Week 86: Building Foundations

 Hello everyone! I hope you're doing well!


After pday on Monday we had a lesson with reference a member in Central gave us. She had contacted this man at the bus stop. His name's José and he had received some missionary lessons before. He lives close to our apartment, too. His brother, Andre, also listened to us. We taught them the first half of the restoration and it went really well.

On Tuesday we had a great lesson with hermano Omar, with hermano Waldir accompanying us. He had lots of questions which we were happy to answer and taught him the first half of the restoration. We also had quick lessons with our friends Simon and Liliana and her familia. We also helped hermabo Kike transport a freezer to the market.

Wednesday we had our first district council of the transfer! Elder Keller did a great job for his first district council. I gave the mission norms and I think it went pretty well, too. Afterwards I got to practice the piano for moment while we waited for the taxi, just like I did when I was in Central. Man it's nice to play on a real piano again. We went and did some finding after lunch. I had the impression to knock on a specific door but didn't do it. We spoke with some people who live next to some members and then returned to the other side of the street. I found we were right in front of the house I had been inspired to knock on earlier, so I knocked on it. A man named James answered and we talked with him about Jesus and his church. He seems really cool and I'm glad the spirit gave me a second chance with that one. We then had a great lesson with hermana Veronica. She comes from an Evangelical family but her husband is a returned missionary. She wanted nothing to do with the church of the missionaries for a long time, but recently, I mean like 3 weeks recent, she started listening to the missionaries. She still has doubts, but her husband, Kike, is helping her come to church and understand the doctrine. She asked us how we get assigned as missionaries so we used the opportunity to explain the entire restoration to her, and hermano Kike definitely jumped into missionary mode again. It was a spirit led lesson and I have a strong feeling that Veronica is going to progress well.

On Thursday we did some quick service in the morning by moving some wood blocks in someone's house to another area of their house. I killed quite a few big spiders. After lunch we did some significant work on organizing the ward member list. Elder Agostinelli did weekly planning while I used my microsoft excel certification to work magic on the list. We got one portion of the area completely done, but we still have a ways to go. After that we got a taxi and the driver looked so much like Hitler, although he was a bit receptive to our message. We then taught hermano James about prophets and then visited hermana Liliana. She and her kids promised to come to church--next week. After that we visited hermano Jose and hermano Andre again. We taught them the restoration and it was spiritual. I could feel the spirit and I know they did too. Both hermano Jose and Andre said they believed that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that the church has been restored when we asked them. Jose definitely understood, but hermano Andre might have just been going along with his brother. Anyway they both have a lot of potencial and I'm excited to see what the spirit can do.

On Friday we started an exchange with Central 2! I went back to one of my first areas in the mission and it was so weird. The apartment had been reorganized and my computer chair I had used was dead on balcony covered in dust. I went with Elder Hidalgo and we contacted with people, but sadly all of our lessons fell through. We did find one person named Cesar right before we went back to the house which was cool. I started to feel the common stomach pains I get when something doesn't sit well with me and I knew the food I had eaten for lunch had caused it. Elder Hidalgo and I had a good night talking and then I got to sleep on the top bunk where I had slept many times before over a year ago. I woke up many times during the night and couldn't eat much for breakfast thanks to the stomach and muscle pains I was then having. We studied and then Elder Agostinelli and Elder Scarpetta came to finish the exchange.

We got back before lunch on Saturday but I was feeling pretty bad so all I could eat was a few spoonfuls of soup before starting my fast. Huh, I practically fasted for 2 days. I had to take a rest when we got back to the apartment though. My comp accidentally fell asleep too when I did, which was funny. We ended up leaving around 4. We had a quick lesson with hna Rosmery and then had a great lesson with hermana Veronica about the BoM. She still has her doubts, but is progressing slowly and is completing commitments. That night we visited hermano and hermana Luna, two returned missionaries who got to know each other in the mission and then got married afterward. They super dope and gave us lots of references!

On Sunday I woke up and felt normal. We went to church and saw hermana Veronica and also hermana Isabel come. We also some recent converts, Andrea, Samir, and Mathias come. For some reason too we also saw President Hiatt, Presidente Rivas, the majority of the other stake presidents of the mission, and Area 70 Garcia there. They must have had a meeting before hand in the chapel because nothing special happened apart from the tesitmony of Elder Garica. After sacrament meeting we planned the JAS noche de hogar that we're going to have this week. We broke our fast eating some good chancho and drinking gelatina (mixing gelatin powder with water is a common drink down here). After lunch we did a bit of planning and ended up doing some quick service for some members by moving their stuff from one room to another. We put on some other shirts so we wouldn't get our white shirts dirty. After that all of our lessons fell through so we did some contacting with people we hope we can teach next week. We left the top part of our area and went to the middle in search of a reference when I felt we should go back to the top to knock on the door of a couple. Even though we had just left and all our lessons canceled we went back. On the way we bumped into a member named Génesis. Elder Agistinelli and his former comps had been teaching her 10 year old son Valentino, but his dad didn't give his permission for him to be baptized. Then out of the blue hermana Génesis told us that the dad of Valentino gave his permission and that he can get baptized in September! That was a big miracle and we can see that the Lord guided us to be in the right spot at the right time so we can begin preparing Valentino for baptism. That night we had a noche de hogar with la familia Cabrera. One of their sons, Favio, just got home from serving in the Arequipa mission about 5 months ago. We had a great time talking and we shared a quick message about daily restoration.

Today for pday we pulled money. There are new rules for us about our shopping day, so we can't see all the other missionaries now and we have to go to different stores.

That's my week! It was kind of a preparation week for what we can achieve this week, but I know we're going to see lots of miracles this week! Have an absolutely fantastic week!

Elder Jensen

1-5. Elder Agostinelli and I
6. Distrito Chan Chan
7. Diablo playdoh Shrek
8. Central exchange










Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Week 61: It's Just a Little Rain

Image
  This was a little different of a week. Hope you all are doing well and staying safe! On Monday for pday last week we went to the mall to pull money and buy things. Afterwards we had our district activity in the mission home with Presidente and Hermana Hiatt. We made tacos and pizza and ate till we were stuffed and couldn't eat anymore. I tried to help in the kitchen but there wasn't very much for me to do because I had to be told because I literally didn't know what to do. Just goes to show the knowledge I lack about cooking and my inability in the kitchen. I'm more of a dish washer, and actually a pretty good one (ask my mom ) so I just sliced some peppers and listened to Elder Ampuero do his Ampuero thing and talk.  I also talked with president for a little bit with some of the other Elders. All the cabinets in the mission home are really weird. None of them have handles and you have to press them to open. Also we tried to get an electric oven to work but we couldn...
Read more

Week 25: Let Freedom Ring!

Image
  Happy fourth of July! I hope you had a fantastic week and were able to give thanks to God! Last pday we almost had a rerun of the time we got locked out of our apartment for 2 days. We went to the chapel to play sports with the other elders when I realized I didn't have the keys anymore. I looked around but couldn't find them. I thought they had probably slipped out of my pocket in the taxi we used to get over there. Luckily, inDriver allows you to call your previous driver! I called, and yes the keys were in his car. We had to wait a little bit, but we got them back and avoided a crisis. Saved again by technology! As we were walking down the street someone meowed at me on a bike. I did what anyone would do and meowed back. I'm surprised that guy didn't die when he looked back at me laughing considering how fast and all over the place he was riding in the middle of a busy street. Last week I said I was going to get fat from the bakery across the street we discovered, ...
Read more

Week 100: The Imperfect Harvest

Image
 Hello everyone! I hope you all had a great week! On Monday after pday we had our new missionary training and did some contacts. On Tuesday we planned to have a lesson in the afternoon with hermano James to prepare him for his baptism on Saturday. He finally had finished his exams so we thought he's have more time, but he told us right then that now he's working from 2pm to 11pm everyday. We quickly tried to work out a call lesson that day but it didn't work out. We had exchanges with Central 2 and I stayed in Chan Chan with Elder Jensen and Elder Salas went there with Elder Estebes. When I was in Central 18 months we taught a kid named Paulo who ended up not getting baptized. The Elders have but him on date again, this time for January so we'll see what happens. Elder Johnsen has great Spanish for just 3 months in the mission and I loved his enthusiasm. Pretty much all of our lessons fell but he stayed positive and we still had a great day! On Wednesday we finished our...
Read more