The service that fell through

August 6, 2018

Well this week was pretty good. Not much happened but we had somethings happen. So for the last couple of weeks we found this family who went in-active and then got converted to another religion. Little by little we have been helping them to come back (Yesterday was their first day coming back ) But last week we had asked the family if there was anything that we could do for them to help and the father said that they had a bunch of dirt that they needed to be moved (dirt for construction). So we planned a day to go up the gigantic hill that they live in to move a ton of dirt from one place to the other. So on Wednesday we got up early to get ready to move all of the dirt, found some youth that would help us, and then climbed up the hill. When we finally got up there the family got some chairs out for us to sit down and rest (because the climb is long and steep and the sun had decided to come out that morning for some reason). After talking for like an hour and a half

my companion asked if we could start moving the dirt. Apparently the father didn't really take us seriously about doing the service and told us that he needed to do some stuff first before we move the dirt. So, in conclusion, we didn't do any service that day. But we did get a kick out of my companion`s face when the father said no. 

Also this week in the Family home evening that we did in the groupo familiar we decided to teach how to read the hymn book and the importance of the hymns. After explaining a bit of the importance we decided that I would play the keyboard a bit and we would sing a couple of hymns. For the last couple of weeks I have been trying to pick up the guitar so that I could play in sacrament meeting and we could sing to some sort of music. So as closing song I picked up the guitar and we sang I am a Child of God. First time performing in public and it was super amazing. The spirit was so strong in that moment. 

miss you all tons,

Up and down and up and down

July 30, 2018

Well this week was also another spectacular week:

1. Well first off this week  we had the interviews with president. But because we are here in Vitarte where there are 28 missionaries, and president usually takes about 20 minutes to do the interviews our district didn't get to have interviews with president. Hopefully we get it this week. 

2. But this week we did another Family home evening in the casa capilla (we forgot to take pictures). But we had an attendance of about 30 people there in the house (about half of the congregation). We talked about reading the scriptures and played some games and then got some masamora poured on my shirt (right after getting it from the wash). 

Well this week turned out to be pretty good. We have found tons of people both new and less active, had baptisms, and have gone up the hills and gone down and then up again because we forgot something and then back down. But this week during the family home evening one of the members brought a family that has gone less active. We talked to them and found out that though confusion most of the family had changed religion. But as we visited them we felt the need to take down their information and go to their home to visit them. After climbing to the top of the hill (and then realizing that a bus passes by there) we finally found the home and we had the opportunity to visit the family for a while. As we spoke and used the scriptures (mainly the bible this time) we could feel the spirit of the Lord and his love for the family. 

miss you tons,

 Bird Pics (luckily he didn't do his business on my head)

Baptism Pics

First week back

July 23, 2018

THIS WEEK WAS ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!!!!!!!

1. First off I am going to give a little background on what things are like here. Amauta before was San Gregorio 2. But now it has been split and there is a grupo familiar going on here (it´s a official group where the Bishop has given permission to do all of the regular church meetings) and the plan is that this grupo familiar can become a branch. The week before I came here there was a attendance of 44 people. This week we worked hard and had an attendance of 63 people! I´m hoping that I will be able to stay here for my last transfer because I have already done my goals and Amauta will become a ward before I go home. There are a lot of less active members (and I mean a ton) up in these hills and we need to work miracles to be able to find them because they aren't in the directory anymore. 

2. We had an amazing family home evening here in the grupo familiar. We all decided to scale the tallest hill in all of Amauta and do the family home evening. At first I didn't think a lot of people would want to climb the hill. But we had an attendance of about 20 people there and it was absolutely amazing. 

3. We also had a baptism this week. Her name is Deisi and she is escogidaso. We did the baptism in the stake center because there was a stake activity right after the baptism. Also the Elders from San Gregorio had 2 baptisms and so we decided to do it with them. 

Well first day back in my birth area my companion pretty much had plans that we would go visit my converts and other people that I knew. At first it was cool. But then I started to realize that all of these people are active and pretty strong in the church. So I started to wonder why I was here and in the meantime I started contacting (something that I never really did here in my training. Oops!). In the plans we had put that we would find 2 new chosen investigators but we really didn't have anybody planned to become those 2. So as we were door visiting one of my converts, somebody passed by us and I got this feeling to contact them. One of them was kinda a "no pasa nada!" and the other seemed pretty interested but I wasn't sure if she was a chosen or not. So I took out a appointment to visit her another day and we split. After about 2 minutes she returned and asked if we could visit her that day. Our schedule was pretty packed but I said that if any of the lessons fell through we would call her and visit her. Well after that all of the appointments fell through and so we decided to visit her. We eventually showed up and even though we were almost late to the room () we found 3 new investigators and 2 with a baptismal date!

 

 I´ve got a couple of pictures to send from the last week also. With the cake is my old companion Elder Serrano. In the baptism is Elder Sáenz, Elder Lewis (new missionary from this transfer) and my companion now Elder Marino (Argentino). Elder Marino doesn't have the "che" accent but I am trying to get that out of him right now. 

 

 

CALLCITO!!!!!

 

 

GOING BACK HOME!

July 16, 2018

Well this week was pretty good. I mean nothing much happened but I think that the highlight happened last night. So we were waiting for transfers and we finally got the call. Elder Stucki (District leader) started off by telling us that the transfers were crazy and that we needed to prepare ourselves. So he started off by telling us that we were closing the area that we are in right now. So that meant my companion and I are leaving. My companion (who, if I didn't already say, is a mini-misionary) is ending his mini-mision and is going back home. And then Elder Stucki went on to tell me that I am going to AMAUTA in VITARTE! Just so you guys know, My first area was called San Gregorio 2 in vitarte. But about 4 transfers ago President began to open new areas that had casa capillas (which is a group that is lower than a branch). And President changed San Gregorio 2 into a casa capilla and changed the name to AMAUTA! I`m going back to my first area!!!!!! I`m super Excited to be going back. It looks like I started in Amauta and I am going to end my mission in Amauta. I`m super excited and this time we are going to explode the area.

Miss you tons,

Happy fourth of July!

July 9, 2018

Well this week turned out to be pretty good. But I didn't realize it until we were in companionship study on the fourth but one of our roommates came in and yelled "Cuatro de Julio!" And I was all like yeah today is the fourth of July and then it hit me and even though I am the only gringo in my room I knew that we had to celebrate it. So I bought an entire cake and during the night I blasted the star spangled banner until we went to bed. (don´t worry it is a hymn also so we can listen to it if we want.)

So like I've been saying for the past couple of weeks we have been in the search for new investigators and this week our district did a district attack where everybody in the district came to our area to contact for an hour and a half and find new people to teach. Well we had a good harvest and each companionship found at least one new person. But unfortunately every single one of them fell through. But I think that the most important thing is that we learned a better way to contact and we have been starting to find more escogidos to teach. Up until now every single one has fallen through but we have taken out at least three appointments a day! Even though we have received more rejections than I have ever received in my entire mission we are starting to find more and more people. We are closer to the elect than we ever have been before.

And ye are called to bring to pass gathering of mine elect; for mine elect hear my voice and harden not their hearts   (DyC 29:7)

Love you all tons,

Abriendo area (not really)

July 2, 2018

Well this week was alright. there was about 3 things that happened that was pretty amazing:

1. First off for p-day after we did our internet we headed to the house and we realized that we were in charge of our Lunch.  So with all of my electric grill skills I had the idea to do hamburgers. The other Elders decided to ask a member for their grill and we grilled hamburgers and had an excellent p-day! 

2. This last Wednesday the stake had a stake mission night. They called it a dessert night with a self reliance training. All of the announcements that were given stated that the meeting started at 7 at night but it ended up not starting until about 8 because the stake leaders didn't show up. But the meeting turned out to be pretty good. All of our converts and investigators that were there were really inspired from the message. Also the desserts were pretty good. 

Well I think that the Highlight from this week was an activity that we did this last Tuesday with the entire zone. What happened was that we opened another ´´calling´´ and were assigned to new areas and new companions for the day. I was assigned with Elder Campos and we went to the Zone Leaders area to work. We didn't have any success until the last 30 minutes where we stopped and said a prayer asking God to help us find at least one person to leave as a potential and right as we finished the prayer somebody passed by us and we contacted him and he accepted and wanted to go to the church. But that wasn't it. We felt like we should go to a specific street and contact so we did and we found another person that was even more escogido than the first. Milagros!

Love you all tons,

WE´RE GOING DOWN!!!!!!!!!

June 25, 2018

Well this week turned out to be alright. Not a lot of stuff happened. We have been pretty dry with investigators so most of the time for now we are just contacting. But two things happened this week that turned out to be some highlights:

1. So the 30th of this month is President Amato´s Birthday. So this last District meeting we did some videos to put together a bigger video for him. Every week President Amato puts together a weekly video and we all watch it during the district meeting so we did something like that for him. I don´t have a copy of it yet but it all is in Spanish so I don´t know if you guys would understand.

2. This last Saturday we did the first ward mission night that the ward hasn't had in a long time apparently. But what we did was we tried to make a flight simulation and pretty much in the end everybody ends up dying except for one person. Pretty much the point of the message is that we should value and read the scriptures more. But I think the miracle for that was that 4 new potential investigators came to the activity and we were able to take out some of their information and an appointment to visit with them. 

Well as you can tell we had an alright week. We contacted a ton, got no results from it but the Lord still blessed us with more and more people from efforts that we didn't think would produce anything. Once again that just goes to show that as long as we put in the effort to work the Lord will bless us in the end. 

Love you all,