Week 67: The Spirit Softens Hearts

 Hola todos! I hope you had a great week, because I sure did!


On Tuesday we went to do service for Nina but it ended up turning into a lesson. Surprisingly she started to understand more about the restoration. It seems her heart is softening and shee is beginning to understand! But then she said that since we put her on date for the 29th of April she was going to be baptized on that day. But I didn't feel she was ready because I don't think she has a full grasp upon the restoration, authority, and baptism yet. Of course she doesn't need to know everything, but atleast sufficient to know what she's getting into. After that I had my emotional resilience class and later we mapped out more of the barren wasteland that is Huanchaquito Bajo.

First consejo de distrito of the transfer! The majority of us are new so it was pretty fun and I think it went well. I made another stupid fun video to give assignments. We talked about the importance of our investigators feeling the spirit and how we can bring the spirit into lessons. Because it is IMPOSSIBLE for a person to be converted unless they receive a testimony through the spirit, just like in this week's reading in Come, Follow Me. That's why a big task we have as missionaries isn't just teaching the lessons, but helping our friends come to recognize the spirit. Of course they can't be perfect ar recognizing it immediately, I'm still not even close to that, but we should call attention to the spirit so outr friends can best come to know what they should be feeling and have the desire to have more of it. That will lead them to complete commitments and feel spirit by themselves. That's why it's our job to help them and teach them to feel the spirit and begin to understand it. We can teach perfectly but without the spirit it is nothing. And ultimately, we are going to learn and have our testimony grow as well. That's the promise of D&C 50:13-22. But I'm really excited to see what we can do as a district this transfer since it seems like we're all good and ready to work. We also had interviews with Presidente Hiatt that day, which was great as usual. Heard a lot of things I needed to hear and had a fun time talking with the secretaries.

On Thursday we went on exchanges with the elderes from Jardines. We met in the mall and I went to Jardines with Elder Islas while Elder Matos went to Huanchaco with Elder Lopez. Jardines has been a dead area with a companionship that didn't do much before but this last transfer it was whitewashed and I'm excited to see what Elders Islas and Matos can do because they seem pretty good. My exchange with Elder Islas was awesome. He's from Argentina and was reassigned in Buenos Aires until he got his visa. While he had his emotional resilience class I read a diary that had been left behind by an American sister missionary who served here in 2019. It was really funny and weird. After lunch we did a bunch of calls of people who had baptismal dates in the past but few of the numbers even worked. One of the people we called was actually named Hitler. So that must've been weird putting Hitler on date for baptism. After that we tried visiting a bunch of people who had come to church before or had baptismal dates. We tried visiting a member family who had a kid who hadn't been baptized. We got there and it turns out he'd already been baptized and it was because of a spelling mistake in Areabook so 2 profiles were created -_- We found a cool new guy named Jorge who seems like he can progress. I had gone to Jardines to do some baptismal interviews for a family too, but that cita fell. After the correlation meeting we went to dinner and got to talk with the pensionista's son. He's really smart and we had a country battle. We tried to see who could name more countries, since we're both geography junkies. (He's pretty good.) Then Elder Islas and I had a good talk, played some Ludo, (I won), and laughed a lot. Slept without a pillow and we finished the exchange in the morning at the mall. We waited for 30 minutes before the other Elders arrived.

On Friday we had a lesson with some older ladies named Maria and Marta. Later that night we visited Emelyn and then finally had a lesson with Elis where some sisters from the ward came with us! Hermana Ruth and Hermana Aracely came, as well as Nayeli for some reason. (Aracely is the seminary teacher so Nayeli just sticks with her sometimes) We talked about Joseph Smith and it went well. But of course her daughter was feeling sick again so there goes any hope of her coming to church on Sunday. The next day we actually spent a bit of time in San Francisco again. We visited Jimmy, who for the past week we thought had gone missing because we had no form of contact and no one knew where he was. But he's alright now. We also gave a blessing of health to Elis' daughter.

Sunday was a bit slower than usual. It seems like everyone was sick or working. Only Yessenia, Erick, and Nayeli came. But it was all good. We have hope for next week! We decided to map out a part of our area called Las Brisas. It's the poorest part of the area, and we accidentally trespassed into someone's backyard when we got lost and couldn't find a way back up a hill. We definitely should've been more careful. But after that we went to Nina and surprisingly had a great lesson. She had some questions and wasn't as easily distracted like normal. The spirit was there and she even accepted a different baptismal date for the 13th of May! She felt that it was right and wants to learn more about Joseph Smith and the gospel. Afterwards we went to see Carol and Marta and ended speaking with their whole family too. Hopefully their family can progress.

Today was fun because we actually did something! We met as a district in the chapel in Bellavista (minus the hermanas) to play some card games and soccer. We played Cover your Assets and Spot it. We didn't have a ball so Elder Larkin bought one. We played for about 2 minutes before Elder Larkin kicked it hard and it flew over the fence into the tiny brick houses. We climbed up the fence to see if we could get it back, but couldn't see it. It was pretty funny joking about how we would get it back. But then we have up and Eldetr Lopez bought a new ball.

That was my week! I hope you can pray for the sister in law of the ward mission leader in Pueblo Libre, hermano Díaz, named Carol, who's suffering from cancer right now. Have an absolutely fantastic week!

Elder Jensen

1/4. Distrito Huanchaco
2. That's not disturbing at all
3. The Huanchaco view of Trujillo. There's Esperanza!
5. Las Brisas
6. Exchanges with Elder Islas








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