Week 79

Hey ya'll!

Great first week in Los Pinos!! Honestly I am loving it here in this area. Things are fresh and new, and here we have a incredibly solid ward. In just the first few days here, I think I got more member help than I've had in the past 4 areas that I've had in the mission. Our ward mission leader, Walter, is an RM that just got back from Arequipa and he is such a stud. He's always right there with us and ready to go to work. Also, my companion Elder Morgan is the man. He's super on top of things and is ready to work hard in our area and with the zone this transfer. We have a bunch of awesome things planned for our zone for the next few weeks. Let's go!!

Right now, we currently have two investigators who look like they should get in the water pretty soon. One, named Rosa, is an older lady who has been quite the eternal investigator through the years. When we went to teach her on Wednesday, I was blown away that she was not a member. She seemed to already know just about everything we had to teach her. It has been just recently that she has decided that it is her time to be baptized. We're pretty excited for her. Right now she has her date for the 9th of February. The other, named Arturo, has also been investigating the church for some time now, and like Rosa, he feels like he's ready to finally be a member. His goal right now is for the 16th. It was pretty great to arrive here to this area and to see that we have some progressing investigators. There seems to be a lot of potential here!

This week we had "consejo de lideres" (leaders council). As normal, President Vega and us leaders went over our numbers for the last transfer, set new goals, and discussed what is going on in the mission. The mission seems to be down a little bit in our baptisms, but we were able to set some goals and make some new plans to get us rollin' again. During the council, a few elders complained that due to a lot of the rule changes that President Vega brought to the mission, a lot of missionaries feel like the mission isn't "fun" anymore, and that things "just aren't the same". I stood up and did my best to explain my point of view that we as a mission need to trust in President Vega, and trust that he is called by the Lord to lead this mission at this time, and that he has the Priesthood keys to receive revelation for us. Even if we don't personally agree with something that they are doing, we ALWAYS need to trust in our church leaders. We need to trust that they have been called by revelation to lead and guide us. Trusting in the Lord means trusting in the people that He sends to lead us! Overall, leaders council was a good time. Its always a good time to go and to see all the mission buddies there, including Elder Randall, who recently got his new assignment to work in the office as the health secretary of the mission. He's doing big things!

On Friday we had our ward missionary night! Elder Morgan and I filled up a few hundred water balloons and some big buckets of water and we had a giant water carnival. We had apple bobbing, tug of war, and of course, the huge water balloon fight at the end. We had a pretty great turn out and had quite a few investigators show up. It was mostly our job as the missionaries to get people wet, but at the end everyone took advantage of the opportunity to peg the elders with some balloons and got us pretty wet. It was a good time. Again, super awesome to be in a ward that helps out with our activities!

This week I was reading the story of Jacob and Sherem, the anti-Christ in Jacob chapter 7. I love what Jacob says in verse 5:

5 And he had hope to shake me from the faith, notwithstanding the many revelations and the many things which I had seen concerning these things; for I truly had seen angels, and they had ministered unto me. And also, I had heard the voice of the Lord speaking unto me in very word, from time to time; wherefore, I could not be shaken.  

Despite all the cunning words from Sherem that Jacob heard, he knew 100% where his faith was, and had his testimony to fall back on and he "could not be shaken". I just love that. Our goal should always be to have the faith and the testimony strong enough so that we "cannot be shaken" by what is in the world today, and to always know where we stand!

Avanza Su verdad!

Elder Bailey