Week 82: Conferences and Miracles

 Hey everyone! I hope you all have a great week!


Monday night we went to the house of hermano Carlos and hermana Suguey and watched the hour long Joseph Smith movie with them. We were able to testify of the restoration and see the growing testimony inside of them.

On Tuesday we had a few lessons and ate some cuy at a member's house. We also got ceviche de pollo. I ate a little bit, but was too scared to eat more. Most of our day was spent traveling to Trujillo for the mission leadership meeting. I had bought a new suit on pday because my old one was looking pretty bad, but I gave my unhemmed pants to hermana Diane a little too late so she didn't have it done in time, and our laundry for the week wasn't done yet so I ended up going in my gray suit with dark blue pants. It was all I had left! We had a bunch of pizza for dinner and then had a great reunion. President Hiatt gave a powerful testimony and gave us some great ideas and pressure. After the meeting we were told to stay in the secretary's apartment for the night. We ended up hanging out with the Elders from Cajamarca who had come for their multi zone conference the next day. It was fun talking and working out with all of them. I ended up sleeping on the couch. It was actually a little cold and I didn't have a blanket so I woke up in the middle of the night and pulled out an extra shirt I brought and my suitcoat and wore those as a blanket.

Wednesday we woke up and traveled back to Casagrande. We planned our training section and went out to a few lessons. We went to hermano Julio to design and print out some papers that we used for our training. We met with an inactive member named Ecaterina. After dinner we had a small noche hogar with hermano Paul and his family.

On Thursday we woke up early and went to Trujillo for the multizone conference. I loved all the trainings. President Hiatt gave a powerful training section on faith and said that if we don't have enough faith to find and to baptized, we need to build our faith. He also shared a clip of Elder Bednar saying that we put more emphasis on baptism than we should, because that's only one step of the process. It's the first covenant, but the gift of the Holy Ghost is what really help us with becoming clean of our sins. When we prepare to partake of the sacrament during the week we are actively repenting and the presence of the spirit is evidence that the Atonement of Jesus Christ is working in our lives and that we are being forgiven. We do that so when we partake of the sacrament we can know that we are doing our best and receiving a remission of our sins. Hermana Hiatt gave a simple but powerful talk on God's love. What stood out to me was when she said that God is always patient with us, even when we're not patient with ourselves. Elder Cordova and I trained on how to do inspired questions and came up with a simple form to explain it, based on the scripture 3 Nephi 9:13. For lunch we had barbeque and fries which was awesome. After that we went to the offices for Elder Cordova to get his reimbursement. I had long been asking Elder Escobedo for one of the gray and gold mission journals the mission gave out to every missionary last year, because for some reason I never got one. He told me to bring my backpack into the storage closed and gave me the last one. He had found one more! Later I asked him about a new water basic and showed him mine, which now has mold on it. He once again told me to bring my backpack so no one else saw and gave me a new water basic! There are perks to being friends with the secretaries. After traveling back we had a powerful lesson with our friend Kevin. He's been reading in the BoM and has progressed so much since when we first met with him because at first he didn't believe in God. He's come a long way and promised to come to church with us. That night we also met with hermano Carlos. His wife Suguey recently came down with dengue. But Carlos had good news for us in that he got a notification that he was getting his job back! He's been jobless for a while and this is an answer to our prayers. We also talked about the purpose of life and he also promised to come to church, which is something we've been fighting for for 2 months!

On Friday we went on exchanges with Chocope. I stayed in Independencia with Elder Cruzado and Elder Cordova went to Chocope with Elder Perez! Elder Cruzado is a beast man and he's super cool. We went with hermano Larry to some lessons and met with a woman who had been baptized but completely forgot about the church and joined a different church. While walking between lessons I heard someone speak in English so I turned and saw a young man calling to us. We went over to him and he told us that all the other churches today just sing and shout and don't follow God's commandments but that he wants to join the true church. His name's Daniel and he's 21 years old. We got to know him a little and shared a little bit about the restoration. I could also sense his desire so we also extended the invitation for baptism, and he accepted! He's soooo elect! He didn't come to church on Sunday because of the pressure he might be feeling now with the family He's staying with, but we'll keep working and see what we can do. After that we went to hermano Cesar. We had a very simple lesson with him and got to know how he's really feeling right now. Elder Cruzado shared a great example and the spirit touchedhis heart. He softened a little bit and said that he's going to talk to his daughters about going to church together. They still didn't come, but we're seeing the progress in them. We met with hermana Joysse to finish out a good exchange.

Saturday was a great day. We had another great lesson with Kevin where he really opened up to us. The Lord has great plans for him. Then we met with hermano Anthony and hermana Lourdes. Once their classes finish they'll be able to come to church and man hermano Anthony is so ready! I love the lessons we have with them. We talked about love, patience, and humility to help them with some questions that they had. After that we felt to pass by one hermano, Linder, that we had talked to a few weeks ago. He's an old man in a wheelchair without any legs. We shared a quick message with him about prayer, the scriptures, and church attendance. He talks really fast and kind of muffled, but while I was writing his number down, Elder Cordova told me, Linder said that he's been waiting for years for us to come and talk to him because he believes that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is atleast the most correct of the churches on earth today. We're going to get to know him a bit better soon. That night we met with hermano Daniel again and got to know him better. He's from Lima and talked with the missionaries once before, but because of studies stopped communicating with them. We taught him prophets and man his answers were great! He's had a rouge life but has an extreme desire to get on the correct path. I'm excited to see what the next few weeks have in store for him. After that we confirmed the attendance of hermano Carlos at church and planned a service activity for hermana Nelly.

Sunday was a day of miracles! In my time in Independencia we had had at most 3 church attendances but for the past 3 weeks we've only had 1 in total. But yesterday we saw 8 of our friends at church! We went to walk with Kevin to church, but his mom answered the door and said he was busy. We drifted off to the side and called him so his mom couldn't see us. Kevin came out and came with us to church. We were running a little late so Carlos called us and told us that he was already walking to the chapel even though we hadn't come to get him yet. He's very punctual. E Cordova sat by Kevin and I sat by Carlos. Our friends Gissela, Ruly, and Nery also came! Then our friend Victoria who lives in Sausal came with 2 of her friends, Jaime and Candy! Victoria herself asked me if she was going to be baptized on Saturday. I had to tell her we'd have to push her date back because this was only her first attendance, but that yes, she's going to be baptized. After ward council we broke our fast and went to Sausal. We shared a message with the bus driver and he referred us to his sister, who's actually a member and lives in Sausal. We visited her, se llama Irma, and we hope we can go back and get to know her family. After that we went to a small river where people normally take baths because the showers don't all have water here in Sausal. Maybe we can have a baptism there. We also saw some cows and horses. We visited a few members before coming back to Casagrande. We had a lesson with hermana Monica and finally got to know her partner at the end. We had a quick lesson with hermana Nery where we explained to her and Jason the setup of our church meetings and the BoM. That night Presidente Hiatt gave a powerful message about our personal worthiness and daily repentance, which is something I know will bless us all.

A few more miracles that happened this week:
  - Hermana Nina (Huanchaco) is going to the temple this week!!!
  - A young girl named Maylin that I had taught in Pueblo Libre got baptized this week! She was a reference from a member and was going to get baptized when I taught her but her dad didn't give his permission and she became discouraged and los interest. But now she's been baptized and it looks like her family might follow!
  - Hermana Angela, the young girl I write about in my last email that Elder Sanchez and I taught in Paijan last week, accepted a baptismal date and wants me to baptized her! I never thought that from an exchange someone would want me to baptized them, but Elder Sanchez told me that she said she really felt the spirit when we talked and wants me to baptize her!

Well this week started out pretty tough but ended with miracles! I hope we can keep this up and the month of August will be unforgettable! Have a great week!

Elder Jensen

1/3. Leadership meeting
2. Lunch at the multizone
4/8. Exchanges with Elder Cruzado
5. The father of Elder Ochoa
6. Farewell to Elder Kennedy
7. Elder Cruzado and Daniel
9. Our training
10. The river at Sausal












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