Tomorrow is the 4th of July and I'm in Perú, so happy birthday America. I love you. I loved what you said about the 4th and to just go to work and that I was able to have the freedom to choose to serve this mission. Thanks Mom! That meant a lot.
Welp, I'm staying out here in Moche, so I'm hyped about that. We´re about to get 2 new elders in this district. Elder Scott is leaving and will be with Elder Chiza. He is the only elder I've ever seen who is allowed to have a long braid. He is from a tribe in a little pueblo in Ecuador and they aren't allowed to cut their hair so they are allowed to have that on the mission. It's super cool actually. They are direct decendants from the Lamanites. Elder Mich is also being transferred and Elder Daza is about to train a new missionary.
This week has blown by. Every night I came home super tired and with a headache, but we are good. It's been a great week! On Tuesday I had an interchange with Elder Mich over in Salaverry (the beach town.) His area is the best. I love it. First off, that morning when we went to eat breakfast, I went to shake the pencion's hand. She is like 73 years old, and she goes, “Nope! I don’t do handshakes, I give hugs” and she hugged me! But she's been a pencion for 30 years and she's super old, so I hugged her back haha. It was weird but it was like a little "mom hug", so that was cool.
Later we went to this part in Elder Mich's area which is called an “invasion”, which is a sand hill that the government opens so people can build their houses for free. We went to the very top where we found a less active member who lives in a house made of pallets and cardboard.. Wow how humbling. He literally lives on sand in a cardboard house. It was super humbling, honestly.
Elder Mich and me. These are the homes on the invasion.
Also we gave 3 blessings that day. It was awesome. We gave one first to Hermana Guerrero and she wanted me to give it in English.. Wow, I could barely do it haha. I haven't given a blessing in English for a while and I kept screwing up and saying words in Spanish. Pretty nuts, but it was a great blessing.
This week we also taught Melissa and Juan about the Law of Chastity. They still don't have any info for Juan's divorce so I don't think they will be able to get baptized on the 5th, but we will keep it up and pray for them. They're a great couple!
We found this couple this week who are CHOSEN and prepared hardcore! They are Victor and Ebilyn and they have a son, David, of 16 years. Anyway we were knocking doors in this neighborhood and we decided on a new approach - to offer service. We knocked a couple times on their door and nothing. We started to walk away when the man called us back. We said, "Sir, do you need help with anything?" He said, "Well... at this moment no, I'm busy.. but I know you two are going to be able to help me out a lot. Come back Thursday." We didn't think much of it, came back Thursday with a member (she knows them), we start talking and he told us that when we came by last time, he was at the back of the house.. very back, like in the backyard and they have like a big wall around their yard (little more developed.) He said he had his music in his ears and he cranks it.. (like me) and normally doesn't hear anything. He normally just tells "people like us" that he's busy.. but he decided to see what we wanted. When we offered to help him and nothing else, he knew that we were sent to him for a reason. We talked for an hour and a half and they are so cool! They are without work now and feel abandoned and don't know what they did wrong for God to "castigar" (punish) them.. sorry I forgot the word in English. We left them the Plan of Salvation pamphlet and invited them to church. Claudia (the member) went by and got them for church on Sunday and they stayed all 3 hours!! They read the folleto.. (brochure) unheard of haha, and he said, "Do you have a Book of Mormon? I was reading in the folleto (brochure) and couldn't find some of the scriptures and want to read more." WHATTTT?? Also he went to the self efficency class that night. Yeah.. they are CHOSEN. All because we decided to listen to the spirit and offer help that day. I'll keep you updated on them.
Vilma and Jessi are doing great. Didn't come to church but Vilma is sharing the Book of Mormon with her friends and giving us references. She's so cool. Also she's been saying things like, "When I get baptized.." etc.. It's like when a couple who is dating says, "WHEN we get married" haha it was super cool.
We also found this awesome family through a young taxi driver. They had a ping pong table.. we spent about 20 minutes playing ping pong with them that night. We are going to play futbol with them today as well, so yeah, they're awesome.
Steicy´s baptism was this last week and it went great - except I had to put her under 3 times... First I screwed up and didn't say "y" (and) during the baptismal prayer one of the times.. ugh. She was cold and she didn't plug her nose right so she didn't want to do it again. Finally she said she would do it again when I told her I would plug her nose and then her elbow popped up out of the water that time... UGH. She didn't want to do it a third time because of fear and being cold. But I got the impression to tell her, "Mira, Jesus esta contigo ahorita. Le puedes sentirlo?.. Esta contigo, te prometo." (Look, Jesus is with you right now. Can you feel it? He's with you, I promise.) After that her whole face changed and she decided to try one more time. That time I made sure I said it right and dunked her all the way to the ground. Her mom cheered her up as she changed and she was glowing after. Also, Jessi went to the baptism! It was a great day. We were hyped.
Us with Steicy on her baptism day. She's so adorable.
Me, Steicy and Elder Aldea
Steicy and her parents with us at her baptism.
We're gonna help out some more people this change and work our butts off! I'm loving it. Everyone have a great week! Gospel is true, America is red, white and blue. Haha Cuidan todos!!! Les amo mucho! (Take care all. I love you a lot.)
Tu patriota fiel (Your faithful patriot), Elder Rokovitz
Tu patriota fiel (Your faithful patriot), Elder Rokovitz
Us missionaries after a talent show.
At the talent show.
Zone conference.
Me and the Testigos (the Jehovah Witness church.)
