Happy 5 months to me :)
MONDAY: A stressful P-day. We found out while we were lying in bed that P-day had been moved to Tuesday. We tried not to be too disappointed, but we were kind of exhausted.
In the end, it basically turned into a P-day.
[Kate has been having some problems with her knee and it sounds like things are getting worse. The doctors have not been able to “find a reasonable conclusion” for her problem. She has asked for , “a prayer or two on my behalf certainly would not hurt.” We plan to fast for Kate, and specifically for her knee, this coming Sunday and invite any who would like to join us.]
But everything is going to be just great. I know it. The Lord has never guided me wrong before. Theme song of the week: Sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven. :)
TUESDAY: We went to the temple! Hallelujah! Boy did I need it! There’s nothing like the peace you find there. Took a nice P-day nap before we hit the streets again. We met M. He is a single father and reference from a member. He was very interested and didn’t claim any religion, which is a miracle right there in itself. The only thing is now we have to be able to find him again, which seems to be a common problem…
WEDNESDAY: It was one of those days where we felt like we did a lot, but when we finally made it home to plan, we realized we had hardly gotten anything done. But hey, I guess that happens sometimes. We just get to wake up and fly again the next day.
THURSDAY: Thanksgiving!
I’m actually really glad it’s not a thing here. It makes it a lot easier to forget that I’m thousands of miles away from the ones I love. But I’ve sure got loads to be grateful for this year both here and there. I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving, with no fewer than 5 slices of pie. :) We had a really neat lesson with this woman, E., who we’re trying to get baptized. Her mom and husband are recent converts, but she’s a little tricky. She says she feels happy and good about her family and everything. She doesn’t really see why she needs to be baptized. But she keeps all the commandments, goes to church every week, everything. I’m trying to pull a Nacho Libre tactic on her. :) Our ward mission leader took us out for Thanksgiving dinner for Pollo a la Brasa which is a big thing here in Peru. There’s a Pollo a la Brasa on every corner. It’s basically just that rotisserie chicken that you can get at the supermarket but Peruvians have special feelings about it. But it was nice. I just pretended it was turkey. :)
FRIDAY: So we’ve been trying really hard to get our contacts in this week. It’s a challenge we have with the mission. We have a promise that if we do them, our investigators will progress faster. So we’re like alright, we get it, we’ll do it. And it’s crazy. When you follow the counsel, miracles happen. We got a phone call from someone we had contacted the night before who we shared a card with just really briefly. He was explaining his story to us over the phone. He had been a drug addict for years but had been clean for one month. That day we found him however he had been feeling really depressed and was literally at the door of his dealer about to knock when we handed him the card and went on our way. He told us that he had read the card and felt that he just couldn’t fall again and walked around the block 10 times before finally going home. He had gone to the chapel that morning to find us and thank us, but it was closed. But he came to church on Sunday and everything. Turns out he lives on the elder’s side of the ward, but still, such an amazing story, experience, everything. You could just see how touched he was by it all and now he’s ready to change. He has an 8 year old daughter that he hasn’t seen in years, due to his state, but wants so badly to change for her.
Ahh. It is really amazing how the Lord puts people in our paths and guides us. Because we went home a different way than usual and we didn’t think anything of it until he called. So incredible! Ahh the mission. :)
SATURDAY: We celebrated the birthday of Hermana Pajara (that’s bird in Spanish, Mom) which basically means we worked all day just with some extra cake in between.
SUNDAY: The Primary program. It was adorable. Nuf said. F. was crying the whole time. He said it reminded him of his daughter (our miracle of the week).
We lost our competition against the elders for contacts, which means we have to buy them Papa Juans. Whatever. We’re only a little bitter. We contacted 100 people. The standard of excellence per day is 15. That’s crazy. At this rate we will have met all of Lima by Christmas which, I might add, is in like 3 weeks.
The mission really is unlike any other experience; the highest highs and the lowest lows, disappointments and miracles in every hour, but it’s incredible, beautiful and insane all the same.
Happy 5 months folks!
Love you all!
Love,
Hermana Anderson
“Did I not speak peace to your mind concerning the matter? What greater witness can you have than from God?” D&C 61: 22-23 #ponderize
