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:
No comments:
Post a Comment