A New Companion

This week, ladies and gentlemen, has been a good week. We are finally getting some good hard work done. My new companion, Elder Rocha is an absolute stud and is super chill!! He´s a dang hard worker. He is a convert of only 3 years ago and is an absolute stud in the work. He has 9 months and he was "born" (started his mission) in Moche. Elder Daza was his trainer. 

It was sad saying goodbye to Elder Vilchez and Elder McCalister, mostly because they went to Chimbote and I'm not sure when I will ever see them again.. it may not be until next May when we come back to Perú, if even then. 

But anyway, this week we got some work DONE. We found a bunch of news (new investigators), we're getting to know the members better and everything, and we put a fecha (baptism date) with Mauricio for the 19th of May. He´s progressing a ton. Also his sunday school teacher had acompanied us yesterday to some lessons and he says Mauricio always answers questions and he´s super smart. We´re super hyped for the kid. He's progressing a ton and his mom supports him a ton as well. También (also) we´re working with his mom, kind of low key, and we hope that she can get baptized maybe in June or the end of May, but we´ll see how she does as well. 

Also Maricris, not sure if I've talked about her yet, but she is progressing as well. She came to church this week. We were pretty hyped because we weren't sure if she would come. She did the, "No, don't come get me, I'll go on my own" thing and we thought, oh ya sure, but she came! She's super sweet and always gives us this super healthy juice she prepares. 

Anthony.. he's gone.. he just isn't interested. I can't get ahold of him for any reason. We don't know what happened. I'm going to let it rest for maybe a month and try again. 

Apart from that, we have a new district. The sisters here in Salaverry are in a trio. Hermana Hammond is training a Colombian and their other companion is from California. Elder Boren, in alto (upper) Moche, is with Elder Castro. They're all a bunch of hard workers and I'm hyped to work with them. 

I had a pretty spiritual study session the other day though. I was reading in "Nuestro Legado" (Our Legacy) on page 16-17 (in Spanish) and when I was reading, I really liked how Joseph Smith and the others relataron (related) his experience with his father. It made me a little trunky and tear up a little thinking about the similar relation I have with my dad. Joseph said, "I love my father, and the memory of his noble acts rest heavily on my mind, and many of his generous words have always stayed ´grabado´ (recorded) in my heart." I feel the same way about my dad, and after reading, kneeled down and thanked Heavenly Father for the great parents I have and their examples they have set that will always "rest heavily" on my heart and mind. 

On the next page it talks about the first sacrament meeting held in 1830. Reading the last paragraph of that section I just felt a comfirmation of the reality and truness of this work. I had asked Heavenly Father to help me gain a stronger testimony and learn new words and gramatica (grammer) while I read (because it was my language study) and I just felt the spirit so strong as I read and felt my prayer being answered. Although it was a small prayer, I felt that God really does love me and answer my prayers, even the little ones. I know that´s true. 

I hope you all have a good week. I realized this week how close Mother's Day is. Super hyped to talk to you guys! See you soon! 

Love, Elder Rokovitz 

                                                                            

Saying goodbye to Elder Vilchez

Saying goodbye to Elder McCalister

Elder Rottweiler, me, (Cory didn't name this elder) and Elder Houskeeper.

Pictures takes at our training meeting.

Practicing teaching lessons.

Changes

CHEEEHHOOO!! I'm hyped because changes came yesterday, but sad to have Elder Vilchez be leaving. He´s a really good kid and we got along really well but it will be nice to have a good change and be able to work hard. My new companion coming in is Elder Rocha, from Brazil! I went on an interchange one time with him for a day in Moche. He´s a super cool kid. I'm super hyped. He´ll probably be my last companion! 

Pretty nuts, Elder Stroud just finished up his mission. I love that kid to death. I'm gonna miss him for sure though. 

Also, Elder Rottweiler is coming as one of our Zone Leaders here, so we´ll be dying (going home) in the same Zone. CHEEHOO! Love that kid. 

Anyway, this has been a pretty long week. It was also pretty sad because Anthony did not get baptized. Antony just dropped off the face of the planet. We had a cita (appointment) with him on Monday, and he wasn’t there. We called Tuesday morning and he seemed kind of sad or weird but said we could pass by at 8 that night. We went, and nothing. Tried calling, nothing. Went by all week. Tried calling, texting.. everything! And.. NOTHING ☹ Pretty sad. We are going to try and see if we find him this week. If not, we will probably just have to drop him. Kind of sad, but hopefully we find him this week. 

Apart from that, it was a pretty decent week. Mauricio is doing awesome! He came to a baptism with us on Saturday that the hermanas were having. We weren’t able to teach him but we will teach him next week and put a fecha (baptism date) for the 19th of May probably. His mom supports him a ton and we´re hoping she will listen and let him get baptized as well but we´ll see what happens. 

Also, this week the sisters had a baptism of a 9 year old kid who they´ve been trying to baptize 3 times now. He wouldn’t get baptized because he´s afraid of water. The last time his baptism was scheduled he got in the water but then wouldn’t go under and was too scared. They talked him into being baptized this week and asked me to baptize him. I've never felt so impatient in my life hahaha. He got in the water but it took about 20 minutes for him to get in because he complained it was too cold. He finally got in and had to get neck deep to get used to it. I then got him ready and he starts saying, “Not yet, not yet.” He did that for about 20 minutes more while I tried to explain to him how it was going to work. He finally kind of was ready so I said the baptismal prayer and then was about to baptize him and he goes, “I go in the water backwards?? No. Nope. I can't. No. Forward. Do it forward.” I was like.. dude.. it doesn’t work that way, it's easier going backwards. He wouldn’t accept it so I finally said, “Fine, we can do it forward” and then he didn’t want to do it forward! I look at his mom after him not wanting to and she just gave me the look like, “Just dunk the kid.” So… that’s exactly what I did. I said, “You have 10 seconds to plug your nose and whether it's plugged or not, you're going under.” I started counting down and he just goes, “No, no, no, no, no!”.. I got to 5 and he still wasn't plugging his nose, so I kind of held his face, stepped on his feet and dunked him under! Haha, he wasn’t too happy but his mom sure was! 

We found an investigator whose dad speaks English because he works on cruise ships. His son wants to be a translator and is studying language so I made a little deal - I said, “How about if I practice speaking with your son, and you guys listen to our message?” He accepted. We weren’t able to go to the cita (appointment) though because we ran late because we were painting a house for this old lady. But hopefully we will find them this week. 

Also.. I killed a cat trying to do a service. We asked this guy, who was pushing his car, if we could help him move it. He said yes, so we helped push the car like 5 feet…. Aaand we ran over his cat… we felt pretty bad.. we didn’t really know what to say after that. 

Anyway, that’s about it for this week. I'm pretty hyped for my new companion and that Elder Rottweiler is coming to town. That’s all for this week though. Talk to you soon fam! Besitos!

Elder Rokovitz

                                                                               

The last picture of our District before we're changed.

102

Well boys and girls, this week has been a decent week. Good for the most part but I got sick Saturday and Sunday.. let me get to that part. 

So first, Monday, pretty good day. We had a NDH (family night) with a family and it was going all good until they whipped out the first hymn. Literally the best singing I've heard in my life... PSYCH! Honestly never heard a song sung so monotone and horrible. Me and my companion couldn't sing because we were trying to not laugh. Every time we tried to sing, we would just start cracking up again. It was horrible. 

Tuesday was a pretty decent day. We had some good lessons with some new investigators. We went to "El Karamba" later with Ana and the family. I was pretty hyped because they put Alan Jackson on. It was a super good night! 

                                                                         

Wednesday we taught Segundo. He's doing good but he hasn't come to church yet. 

Anthony is doing great though. As for right now, all is well for his baptism this Saturday! He couldn't come to church because he had an emergency at work but he's all ready for Saturday. 

We found a new person this week through our converts, the family Lopez Coronado. His name is Mauricio. He's 13, his mom supports him being baptized and he's an absolute STUD. He´ll probably get baptized in May. We´re pretty hyped about that. Speaking of the family Lopez Coronado, we went to the temple with them to do baptisms for their antepasados (ancestors). It was pretty cool because there were 3 girls so we couldn't baptize them, but they had 2 names for boys so I got to baptize my companion for them! Haha, my first time being a testigo (witness), baptizing, and comfirming in the temple and I got to baptize my companion! Haha, now I can tell everyone I baptize everyone.. even my companion! It was such a great day. I felt the spirit a TON. 

                                                                              

That morning (Saturday) I was feeling pretty crappy. We only went out for about 2 hours. I slept, took a pill and felt great during the temple time. The minute we got off the taxi coming back from the temple though, everything started to hurt again and I started getting a slight fever. That night, I didn't sleep AT ALL. It was a horrible night. We didn't even go to church because I woke up with a fever of 102. I'm feeling a lot better now though, but we didn't leave at all on Sunday. Other than that, it's been a great week! 

Anyway, hope you all have a great week! Finna find out what's happening with changes this week!


Tu amigo fiel, Elder Rokovitz

Testigos (Jehova's Witness)

First off, I want to appologize because I only took one picture this week.. haha it's just me and some Jehova's Witnesses that were pretty cool.

                                                                           

This week has been a good week but also a little disappointing.. but also super spiritual. Honestly it was kind of a hard week at first. My companion hasn't been wanting to be completely obedient and it was having an affect on me. Like, we get along GREAT and everything but sometimes he just complains and reniega (renegs) but overall, we still get along great and work hard. He just at times wants to do a little thing that is disobedient and I say no and that upsets him a little bit. We weren't being strictly obedient in a couple simple things, but like it says, "By small and simple things are great things brought to pass." In the end, we ended up having low numbers and low success. Partially our fault, partially the members and investigators failing citas (appointments) etc.

I was reading in 2 Nephi 2:15-16 this week and as I was reading, using the manual. I noticed that agency and choosing to do what is right/choosing to not fall into temptation, requires EFFORT. It's not easy. Part of God's plan is that we develop self control by EFFORT. We have to work for it. We have to work to overcome sin or be obedient, etc. It really hit me and I had a really spiritual study that day.

Also, today I had gotten kind of upset at my companion.. for my pride haha, because he didn't want to do internet earlier, because he said his family wouldn't be on. But if we went later, we wouldn't be able to play volleyball as long. I got a little upset and had kind of a "yeah whatever" attitude. When I was praying personally, before my personal study, I kind of said, "Yeah, I know I'm mad and I shouldn't be but.. I don't know.. whatever. I hope to have the spirit while I study", and I did.. but I got kind of burned and I think that was a little of Heavenly Father's humor haha. I was reading 2 Nephi 16-18 and cross referenced to 2 Nephi 28:19-23. Something it refers to there is that one of Satan´s biggest lies is, "Oh everything is fine. It'll pass, etc." I kind of said a little prayer and was like, "Okay okay.. I get it haha." I liked these verses a lot too because it talks about one of Satan´s biggest lies, apart from telling us there is no God, he is telling us, as the verse says, "I do not exist, it's not me, there is no devil, there is no hell, etc." It was really interesting as I read that and realized I had had those same thoughts before and really, it was an answer to my prayers. It's been some pretty good study sessions these past few days.

Hermana Kuki is our new pensh officially. We just find a new one and tell the other one thanks for your service but we´re going to change now.. but we can only do it at the beginning of a month because they are paid monthly.

Apart from all that, Sunday was a great day. We were able to teach Anthony, who is an old investigator. This month we haven't had any investigators to get baptized, apart from Manuel. but he still doesn't have permission and left last week until tomorrow. The elders had dropped Anthony before because his work required that he work on Sunday. But recently he changed work and works Monday through Saturday 8-6! He went to conference last week and has been going to activities. Also, he came to church yesterday. He has a testimony of the Book of Mormon. He's super cool! President Rios was in our ward yesterday to give a training on the capilla abierta (church open house). While he was there, we talked to him for when we should invite Anthony for baptism and he said for the 21st of this month. We visited Anthony yesterday and he accepted. In his prayer at the end he asked Heavenly Father to help him get baptized because, "he's been waiting for a long time." CHEEHOOO!! Miracles exist ladies and gentleman!

Apart from that, we found some golden people.. but for tomorrow. Also, we dropped family Zapata.. they just aren't progressing and being immature, so we dropped them.

Iris is doing good, she just always leaves on Sundays and forgets there is church... so yeah, it's been a pretty decent week. Nothing too exciting, but it's been good. These next two weeks my companion and I are about to go off! Super hyped. Anyway, that's all for this week. Love you all. Chaufa.


Elder Rokovitz

Behold a Royal Army

This week started off kind of slow, and was even at the begining, one of the hardest weeks of the mission. My companion just wasn't having a good work ethic this week. I don't know why, but he had just changed his work ethic in a comlete 180 degree turn. It was becoming a pretty hard week. Then on Friday, it started getting better. 

I spoke too soon on the pensh haha. She gave us the same things for 5 days straight for breakfast and lunch.. so we changed to Jose Luis´s aunt! She lives here, right in front of our room, and she was a pensh before in Paita for 9 years, then she moved here. 

Anyway, Friday there was a sports activity for the ward. We stopped by to take out citas (appointments) with them, then we played a bit of soccer and volleyball to get the confidence of the members more. It was super fun and helped me relax and feel better from the hard week. I really felt the spirit as we were playing. It was a bunch of fun. 

For our investigators, Nely, we haven't found her home, familia Zapata.. tampoco (neither). They didn't come to church either. And Manuel, we went with the bishop to talk to Manuel's dad. The mom says yes to baptism for Manuel, but the dad says not yet. The dad is afraid we´ll baptize him and leave him. He just needs a little more confidence and then we´ll baptize him. 

Conference... was. AMAZING! One of the best conferences yet. I probably felt the spirit stronger in this conference more than any other in my life. It was an amazing way to kick off the spririt as we sustained President Nelson in the Solemn Assembly. That was a super special and spiritual moment! I could just feel the spirit and love radiating. I did write down the Solemn Assembly feelings I had in my journal. I think it was President Eyring.. I don't remember, but one of them challenged us to do that. And.. I did. I haven't missed a day writing in my journal in the whole mission. I was pretty sad about Elder Uceda being released, but at least I will be able to hear him until the end of the mission. 

I can barely narrow down some of my favorite talks because they were all great talks! But I loved the talk from Elder Bednar on meekness. I honestly never really knew what that meant before. Also, in the priesthood session, how they stressed understanding our calling and working more maturely. I really liked how Elder D. Todd Christofferson said, "The priesthood is greater than it´s offices", the stress President Dallin H. Oaks put on how the priesthood is the same power used to open the gates to the heavenly kingdom of God, and how I must learn HOW to use my calling, for the Lord careth not where I serve, rather HOW I serve. Came to mind D&C 107:99-100. As well as, when Devin G. Durrant spoke, as well as Elder Jeffrey R. Holland spoke on the new "Ministering." I thought to myself simply, "What would Dad do?" I thought, "this new ´ministering´will be easy, because I have such a great example of a father who already taught me the principles they talked about today. He already taught me how to truely LOVE and MINISTER to the people whom we serve and not roboticly teach a lesson." I can't thank you enough Dad for the great lesson you taught me through your perfect example of charity always. Although at times I "renegué" (reneged) I know now that the Lord inspired you to prepare me for this day and to know how to truly love and serve those around us. Thanks Dad! 

Finishing the conference, I LOVED President Nelson´s talk about personal revelation. I could feel he was speaking directly to me as he also mentioned things that are specifically in my patriarcal blessing. What an example of personal revelation, and as Elder Jeffrey R. Holland said, "What a Prophet!" 

I was super suprised at the announcing of SEVEN new temples, two of them being in India and Russia. I could feel during all the sessions, as they spoke of, "preparing to meet the Lord by becoming like him", that the second coming is so close and we must prepare now, and as Elder Oaks said, "To do the ´small and simple things´that will bring us closer to God and his kingdom." It's been a powerful session. I invite all to take President Nelson´s invitation and ponder more on the talks given this weekend because it has truly been an ´historical conference´. 

I know God loves me. I know and truly feel in my heart and mind He is real "and no one can take away what I truly feel in my heart and mind." I know that "I am a son of God, not a son of man". This is the church of Christ.

Con amor, Elder Rokovitz

                                                                                

Sunset from familia Zapata's house on the sand hill.

Our pensh ordered pizza. It was suppose to be a large but it didn't even fill up the box.

Driving to Moche - completely legal haha.

Lunch with Ana.

Can't tell which is Paolo Guerrero.

Moto moto.

Chillin' with ex-Elder Callejas, now Mikol.

Priesthood session squad.

On the beaches of Salaverry.

Salaverry sunset.

Salaverry

Sunset at the beach of Salaverry.

Our fishing town. Such a beautiful place.