July 6, 2015

Monday night I had an emergency companion change. The assistants to the President called us at about 9 30 pm to tell my companion, Elder Flores, that he is getting transferred. He had to leave the next  morning at like 8 am. So, I got a new comp, Elder Paucar. He is from north Peru, called Piura. He has one transfer left in the mission. He’s dying in like 9 weeks, then he’s heading home. It’s been a rough week this past week. It was a really fast change, and I wasn’t exactly ready for it.

We were teaching lessons and getting the numbers, but neither of us was feeling the Spirit this past week. I realized that I was having difficulties getting used to my new companion. He is really different from my old companion, Elder Flores. Elder Paucar is a good missionary it’s just that his personality is different from that of Elder Flores'. It’s been a tough change in that aspect. Elder Flores was really funny, liked to laugh, and honestly in the 2 months together we had never fought, not one time. It was great! He was humble and submissive. I hadn’t heard anything good about Elder Paucar from anyone, just a bunch of heads ups and warnings. Because of what I had heard and noticed from him, I did not feel very good about the transfer this week. But, realizing that it was obviously impeding me from having the Spirit, I have been praying all week to be able to overcome these feelings. I was feeling resentment for the transfer and not being able to love my new comp for a bunch of little things that he had been doing. So, after fasting this past weekend and praying, I was finally able to feel the Spirit again in my life. Yesterday was a much better day. I have honestly realized something about the power of prayer. I know that the promise that Christ gives us is that if we pray and ask in faith, we will receive what we need. But, I realized that that doesn’t mean we will get it right away. Not until I had literally done all that I could, God finally allowed me to change the feelings that I had in my heart. We are having companionship inventories and talking about how we can always be improving. That’s how we’re doing, and I can say that it’s a lot better now. My testimony of prayer and fasting has grown due to this and many other experiences.

Also, the area is going well. We have a baptism for this weekend of a young woman who is really excited for her baptism. She has understood and committed to everything. She started off unbelieving, and didn’t have a testimony about anything. She was a strange investigator for Peru. Normally the people here respect us as religious people and believe that we really are called of God (not by prophets). Because of the Catholic religion, everyone believes that we are more holy than others and we are teaching the word of God. Normally the people are really open about their lives from the beginning, and are ready to believe the message from the beginning. She started out really not showing emotion at all. She opened her heart little by little, exercising her agency, and through her efforts, her prayers, and the grace of God, she has gained a testimony of the Gospel. She is so awesome. Her name is Marina and little by little we have gained her confidence, and now she can laugh and open her heart to feel the message. Oh man, she is really great. When we taught about missionary work, she said that she would like to go on a mission. She’s 19 years old. Pray for her, that all can work out with her this weekend.

It is getting colder and colder here in Lima. For half of last week, yesterday and all night last night it has been lightly raining. Also, me and Elder Flores wanted the old mission pin (the only the really, really old missionaries in the mission have). When I got to the mission field, president stopped giving out the mission pins. So, we borrowed one from a missionary, and sent it out to make 25 more. It wasn’t too cheap, but we’re happy with the decision because they are really nice. We just have to wait until after the mission to wear them. I’ll send you a pic of it next week…maybe! I love my family! Give my best to all. Happy birthday to Becca and happy anniversary to you and dad. I didn’t forget I just didn’t have any way of telling you till now! Happy 4th of July to all, and happy b-day to Mary too. (I don’t remember her exact b-day.) Have a great week and remember to always be reading the libro(book) de(of) Mormon! 

Love,

Elder Wilson