50 People

Que pasa, amigos y familia! This week has been really good, and for this P-day, we are headed to the airport to pick up my bag that was supposed to be here 4 weeks ago. Hopefully, that can finally be taken care of. Anyway, a lot of good things have happened this week, so I'll just get into it!

Tuesday

We started off with district council, which was boring. Those meetings will take me a long time to learn to like. We got back, had lunch, and then some people came to fix the electrical problems we've been having, so we're back to showering with hot water—blessings! Also this week, Elder Wilkens said we're going to try to find 50 people, which is about double the regular goal here. I was down for it, so between lessons, we'd literally talk to everyone we ran into to see if they wanted to hear a two-minute message about Jesus before getting their phone number and address to schedule more lessons. Our goal for that day was 10 people, and we actually got it a lot faster than we thought.

The lessons we've had were good too! We met with Eva's family (she has brain issues), and it was honestly super chaotic. Unfortunately, they're really hard to meet with, so I don't know what will happen there. We also had a lesson with John, who is awesome! Each time we talk with him, he gets cooler. We put him on date, and he's still super excited about it, so I'm pumped for him. Unfortunately, during his lesson, we had another lesson scheduled with an inactive member named Marco, who owns a restaurant and was planning on feeding us. We ran into him right after with a bag of food, and we felt really bad because he was waiting for us, and we didn't show up. Lastly, we had one of our final lessons with Pamela, so we grabbed some members to come with us before we taught her the last few lessons she needed for baptism, and it went super well! She's so cool. Also, her ex, Bryan, wanted us to ask her if he could have her jackets back, but I thought that was really lame to ask, so I told Elder Wilkens we weren't going to.

Wednesday

Another day of exchanges, and this time I was with Elder Merma, who's a native. It was honestly a very normal day. For lunch, I tried cow liver, which was decent, but not something I'll be choosing to eat often. The day was pretty typical, though. The little Spanish that I do know seemed to disappear that day—I felt like I couldn't speak at all, but some days are just like that. I also ended the day by eating my first Peruvian hamburger because I told Elder Merma that was my favorite food. My expectations were very low, but it honestly impressed me. I still miss my Big Macs and Baconators back home, but they did a really good job. Elder Wilkens also found 7 people in our area while I was gone, so we were still climbing toward our goal.

Thursday

Super good day. Every now and then, it's easy to lose all motivation, and I had one of those mornings. I was praying the entire time for strength and motivation to get through the day. It was something so small but very much needed, and thankfully, as soon as we stepped out the door, it all came back to me. We started talking to everybody we saw, and I pulled myself together. Food and a Coke usually help too. The lessons were pretty normal, and we found another 8 people, which was awesome. Me and Elder Wilkens treat ourselves when we're out too. We always grab this fresh-baked bread with caramel in the middle. The bread here is like none other—I didn’t think I'd learn to love bread so much. We also eat like kings back at the house with microwaved hot dogs with cheese and dipping Oreos in Nutella. We usually end good nights with salchipapas, which are fries with hot dogs and a lot of good sauces. Anyway, I'm pretty hungry right now, so sorry for the food rant. Let's move on to the next day.

Friday

While we were walking on the street, we saw this guy chasing a big dog that was running toward us, which meant it probably wasn’t friendly. Thankfully, it just ran past us, but it definitely looked our way for a second, which was freaky. The number of dogs here is insane—I swear there are as many dogs as people. You definitely have to watch where you step. We had our final lesson with Pamela today before her interview, but as we were heading home, this guy stopped us. At first, I thought he was asking for money, but he was actually asking for a pamphlet. Wilkens gave him one, and as we were talking, he started crying and said he wanted to be baptized. Thankfully, I know a couple of good people who have that authority. So, he pretty much gave himself a baptism date on the first contact. Sick! Pamela’s last lesson and interview were super powerful too. I was almost getting emotional listening to her testimony, so it ended up being an awesome day.

Saturday

We had 2 days left and 15 more people to find to reach our goal, so we set our goal for 9 that day. Luckily, as soon as we stepped out the door, the first 3 people we talked to were interested in lessons, which was awesome. We were feeling really good about ourselves, but then the day slowed down a ton. We ran into some ladies selling internet, and they were waving pamphlets and yelling at us, saying “Internet máximo?!” So I waved my Book of Mormon and yelled back, “Salvation?!” They left us alone after that. Though it was a slow day, we still set this lady up for a baptismal date, which was awesome because she said it was something she felt like she needed to do. In those 6 hours, we found 3 more people and still had 3 left to meet our daily goal. It was time to go eat, so we had up until the salchipapas restaurant to find 3 more people. Miraculously, we found a couple waiting for a cambio (pretty much a mini taxi). So, we had one person left. We ordered our salchipapas, but while they were cooking, we left to find that last person. After a few rejections, we prayed for the Spirit to help us. Literally, the next person we ran into called out to us because she had questions about the Book of Mormon. God is good! So we hit our daily goal, finding 3 people in the first 30 minutes, 3 in the last 30 minutes, and 3 in between.

Sunday

Pamela’s baptism!!! It was honestly so cool but so chaotic. The person who was supposed to bring clothes for Elder Wilkens forgot, so we had to run back to the house after sacrament meeting. Setting up was kind of a mess too, but we got through it. It was super spiritual, and she was so emotional, which was awesome. That was definitely the highlight. Afterward, we found a family of 4, and the lady we talked to was super cool. She said she had been in a coma for 42 days and saw the gates of heaven. I wish I understood Spanish enough to tell you more, but that was the summary I got from Elder Wilkens. Not long after, we completed our goal of finding 50 people! Even though Elder Wilkens did most of the work, I was still proud. I’m a huge introvert, so talking to random people in a different language on the street about something I’ll more than likely get rejected for has helped me grow a lot.

TL;DR: We found 50 people, Pamela got baptized, and I'm finding joy in the work (and the food).

Spiritual thought: 2 Nephi 29. It talks about how God loves all His children, and for that reason, He gave us the Book of Mormon so that everyone during those ancient times would have the opportunity to hear about God. Super powerful!

Thanks so much for reading. I appreciate all the love and support and hope everyone is doing well back home. Peace out!

Elder Mitchell IV

Photos:

Eating like the king I am

In the shops

Pamela's baptism

The long lost suitcase