We Need To Do The Best Things

Helloooo there :)

         I told you, Tyson, that you weren’t supposed to take state this year! You were supposed to wait until next year so I could cheer you on!! What were you thinking?!?! I´ll forgive you though.... As long as you do it again next year :) Seriously, way to go! I also wouldn’t mind if you gave me one of your rings... Juuuust sayin. 

         And Haidyn, I LOVED your dance pics! You go girly :) I´ll be back soon enough to bust a move with ya ;) Cutest sister ever. 

         It was a great week here, too :) It had its ups and downs, but stuff happens, right? Want the good news or bad news first? Lets start with the bad. Moises and Jesus didn’t get baptized :( Dang Satan is good at what he does! It’s not anything they did. Things just didn’t work out. Here’s the deal. They both reeeeally want the bishop to baptize them. Moises, who doesn’t talk much or show any emotion, actually called the bishop to formally ask him to baptize him. It was cute :) Well... Just so happens that the bishop had to fly to Lima Sunday night at 5. So we thought, "Hey, let’s just do it after church then!" BUT if we did it after church their family couldn’t come. It was a lose-lose situation. It will be worth the wait. We had to postpone it until this coming weekend. It needs to be special for them though. All week Hermana Callizaya just kept saying, "Satanás es real!" haha. But really. Darn him.  

         Now the good news? :) We have a new investigator, Marcos. I don’t wanna jinx it, but it seems too good to be true. He pretty much came to church and said he wants to be baptized. He said he was all ready to be baptized two years ago but his parents wouldn’t give him permission. Now he’s 20 and is back :) His parents don’t know he’s back though. They think he’s studying. He doesn’t care though. He said he’s getting baptized and that’s that. His baptismal date is for the 7th :) 

         This week we also had two exchanges. I was with Hermana Rebeca Rivera from Lima and Hermana Dani Johson from Nevada. Such cute girlies :) I especially love Hermana Johnson. We´ve already had exchanges together when she was sister training leader. This time together we didn’t challenge any members to baptism though so that was a step up haha. We had so much fun :) It’s nice to have other gringas. What’s funny is that I’ve been here so long that everything seems normal. So when I’m with another gringa its like, "Wait. This isn’t normal." So all day we kept asking ourselves, "Are we being Peruvian??..." cause now we think like these people! I love exchanges :) 

         This week I learned a TON. We had a Leader Council thing... I think that’s what it is in English... But it was great :) At the first of every month we always have one. We go to the mission home and talk about how we did the past month and how we can improve our zones. President honestly wasn’t very happy. He knows we can do better. He knows numbers don’t mean anything, but our numbers for the past few months suck. Of course he said it in a nicer way haha. But really. As a mission we only had 4 baptisms in one week. There’s over 200 missionaries! And we all took an anonymous survey a few weeks ago and he got the results back. Only 58% of our mission gets up at 6:30 AM every day (Yes I’m one of them, believe it or not lol). But the rest don’t. He was quite bold with us. He was like, "How do you expect to pray and ask for miracles every day if you aren’t willing to do your part??" We talked a lot about what we´re lacking. Hermana Rowley said, "Each one of us have the ability inside of us to do more. Each of us have the ability to follow Christ. Every day we should repent and ask what more we can do today. We´re not going to be perfect in this life, but because of Jesus Christ and the Atonement, one day we will." Then President Rowley was talking about how Nephi was asked to build a ship. He then told us, "We are building our ship! You are building your ship! Are you going to do it in your way or in the way of the Lord?" Loved that. He knows just what to say. We all left that meeting so ready to work. We then shared all of this with our zones on Thursday. We all fasted this weekend as a mission as well. There’s just so much more we can do :) Like President said, "There are good things, there are better things, and there are the best things. We are doing good things. We need to do the best things." 

         I didn’t have much embarrassment this week :) Oh wait. A little. Carlos and Teresa have two kids. A girl and little boy. Let’s just say the little boy’s hair is too long. I walked in and asked how old their little girl was and they were like, “Oh she’s 3.” So then I was like, "Oh and your other little girl?" and they go, "He´s a boy." Oooooohh. Snap. There’s no goin back from something like that. I just went red. They need to cut his hair or something... It was an honest mistake. 

         Well time to go :) Hope you all have a great last week of school :) Yay summer! Love you all so much! 

Love,

Hermana Roper