Changing Our Vision

So for this week, I started off going to the doctor some more. Still nothing. My head.. hurts. I had a tomography and we are waiting for the results. They sent it to a specialist in the states so we're waiting on the results from a doctor over there.

Apart from that, it's been a decent week. A lot of walking. I'm getting to that point where I'm just kind of ready for a new area. I love this area and the people and everything but 6 months is a long time and I'm pretty ready for some new scenery.

We have plans to work with the members more this next month. We are changing our vision 180 degrees so that we can have new results, just like Elder Bednar said, "If you are having the same results, don't do the same things because you will keep having the same results." So we´re going to try switching things up a bit.

Ariana is doing GREAT! She had a hard day on Sunday. She had some doubts but we talked to her and she felt better. We taught her 3 times this week and each time was awesome! We shared D&C 6:14-15/22-23 and Alma 32: 26-27 and she started crying and told us, "I think I know I've gotten my answer. I just haven't been paying attention." We left her with Ether 12. On Thursday she was super happy and said it was her favorite chapter yet! We asked if she had any questions and she goes, "Well.. no.. because I know it's all true" YUP! She is so sick. We love her! She said that every time she prays she just cries because she knows it's true. We´re just hoping that she keeps going and doesn't let the little bumps in the road knock down the huge testimony she now has.

With Paul and Salvador, Salvador is good to go. Paul's mom still is saying no.. :( He hasn't lost his ánimos (encouragement) though, he's still going strong.

We had a really good Stake Conference on Sunday and it was awesome! We had an Area 70 there, honestly don't know his name, I just know it was Elder David..... something... but his talk was awesome! He shared a bunch of verses from the scriptures and was super powerful but I mostly loved what he was saying about 1 Nephi 17:41 (I recommend you all study that verse very profoundly. It's a super awesome verse with a ton of really cool footnotes.) But he started talking about how we need to communicate better with God. That, just like missionary's parents, God always wants to hear just a little bit more from us. And that there is always something else to share with our Heavenly Father. Also he shared Mosiah 12:27 and talked about a talk from President Eyring where he talked about understanding with our heart, not just listening with our minds. It really changed how I look at things. I recommend that you study both of those verses because they are super cool!

Anyway, sorry for the short letter but really not much else happened this week, just a lot of exhaustion and a lot of walking. Hope you all have a great week!

Con amor, Elder Rokovitz



                                                                               

Frisby squad - our Zone on p-day.

My boys.

After the game on p-day.

La Noria gang.

Surprise visit from one of my favorite families - The Proaño family. They brought me gifts and treats.

Feliz Cumpleaños

Sooo my head was hurting all week. Kind of screwed us over a couple days but it's all good. I went to the doctor and I'm pretty sure he has no idea what he´s doing.. it's not normal for a dome piece (head) to be hurting for a hot 2 weeks and he just told me to take some Vitamin B.. like alright. So the area doctor said she would send my Tomography to a professional in the states. My head is okay, it just is hurting and they want to be safe. 

Anyway I had a good week. Had a Zone District meeting with President and the assistants which was cool. Something that I loved that Elder Stroud said was, "Don't let people think they're doing you a favor for letting you in, rather let them know that you're doing THEM a favor for them letting you in." Kind of changed my perspective a ton and really helped me see the importance of testifying and "using our authority" like President talked about. It was pretty cool. 

On the way back from the church we were waiting for a taxi when we saw this guy who was about 60-ish pulling a cart full of bags of rice.. probably around 500 pounds.. at LEAST. I yell over and asked, "Where are you going?" He told us he was going to the market, which was about a mile away but it was also the direction we were going. So I go, "We are too!" We started helping him push the cart.. which was pretty dang hard, even for 3 people. We get a block away from the market and he stops, turns around and reaches in his pocket while saying thanks. He pulls out 5 sols ($1.80) and insists on us to take it, thanking us for our work. He almost cried trying to get us to take it. I then said, "The best thing you can do to re-pay us is read this book" and handed him a Book of Mormon. The guy still insisted to give us the 5 sols but we just said thanks and walked away. He started thanking us and saying, "God bless! God bless." As I walked away, I couldn't help myself from crying as I saw the humility in this man's eyes. The 5 sols he offered us was probably all he had and he insisted that we take it. What humility for such a poor man. I really, at that moment, felt the true love of Christ burning within me. It really was such a blessing to serve this man. 

Apart from that, it's been a slow-ish week because I've been at the doctor 3 times. But my studies have been lit! Been studying in 2 Nephi 26 , the last 10-ish verses as well as D&C 6 and it's been great. It's really cool how many times it says "TODOS" ("all") in the few verses at the end in 2 Nephi 26. It really shows how much God loves ALL, and he doesn't have any favorites. 

With Paul and Salvador.. well we found out that Paul forged his mom's signature for permission to be baptized.. sadly, when we talked to her, although he is 110 percent prepared for baptism, she said no. After him sharing his testimony and sharing ALL that he knew she still said no. She said she would think about it this week and maybe talk to us the next week. We are really praying that her heart opens up and lets him go through with it. However, they will be baptized the 3rd of March if they get permission, not the 24th of February because the 25th is conference. They're progressing great though! Paul came to church with shirt and tie this week. He looked like an absolute STUD! Paul always brings all these new kids to the lessons but they aren't really prepared haha. I mean it's awesome they listen to us but we can't just baptize all the kids on the block. But he is always inviting SOMEONE new to come listen. 

Ariana is doing good! We taught the Law of Chastity and Word of Wisdom this week.. she didn't like that she can't swear or can't drink coffee but we´re working on that.. haha. Also she didn't come to church because she was out late, but other then that, she's doing great! 

My birthday was LIT. I had a great day! LOVED my package!! Thank you so much! I loved all the UVU gear and loved the ties! I was wearing the flower one on Sunday and some random guy in the street complimented me on it . Also loved all the food! Everything but the Cliff bars are gone because I've been sharing. A bunch of people and friends from my old areas were all calling and singing to me or telling me happy birthday! Also Daisy made me pancakes in the morning and chicken alfredo for dinner! It was a bunch of fun. The ward was having a ward party and told me to come for a few minutes and they all sang to me haha. It was a great day! 

Wednesday we go to this lady and she's like 90. We were looking for her grandson and found her. She invited us in then takes out her bible that's the size of a truck and starts reading. She then gives us some Inka Kola and Ritz crackers.. it was right after lunch so I was full. So while my companion wasn't looking, I was throwing my crackers in his backpack. I guess he found out because then he throws like 5 in my drink hahahaha. We started dying but were trying not to because this old lady was reading her bible. I was literally crying trying to hold it in. The lady had NO idea that we were doing that. It was so funny. 

Soo yeah.. that's my week. It's been alright.

Love, Elder Rokovitz

                                                                              

The chicken alfredo that Daisy made me for my birthday.

Elder Nichols, the sisters and me on my birthday at Daisy's.

Lighting the "candle."

Now THAT'S a birthday candle.

Mateo just waiting to push my face in the cake.

And there he goes....

Cake face - a Peruvian tradition.

Me and the culprit.

Happy birthday to me!

Birthday greetings and hugs from the children in the ward.

And several from the adults.... Hermana Kori snuck in a hug.

A cake from Calin.

Taking my birthday cake home.

A birthday cake from the bishop. He calls me "Rokovich".

Swedish Fish from the sisters.

A sweet birthday note from Amilys and her mom. This was the cutest thing ever. (Top note: Have a great day. I love him too much. I will always remember him. Do not forget me. I will remember it because my grandma, the mama of my mom meet that same day. With love, Amilys ~ the Venezuelan girl.) Bottom note: (You have been an angel for my daughter. Thank you for your love and friendship towards her. You are a great representative of Jesus Christ. We love him very much. Amilys Tovar Chavez and her mama, Carmen.)

Selfie with my new UVU sweatshirt. I love it. I usually am sweating at night wearing it but it's so comfy and looks great hahaha.

Like Bread

Y… Que tal? (What's up?) Thanks for the birthday wish. Pretty weird I'm not going to be a teenager anymore.. I have to be responsible now.. weird. So this week has been pretty lit. Actually, we walked most of the week and it's been BLAZING hot, but it's still been a super spiritual and fun week. Elder Nichols and I are going OFF!

Paul is doing great. We invited his primo (cousin), Salvador, for the 24th as well. It's lit. Those two are studs! They both read until 1 Nephi 7 on their own, then we read 8 together and they got everything. Paul has invited 3 of his friends to participate in lessons this last week and we didn’t even ask him to. He's gonna be the best future missionary.

Also got Hirvin started on his Family History this week. We're hoping to be able to take him to the temple and he could baptize us for his ancestors!! How cool. He blessed the Sacrament this last week as well, which was awesome.

Ariana is doing great. We had a super good NDH (family night) with her at the bishop's with his family. She's really loving it all! She said her fear is that she's going to turn into a nun or something haha. We told her not to worry about that.

Apart from that.. I've been sick all week. First I had a bad cold, then had some bad head aches and now I think I ate some bad tuna.. so that’s cool.

We had a really good consilio (counsel) this last week. We read a story from Numbers 13-14. It's pretty cool. My boy, Elder Stroud, read verse 9 of chapter 14 and said, “Your attitude reflects your faith.” YUP #LIKEBREAD! Something President said that I loved was, “If you don’t believe you are literal angels of flesh and blood.. well, you should probably repent.” WHOO, it was getting toasty.

We had a Zone meeting as well on Friday, and the spirit was super strong and we got everyone hyped. Actually pretty sad because I'll probably be leaving soon, like the next transfer. The place is really about to blow up.

Anyway, pretty decent week.. Except for Saturday. Saturday was NOT my day. Like, my companion and I were laughing all day and having a good time, but everything was just not working for me. First off, thought I lost my agenda at Daisy´s during lunch, so we were without a ton of directions from 2 until 5:30. We finally find Daisy home, go upstairs and it's not there.. I thought I'd better check my backpack.. yup. It's there. Haha, so then we´re feeling good, go out looking for this reference we received. We get to the block and find MZ33 and we were looking for MZ1. So we start going down, realize we´re going the wrong way (about half way around) so we go in a giant circle, get to MZ1, I look at my agenda, and realize it's MZ31 not MZ1!! Ha. Soooo we went around again to where we started.. then he wasn’t even there. There was just some drunk guy that told us to leave. AFTER that… we go to eat dinner and we are super thirsty. We had been walking in the heat all day. I start playing with Mateo and my butt hits off the water jug sitting on the window seal.. cool. We eventually got into a house at 8:30 pm. The guy is a member from El Salvador and actually did Greco wrestling before he came to Perú, so that was fun to talk about.

Sunday was pretty chill. We visited Paul and Salvador and Ariana. Also ran from some little kids who booby trapped us and all came out of no where as we were walking down a street.. they all had water balloons and started chasing us and throwing them at us. Luckily we got away dry. Remember the little girl I told you about last week who's mom got so mad when we showed up?  She saw us and warned us about the  kids with the balloons.  She goes, "Hi, you're about to get wet.. you better run", hahahaha. She always sees us and says hi and talks to us. Oh, and the bunny blessing.. haha I must have just wrote it in my journal and not here. (I told Cory I didn't remember any story about a bunny blessing from the blog post last week) Sooo, she brought her bunny to me, I held it, then she saw the sister missionaries later and told them I blessed it. I really didn't bless her bunny. Now you can see why she's so cute.

It's been a good week though. We had a bunch of good experiences. I realized something that Hermana Rios said in our training. She said, “How can we do the big things or have big rewards-results if we don’t do the small things?” It's true. In every aspect of the gospel or in our every day lives, we will never do the big things if we can't do the simple things. That’s one of my favorite scriptures in Alma and I've learned how true it is here on the mission. Keep doing the simple and small things if you want the big results or anything big in this life. Love you all! Have a great week!!

Love, Elder Rokovitz



                                                                             

Our group at consilio (council).

Dabbing.

Elder Rottweiler, Elder Walker and me.

Me and Elder Walker.

Looking over our area.

Me and my new companion, Elder Nichols.

                                                                           

A Year and a Half

Welp ladies and gentlemen, I have completed one year and a half of my mission this last week… pretty nuts. Hyped and shocked, pretty much just full of emotions. I only have 6 months left to give it all I've got for the Lord. 

This week has been a great week though! Elder Nichols is a really cool guy and we are getting along great. We definitely have changed since the CCM. We have both humbled a ton and changed. I guess I should ask for forgiveness because I judged the kid before I knew him. I mean a whole year and a half in the mission sure does change you. He´s very obedient to the rules, but it's actually a good thing because it'll help us out a ton. We´ve been getting along great, laughing and joking and feeling the spirit. Elder Nichols is from.... Heber. Yes.. he´s from Wasatch high school haha. (Cory's high school has been beaten by Wasatch in the State Wrestling Finals for the past few years.) He's a good kid though. President actually knew he and I didn't get along in the CCM but followed his impression and put us together. I rememer President Rios telling me one time, "Sometimes I go against myself. I put people training or in leadership spots when I personally feel they don't belong there.. but in the end, I understand why the Lord put them there." I think he knew we would be okay. 

. 

Pretty sad to have said goodbye to Elder Johnson and Elder Velasquez, two of my best friends here on the mission, but in a short 6 months I'll see them. Those two are studs. 

Sounds like the Patriots got a whoopin' haha. I literally didn't even realize it was the Super Bowl until a member goes, "Hey, you two wanna come see the game today?" It was VERY hard to say no. 

Anyway, about this week, so remember the little girl that told her mom I blessed her bunny? Yeah, so we went there to try and teach her and her mom. Her mom is the complete opposite of her! We knock on the door and she comes to the window and when she sees us goes, “Oh no! I'm busy.” We tried to talk a bit but she just kept saying, “No! I'm busy!” The little girl came around the corner and the mom goes, “Let's go! We´re busy!” And the little girl goes, “But mooom, they're my frieendsss…” Her mom then grabs her and, like a man, goes, “NO! VAMOS!!” (NO! LET'S GO) We just kind of stood there.. in shock.. I was pretty sad... I was hoping to baptize the little girl. Maybe another day we´ll go back and the mom won't be so mad. Oh well. 

Later this week we visited Paul. We recently invited him for baptism for the 10th of March but we moved his fecha (date) up to the 24th of February!! The kid is a stud. We get there and ask what he learned from the intro of the Book of Mormon and he pulls out a summary of it. After we taught the lesson he goes, “I want to share my summary of the Restoration too..” Like what?? This guy is Hirvin times 10! He asked yesterday if he had to be baptized to be able to go to church in a suit. Haha, he's literally a miracle because we didn’t have anyone for this month, but now him, and maybe his cousin are going to be baptized the 24th! 

We haven’t been able to get to Ariana this week. She's had a pretty busy week and failed us twice then got sick on Sunday. Oh well. We´ll visit her Wednesday. 

Apparently last Wednesday night there was a temblor, but stronger than the one in Chao when I first came to Perú. It lasted for about 30 seconds. They said if it was just a little stronger it would have been an earthquake… I was so tired I slept through it hahaha. My companion felt it though. I was too exhausted to feel it. I only felt it in my dream. I was kind of moving, but that’s it. 

This week I had some super great studies! I was reading in Alma 18 and 22:4-18. It really impacted me the way that their missionary work is similar to ours. I learned a lot too from the way they teach, relating the needs of the kings to the gospel and using the scriptures constantly. It reminded me of Dad's words saying that this is the only true church on the face of the earth because we have taught the same way, with the same principles, throughout the world.. always! It was a really big eye opener. 

We later got to do some service on Saturday for a guy named Pita. We carried sack loads of bricks up a hill for him to build his house. We did it on Saturday and had forgotten that it was Fast Sunday the next day.. so that was fun. I got pretty sick, I think from dehydration and over heating. I had a pretty bad headache and my throat is hurting pretty bad right now. So yeah, I'm not doing too hot right now. It's whatever though. 

Also, Saturday morning I was studying in Alma 9:20-25 and really enjoyed the message. My eyes filled up with tears when I read it. I noticed that every blessing mentioned in those verses, I have those same blessings. I am very blessed and the Lord has made it known to me that He IS there and He DOES love me. I have a ton of blessings and gifts. It would be stupid of me not to use them. Also I read it with D&C 82:3 which is one of my favorite verses. Much is required of us because we are the most highly favored people in the world. I have UN NUMERAL blessings. I invite all of you to read that part and think of how you can better use the gifts you have, not for the world but for others. I know this is the church of Jesus Christ. I hope you all have a great week!

Love, Elder Rokovitz

                                                                              

Saying goodbye to Elder Daza. He was transferred to Huaraz to be a Zone Leader.

I also got to see the fam. Abraham and Jose Luis came to the bus station too.

Celebrating the February birthdays in our Zone.

Lunch at the multi Zone meeting a couple weeks ago.

Multi Zone meeting.

Fun at lunch.

Hanging out during lunch.