Share the Gospel with Someone

Hello family!!                                                      

Well another week just flew by... Holy smokes it is so crazy that we are already in week 5 of my time here in Zarumilla.

This week was hard to get visits... I don't know why. Our recent converts were all magically absent this week so we couldn't visit them, but on the other hand this week we started to really work well with our Ward Mission Leader. He has quite a few months as the Ward Mission Leader but it took until this week for us to realize how willing he is to leave and teach with us! So every Thursday he goes out with us and also Sundays he is starting to take his wife with him when we go out to visit. He has a huge desire to share when he knows and feels, and in some of the visits he set the vibe spectacularly and hopefully this week we will see some real progress thanks to his efforts!

So this week we also decided that we are going to really hit the ground harder on Investigators. We have 9 families/couples/people who we are teaching, and we've just got to get inviting to baptism and pave the road! About half of them need to get married first, that is Satan's favorite hurtle here it seems, but we've got plans to invite 5 people to a baptismal date this week. Zarumilla needs strong convert baptisms. So we are searching.

As for the marriage we have been working with a couple, they don't have the money right now. So that has put an obstacle in the process, they totally want to be baptized!! But now it looks like S will be leaving to live in Lima to work for a few months, he still isn't too sure, but that's the news with them. And another investigator, J, totally wants to get married, but her boyfriend isn't sure (after 13 years living together, people here always say they aren't sure... it's frustrating. haha) so we are now working with him, the deal with him is that he is only home from working in Ecuador on Sundays. But we are working on it!

Also our district is getting better slowly but surely with contacting. Here in Peru it is very easy to have visits planned for your whole day and just go from visit A to visit B to visit C and overlook the basic need to just spread the gospel with everyone in the street! So we are working on that, we are setting goals and the fruits are already coming!

My birthday was fun! A less active family invited me and my companion to come eat cake. I thought it was like they'll whip up a little cake, we will eat a slice and share a message and leave. But no, they got Soda and dishes full of candies and a big cake and invited a couple friends and they sang happy birthday, pushed my face in the cake, and it was awesome!! They were so so nice. Then we shared a message with them and they gave us half the cake to take home! (I then shared it in the District Meeting the next day).

But to start out the day I was a little skeptical about how the day would go. Until 7:30 it was a totally normal day with lots of visits that didn't fall through and the only comment from my companion being "In Cuzco we don't have birthdays." But then having that sweet family share a little something was such a wonderful treat! :)

Well the work is progressing. I am working hard to improve the relationship between the ward and the missionaries, it looks like there has been a bit of a barrier and we need to break it. But things are going well now, I love the leaders here, they love to work and are really dedicated!

The temple in Ecuador is like 5 or 6 hours from here in Bus so it is really close!! (Well, for our mission it is) and we are working hard to get ALL the less actives going to the temple prep classes and we are also getting involved in the family history efforts!

If you guys have not yet indexed, check it out! THAT is a massive load of help for family history.

Well, all is well here!! Thank you all for the Happy Birthday wishes!! All is going well for me and Elder Corpona here in Zarumilla 1! I hope you all had a good week and shared the gospel with someone! And I wish you all a great week this week with the invitation to share the gospel with someone!

Love you all!!

Elder Collin Russell