Week 92: Accepting the Lord's Will

 Hello everyone! I hope you all had a great week! I sure did!

On Monday we had a quick mission videocall about organizing our PMEs, so we quickly got to work on doing that.

On Tuesday we visited hermana Carmen and then taught hermano James afterward. We're trying to help him receive an answer that everything he's been learning is true. Later that night we taught hermano Jose about how the scriptures can help him. That night we had a fogata (campfire) outside of the house of hermana Jovana where we talked with hno Andy about his mission and the funny and weird experiences he had in Lima Central. We lso had pollo broaster for dinner that night.

On Wednesday we had district council amd afterwards we started an exchange with Los Cedros 1. I stayed in Chan Chan with Elder Gallego's trainee, Elder Espinoza. It was an awesome experience to be with a brand new missionary again and focus on one or two specific things to help him develop. He has a very strong testimony and it definitely moved the people we taught. He also loved all the compliments I was giving him, since we're really focusing on helping the missionaries to feel joy in the work as leaders. We knocked on the door of a gray dot. He wasn't home but this nice looking man let us in when we asked if we could share a message. We sat down but he kept standing and got uncomfortably close to me. I think I've been a bit more attentive to others since we got robbed last week because I just got a very strong feeling that we needed to leave. I cut the message short and we were out of there. I don't know if he wanted to contend or what else he had in mind but that feeling was enough to get me to want to go. We later visited an inactive member who doesn't want to forgive other members. It's really sad. We then we're walking down the street and we passed by a cake shop. I felt the spirit that we should talk with the lady at the front so we stopped and talked to her. Her name's Magaly, and she's from Venezuela. After that we finally had a lesson with hermana Verónica again after 3 weeks. We talked about her experiences and how she was feeling. We talked about baptism and we left her with the invitatiom to pray earnestly about it. She really only needs to make the commitment and she'll be ready to be baptized. That night we taught Jhonatan, Kiara, and Estefano about the word of wisdom and the law of chastity. They had questions about tea and coffee. In the US all it was to me was tea and coffee, but here there are so many subdivisions. I know some of them are apparently normal for us to drink, but I don't have them memorized so I had to tell them to ask hermana Jovana for the specifics.

On Thursday we finished the exchange early and did weekly planning after lunch. We had a lesson with hno James and we taught him about repentance. Little by little he's progressing and receiving his answer. We then taught hno Cicerón about the second half of the Plan of Salvation. I studied a lot about the topic before hnd since I knew he would ask lots of questions and it paid off. 

On Friday we left on exchanges again, this time with California 2. Elder Salas went there with Elder Keller and I stayed in Chan Chan with Elder Williams. It was an awesome exchange and we had fun talking, even though most of our lessons fell through. But I was super impressed by his obediente and his desire and reasons to be here. We had a lesson with hna Gabriela and we talked about baptism. She understood the doctrine but told us she wants to feel it in her heart that it's right. She might face some family pressures if she does, but we'll see about that. I have a lot of faith that she'll receive her answer. We taught hno José with his sisters again that night about the premortal life. That night Elder Williams and I talked on a whole range of topics and man it made me want to start the mission over again.

Saturday morning we finished the exchange and got all our music back that we had lost when the phone was robbed. We did a bunch of calls in the afternoon and then finally had a lesson with hermana Rosmery, hno Diego, and their son Wilson. We went over the Restoration again and it was good we did because they seemed to understand it better this time. It started raining slightly while we did some finding. That night we had a noche hogar with Patricia, Jhonatan, Kiara, and Estefano. We cleared up their doubts about the word of wisdom and then taught them about tithing and fasting. We confirmen their baptismal date and we hope everything will go well with that! They seem very excited and I'm so grateful for the opportunity I've had to teach them. Keep praying for them!

Sunday we had stake conference, so we all went to California. Normally Presidente Hiatt comes but Cajamarca also had their stake conference the same day so he couldn't make it. Sadly, pretty much all of our friends couldn't come that day, but our friends Rosmery, Diego, and their son Wilson finally came! They've been saying they'll come for weeks and they finally did. It was packed so we gave them our seats and went to sit further back. Now they just need to get married. After church we plnned and cleaned up our PME a bit. We left but our first lesson canceled. We went to try to contact Mirian for like the 30th time to see if we could pull out a lesson with her, expecting that she wouldn't be home like usual. We knocked and she answered and let us in. I could see in her eyes that something was different and I could feel it too. We listened to her for a few minutes talk about all the trials that are going on in her life right now. According to the spirit we reassured her of God's love, and I could feel in that moment that we needed to talk about baptism. I asked an introductory question, and she said the most important thing to her in that moment was knowing if she should be baptized, but she still has doubts about not knowing enough or not knowing everything she wants to before making that decision. We used the opportunity to use an example I like about preparing. If we were to leave for a vacation, but don't know the date we're leaving, do you believe we could pack effectively? The answer is no. So we invited her to be prepared to be baptized on the 11th of November so she can have time to learn and understand everything she needs to, and she accepted! It was raining during the lesson, (which is only a light drizzle here), which was really cool. I felt the spirit a lot and I can feel her time is now, because the missionaries have been teaching her the entire year. After that we taught hno John about why bad things happen to good people, even children, and about how children have no sin. He already believed that himself, so that's awesome. We also felt impressed to knock the door of a woman we had contacted briefly earlier in the week, and we were able to share a brief message with her. Then we had a lesson with Valentino about the Holy Ghost. We also gave him his baptismal certificate. That night we had the weekly mission zoom meeting and hermana Jovana and hno Roger brought anticuchos for dinner!

On Monday we worked since we changed our pday to Tuesday because we planned on going to the Huaca de la Luna, which is closed on Mondays. We found some people by the spirit, Elder Salas had an appointment with the doctor, we had a small capacitation with the new missionaries in our zone and their trainers, and we taught hno Jose a bit more about the Plan of Salvation. I was actually very impressed with him because he had read the whole pamphlet and remembered it pretty well, which I wasn't expecting.

Today we went to the Huaca de la Luna! Interesting thing is that the last time I went was exactly a year ago in October... wow time flies. 

That's my week! We're seeing a lot of progression here and I know your prayers  will help all of our friends a lot! I'm ready for the next week! Have an absolutely fantastic week!

Elder Jensen

1. Yo y Elder Williams

2. Inca Chips: Native Peruvian potatos

3/4. Nuevo distrito

5. I AM ELÍAS EL PROFETA!!!!!

6/7/8/9. Huaca de la Luna

10.