Mission and Adventures in Peru: Misión Vida (Mission Life)

Hola Familia,

How are you all doing this wonderful day? Wow the weeks are just flying by and I can’t believe that my mission is going by so fast. It really scares me and makes me think about what I am doing to make a difference here in Peru. This week has been good, it was kind of a slow week but we were able to get a lot done and help a bunch of people out.

This past week we got new goals and different things to work on. In this area we are working to strengthen the leaders of the branch and to make everyone stronger. So we have focused this week on teaching the leaders and finding old converts (Spanish version) that are not coming to Church. We have been able to work really well with the family of the Elder Quorum (Spanish version) President because he is struggling to do what he needs to do for the quorum. It has been good to get to know that family more and to figure out what their needs and what is going to help them become better members.

Then we have been working hard to have more activities. This week we almost had a activity every single night ranging from: sport night, to watching a movie, to the Relief Society (Spanish version) going to eat and me making more pie for them ha ha. It has really been cool to see the progress from them and how the activities can help them. For members in Peru, they really don’t know the importance and how things work in the church. Definitely here in the valley they are all really new members and nobody has every had a lot experience in the church so hopefully we can teach them how to have correct traditions and how to be a good members of the church.

By relearning the basics (Spanish version) of the church I have taught myself how to be a better member. I hope that the Church is one of the top things that come in our lives. I just want to have you all try to become the best members and try and do all the things that you need to do to become closer to God.

This week we have been able to work with a lot of members and we had a lesson with a recent convert the other day. After meeting with her it really made me think about my life. So she was baptized last year and barely goes to church. We have worked with her but she is in a really bad economic state. She cannot pay off her debts with the store that she buys food so now they wont sell her food. She can’t pay to buy her daughter’s notebooks and other materials for school. Then on top of it for her to attend church she has to pay for two different buses because she lives so far away. Then she can’t work because she has really bad asthma and she works in the fields. It is just sad and really made me think of how blessed we are to have had everything that we needed. We have the church so close and we take it for granted so much and it is sad. I am going to be more grateful for everything that I have more because of the things that I have seen.

This weekend was the anniversary of Aplao and the other cities in the valley. So it was like a three-day party in Aplao since Friday and just full parties every single night and it has been crazy. Yesterday on Sunday they had a parade from two in the afternoon to like ten at night it was crazy. And so there was literally nobody at home so we went and found one member and made pizza because there was nobody to find. I am grateful that most things in the States happened on Saturday not on Sunday.