Week 82 - Three rings on the Doorbell and we found Rebecca!

Buenos Dias!!!

This has been an awesome week here in Primavera. These week Elder Torres and I had a super awesome experiencing while contacting. Last Saturday we had our conference with Elder Stevenson and so after that we were super pumped for missionary work and to get at it. The following day on Sunday we found a short time to contact by knocking on doors here in Primavera which is not something we do to often because it is not usually too successful. Also when I say knocking doors I really mean ringing doorbells to speak through little call boxes that all of the really nice houses have. Well we were passing by a certain house and we began to ring the door bell. Once... with no answer... twice... no answer... and we decided to ring for a third time just in case. That is usually our rule of thumb. One knock to see if they are home. Two knocks just in case they did not hear the first one. Three knocks just for the sake of it/for Jeffrey because Jeffrey Holland once gave a talk to missionaries telling them to knock a third time, if for nothing else, just for him. Well the thing is that after the third ring of the doorbell we were about to move on when we heard a reply. A young ladies voice responding that... she was about to leave... it was like the majority of houses we contacted so we really did not think much of it, but seconds later when we were nearly at the next house she replied saying "Wait! I will be right out"... (Obviously in Spanish though). A young mother answered the door and invited us in. She told us that she was honestly getting ready to leave but seconds before we had knocked on her door she had been praying for help to be more patient. At first she did not recognize us as her response when we initially introduced ourselves via telecomunicator, but then it clicked and she realized that she needed to attend us. We then spent a nice short while conversing with

Rebecca about the Gospel. She said that she was raised Adventist and her fiancé is Catholic but recently both of them began attending an evangelical church in Trujillo. They have one child together and after she was pregnant they realized that they had to change something to follow God. They stopped living together, he proposed, and they went looking for a church. Because of financial difficulties they are still waiting to be married but Rebecca is a person that just wants to do what God wants her to do. She then expressed to us how we were an answer to her prayers and that she would like us to begin teaching her and her husband. It was awesome. We shared a very spiritual visit and at the end on our way out the door Rebecca even told us that she was named after a LDS missionary that used to visit her family. It was truly a miracle how we arrived at her house just at the right time. Being a missionary is awesome for all of these tiny miracles that one sees. 

Well this week has been awesome here in Primavera. My companion (after more than 6 months here in the office) is NOT yet being transferred as we all had assumed. We celebrated his birthday last week and I made everyone pancakes. 

Here in Peru the people are a little depressed that Peru lost their first two games in the world cup, many assumed Peru was going to win it all. A real shame. 

The mission is going great and this has been an awesome week here in Primavera. 

Love,

Elder Jack Vassau

Week 80 - Mission Conference & Honoring the Sabbath Day

Buenos Dias!!!

This has been an amazing week here in Primavera. Today we had the privilege and blessing of having a conference with Elder Gary E. Stevenson who is a member of the Quorum of the twelve apostles of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints. The conference was truly awesome. My mission, the Peru Trujillo North Mission, and the Peru Trujillo South mission we all got together here in the Primavera chapel to receive training from Elder Stevenson and his wife. For members of the church, these leaders are called apostles because, just like the original apostles of Jesus Christ, these leaders are imperfect men called of God to be special witnesses of Jesus Christ around the world. They travel all of over the globe visiting and teaching many other church leaders and people in need. It is truly a unique experience to have a conference with one of them and we learned so much. 

The conference started out with a message from the area President who is in charge of all that is Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia. He shared the story about when he was 16 years old living in Brazil when he met the sister missionaries and decided to be baptized. He told us that when he got baptized he was a rebellious teenager with a pony tail. Everyone got a good laugh out of that. It was a little hard for everyone to picture. What he taught us though is that we should never judge others but rather through small and simple acts we should help all others to hear this message. The spirit will work with those that are prepared to receive the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It does not matter where someone comes from, what they do, what race they are, what their profession is, when the Gospel and the light that it brings is presented one can feel its truthfulness and will naturally have the desire to follow it. It is much like a moth in a dark room. It does not matter what type of moth or bug it is, how far away, how large, how old, etc. when there is a light in a dark room the bug will be drawn to it no matter what. Any person, when the Gospel is presented to them, will feel the spirit and will have the desire to follow it if God has been preparing them to receive it. Just think about that the next time a decision presents itself, that naturally we are drawn, through the spirit, to what is good and one will be able to recognize the truth if they have true intention. 

What Elder Stevenson taught us as well was amazing. He really taught us about the importance of inviting others to change and promising blessings. He, as an apostle of Jesus Christ, can promise blessings in the Lord´s name, and I, as a missionary, have the same right to promise blessings. When God makes a promise He is bound to fulfill His half when we do our part. We can have confidence that the decision to follow Jesus Christ will always bring to pass blessings, maybe not immediately, but they will come. That is why we as missionaries are called to teach people repentance so that many may change their ways in order to enjoy the fullness of the promised blessings. It is an awesome privilege to be able to represent our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and promise these blessings, all the while teaching people so that they may follow the path the enjoy the fullness of these blessings. 

This week in our teaching we had awesome visits with the Murga family. We taught Juan and Juancito first on Monday then Elder Torres with Elder Rosenhan taught the mother Yesika yesterday. These week we focused on the commandment of keeping the sabbath day holy. This is a commandment that man has had since the start of time. Many may recognize it from the ten commandments given to Moses. That being said many people also do not understand it because what it explains in the bible in Exodus 20 is the following: 

8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.

9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:

10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:

11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

To be honest these four verses may be very confusing for many because it talks all about manservants and cattle, but the idea is that we are given six days of the week to do all that we need to do. Our Heavenly Father just asks us to dedicate one day to remember him where we can devote ourselves to service, scripture study, church attendance, and family time. Here is a video that we used this week that I really love. https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2015-12-008-the-sabbath-is-a-delight?lang=eng

The mission is awesome and God loves blessing us. All we have to do is complete with our part to receive these awesome blessings. 

Love,

Elder Vassau

Week 79 - Preparing Ana for baptism and the visit of an Apostle

Buenos Dias!!!

This has been an awesome week here in Primavera especially with the exciting news that this coming Saturday we will be having a multi mission conference with Elder Stevenson from the quorum of the twelve apostles. Everyone here in the mission is super pumped. 

This week we have been working with a young sister named Ana Altamirano. She has been preparing for baptism for a few weeks now. We were rescheduling her baptismal date, because it was going to be the same date as the conference, when the impression came to me that I needed to ask her why she wanted to be baptized. Her answer was so simple but so true. She said "I know that getting baptized will help me to be a better person..." I thought about it for a few brief second and then I realized how true that phrase is. To be baptized is to follow the example of Jesus Christ, the only perfect person to walk the face of this Earth. If we want to be batter people our goal should be to more like Him, and the only way to be more like Him is by living His Gospel. This Gospel includes having Faith in Jesus Christ, Repentance, Baptism, Receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and to endure to the End. He showed us this formula as a way of little by little perfecting ourselves. When we have faith in Christ we desire to be more like Him, when we realize that we sometimes fall short we repent to make the necessary changes in our lives, when we try to be more Christ like we want to follow his example of baptism through which we make a promise with God to keep his commandments, after Baptism we receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost to help guide us on the correct path, and finally if we are able to endure all things until the end we will be able to gain all that is promised to us. These promises include peace here on Earth and Eternal life in the coming life. To be a better person is to be more Christ like, and Ana´s decision to be baptized is one massive step to follow the example of Jesus Christ. It is an awesome privilege as a missionary to help people take the steps to begin applying the Gospel of Jesus Christ in their lives. When people are humble enough to take these steps, then they can see the blessings in their lives, but what happens is sometimes we are a little too stubborn and prideful to accept such a simple solution. 

As it states in Mathew 18:1-4 

1 At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?

2 And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them,

3 And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.

4 Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

The mission is just awesome and the Gospel is so simple when we do not over complicate it with our own ideas and opinions. This week has been amazing and everyone is super excited as we prepare for our conference this week. 

Love,

Elder Vassau

Week 78 -30 seconds (!!!!) of street contacting found a great man to teach!

Buenos Dias!

This has been another great week here in Primavera. This week I had a really fun time trying out a new way to contact people. Last sunday we, as an office, decided to go contact in a park using a big banner of Jesus Christ. We were going to test it out here because it is not something that generally is done here in Peru. Well we decided to give it a try for a short hour because we had an appointment at 4 where President Marble was going to accompany us. Well what happened was we got to the park at around 315pm and we found a nice spot to put up the banner. Within less than 30 seconds of getting the Christ banner up and going, someone walks up to me and starts asking what we were doing. I explained to him we are missionaries and I began to explain to him a little bit about what we do. He then said "Perfect! So you guys are exactly what I am looking for!". He then proceeded to invite us over to a near by bench to chat about numerous Gospel and Christ centered themes for nearly a half an hour. It was so crazy how fast God worked in our Park situation. We were there for less than 30 seconds before someone presented themselves. Someone who God had been preparing to receive this message. It was awesome. 

This week we also had a great experience sharing a family home evening with the Murga family where we taught them about God's Plan of Salvation. Nothing brings so much happiness and peace to a family as the knowledge and understanding that family life does not finish here on Earth, but rather that a family can be eternal. God's plan, although often we do not understand it while here on Earth, is something that shapes us into being happier and better people. The Murga family, like most families, has been passing through various challenges with health recently. Bother Hermana Murga and her dad have recently suffered accidents that have limited their mobility. When we see all that happens in this life in the perspective of God's eternal plan, it makes it just a little bit easier to take on life's challenges. 

Well another awesome week here in Primavera. Here in Peru everyone is getting super excited for the World Cup, the first in which Peru will participate in about 36 years. To commemorate that we bought matching office Peru jerseys (see photo). 

I hope all is well back on the home front. 

Love,

Elder Vassau