WEEK 13: BAGUA GRANDE

January 3, 2019

We've been so busy this week. New Year's was way fun. The people here all make huge mannequin doll things that look like real people and then they burn them at midnight ahahahah.. I saw a lot of Donald Trumps, and literally everyone had a mannequin to burn. Our p-day was fun, we played volleyball for a little bit, but no one likes volleyball so we stopped after like 20 mins. We ate at this place called Correlitos again, and Elder Merrit and I bought a mega plate of meat that was so good. 

Everything really is good here, Elder Moran and I don't have a pensionista any more, ahahahahaha. Hermana Herlinda is the sweetest nicest grandma lady of all time. She's pretty sick because I think she's like 78 years old, so she had to stop cooking food for us. There are no other members even close to our apartment, so we don't have a pensionista, and we don't have a way to wash our clothes. So we bought about 10 bottles of yogurt, because the yogurt is like a drink here and it's soooooo good. We bought like 15 bags of cereal, and we just find a random stand on the street to buy our lunches, so we're living pretty good out here. We wash our clothes by hand now legit, and this life is so good. This is exactly what I wanted when I signed up for this job, experiences like this. It's really not bad, its pretty dope that we're out here foraging for food. This morning I tried to catch this lizard on the wall to eat for protein, but it got away. I love all of this, and it just gets better everyday. I love this work, and we should be baptizing this family of 4 this week because we found someone to watch their chickens while they drive into town to get baptized. Love you all.

January 4, 2019

Today was a really good day. We washed our shirts finally, and we washed our garments again in Hermana Herlindas washing machine because we really did a terrible job hand-washing everything. Bleach and a washing machine is the best way to wash everything. 

We confirmed tomorrow for one of the members of the family of 4, whose name is Miguel. He is 15 and is ready to be baptized, you can see his desire to be baptized in his actions and in the way he listens and asks questions. We're having a baptismal service for him tomorrow, it's my first baptism and I'm proud it's him. Elder Norman and I drove 30 minutes away in a moto to this remote town and taught a really good lesson, and Elder Wilson and Elder Moran gave the interviews to this family of 4. There's so much work to do, but I love it so much and I love the people here. Love you all, gn.

January 6, 2019

What up y'all, so much has happened in the last couple days. On Saturday I had my first baptism, finally.. We have been working really hard and last month all of our baptisms fell through. But this week Miguel Fernandez was so ready to be baptized. We are going to work with his mom and brothers in the future, but he was ready this week. Elder Moran baptized Hermano Miguel, and I confirmed him a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints today in Spanish. That was the biggest miracle of  the day, the Lord literally gave me the gift of tongues in my blessing to Hermano Miguel. I knew all of the right words that the Spirit was telling me to say, and it was so good. After Miguel was baptized, he bore his testimony in the little chapel that we have. He bore the most simple and strongest testimony that I've ever heard. That was a great moment to see the work of God on one person. We're working to see this happen in so many more people, but it was so good to see that on Saturday. I love this work so much. I love you all so much.