Wow what an amazing week!!!! Ahhh!!!!! I love Peru and I love being a missionary! Did you guys know that the church is true? Cause it totally is. SOO TRUE. And the Book of Mormon is awesome. Read it. Seriously. You will not regret it because it’s amaaaazing.
So I have a little explaining to do, last P-day was kind of crazy. As soon as we got back from the temple and shopping they called us to the main office and said our whole district had to hurry and get on this bus and go to the migration office in downtown Lima to do some paperwork. We didn’t have time to eat lunch or email before we were whisked away. So that’s why I emailed Friday and why we got to go out to eat at Papa John’s since we missed lunch and dinner! Which was soooo worth it by the way. Pizza is like a gourmet thing in Peru. Just a few slices of home. Delicioso.
Something way exciting is happening tomorrow. Elder Russel M. Nelson is in Peru and is coming here to the MTC to speak to us! Crazy exciting, right?! Also Elder Rasband from the presidency of the 70 is coming with him and I’m just as excited to meet him. He’s the one that gave that talk about how they assign missionaries their calls that I watched like a hundred times when I was waiting for my call.
I had so many wonderful spiritual experiences this week I don’t even know where to start. Part of how we learn how to teach the gospel here at the CCM is by practicing it. We teach “investigators” every day who are really our teachers pretending to be investigators but actually they’re real. At least it feels real to me! It’s crazy how much I love them and want them to gain testimonies when it’s really just for practice. But I have learned so much this week. I swear the lessons just feel so real and I care so much. As I prepare for lessons and rely on the spirit to help me say/share the right things, I see just a tiny glimpse of how much God loves his children. It’s a whole lot, let me just tell you. My oh my being a missionary is wonderful. Something we learned this week was to picture the people we teach as if they were our family members. Every man or woman could be our mom or dad or brother or sister or best friend. How would we want them to be taught the gospel? And how could we not want to share this amazing message with them?
For some reason I jotted down Mosiah 28:3 and Mosiah 24:14 on my list of things to write about but can’t remember why…haha
Our district was in charge of the musical number for a fireside we had on Sunday. I still had the sheet music for I Heard Him Come with me and Hermana Huppe just happens to have an amazing voice and another elder can play piano beautifully so we whipped an awesome solo together for her and we all sang the chorus. It was amazing and everyone was so touched. Thanks for making me obsessed with that song, Dad!
Also I was called on to give a talk on Sunday. It was a real shock because everyone is supposed to write a 5 minute talk in Spanish and no one knows who’ll they’ll call on til right before you’re supposed to speak. I’d been told that they never pick missionaries who aren’t about to leave the CCM so I wasn’t expecting it at all and apparently my face when they called my name was priceless, haha. But I got lots of compliments on my Spanish!
Sunday was just an amazing day in general. We had like a block of 3 hours for personal study and there is a ton I learned that I wish I could tell you about! I’ll write it all out and maybe share it next week.
P-day was just so wonderful today. The temple was amazing. Pictures that you find online of the Lima temple just absolutely do not do it justice. What a sight to see! Shopping was fun too. The picture of the pineapple juice is for you, Dad! It was soooo good!
Quick spiritual thought. “No force in the entire world can stop the work of God.” -Thomas S. Monson
I really hate this part…ahhhh…..can I just have like 20 more minutes please?!?!
Bye for now! I think I get to email again on Tuesday this week.
-Mandy/Hermana V/Sass Master
Perú Lima East 