Monday, May 6, 2019

Transfers!

Well transfers came again and I'm going to an area called Chaclacayo! It's hills and dirt! Haha, I'm super excited and I can't wait for what's going to happen. My new companion is Elder Bittencourt and he's from Brazil so maybe I'll learn a little bit of Portuguese. Last week was good. Adolfo went to church and is progressing very well. Victoria is moving to another part of Peru but we sent her info to the missionaries down there. Well I hope everyone has a great week. I'll update everyone next week on what happens next.



Elder Burley and Jackson at Zacateca. They make amazing popsicles.

Jackson's Zone








Monday, April 29, 2019

¡Milagros!

Last week was a very rewarding week. Elder Burley and I had been working in our area for a while without success, and it was getting rough but we were able to pray and fast and work through the adversity, and we were able to find 2 really chosen people. One of them is Adolfo, and he is an older man that has no kids or a wife and he has been looking for the true church his whole life. We contacted him and he said he wanted to come closer to Jesus Christ, and then after that he started going off on some other church that he had gone too, and I thought he was crazy just because there are quite a few crazy old people that get mad at us, haha, but I felt prompted to ask him if wanted to get baptized. So I did and he said yes and then I asked him the same question 3 more times and he kept saying yes haha. I just thought he was kind of crazy  but we took out a lesson with him, and well he accepted to be baptized the first of June. He said that he had just been looking for a church that he felt good in and that when he first saw us in the street he felt peace. 




So last Friday we went to the temple and it was good, and we went to Rodizios and all. After when we went out to work, we got a reference from a member. It was a 60-year-old widow named Victoria and her husband died last August in a car crash and in the lesson she started crying and it was super sad. She lives by herself and she has to wake up at 4 in the morning to go work. Both of them came to church yesterday and it was the best ever. The members took them in and loved them. It was a very rewarding week. 




Well, I hope everyone has a great week!

Tuesday, April 16, 2019

English, Swiss and a Kiss

Sorry for not writing these past couple of weeks. Just not a lot happened. But anyway this week was quite an interesting week. First off, the area that I am in has part of Miraflores, which is a rich part, where a lot of tourists come through. We run into quite a few white people, mostly Europeans. It's just so weird to run into another person that speaks English on the street because as a missionary you're just so used to contacting in Spanish you can't even talk in English when they try and talk with you. 




Last Tuesday, Elder Burley and I ran into like 4 different people from Switzerland and 4 other people that had visited Salt Lake. There was one street where Elder Burley and I contacted more people in English than in Spanish. 

So an update on our people, sadly Flor, the week of her baptism, decided that she didn't want to be baptized because she said her other baptism was valid. We talked to her for a while but in the end we told her that when she would be ready to call us. 




We also decided to talk with Jose B again, and we had a lesson with him and his Venezuelan roommate, and he told us that he's ready to change but we´ll see. Yesterday Jose B went to church, but he is the most ADD guy you have ever seen, haha. He just can't sit still and his attention span is 2 minutes. We tried to show him the 1st vision and he had to go get something to eat, then something to drink, then someone called him, then he kept asking questions and we told him that the video would answer his questions if he would just be quiet and watch it, haha. His roommate, Luis, is pretty cool as well, but when we went to go and pick them up, he was still sleeping and so he didn't go to church. So we are going to keep working with Jose B to help him out. 




So here in the mission, there are 3 things that are destined to happen to you. You get bit by a dog, you crap your pants, and you get kissed by a girl. Sadly 2 of those things have already happened to me. One day last week we were contacting this older lady and she was talking to us about her son and how he was going through some problems and all this stuff. Here in Peru the cultural thing to do to greet women is you both give each other a kiss on the cheek and after we finished the conversation, she tried to do that to me but I tried to tell her that as missionaries we can't do that but she just yanked me in and kissed my cheek. 

Well I hope everyone has a great week!

We found a nice place in our area that makes wings!

Thursday, March 28, 2019

Transfers

Another transfer is here. Elder Burley and I stayed together, as we expected, which is going to be awesome. Elder Burley is a hard worker, and I like him as my companion. 





Yesterday was a little depressing as Natalia texted us in the morning and told us that she was sick and couldn't go to church so she won't be able to be baptized this Saturday, sadly, but she will still get baptized. However Flor came and she's doing good. She used to go to an Evangelist church so she has a lot of questions, and we have to use a lot of scriptures to help her understand certain doctrine. She has really good desires to keep learning and coming to church so that is good. I hope everyone has a great week!









Jackson called on Matt's Birthday, Monday. 

Thursday, March 21, 2019

Another fast week

This week flew by once again. Once you are able to learn to lose yourself in the work and just focus on the people, the mission is just great. Elder Burley is a good companion and we are working our trasero's off. It's good. 




Well on Sunday, Natalia wasn't able to go because she went off with her mom on a trip but she's doing good. There was a lady that a member brought to church on Sunday, and we had a lesson with her after church. Her name is Flor, and she had been going to the Evangelist church but she wanted a new direction in her life, and she accepted a baptism date for the 13th of April so please pray for her and Natalia.





Jackson and Trae Stevens. Trae is from Spanish Fork and visiting Peru with his dad. They went to church on Sunday together.

Have a good week!

Monday, March 11, 2019

Lima Tambo

This week just flew by. Let's just say the time right now in the mission is moving insanely fast. 

Last P-day went to a store called Totus and bought some American things like Mountain dew and pancake mix and syrup. 



Last week we were pretty busy talking too and taking out a lot of appointments with people. We had found 2 people that had accepted baptismal dates and we had a lot of good potentials. But none of them came to church on Sunday. We called and made plans the night before and we passed by their houses to talk with them about going to church. We get there early Sunday morning and we were calling everyone and going by their houses but no one was answering their phones or they were not there. 


But we did have the one contact that we had had, and we passed by her house and she was already to go. We go to church, she loved it, she was asking about baptisms during church and how one can be a missionary. After church we had a lesson with her and like that, she accepted a date to follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized the 30th of March. Her name is Natalia Chumpi and she is very chosen. Please pray for her and her family that we will be able to teach her family as well. All of this just made us realize that this is the Lord' work and we just need to trust in Him. No matter how frustrating in might seem just trust in the Lord. 

So our house chapel that we attend Sundays in Surquillo is becoming the new mission


office for the new Lima Tambo Mission so we are changing church buildings to the Lima Tambo Stake Center. It's about a 20 minute walk from our area but it's a pretty cool building. It's the building that we saw the prophet when he came down here to Lima to speak to all of the missionaries.









Have a good week!

Tuesday, March 5, 2019

Jose y JosB

Well this week was pretty interesting. Elder Burley and I didn't have a whole lot of time to work in our area, and it was pretty frustrating. There were a lot of meetings and other stuff that we had to attend to. 


Octopus anyone?

Well Jose got baptized last week so that was good. He almost canceled on us but he pulled thru and everything went good. Jose is the only Peruvian that I have seen and met that is taller than me. He's even taller than Elder Burley too; it's quite funny. 


Jackson, Miguel (the member that baptized Jose), Jose, Elder Burley

Our people from last week was another Jose and Corita. Jose has just a messed up life with drugs and being divorced. Corita is a single mom with her daughter. Both of them didn't make it to church and it was their second time not coming so we dropped them. Corita wakes up at 4 in the morning with her daughter and gets back at 7 at night from her work so she is always super tired, and she's trying to take care of her daughter. She will get baptized eventually. She'll just have to get a new job first. With Jose, we just need to be patient with him. He is a really distracted guy but everyone in life has just given up on him, and we're his only friends. It's pretty sad, but we are going to have a very firm talk with him about coming to church on Wednesday. 


Krispy Kreme Shop

Last P-day Elder Burley and I went to Wongs which is kind of like an American store, and we saw some good stuff that reminded us of Merica. 




Last week I talked about ministering and how everyone is a Child of God. I have been trying to think more about this this past week, and it has really helped my love grow and deepen for the people here in Peru. I am just so glad to be out here ministering and working with the people of Peru. Well I hope everyone has a great week.