Transfers and Changes

Elder Topham

Well transfers have come again. Elder Topham became the new assistant with Elder Madruga and  my new companion is............. ELDER BURLEY. Haha, I thought fore sure that I was going to be getting a Latino companion because my last 2 companions have been white and Elder Topham and I had been joking about me getting Elder Burley as my companion and well it is real now. I am pretty excited to work with Elder Burley because I started my mission in the same room as him and I saw how he worked as a zone leader so we know how each other work. 

Last Saturday we had the baptisms of Rocio and Orlando but sadly not of Gladys. It was about 45 minutes before the baptism, and we called Gladys to see where she was at and her daughter answered her phone and told us that she was resting and that she had been up since 4 in the morning with her son who is a baby. We finally talked to Gladys and she said that she was coming but she didn't come and we called her daughter again and her daughter said that she was sick so we just started the baptism. She had just recently moved out of our area into another mission but she was trying to move back in so we couldn't go visit her. But we have this awesome member that will go contact on her own and she is going to visit Gladys and see what happened but she will get baptized this  week or the next week. 

Orlando

Anyways, the baptism of Orlando and Rocio went very well. Orlando is just a cute little old man. He has dementia and so he can't remember a lot and it's really hard for him to walk. He's 63 but he's more like 90.  He was just so happy after his baptism and he was hugging Elder Topham and I, haha. So we are also teaching Jose and he's doing pretty good. We dropped Jhon because he found new work and he works on Sundays now. 

Rocio

Yesterday we had an amazing miracle happen. After church we just see this older man standing in front of the church staring at the plaque. We went out and talked to him and he has a messed up life like two of his brothers had just died, his wife divorced him, his kids don't want to talk to him, and he's going to have a surgery and he might die in his surgery. He lives in the area of the elders right next to us and we sent them his info and they visited him and he's going to get baptized now, but wow. What a miracle! He told us how he had just decided to go for a walk and he just happened to pass by the church. There are a lot of miracles that happen out here in this mission. I am very blessed and grateful to be out here serving the Lord and to be bringing souls unto Christ. I hope everyone has a good week!

Jackson found his self portrait. 

Steak and fries...one of Jackson's favorite meals. 

Jackson's district at the temple.

Weird Things

It is very humid down here. VERY humid. We are pretty close to the beach so some days it's cloudy but you still are just wet with humidity. 

 

Well this past week we saw some interesting things. First we saw this dude with a broken arm and it was just flopping around and he was asking for money. It was really sad. There was also a homeless dude that had a weird skin disease and he was picking at his skin all the down to this metal plate that he had in his leg. Again very sad but very weird. 

Elder Topham

We walked a lot and contacted a lot but finding was tough. On Sunday Gladys came back to church and said she wanted to get baptized so we are going to to go over and visit her and see her intentions. Jose, this one guy, just came to church and we had a lesson with him after and he accepted to get baptized. WHAT A MIRACLE! The Lord works in such mysterious ways. 

Jackson, Hermana Juarez (Jackson's old CCM teacher), Elder Mortenson and Elder Perez. This was taken before their multizone conference.

This past week we all read a True Conversion by Elder Bednar, as a mission, and man that's such a good talk. I am slowly and slowly becoming more converted to the Lord Jesus Christ each day and I am thankful for it. Hope everyone has a good week!

Working with the Lord's Chosen

These past couple of weeks Elder Topham and I were able to learn a great lesson and that is to only work with the Lord's chosen. These past couple of weeks we have had to drop a lot of people, and we decided that we were only going to work with the people that really want to come to church and will show us that they really want to be baptized. 

Right now, we have two investigators, Rosio and Orlando. Rosio is a reference from a ward member, and she is having problems with her marriage with her husband cheating on her. We had the first lesson with her and she told us about how her husband had been cheating on her but they tried to work it out but how he kept cheating on her. She was crying during it and man.... it was really sad to hear. But we were able to teach her and now she really wants to get baptized which is good. She told us she has been feeling a lot better ever since we have been visiting her. Orlando's wife is a member and the missionaries had been trying to visit him forever but he didn't want to get baptized but now he does and we had a good lesson with him. He is in his 60's. The other day he fell and hit his head on the ground and now he has like brain problems, and it's hard for him to walk and talk but his baptism will help him out. 

Yesterday we had a meeting with the whole mission and all of the converts from the past two years, and we got to see everyone, and it was really fun.

Hope everyone has a good week.

Slow Week

Record Breaking Week

This past week was pretty exciting. On New Years, we watched the fireworks and they were a lot better than the Christmas fireworks. But besides that it was just a normal day, haha. We had transfers last Tuesday and Elder Topham and I are staying together which is good. 

Yesterday we had stake conference and President Amato called Elder Topham and I up to the front to say our missionary commission and he was joking about our red hair, haha. It was pretty funny. I love President Amato. 

Last Friday we had leadership counsel and that was great.  Elder Topham and I were matching and we gave a bomb presentation. Last month in December we baptized 20 children of God and it was amazing. The previous most in Surco was 13 and the normal has been 6 or 8 a month, but Elder Topham and I are changing things around here. We also baptized the most that our mission had ever baptized in a month and President Amato and the assistants were pretty happy. After the meeting, we ate Big Macs from McDonalds and I ate like 6 and man it was good. 

I also went on splits with Elder Madruga that day. Elder Madruga is an excellent missionary and he´s pretty cool. He's from Brazil but he can speak perfect English and he looks like he's American, haha. He played rugby before his mission and dang, he's good. He got an offer to go play on their national team but he turned it down to serve a mission, so I have a lot of respect for him. 

This week we have the baptism for Elizabeth and next Wednesday for Eneida so please pray for them. We are struggling a little bit finding right now but we know that the Lord will help bless us if we are patient and have positive attitudes. I hope everyone is doing great in the cold. It's pretty humid over here. 

Elder Shockley

This is the missionary commission that they say in Spanish: 

I am called of God.
My authority is above that of kings of the earth.
By revelation I have been selected as a personal representative of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He is my master and He has chosen me to represent Him–to stand in His place, to say and do what He Himself would say and do if He personally were ministering to the very people to whom He has sent me.
My voice is His voice, and my acts are His acts.
My doctrine is His doctrine.
My Commission is to do what He wants done, to say what He wants said, to be a living modern witness in word and in deed of the divinity of his great and marvelous latter-day work.
How great is my calling!
-Elder Bruce R. McConkie

Pigeons

I hope everyone had a great Christmas. I was able to Skype my family and that was great to see everyone and their faces. On Christmas Eve it was p-day and we had a zone p-day where we watched Tangled, which is actually a dope movie. We ate Pizza Hut, played white elephant and then played soccer after. That night for Christmas the fireworks were alright. Everywhere you looked you were able to see fireworks but we were kinda far away so that kinda sucked. Elder Topham told me that in the poorer areas the fireworks are better because everyone is drunk and they are shooting them over your heads and it just goes crazy but it was still pretty cool to see. 

Not a ton happened last week besides we found one of our old investigators, Nataly, and she now has a baptismal date for January so that was the miracle. We were able to get everyone to church yesterday so that was good. Tomorrow is transfers and Elder Topham is staying with me to help finish my training as a leader which I am very grateful for. Elder Topham is a great companion and leader and he's super funny. He likes Batman, Star Wars, and he is probably the biggest Lord of the Rings nerd I have met. I have never met anyone else who knows so much about Lord of the Rings. 

So I finally kicked a pigeon. Heck yes. There are so many pigeons here in Peru and they're like vermin, just annoying but they're super hard to kick but I finally got one, hehe. I hope everyone has a great week and a Happy New Years!

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MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Today is Christmas Eve and I'm not gonna lie, it feels nothing like Christmas down here in Peru, haha. The only thing that is different is everyone waits until midnight and then everyone shoots off a ton of fireworks and then after that everyone opens their presents and has a huge party and gets drunk, haha. I hope that everyone back home has a very Merry Christmas tomorrow. I heard that the firework show puts the fourth of July to shame. That is what Elder Topham told me, so I'm pretty excited for tonight. 

Well the highlight of this past week was the 3 baptisms of a family of Venezuelans that we had: Hendry, Noenis, and Valeria. It was incredible. After the Christmas thing half of the ward went and we all crammed in the baptismal room, about 50 of us, and had the baptism. It was awesome! 

Last week Elder Topham and I found Enieda who is from Venezuela and Gladys. Our other investigator is Elizabeth and they all have dates for January so that's dope. 

I just want to express how grateful I am for my Savior Jesus Christ and how He is changing my life. Nothing else. He is changing me into a man of God and I can't give enough thanks to Him. Well I hope everyone enjoys the holidays and all. Merry Christmas!