Rokin' Perú: Besitos (Little Kisses)

Well boys and girls, it's Monday again.. which means I get to write you. This week was a great week! One of the best, for sure. Started out kind of slow, until I got kissed.. Haha, don't worry, not on the lips. Here in Perú it's customary for girls to kiss girls on the cheek or girls and boys to greet each other with a kiss on the cheek. So anyway, my companion and I were standing outside Janpier´s house waiting for him. My companion was in the street and I was by the door with my back against the wall watching the soccer game across the street.. when all the sudden, Janpier´s 19 year old sister comes out of absolutely no where (right around the corner) and goes towards the door. I thought she was going to go in.. yeah.. she went in.. not for the door though, for the cheek kiss. Backed up against the wall, I tried to avoid it, but there was no hope. My companion extended his hand and backed up and explained that, we as missionaries, can't greet that way. She ran inside saying, in english, "Oh, sorry! Sorry!" Haha my companion and I died! Yeah.. so I got my first kiss on the mission after avoiding 22 months of it. So from Monday to Wednesday, that was about the most exciting thing that happened. (Not saying that was exciting) haha.

I was pretty down up until Thursday morning. I felt that the investigators weren't really progressing too much and was kind of down. I prayed my heart out the night before asking to find people who desired to progress, and boy, was my prayer answered. We found 8 people. Seven were references from members and ALL of them were chosen and obviously prepared people!

One was Arley, a Venezuelan, who a less active family is letting stay with them. We were teaching Zandra, who was a less active (baptized at 8 but never really knew anything about the church, her parents being inactive) and she is now 100 percent active and super awesome. Anyway, Arley is their friend. He´s about 35-ish, he has 2 kids in Venezuela and his wife lives in Colombia, also working to send money to their children. Arley explained his story to us on Thursday. He basically had life going for him until Venezuela went awol. He was a super, high up, sports director. And now, he has nothing. When we said the opening prayer and I prayed to bless his family, he just sat there and cried. It took everything to not cry with the guy. I can't imagine what these people go through in Venezuela. We shared a message of hope and of faith. He believes in God but feels, "where is He at in my life?", as I'm sure anyone would in this situation. We shared Ether 12:4 and Zandra shared 1 Nephi 3:7. He wanted to come to church but Zandra forgot to remind him.

On Sunday night Arley invited us over to their place to make "Arepas." Literally the best thing ever. I've never met such a great guy in my life. As we taught him, I could just feel the spirit so strong. We had planned to share something Sunday night but couldn't for the time. I have been reading "Nuestro Legado" ("Our Legacy") and I was reading about Hans Mill and Joseph in Liberty Jail. A great story we can relate to Arley's life. We will share it this week. Other than that, just teaching golden new investigators. Really seeing how the Lord answered prayers in this week.

We're about to go watch "Coco" as a Zone and eat pizza.. then make pizza with another family for dinner haha..... wow I gotta work out...

OH! Also, we haven't been able to find Mauricio once this week. He's just been gone.. every.. single.. day.. but he did come to church! Although we postponed his date to the 9th of June, he felt more comfortable for that date as well.

Maricris.. I don't know.. we did a NDH (family night) with a family and invited her last Monday. She told us to give her our number so she could call us. She did call us.. on Saturday.. said she would go to church.. didn't go. And wasn't home in the afternoon. Welp. Hopefully we can find her this week. She is also programed for the 9th of June.

That's about it though. Hope you all have a great week!

Con amor, Elder Rokovitz