The Sandy Hills Of Peru

Highlights:

Trying to marry everyone we're teaching
Hiking through mountains of sand
Learning about Lizard People
Drunk man encounter (1 of many)
Monday

Another basic Pday in the books. Well, instead of playing soccer, we threw down some spikeball (thanks mom!) and it was lit! The ZL's pulled up too, and they're a trio that consists of an American, a Brit, and an Argentinian, so they're a fun group. We also played some basketball, too, which I'm not great at, but I can get away with playing because I'm about a foot taller than everyone here. Then, like normal, we just ate at El Olivar, which is always good stuff.

Tuesday

Today we met with Ranses (recent convert), Marco (baptismal date), and Pilar (working for a date). We had a solid lesson about eternal families, which went really well, and we're hoping that'll get hermana Pilar feeling ready for a date here pretty soon. That night, we also met with the Borja family, who we baptized last week. We're now just working on their parents' marriage so that we can get them baptized here pretty soon as well. During the lesson, they gave really solid testimonies of why they like hearing from us, which is a phenomenal feeling as a missionary. Also, I made my way to the kids' hearts by always giving them candy haha.

Wednesday

Pretty tough day. We started all the way on one side of our area and slowly walked back to the other throughout the day, trying to hit contacts in between. Sadly, lots of lessons fell through, so we literally just walked through the sandy Peruvian desert all day in the blazing heat. Literally feel like I live in Tattooine because our area is just pure sand. We had a little lesson with this kid named Victor, though; his mom is a recent convert, so we're just trying to get him baptized. Then, that night, we made our way over to our favorite recent convert's house named Andy because it was his birthday. He always comes out with us for lessons and feeds us, so it felt nice to give him a little gift and say happy birthday.

Thursday

Today we had a lesson with Alejandro and Fidelina, who have had all the lessons and been going to church every week for months, but we just need to get them married. They're such a sweet and wholesome couple, though, so I love visiting them. Right after, we visited their neighbors, 9-year-old Ahitana and her grandma Bethsy. Bethsy wants to baptize Ahitana, which she's ready for, but her mom is concerned about it, so we're just working on that. We've met with Ahitana for a little bit now, and at first, she was super timid, but it's super sweet because now she has totally warmed up to us, enough to start saying prayers for us! I know that sounds random, but it's actually huge news haha. Then we ended the night with Bethsy taking us out to go visit some of her friends, and we found lots of new people from it, which was awesome!

Friday

Started the day with Victor again. Her mom was showing us videos about how Adam and Eve's son Cain was half-lizard and had lizard kids, so now there are lizard people living on earth (I don't get paid enough to deal with this). Luckily, our lesson was about the Plan of Salvation, so hopefully, she understands that God didn't create lizard people. Later, we set a date for this kid named Joshbeil, whose parents are also planning on getting baptized here pretty soon. Wooo!

Saturday

We literally texted everybody in our PMG app to go to church. I'm not even lying; we texted everybody. It was also a very chill day. At one point, when we were walking, this very drunk dude was yelling at us about California burning down and followed us for a minute just yapping about nothing. I told him to quit drinking and come to church, and he said okay, then he stopped following us haha. At night, we had ward council, which was long and boring, and then we left early for a lesson with Ranses and Pilar. We also brought Andy with us again, and thank goodness we did because they spilled out lots of hard things they're dealing with, and it's better to have someone who speaks the language perfectly to comfort them about it.

Sunday

Way chill day. We had a solid amount of people at church, which was awesome. We went out with the members so that they could introduce us to their friends, which also went well. Then we had a lesson with Joshbeil again and his parents Ricardo and Giovanna. They've both been taught by missionaries for a year now and go to church every Sunday but just need to get married (if you're counting, that's 6 people that need to get married before they're baptized). Then, at night, we gave these two giant bags of plastic bottles to this inactive member. Scraping for bottles every night is literally how she puts food on the table, so it was awesome to see her reaction when we gave them to her (I can now say drinking a Coke every day is meant for a greater cause).

Spiritual Thought: This week alone I've had some very humbling experiences. It really put into perspective how good of a family and life I have back home because sadly, there are many broken families and humble homes that we visit. It really makes me feel more purposeful in the work that I'm doing, trying to fill those tough life circumstances with the hope of Jesus Christ.

Fotos:

Some cat just chillin
Yo y el gallo
Buncha kids
Giving bottles to the member



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