You call that a protest?

Hey everyone this week was pretty slow so there isn't too much to report on. Last week we went and did a little shopping in the street markets here. It was so uncomfortable haha. My companion and I were saying that it's going to be weird when we go back to the states and no one stares at us or tries hard to flirt with us. Anyway, I'll share one conversation just for y'all to get an idea. So I went to buy a rubix cube and first thing the girl asks is if I dyed my hair. Then she asked where I was from, how old I was, if I came there often (literally), what parts of Huanuco we are in, where our church was, what we do, etc. So yeah, it's lots of fun (not).

Then we had some slow days until Thursday where there were protests/riots. So we were supposed to be careful that day. My companion and I stayed in for most of the day but we would still walk across town to get to our pension for meals. We got bored after a while, so we went out to explore the riot. And by the way, they suck at protesting here. It's not like in the states. Here they tried to block off roads but did a terrible job. I wanted to jump in and help, just to show them how to do it. Like a lot of the roads had a bunch of rocks in the roads but not enough to really block the roads, so cars would swerve around the rocks. And then on the bigger roads they would burn tires on the road. But in one spot there was a tire burning on the road and then other tires burning on the side and not on the road. Also they let the fire burn out and then the police just walked by and took the tires off. But people kept protesting until lunch where they then took a lunch break (I didn't know was a thing in protests) and then the cops had stopped everything by then. Also something funny was that we asked people why they were rioting and a lot of them said they didn't know why haha, they just saw others doing it and joined in. So that day was interesting. My companion taught me how to solve a rubix cube and I can now solve them in 2 or 3 minutes.

Then Sunday we had a fun activity where our district put on a small 5 minute theater for seminary. I was a student who wanted to sleep and not go. Then satan wrecked me the day I didn't go. So the next day I went to seminary and we learned about the armour of god. As the class went on I gained more and more armour then I fought satan and wrecked him. So I guess for my spiritual thought it would be for you guys to read your scriptures, pray, keep the commandments, serve others, and do the things you need to do to have the armour of God on you. You never know when Satan will attack, but he always does and he likes to do it when we are our weakest. So we need the armour of God or else we may get wrecked. So please attend your church meetings, take the sacrament, and be good people!

And now to end, I want to share a little with the passing away of Elder Brennan Conrad. The verses from Alma 28:12-14 come to mind.

12 While many thousands of others truly mourn for the loss of their kindred, yet they rejoice and exult in the hope, and even know, according to the promises of the Lord, that they are raised to dwell at the right hand of God, in a state of never-ending happiness.

13 And thus we see how great the inequality of man is because of sin and transgression, and the power of the devil, which comes by the cunning plans which he hath devised to ensnare the hearts of men.

14 And thus we see the great call of diligence of men to labor in the vineyards of the Lord; and thus we see the great reason of sorrow, and also of rejoicing—sorrow because of death and destruction among men, and joy because of the light of Christ unto life.

It is so sad, but I know Elder Conrad took the great call mentioned in verse 14 to labor and help man learn of God and avoid the plans of the devil. There is no greater reason to rejoice than to see a young man be worthy and make the decision to serve a mission and help out fellow man. I know he was welcomed back into the presence of God with a big hug for his work. I know this is the true church of God and that we have a light that needs to be shared in these dark times. Please share that light and help others out!

Love,

Elder Corbett