Mission and Adventures in Peru: Baptism

Hola Familia,

Hermana Basilia

This week we had the amazing opportunity to be able to baptise (Spanish version) Hermana Basilia. It was amazing, after working with her for over three months she finally was able to make the decision to be baptized and it was so incredible. She had almost all her children come from Lima, Spain, Ilo and other parts of Peru to watch this step that she took in her life. She really is great and it was such a great experience to help her. The baptism was awesome and overall everyone had a good time. It was great.

My new companion’s name is Elder Cluff, he is 19 years old and has just under a year left in his mission. He is from Spanish Fork, Utah. We get along awesomely, talking about the mountains and all the stuff that we both love. Overall this week has been great. We are going to have a ton of fun and I am so excited.

This week we went to Arequipa for the monthly Zone Leadership and Sister Leader Conference of the mission. It was so awesome. One thing that I really liked learning was that if we are not progressing then we are going down hill. There are only two ways up or down. We were able to learn a lot from all the ideas and the help that we got from the conference. So while we were there we stayed in a shut down area in the old room. It was like a bad movie. In the room the beds were on the floor; the room was a mess and there was left over food and only two blankets. Arequipa is freezing at night, but we toughed it out and had a great night there. It was really cold but it was really fun ha ha. After the conference we went to Hunter and I went and randomly knocked on the door of the family that I was teaching with Elder Vargas when I got transferred. They got baptized the week after I left and now her son is passing the sacrament (Spanish version) and she is in the Relief Society Presidency (Spanish version). It is awesome.

Testimony (Spanish version) booster this week:

On Friday we went and helped a lady clean some of her house because she has really bad arthritis and cannot clean or move her hands that well. So we got done cleaning and she asked me to give her a blessing (Spanish version). We gave her a blessing and right after we said Amen, she started crying and said that she did not have any more pain and that she could really move her hands. Wow, it was incredible to see that and to have that experience.

We had to remember that God (Spanish version) is very witty with the stuff that he does, because then we had to go and talk with some people that didn’t have a testimony. I could and can testify of the power of the priesthood (Spanish version) and the Book of Mormon (Spanish version) and everything. It was incredible and so awesome to be able to have that kind of experience.

Overall this week has been awesome and the Zone is doing great and I am so glad to be able to be here on the mission and see all the amazing blessings that we see and all the miracles (Spanish version) that we see today and everyday. I just love this work and so grateful to be here.

Les Amo,

Elder Cooley

Questions:

1. Favorite scripture?

Mosiah 18:8 (Spanish version)