Week 102

Hey guys! We had a great week!! Juan Carlos and Karen got MARRIED!!! Woo. I´ll send pictures as soon as my companion sends them to me. We didn´t go to the wedding this time because it was outside the limits of the mission, but they did invite us to their house afterwards to eat a peice of cake. As a result we met his brother Fernando, who went to church yesterday with his whole family!! We talked to them yesterday and they also want to get married. There is another community wedding on June 24th and they are going to get everything ready to be married on that day. Yesterday at church Juan Carlos and Karen looked so different. They were holding hands for the first two hours of church, which is something I´ve never seen them do. They just radiated happiness. Yesterday Juan Carlos was able to bear powerful testimony to his brother that marriage is something that comes from God and he talked about how when we do what god expects of us he blesses us immediately. When I saw them with Lenning at church yesterday the only thought that went throught my head was, "this is why I came to Perú". It made everything worth it. They are ready for their baptism on saturday. On tuesday they will have their interview. On thursday President Larson accompanied us in the afternoon and it was a great time. We visited Beatriz who is someone we found this week as we accompanied the seminary teachers to look for less active young men and women. Beatriz is the grandma of a less active young man who is about to turn 18. We didn´t know she was a member when we visited her but when we found out we invited her to church and she accepted. She couldn´t read because she didn´t have glasses, so president Larson gave her his glasses. We also visited Jaime, the brother of Karen, who is really excited about getting married, his wife wasn´t that excited about listening to us, but president Larson bore powerful testimony of the temple and eternal families, and andrea, Jaime´s wife, began to be very sincere with us and she broke into tears. She said, "I will do anything to be with my children forever." They have 5 children. Elder Alfaro and I have felt a lot of Joy this week as we have been focusing on families. There isn´t much point in doing missionary work if the end isn´t the temple. I admit that it´s something I already knew before this week, but as we continually work with families my testimony and understanding of it increases. I´m looking forward to another great week and I hope you guys have a great week as well!

Elder Jones