Week #22 - Cajamarca

Hola everyone!

This week was pretty good... but we were pretty disappointed with our numbers at church. Satan literally works so hard to frustrate us every Sunday, and does all he can to prevent our investigators from coming to church. It´s the worst. When we visited our investigators this week Luis Sarate, a policeman who is super interested in the church told us he would go, but ended up having an emergency Sunday. Fiorela ended up getting locked in her house because her husband didn´t leave her the keys...typical haha, and Ruby and Lindo didn´t make it. It´s sad because these people are missing out on so many blessings that God has in store for them. Luckily Rei, the boyfriend of Mercedes who´s a member, and Diana, who has come to church 3 times now, were there along with Gabriela, who´s mom is less active and has trouble coming to church.  

Diana is so great. She´s attended church twice for all three hours and is starting to build friendships with the young women, which is super important. Luckily we visited with her and her mom this past week, and her mom is also super interested in the church. She was in awe at how beautiful the temple is, just through looking at the pictures. She told us, ¨I love your church, and the teachings. It´s so different than the rest¨. That made me smile and I asked her: “Hermana, why is is different for you?” She responded: “Just in the way you talk and teach, it´s different, and I feel good.”  That made my day! The Spirit is so powerful, and people notice the difference, even if they don´t know exactly why it´s different. Don´t take the Gift of the Holy Ghost for granted!

This week we worked super hard getting members to accompany us to our appointments, and we ended up having a lot of success. I definitely feel the power of having the members there to testify, and it helps invite the Spirit that much more. The missionaries need you!! I know with the help from the members, we´ll be able to more successfully invite others to be baptized, because it creates a more spiritual environment. This week I started reading in the Book of Mormon when Nephi, Laman, and Lemuel were commanded to return to Jerusalem to get the plates. The difference between the attitude of Nephi and his brothers was that he truly believed that God prepares a way for us to accomplish all that He asks of us. Here on the mission, at times I feel so overwhelmed with keeping track of our investigators, the new people we´ve met, and just remembering things. But I know if I truly have this same attitude as Nephi, God will prepare a way for me to fulfill my calling. At times, I have expectations of myself that I know God doesn´t have of me. I want to just know everything now so that I feel comfortable in a new area. But that defeats the purpose of learning and growing. I´m learning that it´s all a long process… line upon line, precept upon precept, and we´ll be prepared for what´s ahead in our lives.

I will also be teaching piano classes starting this week for nonmember friends of ward members, and for our investigators. This should be a fun opportunity, and we are praying that it will help us find new references and strengthen our investigators ‘trust. 

This past p-day was sort of stressful haha. We had intercambios, and the bus ended up us leaving us behind (whoops) so we had to take another bus, 4 hours later.  While we were waiting we decided to walk some 20 minutes away and eat lunch at the Real plaza. There we ended up meeting a worker in the food court, Maria Angelica who has tons of friends who have served missions and are serving now. Turned out that she lives in our area and we ended up setting an appointment with her. She truly wants to see changes in her life, and doesn´t like the crowd she is hanging out with who drink and party all the time. In the end, it turned out okay that we missed the bus, haha!

I hope you all have a wonderful week, and never forget how much God loves you, even when we fall short. 

-- 

Hermana Doney