Elder Tenney's last moments in the office. If you don't have a fan down here, you might get heat stroke.
Saturday, March 28, 2020
Saturday, March 21, 2020
Week 30 in the Office (Quarantine Begins)
Thursday
Ether 12:6 has become one of my favorite scriptures. I love the idea of "having no witness until after the trial of your faith". Then literally right after that he says in other words, "So quit your whining and just do it." This part of the principle of faith has been huge for my learning experience so far on my mission. What's even cooler is that anytime someone doesn't understand a commandment, I have them read this scripture. Problem solved every time. I know that as we exercise this blind faith in Christ, he will truly manifest the truthfulness thereof through blessings. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. The area wants every companionship in the mission to have a 2 week emergency food supply. We sent everyone money to take out today but it wasn't there on their cards. That caused a mild panic because we've seen these Costco videos. YOLO. We had consejo this morning. I put Elder Mendosa in charge of the training to try and get him more involved. He did an ok one on charity. I think he enjoyed it. It was good for him. We went to lunch and had some really good spaghetti with meatballs. So Elder Wilcox's companion finished his mission so he was stuck in a trio. I talked Eric into being a mini missionary in order to be his companion. So he's making a bunch of sacrifices in order to do that. Well, emergency transfers came in and Elder Wilcox got put with an extremely difficult companion (when he was with Elder Porter he would steal his stuff and try and run away). Elder Wilcox didn't deserve that. And poor Eric. He still decided to be a a mini missionary though. He'll be with Elder Woolf who's a cool guy. We were out contacting tonight when President sent us an article from the church saying that church was canceled world wide, as well as all church activities. That also includes missionary meetings. We were all freaking out a lot bit. Contacting is super weird now without telling them that church will bless them. Not gonna lie though, President Amato totally called this though. We were talking to him a month ago and he talked about how Come Follow Me came out because someday we wouldn't be able to go to church anymore. We thought he meant some crazy situation 10 years down the road. He's very in tune with the spirit. We were walking along and I saw Moises up on his balcony, so we paid them a short visit. We talked about temples and the priesthood. They're doing well.
Friday
Another cool thing from the Book of Mormon war chapters: Moroni's epistle to Pahoran. He roasts that boy hard. There's one part that I especially like a lot. Verses 11 and 21 talk about faith saying basically, "Why do you think the Lord will help us out if you don't do anything to solve the problem? That's not how it works. God is not going to magically solve the problem for us! He's given us all the means and help so that we can resolve this problem for us! He's given us all the means and help so that we can resolve this. Do something about it!" The same thing applies to us in our problems. Sure, God might fix it every now and then, but other times, most of the time, he will aid us in our effort to do it and fix it ourselves. This reminds me of my good friend. As a teen he constantly struggled with depression. He always did all of the spiritual stuff that he needed to--seminary, OLA- but didn't seek any "physical" help per say. So he never got better and didn't understand why. Now his problem got out and he's getting all the "physical" help he can, but he's decided that God can't help him and isn't as good with his OLA anymore. I just wish that I could help him understand. I know that it's by His grace that we are saved after all we can do. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. So I felt that we should buy an extra 14 day emergency food supply for me and Elder Oliva since we're here on the office too. I went to Makro (Peruvian Costco) with the assistants so that they could finish buying their stuff and so that I could get all of mine. Right as we got there, they stopped letting people in and a huge line formed around the store. We watched as people walked out with 3 huge pallet carts each- 1 of toilet paper, 1 of water, and 1 of 200 kg of rice in addition to other food. So we walked to Wong instead. Crazy stuff. We had a cita with a MA, Rosa, and her boyfriend Mario but that didn't go anywhere. We tried meeting with Gino again, but the cita fell again. Then we had a ctia with Valeria while we filled the baptismal font for tomorrow. She's still got her nose piercing in among others, so we mainly talked about that. She's excited and ready for tomorrow. Every cita the last 2 days has started out with the person making a comment on the Coronavirus. They're like, "Watch out! It'll getcha. Don't die Yatee Yatee Yatuh." So the entire lesson I'll do my best not to cough until eventually it escapes. When it does, they pause and scan me to judge and see if I'm going to contaminate them. Funny stuff.
Saturday
Have you ever wondered how King Lamoni felt when Ammon interpreted his thoughts? I found out what that was like tonight. I can't stop thinking about it. I was on the phone as we left the church tonight when a dude on a bike said, "Elders!" and pulled over to talk to Elder Recalde. I finished up my call and waited a minute or two. His name is Jesus and he's an RM member from La Molina. I was about to say that we needed to go. He was talking about the usual RM stuff like how great the mission is and stuff. Then he said, "There's some things that I feel I should tell you." He turned to me and read me like a book, I hadn't even been involved in the conversation. He talked to me about patience saying that I'm usually good at being patient on the outside, but not always on the inside. I am sometimes quick to anger on the inside and he told me that I need to improve that. Then he told me that I like to do things quickly, but needed to slow down and pay attention to certain details to make sure stuff got done the right way. He kept on saying "I feel" the entire time. Then he told me that he felt I had a bit of a hard character--not too personal--closed if you will. "That's what makes people talk behind your back and not to you when there's a problem. So he told me to try and loosen up a bit I guess. Then he really reiterated on the whole patience thing and how that was the biggest key to improving as a missionary and helping my peers. He was literally an answer to my prayers. He told me about things I need to fix that I hadn't even recognized until he told me them. Then he did the same with Elder Recalde. He had the gift of discernment on another level. I'm very grateful for that experience. It was life changing. We went out to go eat sushi today. The service was really slow and there wasn't any ice cream rolls, so that's unfortunate. Valeria's baptism was supposed to be today, but then Andre told us that she went to a party and drank last night with her friends and sent us a screen shot of the conversation. Dang it Valeria! We wanted to see if she'd call us and confess, but she never did. So I called her to talk to her about it. We moved her baptism back a week and met with her later tonight to talk about it. "You're getting baptized tomorrow, so that means if you drink tonight, it doesn't matter." Freaking Satan. She's good now though. Ecuador is closing their boarders, so we have to send Elder Klinger home tomorrow bright and early so he doesn't get shut out of his own country since he's ending soon. Sad stuff.
Sunday
I know that the sacrament is the most important thing we do every week. I know that when we partake of it we are renewing our baptismal covenants, and I can't think of anything better you could do with your time. It's part of enduring to the end. It's how we retain a remission of our sins. There's so much doctrine here that I wish I know better. But I do know this: The sacrament is a sacred ordinance and it makes me feel good when I make an effort to make it special. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. I had to come home early last night because I was feeling sick, but I'm ok now. We went to the bishop's house for the santa cena (sacrament) this morning. Mario was there too, so I was happy to see that. We watched a transmission from the stake and did Come Follow Me before hand. It was a different experience, but it was good. I'm grateful to have a prophet that has this kind of insight and revelation from God. What would we do without modern day prophets? There was some miscommunication between Andre and Valeria, so she wasn't able to take the sacrament today. That was too bad. We did some good 'ole weekly planning when we got back. We took a lunch break to go eat with a family that's from Iquitos (the jungle). They had been asking us, "So do you guys want to eat snake, monkey, crocodile or worms?" We only had pasta, which might've been a good thing in the end. Since I've had a cough for a while and people have started freaking out on me with all of this Coronavirus crap, so we (by we I mean mostly "they") decided that I should stay in tonight. As soon as Elder Klinger got his flight ticket, President told Elder Davis to do the same for the Argentines, Gringos and Brazilians because he felt their boarders would be closed soon as well. That's 8 missionaries. Then this afternoon he said to do it for everyone in that group of 13 missionaries. Elder Davis had to try and do it all behind the area's back. It was pretty crazy. Even crazier, President received the revelation to do transfers on Tuesday so he and the assistants cranked out transfers in two hours. I got placed in Nueva Era in the Las Flores zone with Elder Lopez from my group. Right then, President Vazcarra had a national emergency announcement to say that effective immediately, the entire country would be place in a 15 day quarantine. That means no no more flights nor transfers. That was almost an incredible move by President. Apparently quarantine is the only thing that's helped countries stop the spread of the virus.
Monday
What if Joseph Smith never happened? That's a question that I've really pondered the past few days. Todd R Callister has a good talk on in. Joseph Smith restored so many gospel truths that weren't there before. What would we know about God if not for the Book of Mormon? Or D&C Or the Pearl of Great Price? Or any of his other visions and revelations. We wouldn't know that the Godhead is three separate beings and that the Father and the Son have bodies of flesh and bone. We wouldn't know anything about pre Earth life. We wouldn't know really why we're here or why bad things happen to good people. Nor would we have a complete understanding on past Earth life. It talks about the Kingdoms of Glory briefly in the Bible, but no other church has understood that. I know that Joseph Smith was the prophet called to restore His church and Gospel. I'm inexpressibly grateful for all he did. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. I left the office at 10 last night because I got hit by a wave of sueño. The others gave me an update when I woke up this morning. We're not allowed to hangout at the office during the quarantine, which is kinda the point of why I wanted to stay--AC and internet. Oh well though. I did a long workout this morning--I wasn't exactly short on time. Then I spent 3 hours cleaning the kitchen. There's a missionary from Huancayo with really bad asthma. They basically told him that he'd die if he got Coronavirus. So he tried to go home, except when he got to the airport, he found out that someone had bought his ticket out from under him for double the price. Poor guy. Since there's already 8 of us here, he's staying with 27 de Abril. President told us that there were armed guards around Tottus. Well, I wanted to buy some snacks there. Everyone else though freaked out saying that they'd arrest me if I coughed. Let’s just say that that was an exciting shopping trip. Those weren't any guards, but I did drop 70 soles on snacks. Swipey Swipey hehe. I read the Book of Mormon for like 3 hours today. This is basically the worst quarantine ever. Everyone is outside doing random crap. Do they not care that there's 71 cases of Covid-19 in Peru, which is doubling daily (40 of which are in La Molina). If you don't hear from me tomorrow, it's because actually I have no idea why that would be the case. We took the projectors out of the office, popped some "popped corn" (Megamind reference) and watched Meet theMormons Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
Tuesday
Pride destroyed the Nephites. Pride destroys nations today. Basically any problem in the history of ever is because of pride. It's still a big problem in today's world whether it be on a large or small scale. One of the largest roles in the Book of Mormon is to teach us about the pride cycle. I've had very little problem with getting along with my companions but the prideful ones are the only ones that really bother me. I'll admit, I used to be a very prideful man (but mostly on the inside). Since becoming a missionary, I've really learned better how to control it. As I have, I've become a lot happier. I know that God blesses the humble and meek. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. Ok, so this is still kind of a crappy quarantine. It's day #2 and there's chumps outside walking their dogs still. Really guys? I whipped everyone into shape this morning and got them all cleaning with me. If I'm stuck here for another 14 days, I might as well be living in a clean house. Just, Ah! Clean your dishes! It's not that hard fellas. You've got nothing else to do with your lives. Valeria is staying with her dad in San Martin de Parres. He smokes a lot, so that worries us a bit. We did a video call with her today since we couldn't meet in person for our cita. We totally throw on a shirt and tie with shorts.
You know what they say: business up top, quarantine down low. Valeria has always refuse to smoke around her family, so that's good. We're allowed to call home on Tuesdays and Saturdays during quarantine, so I decided to call my mom. They seem to be doing ok. Jaxon was getting a dental exam for his mission papers, so that was exciting for me to hear. While I was talking, Elder Recalde and Elder Davis came in to show me their legs after their shaving party. I don't think I'll ever be bored enough to get that low. Elder Davis was talking to his family and then suddenly ran around pinching everyone. St. Patrick's Day. Dang it. It sneaks up on on me every year. The assistants started making a parody of Do You Want to Build a Snowman? called Do You Want To Go Teach Someone?
If this is what we're all doing on day two, I can't imagine what will be happening in a month from now. I listened to a couple of talks today. For our movie night, we watched, The Phone Call. Half of them hadn't seen it before. No one knows why it's in the Gospel Library but it's a funny and awkward movie. No one was super diligent in trying to call old investigators or previous contacts today so I'll definitely make sure we're better at that tomorrow.
Friday
Day 5 in quarantine. In the beginning, I thought that I'd gain a lot of weight. Ya know, since we don't walk around and I'm just eating food all the time. It would appear that I might actually be losing some weight. I started at 197 lbs and now I'm at 193.5 lbs. I'm no philanthropist, but it doesn't quite make sense. The word of God is very powerful. In their mission to the Zoramites, Alma says that it's more powerful than a two edged sword. The Lamenites, in Heleman 4, take almost all of the lands of the Nephites. Moronihah managed to take back part of the lands, but then couldn't anymore. Then Nephi and Lehi happen with their missionary effort and baptize everyone and the Lamenites decided just to give them their cities back. That's a cool miracle in my opinion. Sometimes we need to have God and his gospel more of a priority because it can do more than we can with our own efforts. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. I learned how to use a butterfly knife today. I was doing good too until I accidentally cut my finger. Nothing big, just lost my finger tip. Just kidding, it's basically a paper cut. My hand has been taking a beating during this quarantine. First I got a paper cut between my fingers, then a blister, now this. Hopefully I still have all my fingers at the end of the week hehe. I was so tired today. After our companion study, I was like, "Let's make some phone calls!" but I took a nap on accident instead. When I woke up, I had to go pick up lunch again. Then I made myself a milkshake. I enjoy making those life choices. President decided to do a mini zone conference with each zone through a conference call, so Mayorazgo did ours today. It's a good idea in theory, but we got easily distracted and it was hard to pay attention. We tried experimenting with making a mini golf course in the room. That was fun. We all found out what our max lift was today. Mine was 165 lbs, which is good considering that it was probably 100 lbs when I started 4 months ago. For our movie night, we watched the new Abinadi Book of Mormon video. That's easily the best one yet. Not gonna lie, I got pretty bored today.
A video that Elder Recalde's dad sent him. It is pretty funny:
Ether 12:6 has become one of my favorite scriptures. I love the idea of "having no witness until after the trial of your faith". Then literally right after that he says in other words, "So quit your whining and just do it." This part of the principle of faith has been huge for my learning experience so far on my mission. What's even cooler is that anytime someone doesn't understand a commandment, I have them read this scripture. Problem solved every time. I know that as we exercise this blind faith in Christ, he will truly manifest the truthfulness thereof through blessings. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. The area wants every companionship in the mission to have a 2 week emergency food supply. We sent everyone money to take out today but it wasn't there on their cards. That caused a mild panic because we've seen these Costco videos. YOLO. We had consejo this morning. I put Elder Mendosa in charge of the training to try and get him more involved. He did an ok one on charity. I think he enjoyed it. It was good for him. We went to lunch and had some really good spaghetti with meatballs. So Elder Wilcox's companion finished his mission so he was stuck in a trio. I talked Eric into being a mini missionary in order to be his companion. So he's making a bunch of sacrifices in order to do that. Well, emergency transfers came in and Elder Wilcox got put with an extremely difficult companion (when he was with Elder Porter he would steal his stuff and try and run away). Elder Wilcox didn't deserve that. And poor Eric. He still decided to be a a mini missionary though. He'll be with Elder Woolf who's a cool guy. We were out contacting tonight when President sent us an article from the church saying that church was canceled world wide, as well as all church activities. That also includes missionary meetings. We were all freaking out a lot bit. Contacting is super weird now without telling them that church will bless them. Not gonna lie though, President Amato totally called this though. We were talking to him a month ago and he talked about how Come Follow Me came out because someday we wouldn't be able to go to church anymore. We thought he meant some crazy situation 10 years down the road. He's very in tune with the spirit. We were walking along and I saw Moises up on his balcony, so we paid them a short visit. We talked about temples and the priesthood. They're doing well.
Friday
Another cool thing from the Book of Mormon war chapters: Moroni's epistle to Pahoran. He roasts that boy hard. There's one part that I especially like a lot. Verses 11 and 21 talk about faith saying basically, "Why do you think the Lord will help us out if you don't do anything to solve the problem? That's not how it works. God is not going to magically solve the problem for us! He's given us all the means and help so that we can resolve this problem for us! He's given us all the means and help so that we can resolve this. Do something about it!" The same thing applies to us in our problems. Sure, God might fix it every now and then, but other times, most of the time, he will aid us in our effort to do it and fix it ourselves. This reminds me of my good friend. As a teen he constantly struggled with depression. He always did all of the spiritual stuff that he needed to--seminary, OLA- but didn't seek any "physical" help per say. So he never got better and didn't understand why. Now his problem got out and he's getting all the "physical" help he can, but he's decided that God can't help him and isn't as good with his OLA anymore. I just wish that I could help him understand. I know that it's by His grace that we are saved after all we can do. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. So I felt that we should buy an extra 14 day emergency food supply for me and Elder Oliva since we're here on the office too. I went to Makro (Peruvian Costco) with the assistants so that they could finish buying their stuff and so that I could get all of mine. Right as we got there, they stopped letting people in and a huge line formed around the store. We watched as people walked out with 3 huge pallet carts each- 1 of toilet paper, 1 of water, and 1 of 200 kg of rice in addition to other food. So we walked to Wong instead. Crazy stuff. We had a cita with a MA, Rosa, and her boyfriend Mario but that didn't go anywhere. We tried meeting with Gino again, but the cita fell again. Then we had a ctia with Valeria while we filled the baptismal font for tomorrow. She's still got her nose piercing in among others, so we mainly talked about that. She's excited and ready for tomorrow. Every cita the last 2 days has started out with the person making a comment on the Coronavirus. They're like, "Watch out! It'll getcha. Don't die Yatee Yatee Yatuh." So the entire lesson I'll do my best not to cough until eventually it escapes. When it does, they pause and scan me to judge and see if I'm going to contaminate them. Funny stuff.
Saturday
Have you ever wondered how King Lamoni felt when Ammon interpreted his thoughts? I found out what that was like tonight. I can't stop thinking about it. I was on the phone as we left the church tonight when a dude on a bike said, "Elders!" and pulled over to talk to Elder Recalde. I finished up my call and waited a minute or two. His name is Jesus and he's an RM member from La Molina. I was about to say that we needed to go. He was talking about the usual RM stuff like how great the mission is and stuff. Then he said, "There's some things that I feel I should tell you." He turned to me and read me like a book, I hadn't even been involved in the conversation. He talked to me about patience saying that I'm usually good at being patient on the outside, but not always on the inside. I am sometimes quick to anger on the inside and he told me that I need to improve that. Then he told me that I like to do things quickly, but needed to slow down and pay attention to certain details to make sure stuff got done the right way. He kept on saying "I feel" the entire time. Then he told me that he felt I had a bit of a hard character--not too personal--closed if you will. "That's what makes people talk behind your back and not to you when there's a problem. So he told me to try and loosen up a bit I guess. Then he really reiterated on the whole patience thing and how that was the biggest key to improving as a missionary and helping my peers. He was literally an answer to my prayers. He told me about things I need to fix that I hadn't even recognized until he told me them. Then he did the same with Elder Recalde. He had the gift of discernment on another level. I'm very grateful for that experience. It was life changing. We went out to go eat sushi today. The service was really slow and there wasn't any ice cream rolls, so that's unfortunate. Valeria's baptism was supposed to be today, but then Andre told us that she went to a party and drank last night with her friends and sent us a screen shot of the conversation. Dang it Valeria! We wanted to see if she'd call us and confess, but she never did. So I called her to talk to her about it. We moved her baptism back a week and met with her later tonight to talk about it. "You're getting baptized tomorrow, so that means if you drink tonight, it doesn't matter." Freaking Satan. She's good now though. Ecuador is closing their boarders, so we have to send Elder Klinger home tomorrow bright and early so he doesn't get shut out of his own country since he's ending soon. Sad stuff.
Sunday
I know that the sacrament is the most important thing we do every week. I know that when we partake of it we are renewing our baptismal covenants, and I can't think of anything better you could do with your time. It's part of enduring to the end. It's how we retain a remission of our sins. There's so much doctrine here that I wish I know better. But I do know this: The sacrament is a sacred ordinance and it makes me feel good when I make an effort to make it special. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. I had to come home early last night because I was feeling sick, but I'm ok now. We went to the bishop's house for the santa cena (sacrament) this morning. Mario was there too, so I was happy to see that. We watched a transmission from the stake and did Come Follow Me before hand. It was a different experience, but it was good. I'm grateful to have a prophet that has this kind of insight and revelation from God. What would we do without modern day prophets? There was some miscommunication between Andre and Valeria, so she wasn't able to take the sacrament today. That was too bad. We did some good 'ole weekly planning when we got back. We took a lunch break to go eat with a family that's from Iquitos (the jungle). They had been asking us, "So do you guys want to eat snake, monkey, crocodile or worms?" We only had pasta, which might've been a good thing in the end. Since I've had a cough for a while and people have started freaking out on me with all of this Coronavirus crap, so we (by we I mean mostly "they") decided that I should stay in tonight. As soon as Elder Klinger got his flight ticket, President told Elder Davis to do the same for the Argentines, Gringos and Brazilians because he felt their boarders would be closed soon as well. That's 8 missionaries. Then this afternoon he said to do it for everyone in that group of 13 missionaries. Elder Davis had to try and do it all behind the area's back. It was pretty crazy. Even crazier, President received the revelation to do transfers on Tuesday so he and the assistants cranked out transfers in two hours. I got placed in Nueva Era in the Las Flores zone with Elder Lopez from my group. Right then, President Vazcarra had a national emergency announcement to say that effective immediately, the entire country would be place in a 15 day quarantine. That means no no more flights nor transfers. That was almost an incredible move by President. Apparently quarantine is the only thing that's helped countries stop the spread of the virus.
Monday
What if Joseph Smith never happened? That's a question that I've really pondered the past few days. Todd R Callister has a good talk on in. Joseph Smith restored so many gospel truths that weren't there before. What would we know about God if not for the Book of Mormon? Or D&C Or the Pearl of Great Price? Or any of his other visions and revelations. We wouldn't know that the Godhead is three separate beings and that the Father and the Son have bodies of flesh and bone. We wouldn't know anything about pre Earth life. We wouldn't know really why we're here or why bad things happen to good people. Nor would we have a complete understanding on past Earth life. It talks about the Kingdoms of Glory briefly in the Bible, but no other church has understood that. I know that Joseph Smith was the prophet called to restore His church and Gospel. I'm inexpressibly grateful for all he did. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. I left the office at 10 last night because I got hit by a wave of sueño. The others gave me an update when I woke up this morning. We're not allowed to hangout at the office during the quarantine, which is kinda the point of why I wanted to stay--AC and internet. Oh well though. I did a long workout this morning--I wasn't exactly short on time. Then I spent 3 hours cleaning the kitchen. There's a missionary from Huancayo with really bad asthma. They basically told him that he'd die if he got Coronavirus. So he tried to go home, except when he got to the airport, he found out that someone had bought his ticket out from under him for double the price. Poor guy. Since there's already 8 of us here, he's staying with 27 de Abril. President told us that there were armed guards around Tottus. Well, I wanted to buy some snacks there. Everyone else though freaked out saying that they'd arrest me if I coughed. Let’s just say that that was an exciting shopping trip. Those weren't any guards, but I did drop 70 soles on snacks. Swipey Swipey hehe. I read the Book of Mormon for like 3 hours today. This is basically the worst quarantine ever. Everyone is outside doing random crap. Do they not care that there's 71 cases of Covid-19 in Peru, which is doubling daily (40 of which are in La Molina). If you don't hear from me tomorrow, it's because actually I have no idea why that would be the case. We took the projectors out of the office, popped some "popped corn" (Megamind reference) and watched Meet the
Tuesday
Pride destroyed the Nephites. Pride destroys nations today. Basically any problem in the history of ever is because of pride. It's still a big problem in today's world whether it be on a large or small scale. One of the largest roles in the Book of Mormon is to teach us about the pride cycle. I've had very little problem with getting along with my companions but the prideful ones are the only ones that really bother me. I'll admit, I used to be a very prideful man (but mostly on the inside). Since becoming a missionary, I've really learned better how to control it. As I have, I've become a lot happier. I know that God blesses the humble and meek. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. Ok, so this is still kind of a crappy quarantine. It's day #2 and there's chumps outside walking their dogs still. Really guys? I whipped everyone into shape this morning and got them all cleaning with me. If I'm stuck here for another 14 days, I might as well be living in a clean house. Just, Ah! Clean your dishes! It's not that hard fellas. You've got nothing else to do with your lives. Valeria is staying with her dad in San Martin de Parres. He smokes a lot, so that worries us a bit. We did a video call with her today since we couldn't meet in person for our cita. We totally throw on a shirt and tie with shorts.
You know what they say: business up top, quarantine down low. Valeria has always refuse to smoke around her family, so that's good. We're allowed to call home on Tuesdays and Saturdays during quarantine, so I decided to call my mom. They seem to be doing ok. Jaxon was getting a dental exam for his mission papers, so that was exciting for me to hear. While I was talking, Elder Recalde and Elder Davis came in to show me their legs after their shaving party. I don't think I'll ever be bored enough to get that low. Elder Davis was talking to his family and then suddenly ran around pinching everyone. St. Patrick's Day. Dang it. It sneaks up on on me every year. The assistants started making a parody of Do You Want to Build a Snowman? called Do You Want To Go Teach Someone?
If this is what we're all doing on day two, I can't imagine what will be happening in a month from now. I listened to a couple of talks today. For our movie night, we watched, The Phone Call. Half of them hadn't seen it before. No one knows why it's in the Gospel Library but it's a funny and awkward movie. No one was super diligent in trying to call old investigators or previous contacts today so I'll definitely make sure we're better at that tomorrow.
Friday
Day 5 in quarantine. In the beginning, I thought that I'd gain a lot of weight. Ya know, since we don't walk around and I'm just eating food all the time. It would appear that I might actually be losing some weight. I started at 197 lbs and now I'm at 193.5 lbs. I'm no philanthropist, but it doesn't quite make sense. The word of God is very powerful. In their mission to the Zoramites, Alma says that it's more powerful than a two edged sword. The Lamenites, in Heleman 4, take almost all of the lands of the Nephites. Moronihah managed to take back part of the lands, but then couldn't anymore. Then Nephi and Lehi happen with their missionary effort and baptize everyone and the Lamenites decided just to give them their cities back. That's a cool miracle in my opinion. Sometimes we need to have God and his gospel more of a priority because it can do more than we can with our own efforts. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. I learned how to use a butterfly knife today. I was doing good too until I accidentally cut my finger. Nothing big, just lost my finger tip. Just kidding, it's basically a paper cut. My hand has been taking a beating during this quarantine. First I got a paper cut between my fingers, then a blister, now this. Hopefully I still have all my fingers at the end of the week hehe. I was so tired today. After our companion study, I was like, "Let's make some phone calls!" but I took a nap on accident instead. When I woke up, I had to go pick up lunch again. Then I made myself a milkshake. I enjoy making those life choices. President decided to do a mini zone conference with each zone through a conference call, so Mayorazgo did ours today. It's a good idea in theory, but we got easily distracted and it was hard to pay attention. We tried experimenting with making a mini golf course in the room. That was fun. We all found out what our max lift was today. Mine was 165 lbs, which is good considering that it was probably 100 lbs when I started 4 months ago. For our movie night, we watched the new Abinadi Book of Mormon video. That's easily the best one yet. Not gonna lie, I got pretty bored today.
Roof top quarantine sunset.
A video that Elder Recalde's dad sent him. It is pretty funny:
Saturday, March 14, 2020
Week 29 in the Office
So uh, this week was fairly interesting. Mainly because of Coronavirus
stuff and people freaking out (there's a lot of hype about a flu that 1
in 50k people have), but also for other reasons too. For example, our
investigators Moises and Araceli got baptized!
That was awesome to see. I've really developed a great love for that family. We just need to figure out a way to baptize their hesitant 11 year old daughter Lucero. Missionary work is going to be a little hard with the whole no church thing or missionary meetings, but we'll figure out a way around it. Have a good week everyone!
Thursday
I think that there's one advice that I've really taken to heart: How you act on Pday is how you're gonna be after your mission. The first time that I heard that said around 8 months ago, it smacked me in the face. I wasn't the best at reading my scriptures on Pdays, but now I do that before I do anything else. If I don't do random contacts throughout the day, I probably wouldn't ever share the gospel with anyone back home. I've got the vision of the kind of man that I want to be int he future, so I'm doing what I can now to prepare to be that man. Ya know, the longest part of everyday for me is putting on my shoes. Some people think in the shower or while going to the bathroom, but I do it while I put my shoes on in the morning. It's just tedious to wear 2 pairs of socks I guess. Well, President decided that he wanted to dedicate the entire mission. So for leadership counsel this morning, we had everyone bring athletic clothes. We went over to Las Viñas and hiked up that mountain over there. President and Hermana Amato thought that it was a short hike, so they stayed in their church clothes. It was an hour up. I enjoyed it really. You could see half the mission from up there.
President said a really spiritual dedicatory prayer and even prophesied of future stakes. It was cool stuff. On the way down I hung out and laughed with Elder Leite. I really like that guy. I'm gonna miss him. I brought a hat and we were hiking into the sun, so I didn't think I needed sunscreen. Let's just say that my skin tone matches my old spice can. If I had a sol for every time that I thought I could best a giant burning ball of gas 3 trillion times my size on my mission, I'd probably have enough money to buy some ice cream. We got everyone Burger King for lunch, so that was cool. Elder Porter spent the good majority of his day working on the monthly expense report. While I'm glad that I"ll never have to do that again, I kinda miss it. Elder Menzoza is a strange case. He talked to me about having more respect from everyone, so I was like, "Ok, I'll see what I can do." Ten minutes later I walked into the other office to see everyone awkwardly glancing at each other while Elder Mendoza giggled while scrolling through kitten photos. Really dude? Hermana Amato called me in the night to talk to me about Elder Mendoza too. He told Hermana Lindstrom, who told Hermana Amato, who got after me for it. To be fair, the office doesn't have the best attitude about him, be he doesn't exactly care.
Friday
"That's the thing about being a villain: the bad guys always lose!"--Megamind. Satan's a bad guy. That means that he's gonna lose. There's your pensamiento espiritual (spiritual thought) for the day. You're welcome. So we woke up this morning to a 2 minute long 3 AM voice message from Sister Amato freaking out about the Corona Virus. It's officially here in Lima. Apparently some traveler dude picked it up while in Spain. I hear that he lives over in La Victoria, which is a quick 20 minute taxi ride from our mission. Exciting things. Hermana Amato had Elder Recalde and Elder Colton running around all day to buy 50L of hand sanitizer and a whole bunch of masks for all the missionaries. Then they had a couple hour meeting with the Amatos about it. Then they left to buy food for 2 weeks for all the missionaries in the mission. I think that they only wound up buying enough food for 1 companionship. This morning our zone had a play practice thing to get ready for our stake's Joseph Smith devotional. I was assigned the part of Brigham Young, who only has 3 or 4 sentences to say. I think that they just didn't want me to steal the show. After submitting all of our Caja Chica stuff, we finally got the check back from the Area office today. We went to the bank to cash it in and they were like, "No way Jośe." So I said, "My name's not Jośe you buey." So maybe it wasn't 100% accurate right there, but long story short, the check wasn't registered in the system yet. Quack. From there we went to visit Gladis, a contact I made last night. She was really cool and crying because after 25 years of marriage, her 1st husband ditched her. Then her 2nd pareja was a total boracho chump. So we were teaching her and stuff and then she said, "I've got something to confess that I didn't tell you last night," and then told us that she got baptized 32 years ago when she was 19, but is just MA. I could just hear Pedro from the Area office: "Oof Eldercito, ¿Y ahora?" I could also hear Elder Argeaga saying, "Maytitas, necesito filtrar mas. Era miembro." I was 13 second away from telling her to get baptized. Our cita with Gino fell tonight. We took Bro and Hermana Cordonas with us to visit Moises and his family. They seem good for tomorrow, but it's concerning that Lucero didn't leave her room.
Saturday
I don't know why people don't like the war chapters in the Book of Mormon, because I always have. There's still some cool lessons that you can learn from it, plus it's pretty entertaining. For example, let's talk about Moroni. It says that if we were al like him, then the Devil would never have power over us! Amazing! He's firm in the faith of Christ and resists all iniquity. Right before that, it tells us a lot of his characteristics: strong, powerful, doesn't like hurting others, rejoices in liberty for his people, extremely grateful, worked hard for the well being of his people, true to his faith, swore to defend his country and religion no matter the cost, and he helped his people to have that same faith. What an amazing example. So Elder Colton has a friend serving in Uruguay or something. Well the prophet just visited over there and talked to the missionaries. Apparently he told them that he thinks Jesus will come again before the year 2050. That'd be pretty crazy. I probably wouldn't even have any grandkids yet. So it turns out that there's actually 6 Corona virus cases in Peru--5 in Arequipa and 1 in La Molina, not in La Victoria. It's kinda crazy because that means that it's either here in Covima, or in La Molina, Centenario or Santa Felicia. I've got a bit of a cough right now, so I'm pretty self conscious about it now. Very interesting beans. Frozen 2 came out on DVD, so we ordered some pizza and we all watched that together. Good movie. Moises and Araceli had their baptism tonight at 6. There was a huge stake sports tournament all day (our ward won), so it was a little interesting. The joven (Fernando Diaz) that we had baptize them though was a good sport about it and came to do it. Valeria came too. 3 days without smoking! Yahoo! There was a really special spirit there during the baptism. It felt really good there. Lucero, Angelina, and some of Araceli's family was there. What was unique to their baptism was that there was a 6 minute blackout while they were trying to change. Good thing it didn't happen during the service.
Sunday
Patience is a virtue. People can really grind your gears sometimes if you know what I mean. If Jesus really suffered for all of human misery, then surely he's felt the pain of trying to keep your patience in the face of a frustrating situation. I know that saying a prayer will help. Sometimes you need to take a deep breath, step back and look at it from an eternal perspective. Is this guy going to affect the eternities or will I not even care about this anymore in a week from now. If it actually is important, say another prayer and read the Book of Mormon or something. If Jesus Christ went through all that with patience, then surely we all can try a little harder. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. Church was pretty cool this morning: Moises and Araceli got confirmed, Valeria came, and the Youngs (Latinos not gringos) brought their 12 year old neighbor with them. Also, the attendance reached 207 today, which is the highest that the ward has ever seen. The only weird thing is that now we're not allowed to shake hands. Now we have to do either this weird elbow tap or play footsies to say hi. Weird times call for weird measures I guess. We ate lunch with the Dipaz family. Ya know, the pension. It was just kinda normal haha. They got a puppy a while back after their trip (actually on their trip). Bishop was down on all 4s growling at it. Funny stuff. Today I learned that in all their marriage, Magaly and Mauricio (bishop) have never sat together in sacrament meeting; Bishop has always had leadership callings. Magaly said, "Even for the primary programs you sit by Wilford (his counselor)." That was pretty funny. So we went to church from the office. On our way out, we saw a rat run across the garage. Just me, Elder Porter and Elder Recalde were there. They freaked out, but I was just like, "Huh. I Guess Elder Pardo wasn't (totally) crazy." After church, Elder Porter was rallying everyone up saying, "It's body" *12 inches shown with hands* "is this big! And with it's tail," *24 inches this time* "was THIS BIG!!!" So all 8 of us went down and happened to see it dart into it's hole. So then we all went on a rat hunting adventure. Elder Davis and I were at the head of it with a fire extinguisher and a broom because everyone else screamed and jumped on something whenever they saw it. So after forcing it out of it's hole with water and a 10 minute struggle, it out smarted 8 full grown men. It was fun though. For dinner we had tequeños and soa a la minuta, which are my 2 favorite things to eat in Peru. Rat hunting:
Monday
There's another principle that I like from the war chapters in the LDM. When Moroni is preparing for Amalekiah's attack, he fortifies all of the cities. Not just does he fortify them, but he makes what were their weak points the strong points. So the the Lamanites attacked those points, but failed epically. Satan also knows our week points and will do his best to exploit them. When we're self evaluating, it's good to acknowledge our strengths but Satan rarely will attack our strengths. It's most important to make our week points into strong points. Helaman 5:12. I know that as we do this, we will be better prepared of the attacks of the enemy. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. So we were in desperate need of Caja Chica this morning, so we went to the bank bright and early. We got here and it turns out that Elder Porter's name was written wrong on the check. Quack. So we had to wait until the end of the day to get it, and we immediately used 1/3 of it. We had an office meeting with Elder Mendoza to try and help him. It went ok I guess. The biggest thing that needs changing is their attitude of him. Coronavirus. Interesting subject. Last night, Elder Davis and Elder Recalde bet an ice cream on whether or not it would be in Paraguay tomorrow (or today figures), because segun (according) to Elder Recalde, "No pasa noda Paraguay." Let's just say that he owes Elder Davis an ice cream now. I'm honestly not all that scared of it because I know that it's over hyped. They only thing I worry about is that there's counties where they've had to take out missionaries. If you have more than 18 months, you get sent home instead of being reassigned. I don't want that. So today we tried to go visit Pilar, the 12 year old neighbor of the Young family, but she wasn't home, so we decided to do a short visit with the Young's instead. That's a cita that I never would have chosen on my own because the dad is one of those crazy old dudes that argues about obscure doctrine during Sunday School. The wife is cool though. They seem to be very oriented towards missionary work. We did the pre interview with Valeria today. Still no more cigarettes. Yahoo! We tried to have a cita with a 19 year old I contacted named Gianella. She came out, but so did her crazy old uncle, so we thought it best to reschedule. There was road work going on in front of our house--a bulldozer with some jackhammer attachment breaking up the sidewalk--until 11 PM. Just, why?
Tuesday
It's amazing how much my spirituality has increased throughout my mission. I'm quite grateful for it. I've truly become happier with myself. A good way that I like to think about it as is the hymn More Holiness Give Me. It's a supplication to God for everything that we should be acknowledging. It help me acknowledge my inability to do this by myself and how only God can truly help us. I just want to be better--more like Christ I know that as I strive forward on this path, my relationship with God will improve more and more, and therefor my happiness too. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. We went to the Area Office this morning, which probably means that tomorrow I'll get something else I need to take there. The curse is real. So I've got my trunky training on Friday. There's two groups that day. Long story short, my group is in the morning session, which ends as the other group starts at lunch time. The difference is that they get lunch (pizza), but we don't. I tried everything to talk the Lindstroms into giving us lunch too, but they refused. That was frustrating. We did a district attack in Centenario tonight. We had our correlation meeting tonight, nothing too exciting there. We were eating dinner tonight, talking about our lunch with Centenario and their pension tomorrow. After a few minutes, Elder Colton asked who we were talking about, which was a silly question because he was involved in the conversation, so I said with a bit of sarcasm, "The Virgin Mary." I thought I was pretty funny, but then he poured his lemonade all over my dinner. I almost impulsively did the same to him, but I somehow found an extreme level of self control and didn't do it. I surprised myself with that one. I'm not quite sure why he did that.
Wednesday
Let's talk some more about the war chapters. Here's 2 things that I noticed-- 1. When the Nephites were being wicked, the Lamanites beat them. It's as simple as what the Lord told Lehi: when they're wicked, they'll be punished. And when they're righteous, they'll prosper. 2. Right at the beginning of that war, the Lamanites took a lot of cities. Reading up through Alma 54 or so is 5 years later, in the which time they only city that they took back was the city of Mulek. They had a lot of patience and trust in the Lord in that time. Anyways, a bunch of people in the zone were busy today, so we couldn't do district counsel. I suggested postponing it until tomorrow. The zone leaders sent out a text to the the zone saying that it was postponed because of the secretaries. That was kind of frustrating. So here's some more Corona Virus news for ya: Peru's president canceled school until the 30th of March. Also, certain MTCs will basically start homeschooling for a while. I wouldn't like that. Then the church also said that no one is allowed to go to the Conference Center for conference. There's the most shocking: They canceled professional sports in the US! Apparently Rudy Gobert has the Coronavirus. I don't know what I would do with myself back home. Crazy stuff. All this just because 1 in 70K people has the flu. We decided to eat as a district at Centenrio's pension. Good stuff. After that, Elder Recalde went to Huaycan and needed me to go with him. Not a lot has changed. It's a lot different than La Molina, that's for sure. I can't believe that I used to live there. The missionaries are living with Maria now, but unfortunately she wasn't home. I kinda really enjoyed the trip because it was nice to be back, and also to have 1 on 1 time with Elder Recalde. Good guy. Unfortunately, he told me that there's a lot of gossip about me behind my back in the office. That hurt because I'm a new district leader, but am honestly doing my best and consider the others to be my friends. I'm not sure what to do. There was a lot of traffic, so I got into a good conversation with our taxi driver and wound up teaching him almost all of L1 and L2. Hopefully he gets baptized. Valeria had her interview tonight and passed perfectly. She wants to take us to go get Makis (sushi), which is her favorite food. She's rich, so she eats it every day almost. We would love to, but the whole gender thing makes it complicated.
That was awesome to see. I've really developed a great love for that family. We just need to figure out a way to baptize their hesitant 11 year old daughter Lucero. Missionary work is going to be a little hard with the whole no church thing or missionary meetings, but we'll figure out a way around it. Have a good week everyone!
Thursday
I think that there's one advice that I've really taken to heart: How you act on Pday is how you're gonna be after your mission. The first time that I heard that said around 8 months ago, it smacked me in the face. I wasn't the best at reading my scriptures on Pdays, but now I do that before I do anything else. If I don't do random contacts throughout the day, I probably wouldn't ever share the gospel with anyone back home. I've got the vision of the kind of man that I want to be int he future, so I'm doing what I can now to prepare to be that man. Ya know, the longest part of everyday for me is putting on my shoes. Some people think in the shower or while going to the bathroom, but I do it while I put my shoes on in the morning. It's just tedious to wear 2 pairs of socks I guess. Well, President decided that he wanted to dedicate the entire mission. So for leadership counsel this morning, we had everyone bring athletic clothes. We went over to Las Viñas and hiked up that mountain over there. President and Hermana Amato thought that it was a short hike, so they stayed in their church clothes. It was an hour up. I enjoyed it really. You could see half the mission from up there.
President said a really spiritual dedicatory prayer and even prophesied of future stakes. It was cool stuff. On the way down I hung out and laughed with Elder Leite. I really like that guy. I'm gonna miss him. I brought a hat and we were hiking into the sun, so I didn't think I needed sunscreen. Let's just say that my skin tone matches my old spice can. If I had a sol for every time that I thought I could best a giant burning ball of gas 3 trillion times my size on my mission, I'd probably have enough money to buy some ice cream. We got everyone Burger King for lunch, so that was cool. Elder Porter spent the good majority of his day working on the monthly expense report. While I'm glad that I"ll never have to do that again, I kinda miss it. Elder Menzoza is a strange case. He talked to me about having more respect from everyone, so I was like, "Ok, I'll see what I can do." Ten minutes later I walked into the other office to see everyone awkwardly glancing at each other while Elder Mendoza giggled while scrolling through kitten photos. Really dude? Hermana Amato called me in the night to talk to me about Elder Mendoza too. He told Hermana Lindstrom, who told Hermana Amato, who got after me for it. To be fair, the office doesn't have the best attitude about him, be he doesn't exactly care.
Friday
"That's the thing about being a villain: the bad guys always lose!"--Megamind. Satan's a bad guy. That means that he's gonna lose. There's your pensamiento espiritual (spiritual thought) for the day. You're welcome. So we woke up this morning to a 2 minute long 3 AM voice message from Sister Amato freaking out about the Corona Virus. It's officially here in Lima. Apparently some traveler dude picked it up while in Spain. I hear that he lives over in La Victoria, which is a quick 20 minute taxi ride from our mission. Exciting things. Hermana Amato had Elder Recalde and Elder Colton running around all day to buy 50L of hand sanitizer and a whole bunch of masks for all the missionaries. Then they had a couple hour meeting with the Amatos about it. Then they left to buy food for 2 weeks for all the missionaries in the mission. I think that they only wound up buying enough food for 1 companionship. This morning our zone had a play practice thing to get ready for our stake's Joseph Smith devotional. I was assigned the part of Brigham Young, who only has 3 or 4 sentences to say. I think that they just didn't want me to steal the show. After submitting all of our Caja Chica stuff, we finally got the check back from the Area office today. We went to the bank to cash it in and they were like, "No way Jośe." So I said, "My name's not Jośe you buey." So maybe it wasn't 100% accurate right there, but long story short, the check wasn't registered in the system yet. Quack. From there we went to visit Gladis, a contact I made last night. She was really cool and crying because after 25 years of marriage, her 1st husband ditched her. Then her 2nd pareja was a total boracho chump. So we were teaching her and stuff and then she said, "I've got something to confess that I didn't tell you last night," and then told us that she got baptized 32 years ago when she was 19, but is just MA. I could just hear Pedro from the Area office: "Oof Eldercito, ¿Y ahora?" I could also hear Elder Argeaga saying, "Maytitas, necesito filtrar mas. Era miembro." I was 13 second away from telling her to get baptized. Our cita with Gino fell tonight. We took Bro and Hermana Cordonas with us to visit Moises and his family. They seem good for tomorrow, but it's concerning that Lucero didn't leave her room.
Saturday
I don't know why people don't like the war chapters in the Book of Mormon, because I always have. There's still some cool lessons that you can learn from it, plus it's pretty entertaining. For example, let's talk about Moroni. It says that if we were al like him, then the Devil would never have power over us! Amazing! He's firm in the faith of Christ and resists all iniquity. Right before that, it tells us a lot of his characteristics: strong, powerful, doesn't like hurting others, rejoices in liberty for his people, extremely grateful, worked hard for the well being of his people, true to his faith, swore to defend his country and religion no matter the cost, and he helped his people to have that same faith. What an amazing example. So Elder Colton has a friend serving in Uruguay or something. Well the prophet just visited over there and talked to the missionaries. Apparently he told them that he thinks Jesus will come again before the year 2050. That'd be pretty crazy. I probably wouldn't even have any grandkids yet. So it turns out that there's actually 6 Corona virus cases in Peru--5 in Arequipa and 1 in La Molina, not in La Victoria. It's kinda crazy because that means that it's either here in Covima, or in La Molina, Centenario or Santa Felicia. I've got a bit of a cough right now, so I'm pretty self conscious about it now. Very interesting beans. Frozen 2 came out on DVD, so we ordered some pizza and we all watched that together. Good movie. Moises and Araceli had their baptism tonight at 6. There was a huge stake sports tournament all day (our ward won), so it was a little interesting. The joven (Fernando Diaz) that we had baptize them though was a good sport about it and came to do it. Valeria came too. 3 days without smoking! Yahoo! There was a really special spirit there during the baptism. It felt really good there. Lucero, Angelina, and some of Araceli's family was there. What was unique to their baptism was that there was a 6 minute blackout while they were trying to change. Good thing it didn't happen during the service.
Sunday
Patience is a virtue. People can really grind your gears sometimes if you know what I mean. If Jesus really suffered for all of human misery, then surely he's felt the pain of trying to keep your patience in the face of a frustrating situation. I know that saying a prayer will help. Sometimes you need to take a deep breath, step back and look at it from an eternal perspective. Is this guy going to affect the eternities or will I not even care about this anymore in a week from now. If it actually is important, say another prayer and read the Book of Mormon or something. If Jesus Christ went through all that with patience, then surely we all can try a little harder. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. Church was pretty cool this morning: Moises and Araceli got confirmed, Valeria came, and the Youngs (Latinos not gringos) brought their 12 year old neighbor with them. Also, the attendance reached 207 today, which is the highest that the ward has ever seen. The only weird thing is that now we're not allowed to shake hands. Now we have to do either this weird elbow tap or play footsies to say hi. Weird times call for weird measures I guess. We ate lunch with the Dipaz family. Ya know, the pension. It was just kinda normal haha. They got a puppy a while back after their trip (actually on their trip). Bishop was down on all 4s growling at it. Funny stuff. Today I learned that in all their marriage, Magaly and Mauricio (bishop) have never sat together in sacrament meeting; Bishop has always had leadership callings. Magaly said, "Even for the primary programs you sit by Wilford (his counselor)." That was pretty funny. So we went to church from the office. On our way out, we saw a rat run across the garage. Just me, Elder Porter and Elder Recalde were there. They freaked out, but I was just like, "Huh. I Guess Elder Pardo wasn't (totally) crazy." After church, Elder Porter was rallying everyone up saying, "It's body" *12 inches shown with hands* "is this big! And with it's tail," *24 inches this time* "was THIS BIG!!!" So all 8 of us went down and happened to see it dart into it's hole. So then we all went on a rat hunting adventure. Elder Davis and I were at the head of it with a fire extinguisher and a broom because everyone else screamed and jumped on something whenever they saw it. So after forcing it out of it's hole with water and a 10 minute struggle, it out smarted 8 full grown men. It was fun though. For dinner we had tequeños and soa a la minuta, which are my 2 favorite things to eat in Peru. Rat hunting:
Monday
There's another principle that I like from the war chapters in the LDM. When Moroni is preparing for Amalekiah's attack, he fortifies all of the cities. Not just does he fortify them, but he makes what were their weak points the strong points. So the the Lamanites attacked those points, but failed epically. Satan also knows our week points and will do his best to exploit them. When we're self evaluating, it's good to acknowledge our strengths but Satan rarely will attack our strengths. It's most important to make our week points into strong points. Helaman 5:12. I know that as we do this, we will be better prepared of the attacks of the enemy. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. So we were in desperate need of Caja Chica this morning, so we went to the bank bright and early. We got here and it turns out that Elder Porter's name was written wrong on the check. Quack. So we had to wait until the end of the day to get it, and we immediately used 1/3 of it. We had an office meeting with Elder Mendoza to try and help him. It went ok I guess. The biggest thing that needs changing is their attitude of him. Coronavirus. Interesting subject. Last night, Elder Davis and Elder Recalde bet an ice cream on whether or not it would be in Paraguay tomorrow (or today figures), because segun (according) to Elder Recalde, "No pasa noda Paraguay." Let's just say that he owes Elder Davis an ice cream now. I'm honestly not all that scared of it because I know that it's over hyped. They only thing I worry about is that there's counties where they've had to take out missionaries. If you have more than 18 months, you get sent home instead of being reassigned. I don't want that. So today we tried to go visit Pilar, the 12 year old neighbor of the Young family, but she wasn't home, so we decided to do a short visit with the Young's instead. That's a cita that I never would have chosen on my own because the dad is one of those crazy old dudes that argues about obscure doctrine during Sunday School. The wife is cool though. They seem to be very oriented towards missionary work. We did the pre interview with Valeria today. Still no more cigarettes. Yahoo! We tried to have a cita with a 19 year old I contacted named Gianella. She came out, but so did her crazy old uncle, so we thought it best to reschedule. There was road work going on in front of our house--a bulldozer with some jackhammer attachment breaking up the sidewalk--until 11 PM. Just, why?
Tuesday
It's amazing how much my spirituality has increased throughout my mission. I'm quite grateful for it. I've truly become happier with myself. A good way that I like to think about it as is the hymn More Holiness Give Me. It's a supplication to God for everything that we should be acknowledging. It help me acknowledge my inability to do this by myself and how only God can truly help us. I just want to be better--more like Christ I know that as I strive forward on this path, my relationship with God will improve more and more, and therefor my happiness too. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. We went to the Area Office this morning, which probably means that tomorrow I'll get something else I need to take there. The curse is real. So I've got my trunky training on Friday. There's two groups that day. Long story short, my group is in the morning session, which ends as the other group starts at lunch time. The difference is that they get lunch (pizza), but we don't. I tried everything to talk the Lindstroms into giving us lunch too, but they refused. That was frustrating. We did a district attack in Centenario tonight. We had our correlation meeting tonight, nothing too exciting there. We were eating dinner tonight, talking about our lunch with Centenario and their pension tomorrow. After a few minutes, Elder Colton asked who we were talking about, which was a silly question because he was involved in the conversation, so I said with a bit of sarcasm, "The Virgin Mary." I thought I was pretty funny, but then he poured his lemonade all over my dinner. I almost impulsively did the same to him, but I somehow found an extreme level of self control and didn't do it. I surprised myself with that one. I'm not quite sure why he did that.
Wednesday
Let's talk some more about the war chapters. Here's 2 things that I noticed-- 1. When the Nephites were being wicked, the Lamanites beat them. It's as simple as what the Lord told Lehi: when they're wicked, they'll be punished. And when they're righteous, they'll prosper. 2. Right at the beginning of that war, the Lamanites took a lot of cities. Reading up through Alma 54 or so is 5 years later, in the which time they only city that they took back was the city of Mulek. They had a lot of patience and trust in the Lord in that time. Anyways, a bunch of people in the zone were busy today, so we couldn't do district counsel. I suggested postponing it until tomorrow. The zone leaders sent out a text to the the zone saying that it was postponed because of the secretaries. That was kind of frustrating. So here's some more Corona Virus news for ya: Peru's president canceled school until the 30th of March. Also, certain MTCs will basically start homeschooling for a while. I wouldn't like that. Then the church also said that no one is allowed to go to the Conference Center for conference. There's the most shocking: They canceled professional sports in the US! Apparently Rudy Gobert has the Coronavirus. I don't know what I would do with myself back home. Crazy stuff. All this just because 1 in 70K people has the flu. We decided to eat as a district at Centenrio's pension. Good stuff. After that, Elder Recalde went to Huaycan and needed me to go with him. Not a lot has changed. It's a lot different than La Molina, that's for sure. I can't believe that I used to live there. The missionaries are living with Maria now, but unfortunately she wasn't home. I kinda really enjoyed the trip because it was nice to be back, and also to have 1 on 1 time with Elder Recalde. Good guy. Unfortunately, he told me that there's a lot of gossip about me behind my back in the office. That hurt because I'm a new district leader, but am honestly doing my best and consider the others to be my friends. I'm not sure what to do. There was a lot of traffic, so I got into a good conversation with our taxi driver and wound up teaching him almost all of L1 and L2. Hopefully he gets baptized. Valeria had her interview tonight and passed perfectly. She wants to take us to go get Makis (sushi), which is her favorite food. She's rich, so she eats it every day almost. We would love to, but the whole gender thing makes it complicated.
The Nerf surprise for Luigi's birthday party a while back.
When you figure out why there wasn't any water for break at the store.
Another pic from Madam Tuson last week.
Saturday, March 7, 2020
Week 28 in the Office
Hey guys, this was an interesting week. To give you an idea, yesterday
was one of those days when you found out that coronavirus is either in
your area or one of the 3 areas next to ours (which is awkward because I
have a couch currently), your check at
the bank fails, and then you invite someone to get baptized that turns
out to be a less active member. In the words of Pedro from the Area
office, "Oof Eldercito. Y ahora?" It was a pretty fun day. But hey!
Moises and Araceli are getting baptized tonight!
Their 11 year old Lucer was going to get baptized too, but she's having
a little bit of drama and doubts right now, so we're helping her out.
She'll probably get baptized too as well. Going back to the whole
coronavirus thing, we're not super worried yet,
but our mission president's wife is. She made my comp go out and buy a ton of masks and hand sanitizer and food for 2 weeks for every
house. Crazy stuff. Another thing that we did this week was have the
leadership counsel with all of the zone and hermana
leaders. We told them all to bring sports clothes and when they got
there we were like, "Surprise! We're going to take taxis over here to
hike an hour up this mountain to bless the mission!"
That was a pretty fun hike, not gonna lie. You could see half of the mission from up there. Cool beans. Well, that's about it for this week. Take care everyone!
That was a pretty fun hike, not gonna lie. You could see half of the mission from up there. Cool beans. Well, that's about it for this week. Take care everyone!
-Elder White
Thursday
20 months. That's a big number. I believe in Christ. Now that's a great hymn. Every time I listen to it, I get motivated in Him even more. I know that He is my Savior and Redeemer. I know that if I live righteously my entire life, then I'll be exalted with Him and Heavenly Father in the last day. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. This morning I went with Elder Porter to the office because we had a lot of stuff to do in order to pay rent in time for March. While I was doing a bit of studying in the President's office, I realized that I had misplaced my highlighter from when I studied in there yesterday. So I opened up a desk drawer hoping to find it. Instead I found a phone book for the general authorities of the church. I totally could've taken the prophet's phone number. Anyways, then Elder Recalde called me from the multizone and told me that he needed to swap out the Elder he was working with out for me. When he got to the office, he told me how the Elder was being really slow, refusing to help, and complained when they had to run an errand. It was already a stressful day because someone stole our laptop. Well, I decided to pull the Elder aside with Elder Recalde and talk it out. (That Elder can have a pretty negative attitude sometimes.) Welp, the two of them started arguing and the Elder got really defensive and made himself the victim. Excuses too. So that whole thing was a quack. After lunch, we all went down, but Elder Recalde and I heard that it was extremely dirty upstairs and the institute director was fuming. We caught him talking bad about us. I was expecting a huge mess, but instead wound up sweeping up 5 chili beans and 7 grains of rice. I know that they might've missed that when they cleaned up, but really man? When I got back to the office, Elder Wilcox was there. And he stole a piece of my gum! That guy still owes me a Cinnabun! I'm actually not mad, but I'd still like a Cinnabun if you know what I mean. Tonight we went to go and visit the Velasquez family. They seem to be doing well. We still need to get them to the temple. Every once in a while as a missionary, you start a contact that's going really well, but then it just tuns into a quack. For example, I contacted a 16 year old tonight that seemed really cool and wanted to learn about Jesus. She wanted to go to church last week, but couldn't. So I suggested calling her for a reminder and she declined. Quack.
Friday
I know that Jesus was baptized to show us the way. I know that when we get baptized like he did, he will bless us not only with the covenants that come from that sacred ordinance, but he will also bless us for obedience to this commandment. I know that this is the gateway to all of the blessings that God has in store for us. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. Today was a weird day. In the morning, I went with Elder Davis and Elder Recalde to migrations. That's usually a fairly quick trip, like, less than an hour there. Well, it wasn't so quick today. We waited around there for two and a half hours just waiting around. That seemed a little excessive. I was watching people that got there after us get their stuff done and leave. Why did it take them so long to call our ticket number? We waited a 1/2 hour longer before we finished. All that just for a stamp and signature. We celebrated by buying some Little Caesars Pizza. Good stuff. It's interesting that I can't finish a pizza as easily as I used to, but can now eat 2 full plates of fries plus a whole chicken. Peru does some weird stuff to your digestive system man. On our way home we had to buy new microphones. We had just bought new ones, but I guess that they're already broken. RIP. Back at the office, Elder Porter had to handle crap with the Zone Leaders all day. He'd doing pretty good. It's kinda nice because he has to do all the crap that I never liked doing hehe. All in all, it was around a 5 hour long trip that we made. When I got back, Elder Recalde and I ran to Office Centro to pick up a new paper shredder (the one that I've been asking for since I got here). They had forgotten we asked for it, so they sent it our office later with free delivery. It's pretty cool beans. I sweat a lot. Like I'll walk outside and it'll literally just start dripping down my face. No one else has that problem, just Elder Pardo. It's kinda awkward sometimes. I've never had a problem with sweating before. We had a cita with Valeria tonight. So it turns out that she used to smoke 5 cigarettes a day. She's only smoked 2 since we taught her the Word of Wisdom, so that's pretty good. We taught her the law of chastity. My theory of her going out with a German boy was wrong. Mario is in a bit of a low spot, so we visited him tonight to try and help him out. For dinner we went to Sangos. It never disappoints.
Saturday
There's a scripture I like in Alma 38:5. Alma says that as much as we trust the Lord to exercise that faith is as much help as we'll receive to be delivered out of our trials, troubles, and afflictions. If we put a little bit of trust in him, he'll only help us a little bit. But if we put our full trust in him (in other words--to exercise a lot of faith.), then he will help us out as much as He deems necessary. I know that as we do this, help will come. I also know that if we look unto Him in every thought, we don't need to doubt nor fear. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. We got up bright and early to play soccer in Manchay. If you think I didn't want to go, you're probably right. But I actually had a lot of fun. When I'm on defense, the other guys always think that they can pull a fast one and go around me. They don't seem to realize, however, that I've got like a 5 foot long leg span. Hehe. President took us out to lunch today. We were going to go to Chili's but then he changed his mind and wanted to take us to this Chinese restaurant named Madam Tusan, which is part of a chain by Peru's most famous chef, Gaston. President really likes that guy.
The food was good, but I probably didn't appreciate it fully because I've got the flu. Last night Centenario found a new, but he's moving to Ceres tomorrow. They asked us to go give him a blessing. His entire family is stuck in Venezuela, he's got serious amnesia problems, so he's pretty depressed and suicidal. It was a humbling experience for me. Hopefully he can follow the gospel. We decided to look for Gino tonight. All week he's been like, "Tomorrow at 8, pero yo te confirmo (Tomorrow at 8, but I'll confirm with you)," and it hasn't happened. Well, we got there even though he didn't confirmarnos. Well, he was off playing soccer. But we found out their grandson, William Jr, is going to be living with William and Rosa now, so we taught him a bit.
Sunday
I'm pretty sick right now, but what kind of sick? Am I the 'super cool beans' kind of sick or am I the "enfermo" kinda sick? Well, I'm always cool beans, but someone must've mixed their beans with my beans because now I've got that good 'ole gripe. Anyways Alma 34 is one of my favorite chapters. The last time that I read it, verse 28 really stood out of to me. It's very interesting to me because he explains how we should pray always and all of the blessings related to it. But then Amulek says that if we don't serve or have charity for others, then our prayers profit us nothing. Then get this--he says that if we don't do that, we're as bad as the hypocrites that deny the faith. That's pretty extreme, but it's true. Christ's charity and love for others is probably his biggest trait. If we can't even keep the second great commandment, then I guess nothing else really matters. I know that God will bless us as we keep this commandment. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. So Gino didn't come to church today, so we'll probably have to drop him. Valeria and the family came though and William and Laura, so that was cool. We were going to eat lunch with la familia Mostracero (who cooks really well), but she forgot. Fortunately for us though, another family mistakenly thought it was their turn to feed us. That worked out kinda of well. La familia Rojas consists of a mom with her 32 and 23 year old daughters. The mom was crazy. Five minutes in she asked us about a "hypothetical" situation that everyone knew was aimed at her daughter. That was awkward. She was super feminist too. "Men aren't needed in families. They're only there for economic support." Her daughters were pretty uncomfortable. We basically just told her to go read "The Family: A Proclamation to the World" again. I think that feminists are pretty funny. We were all invited to go to a NDH with all of the JAS tonight. It was pretty good. The tequeños that is. But also the other stuff too. We shared a good message on missionary work and how they can invite their friends to go to church. It was kinda really weird to be with JAS, because missionaries usually avoid it since it can be considered trunky. Valeria went with Gianella, so that was cool beans. Valeria is already super active in church activities.
Monday
Wickedness never was happiness. What a great counsel. Never have I ever met someone with a wicked lifestyle that was truly happy. It doesn't exist. It's literally against the law of God. They might be happy for a season (or have pleasure for a season), but evil works will be justifiably rewarded with sadness, misery and the absence of the Holy Spirit. I know that the opposite is true as well; God will reward us greatly for our righteous works. It doesn't matter if it's a member making a conscious effort or just an atheist doing what he thinks is right, they will both be rewarded for obeying the laws of God. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. I had the trunkiest dream last night. I went home with everyone from my group. It was so real--even down to the part where I had a peanut butter JCWs milkshake. Then I realized I wasn't there for Moises, Araceli, Lucero, or Valeria's baptism and I got sad. I didn't enjoy that dream very much. Two missionaries came here today, one for Muancayo named Elder Garcia for visa stuff; Elder Oliva from Chiclayo is here for 16 days for some serious knee problems that he's getting help here for. I was doing Caja Chica with Elder Porter for his first time today. I went out with Elder Oliva tonight. It's always odd working with Elders from other missions. Just different norms and work styles. Since he was with me, Elder Recalde and Elder Porter went to the cita with Valeria. They say that she's doing well, but is still smoking 1-2 cigarettes a day. Not quite sure how else to help her stop smoking. I mean, I'm smoking hot but...that's different. We did the pre interviews for Moises, Araceli, and Lucero. Lucero didn't seem 100% sure about baptism Saturday, but we talked to them and they all seem ready and excited for Saturday. While playing soccer the other day, I came up with this brilliant joke: Well you know what they say in the migrations center in Finland--we're gonna Finnish you. I think that it's a gem, but no one else seemed to appreciate it.
Tuesday
It's amazing the way the prophets in the Book of Mormon teach. I was pondering on the way that Alma talks to his kids in chapters 36-42. It's pretty impressive how he teaches them. Each one is personalized according to their needs and is given through the gift of discernment, prophecy and revelation. It's especially true for when he talks to Corianton. First he starts off my setting his son straight and tells him that Christ will come and redeem him. The second part is what really interests me. He perceives that he has a question about the resurrection, among other things. He explains it in a way where he relates it to what his son did. It's just like what they teach us missionaries to do: to always relate what we teach to our investigators needs. I thought that that was pretty cool. So on Saturday, President asked me my ward and stake's names. Then he revealed that the house they were considering to buy is just crossing 10400 from my house. That'd be pretty cool if they wound up moving there! We had the 2 week training today. It's probably my favorite training to go to honestly. I had to spend a while there helping Elder Recalde, so when I got back, Elder Porter and I were in a frenzy trying to get done all of the stuff that we needed to for Caja Chica to close and open back up in his name. We were 2 loco chicos. Elder Porter told me about how he did an attack once that turned out pretty good where the missionaries made random check list things to do during it. I liked the idea, but changed it up a bit: Bingo. I made a bunch of random things like contacting a couple holding hands, referring twice to the Book of Mormon, hugging and old dude, etc. It was pretty fun. The zone was excited to do it with us today. From there we went to the church to meet with Mario. He's giving a talk on Sunday on how baptism has blessed him, so we were just giving him some pointers. After that we had the family come to the church for their interviews, the which the assistants agreed to do. Moises and Araceli both passed theirs super tranquilamente (quietly). While they were in there, I sat outside with Angelina and Lucero. We were laughing and practicing English and stuff. Then Lucero went in for her interview, in the which she wound up crying uncontrollably. Elder Napier said that she passed, but when he asked if she was ready to get baptized, for some reason she just broke down crying saying that Saturday wasn't a good day for her to do it. No one knows why.
Wednesday
I know that our peers have a great influence on us. This morning I was reading in the Book of Mormon war chapters. It was always apostate Zoramites and Amalekiahites that were the captains of the armies. It says that they did this because those two had the strongest hatred against against the Nephites and were excellent at keeping and developing that same hatred in their soldiers too. So what can we learn from this? Don't be friends with a Zoramite/Amalekiahite because that'll lead you down a path of hatred and sorrow away from the path to Eternal life. Surround yourself with people that motivate you to be better. I've done that throughout my life and if you ask me, I've turned out pretty decent so far. I know that God loves us and wants the best for us. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. We had consejo this morning. It was cool because I totally improvised my training hehe. There was cake too. I was still feeling pretty crappy when I got back from my enfermidad (disease), so Elder Colton made me take a mandatory nap on the couch. If I had one dollar for every time someone has made a coronavirus joke while I've been sick, I'd have enough money to lead the funding for the cure. While I was trying to sleep downstairs, Elder Porter got a call from Francisco about Caja Chica. That man got roasted hardcore. It was half my fault and half his--I had told him a few times to take the extra $ to the bank, but he never did. Tonight I went out to work with Elder Oliva and Elder Mendoza. It went looking for Laura tonight and instead I found Gino. A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one. We had a really good lesson on the restoration. It was pretty spiritual too. He showed some good potential and even talked about baptism. We might starting working with him again soon. Then we ran to our cita with Valeria. All we did the whole time was talk about her cigarettes. She smokes 1-2 a day. I pulled out the big guns. "Ya know what's gonna help ya stop smoking? Granadillas." "What? You've gotta be kidding, right?" "Nope. I'm dead serious. Granadillas will help you stop smoking. Think about it: have you ever eaten a granadilla and then smoked right after? "No...Wow you're right." "Exactly. Because they give you the urge not to smoke." It's all mental. It's just a normal fruit. She said she'd stop though. Elder Mendoza told her that we can go to the movies on our day off. We were like, "Uh...no we can't..." He's kinda weird like that sometimes.
Sometimes you just get really tired at the end of the day and bushes can
seem pretty appealing. They're actually not all that soft, or stable.
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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 ... -
Elder Tenney's last moments in the office. If you don't have a fan down here, you might get heat stroke.