Hola mis amigos,
Yeah, this week was one of those OTHER weeks. Those weeks that just make your face hurt from smiling and chill you to your very bones with pure goodness. I'm just full of sheer joy. There is sunshine in my soul today, si o si (that means for sure).
Alright, I'll do my best to get on with this letter and let you all enjoy the happiness with me. So before anything I want to say CONGRATULATIONS to my cousin and best friend Charlie. I'm super excited for you to get married. Everyone says she's a super cool girl, so that makes it all the better. It'll be fun to hear about all the changes that are happening in the family this summer. That includes the Youngs with their plans to join us (well I guess you guys) in my land of make believe. I'm praying that things work out for the house and if not a different one, but that would just about be the craziest thing in the world to move next door to Nomi.
Now back to my week. It's actually pretty funny because it starts out with one of the least pleasant memories of my whole mission. On Monday we were invited to eat ''tocuch'' with the Salvador family. I think that's how you spell it, but it should mean something like horse poop in Quechua. It's really that bad. Alright, sorry if that's super crude, but I really have no idea how else to describe it. It's fermented potatoes that reek and then they put it in some gelatenous mixture. Well, I was doing alright and we took some videos of us eating. I got it down, but made one mistake. I finished strong and then the hermana asked me if I wanted more. That's definitely a lesson learned. I told her just a little bit because I was really full, we had eaten just an hour before so I wasn't lying. She took it and just gave me a little more and I handled it like a dignified gentleman. My companion was so close to throwing up and we've been laughing about it the rest of the week. It's one of those mission food experiences that I'm grateful I had once and will do my best to never have again.
For Brianna's birthday I was actually on an exchange with Elder Arnett and we just partied it up. We listened to some good church music and ate delicious cake, of course with some IncaKola. He also had Nutella, which is acutally pretty cheep down here, and that was good as always. It was just fun to be thinking about you Brianna and I hope you had the greatest birthday ever.
Your pictures from Prom are so great and you look so beautiful. You are growing up way too fast as I previously have stated and wouldn't mind if you slowed it down a little bit. I hope you had a blast dancing the night away. Also, the pictures from your softball game looked so cool and I'm looking forward to watching you when I get home.
Later this week I actually had another work visit with Elder Holley and that was super awesome. Other than being able to speak English (yes, I still miss it after all the time in the mission) it was so much fun to talk about sports. We talked about a bunch of different sports teams and about some stadiums we've been to. It was fun to remember going to Notre Dame with Dad and you gotta love Touchdown Jesus. For all you sports lovers out there, go ahead and soak up as much as you can for the both of us. I'm looking forward to a long lifetime of sports lovin´. I really liked just talking to him about our stories, why we're here on the mission, and how we know the Church is true. It gave me a lot of strength and I wanted to thank you all for being such great examples to me and letting me borrow of your light until I found out for myself. I love the mission and am so grateful to be here.
Sunday a family bore their testimony about being sealed in the temple and I just about burst into tears. I really don't understand it, I just was touched by the Spirit. I am so grateful that we are all sealed together and am so excited to hear about how our family is getting even closer, and growing even bigger.
So I haven't really said that much about the week now that I think about it, but I guess that's why it was so cool. It flew by and I was just happy doing the work of the Lord. My companion and I get along really well and I love him. It's really cool, because I'm learning a lot of patience as I let go of the little things he does that bother me and focus on all of the big things he does that just blow me away. He's such a great guy and I'm so grateful for every single one of my companions. I have learned so much from them all.
This week we were blessed so much to be able to set up baptismal dates for two amazing families. I have never been given the privilege to baptize a family and now there are two and a third one soon. I really hope I can stay here in Los Rosales I love it here. Now about the third family. I don't remember what I said about Walter and Leonor, but 2 weeks ago she sat us down and said that she felt super pressed by us, she didn't like us coming around so often (only one or two times a week), and that she liked smoking and drinking. Her son was super cool, but just kind of followed her. So we pass by to say hi this week and she tells us that she talked to her son and they want to get baptized in a month or two. Later we talked to Walter and he told us that she said ''no pude aguantarme'' (she just couldn't handle it, she couldn't hold it in anymore, that's the best translation I can do). Well, that was one of the coolest moments of my mission just hearing that and we are seeing so many blessings in this area as we are just obedient and work hard.
I'm super excited to talk to you all this Sunday and can't believe the time is passing by so quickly.
In my reading this week I really liked Alma 61:6 about doing things day by day. Alma 61:19-20 about rejoicing in being burned by someone else, it actually was an answer to his prayer (I love Pahoran). Alma 62:35-36 about how anger destroys us. Then of course our beloved Hagoth in Alma 63:5-8 it was really nice to think about Papa, I love him so much. We finished Alma!!!!!!! Helaman 4:26, read all the footnotes, it can all change in the space of not many years if we don't continue forward in righteousness. Alma 5:6 about how good is good enough. Helaman 5:12 of course is a classic and then 14-20 about how the preached with power and authority. I know we all have the same power and authority and am so grateful to be a missionary.
I loved my mission this week and it was so fun to hear from so many of you. I am allowed to write to whoever wants to write me by email and I'll do my best to respond. I hope your mission was just as good as mine and I'm looking forward to an even better one.
Have the greatest week ever and a
HAPPY MOTHERS' DAY!!!!!!!!!
Love your happy son, brother, and friend in Perú,
Elder Aaron Micah Wheatley
No comments:
Post a Comment