Week 59: The Joy of Serving a Mission

 Hola todos! I hope you're all doing well! I had a pretty good week here in Huanchaco!


As a quick overview I'll just say that we're teaching a lot of lessons with investigators so we haven't had as much time to find new people. But normally we end up having to travel in bus to get to a lot of lessons, because our area is huge and we have to go around the airport. I've gotten on some pretty crowded buses, and that's kind of sketchy with how unbalanced I am. I'm completely out of money now, (I have 1 sol), which isn't even enough to make it one way to the San Francisco residential area, so I'm hoping for a miracle this week, since we'll need to go there quite a bit. It's about 1.5 soles each way, so I'll have to find some money around because there are no ATMs in Huanchaco. We've been teaching a lot and focusing on our friends keeping commitments and at night I have to focus on DL stuff so I'm pretty exhausted at the end of each day, which honestly I'm loving.

We had a "multi-zone conference" this week which was just three of the zones meeting together over zoom for one hour each day for three days, since we can't do it in person anymore.

On Thursday we had the baptism of Kahory! Little did we know that it was going to be an all day thing pretty much. First of all we had to clean the font, but it's not a normal font. Since Huanchaco has a chapel that was once a house, our font is a circle, (that kind of looks like a hot tub), with no drainage. So we arrived to fill it up but when we removed the cover we saw that the bottom still had who knows how old water and dirt at the bottom. There's no drainage system or water pump, so we had to take a bucket to get out all the old water. I'm surprised our ward didn't tell us about this. We should have gone in our service clothes. But after a while it got too hard to get the rest of the water out. So then after some thinking we decided we had to lift up the plastic into a bowl shape so we could scoop the rest of the water out. Then we took some clothes to pick the dirt out and wipe the bottom so it could atleast look safe. I already had a headache that day so when I got in to wipe and clean it I was sweating like crazy. I could see the beads of sweat falling off my face. But after that we returned to our apartment to grab some things before heading back to help the decoration guy. Hermana Yessenia hired this guy to bring a bunch of cool decorations and a table for a cake. Finally people started to show up at 5, when it was supposed to start, but Kahory hadn't showed up yet with her family. Even the elders from Chan Chan, Elder Cochran and Elder Fernández showed up before them. (Elder Cochran had helped teach their family before they moved here). Finally, at 5:45, Kahory and her family showed up so we could start. We had a nice program and the baptism went really well. Kahory's full name is Aleska Kahoey Reyna Tapullima Tanamachi, so that was fun for Elder Larkin to memorize. Afterwards we had some cake and treats before going to dinner. We had a lesson with Cirilo after. He wants to be baptized, the only problem is that he's not married and his family isn't as interested as he is. We're praying for guidance so we can help the rest of his family come to church as well, and they could really use your prayers too.

Of course we ended up forgetting the baptismal clothes that we had asked from the secretaries in the chapel before they locked it up so we had to wait till Sunday to grab them. On Friday we spent 30 minutes just trying to call people so we could get the keys to go get the clothes, but it just didn't work because there are only 2 sets of keys and the bishop and secretary are never there when you need them-_-

On Saturday we travelled back to Pueblo Libre for the baptism of Eymi! We originally were going to also have the baptisms of Marissa, Maria, and Adrian that day too, but, as always, complications arose. I feel horrible for Marissa because Elder Ochoa told me that her mom last minute blamed us of "pressuring ger to be baptized," even though Marissa started bawling because she really does want to be baptized. So we'll just have to wait on that. But she's still coming to church with her sister and brother whom we reactivated and are becoming strong youth in the ward, so I'm still proud the spirit led us to them. We realized it's actually cheaper to take a bus half way there and then take a taxi the rest of the way instead of taking a taxi all the way there. But the baptism was nice and I also got to see Elder Sanchez and Elderr Strock! I also got to see hermana Martha and hermano Tufinio, who ewere threw two people I wasn't able to say bye to in person when I got transferred! The baptism went well, and I got to properly say goodbye to Deisi and her family. She thanked me a lot and said that if it wasn't for me she wouldn't be there right now. It's moments like this when I think back to Legrand Richards' talk "The Joy of Serving a Mission" and just feel a sense of peace. Even though Marissa wasn't baptized this week I still feel a lot of joy and peace for what the Lord was able to do through me with them. We got back and had another lesson with Brayan and Diana. We finished the Restoration and it was very powerful, although we did learn they're moving so we'll have to refer them. They're actually moving right around the corner from my old apartment in Central so they're be going to my old ward.

On Sunday we got to church at 9:55 and no one was there. It took a while but people started showing up. At first we only gad Fabricio showed up, but by the time church started at 10:20. we also had Kahory and her family show up for her confirmation, Mercedes came with her family, and the most surprising part is that Nayeli actually came with her mom and dad! We hadn't met her dad yet, but her mom is really interested, she just always had work on Sunday so I was surprised but really happy to see her! Even while people were entering before the sacrament there were a few dogs that were trying to come into the chapel. 3 were in there for sacrament meeting even though we tried to force them out beforehand. But then during the first talk another dog came in and a fight started between two of them. It was violent and there was a little blood on the ground. Some members got up and grabbed the dogs by their legs and threw them out of the chapel. Sad to say that the spirit left and I hope that's not what our friends remember about the meeting. We got the spirit back by the end, but that was an interesting experience. We got the records complete for Kahory and we ended up walking from her house for 30 minutes to our next lesson to save money. Bryan was with us and as always he's experimenting with English swear words. But his grandma likes that he spends time with us and we're glad that he's always willing to help out and come with us to lessons.

Today no one in the district had money so we didn't get together. At breakfast I got to see how hermana Anghela kills chickens. It looked just like Shiz! Then we ate that chicken for lunch. Elder Larkin and I went for a walk on the beach and had a look at some souvenirs. When I pull money next week maybe I'll get some.

That's all that happened this week! Have a great week!

Elder Jensen

1/6. Bautismo de Kahory
2/3/4. Bautismo de Eymi
5. Hermano Tufinio y Edwin
7/8. Huanchaco










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