{(Peru Chiclayo Mission)}: Week 70: "When one dies, that means... more food."

Lunes, 3 Agosto 2015
We went searching for an ATM today to take out money for the payment of our pension and our cuarto, but NOT one of the machines we went to worked...so that made the situation complicated.
During internet, it was crazy. There were so many kids screaming because they were playing some killing game on all the computers.
For lunch, we made nachos. Arsenia and Antonio loved it. They still can't believe that the cheese really is cheese. And they LOVED the jalapenos! haha They are so cute.

Arsenia and Hna Dodson
making Nachos!

NACHOS!

After P-Day was over, we went out teaching. All of our plans fell threw, so we stopped by a member's house. She is usually "too busy" to let us in, but before we knocked, we told one another that we were going to get in this time. We knocked, and she opened the door and said, "Come in." I can't imagine what the amazement that was on our faces looked like! We had a good conversation with her. She is less active and she always has excuses to not go to church...
Later we went to a FHE that was planned for a less active family, but the family didn't come. The Bishop did a lesson about being self reliant. It was good.
Then we went home and ate dinner with Antonio, and all he could talk about was the nachos. :)

Martes, 4 Agosto 2015 FELIZ CUMPLEANOS HNA MCGINNIS!!
Today, we had our leadership training meeting. The sister leaders had their meeting at 8am with Hna Williams, and at 9am, all the zone leaders and sister leaders had a meeting. It was an awesome meeting. President Williams is the mission president here because I need him. He did so amazing. My favorite part had to be the last thing of the meeting...Testimonies from those that are going home. Four elders and 1 hermana (that are leaders) are going home, so they bore strong spirit piercing testimonies. The most touching for me was from Elder Otivo. The way he speaks...I couldn't not look and just listen intently...and of course the testimony from Elder Epperson. He answered my prayers through his testimony. He speaks with so much charity and power. The meeting ended on a good spiritual high.

Sister leaders with Hna Williams

For lunch, we got burritos. :) It was good. This week for our count down, it was suppose to be "Red and White" week, but we don't have enough of these colors....but so far, we have eaten a version of Mexican food everyday...so let's see if we can keep that up. haha
This afternoon while teaching, we had some amazing experiences. First was when we visited Martha Garcia. She told us that she hasn't received her answer, but she had some questions, so we clarified everything. At the end, we invited her to baptism. She accepted! Next time we visit her, we will set a date. Second, we visited Jose Luis. Powerful, spirit filled lesson! After explaining the Apostasy and the Restoration, he looked at us and told us that he knows that the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the only true church. We also invited him to get baptized. He accepted and we will set a date with him at our next visit.
We saw and felt the spirit work through us today. It was a good day. At dinner, Antonio told us that for lunch they ate nachos again. They still love it. They are so cute. We are going to try and make tacos with them one P-Day. haha We are trying to get them addicted to American food. haha We will see how it goes. :)

Miercoles, 5 Agosto 2015
Before lunch, we headed to Las Delicias to do intercambios with the sisters there. Well, Hna Lofgran stayed in Las Delicias with Hna Nelson and Hna Monson and I headed back to Villareal with Hna Clegg. The sisters are in a trio. Hna Clegg is from Utah, and she is so cool.
Today, we saw some crazy stuff happen. First...not very many people were in their homes, but as we were searching for someone to teach, we saw an old blind man who was about to trip over a branch. We decided to help him. When we held out our hands to him, he grabbed them super tight and then he started to squat down. We looked at each other, super confused, and then we told him that he needed to keep walking. He stood up again and walked to the sidewalk and wouldn't let go of our hands. He finally let go and left.
After that, we went to teach Angel and Martha. We taught the Restoration. Angel had some awesome questions. He was really into it all. In the end, he understood it all and he had a different light about him. He then tells us that usually after he receives visits from most religions, that he tells them that he is done with their visits, but he invited us to come back. He said, "This is a different message and I want to know more about the rest of what you teach." We told him that he needs to pray to receive his answer, to know if Joseph Smith was a prophet. He said that he would. It was a super long lesson, but in the end, he didn't have any doubts. He received clarity. The spirit was there and it definitely manifested the truth to all of us.
In the night, we had a meeting with our ward mission leader. Then we went to dinner.
P.S. While picking up Hna Clegg from Las Delicias, we ran into Cecilia (pensionista)

Jueves, 6 Agosto 2015 FELIZ 16 MESES!
As we were out searching for people to teach, a woman who was decked out in too much make-up asked us where we were from. We told her that we were from the States and then we invited her to go to church on Sunday. She declined our invitation and said goodbye. She touched my forehead with her pointer finger, said goodbye and walked away. :) Hna Clegg was laughing a lot and we joked about it up until we had to head back to Las Delicias. We ran into Cecilia again, but this time she had something for me. She gave me banana bread. I love her.
Hna Lofgran and I went home and then went to lunch. We ended up staying in the cuarto after, because my foot started hurting me yesterday, so I needed to rest it. We did some studies. It was a good time to get to know each other better.
Later in the night, we went to dinner and we talked with Arsenia, Antonio and their son-in-law. We had a good time.

Viernes, 7 Agosto 2015
This morning we had a zone meeting. The zone leaders here in Latina zone are great. (Elder Alcantara and Elder Wilson) Today, they taught very well. The spirit was very strong. We, the sister leaders taught, too. Elder Alcantara told us that we did a good job. Hopefully we really did, and he wasn't just being nice. :) Well, what happens next, would only happen to me. We packed up our stuff and headed out. We called over a moto taxi and on our way home from the stake center (10 min away), we got a call from Elder McKell telling us that he just found our keys...so we had to head back and get them before going home. The moto taxi was teasing us a lot. When it came time to pay him, I handed him the amount that I thought it would have been, but he didn't charge us as much...and when he handed back my change, he asked me for my phone number. I denied him, and we could tell that he was then regretting charging us less..haha...too late.
We went to lunch and then studied language.
Then we went out teaching. Our first cita was with a less active, and when we got to her house, she let us in and she had some visitors over. We decided to start teaching, but I wasn't sure what to share, when all of a sudden, I felt to talk about prayer. It was a really good lesson. The spirit was strong and the visitors really enjoyed it. There ended up being another less active there named Gladys. Once we finished, she took us next door to meet her husband, Eber. Eber can't talk, because he has a hole in his traquilla (throat). He does everything through a tube in his neck. He was so sweet and just listened and wrote down his questions. At one point, he got tired of writing so he started mouthing words to Gladys. The coolest thing happened! I understood him better than Gladys did. I know that God was helping me. I really have a good feeling about him. He has a special spirit. While we were teaching, I could only see him dressed in white, being baptized. I believe he will be a very great convert.
After that, we visited Jose Luis. We taught him about the Book of Mormon and he told us that he had read it all the way up to Moroni, but then he lost it. We gave him a new one and he was excited to read it again. The spirit was so strong as we bore testimony about the Book of Mormon. It was very special. He is a great man.
Later in the night, we had a family home evening with Mili and her husband, Erinson, and their children. We talked about family prayer. The spirit was strong and we all shared experiences. It turned out to be a nice FHE. We played a game at the end which got us all laughing pretty hard. :)
Then we went to dinner.

Sabado, 8 Agosto 2015
We had a lot of random lessons today. Why, you ask? Because we went out visiting with Paquita. She wanted us to teach everyone. The only hard thing, is that she is always entering into houses while we are running to our citas.
In the night, we visited some less actives named Erene and Ernesto (the gym people). Anyways, we shared Mosiah 18:8-9 with them, about baptismal covenants. We asked Ernesto if he knew where his scriptures were at. He left the room to go and find them and he came back with his Bible and his Triple combination. As he was looking through his scriptures, he found tons of money. Erene told him that God is talking to him, telling him that the scriptures are worth a lot. They promised to read. As we were leaving, they gave us each a slice of chocolate cake. It was delicious.
Then we went to dinner. We ate with Antonio and Arsenia. During dinner, we talked about what happens when people die, and I asked Antonio, "What would you think if I told you that Hna Lofgran died?" And his response was so funny. He said, "When one dies, that means... more food." We all busted up laughing. I love our pension.

Domingo, 9 Agosto 2015
Today at church, the meeting started with 18 people. Here in Villareal, there are 190 active members....it was super sad. That means that there were 172 people who weren't able to renew their baptismal covenants. :(
After church, we went and visited some people, and then we went to lunch. After lunch, we studied the scriptures and then we headed out.
Later in the afternoon, we visited Martha and Angel. They are super excited, especially because now they have copies of the Book of Mormon. During the lesson, as we explained where the Book of Mormon came from, we could see that Angel just wanted to read it. He is very curious about this book. He loves what we teach, because it is something new that he has never heard of. He has literally been to almost every other religion, except the LDS church.
He still hasn't come to church, but he is taking our "ask God if the Book of Mormon is true" invitation seriously. He wants to know. Once we explained the Book of Mormon, we asked them if they had picked a marriage date, and they hadn't. I got forward with them. I straight up looked them in the eye and said, "You are living in sin." I shared all the scriptures that proved my point and they both realized that they were living in sin. But Angel is scared of marriage because he has seen friends get married and everything goes downhill. We explained that you will always see problems in the world...marriage, work, etc., because it is life...but to be married and by keeping the commandments of God, you will be blessed. Angel was a little more open to it, and Martha was trying to talk him into getting married this month....but in the end, I think they agreed to September.
We visited some other people and then we contacted the rest of the night. As we were contacting a cute lady, a young man came over and started listening to us. I asked them if they knew each other, and they didn't, so I introduced them to one another. We talked about the church and then we left. On the way to the pension, we passed by where we had talked with them, and the two of them were still sitting and laughing and talking! SCORE. Two contacts. Two people who want to visit the church in their cities. Two people who may or may not have a date tomorrow. Match Maker, Match Maker, make me a match.... :) haha