Mission Week 68, Ferroviarios Peru

Hey Mom,

 

This week was HARD! And fun! We had great numbers this week but We were not able to meet with the investigators that I wanted to meet with. We found two new people to teach. They are two friends from Bolivia who traveled to Arequipa on promise of work and in the end there was no job. They are stuck here and are just trying to make it along living in a room about the size of my old walk in closet... They have a game of uno and spend most of their free time playing that game. We have focused on them this whole week. They feel alone and need friends. I have also been improving my teaching skills because My companion does not have a strong background in the church. He usually shares his testimony and gives some advice which is perfect because he has a very strong testimony. He has had so many life experiences and he can usualy relate to the problems the members have and he brings so much experience to the table. Its amazing to see how the lord can take anyone and turn them into a grand instrument of change. I know that the lord did the same thing with me. He changed me. In my mission I cannot believe the things he has allowed me to see and the experiences he has allowed me to pass. I cannot explain with words the feelings and emotions one feels while watching someone come to realize that the gospel is true and they can be forgiven for the past. I know that The Gospel is true that this is the key to find peace in life. Sharing this has brought me so much joy and fulfillment I can not stop smiling! 

Mission Week 67, Ferroviarios Peru

I am On And I have some news! It was changes today and we doubted that there would be a change because There was absolutely no reason that there should be a change. I had only been with my Companion Elder Soria for a month and a half. I was in the office so I asked president why he changed us and gave me a suprising answer. He told me that the first thing he did when he looked at the changes board was ask himself who needed to train. The first person that came to his mind was me and he said that i needed to train. After that the first person he put up as training was me. After that when he found out that my companion whom i was going to train went home He was going to leave me with elder Soria but he thought that If anyone needed to have the only temporal missionary that there would be in the whole mission for this change it was me. I will admit my response to my change was bitter and I was not happy with it at all. I was not ready to recieve a new companion and I did not sleep the night that I was told my change because I was stewing for all 8 hours.

 

After going to church and listening to a class on Sacrifice, I was able to take in all the things that were happening and SUCK IT UP!!! as dad would say. It was definately a suck it up moment. The name of of my companion is Hermano Paredes. He is going to have a lot of fun. I am excited for the new oppourtunities that await and I hope that I am up to the tasks the president sees fit for me. I also will miss president Zobrist. I have to say that he has put quite the dent in my life. He has caused a lot of stress and a lot of joy. I have  learned a lot from his leadership and I admire his ability to inspire.

 

I love you mom!

Mission Week 65, Ferroviarios

 

 

This monday I woke up at three o clock in the morning with my companion so we could get on a bus headed to Chivay. Chivay is a city with a population of less then 5000 people. It was a long trip riding up to chivay. I slept most of the way. It was freezing the whole drive and all I had was my light jacket and a small fanny pack. Everyone said that I was going to freeze. I was sure that they would all be roasting when the sun finally came out. We were all freezing in the buss when we ate Breakfast we were all huddled together Eating our bread and butter with a little bit of jam! We got back into the Minivan.  We started our way back up the road we made a few stops along the way. Eveyone still was freezing and then a few minutes before we get to Colca BOOM! The sunh came out and Eveyone started to warm up. I was nice a toasty in my light jacket! While at Colca the Condors started to appear out of no where! They were gliding around looking for thermals. The Andean Condor can grow to have up to a ten foot wingspan. They are giant birds. It was amazing to see more than ten of the giant plane like birds gliding around a giant canyon. Colca is one of the deepest canyons in the world. It is twice as deep as the grand canyon. It has tons of amazing views and there are lots of little trinkets that you can buy! After that we went back down into chivay. We walked through the markets and looked at things that the people were selling. We found a lady who was selling the best ice cream I have ever eaten in all my time in the mission. She was an old investigator from Elder Malloy. After that we got to go to an all you can eat buffet! It was amazing to see so much food. It was not the best quality but all of us were so hungry we ate three or four plates. after that we got back in the car and started the long trek back to Arequipa on the way a few people started to become affected by the altitude and they found themselves with giant headaches and they started to puke. that was my trip to chivay.

 

 

Its hard in our area we are not having a lot of success. We have two investigators who are progressing one of them told us that her father who is a recent convert is a terrible abusive man and that she did not want anything to do with us ever again. It was hard and then the other Investigator Eliang said that her mom had told her that she could not get baptized until she talked to us which is reasonable.

We are focusing on working with the members to have more success we have lots of plans to help the ward become more missionary work pro active.