Written by Elder Jacob Avery, serving in the Peru Lima West Mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, speaking Spanish.
Well,we contacted a lot. Again. It's okay though because people are beginning to accept the invitation to be baptized. Our President told us that he doesn't want any more baptismal dates falling through, so we need to put the dates a little farther back, and Elder Oaks said that we need more baptisms and more converts, and that one cannot affect the other. To explain that, it seemed that the mindset in the South American missions was show the Catholics that they have been baptized incorrectly and need to be baptized again. So, two weeks after meeting the missionaries, people would get baptized by someone holding priesthood authority, then they'd never go back to church again. Elder Oaks said that they need to be converted before being baptized, and we still need more baptisms. This just basically implies that we need to be REAL missionaries.
One of the families we are teaching is an older couple. The dad is 78 years old and the wife is elderly as well. M** (that's the dad) was going to a church in Caraz a year ago (which is where our church is!), but their preacher got sick and went to Lima. They haven't heard from him or had church services since then. It's amazing to witness first hand how a church without priesthood authority can become extinct so quickly. We talked about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, and they really liked it. They accepted a baptismal date for July. Woot! We just need to look up their four kids and get their families on board too.
A lesson learned this week is that Satan is very tricky. He will do very simple things like put you in situations to waste time. We had one day where we decided to help members paint, then we had one of those really long street contacts. Before we knew it, we had wasted the whole afternoon. Not that it was a complete waste, but it was surely not the potential we have as missionaries. Just remember, use time wisely. You can't buy it, borrow it, or reuse it. I think that I definitely wasted more time at home, and when I think of all the other things I could have done, it makes me wish I had done some other things.
To not bore anyone, I'll end there. Well, the Church is true and the Book is blue. Have a great week!
P.S. Lindsey told Hyrum that we're not actually together. I don't know why she'd lie to him about that ;) </3 hahaha!
(Background to this story: Elder Avery made friends with a boy in his first area named Hyrum. A couple of weeks ago, Hermana Lindsey Jeppson, who is Elder Avery's neighbor and friend from home, started teaching Hyrum's friend in Peru over Skype, email and Facebook (she is serving in the Mesa Arizona Mission, speaking Spanish, and also serves in the Mesa Temple Visitors' Center AND is a Facebook missionary). When Hyrum shared this with Elder Avery, Elder Avery said, "Actually, Sister Jeppson is my girlfriend. We are getting married." When Hyrum asked Sister Jeppson about this in their next lesson, Sister Jeppson said, "He wishes I was his girlfriend!")
The True Nature of Meat (June 16, 2014)
Fireside and Smores (June 30, 2014)
