May- The Month of Miracles

April 29, 2019

A normal day of preparation, I must apologize I forgot to spell check the email I sent today so it was probably ugly! Today we went to Lambayeque and played soccer, we then came to the room to start washing clothes. I’m still not done.... I also got a haircut and it is not my favorite, no matter how many times mom says I look good! ha-ha but we also had a lesson with Jesus and Fresia and they want to get married this week so that was awesome news! Jesus said one day they were fighting, and he prayed for someone to talk to and that same day we had the feeling to go talk to them and we did!!! What a miracle for sure! I love you but I need to wash my clothes good night!

April 30, 2019

Today was a good day, it was our last district council with Elder Oliveros, so I bought him a cake, we then put happy birthday to his companion on the cake as a joke! I thought it was funny. We ate a ton and then I gave it to him as a gift. We got back to Jayanca and had lunch, rice and chicken and a palta. The town about an hour away is famous for its palta. They export them all over the world, so we eat some amazing, fresh, palta here like every day! They are the size of a softball! we then went out to teach, had some good lessons but none were super powerful. and came back to the room to eat dinner and memorize lessons! Woohoo!! ha-ha!! I love you good night.

May 1, 2019

Today was one of those days that was just hard to get out of bed. It was hard to get momentum and into the flow of things. We had all of our visits fall through and it opened us up to find a lot of new investigators which was awesome! I am so close to having lesson 2 memorized so that is been going good for me! Also last night I got eaten alive by mosquitos... face, arms, legs, feet and toes! I look like I have some sort of skin disease. Ha-ha just kidding. I love you I’m going to keep working on my second lesson good night!

May 2, 2019

Today we had interviews with PDT. and those are always good! sister Balderrama quizzed us on the lessons to see how many we have memorized... this is not uncommon she does this every 6 weeks. Well everyone is at lesson 4 or 5 or finished but I’m still plugging along at lesson 2... she said if I do not have it memorized by Sunday she is driving out to our room and will practice it with me until I have it all. It was more of a threat than a generous offer. Ha-ha but I am close to finishing it. President said he is proud of the work we are doing here in Jayanca, it is the 2nd hardest area in THE hardest zone to get baptisms. After 6 months without a baptism I have 5 in my 3 months! So that was good to hear! Along with the Elders in Motupe and Almos. Other than that, we had a good day in teaching, and I love you good night!

May 4, 2019

Today was one of my most spiritual lessons ever! We had lessons planned for the afternoon, but none worked out, so we went to a contact house. A house we had taken information but did not have a day set to go back and share a message. So, we went and visited her, the lesson started off good but when her brother came in and he is a pastor of some sort in the catholic church. He started off by saying that the Book of Mormon was impossible because the bible says there is only one Bible. We taught him about the Book of Mormon. Next and the main point of it all was he said the Church of Jesus Christ never perished. So we read him Amos 8:11-12, then read Acts 29:30-31 he said that Amos was in the Old Testament so it did not count because the law has been completed, I asked him when the law was completed? And if he believed in the Bible, he said yes, and I said you can’t pick and choose what verses are the word of God and what verses are not. And after Acts I asked when Jesus Christ and his 12 disciples died who had the authority to talk to God face to face and receive revelation? And he then wanted to move on to what is the Church of Christ exactly. So I read Ephesians 2:20, Mathew 10:1, Luke 9:1-2, and Rev. 1:1. Then asked him does the Catholic Church have a prophet, 12 disciples, the power to act in the name of God, and revelation? Because a church without 1 or all of these fundamentals is not the church Christ established here on earth. FREAKING QUEMO ESTE HOMBRE! That means I defended our faith in a polite and correct way, and none of his was with anger or hostile but a very calm questioning. I need to study lesson 2. I love you good night! 

May 5, 2019

Day of changes I’m staying in Jayanca 6 more weeks and with Elder Tituana. and he is now the District leader!

**I’m just going to put the last 2 days together**

May 6 and 7, 2019

Yesterday we had preparation day, so we went to Lambayeque and had a zone meeting to talk about goals and plans to better prepare for this month. We now have Mayo' el Mes de Milagros. May the month of miracles and afterwards we went to get ice cream. Then I went and bought a new camera for the computer. We got back to Jayanca and ate lunch washed our clothes which takes forever! Then went out to teach. We went by Jesus and Fresia to see how their excitement was doing for their wedding, Fresia was not there, Jesus said that some issues came up, and she does not want to get married anymore. Jesus who we all thought was taking lessons so that he could marry her said... you elders must promise me that if this wedding does not go through you will continue to visit me and invite the peace, and calmness into my home. My doors are always open to you guys and you have honestly changed my life. I went from a dark place doing bad stuff, to having a family of my own. He talked to us about his childhood and practically his whole life story in our short 2.5-hour conversation. We then went to changes this morning for my companion to get trained on how to be a new district leader. He’s happy and nervous! ha-ha I love you and good night

May 8, 2019

Last week I also finished lesson 2 so that was nice! Today we did not have many lessons with people, they were either not at home or did not want to talk to us. We then had the baptism interview for the parents of the family Damian Chavez. Christian passed and was super happy, but Hilda got stuck on question 4... so that was hard. we need to call Pdt. Balderrama and have him come out to finish the interview. Possibly cancel the baptism for this week. Jesus and Fresia are still struggling with some personal issues. We have more than enough faith to make it all work out, but this month will definitely need some milagros. I love you and good night

May 9, 2019

well today was a good day, we talked to a lot of people and had some good visits. but more than anything Pdt. called and said our branch Pdt. can do the baptism interview on behalf of him! One, because we are 2 hours from the office, and two so they can get baptized this Saturday! Also at changes I heard that Tatiana my first convert is preparing her papers to serve a mission. and her dad is getting baptized this week, and he was a DRINKER. We did not visit Jesus and Fresia today so no update on their relationship. I love you good night

May 10, 2019

Today was an awesome day! Elder Espinoza called and needed my companion to come and do an interview for a baptism, because he is the district leader. As we were driving we got a call that Fresia and Jesus wanted to get married today! We asked the branch members to come and do a family home evening at their house and afterwards they had a change of heart! So today we had two weddings and two parties for each one of them and my companion did not get to experience any of it! It is pretty funny because some other missionary is in all of the photos! Ha-ha we also had a lesson with the JW missionaries and that was fun. Hilda passed her interview for her baptism so her and Christian will be baptized tomorrow morning! I love you and good night

May 11, 2019

Today was a good day we left the room at 5 in the morning to fill the baptism font for Hilda and Cristian, it took a while and I’m so tired due to not getting my normal amount of sleep. But we then ended the interchange and Elder Tituan is happy to be back and sad he missed the wedding. I told him not to worry because he got to baptize Hilda today and got to leave Jayanca for a day. We then had the baptism, it was at 2 and the only people at the church was us and Pdt. Vasquez until 2:45 but we all kind of took a small nap while we waited... or maybe just me. We then had a lesson with this contact. turns out he was baptized in 2004 but is inactive. He asked us to give his son a priesthood blessing and I told him yes, your son will receive the health he needs when you come back to church. A blessing without faith is just a beautiful prayer, it has no healing powers. So, this will give him the opportunity to practice and exercise his faith. I love you and good night

May 12, 2019

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY MAMA!!! Well we had a good day at church I gave a talk and prepared nothing for it. I read a scripture and gave one of my best most powerful messages ever in my life! I was quite impressed and so were the members. but I do not want to toot my own horn too much, afterwards I called my amazing mother and she made my day! I love you mom and good night

May 13, 2019

I’m going to keep it short and sweet, the main highlight of today was that Jesus and Fresia want to get a divorce... we went and visited them, and they are at each other’s throats. some things happened and I feel terrible, and a major part responsible. But we are going to keep visiting them. I love you and please pray for them.

May 14, 2019

Today was a good day, we had a district meeting and it was the first for Elder Tituana and he rocked it! I also had some good input, and my companion gave me the best compliment ever. He said you have a great way of thinking. I feel so Latino because I’m the only gringo in my district and I understood them completely today and participate in meetings. Awe I love it! We also found a family married so milagro there= and accepted baptism on the first visit! they are rock solid! I love it, and I love you good night

The last three days have been super busy here, we have 40 new investigators so we have been planning and partying hard here, we had a multi zone conference and we went to Lambayeque so we could sleep there and be a lot closer to the office, when we got there I called the zone leader and told him we got in the wrong van and are in Pura, a city 6 hours away. He was like WAIT WHAT??!! Elder HARBERTSON! and I was like no I’m just kidding we are outside can you throw down the keys. He was pissed. We had roasted chicken then had a weird but awesome multi zone. One was a senior missionary couple who did not speak Spanish at all so kind of weird to hear English publicly. Usually it’s on the phone with zone leaders or my family on Mondays. The APs translated everything. We then spent all morning the next day at the offices because my companion had some immigration thing. It was so boring! It was just me and the secretary all day, but I got to see who all got their mission calls for the next 7 months to this mission. Jesus and Fresia today are happy as a clam and invited us over for dinner tomorrow! This is my last three days in a nutshell. I love you and good night

May 18, 2019

Today was a good day, no one was in their homes that we had planned to visit but it opened up the opportunity to pass by new people. We had a dinner planned with Jesus and Freesia, but something happened, and they canceled. I think their kid fell of a motorcycle or something, it sounded bad and Jesus left fast. So, we did a lot of walking today. We talked to like 40 people and one of them wanted us to come back tomorrow. It was overall a successful day! I love you and good night.