Elder McKay White: 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.