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.
No comments:
Post a Comment