Catching Up

November 3, 2014

Week 73

Hello!

Okay. I’m sorry I haven´t written in a couple weeks so I have lots to catch you up on. Let´s start with Nilton.

Recently, Nilton entered the Army.  When he first arrived they dumped out all his stuff to check it, and out came his Bible and Book of Mormon. The Army guy told him that he wouldn´t find religion here, but that he would get along well with Salas (our pensionista´s husband who is a member and is awesome at not drinking and stuff despite a lot of temptation).

The problem is that they don´t give him a whole lot of time for reading. He has 10 minutes to eat lunch and they turn the lights off early. But, he is going to memorize a scripture he can say to himself. Good news is that he is praying every night. His bunk is the very last one off in the corner and the guys make fun of him but he just ignores them while he is praying. He has also made some friends in there from Iquitos that he is going to share the gospel with who are interested thanks to his example (there are people there from all over Peru because it is the main army base Peru has). They let him out sometimes to study and stuff and we can teach him. He asked for Sunday off beforehand but since he is new they don´t always treat him very kindly. But we are hoping with some faith and prayers and help from members he can attend church and we can get him with a new baptismal date goal.

Also. The Elders from a different area gave us a reference! She is named Katherine and stopped by their capilla when it was open. She is 20 and is studying. She doesn´t disponer a lot of time but we’ve had some good lessons. She and her boyfriend Edu have come to church together twice now. Guess what, they don´t live together! That is so great! But also means that Edu lives in a different area and so we had to pass him along. But he is cool too. Before we passed him along (because this is an Iglesia de orden) he showed up at our lesson with Katherine because she had invited him. We taught the Restoration and the whole time he had a really serious look on his face. After we had taught about how Joseph Smith was called to be a prophet and restored the same Church Christ had established to the earth again, we asked him what he thought about it. He said that he thought everyone has the right to choose which church they want to belong to and that he had attended many when he was young. His parents are Catholic and he had decided... (in that moment we were braced to hear that he was Catholic and couldn´t change because that´s what they usually say)… but then he said, and I am sure that this is the Church where I want to stay. Wait… WHAT did you say? Surprise! He also said he was grateful to Joseph Smith because of the Restoratino, families could be together forever (in the Gospel Principles class the lesson was on Eternal Marriage. Haha he kept on asking us all these hypothetical questions. He wants to get married to Katherine in the temple! At least that’s what I think. Get married yeah! ) We invited Katherine to be baptized the 15th. She wants to learn more and still wants to mention it to her parents.  She didn´t accept the date but did accept to be baptized in general. Then we asked Edu and he said he had more time investigating the church and felt he was ready. Surprise, while in Cusco, he went to church almost every Sunday in Tio! That was probably frustrating over there to have someone coming to church almost every week and then disappear. Because it seems like people here are always disappearing (like Ana, the one that bought skirts to come to church :( ) but he is found! And we gave the most golden reference over to the zone leaders last week.

Also, I am a grandma! Hermana Hunter is training! Dream come true.

This week Hermana Viricochea went to Lima for paperwok and I was in a trio (see photo). Their pension is AMAZING! It is the cleanest nicest house I have seen in so long. We walked in and WASHED OUR HANDS and then she fed us tons of fruits and vegetables and there was CUBED ICE in our drinks! So that was fun.

This week we were waiting for a member that had agreed to accompany us and up came some drunk guys who weren´t too terribly drunk and one of them told us about how he used to go to church and he is the black sheep of his family and he had read the whole Bible and was telling us his favorite story in the Bible about Andre, which I have never heard of before. I thought it was kind of funny because the drunken man was not making sense and started to cry and I look to my companion and she is BAWLING. Okay. Just wiping her eyes gently with a kleenex. Turns out just allergies, but still pretty funny. Also, keep the word of wisdom please!

We were walking the other day down the street and we saw a lady that just seemed kind of down. I wanted to talk to her and so we turned down the street where she had gone. We didn´t get to talk much but did brighten her day I hope. I thought I recognized the street we had turned onto but turns out it was a different street, one that we had noticed in the ward directory and there were people on that street we needed to visit! We found the houses of one of the people on the list and I realized it was a house a member had been looking for to show me a long time ago but she couldn´t remember their name or who they were really. So now we know where this person that needs to be rescued lives and we were able to hopefully help someone have a better day. It seems that almost every day something happens that makes me grateful for our calling as missionaries and helps me remember how important it is.

So it was a great week! I love you all so much! Have an awesome week and CTR and read your scriptures and re watch/read conference.

We were invited to a baby´s 4 month birthday party. It was quite the milestone that they needed to invite us to some cake. Not complaining! The funny part is that they will celebrate every month until the year mark, then just at the years. So you are going to have cake every month until the baby can actually eat cake!? Cruel.

Love, Hermana Beckstead