Week 22 in the Office

Weddings, Apostles, and 70's

This week was loco in every sense of the word. So, as you know, we had a wedding planned for Monday night. However, we were having trouble in finding someone to sign some medical papers for them. Here's a dramatic story of how it happened with basic details:

We had one doctor that has done it for missionaries in the past, but after telling us he'd be home in time last Friday night and going MIA for a few days without answering our phone calls, we found out that he extended a trip he was on to last another week. So, we were left without any idea on what to do. I called every type of doctor that I could possibly imagine and asked everyone I knew, but we couldn't find anyone to do it. I literally cumulatively spent hours calling people trying to find someone to do it. We got to church on Sunday and the bishopric asked if we should announce the wedding. There's a great story in Joshua 3 that not many people know about where God divides the Jordan river for Joshua like he did the Red Sea for Moses, but He didn't divide it for them until all the priests holding the ark were ankle deep in the water. Well, that's the kind of faith that I think we all need to have. So I told them to announce it without having any idea whatsoever about how we were going to get those medical certificates signed. We didn't even tell William and Rosa about that problem. Well, I'll be honest: as I sat there during sacrament meeting, the thought occurred to me that the wedding might not happen. Not because I had a lack of faith, but more because I thought that maybe the Lord wanted to try everyone's faith a bit and do it later. But if it was going to get postponed, it wasn't going to be because I threw in the towel. So I kept looking. For lunch we ate with a member and I randomly asked if she knew of a doctor that could get it done. She said that her neighbor could do it! She called him and set up an appointment for later that night. Well, when the time came, the doctor had left to do an emergency C section, and the appointment that we set up with him for 6:30 Monday morning (the day of the wedding) fell too because he forgot and went to work early. AAAH! I was in a mild panic and went back to calling people. I called Hermana Amato because I felt as if she'd maybe know somebody and you guys she gave me the reference to the doctor from Cieneguilla. I called him, but he didn't answer. So I called the clinic. (We didn't want to do it there earlier because it takes a while, they do excessive testing, and it's pretty pricey.) They didn't answer either. I felt like I should call the Cieneguilla doctor again, so I did. He answered! Well, he said he was working in Surquillo, but would be happy to do it when he got home late that night. Well, we got ourselves in a taxi and went over there to have him sign it. I almost couldn't believe it to be true when it finally got signed, and only 8 hours before the wedding too.
The wedding turned out very nicely. Their baptism is later tonight.

Well, then Jeffrey R Holland came to Lima. Holy cow, the spirit was so strong in that meeting! We knew he meant business when one of the first things he said when he got up was "I am not an idiot!" and started to testify of the restoration. He really said some things that answered stuff that I had been pondering about. I know that he is an ordained Apostle of Jesus Christ. Then we had Elder Gavarret from the 70 come to do a gira misional (mission tour). After that, Elder Holland had a devotional for the recent converts. I know it was for them, but I had a lot of takeaways too that I really liked. This week was just one major event after another with no breathing room in between. It was cool though. It was a really spiritual week. Take care!

-Elder White
 

Friday

I was reading in Alma 1 the other day and really enjoyed my study.  It came at an interesting time because right then I happened to be pondering on some things people had said against the church, which is a main theme in that chapter.  I especially like verse 25.  It explains how it was a hard trial for those firm in the faith since many had apostatized.  But they didn't stop following God and were diligent in keeping the commandments, bearing all the persecutions with much patience.  Due to that, I know that they were blessed exceedingly, and we will be too when we follow their example.  God will help us to resolve our doubts.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  Telepizza has 3 large pizzas for s/45, so Elder Davis and I went there for lunch.  It's meant for 6-8 Peruvians, but I don't think they considered the possibility of 2 huge gringos pounding it out.  I went into Tottus real quick and bought this Venezuelan soda called 'Colita La Venezulana' that tasted just like red cream soda.  Tasty beans.  We walked back into Telepizza and sat down.  I looked around and saw The Couple.  I saw them, then they saw me.  Then they stood up and walked out.   You see, on our way home every night, they're 90% of the time making out or getting ready to, and it's always on the same doorstep, and I always invite them to church.  I'm good at interrupting like that.  They'll come to church Sunday.  It was quite funny what happened at Telepizza.  We were going to have a cita with Gloria and Jeff in the capilla, but then the youth and relief society were both having activities, so we just stuck them both in those and called it good.  Mario was at the church tonight too, so we talked to him.  Well, he wanted to buy a car, but to do so, he needed to include his wife's info.  When they pulled up her info, it said that she was filing a divorce with him.  He had no idea.  It's extreemly sad to hear that, let alone to have that happen to you.  The only clue that he might've had is that she hasn't really talked to him since before Christmas.  Right before he came to Peru, one of their daughters died in a car crash.  His wife was Catholic (probably MA), but started going to the Jehovah Witnesses church after that.  When he was baptized, she told him that their marriage was invalid.  (Catholicly yes, but civily no.)  Well, now I guess she's living with a pastor from the Jehovah Winesses church.  Not gonna lie, I've yet to have a positive experience with the Jehovah Witnesses.  Mario seemed incredibly well put together for how tragic this is.

Saturday

I know that miracles are real.  I know that they will come when we exercise faith.  I have seen so many.  I'm very grateful for them.  There is a miracle in the works right now, we're just waiting and praying that it happens.  In order to get married, Peru recently added a new law saying that in addition to all the other papers you already needed, now you need a health certificate too.  Why?  I don't know.  There was a member doctor who said he'd sign it for us today or yesterday but he hasn't answered any of the dozen or so phone calls we've sent to him yesterday and today. I called every possible form of a doctor I know, but had no luck.  The wedding is Monday.  AH!  I could really go for a miracle right now.  Any who, we deep cleaned the apartment this morning in anticipation of a 70's room inspection.  I might not have put blood or tears into it, but I made up for it with sweat and that weird blister juice: my knuckles got pretty raw from scrubbing the shower wall.  Every one wanted to go to IHOP for lunch today, except I couldn't find my debit card where I always have it.  I turned the place upside down looking for it.  Then I said a prayer for help.  Memories of various stories of finding lost items in a spot they'd already looked at a dozen times came to me.  So I looking in my missionary handbook for the 3rd time and found it there.  That was a nice milagro because I was starting to panic a lot bit.  God is good.  You can't tell me otherwise.  (The IHOP was tasty by the way.)  So word got out that Isabella (President's daughter) is going out with Elder Olsen (a missionary that went home about a year ago).  I just thought that that was interesting.  Today was Elder Armstrong's last office Pday, so we tried to go hard.  We had a nice game of Risk.  I don't know why, but Elder Napier is always on my team. In addition to that, we watched the movie Robots.  It was a lot weirder than what I remember.  It was still funny though.  The joke of the week goes to Elder Pardo.  I said something along the lines of "I'm gonna spank you so hard that you're not gonna be able to sit down for an hour."  He said, "Well gosh, I guess that we'd have to go to the pótologo then."  I died laughing because we were at the podóloga (podiatrist).  (Potólogo would translate to "buttologist".)

Sunday

I really like a scripture story from Joshua 3.  God tells everyone that they're going to cross a river.  But to do so, they needed to be standing in the river before He parts it.  For me, it's an amazing story of blind faith and committing to the Lord fully.  Sometimes we will be called upon to have blind faith like them.  I really like what Joshua tells them before hand: "Sanctify yourselves; for tomorrow the Lord will work wonders among you."  We need to be worthy for these miracles to happen with our faith.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  Well, after another 6 phone calls, the doctor finally replied to my text message.  He had said he'd get home this past Friday, but this morning he said that he wouldn't get back until the weekend.  Welp, that was unfortunate news.  Why couldn't you have told us that earlier?  Ah!  So we didn't know what to do about doctors.  We got to church and the bishopric asked us if they should announce the wedding for tomorrow.  We didn't know how we were going to get a doctor to sign the papers for us, nor how we were going to get the other half of the money.  But ya know what they say: sometimes ya just gotta 'Joshua 3' it.  So we told them to announce it.  Gloria and Jeff both came to church today and had a great experience, so that's great.  There was a family of 4 that wandered into church today, so that was super exciting.  When we went to go visit them, I saw a model of a rocket shuttle, so I got excited.  In the end though, they didn't really have a lot of interest in our message.  Houston, that was a problem.  We went to the park with Gloria and Jeff to have a good lesson about the word of wisdom and law of chastity.  It was the first time in a while that I've had someone accept no coffee or tea with out having concerns or questions, so that was really cool.  For lunch we ate with Hermana Karin, the Relief Society secretary.  She's one of the most helpful people in the ward for us.  While we were eating, I randomly asked if she knew any doctors.  She did!  What a miracle!  We called him to set up an appointment for 9 PM.  We were there with William and Rosa and Karin at 8:50 and called to confirm, but his wife answered and said that he had to leave to do an emergency C-section.  Quack.  Gotta keep that Sabbath day holy I guess.  We rescheduled for tomorrow at 6:30 AM.

Monday

Mawage is wot bwings us togedah today.  Mawage, that bwessed awangement, that dweam wifin a dweam....is what has been causing me insanely high amounts of stress his past week.  I got up at 6:30 this morning like I always do, and sent Karin a text to see if she had gone to the doctor's appointment with William and Rosa.  Well, apparently when she had called the doctor earlier to confirm it, his wife answered the phone and said that he left to go to work at 6:30.  Dang it!  He had told us that he'd do it at that time.  Well, I wasn't about to call off this wedding.  I had already called all the doctors I know--including the area doctors.  I was sitting there brain storming and then thought, "Maybe Hermana Amato would know someone."  So I called and explained the situation.  She said, "Lo siento querido, no conozco de algan doctor que hace eso.  Espera, President me dice que el 2º consejero del obispado en Cieneguilla es un doctor.  Tal vez pueden llamar a él.  (I'm sorry dear, I don't know of any doctor who does that.  Wait, President tells me that the 2nd counselor of the bishopric in Cieneguilla is a doctor.  Maybe they can call him.)"  I thanked her and she said that they'd pray for us.  I got the number from the Hermanas from Cieneguilla and gave the doctor a call, but I got no response.  I got desperate enough that I even tried calling Melisalud, a nearby clinic (we never tried there before because it would take forever and it is $$$), but they didn't answer any of my calls.  So I called the Cieneguilla dr (Leomar) again because I felt I should.  He answered!  He said that he'd love to help us out, but worked in Surquillo.  I wasn't about to say no way Jose, so I hopped in a taxi and went all the way over there.  He signed it.  I almost couldn't believe it.  So many doctors and I finally found one.  He did it quick and for free too without me having to take William and Rosa.  Plus we got it done just 8 hours before the deadline.  Score!  We got him (Ezquiel) all the papers that we needed on time.  While struggling with this, I've thought, "Maybe it was meant to be post poned."  Like, it wasn't a lack of faith, but I thought that maybe God wanted them married another day, but nope.  Satan really fought us hard on this one: 50 years of living together, 4 months of teaching, Rosa's freak out, the partitdas de nocimiento (birth certificates), doctors, their bad health, etc.  The wedding turned out really nice.  They really enjoyed it.  I think so at least--they were smiling, dancing and Rosa even did 3 pump fakes on her boquet toss.  I could probably easily write a novel on this whole thing.

Tuesday

Let me tell you something: Jeffrey R Holland is definitely an apostle called of God.  We got a huge head start on things.  We left our room at 6 AM so that we could get there at 6:30 in Lima Tambo.  (They told us to arrive from 8-8:30, but we wanted those front row seats.)  We were the first ones there.  In the past, they made us camp out until 7:30 or so, but today, a guy came out as soon as we got there to open up the gate for us.  We plopped ourselves right there on the 5th row.  (The Hermanas were on the first 4 rows.)  We hung out until around 9 when they took us out to take photo as as a mission with Elder Holland (Tambo and North were there too).  Jeffrey R Holland looks old in real life.  He looked kind of tired and out of it as I saw him sit down and walk around.  Then we all got to shake his hand as we walked back inside, so that was super cool.  The Held's were there too, so they talked first.  Then Sister Holland got up and really testified of the love that God has for us.  Then Elder Holland slowly got up and walked to the pulpit.  Holy cow, that man roared to life!  He looked just like he does during general conference.  He said, "I want it made known, that I AM NOT AN IDIOT!" and then started testifying on how the church is true.  I felt like he looked right at me, which is really amazing for me because I was really wanting him to say that to me directly, and I feel like he did.  Surprisingly, he talked almost nothing about missionary work, but mostly on post mission life.  He told us that we're God's investigators and that we should act as we want our investigators to act.  He really warned us against going less active.  He briefly addressed faith crisis with the powerful question, "Do you WANT the gospel to be true?"  There's not going back to the life we had before.  We've received too much of the light of Christ.  We're either going up or down.  From there he started to testify of the Book of Mormon.  He  has such an incredible testimony!  I aspire to have the conversion that he has.  He's a very fiery speaker--the spirit was incredibly strong the entire time.  "The very fact that it was translated in 65 days is enough to prove it's true!  I've already spent 30+ hours on my 8 page not even done conference talk!"  He finished by testifying of miracles.  He said, "If you don't believe in modern day miracles, just look at Sister Holland.  A few days ago she was in the hospital and the doctors told our kids not to come to visit because they wouldn't make it in time to see her alive.  Well, look at her now.  She just traveled to Lima with me!"  That was the most powerful conference I've ever been to.

Outside of the conference:

Wednesday

There's a repeated theme that I've heard repeated recently: time on the mission flies by, so enjoy every second of it.  Elder Holland encouraged us to serve out  missions in a way that would make us reflect on it daily in a way that we could really testify about it.  People ending their missions talked about it today in their final testimonies.  Members have told me.  I'm going to try and really focus in on my mission these last 5 months.  It'll be hard, but I'll get it done.  So I forgot to mention this, but Elder Armstrong left the office on Monday morning.  He went off to proderas de pariachi.  I kinda miss him, and not just because I like making fun of Texas.
 

 The despedida (farewell) at Hermana Karin's house for Elder Armstrong.

Today we had the Gira Misional (mission tour) with Elder Gavarret.  He's from Uruguay, so that's interesting.  He's a very nice dude.  He shook everyone's hand to start off the meeting.  There were some really good trainings.  From the assistants I learned about testifying more in contacts.  It was a pretty good training.  When I applied it while I was contacting at night, I really felt a difference.  I mean, it only makes sense, right?  Hermana Amato gave a really good training on the sacrament and it's importance to us.  I really like it because that's one of the things that I feel like I need to improve on so that I can grow my testimony.  It'll be good.  I think that I need to study on it some more.  Elder Gavarret testified a lot about the Book of Mormon.  He told a cool story about how this one guy named William met Martin Harris, and L Tom Perry met William, and Elder Gaverret met L Tom Perry, and we met Elder Gavarret.  Kinda cool the connection there.  None of those Witnesses ever denied their testimony.  One thing that I've noticed is that every time a 70 comes, they testify of the divine calling of the mission president. It was a nice conference.  I left to contact tonight with Elder Colton.  It was interesting.  He's one of the guys that came from Lima Central.  I don't know why, but I've had the biggest pain in my back today.  I've been having small pains here and there recently, but today is was almost unbearable.  I don't know why I'm having these pains either.

My zone with Elder Gavarret.

Thursday

Today was part 2 of the mulitzone with Elder Gavarret, but I worked in the office instead.  After he finished there, Elder Gavarret came to our office to do a short meeting with us.  He didn't really roast us at all like I thought he was going to do.  He kinda just gave us some advice to try and help us out.  We had a cita with Jeff and Gloria tonight.  We did the per-interview and it went extremely well.  Jeff seemed better than he ever has before.  He has a question or two about Joseph Smith and Gloria has a few about tithing (literally the widow's mite), but it seems to be ok with them.  We also had a cita with William and Rosa.  Elder Pardo thought it'd be a good idea to sing a hymn first, so we sang A Child's Prayer.  It went really well.  It really just turned into us testifying about hymns and how God always answers our prayers.  My most prominent memory from primary is of Bro Christensen as my primary teacher.  I remember very specifically as he began to sing A Child's Prayer (2 verses) in his deep voice.  I don't think it's a coincidence that of all the things to remember from primary, it was that song.  It was like a personal message from God to me.  The spirit was very strong and I almost got choked up.

Elder Gavarret with the office Elders
 

 President with me Me with the guy I trained, and the guy he trained, and the guy he trained.

Week 21 in the Office

So, like normal as of late, this week was pretty crazy. Our investigators are doing well. We took Jeff and Gloria to the temple for one of the appointments. We were kind of concerned about them earlier, but we feel like that cita was really good for them. They're doing a lot better. William and Rosa are well. We're just trying to find a doctor to sign these medical certificates. The doctor that we've always had sign them won't answer his phone despite saying he would do it for us. We're kinda freaking out a little bit right now. Having him sign this certificate is literally the only thing impeding their wedding right now. It's only mildly stressful. In other news, we found out that Mario's wife (he got baptized back in late November) is in the process of divorcing him. It's very unfortunate. She didn't give him any warning whatsoever. And from what he understands, it's all because he got baptized into the church. It's very sad that he has to pass through this trial. But he's got a strong testimony and knows that the Lord will help him through it.  So yeah, that was my week. William and Rosa should be having their wedding and baptism next week, but like I said, we just need that certificate signed. Have a good week!

-Elder White

 

Saturday

I know that repentance will make us happier in life.  It will give us a clean conscience.  When we want to come nearer unto Christ is when true repentance happens: we stop doing things that keeps us from having the spirit and/or start doing things that will be pleasing unto God.  I know that when we follow the prophet's counsel to repent daily, we will be blessed exceedingly.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  We got up bright and early to play soccer against Vitarte.  It was kinda frustrating though because all of their guys got there late.  Oh well.  We lost by a lot.  We really wanted to be Elder Leite, but yeah.  So the office tradition says that new guys need to buy pizza for everyone.  Well, there's 4 new guys, so we were thinking it'd be easier and cheaper if we just went to Roll Star and had them each pay 100 soles.  Sushi > Pizza.  It was Elder Kimball's first time.  We ate a lot of sushi.  Not counting wings, ice cream or drinks, we ate like legit 20 rolls, probably more.  We had to teach the new guys how to play Risk.  I went 2/2, leading these noobs to victory against seasoned veterans.  I left with the assistants to contact tonight a bit.  They had some citas that they wanted to take me to, but those didn't work out.  We met back up with Elder Pardo and Elder Davis so that I could go to the cita with William and Rosa.  Everything seems to be going well with them.  Rosa said that she had a dream where someone told her that she was getting married on the 20th and that on the 21st something was going to happen.  She also said that Elder Armstrong and Elder Pardo were there somewhere in the dream, but then disappeared.  She didn't remember that part all that well.  People of the descent of Manasseh have dreams that prophesy and have legit spiritual stuff.  I mean, if some white gentile dude told me that he dreamed that I were going to be next bishop, I'd probably laugh it off.  But if there was a Poly or Latino--a descendant of Manasseh--that told me that, my next Google search would be "How to bishop of ward".  I don't think that this 'event' is them leaving, but it very well could be.  We'll just have to wait and see.

Sunday

I know that baptism is a sacred covenant and saving ordinance.  I know that when we get baptized, we are completely forgiven of all our sins.  We are literally reborn spiritually--it's a clean slate.  I know that God blesses us a lot when we make this special covenant with Him.  I know that this is the gateway of the covenant path to eternal life, which is what Heavenly Father wants most of us.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  So after doing some calls this morning, it turned out that Gloria couldn't come to church because her boss homeowner dude was away on a trip all week y llegó recíen hoy día (and just came back today).  She said she'd next week though.  But we did take Jess with us.  Unfortunately, we didn't have any contacts or anyone like that come.  Jeff left before we could talk to him afterwards, but from what I understand, he had a good experience.  Hermono Loli (a previous 70 and mission president) gave the Sunday school lesson.  As I was expecting, we got into more deep/weird/maybe-it's-not-true doctrine.  In the middle of the class, that one really cool Brazilian family from La Molina walked passed the door.  Their little girl (3 or 4 years old) ran in saying "¿Donde esta el Elder?  (Where is Elder?)"  She saw me and said, "Aqui está. (Here he is.)"  She ran up to me and said, "Diga a los niños que no pueden jugar en el parque domingo.  (Tell the children that they can't play in the park on Sunday.)"  Then she held out her pinky, so I pinky promised her and she ran off.  That was pretty funny.  Also, very cute.  I want one.  For lunch, Elder Recalde, Elder Pardo and I went to eat with la familia Cárdenas.  We had the same thing as last time--good stuff.  They also gave us really good ice cream.  They're a really cool family.  There were a lot of milagro texts from the zone this week.  We found a lot of new people to teach this week.  We found a lot of new people to teach this week, like around 20 or so.  

 

 Our zone goal for February.  (67 baptisms)

 

Elder Pardo told me a really funny story about Elder Laite.  During conference with the Amatos, we all watched it in English while Elder Pardo and Elder Leite watched it in Spanish in President's office.  They got hungry, so they opened up some of President's desk drawers to look for food.  All they found were some weird blue plactic-y balls.  Elder Laite: "Es chocolate?"  Elder Pardo: "No creo Parce a plastico."  "Si, es chocolate!" and Elder Leite popped one into his mouth, only to spit out red paint seconds later.  He had tried to eat a paintball!  Hahaha.  I'm not sure why President had paintballs in his his desk.  I miss Elder Leite.  I really grew to like him his last transfer here.

Monday

Hey guys, guess what?  I'm a personal representative of the Lord Jesus Christ!  Do you know how cool that is?  I know that I am called of God and that I have the authority to act in His name.  I am here to do the things that he would do if he were here: to preach His gospel and to establish the Kingdom of God on Earth.  I know that He is proud of me.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  We had our office meeting this morning.  We talked about all the meetings next week: the one with Elder Holland and then the mulitzones/gira misional (mission tour) with Elder Gavarret, a 70.  Elder Gavarret is going to do meetings with the office, visit 2 random rooms in the mission, and wants to go to 2 citas with investigators that have a date for baptism for < 2 weeks.  Elder Pardo volunteered William and Rosa.  All I'm gonna say is that this'll be interesting.  A: I'm nervous to teach with a 70 there.  B: They've almost dropped on us in the past.  C: We've seen about a bazillion and a half milagros with them.  D: did I mention he's a 70?  We've got their wedding and baptism to worry about that week too.  We all left that meeting a little stressed out.  So Mayte called Elder Wilcox today in a panic.  Long story short, she obviously has depression.  Her psychologist prescribed her some meds to help, but they were way strong and made her dizzy and stuff.  Her psychologist told her to stop, but her husband is making her take them, otherwise he'll take the kids and go because she's "dangerous".  Like, he'll watch her take it and then check her tongue to make sure she swallowed.  He's literally drugging her.  We visited William and Rosa tonight.  They're all good.  We invited 2 of their grandkids for the lesson.  We also visited members la familia Misari.  They were cool and we blessed their home.  Then we visited Gloria and Jeff.  Gloria is doing really well; she says she'd 10/10.  We had a really spiritual lesson on the Plan of Salvation.  Jeff kinda worries me still, however.  He'll be ok though.  Today was an excellent day of contacting.  I could really feel the light of Christ in me as I worked.  I was smiling and trying my hardest to make it obvious that I honestly cared about the person I was contacting.  It felt amazing.  I feel like if I could find a way to replicate that every day, then I'd be baptizing an insane number of people.

Tuesday

I love the Lord.  I want that made know perfectly clear.  He is my Savior and Redeemer.  I am eternally thankful for His Atonement.  I know that He loves me too.  I am ready and willing to obey future commandments that He has for me, and I''m doing my best to obey the commandments He has given me now.  It is Him that I'm serving out here in the mission field.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  We made a trip to the temple this morning with half of the mission.  It was nice to be back.  It's a special place.  Elder Pardo, Elder Recalde and I did a fast before hand to make it a more spiritual experience. Hermana Amato, Giovanna and Luigi were there too with their ward.  I hung out outside a bit talking to Giovanna and waiting for Luigi, but he took too long, so I left for lunch.

After being financial secretary for 4 1/2 months, I finally went out and made a stamp today.  It's a cool one.  We had our correlations meeting tonight.  It was cool because Andre bought us Domino's.  So last night at like 10:15, I was walking along next to some road work.  There was a girl that came walking by, so I went to contact her.  As I did, the workers started using the artificial-steamroller-jackhammer device, so you couldn't hear jack squat.  There was about 20 seconds of me shouting at the top of my lungs trying to testify about Jesus and her saying "¿Que?"  The road work finally stopped and she was miraculously still there.  Confused, but there.  I started to talk, only to soon be cut off by Nascar passing by.  There were 5 super loud cards that passed by all in a row.  The girl was still there though.  I got to better testify and filter.  She's 17 years old and her name is Maricielo.  She seemed super escogida in the contact, so I took out a cita.  It was kinda a miracle that she hadn't walked away.  We had the cita and long story short, it's still not her time.  Funny how that works sometimes.  Elder Pardo went with Elder Armstrong to Cieneguilla to look for a spot in the river to do our baptism.  They found it, and they came back with a million mosquito bites too.

Wednesday

I know that the Holy Ghost leads us and guides us while we are obedient to God's commandments.  When we follow God's plan, we are blessed with feelings of peace and joy.  Se are warned of danger, both spiritual and physical.  I know that we are also inspired to act for the benefit of others too, all by the promptings of the Holy Ghost.  I know that wen we live our lives so that we're always worthy of that companionship, we will always find many blessings.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  We had consejo de distrito this morning.  If I'm being completely honest, I'm not a huge fan of consejos.  I understand their function and all, but I can't say that I overly enjoy going to them.  Time flew by super fast today.  We had a cita with Gloria at night.  We invited the relief society president, Hermana Cárdenas to come with us.  Their room is pretty small (we can barely fit 5 people in there), so we decided to go to the temple to talk.  Since it was late at night, there was no one in the visitor's center, which made things a lot better.  The first thing that hit me was an intense tranquility.  It's just so peaceful there.  It felt good.  Gloria and Jeff recognized it too.  All in all, it was a very successful appointment.  Gloria got along really well with Hermana Cardenas.  She was a tough egg to crack, but we had her laughing a lot at the end; I think that we finally have her trust.  Jeff smiled more than usual, but still didn't say much.  She's always had a lot of questions about tithing, so we spent a hot minute explaining it and testifying too.  It seems like she understood now.  Like I said, it was an amazing appointment.  Gloria is very excited for her baptism.

Thursday

I know that sometimes bad things will happen to good people.  It says nowhere in the scriptures that the righteous are exempt from life's challenges.  The entire point of being on this world is to be tried, to learn, and to progress.  If God takes away our trials, then in a certain way, we're damned; we can no longer progress.  The trees that grow in the hardest conditions are the strongest.  So in a certain way, I think God lets us pass through trials because he loves us.  We are also humbled more, which brings us closer unto Him.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  Elder Shats was in the area, so he passed by the office this afternoon.  He's another one of those guys that got carried away to Lima Tambo.  I had to go to Makro (Peruvian Costco) with Elder Pardo today.  We ran into Hermana Ana, our pensinista from Manchay.  It was cool to see her again.  We received a copy of William's partida today, so that's a really nice sigh of relief.  We passed by at night to tell him.  We asked him about the certificados de solteria (single certificates) and he said, "I paid for them today; they'll be ready tomorrow.  Here's the receipt."  Well, he gave us a receipt alright.  A receipt for his jugo de piña (pineapple juice).  We all got a good laugh out of that.  It was sprinkling rain tonight, so that was cool.  We also went to go visit Marleni.  She's going to give a talk on vicarious and baptism on Sunday, so that's cool.  She brought out papa rellena to share with us.  It was pretty tasty.  Underneath it was a piece of lettuce as decoration.  As we were eating, Elder Pardo and Elder Recalde all of the sudden burst out laughing and couldn't control themselves.  Marleni and I were very confused.  She stepped into the kitchen for a minute, and they were able to explain to me that Elder Pardo accidentally ate some of the lettuce and Elder Recalde heard the crunch.  So it was kinda funny, but those 2 chumps couldn't control themselves the rest of the time.  They wouldn't stop laughing.  It was only a little bit more than mildly frustrating for me.  It was very immature of them.

 The OG office crew.

 Drinking some juice.

We decided to go to IHOP this morning.

Elder White and Elder Pardo

Week 20 in the Office

Crazy Week

Not gonna lie, this week got to be super crazy. There was a lot of work in the streets, drama with investigators, and miracles all around too. Here's an update on William and Rosa. They're doing good as of right now. It's been a stressful week full of drama and miracles with them. So one night we went to visit them to talk about their marriage. They were excited for it, so we talked while we did some paperwork with them. Rosa had told us that her partida de nacimiento (birth certificate) was at the house, but she wasn't able to find it while we were there. That was kind of really concerning because she was born all the way down in some obscure town in southern Peru and has no friends or family down there. You need to pick it up in person; Peru hasn't gotten to that whole electronic thing yet. So we left the appointment trying to think of ways that we could somehow get that for her. At the moment, we were contacting with the Bishop's son, who just got ordained as a priest. Rosa called us and told us that she had found the partida. We were some pretty happy missionaries. We took a moment to testify to the bishop's son about the power of missionary work and how the Lord will help us to accomplish His designs.
Now, this is where the drama comes in. A few days later, we went to visit them again. We started talking about papers and stuff, but then Rosa out of the blue told us that she decided that she didn't want to get married, nor baptized. Long story short, they had some serious stuff go down about 30 years ago between them. They had an argument, Rosa decided to bail, using this stuff that happened years ago as an excuse as to why she didn't want to go forward with it. We spent literally an hour and a half testifying to her about the gift of forgiveness and about how that would bless her life. It was a very spiritual lesson. They had their youngest son (24 years old) there that we had only talked to once before and even he could recognize the spirit, so he started to testify about the things we were saying about the plan of salvation and the atonement. By the end, she knew what she had to do. We left her to pray about it. Two days later, we got a call from them saying that they were going to go through with the marriage and baptisms. We visited them and they told us that they were, indeed, going to go through with it. AH! MILAGROS! We're finishing up with the papers and are looking forward to their wedding and baptisms for the end of January.
Next story. On Monday, I was out with Elder Leite contacting a bit on a small intercambio (exchange) when I received a call from the assistants from Lima Tambo, who have their area right next to ours. They said, "So funny story. Remember that reference that you passed us? They actually live in your area." That is pretty funny, and cool. We made plans with them to meet up to meet the lady and her son. It was actually a reference that we received that we passed along from the hermanas. I actually got it a few weeks ago, but didn't think much of it because they told me that the mom was a member. When I called the first time, she seemed like a member and told me that she was in Huancayo for a bit and that we could visit her when she got back. Well, we got to the meetup spot. We were talking and it turns out that the day before she had moved across the street, into our area. Very nice. We were able to teach them there in their house and they both accepted dates for baptism. We've been back a few times and have introduced them to the young men during an activity too. They're doing well. Overall, this week has been really awesome and full of miracles. These are just a few. I love missionary work! I know that the Lord is on our side! Have a good week!

-Elder White

Saturday
I know that baptism is the gateway for us to enter Heaven.  That's why the gospel of Jesus Christ is so important.  There's literally no other way to do it.  I know that when we are baptized, we receive a remission of our sins and God remembers them no more.  When we complete this important commandment to make this covenant of baptism by immersion performed by someone who has that divine authority from God, we will be blessed extremely in every aspect of our lives.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  So today was Pday de limpieza (cleaning) for us.  We spent a solid 2 hours or more doing a thorough deep cleaning of our room.  It was pretty crazy.  That freaking fridge man.  There was a lot of ice that we had to thaw.  Elder Pardo was chipping at it with a wrench, so I just went and stuck my blow dryer in there.  It was working great until my bow dryer freaked out and over heated and stopped working.  So then I was forced to go back to the ice chipping method.  It was going ok until I accidentally punctured some tubing from inside the freezer.  Toxic gasses sprayed out and I breathed some in and died.  Well, not quite.  But hey!  At least we just got a shipment of 10 new fridges in the office.  Joe got called as an assistant this week, so thats pretty cool, mainly because we can email back and forth on Saturdays now.  We're getting a new assistant on Monday, which means that today was his last office Pday.  We honored him with 2 final games of Risk.  I'm getting pretty good at throwing these mini magic cubes.  There's a girl in the ward named Sophie.  Her parents just got divorced (it's kinda weird because they still sit together at church).  She just turned 8 and for whatever reason, was really insistent that Elder Pardo baptize her.  So we went.  We prepared Cuando up me Bautice (When I am Baptized) as a musical number.  I'm not sure how, but we actually harmonized really well.  The spirit was strong there.  We got a reference tonight to give a blessing to a less active member.  As soon as we got to the address, I instantly recognized it as crazy Luis's house.  He thankfully wasn't there, but we gave his MA mom a blessing.  It's sad because her mind is super sharp, but her body's given up on her.  Like, she easily memorized my phone number and recited it back to me even though she can hardly speak.

Sunday
I know that the transfers that President Amato makes are given to him by God.  God knows where we need to be at certain times and places in people's lives.  There's companions to learn from and people to help/teach.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  Last night I had a nightmare.  I was at USU and they were playing BYU in girls soccer.  I didn't know who to cheer for.  Then I had to go to class and got lost.  It was like I was in a 4 story shopping mall with 3 dozen escalators.  Then Elder Tenney walked passed eating pizza and said, "You shoulda gone to BYU."  Weird dream.  I think Elder Pardo had an equally restless night because after getting up at 7:30 and saying my prayers, I noticed that Elder Pardo was asleep still.  So I kinda shook him awake and said, "Hey man, it's past 7:30.   You've gotta get up."  Elder Pardo: "Dejame.  Tú estabas durmiendo también.  (Let me be.  You were sleeping too.)"  At that point I just kinda looked at him like "Bruh, really?  You can't be serious."  We all gave him a bunch of crap for the rest of the day for that one.  Funny stuff.  None of our numerous potentials wound up coming to church today, so that was unfortunate.  There was one 17 year old (Melisa) that said she'd go, but she hated her job, so she moved back to Provincia.  Well, there's not church over there, but she says that she really wants to go.  So Melisa told us that if we can find her a job here, she'll move back and go to church too.  So now in addition to river hunting, we're also job hunting.  Cool beans.  For lunch today, we ate with la familia Arzubiaga.  It was a great way to end a fast.  They gave us each a huge plate of aji de gallina (chicken chili) and some ice cream too.  we had a cita with William and Rosa.  Really it was just us talking about their marriage papers for an hour.  We got their domicillio stuff and DNI taken care of.  Rosa said she had her birth certificate there but couldn't find it.  It'd be really hard to get it because she'd from a small pueblito far away.  That caused a panic.  We took Mauricio (Bishop's oldest) contacting since he just turned 16.  While we were out, they called us to tell us they found the birth certificate. Milagro!  Today was judgement day.  Elder Leite's replacement is Elder Kimball, Elder Armstrong's is Elder Colton and Elder Wilcox's is Elder Davis.

Monday
Today in my personal study, I was reading some stuff in Mosiah 21.  Limhi's people are slaves to the Lamanites.  They're obviously not very happy about that.  So they rise up in rebellion and try to defeat the Lamanites.  They lose, badly.  Motivated by anger and sorrow of the loss, they're motivated to try again and lose again.  Then it happens a third time.  They lost because they were fighting for the wrong reasons, and they were doing it without God.  The promise of Abinadi in Mosiah 11:21-25 was fulfilled.  Only God could deliver them out of the hand of their enemies, and the same applies today.  In chapter 20 right before, they defended themselves successfully despite the odds.  It's because they did it for the right reason.  It's funny how the righteous are never on the offensive.  They only do the necessary.  I know that God will help us when we need Him in a righteous cause and that only He can deliver us from affliction.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  It was a pretty busy day in the office of getting the new guys accustomed and doing stuff to prep the mission for next transfer.  It got pretty crazy.  President did our interviews today.  In Elder Pardo's, he asked President if it were possible to end his mission in the field and not in the office.  The next thing ya know, President walked out and announced that Elder Recalde was going to replace Elder Pardo and that Elders Pardo and Armstrong would be in the field in 2 weeks.  So just like that I'm gonna be the only secretary left.  In my interview, I mentioned to President how crazy it was and he said to me, "Some days the revelation flows better than others.  When it does, you need to write it out and act on it immediately."  I really enjoyed this interview because I've had a huge increase in conversion since the last one.  We talked about how to receive personal revelation so that I know what to do with myself the rest of my life.  I went out with Elder Leite to contact.  We got a call from the AP's from Lima Tambo saying, "Hey, funny thing.  Remember that one reference you forwarded us?  They actually live in your area."  So we met up with everyone there.  They had moved into our area yesterday.  That's a nice miracle.  Gloria, a single mom, and Jeff, her mildly alcoholic 17 year old accepted a date for baptism for the 8th of February.  They seem really promising.  Good thing I initially thought she was a member and accidentally procrastinated on sending the reference a few weeks....

Tuesday
I don't know why God has brought me this far.  I feel like I'm so undeserving of all the blessings that Christ has given me.  I don't know how I was able to be brought to where I am now.  I'll be the first to admit that I'm not the best guy in the world.  As a teen, I had a basic testimony, but had a bad habit or two that distracted me from the gospel.  I wasn't weak or a powerhouse or anything, just an average Joe with a few weak points.  I was, and still am, a trusting and obedient guy.  I tried to do my best to do what my leaders and parents told me.  I wasn't always the best with prayers (sometimes) and reading the Book of Mormon, but never really had a gigantic faith crisis.  I was blessed with a lot of faith.  When it came time for the mission, some people (like Brandon at my Jiffy Lube job) questioned my motives.  All I knew was that it was a commandment, and that was good enough for me.  So I made it here and have been growing in my conversion since.  There were so many things in my life that could have easily taken me down a bad road, but by the grace of God, he brought me here, for which I'm eternally grateful.  For that reason I know that God loves me and has a special plan for me.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  My back hurts a lot, not sure why.  Today was 1° training.  There was an RM named Hermana Wells that was there visiting.  She was in Alameda 2 years before I was and was the one that started teaching Mafer, so that was cool.  We had a cita with William and Rosa.  It started out normal, talking about marriage papers and stuff, but then Rosa started making false/exaggerated claims against William and refused to get baptized/married.  It was around that time that Gino walked in.  Rosa, up until now, has utterly refused to forgive William for having a daughter with another woman 30 years ago.  So it was literally an hour and a half of us testifying to her of forgiveness.  At one point, William straight up broke down crying while he explained his repentance.  Gino had never seen his dad cry before (he's 24 years old) and testified to his mom.  Rosa thinks she's perfect, but I told her William was better off at this point than her since she didn't forgive.  Then Elder Pardo testified of pre-Earth life, saying that we made promises to each other up there.  Gino testified of it too!  We've never even formally taught him before.  We rocked Rosa to the very core.  She's got some serious thinking to do.

Wednesday
I know that every trial that we receive, we receive for a reason.  We don't necessarily only get trials when we sin; a lot of the time, God gives them to us so that we can grow and learn.  That's the entire reason why we came to Earth after all.  If there were no trials in life, then it would be nearly impossible to learn and grow, which would void God's plan for us.  I know that when we face our difficulties without murmuring, and we do turn to the Lord for help, we will over come that trial and be better than we were before.  They're literally just growing pains.  I know that no matter how bad it seems right now, God will make things right and reward us according to our faithfulness in His own due time.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  We had the new leaders training.  It ran way longer than I would've liked.  Oh well though.  So, a couple of taxi drivers have been pushing my buttons recently.  They find out I'm an American and then immediately say something like, "Hey!  Your president's stupid.  He's trying to start WWIII with Iran over there."  And they rant on me despite me saying that I don't watch the news.  One taxi driver was especially bad today.  He was trying to put all of the problems in the world from the last 50 years on the US.  I'd never really had to defend my country before, but I roasted him pretty good.  Elder Pardo did too.  Elder Wilcox found Mayte again the other day!  He had a cita with her, but for baptism, she was eh.  But then later, they ran into her crying in the street after she said a prayer, so she wanted to be baptized.  They needed an accompaniment, so they took me.  She's in a very sad situation.  Her husband has had a history of beating her (she tried suing him for that), so due to that and other reasons, she feels very unloved by her husband.  She really wants to divorce her husband and kept asking us if she should do it.  We can't say yes or no, but you know my answer.  She was crying the whole time.  We talked in English the whole time so that her kids didn't understand.  But that freaking testigo (Jehovah Witness) husband brainwashed her kids to tattle on her.  For example, they texted him to tell him that the Mormons were there, so the came home fast, which brought the cita to an end.

Thursday
I know that Jesus is the source of joy.  He loves us.  When we obey the commandments, we receive blessings.  No matter what happens, he will always be there for us.  No matter the darkness that surrounds us, the Lord will always be our light.  I know that we just need to trust in him: to have faith.  It'll all work out in the end.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  There was consejo de lidarzgo (leadership council) today.  It got pretty crazy.  For lunch, we got Little Caesar's.  But Presdient thought we didn't get enough, so he sent Elder Wilcox with Elder Davis to Burger King to get more food.  Well, let's just say that we had an abundance of food.  Hermana Amoto brought these amazing gourmet ice cream bars too.  President announced that we're going to shake the apostle's hand when he comes!  That's so exciting.  During the first day training, we bought the Amato's dehydrated chocolate covered pineapple.  I tried a little and commented on how it reminded me of my dad a bit because he really likes dried mangos.  Today Hermana Amato came up to me and said, "I forgot to bring it, but I went and bought some dehydrated mangos for you."  That was very thoughtful.  While we were at the meeting, William called us to tell us that Rosa decided to marry him and get baptized!  Score!  There was some drama with late charges to our card in December that I had to take care of.  Kinda stressful, but ya know.  I saw quite a few people while I was out contacting tonight.  First I saw William and Rosa in a Botica buying certificates for their wedding.  Then I saw Mayte with her kids.  They always shout "¡Mormones!" when they see us, so that's kinda funny.  Turns out that her husband refused to have us back in the house saying that she was flirting with us.  She was more confident about baptism today than yesterday though.  She's also more determined to get divorced.  Then I saw Israel.  He might come with Mayra on Sunday.  Then I saw Elena and Freddy (from Manchay).  It was really cool to see her again and catch up a bit.  Then we went to our cita with Rosa and William.  We got everything back on track.  We need to have missionaries send a scan of William's artida de nacimiento (birth certificate).  Otherwise, it's looking good.  We tried inviting Gino to get baptized, but he wants more prep time.  I tried talking to Rosa to try and talk her into getting baptized in the church, but she is very determined to get baptized in a river.

Friday
Elder Wilcox gave a nice training during consejo this morning on the gift of discernment.  He used the story of Ammon with King Lamoni as one of his examples.  I had heard this training at least a dozen times before in my mission.  But while reading this scripture today, I learned something new.  At first, he stated the obvious of what he gathered from his intellect that the king was surprised at what he did.  The spirit might've helped him a little with that one, cut then he got even more help.  He was able to discern that King Lamoni thought him to be a God.  From this I learned we just need to start and do our best, even if it's a little, and then the spirit will help out more.  So the group of Elders that I was in the CCM with were at trunky training the same time as our consejo.  That stunk.  Ya know, just me in the 3 week program.  So I guess that I can say it now, but it's Elder Holland that's coming to Lima.  That's gonna be exciting!  On our way out, we had to stop by the podóloga (podiatrist) for Elder Recalde's feet.  Nasty stuff.  He's been put on rest and isn't allowed to go out contacting, so Elder Pardo and I went with Elder Colton.  We went to visit one of their new investigators, but when we got there he appeared to be drunk and seemed disinterested.  But hey!  Now I know what beer/drunks smell like.  So that's why some of my Jiffy Lube coworkers smelled like that...  Any who, from there, we went to go visit Gloria and Jeff.  It went well.  We shared a nice spiritual thought and then took them to the church.  The YM were learning how to set up tents for a camp out that they're gonna do, so we presented Jeff to them.  He's really shy, but it was good for him.  We also introduced Gloria to a few members.  We were walking along at the end of the night when we saw a family struggling with a big new water tank for the roof.  So we seized the opportunity to help them.  We lifted it over a 10 foot pokey fence and then somehow used a rope to pull it up to the 4th floor.  Then I hoisted it up over another wall.  Good stuff.  They were a really nice family.  Hopefully they come to church.  We ate in a Chifa for dinner.

 I don't know how, but my face was somehow super dirty when we got to William and Rosa's house one night.

I don't know the context of this picture. I was confused as to why my companion took a photo.

Playing soccer and eating sushi with the new office Elders earlier today:

Week 19 in the Office

Diego

This week was incredible. We were able to see more milagros than I've been able to see in a long while. Everything seemed to go so well for us this week. It started with Diego's baptism last Saturday. I think that the main reason why is that after the new year, Elder Pardo and I sat down and did some talking. We took a look back at 2019 and its ups and downs for us. Then we looked at what we've seen work in our missions and put some companionship enfoques (approaches) of what we can do to work the hardest and most effectively possible in our area. It worked incredibly well. Our contacts have improved significantly, we found a lot of people to teach the gospel to, and I feel a desire and spirit stronger in the work than what I've felt in a while. My favorite miracles have been related to 2 of our investigators, William and Rosa. They're an older couple, but aren't married due to some drama that went down between them a while back. William has highly developed cancer and has been given only a few months to live. Well, a few weeks ago William decided to get baptized. Rosa said that she didn't love him and wouldn't marry him, so we made plans to have them move into different rooms. One day while we were visiting them, Rosa dropped the bomb and us that she wanted to get baptized too. We were super excited, but sad that they were still going to have to separate a little for the baptism. So the other night, we sent them to talk to the bishop. The bishop walked out and said, "Elders, they're not going to be able to get baptized on the 11th." We were like, "Oh no. Why not?" "Because they're going to get married on the 20th and then baptized on the 25th right after!" I seriously love our bishop. He's amazing. So are William and Rosa. The last lesson we had with them, their 22 year old son listened in on it. He seemed pretty interested even though we had talked to him before and committed to going to church on Sunday. There were just so many miracles! I know that if we work diligently with faith, make sacrifices, and obey with exactness the things that have been taught to us, we will be blessed with the things that God desires to bless us with. Have a good week!

-Elder White

 

Saturday

I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet called of God.  I know that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ appeared to him.  I know that he translated the Book of Mormon by the gift and power of God.  I know that the book of Doctrine and Covenants as well as the Pearl of Great Price are also the word of God.  I know that he was a prophet who restored the church and that there is an unbroken line of prophets extending from him until Russell M Nelson.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  In other news, I'm on like a 5 or 6 game win streak in Risk right now.  Aunt Jessica had her baby, Owen, this week.  That's exciting.  I have a few new cousins to meet when I get home I guess.  We didn't really do much for Pday today really.  We had Diego's baptism tonight.  We were going to do his interview last night, but we had to move it to today because his mom (Soyla) was feeling too lazy to go to the church with him, so we did it today.  As soon as he went in for his interview, we realized that we forgot to bring his baptism clothes.  So I had to hurry back to the house to find clothes.  The best I could do was a large shirt and medium pants.  It might've been a little big for him, but we made it work.  It was ok that I had to go because they were waiting on family.  They all obviously weren't members because they clapped a lot.  The rest of us felt kinda weird when they did, but we didn't want them to feel bad, so we awkwardly did a polite clap when they gave an enthusiastic clap.  Diego's mom tried canceling on us before the interview started, but we got her talked down.  The most memorable thing from today was that right after Diego got baptized, he came out with a huge smile.  That was a golden memory for me.

Diego's baptism. I wasn't kidding when I said the clothes we got him were a little big:

 

 

 

 

Sunday

Sometimes I've had the questions: Why isn't the church bigger/growing faster? and Why does it seem that a lot of people leave the church?  Both of these questions are answered in the scriptures.  When Jesus started his ministry, sure he was famous, but he built his church from scratch.  It stayed relatively small too as the accounts make it seem.  At one point, he decided to filter his followers and many of them left 'offended'.  I was reading in Heleman 4 in the Book of Mormon this morning and it made me realize how many Nephites apostatized.  Not just there, but in the whole Book of Mormon too.  And believe it or not, the apostate Nephites were a bigger problem than the Lamanites.  Both of these examples are relatable to today's world, so that really helped me open my eyes a little bit more and now I understand better.  Anyways, I just need to have you my bi weekly reminder that I'd look super good with a beard.  It's gonna be good.  We got Diego confirmed today and William got his 10th or so attendance, but other than that, nothing really happened at church today.  We went to go eat lunch with la familia Dipaz today.  It kinda felt like normal since it's the pension.  The only difference is that Magaly cooked instead of Juana.  Bishop sat down with us and we discussed about who the most hated people in Peru are who will have their giant dolls burned on New Years.  He was telling us about one guy whose dad was a super corrupt president of Peru, basically so corrupt that the son has never had to work a day in his life.  The son always runs for election, but obviously always loses.  Well one day he decided to go on a hunger strike outside of the Congress building saying, "I'm not gonna eat until xxxxx gets changed!  If I die, it's the government's fault!  So he stayed there a bit.  Then when he thought no one was looking, he ordered a pollo (chicken) through Glovo (a food delivery service).  Well, everyone saw him and they all took pictures and he became a laughing stock.  I guess it's hard to be secretive as a celebrity in a self pronounced announcement event in a highly populated place while ordering food.  Welcome to Peruvian politics.  I said a prayer for the food and the bishop told me, "De verde Elder, you speak really good Spanish.  You don't even sound like a gringo."  That was very nice of him to say; it was a real confidence booster.

Monday

Today I found a really cool old Ensign article written by D Todd Christofferson about Justification and Sanctification.  He got into some deep doctrine there a bit. Basically I learned that when we repent/are baptized, our sins are justified, meaning that they are pardoned, which is an event.  Then we are sanctified by the spirit, which is a process of forgetting the sin and becoming more holy.  It's kinda crazy how much doctrine the church has.  Well, Elder Pierce stopped by the office this morning.  I was talking to him about Alameda.  This guy keeps baptizing all the people I couldn't!  Trysha's conviviente (cohabiting) sister is getting married and baptized, and their mom Maritza is getting baptized on Saturday!  They're also going to baptize Nimrod's sister and his brother, Juan Carlos, who was super atheist and rejected anything we taught him, especially the word of wisdom.  That's exciting stuff!  Today was more of a chill day in the office, or it was at least up until I got a call from Francisca.  Basically I paid something that I don't know I had to send to the area office to have them pay it.  Well, because I paid it, something weird happened to the taxes.  They told me that I had to recover the tax money from him a week ago, so I called him and he told me he'd go to the bank.  Well, today Francisco told me he never did and that I'd have to pay the 137.20 soles myself I didn't recover it.  That wasn't a very fun call.  I got it recovered though.  We had a cita with William and Rosa tonight.  It was a good lesson on tithing.  Afterwards they invited us to paneton with hot chocolate.  We were there talking and asked William if he still felt good for his baptism.  He does.  Like always, I turned to Rosa and half jokingly said, "You can still get baptized on the 11th too if you want."  She went into detail on how she had this over whelming spiritual experience during a hymn on Sunday and said that she would, in fact, like to get baptized, but on one condition--she wants to do it in a river like Jesus did.  Done.  We're pretty excited.  We just need to find a (clean) river.  The only downside is that they'll probably not get married still since they don't love each other.  They plan on sleeping in different rooms.  But, what a miracle!

Tuesday

Last night, we had to go to Tuttus to buy break for the 12 week graduation today.  I was talking to the taxi driver on the way back.  He was pretty cool.  So I gave him a card and invited him to church.  We walked inside and started to get things ready, but then Elder Pardo realized that he left his water bottle and book with all his stuff inside it in the taxi.  So he said a prayer and sent angels to the man to minister unto him so that he could get his book back.  About a minute later, we got a call from the taxi.  He realized the stuff was back there, used the number on the card to call us, and we were able to establish a rendezvous point to pick up his stuff.  We were able to collect his stuff on our way to the house after.  That was a really cool miracle.  Nothing too overly exciting happened at the 12 week training today.  So today is New Years Eve I guess.  In Spanish, "Feliz año" translate to "Happy New Year".  But, if you say "Feliz baño," people don't really hear the difference between that and "Feliz año".  So, I may or may not have wished a Feliz baño to all the people that didn't want to talk to us.  Elder Pardo takes his time to cross the street sometimes.  Like, he waits until there's a 500.1% guarantee that he won't get hit by a car.  I mentioned it to him just to tease him.  Well, ya know, he's prideful and all, so it turned into him burning me for 20 minutes because we're supposed to obey the law, yet we j-walk and sometimes cross when the light is red.  He said that we need to be better about obeying traffic laws.  I mean, you're kidding, right?  You and I both, as well as everyone other human being ever, crosses the street when we can: when it's safe.  He's trying to burn me for j-walking really?  Whatever.  We visited Mario tonight.  I was finally getting the info for his wife and daughter that lives in New Jersey.  We're gonna get some missionaries over there ASAP.  We had a special New Years Eve dinner with the bishop and his family.  It's always fun to pass time with them.  The fireworks tonight were better than the ones on Christmas, but La Molina is still kinda lame en ese sentido (in that sense).

Wednesday

One of my favorite primary hymns is I Belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  I love how it's sang confidently with defiance.  The lyrics inspire me.  The medley of that song with I Will be Valiant from the October 2018 conference is my favorite version.  When I hear this song, my doubts flee and I feel proud to pertain to the true church of Christ.  I know that this church of Christ.  I know that this church is true and that he guides it.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  We had consejo this morning.  The zone leaders had Elder Pardo and I give our training that we had prepared for last week.  They didn't tell us beforehand, but thankfully it didn't turn out too bad.  Before we left the office today, Elder Pardo and I sat down and reflected on 2019.  Then with what we gathered, we put goals together for 2020 to help us be 100% consecrated missionaries.  I left really excited to work.  I hadn't had this kind of a flame in me since I was in Manchay.  One of the goals that I put that I want to improve on is following the spirit: follow every prompting and do it immediately.  For example, today we were out contacting and I felt impressed to go down this side street to contact a lady.  She tried pulling the "I'm Catholic" on us, but I kept talking to her.  Well, her name is Katia and she's really been looking for a spiritual renewal with God.  Hopefully she comes to church on Sunday.  Ya know, the contacts have just really been poppin' recently.  For a while it seemed pretty slow, but this week they really picked back up again.  I like it!

Thursday

Not gonna lie, it's pretty weird writing 2020.  I need to go through and replace all of my receipts because they say 201_.  Anyways, I know that the Atonement was a great and vicarious gift given to all mankind.  Because Jesus paid the extent fully to the ends of the law, we're debtors to him now, not the law, when we sin.  That means that Jesus sets the terms for our redemption.  I know that when we repent, the Lord will send us his Holy Spirit so that we know that our repentance has been accepted.  I've come to realize that God is incredibly loving.  I just don't have words to describe it.  I know that God always wants us to be with him and that no matter how embarrassed we feel of our sins, he still loves us and wants us to repent immediately.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  Today I had to go to a part of Lima called Lince to pick up some packages with Elder Pardo.  It wasn't until I watched him there that I realized that he constantly tucks in and adjusts his shirt in the back.  No wonder the back of his shirt is stained.  Today we had a cita with William and Rosa.  We sat down and talked about baptism.  Rosa is excited to get baptized with William on January 11.  You've heard of House Hunters International, not get ready for: River Hunters Lima.  We're looking to do the baptism in a place called Rio Seco over in Cieneguilla.  Elder Pardo will baptize William and I'll baptize Rosa.  We're pretty excited!  They' still sleep separate, but I have hope that they'll want to get married after.  Their youngest son, Gino (about 22 years old), walked in.  We threw on the Cornelius and Pedro bible video.  He was really touched by what we had to say.  Something tells me that he'll get baptized in the near future. ¡Qué milagroso!  While we were out tonight, I ran into the oldest daughter from la familia Chachi in Alameda (Olga and Dante).  It was a pleasant surprise to run into her.  That area has a very special place in my heart.  There's a recent convert named Eudocia that I heard was inactive, but has a husband, Eudocio, that's not a member but was going to church a few months back.  We took Eric and his mom with us to visit.  Eudocia just got endowed, so I don't think she's that inactive.  They're about the age of my grandparents.  Eudocio accepted a date for February 1, but then his wife told him he needed more time and he backed out.  Dang it!

Friday

I know that faith is a very important tool that each one of us has to use.  It's by faith that we can work miracles.  I can honestly say that I believe and have a testimony of the principle of faith.  I've seen plenty of examples on my mission.  I can see times when I, or others, have worked, diligently or casually and have had little to no success.  But it's the same on the contrary.  I've seen amazing results when faith is applied; 20  years of eternal investigators baptism, finding many people to teach, and the opportunity to bless the lives of a lot of children of God.  I know that the Lord blesses us greatly when we apply this important principle to our lives.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  Office stuff was pretty normal today, though I had to redesign a few things since it's 2020 now and not 2019.  It's cool though.  We had a correlations meeting today, or we were supposed to have had one at least.  Andre arrived 50 minutes late.  And it's not the first time either.  It's like this every week.  I had to burn him pretty good.  If he continues, I'm just going to tell the bishop that we need a replacement.  Speaking of the bishop, he interviewed William and Rosa tonight to make sure that they were ok for their baptism (they were there 7 minutes early by the way).  Bishop walked out of the interview and said, "Elders, they're not going to be able to be baptized on the 11th."  We were like, "...what?  Why not?"  "Because they're going to get married on the 20th, which means they'd get baptized on the 25th."  Oh my gosh!  The bishop is a straight up miracle worker!  That man has my full respect.  The last time someone asked Rosa if she wanted to marry William, she straight up said that she didn't love him.  What a miracle!  I've seen so many miracles with those two.  We were supposed to have had a cita with this dude named Jhair, but he had to go tot he clinic for an emergency, but it sounds like he's coming to church on Sunday.  Tonight we ate dinner at Sangos.  It was even better than I remember.  The milkshakes were good too.

Me at a (tall) Peruvian drinking fountain.