Week 64 - Climbing the Mountains to find people, a visit with a Jaguar

The Jaguar

Buenos Dias!

This has been an awesome and chilly week here in Los Baños del Inca. Last week I wrote about hope and I think we are already starting to see a lot of the fruits of really trusting in the Lord's promises and doing our part. Hope. We have been putting a large emphasis in losing ourselves in the work, forgetting about ourselves, and trying to get rid of anything that might distract us from what really matters. It is not something easy to do, but one just needs to put their Faith in our Heavenly Father's plan that if we are obedient to his commandments than everything, no matter what happens during the journey, will turn out for the best. 

This week we were able to find 19 new investigators which truly is a miracle when we think about the hard times we have had the past couple of weeks finding new people to teach. We decided to follow an impressions we had and go proselyte more in a neighborhood that is waaaaaaaay up the hill, where the cars do not arrive late at night, and it gets more than a little cold. Although making the decision to visit more by this neighborhood, called El Inca, means that we would have to suffer a few long hikes in the cold and rain, the fruits of these labors and trusting in God paid off with finding new families to teach. We went up to the Inca looking for the names of a few old investigators and less active members in a hope of finding them and working from there. The problem is that when you start getting into the more rural parts, there are no addresses so we were aimlessly knocking doors asking if they knew X person nearby. Nobody recognized these names which is a real strange occurrence for these Peruvians who usually spend their whole lives in the same neighborhood. Well nobody recognized these names, however, on two occasions it was as if we were truly guided to these houses. We would go knock a door, ask for a name, they would have no clue, and then basically the next door we knocked was one the people we were aimlessly searching for. It was amazing. A true miracle that came to pass because we put into practice a little bit of hope. 

This week on a less spiritual note we went as a zone to a tourist site here in Cajamarca called the Granja Porcon which is basically a giant zoo. The zoos here in Peru are a little iffy as far as the habits and cages go so we had some nice close and semi same encounters with a Jaguar and some lions. 

All is going great here in Los Baños del Inca, and everything I know will work out for the best if we just put a little bit of faith in God's promises. 

Love,

Elder Vassau

Week 63 - Anderson Baptism, Hope and Rain

Buenos Dias!!!

This has been an awesome week here in Los Baños del Inca. This week we got to participate in the Baptism of Anderson Colorado. He is our pension’s grandson and is just awesome. He is 9, his mom Annika is a long time member but her husband Juan Carlos "Charlie" is not. For this reason they decided to wait until Anderson was 9 to get baptized so that he could receive all of the missionary lessons. Anderson understood everything we taught him surprisingly well for a 9 year old and we have also been teaching his parents, especially Charlie who wants to now set a good example and help his son to stay in this path to follow his savior Jesus Christ. The most touching part of the baptismal service was when Coringo, Anderson's Grandpa who is usually a completely jokester broke down in tears right before baptizing his grandson, and also at the end Anderson decided to get up and shared his testimony. It was a testimony so simple yet so powerful where he talked about how all of his sins were washed away (I cannot imagine a 9 year old has too many sins) and how he was now in the path to follow Jesus Christ. So simple yet so sincere, and that is how it should be. 

This week in my personal studies I have been studying about a Christ like attribute which is hope. Hope is the trust and confidence that if we do all our part to be obedient then our Heavenly Father will always fulfill the promises he has made with us. Sometimes this requires a bit of patience but God will always do his part when we do ours. This confidence and faith in God's promises stems primarily from two key principles 1) that we are literally God's children. Our Father loves his children and wants us to be happy and wants us to learn, so when we show him we are learning by keeping his commandments he will bless us. 2) That Christ suffered in the Garden of Gethsemane and Died so that we can receive forgiveness of our sins, and so that we, just like him, will resurrect one day. If we always think about these two principles we will remember who we are and what our savior has done for us to allow us to receive these blessings. Throughout the course of our life we have the opportunity to make even more promises or covenants with God such as baptism. With these promises the deal is the same. If we are obedient then we can always have this surety that God will fulfill his promise to bless us. This hope is what drives us to make the decisions we do every day, and it is this hope that drives us as missionaries to go find the people the Lord has prepared to receive the Gospel. 

This has been an awesome week here in Los Baños del Inca and it looks like both Elder Zapatiel and I are going to be staying here together at least one more transfer. Woo Hoo!!

Love,

Elder Vassau

1) Anderson’s baptism

2) Saying Goodbye to Elder Earl after 5 transfers in Celendi

3) Carnival funeral service

4) Carnival flags

Week 62 - Buses, More Buses, Carnival and a Baptism

Buenos Dias,

This has been one crazy week here in Los Baños del Inca... or maybe it would be better said in Trujillo, Celendin, and trapped in our room. This was a very out of the ordinary week here in Cajamarca. Monday morning about midday we took a bus to Trujillo. The bus ride can range anywhere between 6-8 hours... and usually it is super luxury and comfy, but for us... we had the nice cramped bus without air-conditioning nor windows. I think everyone was just about cooked alive by the time we arrived to Trujillo ha-ha. It was still a great time though. The entire zone in one little bus. We spent the night at the Temple facility in Trujillo and Monday morning we had an awesome conference with President Marble and 2 other zones. We talked about the importance of following through what we commit to do. How can we expect our investigators to do what we invite them to if we ourselves are not disciplined? After our conference we went to a Temple session as a zone followed by an overnight return trip to Cajamarca... in the same tiny hot bus. Hahaha. A little miserable was the bus ride but the conference and temple visit was awesome. Wednesday we spent the day proselyting in Los Baños del Inca and yet again Thursday morning we took a nice bus ride to Celendin to do a baptismal interview and to be there for the service as well. Celendin is the most isolated part of the entire mission, being 3 hours away from Cajamarca, which is already 3 hours away from the rest of the mission in Trujillo. We spent Thursday proselyting in Celendin and Friday we got to see the baptismal service of Sister Nelida. Celendin is a tiny little branch and so they do not baptize in the church rather they usually baptize in a river or during the rainy season in whatever body of water they can find. This Friday they baptized in a hotels swimming pool. Although the service was beautiful... the water was not... it was a nice shade of dark green full of bugs and algae... I guess it is the spiritual cleansing and not the physically being clean that matters. Well the service was on Friday and in the evening we returned to Baños. Why the service was on a Friday? Well it is because Saturday was one of the big days of Carnival here in Cajamarca. I believe it is a celebration before the beginning of the Catholic lent, but it is really just an excuse to throw paint, water, or even burnt oil and food at any passerby of the opposite sex. There is also a huge parade and lots of friends taking advantage of the time to get a little drunk and make it nice and dangerous for the missionaries. This means Saturday from the moment we woke up until the moment we went to bed we did not have permission to leave our rooms... It got nice and boring. It was pretty fun though to see, from our balcony, all the crazy painted cars and people dressed up as all sorts of things. Today as well was a big carnival day where they even cut the power so people would not have excuses to stay at home... We try to avoid most of the Carnival shenanigans but it would be a lie to say a few water balloons were not tossed from our balcony.  Also our pensionista, her daughter, and her niece got us nice and wet on our way to lunch. With buckets and buckets and buckets of water. It is all in good fun though and other than being a little bored in our rooms carnival is a great fun for everyone. Well this has been a great week and hopefully we can survive the rest of carnival... literally no one is safe... even the stake president got soaked by his neighbor while he was in his suite. He was opening up the door to let us in for lunch and the neighbors came out of nowhere to surprise him. Oh well welcome to Cajamarca. 

Love Elder Vassau

Photos from Temple and my companion and I soaking wet before lunch

Week 61 - Firm Testimonies, Travel Week & Trip to the Temple in Trujillo

Buenos Dias!!

This has been a great sunny week here in Los Baños del Inca. It appears that the torrential  downpours have taken a break for Carnival season here in Cajamarca because it has been nothing but sun all week. This week Elder Zapatiel and I had a really interesting lesson with some investigators. We had finished the lesson and we were on the way out the day when one of the investigators starting to share about an article he read about Jesus Christ and his life. It was a bit of a mudslinging article that he was taking to be super factual. Elder Zapatiel, myself, and the member who was accompanying us we just kind of laughed it off because we were ready to call it a night, but the investigators got a little mad and began to ask us if "all member of our church were so close minded". He really took us by surprise because up until this point everything had been going so well. He then went onto say that he does not really listen to my companion nor the member because they are so close minded with their ideas and they are not willing, according to him, to listen to new concepts. This little discussion really made me think, "as missionaries are we actually closed minded?" That night I had a long hard thought about this topic and I came to the conclusion that maybe close minded was not the best word choice but rather steadfast in our beliefs. In this world it is really important to listen to people and to be willing to be flexible and open minded to new ideas and ways to see things, and as missionaries we are always willing to listen and to not be too divisive on many areas of conversation. However, that being said, our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are people and have teaching that are eternal, in other words, their teachings and doctrine never change. When someone receives a testimony about a teaching of Jesus Christ through scripture study or prayer, no one can change that testimony. It is between someone and God. No matter how many people want to say otherwise when God has given me an answer, I cannot deny that answer, nor that truth. When this investigator called us closed minded what I think he really meant to say, maybe it just came out in a much more judgmental angry tone, is that "wow Elders, you guys have really firm testimonies in Jesus Christ, and nothing I can say or show to you guys can change that". What was meant to be an insult was really a compliment about our firm testimonies and that is something I am happy to hear. 

In other news, this week is my week of vacations. Today we are taking a bus trip to Trujillo for a conference and for a trip to the temple. Wednesday we will be here and then on Thursday we will be traveling to Celendin. Back here in Baños on Saturday.... but.... we cannot leave our room because Carnival will be in full swing here meaning that if were to leave we would be soaking with either buckets of paint, burnt oil, or have a few run ins with a few slightly drunk men. Hahaha. It is going to be a very interesting and different week here in Los Baños del Inca. 

Love,

Elder Vassau