This week was great. That's awesome about the apple picking and camping, I really miss camping with our ward. So on Tuesday
we went to the temple!!! I missed the temple so
much. I think I learned more in the Spanish session than I did in English in Chicago. I love the temple so much. I wish you and Dad could
have been there.
I
bought a new hardcover King James version Bible that was dirt cheap
like 1 US Dollar, and I`m so excited to just study it and mark it up. Also
I bought some Bibles for some of our recent converts and Investigators
who don`t have a Bible. And I bought these really cool weaved Peruvian
scripture cases with Llamas and cool Peruvian patterns on them I`ll send
you a picture next week.
So for conference we get it a week late
because there are elections that Sunday and we can`t have any sort of meeting because in Lima you don`t
have the option not to vote, so on Sunday all the people in Lima, minus the missionaries, have to be in one spot to vote. So we probably won`t be doing anything Sunday except for studying like the whole day.
Jesus
Pachas is progressing really well. He forgot to tell us that he was the
pastor at the church that he used to attend that`s really close to his
house, so they`ve been without a pastor for a few weeks. He knows that
Joseph Smith was a prophet but he`s still praying about Thomas S. Monson
and he`s hoping that when he hears him in conference he`ll get an
answer. He`s such a good investigator. We visit him every day to read
the Book of Mormon to him and to teach him something, and it`s really
cool because he studied the Bible his whole life and he knows it really
well, so
when we teach him something he already knows all the scriptures in the
Bible that support it and he`ll tell us how that makes a lot of sense
because of some scriptures that we hadn`t ever come across but totally
support what we just taught. At the end of every lesson we sing Battle
Hymn of the Republic because that`s his favorite hymn in the world and
even though he can`t read the words he knows the chorus and when he
sings it he`s sooo happy. That`s probably my new favorite thing to do;
sing Battle Hymn of the Republic with Jesus Pachas.
Yesterday
there was a baptism for the other ward that shares a building with us,
and we brought our investigator Jackie, the cousin of the Gonzalez
family, and it was a really good experience for her. There were so many
people that came to the
baptism and she said she could tell that when people are baptized in
our church that there`s a lot of support from the members. Also they
showed Mormon Messages on a TV before the baptism started and while we
were waiting for people to change, she really liked them and she
asked to borrow our Mormon messages for a couple days to watch them all
with her family. After the baptism we taught her at the Gonzalez
family`s house and she said that she knows that she needs to be baptized
but she`s afraid that she`ll go inactive and that would be worse than
if she hadn`t ever been baptized. We explained receiving the Holy Ghost and what that means, and how she shouldn`t be afraid that she`ll
go inactive after her baptism because she`ll have the companionship of
the Holy Ghost, and if she honestly does her part and tries to keep the
companionship of the Holy Ghost in her life she doesn`t need to worry
about giving in to temptation because God will protect
her and the Holy Ghost will guide her in her decisions. It was a really
good lesson.
We
know for sure that she and Jesus are getting baptized this month. With
Jesus at first we tried to rush him to baptism because he was so ready
in the first lesson, but really what he needs is answers to his prayers
and a firm testimony of the things we are teaching him, and then
baptism. I made a goal early in my mission, around the time I found out
that there are a ton of people that have already been baptized in Caja
de Agua, but really don`t know anything about our church or don`t have a
testimony of anything. The goal I made was that the people that I
baptize on my mission have a real testimony of Jesus Christ and the Book
of Mormon, so that they don`t go inactive once I change areas. I
realize that they have their agency, but I`m not going to baptize just
to baptize. I`m really excited for both of them and I know that they are receiving answers to their prayers, and that they`ll receive a ton of
support from the members of our ward.
This week was great I love you guys. have a great week!
Elder Jones
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