Hello family!
Well this week was a little slow.
First off on Tuesday, we went to this really cool lake with the zone and the
president for a zone conference. I can’t remember the name of the lake but
apparently it’s between Espinar and Sicuani and I hear that it is even higher
than Lake Titicaca but not nearly as big. I think what makes Lake Titicaca so
special is the fact that it is the highest navigable lake in the world or
something like that. Anyway, after that, the day after there was a strike going
on in Espinar and the members were telling us that it could get pretty
dangerous so just to be safe. Then the next day, me and another elder were sick
so we weren’t able to go out that day either. But some cools things still happened.
2 of the 3 people we baptized this last week were able to go to the temple in Lima
with all the youth only a few days after their baptism. They got super lucky
because the ward here can only go to the temple once a year. Then yesterday for
church, it was fast and testimony meeting and we heard from almost everyone who
went to the temple. Also, along with this family that we are teaching, we were
just able to teach the oldest brother and his wife who we had never really
talked to before and they committed to baptism in the first lesson. Sadly, they
are not married yet so we have to work with that before we can put a date with
them. But we baptized the 3 kids now and not the parents because the mom of the
family is ready to be baptized but she wants to be baptized with her husband
who we have never talked to before because he works in the mine and is only at
his house for less than a week every 15 days so it has been hard to be able to
coordinate a lesson with him so far. Also, the only other person of the family
we are working with is one of the daughters (Sandra) who is about 22 and has a
little daughter. The problem with her is that she is having a hard time leaving
behind her party life and we kinda lost contact with her for a few weeks but
now we are back to teaching her often again and we want to be able to put a baptismal
date for her for this month. This whole family is a reference of a member,
though. They are the cousins of a returned missionary here. They have been
teaching them for about 2 months before I got here but they were able to
progress pretty fast.
I’m not entirely sure why the water
is so green here but there isn’t really a water filtration plant here. Everyone
boils the water before they can drink it and as missionaries, we all have
special filtration bottles that can get out most things. Also, as for the baptism
itself, it went really well. We didn’t really have any problems this week
besides the water not heating up all the way and only being luke warm, but that’s
not really a big deal. But we had pretty good support from the ward; mainly
from one family who are super strong members here named the Pezo family and our
bishop.
Also I don’t think I was chosen to
doing a training on stress because I’m laid back. I think the subjects were
actually randomly given. But it went smoothly. I basically just talked for
about 5 minutes on what stress is and why we had it and also on tools we can
use to be able to get rid of it. Then for the rest of my time, we just did an
exercise to relieve stress. But the zone conference we had was really good and
fun. I only just destroyed a toilet because I was still having stomach problems
from when we went to Cusco. (For Kendall - "Who did this?!") But hey,
whatever happened to the Kia? Will I not be using that car when I get back? Hey,
I’m also going to read the Book of Mormon all the way through before I go home,
too (I just restarted reading it this last week) but I’m doing mine in Spanish
so ha >:D
Now for your questions: First off, I
think my testimony has grown this week a lot in family history and the
importance of temples. That was actually something we talked a lot about
yesterday in church and a part in my patriarchal blessing talks about that too
and how temple work will be included in my responsibilities in my life. I’m
also super grateful that I was able to go to the temple so often when I was at
home and that we have one so close to our house. I really miss the temple
here... -_- As for something new that I tried was a type of cracker that
some of the youth brought from Lima. I don’t remember what it’s called but when
you eat it, your mouth feels like the Sahara Desert. Just one cracker is more
dry than the 7 saltine challenge.
For the most interesting person I
met was this drunk guy that was talking to me. He would only talk to me in
whispers and had his face right up in mine. He first asked me for 20 soles and I
told him I had no money. Then he asked me for 1 sol and I told him again that I
had nothing. He then just whispered to me "I’m so hungry" and then
just walked away. It was really weird. Another drunk was talking to my comp and
was explaining to him in such a weird/animated way of how he got beat up and
broke his nose. It was pretty dang funny. I think that question 4 kinda goes
with question 1 in this case.
But as for my biggest trial this
week, it would probably be trying to stay obedient here. Recently, I haven’t
been getting much support from 2 of the missionaries here in my district and it’s
been hard to try my hardest this week. Especially with the strike and getting
sick but hopefully tonight in our district meeting I will be able to
re-motivate the elders here. Being alone takes its toll after a while. But I’m
still going and I can only get better.
But I’m glad to hear all is well
back home and I love you all!
Elder Halverson
Zone conference with the president
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