Week 64: Return to Where It All Began
How are you all doing after conference? I'm doing great here and ready with what the Lord wants us to talk about for the next 6 months! What was your favorite talk?
We finished the exchange with district counsel in Huanchaco. I think it went well, but could have gone better. But it was Elder Larkin's birthday so a few days before I asked hermana Ángela if she would make a cake or something to celebrate his birthday in Huanchaco. So after the counsel Ángela and Jair came over with a chocolate cake, some chicha, and some pan con pollo. It was great and hermana Ángela is just the best. I'm glad Elder Larkin didn't go to far after the last transfer so we still have him in the district.
We mapped out a few more areas of the area that I had never been to before. There are a lot of tiny neighborhoods on the side of the freeway that I think missionaries had rarely entered into before. We found a few people to teach here so we'll see how that goes. And man people can just talk down here! It's so annoying! We had so many lessons and contacts that shouldn't have lasted more than 30 minutes that ended up going over an hour because people down here don't know how to stop talking! And we try to get the lessons back on track but anything we say about any doctrinal topic will set them talking (both in favor of what we said and against) and anytime we ask an inspired question it's like we asked them to give their full and drawn out testimony. It's kind of funny sometimes.
Conference was awesome as always. I loved the message and especially how the common themes were the doctrine of Christ, ministering, repentance, joy, peace, charity, and unity. Obviously God is trying to tell us something. One that stood out to me was Juan A Uceda's talk from the Saturday night session. He spoke on love and ministering, but what stood out to me was the urgency he expressed in it. Sometimes we wait for these ministering moments to come to us or wait for someone to give us a call or invite us, but this is the Good Shepard's work and he has commissioned us as shepards under his command to care for the sheep in our own little communities. The Good Shepard will not wait for a sheep to come limping over to Him asking for help. He will be caring for all of them and actively ministering to them, whether they be in great necessity or imminent danger or not. And that's our responsibility as the commissioned shepards under his command. This is His work and we must be urgent and diligent in our work of ministering to His sheep. We don't want to be like the hireling, "who fleeth, [when he seeth the wolf coming] because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep." If we want to represent Christ well and practice what we preach like what Elder Renlund taught, we will be more like the the Good Shepard, who "giveth His life for the sheep." Be active, and do what the Savior would. Look for opportunities to help and nurture and strengthen, and don't just wait got the wolf to be threatening the sheep before you act.
For conference we watched the first two sessions in our apartment on the phone because the one person who said we could watch it with them canceled. We planned on going to the stake center to watch the second one, but didn't when we ran out of time and I didn't want to be late (it's a 25 minute bus ride and then a 10 minute walk). But we did watch the night session with Ángela and her family in their house. We watched the Sunday sessions in the chapel in Huanchaco. For some reason our stake president wanted everyone to watch the Saturday sessions in the stake center even though it's pretty inconvenient for us in Huanchaco. But on Sunday morning we watched it in the chapel with our friends and investigators. We went to lunch and then went back to the chapel at 2:55, but it was locked. We assumed that for some reason bishop decided to go to the stake center so we went home. I called the first counselor, hermano Junior, but apparently bishop was just late. Sorry, but this is general conference. It doesn't run on Perú time. So we packed up again and went there, but Elder Lopez saw his pensionista from his old area, Florencia 2. She introduced us to her dad who recently moved here and is open to hear the Gospel! So maybe that little confusion was part of God's plan! We talked to the bishop from Florencia 2, (who's the pensionista's husband), before finally we got to the capilla. We had missed Elder Oak's talk and the majority of Elder Ballard's. But in the chapel it was just us and the bishopric. The funniest part was during the congregation song when ai looked around and saw that Elder Lopez, bishop, and Bryan's dad, Sergio, the 2nd counselor, were all asleep! It was just me and Junior! Later hermana Paty came and Nayeli came again. (She saw the first session, too). Over all it was pretty fun.
After conference we went to hermana Carol and her mom hermana Marta, who are inactives who have started coming back to church. We're helping them learn about temples so they can work for that. We also gave a blessing of health to Marta because she felt that a spirit had entered her body or something. A year ago she was at a baptism (in a diffetrent church) of one of her friends who had previously been into cultism and acted really weird. Marta felt something enter her body after that and that now prevents her from sleeping and she feels really weird. We gave her a blessing of health and we know that she'll recover and be able to sleep again. Who knows, maybe I'm an exorcist now.
We're trying to plan for Nayeli's baptism this weekend but it seems like there might be some things getting in the way. There's a stake activity at the same time, we worry that we won't be able to teach her everything she needs to know, and we fear that the one lesson we can have with her and her mom at the same time might cancel, like it did last week, when this one is absolutely essential to have to plan for the baptism. That and herr mom might not even get time off. So if you could all pray for Nayeli and her mom, Maria, and that everything will work out the way the Lord wants it too, that'll be great!
A few other funny highlight happened this week that aren't worth putting in a paragraph but I wanted to mention
• A dog crawled and struggled through a small hole in a fence just to bark at us when we knocked at the door. It actually got through and attempted to bite my leg.
• Another dog started scratching itself on a ledge and fell off
• Another savage dog was barking at us violently so I scared it by picking up a rock and it backed into a car and ser the car alarm off. (wow these are all dog ones)
• I kind of burned one of our investigators when he wouldn't stop talking about politics and the current state of the world and how scared he was and Elder Lopez couldn't stop laughing for the rest of the night
That's all for me! I hopee you all have an absolutely fantastic week!
Elder Jensen
1. Finally got a picture with the Idaho mug hermana Merly has in Tahuantinsuyo! (I got a photo with it when I was in the area last year but lost it.)
2. Pollo la Brasa después la conferencia
3. The closest I've been to home in a while...(it's the airport)
4. Happy bday Elder Larkin
5. The tiniest plaza de armas I've seen
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