July 27, 2015

Hey all! Another week down in la gran misión Perú Cusco.

This week we got to go to Cusco for a multizone conference with Elder Uceda. Elder Uceda is a seventy and president of the area. He did two conferences with us - one in Puno, and one in Cusco. So basically every missionary who's serving outside of Puno was there, which was sweet because I got to see a lot of friends. Elder Uceda talked to us a ton about repentance. There were two things there that I found extremely interesting. In our modern culture, we tend to associate the word "repentance" with pain or punishment. We think of it as something bad, something that we never should have to do. But that word was never intended to have those implications. In the Old Testament, when they say "repent" or "repentance" they use the Hebrew word "Shoov." Shoov literally means "Volverse, darse la vuelta, to go back, to turn back." It's not a punishment, it's simply a return. We go back to the way of the Lord, we turn back from our sins. It's not something painful, it's something joyous. In the New Testament, they use the greek word "Metanueya" (or something like that) This word translates to "An interior change". We can't truly repent of something unless a change takes place. Elder Uceda described it as "Seeing a sin and truly and sincerely being able to say 'I know that sin, I've been there before, I know how it feels, and I have no desire to be there again.'" When that change has been effected from within, when we honestly have no desires to feel that sin again, we can say that we've experienced repentance. Once again, it's not something to fear but something to embrace. We should all repent daily so we can free ourselves from the weight of sin and be happy. Repentance is a principle of perfection.

We got home from Cusco friday afternoon, and Saturday the other elders had a baptism. We went to support them and the investigator who was getting baptized. It was a great way to end the week. Funny experience though, afterwards the guy came up and asked when he could get a HLJ ring. Elder Alzamora told him "I'll bring one to sacrament meeting for you tomorrow, but you need to come early" and Victor says "Ah, dang it." He did come early though, so he must have really wanted that ring.

Hope you guys all had a great week. I'll hear from you all next week.

July 13, 2015

Hey all! So this week has been kind of boring. The same old work, same old people, same old Quillabamba. Nothing out of the ordinary.

OK a couple of things out of the ordinary. Saturday we had zone conference with President Harbertson. But this conference was a little different. Instead of going to the church and talking like normal, we went to a member's house in the middle of the jungle. In the middle of the jungle! :) It was awesome, we were all dirty just talking about the gospel, and then disaster struck. That morning for breakfast my pensionista had given us chocolate cake and scrambled eggs (which was just a terrible idea in retrospect) and let's just say that did not agree with me. But aside from getting a little sick, it was such a cool experience. We talked a lot about looking ahead and the different implications that could have. Maybe we need to look ahead with our investigators to see how we can help them to reach baptism. Maybe we need to look ahead in a sense of moving on, moving on from our family, an old area, stuff like that. Or maybe we need to look ahead to see the impact the mission will have on us for the rest of our lives. Pretty funny, when we got to this part President started talking about how we need to get married and have a family and Elder Flores turns to me and says "In my country, it's legal to marry your pets. I really can just get a dog." Then the little idiot just burst out laughing haha :)

That's about it. Hoping this next week will be more exciting. Sorry for another boring email.

Love you all!

Jeremy

P.S. It isn't legal to marry your pets in his country. I don't know what he was smoking.

July 6, 2015

Hey all! Happy 4th of July!

So Tuesday morning Elder Montero and I are getting our studies in, getting ready for the day, when Elder Flores the district leader calls. He had to go to Cusco for some training and his comp, Elder Alzamora, had to stay with us until he got back. We spent three whole days with the kid. Basically I'm just really glad I have Elder Montero as a companion. Alzamora's in his last change, he's going home in 5 weeks, and the kid's extremely trunky. He had no desires to teach, study, or anything related to the mission. So that was fun...

4th of July! Best day ever. My pensionista decided she was only going to make "gringo food" for us. We ate pancakes all day :) Afterwards I managed to get hold of a couple American flags, and we hung them up on the wall while listening to "America the Beautiful". For lunch, an hermana in our branch invited all of the elders over and we were able to light a couple fireworks with all of them. After the hermana brought out a handmade American flag that she and her cousin had made. They brought it out and they're like "We stayed up til 2 in the morning gluing on stars! Why on earth are there so many?!" Haha it was so cool. Honestly I'm beyond grateful for this branch and the members here, the lengths they go to for us. They're just like my family :) That day in english class we all sang the Star Spangled Banner. There is nothing funnier than seeing a handful of Peruvians singing the American National Anthem. Next week they're going to teach me their national anthem so I can sing it with them on the 28th (Peruvian independence day).

I don't remember if I told you guys about Cristian, a teenage kid we had been meeting with, but the other day we were able to find him again. We taught him the Plan of Salvation, then yesterday we taught The Gospel of Jesus Christ and got him with a baptismal date. The 25th of this month. Like I said last week, Elder Montero and I are working our little butts off, and we've already started seeing the blessings :)

So that's about it! Kind of a lame week since we were in divisions til Thursday. This week should be better!

Love you all