Don’t Worry About Feeding Me…

Hello/Hola, 

Week two just finished up with some Peruvian food that was insane (especially after a day of  fasting)!  A ward member and her son were kind enough to make us gourmet BBQ that was out of this world. Besides food, week two was really good. We found a few people we will be teaching in the near future.  Shannon, who is a shoemaker, is hearing impaired but can read lips. She is very kind and her son, Xavier, was already baptized. We will be teaching Shannon this week.  

 

This week we were trying to set up a lot of member visits to get them more involved with the work. We had the opportunity to get to know some of the members and brought along a few to get into some less active member homes.  The church members are very kind and make sure to feed us all kinds of good stuff.  We also made some rather interesting dishes such as scrambled eggs and rice (see photo).  

        

My companion and roomies are super cool people. Me and Elder Prince vibe hard in our hobbies, and Elder Smith has a similar sense of humor as my friends Drew and Boston so I feel comfortable to be myself. Elder Tafuna'i is the best companion I could have asked for. I have already learned so many lessons about missionary work and he is a prime example of a diligent missionary. They all love the work and I'm starting to see why. Facebook is a bit tough to do for long hours of the day, but once we get teaching I really enjoy the work. 

        

I've been pondering a lot of things since getting here. When I left, my original mindset was that the mission was simply the best thing to do. It made sense to me. But Elder Tafuna’i made me realize my true purpose. I love the bonds I have shared at home with my friends and family and I came to realize that a lot of the bonds I made were through the church. I now want to be out here in order to help families be together forever and to be strengthened through Christ. I have been writing my experiences down in my journal and looking through them at the end of the week. It's been a blessing to see how many lessons I've had without realizing it. So far every week is getting better. 

         

I had many other experiences but I'll save them for later. Please pray for the work and always rember that missionaries are not the main source of missionary work.   On that note, one last thing I want to share is that we are all part of this work.  “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).  Every calling (family history/ministering/ temple work/ missionary work, etc.) are all united into one and are part of the Plan of Salvation. A challenge for you this week would be to make plans/goals, such as simply inviting a friend to dinner, to bring all unto Christ. As we say down in Missouri (properly pronounced  Missour-ah)....God bless.

 

Elder George

 

Picture descriptions:   

Dairy farm where we worked.

Service project in a nearby field.

Cool street sign we found.

Weird dish we made with the food we had on hand.