Week 77 - Juancita And The Reality of A Simple Prayer

Buenos Dias!!!!

This week has been truly amazing here in the mission. This week we had an awesome lesson with a lady named Jessica. She is the wife of Juan Murga and mother of Juancito, two people we have been teaching recently and that are progressing really well. Juan the father contacted us one day in the street by his house and Juancito everytime we come over drops everything he is doing to listen to us. They are awesome. Well the thing is that Jessica, Juan's wife, recently had an accident where she fell and hurt her knee so she has not had much time until recently. Yesterday we went to visit her in the afternoon with her next door neighbor who is a member of our church. We were teaching Jessica about the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She understood the message really well because she had read and studied a bit of a pamphlet we had previously left with her. The real special part is when we were sharing with her something known as the first vision. It is the experience of a young man named Joseph Smith where he went to a grove of trees near his house to pray and receive divine guidance. As a response to his humble prayer he had an experience where in his own words he states, 

"I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me...

...When the light rested upon me I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other—This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!"

Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ appeared unto him to guide him in what is known as the restoration. 

When we began to share this experience with her she began to appear noticeably animated. As we finished reciting the story she even began to laugh. I felt the strong impression that I needed to ask her how she felt hearing that God and Jesus Christ appeared to this young man. In that very instant she broke down crying. She went on to share with us that for many years she had doubts about God´s existence because of the influence of some friends. She had even stopped praying all together to God the Father and would only talk about Jesus Christ, whom she believed in because there is historical evidence of his existence. She told us that when she read the first vision in the pamphlet she began to feel really guilty and began to regret ever doubting God the Father's existence. She even said that to hear us share the first vision with her helped her to without a doubt know that God exists and that he truly appeared unto this young man. The spirit truly filled the room as we began to testify of God's love that He has for her and for all of His children.

For our Heavenly Father it does not matter what we do, He will always love us. Even if we distance ourselves, doubt His existence, rebel, or whatever other class of action He will always love us and through Christ the day we decide to return to Him in love He will always gladly receive us. It is so amazing helping people to feel God and Christ's love. The Gospel is exactly that, it is God's loving plan for us that Christ makes possible. It is amazing being able to share it and helping people to begin to apply it in their lives. 

The mission is truly amazing. 

Love, Elder Vassau

Week 76 - Using Technology to Teach Gladys & Goodbye to Elder Barboza

Buenos Dias!

This has been a great week here in the Misión Peru Trujillo Norte. This week we have had the really strange and new opportunity to begin using technology here in the mission. Wow. Crazy. All of the missions here in Peru we are really low tech compared to the missions in other parts of the world where people have iPads and lots of things at their disposal. That being said here in the mission I have been working on putting together USB drives for all of the missionaries that are full of selected videos for proselyting. My companion and I have been testing the USBs out, us being somewhat Guinea Pigs (a little ironic). It has been working great with many of our investigators here in Primavera. One family in particular really had a great experience this week with our new videos. We were teaching Gladys and her son Javier, the wife and son of a super cool recent convert. What we decided to teach them that day was our most fundamental lesson, which is the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This message teaches about how God is our loving Heavenly Father, how he has given us his Gospel from the beginning through prophets, it teaches about Jesus Christ, and the confusion that came in the time following His death. It is really special but it really has more of an effect when someone is able to apply it in their own life. We showed the following video to help Gladys´ son to really understand how he could apply this message to his own life and begin taking the steps to follow Jesus Christ. Everyone should give it a look if they have 5 min.

  https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2013-06-002-origin?lang=eng

Technology is able to help people to get information quickly and in this case as missionaries we can even use technology to help people to feel the spirit quickly. 

We have also been starting to utilize another set of super cool Chapel Tours videos that help people to understand what we really do in our church allowing them to understand our focus in Jesus Christ. That is really the focus of all that we do. Our purpose is to invite all to come unto Christ, and even through a short video clip someone can really feel that motivation to come unto Christ. 

You can find the Chapel Tours videos in the LDS Library App. They are awesome. 

Well this has been a great week here in Peru. This past Monday I had to send another group of missionaries off to the airport as they finished their missions. We said goodbye to some dear friends including my trainer Elder Barboza, but life goes one. The mission is awesome! 

Love,

Elder Vassau

Week 75 - Skype on Mother's Day, Juan Murga & Family - the time is now!

Buenos Dias – Happy Mother’s Day!!!

This has been an awesome week here in Primavera. I would like to tell you guys about two really cool experiences this week. One of them was visiting a member reference. A member of the church from a nearby ward gave us a call letting us know that her friend from work would like to meet the missionaries. One morning we went over to meet with her friend and we met Juan Carlos. He is awesome. He is a single dad who is a very young and succesful businessman. He super excitedly invited us in and we began to converse with him. Like many people here in Primavera he was raised Catholic, but just by tradition, he told us he wants to start on a completely blank slate because he knows close to nothing about God. He tells us that financially and with his son he is super happy, but he knows that something is missing, the spiritual part, and that is why he wanted to visit with us, to help him improve the spiritual part of his life. He is super excited and willing to learn in order to find that perfect balance in our life that helps us to be at peace with God´s plan. Juan Carlos understands and feels the need to improve his relationship with God, and that desire is more important than any amount of knowledge or scriptural understanding that a person can have. 

Another awesome family we have started to teach is the Murga family. Juan Murga in one of my first weeks here contacted us. We didn´t knock his door, contact him in a park, nor meet him through a friend but rather we were walking one day by his house and he called us over. ELDERES. He is from a city up north in our mission called Chepen and he knew the missionaries over 20 years ago, but because he was working in the mines he never had time and lost all contact with them. Well he newly wants to hear our message which he knew was true from the moment he heard it 25 years ago, but he does not just want it for himself, but rather he wants his whole family to learn this message. Juan, his wife Yesica, Juancito (11) and Daniel (10). They are awesome and super excited to hear the message of the restored Gospel. Some people are prepared for years before finally having the chance to follow the example of Jesus Christ and his restored Gospel, and I think that is just the case with Juan and his family. 

All is amazing here in the mission. Happy Mother´s day to all the Mom´s out there!

Love,

Elder Vassau 

Photos

1. Picture of my - Skype conversation for Mother's Day

2. My trainer(Peru), me(USA), the person I trained (Colombia), and the person he is training (USA)

3. Primaver Zone

Week 74 - The Fruits of the Capilla Abierta

Buenos Dias!

This has been an awesome week here in Primavera. The Capilla Abierta (Chapel Openhouse) was super successful last week. We were able to help lots of people come to an understanding as to who we are and what we teach it. The most important thing we were able to accomplish was to help others feel the spirit while learning about their Savior Jesus Christ. 

This week we had our multi zone conferences where multiple zones from the mission get together to enjoy a training and conference from President Marble. It was an awesome experience and we talked a lot about goal setting. Goals are acts of faith that allow us to reach our full potential and keep our actions guided always. In life when there are no goals we just kind of wander aimlessly, but when we are able to focus on a goal we can always take the actions necessary to reach that goal. Even if it is difficult the Lord taught Nephi in the Book of Mormon that He will always prepare the way if it is a righteous cause. In this case we, as God´s children, need a righteous goal to guide every single one of our actions. This goal is to have Eternal Life, which means to live with our families, in the presence of our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, for eternity. The only thing we need to do to reach this goal is to follow the Gospel of Jesus Christ. To have Faith in Jesus Christ, repent, be baptized, receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and endure to the end. If we do this, thanks to our Savior Jesus Christ, even though we are all imperfect, He will make this goal achievable. It is awesome. This is the ultimate goal and I hope that everyone can keep it in mind when they are making any type of decision. 

The mission life is going great and flying by way too fast. 

Love,

Elder Vassau