Elder Jones week 76

Hey guys! I had such a great week! On Saturday there was a multi ward talent show. It was a huge success. We were afraid that no one was going to come, but about 150 people came! many of them were investigators. The missionaries did a sketch on how it is better to find people to teach through members than by our own efforts. It turned out really well. I realized that on the mission, one can really develop acting skills, because every morning we do practices where we pretend to be one of our investigators and try to understand how he or she would act in certain situations. 

On Sunday morning right after ward council and right before church started we were a little bit discouraged because we were calling our investigators that told us that they were going to come to church and none of them were answering. So we decided to start asking people that always come to church if they are actually members of the church, with the hopes of finding someone that hasn´t been baptized yet. We found 2 people that I definitely always thought were members. One of them, Paulino, is the happiest old man I have ever met, and he told us that we could visit him this week. Also 3 different members out of the blue brought friends to church, and we have appointments with them this week. 

On Friday we had multizone conference from 9am to 6pm, but it honestly didn´t feel that long. I learn a lot from President Larson each time I´m in a meeting with him. The zone seems more excited to go out and work hard after the multi zone conference. Afterwards I went on a companionship exchange with Elder Hulet, the personal secretary of the president. We found someone that has listened to the missionaries many times in her life, and has gone to church several times when she was living in another part of Lima, but she was never willing to accept "the book of John Esmith" (the Book of Mormon). But she wanted us to visit her because she has a family now and she is going through some problems and she believes that our message can help her and her family. Her husband is in the Peruvian air force, and he comes back December 6th. They´ve been married for 5 years, so that´s one hurdle less. We feel like they can progress. 

This week we had to accompany the mission technician to an apartment in the zone that didn´t have light or hot water, and while we were waiting in a corner to meet him I saw one of my old investigators from Rímac!! It was Ricardo. He attended church as a little kid and his parents are members, but they went inactive before he got baptized. Now he´s 18 and living in our sector in Magdalena and he wants us to visit him again. We have an appointment on Saturday. I take this as my second chance to teach and baptize Ricardo because it has to be for some purpose that he moved to Magdalena. Out of all the people in Lima, it can´t be a coincidence. I hope you guys have a great week! thank you for your emails and I promise I´ll let you know when I´m coming home. Love you guys!