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.
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