2 Weeks of Posts -- I was away!

Mar 5:

Hola familia!

I noticed this past week too that I am 1/4 of the way through my mission, that`s crazy! But you are exactly right mama, I feel used to being here in Peru, being a missionary and speaking Spanish, now I can focus a lot more on being the best missionary I can be!

This week was pretty steady, we are working with a few people that are progressing towards baptism but there are always a few bumps and obstacles put in the way. One of our investigators his name is Daniel, he is 27 years old and super chill, he works in a Medical centre and is good friends with a member family in our ward. He also really wants to learn how to play the piano, so we`re going to teach him in the church this week so we can have a piano lesson after. Also quick side note, we had an activity in the church this past Thursday that the ward mission leader organized, we watched a part of Meet the Mormons and played some games with members and investigators it was pretty sweet. During the activity I sat down to play a song on the piano and my companion kept asking me to play heart and soul, I played it like 15 times and he never got tired of it haha.

We also have three young men that we are teaching whose names are Leo, Johan and Larry who I`ve talked about before. All of them are nieghbours and live right by a married couple that got baptised in November of last year. So when we would go down to visit those members we would always talk with these kids because their ringleader was a member. But what happened is that one day we were talking with them and we decided that if we`re going to be here we might as well share something with them. So we ended up teaching like 11 kids right there in the street. We kept coming back and Larry started coming to church with Johan, then Johan this week invited his friend Leo. All three of them arrived at church together and stayed for all three hours. It`s crazy to see that although they`re young that they have a desire to learn more about the gospel, Larry has been reading the Book of Mormon and is now in 2nd Nephi, a lot of times with young men it`s easy for them to be interested in the church one month and then nothing the next so we`re going to keep working with them and hopefully be able to help them progress towards baptism!

We had a zone conference this week on Thursday, we got a chance to hear from President Godfrey and the assistants, we talked about chapter 4 of Preach my Gospel and how important the Holy Spirit (El Espiritu Santo) in our work as missionaries. One thing I really loved was what Hermana Godfrey shared with us about converting Opposition into Opportunities. As children of God we all face opposition in this life. As a missionary there is opposition, at times I feel it would be easy to give in and lose heart. But the work here is so good and it is an enormous privilege to be able to dedicate my time to the Lord and share the gospel that has brought me so much happiness in my life. I know that the only way to find true and lasting happiness in this life is in the gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that his church had been restored here on the earth by the prophet Joseph Smith. Yo se que Presidente Russell M. Nelson es un profeta de Dios.

I love you guys, I miss you a lot.

Elder Thompson

Here`s some photos from after futbol this morning, featuring Leo, Johan and Larry also Jherzon a recent convert and the zone

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Feb 26:

That sounds like an awesome week, I remember Puerto Vallarta and how went we went there I could not understand anybody in church. It´s weird to think that I could communicate with the people if I went there now!

That´s funny that you mention the hills Mama, I´ll send a photo of one of the staircases we go up almost everyday. Whenever we go up the hill I always get super sweaty and have to rest a moment But it´s a normal part of my day like I don´t blink an eye whenever we get there.

Also a funny thing here in Peru is the amount of english words people use. For example my companion was telling a story this week from his mission and talking about a lady that wanted him to sell a product for him and be a ´´coach´´ or another one is pants in Spanish is pantalones but if you talk about shorts here you call them ´´short´´ except pronounced CH-ort. So people will be talking and say stuff like ´´voy a ponerme un short´´ which is i´m going to put on shorts it´s pretty funny.

Our investigator Daniel didn´t come to church this week unfortunately so we´ll see how he´s doing this week upcoming.

This week we had a really cool experience, earlier in the week we were visiting Larry Nathanel who has been coming to church. And as we were talking with him the neighbour opened her door and invited us over and offered us homemade bread that she had brought from her people in the country. It turns out she had listened to the missionaries like 4-5 years ago when the church was still pretty new in this area of Lima. We went back to her house yesterday to teach a lesson and we met her son who it turns out is an inactive member. The neighbour (her name is Rosa and she is about 75 years old) invited her son to offer the opening prayer. During the prayer he began to cry and thanked Heavenly Father for sending the missionaries to his home. We talked to him briefly about repentance and promised him that there is peace and comfort in returning to the church and in finding forgiveness. Thinking about experiences I have had in my life I really affirmed my testimony that Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer and that it is only though him that we can be clean and be forgiven of our sins. He loves me and knows me personally. His suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the cross made it so that all of God´s children can return to live in his presence. I love to reflect on the words of a hymns we sing often in the church ´´I Know That My Redeemer Lives´´ I do know that he lives.

1. Elder Vasquez from my district - this is his last transfer

2. Selfie from after a service project we did this week, Elder Pallmay from Ecuador is in the gray and in the red is Elder Rojas also from Ecuador

3. The stairs

4, 5, 6  - Temple photos