This morning I read the General Conference talk by Elder Holland, where he spoke of Jesus saving us from falling "to our death" after sin. I was meditating about how that applies to me as a missionary. I got thinking and realized that we are the ones that grab the "falling" and give them desire to call upon Christ...and once they decide to receive him, Christ takes over and pulls these people up off the cliff side. We, as members of the Church, have this responsibility. We are to grab hold and help Christ. We need to help give the desire and then let Christ do the healing and the saving...then we have the responsibility to "hold hands" with these people and keep them away from the edge. We need to help them stay firm and steadfast.
After study, we headed to Chiclayo. As we were there in the Tottus, we ran into President and Hna Williams. It was nice to see them, and as a joke, we went down the animal food aisle and put a giant bag in our cart. President Williams asked us what the food was for and and we looked at him, and said, "For our cat." haha He looked at us with eyes wide open and asked, "You've got a cat?" We laughed and said, "No." and put the food back. They started laughing with us. :)
We bought some needed things. I got a new pair of shoes which cost only $6.00. I love them, but I have a bad tan line going...I guess I'll give it a couple weeks and maybe I can get that fixed.
We went home and ate lunch. We had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches! We found peanut butter in Tottus!! We had a great time eating our delicious lunch!
After lunch, we went to internet. I received a lot of uplifting emails from my mommy, which was nice. After emailing, we went home, read some letters and talked. Then I wrote some letters and pondered on some General Conference talks while my companion slept.
At night, we went out to teach, but all of our appointments fell through. Luckily we had Hna Bertha with us, and she helped us find some other people to visit. After visiting, we went to dinner.
Martes, 19 Mayo 2015
Today we did divisions. I went with Hna Bertha and Hna McGinnis when with Katia. (wife of Bishop Iman) I love Bertha so much. She was giving me tons of references and we visited several of them. One of the references was a woman named Luz. She is an inactive. She was really nice and when we talked with her, she said she felt good and asked that we come back another day to talk with her whole family. She also said that she would come to church on Sunday. :)
After teaching her, we went and visited her nephew. He recently lost his wife and when we talked about the Plan of Salvation, he felt peace. When it was time to leave, we asked him to offer the closing prayer. During his prayer he began to cry, and he asked God t help him do what he needed to do to see his wife again. It was a beautiful experience.
After that, we met up with Hna McGinnis and Katia to end the divisions. We went back to the room because my companion didn't feel well. Once she rested for a bit, we went back out to teach some more.
We visited Victoria (less active) and Anaximando (investigator). They are an older couple and I love visiting them.
Later, we visited the familia Espinoza. We taught them about the Ten Commandments. They loved it. We got laughing a lot with them.
Then we went to dinner and then home.
Miercoles, 20 de Mayo 2015
This morning we finished planning our class that we had to give at our district meeting at 11am. When we got to the chapel, all the missionaries in our district were waiting outside, because the door was locked and they were waiting for someone to come to open the doors. This brought back some bad memories...baptism day with no water. :)
As we were waiting, President and Hermana Williams pulled up in their car. They had an older couple with them. The older couple was the new missionary couple. It was fun to meet them and get to know them a little. They are from the States. He took a picture of our district before they left. The zone leaders gave us all coconut flavored bodoques.
We taught our class about contacts and references. It went well. After the meeting, we went to lunch and then home to study language.
After language study, we went to San Antonio to teach. We visited with a member named Noemi. We taught her about temples. As we walked out of her house, we ran into the Elders, who were wandering hopelessly, trying to figure out the division lines we set up in San Antonio. :)
After talking with them, we went and picked up Glenda. Glenda told us that she had a feeling to visit a kid named William. He is a member of the church, but hasn't been going for quite some time. We went and knocked on his door and he didn't answer at first, but then at the last minute, he opened it. He let us in and we talked with him. One thing lead to another, and we were talking with him about true repentance. He was so interested. The spirit was so strong as we talked about the promise that God makes, of forgetting our sins after we truly repent. He said that he was going to start repenting right away. We saw a beautiful change in his person when he decided to change.
Later, we visited the familia Ysique Garcia, with Maria's sister, Magdalena. We taught about prophets. Pedro kept trying to teach with us, but the things that he would share kept confusing Magdalena, so I had to try to keep Pedro from talking. :)
After that, we went home and had dinner.
Jueves, 21 Mayo 2015
Here in Pomalca, one of the businesses hasn't been paying their workers, so all the workers are on strike, and today was an intense day, so all the missionaries in Pomalca had to stay in their cuartos all morning. Our pensionista brought our lunch to us. President Williams called and let us know that we had to stay in our cuarto for the rest of the day. The conversation went like this...
Pres. Williams: "You need to stay in your room...wow, it sounds like I'm grounding you....haha...You're grounded."
Me: "We're grounded?"
Pres. Williams: "Yep. You are grounded, and tell Hna McGinnis that it's her fault." :)
So I am sure that was a first timer...to be "grounded" in the mission. haha So all day long, we just studied, talked, laughed and played chess.
Viernes, 22 Mayo 2015
This morning we woke up sick. We ended up being sick all day. By the night, I felt a little better, but Hna McGinnis was still in bad shape. We studied...talked....slept...studied...talked...nothing too thrilling happened.
Sabado, 23 Mayo 2015
My companion was still sick, so as she rested, I studied a lot. I found a cool talk by Elder Lynn G. Robbins called , "What manner of men ought ye to be?" I love this talk. It describes the differences and similarities of the "To Do" and the "To Be". It is really interesting.
We also asked random questions and then flipped open the scriptures for answers. It was so funny. We got laughing a lot. You should try it. haha For example, one of the questions we asked was, "Why am I sick?" and the scripture that I opened up to was in the Old Testament and was talking about killing and blood. haha Then I opened to another scripture in Jeremiah 32:17. which was a much sweeter response to the question. haha
As we were eating lunch in our cuarto, we heard little pebbles hitting our window. When we went over to the window, we saw the elders. They told us that they needed to talk to us, so we went downstairs to talk to them. Turns out that they got their cell phone stolen, so they needed to come and "steal" ours. So now, we are phoneless....what a deal.
The rest of the day, we rested and talked. The elders came over to our pension to eat lasagna with us. They let me know that I would be giving a talk in sacrament meeting tomorrow in church. Why does it always happen like that?
The elders also gave Hna McGinnis a blessing before they left. It was very special.
Domingo, 24 Mayo 2015
Well today at church, I felt like I was doing everything. First I led the hymns in sacrament meeting, then I gave a talk in sacrament meeting...then I led the music in Sunday School and then in Relief Society I led the music and gave the prayer. I'm sure everyone is sick of seeing and hearing from me.
After church, we visited some references, and taught a contact on the road. Then we went to lunch and headed to San Antonio to visit.
After helping some people to feel peace in their hearts, we headed to the church for some meetings. We ended up being at the church until 8pm, and since we don't have a cell phone anymore, we had to report our numbers to our district leaders from our pensionista's phone.
After the meeting, we hurried to dinner and reported our numbers. At 8:50pm, the zone leaders called to invite us to eat lunch with them tomorrow. We accepted and then headed home to plan and get ready for bed.
Today was a special day. I felt the spirit so strong. Hna McGinnis came to the conclusion that it was because me, elder Epperson and elder Brunis all spoke in sacrament meeting and that the spirit spoke through us. I thought the elders did so good today. They spoke with a lot of power. I was very spiritually uplifted. I learned a lot. I love Sundays that are super uplifting.
Empty Linen by Emily Harris
The linen which once held Him is empty
It lies there,
Fresh and white and clean.
The door stands opened.
The stone is rolled away,
And I can almost hear the angels singing His praises
Linen cannot hold Him.
Stone cannot hold Him.
The words echo through the empty limestone chamber,
"He is not here."
The linen which once held Him is now empty.
It lies there,
Fresh and white and clean.
And oh, hallelujah, it is empty.
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