BDAY Week!

Well last week was pretty dang great. It was my B-day on Saturday and we had four baptisms and I got a cake from my pensionista! My b-day was pretty great.

We had interviews with Presidente Amato last Friday and that was awesome. It is always good to see and talk with President. He is such an amazing man. Also on Friday, me and my compy went to a lesson with the ZL's. During the lesson, I was sharing a story about my dad when he was 14 years old and años is years and I didn't really stress the Ñ and so I said anos. I said when my dad had 14 anuses and after I was done telling the story I look over and my comp and the ZL's are just dying and I had no idea why and it took them a while to recover. 

Elder Binford and Elder Thomsen; we all have bdays in September.

 Anyways on Saturday we baptized Elizabeth, Jesira, Esmeralda and Jhair. Lol, Elizabeth was so scared that we had to close the doors because she didn't want anyone to see her. She was crying and the first time the priest baptized her, of course, she didn't go all the way under so we had to do it again and it took like 20 minutes, haha, but she got baptized. 

Elizabeth, haha

On Sunday Jhair wouldn't get his butt out of bed so he didn't get confirmed. We are going to have to confirm him next week, but it was great because I got to confirm two of them so that was pretty cool. It's amazing how merciful the Lord is and how He has blessed me with baptisms. I am also very grateful to help bring these precious souls closer to living with their Father in Heaven once again. 

Jhair

So the miracle of the week was we were in church yesterday and Elder Martinez sends me a reference and told me to call him. I called him and we got an appointment set up an hour after church. His name is Brayan and he lived allllllllllllll the way at the very top of the edge of our area in the mountains. We had ward counsel after church and we had to leave that early and hustle over to his house. We were in our suits and we were sweating hard core, but we got to his house and taught him and man, this guy is chosen! He's a pretty cool guy. He works super hard form 11 am unto 2 am. He says that he wants to change his life and that he wants to be a member of our church and be baptized. After the lesson we asked him how he felt and he said he felt a warm feeling inside of him that felt really good, so we have a date with him. YAYYY! 

Esmeralda and Jesira

Love, Elder Shockley

¡Primer Bautismo!

Well this last week was pretty great. For last P-day we played sports together as a zone and we played some good ole american football and that was super fun especially because we have a lot of gringos in our district. After, we went and had a weight lifting competition to see who could do the most curls and stuff and other stuff. 

On Tuesday I had like 3 ingrown toenails so that sucked. I just got my toenail clippers and ripped em out so that hurt a little, haha. 

Pero Peruana

So last Wednesday after lunch my comp was feeling sick, so he and Elder Martinez went back to the room so he could get some rest and Elder Burley and I went to teach this lesson. The lady we were teaching was named Rosa and her parents weren't in her house and we didn't have a dude member with us so we taught her in her door. During the lesson I was explaining about how we receive the Holy Ghost and I told her that men with the authority of God put their hands in your mouth.... I accidentally said boca which is mouth instead of cabeza which is head, haha. Thankfully Elder Burley corrected me and we just kept going. Haha. So this whole week Elder Burley and Elder Martinez have been making so many jokes about this, haha. 

Yeah so last Friday we had this incredible experience to have Elder Renlund come speak to only just our mission. It was absolutely amazing! He's a pretty big guy and he has such a strong spirit. He taught us about how to be effective missionaries and just this other amazing stuff. After he left the room you kinda wanted him to come back just because of how strong his spirit is. Afterwards, we had some pizza from Pizza Hut which was amazing. I was finally able to have some type of American food! 

Yeah so Saturday I had my first baptisms! Carmen and Anthony! Usually Presidente Amato wants the priests of the ward to baptize the people but because it was my first baptism I got to baptize Carmen. It was an incredible experience. After the baptism, I just felt so much peace; I can't describe it. It was just an amazing experience to bring 2 souls unto Christ. 

Anthony

Haha, so apparently when I baptized Carmen, I liked dunked her pretty hard. I had to baptize her twice because the first time her feet came up out of the water so I probably baptized her hard. Elder Martinez was saying how I did a John Cena and I took a video of him demonstrating how I baptized her. 

James, Anthony, Valeria (Elder Burley's investigator)  and Carmen

So for this Saturday we have 4 with (baptismal) dates and all of them needed one more asisstance in the church to be baptized but the last Sunday the mom of Elizabeth and Jesira wouldn't let Elizabeth go. I was super worried that she wouldn't let her and Jesira go to church but miracles do happen and we were able to get all 4 of our investigators to church, Elizabeth and Jesira who are sisters, Esmeralda the daughter of Carmen and Jhair the bro of Anthony.  We went and taught Jenny the mom of Elizabeth and Jesira and she accepted to be baptized for the 6th of October! We also had 44 members attend the house chapel and that is 10 more than the last week. My comp and I are working hard to get all of the converts and menos activo to church so that we can have enough to make Amauta a branch and then a ward; so we have been working hard. 

I also confirmed Carmen yesterday and that was crazy because she said that she wanted me to confirm her and I had no idea how to confirm in Spanish but the counselor helped me out and I was able to do it. It really is crazy how giving a blessing works. The spirit just guides you. 

Anyways, I hope everyone back home is doing great and I'll keep everyone in my prayers with the fires and everything. That looks pretty crazy.

Pole Creek Fire

Camel Loveee

Yeah so last week flew by way fast, holy cow. It's probably because we actually have people that we are teaching and they are progressing. 

So last P-day we went to the Zoo. That was pretty great, haha. We saw some pretty crazy stuff. 

It was normal for Peru but it was a flip´pin weird Zoo. We saw these weird camel things making love and that was just hilarious, haha. Everyone was dying. 

Weird camel dude

There was also this old guy selling ice cream and treats through the fence and I just thought it was so hilarious. 

Dude selling his ice cream, lol

On Wednesday we had immigrations and we had to get up at 5:30 so we could get to the place early to get our cards. Well... I'm Peruvian now! YAAA, haha. 

So we now have 6 people with fecha (baptismal dates) which is great! Carmen, her daughter Esmeralda, her niece Elizabeth and Jesira and Anthony and Jhair who are brothers. We are baptizing Carmen and Anthony this week and the rest next week on my birthday so that will be cool to have 4 baptisms on my birthday. We would've baptized Elizabeth this Saturday but her mom wouldn't let her go to church because she said she had to do laundry and she needs one more asistencia. We are going to try and talk to her mom and hopefully we get her baptized the next week for the 29th. Please  pray for all of them especially for the mom of Elizabeth and Jesira that she'll let her daughters be baptized and that we'll be able to teach her and baptize her as well. 

Elder Munoz in district meeting, lol

Last week we went contacting in this freakin mountain and it was sick. Like I said, our new area is a huge valley and we have a lot of cerros which are hills. 

Our casa capilla! Lol, we don't even have a real church but it's awesome

Our pension is still making some good food and I can't wait for my birthday because she's going to make me a cake and her cake is sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo amazing! 

Ceviche for P-day

The miracle that happened last week was we started off with just teaching Carmen and her daughter and then we got her nieces to teach and we have the permission papers. Yeah, well I love everyone and I hope ya'll are doing great! 

Love Elder Shockley

Cambios Emergencia!

Wow so a lot happened this past week. First it was transfers and I got my new comp, Elder Monzon. He is from Argentina so both of my trainers are Argentinian or whatever haha. He has a lot of energy, and he works hard but he is a bit of a spaz, holy cow, but it's alright; everyone kind of just needs a spaz companion. 

Elder Monzon

So an old convert of Elder Rodriguez showed up at church and so we started teaching her and wow, she's ready to be baptized. Her name is Valeria and she's 15 years old and has a kid. Crazy. But her mom and her sister and brother sit in on the lessons so we should be able to baptize all of them. 

So on Thursday the zone leaders sat me and my comp down and told us that we are having emergency transfers and we're now in Amauta 2! Amauta is this valley right below Vitarte and it is giant. What happened was President Amato received revelation, and we are needed in Amauta, so we split it in half with Amauta 1. It is this huge valley with hills and houses everywhere and it's a lot of dirt. For right now we are still staying in the same room. It takes about 15 min to walk to our area so it's pretty close. 

Amauta

We received 4 investigators from the elders from Amauta so that's good but the sad thing is we had to give up Valeria and her family but its alright because they'll end up getting baptized. We are teaching a young woman named Carmen and her niece Elizabeth and these 2 young boys, Anthony 12,  and Jhair 10. We got all of them to church on Sunday except for Jhair because it was too hard for him to get out of bed; wow but all of them are progressing greatly and Carmen has a lot of great questions, and we are answering all of them so that's great. All of their dates are for the 15th of September so we'll see how that goes. 

Elder Espinoza finished his mission yesterday so our pension made a freakin bomb cake and it was too good. Wow! Our pension has a flippin gift. 

The miracle of the week, I would say, was having Valeria come to church and teaching her. Even though she isn't our investigator anymore it was still amazing to have her come to church. I am way excited to get to know my new area this week. It'll take some getting used too but I'm way excited!