This week was a pretty special one.
Some weeks are really hard but you always just tell yourself that it'll all pay off on some other week. I think that this week was the payoff of quite a few other weeks of tough days.
First, Carmen and Jorge from the Cornejo family were baptized this Wednesday. It was a great service and the ward was super supportive. There wasn't even room for all of the members to sit. They feel so loved and supported. We even saw Jorge leave on Saturday with his home teaching companion to go visit some other folks.
Then, I got a call from my branch president from Chao informing me that a woman who I taught when I was there wanted me to come and baptize her. The woman is named Geheydi (pronounced like the country Haiti) and she has wanted to be baptized the last two years but has passed more trials than a lot of people would be able to bear. She has prayed and fasted and cried and suffered a lot asking God to help her. When I was in Chao, I was really able to see the strength of her testimony and in the months that I was there a saw a change in her. I knew that she would be baptized someday but it was such a blessing to be able to be there and to be able to perform the ordinance. I have every certainty that Geheydi will stay active and that she will receive innumerable blessings for her constant looking to the Lord.
Geheydi, I imagine that you are smart enough to find and translate my blog so: Don't stop fighting. You still have a lot of trials to pass through. You received the Holy Ghost this week; use it. Listen to it. It will help you.
I love serving a mission. I love the people that I have met here. I love seeing people search and search and search for the truth and be able to find it.
I love you all,
Elder Gonzalez
Hope that Valentine's day treated you all well. I had a pretty great one. Remember when I explained that we were going to bring like 14 couples and then have a massive baptism? Well, that sort of fell through. In the days leading up to it, the majority of the missionaries found that the couples that they were working with got scared, couldn't get a hold of their birth certificate, or just got lazy. (There was also one weird case where the government thought that one of the couples was already married.)
Anyway, the day came and we had a grand total of......1 couple. The good news is that they are ours, hahaha. We have been teaching a family called the Cornejo family. The dad was baptized as a kid and went inactive as a teen. His wife and kids knew nothing of the church. He's come back in the last few months and he married his wife on Valentine's day. His wife and his oldest son are getting baptized on Wednesday. It's a longer story than that including a car crash, a leg surgery, Facebook, and a walrus but I can tell you all that story some other day.
The Cornejo family: Sandy (father), Carmen (mother), Jorge (oldest son), Jeniffer (daughter), César (youngest son).
It's been a great week and next week will likely follow suit.
Elder Gonzalez
This week wasn't exactly what I thought it was going to be. A lot of the crazy beautiful success stories that I had written in my head didn't really work out.
However, I did have a good week. We had our mission leadership council and Hermana Marler gave us a really great message. She talked about the steps of conversion and how even though we all want to be the last step and see everything come together for someone and see the big miracle, sometimes, we were meant to be that person's first or second step. It really changed my perspective.
There were changes this week but I am staying here with Elder Bernuy. I'm really happy about that. I still have a lot to do here. Time is passing too fast.
Thanks for all of the emails that I get from you all every week. I love hearing from all of you.
I think that some food must not have settled right with me because...nevermind.
Elder Gonzalez
I have been informed that the Seahawks failed to win the Superbowl. Peru is devastated.
It always feels weird to fill you all in on what I did last Pday a week later. This was a cool one though. We had a zone activity and hiked a mountain called "Cerro de la paz." We took a car most of the way up to where there is a weird little Catholic church on the side of a mountain and then climbed to the top from there. It was pretty steep and it is summer here but you can get some sweet pictures up there.
I don't really have any huge news this week but I feel like I might next week (foreshadowing) so you might want to keep posted.
Love you all. Thanks for reading these.
Elder Gonzalez
