July 18, 2011
Ok this week has been an awesome week and i have really been excited to be a missionary, we have been trying to do splits all this week, but the priests usually fail to show up, so we started relying more on the elders quorum and the bishopric and the high priests and missionary work has started going through the roof! i am always amazed when we teach with someone older than us the strength and power of their testimony and experience, and how they can connect in a way that we as missionaries and young men without families cant. this week has been a learning experience for me as to the importance of getting the trust and support of the members and how much more effective we can be with them, if there is anything that you can do to support the elders in mesa do it, dad you can go on splits just as easily as the priests and you can give a testimony that the people in mesa will be more ready to receive. this week we were able to go on splits with hermano slavatierra and hermano beserra, hermano beserra went with me to visit Jorge and and it was amazing how right off the bat they connected, Jorge had been a little hesitant when he accepted to be baptized August 6th but he accepted, having hermano beserra share his experience of his conversion and teach Jorge how to really get an answer from god that this is his church was an amazing experience, that i cant really describe in words, but by the end of the lesson Jorge was excited and anxious to give it a try and to follow his answer to the waters of baptism! This letter was probably a little scatterbrained sorry, ill do better next week promise :)
Marlee´s Questions
How have things been this week? As always it has been a learning experience
anything new? lots of new people to teach!
But what part of Peru are you in right now and is it more city or woodsy? I'm in the city pretty close to the coast, lots of really steep hills.
Dad´s Questions
What’s going on down there?missionary work
How are you doing? (Physically, spiritually, Emotionally).doing better every single day
How are the families you are teaching? also doing better every single day
Did you find some new ones? of course, just not gold
Where you able to reschedule the Baptisms yet? no turns out Dominga is what we call eternal investigators, loves to listen and learn, but lacks the apply part
Do your investigators need to come to church so many times before they can be baptized? yes a minimum of once
Is that besides the normal word of wisdom and marriage you biggest stumbling block? application
Do the members help you out a lot? we had a great week this week lots of support from members we had about 15 lessons with members
Do you teach in the members home or do they go with you? they come with us
Are you back up to speed with the language? had the comment made to me today that i no longer have a gringo accent so yeah
Do you understand them? yes
do they understand you? yes
Are you doing better about keeping a journal this time? no
Mom´s Questions
There anything you can think of that you want me to send with her? hmmmm. i miss granola
What kind of candy are you craving? paydays and snickers
Can you think of anything else you need or want me to send? love :)
How is the gentleman coming along with his family that approached you on the street the day you were smiling? great he is an amazing person, they still are waiting to get married, but his mistress is coming to church and they still want to be missionaries
Have any of your first investigators returned to enter the waters of baptism? no :(
How about the single mom? shes doing amazing, they are going to be baptized this Saturday!
How is the family of the man who passed? doing well i had the opportunity to go back and teach them and they are progressing well
What do you do for P-day in the city? soccer
Have you lost any weight since being there or are you keeping that a secret? you'll never know! haha jk i don't know people are telling me that i look thinner but my clothes still fit thank goodness
Do you find that (poverty) in the area that you are in? umm yeah pretty sure $50 could feed a family of four for two or three weeks
Do you mostly walk everywhere or use public transportation? mostly walk but there are mototaxis and buses (not buses like in the states their private buses that transport people around)
Are you staying warm? yes I'm more worried about being wet though its so humid that in the 4 weeks I've been here that coat you made me bring, that i just hung in the corner of the room, is covered in fungus gross!
