This week our entire zone took the 5-6 hour bus trip down to Piura for a special mission conference with Elder Held from the seventy. We all headed down on Wednesday and had the conference on Thursday, but Elder Thompson and I had a special leaders conference with Elder Held on Friday, so we didn’t get back to Tumbes until Saturday. So that is where most of our week went, The conferences were pretty sweet with Elder Held. The guy is just on another level spiritually. He is from Columbia, but all of his family is from Germany, so he fluidly speaks Spanish and German, and also knows near-perfect English and Portuguese. It was kind of weird to see a white guy that spoke Spanish as his native language, haha. He spoke to us about being higher quality missionaries, and about being “MTC” missionaries, which is an acronym for “Misioneros de Tiempo Completo”, or, always being “full time missionaries”. He explained this as just talking to every single person at every single place at every moment, always looking to teach. This is something that I feel I could definitely improve on, and I’m definitely going to put it into practice.
While we were down in Piura, I also got to visit my old area in Ignacio Merino! It was super cool to go back there and surprise visit some of my converts and member families there. Like I said earlier, I just love the mission for all the incredible people that I have met here. There are just so many people that I have really grown to love and consider family. It’s awesome.
Also while down in Piura, me and Elder Thompson took a trip to one of the only American restaurants you will find here in the mission: Chili’s. We went all out and each paid a whole 33 soles for some awesome bacon burgers. It was definitely the most expensive meal I think I’ve had on my mish, but definitely worth it, haha. Good stuff.
On Sunday we saw a little miracle. Due to being in Piura all week, we were walking around Sunday afternoon trying to hit our weekly goals for our area. We weren’t really seeing any success, and we were still five new investigators short as the day rolled on. We then decided to go visit a member named Sharon and we had taught her uncle a few weeks back. Sharon is 24 and she leaves for her mission in Colombia in just a few weeks. The cool thing is that she is a convert, and despite being absolutely the only member in her family, she is super strong in the gospel. After chatting with her for a little, we headed over to her uncle’s house. The last time we taught her uncle, Armando, he was completely alone in his house and we figured that no one lived there with him. However, this time as we knocked on the door he opened the door and we saw his full family of 6 all sitting inside his living room! They invited us in and listened to our message on the restoration. They all had some doubts on what we talked about until they were put to rest by Sharon’s testimony. She honestly gave one of the most powerful testimonies I’ve ever heard. It was so cool to see her share and testify of what she knew to be true as the only member of her family. She has told us before how hard it is to be the only one in her family that believes in what she does, and says her family makes fun of her all the time. As she gave her testimony, her uncle’s family all sat quietly listening intently and without doubt feeling the spirit strongly. After she finished there was just a silence throughout the room and everyone seemed to be moved. It was such a cool experience. The family agreed to let us come back next week, and their interest seemed to be sparked. We were able to find a big family to teach and were able to reach our weekly goals of new investigators! It’s funny how the Lord always seems to provide a way!
Have a good week!
Avanza Su Verdad!
Elder Bailey
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