Dear family,
Dad, when
you asked if the weeks are flying for me, yes, they are flying very fast.
Where have these past 300 days set apart as a missionary gone?!
Well today
was fun! Elder Plata and I got permission from our leaders to go to Las
Lomas to check it out and take photos. We went with Hermano Pio (Alfredo) and
it was great! All of the members we talked to said it was like 10-20
minutes, but it turned out to be about an hour. haha whoops! And while we
were there Pio said to us another hour and a half bus ride and we can go
check out Ecuador. I was like "Yeahhhh maybe someday…" hahah that
might be a little out of our permission. :) But Las Lomas is home of the
famous Tortas de Canela (Cinnamon cakes) Where it is 1 sol per cake. That
is like 3 cakes for one dollar. We bought 8. hahaaha and MAN are they
tasty!! I also bought Algarrobina, which is like honey made from the
algarrobo tree, but that has a rather interesting taste... not quite as
sweet as honey. hahaha but we are having a lot of fun out here in
the mission! Hopefully I can get the pictures sent to y'all.
As for the T family, their 7 year old son and 15 year old daughter came
to church!! But the others didn't... Sounds like L went to work in his
Moto taxi... And the mom was doing laundry, from the reports of those who did
attend. They gotta start keeping that Sabbath Day holy if they wanna hit
their baptismal date! This week we will be working on that.
But good
news! We now got 2 other investigators with a baptismal date! H and J!! They were former investigators that were going really well with
the missionaries about a year ago, then they changed houses like 3 times
in the same month and the missionaries could never find them again. But we
found them!!! And with them they have set their own date for marriage AND
baptism!! So the 26th of July should be a powerful day for them! The thing
with them is H is always working far
from Tambo Grande and it has been hard to get lessons on a consistent
basis, and they are also visiting his family in Sullana pretty often since
his mom sounds like she is struggling with cancer. They are super awesome,
they told me they want me here for the marriage and baptism, so hopefully
all goes well, because it is looking like the 26th of July will be my last
weekend here. But they can make it as we work smart and keep them in our
prayers. :)
Oh! About
the weather. We are in a phenomena down here. Normally now it is cooler,
like last September in Sechura I would use a sweater at night. But this
year it got super hot for summer and it hasn't gotten cool again! They say
it looks like Summer will be until about August here! So as for the
weather, for a time it was cloudy for like 3 weeks and I was getting my
hopes up that is was starting to cool down, then BOOM the heat came back!!
So that sure is nice ;) But I think I heard they also expect a lot of rain
coming the next year, since this year there was hardly anything at all!!
The weather is going crazy, you can see that the second coming is not too
far away.
As for the
World Cup, it is on everybody's TV. We have lost Pio as a member helper in
visits because of it. hahah so we hear a lot about it and I even use it
sometimes as a conversation to get people to get more confident in us. I
also give everyone here and my companion a lot of teasing since Peru and
Bolivia didn't make it to the World Cup, and USA did. That has been really
fun. And for that I really hope they make it to the next round.
For new
investigators, we are finding a few! We found a couple that quit going to
their old church because the atmosphere and the people were not exactly
loving. So we came in and explained how our church meetings are and
tonight we are going to teach the restoration. They aren't married but
they seem like a sincerely interested couple. Also we got a family that the
missionaries used to teach and we passed by yesterday. They said they
would love for us to come visit and talk and teach but they said, "Look, I will tell you right now I am not going to church. When I
told the last missionaries that they quit coming, so just a heads
up." And I was like, "OK. Yeah no worries!" Just like Ali
mentioned in her letter, when the holy spirit touches their heart, their
heart changes. We've just got to build their desire and their FAITH to
act. So that will be a fun family to work on that and see how it goes.
This work is
awesome, I feel my abilities and knowledge grow daily. I also am growing
in my ability to recognize and seek the guidance of the Holy Ghost, due to
the teachings of my companion to me. And I am very grateful for
that. Every night I pray for the ability to receive the energy to work
just as hard the next day, and I pray in the morning that I may work with diligence.
I just gotta get up on time and I have felt the Lord bless me with the
ability to fulfill my calling. This is His work and we cannot do it
without His help.
The church
is true, and I love it! I LOOOVE the scriptures, I hope you are all
reading them DAILY. My hour personal study is never enough time to study
and read all I want to. I hope you all study them daily!
Love you
all, talk to ya next week!
Elder Collin
Russell
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