Well like I said this week has been a really hard week, but a rewarding one. We had a baptismal service on Saturday at 11:00am, but the investigators didn't show up till 11:10 which made me and elder Rodas freak out a little bit, but everything else went smoothly(with exception that their mom didn't want to be baptized quite yet) I was able to perform the ordinance for Alexandra Mercedes Dias Quinche, it was really amazing and funny because their is no hot water in the baptismal font so the water was about 50 degrees so as we were getting in Alexandra was squealing and taking deep breaths, and as she came up out of the water she was gasping and just about running for the stairs, which made it all the funnier to watch her brother start walking down into the water hahaha but it was amazing. this week was a really hard week though not sure why it was so hard, maybe it was just stressful but the ward here has really caught the spirit of missionary work and we were able to get 21 lessons with members present! that's really amazing, elder Rodas even though he is in his last three months of his mission as of august 1st said that never in his whole mission was he able to get that many lessons with a member present. it is so amazing to be able to be working in this part of the vineyard, the impact of the members on investigators is amazing and their concern friendship and help they provide the investigator is priceless. my companion said something very profound the other day during training that i would like to share with you guys and hope that you guys will be able to think about it or even try it out. we were talking about inviting people to be baptized and how we should never hesitate to ask because 1 it lets us see really where their doubts are concerning the church and progress or answer their questions and 2nd the world never hesitates to ask people to smoke to drink, to go to inappropriate parties, and they accept, why then should we fear or hesitate to ask them to do something good, because chances are more often than not that they will at least give it a try. so never hesitate to invite people to come to church with you guys or to listen to the missionaries, because chances are they have seen your great example and are curious as to what makes you different from everyone else! anyways love you!
ps if you can still put some things in the package i thought of a list of things that i would like
the study giudes/manuels for the book of mormon, D&C, old testament, and new testament in english...there are also dvds if you can find those in spanish because they are full of short videos which are amazing. if you get me the dvds a cd dvd case like the books, but a lot smaller would be nice. also batteries, i got this camera because it used batteries and it is pretty easy to come by batteries here, the thing is the batteries last about an hour in my camera, where as the batteries from the us last about a week of heavy use and a month of light use. so if you can that would be awesome!
love you guys hope to hear from you soon, and not just mom and dad, and ocasionally marlee but ALL of YOU aaron, shannon, tater kristi....etc!
loves
Mom's questionsDid your baptisms go through on Saturday? yes! we were able to baptize victor and Alexandra, but their mom wants to wait a little while like a month, to take care of some personal issues first.... sigh oh well... but we{ll keep working with her.
Have any more of your investigators committed to baptism? we currently have 9 different people committed to be baptized between now and september 3 it is really amazing how easy it is to get people to accept a baptismal date, the hard part comes in getting them ready to make this covenant and to remain faithful afterwords.
When will you be having transfers? transfers are August 1st Tate's birthday! so you'll all find out then it'll be a nice present, happy birthday Tate i love you
Any new word on your VISA? no idea apparently my tourist visa is good for 6months so well just play it by ear until December
Dads questions
Howdy Jesse, what’s new in Peru? not much, just working hard, this week was a hard week but a rewarding one, we were able to have 21 lessons with a member present!
So how is the winter weather there? cold and wet, it doesn't really rain it{s kind of like being inside of a cloud and water just accumulates everywhere.
Do I remember right you are not far from the coast? that's right were pretty darn close to the coast even though its not inside of our area, on clear days we can see it though from the tops of our giant hills
So does that make the weather a little more mild? not really, if it weren't so humid it would be really nice, or if i saw the sun more than three times every 6 weeks
Is it more desert or tropic along the coast? well if you haven't seen on google earth a satellite view of Peru then here is the layout, everything from the coast to the Andes is desert and barren, nothing would grow here if it weren't for people piping in water, so there is little or no grass, trees are tiny and the view mainly consists of dirt and mud, however right now because it is so humid small plants like clover are starting to cover the mountains and so everything looks green, but as soon as the sun comes back they will all die off (at least that's what the Peruvians have told me)
Since your by the coast do you eat more fish than in the other places, or is your main food still chicken and rice? nope the main plate is still chicken and rice
So do you get the church magazines at you apartment to read? sometimes
Or do they want you spending all your time in the scriptures and preach my gospel? its not prohibited if that's what you asking, but we usually don't have very much time to just sit and read the church magazines since we are asked to study from the book of Mormon a minimum of 30min every day and read every word and look up every scripture in preach my gospel every 6 months, so that takes care of personal study and companionship study we don't have much time either, so keep the stories coming i enjoy reading the cliff note versions ;)
