Week 78: Giving My All
Another week done, and 18 months in the books.
On Wednesday we had the last district council of the transfer (that fast?) and I went on exchanges with Elder Huaman. What is this our 4th or 5th exchange together? He has 7 transfers in the mission and we've been in the same district for 6 of them. But man I love Elder Huaman he's so funny. We decided to knocknon the door of our friend Danna to see how she was doing. In the lesson before that she didn't look all that interested, and said she was just starting to do things that she enjoyed that might not be what God wants so she wanted to wait till the future. Explaining that more it was a perfect time to use Alma 41:10, "wickedness never was happiness." Elder Huaman spoke wonderfully about prayer and she seemed a bit more interested. We actually pulled out a different lesson. Later on a different exchange Elder Cordova visited ger and said that that lesson left an impression on him and he believes that Danna can be baptized. We'll see what the Lord has in store. We found a reference that was given to us by elders in Trujillo named Etel. She enjoyedWe had some good lessons with our friend Teresa about the first half of the restoration and then we visited Joysse, a recent convert. She expressed some difficulties she's having so we were able to have a good spirit led lesson that we centered in Mosiah 3:19. I'll talk a little bit more about that below. We then went to visit Miguel, but he wasn't there. We waited and his younger sister Sharpey showed up with her dad. We talked about the gospel of Jesus Christ with her and explained it quite well, but Sharpey still told us she didn't want to be baptized yet with her brother. We explained it and showed a video and decided it would be better to have her pray about it and come back another day instead of stay there until we convince her.
On Thursday as we finished as exchange Elder Huaman kept mocking me in front of the other elders. In the afternoon we tried finding but no one really wanted to listen. We then went to visit another recent convert, Angheel, who hasn't been coming to church recently. I learned a lot in this lesson and my perspective changed on a lot of things. I won't go into it, but this was a powerful discussion for everyone involved. After that we picked up Larry and had a very spiritual lesson with our friend Kevin. He's 17 and reminds me a lot of the ideas that Jorihor expresses in the Book of Mormon. I don't believe there is a God, but if there is one I will believe, etc. We talked about the existence if God and focused on prayer. He said he's prayed many times to ask if God existe. We invited him to pray. Hno Larry then gave a powerful testimony on the existence of God with a great example to illustrate it. And Kevin always threw in a doubtful statement after we said something, but after Larry gave his testimony Kevin only responded with positive statements, evidence that his heart was softening. He then offered one of the most sincere, powerful prayers I've heard. We all felt the spirit, E Cordova even shed some tears. After the prayer I extended the invitation to keep praying so he can feel this same spirit in any moment. I once again felt like I was filled with the spirit and called attention to it. It reminded me of the first time with hermana Merly in Huanchaco where I felt "filled with the spirit." My voice got elevated because I could feel it in every part of my body. After that we had a lesson with our friend Jenny, who's interested in learning about the restoration, and we finished with a good lesson about Joseph Smith with hermano Cesar. Afterwards hno Larry offered us some cake in his mom's house. He also speaks duck like my brother Will.
On Friday we went on another exchange, this time I went with Elder Cerna in Casagrande. We both wanted to listen to the whispers of the spirit more, so we made goals to do that. While knocking inspired doors while walking between lessons we both felt the impression to walk past an open door where a woman was talking on the phone and knock on the green house next door. Nobody was home, so we knocked on the next one. It was at that moment I felt we should go back to the lady on the phone. We did so and she ended the call to talk to us and let us in. We talked to her and shared a message. Maybe the Lord just needed us yo wait another minute before talking to her so she could be prepared.
The signal was out again on Saturday morning so after studying we played Jenga for a moment before finally deciding to go over to Independencia instead of waiting for them to come to us. After lunch we had a short lesson with Miguel and Sharpey. Literally every question we posed Miguel responded with the doctrine of Christ's his answer. Man he's ready. We did finding the majority of the rest of the day by using the ward member list. We found a man named Narciso and we had a great lesson about repentance. Later we talked to a man named Marco and talked to him about the resurrection and the joy and hope a belief in it gives to a person. I hope both of them can progress. After that we read the testimony of Joseph Smith with hermano Julio and his suegra, hermana Teresa. She's the mother of the lady who washes our clothes. She isn't a member so we've been teaching her. She's recovering from a broken shoulder so she hasn't been coming to church but we'll see what we can do.
What a day Sunday was. All of the people who had promised to come to church all of the sudden couldn't. We didn't know what else to do, so we walked to the chapel. At that moment I decided listen to the Holy Ghost who was poking me in the head to knock on a few doors of people to invite them to church. This was 5 minutes before the meeting started. We went but neither of them were home. We walked into the chapel and misses the sacrament, but Ai could say I had given my absolute all. There was nothing else I could have done, and there's no shame in that. In fact, I felt the love of Christ more strongly than I usually do in the chapel. Then during the meeting two little girls showed up. Their names are Katy and Pierina, and they are some children the last elders in the ward were teaching who always come up to us when we pass their house. Their brother dropped them off. We'll have to pay a bit more attention to them and focus on teaching them. I know that when we do all we can do the Lord blesses us. Because that morning we gave our all in trying to invite people to church with out avail, the Lord blessed us. He sees and knows our efforts. Give it your all! Things will work out and you will be blessed. Of course, God is with us the whole journey and doesn't just wait until we have given our all to step in, because He's with us all the way. But when we do our best and things still don't work out, He blesses us. I have a testimony of that.
That afternoon we went to Sausal with the relief society and a few other men to have a tarde de hermanamiento with the members who live there. Elder Cordova and I gave a short message based on verses 5-10 of 3 Nephi 17. Hermana Beatriz and hermano Cesar, the members whose house we were using, started to cry when they gave their testimonies. We invited our friend Victoria who lives out there to come too and she enjoyed it. We also called up another inactive member who ended up coming in addition to the rest of the inactive members the relief society invited. The sister made ceviche, which we can't eat, but it was still fun. Hermano Cesar showed us his cuyes, ducks, and chickens. After we traveled back we packed up our clothes to bring them to hermana Carol. On the way we passed by the house of some gray dots who we know lives there and decided to knock. They're names are Estefany (15) and Alejandro (19). We had knocked many times before but they weren't home. We got to know them and talked a lot about getting close to God. Both of them want to, so we'll see where this goes. Man the spirit guides us in everything we do. Last night we had the last mission zoom call of the transfer. Elder Goates is our new AP since Elder Gerber is finishing his mission (Thank goodness it's not me). We heard the testimonies of all the dying missionaries, including hermana Baird and hermana Ellis, who were part of my MTC group. You know what that means, "We're in the endgame now." Elder Palacios and Elder Gerber also gave their testimonies, and they have been such friends to me. This'll be sad, but here's to the last 6 months of my mission, which will undoubtedly by the best. I've learned from my mistakes, I'm trained, full of the spirit, and ready to face whatever brings these last 6 months the Lord has given me to serve Him.
Today for pday we went to the Magdalena de Cao, which is another ruin of the temple of the Mochica people. Like the Huaca del sol y la luna, they performed human sacrifices there. A huge portion of the place is dedicated to the Señora de Cao, one of the leaving female rules of ancient Perú. We also went to the beach and threw rocks into the ocean. For some reason we also saw a district from Esperanza as well as the other Casa Grande district, which is weird because we all planned seperately.
This week is transfers and we haven't received transfer news yet so we'll see what happens. Here's to the last 6 months and I can promise I will be giving it my absolute all.
Elder Jensen
1. Independence Day bbq
2. My one time cooking in Perú
3/4/5/6/8. Magdalena de Cao
7. Car to Sausal
9/10. Sausal with the ward
11. A meme E Cordova made
12. Exchange with E Sanchez (a week late)
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