Week 52

¿Qué tal amigos?

This week we finally got to meet President and Hermana Vega. On Wednesday we had a conference with all of the Zona Tumbes where we got some training from both President and Hermana Vega. They are definitely a change from Pres. and Hermana Rasmussen, but I really like them. They’re very by-the-book and are going to bring a lot of good change to the mish. Hermana Vega is all about living clean and eating healthy, and has been roasting the mission on how we have been living. I’m definitely a fan of eating healthy and living clean so I can’t complain on that change. One thing I really like about them is that they are fully-invested in their calling. During a little get-to-know-you interview with Hermana Vega, she explained to me and Elder Anticona how her and President Vega have sold their home, basically all their possessions, and have left their jobs and their family and friends to come here to serve the Lord for 3 years. Us missionaries obviously sacrifice things to be here as well, but it seemed to me as if they had left a lot behind in Colombia. It reminds me of the Book of Mormon; When the Lord called, “he was obedient unto the word of the Lord, [and] he did as the Lord commanded him.” What great examples. It really makes me question: what am I willing to give up to be obedient to the word of the Lord? 

Speaking of sacrifices, after our district meeting in Tumbes on Saturday we came across a small Venezuelan family consisting of a mom and two young boys selling candles in the plaza. They stopped us to ask where the nearest church building was. After giving them the direction to the nearest church, we started to ask them where they were from and what they were doing in Perú. The mom told us that just a little bit ago, they fled from Venezuela on foot to escape from all of the problems happening there. She said that they had walked for 6 days towards Perú, until a small bus offered to pick them up. They had left everything they owned in Venezuela with hopes of finding a better life somewhere else. What touched me the most out of their incredible story, was that despite being converts of only 4 months, and despite the limited number of items they could bring with them on their journey, they had carried with them a backpack that was filled with a Bible, triple (Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, Pearl of Great Price), Liahona magazines, and their limited-use recommends for the temple.  It was amazing to see such a humble family and that wherever they went, they wanted to make sure that they had the word of God with them.

Well I shouldn’t have joked about the freezing cold showers a few weeks ago, because now I would love to go back to showering at all, cold water or not. Like Elder Randall has mentioned in some of his emails, the water up here in the Tumbes region comes and goes like the wind. One day we have it, the next day we don’t. Unfortunately, the water this week decided to disappear, so this week we had the fun experience of taking bucket showers with the little drinking water we have. A bucket shower is better than nothing. But it's almost impossible to feel like you’re actually clean, especially when we have such little water to shower with. Hopefully we’ll get water soon! Moral of the story: Never take for granted your warm, running-water showers if you have them! The mission is an adventure :)

This past week we have been teaching three different young girls who are all going to be baptized on the 4th of August. Two of them, Lucero and Yemeli (both age 11), are kids of non-member parents who attend church and want to be baptized but aren’t married. The other, Lucilia (age 9), is part of an active member family who slacked off a little and never had their daughter baptized when she was 8. So we get to count her as a convert baptism for the missionaries, haha. They are all super young but for that reason I absolutely love teaching them. They understand lessons and doctrine so easily while adults with much more experience and education seem to struggle understanding sometimes. Little kids have their hearts and their minds open and are ready to be taught by the spirit. Hopefully everything will go well and we’ll have 3 baptisms on the 4th. Ojalá!

Auanza Su Verdad!

Elder Bailey