Week 64

Let's just say that it was another busy week! I met 3 general authorities this week so that was cool. We started out the week good, on Wednesday we went to Chacarilla in the morning and ate lunch there because their pensionista owns a restaurant. She made Arroz con Mariscos which my comp asked her to make.  Honestly i have no idea what it is in English, it was like a flavored rice with sea critter things like shrimp and clams and scallops, it was fetching good! Then we went to San Borja and did service in a children's hospital there. It was for an organization called Operation Smile I think, we just moved boxes of stuff for them. We unloaded 2 whole moving trucks full of food and whatnot. It was 2 zones of elders because the sisters went on Thursday and they were actually in charge of making the children smile. I guess they didn't want a bunch of ugly guys playing with children and trying to help them have a good time, but its all good lol. 

Later that night we had such a sweet lesson with Aliana. She's 15 and has been investigating the church for like 2 years now, her best friend is a member. She had a lot of doubts about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon and we have been trying to help her for a long time now. So we showed Jeffery R. Holland's testimony, where he talks about why it doesn't make sense that Joseph and Hyrum Smith would die for something that was false, and then I shared Hebrews 9, I believe it is, about where if someone gives a testimony it is in force even after they are dead. And then 2 Nephi 29 that talks about how the Book of Mormon confirms the truth of the Bible because it is the testimony of two nations. We asked her if she would complain about getting more cake, or more money, or why she has a problem with the Book of Mormon if it is actually a second witness of Jesus Christ? Let's just say it was a super spiritual lesson and her friend bore her testimony of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon as well, it was awesome! Then we invited her to be baptized on the 27th and she said yes. But then she went home and got in a huge argument with her parents about it because she is only 15 and we need signed permission to baptize her, so we had to go talk to them with the first counselor in the ward and her dad said he would think about it but it doesn't seem very likely at this point. So we are going to try to do a fast with her and another investigator to try to help them. 

On Thursday we went to San Borja and set-up a table with pamphlets and invited people to take one.  We did get some references from that. We also scanned pages of the Book of Mormon with the "Questions of the Soul: Where did I come from?  Why am I here? Where am I going after this life?" written on the tops of them and gave them to people saying we were taking a survey and it was cool. Tons of people read from the Book of Mormon to find the answers to the questions and it turned out pretty well. 

On Friday we had a multizone conference with Elder Godoy from our area presidency. He told his whole story about how he was converted to the gospel of Jesus Christ when he was like 13 and how we never know how big of an impact we can have on someone. The sisters that taught him didn't know that he would go on a mission and later be a mission president and become a Seventy, etc... and help out hundreds of other people. It was really cool. We had a leadership meeting with him after lunch with all of the zone leaders which was cool as well. He put us into groups and had us come up with 3 things that we would do or 3 ways to better the mission if we were mission presidents and then we talked about them and I feel like because of what was said, this next leadership council is going to be crazy because we are gonna talk about a lot of things. 

Saturday we had a day full of appointments and all of them fell through so we contacted all day. That was fun. 

Sunday was stake conference. I don't remember his name but a seventy from Columbia was visiting and he wanted to talk to our investigators after the main meeting, so we were able to meet him. Afterwards, we went and ate with some Venezuelans(idk how to spell that) in our ward. They are really cool. There are tons and tons of them here in Peru because they are all fleeing their country because of the bad circumstances in Venezuela right now. Haha their accents are kind of hard to understand, but they were telling us all about Venezuela and how cool it was before everything went down. 

Then, we went to a meeting in La Molina with almost the whole mission and all of the ward leaders and Elder Calderon talked to us. I think the best part was just seeing everyone from my other areas. Zully, the pensionista from Vitarte almost started crying when she saw me. My companion loved seeing everyone too, because he is about to finish, so he was able to see a lot of his old friends. 

Today we went to Chosica. It is so far away, we left at 8:30 this morning and got there at like 11 to visit a family that my comp baptized who's son is leaving on his mission tomorrow. It was really cool. they made us Pachamanca which is BOMB and we just got back a little while ago. But ya, it was a good week. We have interviews this Friday. I hope we get a little less busy so that we can focus on our area a little more, but it is awesome! I finished Jesus the Christ finally and I started the Book of Mormon over again. I've been studying a lot about the 12 Tribes and the Kings of Judah and whatnot to try to be able to understand what was going on when Lehi and his family left Jerusalem. Let's just say I don't really understand yet, but I will. Can't wait to celebrate my birthday on Sunday with the countrywide census, should be cool. I wish everyone a great week. 

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Much Love,

Elder Mortenson