Monday, October 16, 2017

Week 41 - Training A New Missionary, Visitor from the USA, Goodbye's and More

Buenos Dias!



Another awesome week here in El Milagro. This was the last week of my companion Elder Alcarraz and my best friend Elder Maddocks. Both are heading home today, finishing up their 2-year long missions. It has been a great time with Elder Alcarraz this transfer, and Elder Maddocks and I have been together here in Milagro for almost 7 months together. He is truly a lifelong best friend who I am going to miss dearly. 

This week I had a great visitor to my area that worked with me for the day.  Michael Hall came from Lima (via Savannah, Georgia in the USA).  It was awesome Mikey came up to visit me. He came in on a night bus from his study abroad in Lima. We spent the morning proselyting together, then we enjoyed a nice seafood lunch that our pension prepared especially for him, followed by hiking a nearby "hill" (at the top of this hill it was a completely different world), and we finished the day by him accompanying us to visit more investigators and get to see Milagro with us. It was awesome to be able to catch up with my best bud since birth. I have really missed the guy since he moved away to savannah. He is doing great and is doing a study abroad in Lima. We already have plans to explore all of Peru when I finish up the mission. 

Well this week because of a few frustrating setbacks we have had to postpone a couple of baptisms for these coming weeks because of renovations in our church building here in Milagro and various other reasons. 

The good thing though is that hopefully I will be able to see these coming baptisms with my new companion. This transfer President Marble has given me the privilege of training a brand new missionary coming straight from the missionary training center. Although I have no idea who it is yet, I am super excited to help a new missionary learn the ropes. Here our district of Milagro both Elder Torres and I are going to be training... for the first time in my mission I am now the old guy. Milagro has always been full of missionaries finishing their missions but as of tomorrow I will be the most senior missionary in the district with just 10 months. How crazy how things change. 

Well yesterday we had an awesome experience teaching a family and committing the entire family to a baptismal goal. Elder Alcarraz and I, in his very last lesson in the mission, we taught about the plan that God has for all of his children. It is a plan that we can all live eternally as a family. It is the privilege and opportunity to be happy forever. I mean who would not want to be happy forever. That is exactly what our Heavenly Father wants for us, just sometimes we forget about that and stray from the path that will lead us to this goal. As missionaries it is our privilege to help people and families remember about this divine and awesome plan that our Father in Heaven has for us so that we can follow it and enjoy the blessings our Father wants to give us. It appears that after 7 years, the father of this family, Leonardo, is finally starting to understand this plan. 7 years ago his oldest daughter began to learn about our Heavenly Fathers plan. 5 years ago this daughter Jennifer, against her dad's will, got baptized as a step to follow this plan of happiness, and now after years of our Heavenly Father softening Leonardo's heart it seems that he is finally beginning to understand this plan and is going to let his family get baptized. With a little luck and a lot of prayer he too will take the decision to follow this plan of happiness as well. 
This has been an awesome week here in El Milagro and I am sure this coming week is going to be amazing with my new trainee. SOOOOO Pumped! 

Hasta Luego!


Elder Jack Vassau





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