Monday, March 23, 2015

23 Mar 2015 Letter

Week 8? (I think)

Awesome week. Awesome. I love this place and I love the people here. I love all the Elders in my zone, they are the coolest. Last P day we all went to this big shopping center in the middle of Mission Lima Central. It was cool to see all the historical buildings there. And oh my goodness, so many people!! Like way more than Los Angeles. Way more. It is a way cool city. I would love to explore it some day maybe in the future. My English is getting worse as time goes on, so pardon me.

So Tuesday was really cool, I got to do my first exchanges. I spent the second half of Tuesday and the first half of Wednesday with Elder Morris over in area Campoy. It is poorer than where I am and was super cool. All of our plans went well and we taught 6 out of 6 lessons. So it was super fun and really nice to spend the day with a white boy and speak some good ol' English. I love that I was able to take part more in the lessons 'cause his Spanish isn't perfect either and it was also cool to be with someone who has been in my shoes before. He understands me really well. It was a successful divisiones!

The rest of the week was normal. Except Friday, we had a multizone meeting. 3 zones all nearby met up with the mission president and we had Elders give talks and do practice lessons with tough investigators (Presidente and his wife). Later he gave a talk and the assistants spoke. And we ate lunch and then watched Meet the Mormons (a huge treat apparently.) Also it was my first time watching it in Spanish so that was super cool. And I was able to see Elder Tadje again and talk a bit with him. I also got to see Elder Thorpe from my district in the CCM. We were both talking about how hard/awesome the mission is. He also has a Latino companion who doesn't know much English.

Saturday was the kicker. After lots of studying for our investigators and a beastly weekly planning session, we headed out of the apartment super stoked for the day. After about 6 hours of walking around, every single one of our appointments and all of their plan Bs fell through. We only got into one house, an active member. It was definitely my first disappointing day out here. I felt so heart-broken and tired and just dead. We got back to the apartment kinda depressed, not really even talking to each other much. It was definitely not cool. I prayed long and hard that night. I was trying to think about what we had done wrong, what we could have done better, and asked the Lord for help. After my prayers I was lying in my bed, all hot and sweaty, and I felt this overwhelming feeling of peace, that everything would be OK. And why wouldn't it? I realized there will always be days like this. I am not a perfect teacher and my students aren't always perfect either. It was a good day after all because I realized that my Heavenly Father is always with me.

And Sunday we had a lot of investigators show up to church and got a guy to commit to a baptismal date that we would never have expected. So it was a testimony to me that the Lord knows what to do. He knows best and I might not know why certain things happen but the Lord does. I just need to have faith in the Lord and put my trust in him. This mission will be super duper hard. But it can also be the best 2 years of my life.

Love,

Elder Wilcox

ps  I have officially gotten sick. I have had diarrhea for 3 days straight. I'm out of PeptoBismo haha. But I'm getting better so its all good. Good experience though right?
 
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Area Campoy

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