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.
Saturday, February 29, 2020
Week 27 in the Office
Busy Week
This was a very busy week for the second week in a row. We had a lot of stuff to do for the multi zones, so we didn't have as much time in the street as we would have liked. Everything is pretty good around here. Our investigators are doing well for the most part. We haven't been able to sit down with Gino in nearly a week, so we're trying to work that out there. Wow, there's really not a lot to say this week. Oh well. Have a great week everybody!
Friday
I know that my Redeemer lives. I know that we can trust in Him no matter what because he is a perfect being with a perfect love for us. I know that His grace is sufficient to save us after all we can do. I love the Lord and I know that he loves me. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. On the way home from the airport last night, our taxi driver was nodding off. He almost drifted into the barrier once or twice. That was pretty sketch. Before that though, when President came to the office to pick us up, Elder Davis opened up the trunk on their van to put Hermana Lester's bags in the back and said, "Wow. I forgot what real trunk space looks like." So I said, "Now this is trunky." Five star pun on my part. Since we were out so late last night, President gave us permission to sleep in until 9:30. That was nice. Somewhere in the morning hours, I had a dream that I was playing with Kayden in Ikea. I hid behind a stack of pillows so that I could jump out and scare him as he ran past. It was a great plan, except I accidentally wound up scaring some random 10 year old instead. Kinda funny. Anyways, we helped the assistants in their area tonight a bit. The wanted to recreate that one video where you give people a sheet from the Book of Mormon and have them mark all the references to God while they read through it. It was good in theory, but it didn't really work out 100% like we thought when we did it. Tonight we went to Rosa and William's house looking for Gino, but instead we found Laura, their 14 year old granddaughter, who's been to church the past 3 consecutive Sundays. Quick side note: Their dog is named Leia, as in Princess Leia. Respect. We decided to teach her LOL3. We asked her why she comes to church and she told us that before William and Rosa started going, her family was just sad it seemed hopeless. But she noticed that since they started going to church and stuff, her family has been a lot happier and more peaceful. She decided to go to check it out and loved what she saw and felt. We promised her those same blessings in her own personal life, so she made the decision to be baptized the 21st of March with Gino. The tricky part with her will be getting permission from her parents. They've told us that they might not be in favor of this. But we'll press forward in faith. We went to Sangos tonight. An Oreo milkshake and Club Sangos never disappoints.
Saturday
I know that the spirit testifies of holy things. It's impossible to convince someone of the truth without teaching through the Holy Ghost. I also know that it's impossible to feel the happiness of being converted unto Christ without having the spirit help you. There's churches that try to convince you that they're right based upon Bible bashing and worldly knowledge. It doesn't work. I know from personal experience. You cannot receive nor convey spiritual concepts by using the means of the natural man. Spiritual things call for spiritual measures. I am thankful for the gift of the Holy Ghost that I've been blessed with. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. We went to the church bright and early this morning at 7 AM for Mayte's baptism. It was a pretty good service. She wanted Elder Wilcox to perform the ordinance for her, so he came all the way here from El Agustine. She brought her oldest child, Santiago with her. We were all pretty surprised at that. After all this drama, she finally got baptized. She was crying pretty good in her testimony after. I think that I forgot to mention this, but she thought that I was the mission president for a bit. No Pe. That was kinda funny. It's interesting because I probably know Mayte better than the other Elders do and she was their investigator. But yeah. Today was a fun Pday. Elder Kimball and I found out that LP and Skyridge are playing in the state basketball quarter finals. We both happened to be wearing our school shirts, so we were going at it a bit. We all played scum (card game), which was pretty fun. Elder Porter is the new guy in the office, so we used the "You owe us all pizza" card on him today. We had a cita with Valeria tonight. She showed up drinking coffee, so we'll definitely need to teach that later. We talked a lot about prayer. Last night she went to a JAS party--they're doing a great job of hermanoning so far. We stuck her with Akimi in Lima Tambo's baptism after. While contacting, there was some silly goose dude that I contacted that tried to tell me that I didn't have agency or know anything because I was born in the religion, that I needed to break church limits to really know. Dude. You're 17. Go home and read your bible or something.
Sunday
I know that life wasn't meant to be easy. If it was, then we wouldn't be able to learn and life would be pointless. Satan will do everything he can to stop us, but God will also be there to lift us up. God has a power infinitely greater than that of Satan's. I know that if we can distinguish the difference between those 2 powers, we will be able to better navigate life and have more faith in God as we confront life's challenges. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. Not gonna lie, church was pretty good today. We had 6/6 of the guys we're teaching show up today. Gino and Valeria both plan on going to a NDH with the JAS tonight, so we weren't overly disappointed when we couldn't take out a cita with them today. We were in the doorway welcoming everyone when Hermana Lester came walking in with her family. We were talking and they told us how her dad got confused when he saw the girls kissing each other to say hi, so he did it to a dude. That's pretty darn funny, especially since he's a man very large in stature. Mayte got confirmed today. Santiago, her oldest son (about 11 years old) went to her baptism yesterday. While he was there, he said, "This place feels a lot more spiritual than the tesigos (Jehovah Witnesses)." We were all surrised to see him there, let alone to hear him say that. What's unfortunate though is Mayte's husband hit them with a stick and spoiled the other 2 kids while treating Mayte and Santiago like dirt. Sad stuff. For lunch today, we all ate with William and Rosa. The food didn't have too much flavor because William can't have any sodium. Laura's dad was there, so we talked to him about permission for Laura's baptism. While he didn't say no, he didn't really say yes either. He wants her to go to church more and know a little more before she decides, and if she decides that she wants to, he'll say yes. Honestly, if I were a parent, I'd be the same way. We had to go on suicide watch again today. These are never fun times. A missionary from Huancayo stayed in the office with us a few hours while waiting for his flight home. Sometime around 2 weeks ago, the Hermanas from Centenario asked me to give a blessing to a PF and it didn't end well. Well, tonight we actually gave him one. He's got really bad cancer in his stomach. He can barely move. Like, he'll eat a mango and then an hour later throw up black mush.
Monday
I know that the Word of Wisdom is a commandment given to us by God. I know that the promise he gives us for obeying it is real. Us missionaries walk 30 kilometers a day sometimes, and we do that every day. No one would be able to do that unless living by this Heavenly precept. Sometimes people ask why something in the Word of Wisdom is bad. Here's my answer: God knows everything. God made our bodies. I think he would know a little bit better than we do about what to put in it. It's a principle of faith. I know that we will be blessed when we exercise this faith in him. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. I had to make a run to the area office this morning with Elder Porter to get some contracts signed. I still don't enjoy going there. During the morning office meeting, Hermana Amato showed me a picture of an RM get together of Lima East. It was weird to see that I knew everyone in that photo, and that none of them had proselyting clothes on. Elder Kimball wanted to try Shawarma, so we went to Secretos Arabes to try it out. Not gonna lie, that was some pretty good stuff. I got a package from Grandma and Grandpa Haacke today. That was some pretty good stuff as well. We had a cita with Valeria tonight to teach the Word of Wisdom. So it turns out that she has a problem with each of the 5 things. That was quite surprising, especially about smoking. She smokes a cigarette a day, yet her teeth are fine and she never smells like them. So we testified for a long time. After the cita, we had her stomp on them and then thrown them in the dumpster. Yeah! Afterwards Elder Porter told me that I might've been a little extreme. We went to go visit Moises and his family tonight. They're all doing pretty well. We did a short and sweet lesson on temples. We ate dinner with Hermana Karin tonight. When I tasted the food I said, Hermana, esta piola!" She looked confused and asked who taught me that. The bishop did. She told me that that means "just so-so" dang it. I've been saying that to people for months and no one else ever corrected me. It's kinda funny, but at the same time embarrassing.
Tuesday
"Remember the captivity of your fathers." That phrase continues to intrigue me. I think about it a lot. Why is it so important? Alma 36 is a pretty famous chapter. He starts and ends the chapter by telling God will help him in his afflictions, he'll be blessed if he keeps the commandments, and that he remember how the Lord delivered their fathers out of captivity. He gives it a very high importance. I've determined that if I continue pondering constantly and heed this counsel, that might help me understand it's importance better. I got a really good bicep workout in this morning. Let me tell ya something Ernie: boy oh boy will my beard and biceps go well together. Good stuff. On the handsome scale, I'm probably sitting somewhere around a 6 or 7. With a beard and biceps however, I'd jump up to a 9.5, right up there with Chris Hemsworth. There wasn't a lot to do in the office today, especially since I'm training Elder Porter. I basically became the 3rd assistant since I bothered them so much. We got a call from the Las Viñas dueño. He didn't want to sign the electronic payments paper because it said "buyer" instead of "seller". He thought I was going to buy his house out from underneath him no matter what I said. In the end, I told him to whiteout that word and write in his own, and he accepted. Kinda funny. Today is Elder Colton's birthday, so we ordered Taco Bell and donuts for lunch. I did a baptism interview with an 18 year old girl named Maria tonight for the assistants. She was a great girl and is excited and ready to be baptized! These interviews are fun. We went out and worked for a while, but then had to drop off some stuff from the office at the church. While we were there, the assistants arrived and were like, "Hey we have a cita right now with a new. Could you please accompany us?" We were going to go eat dinner and cake at Hermana Karin's house for Elder Colton's birthday right then, so I had to make that sacrifice. It was with a 25 year old girl named Cynthia and her friend. She was kinda hard hearted to start--she hasn't been able to answer: why do bad things happen to good people? Then she said that we were jovenes (young boys) that didn't have life experience. Elder Napier roasted her pretty good on the jovenes thing (we're consecrated). Elder Kimball shared Mosiah 24. Let's just say that he answered her question and they took out a return visit. It's amazing how God makes it available to a missionary to answer these "unanswerable" questions.
Wednesday
I know that the church is true. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. So we had the multizone today. It was pretty crazy not gonna lie. It was kinda weird too because it was the first time that I wasn't running around like a chicken with it's head chopped off doing secretary style things during the meeting. It was kind of enjoyable really.
Ya just kinda get to gain some spiritual nourishment in place of cutting cake or sweeping or buying lunch. I just let the other guys take care of that today. For lunch, we got the Centenario pensionista to make chili. It was decent, but they have it to us served with a side of rice. The weirdest part of that though was that I didn't even realize it was abnormal until some other gringos made a comment about it. I guess that I've been pretty Peruvianized. In every stake in the mission, there's plans to do a devotional on the first vision. Choaica did the presentation for everyone today. They did it really well. The spirit was really strong; it was a good, entertaining and a well put together presentation. At the end, a few missionaries got up to bare their testimonies on the restoration. Elder Kohlert got up to share his testimony and the spirit was especially strong. At one point, I could've sworn that I heard a voice say, "It's true McKay." It was at that point that I shed a single tear. Anyone that knows me knows that that ain't a common occurrence. It was a very special experience for me. Elder White doesn't cry, nor does he use his first name. After that presentation, we went and did a face to face thing with President and Sister Amato. It was cool to hear more of their stories. Later tonight we had a cita with Valeria. It went well I guess. It was a lot more tranqueilo than the last time we talked with her. She rather liked the plan of salvation. She'd progressing rather well. Right after that cita, we had our correlations meeting. During that, we got a call from Gino. Elder Recalde had sheduled a cita with him for the same time as Valeria. He had told me that that was tomorrow and forgot to write it in his own agenda. That was kinda frustrating.
This was a very busy week for the second week in a row. We had a lot of stuff to do for the multi zones, so we didn't have as much time in the street as we would have liked. Everything is pretty good around here. Our investigators are doing well for the most part. We haven't been able to sit down with Gino in nearly a week, so we're trying to work that out there. Wow, there's really not a lot to say this week. Oh well. Have a great week everybody!
Friday
I know that my Redeemer lives. I know that we can trust in Him no matter what because he is a perfect being with a perfect love for us. I know that His grace is sufficient to save us after all we can do. I love the Lord and I know that he loves me. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. On the way home from the airport last night, our taxi driver was nodding off. He almost drifted into the barrier once or twice. That was pretty sketch. Before that though, when President came to the office to pick us up, Elder Davis opened up the trunk on their van to put Hermana Lester's bags in the back and said, "Wow. I forgot what real trunk space looks like." So I said, "Now this is trunky." Five star pun on my part. Since we were out so late last night, President gave us permission to sleep in until 9:30. That was nice. Somewhere in the morning hours, I had a dream that I was playing with Kayden in Ikea. I hid behind a stack of pillows so that I could jump out and scare him as he ran past. It was a great plan, except I accidentally wound up scaring some random 10 year old instead. Kinda funny. Anyways, we helped the assistants in their area tonight a bit. The wanted to recreate that one video where you give people a sheet from the Book of Mormon and have them mark all the references to God while they read through it. It was good in theory, but it didn't really work out 100% like we thought when we did it. Tonight we went to Rosa and William's house looking for Gino, but instead we found Laura, their 14 year old granddaughter, who's been to church the past 3 consecutive Sundays. Quick side note: Their dog is named Leia, as in Princess Leia. Respect. We decided to teach her LOL3. We asked her why she comes to church and she told us that before William and Rosa started going, her family was just sad it seemed hopeless. But she noticed that since they started going to church and stuff, her family has been a lot happier and more peaceful. She decided to go to check it out and loved what she saw and felt. We promised her those same blessings in her own personal life, so she made the decision to be baptized the 21st of March with Gino. The tricky part with her will be getting permission from her parents. They've told us that they might not be in favor of this. But we'll press forward in faith. We went to Sangos tonight. An Oreo milkshake and Club Sangos never disappoints.
Saturday
I know that the spirit testifies of holy things. It's impossible to convince someone of the truth without teaching through the Holy Ghost. I also know that it's impossible to feel the happiness of being converted unto Christ without having the spirit help you. There's churches that try to convince you that they're right based upon Bible bashing and worldly knowledge. It doesn't work. I know from personal experience. You cannot receive nor convey spiritual concepts by using the means of the natural man. Spiritual things call for spiritual measures. I am thankful for the gift of the Holy Ghost that I've been blessed with. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. We went to the church bright and early this morning at 7 AM for Mayte's baptism. It was a pretty good service. She wanted Elder Wilcox to perform the ordinance for her, so he came all the way here from El Agustine. She brought her oldest child, Santiago with her. We were all pretty surprised at that. After all this drama, she finally got baptized. She was crying pretty good in her testimony after. I think that I forgot to mention this, but she thought that I was the mission president for a bit. No Pe. That was kinda funny. It's interesting because I probably know Mayte better than the other Elders do and she was their investigator. But yeah. Today was a fun Pday. Elder Kimball and I found out that LP and Skyridge are playing in the state basketball quarter finals. We both happened to be wearing our school shirts, so we were going at it a bit. We all played scum (card game), which was pretty fun. Elder Porter is the new guy in the office, so we used the "You owe us all pizza" card on him today. We had a cita with Valeria tonight. She showed up drinking coffee, so we'll definitely need to teach that later. We talked a lot about prayer. Last night she went to a JAS party--they're doing a great job of hermanoning so far. We stuck her with Akimi in Lima Tambo's baptism after. While contacting, there was some silly goose dude that I contacted that tried to tell me that I didn't have agency or know anything because I was born in the religion, that I needed to break church limits to really know. Dude. You're 17. Go home and read your bible or something.
Sunday
I know that life wasn't meant to be easy. If it was, then we wouldn't be able to learn and life would be pointless. Satan will do everything he can to stop us, but God will also be there to lift us up. God has a power infinitely greater than that of Satan's. I know that if we can distinguish the difference between those 2 powers, we will be able to better navigate life and have more faith in God as we confront life's challenges. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. Not gonna lie, church was pretty good today. We had 6/6 of the guys we're teaching show up today. Gino and Valeria both plan on going to a NDH with the JAS tonight, so we weren't overly disappointed when we couldn't take out a cita with them today. We were in the doorway welcoming everyone when Hermana Lester came walking in with her family. We were talking and they told us how her dad got confused when he saw the girls kissing each other to say hi, so he did it to a dude. That's pretty darn funny, especially since he's a man very large in stature. Mayte got confirmed today. Santiago, her oldest son (about 11 years old) went to her baptism yesterday. While he was there, he said, "This place feels a lot more spiritual than the tesigos (Jehovah Witnesses)." We were all surrised to see him there, let alone to hear him say that. What's unfortunate though is Mayte's husband hit them with a stick and spoiled the other 2 kids while treating Mayte and Santiago like dirt. Sad stuff. For lunch today, we all ate with William and Rosa. The food didn't have too much flavor because William can't have any sodium. Laura's dad was there, so we talked to him about permission for Laura's baptism. While he didn't say no, he didn't really say yes either. He wants her to go to church more and know a little more before she decides, and if she decides that she wants to, he'll say yes. Honestly, if I were a parent, I'd be the same way. We had to go on suicide watch again today. These are never fun times. A missionary from Huancayo stayed in the office with us a few hours while waiting for his flight home. Sometime around 2 weeks ago, the Hermanas from Centenario asked me to give a blessing to a PF and it didn't end well. Well, tonight we actually gave him one. He's got really bad cancer in his stomach. He can barely move. Like, he'll eat a mango and then an hour later throw up black mush.
Monday
I know that the Word of Wisdom is a commandment given to us by God. I know that the promise he gives us for obeying it is real. Us missionaries walk 30 kilometers a day sometimes, and we do that every day. No one would be able to do that unless living by this Heavenly precept. Sometimes people ask why something in the Word of Wisdom is bad. Here's my answer: God knows everything. God made our bodies. I think he would know a little bit better than we do about what to put in it. It's a principle of faith. I know that we will be blessed when we exercise this faith in him. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. I had to make a run to the area office this morning with Elder Porter to get some contracts signed. I still don't enjoy going there. During the morning office meeting, Hermana Amato showed me a picture of an RM get together of Lima East. It was weird to see that I knew everyone in that photo, and that none of them had proselyting clothes on. Elder Kimball wanted to try Shawarma, so we went to Secretos Arabes to try it out. Not gonna lie, that was some pretty good stuff. I got a package from Grandma and Grandpa Haacke today. That was some pretty good stuff as well. We had a cita with Valeria tonight to teach the Word of Wisdom. So it turns out that she has a problem with each of the 5 things. That was quite surprising, especially about smoking. She smokes a cigarette a day, yet her teeth are fine and she never smells like them. So we testified for a long time. After the cita, we had her stomp on them and then thrown them in the dumpster. Yeah! Afterwards Elder Porter told me that I might've been a little extreme. We went to go visit Moises and his family tonight. They're all doing pretty well. We did a short and sweet lesson on temples. We ate dinner with Hermana Karin tonight. When I tasted the food I said, Hermana, esta piola!" She looked confused and asked who taught me that. The bishop did. She told me that that means "just so-so" dang it. I've been saying that to people for months and no one else ever corrected me. It's kinda funny, but at the same time embarrassing.
Tuesday
"Remember the captivity of your fathers." That phrase continues to intrigue me. I think about it a lot. Why is it so important? Alma 36 is a pretty famous chapter. He starts and ends the chapter by telling God will help him in his afflictions, he'll be blessed if he keeps the commandments, and that he remember how the Lord delivered their fathers out of captivity. He gives it a very high importance. I've determined that if I continue pondering constantly and heed this counsel, that might help me understand it's importance better. I got a really good bicep workout in this morning. Let me tell ya something Ernie: boy oh boy will my beard and biceps go well together. Good stuff. On the handsome scale, I'm probably sitting somewhere around a 6 or 7. With a beard and biceps however, I'd jump up to a 9.5, right up there with Chris Hemsworth. There wasn't a lot to do in the office today, especially since I'm training Elder Porter. I basically became the 3rd assistant since I bothered them so much. We got a call from the Las Viñas dueño. He didn't want to sign the electronic payments paper because it said "buyer" instead of "seller". He thought I was going to buy his house out from underneath him no matter what I said. In the end, I told him to whiteout that word and write in his own, and he accepted. Kinda funny. Today is Elder Colton's birthday, so we ordered Taco Bell and donuts for lunch. I did a baptism interview with an 18 year old girl named Maria tonight for the assistants. She was a great girl and is excited and ready to be baptized! These interviews are fun. We went out and worked for a while, but then had to drop off some stuff from the office at the church. While we were there, the assistants arrived and were like, "Hey we have a cita right now with a new. Could you please accompany us?" We were going to go eat dinner and cake at Hermana Karin's house for Elder Colton's birthday right then, so I had to make that sacrifice. It was with a 25 year old girl named Cynthia and her friend. She was kinda hard hearted to start--she hasn't been able to answer: why do bad things happen to good people? Then she said that we were jovenes (young boys) that didn't have life experience. Elder Napier roasted her pretty good on the jovenes thing (we're consecrated). Elder Kimball shared Mosiah 24. Let's just say that he answered her question and they took out a return visit. It's amazing how God makes it available to a missionary to answer these "unanswerable" questions.
Wednesday
I know that the church is true. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. So we had the multizone today. It was pretty crazy not gonna lie. It was kinda weird too because it was the first time that I wasn't running around like a chicken with it's head chopped off doing secretary style things during the meeting. It was kind of enjoyable really.
At the multizone
Airport errands
Elder Recalde attacked Elder Davis with tape.
The pictures of my apartment that my mom asked for long ago:
Saturday, February 22, 2020
Week 26 in the Office
Mayte
This was an amazing week! It was one of the best weeks I feel like I've had in my entire mission. It's gone by really fast too. I feel like it's still Monday hehe. This morning, the other Elders in the office baptized Mayte, who's someone that I found with Elder Wilcox way back in the day. I've worked very closely with them in order to help her, so it was really cool to be able to be there at the baptism this morning.
It was a long and complicated process to get her to this point. We've been lead to find 3 new investigators this week! It's been a lot of fun. So, on Sunday I had to give a talk last second. I was up there giving the talk and among the congregation, I saw 2 JAS that I didn't recognize. Afterwards I went to go talk to them. It turned out that one of them was a member named Gianella that just moved here from a ward from Lima Central called Javier Prado. The other one was a contact (Valeria) that Elder Wilcox made as he was passing through our area. She remembered and came to church! I asked, "So are you guys roommates or...?" They aren't roommates. They live kinda close, but not really. They somehow ran into each other on their way to the church. They hadn't known each other beforehand, but somehow met and came to church together and now they're great friends. Gianella has been a JAS leader for several years, so she's been a great hermanadora for her. Valeria is progressing really well and is excited for her baptism on March 14! That entire situation is one of the coolest miracles I've seen so far on my mission.
William and Rosa, a couple that I helped get married and baptized a while back, have a real enthusiasm to share the gospel with their family. Their youngest son, Gino (24 years old), has been really supportive of them in their entire journey through marriage and baptism and all of that. He always told us that he'd go to church, but he never did until this past Sunday. We had also tried inviting him to baptism before, but he never accepted that either. He really enjoyed church and even wound up enrolling in institute. We went to go visit him on Monday night. William has cancer. While he was checking his blood pressure, it read 18 (a normal person's is 12-13). He spent the whole day in the hospital. When we went to go visit them, Gino and Rosa were in tears the entire time. Gino accepted a baptismal date for March 21 in order to receive comfort and strength with the hope of helping his dad. He's got it rough because he had a lot going for him back a year ago; he was almost done with his studies when his dad got diagnosed with cancer. He had to abandon that so that he could work to provide for his family. Here in Peru you can't just resume your studies; he'd have to start from scratch if he wanted to study again.
William and Rosa have a granddaughter named Laura that's 14 years old. She's been to church the last 3 Sundays in a row and is loving it. We were finally able to sit down and talk with her last night. We asked her why she was coming to church. She said that it was because she noticed an obvious change in the family since William and Rosa started getting to church. She said that beforehand, the entire family was depressed and gloomy. Then when they started going to church, everyone suddenly got happier and got along better. So she went to see what was going on and loved what she felt there. We promised that she'd be able to have those same feelings, but even stronger on a deeper personal level if she got baptized, so she decided to make this covenant with the Lord on March 21 with her uncle Gino.
This was an insanely crazy week with all of the meetings that we had for the start of the transfer, so it really is a miracle that God blessed us so much with his love this week. He's really good to us. Transfer calls came in. It looks like I'm leaving the office. I'm really excited to be working with Elder Porter now. He's a great missionary, and that's just because he's from my stake back home jaja. I'm really excited for what this transfer is going to bring! Have a good week!
Riding around my area on my nimbus 2000:
This was an amazing week! It was one of the best weeks I feel like I've had in my entire mission. It's gone by really fast too. I feel like it's still Monday hehe. This morning, the other Elders in the office baptized Mayte, who's someone that I found with Elder Wilcox way back in the day. I've worked very closely with them in order to help her, so it was really cool to be able to be there at the baptism this morning.
It was a long and complicated process to get her to this point. We've been lead to find 3 new investigators this week! It's been a lot of fun. So, on Sunday I had to give a talk last second. I was up there giving the talk and among the congregation, I saw 2 JAS that I didn't recognize. Afterwards I went to go talk to them. It turned out that one of them was a member named Gianella that just moved here from a ward from Lima Central called Javier Prado. The other one was a contact (Valeria) that Elder Wilcox made as he was passing through our area. She remembered and came to church! I asked, "So are you guys roommates or...?" They aren't roommates. They live kinda close, but not really. They somehow ran into each other on their way to the church. They hadn't known each other beforehand, but somehow met and came to church together and now they're great friends. Gianella has been a JAS leader for several years, so she's been a great hermanadora for her. Valeria is progressing really well and is excited for her baptism on March 14! That entire situation is one of the coolest miracles I've seen so far on my mission.
William and Rosa, a couple that I helped get married and baptized a while back, have a real enthusiasm to share the gospel with their family. Their youngest son, Gino (24 years old), has been really supportive of them in their entire journey through marriage and baptism and all of that. He always told us that he'd go to church, but he never did until this past Sunday. We had also tried inviting him to baptism before, but he never accepted that either. He really enjoyed church and even wound up enrolling in institute. We went to go visit him on Monday night. William has cancer. While he was checking his blood pressure, it read 18 (a normal person's is 12-13). He spent the whole day in the hospital. When we went to go visit them, Gino and Rosa were in tears the entire time. Gino accepted a baptismal date for March 21 in order to receive comfort and strength with the hope of helping his dad. He's got it rough because he had a lot going for him back a year ago; he was almost done with his studies when his dad got diagnosed with cancer. He had to abandon that so that he could work to provide for his family. Here in Peru you can't just resume your studies; he'd have to start from scratch if he wanted to study again.
William and Rosa have a granddaughter named Laura that's 14 years old. She's been to church the last 3 Sundays in a row and is loving it. We were finally able to sit down and talk with her last night. We asked her why she was coming to church. She said that it was because she noticed an obvious change in the family since William and Rosa started getting to church. She said that beforehand, the entire family was depressed and gloomy. Then when they started going to church, everyone suddenly got happier and got along better. So she went to see what was going on and loved what she felt there. We promised that she'd be able to have those same feelings, but even stronger on a deeper personal level if she got baptized, so she decided to make this covenant with the Lord on March 21 with her uncle Gino.
This was an insanely crazy week with all of the meetings that we had for the start of the transfer, so it really is a miracle that God blessed us so much with his love this week. He's really good to us. Transfer calls came in. It looks like I'm leaving the office. I'm really excited to be working with Elder Porter now. He's a great missionary, and that's just because he's from my stake back home jaja. I'm really excited for what this transfer is going to bring! Have a good week!
-Elder White
Saturday
I know that living the Gospel of Jesus Christ will bring us many blessings. I know that this gospel can solve any problem a man could have. When we follow it, we will see both temporal and spiritual blessings. When we take the time to thank God for these blessings, we will be happier and even more blessed. I know that as we dutifully live the gospel throughout our whole life, we will be prepared to live with God at the last day and inherit eternal life. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. Last night as we were walking along, I contacted this siejita (little girl) outside her house. As I was talking to her, Elder Recalde came over and said, "Hermana, what happened to your leg?" I looked down at her leg and oh my gosh, it looked like a zombie leg. The flesh was literally rotting off. She said that it was a bacteria infection and tried to give us money for some medicine, but we bought it with our own money. She doesn't need medication though, she needs an amputation. Later in the night, we were walking along with Elder Mendoza in his wheel chair. Then we saw that one crazy guy with the crutch walking around. He's not a big fan of the church, so I told the others not to talk to him. He walked right up tot Elder Mendoza and said, "Write your name and phone number here," in a small book he had. Then he told him all about this German dude, who healed 100's of people post WW II using "the powers of the Universe". Then he made Elder Mendoza put his hands on his lap palms up and said, "Keep your hands like this. If you feel a tingly or shocking sensation, it's the Universe healing you because your cells would be rejuvenating." So he hates on Joseph Smith but endorses this German Universe dude? I could go for some of the Universe juice myself, maybe it would help my sunburn. Wearing a collared shirt in the heat with a sunburn is like getting a bunch of paper cuts, getting locked in a Sauna, and sweating out lemon juice. Today was Pday de limpieza (cleaning). It was kinda hard to get people cleaning, but we got it done. We played this weird beans card game. I won. I never really get a lot of emails anymore, so that's kinda boring. Elder Colton and I ended Pday by getting haircuts. Elder Recalde went back to Jicamarua tonight to see the baptism of two of his investigators, so I hung out with the other Elders tonight.
Sunday
Last night as I prayed, I felt a special need to repent, so I really made a conscious effort to do so. I was pretty tired, so I kinda accidentally nodded off for a bit. I had a mini dream of sorts where I visioned weights on a box, and then someone took them away. When I came to my senses, I could feel a noticeable difference--forgiven, if you will. It was literally like Jesus really took those weights of sin off me. I know that the repentance process works. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. So on Friday, Hermano Aguilar came to clean the office. He said to Elder Recalde, "This air freshener stinks," and sprayed it for him to smell. In the most sarcastic voice he could muster, Elder Recalde said, "Oh that's horrible." Hermano Aguilar started ranting on it some more and Elder Recalde said, "Did you read the label?" The week before, Elder Davis made a "Zone Leader Repellent" Raid style label and put it on as a joke. He looked at it and said, "Well no wonder! These darn gringos (pause to gently punch Elder Davis on the shoulder) are spraying insecticide like it's an air freshener! I'm going to put this in the baño just in case there's a cockroach or something." We got a good laugh out of that one. So last night during dinner, bishop said, "Oh, by the way Elder White, you're giving a talk tomorrow on the importance of living worthy of a temple recommend. It was a decent talk, but my opening joke was the best part. Everyone laughed. Bishop was proud of that one. Moises brought his aunt with his family today. (She lives in San Borja.) We went to go visit the family tonight. They're so cool! They accepted literally everything we teach. Then they say a prayer of gratitude after. Today at church, I saw two girls that I didn't recognize. I went over and asked if they were roommates. Long story short, they're not. Giareela is a member that just moved here from Barrio Javier Prado. Valeria was contacted by Elder Wilcox when he passed by the office earlier this week and she decided to come. They ran into each other on the way to church and now they're best friends. That's a pretty crazy milagro. She accepted a baptism date for March 14! It was a great cita. It's judgement day. I'm receiving Elder Porter as my replacement. It's kinda crazy that I'm companions with a guy from my stake and 6th grade class.
Monday
I had a dream last night that my family was there fighting against the Emperor (Star Wars). He was starting to turn Jaxon to the dark side. Jaxon had a red double bladed lightsaber, which was kinda cool. They were teleporting through walks and stuff. Then I saw Jaxon and started quoting the Book of Mormon on him saying things like, "Wickedness never was happiness," and he was like, "Shoot, you're right." The emperor starting coming at me, but my lightsaber handle was my Nokia phone and I couldn't find the button. But then I did and we all backed him into a corner and said, "We're going to bring you to justice." Kayden said, "Yeah!" and then stabbed him in the chest. The rest of us were like, "Dude. Really?" He said, "Oh, sorry..." so we said, "Oh well." It was quite the dream. I know that humility blesses us. In Alma 32 there's a part I like in verse 12, as well as verse 16 too. It says that when we're humbled, it makes us wiser. Then he suggests that being humble really means that we listen to the voice of God and following the Gospel in faith. I know that if we choose to humble ourselves without being obliged to do so, we will be blessed incredibly. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. So today was my last day working by myself in the office. It was kinda weird. I stayed busy though. Elder Porter got here tonight at 7. We had him hangout with Elder Lopez because he got really sick last night and his entire body was swelling up. I went with Elder Recalde to a NDH at Rosa and William's house at that same time. We went looking for Laura (granddaughter who's been thrice) and Gino too, who finally went to church for the first time yesterday. Only Gino and Rosa were there. William's blood pressure is 18 (it should be 12), so he's in the clinic currently. We were teaching LOL3 and Gina just broke down crying 3 minutes in. It's extremely hard on them. William's seemed good before, but his cancer is finally taking its toll on him. We taught a powerful lesson and he wound up accepting a baptism date for March 21. It's about time. He liked the idea of Institute so much that he enrolled in a Thursday night class. Then Elder Recalde and I went and picked up Elder Porter to buy break for the 1st day training tomorrow. No more receipts for me hehe. It was quite the adventure because Elder Recalde didn't have his keys.
Tuesday
Research shows that 1/6 Tuesdays are very stressful and busy, but that's transfers I guess. I know that if we are anxiously engaged in a good cause according to our own free will, God will bless us according to our works. It isn't expedient that God should tell us everything we need to do. We should use our best judgement and talents that God has given us as we try to follow his Holy Spirit. I know that if we do this, we will develop a deeper conversion unto Christ. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. Elder Lainez went home this morning. He was a good guy. Hermana Santana was one of the other people that we sent home yesterday. She was a very happy, chirpy and funny girl always falando her Portuñol. I'd never not seen her happy before. But then yesterday as she got in the taxi to go to the airport, she was fighting back tears. That was really sad for me to see. This first day training was almost identical to any other. We did make a few Tottus trips during it though. Today was Elder Porter's 1st day in my chair. It was kind of interesting teaching him how to do my job. He'll be a good fit. He's responsible and a hard worker too, so I'm excited to contact with him. He'll keep the office's standards up when I leave, which is something I was worried about. Elder Porter and I went with Elder Colton to visit Mayte tonight. She seems to be excited and ready for her baptism Saturday morning. We kind of had to explain to her the difference of the powers of Good and Evil, like how Satan wants to stop her, but God will bless and help her more. Good lesson. I've got a thing where when something happens, I say, "Well, you know what they say in (some random place in the world): (some completely random phrase)." I enjoy it. Tonight I was walking along and said, "Well, ya know what they say in Germany." Right then Elder Colton offered me an Oreo. The end with the frosting fell off, so I got a naked cookie. I said, "I got the back end of an Oreo." That was pretty funny. We went to go visit Moises and his family tonight. They're so cool! We taught the Word of Wisdom. I was kind of afraid that they'd freak out about it, but Moises was like, "I feel crappy when I do any of that, so I agree." He loves doing Ven Siguame (Come Follow Me). We've just gotta get him to do it with his family. Lacero is scared to pray, so we need to work on that. Moises always prays and thanks God for knowledge of the church. Cool beans. We need to focus more on the rest of the family.
Wednesday
I know that the gospel is true. I know that it will work for us according to our faith. I like the way Alma puts it. He says that we need to let the word of God work with in us according to our faith. Then he says it could be faith so small as just wanting to believe. If we truly do that and protect and nurture the seed, we will find a gospel that enlarges our souls, gives us knowledge, and is truly delicious to our spirits. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.l We had our consejo de distrito this morning. It was a lot better than last week's. So last week I got a call from the guy accompanying the Elders in Chosica. He tried doing a prank call and then said his name was Johan and was trying to talk to me. I was in the middle of a report or something, so when he asked if I was busy I told him that I was. Well, come to find out, my old companion Elder Gonzalez was visiting people up in Chosica and ran into the Elders (Elder McKinney), so he called me. I've got no way of communicating with him so that's kinda sad. Oh well. I'm out here still training Elder Porter. I'm trying to teach him the skills he needs to pay the bills. On our way out to work today, we moved a whole bunch (ok, only like 5) of furniture for a member that was making a stand in the local market place. We had another cita with Valeria in Gianella's house today. It went really well. She's 18 years old and studying mental engineering. Her family is pretty split apart: her mom lives in San Fransisco, California and her dad lives in San Martin de Pores. Giarella works in a Coca-Cola factory, so that's cool. Valenia really enjoyed the lesson today and had read the Book of Mormon too. She's planning on going to a JAS party on Friday night, so that's pretty cool. She's pretty escogida. Akimmy is doing a really good job of her manaring them. We had the correlations meeting tonight. There was some pretty good carrot cake. I left there with Elder Davis to go visit Mayte to teach her diezos. She's so cool, she shared her testimony with a dude we were contacting. Today was Magaly's birthday. We all pitched in to buy some flowers. Not gonna lie, those were some good looking flowers. A bunch of girls there visiting gasped when I walked in with them. Magaly really like those. I just hope that we didn't accidentally one up him.
Thursday
I know that the Bible is the word of God. I know that if we use the Book of Mormon together, we will be following God. I know that as we apply the teachings in our lives that the scriptures give to us, we will be constantly learning and will be on the path to live with God again. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. I had to go to the new leaders meeting today since I'm a new district leader. There was some good stuff I learned. Elder Shockley and I are pretty tight now. Star Wars quotes does that to people. Mayte had her interview tonight with President Delgado and passed with flying colors. She's excited and ready for Saturday. Cool beans. I was with Elder Davis tonight. There was this one lady I contacted that was like, "I'm Catholic," but we were talking about Jesus and I read her something from the Book of Mormon and she was really feeling the spirit and wanted to go to church. Then her husband came along and was like, "What are you doing?1?! We're Catholics!" He was really mad and said, "They don't even believe in the trinity!" "Uh, yeah we do..." "...Well they don't worship the saints and virgins!" It was kinda sad to see how unreceptive he was. Oh well I guess. Elder Davis and I had to take Hermana Lester to the airport to pick up her parents. President and Hermana Amato and Alice went with us because they had to pick up their kids from a trip to Brazil. There's a big tunnel on the way there, 1:30 if it's normal speeds. As we approached, Elder Davis said, "Everyone hold your breath!" As we entered the tunnel, President floored it. Almost everyone laughed, but I didn't. A minute in, Hermana Amato said, "No one's still holding their breath, right?" Then she looked back and saw me and said, "Elder White! Querido! Take a breath!" Dang it. I coulda made it. President wanted to take us to La Lucha, which is a really nice restaurant alli (there). He said he wouldn't get anything, but then ordered Alice his favorite sandwich, which he wound up eating. That's definitely President. Then they left to go get their kids leaving us with Hermana Lester for 2 hours. It was a little awkard, but not too bad. While we were waiting outside of customs, any time we saw a weird dude we'd say, "Is that him with the sandals?" and she'd get excited only to see the person with sadals was a potbelly hillbilly with a huge beard. I predicted that her dad would be wearing a blue plaid shirt. I was right. She's a lot like her parents. They were very chill about everything. No tears; just a "Hey dude, how's it been?" They gave us some Reese's so that was cool.
They also sent a picture of Elder Davis and I to my mom via text.
Riding around my area on my nimbus 2000:
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Elder Tenney's last moments in the office. If you don't have a fan down here, you might get heat stroke. -
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 ...