January 22, 2018 – Week 69 I think

Good week this week!

On Tuesday we watched the little spec ial broadcast where they announced the new 1st Presidency. It was a cool little meeting! I know that the calls are really made by revelation, and that God gives revelation to His prophets and apostols so they can guide the work of the Lord here on the earth.

That day, we also had a goal of 100 contacts. It was a part of a 2 day sacrifice we were doing to have more miracles in the zone. As a companionship we got to 77 contacts. I feel like contacting lots is a good way to get to know more people in the area, but afterwards, I realized what I could do better to contact more efficiently. I think the helpful part of so many contacts was being able to realize how I could change to contact in a better way! 

On Wednesday we had our district meeting, which was awesome like always. Our district leader Elder Birnabumer is so great at teaching! Then we started intercambios with the zone leaders. I went with Elder Alfare to his sector. We worked and taught an investigator named Alexander. He is preparing to be baptized, but he already seemed like a member! He even went to do visits with us after the lesson! It was a really spiritual experience to have him share his testimony!

I got a bit sick during the week, with congestion and body aches, but thanks to the power of health blessings and the Priesthood and some little medicines, I'm feeling better now! 

We also had intercambios with Elder Birnbaumer and Elder Clark this week. It was a bit crazy, because they started out as divisions, and then turned into intercambios. It was great though! I got some tips on how to get better at using our Area Book, and how to organize it more. It's gonna help a lot! We also were able to teach the daughter of a recent convert, and she (Sioko) accepted a baptismal date! Her name sounds japanese a bit. She's been to church once, and is receiving help from her mom (Ana) who is the recent convert! It's great to have part-member families like that to help each other!

On Saturday we had a baptism! In the morning we went after finishing intercambios and we cleaned the baptismal font, and then we went to lunch. After lunch we had to go and get Elder Mamani's baptismal clothes, and we went to get Luisa (our investigator) for her baptism! She passed her interview during the intercambios, and was able to be baptized on Saturday! The baptism went really well, even though there weren't a ton of people there. She was able to bring her daughter and her niece to her baptism too! Good experience! I'm happy for her! It was able to lift my faith as well.

On Sunday, only 2 investigators came to church on time, which was sad, but we'll be working ahrd this week so that more can come to church the following week! Luisa wasn't able to come for her confirmation because she had some fainas (obligatory work to do in a terrain she had in another part of Peru), and so she'll be confirmed the following week. Later that day after lunch, we had a meeting with the zone and Pres. Larson and Pres. Cerron (Stake president), and we talked about goals and plans for the stake and the missionaries so we all could work together. It was a good meeting! We learned how to become more personally converted too, because it's the key to the conversion of others. First we must be converted if we want to help others in their conversion process. We also had mission correlation meeting, and we got to work with a couple of the new ward missionaries that were called! They are all youth, so it'll be a good experience for them too! Some are recent converts and others are members preparing for missions.

Today in the morning we deep cleaned our apartment and then had a little plans and goals meeting with the zone, because our achievements in the misison were pretty low this week. It was good though, because now we have plans to reach good goals in February. Then we went to buy some stuff for the week and now I'm here writing! 

It's been a good week all in all, and I've been able to strengthen my faith lots! In these next coming weeks we'll be working hard to reach our goals and to bless the people here, because every goal and number has a person behind it. If there aren't people, we are just working with numbers, but on the mission, we have to work with people because our purpose is to Invite others to come unto Christ by helping them to receive the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ! I know this gospel is true, and it is a blessing in my life. I hope to keep growing in this gospel because really there are marvelous things awaiting for all of us as we keep pressing forward with faith in Christ and His Gospel!

Hope you all have a great week! Keep cool there in Utah while we're dying here of heat (even though there was a bit of rain this week which was nice, like actual rain, but not hard rain, more like sprinkles haha)

Elder Bruner

Rimac River

Me, Elder Alfaro, and Alexander as we went to eat hamburgers for dinner

Filling up the baptismal font!

Eating with the Aguilar family

Baptism of Luisa!

They burn the garbage that's in the street sometimes here haha.

eating chicken with Elder Mamani in Zarate Pollo. 9 soles (About $2.80 USD) for 1/4chicken with fries. HUGE! Filled me up!

Us taking apart a microwave to try and get the cockroaches out of the door. They got in between the 2 glass panels in the dorr and I have no idea how they got in. We tried to get them out and now we'll put the door back on haha.