Gustav and Edileidy

This week, wow, flew by. My companion and I were able to get to know the area better. We taught Hermelinda this week and she was doing really good. She was always praying about her baptism in the prayers in the lessons and she just has that light in her eyes. The only thing is, is that she didn't go to church again on Sunday and her phone was turned off all Sunday. We went to her house but her dad said that she wasn't there. So we are going to pass by her today again so please pray that everything can go good with her and she can continue progressing for her baptism. 

We are also teaching Sarah. Her other family are members but her dad is less active, and he wants to baptize her. He is coming back to church now and it's just really good to see him making changes in his life to come back to church. Her mom just came up to us yesterday and told us how grateful she was for helping her bring her family back together again. 

On Saturday we had the baptism of Fiorela and that went super good. A lot of people came and the spirit was really strong. 

Fiorela's baptism

She also shared a 15 long minute testimony and that just describes who she is, haha. She pretty much shared her whole life story about meeting the missionaries and it was all good. 

So the miracle of the week was that last Friday we had a ward mission activity and we watched the new Book of Mormon video and played games after. There was a Venezuelan couple there, and I just thought they were less active members because of how comfortable they were. It was a brother and sister. Gustavo who is 24 years old and Ediliedy who is 17 years old. We had to leave the activity early to go to a lesson and later that night the other elders from the ward sent us a text saying that the girl wanted us to visit her and that she was a less active member. Next day at the baptism the elders come up to us and tell us that she's not actually a member. So we hurry and invite them to come to the baptism and they come. They both really like it and they say they are going to come to church. They come to church and we take out a lesson with them and we visit them. So Gustavo is a less active member that got baptized last year by the elders, and he was recently becoming active. His sister, Edileidy, came here to Peru 4 months ago. He just barely started bringing her to church and she accepted to get baptized yesterday. She just feels really alone because she is still adjusting to moving to Peru. So that was the cool miracle. My companion and I also had some other lessons with some other people but they fell through but we are looking forward to working even harder this week! 

Ediliedy and Gustavo bought Jackson a cake for his birthday and made him grilled sandwiches.

I love you all and testify that Jesus can change anyone and who they are in any moment. I love the mission! I wouldn't rather be anywhere else!

Pictures from September 9-12, 2019

The Ward members had a going away party for Jackson

Transfers and a New Area!

Monday July 9, 2019

Well transfers are here again. The time is really going by fast and it's kind of scary, to be honest. I am really enjoying my time here in the mission. 

So last week we were able to teach Josep and he's doing super good. His baptism is this Saturday. Yelina had her work schedule changed and all last week she worked from 7 am until 10 at night so we weren't able to visit her at all but we stayed in contact with her and next week she is going to be able to come to church. We still aren't going to be able to visit her until Friday so that's the only difficulty. 

So yesterday we got the calls for transfers and and I'm getting transferred to Santa Clara. Last week we had the monthly meeting with President Amato and stake president. The stake president asked President Amato if he could move us to the stake center so that we could be more central in the zone, because at the time our area was at the very edge of the zone and is was a little difficult to try and get to the other areas in the zone. President said that he could do it but it would be more likely for next transfer but it happened this transfer, haha. So the elders that were in Santa Clara are leaving and Elder Alcaz (my new companion) and I are opening Santa Clara! I'm super excited because it's a really big area with a lot of people and we're looking to go and baptize a lot of people there. 


https://goo.gl/maps/NzgV856y1RRjVQx5A
Copy and paste the above link if you would like to see the Stake Center and surrounding area in Santa Clara.

Isamar's baptism!

This past week we had the baptism of Isamar! Finally, after a lot of tribulation she got baptized! She is a lot happier and doing well. 

Isamar's baptism

So last p-day we went to a place called Gamarra to buy some stuff for Elder Muniz. Gamarra is just this huge place where you can go and buy any type of clothing you want. It's about 6 blocks by 6 blocks and we bought some cool souvenirs. 

Gamarra

Last week we found two new people, Yelina Izuierdo and Maracielo Boitron. Yelina is 18 years old and we found her contacting. Her grandma is a member but she lives far from her. She had been having some family problems and her aunts and uncles had some problems with her parents and so we were able to help her understand that through baptism she can find this peace that she is looking for. She accepted to be baptized the 28 of September. We also found Maracielo contacting and she told us about the problems that she had with trying to help her mom financially support her family. She is 16 years old and she lives with her mom and her brothers. 




We had to drop Fabian because all of last week he didn't answer us at all and we were trying to take out a lesson with him. On Sunday we went by his house and he was there and we talked but in the end he told us that he didn't want to get baptized because he didn't have time. We told he to call us when he was ready to be baptized. We are pretty sure it was the influence from his parents because he had told us before how his dad told him that he didn't have time to get baptized. 

New ponchos

Josep went traveling last week so we didn't have a lesson with him until Saturday but he's doing good as well. He slept in on Sunday so he didn't go to church but we went and we talked seriously with him. No one came to church yesterday so that was a little frustrating but it was a good week. We worked pretty hard. 

I also had a chance to take a picture with Paolo Gallardo. 

Jackson and Paolo

He was a professional soccer player that got baptized in our mission by the missionaries and he gave up playing soccer because he didn't want to break the sabbath day and now he's preparing to go serve a mission. There was an article about him online and I encourage all to read it.  Hope everyone has a great week.

https://www.thechurchnews.com/members/2019-08-14/peru-paulo-gallardo-soccer-mission-157321

Another miracle from the Lord!

Monday August 26, 2019

So about 3 weeks ago, we were teaching a woman named Isamar. About a week before her baptism we were talking with her about her baptism and she had some doubts and she said she just felt so much stress in her life and didn't feel peaceful at all. We told her that baptism would help her be able to change this but she just told us that she didn't really want to be baptized yet. We told her that when she was ready to be baptized to call us. About 2 weeks ago she calls us and asks us if she can be baptized but she told us that she wouldn't be able to come to church for about two months because she had to work Sundays. We were trying to make plans so that she could skip work one Sunday for her confirmation and then to have the whole ward help minister to her until she finished working but we visited with her on Saturday, and she told us that she got fired from her job. She is still receiving money from her dad but now we are all helping her find work that isn't on Sunday. Her baptism will be this Saturday. Fabian and Josep are doing good as well. Fabian didn't come to church yesterday and he hasn't returned our calls yet but we think he is sick. We are going to go see what's up with him. So please pray for Fabian. That's about all that happened last week but things are going great down here!

Making cookies on P-day. Hands make a nice mixer. :)

The finished product.

Fabian and Josep

August 19, 2019

Elder Muniz and I were able to see more miracles this week thanks to the Lord! So last week after stake conference a young man gets off the bus and tells us Elders, "I want to be baptized," as I said last week. We had a lesson with him last p-day and he accepted a date for the 14th of September. His name is Fabian Lope. His grandma is a member but his parents are not. He's 18 years old and he's studying a lot right now. He's pretty tall for a Peruvian, and he's pretty cool. He loves basketball so we have some stuff to talk about. He told us how he wants to be baptized to be able to see his family come closer together and he wants to be the example for everyone. So please pray for him. 

The next miracle happened as we were contacting. I was contacting this guy and I noticed how a dad and his kid were just watching me. I was like yeah, it's normal because literally everyone just stares at me wherever I am because I have red hair, haha. But they just stayed there, and after I was done contacting they came up to us and the dad told us that he wanted his son to start on a good path in his life and he wanted us to visit him. We talked with the son and he was kind of interested, so we took out a lesson anyway. In the lesson we asked him what he expected from our visit and he told us that he wanted to be a member of the Church to change his life. His name is Josep Vilchez and he's 15 years old but he acts like he's 17. He lives with his parents but his dad is totally fine with him getting baptized. How great is the Lord for blessing us with these two miracles! 

This past Saturday we also went to the temple as a ward, and we were able to go with Leo, Angy, and Brayan and they all were able to bring their temple names. It's also super special to be able to see the people you teach progress rapidly in the church. Elder Muniz and I are super happy and we are working hard down here and Grinding! I am just  loving the mission right now. Tengan una buena semana! Cuídense!

Another great week!

August 12, 2019

This week was another fantastic week! We had the baptisms of Brayan and Angy. Like I have said before, Angy is very chosen. She is 12 years old but she acts like she is 16 and she understands everything that we teach her, and she has such a strong testimony. 

Angy's baptism day.

Angy and the young women from the ward.

After her baptism she shared her testimony and she said how she saw something shining in the sky when she came up out of the water and she said how she felt so peaceful and how she just wanted to stay under the water when she got baptized because of how good she felt. Both her and her brother, Leo, are young but they keep telling us how they're going to serve missions and it just makes us so happy to hear that. 

Leo and Angy

This week we had stake conference to open up the new stake, Santa Clara and Elder Held was there, and he spoke along with President and Sister Amato. After stake conference, we were getting off the bus that we had taken as a ward to go there and a young man gets off and comes up to us and asks us elders, "What do I need to do to get baptized?" The dream of every missionary, haha. His name is Fabian and we have a lesson with him today so we're excited to start teaching him. 

William (a recent convert) and his massive genealogy chart. 

Something that has really caught my attention these past couple weeks is how we can become new creatures thru Christ. In Mosiah 27 it talks about Alma's experience and what he went through after he had been unconscience for 2 days and nights. 

24 For, said he, I have repented of my sins, and have been ^aredeemed of the Lord; behold I am born of the Spirit.

25 And the Lord said unto me: Marvel not that all mankind, yea, men and women, all nations, kindreds, tongues and people, must be ^aborn again; yea, ^bborn of God, ^cchanged from their carnal and ^dfallen state, to a state of righteousness, being redeemed of God, becoming his ^esons and daughters;

26 And thus they become new creatures; and unless they do this, they can in ^anowise inherit the kingdom of God.

I testify that all of us can change from a carnal and fallen state and be born again and become new creatures through Christ. The mission has helped me so much in changing as a person, and I can't thank Christ enough for what he has done to help me. 

A cute lady in Jackson's ward owns a restaurant and she likes to feed the missionaries.

I hope everyone has a great week.

An Elder in Jackson's apartment made him a "Shocley" pancake.