His Grace is Sufficient

Hey everyone!

Sorry I've slacked off a lot lately with the emails. But life is going good! Busy and fast but good.

So this last week was transfer week and it was crazy just like the last time. Monday through Friday we woke up every morning at 4:30 🤗 and one night we went to bed at 1 in the morning... Haha but I have a quote on my whiteboard by Post Malone that says, "You can't get tired in the studio. It's really tough. But you just gotta keep on going."

Of those who went home this week, one of them was my old companions, Elder Canquilla. Now 8 of my companions are at home. It was hard to say goodbye to him.

Sorry I can't think of anything interesting to write about. This week I learned a little more about grace. First off we had the best companionship study ever. The three of us watched His Grace is Sufficient by Brad Wilcox. It is a really good talk. But every time he said the word grace in his talk we had to take a shot of Fanta. The talk is 30 minutes long and we got something like 32 or 33 shots. We all felt terrible afterwards haha.

Then I learned grace by first hand experience. This week a group of 13 missionaries were scheduled to go to Lima for migrations. Their flights were bought and the hotel was booked. Everything was ready to go. But wait... The day before I was checking to make sure everything was good to go. When I saw there were no appointments scheduled at the migrations building... My heart dropped to the floor. Their flight is the next day to go to Lima and they don't have appointments at the migrations building. After everything that happened this week with transfers, missionaries leaving, missionaries arriving, I totally spaced booking their appointments. Super nervous I hurried to the web page to see if any more spaces were available for the next day. 12 pm full. 1pm full. 2pm full. 3pm full. Doubts start creeping in. 4pm full. 5pm full. Highest stress levels ever reached. 6pm 2 spots free. One hour to go. 7pm 8 spots free. whew

Luckily 10 of the 13 were able to get appointments scheduled. But I still had to figure out what to do with the other three. We resolved to send them the day after. But that meant last second changing the flights. In the end about 300 dollars of church money was lost because of that one brain fart. I felt terrible the rest of the day and couldn't stop thinking about it. But Christ descended below it all. and "HIS GRACE is sufficient" -Brad Wilcox. Any mistake or sin we commit can be overcome with the help of God. His hand is always out waiting to lift us up. We just have to do our part and grab his hand. This week try to think of ways that y'all can reach out and grab his hand. Love you all and have a good week!

photos:

1. So long mi amigo

2. Squad pic

3. Lunch with the news. (6 sisters and 0 elders arrived)

4. Companionship study goals

P-Week

Hey everyone!!

Sorry I haven't written in a while. A lack of motivation to do so as well as not having a lot to tell you about are probably to blame. But the week before Christmas was super fun and tiring so I will skip the week before that which was just a lot of preparation and stress. Anyway last week we had our Christmas conferences as a mission. And for Christmas it is tradition to a "multi-zone" pday where multiple zones get together and about 60 unite for some p-day action. And since we had to prepare these p-day festivities we got to travel to the conferences. We held 3 of these different multi-zone p-days with a Christmas conference.

So two Sundays ago we took an 8 hour road trip to the other side of our mission. It was in a minivan with 3 other missionaries so it felt like a classic road trip....Lots of fun. Then we arrived at our destination with about 80 degree weather and a little humidity. The city is known as the eternal spring. The p-day was a lot of fun but FYI when your skin has been under church clothes for the past few years, it will burn easier than normal. The back of my calves got super burnt with some blisters. Then that night we all had a family home evening with President and the next day was a conference.

After that we headed off to... La Merced or the jungle. Man it felt super good to be back. Super hot, super humid, but somehow perfect. Thursday we got a day off to relax where we had a lazy morning at the hotel and then in the afternoon we went to a small little zoo and got to see lots of cool exotic birds. Now the question is how do I sneak one of them back? Then Friday and Saturday we repeated what we did in the last area and that night traveled back to Huancayo.

Home sweet home. Like any vacation (mission vacay?), sunburns, nice weather and hotels are super nice but you always return home tired and happy to be back in your own bed. Then Monday and Tuesday we started the process all over again for Huancayo and then Wednesday was Christmas. The week was super fun and it was cool to catch up with all of my mission friends but the Christmas devotional by the first presidency talked a lot about how we should simplify our Christmases to make them mean more.

After the craziness I was super thankful to settle down and have a small simple Christmas party on Christmas eve with the family that cooks for us. We each shared a tradition from our families and I read Luke 2 for my part. To think that the most important and looked forward to birth ever happened in a manger with no one around, except for the shepherds who arrived later, is really humbling. It is sad that a lot of times we think about Christ during the month of December but then as the wrapping paper is unwrapped on Christmas day we lose our attention and go back to our normal lives. The spirit of Christmas is just the Spirit of Christ. So as we try to obtain the spirit of Christ in our lives we will always be able to feel that "holiday cheer".

Photos:

1. Got to see my one of my old pensions!

2. The boiz pt.1

3. The barba (beard)

4: The boiz pt. 2

Where are you Christmas?

Hey everyone!

Sorry it's been a couple weeks. But not a ton has happened to be able to fill you in on. But the office has been super busy since it's Christmas time and the end of the year. In the past two weeks I had to send a group to do immigrations in Lima. Two different times President called me and said these missionaries need to go home tomorrow morning please make the arrangements necessary. Which includes trying to buy flights and cancel immigrations all before they have to leave the next day. Also we had the beloved week 6 (last week before changes) which is known as death week. Basically Saturday morning president showed me all of the changes and then Saturday night I had to call all 180ish missionaries and let them know about their changes and travel plans. Then Monday they did all of their traveling and luckily no one got lost but their were a few close calls 😌. Then early Tuesday morning the people finishing their missions went home and early Wednesday morning the new missionaries arrived and we spent the day giving their trainings.

It is now Saturday and I'm alive. I may have lost some hair and have good enough shadows under my eyes, that I got compared to Goob from Meet the Robinsons... but we made it... for now.

The past couple days I've been a little frustrated. Normally as missionaries we are always teaching, testifying and studying. Which means we almost always feel the spirit. But we haven't had time to proselyte in 3 weeks, I barely get my 2 chapters of the Book of Mormon reading in (I had to kiss goodbye to my goal of reading the entire standard works) and I haven't written in my journal in a little over two weeks which I've never let myself get behind more than 3 or 4 days. So it's been frustrating not having as many moments to feel the spirit as normal and also reading all of my friends' missionary emails about all of the success and miracles they are seeing hasn't helped. I feel like my progression is at a standstill and I don't know what to do.

But hopefully this week will be better and we will be able to make some visits, and do more to have the spirit in our lives. But don't worry about me. I'm just in a ranting mood right now. God has actually been so good to me and I've seen his hand a lot in the past few weeks. Anyway it's Christmas time now which is always a good reminder of what our real focus needs to be. Have a great week!

P.S. if you know any fire talks I should read let me know. Also if someone wants to watch Polar Express for me that would be gr8.

Photos:

1) Thanksgiving at Presidents house

2) Goodbye now returned missionaries (#nottrunky)

3) Just for fun