Feb 8, 2010

Familia!

Wow this week was full of interesting things. First off some sad news. I gave a blessing to the mother of a member who was very, very sick. Her whole body was swollen. To me it looked like her organs had all stopped functioning. I gave her a blessing and all I could think to say was have peace. I couldn't give a blessing of healing, the Spirit didn't tell me too. We knew that she didn't have much more time on this earth. She passed away this past Thursday. Apparently she wanted to talk to us before she passed but her daughter didn't want to leave her to come looking for us. We are going to make sure that her daughter knows about the blessings of the temple so that she can do her work for her.

Another scary thing happened. The young son of our pensionista had to go to the hospital the other day. He was throwing up all day and had a very high fever. She left to go to the hospital before we knew that he was that sick. We called the missionaries in the other area and they gave him a blessing. His mom, Hermana Luisa said that the missionaries stayed with her until about 10:30 that night before they left. She was terrified because only about two years ago her other son passed away in the exact same way with the exact same symptoms. I hope that she will want to listen to us so that she can understand the Plan of Salvation that God has for us. Anderson gets to come home tomorrow I'm excited to see him. He can't say chao. Ha its hilarious. You tell him to say chao and he says bye! Its awesome.

We are working with two families to get them married in the upcoming weeks. We are really excited for them. Pray for Familias Medina Pascual and the Familia Pumatay. They need prayers! We have another baptism this upcoming week. Ray is 16 going on 17. His brother who is a recent convert is going to baptize him! I'm super excited!

Mala is doing so great! Usually in the summer time there are only 30 to 40 members but the last few weeks we have had almost 100! I know that the Lord is blessing Mala every day! I know that the power of the priesthood is real. God has given us this power to use on this earth to bless the lives of others. I'm so thankful for every opportunity to be able to do it. I know that this gospel is true with all my heart and soul. Stay strong family! I love all of you!

Love Elder B

Mom. I have a proposition. If some members of the family would like to help pay for marriages we could really use the help. Really right now thats the best way that we can help anyone. Thanks mom!

Feb.1, 2010

Hello greatest family that there is!

Business! Ok. I got the package from Grandma B today that she sent me for Christmas... yea it's ok though. I got it. And everything was in it. Thanks a bunch Grandma! I'll have the couple missionaries make the cookies because no one has an oven other than them. Most people don't have one. There really isn't anything like baking here.

OK so Mala means "bad" that's why I say Mala la buena. I'm not really sure how to explain it in English. I hope that you all understand it ha ha. This week was the fastest week that I have had in the mission so far. I feel like I was sitting at the computer only yesterday. We are working with 6 families and prepping them for baptism. The catch is... 5 of them need to get married first before they can get baptized... it's really hard to get married in Peru and really expensive. So we are working with them to get all their papers ready so that we can get it all set and ready to go. Some friends of the Whitney's the couple missionary that is in Cañete have some friends that would like to help pay for everything and the North American family has friends that want to do the same, so awesome! We have a new person ready for baptism. His name is Ray and his older brother is a recent convert. His brother Pedro asked hm when he was going to get baptized and he told him that he needed to feel called to get baptized so that night he prayed to know if he should be baptized or not. The next day he said he was super happy all day and recognized it as his answer! We gave him the choice of being baptized the 13th or 20th of this month and he said the 13th! He is one of the smartest people that I have ever met. He is only sixteen and he helps his brother with his engineering math homework from college. We are really excited for him.

Oh man! We had s´mores this week! It was awesome! We had a family home evening with the family that we live with and we made s'mores with a real fire and real marshmallows and almost graham crackers. It was awesome!

Please let me know how I can send a letter to Steve. I'm really excited for him and hope that everything is going well for him, and For you Momma LeBaron!

Good job Zachy man on your talk! I wish that I could see the Deplees when they come to visit. I hope that they all have a great time. I love all of you so much! Keep working hard! I'm glad to see that dad and Geoff are becoming well rounded! haha! I love all of you more than you know!

Love Elder B