May 25, 2015

So, this week was a good week. I had an exchange in another area that has a ton of hills. It was crazy walking. I also got pictures from a service activity we did this past Thursday. It was really high up. We were removing dirt and rocks from the outside of this ladies’ house and bringing down like 50 steps of stairs so that she can expand her house (that is pretty much scrap wood and paint with dirt floors and big rocks holding it all together). I got some really good pictures…pretty nice view.

This week I conducted my first baptismal interview for this man in another companionships’ area. His name is Pedro. He got baptized this last Saturday. It was a really neat experience conducting the interview. It was long because he had forgotten a lot of things. But, he’s a man who really understands and wants to change his life to follow Christ in the correct way. It was a spiritual experience that I really enjoyed. Just yesterday we met with these two people who were going to get baptized this weekend. We met with them yesterday during the 3rd hour of church and we taught them the ten commandments, the Sabbath day, and the law of chastity. They accepted everything really well too! (Side note: It’s something that really surprises me here in Peru. I thought, going on my mission, that the hardest thing for investigators to be able to accept would be the word of wisdom, the law of chastity, tithing or something like that. Something big, right. But, honestly, the hardest thing for investigators to accept, and including just about every active member of the church, is keeping the Sabbath day holy. Work here is just so intense, and if someone doesn’t go to college, then they’re most likely gonna get a job that makes them work on Sundays. It’s so difficult to make a living. Even bishops here buy things on Sunday, as if they’re under the impression that if you want to buy food, then that’s ok. Anyway, just something that I recently realized.) These investigators are a couple, but they aren’t married nor do they live together. As we were teaching, they accepted really well the ten commandments, and the Sabbath day. This couple really wants to follow God. Then as we taught the law of chastity a few issues came up. Long story short, after meeting with them 3 different times yesterday, and them talking it over they were thinking about getting married so that they can comply with this commandment. After a lot of time, they decided that now that they know about the commandment, they are going to start to live it. They are a couple of 26 and 25 years old and they are so awesome. They want to get baptized pretty bad. Now they are going to see if marriage is in their future and if they will do it quickly! It was just really cool. Jefferson and Sandy are their names and they want to be obedient. They want to do everything they can to keep the commandments, and get baptized. A few personal reasons between them two, they are postponing their baptismal date for now. They are so cool and the first couple that I have taught that realized the sin that they were committing and wanted to do all that they could to correct it. Really awesome people!

Also on Saturday, we went to get a copy of the church key. We had to go farther into the city in order to find the right type of key. As we were there searching for someone that could do it, we saw this lady on the corner. She was far away and I didn’t really pay her any attention. As we started walking in her direction, searching for this key copy, she came up to us. She asked us if we were from the church of the Mormons. We said “yeah”, and she asked what we are teaching. So we explained it to her, and we asked if she lived close by. She then told us, in her words, that she is searching for men. That’s her job. Ahhhhhh!!!! Yeah, she said that, and we were out of there. It was weird too, because she’s like a 50 something year old lady. Probably more than 50! An interesting experience and I never want to go to the city again. Hahaha. I’ll never forget that.

umm, what else........We had a meeting with President and we will soon be having our last meeting with him. He’s finishing his mission next month so the whole mission is preparing for it…finalizing documents and inspections. President Douglas is finishing strong. He is so awesome! A truly great man.

I love the family. I’ve been thinking about everyone a lot this week. Give my love to everyone, as always, and to dad as well (even though he didn’t write me back).

Love,

Elder Wilson