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