Proselyting in Peru: November 9, 2015

Hello family!

Well this week has been pretty good but we weren’t able to work too long in our sector because we had a stake conference and zone meeting in Sicuani. But to answer your question, it’s not so much that our area is small, because we are in charge of an entire city and a bunch of small surrounding towns; it’s more of that the church is a lot newer here and the church doesn’t grow like it does in the states. That’s one of the biggest reasons that they don’t split it into 2 small branches because it will suffer more than it will grow so they keep it like it is now so that it can stay stronger.

You know, I think I’ll just give my homecoming talk in completely Spanish, though. XD It’s going to feel weird trying to give a talk in English and especially in front of so many people. Here in Peru, I’ve never given a talk in front of more than about 110 people so in our ward that’s a lot bigger and older; I’m gonna feel weird. Also, I’m glad to know that I’m a full tithe payer even though I’m not there, or make any money. XD At least I’m still being obedient to that.

But that doesn’t really surprise me that people have gotten upset about the policy that the church made. The thing that I think is funny is that I bet you that the majority of the people who are mad about the change aren’t even members of the church so I don’t really know why they would even care if they don’t share our beliefs. And as for those that are members that don’t agree, well, they just have a weak testimony then. I don’t remember if I told you this but when I had about 8-10 months in the mission an elder who was in my group in the MTC wrote a member saying that he was home because he didn’t agree with some of the teachings of the church and that he couldn’t preach something he didn’t believe. I don’t know what things he had trouble believing, but as for me, I haven’t found anything. I feel like even if it came to a point where I go inactive because of my decisions, that I would ever say that this church isn’t true. It’s sad to see people who lose their testimonies but I guess all we can do is have hope and faith that someday they will be able to listen to it again and regain their testimony in the simple truths of the church.

Well, the weather here doesn’t really change that much; it’s just like it gets windy and dry or rainy. Right now it’s just rainy and cold whenever it’s raining. When the sun’s out, it heats everything up super fast. It’s pretty crazy, though, today because I just figured out that in my last week on the Thursday, our zone is traveling to Cusco for a Christmas dinner with the president and other zones of Cusco. We figured that it’s very possible that while I’m there I might just bring all my stuff with me and just stay there until I end to not have to waste a bunch of time and money traveling back to my sector to only be there for about a day and then go back to Cusco on Sunday. But we'll see what happens with that. I just really hope that it snows when I get home. I’ll at least know that there will be a ton of snow in Rexburg (hopefully).

But I haven’t heard from my bud yet where he is going to be living. I also don’t have his email with me right now but I think most important is signing up for classes.

Also, for your questions, something new I learned about myself this week is that I need to work out more here. When we made the biscochos, I got tired super fast. It’s just hard to work out here with the altitude and the cold. Also, I can’t gain weight so that also doesn’t help. My testimony this week has grown in the work with less active members. That’s something we are focusing on right now in the mission and the president has given us some pretty powerful promises if we use half our time in the day to find less actives, talk to them about their baptisms, and then ask them for a reference. I think like I wrote before that we are trying to help them remember the simple things they felt when they were baptized. After all, this is a simple gospel, so simple that a child could understand it. And so I think that’s actually something everyone should do is remember and focus on the simple feelings they have when studying the gospel and usually those will be the most powerful building blocks in our testimonies. The funniest thing that happened this week with me and my comp wasn’t really anything big but while we were making the biscochos we were just flinging the dough everywhere because you have to mix it fast and hard because you have to make the egg whites rise and so by the time we were done, we had a ton of batter on us. Something this week that made me say hmmm was while I was listening to a talk from our president and he was saying that when people disagree with the rules or the teachings of the prophets, it doesn’t mean that they are bad people but it just means that they aren’t obedient and if we aren’t going to be obedient to the commandments, then we aren’t showing our love to the Lord who says if you love me then keep my commandments. Food for thought.

But that’s about it for me this week but I love you guys and I’m glad to hear that all is going well back home!

Elder Halverson

Mixing biscochos