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.
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