Week 15 in the Office

Crazy Week

This week went by so fast I don't even know what happened. Transfers came in and although no one is leaving the office. The companionships got changed up a bit. Now I'm compañeros with Elder Pardo. My trainer was a Chilean as well, so I already have a head start on the Chilean slang. Mondays are always crazy because people come to the office on their p day to get stuff done, and then the other 4 days we had a meeting every day. And since I'm companions with Elder Pardo now, I have to do all the stuff with him to help him prep for that. I swear it was Monday just yesterday. Time flies when you're super busy I guess. Due to all these meetings, we didn't get very much time in for proselyting. But somehow we still managed to end the week with a few potentials that we can call and visit later, so that's a pretty good miracle. Elder Pardo and I are getting along well. I think we'll have some good success throughout our time together. The work in Covima is going pretty well. Yesterday we did this big activity where we got a member to dress up as Santa and we contacted nearby and had people take pictures with him. Then we sent the pictures to the people, and later we'll send them the Gracias a Él video too. It was a super fun, effective, and different way of working. It was a pretty big success I'd say. I'm pretty excited right now because our budget is looking pretty good. When I got here, we were like 3-4% over budget, and now we're only .5% over budget. Oh if the old me heard me say that jajaja. Am I that boring now that the budget excites me? Anywho, I'm excited to work this transfer! Have a good week!

-Elder White

Saturday
I know that the temple is the house of the Lord.  I know that once they are dedicated, the temple is an extremely holy structure that bridges both sides of the veil.  I know that the ordinances that we do there last for us in this life and for all eternity.  The work we do for and in behalf of the deceased is real.  The dead have the gospel preached unto them.  They have the opportunity to accept those ordinances to have the same blessings we have.  I know that the temple is part of God's work of glory: to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  This morning Elder Wilcox and I got up early to make a 6 AM temple trip with the ward and some CRs.  Well, we had been planning on having 6 or 7 of the CRs come as well as ward leaders, but in the end there was only Obispo, Takeshi, Mario and Marleni that came.  One thing I find interesting is how much more popular baptisms for the dead are in the states than here (almost no one does them here).  We were kinda worried about Mario because we didn't remember how hard his baptism was to do until we were already in the temple.  It was hard still, but he got 6 names done and had a good attitude about it after.  He and Marleni both had great experiences.  The bishop bought us breakfast after, so that was cool.  Pday seemed to last forever today.  I decided to call my family and say hi since they were at Grandma White's dipping chocolates.  I enjoyed it even though I called on Thanksgiving too.  This morning the zone leaders in Santa Clara and Elder Koch initiated Operation Elder White Bamba.  It would have been a total waste of my time.  The dueña claims it'll cost 1600 PEN to paint the house, which is totally ridiculous.  So now I need to hurry and contract a painter by Monday so that she doesn't steal the 1000 sol guarantee.  La familia Velasquez was supposed to go to the temple this morning, but Carmen sent us a 3 AM text saying she couldn't go due to a family situation.  We inquired further and apparently she and Juan Pablo got into a big fight and is staying with family on the other side of Lima.  We had a cita scheduled with Monica. She came late, but also with Camila, her "atheist" 17 year old daughter.  Basically Monica locked us alone in a room with Camila and told us to talk to her about God.  She was polite and all, but she was obviously only there out of obligation.  It was a little awkward.

Sunday
Wow.  It's already December. Crazy beans.  I know that my Heavenly Father and Savior Jesus Christ, love me.  The Holy Ghost is right there with them, so I'm assuming he loves me too.  It's kinda interesting how little we know about him, by the way.  I know that no matter what happens, God will always love us and will want us to return to live with him someday.  All he asks is that we live the Gospel and keep His commandments.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  I had to wake up Elder Pardo this morning because he slept through his alarm.  When I did, he immediately started laughing and said, "Dude, last night I gave an Elder a haircut.  It's so bad!  The shaver slipped and I took out a big chunk in his hair when he moved."  It was pretty bad, but also pretty funny.  He took out the whole left side of his bang like 1 1/2 in into it.  Completely shaved.  He tried wearing a baseball hat to church, so we were kinda like, "....you're kidding, right?  It's not even that bad. You know you can't wear that to church."  He kept his hand glued to his forehead the whole time.  Obispo thought he was super depressed until we explained that he might be if he let anyone see his hair.  We went to go pick up Monica and Camila.  Camila left early to go get breakfast, saying she'd go to church after.  Monica brought another one of their 'slaves' named Andrea to church with her today.  Camila showed up to church about 35 minutes late.  She ran off after the 2nd hour before we could talk to her.  I've turned a lot over to Mary, who's a great YW hermana.  Camila is super influenced by her friends.  I've never worked with an "atheist" before.  I say "atheist" because I don't think that there's anyone in Peru that denies the existence of a higher being.  Hopefully she progresses.  Speaking of which, we still have no idea what to do with Monica.  Tonight the 4 of us had a little presentation with the ward leaders.  My part was on escogidos and references.  Short and sweet.  They all laughed at the parts they were supposed to laugh at and I seemed to get my point across.

All in all, it was an effective ward presentation that should boost our relationship with them.  Today was judgement day.  Despite what we thought, there were no changes to the companionships in the office.

Tuesday
I know that faith is a critical part of our daily lives/testimonies.  This is one of the must have traits that marks a true disciple of Jesus Christ.  Sometimes, things will seem bleak.  Questions or doubts may surface.  Questions are ok, doubts aren't.  We just need to remind ourselves that we can't understand everything that God can.  I know that if we have faith through the dark times, brighter days full of blessings will be ahead.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  Life's gotten crazy recently.  Judgement day lied to me.  We got to the office yesterday and the assistants told me that Elder Pardo and I are going to be companions.  Here's our jobs in the office: Elder Pardo- official errand runner and handyman, Elder White- official bill payer and guardian of the receipts, Elder Wilcox- official note taker/the guy that makes sure that  you're not an illegal immigrant, Elder Armstrong- official drug dealer that makes sure no one dies.  Yesterday morning we did a mudanza (move) for Clo Ortiz.  The reason why is kinda sad: she and her husband are getting divorced.  It's so sad to see a temple marriage ended.  Their 3rd child is two months old too.  She's still in the ward boundary though, so I'm sure she'll be active still.  We were running around liked chickens with our heads chopped off last night trying to get stuff ready for the first day training today.  We didn't get home til 11:30 PM  Hermana Amato is super loving.  She's always telling us how much she loves us.  She sent us a super nice message.  Today was just super busy.  I had no idea that Elder Pardo had to run so many errands.  I think we did a bazillion and half of them during the first day training this morning.  We had to buy pillows, sheets, more food, pick up backpacks, etc.  Nearly all the Hermanas in our mission are training; there's a lot of them.

Wednesday
I know that gratitude is good.  It goes a long way.  We should always thank God for what we have with a sincere heart.  If we do so, I believe that He is more willing to bless us.  The more grateful we are, the happier we are as well.  It's just cool to be thankful.  One question I like is, "When I pray, do I sound like a well behaved, thankful child?  Or do I sound whiny and unthankful?"  While it's definitely recommended to ask for things, it's also important to give thanks, which is something I can be better at.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  The new leaders training was this morning, but Elder Armstrong took one for the team and went with Elder Pardo instead of me.  A few days before transfers, we were informed that 4 missionaries that were to report to the Cochabamba mission in Bolivia would come start their missions here until things over there cooled down a bit more.  It kinda caused us a headache to hurry and get them all their stuff and put them in areas last second, but we did it.  Then this morning the area called us and was like, "Hey, remember those Bolivian missionaries?  You don't have to worry about them anymore.  They leave tonight at 8."  At that point I think everyone simultaneously said, "On, come on.  Really man?"  President had to reorganize a bunch of areas and we had to do a bunch of stuff to undo the other stuff we stressed about in addition to more stuff we had to do to ship them off.  Needless to say,  we weren't the happiest bunch of people for that reason today.  We had the craziest taxi driver on our way to Tottus tonight.  He was weaving in and out, swerving all around, all at super high speeds.  When we got there, Elder Pardo stepped out while I looked for my passage inside still.  Then all of the sudden, the driver sped off with me inside.  My first thought was, "This dude's gonna kidnap me!"  I shouted and he pulled over 20 yards from where Elder Pardo got out.  I payed and got out ASAP.  That guy must've been drunk or on drugs or something.  Elder Pardo bought poll a la brasa for a dish at the meeting tomorrow.  He didn't need the skin, so I ate it plain.  It was tasty; no regrets, especially since I only weighed 189.5 on the scale this morning.  I haven't been below 190 for at least 2 1/2 years.

Thursday
I know that my Redeemer lives. What comfort this sweet sentence gives.  He lives.  He lives who once was dead.  He lives, my ever living Head.  He lives all glory to his name.  He lives my Savior still the same.  He lives my mansion to prepare.  He lives to guide me safely there.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  We did our workouts like normal.  I did my stuff and then went to make a protein shake.  I watched Elder Napier make one for me yesterday, but I had never made one before.  You know what they say; if you don't know what to do, just improvise your way to victory.  I didn't do half bad, by the way.  Today was consejo de liderazgo (leadership council).  At the end, the assistants had them all do some reflecting on their zones.  While they were doing that, we talked to President.  We showed President everything.  No limits.  The assistants showed a video of the haircut Elder Pardo gave that Elder and President had to leave because he laughed so hard.  Then Elder Pardo showed a video of a time he scared Elder Leite pretty good.  He did an impersonation of me and President laughed and told Elder Pardo to imitate him too.  It was a good time.  There's been a problem that's surfaced recently where mission vendors haven't been getting their money, and I'm not sure why.  Like, I do everything right on my end to get it sent through and all, but then for whatever reason it doesn't get processed in the system.  Elder Pardo suggested praying.  I forgot and went to check my email when we got back to the office, only to find a Light the World reminder to pray thankfully.  So I did, and then checked all the payments.  They all said that they'd get processed tomorrow.  That was a miracle.  I received my Christmas package today.

(A picture the delivery company took of the delivery.)

We went to go drop off my package off in our room, but our bedroom door was locked.  Weird because A: we never close that door and B: How'd it lock itself?  We thought there might be someone inside, but in the end we got it open and there wasn't.

Friday

Last night, Elder Pardo and I decided to share a scripture with Juana, our pensionista (cook), before leaving to buy break.  I pulled out Moroni 10:32 to share with her.  This experience was a testimony builder to me because it was a reminder to me that the spirit teaches you while you teach.  "Open your mouth and it shall be filled."  I explained how this scripture basically summarizes the Book of Mormon.  The entire purpose is to draw ourselves nearer until Christ.  She started to cry a bit.  Her husband is kinda old and doesn't talk much, so that's kinda rough for her I think.  This morning Elder Pardo and Elder Leite had to go to trunky trining, which meant that Elder Napier and I had to prepare the break for it.  On our way there, Elder Napier said, "Ya know, we'll have to go to this in 2 transfers from now."  I wasn't ready for that.  After that we went back and got some work done.  Then I took Elder Wilcox and went to Tottus for the fifth time in 5 days in order to pick up some pizza for the training.  I can only imagine what those people think when they see us walk in there.  "Oh no, these white guys again?  What are they gonna do this time?  Buy all of our fruit and chicken?  Or will they buy another 6 cakes like they have the past 4 days?"  I spent my whole day working on end of month expense reports.  Exciting stuff.  Speaking of reports, I got one today that says we're only .5% over budget right now.  We were 3-4% over when I got here.  Cool beans.  Be wise with your money kids, Elder White is watching hehehe.  Today we had a Christmas activity with the assistants, as well as the Hermanas from Mayorazgo and Centenario.  We got a sleigh and had a member dress up as Santa Clause.  We contacted nearby and had families and people take pictures with him.  

We texted them the pic and later will send them a church video.  It was a pretty big success.  There was one guy I contacted but was like, "No, I'm atheist," kinda rudely.  So I said, "Well, do you want a picture with Santa then?"  "No, I said I'm atheist.  Besides, that's stupid American crap."  Elder Pardo called after him, "But our Santa's Peruvian!"  That was funny.  Elder Wilcox and Elder Armstrong had to leave to go to the hospital at 10 tonight.

 The temple at Christmas time.

Me imitating a fish at Tottus.

 The activity we did with the priests in our ward the other week.

Week 14 in the Office

Temple

This week was the biggest blur ever. Time is flying by so fast, it's unbelievable. It was a week full of a lot of hard work, both in the office and out in the street. This week we had everything from me accidentally telling a Venezuelan I'd take her back to the states with me (gringo hearing, whoops) to helping members move to taking two of our recent converts to the temple this morning. We've been having a bit of trouble finding new people to teach recently, but are working towards taking the steps necessary in finding God's elect. We dropped to zero's in our investigators, but upon further evaluation, we discovered that Monica, one of our investigators, is doing better than we thought, so we're going to give her another chance at preparing herself for baptism. That was a miracle. I gave a training in consejo de distrito about being a consecrated missionary and removing any roadblocks that would keep us from finding the people that God wants us to find. They say that you learn best when you use a relatable example, so I tied in space shuttles. I had a lot of fun preparing it and I think that I might have learned more in the preparation process than I ever could have if I were the only the one receiving the training. It was super cool. There were some new missionaries from the Chiclayo mission that come and stayed with us for visa stuff. They were all really cool guys and it was great to get to know them and hear more about other parts of Peru. Long story short, the church is true and Jesus loves you guys. Have a good week!

-Elder White

Saturday
I know that they key to following Christ and always feeling his love is to have a firm mind.  The scripture Jacob 3:1-2 comes to mind.  When you look at the footnotes for "firm", there's some good ones (Alma 57:5-27, Alma 58:40).  They talk about the 2000 stripling warriors and how the reason they were saved was because they were firm mentally.  They had an unshakeable faith, remembered what their mothers taught them and obeyed commandments with exactness.  They are diligent in remembering the Lord their God.  They believe strongly in everything that the prophets had prophesied.  I know that if we can be like them, we will always be able to feel God's love for us and will never fall from the faith.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  This morning we got up early and went to go play soccer in Central.  Shoot man, we played horribly.  Also, I'm tired of just getting shoved int he goal every game and them not have anyone want to trade with me.  We weren't allowed to leave our house/office due to the game.  It's a little dangerous to have 80Kish people walking right by to go to a game (3 PM start time).  Those guys were loud.  I think you could hear them all the way from the stadium, which is a good 2 miles away.  We ordered pizza and got sucked into a 3 hour game of Risk, which my team won by the way.  There were helicopters passing overhead every few minutes.  The Brazilian Club won the championship.  There were tons of people in the street when P-day ended, so we still couldn't leave to contact.  At 7:30 we went out to brave it, but there were just a bunch of drunk foreigners everywhere, so we just ate dinner.  After that, we came back to the office and started throwing up Christmas decorations.  We're in full Christmas mode there.

Sunday
About 2 years ago, we had a mutual where the leaders had Taylor and I teach all the other priests and laurels basic car maintenance such as checking oil and changing a tire.  I remember posing the question, "Who knows the difference between oil and gasoline?"  One girl said, "Cars need oil? Why?"  That was a laughing facepalm moment for me.  Well, the next day, she was alone on the freeway when, all of the sudden, her tire blew out.  Fortunately for her though, she had been paying attention when we taught them how to change a tire.  She was able to do it by herself.  Is it a coincidence that that happened literally the day after?  Nope.  God will bless us with inspiration to help one another as he deems necessary.  Well, our Sunday church experience wasn't the greatest.  Israel and Mayra were no shows, so we're going to drop them.  Monica didn't come either.  Looks like we're dropping to straight zeros on the investigator list.  I haven't had that happen in a long time.  Mario came to church with his oldest daughter, Veronica, who was visiting from North Carolina.  She seemed to enjoy church.  We'd like to have a lesson with her before she returns.  Lunch could've gone better today.  Tonight we went and found 4 priests to come and contact with us.  I took Takeshi with me.  It was fun to show him how to contact.  We also visited la familia Velasquez.  Our goal is to take all the CRs (recent converts) to the temple on Saturday.

Monday
I know that emergency preparedness is a vital thing that we must do.  The Lord's prophets have told us so.  I know that if we heed their counsels, then we will be prepared and better off when disaster strikes.  The same principles apply for spiritual emergency preparedness.  If we constantly nourish ourselves in spirit and take the preparedness steps necessary, we will also be ready for any spiritual storm threats as well.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  These workouts we're doing are weird man.  We're working out muscles I didn't even know I have.  Today it was some weird muscle in my back, and in so doing, it included pull ups.  They were all like, "Man, I stink at these," and then did 2-8 depending on who it was.  Then I got up there and barely managed to break my arm's 180° angle. ¡Que palta!  Hopefully I'll be yolked someday.  We were walking down the staircase yesterday and smelled some marijuana.  I guess the crazy lawyers kid really is a pothead.  I had to make a run to jockey plaza this morning so that a missionary could get some $ from home.  I don't really like going there anymore.  It's just lejos (far) and boring because we can't buy anything we'd want.  It was a pretty busy day today in the office.  There were a bunch of payments that I had to make.  We spent our entire night contacting.  It was crazy because it was raining lightly off and on the entire night.  We sure do appreciate some good rain.  While we were out, Elder Wilcox said to me, "Elder White, want to know something?  You don't blink very much when you're talking to people."  That blew my mind.  I think he's right though.  What is with my comps and noticing things about my eyes?  He and Elder Mayta both.  Sometimes in the past when I've been bored in the street, I've had staring contests with cats and dogs.  I always win.  President told Elder Armstrong and Elder Wilcox that the earliest they could receive their replacements is February, which is funny because Elder Armstrong has been talking about getting his replacement ever since I got here.  The other night Elder Wilcox and I contacted a Venezuelan working out front a restaurant.  Not gonna lie, she was pretty cute.  She said she couldn't come to church because she was always working.  Then, "Blah, blah super thick accent, EEVV," with finger guns and a smile.  Elder Wilcox didn't say anything, so I assumed she asked if we were gringos, so I said yes.  She took a step froward and got super flirty, so I said we had to go.  Afterwards, Elder Wilcox turned to me and said, "Dude.  She asked if we'd take her back to the states with us."  Haha that would make sense.

Tuesday
Two steps forward, one step back, and then two steps forward again is still progress.  Sometimes that's how God works.  I started reading in Jacob 5 about the whole allegory of the vineyard thing when I realized that principle.  There were trees, and they got to be good with time, but then they got old and weren't as good anymore.  After a lot of labor to try and help the tree recover, they had to take off the good branches and put in wild ones in an effort to save it.  To the tree, it could have seemed as if the master of the vineyard were trying to hurt it.  But like God, he knew what was best for the tree (for us).  Sometimes it's necessary for us to go through a trial to be able to grow in the future.  Last night Elder Wilcox asked me if I'd give the training for consejo de distrito tomorrow, so today I was frantically trying to pull some stuff together for it.  I'm doing the most McKay thing possible and no, it's not Star Wars.  What I'm going to do is tie consecration into the armor of God and then use the example of the space shuttle Columbia disaster as an example and reference point.  I found a pretty cool video, but it's in French...Oh well.  I stayed pretty busy today starting to prepare the end of month expense report.  I swear I did that just last week.  November passed by so fast.  I don't know what happened.  We were on our way out for the day when President asked us to stay for interviews.  In my interview, I talked to him a lot about concerns I have with people back home and what I can do to help them.  He said something interesting to me: "Doubts are like a virus, don't let them in.  If they get in, they erase everything else."  Good analogy.  I had to ask for permission to start looking at housing for college.  I can't believe it's that time already.  We had correlation tonight, but Elder Wilcox and I played hooky with Mario right next door in the family history enter so that he could get that done for the temple Saturday.

Wednesday
17 months.  I've gotten to the point where when I tell people how much time I have, they say, "Wow.  le queda poco (he has little left)."  Fetch man, I remember back when I was saying 1, 2, 3...days.  I know that Jesus Christ is my advocate with the Father.  I know that through Him I can repent and upon Him I can rely on the last day to present me to the Father.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  This morning I had to go with Elder Armstrong to the clinic with Elder Shockley and Elder Nye to get Elder Shockley's hard cast removed.  Their ex dueña is loca and is refusing to work with no one short of myself for the guarantee we need back.  So today I brought my extra plaque with me and gave it to them because we're gonna have Elder Koch, another missionary from their zone, impersonate me.  Santa Clara is super far away and it's ridiculous that she wants me there personally.  I gave my training in consejo this morning.; it seemed to have gone really well.  It was the last district cousel for Hermana Memmott and Hermana Lindquist.  It's so weird that they're going home.  I was in the MTC with them. 

I got the  money from Tilda's guarantee back today.  He took money out of it to pay his power bill, which is totally against the rules.  But to get that back is impossible with him being the way he is, so I'm going to try to forgive and forget.  I was looking at Google Maps today and then saw something important, so I yelled, "Elder Wilcox!  They updated your house on Google Maps!"  That might've been the most exciting thing we've had happen all day.  We were out and about seeking the salvation of souls today, when Elder Wilcox started talking to this crazy lady that tried to tell him that it's "Jesus Cristo" not "Jesucristo".  I've never heard that crazy idea before.  Another first today:  Someone asked me personally and directly how many wives I was going to have.  I wasn't sure what to say, so I just said, "Nah, I don't want a lot of suegras (mothers-in-law).  Do you?"  She didn't think I was funny.  We had a cita with Monica today.  We reestablish baptism and her spiritual need.  She's a lawyer, so I explained the whole Jesus is the advocate with the Father thing.  She liked that and seems more committed.  We had a lot of new missionaries from Chiclayo come stay with us today, one of which was Devin Fay, who dropped outta my Spanish class on the middle of the year.  Karma.

Thursday
I believe in the gift of revelation.  It can be for ourselves, families, or the church as a whole.  God loves us and will bless us with the knowledge we need so that we have spiritual peace and joy.  The Heavens aren't sealed.  To a certain extent,  I think revelation on smaller scales was always where to receive.  (The whole church not so much because it had to be restored.)  I know that as we earnestly seek it with faith, it will be received.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  The water pressure in our house has been a little inconsistent this past week.  Twice I've had to shower with a drip system, which only lasted 2 minutes or so each.  It's not very fun, but it's ok because after I go and borrow some of Elder Wilcox's Febreeze (scented as freshly-pressed apples) just to make sure that I don't smell too bad.  We were going to do a service to help a family of a mom and her two young adult daughters move in this morning, but it got postponed until the afternoon.  It was a nice little service, but boy oh boy was it hot today.  Also, they've got a lot of stuff.  And they're on the 3rd floor.  She gave us pizza after though, so that was cool.  To celebrate Thanksgiving, our zone went Christmas caroling.  The missionaries from Chiclayo stayed with us again tonight, so we brought them along too.  It was cool for them because they got to see Elder Kleinman, who was in the MTC with them.  The assistants found us and joined us as well.  We had a good little choir going on there.  When it ended, Elder Wilcox and I had to take them back because their van comes at 2 AM.  On our way back, we took a route that lead us by the temple.  It was really exciting for them to see it.  Elder Wilcox went off to buy pizza with one of them while the rest of us wet back to the room, where I talked to them for a while.  It sounds like they have a very strict mission.  Some of them are having it rough with their trainers, so they vented to me about it a bit.  I talked about our mission.  I really liked Elder Leavitt and Elder McClellan.  I left to proselyte.  When I got back, they were still awake and they thanked me.  They said I really inspired and motivated them.  That was cool to hear.

Friday
I know that the church is true.  There's only 4 questions about a testimony that truly matter: Do I believe that God is my Heavenly Father?  Do I believe in Jesus Christ and His atonement?  Was Joseph Smith a prophet?  Is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints the kingdom of God on Earth?  (Stand Forever, by Lawrence E Carbridge)  The answer to all of these questions is yes.  Every other question you may have is secondary question that can be answered through the first 4.  For me, I have a solid testimony of the great apostasy and the Restoration, which means that if I were to decide this church weren't true, then no church would be true and that God doesn't exist.  But I know without a doubt that God does exist and loves me too, which to me automatically means that this church is true.  Hopefully that makes sense.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  I'm not sure why, but we went to go play soccer with Mayorazgo this morning.  My team won an incredible 3 on 4 match.  Today I had to call and burn some Elders in Chosica because they used mission cleaning funds to buy food and then lied about it.  That was exciting.  I went with Elder Wilcox to migrations (parking garage office) to cancel visas for missionaries going home.  I sat next to a Russian lady.  I'm not quite sure what she was doing here in Peru, maybe she got lost or something.  We got Renzo the priesthood tonight (and maybe his recommend too, not quite sure because we couldn't stay).  We also got Mario his temple recommend printed as well.  After that, the Bishop pulled us into mutual with him for like an hour and a half.  It was cool though because A: we talked about how to share the gospel/be a missionary.  B: we got to conocer the jovenes (meet the youth), which we've been wanting to do for a while.  We brought candy to give to them as we got got know each other more.  Mission success.  I talked Elder Napier into giving me a haircut tonight.

At the temple this morning (11/30) with one of our recent converts.

Week 13 in the Office

Mario

This was a crazy week. It was super busy due to the multi-zone, but we got a lot of stuff done and got some good spiritual learning in as well. I was mostly in the back updating the med kits and emergency backpacks of the missionaries in the mission. From the multi-zone I learned that we really need to follow our priesthood leaders and follow the prophet no matter what, because he is God's chosen servant here upon the Earth. There wasn't a lot of drama in the financial world at all this past week. We weren't really able to find any new people to teach while we were out working, and our 3 investigators we have right now are kinda struggling. We're on the verge of dropping them if they don't make a change soon. On the bright side though, we had our investigator Mario baptized this past week. He's the coolest old man ever. He always calls us his kids and it honestly really feels like he could be my grandpa. He's an awesome man. His baptism was a little difficult for him because the font wasn't full, he has metal plates in his back, and he has a huge fear of water (he hasn't gone swimming since he was 14). Despite all of that though, we were able to perform the ordinance. He's already a great member and is even asking for a calling. Long story short, this week was full of ups and downs, but also sweet and tender mercies of the Lord. It's the small things that count. Have a good week!

-Elder White

Saturday
I like the scripture Ether 12:27 because I see it come to pass many times here in the mission.  God truly will help us turn our weaknesses into strengths if we put out whole trust in him.  Examples: Mario and coffee, missionaries and language barriers, Elder White and everything, and most recently Mario and water (details to come).  I know that if we truly put our 100% faith in Christ, then he will bless us with heavenly aid in our weakness.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  This morning I got myself ready early and then went to the office.  I called Josh and Kayden to wish them a happy birthday.  While I was at it, I decided to talk to Jaxon too.  I may have hosted a roast session for him.  Elder Wilcox somehow hit his knee and was limping around the rest of the day.  We had Mario's baptism tonight.  We had a pretty good turnout there.  It was a little complicated because he has metal plates in his back.  He also has fear of water and hadn't touched it since he was 14.  One #5 we got a primary choir in there and that got it done.  It was an extremely special baptism.  He was a good sport about it.  He was saying he should've messed up a few more times to try and break the record.  Elder Wilcox and I took him out to get crepes after.  It was a great day.

 
Sunday
Keep the commandments.  What a simple, yet hard thing to do.  It's a very common theme in the scriptures.  When President Nelson came to Peru a year ago, some of us were thinking he was going to drop some crazy new commandments.  All he did really was exhort the people here to keep the commandments.  I know that as we do, we will live in a state of happiness with many blessings supplied by God.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  Elder Armstrong and Elder Wilcox went to ward council this morning, so Elder Pardo and I went to go pick up Israel and Mayra.  They were just finishing up breakfast when we got there, and the smell of coffee was in the air.  We'll have to teach that one later.  Mario got confirmed today.  These last 2 Sundays he's come in a suit.  He's the coolest old man.  In Sunday school, there's a few dudes that for some reason like to bring up deep or controversial doctrine.  They're smart, but they're just trying to flex their spiritual knowledge.  I always glance nervously at my investigators when they do, but hasta ahora (until now) it hasn't seemed to cause any real problems. We came back to do some weekly planning after lunch.  Our plans to go out and contact with jovenes (young boys) got canceled, so instead we walked around with the member list for 1 1/2 hours looking for MA and to clean out the list too.  We got Erick and his mom, Hermana Cardenas (the Relief Society President) to come with us to visit Monica and Marleni.  When we got there, Monica had left.  That's pretty worrisome because that's the 3rd time in a row she's failed on us, and she didn't come to church either.  We kinda got a problem with our investigators giving us excuses and not giving us the priority: Her, Israel and Mayra.  We're trying hard to brainstorm ideas to help that issue, because we'd rather not stop teaching them of course.  What was cool though, was that Carmen, their maid/servant (she honestly seems kinda like a slave to us), was there and willing to listen to us.  She'd not quite an escogido yet, but still.  Someday she'll be ready.  Tonight during dinner, Bishop came down and talked to us.  I'm not sure why really, but he explained to us all about drug cartels, Pablo Escobar, and El Chapo.  They're literally modern day Gadianton Robbers.  I'm sure he's the only bishop in the mission that would have their convo with the Elders.

Monday
Eternas puedan ser las familias (families can be eternal).   That sounds cooler in Spanish.  I know that as we live the gospel daily and then get our families to do the same, we will be able to live forever together in a state of eternal happiness in the Celestial Kingdom with God.  One thing that you learn as you gain conversion is that God is good.  He truly is.  That's why he made this perfect plan with the sole purpose of helping us become happy as he is.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  On Friday Elder Napier received a package from home.  In it, there was one of his old shirts he used to wear.  Well, it barely even fit because every morning he and Elder Leite do work outs and his chest and arms have gotten substantially bigger.  Let's just say that I was inspired to grow out of my shirts as well.  So this morning I lifted with them for an hour doing our pecks exercises.  Shoot man, I'm not very strong.  I wouldn't even do a girl pushup at the end, possibly because it's my second time ever lifting.  Supposedly it should be my pecks that's sore, but it's more my arms.  It was hard to shampoo my hair after haha.  The hermanas from Tilda finally moved today.  Wahoo!  They were there finishing up when their dueño wanted to talk to the dude in charge who signed the contract.  That man is straight up racist.  He refuses to work with gringos.  We had to send Elders Vasquez (from Cajamarca) there to pretend to be in charge so that the owner would cooperate.  But like I said, he wanted the guy that went to sign the contract.  So they called me.  I said I was that dude's legal representative, but he said that there were things they discussed that he needed to talk to him about.  I told him that dude was visiting family in Bolivia and wasn't available.  (Only a partial lie.  The official guy that signs contracts did change though.)  The dueño said, "Well, if he's not here, it's a big sign of disrespect to me."  What is with this guy and disrespect?  "Well, he's in Bolivia so..."  "I need him."  "He can't come back due to civil unrest.  There's nothing legally binding you two said.  It's all in the contract. You can talk to me."  "Ok, one sec," and he gave Hermana Black back the phone.  He couldn't hang up on me because it wasn't his phone.  They seem to have gotten it all worked out though.  I hope that I never have to talk to that guy again.  From what I understand, at least the rest of his family is nice.  We took Fabricio to visit Monica tonight.  We had to get after her for faltering us recently.  We taught the Plan of Salvation.  Fabrico's mom passed away due to cancer 3 years ago, so he was a good guy to have there to testify.

Tuesday
"May you ever choose the harder right than the easier wrong." --Thomas S Monson (I think).  I've always had this quote stand out to me.  It's very applicable in the world.  We live in a place and time where doing the right can be viewed as the wrong thing to do.  Satan's influences truly have clouded human perception of that in these latter days.  Being righteous never was easy, but there are many blessings that come from choosing the right.  We are free to be agents so that we can do many good works according to our own free will.  We must be anxiously engaged in a  good cause.  As we do so, we will see God's hand in our life more openly, learn from our decisions, and complete with our purpose of life here on Earth.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  Third time in my life exercising, well lifting weights that is, was a success.  It was biceps day.  My arms aren't quite as sore as I think they should be, but my pecks are pretty sore.  We had district counsel this morning, nothing overly new there.  We found out that Glovo does free delivery for Taco Bell on Tuesdays, so Elder Wilcox and I definitely took advantage of that one.  While we were out and about, we were finally able to find Renzo and have a cita with him.  He commented that he's been busy and hasn't seen a lot of the promised blessings of his baptism.  Elder Wilcox pointed out to him that it's because he's not completing his OLA.  That was a good job recognizing that on his part.

Wednesday
I know that all of Gods servants are called by Him: President Nelson, the apostles, President Amato, me, etc.  This isn't man's church, this is God's church.  I know that the church (and myself included) has the priesthood authority and power to act in His name to perform miracles and bless the lives of many of God's children.  I know that they priesthood only functions if we are clean, worthy and virtuous.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  My left arm is impossible to straighten.  It can't go past 120° because it hurts a lot to bend it any further.  My right arm hurts and aches, but still works like normal.  I've been walking around with a normal arm and a handicapped T-rex arm all day haha.  We had scheduled a cita with Israel and Mayra for 8 AM today since Israel leaves for work at 9 AM.  They didn't answer any of our many calls today, yesterday and since Sunday.  We decided to give them the benefit of the doubt and assume their phone was broken.  The multi-zone started at 8 as well, but we decided to give them the priority and try there first since it was kind of an urgent situation.  Naranjas.  Nobody answered the door.  It's super sad that they're failing on us like this.  Any who, the multi-zone was kinda super crazy for us because we had to replenish and replace the expired stuff in all the med kits in every house, as well as replace all the food in the emergency backpacks.  That was a long and tedious task.

  
I even had to make an emergency trip to Jakey Plaza half way through.  Needless to say, I didn't get many spiritual take aways.  When it came time to celebrate birthdays, Elder Leite went running past me in the hall.  I asked Elder Napier what was going on and he casually said,  "Oh he's gonna throw up."  Sure enough, I heard it a few seconds later.  As he came out of the baño, I heard them call his name and cheers, which faded into confusion since he wasn't there.  So I was like, "Hurry, they called your name!"  He jogged back in there and held his hand up like a champ as they re-cheered.  That was pretty funny.  The weirdest thing about the conference was that Hermana Houghton gave her farewell testimony.  It's hard to believe that that much time has already passed.  Is was on errand duty with Elder Pardo tonight.  We made our Tottus run and then went to La Molina to set up.  I had un montón de sueño (not a lot of sleep), so I bought a Root Beer to keep me awake.

Thursday
President Amato had a good talk in the multi-zone today about abiding in the vine, based off of John 15.  The main idea of it was obeying our priesthood leaders.  He explained how Jesus is the vine, and us, as branches, have to be attached to him in order for him to be with us and bless us.  Then he explained how if we leave from that vine, we basically die (spiritually).  That means obey his commandments in summary. Since Jesus can't be here right now, we have a prophet, Russell M Nelson, who represents the vine here on Earth.  If we receive revelation that carries us out of the vine, then that revelation is not from God. The same goes for each of our priesthood leaders that have been called to look over us.  Well, I woke up this morning and now I've got 2 handicapped T-rex arms; I couldn't straighten my right arm either, though it didn't hurt as bad as my left.  Let me just say though: trying to clean myself after going to the bathroom was a huge struggle.  I found that if I massaged my biceps a little, then I could straighten my arms more.  We had part 2 of the multi-zone today, which meant more backpacks and med kits.  It was my turn to go with Elder Armstrong to buy all the medicine.  I'm kinda concerned that it took them an hour to track down all the stuff we needed.  We were slightly less busy compared to yesterday, so I was able to get more out of the multi-zone.  While we were in the back sorting out all the drugs, I said, "Man, I hate drugs.  But you know what I hate more than drugs?  Expired drugs.  But ya wanna know what I hate more than expired drugs?  Illegal drugs.  But you wanna know what I hate more than illegal drugs?  Expired illegal drugs.  Nothing gets me triggered like seeing some chump smoking expired marijuana in the street."  That's my quota of 1 funny things to say per day.  Monica failed on us tonight...again. We visited Mario though to check up on him.

Missionaries I was in the MTC with from one of the zone conferences.  The sisters are set to go home this next week.

Friday
I like the song A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief.  It really reminds us that we need to treat everyone with kindness and respect because in reality, every thing we do to someone else is something we do to Jesus. We did triceps this morning.  It's interesting: my arms aren't quite as sore when I work out.  I'm seriously considering buying protein powder, but we'll see what happens.  When I'm going to cross the street, I use the code "Operation Criss Cross Applesauce."  If you don't say that, you can't cross the street.  I had to run to the bank this morning to get my caja chica.  The one I used to go to got remodeled over night, except it was a downsize remodel, which stinks because I can't do all the stuff there that I used to be ale to do anymore.  Tonight I went out on an intercambio to contact with Elder Armstrong.  We were about to head in when the 4 of us had to go give an emergency blessing to a sick and elderly lady.  Then we went to Sangus.  Elder Wilcox has been hyping it up for a long time.  It's basically an over priced sandwich place.  Not gonna lie though, those are some pretty dang good sandwiches.  Tomorrow there's the championship of Libertadores between teams from Argentina and Brazil.  There's supposed to be 30k Argentines, 30k Brazilians, 10k Peruvians and 10k police and thousands more hanging out outside the stadium.

Week 12 in the Office

Crazy Dueños

This week was crazy. I got a bunch of calls from angry dueños (landlords). But if I remember right, none of them were really the missionaries' fault. I've got most of it figured out though. There was one  dueño that's completely bonkers with what was happening there. Basically he was wanting us to pay a power bill for him even though it's in the contract that he has to pay them all. I've talked to the areas office about it and he's the one that really needs to pay it. The sisters there don't have any electricity though since it got cut off, so we're getting them out of there ASAP. I've tried calling him a lot. When he finally answered, he was really insulting and wouldn't let me talk at all. He kept cutting me off jajaja. I just took it though and didn't say anything. At the end, he threw in a "You really need to answer when I call you because it's a huge sign of disrespect if you don't." (I was in two lessons when he called me a while back.) I was kinda like, "Well, I called you 4 times and you never answered." I didn't get to say anything other than that though because he hung up on me when I said that jajaja. Oh this dude. I would laugh more about it if I didn't have to worry about the 1100 soles or so on the line that I need back from him for the garantia (deposit). So that's that situation there. I've got it pretty under control I think. Our investigator Mario is getting baptized tonight. When we first met him, he had a super bad case of asthma, like he could barely breath after climbing a couple flights of stairs. He had some Word of Wisdom problems. Nothing too serious, he just likes his coffee. Even though it was hard for him, he agreed to stop drinking it. That night that he agreed to stop, he filled his coffee thermos with manzanilla (chamomile) instead when he went out. He accidentally dropped it and it broke. There was a vapor that came out that he breathed in that literally cured his asthma. He hasn't had a single problem since then. God sometimes works in mysterious ways. I know that the word of wisdom will bless us with better health if we can obey it. That's what I've really learned this week. Have a good week!

-Elder White
 

Saturday

Elder Wilcox told me today about how he has an aunt that was born in the covenant and has been an active member her whole life.  Then she recently got mixed up reading some anti-Mormon things about the same time he left to come on his mission  She gradually shopped wearing her garments and going to church.  Now she completely denies the faith and takes all of her kids to other churches, which causes a lot of stress on their marriage.  It's super sad.  A great talk that addresses this is Stand Forever by Lawrence Cornbridge.  I've come to the point in my life where I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is His true church, and if it's not, then exactly 0 of the other churches are right.  I don't know where I'd be in life; that's not a world I'd want to live in.  I'd argue that anti-Mormon stuff is even more toxic than pornography.  I know that this is God's church.  No doubt about it.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  Elder Pardo is the heaviest sleeper.  No sound is capable of awaking him.  I have to throw my chanclas (flip flops) at him in the morning when his alarm goes off.  This morning he slept through 2 alarms and 2 chanclas, so we almost missed our soccer match against Vitarte.  We lost like 10-8 or something.  You might say, "Wow Elder White, you stink at goalie," until you learn that they had a shot on goal on average every minute and half of our 90 minute match.  It was fun.  Today I was part of the 501st (Star Wars reference).  Pday was pretty standard, nothing new or exciting there.  I did take a minute to call my family today.  Bryan married Hannah yesterday.  Sounded like a fun wedding.  When I called my mom, she was out with all the ladies buying stuff to decorate Bryan's car with, among the which were some unmentionables.  Certainly interesting decorations.  While we were out tonight, we stopped by the Valasquez family and challenged them to bring friends to church tomorrow.  We were going in to eat dinner when the Bishop stopped us and was like, "I was talking to my wife and we're really impressed with the work you guys are doing and the animos you've got, especially since you're office Elders.  I was in the office, so I know how hard it is; I couldn't do much.  But now the ward has 14 baptisms this year, almost all of which are from you guys.  The most our ward has ever seen before was 12 when I was ward mission leader.  But it's only November and you guys have 10 more with fecha.  I'm excited for the work and to see how next year is too.  Thanks for what you do."  That was a super nice compliment!

Sunday

I know that patience is, indeed, a virtue.  If we learn to exercise it as such, we will find blessings in the future that perhaps aren't available to us right now.  We need to trust in God's time.  For example, I can name probably more than a dozen people (6 in Alameda alone) who I met and helped, but weren't ready in that moment for baptism.  But then shortly after I left, they got baptized.  Ya gotta plant the seeds.  I know that the Lord's knowledge and timing are far superior to ours, so we need to trust in Him.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  Renzo got confirmed during church today, so that was great.  I loved the ward today, everyone was going up to him and Mario today. Monica came a little late.  We also had a street contact come in too.  It was a good day.  The primary program was today.  It was pretty well put together, I really liked their first song A Child's Prayer.  There were some funny parts; just kids being kids.  Mario said the program made him cry a little (flash backs).  After that, we went to go eat lunch with la familia Trufino (Ciara, Gustavo, Andrea, and their mom).  It was a fun lunch.  Then we went and did some weekly planning and what not while Elder Wilcox also did some stuff for some Elders that are ending this week.  A little more than a week ago, Elder Wilcox and I got into a disagreement on who's taller: Hermana Houghton or Hermana Black.  He said they were the same height while I said Hermana Houghton was easily at least 4 inches taller.  We bet a Cinnabun on it.  I called them on Friday with random questions about the alquiler (rental), then threw in that Elder Wilcox need to know how tall they were in order to cancel their Peruvian visa.  Hermana Black is 5'3" and Hermana Houghton is 5'9".  That was a very worthwhile bet.  We had a correlations meeting tonight.  We were there for an hour and a half before we had to leave to go to our appointment with Mario.  I mean, I love working with the ward and all, but to be honest, I still despise going to correlations and ward council.  I just get bored super fast.  Our cita with Mario went well.  He transitioned from coffee to Ecco. #ConEccoYoPeco.  He was hesitant about tithing at first since he's literally broke, but it was humbling to see him accept it when he understood the blessings.  We all decided to move his baptism to this Saturday.  He asked what he needed so we told him "Chanclas, towel, underwear."  "But I don't wear underwear.  It worsens my allergies."  "..."  "Ha Psych!"  That was funny.  He also teased Elder Wilcox for not responding "in a while crocodile" when he said, "See ya later alligator."  We ran into Israel tonight.  He seemed well.

Monday

Everyone knows the scripture, "Judge ye not ye be not judged."  It's a personal favorite of mine to quote when I'm about to do something foolish, but I recently understood this scripture.  The whole "no judge" thing has always made sense.  If you were to have asked me why though, I wouldn't have been able to tell you much past that you just shouldn't because it's bad.  But then I heard someone say something: if you judge and decide that you're better, it leads to feelings of uncaringness, a lack of love, and pride.  On the other hand, if you judge and decide that someone's better than you, it leads to feelings of self pity, envy and worthlessness.  Judging others causes us to sin in those ways.  It's dangerous, so don't do it.  Today was a very busy day.  There was a lot of people coming in and out of the office needing things.  I've just had relentless problems with dueños as of late.  It seems to me as if half the dueños (not that many really) all took crap then threw them simultaneously at my fan.  I ran some errands to the bank and area office this morning.  I had an emergency side quest at the area office to get a contract signed ASAP for a triggered dueño, but that distracted me and made me forget the real reason why I went there: to drop off  the monthly expense report.  Oh well though, there's always tomorrow.  We had a missionary come from Huancayo today named Elder Sanchez.  Elder Reed went home today.  I don't like saying bye to Elders that are going home because it's like a reality check.  It's also just sad to say bye.  There's been a problem of missionaries going to the doctor without permission recently, which is a bill that I have to pay.  So we had to make a video to tell the mission not to do that.  Well, I got a little bit too excited while I was roasting everyone.  We decided it's be best just to let Elder Armstrong handle it.  We had a cita with  Monica tonight.  Elder Wilcox's favorite food is papa rellena, so she had their maid (Basically hired servant), Carmen make some for us.  The lesson went really well, but I'm a little nervous that she's possibly only in this for Camila, and Camila accepting or denying could change everything.

Tuesday

I know that the church of Jesus Christ was restored through the ministration of angles.  At one point in my life, I was kinda like, "Angels coming to Joseph Smith?"  That sounds a little extreme, am I sure that happened?"  As I thought about it some more, I realized that it made sense.  And not only does it make sense, but that's literally the only way that it could've happened.  The priesthood was completely 100% lost.  There was no one on Earth with the proper priesthood authority, which means that the only way Joseph could have received it was through Jesus' apostles, which were angels.  The best part of being here in Latin America is that no one has problems accepting that.  Religion in that sense is already a huge part of their culture.  I know that Peter, James, John, and John the Baptist appeared to Joseph Smith to restore the priesthood keys.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  We got up early this morning to play soccer with Mayorazgo.  The only reason I agreed to go was because I thought I'd be able to play basketball too.  Jokes on me though because the box to lower the hoops was locked.  Elder Alcas and Elder Rivas went home today.  Today was a super busy day in the office for me.  I spent a good chunk of time organizing all of the house contracts.  The Las Flores contracts from Lima Central were super unorganized, so that took a hot minute.  While we were working, an earthquake rolled though at 4:48.  It wasn't huge, but it was definitely noticeable.  We had a cita with Israel and Mayra.  When we got there, Mayra said, "I know I said that I'd cook for you guys, but I didn't have time.  So I ordered some instead."  So we had some good tequeños, wings, french fries and chicharon de pollo to eat first.  Those guys like a good conversation.  It's kinda funny how much they bagged on the Catholic church.  Israel hates them and Mayra is traditional.  Mayra was like, "We all bluffed our way through Catholic school since our parents made us," and later, "I know it's not a true church because it costs 1000 + PEN to casarse (get married)."  Then they also bagged on it based on their month long Europe trip.  They're pretty good.  Mayra still hesitates about baptism because she "doesn't want to leave behind her catholic traditions."  I don't think that'll be a problem though.  They do a lot of self motivated learning on the internet.  We went to go do the pre interview with  Mario tonight.  We ran into him outside his house and he jokingly hid behind a light post.  He's just the purest old man.  I love him so much.

Wednesday

I know that Christ has given us this marvelous gift called repentance.  I am so eternally grateful for the sacrifice that Jesus made for me and everyone else in order to give us this ability.  It was an extremely selfless and magnificent act of mercy.  I know that God will forgive us of our sins when we follow the process of repentance on his terms.  I know that when we really, truly repent, we will find more spiritual freedom and happiness.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  We're all pretty exhausted when we come back for the night.  For example, after planning and getting ready for bed, I came into my room and sat on my bed.  Elder Pardo followed me in and started talking to me. He took off his plaque and grabbed the phone charger.  He tried unsuccessfully to plug it (his plaque) in a few times before he looked down and then realized in defeat what he had tried to do.  I was laughing for a solid 10 minutes.  Today was a busy work day at the office.  It's kinda funny; there's days where I can miss because I have to run errands all day and I'm fine, and there's days where I'm drowning in my paperwork.  We went to consejo distrito this morning and then went to the area office to drop off somewhere near 200 pages of paperwork.  But here's the thing about the area office; it comes with a curse.  As soon as you go there to do something, there's always something that comes up a few hours later that makes you go back, usually me receiving a bill too large to pay in my office.  I feel like a few of these dueños just hate me.  In Tilda, something was really weird with the power bill--normally the bill comes back around 30-50 soles, but in October it spiked 1000% to 308 soles.  Obviously something happened there because the Hermanas did nothing to change their power usage.  Well, the dueño wanted to make me pay for it.  So I had to call him and explain that in the contract he signed, he agreed to pay all the utilities as part of monthly rent payments.  It's not our fault the power company screwed up.  Well, he wouldn't listen to me. He even tried the "I can't believe someone who claims to love Jesus would..." line.  That gets me triggered.  I had to hang up and call him later.  I said a prayer for comfort and guidance, and then felt impressed to hit shuffle on my hymns play list.  The first song was Where Can I Turn for Peace?  That helped a lot.  (The dueño didn't answer though.)  Mario passed his baptismal interview tonight.  The other Elders have an investigator named Chezel, so Elder Wilcox and I always quote, "Oh Chezel, we will get married in the morning!"

Thursday

I was studying Nephi's last testimony during my personal scripture study this morning.  The last sentence he wrote really stood out to me.  It says in verse 15, "[I do this] because thus hath the Lord commanded me, and I  must obey.  Amen."  That's the best way he could have ended it.  To me, Nephi's story is a story of obedience.  Every couple of chapters, he reminds us that if we keep the Lord's commandments we'll prosper, but if not, we'll perish.  Nephi was always great at exercising faith and obeying quickly with exactness, and we can see the blessings that he had because of that, but also Laman and Lemuel's misery due to a lack of that.  Just as we're taught in D&C 130:21, Nephi recognized that his happiness came from the blessings received through obeying those commandments, and he recognized that he must obey in order to continue receiving blessings.  We must also obey the Lord.  I know that as we do so, we will find joy in it as did Nephi.  In the name of Jesus Chirst, Amen.  So the other Elder's have an investigator named Pilar that was supposed to get baptized on Saturday with Mario, but then this morning she called them and told them that she couldn't do it.  Apparently her ex boyfriend from the jungle found out and threatened her if she did because he didn't want their daughter to go to church.  So that kind of stinks.  Satan's not a very nice guy.  Today I got calls from 3 more dueños with problems ranging from missionaries destroying their rooms to me walking through old houses to decide how to use a garantia.  Those dueños are causing a lot of stress and problems for me.  I called the hermanas in Tilda.  The electricity has been cut off to their room, but they're all being good sports about it.  I tried calling the dueño a few more times and he didn't answer, so I sent him a text asking him to call me too.  Naranjas (Oranges).  Well, all of our citas fell tonight.  Israel and Mayra sent me a text saying that they were making compras (shopping) in Central de Lima and wouldn't be able to make it.  I sent a text mildly expressing our disappointment and asked if they had read the Book of Mormon.  They never replied.  We happened to pass by their house at the time the cita was planned, and their lights were on with their windows open.  Not quite sure what happened there, but ya gotta give them the benefit of the doubt I guess though.  Monica got back from work late and we weren't able to do it.  Elder Wilcox had to do a interview for the assistant's investigator for her baptism on Saturday.

Friday

I know that because Jesus conquered death and was resurrected, each and everyone of us will be blessed with that same gift someday.  We will return to see our loved ones.  We will have a perfect body.  God loves us.  I love the scripture that says, "Be thou patient my son, thine afflictions shall be for a small moment..." and then comes the blessings of Heaven.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  There was an earthquake training for all the leaders in the mission today.  We couldn't get our new mics to work for a while, but then Elder Pardo figured it out.  He made guacamole and bought chips for the break, so that was tasty and original.  I had a busy day in the office filled with caja chica reimbursements, paying receipts, talking to a child Tilda's dueño, etc.  Oh, Tilda.  I called their dueño again today and he actually answered this time.  I was like, "Hey man, so we've revised the Hermana's house and we haven't found any way they could've used so much electricity, so we're not gonna pay your bill.  And they told me you planned to kick them out at the end of the month, but since they got their electricity shut off, they'll be moving out in a few days."  This man, I just can't with him.  He's got the thickest skull.  He didn't let me talk the rest of the call; he'd just cut me off when I tried.  He kept saying, "Well who's going to pay the utility bills for November?"  He wouldn't let me say we already paid November's rent, which includes utilities.  Then he moved to trying to guilt trip and insult me.  He wouldn't let me talk still, so I used the Peruvian "ya" a lot, among other things.  "I'm a good man."  "Ya, chevere (cool)."  "This situation is totally unjust."  "Totally."  "You guys are being so dishonest."  "Oh I hear ya."  "At least I can sleep at night with a clean conscience."  "That's so cool."  "I don't know how you can carry yourself ripping people off like this."  "Oh, I agree."  etc, etc, etc.  Then at the end he was like, "I'm gonna talk to my dad then call you back.  That's another thing.  When I call, you need to answer (he called me in citas).  It's a huge sign of disrespect if you don't answer your phone on me.  You..."  "Hey (x10), I called you 4x and you never answered me."  *Beep Beep Beep*  He hung on me.  It's kinda funny, but also stressful since there's 1100 PEN on the line.  I just want someone to laugh about it with.  We visited Mario tonight since his baptism is tomorrow.  I realized something: he used to have super bad asthma.  Then we taught the Word of Wisdom and he promised to obey it.  That night he had manzanilla in his coffee thermos.  While he was out, it fell and broke.  He inhaled some of the steam that came out, and since that day hasn't had a single problem with asthma.  God works in mysterious ways, but also always follows up on promised blessings.

Week 11 in the Office

Renzo

I liked this week. It was a good week of finding escogidos, teaching them, and baptizing them too. Our investigator Renzo got baptized on this last Saturday. It was a very nice service that we had. He's 19 and a very nice guy. He said that he almost cried a couple of times during the service. He couldn't get confirmed on Sunday due to stake conference. During the week he called us and asked if he'd have to get re-baptized if he smelled marijuana. We became super concerned real quick because he had had a couple of word of wisdom problems in the past. It turned out though that he was with his friends and they all started smoking marijuana. That made him remember that he had had some in his backpack for a long while, so he took it out, smelt it to see if it was good, and then gave it to them so that he wouldn't use it. We explained it'd be better to leave the party next time jajaja. We were able to be guided to find 3 new people this week: A couple we contacted named Mayra and Israel, and also Monica (the catholic godmother of Marleni, one of our recent converts, that told Marleni that she wanted to receive the charlas). It was a huge blessing to have found these three amazing people this week. The work is going well in Covima. We're doing a lot of good here. The spirit is with us as we work every day. Have a good week!

-Elder White

Saturday
I know that the Holy Ghost is a gift given to us by God.  I know that if we can learn to follow his promptings, we will find a lot of peace, happiness and blessings.  The Holy Ghost is one of my favorite things.  I very much appreciate the spiritual guidance he gives me daily.  I know that as we constantly live in a worthy way, we will be blessed with his constant companionship.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  We played soccer against La Molina this morning and we won.  We always start playing at 6 AM.  What was weird was that today the sky was bright when we started playing.  And it got hot too.  It was not like this 2 days ago in October.  Let me tell ya Ernie, Elder Armstrong takes longer showers than any other human I've ever met before.  He'll be in there for like 45 minutes, no exaggeration. Fun fact:  I walked through a pool yesterday.  It was empty, but now I can say I did it.  Anywho, Elder Wilcox, Elder Armstrong and I went to Grau, a huge market.  On our way there, I saw a cool Spanish style cemetery.  Our taxi driver, as we got close, said, "This is a dangerous part after 7 PM.  Not even the police come over here during those hours."  Sketchy beans.  That dude was a homie.  Grau was a lot bigger than I thought.  All we wanted was some authentic Peruvian trinkets/clothing, which was incredibly hard to find.  I don't know why no one in Lima sell traditional Peruvian things.  We literally found the the mission president from Lima Central before finding that stuff.  It was kinda weird running into him there.  Peruvian bartering 101: it's like normal bartering, but when you add "Chihuan" in there you get bonus discounts.  We were able to get a few little Peruvian things after finding some hidden stores.  I was trying to enjoy my Pday, but then I had to make an emergency call to a dueña that was angry about payments and was threatening to kick the Elders out right then and there.  I got that defused ok. It was almost as fun as calling the chiropractor and telling him indirectly that I wasn't going to pay him the way he wanted so that he could commit tax fraud.

Sunday
In the hymn Did You Think to Pray? there's a line that says, "When your heart was filled with anger, did you think to pray?"  Then it says something about being nice to them right after.  I recently heard a story about Brigham Young that I liked.  Basically a dude destroyed Brigham's horse saddle by miscare. So Brigham started getting mad at him and then stormed off to his room.  Before he even got to the door though, Brigham literally said to himself, "Down Brigham," and repented right then and there for being angry and asked for help to improve next time and forgave the man.  Sometimes I feel like we want to wait until we're done being angry and have cooled down a bit before we pray.  But that's not how it should be.  The spirit of contention is of the Devil, so we need to get rid of those unnecessary feelings as fast as possible since it hinders the Holy Ghost.  While I know it's not easy, I know that if we do this we will control our anger better, have more peace, and develop greater patience.  I know that Brigham Young was a prophet called of God.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  We had stake conference today.  I was high key super boring.  Renzo didn't come, but that might've been for the better honestly.  Mario came and stayed the whole time even though it probably made him late to work.  He was sick yesterday and went to the hospital but I guess he's better now.  We had the craziest lady next to us who had something to say about everything.  An area 70 was there and asked the congregation what the biggest problem to modern day families was and she yelled, "The youth!"  Someone also suggested that the parents weren't completely fulfilling their responsibility to teach/take care of their kids and she said, "No!"  (The answer was porn.)  Crazy.  For lunch we had hot dogs, burgers, and American style french fries with la familia Del Carpio.  That was pretty good.  We had Renzo's baptism scheduled for 5, but during conference they announced firesides for today at 5, 6 and 7 for all the YSA.  So we bumped it up to 4:30 so that people would come.  Well, there happened to be a lot of members there for a primary program practice, so we got them all to come over for it, which was a big miracle.  We couldn't find anyone to perform the ordinances, so I did it.  We got it on the 2nd try.  Renzo almost cried twice he said.  He had a great testimony after too.

Monday
This morning in my personal study, I read a verse in 2 Nephi 27:35 that I really liked.  It talks about how those that erred in spirit will come to understand and how those that murmured will come to learn doctrine.  I like it because as a missionary, I get rejected a lot, which is normal.  But I had always had the question, "Will everyone really come to accept the church someday? Will everyone join our church at the second coming or will they remain in their pride?"  There's a lot of good people that are from other religions that don't want to listen to us because they think they're right.  But now I know that someday they'll all come to the proper understanding and join the true church.  The same goes for all of the non-believing murmurers.  It gives me motivation because that's my job.  I stayed busy today.  It's frustrating when I want to get the end of moth expense reports done, but then I don't have all the receipts ready to file yet and have to wait until the next day.  Also, why is everyone moving right now?  Since I got here, I've had more than 7 mudnzas (removals).  Oh well I guess.  There wasn't anything too notable that happened today.  At night we went looking for a MA, but instead found another family that I previously hadn't met before.  We got to spend a good chunk of the night contacting.  Another question: why are there only two types of skirts in Peru?  There's the classic Christian skirt, and then there's the super short skirt.  Why?  I mean there's also a sierra old lady skirt, but only super native old ladies wear those.  We had a cita with Mario tonight.  He was kinda triggered because the hospital wouldn't see him and I guess bishop never sent somebody to give him a blessing.  He said he'd forgiven them all though.  There's no such thing as a short cita with Mario.  He always has something to say.  It's never a waste though.  Everything he says either fortifies himself more spiritually or gives us information that we can use to help him better.  He tells us that we're his only friends, which is really sad for me to hear.  He's just had such a rough life these past 5 years.  And then he went  and spent his entire paycheck on some much needed medicine for his asthma, but the medicine doesn't even work.  I feel so bad for him.

Tuesday
I know that we must endure to the end.  This gospel and course that we've chosen is for us to live our entire life.  If we don't then quite frankly our past is for naught.  While it's great to have good acts in your past, that won't save you if you stop all your good habits.  I like the quote "God doesn't care so much about where you've been (good or bad in my opinion) as much as he does where you are and where you're going."  I've heard a lot of stories about missionaries getting home and getting into bad habits and/or going inactive.  I know that as I live righteously, I will be entitled to the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost.  I pledge myself to God to obey his commandments the rest of my life.  I know that if I do so, I will bless the lives of many people and will be able to gain eternal life.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  Those magical receipts that I was waiting for to file the end of month report didn't show up online until 5, so that was unfortunate.  Nothing super exciting happened during office hours.  I listened to a lot of talks.  I don't know why, but I just felt a super strong desire to repent, but not for anything in particular really.  It just seemed like the right thing to do.  Tonight we had a cita with a pareja (couple) that I contacted on Sunday night named Israel (44 years old) and Mayra (37 years old).  They were super cool and friendly.  They were interested in seeing how Christ could help them find more peace and happiness together.  The best part is that they got married last year.  It was pretty easy to talk to them.  The conversation flowed naturally.  They're good thinkers and understand well.  The spirit did a good job of guiding us through the lesson.  Mayra came off as super catholic at first, but it turns out that she's just trying her best to be religious and to help Israel do the same.  They accepted our message well and are going to work towards baptism on the 14th of December.  We had Mayra pray and she said, "I've always wanted to have a liberal prayer like that.  It feels good."  Elder Wilcox asked how they felt and they said that we radiated peace and love, so were like, "That's the spirit."  It was a great lesson.  Then we went to visit Renzo.  He's doing well, but I was feeling worried he'd have a word of wisdom problem before Sunday, so we long story short told him to watch out for Satan.  We might have scared him a little though.  hehe

Wednesday
As I was listening to talks as I worked, there were 2 principals that I liked that really stood out to me: Temples and tithing.  There were habits involved told in stories that I'd like to implement when I return home. One told of a girl that made the goal of visiting the temple once a week for while year straight.  It's kind of a sacrifice, but the blessings experienced were immense.  They told of having an extremely close relationship with Heavenly Father, understanding doctrine better, and gaining a powerful, personal testimony of the temple.  I'd love that.  Then as to tithes, an ex-bishop from BYU told of some of his experiences from tithing settlements with couples.  Since students a lot of times don't have hardly any money at all, he'd see newly weds that used that as an excuse to not pay tithing.  Then he'd see other newly weds in the same situation, except they were paying their tithes.  He was curious to see how they were able to do it, so he looked and saw that they were paying weekly--literally paying the Lord first.  I know that if I can do the same, then I will find  a lot of blessings and won't suffer from a lack of money.  I spent my day filing my end of month expense report.  That was a lot of paper.  Some of the new gringos had to go to migrations today, so their comps stayed behind in the office all day.  Those guys are relentless sometimes.  Six of them would magically appear in my office while I was filing mission sensitive information and they'd just sit there and talk.  That makes it hard to get work done in a timely manner.  Elder Pardo got an iPhone to help us with our job outside the office.  The area called us and told us that we'd be getting new computers tomorrow, so that's hype.  But they also called and told us that we weren't allowed to do our Christmas activity.  Not so cool beans.  Elder Wilcox was off with the other Elders, so I brought Eric Cardonas (a 17 year old) with me.  Mario said that La U is probably gonna move their office building, and if they do, he'd have to move with it at the end of the month.  He was pretty sad to hear that we wouldn't be able to follow him there; he's pretty attached to us.  I told Eric that he was going to do his best to teach the word of wisdom on his own and that I'd jump in if he needed help.  He did good.  Since his wife is from the Dominican Republic, Mario really likes coffee.  It took a lot of talking and scriptures, but Ether 12:27 finally helped him understand.  He committed to not drinking coffee anymore.

Thursday
I know that contention truly is of the devil.  I've come to dread it and do my best to avoid it.  It is impossible to feel the spirit while being contentious.  Everything good comes from God and everything bad comes from Satan.  It's just that easy.  I  know that as we follow God, we will find true, lasting happiness.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  This morning it was my turn to go run errands with Elder Pardo.  We went looking for a case and battery and screen protector for the the iPhone, microphones, and new bedding for future new missionaries.  We started at the Apple Store in Jocky but that was too dang expensive.  Then we went to Grau and looked around there a while, but couldn't really find anything we needed.  Elder Pardo said that Gamarra was close and that we could walk there.  Well, it's a lot further than he remembered. And it was HOT.  It was interesting to walk through El Por Venin, which is super sketch.  Elder Pardo was like, "This is the fat prostitute street.  And here's where Elder Shupe and I watched the police drag out a dead body.  And here..."  Well, we didn't find the microphones, but we found the other stuff.  The trip wore me out big time.  But on the bright side, it was it was 2 for 1 at Subway today, so that was awesome.  I got a call from the zone leaders in Chosica saying that San Fernando's dueña was throwing a huge fit about the guarantee.  I had forgotten to remind the Elders to stop by my office to pick up the money.  So I was pulling out all the stops trying to scavenge enough money up there to pay it.  I think I helped them out because they never called me back.  Hehe, cool beans.  Well, I was doing some work today while fiddling with my little munchkin stapler.  I'm not entirely sure how it happened, but I guess I must've tapped it too hard or something because I somehow managed to suddenly send a staple all the way through my left pointer finger and the left side.  Completely pierced.  It hurt a lot, even after I pulled it out, which was harder than you'd think, by the way.  There was a lot of blood.  I was in the baño cleaning up when Elder Wilcox walked in and I had to explain what I did.  That was embarrassing.  We took Eric with us to go and visit Marleni tonight.  She said that her Madrina and Madrina's daughter wanted to take charlas from us, so we set up an appointment with them for tomorrow since they weren't there tonight.  Exciting stuff.  All in all, it was a good lesson.

Friday
I know that the Holy Ghost is the spirit of God given to man for the express purpose of blessing us and helping us to be able to return to live with Him someday.  I love having the Holy Ghost with me.  You see, I'm never just in a duo; I'm always in a trio since the Holy Spirit is there.  He's the one that does all the real work.  I know through personal experience that if I'm not teaching by the Spirit, then we're teaching in an ineffective way God doesn't want.  I tried flexing spiritually on the dad from la familia Piña in Alameda; it went horribly hehe.  I know that it is only when we teach by the Holy Ghost that people are able to feel he Holy Ghost.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  So the tech guy came to the office this morning to install my new computer for me since he didn't have time yesterday.  We were both surprised to see that I was only using 32 GBs of storage, so he said it'd be quick and easy.  It was, until the part where my new computer wouldn't recognize any of the USB ports.  He fiddled with it for 10 minutes and then gave up and went to work on another computer.  I Googled it and tried various remedies.  One said to delete the virtual copies of the USB ports and then restart, so I did and the first one I deleted was my mouse.  I sat there dumb founded for a minute until I realized I could manually restart it.  Long story short, that fixed it.  The IT guy was super surprised and wanted to know how I did it.  I didn't have the guts to tell him that it was because I accidentally deleted my mouse, so I told him that it was my brujeria (witchcraft).  Elder Winder from Lima Tambo randomly stopped by the office today, so it was cool to see him.  We had a cita with Renzo tonight.  We weren't quite sure what to think going in because yesterday he called us saying that he smelt weed and didn't know if he needed to get re baptized.  Turns out that he was at a party and all of his friends started using it.  That made him remember he had some in his bag, so he pulled it out and smelled it to make sure it was good still, and then gave it away.  That was a close call. We took Eric to visit Marleni and Monica, her mardina.  Monica's 17 years old daughter didn't want to come down to talk to us.  Monica was cool.  She's a lawyer, is super concerned about Camila, and is looking for more tranquility in life.  In order to achieve that, she accepted a baptismal date for the 7 of December.  It was a great lesson.