Date
October 28, 2019
Area
Aucayacu, Peru
Companion
Elder Nicholas Hass
Week 13: Salvation is not a cheap experience
Hello everybody!
What a great week out here in Aucayacu! It's super hot and humid all the time, but I am sure going to miss it when I get transferred up to the freezing cold mountains. Also Halloween is on Thursday!! It doesn't exist here, so it's been kinda funny explaining to people that Halloween is not a holiday to worship the devil, because they don't really know what it is.
The colegios (high schools) here teach english, but they don't teach it very well, so being the only two english speakers here, one of our investigators had us teach her class how to sing We Wish You a Merry Christmas. It was pretty fun, and hearing a bunch of latinos absolutely botch all the weird pronunciations we have was pretty funny.
Elder Hass is now the district leader, which means we have to go to Tingo Maria every week. That consists of a 1 hour ride in a van built for people shorter than 5' 5", which happens to work out fairly well for me, and all Peruvians, being shorter than me, but anyone taller than that ends up suffering the whole time. (aka my comp) Not to mention that there are always some form of live chickens (full grown or chicks) either in the van or on the roof. Just some normal things you definitely see every day.
This week we had Yrieno's baptism!! He lives 3 hours away and him and this other family always come to church every week. We decided it would be better to have Yrineo's friend, Hermano Santos, baptize him since they live in the same town and Elder Hass and I won't be here forever. We went up to the river and had the baptism! After he came out of the water, Yrineo told us it was his birthday!! We confirmed him on the banks of the river, because we had stake conference yesterday. The whole thing was really good and it gave me such a desire to bring people unto Christ through the waters of baptism!
We had 8 investigators come to the baptism, and we went to visit two of them afterwards. Their names are Nicol and Glyzman, and they are 14 and 9. They have both been coming to church for like 3 weeks on their own, so we invited them to be baptized, and they said yes!! We now have 3 people who are going to get baptized on November 16th, so that day is going to be great! We had 7 investigators come to stake conference, and there were only 27 people total so that was pretty good.
I have been studying the scriptures a lot more and a lot more in depth here in the mission. It is so interesting to see how the Bible and the Book of Mormon complement each other and testify of each other. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and that when we read it, we can feel more peace and joy in our lives. God always answers prayers, and oftentimes, those answers come when we read the scriptures. I love this gospel, and want to invite everyone to read the scriptures, whether it be the Bible or Book of Mormon, at least 5 minutes a day, and testify that you will be able to notice the difference in your life. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Scripture of the week: 1 Nephi 8 (Lehi's dream)
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Pictures
1 - Yrineo (left) and Hermano Santos (right)
2 - Me and Elder Hass with Yrineo and Hermano and Hermana Santos
3 - All the people that came to the baptism (8 investigators!)
4 - Yrineo and Hermano Santos in the river after the baptism
5 - This picture is worthy for a church magazine
6- The river we baptize in
7 - Nicol gave me and Elder Hass like the coolest gift I have ever gotten
Seth Neve
Perú Huancayo Misión 2019 - 2021
Oops haha the last picture is the river that we baptize in. Here's the picture of the gift we got from Nicol. Also the title comes from this super amazing video I watched at the MTC, called Missionary Work and the Atonement. It's on youtube, I would definitely encourage all to watch it. Super spiritual.