Monday, September 10, 2012
First Baptism
Hey Everyone,
so i have zero time to write today. we went to the mountains today as a zone and took picutures and hiked and got back late. I just need to say peru is only second to the united states when it comes to beauty. grandma was absolutely right about the moutains here. they arent as tall as colorado, but they are just as breathtaking. they shoot strait up out of the ground. soooo beautiful. this is definatley a handpicked mission by heaven for me. I dont think i have seen many other places as beautiful
So biggest news of this week. MY FIRST BAPTISM!! I had one last cambio but this is really my frist. Junior asked me to baptized him. to be breif. it was the best experience of my mission thus far. but the good experiences dont come without a little bit of oposition. to say the least we had a lot of impedimientos to work around. Like for one, the stake president forgot to fill the font haha. so we had to fill it by hand with buckets. Junior was supposed to get baptized at 4:00 but he ended up getting baptized at 6:30. and there were a lot of other things as well like the bishop being sick. the primary having a party in the gym next door with blasting music and other things like that. it turned out great though and the spirit was really strong, I think it is mostly due to the faith of Junior. He is the golden investigator. He wasnt to start FHE with his family this week
We have 5 new investigators. one is named Jamy, he is a handicap 25 year old. dont know if we can baptize him because he is practically a little kid. but he says hi to us everytime we walk by and we have already had a first lesson with his dad. we are hoping we can teach them both soon.
my new companion is named elder larson. he is from arizona near mesa. He is a great missionary, very strict with the rules and so he keeps us both in line. I have to admit it is hard to adjust to every new companion but there is always something great about each one of them. Elder Larson is always sharing his sweets with me (he buys candy all the time haha) . so thats a plus. I have definatly put on weight, but i can still see my ribs so im not chunky... yet.
another neat experience was yesterday. I dont know how much to share because sometimes these experiences are sacred and we shouldnt share all of them. but i think this is ok.
Saturday my companion and i went to go ask the bishop for the keys to the church so we wouldnt get locked inside (that happened earlier this week) and so we could have keyes for the baptism. The bishop was sick and we had given him a blessing the day before but he still seemed out of it.
sorry so short,
Love you all
always turn outward and keep smiling!!
Elder Bunker
so i have zero time to write today. we went to the mountains today as a zone and took picutures and hiked and got back late. I just need to say peru is only second to the united states when it comes to beauty. grandma was absolutely right about the moutains here. they arent as tall as colorado, but they are just as breathtaking. they shoot strait up out of the ground. soooo beautiful. this is definatley a handpicked mission by heaven for me. I dont think i have seen many other places as beautiful
So biggest news of this week. MY FIRST BAPTISM!! I had one last cambio but this is really my frist. Junior asked me to baptized him. to be breif. it was the best experience of my mission thus far. but the good experiences dont come without a little bit of oposition. to say the least we had a lot of impedimientos to work around. Like for one, the stake president forgot to fill the font haha. so we had to fill it by hand with buckets. Junior was supposed to get baptized at 4:00 but he ended up getting baptized at 6:30. and there were a lot of other things as well like the bishop being sick. the primary having a party in the gym next door with blasting music and other things like that. it turned out great though and the spirit was really strong, I think it is mostly due to the faith of Junior. He is the golden investigator. He wasnt to start FHE with his family this week
We have 5 new investigators. one is named Jamy, he is a handicap 25 year old. dont know if we can baptize him because he is practically a little kid. but he says hi to us everytime we walk by and we have already had a first lesson with his dad. we are hoping we can teach them both soon.
my new companion is named elder larson. he is from arizona near mesa. He is a great missionary, very strict with the rules and so he keeps us both in line. I have to admit it is hard to adjust to every new companion but there is always something great about each one of them. Elder Larson is always sharing his sweets with me (he buys candy all the time haha) . so thats a plus. I have definatly put on weight, but i can still see my ribs so im not chunky... yet.
another neat experience was yesterday. I dont know how much to share because sometimes these experiences are sacred and we shouldnt share all of them. but i think this is ok.
Saturday my companion and i went to go ask the bishop for the keys to the church so we wouldnt get locked inside (that happened earlier this week) and so we could have keyes for the baptism. The bishop was sick and we had given him a blessing the day before but he still seemed out of it.
sorry so short,
Love you all
always turn outward and keep smiling!!
Elder Bunker
First Cambio
Hey Everyone,
So alot has happened this last week... A lot. This has been one of the best weeks of my mission. Last P-day we went to the beach to take photos and chat. So much fun.
This week has been really good though because we have been able to work with Junior more. He is the coolest guy. One of the greatest fears and dissappointments as a missionary is when we have the oppertunity to baptize someone and they end up going innactive. Junior, I am confident, will be an active worthy member his whole life. There is a few reasons I say that.
First, we taught the last lesson of the discussions in PMG which for us was tithing. We were confident Junior would commit. We taught him and the lesson seemed to go well and the spirit was there and he understood everything perfectly. So at the end of the lesson we were a little bit suprised when he was hesitant when we asked him to commit to obey the law of tithing after he was baptized. We waited in silence for a while and watched him think, and I thought this is it, this is where we lose our golden investigator, he then looked up and started laughing and he was like just kidding, of course i will! haha chistoso. I didnt know whether to laugh or freak out.... I ended up laughing too. haha funny guy.
The other reason i am so confident is because the other day after church he started asking me how missions work and how one applies to serve and things like that, and how much it costs. What?? I was shocked. Junior is always suprising us. He has really become one of my best freinds here on the mission as well. even though its still hard to say everything i want to he is patient.
Also this week I found out that here in Peru they changed the age for young men to apply for missions. Here they can leave at the age of 18 now!!! Is anything changing in the states?? And no, HT sisters, they havent changed it for the young women, still the same. sorry
This week we also had a fake christmas with Junior and our pensionista Hermano Hernan. I still havent had christmas here so they thought it would be fun to cook-buy christmas food. we had Platano and Flan. Both I love, sooo good. I dont think i would have liked them before the mission though. My sense of taste has been changing a lot i have noticed.
This week we also had a talent show with the sister missionaries ward. We used my idea from heritage tours to do the arms and face to get ready in the morning. We had to shave, brush teeth, put on the misisonary tag, and tie a tie. So much fun. I was the hands so i didnt get too mess y haha but my companion, Elder McAllister got smothered in Shaving Cream. Activities like that just make the mission a blast.
On the way back to the house where we eat dinner though we almost got robbed. I say almost because the moto we took was heaven sent. It was about 9 oclok and we still had to eat dinner so we were pushing it for the 930 curfew and we were riding back via mototaxi. about 4 blocks away our driver yelled back at us and told us to be careful because we were being followed. we looked back and there were 3 other motos following us. Our driver must have met the misisonaries before because he addressed us as elders was kind enough to flip a few u turns and drive a few extra blocks to throw the other motos off our tail.
Heavenly Father really protects his missionaries. (although I dont think we will be taking moto at night anymore)
This week we had intercambios as well. I was working with a gringo named Elder Driggs. He is a fun guy. We did a lot of contacting that day because alll our visits fell through (which was really hard because i was really sick) but we ran into a Nun at one of the doors we knocked on. The cutest lady i have ever seen, she is 87 years old and has been a nun for 72 years. Sweetest oldlady, she turned us away though. (how in the world do you convert a 72 year nun?)
This week was hard too. Like i said i was sick, I throughup and had diarreha for a few days but im over it now. In fact I think I feel better now than i did before i was sick. I guess its just all apart of adjusting to the food.
The hardest part of this week though was last night. we had a misisonary dinner with all the missionaires in our district and it was really fun. we enjoyed eachothers company and did our weekly reports. After however, we received our transfers. My trainer is leaving. I cant beleive it. This is going to be one of the hardest weeks of the mission because I have to direct the area and teach my new companion the area as well, and my new companion will be my second trainer. I feel like i have just gotten used to working with elder mcallister and we are really efficent now. our numbers have been great, and we have been really blessed.
sometimes its hard to understand, but I feel confident this is what needs to happen.
The Lord is in this work, because it is His work.
Sorry if this is a Bit short.
Love you all
The church is true tell your freinds!
Always turn outward, and keep smiling.
remember humility is not thinking less of ourselves but less about ourselves
Elder Bunker
So alot has happened this last week... A lot. This has been one of the best weeks of my mission. Last P-day we went to the beach to take photos and chat. So much fun.
This week has been really good though because we have been able to work with Junior more. He is the coolest guy. One of the greatest fears and dissappointments as a missionary is when we have the oppertunity to baptize someone and they end up going innactive. Junior, I am confident, will be an active worthy member his whole life. There is a few reasons I say that.
First, we taught the last lesson of the discussions in PMG which for us was tithing. We were confident Junior would commit. We taught him and the lesson seemed to go well and the spirit was there and he understood everything perfectly. So at the end of the lesson we were a little bit suprised when he was hesitant when we asked him to commit to obey the law of tithing after he was baptized. We waited in silence for a while and watched him think, and I thought this is it, this is where we lose our golden investigator, he then looked up and started laughing and he was like just kidding, of course i will! haha chistoso. I didnt know whether to laugh or freak out.... I ended up laughing too. haha funny guy.
The other reason i am so confident is because the other day after church he started asking me how missions work and how one applies to serve and things like that, and how much it costs. What?? I was shocked. Junior is always suprising us. He has really become one of my best freinds here on the mission as well. even though its still hard to say everything i want to he is patient.
Also this week I found out that here in Peru they changed the age for young men to apply for missions. Here they can leave at the age of 18 now!!! Is anything changing in the states?? And no, HT sisters, they havent changed it for the young women, still the same. sorry
This week we also had a fake christmas with Junior and our pensionista Hermano Hernan. I still havent had christmas here so they thought it would be fun to cook-buy christmas food. we had Platano and Flan. Both I love, sooo good. I dont think i would have liked them before the mission though. My sense of taste has been changing a lot i have noticed.
This week we also had a talent show with the sister missionaries ward. We used my idea from heritage tours to do the arms and face to get ready in the morning. We had to shave, brush teeth, put on the misisonary tag, and tie a tie. So much fun. I was the hands so i didnt get too mess y haha but my companion, Elder McAllister got smothered in Shaving Cream. Activities like that just make the mission a blast.
On the way back to the house where we eat dinner though we almost got robbed. I say almost because the moto we took was heaven sent. It was about 9 oclok and we still had to eat dinner so we were pushing it for the 930 curfew and we were riding back via mototaxi. about 4 blocks away our driver yelled back at us and told us to be careful because we were being followed. we looked back and there were 3 other motos following us. Our driver must have met the misisonaries before because he addressed us as elders was kind enough to flip a few u turns and drive a few extra blocks to throw the other motos off our tail.
Heavenly Father really protects his missionaries. (although I dont think we will be taking moto at night anymore)
This week we had intercambios as well. I was working with a gringo named Elder Driggs. He is a fun guy. We did a lot of contacting that day because alll our visits fell through (which was really hard because i was really sick) but we ran into a Nun at one of the doors we knocked on. The cutest lady i have ever seen, she is 87 years old and has been a nun for 72 years. Sweetest oldlady, she turned us away though. (how in the world do you convert a 72 year nun?)
This week was hard too. Like i said i was sick, I throughup and had diarreha for a few days but im over it now. In fact I think I feel better now than i did before i was sick. I guess its just all apart of adjusting to the food.
The hardest part of this week though was last night. we had a misisonary dinner with all the missionaires in our district and it was really fun. we enjoyed eachothers company and did our weekly reports. After however, we received our transfers. My trainer is leaving. I cant beleive it. This is going to be one of the hardest weeks of the mission because I have to direct the area and teach my new companion the area as well, and my new companion will be my second trainer. I feel like i have just gotten used to working with elder mcallister and we are really efficent now. our numbers have been great, and we have been really blessed.
sometimes its hard to understand, but I feel confident this is what needs to happen.
The Lord is in this work, because it is His work.
Sorry if this is a Bit short.
Love you all
The church is true tell your freinds!
Always turn outward, and keep smiling.
remember humility is not thinking less of ourselves but less about ourselves
Elder Bunker
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Lo Maximo! y Menos
Hey Everyone!!
So, this week been full of by far the best days of mission thus far, and some of the most dead days as well. It seems like the Area Latina caught fire and then had spiritual relapse haha.
This week... we challenged a lot of different people to baptism. We are always challenging people to baptism haha. But this week we had two commitments to a date! in one day!!! It was the best day of my mission up to this point. Junior, my investigator friend, and the sister of a recently returned missionary both committed to be baptized on September 8th!! I'm confident Junior will be ready, so far we haven´t been able to have a second discussion with the girl so I'm not sure, but she has a testimony of the savior and the book of Mormon, and that is what everything is built off of. So she is already there as far as a basic testimony goes. She just needs some friends in the church and more knowledge about the gospel, and a testimony of Joseph smith.
One thing I have been discovering here in the mission and especially this week is that there is true POWER in the book of Mormon, I have heard that all my life and I have even read the book of Mormon, and I have felt the spirit while reading but to witness it working in someone else is completely different. Junior is our Golden Investigator and I hope we stay in contact. I wouldn't be surprised if he served a mission one day. He is just simply pure in heart, he wants to follow the Lord. He has read everything we have given him and more. He says he can´t put it down sometimes haha. At first he was expecting us to be upset he read more, but we were excited for him and now he is taking in everything he can. He has had a hard time with gaining a testimony of Joseph Smith, and I don't blame him. I was thinking about what the Joseph Smith story would look like to an investigator and it is really different. He is not the only one who has a hard time with it.
But, yesterday, (Sunday) we watched the Joseph Smith movie with him at a members house and we started and ended with prayer. I gave the opening prayer and he prayed after the movie. :D it had to be one of the most sincere, childlike prayers i have heard in my life. After the prayer, he looked at both of us and started to smile. He is just a smiley guy and he reminds me of Tanner Bunker, and Tanner Browning. He smiled and he said he knew Joseph Smith was a prophet and he had this growing feeling inside that was hard to explain. He knows what the spirit feels like. Something that took me a long time to find for myself. Ah! absolutely awesome!!
I'm sorry this is kind of short.
One last funny. So in Peru everyone is really short, obviously. But i haven't really noticed, (for some reason in my mind I am Peruvian and then I am reminded I'm white when someone shouts gringue!! haha) but this week I had like 20 people comment on how tall me and my companion are. hahaha made my day. I don't know what i will do when I come back and martin is nearing 7 feet haha. Everyone asks how tall I am, but I still don't know my height in meters haha.
I love you all,
The church is true tell your friends,
always turn outward and keep smiling!!
Elder Bunker
So, this week been full of by far the best days of mission thus far, and some of the most dead days as well. It seems like the Area Latina caught fire and then had spiritual relapse haha.
This week... we challenged a lot of different people to baptism. We are always challenging people to baptism haha. But this week we had two commitments to a date! in one day!!! It was the best day of my mission up to this point. Junior, my investigator friend, and the sister of a recently returned missionary both committed to be baptized on September 8th!! I'm confident Junior will be ready, so far we haven´t been able to have a second discussion with the girl so I'm not sure, but she has a testimony of the savior and the book of Mormon, and that is what everything is built off of. So she is already there as far as a basic testimony goes. She just needs some friends in the church and more knowledge about the gospel, and a testimony of Joseph smith.
One thing I have been discovering here in the mission and especially this week is that there is true POWER in the book of Mormon, I have heard that all my life and I have even read the book of Mormon, and I have felt the spirit while reading but to witness it working in someone else is completely different. Junior is our Golden Investigator and I hope we stay in contact. I wouldn't be surprised if he served a mission one day. He is just simply pure in heart, he wants to follow the Lord. He has read everything we have given him and more. He says he can´t put it down sometimes haha. At first he was expecting us to be upset he read more, but we were excited for him and now he is taking in everything he can. He has had a hard time with gaining a testimony of Joseph Smith, and I don't blame him. I was thinking about what the Joseph Smith story would look like to an investigator and it is really different. He is not the only one who has a hard time with it.
But, yesterday, (Sunday) we watched the Joseph Smith movie with him at a members house and we started and ended with prayer. I gave the opening prayer and he prayed after the movie. :D it had to be one of the most sincere, childlike prayers i have heard in my life. After the prayer, he looked at both of us and started to smile. He is just a smiley guy and he reminds me of Tanner Bunker, and Tanner Browning. He smiled and he said he knew Joseph Smith was a prophet and he had this growing feeling inside that was hard to explain. He knows what the spirit feels like. Something that took me a long time to find for myself. Ah! absolutely awesome!!
I'm sorry this is kind of short.
One last funny. So in Peru everyone is really short, obviously. But i haven't really noticed, (for some reason in my mind I am Peruvian and then I am reminded I'm white when someone shouts gringue!! haha) but this week I had like 20 people comment on how tall me and my companion are. hahaha made my day. I don't know what i will do when I come back and martin is nearing 7 feet haha. Everyone asks how tall I am, but I still don't know my height in meters haha.
I love you all,
The church is true tell your friends,
always turn outward and keep smiling!!
Elder Bunker
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
3 months!!!
Hey Everyone,
I cant beleive it. Already and eigth of the way through the mission!! What!! Sometimes it doesnt seem very long, and sometimes it freaks me out its going by that fast!!
So I promised some stories last week. I have a few.
First, the food here is a little different. I probably metioned that. (its amazing though, just took some time to get used to...) There is a dish here called masamorra. It is really good. It is pretty much fruit soup. they mostly have it for christmas, but our pensionista (Brother Hernan) likes to cook it for Family Home Evening with our recent converts. Anyway, I didnt realize, but this soup cleans out your system pretty good. haha, I love the stuff so I ate a lot and... we ended up running back to the apartment because I had to go haha. I thought i was going to die...
Second, I mentioned last week there are a lot of look alikes... haha all the little boys here remind me of tanner. They are so funny and innocent. Its the funniest thing. Makes me sad though. Tanner will be almost a teenageer when i get back!!
That and alot of people remind me of Thomas and Uncle Jake. haha There is just a look about thomas and jake i guess. Also we have a less active we are teaching who is just like lily. (except a 25 year old verson... super skinny and complete tomboy haha)
We have 3 people we are hoping will accept the baptismal invitation we have already extended. Hermana Judith, Hermana Vilma, and Junior. Hermana Judith just had a son return from the mission but is not a members so we have big hopes for here. the only problem is she is living with someone... marriage is no small deal, even when your already living together i guess... rggh. not my favorite thing in the world when we find that out about someone, specially when we have been working with them consistently for almost a month...
Hermana Vilma... she is the sweetest lady. and often i think of grandma when we are teaching her, not because they look anything a like, but just little mannerisms. Herman vilma has 2 kids on missions right now! We are close with her. She just lacks the confidence and faith to make a few sacrafices. (like close her store on sunday and attend church all three hours) We extended the baptismal invitation last week and she said she wants to, but she is afraid of failure... like all of us really. I think having kids in the mission really helps her. She has a hard time reading the scriptures because even in spanish they can be hard to understand. But she adores the Liahona and from that she has gained a lot of faith. I hope and pray we can help her get baptized, because she is someone who would make it to the temple after we leave. And that is ultimately where we want to be.
and Junior... Junior has become one of my best friends here in the feild. He is 21 studying, working, and helping his family run their store. He is lo maximo to put in local terms. pure gold. So far he has read everything we have given him. Attended all three hours of church, and a fireside for the prophets birthday. he really wants to know if the church is true. We have been praying he would receive an answer. Im not sure if he has been able to intentify one yet. We have visited him everyday for the last 5 days, and we will visit him again tomorrow even though he started school today and he is so busy. last friday we taught him the word of wisdom and he accepted to live it. the next day we visited him and he told us a story with a huge grin on his face. His story was that after we had left friday night he went to a party with some freinds where there were some drinks being served and he had promised not to drink and he remembered and asked for water. He said while he was there he realized all the blessing we promised from the word of wisdom were true! And that the gospel has already blessed his life immensly! :D Him and I get along really well because Im trying to learn spanish and he is trying to learn english, so we are patient with one another.
Last story, This week I think i have grown a lot. Especially in confidence, not in me but in what the Lord can do through me.
I was reading in the Liahona this last week Elder Eyrings talk about Mountains to Climb. I wanted to ask for a challenge from the lord to help me grow, but i wasnt sure if i was ready for it. I was/am still struggling with a lot of things. So i asked for a small challenge, and I received it in full haha.
My trainer is the District Leader and so as such he has to go on splits with all the other missionaries once a month. this last week he left to go on splits and I was paired with an elder who is from Ecuador and only speaks spanish. So I had to direct the Area. Meaning plan lessions and where we were going to go and such. I was really nervous because our area is huge, and i dont know it very well, and we had appointments all across our area. I did a lot of praying haha. I studied the map of our area the night before, and prayed for a miracle. it was something that I had been dreading the whole week, (Elder McAllister told me what was going to happen the day after i read the article and prayed) the day I had to direct the area was one of the best i have had thus far. I was able to get to know junior more because i talked a lot more with him and I was able to extend the invitation to go to chuch, and the fireside with us. and my comp for the day asked about baptism. so within the 24 hours my trainer was gone I had 2 lessons with junior, had comitted him to come with us to a fireside, church, and he said he would pray about baptism. I really hope it works out with him. but the greater miracle was that the lord was able to give me the confidence i was lacking through something i was dreading.
That is all I have time for!
I love you all,
The Church is true tell your freinds,
Always turnoutward, and keep smiling because the mountains we climb provide a better veiw. :D
Love Elder Bunker
I cant beleive it. Already and eigth of the way through the mission!! What!! Sometimes it doesnt seem very long, and sometimes it freaks me out its going by that fast!!
So I promised some stories last week. I have a few.
First, the food here is a little different. I probably metioned that. (its amazing though, just took some time to get used to...) There is a dish here called masamorra. It is really good. It is pretty much fruit soup. they mostly have it for christmas, but our pensionista (Brother Hernan) likes to cook it for Family Home Evening with our recent converts. Anyway, I didnt realize, but this soup cleans out your system pretty good. haha, I love the stuff so I ate a lot and... we ended up running back to the apartment because I had to go haha. I thought i was going to die...
Second, I mentioned last week there are a lot of look alikes... haha all the little boys here remind me of tanner. They are so funny and innocent. Its the funniest thing. Makes me sad though. Tanner will be almost a teenageer when i get back!!
That and alot of people remind me of Thomas and Uncle Jake. haha There is just a look about thomas and jake i guess. Also we have a less active we are teaching who is just like lily. (except a 25 year old verson... super skinny and complete tomboy haha)
We have 3 people we are hoping will accept the baptismal invitation we have already extended. Hermana Judith, Hermana Vilma, and Junior. Hermana Judith just had a son return from the mission but is not a members so we have big hopes for here. the only problem is she is living with someone... marriage is no small deal, even when your already living together i guess... rggh. not my favorite thing in the world when we find that out about someone, specially when we have been working with them consistently for almost a month...
Hermana Vilma... she is the sweetest lady. and often i think of grandma when we are teaching her, not because they look anything a like, but just little mannerisms. Herman vilma has 2 kids on missions right now! We are close with her. She just lacks the confidence and faith to make a few sacrafices. (like close her store on sunday and attend church all three hours) We extended the baptismal invitation last week and she said she wants to, but she is afraid of failure... like all of us really. I think having kids in the mission really helps her. She has a hard time reading the scriptures because even in spanish they can be hard to understand. But she adores the Liahona and from that she has gained a lot of faith. I hope and pray we can help her get baptized, because she is someone who would make it to the temple after we leave. And that is ultimately where we want to be.
and Junior... Junior has become one of my best friends here in the feild. He is 21 studying, working, and helping his family run their store. He is lo maximo to put in local terms. pure gold. So far he has read everything we have given him. Attended all three hours of church, and a fireside for the prophets birthday. he really wants to know if the church is true. We have been praying he would receive an answer. Im not sure if he has been able to intentify one yet. We have visited him everyday for the last 5 days, and we will visit him again tomorrow even though he started school today and he is so busy. last friday we taught him the word of wisdom and he accepted to live it. the next day we visited him and he told us a story with a huge grin on his face. His story was that after we had left friday night he went to a party with some freinds where there were some drinks being served and he had promised not to drink and he remembered and asked for water. He said while he was there he realized all the blessing we promised from the word of wisdom were true! And that the gospel has already blessed his life immensly! :D Him and I get along really well because Im trying to learn spanish and he is trying to learn english, so we are patient with one another.
Last story, This week I think i have grown a lot. Especially in confidence, not in me but in what the Lord can do through me.
I was reading in the Liahona this last week Elder Eyrings talk about Mountains to Climb. I wanted to ask for a challenge from the lord to help me grow, but i wasnt sure if i was ready for it. I was/am still struggling with a lot of things. So i asked for a small challenge, and I received it in full haha.
My trainer is the District Leader and so as such he has to go on splits with all the other missionaries once a month. this last week he left to go on splits and I was paired with an elder who is from Ecuador and only speaks spanish. So I had to direct the Area. Meaning plan lessions and where we were going to go and such. I was really nervous because our area is huge, and i dont know it very well, and we had appointments all across our area. I did a lot of praying haha. I studied the map of our area the night before, and prayed for a miracle. it was something that I had been dreading the whole week, (Elder McAllister told me what was going to happen the day after i read the article and prayed) the day I had to direct the area was one of the best i have had thus far. I was able to get to know junior more because i talked a lot more with him and I was able to extend the invitation to go to chuch, and the fireside with us. and my comp for the day asked about baptism. so within the 24 hours my trainer was gone I had 2 lessons with junior, had comitted him to come with us to a fireside, church, and he said he would pray about baptism. I really hope it works out with him. but the greater miracle was that the lord was able to give me the confidence i was lacking through something i was dreading.
That is all I have time for!
I love you all,
The Church is true tell your freinds,
Always turnoutward, and keep smiling because the mountains we climb provide a better veiw. :D
Love Elder Bunker
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
Poco a Poco
Hey Everyone.
K, So first. Im sorry if there has been confusion with letters. I guess there is a vuelga (strike) with the postal service in peru so there isnt much being shipped in the country. so I apologize.
second, I forgot to tell everyone. Andrew Law is in My mission!! from Pleasant Grove. Haha we were in preschool together and went to the same gradeschool and had a lot of the same teachers. So cool to see him again. I guess he was only here for a transfer or two before me. Crazy!!
Third, I think everyone in the states is related to someone in Peru. haha. There are so many look alikes. This Last week I saw someone who looked like George Bush, David Archeleta, and Mystery Guitar Man. Hahaha weird. Wish I had my camera. Especially yesterday. Every sunday there is a train that travels around and plays music with a whole bunch of disney caracters painted on it. It is called "my happy world" (or mi mundo feliz). interesting. still havent gotten the point but it looks like fun.
Last week we were visiting a member family who own a Mariachi band. Sweetest thing ever. Anyway they have a little girl and she was watching tv when we walked in, and she was watching the Backyardigans, So lizy Fish, Backyardigans exists in Peru too. Haha actually this little girl who was watching it reminded me of alice, it was somewhat surreal.
K now for the serious bit. So this week, like others has had some ups and downs. Mostly with the Language, I can understand most of what everyone is saying but there a few people with a lisp in our ward, and some of the youth combine their words, so it gets hard sometimes, and a bit frustrating. But the hardest part is speaking the language. I can say most of what I want to, but it takes me a while to congegate all my words, and so sometimes people lose interest in what im saying or become impatient. I want more than anything to talk to the people here, but Im not there yet.
One thing that has helped me though, is this saying they have here. "poco a poco". I have come to love this saying. I love it because it has taught me patience. I think that is one thing I have been lacking but have been blessed with as I have been working this week. Poco a Poco is how heavenly father works with his children. line upon line, precept upon precept, sometimes unnoticable, the trick is to be doing the small things. This week I have been reading the Liahona outloud everyday, and not only did i learn gospel principles but my toungue has been loosed a bit more and i have been able to speak with more clarity, I have to work on it everyday though because every morning it seems like I almost have to start over again.
The other great lesson i have been able to take away from this week is having a greater perspective. I got a really encouraging letter last week from aunt lizy (thanks lizy, sorry I cant email you directly and thank you) that really helped me. one of the pieces of advice she gave me that I feel will apply to me for the rest of my life is to see the bigger picture. Sometimes its easy to feel down when people turn us away, stop keeping commitments, and ignore us (or make fun of us cause were two gringos in a foreign country) but I have learned to look at it in different way, a bigger picture.
Right now I am here in feild!! something i have dreamed of my whole life, and sometimes i have forgotten that. I am helping people who are brothers and sisters return to heavenly father and receive eternal life. there is nothing greater than that!!!
I thought about that even more, and expanded it even farther. The truth is, life is amazing. We are here on earth, being tested, and all of us, have already kept our first estate. We have a body!! and we are working to do the things the lord comands to return to his presence, and even better, we have a savior for when we do make mistakes. And as far as the things we cannot see, Im sure we have concourses of angels behind us every step of the way.
Im sorry this is shorter. but we are going to leave to proselyte in 5 min.
one last thought. One of the greatest struggles of the mission is help people have the desire to learn more about the evangelio de JesuCristo. gospel of jesus christ. sorry, spanish and english not good. Because it is the desire to know about these things that drives them to pray with a sincere heart. I have been searching, but I have not found a clear answer and Im not sure if there is one cause everyone is different, about how we can help people develop a desire to know. I have found those who truly want to follow jesus christ those who truly beleive in god, already have that desire and they are ready to hear the gospel and test the book of mormon with a sincere heart. It begins with their desires. I think that is what the scriptures mean by pure in heart.
sorry I didnt share many stories about investigators. I will have some next week.
all I have to say is i whish i was peruvian cause it would solve a lot of problems haha.
the church is true tell your freinds,
always turn outward and keep smiling. Because we have kept our first estate.
Love
Elder Bunker
K, So first. Im sorry if there has been confusion with letters. I guess there is a vuelga (strike) with the postal service in peru so there isnt much being shipped in the country. so I apologize.
second, I forgot to tell everyone. Andrew Law is in My mission!! from Pleasant Grove. Haha we were in preschool together and went to the same gradeschool and had a lot of the same teachers. So cool to see him again. I guess he was only here for a transfer or two before me. Crazy!!
Third, I think everyone in the states is related to someone in Peru. haha. There are so many look alikes. This Last week I saw someone who looked like George Bush, David Archeleta, and Mystery Guitar Man. Hahaha weird. Wish I had my camera. Especially yesterday. Every sunday there is a train that travels around and plays music with a whole bunch of disney caracters painted on it. It is called "my happy world" (or mi mundo feliz). interesting. still havent gotten the point but it looks like fun.
Last week we were visiting a member family who own a Mariachi band. Sweetest thing ever. Anyway they have a little girl and she was watching tv when we walked in, and she was watching the Backyardigans, So lizy Fish, Backyardigans exists in Peru too. Haha actually this little girl who was watching it reminded me of alice, it was somewhat surreal.
K now for the serious bit. So this week, like others has had some ups and downs. Mostly with the Language, I can understand most of what everyone is saying but there a few people with a lisp in our ward, and some of the youth combine their words, so it gets hard sometimes, and a bit frustrating. But the hardest part is speaking the language. I can say most of what I want to, but it takes me a while to congegate all my words, and so sometimes people lose interest in what im saying or become impatient. I want more than anything to talk to the people here, but Im not there yet.
One thing that has helped me though, is this saying they have here. "poco a poco". I have come to love this saying. I love it because it has taught me patience. I think that is one thing I have been lacking but have been blessed with as I have been working this week. Poco a Poco is how heavenly father works with his children. line upon line, precept upon precept, sometimes unnoticable, the trick is to be doing the small things. This week I have been reading the Liahona outloud everyday, and not only did i learn gospel principles but my toungue has been loosed a bit more and i have been able to speak with more clarity, I have to work on it everyday though because every morning it seems like I almost have to start over again.
The other great lesson i have been able to take away from this week is having a greater perspective. I got a really encouraging letter last week from aunt lizy (thanks lizy, sorry I cant email you directly and thank you) that really helped me. one of the pieces of advice she gave me that I feel will apply to me for the rest of my life is to see the bigger picture. Sometimes its easy to feel down when people turn us away, stop keeping commitments, and ignore us (or make fun of us cause were two gringos in a foreign country) but I have learned to look at it in different way, a bigger picture.
Right now I am here in feild!! something i have dreamed of my whole life, and sometimes i have forgotten that. I am helping people who are brothers and sisters return to heavenly father and receive eternal life. there is nothing greater than that!!!
I thought about that even more, and expanded it even farther. The truth is, life is amazing. We are here on earth, being tested, and all of us, have already kept our first estate. We have a body!! and we are working to do the things the lord comands to return to his presence, and even better, we have a savior for when we do make mistakes. And as far as the things we cannot see, Im sure we have concourses of angels behind us every step of the way.
Im sorry this is shorter. but we are going to leave to proselyte in 5 min.
one last thought. One of the greatest struggles of the mission is help people have the desire to learn more about the evangelio de JesuCristo. gospel of jesus christ. sorry, spanish and english not good. Because it is the desire to know about these things that drives them to pray with a sincere heart. I have been searching, but I have not found a clear answer and Im not sure if there is one cause everyone is different, about how we can help people develop a desire to know. I have found those who truly want to follow jesus christ those who truly beleive in god, already have that desire and they are ready to hear the gospel and test the book of mormon with a sincere heart. It begins with their desires. I think that is what the scriptures mean by pure in heart.
sorry I didnt share many stories about investigators. I will have some next week.
all I have to say is i whish i was peruvian cause it would solve a lot of problems haha.
the church is true tell your freinds,
always turn outward and keep smiling. Because we have kept our first estate.
Love
Elder Bunker
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