Wednesday, April 17, 2013

April 1-15, 2013

April 1, 2013
All continues to go well. The ward is super excited because after going through a very sad streak of poor attendance, it finally bumped up to 110 people this Sunday .  They only had about 50 to 60 people going before.  In  these past 3 weeks we´ve really seen the fruits of having 4 missionaries in one ward, two of which being the hardest working sister missionaries in the entire mission. It really is inspiring to see how dedicated sister missionaries can be to the work.  Chambeadoras.
For the first time in my mission, or at least for the first time in a while, we our actually teaching families. We´ve found several wonderful couples that have a lot of potential and Maria Felicita has proven to be even more of a gift from God because her son, Henry  turned out to be a member.  He got baptized in 1994 and has been inactive for 15 years. He now has a wife and son who is 6. He´s got every desire to go back to the church and is understanding the message clearer than before.  The 4 of them went to church on Sunday. Also, we are teaching another young girl, 19, that has a baptismal date for the 21 of April. We hope to see progress in the couples that we have found, though. Pray a lot for them. 
On Tuesday the assistants came out to do a work visit with us.  It was cool having Elder Iribar in the room for two nights and we talked about all the memories we had in Lopez Albujar when we were just starting the mission.  On Wednesday we had interviews with the President and in the afternoon he went tracting with us.   When we were teaching Henry it started raining and he just so happens to live in a hilly area without paved roads.  When we left his house it was raining cats and dogs and we had to hop around the mud downhill and try not to fall. The president is still quite agile, but Elder Muralles took a funny spill and was covered in mud.  We got back to the room drenched.  I’d say it was quite the memory with President Rowley.   We will be taking a bus out to Piura for a monthly zone leader council in the mission home.  I’m not looking forward to 6 hours in a cramped bus.  Anyways, life is going well. I enjoy every update that you give me and your words of counsel are very appreciated. Hope all is well at home. Enjoy the snow.    
April 8, 2013
We had a made a nice trip to Piura last Monday.   It was a long 5.5 hour drive in a cramped bus but arrived at the mission office and had a great time talking with a few of the elders that are working there. One was  Elder Pereyra, my son, and one was Elder Peralta, my ex comp. We had the zone leaders council on Tuesday and ate Pizza Hut for lunch (sooooo good) and then traveled back up to Tumbes.   The other zone leaders are cool and we see them a lot. One of them is from the states and is a good friend.  You´ll see pictures of us frolicking through an open field after dropping some missionaries off at the small Tumbes airport yesterday. 
 
 
General Conference was amazing. We went to all the sessions in the stake center. The only session that filled up was on Sunday morning.  The two big themes were definitely preaching the gospel and families.   

Today we played soccer in a coliseum with the other zone.  I have never sweated so much in my life as I do here.  Even though we were out of the sun for a change it was still super hot.  Love you family. Thanks for the updates on your lives.  Hope all is well.


April 15, 2013    21

Wow, can you believe it?  I’m turning 21. What a shock. But to be honest, I don’t even feel it. Maybe it´s because I’m in the mission and I can’t really celebrate, or I am just getting old and birthdays are less exciting now, but it´ll be like any other day.  I’m sure my pensionista and her daughter are going to smash eggs over my head.   We´ll just wait and see. But thanks to everyone for writing and wishing me a happy birthday!


This week went well and I’ve got some news to report... Maria got baptized yesterday! That viejita (oldy) is so awesome. She has such a warm spirit and funny personality. I was able to baptize her. When I entered the font I realized that the drains on the walls were clogged. The water was about 1 inch from the top and still filling. There was no time to turn off the water or open the drain because we were already in the water! So we went on with it.... 10 gallons of water went pouring out of the font, soaking the two witnesses. haha. But it was a pretty service and she bore a powerful testimony on Christ afterwards.  She is my second oldest convert (78) with the oldest being Eva, 82. There is another girl, Jany, that we have been teaching that will get baptized this Saturday.

 




Today we went downtown and took pictures near the river on a big walkway that they built in 2003, then in a park called ¨Kiss park¨, and then by a cool art piece in the central plaza of Tumbes. It is a pretty beautiful city with lots of stuff to see... considering what I’m used to in other areas.
Love ya´ll      Elder Farmchico

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