Week 9
Awesome stuff down here in Lima! So I found out that my area is actually one of the nicest areas around which was actually really humbling because I thought I was in the slums. And our room is one of the nicest in the mission. Crazy! Anyway this week was action packed so I'll just get started.
Monday was cool. For P-day we played soccer as a zone on a turf field for only 3 soles for 3 hrs. One dollar!!! And after we had a couple lessons, we are really struggling because we have plenty of investigators, but almost none of them are progressing. But we are doing a great job in reactivating, which is about half of our work out here.
Tuesday we had a trip to central Lima to migrations. I got my Peru ID and documents all finished. It took almost all day but it was fun because I got to meet up with a big portion of my district from the CCM. Three elders didn't show up because there were some crazy mudslides in the far end of our mission where they were. They are all safe. All the missionaries have been pulled out of Chosica and put in other zones for a while. The mudslide destroyed entire neighborhoods, and lots of homes have dried mud about 4 feet high in their homes. You can see the top of their stoves and stuff. Some sister missionaries can walk into their room through the window with ease and they live on the second floor!! So they have been doing a lot of service up there. My area was not too badly affected. They just shut off the water for a few hours a couple times this week. Oh yeah! And then after migrations we went to Papa John’s and I almost ate a whole pizza. It was one of the happiest days of my life. Rice is good and all, but a break was amazing.
Wednesday we had our district meeting and lessons all day and the same with Thursday. Friday we went on exchanges with the Zone leaders. And that never happens but it was cool, ‘cause Elder Bischoff, one of the gringo zone leaders, has 23 months in the mission and is super cool. I learned a lot from him and he is a great missionary. We went knocking doors in the poorest area I have ever been in. He serves over in Campoy on the other side of the Elder I went on exchanges with last week. It is wayyyyy poor there and even dustier than my area. And at one house, a random guy who knew nothing about the church let us in, and after a five minute lesson he accepted baptism. It was my first time anyone had let us in to teach right then, and he wanted to be baptized. So that was awesome.
The next day, Elder Bischoff and I studied together and he said something really cool. He was talking about how we have the authority from God to teach as the Lord would teach if He were personally ministering here. If we are obedient, He will give us the power to say and do what He would say and do. He asked me,” Have you ever had anyone reject you?” I obviously had, some the day before with him. Earlier this week, a guy we were teaching said he had no confidence in me because I didn’t know enough Spanish to fully understand him, and he said God would never send someone like that. Then he asked us to leave. This was one of our investigators too. I felt awful. I wondered, if I am only making things worse, if I can't talk to or understand people well, then why am I even here? But Elder B. said that we just need to be direct and tell people what they need to hear. Jesus was very direct. He was also the perfect missionary. And what did the people do? They didn’t like Him at all. In fact they really hated Him and how He made them feel. He knew what they needed and they got angry. And what did they do? They killed Him. They crucified the Savior of the world. They weren't ready. If they are, they will accept our message. Anyway it was a really cool way to look at missionary work and the hard times we very often have. It remotivated me and it was exactly what I needed to hear because this last week was really hard. We had a lot of failure and people yelling at us and some being really mean only to me. Whether it was ‘cause I am super tall and skinny, or white, or new in the language. But I am better now.
Oh I also gave my first 2 blessings in Spanish. Super scary!!! But afterwards both of these ladies were crying. And a good cry too. So I guess the spirit told me what to say ‘cause I had no idea.
'til next week,
Elder Wilcox!
ps I don’t know what I ate or drank, but it was bad and it comes back like every other day. I think I just need to get used to the food here. Yayy crocky. What a survivor. Good thing Hyrum didn’t eat him.
#ElderWes
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