On Monday we went into Piura for P-day with some of the elders from our Zone. It was my second time going through the big mall there, and it was super sweet again. As I mentioned before, it’s basically identical to a mall back in the states or maybe a bit nicer. We just walked through some of the stores there and ate lunch in the food court. After the mall, we went to the giant flea market in Piura. Apparently it is one of the biggest markets in all of Peru. It was huge. There was so many shops and booths and everyone was just selling all kinds of stuff. It was pretty dang fun. Monday night we were able to teach Segundo again, and it was amazing! In just a few days he had read all of 1 Nephi, read all the pamphlets we had given him, and he had lots of questions. It was sooo awesome. We were able to answer all his questions and doubts an showed him a video of our living prophets and apostles testifying of Christ. He loved it. He has such a good understanding of everything we have taught, he is reading a lot, and he has the desire and faith to learn more. He is the perfect investigator, and I know he has been prepared. I can’t wait to teach him again. Too bad we have to wait until next week when he doesn’t have to work . . . He is definitely the best investigator we’ve had so far.
One funny thing that happened on Monday night was that when we got back to our room, we realized that we had left our keys in the room and the owners of the apartment building weren’t home to give us the spare key, so we were trapped in our building staircase for over two hours, waiting for them to come home so we could use their spare key. Those were some long 2 hours lol. Especially as tired and hungry as we were. So yeah, kind of funny. The mission is a test of patience a lot of the time ;)
Wednesday was Dia de los Muertos here in Peru (Day of the Dead). It is the day after Halloween where everyone pays tribute to their loved ones who have died. Back home, the closest thing we have to this is memorial day, but that doesn’t even compare to the size of the celebrations here. As a zone we did a proselyting activity near the cemetery in the midst of the huge crowds of people. The scene was pretty similar to the flea market in Piura. There were thousands of people there all going their different directions either going into the cemetery with flowers, or trying to sell something. It was kind of a crazy place to be. It reminded me of the opening scene from the latest James Bond movie if any of you have seen that (lol). There were also other religions and preachers there with their own beliefs trying to teach the people, so we had our work cut out for us. We had a table set up in the middle of the square where people could come up and ask questions and talk to us, but this table only had one set of missionaries. The rest of us went to work in the crowds. We went through trying to talk with anyone we could about their beliefs about their family members that have passed on, and tried to set up appointments to teach them more about what we believe in. We then would give them a pass along card or pamphlet. We probably passed out thousands of those little guys. At first we were kind of selective on who and when to give them out, but by the end, I was yelling out loud “Picture of Jesus Christ!” and waving them around and giving them to everyone that passed by. I definitely felt a little like a salesman like the the rest of the people there, but you never know how far a little image of Jesus with “lds.org” on it could go. Plus, were wrote our names and number on every single card so you never know. It was really funny to us to see how many people turned down a pass along card of christ even when we said it was free. Interesting. Overall it was a unique and fun experience.
Thursday and Friday were a test of our patience. On Thursday, every single one of our appointments fell through and on Friday we were only able to have one. It was kind of tough but some days are just going to be like that. Just gotta keep moving’ forward when the tough days come.
On Saturday we had companion exchanges. I went to the area of Elder Vilchez in Buenos Aires and his companion, Elder Newman came to our area here in Obrero. Exchanges are always an opportunity to see how other missionaries work and how they do things. I learned a lot from Elder Vilchez. He is from Lima and he is 27 years old. Kind of crazy to think that my companion was almost 10 years older than me. Elder Vilchez knows both the Book of Mormon and the Bible super well. he was able to answer any question anyone had with either the bible or the Book of Mormon. I thought that was pretty cool. I feel like I could maybe do that with the Book of Mormon, but definitely not the Bible. One of my goals for the next few months is to get to know the Bible better. The Book of Mormon and the New and Old Testaments all testify of Jesus Christ and his divine role as Savior and Redeemer. Both the Book of Mormon and the Bible are the words of God. The are equally important. I think it is important not to neglect one or the other. We can learn from both!
Well, that was my quick week here! I love you all and will talk to you next week!
Seguir Adelante,
Elder Bailey
“I attribute my success to this: I never gave or took any excuse.” - Florence Nightingale
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