Semana Santa

Week 45

April 21, 2014

Holy Week. That means on Friday Cusco people eat a traditional 12 plates for lunch. Our pensionista loves us and only did 6 or so, but don't worry, people we visited later on in the day made sure we ate much more. I ate seaweed, oysters, fish eggs, and toad eyes (they don't eat meat, just seafood during Easter week). The pictures are of everything I ate that blessed tarde. Also, I would like some credit because I ate pretty much all of it. I only hid an itsy bit in my shoe (thanks for the crocs mom!) and my pocket and my neighbor's bowl. In one of the photos there is a green bouncy ball looking thing in my spoon. That is a HUGE toad eye that I ate.

Well, this week, for my mother I am going to talk a little bit about conversion. One thing that is awesome about the Cusco people is that, by nature, they are very believing. I have had more that one first lesson where we share the Joseph Smith story and they believe it right off the bat.  But conversion is a lot more than just believing in something, it has to sink in until it becomes part of who they are. And although they usually say it could be true right off the bat, people aren't always very inclined to want to pray about it and really study it out and gain a real lasting conversion through the power of the Holy Ghost. One thing I learned this week is that as missionaries we need to take the time to find out how their prayers are REALLY going. One of the reasons a couple of our investigators aren't progressing is because they aren't asking specific questions in their prayers and they don't understand what to expect as an answer. But we took some time this week to go really in depth, not just follow up on the service and it helped a lot. I don't want to be a robot missionary that just follows up on the invitations we give people, but to ask inspired questions to find out how it really went for them. It is impossible to be converted without prayer! And sincere prayer is key.

We had a member in our lesson comment on the word of wisdom- animals can run so fast without getting tired because they keep the word of wisdom. Haha love it! 

Also, some things just don't exist here. I was trying to explain to my companion what a tanning bed was, and she got it and was just like ohhhhhhhh, I saw one of those in a horror movie once!  Hahah. 

This week went by so fast I'm not really sure what all happened! But I am so grateful for Easter. Jesus Christ was perfect and never did a single thing wrong. But He gave his life and suffered for all our sins and pains willingly. And after all that He is still able to love us perfectly. I know He lives and I am so happy to know that I will meet Him one day, and that is only possible because of His infinite sacrifice for me. Death is conquered, man is free, Christ has won the victory!

Love you guys! Have a great week!