SUp

Well not too much happened last week but it's chill. 

So last p-day we were contacting in the huge park that we have at night and we had been calling Gino trying to see if we could go and visit him to make sure that he was ok. We found him and his mom in the park and they were crying, and we went over and talked with them and gave Gino a hug. It was pretty sad but we were able to talk to his mom about the Plan of Salvation and how she can see her husband again, and she told us how she wants that and how she wants to feel at peace. We had already had the first lesson with her when we taught Gino but she didn't have a ton of interest. We visited her and we are going to baptize her on the 22nd of next month. 

Gino received the priesthood yesterday and it was pretty dope cus he had a soccer game but he told us that God comes first and he went to church with us to receive the priesthood. We're going to have him baptize his mom so that will be awesome. 

Elder Alonso

We had our multi-zone conference, another one, last Wednesday. Elder Alonso, a member of the seventy, came and talked to us about working with the members and always asking for references. It  was really good to hear especially because Elder Pierce and I do a flip ton of walking and contacting everyday, so this past week we did a lot of working with the members. 

Emilio is doing great he is just searching for work right now so pray for him that he can find work where he doesn't have to work on Sundays. 






Miguel and Michele are doing great as well. Miguel is struggling a bit though with keeping his commitments and he missed church yesterday again but he had to work. His job ends this week too so pray for him as well that he can find work that he doesn't have to work on Sunday in the morning. We are also working on their marriage and papers so pray that we can get all of their papers from Venezuela. 

Nefi's baptism on November 18, 2018

At the multi-zone conference a lot of the new missionaries were talking to me about Owen so that was good to hear about Elder Huff again. I hope he is doing good. 

When no one is on the street you are contacting...

I just want to testify that I know there are only a certain few elect of the Lord. How blessed are we to have the Gospel of Jesus Christ in our lives and that we are choosing to live it and that we are the Lord's chosen. I can't tell you how many people I have contacted that want nothing at all to do with the Church and it makes me a little frustrated and sad because I want them to be truly happy. Share the gospel with everyone! The Lord's elect are out there; we just need to open our mouths and share the gospel with others.

Love, 
Elder Shockley

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well this week flew by again. Another transfer holy cow. I am staying in Carapongo with Elder Pierce for this transfer so that's great. Haha, Elder Pierce is a bit weird but he's super goofy and funny so it should be chill.  

Last Tuesday we went to the stake center in La Molina and finished the training of Elder Pierce. 

On Wednesday, we had an earthquake drill training and then went and had a session at the temple. It was the best thing ever. It was super relaxing. I wish I could go every week, haha. 

With Gino

Well we had the baptism of Gino and Nefi this weekend. Gino's baptism was on Friday in the stake center and we had a white night where everyone wore white. I was able to baptism him and it was a neat experience. Only his mom was able to come but thankfully there were other people there for his baptism. 

We had Nefi's baptism yesterday and boy was that a miracle. So last week we were trying to confirm his baptism date and stuff and his dad said it was all good but his less active mom told us he wasn't ready. We straight up ask him if he's ready and wants to be baptized and he says yes. Like this 10-year-old is asking us who the dad of Alma is and why it says wine in the Sacrament Prayer in Moroni and not water. His Book of Mormon that we gave him is all marked up and he has all of these questions written in the book and he keeps telling us he wants to serve a mission but his mom says he's not ready! We try to convince her for 20 minutes but no, she says he needs time; so we leave to go contact. We pray that night and I just keep praying that we can have his baptism. The next day we find him in the streets and he tells us his baptism is this Sunday and were all like "WHAT?" and then we sprint over to his house and were talking to his dad and he's like, "Yeah my wife said it was ok." So we baptized him, YES! 

Nefi

There was also something really tragic that happened. Last night we were contacting and Gino calls us on his mom's phone and he tells me that his dad passed away. I am not completely sure, because when he was explaining to me I was kind of in shock, but his dad was a truck driver and so I am guessing that his dad died in a crash or from age or a heart attack. His dad wasn't super old but probably like in his late 50's or maybe 60. He asked if we could go with him today to the misa of his dad which is a catholic church thing. It was being held in my first area in Vitarte.  We asked permission to leave but they said no because it's a p-day cleaning, so I am still pretty ticked because I spent all last night cleaning up the room past bedtime so that we could go with him in the morning but they won't let us. I told him that we will take him out to dinner sometime this week though, but please everyone pray for Gino. 

White Night

Right now we have 3 Venezuelans that we are teaching, Omilio, Miguel, and Michel. Miguel and Michel are a couple and have a son so we are trying to get them married and it is a bit difficult with all the papers and stuff but we are working on it so please pray for them that we can get the papers for them. Omilio lives with them and he's 30 years old and his other family is in Venezuela but he is an escogido. He's super smart and he has already finished first Nephi. We got Omilio and Michel to church yesterday for Stake Conference but not Miguel so we really need to work with him. 

Ok, lol, so there's this thing in Peru where woman breastfeeding their children in public is normal especially in the poorer parts so its normal to see in a bus or a combi. Yesterday during Nefi's baptism his mom just keeps on whipping that thing out and breastfeeding her daughter. So we start the baptism and we go out front to take pics and me and Elder Pierce are trying to take a pic with Nefi. Then his parents just pop in with us out of nowhere and his mom is breastfeeding, of course, and they're about to take the picture and they don't even care that she's breastfeeding at all, so I hurry and say that we should first get a picture with just us and Nefi and after we can take a picture with them, haha. And when we take the pic after her shirt is on ............... THANK GOODNESS, because I ain't trying to have this apostasy on my camera, lol.

Our baptismal font for our branch 

Well happy thanksgiving this week, and take care everyone!

Love, Elder Shockley

Milagros

Well..... it's week 6 again. That means transfers are next week. It's pretty crazy how fast time goes out here in the mission.  Happy Birthday shout out to mah bro Hayden last Friday. 

This week I was able to see the hand of the Lord and a lot of miracles happen. So on Monday it was a couple of days after Elder Pierces and Elder Gonzales b-day so we went to eat at Papa Johns and after we bought a tres leches cake which was flippin good. 

On Wednesday we went to the temple as a stake and it was pretty chill. We took Gino and Brad and Victor. The later two are converts. We helped Brad look for family names in Family Search for 2 hours. We found his grandpa and we were trying to print out the name card but it wouldn't print. Finally we got it to work, but when we got to the temple he lost his recommend and his family name, haha. It was kind of annoying but he still got in and was able to do some temple names. 

For Victor, we had spent time searching for family but we couldn't find anyone that we could print or he just didn't know enough info about his family so he came anyway. So we are in the temple and I'm waiting with him to get some clothes and then all of a sudden he's like, "I am not going to be baptized again." Apparently he had been baptized like 5 times for his baptism and it wasn't a good experience. I was trying to tell him that we could just do confirmations but our branch pres told me that he could talk to Victor and that I could go wait outside with Gino. So I just left and then 10 minutes later, Victor comes out, lol, so we just hung out outside with Gino and Victor and walked around. 

There were quite a few miracles the rest of the week. First on Friday, we were just walking and this one lady was putting up signs outside of her shop and we went to help her and after we were inviting her to the church and she says, "Oh yeah I've already been." We were pretty shocked and so we talk to her some more and apparently we had given her a contact card one time and she had gone for the first hour and had just left. We took out a lesson with her and now we have a date for the 8th of December so that's awesome. Her name is Julisa. 

The other miracles happened yesterday. We were able to get Nefi to church, hallelujah. The kid has been wanting to go to church for a long time and has a strong desire to be baptized. It's his parents that have been the struggle to work with but we got him and his dad to church yesterday as well as Gino. Gino's baptism is this Friday and Nefi's baptism is next Sunday. 

Yesterday we also had two Venezuelans, that we contacted, come to church and that was cool. They came a little late but they apologized and said they would be on time next week. We have a lesson with them today so they are about to get baptized. 

Jhony who is a member, brought two kids who are his neighbors to church, Giovani and Myda. We had a lesson with them yesterday and with their mom and now we have dates for both of them. Their mom wants to get baptized too but she and her partner aren't married so we told her they have to get married first but that we can help her with that. Next lesson we're going to teach her partner. 

Elder Pierce and I have been working really hard and now the Lord is blessing us for our hard work and I am so grateful for his mercifullness, if that's even a word.

Hope everyone has a good week. 

Elder Shockley

Lose yourself in the work...not the freakin phone

Well not to much happened this past week. Last p-day we had another zone p-day and we ate pizza and ice cream and watched Incredibles 2. After we all went and played volleyball and then we played basketball. We have the biggest zone in Campoy and we have a lot of white elders so it was pretty fun. We actually played a game of basketball. Of course I schooled everyone with like 5 reverse layups;  it was dope. 

On Tuesday we had a multi-zone meeting and it was fun to see everyone from my old zone like Elder Burly, Martinez and Monzon. The new AP is Elder Madruga and he's from Brazil, but he looks like a white dude, haha. He talks Spanish, English and Portugese but he freakin plays rugby. He played for the national team in Brazil before the mish so every time we see each other we are like, "Rugby Brother!" Haha we just talk about rugby every time we see each other and it's awesome to talk about rugby with someone. One day we're going to play rugby with our zone or something but he brought his rugby ball with him. I wish I would've remembered to bring my rugby ball but I'll have to have my parents send me mine. 

Moto Taxi

Well so our pension is supposedly sick and she can't be our pension anymore so we're cooking for ourselves now and to be honest..... I kinda like it. I can eat what I want and I don't have to eat chicken, rice and dry potatoes everyday so it's awesome. 

Well on Saturday, Elder Morris had an interview for a baptism in Campoy but they also had a lesson so we went on splits, and I went with Elder Gonzalez and Elder Pierce went with Elder Morris. When they got back we met them at the church and they were sitting on the curb kinda discouraged. We asked what happened and they said they lost the cellphone and the keys to the room. Thankfully we had some other keys to the room but it was the phone to our area with all of our contacts. Apparently it 'fell' out of his pocket in the taxi on the way back, but who knows. I was pretty mad at them but it's chill now. It's a little Nokia brick, haha. 

All the flippin cakes

Also on Saturday, I was contacting with Elder Gonzalez and we invited this 13-yr-old to church and the next day he came! So we taught him after and he accepted a date for December 1 and his name is Mateo. We still need to talk with his mom and get her to sign the permission because she wasn't home when he went. 

Gino is pretty much ready to be baptized. He came to church yesterday barely. That was the miracle, getting him to come. That morning the 2 girls that we had been working with told us that their parents didn't want them to go to church and they didn't want to sign the permission either. The dad of Nefi said that Nefi had gotten home at 1 in the morning from a dance that he been to and that he couldn't go. So we call Gino on the other Elders phone, lol, and he doesn't answer. So we're like flip, and we hurry over and we are yelling his name because he lives on the top floor, and he's not coming and then 5 minutes before church starts, he comes out of his house. Wow, that was way intense. His date is for the 16th and we are having a noche blanca or a white night with all of the zone so it'll be awesome. 

Well I hope everyone is doing great! 

Elder Shockley