It has really been a big adventure
up to this point in my mission. I'm so grateful to my Heavenly Father
for all the things that have happened in the past 23 months 3 weeks. I
absolutely cannot believe that this is my last letter home, it feels so
weird to type this letter knowing that I wont be able to add anymore
words after these. It kind of makes me feel like Moroni as he was
writing his last words to us, I'm sure he thought about it a little more
than I have but it puts it in perspective. I was so happy to read your
emails today, it sounds like winter is coming with with full force now
as October winds down and November starts up. I just hope all the leaves
fall before I get home so I don't have to do a bunch of raking my first
week back!
For me this week was real test. It didn't start out
so well becuase nobody wanted to listen to us and a bunch of
appointments fell through. That's nothing new but I kind of freaked out
becuase I thought there's no way this can happen at the end of my
mission, I have to be perfect from here on out. So those kinds of
thoughts definately do not help the Spirit. But I trusted a lot in
goodness and mercy of my Heavenly Father and He ended up blessing us. We
worked pretty hard the last few days of the week and I just put the
shoulder to the wheel hoping for good results. Then Sunday came. Sunday
morning wasn't that cool because none of the investigators that said
they were going to come to church actually came, frustrating. But in the
afternoon we had a really good Branch Counsel where the Branch
President layed down the law a little bit and encouraged everyone to
actually work in their callings and take this more seriously. I like
that in a leader, it doesn't really happen that much here in this part
of Peru. So then after the good branch council the Lord blessed me with
one of the coolest experiences of my mission.
Three days ago we contacted and taught a lady that
goes to the Seventh Day Advent church. She accepted another appointment
and wanted to hear more but she told us she was already baptized and
that it was okay to keep talking to her but she didn't really expect to
get baptized again. That's kind of discouraging but we planned
accordingly to teach the Restoration and have her gain a testimony of
Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. So we passed by after the Branch
Council and we started talking about the Restoration a little bit but
then the conversation got turned to baptism. My comp started teaching
baptism again and I didn't really know why but while he was teaching I
felt the strong impression to talk about the Gift of the Holy Ghost and
emphasize that. So we started talking about the Gift of the HG and she
actually understood really well the importance of recieving the Holy
Ghost. She admitted that she hadn't recieved the laying on of hands and
felt like she needed to do it. When we felt it was right we challenged
her to get baptized and she just stayed there, thinking. Then she
started to tell us how last night she had a really powerful dream. She
dreampt that she was dressed in white with all her family and they were
outside the church (our church) and she was about to get baptized. She
knew she had to get baptized again and she felt like god was telling her
to do it but she didn't understand why. That is, she didn't understand
till we taught her exactly what she wanted to know. Then she accepted
the baptismal challenge for the 24th of November! It was really awesome
and I know that the Lord prepares people to accept His gospel right when
they need it.
Unfortunately I'm not going to be able to see the
wedding and baptism of that family. It turns out they need to wait 15
days then they can get married. They're going to do it and wanted me to
be there but its just not going to be possible till the 16th. I'm just
grateful for the modern blessings of technology so I can keep talking to
them and can see their baptismal pictures.
I hope this letter finds you all well. I'll see you
all in the Salt Lake Airport on Wednesday November 7th. Hope I recognize
you all! Have a good week and take luck.
Love,
Your Son and Brother,
Elder Child
