September 3, 2018 – Week 101!

101 Dalmations. 101 Missionaries. 101 Weeks. 101 Peruvians. Haha

This week was pretty cool! Even though we've had a little struggle finding new investigators, it's still been a great week!

To start the week out, we had intercambios with Rimac2B. I went to the sector of Elder Baum with him. They have a reaaaaalllllyyyy long sector compared to us, and it'd take more than a half an hour walking from one side to the other! We were able to teach a few lessons, and also teach Irene, who is an investigator who was baptized on Saturday! We prepared her a bit for her interview so she could have a testimony of the Restoration of the Gospel! It was a great lesson.

On wednesday, I did a cool activity in district meeting where I hid some small candies around the room, and had the missionaries in my district go and look for them. After they looked, I gave them a scripture in Doctrine and Covenants, which in short says something along the lines of "Ask and ye shall receive", and put it on the whitebaord as a hint, and the 1st missionary to ask me where the candies were got a bigger candy than the rest. In the end, everyone asked, so I gave them all candies! Because everyone can ask of God and receive answers! I taught that there are people prepared in our sectors, and sometimes we find people that have little interest or are interested for a bit, but when we can ask of God, He can help us find the people who are really prepared to hear the gospel and can help us know what to do to help them progress as well!

Later that night I had a baptismal interview for the sisters in our district and their investigator Maria. She was SO PREPARED for her interview! she had spiritual experiences with almost every commandment and with other questions on the interview, and was so happy! You could tell that she wanted to do her best and really had the desire to be baptized and to be ready for baptism. Well, in short, she was baptized on Saturday! So cool. I love interviews like that. They give me an excitement to prepare my investigators so they can feel the same in their interviews!

The next day I did an interview for Irene as well, and she passed! She showed a willingness to follow the path that Christ shows, and I know she'll do well! There really is a ton of opposition in the world, but if we are willing to keep the commandments (not being perfect), then we will be able to reach perfection eventually! I really like what a talk from Elder Holland says.

"In fact, in a resurrected, otherwise perfected body, our Lord of this sacrament table has chosen to retain for the benefit of his disciples the wounds in his hands and his feet and his side—signs, if you will, that painful things happen even to the pure and perfect. Signs, if you will, that pain in this world is not evidence that God doesn’t love you. It is the wounded Christ who is the captain of our soul—he who yet bears the scars of sacrifice, the lesions of love and humility and forgiveness."

Even as we become perfect, it doesn't mean itll all be easy. We have pains on the way, but we will be perfected in Christ thanks to His example and sacrifice!

We also had multizone conferences this week, and I learned a ton! We ate chili for lunch, and it was so good! I haven't had it in a long time!

We've been visiting one of our investigators named Myrtha, and she's one of the investigators progressing for the 15th of September. She's reading her Book of Mormon and showed and effort in getting to church, and I know that as she does these small things, the opposition won't be any bigger than her desire to be baptized and make changes in her life, and I can't wait to keep teaching her! We have a family home evening planned for tonight, and she said she's willing to skip her Novella to come to the family home evening! That's committment! :D Tomorrow we also have a lesson with her.

We are also teaching Rosaura, and she's progressing! Opposition is strong as with other investigators too, but opposition is always strong when one wants to choose the right!

I gave my last testimony in the multizone conference (and in our ward) and based it on Christ, who is my Redeemer and yours. I know He lives, and He was willing to sacrifice for all our sins so we can repent and return to the Father's presence. I know that He guides this church, the Church of Jesus christ of Latter-Day Saints. I know that His atonement is real. I feel joy because of it. I know that I'm not perfect, but I know that the direction we're going is more important than the speed at which we go. I know that each week, we can remember Him during the most important time of the week, which is the Sacrament Meeting during the sacrament. I know that as we remember Him, we will have the spirit with us. I know this is true. I testify of it in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Have a great week! :)

zone pics thanks to Elder Smith!

me and Elder Baum eating mac and cheese

pollada for lunch! (chicken)

eating more potatoes

haha my hand was red that day.

chili! and salad with ranch dressing!

these cereal type things that i bought for s/2. Like 60 cents for this bag. kinda glazed and sweet. So good for snacking

PREVIEW! Ill be finished today, so I'll send the final pic!

with the Ochoa family for lunch. We had chanfainita (cow intestine and potatoes, delicious right? but its really common here. its not bad! not my favorite, but not bad!)

design of my companion and i for a ward activity that were gonna try to have

with the Tarazona family and the guy to my right is a returned missionary (Elder Guevara) who served here (He was from the group of Elder De Arce, and is here again for his girlfriend (in front of him). It was cool talking with him! He knows tons of missionaries I know.

pic from our roof. Preaching to lima peru!

zone Pday! catacumbas

3 continentes restaurant!

lomo saltado!

pics of the Rimac River i our sector from a bridge. This cement bridge moved up and down when people walked on it, but its less scary than the other little wooden bridge that you can see the end of in the pic that used to be the principal one!