Week 5 is now over. The next time I email I will be in the field. Crazy. I’m not sure when exactly that will be, but it will be from Piura. I can’t believe my stay here at the CCM is almost over. It feels like we were just barely unpacking our suitcases. Anyway, this week was super good with a ton of funny things that happened so I’ll just jump right into it.
Let me just start out by giving my boy Elder Ray a shoutout for downing 25 pieces of toast at breakfast on Monday which is a new CCM record. It took all he had but I didn’t expect anything less from Mr. Ray. I’m sure the record will stand for quite a while. Good times.
It’s weird that we’re going to be leaving in a few days because the CCM has become our home. I’ve gotten really used to the schedule and all the people here. I’m going to miss so many people but especially my district. Only me and Elder Kirkland are going to Piura out of the eight that makes up our district so I may never see some of them again. I do know that some of them have talked about BYU after their missions so maybe I’ll see them there. That would be fun. I’m really going to miss all the funny pranks and stuff we do here. One of the highlights of my week was running down the halls of the dorms on Sunday night yelling to everyone that Conner McGregor had knocked out Floyd Mayweather. As soon as I did this there was like 60 heads that immediately popped out of all the dorms. I tried to act like I was serious but I couldn’t help myself from laughing after seeing all the chaos I caused. It was the funniest thing ever. It’s so weird how the only source of information here comes in emails from home only once a week. I guess that can be a cool thing though because we are free from the distractions of the world here. It helps us focus on the work.
On Saturday we had our proselyting activity. To summarize, let me quote the wise words of Elder Ray, “Man that was the worst thing ever, but I want a lot more of it.” For most of us, it was a really tough, yet good experience. We all met in the Stake Center chapel which is right next door to the CCM. There we met a bunch of missionaries from the Lima East Mission and paired up with them. Me and Elder Webb were put with an elder from Chile, who knew no English. We headed out right away and got on a series of buses that were packed like sardines and heading up the mountain into what is nicknamed the “Land of Desolation”. I had never before seen anything like this place. There was garbage everywhere, and most people had just little shacks as houses. It was a super humbling experience as I got my first taste of what my mission will mostly be like. I felt like I had somewhat prepared myself mentally for the poverty I would see here in Peru, but I hadn’t enough. We went around in our little trio to each house to see who would hear our message. I was amazed to see how persistent the Chilean elder was. He would literally do anything he could to get people to answer the door. He would literally find the cracks in the doors and windows and would yell inside the house to get someone to come open the door. It was super funny, but it made me super uncomfortable and made me realize how different the South American culture is. Once we would get someone to open up to us, the Chilean Elder would do most of the work and would share a brief message about Christ and would try to schedule time for us to come back. Then he would turn to me and Elder Webb and told us to bear our testimonies to these strangers. We did the best we could, and then we would say a prayer.
This was such a crazy experience. I have never felt so dumb and unintelligent in my life. But I know the Lord was with me every second of the way. It’s ironic because even though I have never been so unsure of the grammar and pronunciation of what I was speaking, I have never been so sure of the things that I was bearing testimony of. The Lord works in mysterious ways and we just need to submit to His will and plan, as I have said before. Even though I was a little discouraged with things after this activity, I knew that I had learned a lot, and my own testimony was strengthened. I’m super excited to get out to my mission and change the lives of others. I know it won’t be easy, for nothing of worth EVER comes easy. But I know that it’ll be worth it to bring the joy of the gospel to others.
I hope everyone had a great week and I’ll talk to you soon! Like I said earlier, I’m not exactly sure when I’ll email next, so I’m sorry if it takes some time to respond to your emails.
Gracias!!
Elder Bailey
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