Week 27 in the Office

Busy Week

This was a very busy week for the second week in a row. We had a lot of stuff to do for the multi zones, so we didn't have as much time in the street as we would have liked. Everything is pretty good around here. Our investigators are doing well for the most part. We haven't been able to sit down with Gino in nearly a week, so we're trying to work that out there. Wow, there's really not a lot to say this week. Oh well. Have a great week everybody!

Friday
I know that my Redeemer lives.  I know that we can trust in Him no matter what because he is a perfect being with a perfect love for us.  I know that His grace is sufficient to save us after all we can do.  I love the Lord and I know that he loves me.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  On the way home from the airport last night, our taxi driver was nodding off.  He almost drifted into the barrier once or twice.  That was pretty sketch.  Before that though, when President came to the office to pick us up, Elder Davis opened up the trunk on their van to put Hermana Lester's bags in the back and said, "Wow.  I forgot what real trunk space looks like."  So I said, "Now this is trunky."  Five star pun on my part.  Since we were out so late last night, President gave us permission to sleep in until 9:30.  That was nice.  Somewhere in the morning hours, I had a dream that I was playing with Kayden in Ikea.  I hid behind a stack of pillows so that I could jump out and scare him as he ran past.  It was a great plan, except I accidentally wound up scaring some random 10 year old instead.  Kinda funny.  Anyways, we helped the assistants in their area tonight a bit.  The wanted to recreate that one video where you give people a sheet from the Book of Mormon and have them mark all the references to God while they read through it.  It was good in theory, but it didn't really work out 100% like we thought when we did it.  Tonight we went to Rosa and William's house looking for Gino, but instead we found Laura, their 14 year old granddaughter, who's been to church the past 3 consecutive Sundays.  Quick side note: Their dog is named Leia, as in Princess Leia.  Respect.  We decided to teach her LOL3.  We asked her why she comes to church and she told us that before William and Rosa started going, her family was just sad it seemed hopeless.  But she noticed that since they started going to church and stuff, her family has been a lot happier and more peaceful.  She decided to go to check it out and loved what she saw and felt.  We promised her those same blessings in her own personal life, so she made the decision to be baptized the 21st of March with Gino.  The tricky part with her will be getting permission from her parents.  They've told us that they might not be in favor of this.  But we'll press forward in faith.  We went to Sangos tonight.  An Oreo milkshake and Club Sangos never disappoints.

Saturday
I know that the spirit testifies of holy things.  It's impossible to convince someone of the truth without teaching through the Holy Ghost. I also know that it's impossible to feel the happiness of being converted unto Christ without having the spirit help you.  There's churches that try to convince you that they're right based upon Bible bashing and worldly knowledge.  It doesn't work.  I know from personal experience.  You cannot receive nor convey spiritual concepts by using the means of the natural man.  Spiritual things call for spiritual measures.  I am thankful for the gift of the Holy Ghost that I've been blessed with.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  We went to the church bright and early this morning at 7 AM for Mayte's baptism.  It was a pretty good service.  She wanted Elder Wilcox to perform the ordinance for her, so he came all the way here from El Agustine.  She brought her oldest child, Santiago with her.  We were all pretty surprised at that.  After all this drama, she finally got baptized.  She was crying pretty good in her testimony after.  I think that I forgot to mention this, but she thought that I was the mission president for a bit.  No Pe.  That was kinda funny.  It's interesting because I probably know Mayte better than the other Elders do and she was their investigator.  But yeah.  Today was a fun Pday.  Elder Kimball and I found out that LP and Skyridge are playing in the state basketball quarter finals.  We both happened to be wearing our school shirts, so we were going at it a bit.  We all played scum (card game), which was pretty fun.  Elder Porter is the new guy in the office, so we used the "You owe us all pizza" card on him today.  We had a cita with Valeria tonight.  She showed up drinking coffee, so we'll definitely need to teach that later.  We talked a lot about prayer.  Last night she went to a JAS party--they're doing a great job of hermanoning so far.  We stuck her with Akimi in Lima Tambo's baptism after.  While contacting, there was some silly goose dude that I contacted that tried to tell me that I didn't have agency or know anything because I was born in the religion, that I needed to break church limits to really know.  Dude.  You're 17.  Go home and read your bible or something.

Sunday
I know that life wasn't meant to be easy.  If it was, then we wouldn't be able to learn and life would be pointless.  Satan will do everything he can to stop us, but God will also be there to lift us up.  God has a power infinitely greater than that of Satan's.  I know that if we can distinguish the difference between those 2 powers, we will be able to better navigate life and have more faith in God as we confront life's challenges.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  Not gonna lie, church was pretty good today.  We had 6/6 of the guys we're teaching show up today.  Gino and Valeria both plan on going to a NDH with the JAS tonight, so we weren't overly disappointed when we couldn't take out a cita with them today.  We were in the doorway welcoming everyone when Hermana Lester came walking in with her family.  We were talking and they told us how her dad got confused when he saw the girls kissing each other to say hi, so he did it to a dude.  That's pretty darn funny, especially since he's a man very large in stature.  Mayte got confirmed today.  Santiago, her oldest son (about 11 years old) went to her baptism yesterday.  While he was there, he said, "This place feels a lot more spiritual than the tesigos (Jehovah Witnesses)."  We were all surrised to see him there, let alone to hear him say that.  What's unfortunate though is Mayte's husband hit them with a stick and spoiled the other 2 kids while treating Mayte and Santiago like dirt.  Sad stuff.  For lunch today, we all ate with William and Rosa.  The food didn't have too much flavor because William can't have any sodium.  Laura's dad was there, so we talked to him about permission for Laura's baptism.  While he didn't say no, he didn't really say yes either.  He wants her to go to church more and know a little more before she decides, and if she decides that she wants to, he'll say yes.  Honestly, if I were a parent, I'd be the same way.  We had to go on suicide watch again today.  These are never fun times.  A missionary from Huancayo stayed in the office with us a few hours while waiting for his flight home.  Sometime around 2 weeks ago, the Hermanas from Centenario asked me to give a blessing to a PF and it didn't end well.  Well, tonight we actually gave him one.  He's got really bad cancer in his stomach.  He can barely move.  Like, he'll eat a mango and then an hour later throw up black mush.

Monday
I know that the Word of Wisdom is a commandment given to us by God.  I know that the promise he gives us for obeying it is real.  Us missionaries walk 30 kilometers a day sometimes, and we do that every day.  No one would be able to do that unless living by this Heavenly precept.  Sometimes people ask why something in the Word of Wisdom is bad.  Here's my answer: God knows everything.  God made our bodies.  I think he would know a little bit better than we do about what to put in it.  It's a principle of faith.  I know that we will be blessed when we exercise this faith in him.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  I had to make a run to the area office this morning with Elder Porter to get some contracts signed.  I still don't enjoy going there.  During the morning office meeting, Hermana Amato showed me a picture of an RM get together of Lima East.  It was weird to see that I knew everyone in that photo, and that none of them had proselyting clothes on.  Elder Kimball wanted to try Shawarma, so we went to Secretos Arabes to try it out.  Not gonna lie, that was some pretty good stuff.  I got a package from Grandma and Grandpa Haacke today.  That was some pretty good stuff as well.  We had a cita with Valeria tonight to teach the Word of Wisdom.  So it turns out that she has a problem with each of the 5 things.  That was quite surprising, especially about smoking.  She smokes a cigarette a day, yet her teeth are fine and she never smells like them.  So we testified for a long time.  After the cita, we had her stomp on them and then thrown them in the dumpster.  Yeah!  Afterwards Elder Porter told me that I might've been a little extreme.  We went to go visit Moises and his family tonight.  They're all doing pretty well.  We did a short and sweet lesson on temples.  We ate dinner with Hermana Karin tonight.  When I tasted the food I said, Hermana, esta piola!"  She looked confused and asked who taught me that.  The bishop did.  She told me that that means "just so-so" dang it.  I've been saying that to people for months and no one else ever corrected me.  It's kinda funny, but at the same time embarrassing.

Tuesday
"Remember the captivity of your fathers."  That phrase continues to intrigue me.  I think about it a lot.  Why is it so important?  Alma 36 is a pretty famous chapter.  He starts and ends the chapter by telling God will help him in his afflictions, he'll be blessed if he keeps the commandments, and that he remember how the Lord delivered their fathers out of captivity.  He gives it a very high importance.  I've determined that if I continue pondering constantly and heed this counsel, that might help me understand it's importance better.  I got a really good bicep workout in this morning.  Let me tell ya something Ernie: boy oh boy will my beard and biceps go well together.  Good stuff.  On the handsome scale, I'm probably sitting somewhere around a 6 or 7.  With a beard and biceps however, I'd jump up to a 9.5, right up there with Chris Hemsworth.  There wasn't a lot to do in the office today, especially since I'm training Elder Porter.  I basically became the 3rd assistant since I bothered them so much.  We got a call from the Las Viñas dueño.  He didn't want to sign the electronic payments paper because it said "buyer" instead of "seller".  He thought I was going to buy his house out from underneath him no matter what I said.  In the end, I told him to whiteout that word and write in his own, and he accepted.  Kinda funny.  Today is Elder Colton's birthday, so we ordered Taco Bell and donuts for lunch.  I did a baptism interview with an 18 year old girl named Maria tonight for the assistants.  She was a great girl and is excited and ready to be baptized!  These interviews are fun.  We went out and worked for a while, but then had to drop off some stuff from the office at the church.  While we were there, the assistants arrived and were like, "Hey we have a cita right now with a new.  Could you please accompany us?"  We were going to go eat dinner and cake at Hermana Karin's house for Elder Colton's birthday right then, so I had to make that sacrifice.  It was with a 25 year old girl named Cynthia and her friend.  She was kinda hard hearted to start--she hasn't been able to answer: why do bad things happen to good people?  Then she said that we were jovenes (young boys) that didn't have life experience.  Elder Napier roasted her pretty good on the jovenes thing (we're consecrated).  Elder Kimball shared Mosiah 24.  Let's just say that he answered her question and they took out a return visit.  It's amazing how God makes it available to a missionary to answer these "unanswerable" questions.

Wednesday
I know that the church is true.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  So we had the multizone today.  It was pretty crazy not gonna lie.  It was kinda weird too because it was the first time that I wasn't running around like a chicken with it's head chopped off doing secretary style things during the meeting.  It was kind of enjoyable really. 

 At the multizone

Ya just kinda get to gain some spiritual nourishment in place of cutting cake or sweeping or buying lunch.  I just let the other guys take care of that today.  For lunch, we got the Centenario pensionista to make chili.  It was decent, but they have it to us served with a side of rice.  The weirdest part of that though was that I didn't even realize it was abnormal until some other gringos made a comment about it.  I guess that I've been pretty Peruvianized.  In every stake in the mission, there's plans to do a devotional on the first vision.  Choaica did the presentation for everyone today.  They did it really well.  The spirit was really strong; it was a good, entertaining and a well put together presentation.  At the end, a few missionaries got up to bare their testimonies on the restoration.  Elder Kohlert got up to share his testimony and the spirit was especially strong.  At one point, I could've sworn that I heard a voice say, "It's true McKay."  It was at that point that I shed a single tear.  Anyone that knows me knows that that ain't a common occurrence.  It was a very special experience for me.  Elder White doesn't cry, nor does he use his first name.  After that presentation, we went and did a face to face thing with President and Sister Amato.  It was cool to hear more of their stories.  Later tonight we had a cita with Valeria.  It went well I guess.  It was a lot more tranqueilo than the last time we talked with her.  She rather liked the plan of salvation.  She'd progressing rather well.  Right after that cita, we had our correlations meeting.  During that, we got a call from Gino.  Elder Recalde had sheduled a cita with him for the same time as Valeria.  He had told me that that was tomorrow and forgot to write it in his own agenda.  That was kinda frustrating.

Airport errands

 Elder Recalde attacked Elder Davis with tape.

The pictures of my apartment that my mom asked for long ago:

Week 26 in the Office

Mayte

This was an amazing week! It was one of the best weeks I feel like I've had in my entire mission. It's gone by really fast too. I feel like it's still Monday hehe. This morning, the other Elders in the office baptized Mayte, who's someone that I found with Elder Wilcox way back in the day. I've worked very closely with them in order to help her, so it was really cool to be able to be there at the baptism this morning.

It was a long and complicated process to get her to this point. We've been lead to find 3 new investigators this week! It's been a lot of fun. So, on Sunday I had to give a talk last second. I was up there giving the talk and among the congregation, I saw 2 JAS that I didn't recognize. Afterwards I went to go talk to them. It turned out that one of them was a member named Gianella that just moved here from a ward from Lima Central called Javier Prado. The other one was a contact (Valeria) that Elder Wilcox made as he was passing through our area. She remembered and came to church! I asked, "So are you guys roommates or...?" They aren't roommates. They live kinda close, but not really. They somehow ran into each other on their way to the church. They hadn't known each other beforehand, but somehow met and came to church together and now they're great friends. Gianella has been a JAS leader for several years, so she's been a great hermanadora for her. Valeria is progressing really well and is excited for her baptism on March 14! That entire situation is one of the coolest miracles I've seen so far on my mission.

William and Rosa, a couple that I helped get married and baptized a while back, have a real enthusiasm to share the gospel with their family. Their youngest son, Gino (24 years old), has been really supportive of them in their entire journey through marriage and baptism and all of that. He always told us that he'd go to church, but he never did until this past Sunday. We had also tried inviting him to baptism before, but he never accepted that either. He really enjoyed church and even wound up enrolling in institute. We went to go visit him on Monday night. William has cancer. While he was checking his blood pressure, it read 18 (a normal person's is 12-13). He spent the whole day in the hospital. When we went to go visit them, Gino and Rosa were in tears the entire time. Gino accepted a baptismal date for March 21 in order to receive comfort and strength with the hope of helping his dad. He's got it rough because he had a lot going for him back a year ago; he was almost done with his studies when his dad got diagnosed with cancer. He had to abandon that so that he could work to provide for his family. Here in Peru you can't just resume your studies; he'd have to start from scratch if he wanted to study again.

William and Rosa have a granddaughter named Laura that's 14 years old. She's been to church the last 3 Sundays in a row and is loving it. We were finally able to sit down and talk with her last night. We asked her why she was coming to church. She said that it was because she noticed an obvious change in the family since William and Rosa started getting to church. She said that beforehand, the entire family was depressed and gloomy. Then when they started going to church, everyone suddenly got happier and got along better. So she went to see what was going on and loved what she felt there. We promised that she'd be able to have those same feelings, but even stronger on a deeper personal level if she got baptized, so she decided to make this covenant with the Lord on March 21 with her uncle Gino.

This was an insanely crazy week with all of the meetings that we had for the start of the transfer, so it really is a miracle that God blessed us so much with his love this week. He's really good to us. Transfer calls came in. It looks like I'm leaving the office. I'm really excited to be working with Elder Porter now. He's a great missionary, and that's just because he's from my stake back home jaja. I'm really excited for what this transfer is going to bring! Have a good week!

-Elder White
 

Saturday

I know that living the Gospel of Jesus Christ will bring us many blessings.  I know that this gospel can solve any problem a man could have.  When we follow it, we will see both temporal and spiritual blessings.  When we take the time to thank God for these blessings, we will be happier and even more blessed.  I know that as we dutifully live the gospel throughout our whole life, we will be prepared to live with God at the last day and inherit eternal life.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  Last night as we were walking along, I contacted this siejita (little girl) outside her house.  As I was talking to her, Elder Recalde came over and said, "Hermana, what happened to your leg?"  I looked down at her leg and oh my gosh, it looked like a zombie leg.  The flesh was literally rotting off.  She said that it was a bacteria infection and tried to give us money for some medicine, but we bought it with our own money.  She doesn't need medication though, she needs an amputation.  Later in the night, we were walking along with Elder Mendoza in his wheel chair.  Then we saw that one crazy guy with the crutch walking around.  He's not a big fan of the church, so I told the others not to talk to him.  He walked right up tot Elder Mendoza and said, "Write your name and phone number here," in a small book he had.  Then he told him all about this German dude, who healed 100's of people post WW II using "the powers of the Universe".  Then he made Elder Mendoza put his hands on his lap palms up and said, "Keep your hands like this.  If you feel a tingly or shocking sensation, it's the Universe healing you because your cells would be rejuvenating."  So he hates on Joseph Smith but endorses this German Universe dude?  I could go for some of the Universe juice myself, maybe it would help my sunburn.  Wearing a collared shirt in the heat with a sunburn is like getting a bunch of paper cuts, getting locked in a Sauna, and sweating out lemon juice.  Today was Pday de limpieza (cleaning).  It was kinda hard to get people cleaning, but we got it done.  We played this weird beans card game.  I won.  I never really get a lot of emails anymore, so that's kinda boring.  Elder Colton and I ended Pday by getting haircuts.  Elder Recalde went back to Jicamarua tonight to see the baptism of two of his investigators, so I hung out with the other Elders tonight.

Sunday

Last night as I prayed, I felt a special need to repent, so I really made a conscious effort to do so.  I was pretty tired, so I kinda accidentally nodded off for a bit.  I had a mini dream of sorts where I visioned weights on a box, and then someone took them away.  When I came to my senses, I could feel a noticeable difference--forgiven, if you will.  It was literally like Jesus really took those weights of sin off me.  I know that the repentance process works.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  So on Friday, Hermano Aguilar came to clean the office.  He said to Elder Recalde, "This air freshener stinks," and sprayed it for him to smell.  In the most sarcastic voice he could muster, Elder Recalde said, "Oh that's horrible."  Hermano Aguilar started ranting on it some more and Elder Recalde said, "Did you read the label?"  The week before, Elder Davis made a "Zone Leader Repellent" Raid style label and put it on as a joke.  He looked at it and said, "Well no wonder!  These darn gringos (pause to gently punch Elder Davis on the shoulder) are spraying insecticide like it's an air freshener!  I'm going to put this in the baño just in case there's a cockroach or something."  We got a good laugh out of that one.  So last night during dinner, bishop said, "Oh, by the way Elder White, you're giving a talk tomorrow on the importance of living worthy of a temple recommend.  It was a decent talk, but my opening joke was the best part.  Everyone laughed.  Bishop was proud of that one.  Moises brought his aunt with his family today.  (She lives in San Borja.)  We went to go visit the family tonight.  They're so cool!  They accepted literally everything we teach.  Then they say a prayer of gratitude after.  Today at church, I saw two girls that I didn't recognize.  I went over and asked if they were roommates.  Long story short, they're not.  Giareela is a member that just moved here from Barrio Javier Prado.  Valeria was contacted by Elder Wilcox when he passed by the office earlier this week and she decided to come.  They ran into each other on the way to church and now they're best friends.  That's a pretty crazy milagro.  She accepted a baptism date for March 14!  It was a great cita.  It's judgement day.  I'm receiving Elder Porter as my replacement.  It's kinda crazy that I'm companions with a guy from my stake and 6th grade class.

Monday

I had a dream last night that my family was there fighting against the Emperor (Star Wars).  He was starting to turn Jaxon to the dark side.  Jaxon had a red double bladed lightsaber, which was kinda cool.  They were teleporting through walks and stuff.  Then I saw Jaxon and started quoting the Book of Mormon on him saying things like, "Wickedness never was happiness," and he was like, "Shoot, you're right."  The emperor starting coming at me, but my lightsaber handle was my Nokia phone and I couldn't find the button.  But then I did and we all backed him into a corner and said, "We're going to bring you to justice."  Kayden said, "Yeah!" and then stabbed him in the chest.  The rest of us were like, "Dude.  Really?"  He said, "Oh, sorry..." so we said, "Oh well."  It was quite the dream.  I know that humility blesses us.  In Alma 32 there's a part I like in verse 12, as well as verse 16 too.  It says that when we're humbled, it makes us wiser.  Then he suggests that being humble really means that we listen to the voice of God and following the Gospel in faith.  I know that if we choose to humble ourselves without being obliged to do so, we will be blessed incredibly.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  So today was my last day working by myself in the office.  It was kinda weird.  I stayed busy though.  Elder Porter got here tonight at 7.  We had him hangout with Elder Lopez because he got really sick last night and his entire body was swelling up.  I went with Elder Recalde to a NDH at Rosa and William's house at that same time.  We went looking for Laura (granddaughter who's been thrice) and Gino too, who finally went to church for the first time yesterday.  Only Gino and Rosa were there.  William's blood pressure is 18 (it should be 12), so he's in the clinic currently.  We were teaching LOL3 and Gina just broke down crying 3 minutes in.  It's extremely hard on them.  William's seemed good before, but his cancer is finally taking its toll on him.  We taught a powerful lesson and he wound up accepting a baptism date for March 21.  It's about time.  He liked the idea of Institute so much that he enrolled in a Thursday night class.  Then Elder Recalde and I went and picked up Elder Porter to buy break for the 1st day training tomorrow.  No more receipts for me hehe.  It was quite the adventure because Elder Recalde didn't have his keys.

Tuesday

Research shows that 1/6 Tuesdays are very stressful and busy, but that's transfers I guess.  I know that if we are anxiously engaged in a good cause according to our own free will, God will bless us according to our works.  It isn't expedient that God should tell us everything we need to do.  We should use our best judgement and talents that God has given us as we try to follow his Holy Spirit.  I know that if we do this, we will develop a deeper conversion unto Christ.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  Elder Lainez went home this morning.  He was a good guy.  Hermana Santana was one of the other people that we sent home yesterday.  She was a very happy, chirpy and funny girl always falando her Portuñol.  I'd never not seen her happy before.  But then yesterday as she got in the taxi to go to the airport, she was fighting back tears.  That was really sad for me to see.  This first day training was almost identical to any other.  We did make a few Tottus trips during it though.  Today was Elder Porter's 1st day in my chair.  It was kind of interesting teaching him how to do my job.  He'll be a good fit.  He's responsible and a hard worker too, so I'm excited to contact with him.  He'll keep the office's standards up when I leave, which is something I was worried about.  Elder Porter and I went with Elder Colton to visit Mayte tonight.  She seems to be excited and ready for her baptism Saturday morning.  We kind of had to explain to her the difference of the powers of Good and Evil, like how Satan wants to stop her, but God will bless and help her more.  Good lesson.  I've got a thing where when something happens, I say, "Well, you know what they say in (some random place in the world): (some completely random phrase)."  I enjoy it.  Tonight I was walking along and said, "Well, ya know what they say in Germany."  Right then Elder Colton offered me an Oreo.  The end with the frosting fell off, so I got a naked cookie.  I said, "I got the back end of an Oreo."  That was pretty funny.  We went to go visit Moises and his family tonight.  They're so cool!  We taught the Word of Wisdom.  I was kind of afraid that they'd freak out about it, but Moises was like, "I feel crappy when I do any of that, so I agree."  He loves doing Ven Siguame (Come Follow Me).  We've just gotta get him to do it with his family.  Lacero is scared to pray, so we need to work on that.  Moises always prays and thanks God for knowledge of the church.  Cool beans.  We need to focus more on the rest of the family.

Wednesday

I know that the gospel is true.  I know that it will work for us according to our faith.  I like the way Alma puts it.  He says that we need to let the word of God work with in us according to our faith.  Then he says it could be faith so small as just wanting to believe.  If we truly do that and protect and nurture the seed, we will find a gospel that enlarges our souls, gives us knowledge, and is truly delicious to our spirits.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.l  We had our consejo de distrito this morning.  It was a lot better than last week's.  So last week I got a call from the guy accompanying the Elders in Chosica.  He tried doing a prank call and then said his name was Johan and was trying to talk to me.  I was in the middle of a report or something, so when he asked if I was busy I told him that I was.  Well, come to find out, my old companion Elder Gonzalez was visiting people up in Chosica and ran into the Elders (Elder McKinney), so he called me. I've got no way of communicating with him so that's kinda sad.  Oh well.  I'm out here still training Elder Porter.  I'm trying to teach him the skills he needs to pay the bills.  On our way out to work today, we moved a whole bunch (ok, only like 5) of furniture for a member that was making a stand in the local market place.  We had another cita with Valeria in Gianella's house today.  It went really well.  She's 18 years old and studying mental engineering.  Her family is pretty split apart: her mom lives in San Fransisco, California and her dad lives in San Martin de Pores.  Giarella works in a Coca-Cola factory, so that's cool.  Valenia really enjoyed the lesson today and had read the Book of Mormon too.  She's planning on going to a JAS party on Friday night, so that's pretty cool.  She's pretty escogida.  Akimmy is doing a really good job of her manaring them.  We had the correlations meeting tonight.  There was some pretty good carrot cake.  I left there with Elder Davis to go visit Mayte to teach her diezos.  She's so cool, she shared her testimony with a dude we were contacting.  Today was Magaly's birthday.  We all pitched in to buy some flowers.  Not gonna lie, those were some good looking flowers.  A bunch of girls there visiting gasped when I walked in with them.  Magaly really like those.  I just hope that we didn't accidentally one up him.

Thursday

I know that the Bible is the word of God.  I know that if we use the Book of  Mormon together, we will be following God.  I know that as we apply the teachings in our lives that the scriptures give to us, we will be constantly learning and will be on the path to live with God again.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  I had to go to the new leaders meeting today since I'm a new district leader.  There was some good stuff I learned.  Elder Shockley and I are pretty tight now.  Star Wars quotes does that to people.  Mayte had her interview tonight with President Delgado and passed with flying colors.  She's excited and ready for Saturday.  Cool beans.  I was with Elder Davis tonight.  There was this one lady I contacted that was like, "I'm Catholic," but we were talking about Jesus and I read her something from the Book of Mormon and she was really feeling the spirit and wanted to go to church.  Then her husband came along and was like, "What are you doing?1?!  We're Catholics!"  He was really mad and said, "They don't even believe in the trinity!"  "Uh, yeah we do..."  "...Well they don't worship the saints and virgins!"  It was kinda sad to see how unreceptive he was.  Oh well I guess.  Elder Davis and I had to take Hermana Lester to the airport to pick up her parents.  President and Hermana Amato and Alice went with us because they had to pick up their kids from a trip to Brazil.  There's a big tunnel on the way there, 1:30 if it's normal speeds.  As we approached, Elder Davis said, "Everyone hold your breath!"  As we entered the tunnel, President floored it.  Almost everyone laughed, but I didn't.  A minute in, Hermana Amato said, "No one's still holding their breath, right?"  Then she looked back and saw me and said, "Elder White!  Querido!  Take a breath!"  Dang it.  I coulda made it.  President wanted to take us to La Lucha, which is a really nice restaurant alli (there).  He said he wouldn't get anything, but then ordered Alice his favorite sandwich, which he wound up eating.  That's definitely President.  Then they left to go get their kids leaving us with Hermana Lester for 2 hours.  It was a little awkard, but not too bad.  While we were waiting outside of customs, any time we saw a weird dude we'd say, "Is that him with the sandals?"  and she'd get excited only to see the person with sadals was a potbelly hillbilly with a huge beard.  I predicted that her dad would be wearing a blue plaid shirt.  I was right.  She's a lot like her parents.  They were very chill about everything.  No tears; just a "Hey dude, how's it been?"  They gave us some Reese's so that was cool. 

They also sent a picture of Elder Davis and I to my mom via text.

 
Riding around my area on my nimbus 2000:

Week 25 in the Office

I'm running out of adjectives for the word 'good' to describe my weeks jajaja. Let's say that this week was an appreciable week jeje. Our family that we're teaching is doing really well. We had a noche de hogar (FHE) with the relief society president and her family, and then the family also went to the ward Valentine's Day activity. They even went there with their 20 year old son who hasn't wanted to be there for our visits.  He's been to church twice and now to this activity. I know he's kinda rebellious and that his parents are probably making him go, but I can't help but wonder if he might actually be interested. So that's awesome! The assistants were looking for a mini missionary, so I recruited this really awesome youth from our ward that always accompanies us to do it. He's a good fit. On Saturday, our zone got together and did a car wash in Portales.  It was a lot of fun and was actually a whole lot more productive and efficient than I thought we were expecting. While we washed cars, we had two companionships that would give everyone a chapel tour and talk about the church. It was pretty awesome. Take care!

-Elder White

Saturday
I was reading about the people of the Anti-Nephi-Lehi in the Book of Mormon in personal study this morning.  It was very interesting.  When the Lamanites were about to attack them, the message from the king to the people was complete thankfulness to the Lord for the knowledge of the gospel and how they were going to do what they thought God would want to them to do--be peaceful.  As soon as the army came to destroy them, everyone went outside and began to pray.  In the very moment of death, they didn't stop praying to God.  What amazing faith.  I know that if we can live a life of thankfulness and face our problems humbly while praying to God unceasingly, He will deliver us.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  So today the zone got up early to play volleyball.  The only problem is that we couldn't find a volleyball, or a net.  So instead we wound up playing 3 sports.  It was fun.  At one point, someone threw me a long bomb.  I tried to jump and catch it, but the ball hit the back board and I crash landed by getting blindsided by they soccer goal post.  Let's just say that that wasn't my most pleasant experience today.  The Lopez family from La Molina invited us to go to their house this morning to play board games.  We played some fun ones--Cover your Assets and Avalon, the latter of which is kind of like Mafia.  Boy oh boy can that kind of game get frustrating.  Just, why?  Common sense!  Problem solving!  Come on people!  They gave us a free lunch, so that was cool.  They're a really nice family.  So today I had to go out of my way to correct the other Elders tonight.  I got to the pension and they were on the  Bishop's couch eating popcorn while watching Matilda.  Really man?  Just due to things like this recently, I had to sit them down and say that that's why they're not finding.  I think I did ok.

Sunday
I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God.  I know that family history work is essential for the salvation of mankind.  I know that as we carry out vicarious work in the temple, we will feel the spirit strongly because that's how God shows us what's right.  I know that as we serve our ancestors, they will love us and we will grow to love them too.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  In the morning on Sundays, we always go to the office to get our studies done before church.  We were on our way out when a girl called the office looking for the nearest chapel to her in Callao.  Callao is way outside mission boundaries, so it took me a minute to find a capilla on Google maps for her.  The other Elders had Mayte come to church today, so that was great.  The family of 5 came again too with their son, Edward.  Plus there were 189 people there today, which is awesome!  Fear of dividing the ward is starting to spread among the members.  It's already a tiny area, so I don't know how they'd divide it again.  I think that it's a real possibility that it could do that before I go home though.  For lunch we went and ate with la familia Lezano.  They gave us all french fries and 2 thick cuts of the best churrasco I've ever had.  When she told us to eat up because she had more, boy oh boy was that a happy moment.  We got some planning in and then ran off for a cita with the family of 5 (la familia Zacaroas Galarzo).  It went well.  We taught lesson 3 again.  Let me tell ya, the spirit really led that lesson.  We talked about what they're expecting of Jesus--a happier, more unified family built on the foundations of Jesus Christ.  Then I pulled out Enos on them.  I explained how he wanted to feel happy, so that's why he prayed and followed the gospel.  Good stuff.  On our way out, I noticed that they had a model of an aircraft carrier too.  So I said, "Hey I really like your model here.  Have you ever toured the naval base in Callao?"  and we talked about that.  "But Elder White," you say, "I thought you didn't now Callao,"  You're right, I don't.  I learned about it through Google maps is how I know about all the cool stuff in the world.  Elder Pardo always teases me about it, but tonight it paid off.

Monday
Today was my half birthday!  I hyped up everyone so much, way more so than my normal birthday.  And guess what: not a single person bought me a cake.  I just asked for half a cake since it's my half birthday.  Oh well though.  I know that humility is a very important characteristic of Christ.  I know that when we can be humble, God will give us blessings.  If you're not humble, you can't be a very useful instrument in God's hands.  I mean, just imagine cutting a cake with a knife and then have the knife start bragging at how good it is at cutting cakes.  Kind of a weird example, but you get the idea.  We need to recognize God's hand in all things and say, "Not my will, but thine, be done."  It's then that God will truly rain down the blessings of heaven.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  So I got up this morning early to start making my 20 year vision.  It was pretty weird, not gonna lie.  I'd never really stopped to think about how many kids God wants me to have.  I just sat there for about 20 of the 30 minutes trying to think about that.  Just, weird.  Anywho, Giovana and Luigi came to the office with their parents this morning and them wanting to move to Highland got brought up, which also brought up Lone Peak.  It's kinda interesting: anyone that knows Lone Peak has either a very positive or very negative opinion, there's not neutrality.  They had really only heard of the negative things, so I did my best to hype it up a bit to show why it was a good school.  Hopefully they move there.  We made another Mickey D's run today.  It's pretty amazing that I can buy a Big Mac combo with chicken nuggets for only $4.  Finding the 2 for 1 Big Mac survey coupon was basically the best thing since free samples at Costco.  We had a noche de hogar with la familia Cardenos tonight.  It went really well.  Hermana Cardenas teaches Lucero English at school, so it was cool that they already knew each other.  The families got along really well.  La familia is going to church on Saturdays for language classes, so that's cool.  The only uncomfortable part was that they brought out half the food at the start, but those were some good empanadas.  We played some fun games after too.  I'd call it a very successful NDH.

Tuesday
Today was kind of a crazy day.  I didn't have time to read my Book of Mormon until just barely as the time for lights out nears.  There's power in reading the Book of Mormon daily.  I was almost taking that power for granted.  I spent a solid 2 hours preparing a training on the Light of Christ.  Since I read so many talks about that and looked at Preach My Gospel too, I justified that that would compensate for reading the Book of Mormon.  I was wrong.  Even though what I was doing was good, it wasn't the same as the Book of Mormon.  I just felt off and sinful all night just for that reason.  Before, I had trouble sometimes keeping my thoughts 100% virtuous.  When I started reading the Book of Mormon daily, it stopped and I didn't even notice.  Well, today I noticed.  Now after reading tonight, I feel a lot better.  It really increases my testimony of the power of the Book of Mormon.  I know that as we study it daily without exceptions, God will bless and protect us.   In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  Today was the 12 week graduation.  For break, I had the idea of doing PB&J.  So we bought a couple jars of peanut butter and jelly with bread and some fruit and just had everyone make themselves sandwiches.  It was cheaper than what we usually do, and everyone loved it too.  In the middle of the training, I had to make a trip to the area office to drop off a bunch of stuff.  The area office curse is real dude!  This afternoon right when I got back, the bus lady came and dumped a huge receipt on my desk.  It's not fair sometimes.  Like I said earlier, I spent a good chunk of time today studying the Light of Christ, which is different from the Holy Ghost.  It's our morals, or our conscience for say.  It's our inherit ability to recognize the good.  I made a training on being able to touch that so that people in contacts "feel" that it's the true church.  We wanted to do a NDH with William and Rosa with their kids and grandkids, but only they were there.  And Gino too.  I showed the "Reflections" video.  The spirit was really strong.  Good stuff.  We had a correlation meeting with Takeshi and Hermono Cornejo tonight.

Wednesday
I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet called of God.  I know that he restored the fullness of the gospel.  I know that if we follow what he and other latter-day prophets and apostles have told us, then we will be able to stay on the straight and narrow path, which will be a blessing for us and others around us.  I know that if we do all we can to keep our covenants, serve others, and obey the commandments, we will have eternal life in the last day.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  So consejo de distrito was a no-go this morning.  There was too much stuff going on.  For example, 4 Bolivians arrived to the office this morning.  They'll stay in our mission for 3-4 days while doing some stuff to go to Guatemala.  So we sent them off to other areas.  Elder Leite was one of the guys that came to the office to pick up one of them up.  I totally hid behind my door and scared him really good just like in the good 'ole days.  We're totally planning a boys trip to Utah with the OG office crew.  That was a fun group of guys.  I didn't have any super pressing financial matters, so I worked on my "How to Financial Secretary Your Way to Success" instruction book thing.  It's not the funnest thing in the world to make, but Hermana Amato asked us to.  I never realized I had so many complicated things to do.  There's a convert in Centenario named Franchesco (about 16 years old) who's dad really doesn't like the missionaries.  He got sick recently, so the Hermanas told him to tell his dad that the Elders could give him a blessing to heal him.  His dad said yes, so I went over there with Elder Colton.  We were pretty excited.  We met up with the Hermanas and went over there to check it out.  We got there and went up to the last floor with Franchesco.  Franchesco sat us down while he went to go get his dad.  He came back, opened his eyes really big and said, "He says you need to leave."  Then he leaned his head back a little more and continued, "All of you."  You would have thought that he was trying out for a new soap opera.  I thought he was joking because the Hermanas started talking to him like normal.  But then he did the same thing again.  His dad is bipolar I guess.  We prayed for his dad, gave Franchesco a blessing of comfort, then left.  The mission needed a mini missionary, so I enlisted Eric for the job.  He's a perfect match!  He'll do it from tonight until Tuesday morning.

Thursday
I know that the law of chastity is a very strict commandment.  The ability to create a family is a sacred power given to us by God, so he wants us to treat it as such.  I know that if we obey this commandment, we will have happier and stronger families.  I also know that we will be blessed personally too with more happiness and self-confidence too.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  So this morning I was walking down the hall to my closet after my shower minding my own business when Elder Davis and Elder Napier suddenly pop up and start talking to me.  Our subject of conversation quickly turned to beards.  Dang man, I 'm gonna have a real nice beard in like 7 months from now, just you wait.  I'm pretty excited.  So we did our consejo de distrito this morning.  One of the Elders that's temporarily staying here from Bolivia is Hermana Guzman's brother (she left in November last year).  It was kinda crazy to have him there.  Our district just seemed dead today.    There was 0% animos (encouragement).  It was horrible.  My training went just ok, nothing special.  Hermana Pozo called everyone out on it and we tried to fix it.  We tried to make plans to increase our energy, but every other question they would turn to me looking for some amazing advice.  I had nothing.  I've never been one to come up with good ideas like that.  It was pretty defeating for me.  With the other Elder's in my district, I feel like I have to do an excessive amount of sequimiento (tracing).  They don't take care of Mayte or potentials very well.  They wouldn't do it if I didn't constantly remind them.  I'm the one that stays in touch with Mayte for them.  I'm getting kinda burned out as a DL.  We went to go visit la familia Cornejo tonight.  Since leaving Alameda, I've been really bad at working with members.  I feel the need to fix that.  It was a really good visit.  We were laughing real good and had a good spiritual message.  I think that this will be pretty productive.  Elder Napier really hates bubbles, Utah's "bubble" to be exact.  He'd get some real good rants going.  Then about a month ago, he found out his family is moving to Utah.  That, my friends, is hilarious.  Since then, I haven't heard him bring up the B word a single time.

Friday
I really like the scripture in Alma 5:59-60, it's gotta be one of my favorites.  It basically says that if you like your sheep, then don't let a wolf into your flock because it will destroy it.  President has a more personal example that he shares.  A few years ago, a virus the size of 2 KB nearly destroyed his business by erasing terabytes of information.  What's the lesson?  Keep sin out at all costs.  If something looks like it could lead you to sinning, don't do even that.  Stay as far away from that stuff as you can.  Don't take a single step down the path that would lead you to sin, even if the initial step seems small and insignificant.  I know that if we heed Alma's advice to do all this, then we will be purer and more ready to inherit eternal life with God.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  The zone did a free car wash activity this morning that was pretty fun.  We went to the church in Portales to do it.  Car washes are the next big thing right now.  A zone in Lima Central did one the other day that was super successful and President loved the idea.  So now we're all doing it.  It was really effective.  We probably had around 30 cars and motos come in during those 2 hours.  We had 2 guys on the street shouting and waving to get people in, 8 people washing cars, and then 2 companionships doing chaple tours and talking to the drivers.
 

It was a dang effective activity.  I'd be down to do it again sometime.  Before hand, they were passing around sunscreen.  Thinking back to last summer working all day in the heat in Alameda and never getting burned, I said, "Sunscreen is for chumps."  Well, I think I was the bigger chump.  It looks like I let a nursery kid colored me in with a hot pink marker for 2 hours.  RIP.  Our ward had their Valentine's Day (dia de amistad/enamorados (it's nice they include friends in there too)) party.  We got there right when it was planned to start to meet up with our family.  We discovered Hermana Cardenas with a few jovenes (young boys) trying to get the room ready.  Not to pat myself on the back, but we basically saved the day; we swept and moved a couple hundred extra chairs to the other room.  The family got there right as we were finishing.  They're so cool!  We ate at Sangos tonight.

Week 24 in the Office

 Moises wants to get baptized

This was a good week. Let's start with the milagros. About 3 weeks ago, a family of 4 wandered into our church meeting. The mom's boss (from another ward) had invited them to go. Elder Pardo, Elder Recalde and I went to go visit them later that day. We had a decent lesson with them, but they didn't accept our invitation to get baptized. We offered to visit them again, but they declined. They said they'd go to church the next week though, but then I reminded them that there would be the whole voting thing so that there would be no church. We all just kind of forgot about them because it seemed that they didn't want anything to do with the church.

Well, lo and behold, they actually came to church on Sunday. On a scale of 1-10, we were a 12.5 on the surprised scale. It turns out that they're actually a family of 5! They have a 20 year old son that they brought along, even though he's kinda against religion. It turned out that the Relief Society president in our ward happened to have their 11 year old daughter, Lucero, in one of the English classes that she teaches, so it was cool that they already knew someone there. The dad of the family, Moises, somehow got a hold of a copy of the Book of Mormon and had been studying it since the beginning. He was really interested in the Ven, Sigueme (Come Follow Me) class. They accepted that we go visit them later in the day.

Look guys, this family was basically made for Elder White. The first time we went there, I noticed a model NASA rocket on the shelf. He's just an accountant that likes outer space. Then the next time, he was watching a National Geographic documentary about aerospace. Their dog came running up to me and as I scratched it's ears, I asked them what his name was. "Luke," they told me. "Short for Lucas?" I asked. "No, it's short for LUKE SKYWALKER!!!" WHAT??? They like Star Wars! This is like the first time I've met people down here that knew Star Wars decently well and liked it. I made a sincere effort to contain my excitement. Let's just say that these guys are my new bff's. 

We went there and had a really good lesson on the Restoration. We asked Moises to pray and in the prayer he thanked God for having made the truth made known unto him. That was pretty cool. We returned later in the week to teach the Plan of Salvation. We really testified to them and the spirit was there to lead the way. While testifying of the Celestial Kingdom in Heaven, we really tied baptism into how their family would be blessed. Well, Moises, his wife (Araseli) and Lucero want to get baptized the seventh of March! Angelina is only six and their 20 y/o didn't want to listen, so that's why they don't have a date. But all in all, it was a great experience and an amazing blessing from God to have found these wonderful people. The only way we find people like this in the office is by the grace of God. We have to rely on him so much since we have such limited work time. But it's amazing  how he can still help us be instruments in his hands even when we have limited time! I know that this is His work and that the gathering of Israel is God's top priority. Have a good week!

-Elder White
 

Thursday

Ya know, the part where Alma meets Amulek, baptized him, then they preach in Ammoniahah is probably my favorite part in the Book of Mormon.  Zeezrom might be my favorite character development.  He goes from fighting against them to almost dying and getting baptized to preaching with Alma and Amulek to go and preach to the Zoramites.  Just everything about that trio is amazing.  Speaking by the power of the spirit really does change people.  The gospel is an amazing thing, and cannot and will not be defeated.  As Alma said, the word of God has more influence over people than the sword.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  So we had consejo de distrito this morning, my first one as a district leader.  The other DL, Elder Cahuana, is in his first transfer of being a DL too by the way.  I didn't have much time to plan something, so I pulled out my Columbia Consecration training back out.  It went pretty well I'd say.  It was a little long, but wasn't that bad actually.  I think I got my point across.  After that we came back to the office to get our work done for the day.  We ordered Taco Bell for lunch, which is kinda pricey.  I now have 70¢ left for the month.  I don't really know what happened with the office this quincena (month) but we were all hurting for money.  But that's life I guess.  So as we went to leave the office to work today, I remembered that we needed more pasaje money in order to run the errands that we were going to need to run, so I went back into my office to get the caja chica out of my safe.  I went to get they key out of my hiding place, and it wasn't there.  I didn't accidentally leave it in the safe either.  I started to really freak out and searched frantically for that key.  I retraced all my steps a dozen times of when I locked it, went to put the AC remote away in President's room, and told everyone it was time to go.  It's impossible to lock it in the safe, so I know that it's not in there.  I tore apart my entire office looking for it.  I don't know why it would be in that filing cabinet buried in a binder I've never opened, but I checked there literally everywhere.  In the end I gave up and went out to proselyte.  Hopefully it shows up tomorrow.  I can't really break into this one.

Friday

I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true.  I know that Russel M Nelson is God's prophet called to guide the church today.  I know that Joseph Smith was the prophet called to restore God's church.  I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God.  I know that Christ lives and loves us very much.  I know that Heavenly Father loves us too and hears and answers our prayers.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  So I got to the office this morning and continued my search for the missing key to the safe.  I've said around a dozen prayers for help to find it, but was having no luck.  I was one very stressed out little man.  The last thing I wanted to do was tell Francisco that I had misplaced that key.  Let's take a look at my search history: "What do I do if I lose the key to my safe?",  "Locksmiths in Lima, Peru", "What all hope is lost conference talks".  Then Elder Davis came into my room and looked around a bit.  He found the key in my cup holder.  That was a big sigh of relief.  Speaking of finding keys, I found the ones to my bedroom that we had to break into last week.  Someone moved them and put them buried on a cluttered table.  Oh well.  I had my interview with President today.  It was a good one.  He praised me for the spiritual maturity that I've developed.  I asked President if I'd be ending my mission in the office.  He said, "Oh wow. There isn't much time left, is there?  Let's look at who could be your replacement."  Well, President sent me to go make some posters.  When I dropped them off in my office after, there was a small earthquake.  Exciting.  We took Elder Mendoza, the missionary in a wheelchair, to a NDH with William and Rosa with their nietos (grandchildren).  We shared a good message about prayer.  We played that one game where you splash water on people when they guess the word correctly.  They all really seemed to enjoy that.  From there we found out that Gloria canceled on us for that cita.  She never answered our calls nor responded to our texts.

Saturday

I know that faith causes miracles.  I know that faith without works is dead.  There's a scripture that I really like in the book of James where he explains that it's not enough to only believe in Christ, because even the demons know that God exists.  The only thing that makes us different than them is that we are willing to act in faith according to the commandments of God.  I know that if we do so, we will see the power of God in our lives.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  So today was kind of a hard day.  It was the hardest one that I've had in a while.  My friend, Parker, is really struggling.  It is very sad for me to hear that.  Anywho, I decided to call home today.  That was probably the trunkiest hour or so of my entire mission.  It sounds like we're going to the Dominican Republic where I get home.  Sounds good to me because I've got 2 years of piña coladas to make up for.  The main reason I called was because I wanted to talk to Jaxon about his future.  I was extremely happy to hear that he's going to be taking mission prep classes and start his papers soon.  Well, today was fast Sunday start time.  Work time wasn't very fun today.  Elder Davis and Elder Colton called to tell me that Estefano was going to move to Chosica.  There other investigator, Valeska, fell earlier in the week too, and that one was because her parents are too lazy.  Elder Recalde and I tried getting a hold of Gloria all day long.  I think we called her about 10 times throughout the day.  I was starting to freak out a lot bit.  She finally answered eventually.  She told us that she decided to go to Huancayo again for the weekend.  I don't now why she did that so impulsively.  Now because she isn't coming to church tomorrow, she can't get baptized next Saturday.  I hope that she at least comes back with Jeff.

Sunday

I know that Sunday is the Sabbath day.  I know that when we give God the priority in our lives by doing things like going to church, we will find that the blessings of Heaven will come to us more liberally.  Of the 168 hours every week, God only asks for 2 hours in the church on Sunday (plus scripture study, prayers, and stuff in our home throughout the week).  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  So today had its ups and downs.  We got there to church this morning and there were 193 people in attendance!  That's crazy.  When this ward split 16 months ago, it's attendance was around 70, and that's where it was at too when the office Elders initially got here.  It's been steadily climbing ever since.  Only 1/4 or so of the members here are less active, which has to be the best percentage in Peru.  Unfortunately, Mayte wasn't one of those people there today.  She wouldn't answer her phone.  Later in the day she called me and explained that the reason why she didn't come today was because Elder Davis and Elder Colton told her that she would need to come today in order to be baptized this week, and she didn't feel ready for her baptism, so she didn't come.  So in total 5/6 investigators in my district fell, and they were all from Covima.  I hope that they knew what they were doing when they called me as DL.  Royer (Estefano's dad), an MA, was there today.  Everyone said hi to him and stuff.  I actually didn't know who he was at first.  We were there in the Come Follow Me class and I lent him my Book of Mormon so he could follow along because I thought he was an investigator.  He read 1 Nephi 16-18.  Remember 2 Sundays ago when that family of 4 wandered into church?  They came again!  And there's acutally 5 of them!  They told us that they'd be back in 2 weeks when we visited them.  I thought it was balogna, but they acutally came back!  They enjoyed it again, so we took out another cita.  The last time we went, we felt like we should have taught the Restoration, so we did that today.  We walked in and they had a documentary about space on.  Their dog is named Luke, after Luke Skywalker.  Basically, this family was made for me.  We're BFFs.  Right as we were about to relate the first vision, music suddenly started playing loudly downstairs.  I said a silent prayer that it would stop and it did.  That was a miracle.  All in all, great lesson.

Monday

Last night as Elder Recalde and I were walking along, we passed by in front of one of the two clinics in our area.  A lady saw us and said, "Elders!  Un ratito."  She explained how they're from Santa Felicia and her friend was in the ER.  (They are both about 60 years old.)  We were able to go in and give her a blessing that she was really in need of.  I know that it's not by coincidence that we crossed paths.  I know that God will also send people to minister unto us in times of need.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  It was a pretty busy office day of doing the end of month expense report.  Other than that though, office time wasn't overly exciting.  Last night I got a phone call from an angry dueña.  I hadn't received one of those in a while.  Basically we had to do an emergency mudanzo for the Hermanas in Las Viñas.  According to the contract, the dueña will keep all of the guarantee since we didn't gave a 30 day notice.  That's fine, but the dueña is also demanding 300 extra soles to paint the house.  Bruh.  That's what the guarantee is for.  So I argued with her for a while before I said I'd call her back today.  I ain't gonna call back.  There's 3 things I hate: Jehovah Witnesses, Iglesia de Dios, or other chumps trying to argue with me; pushups; angry dueños.  Elder Recalde had to stop by the podologa on on our way out to work today because his toes were hurting and there was weird puss stuff.  Long story short, he didn't rest like he should've after his surgery and how he had to get another small operation to fix it up.  Elder Lopez has a bad back, so he's coming to stay with us for 3 weeks.  Elder Dodds was here to pick up a mini missionary.  So what we did was send Elder Lopez with Elder Recalde so that they both could rest and I went out with Elder Colton and Elder Davis.  We just contacted the entire night.  They're both really great guys, but both of them tend to look at the glass as half empty.  I'm trying to think of ways that I can help them over come this obstacle because they'll find a lot more if they do.  I'm going to try and get the ZLs to do an intercambio with them.  As an ex-office Elder, I think that Elder Tenny can help.

Tuesday

I know that the priesthood was restored by John the Baptist and Peter, James and John.  I know that if we are worthy priesthood holders, then God will make us instruments in His hands.  We will be the means of blessing the lives of many.  I know that I possess this portion of God's power and that if it were necessary, I could accomplish all the miracles Jesus would want me to--if I have faith.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  Elder Davis had to take a bunch of missionaries to migrations this morning, so all of their comps got left in the office.  Elder Shockley was one of them.  He came up to my office to get reconcilacion de fondo (background reconciliation) A paper, but my computer wouldn't turn on.  Well, we found ourselves talking about Star Wars.  He really likes it, maybe almost as much as I do.  He even appreciates the memes!  I hadn't had a good, intelligent conversation about that in a long time.  I like that guy.  So it turns out that my computer wouldn't turn on because our office was in a blackout.  It's pretty hard to work on your computer if there's no electricity FYI.  It was a weird blackout though because some lights would turn on and my AC too (though it blew no cold air).  Every 10 minutes, the power would come back for .34 seconds.  No one came to fix it until 4 PM.  In the mean time, we waited and fruitlessly tried to be productive.  I sent Peruvians to pay their no-voting multa, but the bank told them that the list wouldn't be ready until the end of the month.  They told me it'd be ready a week ago, then today, and now in a month?  This is the Peruvian government.  Remember back in the day when I used to be filled by a PB&J?  Well today I ate 5 of them for lunch.  I went with Covimal to visit Mayte.  She really wants to get baptized February 22!  After the lesson, she sent us a picture of a plan she made for her OLA.  She has some really good and mature goals.  We did a district attack in Centanario after.  I think that that helped them a lot.  If people at Tottus saw Elder White doing hard drifts with shopping carts, they'd think he was crazy.  That's why I've had to master the art of the formal shopping card drift.  You can have fun but ya gotta be professional at the same time.

Wednesday

So Elder Mendoza looks like he's going to be in the office for 2 years, at least that's what President told me.  He's got a really bad back problem, so he can't walk that well and usually cruises around in his wheel chair.  Some of the other office Elders sometimes have a bad attitude about it.  But he's a great kid and I'm learning a lot from him, mainly on having a positive attitude.  It's like they say: life is 10% of what happens to you and 90% of what you make of it.  I'm learning to be even more positive than I already am, and am trying to help the others.  I know that as I do so, I'll be happier.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  As I was working with him today, Elder Mendoza told me that his family went to Machu Pichu without him.  They didn't even tell him; he saw it on Facebook.  Looks like the poor guy might be sleeping alone a few nights.  We had the consejo de liderazgo (leadership council) today.  It lasted a long time--until 3:30, then I had to clean up after too.  It was a really good meeting though, so I feel like it'll really help the mission.  I'm going to focus less on contacting and more on finding.  For the meeting, Hermana Amato made Fejuada, a classic Brazilian dish.  It was really good.  I was talking to her a bit and it sounds like they'll probably be moving to Utah.  I was walking along tonight and ran into Royer.  I was just making mild chitchat and he said, "Yeah, we're going to bring Estefano down from Chosocu on Saturday; he's got to prepare for his baptism."  We all thought that Estefano wasn't ever coming back, so that's great news!  We went to go and visit William and Rosa tonight.  William said, "Look at this and tell me if it's real," and then showed me how Duayne The Rock Johnson messaged him on Facebook offering $3 million--he just had to input his personal information.  We had a good laugh and explained that it was fake.  We taught them about vicarious baptism.  Rosa, being herself, said that her parents were amazing, religious people, so they wouldn't need baptism.  I used what she said and explained and teistfied as: "I believe you.  I know that they were such good people that they recognized and accepted the truth on the other side.  They're just waiting on you."  The spirit was really strong.

Thursday

To me, I find it very interesting that a flame has no shadow.  If you light a match and then shine a flashlight on it, there will be a shadow for the match stick, but not for the flame.  No matter the size of the flame or however bright the other light source, it is literally impossible for light to have a shadow.  This example has a lot of spiritual applications.  The most outstanding one is this: we all matter.  We're each like a match.  Some of us might be extremely bright while others may be dim.  But in the end, we all shine more brightly together; we don't cast shadows.  I know that God loves each and every one of us.  I also know that by small and simple means are great things brought to pass.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  I had a dream last night that I ate dinner with Elder Uchtdorf and his wife.  After the dinner I said, "That was really good Harriet, thanks!"  After that I went to Tottus with Jaxon and then realized that my stake president never released me.  Those are definitely dreams of a missionary.  We and consejo this morning.  The Hermana leaders did a great training on the joy of missionary work.  I had the zone leaders come and do intercombios with Elder Davis and Elder Colton to try and help them out a bit.  It was cool for Elder Tenney to come back.  We had a cita with Moises, Araseli, Lucero and Angelina.  We had a really good lesson on the Plan of Salvation.  I felt like we really got to connect with them.  Moises is up to date on his Ven, Sigueme (Come Follow Me) reading.  He really enjoys learning about the church.  We were testifying of the Celestial Kingdom and I weaved baptism into there.  They all (except Angelina who's 6) accepted a baptism date for March 7th.  Now that made me happy.  I was kinda hesitant since it didn't go over super well last time, but I'm glad that I invited them.  Elder Tenney taught me a new way to contact with the Book of Mormon because as Elder Holland said, it's our most powerful proselyting tool.  There was a lady I contacted who started out by saying that she was already super creyente (believer).  I normally would've let her pass, but instead I testified of the Bible and then moved to share about the Book of Mormon and shared a verse.  It was a very successful contact.  It was also probably the most spiritually powerful contact of my mission.  I enjoyed that a lot.

Friday

There were days when I couldn't eat a liter of ice cream in one sitting let alone choose to do that for dinner.  These are not those days.  I don't know how it is for you, but every once in a while I'll just have it dawn on me that I know the church is true.  I mean, I obviously knew that before hand, it's just like another reassurance where you realize how real everything is.  We were singing  (I Am a Child of God) tonight at Joakin's baptism and I had one of those moments as I pondered upon the lyrics.  The spirit really touched me.  I know that this church is 100% true.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  Today was what you call a hectically busy day.  I had barely started on the monthly expense report on Monday, and that's a 3 full day project if you do your studies in the morning.  So I had to continue that today.  It got complicated though because President's card stopped working on his Uber account yesterday and needed me to fix it for him ASAP Rocky.  Part of my job is being given a problem I have no idea how to fix and having to find a solution.  Sometime in the afternoon, President called me into his room with 20 or so other missionaries that are ending between now and August.  He really drilled into us that we needed to develop a solid vision of where we want to be 20 years from now.  He really drilled into us that we need to do this in order to be successful in life.  Today Joakin (Bishop's son) got baptized.  When we first got there, we saw people setting stuff up for a large get together so I asked, "Are you here for Joakin's baptism?"  "Who's that?"  Long story short, there's a guy in Centenario that got home from his mission 15 days ago and today he got married with a girl that he met in the MTC.  I would consider that guy medio loco.  The idea of being married in 5 months scares me.  The single life is just to good to give up so fast.  Joakin's baptism was good.  We were just there because bishop invited us, and it's a good way to stay in touch with the ward.  I did my first baptism interview with Centenario's 17 year old investigator, Marcelo.  It was a very spiritually enlightening experience.  I enjoyed that.  He was very ready for his baptism.

 Official mission picture from when Elder Holland was here.
 

 Joakin's baptism.
 

When you wonder why no one wants to buy the lot.

Week 23 in the Office

William and Rosa

Friday
Ya know what I've realized recently?  In the Book of Mormon, it says something along the lines of 'remembering the captivity of their fathers' a lot.  It's almost always said when a people is in sin and the prophet is calling them to repentance.  There must be something about it that humbles us.  I think that it makes us thankful, and that's what does it because it's impossible to be prideful and thankful at the same time.  It makes us realize that God is in charge.  Remembering the captivity of our fathers and their liberation by God I think also serves to remind us that we're capable of falling into that captivity if we don't repent.  I don't know too much on the topic, but I do know, that God will bless us if we do it.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  Elder Pardo and Elder Recalde went to do room inspections in La Molina today, so they aprovechared (took advantage of) the time to go check out the river in Cienguilla.  It rained a lot this past week (not in Lima though), so the river was high and fast.  I was praying that the water level wouldn't be too low, well, it wasn't hehe...  We had William and Rosa's interviews in the chapel tonight.  It took a bit since they talk a lot, but they both passed.  We showed them a video of the river.  Well, Rosa said she wants a river still.  They might end up 20 yards downstream when they're done, but their wish is our command.  Jeffrey R Holland did a devotional tonight for all the recent converts.  We had a bit of a panic because no one from the stake came to the church to set stuff up for the transmission, but we eventually got it up and running.  It was an amazing devotional; I don't know why they didn't tell all the members to watch it.  Jeffrey R Holland is such an amazing man.  He made some analogies that I really liked.  He compared our situations to math equations.  If we're trying to solve the equation, but we make a mistake early on, we can never get the solution that's correct no matter how hard we try unless we go back to fix that mistake.  It was a good analogy for repentance.  Then he compared the covenant path to a boat ride.  A lot of the time, it's smooth, pleasant sailing.  Every once in a while, a storm hits.  Don't jump overboard!  The boat's gonna be fine!  Hold on to your life jackets and the safety rail.  I was very impressed.  He ended with a good Spanish testimony.  I didn't know he knew Spanish!

Saturday
I know that the gospel of Jesus Christ really does change people.  I can see the change, and other people can see it too.  William and Rosa are the latest example.  That's the greatest part of being a missionary: seeing people progress on the covenant path to eternal life by following the gospel and making other covenants with God.  It's just so satisfying.  It's like that scripture in D&C about bringing souls unto Christ; there's an incredibly great happiness.  The best part is is that I'm one of those souls that I brought unto Christ.  I know that I'm doing this work and I know that he's please with me.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  Late last night I got a call from William.  He told me that Rosa had backed out of being baptized in a river and would be fine to do it in the capilla instead.  Milagros!  Today was a pretty standard edition version of p-day.  My room with Joe and his brother Christopher got confirmed.  That's cool I guess.  His sister will be in the same apartment complex as us.  I call dibs on not talking to the dueño.  I've had enough practice with that.  In today's chapter of "Satan is a stinky poop face and doesn't want to let my investigators get baptized," he locked us outside of our bedroom.  While we were gone, somehow our door got shut and locked.  After the last time this happened, I took the keys and put them on a shelf in the kitchen where no one would touch them. Well, someone touched them.  The dueña wasn't home.  We spent a good hour trying to get it open by trying to use cards and stuff.  After a while, we were late to the baptism, so I shoulder charged the door and got it 90% open, but also broke the wood, which is what we were avoiding.  At that point, we said, "Ya fue ya (it was ready)," and kicked it open. 

If I had a sol for every door I've had to break down on my mission, I'd have 2 soles, which isn't a lot, but it's weird it happened twice.  Elder Armstrong came for the baptism.  There weren't a lot of members there at first since the jovenes (young men) had a camp out, but they got there just in time.  I baptized Rosa.  It was a very nice service.  William had a bad back, but he got it done.  After I brought Rosa up out of the water, she said to me, "You want to know what I saw?  When I was in the water I saw a big blue star that was really pretty."  Kolob?  I'm not quite sure what to make of that.  Rosa has changed a lot.  I haven't heard her talk about William's affair since we roasted her that one time.

Sunday
I know that God has a plan for me, the Plan of Salvation.  I know that I lived with God beforehand.  I know that I'm here to be tested in this mortal body.  I know that if I follow the gospel of Jesus Christ, have a family and obey God's commandments, then I will inherit eternal life after this life.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  Well, this morning I put a bit of oil in a pan and set it on the stove to heat up while I went to the assistant's room to get my hamburger for breakfast (soup).  I stopped to say hi to Elder Kimball when Elder Wilcox yelled, "ELDER WHITE!" So I ran into the kitchen where he was only to find my oil on fire.  I don't even know how that happened. So I hurry and got some water to throw on it and, "BOOM!"  Well, not really.  But that would've been really exciting.  Good thing I've seen Myth Busters and payed attention in my jr high cooking class.  That was really hard to clean by the way.  But that kinda really reflected how the rest of my day went.  Remember back in October when the Peruvian President dissolved congress?  Well, today they held the re-elections for congress.  Since it's a law that you have to vote, we weren't allowed to go to church.  It was very weird not to go to church.  We just felt off the entire day.  The Amato's  invited us to their house for lunch.  Hermana Amato made us some really good spaghetti.  After lunch, we read from "Ven Siguame (Come Follow Me)" since we couldn't go to church.  It was pretty nice.  Then we ate s'mores, so that was rico (rich).  While we were there, Luigi said, "Guys!  Kobe died!"  Elder Napier is having trouble accepting that.  Any time there was a break in the conversation, he would say, "Guys.  Kobe's dead."  We were about to go when President called the assistants in to talk to them.  They left his office and he called Elder Wilcox in.  I knew in that moment that he was going to be leaving the office.  I was right.  President Amato told us that and I said, "I wonder who the district leader is going to be now."  Then President said, "Elder White, can I see you in my office please?"  Welp that question got answered pretty quickly.  Nineteen months in and I was beginning to think that I'd gone under the radar my whole mission.  Well, seguimiento (tracing) is a thing for me now.  I've go no training for this thing, but I've seen it done for 19  months.  This will be interesting.

Monday
Hermana Amato has a great training on resilience.  Her childhood was hard and she's had other rough patches in life too.  She's really good at testifying about it during the 2 week training.  I know that trials will happen, but through Christ we can endure whatever it is that life throws at us.  We've gotta be like those chocolate chips.  When life knocks you down, you just gotta say, "Siempre me leventaré (I will always get light)."  I know that as we look to Christ as our example and our strength, he will help us make it through.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  Welp, Elder Pardo and Elder Wilcox both left the office this morning.  I didn't want to see them go.  In 3 weeks, all of my friends left.  It's a rough transition so far for the new office crew.  But ya know what they say: when life gives you lemons, throw 'em out and make that weird Peruvian Limeade instead because they don't believe in lemons here.  I politely asked Elder Pardo to wash his dishes this morning before he left.  He denied, saying that he washed all of his.  I washed his half.  All 3 of our sinks were literally chuck full of his dirty dishes from the last week by the way.  It was only just that he'd do that one more time.  Today marks 19 months.  We have a mini missionary named Elder Mendoza helping Elder Recalde out with references this week.  He has really bad back problems, so he falls over easily and walks very slowly.  We walked him to the temple (about 7 minutes normally) so that hs family could pick him up for the night.  It took 45 minutes to walk there.  We contacted the whole night, and then things got crazy.  Elder Colton had to go tot he ER with Hermana Santana, Elder Davis had to go the airport to pick up Elder Ordoñez (he's back!) and I had to go to set up for the 2 week training tomorrow with Elder Recalde.  We had to ask the assistants for help.  Crazy night.  Let me tell ya about Elder Armstrong's hair loss.  So a while back, we started to notice that his hair was growing thinner above his ears.  He decided to tell Hermana Hixon, the area doctor.  She gave him permission to do a lot of exams and stuff.  (He wound up using hearly 1000 PEN, not including the expensive medicine he bought.)  I gave him crap about that.  Hermana Amato found out and told him that he also had permission to call his family to tell them.  We were joking about that when I said, "You're not actually going to call, are you?"  "I don't see why not."  "Dude you talked to them for 3 hours on p-day 3 days ago."  So then we poked even more fun at him.  It's just super funny how serious they're taking it when he's just genetically losing hair.

Tuesday
I know that because of Christ, death has no sting.  He beat that for us.  Thanks to him, death has no victory over us; thanks to Him, every single one of us will be resurrected.  We will have the chance to see our deceased family members again.  And if we live righteously, we will be able to inherit the Celestial Kingdom of God with them.  We need not fear death, for I know that it is a natural part of progression to become like our Heavenly Father.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  We had the 2 weeks training this morning.  Elder Recalde had to have a training on references.  Well, he doesn't really know English, and Hermanas Lenzi and Dunn speak 2 1/2 licks of Spanish, so I translated.  I'm a pretty good translator if I do say so myself.  Elder Recalde talks kinda robotically sometimes, so my occasional shouts of "Yeah!" or "Wahoo!" probably made things more awkward.  At least Hermana Amato laughed.  Afterwards, we were helping President with a problem with his Uber account and he told us about the Coronavirus.  Sketchy stuff.  As a veteran plague inc player, let me tell ya: we might be in big doo-doo if we don't find a vaccine soon.  Coronavirus is kind of a lame name though.  They couldn't have done a name like the Black Plaque?  For a new epidemic they need a cool name like Wreckingballatitis.  So we found out that Jeff moved back to Huancayo.  It's frustrating, but nothing personal.  He just didn't like the big city kind of life.  I was contacting tonight and tried to talk to these 2 girls around my age, but they ignored me.  But then I heard them talking in English, so I said, "Hey, where are you guys from?"  They kept walking away so I followed them a bit as they slowly said, "The US."  "Yeah, but what part?"  "Boston"  "That's cool.  I'm from Utah."  "Mormons, right?"  "Uh....yeah."  "Have a good night."  Written on paper it sounds casual, but she was incredibly rude about it.  I just wanted to talk to my paisano (countryman).  "Mormons, right?"  "Starbucks, right?"  Gringos these days.  After that I turned to Elder Recalde and said, "Well she was mean.  Ya know, maybe marrying a Latina wouldn't be so bad after all."  Outside of missionaries, I haven't really met a lot of classy Americans.

Wednesday
I know that Joseph Smith really did have the first vision like he said he did.  I know that he really did see God the Father and His son, Jesus Christ.  I know that they told him that at that point in time, there was no true church upon the Earth.  I know that he was divinely called to do God's work.  From this I know that the Heavens aren't sealed and that God will give us revelation.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  On our way out this morning, Elder Recalde dared me to touch our electric fence, so I did.  Well, that was the last thing I remember as I sit here writing in my hospital bed.  Ha!  Just kidding.  Don't worry, Elder White knows how to touch a Peruvian electric fence without getting shocked.  For lunch, Elder Davis and I went to Moli Centro and he bought me Papa Johns.  Saint Mayonnaise, that was good!  It's a lot tastier than what I remember.  We also stopped by this hole in the wall shop that was called Los 3 Chanchitos.  They sell a lot of American goods there, but they're kinda pricey.  Elder Davis dropped 100 soles on 4 boxes of Poptarts.  As we were contacting tonight, there was a woman in her 50s or so walking ahead of me.  My natural walking speed is pretty fast, so I figured that I'd easily be able to catch up to her and invite her to church.  They only thing was was that whenever I got close enough that I'd be about to say something, she'd do a 15 second old lady jog, and then would walk until I cot close enough.  She did this, like, 4 times.  Elder Recalde was having a pretty good silent laugh behind me.  Eventaually I just decided to speedwalk to get her.  As probably expected, our conversation lasted approximately 7.13 seconds.  We had a cita wtih Gloria tonight.  Despite Jeff having left, she still has desires and appears to be progressing, though she was evidently very worried about him.  We kinda just had to promise her that if she did her part, God would do His to take care of Jeff.  We also went to go visit William and Rosa.  We got Gino in there too.  We focused a lot on eduring to the end.  I put on a video of David Archuleta singing Con el Salvador al Lado to share my point.  Everyone was able to recognize the spirit.  It was a very nice lesson.