Presidential Elections in Peru

Hey Familia,
How's it going everybody? I was so happy to read your emails this week and I almost jumped out of my seat when I heard some of the things that happened, I'll tell you later why. Anyways, this week was actually pretty eventful but boring at the same time. First things first though, this last week I completed 7 months in the mission and I actually almost forgot about it until the last minute when I was going to bed. Its interesting how much you think about how much time you've completed in the mission when you first start but then it gets less and less important month after month becuase you're so focused on the work.

Anyways, last monday was pretty fun becuase we finally were able to play some volleyball and soccer as a zone. I really enjoy volleyball but soccer not so much just becuase I'm really not that good at it. Also that day I was able to buy a four disc DVD set about the Doctrine and Covenants. It has a lot of really cool videos and quotes and things that are used in a class setting. But the really cool thing is that there is a disc with 5 movies from the church: The Mountain of the Lord (the story about the Salt Lake Temple), Treasures in Heaven (story of John Tanner), Only a Stonecutter, Legacy, and Joseph Smith the Prophet of the Restoration. Everybody in the mission is absolutely thrilled about the Joseph Smith Movie becuase it's about his whole life and it's the first time that we can actually buy it. I know I'm totally a church media nerd but I HIGHLY recommend that you buy this at the Distribution Center, it's only like $5. It's a great way to have Family Home Evening and feel the spirit. We shared it with some of our investigators last night and they absolutely loved it.

This week was a little difficult becuase Elder Ventura has been having some pretty serious headaches and even though he takes pills for it, it doesn't help. So for the first little while of the week we didn't do much. Then we tried to make up the work this week so we worked pretty hard at finding new people to teach. A ton of people fell through on their appointments so we did a lot of tracting. It's definately not the most fun thing in the world to be doing. I used to like to do it just becuase I really couldn't teach that well, but now that I can teach fairly well, I would rather be in a person's home teaching them. But the good news is that we found some really good people that hopefully can get baptized this month. We are teaching a nine year old boy whose mom is a member so he's going to get baptized this week. And then the next week we have a teenager whose Dad is a member and wants his son to get baptized. He's most likely going to get baptized the next week too.

This week was also the Presidential Elections in Peru. Sunday (yesterday) was the Elections. That means we didn't have church and we couldn't go out and proselyte until 4. So, we watched some of those church movies. I really felt the spirit while we were watching them. We shared them at a new convert's house and they really liked them too. We were talking about how we all need to make sacrifices in this life in order to follow Christ and build up His kingdom on the earth. It makes us think "what would I give up for the Gospel of Jesus Christ?" Would I sell all of my posessions and give the money to the church so they can build a temple? Would I walk 2,000 miles in the weather in order to follow a commandment? Maybe we aren't asked to do those things today, but the prophet has asked us to some other things like go to the temple frequently, attend all of our church meetings, fulfill your callings, be a member missionary, feed the missionaries, clean the church, go to mutual, be humble, give up your pride, repent, read the scriptures every day, or have family home evening. What are we willing to do to be called a disciple of Christ? To bear his name? I learned a lot from this discussion and I want to be a better missionary every day. I know that I'm not perfect but at least I'm trying every day.

Anyways, the reason why I was super surprised this week by your letter was becuase of that movie about Levi Savage. I was thinking the other day a lot about him and that somebody should make a movie about him. Well, time is up, I look forward to your emails next week. Have a good week.

Love,

Elder Child