Lima (Manchay) Peru – Week 10

Well this was a great week! It flew by like all of the other weeks! We were able to go to the temple and we took some cool pictures while we were there! Haha and something pretty disgusting happened this last week!

Well our investigator passed his baptismal interview this past Saturday! So this coming Saturday at 4pm we'll have his baptismal service! You're all invited if you wanna come and down and attend! It has been so great to be able to work with him over these past 2 months. He has really changed a lot. Most of the other 17 year old kids in the world aren't making the decision to be baptized. He is really cool. I think that he'd be one of the converts that would go and serve a mission in a year! That would be really sweet!

We've also found another young person that we're teaching! He is 22 years old and he isn't really into the right things in his life. He was very happy when we came and knocked on his door. He almost cried during the lesson. He is one that has lots of potential to progress if he keeps all of his commitments such as pray, read and attend church.

Haha this past week I had a disgusting experience with my daily agenda..... haha really weird. We were walking back from lunch and my bookcase fell out of my hands and rolled. And when it rolled my agenda fell out and rolled as well. It rolled into a little creek that was flowing out of a house. Well this creek is leaving from the bathroom of this house. Haha and it all happened in slow motion. I saw it happen and yelled "nooooooo" because I knew it would end up there. After that I had to dry it and spray a lot of axe to try and get the awful smell out of it. haha thought that you might like the experience! Well have a great week! I love you all!

Elder Farnsworth

Lima (Manchay) Peru – Week 9

Hola! Well this last week has flown by! Haha it was so fast that I don't even know what to write! Haha I'll find something interesting to write about!

Well something really cool that we had this week was a lunch in our zone with our new President and his family. That was a really fun to be able to meet and get to know them better. I had my first interview with him and his wife and we were able to talk and get to know each other better.

During this last week we were able to talk to our investigators that need to be married. Which was good, but they have no idea how or where to start to be married. At least they have a desire to be married! We finally ran into one of our investigators for the first time in 2 weeks. It was awesome because he was going to be baptized about 2 weeks ago, but then disappeared off the face of the earth. On Sunday night we got a call from him that said he was in his house and was wondering if we could come and visit him. Haha right after he called us we were on our way to his house. We also visited him yesterday in the morning and he'll be baptized this Saturday! While we didn't have contact with him, he was listening to missionaries in another part of Lima. He is seriously so cool. After the third time that he went to church he came and talked to us. He asked if he could teach one of the classes the next Sunday and we asked why. He said because the teacher in the priest quorum class is so boring.... and I know that I can teach better than he does! So we told him to talk to the bishop to see if he could. The bishop said that after he was baptized he could teach! So he's really excited to have the opportunity to teach.

We also taught the mom of a member in the church. She has now come to church 3 times and finally accepted a baptismal date for the 13 of August. My comp and I are really excited about that. We have been seeing a lot of miracles here in our area! I’m so glad that I'm able to be here in this area.

Well this is all for the week! Have a great week! I love you all!

Elder Farnsworth

Since Tyler didn't have any pictures to share I am adding a couple from the past week that I took.

Flat Tyler traveled with me to the National Boy Scout Jamboree in West Virginia. He met lots of people and was the topic of several conversations. While there I was reminded of an experience we both had at the 2010 Jamboree. Here's the blog post I made that day.

August 1, 2010: Sunday evening there was a Fireside with the General Young Men's Presidency. Tyler got to go up on stage in front of several thousand scouts during President Beck's talk and he committed that he "Will Serve a Mission." He received a gold dollar coin for sharing with the group. After the meeting Tyler said, "This was the best day ever."I'm so happy to report that he followed through on his commitment six years later.

Lima (Manchay) Peru - Week 8

Hello family and friends. This has been a great and a hard week. But it has definitely been a memorable week.

Well we had 2 baptisms this past weekend! It was really awesome! They're brother and sister and their baptism was very memorable! She shared her testimony after the baptism that was really powerful because she was kinda hard to commit to baptism. After she finally prayed and followed the example that James 1:5 that says we need to pray and ask God if we don't know something. So she did that and she received her answer that the Gospel of Jesus Christ was restored through the prophet Joseph Smith and that he translated the Book of Mormon and that it is the word of God. It was amazing to be able to participate in the conversion of the two. They're really cool. Another part that was cool about this story is that the brother who was baptized has an inactive girlfriend. She started to listen to us and has gone to some of our missionary activities. This last Sunday she came to church for the first time in 3 or more years and said that she wants to continue to go. So that's really awesome!

Well not gunna lie but I feel like I had one of the worst days of my mission this past week. It was Thursday. It started out when we found out that one of our investigators that was going to be baptized the end of the month isn't married...... Haha we found that out when we taught his wife. We were talking with her and we asked " so how long have you been married?," and she said " oh no we've just been living together:."  And we said, " but your husband said that you've been married for 9 years." "No, we've lived together for 9 years......" And we were pretty confused. But that wasn't so bad. We just had to have a change of plans. The good thing is that they want to get married. It'll just take some time. But then after that we went to an appt with the family that we were teaching. We were all excited to be able to teach them all together because they're always busy. So we go in and sit down and the first thing that she said to me(the mom) is that "we're not going to be baptized."  My comp and I were very confused because the appt before this they all said that they had received their answer about the church that it is true. Then she just started to ramble on about stupid things that had nothing to do about our visits. She indirectly called us liars and a bunch of crap. The worst part it that her kids were so excited about our visits. Especially the 18 year old. Then she talked them out of it. I kept trying to get her to tell me the reason behind  it, but she never did. She just kept saying stupid excuses. I was so mad and sad during this whole thing. I just hurts to see people that knew these things were true to deny it all. My comp and I both felt the spirit really strong  in the appt when they all had received their answers.SO we both knew that they had received it. But then for her to call us liars and not want to talk with us was tough......We all have our agency to make our own decisions. But I just feel bad that I couldn't have done more....

Other than that day it was a great week! Today has been a really great day. We did a fun activity for pday. We went out to the middle of nowhere to a bunch of farmland and hiked up a hill and took some sweet pics. And then I ate a Guinea pig! Haha it was kinda weird... Well that is all for the week! Love you all!

Elder Farnsworth

Lima (Manchay) Peru – Week 7

Hello! How are all of you? I hope that you all had a fun 4th of July, because let me just tell you that it isn't the same here. In fact, it is totally different here. But we did the best we could to have some fun and show some American pride. We had our district meeting that day so we took pictures with all the Americans. This week was a very good week for my companion and I. We had a lot of success and if everything goes well this week we should have some baptisms.

Over the past 2 weeks we've been teaching a new person called Fernando. Yesterday, for the first time, he came to church and it was awesome! When we were talking to him after, he told us that he's going to make time every week to be able to come and participate in church! Then he started asking more about baptism and how we do it. He is really interested in our lessons and today we are going to teach his whole family. They went to church with him too and they liked it! So I'm really excited to have the opportunity to work with him. He is one that has lots of potential! And if he keeps coming to church and fulfilling our commitments that we leave him he'll progress really fast!

This week is the baptismal date for 3 of our investigators. Two of them are Vidal and Yoshmelinda. They're brother and sister! They are really sweet. It has been cool to see how they've progressed and made changes to their lives. That is honestly one of the best parts of being a missionary! To be able to help in the process that will change their lives for the best. Because most of these people all say that they believe in God and Jesus Christ. And then we say “oh wow that is amazing! What do you do to show that you have faith in them?" And they respond saying, "oh well I attended church about 5 years ago and I pray every once in a while." But 90% of the people have never even read the Bible or even been to church in years. But once they truly start to listen and apply the things that we teach them to their lives is when the miracles start to happen!

Haha something funny that happened was on Saturday. My companion didn't want to get up so we put the phone with an alarm right next to his head and when it went off he picked it up and threw it at the wall! Haha it was super funny. Then another missionary dumped him out of the bunkbed onto the floor and he stayed on the floor trying to sleep until we took his pillow away! Well this is all for the week! Have a great one and talk to you next week!

Elder Farnsworth

Celebrating July 4th in Peru

Lima (Manchay) Peru – Week 6

Hello! Wow I can’t believe that tomorrow is the 4th of July and I won’t even be there to celebrate it..... . But that’s ok I'm doing something better than having a BBQ! Well this last week was very exciting! We said goodbye to President Boswell and said hello to President Amato and his family. I was able to be in President Boswell’s last training, and then two days later we met President Amato and his family. We ate some Brazilian food that was really good! I'm really excited to work with him. He and his wife are so excited to be here, and they have lots of enthusiasm to work with the missionaries. Their first day here after their long flight, they went and proselyted with some missionaries. That shows their desire to be here and to help in the work of the Lord.

Well this was a really good week in my area and with my companion. We had a lot of success in the area. We found a bunch of new investigators that seem very interested in our message. We found a single mom with 3 kids that seem to have a lot of potential to accept the gospel of Jesus Christ. We invited them to baptism for the 29th of July and they accepted it! So we were really excited about that and we have a lot of good appointments lined up for this week!

Well today has been a fun relaxing day! We went to a supermarket to buy some things and I found a vanilla coke and was very excited about that. Those are very rare here. We also went to pizza hut for LUNCH! Well that’s how my week was! I hope that you all have a fun and safe 4th of July! Talk to ya next week!

Elder Farnsworth  😎

Amato Family

Pizza Hut and Vanilla Coke