k first just to remind everyone the address of the office has changed. it is now:
Elder Bunker
Misión Perú Chiclayo
Los Alamos 128, Urb. Santa Victoria,
Chiclayo
Peru.
second. we had a great weekend this week. :D XD
it was great for a few reasons. first, we had our third baptism here in morrope. José got baptized and he will soon be a preisthood holder here in our family group. he is great haha. he always shows up to the activities on time (sometimes 1/2 hour early) haha and is always the first to offer to clean (even though all the members are willing) :D
we are excited for what is going on here in morrope. even though the progress is slow, there is progress and its amazing to see.
José brought his neice Melissa to the baptism. She seemed pretty interested, so we will see what happens. we have a appointement with here and José this weekend...
other interesting experience is that one night we were walking back to the house and we passed through the center of town, and for the first time ever in morrope we saw police... it made me kind of sad to see that... morrope has always been so calm and quiet. Many people have told us that what happens is that outsiders from other cities come to the small villages and introduce drugs and crime, and it ruins these small peaceful places...
I was talking to my companion one night about all this, and i told him i would love to be here in morrope my whole mission. haha he looked at me like i had gone crazy and asked my why. i explained to him that i thought i would be able to have more of an influence that way. I have been pondering a lot about the missionaries in the book of mormon and how they had so many miracles happen in their work. Ive often wondered why it is that we dont baptize thousands of people like they did in the days of the book of mormon. I realized that Alma and the sons of mosiah were missionaries for a long time (i think it was about 15 years that alma the younger served as a missionary) and i figured that the miracles take time and i would love to have more time in morrope to see those miracles happen.
My companion then said something that has caused me to think a little. He asked me if i didn think that José´s baptism wasnt a miracle... I have to admit, it was a miracle and we have seen a lot of other miracles here in morrope as well. i have already seen the hand of the lord in the work and seen the fruits of our labor.
I feel so blessed to be here in morrope. I often think about Heritage Tours here, when we visited Palmayra, and Navoo and Misouri, because these people are REAL pioneers. the experiences here in morrope and parrallel a lot of times to what the early saints had experienced. we have A LOT of opposition here. Many, if not all, of the other churches teach people to reject us as missionaries and spread rumors about us. Many people are afraid of us because i am clearly a foreigner and they are afraid that we are theives of some sort. But what has been milagroso in all of this is that the hearts of many people have been changed and they are a lot more receptive now.
one last experience, yesterday we found a man through a reference who belongs to a different faith and is very devoted to his beleifs. he is really different because he is well educated in the bible and has read the bible 3 different times (this is really rare to find in a small mining-fishing village) He knew a little about the book of mormon and asked us about the golden plates. we explained that joseph smith traslated the book of mormon from these golden plates. he then asked about where the golden plates are today (as if he was expecting that would stump us) we explained that they were with moroni, and he explained its hard to beleive in somethign that just one man has said.
we then explained about the 3 and 8 witnesses and that god has always provided more evidence as well as answer our prayers.
he then admited he didnt know much about the churchand wanted to learn more.
shoot, out of time, love you all.
Love you all,
Always turn outward and keep smiling,
Elder Bunker
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