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.
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