WEEK 14: BAGUA GRANDE

January 8, 2019

Hey fam, we started going to this place every p-day called El Refugio, and it's an ice cream place. Elder Wilson and Elder Norman, the zone leaders, and Elder Moran and I go to this place every p-day. I brought Uno, and we got these drinks that are literally like dole whipped pina ice cream things. Except these are natural because they cut up a real pineapple and blend it up, and its way good. So we do that every p-day, and we play Uno for a couple hours and just chill. 

Today we contacted about 100 people and we found a bunch of really good families to teach. We always look for families because we want to baptise families into the branch here. The problem is that no one here is married, so they have to get married before they can get baptized. Yo I'm going to bed love you all.

January 9, 2018

Today was a super good day, we contacted this member and we taught her non-member cousin the first lesson, and she was a golden investigator. She is 20, has a little son, and is baptized in the catholic church, like every other person here. We were talking about families about 2 minutes into the lesson and she was already crying, which is a really good sign.. The Spirit was so strong in this lesson, and she was understanding all of the points, and the lesson was way good. I felt the Spirit like crazy in this lesson. I felt like she was literally prepared for that moment for us. It'll be good to see what happens with her, but we have high hopes. We gave the family Rubio a date for this Saturday to be baptized and they're ready, but they just need to make the decision. So we're praying for them. 

Everything's so good, we've been eating off the streets, breakfast costs about 2 sols, and I got this banana milk shake thing with cinnamon that was hot, and it was dang good. I love being here, and tomorrow we have service planned with our branch president, we're going to help him in his rice field tomorrow, so love you all gn.

January 10, 2019

Today we helped Presidente Hermitanio with his rice field for service. He has a huuuuuuuge rice field that he works in all by himself, so we pulled weeds out of his field. The people use step farming, so they can pool up all of the water for the rice. It was way sick to see, and so yeah we did that. All four of us elders in Bagua Grande fit in one moto taxi on the way to President's field, which was about 20 minutes away. The mototaxi was going about 3 miles an hour because it could barely carry us, and we almost stalled out on this hill, but it was sick. I wore jeans for the first time in 800 years today and it was so nice. I love this work, we found a couple new people today, and it was a good day. Tomorrow we have a multi-zone conference, all is good, and love you all.

January 12, 2018

The zone conference was really good, and our President de Mission Chiclayo is amazing. Presidente Balderrama is so good, I guess at one point he was a member of the 70, so that's cool. He's way powerful spiritually ahahaha. I am really growing to love Elder Moran for real. He's 23 years old, his family lives in Lima, and he worked for a loooooong time to be able to pay for his mission. He's funny with a ton of different things, like if we're at a restaurant for lunch, and the drinks aren't perfectly cold, then he's so mad ahahhhahaha.. I think he's physically unable to drink water when he eats, he always has to have juice or cebada or some kind of drink that's not water. When he's like yo what drink do you want, and I say yo I'm good with water, he looks at me in disgust ahahhahhaa. But he's really a good missionary, he loves to work hard, and he speaks in a way that the people can understand. I've learned so much from Elder Moran in this past change, and I am going to learn a lot more. We still are eating off the street, and it's awesome. Bread costs like 2 sols for 8 pieces and we bought some off of some kids in the street this morning ahahahah. Love you all gn.

January 13, 2019

Today was a good Sunday, we had 10 investigators at church today, so that was good. We have a lot of people at church, but honestly it's really hard to baptize people, or to really convert them. There are always obstacles with every investigator we have. We had a date yesterday for the Rubio family, but their Grandma ate some bad pork and she was hospitalized, so they weren't baptized. We found a golden investigator that could be baptized in 2 Sundays, because thats the minimum asistencias that investigators need, and today was here first Sunday, and she just barely found a job that works on Sunday mornings. We had a really good family with a date for the 19th of January but their brother got in a big crash and was in the hospital. And this other guy who was perfect to be baptized is moving into another city ahahahahaha. The list keeps going, and we've been working you know, its just hard to help people change their lives too. Sometimes it's like, dang why is this so hard, the gospel blesses people, why can't they see this? But I always remember that talk from Elder Holland, where he teaches that salvation is not a cheap experience. It's hard, but I wouldn't want to do anything else. Love you all, and I'm praying for y'all fam.