One of the best weeks of my mission for sure. On thursday Jhon and Francesca got married and baptized. It was probably one of the best days of my entire life. It was so incredible. There were so many obstacles but they ended up doing it. It meant a ton to me to be apart of it. The main reason I came on the mission was to help families find the joy of the restored gospel. I have been blessed with such a beautiful family and have always wanted to find families to help bring to the light of the gospel. It has always been my goal to baptize a husband and wife together. When I got to Perú I was pretty discouraged when I realized that that almost never happens here because it is very rare to meet a married couple and extremely hard to get people married. It has still been one of my main goals and one of the last mission goals that I still hadn't acheived. At 22 months in the mission I was finally able to he apart of it and it had been a life changing moment to see how the gospel truely changes lives if we let it. What a special moment.
I think what made it such a cool experience was how Perú it was. Every single thing about it was textbook Perú. Satan was working really hard to try to get them to not take this step. The day before we got a call from Jhon and he was crying and saying how he had changed his mind and no longer wanted to because he was scared. We talked to him for a bit and shared a few scriptures and stuff. Then the call ended. So we had no idea what was going on. All day we were on edge and had no idea what was going on. The ward was coordinating to bring food and stuff for the baptism and we still weren't even sure if the wedding or baptism were going to happen. We passed by at 8:45 pm that night and talked to him. He said how he was in Chiclayo working and he felt like he didn't want to do it anymore and then his phone died on him so he didn't have a phone the whole day and just had time to think. So he said a prayer and asked God what to do and received the answer that he needed to get married and baptized. So cool.
The next day in the morning we had the wedding at 11 am. We showed up to their house at 10:30 and they still weren't ready and we had a 30 min drive to get there and still had to go pick up a paper from another municipality (that we weren't even sure would be ready or no). It was so stressfull. We hurried them up and then 7 people hopped in their tiny little car and went to get the paper. Somehow out of some miracle the paper was ready. That paper being ready was the only non perú moment of the whole process. We got to the other municipality and they got married. Elder Borges and I were the whitnesses. It was awesome. Such a happy moment.
That evening was their baptism. It was supposed to start at 7:00 but nobody showed up until about 8:30 (par for the course). It was such a beautiful baptism. I baptized Jhon and Elder Borges baptized Francesca. While Francesca was being confirmed a dog came into the chapell and jumped up on her. The bishop was confirming her and we were in the circle. In the middle of the confirmation, with my hands on her head I kicked the snot out of the dog and it whined left. Don't think I will forget that one.
Jhons testimony after the baptism was super cool. He told a story that we hadn't heard before. He shared how 3 days before we knocked his door he had prayed to God for the first time in years asking him to send him a sign and a way to change his life and grow closer to him and help his family. We knocked his door 3 days later. This truely is the work of almighty God and we are instruments in his hands. They used to refer to each other as gorda and gordo (fattie (that is normal here)) but now they refer to each other as husband and wife. How wholesome.
The Lords timing is perfect. I was kinda bummed to leave Chachapoyas (my last area). But now looking back it makes perfect sense why. Jhon and Francesca were the very first people I met here in Ferreñafe. The very first house I entered. It makes perfect sense to me now why the Lord needed me specifically here in Ferreñafe and why I am here in this mission. I see reasons every single day as to why I was called to this mission. With this couple it feels like I was specifically sent for them and they were specifically waiting for me and my companion. So cool.
A cat got ran over right in front of the church. There was another cat there and it started crying. It was kinda traumatizing.
I am thankful for the guidance of the Holy Ghost. One of the greatest blessings I will take from my mission is learning how to recognize the impressions I receive from Him. As we live santified lives he truly guides us. I have a strong testimony of the importance of being virtuous, keeping the comandments, obeying mission rules, repenting daily, and seeking the guidance of the spirit. When we do that he will take the wheel. There are so many times every week that I feel like he has complete control of what we do as missionaries. It is the coolest feeling every time.
I love these beautiful people. This is a special place 🇵🇪🇵🇪🇵🇪🇵🇪🇵🇪🇵🇪
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