Week 53: Wow That Was Fast

 How about that, I hit a year in the mission. That's crazy. It's been a wild year and I've learned so much. Of course I still have quite a bit to go, but now that I've gotten a lot of things down I'm going to make 2023 the best year ever! I'm looking forward to the many people I'll meet, the experiences I'll have, and for the opportunities I'll have for the spirit to work through me.

On Tuesday we had our first zone conference instead of the normal multizone conference. It was nice; we listened to the APs and Presidente Hiatt speak. He actually showed us a clip from the new season of The Chosen. He ended up translating it into spanish as we were watching it for the Peruvians to understand. Afterwards we did something I did not expect; I got sung to for my birthday! They had prepared some snacks and cake so they could sing to all the November, December, and January birthdays. I didn't think my birthday wouldn't end until a month after it happened. Of course to avoid the awkwardness of just standing around all rosy when you get sung to I grabbed Elder Strock and Elder Stringham, (who have birthdays in January) and started doing the line kick dance thing. It worked. We learned about how the gospel of Jesus Christ can help solve any problem, question, or doubt we have in the mission. The apostles must have had many questions and doubts when Jesus initially gave them the authority to act in God's name and sent them to preach and heal. It's the same for us. But we can overcome it with the gospel of Jesus Christ and continuing to apply it into every aspect of our lives. Faith, repentance, baptism, the gift of the Holy Ghost, and endure to the end.

We had another lesson with Adrian this week. His situation's a little difficult with his parents divorced and living in different areas, and the fact that they aren't members. His grandma is an inactive member but his grandpa, Jaime, is a huge help. He's partly crippled but has a stake calling and has been helping us out a lot with Adrian. In the last lesson we had with him last week we talked about baptism and he expressed his desire to be baptized. I promised him that if he continues to do the things we taught him, reading, praying, and going to church, his parents would see it and their hearts will be softened. In our lesson with him this week Jaime surprised me and said that he talked with Adrian's dad about baptism and he said that he was totally fine about it! I had been starting to lose hope because getting both of his parents to agree seemed impossible. He told us too that he thinks his mother will agree to it too. We're going to try to put him on date this week and we saw him at church so things are looking up for Adrian!

On Friday I went on exchanges with Elder Palacios in Indoamerica and Elder Ochoa led Pueblo Libre for yhe first time with Elder Huaman. We had some good lessons ans got to talking about the mission and how we can both be better trainers. He let me borrow his "The First 12 Weeks" book which is something I definitely could've used 5 weeks ago. I worked to introduce many members to Elder Ochoa who we still hadn't visited. Man there are so many members in this ward I still don't know. Pueblo Libre is huge. We also had our last lesson with Eduardo. We dropped him because he doesn't want to change, but he accepted all the restoration but he got caught up on what the "natural man" is. That conversation lasted a while. In another lesson with a different person I asked the family member whi was a member to explain how the Book of Mormón has changed their life. Anyway, 35 minutes later she ginally stops giving her life story and we finish the lesson. She's almost 90 so I think it's ok.

On Sunday Javier, Adrian, as well as Marissa came. Marissa came with her siblings Elber and Herli who are inactives so that was awesome. We hope to reactivate them so Elber can baptize his sister. We just need to animate the youth of the ward a little more so they can help us. We stopped by hermano Diaz' house at 5:30 to return his soccer ball that we took 2 weeks ago, planning to only be there until 7. Anyway, at 8:30 we finally had to get up and leave so we could make it back to the apartment by 9 to be on time for the ultrasuperimportant zoom call with the mission. Hermano Díaz can talk and talk and talk but I love his stories from his mission so much so I could listen to him forever. He shared a lot of good insight for me and for Elder Ochoa. We ended up skipping dinner to make it on time for the call. We listened to the testimonies of all the missionaries going home this transfer and then President shared the big news. He said that we all know Elder Zeballos came in November, but now a member of the quorum of the 12 is going to come in February!!! Not only that, but we get to do it with the entire mission!!! And not only that, but with the Trujillo South mission too!!! (He gave us a minute to turn on our microphones and cheer in between each announcement) Elder Ronald A. Rasband will be coming to Trujillo on Valentine's Day and we're all super excited. This'll be the first time I'll hear an apostle speak in person. Presidente Hiatt also gave the option for all the missionaries going home to extend.

Today we played a few games of Risk for pday. We naturally grouped off into gringos vs peruanos after Elder Ochoa got destroyed. I just supported Elder Strock because he was permitting me to live while Elder Sánchez was trying to kill me. He blamed me for helping Strock so I couldn't be friends with him.

I don't really remember everything that happened this week but I think I wrote about all the interesting parts. Have a fantastic week!

Elder Jensen