Hola de Peru!!
So I am attaching a picture from the Baptism! Which answers your burning question, yes Jorge Luis and Siannah were both baptized! Guess what? They both have 6 names each! Seriously so many of the names of the Latino's are soooo complicated down here! These are their names: Siannah Claudia Estefania Jimenez Luna Horna and Jorge Luis Richard Jimenez Luna Horns. Thankfully they're Twins, so the last 3 are the same! And thankfully I only baptized one of them! Which means I didn't have to memorize as much and Elder Cruz had his first Baptism!! He did great :) However Sunday was legitimately the most complicated day ever. Let me number it out for you so it's easier to follow!
1. Morning went fine with studying, no problems!
2. Went to an investigators house to bring her to Church but then she told us she couldn't go that day since her family was visiting from Lima. Sad, but understandable.
3. Went to Church and there was legit like 10 people in the chapel when we were supposed to start. However by the end there was about 80! (Normally we have 80 more or less, but Latino's are... flexible... with their time. Which is why we can start with 5 and end with 500)
4. Had 5 investigators come! Which was great but we were still missing 3. One was Breno Valentino (His Parents are members. Mother was a great member who wanted to serve a mission and everything, Father Joined the church for her. Now the father is Atheist and they're both inactive. But his aunts and such are members so we've been working with him and trying to build confidence and his faith and such. It's been going great but yesterday his allergies were really bad so he couldn't go. I'll keep you posted) and the other two... were Jorge Luis and Siannah... THE DAY OF THEIR CONFIRMATION!! Gahh so stressful! Apparently Siannah's baby was sick all night and then she had to stay home with her Grandmother because she couldn't be left alone. And Jorge Luis HAD to go with his family to look at new houses... Silly if
you ask me. So we spent the entire morning tracking them down. Talking to our Branch President. Then trying to contact either the AP's, President Dorius, or his wife. After 3 hours we finally got permission and worked it out so that we could confirm them at another Chapel. So they've successfully been confirmed! We had to do it yesterday because we won't have church again for 3 weeks (Next Sunday is Conference then the following is our Elections here in Peru! We only have them every 5 years... but apparently they get quite dangerous. Therefore we can't even leave the house the whole day...silly if you ask me)
5. Went to our 3 appointments in the afternoon and none of them were there. Gah!
6. Ate Peruvian Pizza, pretty delicious!
7. Taught a great sister named Milagros who has SO much faith! But she can't be baptized because she's still not yet married to her husband. (He's a member) But we're working with them and they should be married by this month! We showed them the video Finding Faith in Christ and shared some experiences and scriptures with them. It was really spiritual and a great
time.
8. Were 45 minutes late to the house because of it... the Zone Leaders weren't so happy. Oh well!
So that was my day, started out bummy but ended well!
So great to hear that everyone’s lives are great, it brings me such joy! Isn't it great to see just how far we've come sometimes? Where we started, or where we were 2,3,4,5 years ago and where we are in our lives now? I think so! I never thought I'd be serving in Peru 5 years ago. Let alone 8 months ago or never in my life! However here I am now and I'm so grateful for this chance I have to serve the Lord and work with the people of Peru!
Anyway I'm running short on time and I need to send a message back to Jarom.
Remember who you are, and what you stand for ;)
Elder Hatt