Eliseo

 Eliseo got baptized yesterday. His buddy baptized him. That was really cool. A bunch of preisthood has gotten baptized lately, which is an absolute blessing for the ward. 

This week I felt very grateful to be in perú. I love these people so much. A couple nights ago we were out in a little town called San Antonio. We had just had a bunch of successful lessons with some super humble awesome people. I felt super grateful. As we were walking back to Pomalca the sun was setting behind the sugar cane. I felt super glad to be in Perú and be having this experience I am having. 

It still baffles me how slow these people move. Bless their hearts

I hit 16 months in the mission this week. Time is absolutely flying. 

We met a buhdist lady this week. She had some sort of alter with some crazy looking scrolls with some sort of chinese or japanese or something on them. She shared a bunch of stories with us. We were both very confused. It was the first time I have ever taught someone that doesnt believe in Jesus Christ. We didnt really know what to teach. I have a lot of respect for people that have to teach from ground zero. 

It's starting to cook again down here. I forgot how hot it gets. We still aren't in the worst of it, but it is starting to get really hot. Realistically it isn't insanely hot, it is just the fact that there is no relief. It is just as hot inside as outside. 

The family that got baptized in my old area got sealed in the temple on saturday. They seem super excited. 

"When He arrived on the Western Hemisphere following His Resurrection, Christ said to the Nephites: “Behold, I am Jesus Christ. … I have drunk out of that bitter cup which the Father hath given me, … in the which I have suffered the will of the Father … from the beginning.” Of the myriad ways He could have introduced Himself, Jesus did so by declaring His obedience to the will of the Father—never mind that not long before in His hour of greatest need, this Only Begotten Son of God had felt totally abandoned by His Father. Christ’s charity—evident in complete loyalty to divine will—persisted and continues to persist, not just through the easy and comfortable days but especially through the darkest and most difficult ones." -Holland 

I probably get asked 5+ times a week, "why do bad things happen to good people?" I love this explanation. It is pretty easy to feel alone sometimes and feel like Christ has abandoned us. I know that, as Holland says, we will stand before him one day, see the wounds in his hands and feet, and realize that we were never truly alone.

Elder Cpohl

Elder Villar

Elder Villar from the 70 came. I will be honest, he did not come to give the mission ear candy. He absolutely ripped into everyone including President Giuria. He was incredibly intense. He shared some stuff though that was really cool. 

He shared how faith produces miracles. Miracles don't produce faith. I liked that a lot. 

He also talked about the parable of the talents from Matthew 25. I absolutely loved this part. He talked about how to one servant were given five talents, to one two, and to the other just one. The three servents went out and did everything they could with their talents. They came back with 10 and 4 talents respectively. The Lords response to these two was EXACTLY the same (verses 21 and 23). He was not upset with the one that brought back only four, because he was only given two in the first place. Elder Villar talked about how as missionaries (and just in life in general) it is the same. Some of us are more or less capable than others. But all the Lord asks of us is that we use our capability that we have been given to the best of our ability. If we do so, as shown by verses 21 and 23, the Lord will veiw our efforts exactly the same. 

He then went on to talk about the servant that just brought back one talent because he hid the one that was given to him in the dirt. We see in verse 26 what the Lords response was for him (not too pretty). He then took us the footnotes in D and C 60 verses 2,3 and 13 which say... 

2 But with some I am not well pleased, for they will not open their mouths, but they hide the talent which I have given unto them, because of the fear of man. Wo unto such, for mine anger is kindled against them. 

3 And it shall come to pass, if they are not more faithful unto me, it shall be taken away, even that which they have.

13 Behold, they have been sent to preach my gospel among the congregations of the wicked; wherefore, I give unto them a commandment, thus: Thou shalt not idle away thy time, neither shalt thou bury thy talent that it may not be known.

I really liked this. He told us how as missionaries and as preople we are just asked to do the best of our abilities and use what we are given. That was really cool to me. The conference was full of eyebrow singers like this. I left feeling pretty motivated.

It is mango season again. Kinda crazy, I was here for last mango season. But anyways, I am in heaven. Out of nowhere this week it seemed like mangos were falling out of the sky. There are carts full of them on every single corner. They cost 1.25 soles a kilo so I have eaten just about 2 kilos a day for a week. If I'm not mistaken that means about 7 ish pounds for 1 US dollar. You might need to check me on that. They are so dang good. Best mangos I have ever had. They are legitamately the size of a youth football. I will be full on them for the next few months. 

Sorry if I rant about fruit in every email. It is just so good here. 

Hermano Estuart (stewart) got baptized yesterday. He's a 20 year old kid, so exactly what the church needs down here. He's really cool. He walks about 2 miles to church. He also quit drinking coffee in order to be baptized. Just a small experience with him this week because I don't really have anything else to write about. On thursday we went to his house to do his baptismal interveiw. He wasnt there and his dad told us he was at his moms house for the night. He doesnt have a phone so we had no idea what to do. We had to get the interveiw done in order for him to be baptized on sunday. His dad gave us a very vague reference of where he lived. An urbanization of probably 200 houses. Luckily we had just left a conference in which Elder Villar ripped on everyone for not having faith 🤣 so we figured we'd put our faith to the test. We walked all the way out there and didn't know where to start. We picked a road and started walking down it. On the way down that road there came estuart right towards us. I was honestly shocked and although it seemed like a small coincidence I thought it was pretty cool and litterally proved what we had been taught. 

We got the baptismal font all nice and ready and a dog got in there and swam around. Perú I guess. 

I had a great week. Could be one of the best transfers of my mission for sure. 

Segundo

1 kilo (about 2 pounds) of blueberrys costs 5 soles (about 1 dollar) in this town. There must be blueberry fields here or something because in chiclayo they were 20 times as expensive. I have been aprovecharing heavily. 

I watched a dude sell a 9 year old kid two beers. Teaching them young. 

We got a blender and I have been whipping up all sorts of smoothies. Papaya+banana+water is such a good combination. 

I have also found myself chewing on sugar cane a lot. It has worn on me a ton. I'm not sure if it's just because it feels cool and because thats just what you do in this town or if it is actually good.  

Go bengals. I heard they made it to turf. 

Hermano Segundo was baptized this week. He is a really cool guy. He quite drinking coffee and tea and it has been a process that has taken over a year. But he has successfully dropped it and was baptized yesterday. It was a beautiful baptism. 

We got water back to the shower this week. So that is great. But water doesnt make it to the toilet yet, so we made a hose that carries the shower water to the toilet. It is pretty genius and works well. 

I finished the D and C this week. I think for some reason sometimes we as members are almost scared of the d and c. Reading it was one of the best things I have ever done for my personal testimony. I encourage all to truly do come follow me this next year and find the gems that are scattered throughout it. 

This week I started the New Testiment. There are three things that are really interesting to me in chapter 26 of matthew. All three are examples of people taking for insignificance who Christ was and what he is. 

Verse 4-5: "4 And consulted that they might take Jesus by subtilty, and kill him. 5 But they said, Not on the feast day, lest there be an uproar among the people" 

Verse 15-16: "15 And said unto them, What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver. 16 And from that time he sought opportunity to betray him." 

Verse 40/43: "40 And he cometh unto the disciples, and findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter, What, could ye not watch with me one hour? 43 And he came and found them asleep again: for their eyes were heavy."

I think it is easy for us to look at these three examples of people betraying or taking the Lord for not and almost laugh at the fact that these people dumbed down the supreme being that was Christ in such a manner. But I also think that we are all just as guilty, in our own way, of having our Lord for naught sometimes. Maybe our ways of having him for naught are different, but I know for me personally, there are tons of little things that I can work on.

POMALCA 🌾

Had transfers this week and probably got the single best transfer I could have asked for. Im in a little town down the road from Chiclayo called Pomalca's a little down that is 100% dedicated to sugar production. The town is surrounded by sugar cane. If you look out our back window there is just miles of sugar cane. It is actually really pretty and smells really good. There is a big factory so it almost always smells like sugar cane factory outside. It feels like one of the towns we went to in ecy. It pumps out this black ash that covers the whole town. Kinda crazy. I absolutely love it here. I missed the pueblos. I love being back in the small towns. It is nice only having to know 4 or 5 last names because everyone is from one of 5 families. Small towns in south america are so cool. 

Still don't know how senior boys sleep at night 

The whole town hasn't had water for a week so we have been showering with 3 liter water bottles that we buy every day. At first it was really annoying but I would say I've gotten used to it.

The wall in the room we sleep in is absolutely crawling with mold. I hate to be the guy that complains about the house to the secretaries but I figured sleeping in a room full of mold is not a good call. So we said something and they are gonna get it fixed soon. 

I got way stomach sick this week. My stomach swole up so bad I literally thought I was about to die. It was the single most painful thing that has ever happened to me. I kept throwing up the pills that help it so it took like 3 hours to get the swelling down. But then I was good the rest of the day

 

My companion is Elder Quintero. He's from Arizona but his parents are from Sinaloa. He's one of the single coolest elders in the mission. We were in the same district for 2 transfers so we were already good buddies before transfers. Should be a good time. 

We had two baptisms yesterday. Pretty good start to the transfer. 

Joseph Smith History: Man may deceive his fellow-men, deception may follow deception, and the children of the wicked one may have power to seduce the foolish and untaught, till naught but fiction feeds the many, and the fruit of falsehood carries in its current the giddy to the grave; but one touch with the finger of his love, yes, one ray of glory from the upper world, or one word from the mouth of the Savior, from the bosom of eternity, strikes it all into insignificance, and blots it forever from the mind

Link to see pictures. There is hardly any internet in this town so hopefully stuff goes through