The White Rollercoaster

This week has been super up and down. The week started off on a HUGE spiritual high and then I hit a HUGE crash for 2 days. Now I'm just normal-ish, getting better. 

We had some good lessons on Monday and Tuesday. Monday, Hermana Jacquline put the team on her back. Took us out to a little dinner/snack “lunch”, she's awesome! Tuesday we taught Henry and he's doing really good. He wanted to know more about where the dead go (his uncle recently passed away.) We talked and expounded more on the Plan of Salvation. Hermano Alex, who accompanied us, is the head director for the Stake for the temple and family history, so that worked out perfect! Henry's doing good... he couldn’t come to church but hopefully he comes next week. 

Later the next day we were in a lesson with an old investigator couple. The whole time they just spoke monotone and about irrelevant stuff, plus they would only look at my companion for some reason.. I caught myself completely OUT, mouth open, asleep, twice! Haha, it was horrible but they didn’t even notice. 

The next day is when things got bad. I woke up with a head cold and feeling like crap. We went to go do a service on a 3rd floor roof (cement flat roof.) We were pulling dead vines off the roof. I was pulling some by a wall and didn’t notice there was a hole (it was covered with thin boards and stuff.) I fell in halfway and scraped up my leg pretty bad.. it hurt. If I would’ve fallen forward instead of backward, I would’ve had a 2 story fall and wouldn’t be here at all. The Lord was definitely watching over me! 

The next day my companion was upset for some reason.. no idea why! I was already having a bad day, still being sick.. I basically did weekly planning alone. Afterwards I went into the bathroom for an hour.. cried like a baby, to be honest. That sucked. I had just felt alone all morning. I was sick, my companion wasn’t talking to me, when I did my studies I couldn’t study, I just felt blank and sat there for the hour. Tried reading my patriarchal blessing.. nothing, just felt blank and alone. Super hard day. My companion goes home next week and he is getting stressed and tense, which is becoming.. fun.. but! Only one more week. It's FLOWN by for sure. 

The next day I just had to get over it. Had a good leader's meeting in the morning, we taught the District Leaders here and talked about the Zone. Hoping to have a better month as a Zone this next month. Elder Mott and I then had an interchange. It was pretty decent.. literally walking all day haha, I was EXHAUSTED. On Saturday Elder Mott and I committed a BUNCH of people to come to church. We hyped them all up and committed a ton. On Sunday we had 10 at church!! We went and got 2 families plus 2 more. The hermano Jose that I talked about last week came with his family. It was super awesome, we were hyped! 

To answer your question, yes, we are super close to the temple and people always ask us about it. When we get in taxis they ask us about that or the Book of Mormon. We usually walk everywhere. There are taxis and "convis", which are like crappy mini buses.. I hate those but they're cheap. And bikes.. basically no one has them haha. Very few ride bikes!  

But yeah, pretty up and down week. Elder Velasquez and I went HAM this morning working out…….. anyway, love you all! Talk to you again in a week.. and happy Halloween!!! Basically doesn’t exist here.. haha.

Tu fiel, Elder Rokovitz 

                                                                               

This is a churron. I bought it when the parade came through town. (Parade picture was posted last week.)

Interesting statue Elder Greer and I found when we were together last week.

Chillin' with Elder Greer after a long day.

Enjoying the lunch Ana brought us last week while we had to stay in during the census.

Thank you Mama Ana.

Doin' what I do best - photo bombing the hermanas.

Zone picture after playing soccer.

Me in the soccer stadium.

Me and the boys.

My boys.

Lunch with Hermana Jacquline.

With Hermano Tapia

Me and Elder Andrade

Us with Hermano Tapia

                                                                   

Don't Lie

Pretty eventful week to be honest. The first 3-4 days were super chill though. Started off with a good NDH (family night) with Mariela and her husbad, so that was fun, plus they gave good refreshments. 

On Tuesday we had the Multi Zone conference. My companion and I were asked to give a short presentation/demonstration on how to teach Lesson 1 (the restoration) to a member and get a reference from them without asking, “Hey, do you have a reference for us?” in front of the 3 zones. We KILLED it! It was a super spiritual presentation! The “member” we were teaching was Elder Stroud. I recited the first visión, then we shared a scripture and in the end we gave him a Book of Mormon to give to his friend “Marc”. It was funny because Elder Stroud's first name is really Marc. My companion didn't know that, so I told him right before the demonstration, “Hey let's use the name of Marc for the member's friend.” Hahaha, Elder Andrade was the first to say it in the presentation. Right as he said it, Elder Stroud goes super red and surprised then looks right at me. I wink at him, and he sits there trying to hold in his laugh in front of half the misión and President Rios, hahaha oh boy, that was good! 

                                                                                

The group we taught for the Multi Zone conference.

With a few of the elders from the conference.

A few more missionaries that were at the conference.

The next day I went OFF in my studies about faith for our investigator, Henry, and it was bomb!! I first pulled out the GEE - Guia para los Estudios de las Escrituras..only in Spanish scriptures (Guide to the Studies of the Scriptures) and I found a bunch of great definitions and examples. Then I found Alma 32:40-43, which I never honestly realized was so cool. (40. And thus, if ye will not nourish the word, looking forward with an eye of faith to the fruit thereof, ye can never pluck of the fruit of the tree of life. 41 But if ye will nourish the word, yea, nourish the tree as it beginneth to grow, by your faith with great diligence, and with patience, looking forward to the fruit thereof, it shall take root; and behold it shall be a tree springing upunto everlasting life. 42 And because of your diligence and your faith and your patience with the word in nourishing it, that it may take root in you, behold, by and by ye shall pluck the fruitthereof, which is most precious, which is sweet above all that is sweet, and which is white above all that is white, yea, and pure above all that is pure; and ye shall feast upon this fruit even until ye are filled, that ye hunger not, neither shall ye thirst. 43 Then, my brethren, ye shall reap the rewards of your faith, and your diligence, and patience, and long-suffering, waiting for the tree to bring forth fruit unto you.) The lesson with Henry was awesome! He had read Ether 12 and is seeming to change a bunch. Hopefully we can get him to come to church next week. 

We also had a bunch of lessons this week, 4-5 a day.. which is like 2 above average. Plus we had the majority of them with members present. 

On Friday we went off cleaning and organizing the room (like I do with every new room I get.) It's super clean now, easier to feel the spirit. Later that day we had a super great lesson with Mariaelena. We just planned on verifying her OLA - orar, leer, y asistir (pray, read, and attend.) She invited us in and we asked about her Book of Mormon studies. She told us "bad..", because her brother stole her Book of Mormon to read and left to Chao haha. So we gave her another one. When we gave it to her I gave her a tarjetita (little card) to mark the page. When I do that, I usually give one with the picture of Jesus in Gethsemane, Comparision to the Book of Mormon and Bible, or Christ in the Americas. This time I felt different for some reason and felt impressed to give her one with a picture of the temple. When I did, she asked what that was and commented she had seen it before. We had a great opportunity to talk about temples, their function and mainly about eternal marriage (which she was VERY interested in.. she is 23 and co-living right now..) I teared up, being super spiritual and we could just see her light up as we spoke of eternal marriage. 

Later that night when we got to the pension's house, Franco, one of Elizabeth's returned missionary sons.. and the oldest, was flipping through the channels on the TV when I heard “duh duh du duh duh DUHHH.” Dang right, Fox Sports was showing Thursday night football.. Chiefs vs. Raiders.. I don't even like the Raiders but I couldn't help but tell him to leave it there while we ate, super apostate… BUT what can you do? Second time I had seen football in straight a year and a half! Got a good 10 minutes of the 2nd quarter. Love it. 

Onto more missionary stuff - the next day I went on an interchange with…… Elder GREER! Yup, who woulda thunk it? Met before the mission, sat next to each other on the plane, companions for a day. Super great day. I felt super bad though.... we went to the house of one of his investigators and a 5 year old girl answered the door and goes, “My parents aren't home.” I knew a lie when I heard one. I go, “Don't lie! Your mom is here!” She goes, “No she isn't.” I go, “Yes she is! Where is she then?” She goes, “En el cielo…. (in heaven).” Yep. I about punched myself in the face. Hahaha super funny, but wow, I felt like a tool! 

On Sunday it was the National Censo (counting everyone in the country) so we couldn't leave the house until 5 p.m. Hermana Ana brought us pizza on Saturday for our lunch though, and we made really good pita bread, tuna, cheese, and ham sandwiches. Basically an extra p-day so it was good. 

Also we saw some straight miracles on Sunday. We first had a super good NDH (family night) with la familia Robles and they gave us Panetón después, which was awesome. Then one of our investigators took us to his friend's house, (we only had 5 new people for the week up to that point.) We knock on the door, he lets us in.. 7 people in the house! Two escaped, but we got 5 more new people to teach. It was a super awesome miracle we saw! Not only that, they were skyping their daughter that's in Argentina with her husband. First lesson over Skype, pretty cool. At the end of the lesson I go, “I wish I could give you guys this folleto (pamphlet). Maybe I'll try to throw it through the screen”, then I pretend to do it. She then reaches down and pulls out Lesson 1, hahaha, we DIED! I guess the elders are visiting them there in Argentina. They said they hadn't been able to visit with them recently but now they are going to contact them again, thanks to us.. the Lord works in mysterious ways! 

Anyway, bouta play futbol, frisby, and football as a Zone. Love it. Been a good week! Oh yeah, I'm getting the language down a TON. My companion told me this week I'm one of the few Gringos he knows with super good grammar. That made me feel good! Anyway, love you all!



Ya boy, Elder Rokovitz

                                                                           

With the mom who has the son in Cam's mission from my story last week.

With Elder Velasquez who made me sick during leg workouts last week.

Chillin' with my boy Leam, Freddy and my companion. (This is our investigator Laura's son and her brother-in-law)

 Found this chancho (pig) this week..... it almost bit me!

Elder Andrade with the pig.

He is a big dude!!

Painting at the bishop's house. This will be the sister's new room.

It can be a messy job.

"Señor de los milagros" (Lord of the miracles) came by when I was on my interchange with Elder Greer.

Back to Back

Welp it's been a super tiring week but a great week as well. Being exhausted.. is fun haha, we are BOOKED until Friday already. The weeks are FLYING by though. Monday night we went and celebrated the birthday of a member, Hermano Tapia, who had invited us over to share it with him. He was in President Rios´s mission back in the day. He was Elder Uceda's assistant and was finishing his mission when President Ríos was a District Leader. Pretty cool. We ate cake then went out to pizza. He's building like a Mormon city here in Peru, further north, and also a community up in Bountiful Utah. He's a Civil Engineer and works for UVU as well. Ha, pretty crazy stuff. BUT he has given us some good references. Gonna find out where this takes us.

                                                                                 

Me and Elder Andrade with Hermano Tapia

Eating pizza with Hermano Tapia

After eating cake with Hermano Tapia

So guess what? We went to get legal again this week and in the National Office place I met an Elder Hiskey from the North Trujillo mission... interesting name, so I thought I would talk to him. Yeah.. he's President Hiskey's nephew!! (Our Stake President in Utah) Super cool. I guess we were in the CCM together. He recognized me but I didn't recognize him.

Anyway, VAMOS PERÚ! They played Colombia this week to get into the world cup. They tied 1 to 1 and WOW, Perú gets turnt for that! EVERYONE was wearing Perú jerseys, flags on their cars, all the good stuff. So I decided to participate and put the flag around my neck for the day. Later found out I wasn't the only one haha. Elder Stroud and Elder Hart, the assistants, did it as well! Love it. Perú is 1 game away from going into the world cup. Cool story.

                                                                               

Reppin' Perú

Captain America routin' for Perú

Anyway, about the work - had a super cool interview with Presidente this week. In the interview he took out the Book of Mormon and started talking about it, asked for my testimony of it, my favorite verse, etc. He then takes his book and tells me, “You can take any verse in the book and apply it to your life or take a principio (principle) out of it”, then closes his eyes, puts his fingers on the pages, whips it open and slaps his finger down. Read the verse, super great verse in Alma, then goes, “It works with ANY verse”, then throws over a few more pages and whips his finger down in the war verses in Alma and applies the freak out of it. He is a STUD! Love the guy.

Things have been pretty good with my companion. He keeps telling me how all the girls are looking at me, how they are dreaming about me, how they only want to talk to me and not him. SUPER annoying. I've come to the conclusión that he's really just afraid of girls. But yeah, it's whatever. Apart from that, he got rejected super bad the other day. It was actually super funny. We were with Laura, one of our investigators, and she told us to call her dad to get permission for her to go to church. She gave Elder Andrade her "dad's number” then my companion called the number. First call he got nervous and couldn't talk, then goes, after stuttering a bit, “Antonio?” and click, they hung up. It was the sound of a woman's voice but he called back again and this time goes, “Hello, is this Antonio?” The lady goes, “DO YOU THINK I'M ANTONIO?? Swear word, swear word” CLICK, she hung up. We DIED! Laura gave him some random number and said her dad already gave her permission hahaha, holy cow, he just sat there with his mouth open in a daze for 5 minutes. It was hilarious!

I went on 2 interchanges back to back this week with Elder Jorgenson and my boy, Elder Velasquez. First off, I couldn't sleep much at Elder Jorgenson's because he snored super loud! Worse than Dad and grandma combined! Ha, it was ridiculous. But we mobbed after that. Gave a Law of Chastity folleto (pamplet) to a 16 year old couple making out in the park. Passed by 15 minutes later and the two of them were sitting down reading the folleto (pamphlet)! Haha, love it.

Also met the mom of a misisonary in Cam's mission. She pulls out a couple photos and tells me about her son. I look at them and like the 5th picture is a picture Cam sent me like 5 months ago! Cam's just chillin next to her son, so yeah, that was pretty cool. Small world.

Later I went with Elder Velasquez. He's from New Jersey. He was the first person in his ward EVER to leave on a mission! He is jacked! So we worked out in the morning, got up at 6 a.m. and worked out on their patio. We did legs and cardio and man, did he work me hard. After the work out he starts telling me about how Elder Bly and him (his last companion) would go to the gym every week and how after leg day they would go out and Elder Bly would puke like 3 times. As he was telling me the story, every time he was about to say "Elder Bly puked...." I leaned over the wall and puked! Haha, he goes, “So we walk out and Elder Bly runs over and…. (I puke) well, does that.. then we would walk a little further and….(I puke) do that…” Hahaha first time I've ever puked working out. But yeah, he's a straight homie, love the kid to death.

That's really it for the week. We found 6 new people yesterday, ending up with 9 for the week, which was good. Last week we found 10. We are MOBBING! And we are going to keep doing it! I love you all. I love the gospel. Have a great week! Mathetuo!

Tu pata fiel, Elder Rokovitz



                                                                               

The view of my area.

A few pictures we took up on the rock for about 15 minutes because NOBODY would let us in during the game ..... not even the members.

Me and Elder Andrade

Another of me and my companion.

Exhausted

This week has been LIT. I am EXHAUSTED! It's been a super great week. We have put in work! The only thing is that we come back to the room completely pooped. I passed out like 3 nights this week when we got to the room. I came in, changed.. sometimes only half way, or took my shoes off and I was OUT. But the hard work payed off we were able to get really good numbers this week, finding 10 new people and putting 2 fechas (baptism dates). We put a fecha with Maria Elena for 23 de diciembre (December 23rd) and Laura, 16 de diciembre (December 16th). Both are super great but also both not married. Laura is 19 and has the cutest baby boy in the world. He´s almost 2 and is a straight stud. We were able to help Laura come to church this week. She was super nervous to come and took about 10 minutes just to walk in the door but she finally came in and then stayed 2 hours. Maria Elena we couldn't get a hold of this weekend but are hoping to contact her tonight. 

Also we were able to contact Henry (fecha we put last week) and his daughter Danuska. The last time Danuska didn't want to participate in the lesson but this time she joined us. Her best friend is a member and actually has brought her to the temple before.. like what?? So yeah, she came to church with her friend and really liked it. It was great. 

Apart from that, this Monday we had a NDH (family night) with the bishop and his family. They are super cool. He's a Civil Engineer and wow… his house puts me trunky because it straight looks like an American house inside. It's unreal. 

                                                                             

Family night with the bishop's family.

On Saturday I got a call from Elder Hart (one of the assistants) telling me about some things but after that he commented that someone from Moche was getting baptized this weekend (last weekend..) I asked who, and he said, FACUNDO!! YUP! Facundo got baptized this last week.. remember Juan and Melissa? Melissa's son, Facundo, was able to get baptized! When I heard that, I was hyped. I called and asked President Rios if I could go since Elder Aldea and I found and taught them and since I'm right around the corner from Moche and he said yes! So I got to go to Moche to see him get baptized. It was so great. I was able to see the fam (Ana and the family) and she gave us lasagna to take home, because we were fasting.. but still it was great! I love Moche! Easily my favorite área so far. So yeah that was lit.

                                                                             

With Facundo at his baptism.

Me with Facundo, Juan and Melissa

All the missionary support for Facundo's baptism.

  

Me and my companion get along great. My companion was not happy before and now everyone here keeps saying to him, "Wow you look so happy now." At times he's super quiet when planning and it takes an hour to plan, because I don't know anyone, so I mean that REALLY tests my patience.. BUT we get along great. He's a good kid. 

Yesterday was pretty slow. I think the whole last week just caught up to the both of us because we were so tired! In one lesson I actually dozed off 3 times for like 5 seconds and didn't realize it until I woke up. So that was cool. But it was still a good day. Anyway me and my companion are just chilling today taking a personal p-day, so we´re just enjoying it and chilling and probably going to take a nap later. So yeah, life's good. Hope you all have a good week.

Ya boy, Elder Rokovitz 

                                                                               

Elder Rocha, Elder Daza, Elder Stroud and me. Loved seeing Elder Daza and Stroud at the baptism.

My Ana!! I really loved seeing the Rosales family at the baptism. It was the best.

This is from a Zone conference before I left Huaraz.

My boys, Elder Walker and Elder Johnson.

Me and my companion, Elder Andrade, at the Zone Leaders training.

Taking lots of notes at the seven hour training.

Coming up with a plan on some of the things we were learning. 

Break time at the training.

Lunch time at the training.

Pizza time at the training.