We Must Give Him our ALL

Hello my dear family!!

Well this week was a dandy week! Having all of Friday and Saturday's proselyting taken away due to travel was a little bit of a bummer deal, but the conference was SPECTACULAR and the week still went great!

So about the mission conference with Elder Evans and his wife. I actually don't have my notes with me but holy smokes there was a MOUNTAIN of things he taught me. He talked a lot about repentance. If someone has not repented of their sins, we have no authority to baptize. And nobody can repent until they have faith in and understanding of the Atonement. We talked a lot about Mosiah 18, Alma 5, and D&C 20:37.

He also wanted a lot of participation. Luckily, at one moment, nobody else in the 200 missionaries wanted to participate so I raised my hand to answer a question. We were talking about Preach my Gospel chapter 9, talking about ways of finding. I raised my hand to talk and converse with him about the section "Hablar con Todos" or "Talking with everyone". He then commenced to burn us all (especially the Elders, we are terrible with this...) that we are talking TO everyone, not talking WITH everyone. We just want to get in our message and GO GO GO. But we need to show our love or they will just not care what we have to say! I needed to learn that lesson. Recently knocking so many doors and so many people saying "Oh, well I am Catholic" "Yeah, my parents aren't home" (you mean that gentleman who just ran to hide in the other room...?) "We already have our religion" and everyone always "busy" I sometimes get frustrated and forget the part where we need to love these people with ALL of our hearts, and they need to SEE it!

He also taught about how to ask referrals in ALL interactions. We teach to find, and find to teach. If we listen to what the people say about their friends and family, we can even receive the ability to SUGGEST the people they can refer to us! Teaching to find, as I have been trying to apply it more and more these past days, is an amazing mentality we should have. And I am already seeing the fruits!

Another thing he taught was from Mosiah 18:30. Piura/Tumbes Peru will be beautiful to me, even though it is hot and desert and very different from home, because it is where I came to the knowledge of my Redeemer.

I know you all live in a place VERY highly populated with active members, but always look and strive to find people to refer to the missionaries or who you can personally help get to church. I know the missionary work over there if far different from mine, but try to figure out what you can all do to help in the work.

What was the most delicious thing you ate last week? And...the strangest?

Probably the strangest was... I don't even know what it was. A member gave us, is was ciruela (a fruit, "plum" in english, but very much different here, it has a taste like plum mixed with tomato...) but the member made like a... I dont know how to describe it... I have more left over in our fridge maybe I will send you a picture next week.... but it is like a cobbler more or less. But suuuper sweet. I mean it was good! But a new food. :) hahaha and the most delicious? hmm... last night I cooked that Annie's mac n cheese! That always is tasty after such a long time! And also I love the yogurt here. Especially of Lucuma fruit flavor. :)

 

What was your best moment of the week? And… your worst?

The best, was probably the conference with Elder Evans and then seeing the fruits of applying it Sunday. The power of quality referrals will make the wards explode with new converts, it has been promised to us.

The Worst was probably when we had a follow up visit with a man that I really felt the contact got to his heart, then when we showed up his wife lied to us from the window saying his husband wasn't home... He was home, we saw him through the window before knocking the door... That always gets ya a little down. But OH!! Another AWESOME part was R and M came to church!!! Just for the first 2 hours but seriously it was the BEST! They liked it too, the ward was perfect helping them out and fellowshipping (we were asking everyone to go tell them hi, and we asked a young woman to be Maria's friend that day and that was the perfect match it seems like!) And then that afternoon when we passed by their house I told Maria "if you want, next time you can even invite a friend or two" and she was like "Really? Yeah I have a friend I want to invite!" BOOM!! Seriously, stuff like that is what keeps me going. So awesome. The parents didn't go. Mom, you asked about the mom, I think a lot of people just feel good with following their traditions... She does go to the Catholic meetings quite frequently, which isn't very common among Catholics here, but she does like the visits and I really think we can get her to check it out. That is the goal.

What is the area you are in (Tumbes) most known for?

Seafood. Here lots and lots of people work in the Shrimp, Lobster, Clam, etc producing. Here there are like Shrimp farms, which look like greenhouse ponds. Here all fish and seafood are high quality. Also tourism beaches. The best beaches in all of Peru are here in Tumbes or upper Piura.

A fun little pastime thing I did within the 10 hours of bus rides this week... I learned how to solve a Rubik's cube! Not that there is much time to play with those, but it was a fun little thing this week.

Another fun little thing about church with R and M attending, I was a little nervous about how Sacrament would go for them. During the Sacrament Meeting we had a wonderful boy (active family) sitting in front of us reading his Jehovah's Witness picture book. When I saw that I nudged and motioned for Elder Encarnacion to look, and we both got a kick out of that. And another kid sitting in front of us kept showing us how he can pop his nose (like someone would crack their knuckles... he can do something of the sort with his nose...) But in the end Maria actually got a kick out of that. And when the spirit is there, everything works out great. And I really think this Sunday was a success! A good deal of people in attendance, and we are really starting to figure out well how to all work together to hasten the work.

As for temperature, here we stay pretty close to 36 C during the day, maybe a little hotter, but around there. I would like some snow.

And I just keep celebrating Christmas here! This is my second week buying a Paneton to eat for the week (that is like a Peruvian culture of Fruit Cake, but you would all actually like this I think, haha!) and I listen to Christmas music a lot. You have to send me more Christmas music! Speaking of, Dad, Bar J Christmas sounds like a stellar show, ENJOY!! That is some good music there. :) 

Again, I had a dream last night that I was returning home from the mission after the 2 years were up and I could not speak English for the life of me!! Those dreams are crazy... haha

Well, I think this week I am going to start over my Book of Mormon reading, I figured out a better way to study it so I might try it out, my last form has fallen a little ineffective.

But the church is true!! Jesus Christ leads this church. This is His Church. We are children of God and He loves us. We must give Him our ALL. All of our heart, might, mind, and strength. And if we do, He will bless us now and for the eternities.

I love you all, I wish you the best for this week and that you may grow to know and love God even MORE this week!

con mucho amor,

Elder Russell