Oh, the weeks never stop coming. Boy, this week we really worked hard! We passed our goal of 32 lessons again, with 34 and managed to hit 102 contacts. The contacts were a little hard to get towards the end, but we ended up contacting every living soul, including some kids which were not the best of contacts, but we also found some awesome new investigators! One contact was a girl who has gone to church before with a member, but her family is Catholic. We also found an old investigator from previous missionaries. We taught her the first lesson and she practically cried afterwards. She told us how she always listens to the other missionaries, from other churches, but they always say the same thing, that she needs to read the Bible more or God is going to punish her. We however, focused more on the love that God has for the family and the need to pray to know the truth. We also taught a lot of teenagers, young adults, who are getting ready to go to the university and they want help learning English. For some reason it was really easy to set up another appointment with them.
Hey, so I forgot to mention. There is a Sister Vernon here that just started her mission. Well, I was thinking, she said she is from AF and I heard that a family friend of the McIntyre's received a mission call to my mission. And so I thought, I am going to see if she knows Mckay. Sure enough, she does! And so we talked about that for a while and how small of a mission we live in.
This week I have really been thinking a lot about the family. All the missionaries groaned through the first session of Conference because it was all about the family and marriage, but being here in Peru, I can see that this is serious issue. There is a belief here that marriage is not important and that it will only hurt the relationship. But there a real need to teach about the family. It hurts to see how some parents treat their children, even some members. But it is very clear which members cherish their families and truly live the gospel principals of FHE, family prayer, and scripture study. For this I wanted to say thank you to my family.
I am so grateful to know that my family is eternal. It has been the base of my testimony since I had one. It was the driving force to do good, to earn the reward in heaven. Of the four companions I have had, none have had the security that I have. They all have the goal of sealing their families in the temple, but always there was that hint of fear, doubt, dread, no se, of if it does not happen. But I know that I have an eternal family because you and dad fought to have it. It was not always easy, but to paraphrase the words of Elder Holland and I ask forgiveness for butchering them, salvation never was easy. If Christ, the creator of all, the Son of the living God fell on his face in the garden of Gethsemane bleeding from every pore, crying Papa, please, this is hard; why should it be easy for us--the sinners? This paragraph has become rather long and off topic, but I do want to say thank you. I am seeing all types of families, some have caused me to weep and others rejoice, but I have experienced no joy like the joy I have in my own family.
Life in Peru certainly keeps one entertained. If you think humans are the only creatures capable of sin, you clearly have not seen the dogs here! The other day I saw two dogs that I thought were just dancing, yes I know it was not dancing Megan, but when you realize that they were both male, and then when a third one feels like dancing along with them, and when you realize that there are others cheering them on... I recall hearing of a book titled, All Dogs Go to Heaven and I cannot help but cry blasphemy!
Well, I hope you are all enjoying the warm weather, like always we are still waiting for the cold. But I wish you all a good week and talk to ya later. I love you all so much.
Elder Bradford
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