Last Minute Miracles!

SO last week I was able to go back to Santa Clara for the Baptisms of Yari, Rosario and Keisy. It was a good feeling to go back there and see everyone again! I was talking to Elder Nye and he told me how Yari and Rosario passed through some last minute opposition but they made it through. He also told me how Keisy has been reading the B of M and that she's already in Alma and that she also wants to serve a mission. That's probably one of the best things is when you are able to help baptize someone that wants to become a missionary! I was also able to see my Venezuelan converts. I was talking with Edileidy and she said that she also wants to go on a mission, haha! Here are some pictures from the baptism.

L to R: Elder Nye, Keisy, Yari, Rosario, Elder Bittencourt, Jackson

Also last week my companion and I have been grinding duro down here. We worked hard all week and we were praying hard that we would see a miracle on Sunday in church. We prayed fervently Saturday night and Sunday in the morning that we could see a milagro in the church. We called our list of people to come to church and there were two people that said they would come to church by themselves. So we were at church waiting outside the doors greeting the members and everyone and we hadn't seen anyone new and the sacrament was about to start and so we went in. We were a little frustrated sitting there thinking why we hadn't found anyone until after the sacrament meeting we looked at our phone and saw that we had missed calls. We called the number and 2 women that we hadn't contacted told us they were waiting for us outside and we went and got them and they were able to go to the second hour. Their names are Difilia and Alejandra, two sisters. We have a lesson with them later this week. But how the Lord answers our prayers! We prayed so hard and the Lord delivered. 

Another miracle we saw was we had a noche de hogar and we arrived at the members house and they invited us in but told us that the guest hadn't arrived. We told them that we were going to contact a little bit longer until their friend they invited came to the house. We did a contact around the block and on the other side we found a single mom with her 3 kids. We went to her house with her really fast and blessed her house and we have a lesson with them tomorrow! We were able to work all week long and see the miracles in the end! I know that God does hear our prayers and works according to the desires of our hearts! Enjoy your week!

New Area

Well transfers went good last week! I am in my new area, El Valle, in the Zone of Campoy. There is a lot of dirt in Campoy, surprise, haha not. My new area is a quite a bit smaller than Santa Clara was but it is super populated.  In Santa Clara there were 800 members with 200 that attended and it was a pretty big area. Here there are 1062 members with 200 that attend and it is a bit smaller so that just shows how densely populated my new area is.

Jackson at a little farewell party his last area had for him.

We had 2 new areas that were opening in the Zone but the day after transfers they both got shut down because the new missionaries that were in the areas were just here in Peru waiting for their visas to come. 

Right now we are teaching 4 people. Alex Huanaco is a separated dad who lives by himself in his mechanic shop. He has problems with smoking so please pray for him that he can have the strength to overcome his problems. We are also teaching a family of 5: Diego 10, Dayana 13, Marcos 17, and Porfirio and his wife Amerita. The parents aren't married and they don't really want to get married for now so we are just working with the kids. They have all come to church twice and they are doing good. Just pray for their parents that the Lord can touch their hearts so that the kids can get baptized and in the future that they can get married. 

Jackson and his new companion

The New Zone is only 12 missionaries which just feels so weird coming from a zone of 20 Elders. It's also super weird to have sister missionaries in the zone again. This past Friday we also had a really cool activity we got to do as a zone. We went to a really poor part of the zone and with the YSA of the stake we had a bunch of toys and we gave them out to all of the little kids. We sang some songs and the YSA did a dance and then we handed out some food and toys. 

Jackson's new zone

Have a good week! 

Miracles and Transfers

Another week of Miracles! So last week was all good and everything. We were teaching Keisy and Rosario and Yari and they are all doing well. Keisy didn't come to church on Sunday because she slept in so her baptism will be next Saturday. Also the baptism of Yari and Rosario will be next Saturday as well. Rosario and Yari are just amazing. In one of the lessons they told us how they had had some friends telling them negative things about the church but they recognized that and they told us how they had prayed to help overcome those negative feelings. They asked us what else they could do if something like that ever happened again. 

Last Thursday my companion and I decided to do a sacrifice where we got up earlier to do our studies and we left in the morning to go work and we worked all day. It was a huge grind but we had gotten a reference of a family from the other elders in the ward and we had called and coordinated a lesson. When we were climbing up the hill, I remembered very distinctly the hill and going up it before. About 2 months ago, Elder Alcaz, my old companion, and I had contacted a mom and her daughters, and her mom had cancer and was in the hospital and the family was having a difficult time. We took out a lesson with them but in the end, they arrived really late to the lesson and they couldn't come to church on Sunday because the mom had to take care of her mom in the hospital. Turns out, 2 months later, the elders contact her and we visit them and they are ready to receive the gospel. Thjs is a family of 7. The mom Karina, the dad Carlos, Hailey, Maria Fernanda, Ana Paula, Gaela and baby Carlos. The youngest 2 are too young to get baptized but the parents want to get married and we are helping them prepare to get baptized on the 28th of December. 

Also transfers came and surprisingly I am getting transferred. There was kind of a possibility of me getting transferred but I thought I was for sure going to stay because president had asked me in the interviews if I wanted to stay in Santa Clara. But the Lord had other plans, haha. It will be pretty sad to leave this area because Elder Nye was just such an awesome comp, and we got along so well, and we really had got the area down well. I am going to go to The Zone Campoy with an Argentinian companion. The Zone is just straight dirt but that's where all the baptisms are and the best converts, so I am super excited to go! Hope the week is great for everyone!

Incredible Week!

The weeks are flying by! My companion Elder Nye is a beast and we are just loving it down here in Peru. 

Jackson and his comp had jersey's made for their zone.

This past weekend we had 5 baptism and it was incredible! Angela, Diego, Camila and Michael got baptized on Friday and Cesar on Saturday. It was just super cool to see how everything works out and the miracles of God. 

Angela had her problems with smoking and we didn't know what to do. In the lesson we guilt tripped her pretty hard to make her understand that she couldn't smoke but then we fasted for her and we were praying super hard for her and she stopped smoking, just like that. After the lesson on Friday, she hadn't smoked. We made plans with her to call her everyone morning, afternoon, and night, and it worked. She still hasn't smoked since then. 

Angela, in the back, middle

Jackson and his comp made Angela baptismal clothing out of curtains because they didn't have any that would fit her.

Also, I could just tell Michael was just shook after his baptism, meaning how he just couldn't believe how much peace he had felt. He shared that in his testimony as well as how he had been looking for this peace his whole life and how he had finally found it. It is just such a sacred and amazing calling to be able to help so many people come unto Christ and see the changes in their lives. 

Keisy finally came to church yesterday and she loved it and she was finally able to talk to the YSA and they helped her out a lot. She is super pumped for her baptism as well! Please pray that her boss won't make her work on Sundays.  Her baptism is the 7th of December. 

We are also teaching Yari and Charl, these 2 sisters that are amazing. Charl is a widow and has 3 kids, one whose 18, another one that I have never seen and a 6 year old boy. Yari is a separated mom with 2 daughters, 1 that is 14 and one that is 3. They came to church late again yesterday after telling us they would come on time, so the plan is to guilt trip them a lot so they understand the importance of the sacrament. They have taken of the sacrament before. The thing is, they were both baptized in the Catholic church and they have some traditions there. But they say how every time they come to church they learn new things and they just feel such peace and how they went to other churches before and how they always got so bored.  Here they just want to keep listening and listening and the relief society is doing an awesome job and helping them out. So just pray that they can keep preparing for the 14th of December for their baptism! 

Another Week in Peru

Week of the 4th of November to the 10th of November, 2019

Last P-day we played soccer in the morning and then went home and got some Papa Johns and made milkshakes which was a lot of fun; a little American kick right there.

Last week the whole mission was down in finding people. The zone leaders met with the assistants and now we are focusing on one miracle that happens each day. I think this will be cool because it helps us focus on one day at a time. It will help us build our faith too so we can be looking for those miracles that happen each day. 

Last week we had Yamira’s baptism on Saturday. She was super happy and kept telling everyone how happy she was. I am super glad for her. After her baptism, Yamira and her daughter had made food for everyone. Yamira’s daughter came to her baptism and she also came to church on Sunday. We are going to visit them today so we will see where her daughter is in regards to getting baptized.

Yamira's baptism

Last week we got a reference from another ward. It is a family with an 8-year-old and brand new baby. Their names are Manuel and Fiorella. We visited them and they were talking about how they have been going to the Catholic Church but then they went to our church and they really liked it. They want to continue to come and get a feel for our church and they said if they feel good about it, they will get baptized. The next lesson they cancelled on us and they didn’t come to church. So we are going to talk to them again. Please pray for them that they will know this is the true church.

Contacting in the street we found a girl named Casey who is super cool.  She is 18 and is very happy. She lives with her grandparents and her autistic brother. She said she has a need for Christ because she hasn’t gone to church in a long time. She accepted to be baptized the 7th of December. She told us it was hard to get to church but she is coming to the English classes that we teach after church. We have a lesson with her tonight. Please pray that she will come to church on Sunday. 

We also found Angela and Camilla. Angela is the aunt of Edilady and Gustavo. We have been teaching her and Camilla and we finally got their kid to accept a date. His name is Diego and he is going to get baptized on November 23rd with Angela and Camilla. Please pray for Angela that she can overcome her smoking problem.

We are also teaching Michael and Caesar. Michael went to church. Please keep praying for him too that he will be ready for his baptism. Caesar is doing well too. We just need to help his mom.

Jackson's old "break" in his wrist. You can see the break on the right.

There is this guy in our ward named Miguel. His mom and his sister aren’t members. We went and taught them and they accepted to be baptized but we forgot to ask his mom, Ellen, if she was married. Miguel told us that his mom and her husband are separated and they are still married but now she is living with a new guy but she never got divorced from her husband. That presents some difficulties so we will have to see with that. His sister, Julianna, is living with her partner and they were never married. They stopped seeing each other but now are back on so we are going to have to talk about the Law of Chastity with all of them. Please pray for them both.

Another angle of his break. This time it's on the left of the x-ray.

That’s what was going on last week. I know that Jesus Christ really can work miracles in our lives each day if we just focus on seeing one miracle, even if it’s a small miracle. He can help us each day. I testify of that.  I love being out here on the mission. I hope everyone has a good week! 

*A quick updated on Jackson's wrist. He had an MRI done and he doesn't have any new breaks.
His ligament is damaged and he has bone damage as well. The doctor put a new cast on and
he can't move his thumb now. It should heal within four weeks. Prayers for a quick recovery
would be appreciated.

A loooooooong week

Un buenas tardes a todos! I hope everyone is doing great and enjoying the fall weather back home. Down here in Peru it is starting to warm up and it is getting very hot. The sun burns like crazy here and when I don't put on sunscreen I get burnt! 

So this last week was a little long and a little challenging and we didn't have as much time to work in our area as we would have liked. Elder Nye, my new comp, is a real funny guy and I am very glad that he is my companion. 

Last week I went and got my wrist looked at and turns out that I still had a broken bone in my wrist from when I dislocated it playing rugby and it hadn't healed all the way. Tissue had just formed around it and was holding it in place, is what the doctor told me. But that part of my wrist hasn't bothered me for ages. It was the part in front of my thumb that was pretty swollen. The doctor is having me receive an MRI tomorrow to be able to see if I tore any ligaments or if there are any smaller fractures in my hand. 

Last week we moved rooms and that was sure something. There were these huge dressers that I have no idea how the elders before us got up into our room, but we totally wrecked the walls of our apartment taking them down the stairs so that was fun and the owner of our old room was micromanaging us as we were moving out and so that annoyed all of the elders, haha. 

View from Jackson's new apartment overlooking a park.

We found this lady last week that wanted to get baptized but in the end something has happened and we'll have to see. Luana, the 10 year old little girl that we were teaching, was told by in church by someone that she couldn't sing reggaeton songs in the church and that she couldn't wear short shorts or something like that and she got discouraged and now she doesn't want to get baptized. Her mom Paula, who also was going to get baptized with her, doesn't want too. We think it was more of just getting a little discouraged and that's all and we are going to visit them and help them get back on track. 

This Saturday is the baptism of Yamira and we are super excited just because she just already looks, acts, and talks like a member of the church. It's just so amazing to see how much she loves and trusts the Lord. She understands so much of the B of M and it's just going to be awesome to see her baptism. If everyone can please pray for her daughter, Betania, that the Lord can touch her heart and prepare her to be baptized that would be great. 

Jackson's Zone.

Michael is doing ok. He has been a little faulty with some of his commitments and coming to church on time, but the family that is helping him is amazing so that will help him a lot. Please pray for him as well. Cesar is doing good too, we are just trying to help activate his mom now. Angela and her daughter are doing great as well. They are participating in the activities of the church and they are loving it. Angela still has a couple of doubts about being baptized so if everyone can please pray for her as well and also for her son Diego so that he can be baptized as well. Have a great week! 

The pizza place almost got Jackson's name right, ha ha.

New companion, great week and broken wrist

Week of October 21, 2019 

(This week was a recording that Jackson sent to me and asked me to type it for him.)

Last week we had transfers. It was a very good week, let’s just say that. It was a very different week. Last P-day, we cleaned our room and we went and we slept. Then we went to a market and bought some cool jerseys. After we went and got Papa John’s for lunch. That night we had a farewell party for my comp because he got transferred. We went to the house of Edilady and Gustavo. Jamira came as well and so did Fiorella. They made us arepas which were super good. Arepas are a food from Venezuela, kind of like an empanada but a little bit different. It’s like a flat bread thing that is cooked on the stove and you cut it open and you put stuff in it. So good! 

My new companion I got on Tuesday is Elder Nye. He is a beast. We worked super hard last week and found a lot of people. Last week we had district counsel and then we worked the whole week. First off, Saraih was going to get baptized. Her baptism was planned for Thursday and then Wednesday night her dad had an interview with the counselor and he is not able to baptize his daughter yet because he has some things he needs to work on. Saraih only wants her dad to baptize her. We tried to convince her mom to have one of the elders baptize her but that didn’t work. It was really frustrating.  

We found a lot of people. We are teaching Jamira. She is doing super good. Everytime we go over to her house she makes us Venezuelan food which makes us happy.  One time she made us pasta. She is happy for her baptism. We went to the farewell party for the Elder that was being transferred, her daughter came to that and she is super cool.  Her daughter is 23 and we were able to break the ice with her and have a lesson with her. She wants to get baptized but says she isn’t ready because she is working a lot and she didn’t think she would have enough time.

We are teaching Luana who is the 10 year old girl. When we taught her she told us that her mom had been reading the Book of Mormon and that the scriptures we had given her to read, her mom was reading all of them. We had met her mom and dad and they were super cool people and they were fine with her getting baptized. We invited them to church and they said they would come but never did. So we had a lesson with her mom. Her mom told us that she has always felt an emptiness in her life but when she reads the Book of Mormon, she feels good. We invited her to get baptized and she accepted so she will be getting baptized the same day as her daughter on November 23rd. 

There is a family that called us to visit them. They are the family Torres. They are a really cool family. They have an older daughter that has a dance class and doesn’t come to church very often. Their daughter has a boyfriend who got her pregnant. He has gone through some rough stuff in his life. We taught him and he really wants to change. His name is Michael and he is 20 years old. He accepted to be baptized the 23rd of November.

We found a lady that is a member but hasn’t been to church for awhile. She is super sick with diabetes and she asked us to give her a blessing. We went to her house and gave her a blessing. She has a son named Caesar that was never baptized and so we are teaching him right now. He’s going to be baptized the 23rd of November as well. 

We are also teaching Josepe who is the friend of Fiorella. We are working with him to get baptized the 16th of November. He told us that he doesn’t really feed the need to get baptized so we will see. 

At Edilady’s baptism, her aunt and cousins came and we were able to go and teach them. Her Aunt’s name is Angela and Angela’s children’s names are Camilla and Diego. Angela is also going through some hard times. She is separated from her husband that is in Venezuela and she is living here with her kids in Peru. She eats when she stresses. We told her that baptism will really help her family and her and her children accepted to be baptized on the 23rd of November as well.  Angela and Camilla came to church on Sunday but Diego didn’t come. He slept in. 

There was also another reference from a member. His name is Sebastian. We taught him last week. His parents were Jehovah’s Witnesses but they got excommunicated. We don’t know why. We had a lesson with him and Sebastian wanted to get baptized. We tried to have another lesson but he wasn’t home. So we are currently working with him. 

In Peru they have what are called mototaxis which are like mini motorcycles. It has a cover on the outside and they are all over down here. They are a major part of the transportation system. One day we took one to get to a place and there was this guy that was from Venezuela that was our driver.  We talked to him and then saw him again the next day and used his mototaxi again. As we were talking to him we invited him to church. He said that he would come. A lot of people say they will come to church so we didn’t think he would come. On Saturday we were walking in the street and he yelled, “Hey Shockley, I’m going to come to church.” We were excited because he was serious about coming. And he showed up on Sunday. His name is Franklin. We had a lesson with him after church. He is by himself here in Peru and he is trying to pay off some of his debts. Life is really hard for him but we are trying to help him. He also accepted a baptismal date of November 23rd.  

It was a great week! Honestly it makes a big difference when you have a companion that has the same desires as you. Elder Nye is a great companion and is funny. Oh and also on Saturday we were playing football (soccer) with the zone. I’m ok at soccer but I’m not super good. I was playing and running and trying to stop the ball and I tripped on the ball and fell on my wrist. It kind of hurt. I kept playing and it started to hurt but  I just kept working on Saturday. I finally went to the doctor yesterday because it was swollen and still hurt. I got x-rays and it is fractured. I actually broke the tip of the bone of my wrist.I have a little cast on. It is annoying but it is what it is. Just pray that it will get better. 

So that is what happened this week. There were a lot of miracles. Elder Nye is a super good companion. I hope everyone has a good week!