Week 42

So this week was alright. I am not being transferred. This next transfer is just a quick 3 weeker in preparation for our new mission president so I am just gonna continue training Elder Ponce. Elder Hunt is staying as well in the room so that is cool. We will see what happens here in 3 weeks, I feel like I will probably leave the area then. 

We baptized Flor! That was pretty sweet. She was so excited to be baptized haha. The only problem we have is that we don't know when she will be confirmed. She didn't have time to be baptized on Saturday so we did it Sunday afternoon after church but next week is our Stake conference so we gotta talk to the bishop to see when she will be confirmed. She was probably my favorite baptism yet. I'd say she comes in close to the family in San Borja. 

I had 2 stand out experiences this week:  The first one happened when we were contacting and some like 80-year-old dude answered the door and asked if I was American and then started yelling like crazy and saying he couldn't talk to us because I was a spy and whatnot. I just had to swallow my pride on that one and walk away. Haha my companion, who is Peruvian, went again when they were on divisions to visit him and he told them that I took a pic of him and was calling people in to kill him so there is that...just call me James Bond. The second one happened we went to teach a new investigator that my companion had found when we were on divisions so I hadn't met him. His brother and grandpa decided to join us and his grandpa told us that he didn't know anything about anything. So anyway, we were teaching lesson 1 and I'm talking about the need for prophets and whatnot and the grandpa just starts going off. But to make it short, they were Adventists and he wanted to prove us wrong. I had to swallow my pride on that one too and try not to bible-bash but just explain calmly what it is that we believe in, supported with a lot of scriptures. After that I just bore my testimony that although I am 19 and the language we speak isn't my native tongue, I wouldn't be so far from home and my fam and all the other things that I could be doing if I didn't know that the things I was teaching were true. His grandsons reasoned with us and said that according to the scriptures and my testimony that we had a point! So maybe there was a seed planted there.

We got permission to baptize the daughter of some members but we want her dad to baptize her so we are holding off on that. Her dad has been inactive for a while because he works on Sundays and so he is going to go talk to the bishop about the situation. His daughter is in a wheelchair and was scared of the water but now she says she is ready so we just gotta figure out the situation there. 

My companion is now directing the area. I turned over the phone and the keys and whatnot to him so he is planning and teaching and everything now. It is super good for him, he will learn a lot! I feel like it's better that he learn now while I am still here in the area and can help him than if he were with a brand new companion that didn't know anything and couldn't help him. 

Today has been super chill. We just slept and had a member get us pizza from Pizza Hut so that was dope! We went to the grocery store and Ceres which is like the outdoor mall-type deal. It is super ghetto and very worldly...haha especially at night. Luckily we don't go there at night! 

But ya that is my week, pretty good! I am doing fine, just making my way toward the point of the mountain so I can be on the downhill climb. I'll talk to you guys next week. 

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Much Love,

Elder Mortenson