Week #26 - Cajamarca

I can´t believe this Wednesday I complete 6 months on the mission! It flies by so fast, even when the days seem super long at times. It´s been such a blessing. On the mission, you learn so much more than you ever could in such a short preiod of time, elsewhere  You learn how to communicate with different personalities, how to be frugal and more organized, you develop more self discipline, confidence, and obedience, you learn how to set goals, and work as hard as you can to achieve them, you learn how to show love and give service to those around you, and how to ALWAYS make time for the little acts of service that make all the difference.  

We had a Zone meeting this week, and there´s been some big changes to the missionary schedule. Every missionary now wakes up at 7:30am, eats dinner at 5:30pm instead of at 9pm (much healthier on the stomach I think haha), and we return back to our apartments at 10pm, instead of 9pm. Pretty interesting changes, and a little nerve racking to be out so late at night, but our plan is to always have a member with us in the evening. I know the Lord will protect us, and that only He knows the reason why they´re making these changes to our schedule. Hermana Ortiz and I have been running every Tuesday and Thursday at 6am, and it´s always a little chilly... this change should help us out a little, at least we´re hoping so!

This week, we changed the baptism date for Ray to May 5th, and we´re gonna do all we can to help him feel ready! He´s been reading things about prophets in the past like Joseph Fielding Smith and is finding weird things and is bringing them up in our lessons...his questions are kind of hard to answer, and we know that his concerns aren´t helping him progress. In the end, if someone has a true testimony that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, there is no need to doubt. All we need to know is that He was called of God, that the Book of Mormon is true, and that because of this, we have the true Church of Jesus Christ here on the earth today. We shouldn´t let trivial things blind us from our eternal goal, which is eternal life. 

We made ¨progress¨ sheets for our investigators this week to help them see what other lessons they have left to learn and gain a testimony of. We´re praying and hoping this will help them that much more to see their progress, and see the steps necessary to reach their goal...BAPTISM!

Hermana Ortiz and I worked hard this week and had a ton of suport from members, which is the best. We´re super excited for Deisy and her Mom Diana and their family. Deisy has a strong testimony of the Book of Mormon and attended sacrament meeting with her baby boy Max, and Diana for the first time this week. Diana has attended 4 times now, and has a baptism date for the fifth of May too!. It´s the best feeling ever to see your investigators walk into the church doors, especially with their families. Her ¨almost spouse¨(;, Castilando, has listened to the Restoration and has seen the video of the First Vision, and we talked about the Book of Mormon with him. He wasn´t present when we taught Diana and Deisy this week, but Deisy told us that when his friends invited him to go drinking, he told them he didn´t want to, and that he had other things to do. Deisy was super surprised with his response, and happy to see little changes in him since our visit. We promised her that as she reads the Book of Mormon and does all she can to keep the commandments, that she would start to see changes in him, and that they would have the chance to get married. This promise is being fulfilled, little by little!!

This week we have Zone Conference on Friday, and Hermana Ortiz and I were assigned to talk about how our investigators should prepare for baptism. This is the second time I´ve been called to speak in front of the zone with my companion, and we´re a little nervous, but super excited for this opportunity to learn and grow. We also were asked last minute to teach the lesson in Relief Society this past Sunday, since the teacher didn´t show.... It ended up being super good and they all loved it. It was based on the talk by Elder Holland called: "Be Ye Therefore Perfect - Eventually"... or something like that in English, haha. 

I love you all so much, and thank you for your love! Have a great week!

Hermana Doney