The stresses of a Marriage

So last week I was sick so I didn't write an email but nothing much happened except for one neat thing. We all got to go to the chapel in Lima Tambo to hear Elder Holland speak. 

We woke up super early and President and Sister Amato made us breakfast. Before the meeting, the missionaries from Lima Tambo came and I got to see Elder Frame from my old group. He was one of my buddies. 

Elder Frame

We went and listened to Elder Holland and I was able to shake hands with him. He made fun of my red hair, haha. I loved the passion he had when he spoke. He talked about his mission and how important it was to him.  I really could connect with him because I have the same passion about being on my mission. He talked a lot about being strong and staying active in the church and having the desire to want to know that the gospel is true. I really loved listening to him. I was also surprised to see Elder Ludke! Elder Ludke went to school with me so that was great to see him. He is in the Lima North mission. The next day we had our multizone meeting with Elder Gavarret from Uruguay and he had some really spiritual uplifting messages that I really liked.

Elder Ludke

This past week went by pretty fast. Pretty much what happened was we were fighting with Alex and Patricia with their marriage. Not literally fighting but every other day when we would go to their house they would be good and fine and then the next day Patricia wouldn't want to get married and then we would have to fix everything. Sometimes we would have to go 3 days in a row to help them out. They just have been struggling a little bit with the communication in their relationship. Alex is all fine but some days Patricia is good then the next she's not.One day we brought one of the members from the relief society presidency over and Patricia was like, "I can't do it; I don't want to get married."  We had to talk her back into getting married. And then everything was good until yesterday when they didn't come to church. But Jennifer, their daughter, was at church and we asked her where they were and she told us that they had gotten into a fight and we're like, oh great. SO we go to their house and pretty much Alex had gone to play soccer with his buddies for a little bit right before  church, even though that week we had explained to him that on the sabbath day we should refrain from playing, and when he came back they started to argue or something and Alex got so mad he told Patricia he didn't want to get married and he ripped his papers that they needed to get married. BUT we talked it all out and we told them that no one has a perfect family, and that everything will be all good, and the best thing to do is to move forward for their marriage and baptism this Saturday, and now everything is all good! So, if everyone can continue praying for them that they can get through all of the opposition that they might face, that would be great! 

We call this little boy, Puno. Puno isn't his real name but he likes to do knuckles with us every time we see him. Puno is knuckles in Spanish.

The Venezuelan family is doing good. They just didn't come to church yesterday even though they had confirmed everything. We went and talked to them and it sounded like they were making some excuses so we were very direct with them and we discussed about the importance of going to church every Sunday to partake of the sacrament. We have another lesson with them tonight but if everyone can please pray for them as well for Eusebia, Eugenia, Ronald, Maria and Raul. 

Elder Alva 

Jackson's Zone

We also had a crazy miracle in church yesterday. At the end we went to talk to the people that we didn't know and there was a single mom named Erica Sifuentes that had already been to church 3 times and she was living with her sister in law. She is a single mom with 3 little kids and she is working and trying to support herself and them as well. She is just passing through a really tough time and she accepted to be baptized for the 29 of February! 

Spider in Jackson's apartment!

Well that is what happened this week so I hope everyone enjoys their week!