with him.  As I was pondering about it, I realized that I could change it up a little to personalize it a bit.  In my head, I changed it to "if I were called to return home from my mission in this very moment, would I be satisfied with the work I've done?  Or would I have to live with regrets knowing that I maybe could have done something more to bring more souls unto Christ?"  Thinking about that really motivates me to be as obedient as I can be and work as hard as I can.  Elder Pardo and I went to ward council this morning.  Everything was pretty tranquil there.  The bishop started teasing me a lot because I forgot who the relief society president was.  Ciara and Marleni both came today.  Elder Wilcox went with the other Elders to go pick up Renzo.  Renzo is a good natured, funny kid.  He likes and trusts Elder Peterson a lot.  In our first lesson with him after Elder Peterson contacted him, we gave him the pamphlet of The Restoration.  I said, "I know you're a super busy dude, but do you think you can find 10-15 minutes to read it?"  Renzo responded, "Sure.  I'll just read while I'm procrastinating on my other homework."  He remembered everything he read.  I like it.  He seemed to really enjoy church too.  We went to go eat lunch with la familia Cardenas.  Everything from the roast beef and mashed potatoes to their fluent English gave it the feel of an American Sunday dinner.  We really liked it.  Their 2 kids learned French so that they could talk without their parents understanding.  haha  So yesterday my mom told me that Parker is really struggling with health concerns while on his mission.  He is going home from his mission in Jacksonville.  That was a tough pill to swallow. I wish there was something I could do to help him.  We started our fast a day late today.  During weekly planning, I feel like we put a lot of good spiritual goals to consecrate ourselves more.  We did some quick member visits and then contacted.  We were determined.  The last street we contacted was almost empty, but we knew that there was someone there waiting for us.  The last guy at the end of the night on the corner was an escogido named Carles that we took a cita with for Thursday.  It was a typical last minute 4th floor last door situation.  Love it.

Monday

I know that the priesthood is the power of God given to man on the Earth to bless his children.  I know that through the priesthood, I can heal the sick, bless the weak of heart, and participate in gospel ordinances.  I know that my power depends upon my faith and my worthiness, so I must strive to take care of both those.  I know that the priesthood is one of the ways that God shows his love unto us.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  Today we had our weekly office staff meeting.  There's not usually a whole lot of exciting stuff going on there.  Elder Wilcox, Elder Armstrong and I were all getting hungry and were craving Burger King to end our fast.  We tried ordering delivery over the phone, but they were wanting to charge a ridiculous amount.  So we decided we'd just have to go to the physical location.  We were on our way out when President called us into his office so that we could plan out the mission Christmas activity.  That took a bit, so the 3 of us were eager to get out the door.  Elder Wilcox forgot his money, so he ran back in to get it.  President saw him and asked if he could do our interviews before we left.  RIP to our stomachs.  My interview was good.  He's a good guy.  We signed another giant stack of papers afterwards too.  We finally left after 2.  I got 2 burgers, 2 chicken sandwiches, fries, a drink and an Oreo milkshake.  Tasty beans.  Tonight we did the pre interviews for Marleni and Ciara.  Both were super good.  I was nervous for Ciara.  We had Andrea sit in another part of the park since Ciara usually looks to her for help.  Ciara gave good complete answers instead of her usual "si", "no" or "no se".  We were able to take out some citas with some really good contacts tonight too.

Tuesday

I know that missionary work is God's work.  I know that this, the work of salvation, is the most important thing in the world.  The Lord needs valiant servants.  I know who I am so I'll follow him in faith proclaiming his truth to everyone that'll listen.  I'll be his servant to stand for truth and right.  I know that helping others to make covenants with Christ is the parth to helping them become happier and progress towards their salvation.  I know that I'm right here right now because it is the will of God.  I know that I am called of God and have his authority to preach His gospel.  There isn't a greater joy that I've experienced than that of bringing souls unto Christ.  The Lord can depend on me to get His work done.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  I don't know if I've ever mentioned this before, but I'd look really super guapisimo (handsome) with a beard.  That's basically the only downside to being a missionary.  Not too much happened in the office today.  I told everybody that they could go take out money today.  A zone went early and called me saying there wasn't enough on anyone's card.  One thing lead to another and I realized that payments for pasaje aren't automatic, so no one had any.  I had to send out a payment real quick and then tell all the zone leaders that the soles wouldn't be ready until tomorrow.  So everyone is broke still and probably hates me.  That's just how my job is.  The miracle though is that the money is gonna be there tomorrow.  I'm broke too though, so it's ok.  I had to go run a couple of errands with Elder Wilcox today, one of which included depositing a rather large sum of cash back into the bank.  The girl was pretty new who helped me.  We almost weren't able to deposit it, but a quick call to Elder Tenney reminded me that I need four 0's not three.  We had a cita with Renzo tonight.  He had a lot of questions about himself that the Plan of Salvation answers, which is what we had planned to teach.  We asked him what stopped him from being happier and he said, "My haircut."  Hahaha, whose man is this?  The lesson went well.  We asked him to pray to end the lesson and he said, "Is there anything that you want me to include in the prayer for you guys?"  We were all surprised.  That's how we always start, but no one has ever asked me back before.  I was touched.  What a great guy.  Both Marleni and Ciara passed their baptismal interviews tonight.

Wednesday

 I know that marriage between man and woman is ordained of God.  I know that somewhere out there, my future wife is waiting for me.  (She's a lucky lady if I do say so myself.  Just joking.  hehe)  I pray for her multiple times a day.  I know that she's a very God-prepared lady to assist me in my priesthood duties and to raise a family together in the gospel too.  Marrying her is gonna be the best thing ever.  I'm already looking forward to it.  I know that our marriage will last for time and all eternity if we stay true to our temple covenants.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  So I'm kinda sick right now, but not overly so.  My sinuses are bad and my voice sounds like I'm going through puberty again because my throat is kinda sore and my nose is so stuffy that I feel like I'm talking with my nose pinched shut.  I just remembered: last week during correlations, the bishop walked up to the window of the room we were in and pushed his face against the glass and made a bunch of funny faces.  What a goofball.  He's an awesome bishop.  Last night Peru played against Uruguay in el estadio de la U.  I wouldn't have even know though if members hadn't told me about it.  It wasn't quite as big of a deal as U vs. Alianza.  So this morning I had to go with Elder Armstrong to buy some shoes for Elder Salway at Jockey Plaza, which is a giant mall/shopping complex full of American stores.  Missionaries otherwise aren't allowed to go there.  It's a super worldly place.  It's not a super wicked place necessarily, but it's not place for missionaries.  Today was a very unproductive day in the office for me.  I think that I did like 3 productive things the whole time.  It was just one of those days where you listen to half a dozen conference talks.  We taught a lesson to one of Elder Armstrong's contacts.  Nothing really happened there.  I took Elder Peterson to visit Marleni with me.  She's super excited for Saturday.  She said that she's 20.2/20.  Yes!  I told her that she had to be 20.1, but heck yeah!  One of the things that I like about La Molina is that it's pretty efficient.  For example, one day they made an announcement that they were going to redo a bunch of the roads and sidewalks.  A week later they started.  One day a section will be all torn up and the next there's wet concrete setting.  I like it.

Thursday

I know that the temple is the House of the Lord.  I know that we can make sacred covenants with Him there that will lead us to find happiness in this life, and salvation and exaltation in the life to come.  I know that when families are sealed there, they can last for all eternity.  I know that in the temple, we can perform ordinances in behalf of our deceased family members.  God gave us temples because He loves us.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  We went to consejo de distrito this morning.  Nothing unusual to report there.  I personally haven't found a lot of value in going to these throughout my mission.  I'd say that I've found around 25% of them to be really good where I fell like they made a difference.  After that we came back to the house to cook lunch.  I tried making some deep fried hamburgers--throwing patties in the same stuff they use for fried chicken.  It was good in theory, but it didn't quite work out since the outside cooked a lot faster than the inside.  Hopefully I can imporve a bit next time.  As soon as we wrapped that up, we got a call from Elder Napier saying that Elder Wilcox's brother-in-law was there at the office looking for him.  He was here in La Molina for work and decided to bring a big suitcase full of food for him.  It's the 2nd time he's done it too.  It was kinda weird to see your companion run into his brother-in-law.  But yeah.  There was a mild panic at the office today.  Long story short, there's 14 new guys coming in from the MTC and they're all going to get here late Sunday night/early Monday morning.  So they're getting here early and we don't know what to do with them.  There's them in addition to all the missionaries going home.  So Elder Wilcox came into my office freaking out.  An Elder got called into President's office for an interview because he's getting sent home for health related reasons.  Poor guy came into my office all red eyed to ask for money for a taxi.  It hurt me to see that.  I found the house where the Germans live.  Now I just need to start practicing again hehe.  We had a cita with a contact, but that didn't really go anywhere.  Then we went to go check up on Ciara.  She's lista.  They gave us cachanga afterwards, so that was tasty.  From there we went to go and visit some less active members.  Everything is good here in Covima.

Our zone's gang sign ("y" in australian sign language).

Friday

I know that as we serve others, we will find true happiness because we're also in the service of our God.  I know that as we follow the gospel and become more and more converted, we will naturally find ourselves serving others and wanting to share the gospel with them too.  There's something about helping people that brings real, lasting happiness that you can't find in other places.  I know that as we keep this, the second great commandment, we will find many blessings from Christ.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  A couple of days ago, I got the chance to call Hermana Maria, my first pensionista.  The missionaries in Huaycan are living with her and they didn't have the electronic payment set up yet, so I aprovechared (took advantage of) that opportunity to call her and catch up, and also to ask her to send me some papers.  That was really nice to say hi again.  So this morning we had a cita with Renzo.  All of the other secretaries had errands to run, so I called the zone leaders and enlisted their help for it.  So Elder Tenney, Elder Driggs and I took him to a park to teach him about the Sabbath day and Word of Wisdom.  I thought it'd be an easy lesson, but it turns out that the guy likes his marijuana.  I mean, he's got a plant in his house and everything.  He was kinda reluctant about it, saying that he only smokes it once a month (they primarily use it as medicine for their grandpa).  In the end though, he was in agreeance that he needed to give it up.  It went well.  At the end of the lesson he asked us if anyone else was getting baptized with him Nov. 2.  We said a family of 4 was.  Then he asked, "Pues, ¿quren esta ganando?  ¿Quien tiene mas fe?  (Well, who is winning?  Who has more faith?)"  Hahaha, let's see if you can stop smoking joints.  He's cool though.  So today Elder Armstrong, Elder Wilcox and I had to take Elder Ordoñez to the airport to drop him off.  There was a lot of traffic and long story short, we got him on his flight, but the airport attendant dude said that we were literally 1 1/2 minutes late and couldn't get his bags on.  We were triggered.  "I watched you guys stand there for 2 minutes.  You should have talked to me sooner."  Anyways, we had a lesson with Patricia and her El Salvadorian-Canadian husband.  It was a good lesson.  I definitely think they're gonna progress, but it might be a different course than what we usually take.

Pictures from the week:

 Playing soccer this morning.

Filling my water bottle.

Week 7 in the Office

Renzo

This week was pretty good. I feel like I always say that jajaja. I'll mix it up for you next week. So this week we did a lot of contacting. It wasn't successful in the way that we were taking out a ton of citas. Yesterday we left determined to find somebody though. It reached the end of the night and we still hadn't taken out any citas. Then a dude pulled over in his old car and walked out to the curb in front of us. I went over to contact him and he wasn't acting super interested at first. I almost left, but then he mentioned that he had a flat tire on his car. I had worked at a car maintenance shop for nearly 2 years before the mission and had been looking for an opportunity like this for a while. I got his tire changed out alright. After talking a bit more, he invited us to his home to talk to him more about the gospel. I guess that goes to show how much difference a simple service can make for somebody. So today is P day. We have an investigator named Renzo that has a fecha, but we haven't been able to meet with him in over a week just because he's so insanely busy with his studies. But yesterday when we called again to see if we could find a time to set up a cita, he said the only time he had time for was this morning. So we decided to make the sacrifice to go to visit him for our second cita with him this morning. It turns out that he is super escogido and is excited to learn more about the church and prepare himself more for his baptism. I've quoted this hymn before and I'll quote it again, "sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven." I know that if we show Jesus that we're willing to pay whatever price, he will reward us for our diligence. Have a good week!

-Elder White
 

Saturday

As of month or ago, I have an occasional dream where I end my mission (with honor and everything) and go home.  But then when I get home, President Juchau is busy traveling, so I can't be released.  So I just kinda keep my plaque on and try to live a normal life until he gets back while still obeying the rules in the missionary handbook.  I don't like that dream very much.  Hopefully that doesn't happen.  I know that to be baptized and confirmed are commandments of God.  I know that Jesus was baptized to show us that there aren't any exceptions to this commandment.  I know that this is the gateway to heaven that unless a man is born of the water and the fire, he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven.  As we keep this commandment and continually renew and keep our covenants, we will be blessed both spiritually and temporally, and we will be worthy to live in a state of eternal happiness with eternal life.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  So this morning we got up early to go to the office so that we could talk to our families before conference started.  All is good in the land.  My favorite conference talk of the day was probably Holland's.  "Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me!"  We had a cita with Marleni tonight.  The first thing she said was, "Where's Elder Pardo?"  Oh well.  She's cool.  Elder Peterson kept falling asleep no matter how many times we nudged him.  Poor guy.  We taught the Word of Wisdom.  Coffee was hard for her, but she accepted it.

Sunday

I know that if we follow the prophet, we will be guided in the way that God wants us to go.  We will be aware of evil and know the pathway that we need to be on in order to find happiness and be temporally and spiritually well.  We should need each counsel that we receive from him and from other general authorities as well, especially during this amazing time of general conference.  I am grateful to have a prophet to follow in these, the last days.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  Today was a good day.  On our way to the church to watch conference, we went and picked up Renzo.  He was there waiting for us, which was a pretty solid miracle.  (Total Eclipse of the Heart in Spanish was in the taxi; kinda interesting.)  We got Marleni there too.  We sat them down with friends and then went to the family history room to watch it in English with all of the other gringos.  It was a great session.  There were definitely some spiritual sucker punches thrown in there.  I'm kinda disappointed that they announced the temples yesterday, but it's super cool that we're getting one in Orem!  I also had no idea that the church was able to do so much charity work with their fast offerings.  Marleni and Renzo both really liked it.  Renzo might be one of the busiest dudes I've met though because he has no time to to meet with us from how he described it to me.  The earliest we might be able to teach him is Saturday.  We went and ate with la familia Infantes for lunch.  For the second session we just watched it in the office.  Also a great session.  My favorite talk of the day might've been Elder Uchtdorf's.  He explained the Plan of Salvation really well for people who aren't members.  President Nelson hit us with the "you'd better tune into next conference because we're gonna knock all of your socks off," and now I"m already super hyped.  We went to go visit Ciara tonight and she seemed a lot more sure about getting baptized on the 19th, which is a miracle because I was getting ready to drop her.  Sometimes while out proselyting, missionaries will bring up girlfriends, which eventually leads to the question of how many girls I've kissed.  I always say, "The number of girls I've kissed is as hard to count as the stars in the sky."  They always give a nod and look up, but then say, "Wait.  There are no stars in the sky."  That's my favorite joke to make as a missionary.

Monday

I know that commandments are here to bless us.  I know that the 10 commandments that God gave Moses are very much still in effect today.  I heard someone summarize the 10 commandments like this once: "When God gave us the 10 commandments , He might as well have just told us not to be a bad person."  I know that the reason why we have commandments is because God loves us.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  Elder Turner came to our office.  He has got 8 months in the field and was called as the financial secretary in Huancayo just 4 weeks ago.  We got along really well.  He is pretty chill.  We made a lot of jokes about being a new financial secretary.  We're the same age, but he did a semester at USU before coming here.  At one point in the day I had to go to the area office to drop some reports and stuff off, so I took Elder Turner with me so that he could meet our boss there.  

Tuesday

I know that God will bless us for keeping the law of chastity.  Being in Peru, I see a ton of people everyday that are convivient (living together) and much less that are legally married.  I can honestly say that it seems that married couples are generally happier and better off.  They're strong homes.  But it's not just living together and marriage.  I know that the power of procreation is an extremely sacred power and doesn't want us abusing it in any way whether that means sleeping around, looking at porn, and so forth.  God will bless us and give us the strength we need as we strive to keep this commandment.  I know that if we can start with keeping our thoughts holy, then our words and actions will follow suit.  The hymn More Holiness Give Me is a great hymn that ties into it.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  I gotta say, my least favorite part of my job is the occasional 8-9 PM call from a dueño with something to complain about.  Tonight it was, "Hey, so your missionaries moved out and cleaned up and all, but they really just destroyed my room.  It was brand new when they got here a year and a half ago.  They were asking for the guarantee back, but I'm actually going to use all of that, plus I want 400 PEN more because that's what it'll take."  So now I've gotta work that whole thing out.  They could at least call me during office hours.  Oh well.  Nothing overly exciting happened during office hours today.  We were contacting on Ingieneros and we ran into Oswaldo walking towards the temple.  It was super fun to be able to run into him again.  He's one of my favorite people here in Peru.  I've gotta be better about staying in touch with people.  We went and taught Marleni tonight.  She typically has a doubt or 2, but then we clarify it and she's fine.  Another thing that I love about here is that she prays "so that [we] may find people like [her] to help and teach."  That's very cool.

Wednesday

I know that the word of wisdom is a counsel to us from God.  I know that if we live by these precepts, then we will receive the promised blessings of better health, more energy, and increased happiness.  I know that if we have the faith to follow this revelation from Joseph Smith, who surely was a prophet, then we'll be blessed.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  It's kinda interesting, I've only been offered drugs (a genuine offer, because Peruvians tease sometimes) probably twice in my entire life.  Both of them were by co-workers at Jiffy Lube.  If I remember right, Thomas offered me a cigarette once and Caleb offered me a vape just to be nice.  I was very well respected and they knew that kind of guy I was, so they weren't surprised nor offended nor tried to pressure me when I politely declined, but rather encouraged me to saying no.  Here's a basic guideline to avoiding negative peer pressure and bad situations. 

1. Surround yourself with good people.
2. Be kind to everyone and as classy as you can be.
3. Establish  your standards--show by example what kind of person you are. 
4. Follow advice given by prophets, church leaders, and parents.
5. Decide before hand what you'll do in a given sticky situation.

So today I got caught up in a multi zone all day.  That wasn't too much fun.  We were there from early in the morning until a little after 5.  I asked for a minute to speak.  I got really nervous for some reason.  What I did was stand up and roast everyone since they've been slacking off recently financially and stuff.  Elder Lindstrom did a training in self sufficiency for everyone about managing your money better too.  Financial beans.  At the end of the meeting, we sang Called to Serve in English.  President turned to a missionary from Argentina and asked him, "Why are there 2 verses to the song in every language, but Spanish is the only one to have 4?"  "Porque servimos mas (Because we serve more.)"  That gave President a real good laugh.  He said, "I've asked a ton of members and general authorities even and no one had ever been able to tell me why before."  I'm trying to do things the right way as the financial secretary.  I was feeling kinda down.  But then I prayed and instantly felt comfort.

Thursday
I know that tithing is a God given commandment used exclusively to build his kingdom upon Earth.    I know that we will be blessed more than we could possibly understand when we obey this commandment.  My parents have always payed their tithes and have always had enough to make ends meet.  I've always payed as well and I was blessed with a great job so that I could earn money to go on my mission.  I've heard of members that stop paying their tithes because they felt like some of the people who receive church financial aid aren't 100% responsible with their expenditures.  First of all, I'm like 87.8355% sure that the money their receive actually comes from fast offerings.  But if you feel it's a problem, talk to them and then their bishop about it.  Don't let the poor use of agency of others cause you to forfeit the blessings of Heaven.  God will be their judge, not you.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  I went to the multi zone with Elder Pardo today, which meant we got everything ready and did all of the behind the scenes stuff.  It was another long one; we didn't leave until after 5 again.  It was a lot of the same stuff that happened yesterday.  This time President got up to roast everyone about finances too.  One thing that I respect about Elder Tenney is that when I announce something that would probably make people not happy with me, he claps and cheers to show his support.  He's a cool cat.  We got to the office pretty late, well at 5:15.  That just means two nights in a row where I've had to stay late working.  We had a cita with Ciara tonight.  She seems to be doing better.  I at least got her to tell me a joke and see her laugh.  I've been trying for a while.  It felt good.  They gave us homemade peach juice after.  It was good; it just lacked preservatives, sugar and high fructose corn syrup.  We brought Andrea with us to teach Marleni tonight.  She says that she's determined to get baptized.  Music to my ears.  I love how responsive she is.  One of the pluses to my area is that it has a lot of member traffic.  For example, 2 weeks ago I saw Alfredo, my pension from Alameda.  I called him over to my taxi (red light) and was able to chat.  The light was red for no joke 3 minutes.  That was a tender mercy of the Lord.

Photos from the multi zones the last two days:

Friday
I know that fasting brings blessings.  I don't know how or why it works, but I know that when we do, it puts us in better touch with God and it seems that he's more ready to bless us.  I recently listened to a talk by Matthew Connley.  He talked about how we'll see more miracles and have more power in priesthood blessings if we engage in fasting and prayer first.  As Jesus once said, "This kind come not out save by fasting and prayer."  I know that fast offerings are a strong force for good and that we should definitely pay those.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  Everything went normally in the office today.  I'm on top of the whole electronic housing thing.  I've got everyone working on it.  Plus I've already got about 5/26 done.  Cool beans.  We left to work today determined to find someone.  We went to correlations and then had the rest of the night free to contact.  We were walking along Flora Tristan when this middle aged dude in an old 90s car pulled over.  I talked to him.  He didn't seem overly interested at first, but mentioned he had a flat tire.  I knew almost 2 years at Jiffy Lube would pay off someday.  He wanted to change it right there, but I've see Forever Strong, so I made him pull off a little bit more.  It took me a minute to figure out his old car jack, but I got it working.  I got the first lug nut off, but the other 3 were rusted on super tight.  Luis was telling us now he has colon cancer, heart disease and ankle problems so he wouldn't have been able to do it himself.  I told him I needed some WD-40, but despite my protest/confusion, he insisted that Coca-Cola would do the trick.  He was going to go buy some, but he seemed a little special, so I double checked that he had his keys (my bag was in his car).  He gave them to me.  Not sure why.  He also left his smart phone on the front seat.  30 minutes later and after saying a prayer for help I got the lug nuts off with a little exertion.  Luis was gone for over 35 minutes; not sure why since there's a store on every corner.  But I had already finished so he gave us some Cola and we took out a cita for tomorrow at 9.

Changing the flat tire:

 

Week 6 in the Office

It's conference weekend my dudes

This week was pretty good. Working was kinda complicated because Elder Wilcox was pretty sick for most of the week. But I was able to get out most of the time still. We were able to find one dude that we contacted named Renzo. We found him, realized that he was pretty cool and took him to a park to teach him. He really liked the idea of going to church and accepted a baptismal date for the  2 of November. It's kinda hard communicating with him because he's studying and stuff nonstop. But we have faith that he will progress and enjoy conference this weekend. Speaking of which, I am super excited for it. Everyone stop what you´re doing and go watch it right now. Conference weekend has gotta be my favorite time of the year as a missionary. There's so much spiritual edification. I know that Russell M Nelson, the apostles, and all of the other general authorities of the church that will speak to us are men called of God. I know that if Jesus were here to talk to us, he'd be telling us the same things they have to say to us today and tomorrow. I love this work and I love the Lord. Have a good week!

Saturday
We're all gonna die, some sooner than others of course.  I probably won't die for a while.  But when we do, I know that we'll go to the spirit world.  I know that if we choose the right and faithfully live the gospel, then we'll go to spiritual paradise.  I know that that's where a lot of my family is right now.  I also know that there's a lot of missionary work to be done for those in spirit prison.  The gospel must still be preached.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Last night I had a dream that I was suddenly home from my mission.  I was so lost and confused and disappointed.  I remember more than anything being sad that I never had a final interview with President.  I didn't like that dream very much.  We had planned to get up early to go play soccer against zone central.  But then Elder Armstrong and Elder Pardo had to make a midnight trip to the clinic and didn't get home until 2:30.  When they did though, Elder Pardo walked in and announced that we'd have to get up at 5:30 to get there in time.  At 5:50 he walked into our room to get us up, but we were like, "It's too late," so he went back to bed.  We had hoped to go to Centro de Lima for pday, but we didn't per permission.  So instead we really just hung out in the office all day.  I somehow stink at rolling dice, so I 'm not very good at Risk. hehe  Oh well though.  Internet was kinda crazy.  Danielle and Hannah both randomly became missionaries without telling me.  Taylor Kimball got a new girlfriend and Taylor Kapp got married.  Danielle is going to Justin's mission though so that's kinda cool.  We all watched Toy Story 4.  It's much better when it's in English and not horribly pirated.  There were some funny parts, but it was a little unnecessary to be made.  We also agreed that it was designed to be appealing to feminists, which unfortunately seems to be the case with many movies nowadays.  *cough cough Star Wars 8*  Anyways, I did a video call with my family today.  They seem to all be doing well.  Jaxon and I teased my mom a lot. hahaha  Nothing overly exciting happened while we were contacting today.  We went to go visit la familia Velasquez so that Elder Tenney could say bye.  Hermana Juana made tequeños for dinner tonight.

Sunday
I know that Jesus will come again.  And when he does, everyone that has ever lived upon the Earth will be resurrected.  I know that when we do, our bodies will be perfect and we will never taste death again.  We will live upon the Earth in a perfect, happy time of 1000 years when Christ reigns and Satan will have no power over anyone because no one will have any desire whatsoever to listen to him.  I know that all of this is true according to His eternal plan of Happiness because He loves us.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  Today was Elder Tenney's birthday, and also his last day in Covima.  Only Marleni came to church for us today.  While I was extremely happy to see her there, I was also a tad bit disappointed that no one else went.  To be kinda honest, I got pretty bored at church.  The talks weren't overly exciting and all we did the second hour was listen to a broadcast about the new youth program in the church.  There were 2 nonmembers there, but they lived in other zones.  Once of them was a black dude with dreads and a bandana.  He was cool.  On our way to lunch, we walked past these Venezuelans by a moving truck.  So I tried to contact them and they asked me if I could help them get this fridge off the truck so I was like, "Heck yeah man!"  So we got it down only to find myself carrying it up to the 5th floor, that and 2 couches and a bunch of boxes too.  It was a nice little service that they appreciated a lot.  They'll get baptized in the near future.  Lunch was huge.  A big bowl of pasta salad, lomo saltado, jello and flan, and cake.  We were all dying trying to eat all that food.  We ran back to the office for weekly planning after.  We went to say bye to Gustavo and Andrea and they gave us pancakes.  Then we took Andrea to go visit Marleni.  Andrea is a great hermanadora.  Marleni is super cool.  She has high desires to get baptized.  La U played against Alianza tonight in the stadium right by our area.  La U gano (won) 1-0.  People weren't excited or crazy like I thought they'd be, but it was still kind of a peligroso (dangerous) environment.  Alianza fans aren't allowed in because they killed one a few years back.  Anywho, we went and visited a member family.  Then we visited a lady and gave a blessing.  That awkward moment when you accidentally dump half your oil vial out.  A bunch of converts met up with us at Hermana Juana's for a small get together.

Monday
I know that there are 3 kingdoms of glory.  I know that eternal life in the Celestial kingdom of Heaven is where God wants all of his children to be.  That's why he gave us his gospel--to progress so that we can come to be perfect as he is.  I know that it's possible for all of God's children.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
To be able to get there, we're all going to be judged according to our works, including the man below us, as a random, non specific example.  After getting back tonight, Elder Pardo and I started taking apart the bunk bed at about 10:50 PM since Elder Tenney's gone.  While doing so, I happened to look at the doorway of our bedroom to see the man that lives downstairs glaring at us.  I said, "Can I help you?"  He just pointed to his ear.  He refused to leave our room.  Elder Wilcox and I got him to follow us to the doorway of the apartment, though he refused to step foot outside.  He said he came up because we were making too much noise moving furniture, "as always".  He didn't knock nor shout, nor had I ever heard a complaint from him about noise before.  All 6 of us were there, including Elder Pedrozo and Elder Taylor.  He said that "since we showed him disrespect by being noisy, he was being disrespectful by trespassing so that we'd understand".  We were all roasting him saying that we were sorry about the noise, but he was breaking the law and needed to leave.  (We were almost all outside and he was in the doorway with a few behind him.)  We argued about basically the same thing (he said noise + trespass = same), so I went and got the building dueñas, who happen to be members.  They said the same thing and he still didn't listen, so I threatened to call the cops and he said, "Do it."  Then the dueña said something to the extent of, "He'd have every reason to.  You're lucky we haven't called the cops sooner because I've received various complaints saying they smell smoked marijuana coming from your room."  We were all just like, "Oh snap.  Did she really just go there?"  "My 14 year old son doesn't smoke marijuana!  How would YOU know what it smells like unless YOU've smoked it?"  Bruh.  Another 20 minutes later he went down finally.  The ironically funny part?  He's a lawyer!  Hahahaha!  Later the dueña came back up with her brother and he was like, "I'm a lawyer from the State.  That was a straight up felony here.  You should consider taking him to court."  Even though it'd be cool to be rich, we can't get the church involved in that.  Other stuff that happened today?  Elder Pardo and I fought with perfume and a dueño canceled his bank account the day before I paid him and he didn't tell me.

Tuesday
I've said it before and I'll say it again: obedience bring blessings.  There is a linear graph of blessing with obedience on the x-axis and blessings received on the y-axis.  God is a God of justice, that's why the graph has to be linear.  The Lord will bless us immediately in accordance to our level of obedience.  I know that as we obey the commandments we will prosper in the land.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Last night after the whole thing, I couldn't help but whisper, "Sshh, shut up," whenever someone made noise.  Other things that happened yesterday:  Peru fell into a political crisis.  Basically what happened was that the President of  Peru wanted to pass some anti-corruption laws and congress is super corrupt (a bunch of them haven't even graduated from high school) and the congress was in session about it a super long time because they obviously didn't want it to pass.  So the president fulfilled a threat that he made to them since they were taking so long--he ended the congress and called for new elections to be held in January for the congress.  So the congress got super upset and in a matter of a couple of hours impeached him (which they had no power to do) and chose a new female president.  It would be kinda serious and scary, but the congressmen are the only people in the entire world that recognize her as president.  So people protested (peacefully) all over Peru today.  Their nonsense will end soon.  Yesterday we also drove Elder Nichols to Lima Central to drop him off so that he could say bye to his converts and go home.  Elder Artega also went home.  Ok.  So this morning we went to the leadership council thing for lunch.  I'm going to be cracking down on charging missionaries for things when they need to be charged.  Save the mission a bit of money since we're about 4% over budget the last time I checked.  Elder Petersen got kinda sick, so he's gong to be coming to stay with us in the office for a bit, probably the rest of the month.  We're good friends, so it'll be good to have him around.  Fun fact: back when I was in Manchay, right after I arrived we started getting a bunch of texts from Direct TV for some dude with a 277.01 PEN bill.  It went from reminders about "pay before the deadline" to "bro its past the deadline" to "Dude we're gonna take you to court" to "saddle up Bessie we're filin' paperwork".  We'd get various automated calls a day, but I never cared.  Maybe I should do something about that.

Wednesday
I know that the temple is the house of the Lord.  I know that it is a place of great tranquility and joy.  I know that it is there that we can make covenants with God that can and will bless us in this life, and also in the eternities.  I know that when I get married there, I'll be able to live with my family always and forever.  I am very grateful to have been born in the covenant.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
As you may have guessed, we went to the temple this morning.  Elder Wilcox woke up super sick this morning, but he was able to do a session before crashing the rest of the day.  It was a really nice session.  The workers told us that missionaries can participate in the prayer circle now.  Interesting change.  I kinda liked it.  Elder Pardo spent an extra hour and 15 minutes inside and I was the one that got to stay with him.  From there we went back to the office and grabbed a bunch of stuff to take to the bank so that I could get our caja chica reimbursed.  I didn't really know what I was doing when I got to the bank, but I got the 10,000 PEN with out any problems.  It did feel a little weird walking around with so much money at once though.  It was in dire need since I hadn't had it for about a week.  I had also told a bunch of people who needed money to come by when I got it.  So between an emergency fund that I had to reimburse (which I'm also technically not supposed to have) and the people who came, I used s/2,200 within the first hour of having it.  It's been a stressful time in the office as of late.  I'll get over it though.  You know what I just realized?  I have pepper spray.  If I ever see a lost lawyer in my house again, I might have to use it.  We visited Armstrong's investigators tonight.  They're super pale.  I looked down at my plaque and could've sworn I saw it say, "Elder a little less white than this family."

Thursday
I know that there are great blessings that come as we study the scriptures.  Looking back, I can see a significant difference between the times in my life when I have and haven't been consistently studying the scriptures.  I know that the scriptures are the word of God and that if we live by the principles that they teach us, we will be doing what he hopes for us and will be living in such a way that we will be spiritually strong, despite the temptations and trials that surround us.  I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and that having a stronger testimony of it is something that we must strive for daily.  All we need to do is study it and then pray about it to be able to get a confirmation.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Ok, last thing that happened on Monday.  Elder Wilcox, Elder Petersen and I were out contacting in a trio and Elder Petersen contacted a youth named Renzo.  We were able to take him to a nearby park to talk to him.  We were able to have him accept a baptismal date for the 2 of November, but we'll see what happens since we won't see him again 'til Sunday.  When it was over he said to us, "By the way, I'm 19, not 18.  I just said that because I thought you guys were gonna rob me."  That part was kinda weird.  Well Elder Wilcox was sick yesterday and today he woke up feeling about the same.  He got a little worse even throughout the day.  Elder Armstrong wound up taking him to the clinic so that he could get an IV during the night.  Today I spent 90% of my time working on the end of month expense report.  As soon as I was done I had to turn around and photocopy the whole thing, including all the receipts.  Santa Clara was here for interviews today.  At one point President walked in and asked if I had the housing report ready yet for him.  I hadn't even started it yet so he got after me a bit.  (He had told me that he didn't need it until later in the week, so that's why I hadn't started.)  I've been pretty stressed lately, enough where other Elders easily take notice and I can't focus in district meeting.  Our cita with Marleni tonight went well.

Friday
"I freaking hate this crap!" --Tim the Canadian Peruvian in his heavy southern accent as two dudes smoking marijuana walked past.  That was 2 weeks ago now, but it's still pretty funny.  Anyway.  I know that Sabbath Day observance brings a multitude of blessings.  I know it's a sacrifice, but that's why the Lord blesses us when we do.  I know that if we sacrifice working that day, then the Lord will bless us with more success the rest of the week--enough so that it will be sufficient for our needs if not more.  We will be more in time with the spirit as you keep this critical commandment.  I have a feeling that this commandment will give me trouble later.  I talked to president about it once and asked him if this commandment should alter my career choice. He told me the Lord needed all sorts of professionals in his kingdom.  He also brought up how President Nelson has probably had to work a Sunday or two as a doctor and was still a very consecrated man.  We reached the conclusion is that it's really your mindset and desires and actions you take when possible when it really comes down to it.  I know that I can do all things according to my faith in Christ.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
The Book of Mormon video this morning was pretty solid.  I really enjoy watching those.  Today was super busy, but thankfully it wasn't overly stressful.  I wound up working on that report for President for most of the day.  I got it to look pretty nice at the end.  I'm proud of it.  Now my big task is to get the rest of the 24 houses in the mission ready to pay electronically.  So I sent out an email to each missionary, house by house, that didn't have the stuff ready.  I want to get this all done before November.  I had to stay in the office until 7 because there were dudes there installing smoke detectors.  Andrea called us and told us she was at the temple with Ciara.  So I called the assistants and got permission to go there to teach her.  Not gonna lie, that was super dope.  But man, I don't know if Ciara is really an escogida.  She doesn't respond to questions.  And then when we ask her about baptism, she says, "I don't know," and then stays quiet.  She likes church though.  Elder Wilcox is better, but we came in early because the cold air was making him cough a lot.