Mass Internet Outage - Elder Jake Avery

Written by Elder Jacob Avery, serving in the Peru Lima West Mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, speaking Spanish.

(Note to reader: Highlighted words will link to additional information. Some names are omitted for privacy. Clicking on photos will enlarge them.)

Another photo from Llanganunco last week

Well it's Tuesday, and I'm online because yesterday internet was out from my city to the province capital, and basically the rest of my province (roughly 7 million people). It was kind of spooky, like the beginning of a zombie apocalypse or Russian attack. Thank goodness we have three bolted locks to get into my apartment, and I don't think Russia would ever attack Peru.

This week was my last week with Elder Aldana. I have a new companion coming up tomorrow, so for now Elder Billalba and I are working together in my area. We've been focusing on being more direct with the people to help their conversion. A family told us that they didn't think they'd be able to go to church so we told them, ''We believe in miracles, so we're going to say a prayer right now that you can obey this commandment.'' They were kind of surprised, but I've seen wayyy too many miracles to doubt that God can get them out of the farm for three hours on Sunday.

Elder Aldana got called to teach the Sunday School class for adults very suddenly (3 minutes before the class!), and I was just thankful that Mom had always taught us Bible stories because nobody else in that room had a clue what happens in Numbers, chapters 11-14. There were a few awesome lessons to learn from these chapters:

Elders Aldana and Avery - Peru Lima West Mission

1. Repentance is always better than the alternative. Even though the Israelites caused their own issues by being disobedient, they didn't say, ''Oh, now God will never answer our prayers. I'm going to stop going to church.'' Instead, they repented and prayed that God would help them.

2. Never murmur. Because the Elders of Israel (except Joshua and Caleb) complained and doubted in God, they had to stay in the wilderness 40 years. And I thought 2 years seemed long....  :)

3. God's way is simple, but maybe not always easy to follow. The serpent of brass that Moses raised up would cure anyone that was bitten by the poisonous snakes. The only problem was that looking at a snake was just too easy for some stubborn people. In our day we can see that we still don't do simple things that the Lord commands us to do, like daily scripture study and prayer, Family Home Evening, Sacrament Meeting, regular Temple attendance, etc. These things are relatively simple, and we may be tripped up into thinking it's too simple to really make a difference. But I testify that obeying every (or any!) commandment makes a significant, visible difference in our lives and in the eternities.

Well, I've avoided talking about my area so you all can just imagine how it's probably going, but this transfer is going to be different. R** and A** showed up to church out of the blue!

I love you all and I'm praying that everything goes well. Have a great week!

Elder Avery

Llanganunco (May 26, 2014)

Miracles Happen Everyday  (June 9, 2014)