June 29, 2015

Hey all! So we've had some weird stuff this week that I gotta tell you guys about. Let's start with monday. We had a zone pday and we all went to Vilcabamba, some ruins about 3 hours from here. While we were there Hna. Robinson came up to invite me to the baptism of Varoski who was my investigator before he moved to the other branch. They also wanted to know if I would be willing to baptize him. Like I would ever say no to that! :) Monday night, President Uchtdorf came to Cusco and they transmitted his talk to all of the chapels in the mission. We got there right as it was starting, but during the first talk the hermanas came up to us again to ask a super weird favor. They had another investigator who was supposed to get baptized on Saturday besides Varoski, but he still needed one more hour of attendance and that devotional could count for his hour. Unfortunately for them the guy couldn't leave his work without finding a replacement. So they asked if we would be willing to miss the devotional and replace the guy at his work for an hour so he could come so he could get baptized. It was funny because they explained it to me in English and then I had to explain it to Elder Montero afterwards because they thought he understood. But basically we decided that a man's eternal salvation was more important than us being able to listen to a talk, so we got in a moto and went off. We had no idea where we were going though, and after a few minutes the moto broke down and the guy left us stranded in the middle of the street. We didn't know where we were, where we were going, nothing, so we decided to stay there and wait for the hermanas to come back and find us. After 10 minutes the hermanas came past in a moto with their investigator and yelled "Go back to the chapel! Go back to the chapel!" We got back and I asked Hna. Robinson what had happened since the guy was there and we hadn't replaced him. I guess he told them it was worth losing an hour of pay to have eternal happiness. So we all went back in and got there right as President Uchtdorf was starting. That man is so amazing, I loved being able to listen to him. He focused on the temple and the blessings it brings to the family, and all in all it was just perfect.

Tuesday was boring. Nothing out of the ordinary.

Wednesday I did divisions with Elder Alzamora. It was kind of nice getting to be with another missionary who already knows the lessons and can take control of a lesson, but it made me miss Montero. I sure do love that inútil.

Thursday was boring.

Friday I did divisions again, but with Elder Flores. In the morning we had english classes with all of the zone, and right after an investigator from the other elders, Victor, called. His wife was super sick and wanted a blessing. The 4 of us all went and we stayed in their house for about 2 hours trying to help this family out. The wife has some problem with her head and when we got there she seriously looked like she was going to die. I was honestly scared for her. We gave her a blessing then helped the husband with a few things around the house because he looked like he was going to fall over. The guy's been extremely stressed. After we left their house we had a normal day, going around teaching, until that night. We had gotten home about 10 minutes early for dinner, and right as we got home Victor called. It was weird because he called my phone instead of the other elders and it wasn't super sure that we would be home right then. It just proves to me that the Lord knows and works in mysterious ways. But so this guy calls and asked if we knew a doctor that could come help him. His wife needed some injection and he was too stressed out to put it in right. He had already tried twice and missed the vein. Luckily there's a few members in the district who are doctors, so we started calling but not one answered. We tried for like 10 minutes but we couldn't get hold of anybody and we were getting pretty worried because we didn't know what to do. That's when I remembered that one of our old investigators is a nurse. We called her and she was able to come with us to help. So we got there, we let Asuncion do her whole nursing thing, and while she was helping the wife Victor calls us over. We come by and he immediately started thanking us, he told us he had started to lose hope but we had saved him. Then he gets this serious look and says "Elder, I want to get baptized. I want my family to be baptized." He told us he had been praying about it for about a week now and that when his wife got sick and we came to help he took that as his answer. He told us "I love you guys, I love this church, and I want my family to be part of it." Pretty cool. We stayed there for about an hour more helping out.

Saturday was baptism day! It was so great for me to be able to see these two brothers enter into the waters of baptism. It was even more special since my old investigator had picked me to baptize him. :) The spirit was present, there was a lot of support from the members, and I can honestly say that it was a day I'll never forget.

All in all the Quillabamba branch had an awesome week, and I was able to take part of it. Now it's Santa Ana's turn. Elder Montero and I are going to work our little butts off this week. Starting tomorrow of course. Today's pday. ;)

Love you all. Can't wait to hear from you!

June 22, 2015

Hey all! Sorry I haven't written in a couple of weeks, things have been absolutely crazy. But I really wanted to write this week to tell you guys about the Trujillo temple dedication! Basically it was the most spiritual experience of my whole mission. President Uchtdorf came with Elder Bednar, and those two are seriously like my absolute favorites. We got to go to two of the three sessions and it was just sublime. I haven't been to go to the temple since I left the CCM so getting to enter into the dedication and feel that same spirit that you get in the temple was amazing. I can definitely say it was something I needed. Now for the hard part: waiting a little more than a year to go back again. Good thing time flies by here. President Uchtdorf is actually in Cusco right now and is going to speak at a special conference which will be transmitted to all of the stake or district centers in the mission. What a great way to end pday, listening to one of the Lord's servants address us in Peru specifically. I'm super excited. So basically, I love the temple, the church is true, and I have no time at all so this letter's staying short. Next week is changes so we're going to be in internet a lot earlier in the day and I'll have more time to write a better letter (hopefully with baptism pictures included!). Until then I love you all, love hearing from you, and I'll write next week.

June1, 2015

Hey all! Not a whole lot to write about this week. Elder Montero and I are just doing our best to help bring people to Christ. It's actually been kind of fun because they took the other companionship of elders out of our branch, meaning we're now the only ones and as we go find the people that the other elders were teaching we've been able to meet a lot of cool, interesting people that I never knew that well before. For example, Elvis. Elvis is a less active member we met and one of the first things he told us was this new theory he was looking into that explains how the Earth and Adam and Eve were created by aliens who were mixing their dna with that of animals in order to find a way to beat global warming or something like that, and that the Garden of Eden was actually another planet and when Adam and Eve ate the fruit they were banished from that planet and forced to come to earth on a rocket ship. Like I said, a lot of cool, interesting people. So that's been our main focus right now is just making sure we get to know all of the people the other elders were visiting so that we don't accidentally let somebody slip.

Hope you guys are all doing well. Talk to you next week!