Proselyting in Peru: September 7, 2015

Hello Family!

Well, first off, I’ve gotten a lot better now so don’t worry. I talked to the zone leaders for some pills I could take and now I’m not having any problems. However, I would like to take that bomb pill thing when I get home just to make sure. I don’t think they give that to you in the mission when you end but I’m not sure.

Anyway, this week has been a lot better than my previous few weeks this change. We worked like crazy this week and got some pretty good results out of it. We were able to get 9 new investigators just between me and my companion. We also have 2 new people with baptismal dates. I don’t remember if I told you this last week but we have a date with the dad and mom from the Yuca family (the family we have been working with whose kids got baptized). Also we have a date with the one daughter who hasn’t gotten baptized for the end of this month. We also put a date with an older lady whose kids are all older and she has been coming constantly for a few months. The problem was that she wasn’t married to her husband but he has left the family and has another family in another little town so they don’t have any relations now. Her date is also for the end of the month so that’s going to be pretty exciting. Also it was pretty crazy because we got a new investigator this week who is also a middle aged lady named Juanna and she was telling us how her ex-husband would beat her all the time and started showing us some scars on her arms and face from the beatings. The guy even broke her wrist and she had to get nails put in to fix it. Anyway, she separated from him a few years ago but it’s just crazy the things I hear and see here sometimes. One of the biggest problems is that most of the men don’t have any respect for their wives or other women. Here you could even say that it’s worse because of all the mines around here.

Last night we had to travel to Sicuani for a zone meeting. However to save on travel money we are going to stay here till Wednesday for the interviews we have with the mission president. Then on Thursday our day is completely filled, and I’m not joking, with appointments for every hour except for like 2 hours in the morning so we are also going to be working our butts off when we get back.

Also speaking of sweets, I have begun making a list of American foods I want to eat when I get back so I don’t forget. But you should definitely send me some of this [Dad’s] delicious fudge. I think that’s the only medicine I need. Currently I am buying a box of chocolate bars at the beginning of the month to try and put on some weight but I end up eating them all in the first week.

But I’m glad to hear that your friend finally got baptized. I think I’m going to start working on my friends a lot more when I get home. Especially Ryan cuz I feel like he will probably be more likely to listen to me more than some of my other friends. But it’s been crazy how much I have realized how important this work is. I think especially now more than ever I am getting more desires to work now that I don’t have much time left but I feel like everything just makes so much sense and it’s just logical to try it out. Especially because now I can really testify of how real it is. This was something that we kinda touched on in the zone meeting, our purpose. A few of us in the zone are about to end so it was good to hear that we got to really live obediently now more than ever and make sure we leave it all on the court. Anyway I feel like I’m ranting about this but I really am little by little coming to love the work.

But I’m glad to hear all’s well at home and I hope everything continues to go well. Until next week!

Elder Halverson