May 30, 2016

Another week has flown by, I am amazed that we are already half way through the change, this actually makes me sad. Why?  Well time seems to be passing by too fast.  There are so many people to help and things to learn here with my companion and the investigators.

This week we went on two work visits. One with the zine leaders and the other with the Elders from Pradera.  It really helped Elder Surco lose the fear in contacting and stopping people on the street.  I stayed in the Brisas, my area, with elder Rodriguez and, wow, I learned a lot from this man.  Elder Rodrigues know how to work hard and bring the Spirit to each lesson.  In the morning, every person that we saw we stopped them and asked, the question, Are you looking for the truth?  Then immediately after twe taught them about the Restoration of the Gospel.  It is interesting seeing eachof the reactions to the question.  One sparked many great conversations.  Others responded that they already had the truth and that any Church that velieve that 2 angels come down from Heaven is of the devil.  It is so sad to see how wrong they are, but it is not thier time yet.  It is like Paul said to the Corinthians: "But the natural man recieveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned."
Elder Espinoza and Elder Romero were having some difficulties getting use to each other, but it takes time to adjust to each companion. 
We are doing everything we can to strengthen the district.

We have 2 investigators that are doing very well.  One is Vanesa Cubas who is a member of the Jehovah's Witnesses.  She has attended over 5 times and had all the lessons.  She was about to get baptized before, but the week before she traveled to Tarapoto for work.  The thing is that the job in Tarapoto did not work out, so she came back.  Now she is ready to be baptized.  What made me the happiest is that she told us she took her Book of Mormon with her and she read while she was there. 
I know that God blesses us if we work and are willing to be exactly obedient.  The change this woman has made is huge.  I know that the Book of Mormon is the key to the conversion of all those who want to be disciples of Christ.  The other investigator is Luiz Montalvo.  He is avidly reading the Book of Mormon and understands very well when we teach him.  The only thing that he lacks is that he needs to attend church.  His problem is that he is studying to be a Dentist and he is in the last leg of his studies to earn his degree and the title to establish his own practice; so every 15 days he has to do practices on Saturdays and Sundays.  Besides that he will be able to attend.

I am grateful for the opportunity to train Elder Surco because he as taught me more than I think I have taught him.  With Spanish the gospel and just how to be a better person. Thanks

Also something cool that we did this week is that we helped plant a tree with Oscar and Franco. The tree is some type of Ficus, but saturday afternoon we went over in our white shirts, haha, and went to work. The tree we planted was for the church by the way... 

Elder Mecham