So for about a transfer, we've had the same few people at church. Jo**, the 88 year old gringo from Panama, An** (who may or may not get married at any given moment), and Mo**, the 23 year old who wrote love notes to Elder Salas and hates me because she knows that I'll strap a chastity belt on her and send her to Bolivia if she tries anything with my elders again.
We had some new people at church this week and I was soooo happy to see that. Their names are Em** and An**. They're from Ancash (that's the province where Yungay is) and remind me a lot about working in Yungay. They laugh a lot, are super shy and strait up Lamanites. We taught them the first lesson and then the next visit talked more about the Book of Mormon and watched the first vision video. We invited them to church and the mom said she'd go but the dad was like, ''Oh I gotta work at the farm.'' We prayed like nuts for these people and that they would go to church. When we went by their house Sunday morning, they were getting ready! The dad was in a nice button up shirt and the mom had a skirt on. I was like ''Sí!'' We got to church a little late, but we got there with the mom, dad, daughter (who's also named Mo** and is actually married to her husband who was working at the time), and 2 grand kids. What an awesome feeling! The members knew them because we live in a small town, and they were super nice to them. We're doing a Family Home Evening tonight with them :)
We found 2 families in the perlita that we didn't know. We were surprised to find new families because it's a small town. Everyone is pretty used to us, but now they got to get used to going to church and not drinking. I hate beer with a passion.
Jo** isn't progressing so well.... he's very, very old. He's scared to go to church because he doesn't want anything to happen to him, and I can't blame the guy. But I don't know why he thinks he'll get better over time. I'm thinking, ''Amigo, you gotta get bautizado pronto.'' We taught him about 85 year old Caleb from the Bible who went out to battle and said, ''Give me this mountain!!'' I'm hoping that he will take heart from that. What will help more than anything is getting his wife on board, but we need figure out where she lives.
Elder Clouse is leaving this transfer and that's going to be rough. He's been a solid, faithful, hardworking, self reliant companion. He's going to do awesome on his mission. I may be training this time around, yikes!
Anyway, I'd just like to let you all know that the church is true. I'm assembling a book of the biographies of all the apostles and the first presidency for conference week. I have no doubt at all that those guys are prophets, seers and revelators. Prophet means they can prophesy. Seer means that they can see perfectly forwards in time as well as backwards in time. Revelators mean that they will reveal what the Lord desires for His church at this time. A living prophet is such a precious gift, so let's all listen to them at Conference to know what the Lord wants. Something the Holy Spirit has pressed upon my mind, that I was a stranger to before my mission, is the reality of line of authority. Mark it in th Book of Mormon, mark it in the Bible, and ask yourself, ''How on earth did a farm boy know and understand all of this before he turned 25?'' I know that Thomas S. Monson is a prophet and I have felt it as I teach people in a far away land where they can hardly pronounce the name. I feel it, and they feel it.
I love you all and I hope that many great things continue to happen!
Love, Elder Jake Avery
What Does the Holy Ghost Feel Like? (March 16, 2015)
New Companion (March 30, 2015)
