Week 25 Missionary Email
Date
February 19, 2024
Area
Santa Fe District, Lima Peru North Mission
Companion
Élder Lo Giudice
Week 25 Missionary Email
Hello everyone!!
This week, I had the opportunity to see more of Lima and experience more amazing things! Excited to tell you more!!
Is This the Same City?: After I went to Migraciones to become actually legal now, Élder Lo Giudice and I were walking back to our apartment, when he wanted to stop and get a cheeseburger from Tambo (a gas-station type food mart with snacks and stuff). I was a little confused - it was 9:30 in the morning and it was at a food mart in one of the sketchiest parts of Lima - but what can I do, right? He buys the cheeseburger, eats it, and everything's fine. Fast forward to lunch, and my comp is just dying from stomach pain. I share the quickest message about service and get him back to the apartment as quick as I can. The mission doctor thought it was appendicitis, so we got a ride to the hospital in the nicest part of town. And I couldn't BELIEVE how nice this part was! It was nicer than anything I'd seen in the states. The people were actually super put-together and had money! I could not believe it was the same city. Really made me think about how large the poverty gap here is. Turns out his stomach was fine and we just wasted a night full of lessons. Pretty obvious lesson learned: don't eat cheeseburgers from food marts in third world countries.
5.3!: One day, I am doing my Personal Study while Élder Lo Giudice is taking a nap. All of a sudden, the ground starts to shake (and I mean back and forth)and some of my shoes fell off the shelf. I took cover under my desk and stayed there for about a minute (aftershocks) until I got out. We got a notification on our phone about the earthquake because of the magnitude. It was a 5.3 off the coast!!
Easy Like Sunday Morning: We had a typical walk to church this Sunday. Saw two men peeing in the street together. 'Nuff said. Then, we saw a moto crash (surprised we don't see more of these). The drivers got out and started throwing punches and all the people came running out of their houses to try to either cheer it on or break it up. If I was a referee in a basketball game, I would have thrown them both out, probably even a suspension. For some reason in my head I saw Patrick Beverley fighting Draymond Green. And then we made it to church and sang "I'm Trying to Be Like Jesus" in Spanish. Man I wish PatBev and Draymond were there.
Uhh, What's the Plan?: On Saturday, my companion went to the Mission President's house for a meeting with all the district leaders. So, all of their comps were left behind - alone 😔. So, we, as the UCDL (Union of the Companions of District Leaders), decided to make our own day of fun by going to the mall. We ate Pizza Hut, played with the sample computers in the department stores, and basically buddy-the-elfed our way around the whole place. It was a good time.
What's the Secret?: This week, I had two completely different experiences from two completely different people looking for the exact same thing. Well, here's the first:
Mía: I baptized this girl a couple of weeks ago, and she has the light of Christ in her. When we gave her a baptismal calendar and wrote things to do each day to prepare, she did each of the commitments and more and crossed off each day of the calendar with a red colored pencil. Even though her Dad is now in Spain for work and her Mom is not interested in our church, she grabs her younger brother from the soccer fields and goes to her 21-year-old aunt's house, where they walk together for a mile and a half to church to get there 15 minutes early. She found what she was looking for, and she is truly happy. She is just 11 years old.
Odalis: We found this girl knocking doors high in the hills, and she seemed interested in talking with us. She was 35 and still looking for God's true church. We set up to have a lesson with her, but when the time came around, she said that she couldn't meet with us because she had to "go shopping". We ended up dropping her and not hearing from her for a couple weeks. Then, this week we received a text from her saying that our church is fake and that Joseph Smith isn't a Prophet. She said that she did research and found evidence that our church isn't true. She said that she was frustrated with us and that we had wasted her time in her search for the "truth".
Well, what's the difference? I believe that the difference between these two people is humility. It is amazing that Odalis is searching the truth, but she is looking for worldly evidence. In other words, she is listening to her mind, and not her heart. And what compels someone to listen to their heart? Humility. I believe that if we aren't humble, we can't be true followers of Jesus Christ. It is the single most important attribute of Christ. If we aren't humble, we aren't willing to sacrifice things for God. We aren't willing to listen to the Spirit. We aren't willing to have faith in an all-powerful being. We aren't able to show we are thankful for the Atonement by following Jesus Christ. Anyone can follow Jesus Christ and be like him, they just need to be humble first.
Élder Regla
1. Earthquake Notification
2. Pizza Hut!!!
3. Saturday Morning Swagger
This week, I had the opportunity to see more of Lima and experience more amazing things! Excited to tell you more!!
Is This the Same City?: After I went to Migraciones to become actually legal now, Élder Lo Giudice and I were walking back to our apartment, when he wanted to stop and get a cheeseburger from Tambo (a gas-station type food mart with snacks and stuff). I was a little confused - it was 9:30 in the morning and it was at a food mart in one of the sketchiest parts of Lima - but what can I do, right? He buys the cheeseburger, eats it, and everything's fine. Fast forward to lunch, and my comp is just dying from stomach pain. I share the quickest message about service and get him back to the apartment as quick as I can. The mission doctor thought it was appendicitis, so we got a ride to the hospital in the nicest part of town. And I couldn't BELIEVE how nice this part was! It was nicer than anything I'd seen in the states. The people were actually super put-together and had money! I could not believe it was the same city. Really made me think about how large the poverty gap here is. Turns out his stomach was fine and we just wasted a night full of lessons. Pretty obvious lesson learned: don't eat cheeseburgers from food marts in third world countries.
5.3!: One day, I am doing my Personal Study while Élder Lo Giudice is taking a nap. All of a sudden, the ground starts to shake (and I mean back and forth)and some of my shoes fell off the shelf. I took cover under my desk and stayed there for about a minute (aftershocks) until I got out. We got a notification on our phone about the earthquake because of the magnitude. It was a 5.3 off the coast!!
Easy Like Sunday Morning: We had a typical walk to church this Sunday. Saw two men peeing in the street together. 'Nuff said. Then, we saw a moto crash (surprised we don't see more of these). The drivers got out and started throwing punches and all the people came running out of their houses to try to either cheer it on or break it up. If I was a referee in a basketball game, I would have thrown them both out, probably even a suspension. For some reason in my head I saw Patrick Beverley fighting Draymond Green. And then we made it to church and sang "I'm Trying to Be Like Jesus" in Spanish. Man I wish PatBev and Draymond were there.
Uhh, What's the Plan?: On Saturday, my companion went to the Mission President's house for a meeting with all the district leaders. So, all of their comps were left behind - alone 😔. So, we, as the UCDL (Union of the Companions of District Leaders), decided to make our own day of fun by going to the mall. We ate Pizza Hut, played with the sample computers in the department stores, and basically buddy-the-elfed our way around the whole place. It was a good time.
What's the Secret?: This week, I had two completely different experiences from two completely different people looking for the exact same thing. Well, here's the first:
Mía: I baptized this girl a couple of weeks ago, and she has the light of Christ in her. When we gave her a baptismal calendar and wrote things to do each day to prepare, she did each of the commitments and more and crossed off each day of the calendar with a red colored pencil. Even though her Dad is now in Spain for work and her Mom is not interested in our church, she grabs her younger brother from the soccer fields and goes to her 21-year-old aunt's house, where they walk together for a mile and a half to church to get there 15 minutes early. She found what she was looking for, and she is truly happy. She is just 11 years old.
Odalis: We found this girl knocking doors high in the hills, and she seemed interested in talking with us. She was 35 and still looking for God's true church. We set up to have a lesson with her, but when the time came around, she said that she couldn't meet with us because she had to "go shopping". We ended up dropping her and not hearing from her for a couple weeks. Then, this week we received a text from her saying that our church is fake and that Joseph Smith isn't a Prophet. She said that she did research and found evidence that our church isn't true. She said that she was frustrated with us and that we had wasted her time in her search for the "truth".
Well, what's the difference? I believe that the difference between these two people is humility. It is amazing that Odalis is searching the truth, but she is looking for worldly evidence. In other words, she is listening to her mind, and not her heart. And what compels someone to listen to their heart? Humility. I believe that if we aren't humble, we can't be true followers of Jesus Christ. It is the single most important attribute of Christ. If we aren't humble, we aren't willing to sacrifice things for God. We aren't willing to listen to the Spirit. We aren't willing to have faith in an all-powerful being. We aren't able to show we are thankful for the Atonement by following Jesus Christ. Anyone can follow Jesus Christ and be like him, they just need to be humble first.
Élder Regla
1. Earthquake Notification
2. Pizza Hut!!!
3. Saturday Morning Swagger
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