I realized that it feels like I've communicated a lot with you guys, but really I've just been reading your emails. So yeah, I'll give you the summary of the week.
Monday I went to immigrations with Elder Howell and a few others. We all are in the same part of the process for becoming real peruguanos. We gave the guy a stack of papers, signed a paper and sat around for hours. We got back to the mission office at 5 o'clock or so, but my companion wasn't answering his phone and the district leader didn't know where he, was so I began panicking. Elder Howell and I decided to go to my area to look for our companions. I decided to check our room first, and sure enough, they had just arrived home after a preparation day of games, water balloons, and all sorts of stuff that seemed like more fun than going to immigrations.
The next day, we did exchanges again, this time to Interpol. We had to wake up at 5:30 a.m. to be ready on time. By the time we finished in Interpol, I felt like I had done a full day of work but it was just barely 12:30. We ended up having a really uncomfortable lesson on the law of chastity when we had originally planned to talk about the plan of salvation. We steered the lesson back on course, but I'll tell ya, it's a super hard family to teach. The mom is full of misconceptions regarding the law of chastity and doesn't really let us teach the lesson. We ended up doing a tour of the church with their family on Saturday. Luckily, we stayed on topic during the tour and they had a good time. But, they still did not go to church!
Josh left on his mission so much more prepared than I left. I feel like I'll spend my first year and a half getting to where he is now. I've heard Elder Holland say many great things about the church in Asia. I find it pretty ironic that in this large, vast continent where Christianity hasn't really ever existed, they already have their family history work done. I would call it testimony that the Spirit of Elijah is real and that God loves His children. In a place where we have waited so long to begin building Zion, the Lord has already been preparing the people. See Alma 16:16
I'm going to look to buy batteries so that my camera works. Maybe a camera with batteries wasn't the brightest idea we've had, LOL. It's finally warming up and the sun is getting out from behind the clouds.
I love you so much and I'm praying for you guys. I'm trying very hard out here to do what the Lord would have me do. I don't know how to explain it, but I know that there are very huge things we are doing and that we will be doing. My president has been talking about weekly family baptisms and I know that we will be able to do it. Sometimes I just feel like Alma, ''Oh, that I were and Angel!'' because I see the big picture, and I also see all the things that we need to do to accomplish it. One by one, I see the Lord but the parts into place, and it's really something exciting.
I'm finishing the Book of Mormon for the first time in Spanish. It's accompanied by more that 200 pages of notes that I've taken. We are part of something so big and so grand, and the reward for faithfulness is so extraordinary, that I wish with all my soul that all people would partake of it!
Have a great week :) I'm going to have a great one as well. I love you guys so much! Tell Bek and Abi to have really, really happy birthdays and that I miss them so much! I will be there for their next birthdays :)) I love you!
- Elder Jake Avery
Immigration Office (October 13, 2014)
Halloween is Complicated in Peru (October 27, 2014)
