I liked this week. It was a good week of finding escogidos, teaching them, and baptizing them too. Our investigator Renzo got baptized on this last Saturday. It was a very nice service that we had. He's 19 and a very nice guy. He said that he almost cried a couple of times during the service. He couldn't get confirmed on Sunday due to stake conference. During the week he called us and asked if he'd have to get re-baptized if he smelled marijuana. We became super concerned real quick because he had had a couple of word of wisdom problems in the past. It turned out though that he was with his friends and they all started smoking marijuana. That made him remember that he had had some in his backpack for a long while, so he took it out, smelt it to see if it was good, and then gave it to them so that he wouldn't use it. We explained it'd be better to leave the party next time jajaja. We were able to be guided to find 3 new people this week: A couple we contacted named Mayra and Israel, and also Monica (the catholic godmother of Marleni, one of our recent converts, that told Marleni that she wanted to receive the charlas). It was a huge blessing to have found these three amazing people this week. The work is going well in Covima. We're doing a lot of good here. The spirit is with us as we work every day. Have a good week!
-Elder White
Saturday
I know that the Holy Ghost is a gift given to us by God. I know that if we can learn to follow his promptings, we will find a lot of peace, happiness and blessings. The Holy Ghost is one of my favorite things. I very much appreciate the spiritual guidance he gives me daily. I know that as we constantly live in a worthy way, we will be blessed with his constant companionship. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. We played soccer against La Molina this morning and we won. We always start playing at 6 AM. What was weird was that today the sky was bright when we started playing. And it got hot too. It was not like this 2 days ago in October. Let me tell ya Ernie, Elder Armstrong takes longer showers than any other human I've ever met before. He'll be in there for like 45 minutes, no exaggeration. Fun fact: I walked through a pool yesterday. It was empty, but now I can say I did it. Anywho, Elder Wilcox, Elder Armstrong and I went to Grau, a huge market. On our way there, I saw a cool Spanish style cemetery. Our taxi driver, as we got close, said, "This is a dangerous part after 7 PM. Not even the police come over here during those hours." Sketchy beans. That dude was a homie. Grau was a lot bigger than I thought. All we wanted was some authentic Peruvian trinkets/clothing, which was incredibly hard to find. I don't know why no one in Lima sell traditional Peruvian things. We literally found the the mission president from Lima Central before finding that stuff. It was kinda weird running into him there. Peruvian bartering 101: it's like normal bartering, but when you add "Chihuan" in there you get bonus discounts. We were able to get a few little Peruvian things after finding some hidden stores. I was trying to enjoy my Pday, but then I had to make an emergency call to a dueña that was angry about payments and was threatening to kick the Elders out right then and there. I got that defused ok. It was almost as fun as calling the chiropractor and telling him indirectly that I wasn't going to pay him the way he wanted so that he could commit tax fraud.
Sunday
In the hymn Did You Think to Pray? there's a line that says, "When your heart was filled with anger, did you think to pray?" Then it says something about being nice to them right after. I recently heard a story about Brigham Young that I liked. Basically a dude destroyed Brigham's horse saddle by miscare. So Brigham started getting mad at him and then stormed off to his room. Before he even got to the door though, Brigham literally said to himself, "Down Brigham," and repented right then and there for being angry and asked for help to improve next time and forgave the man. Sometimes I feel like we want to wait until we're done being angry and have cooled down a bit before we pray. But that's not how it should be. The spirit of contention is of the Devil, so we need to get rid of those unnecessary feelings as fast as possible since it hinders the Holy Ghost. While I know it's not easy, I know that if we do this we will control our anger better, have more peace, and develop greater patience. I know that Brigham Young was a prophet called of God. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. We had stake conference today. I was high key super boring. Renzo didn't come, but that might've been for the better honestly. Mario came and stayed the whole time even though it probably made him late to work. He was sick yesterday and went to the hospital but I guess he's better now. We had the craziest lady next to us who had something to say about everything. An area 70 was there and asked the congregation what the biggest problem to modern day families was and she yelled, "The youth!" Someone also suggested that the parents weren't completely fulfilling their responsibility to teach/take care of their kids and she said, "No!" (The answer was porn.) Crazy. For lunch we had hot dogs, burgers, and American style french fries with la familia Del Carpio. That was pretty good. We had Renzo's baptism scheduled for 5, but during conference they announced firesides for today at 5, 6 and 7 for all the YSA. So we bumped it up to 4:30 so that people would come. Well, there happened to be a lot of members there for a primary program practice, so we got them all to come over for it, which was a big miracle. We couldn't find anyone to perform the ordinances, so I did it. We got it on the 2nd try. Renzo almost cried twice he said. He had a great testimony after too.
Monday
This morning in my personal study, I read a verse in 2 Nephi 27:35 that I really liked. It talks about how those that erred in spirit will come to understand and how those that murmured will come to learn doctrine. I like it because as a missionary, I get rejected a lot, which is normal. But I had always had the question, "Will everyone really come to accept the church someday? Will everyone join our church at the second coming or will they remain in their pride?" There's a lot of good people that are from other religions that don't want to listen to us because they think they're right. But now I know that someday they'll all come to the proper understanding and join the true church. The same goes for all of the non-believing murmurers. It gives me motivation because that's my job. I stayed busy today. It's frustrating when I want to get the end of moth expense reports done, but then I don't have all the receipts ready to file yet and have to wait until the next day. Also, why is everyone moving right now? Since I got here, I've had more than 7 mudnzas (removals). Oh well I guess. There wasn't anything too notable that happened today. At night we went looking for a MA, but instead found another family that I previously hadn't met before. We got to spend a good chunk of the night contacting. Another question: why are there only two types of skirts in Peru? There's the classic Christian skirt, and then there's the super short skirt. Why? I mean there's also a sierra old lady skirt, but only super native old ladies wear those. We had a cita with Mario tonight. He was kinda triggered because the hospital wouldn't see him and I guess bishop never sent somebody to give him a blessing. He said he'd forgiven them all though. There's no such thing as a short cita with Mario. He always has something to say. It's never a waste though. Everything he says either fortifies himself more spiritually or gives us information that we can use to help him better. He tells us that we're his only friends, which is really sad for me to hear. He's just had such a rough life these past 5 years. And then he went and spent his entire paycheck on some much needed medicine for his asthma, but the medicine doesn't even work. I feel so bad for him.
Tuesday
I know that we must endure to the end. This gospel and course that we've chosen is for us to live our entire life. If we don't then quite frankly our past is for naught. While it's great to have good acts in your past, that won't save you if you stop all your good habits. I like the quote "God doesn't care so much about where you've been (good or bad in my opinion) as much as he does where you are and where you're going." I've heard a lot of stories about missionaries getting home and getting into bad habits and/or going inactive. I know that as I live righteously, I will be entitled to the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost. I pledge myself to God to obey his commandments the rest of my life. I know that if I do so, I will bless the lives of many people and will be able to gain eternal life. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. Those magical receipts that I was waiting for to file the end of month report didn't show up online until 5, so that was unfortunate. Nothing super exciting happened during office hours. I listened to a lot of talks. I don't know why, but I just felt a super strong desire to repent, but not for anything in particular really. It just seemed like the right thing to do. Tonight we had a cita with a pareja (couple) that I contacted on Sunday night named Israel (44 years old) and Mayra (37 years old). They were super cool and friendly. They were interested in seeing how Christ could help them find more peace and happiness together. The best part is that they got married last year. It was pretty easy to talk to them. The conversation flowed naturally. They're good thinkers and understand well. The spirit did a good job of guiding us through the lesson. Mayra came off as super catholic at first, but it turns out that she's just trying her best to be religious and to help Israel do the same. They accepted our message well and are going to work towards baptism on the 14th of December. We had Mayra pray and she said, "I've always wanted to have a liberal prayer like that. It feels good." Elder Wilcox asked how they felt and they said that we radiated peace and love, so were like, "That's the spirit." It was a great lesson. Then we went to visit Renzo. He's doing well, but I was feeling worried he'd have a word of wisdom problem before Sunday, so we long story short told him to watch out for Satan. We might have scared him a little though. hehe
Wednesday
As I was listening to talks as I worked, there were 2 principals that I liked that really stood out to me: Temples and tithing. There were habits involved told in stories that I'd like to implement when I return home. One told of a girl that made the goal of visiting the temple once a week for while year straight. It's kind of a sacrifice, but the blessings experienced were immense. They told of having an extremely close relationship with Heavenly Father, understanding doctrine better, and gaining a powerful, personal testimony of the temple. I'd love that. Then as to tithes, an ex-bishop from BYU told of some of his experiences from tithing settlements with couples. Since students a lot of times don't have hardly any money at all, he'd see newly weds that used that as an excuse to not pay tithing. Then he'd see other newly weds in the same situation, except they were paying their tithes. He was curious to see how they were able to do it, so he looked and saw that they were paying weekly--literally paying the Lord first. I know that if I can do the same, then I will find a lot of blessings and won't suffer from a lack of money. I spent my day filing my end of month expense report. That was a lot of paper. Some of the new gringos had to go to migrations today, so their comps stayed behind in the office all day. Those guys are relentless sometimes. Six of them would magically appear in my office while I was filing mission sensitive information and they'd just sit there and talk. That makes it hard to get work done in a timely manner. Elder Pardo got an iPhone to help us with our job outside the office. The area called us and told us that we'd be getting new computers tomorrow, so that's hype. But they also called and told us that we weren't allowed to do our Christmas activity. Not so cool beans. Elder Wilcox was off with the other Elders, so I brought Eric Cardonas (a 17 year old) with me. Mario said that La U is probably gonna move their office building, and if they do, he'd have to move with it at the end of the month. He was pretty sad to hear that we wouldn't be able to follow him there; he's pretty attached to us. I told Eric that he was going to do his best to teach the word of wisdom on his own and that I'd jump in if he needed help. He did good. Since his wife is from the Dominican Republic, Mario really likes coffee. It took a lot of talking and scriptures, but Ether 12:27 finally helped him understand. He committed to not drinking coffee anymore.
Thursday
I know that contention truly is of the devil. I've come to dread it and do my best to avoid it. It is impossible to feel the spirit while being contentious. Everything good comes from God and everything bad comes from Satan. It's just that easy. I know that as we follow God, we will find true, lasting happiness. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. This morning it was my turn to go run errands with Elder Pardo. We went looking for a case and battery and screen protector for the the iPhone, microphones, and new bedding for future new missionaries. We started at the Apple Store in Jocky but that was too dang expensive. Then we went to Grau and looked around there a while, but couldn't really find anything we needed. Elder Pardo said that Gamarra was close and that we could walk there. Well, it's a lot further than he remembered. And it was HOT. It was interesting to walk through El Por Venin, which is super sketch. Elder Pardo was like, "This is the fat prostitute street. And here's where Elder Shupe and I watched the police drag out a dead body. And here..." Well, we didn't find the microphones, but we found the other stuff. The trip wore me out big time. But on the bright side, it was it was 2 for 1 at Subway today, so that was awesome. I got a call from the zone leaders in Chosica saying that San Fernando's dueña was throwing a huge fit about the guarantee. I had forgotten to remind the Elders to stop by my office to pick up the money. So I was pulling out all the stops trying to scavenge enough money up there to pay it. I think I helped them out because they never called me back. Hehe, cool beans. Well, I was doing some work today while fiddling with my little munchkin stapler. I'm not entirely sure how it happened, but I guess I must've tapped it too hard or something because I somehow managed to suddenly send a staple all the way through my left pointer finger and the left side. Completely pierced. It hurt a lot, even after I pulled it out, which was harder than you'd think, by the way. There was a lot of blood. I was in the baño cleaning up when Elder Wilcox walked in and I had to explain what I did. That was embarrassing. We took Eric with us to go and visit Marleni tonight. She said that her Madrina and Madrina's daughter wanted to take charlas from us, so we set up an appointment with them for tomorrow since they weren't there tonight. Exciting stuff. All in all, it was a good lesson.
Friday
I know that the Holy Ghost is the spirit of God given to man for the express purpose of blessing us and helping us to be able to return to live with Him someday. I love having the Holy Ghost with me. You see, I'm never just in a duo; I'm always in a trio since the Holy Spirit is there. He's the one that does all the real work. I know through personal experience that if I'm not teaching by the Spirit, then we're teaching in an ineffective way God doesn't want. I tried flexing spiritually on the dad from la familia Piña in Alameda; it went horribly hehe. I know that it is only when we teach by the Holy Ghost that people are able to feel he Holy Ghost. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. So the tech guy came to the office this morning to install my new computer for me since he didn't have time yesterday. We were both surprised to see that I was only using 32 GBs of storage, so he said it'd be quick and easy. It was, until the part where my new computer wouldn't recognize any of the USB ports. He fiddled with it for 10 minutes and then gave up and went to work on another computer. I Googled it and tried various remedies. One said to delete the virtual copies of the USB ports and then restart, so I did and the first one I deleted was my mouse. I sat there dumb founded for a minute until I realized I could manually restart it. Long story short, that fixed it. The IT guy was super surprised and wanted to know how I did it. I didn't have the guts to tell him that it was because I accidentally deleted my mouse, so I told him that it was my brujeria (witchcraft). Elder Winder from Lima Tambo randomly stopped by the office today, so it was cool to see him. We had a cita with Renzo tonight. We weren't quite sure what to think going in because yesterday he called us saying that he smelt weed and didn't know if he needed to get re baptized. Turns out that he was at a party and all of his friends started using it. That made him remember he had some in his bag, so he pulled it out and smelled it to make sure it was good still, and then gave it away. That was a close call. We took Eric to visit Marleni and Monica, her mardina. Monica's 17 years old daughter didn't want to come down to talk to us. Monica was cool. She's a lawyer, is super concerned about Camila, and is looking for more tranquility in life. In order to achieve that, she accepted a baptismal date for the 7 of December. It was a great lesson.
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