Monday, April 15, 2013

One day in Tacalà city... email from March 18, 2013

So my mom has asked for a `one day` description...we`ll see how it goes!

So Friday, the 15th of March, I got up at exactly 6:30 AM to the sound of our cellphone. It`s kinda funny because the ringtone we have as our alarm is the ringtone that EVERYONE has here. Kinda like in the movie theatres in the states where they have those adds.

After saying our companionship and personal prayers, it`s time for excersizing! To be honest...I don`t always do them. I usually end up doing 20 or 30 pushups, some squats, and call it good. My belly is showing it too...however on Friday I got a bit more into it, doing about 40 pushups before getting breakfast, cereal and milk-my favorite!!

After eating quickly, I shave quick and jump in the shower. Haha, we don`t have a showerhead here because there is hardly any water pressure. It`s like showering with a hose, which was pretty interesting the first couple of days!

At 8 AM we have an hour of personal study. I remember that on Friday I read some conference talks that were super sweet!! I learned about the priesthood and how some people take it for granted. I thought about a few of our investigators that simply don`t understand what the priesthood is and how amazing it is that God has called a prophet in our days! Friday was a great day for me in my studies because I was also led to a scripture in Mosiah where it talks about Ammon and how an entire pueblo wanted to be baptized! However, Ammon did not feel worthy, so they had to wait!!! I couldn`t imagine that...an entire pueblo wants to be baptized and I`m not worthy to do that...obviously we need to value our priesthood authority more.

At 9, we have companionship study. Normally we talk about our investigators and make lesson plans for them. Today we talked about Rosa Robledo, who has a baptismal date for April 7th with her husband! She doesn`t seem to comprehend the importance of the Book of Mormon so we focused on that in our lesson plan.

At 10, we had weekly planning! For me, that`s always a key in the week. At times, it makes me feel bad because we don`t have a lot of investigators to plan for, but it always helps. Right now we`re focusing on daily contacts, so I was with the huge whiteboard (blessing of being ZLs) while my companion took notes. It was a good weekly planning session where we got a lot done.

At about 1:30 we went to lunch! Our pensionista had the food ready, it was rice, beans, and chicken. A VERY peruvian plate. :) We had to eat quickly, only talking with the other elders there for about 5 minutes before catching a Taxi to the center of town! There, we ran to the post office to mail a letter that I`ve held on to for...who knows how long...and then took our our Zone Fund, about 100 bucks. We then caught another taxi to the office!

In the office, we had to carry a stove, table, fridge, microwave, eating utinsils, pans, pamphlets, and Books of Mormon! It was quite the challenge getting all of that to fit in these tiny taxis, but we did it before zooming over to the sister`s apartment in a super rich area of Piura.

By this time, it was 3! Normally we`re knocking doors by that time but we had the priviledge of helping Hermana Panoso and Hermana Maldonado move their new kitchen into their tiny apartment. We had to take out a huge ropero, and ended up breaking a plant in the process!!! (Oops...sorry!!!) However, we were able to do that all super quick and headed back to our area.

By the time we got back to Tacalà, it was 4! I was pretty tired too. We ran to Juan and Nelda, and had a pretty good lesson with them. They`re SUPER catholic, but we are teaching slowly about the prophets. Hopefuly the spirit will step in there and help them understand a bit better!

After Juan and Nelda, we visited Rosa Robledo, who has a baptismal date! We didn`t end up being able to use our lesson plan because she talked so much!!! I could hardly get a word in, but that`s ok. :) She`s super great! We finished teaching about the grades of glory and she understood well. We then had to RUN out, because we were late for our baptism!!!

This week we had the baptism of our Ward MIssion Leader`s niece! We knew nothing about her before Monday night! However, we were able to go over the lessons with her super quick before her baptism. She was ready. Layna has attended church a lot, and her cousins have also taught her a ton. At the baptismal service, her uncle, Hermano Joel Flores, baptised her. It was a great service, and I felt the spirit strong with her. She even bore her testimony! A little 8 year old girl! It was cool.

After the baptism, we visited a Recent Convert and tried to encourage her to sign up for Seminary. She`s 14 years old and the only member in her family. Unfortunately, she`s kinda heading down a bad road, so we want to get her more involved with the youth! Hopefully seminary will help with that.

At about 7, we had another lesson with Cesar Espinoza. He`s super smart and came to church this last sunday! The problem is that he has to head to his farm every week, and normally only comes home for the weekend! However it`s raining so much there right now that we got the chance to teach him.

After arriving in his home, Cesar told us to sit down and we began talking. However, he got a phone call and went into the other room and left us there for about 15 minutes...talk about awkward!!! I started wondering if it was even worth it. I was super tired and really just wanted to go. However, something told me to just wait, and I`m glad I did!

This lesson was AWESOME! Elder Chinchay and I have been working a lot on have unity in our companionship and I think we did a great job in this lesson. We listened a lot more than talking. We talked about the Restoration. He even read the pamphlet!!! It`s funny how small things make us so happy. :) But it`s so important to read!!! He said that he knew it was true because it just made perfect sense!! We testified that it was true and talked about the importance of receiving an answer from God. We then gave him a Book of Mormon and challenged him to be baptised. He accepted, but said he would have to think it over before accepting a date. That`s fine by me! I have a feeling that he could be converted and bring his four children too, all of them very intelligent men that can hold the priesthood!!! Jackpot!

At about 8:30, we got back to our room. We had our 30 minute planning session where we talked about the many lessons we had planned for Saturday and the super awesome investigators we have. After that, it was time to eat!

Honestly, I`m getting super lazy in the eating part. I`m eating. But not very healthily! It`s tuff because sometimes we get back at 930, and at 10 we begin cooking, and we have to be in bed at 1030! However, on Friday I`m pretty sure I had two hamburgers and a powerade. :) Delicious!!

At 1030, we said our prayers and went to bed.

And that, my friends, is one of my better days this past week. :) Lots of work! Lots of things to do and really not a lot of time to do it in! However, I am so happy. :) The best part is just being able to feel the spirit work through me. In the lessons the spirit tells me when to be happy, when to be sad, and I simply love it!

I hope all is well at home! Have a great week!!!

Love,
Elder Schofield
 



Dallon's Christmas PJ's - we also sent some for his companion!


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