Week #23 - Cajamarca

Well, a couple weeks ago, I told my pensionista in a joking way that I think I´m losing my muscles because I don't have access to weights here on the mission, so I need more protein in my diet. She really took that to heart and Tuesday in the afternoon, she served Hna. Mariño and me HUGE slabs of shark meat with veggies and rice - hahaha. I was like wow, this is a lot of fish... then Hermana Sonia told me: ¨es tiberón!¨ aka shark. It was actually pretty good. But it warms my heart that Hermana Sonia is worried about my loss of muscle and goes to the extreme to help me....

Also today was absolutely wack. I was supposed to go to Lima with two other Elders for immigration paper-work  stuff, and when we got there, our flight ended up being cancelled. Of course we don't have cellphones, but we ended up using a public one and called the Secretary. The people in the airport went crazy, and were yelling... a man, who told us he was a less active member (but was baptized at the age of 7??), started going crazy and security had to take him away. He recently had surgery on his arm, and wore a sling, but when he started getting angry, he ripped the sling off his arm, threw it on the ground and wanted to start a fight with security... it was an eventful day. 

This week, we experienced a super cool miracle. We decided to fast Thursday so that we would be able to find Fatima´s parents. Her mom and dad are always working, and it´s been really hard trying to talk with the family about the gospel. Fatima has had all the lessons and has a baptismal date for next Tuesday, the 3rd (since her dad has the most free time Tuesday). At the end of the day when we had finished our fast with a prayer, we headed to Fatima´s house, praying that we could meet her parents. We decided to buy some little pastries for her family. As we were getting close, we noticed the door to her house was wide open and her dad had just walked in and we got super excited. When we got to the door and were about to knock, her mom started walking toward the door with Fatima. It was a miracle. The power fo fasting with a specific purpose is so real and powerful. We knew that God had placed them in our path because of our act of faith. I know God always prepares the way for us when we truly have the desire to meet our goals. We were able to talk with them and set a day to meet with them even with their crazy schedules. We're praying that they will be as receptive as Fatima is to the gospel!

We had Zone conference this week, and President Marble and his wife traveled all the way from Lima to Cajamarca. President ended up calling on me to bear my testimony for everyone, which was a surprise, but everything turned out okay, haha. Right after our Zone conference, we had an appointment with an investigator named Nadia, who has a baptismal date and a member accompanied us. We introduced the Book of Mormon to Nadia, and the member had  a scripture that she wanted to share. It was perfect, because we were able to put in practice what we learned in conference, which is to have members read the Book of Mormon with our investigators. The member told us she is super willing to read the with Nadia, and they set a date and time to read together. We also had the same thing happen with Diana when another member accompanied us,and after they read together Saturday, she´s also going to bring her to general conference!

 This Sunday, Hna M and I did divisions so we could pick up our investigators. I went with a member, Hna Yessenia to pick up Nadia who has a baptismal date and she ended up not being able to come because she slept in, which was pretty sad..but HERMANA FLOR CAME TO CHURCH.  It felt so good to see her and her two little boys. Her husband, Wilmer, has a problem with drinking, and ended up not coming home Saturday night so they could come to church together. She was super sad and disappointed, and it hurts my heart to know that she´s going through such a difficult time with him. Wilmer told us this past week that he would go to church and that he wants to make changes.They aren´t married, but Flor really wants to be so she can get baptized. Wilmer has always said no to saying a prayer during our lessons, but this past Friday when we visited them, he gave the prayer. We´re praying that he will truly experience the power of the Atonement in his life, and do the things necessary to help him and his soon to be wife become more united. Please keep hermano Wilmer in you prayers!

This past Sunday, we also got to climb 3 miles up the mountain again just to eat some rice and potatoes. But THIS TIME we were prepared with our rubber boots and rain jackets, which was a good thing because it was a mucky mess.

I am super excited for general conference and hope that you all prepare yourselves with questions you have. I know that as you listen and pay attention to the feelings you have while listening to God´s servants, that you will find answers. This gospel in true. I know that when we are are truly converted to the Lord, we´ll have a sincere desire to satisfy the spiritual hunger that our brothers and sisters have, and share this message of repentance with them. I was reading in Alma 10 this week, when Amulek goes to go preach to the people with Alma as a "recent convert". Because he provided a second witness to what Alma, a servant of the Lord had spoken, the people were astonished. As members of the church, there is so much power in your testimonies. I hope that when the opportunities come for you to accompany the missionaries that you take advantage of them because the missionaries literally need the powerful influence that you can have with their investigators. 

Love you all so much, and I received such a cute Valentine´s Day card from my ward. Thank you so much for the love, even when it came a little late!!

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Hermana Doney