¡Feliz año nuevo, todos!
It’s been pretty good here in Peru. My only problem is really the weather: how hot it is, and being under it. On Tuesday I got really sick and didn’t do much, so that was nice. Of course, that means that my companion (It’s still Elder Terrones) went out with some members from the ward while leaving one of them, Alfredo, to babysit me (more or less), and, of course, that was the day my companion finally got one of our families to commit to a marriage date: January 28!
I’m a little disappointed to have missed that, but I got to practice my Spanish a lot with Alfredo. He’s really cool: he played professional video games before his time in the Church (he’s only been a member for two years or so), and yes, I know that only really me or Zack or any other boy cares about being able to play video games for a living, but that’s not the coolest part. See, he played video games and made a lot of money doing it — About 2000 Soles (or 635 dollars) for a few hours on Sundays! — but that was the problem: the tournaments were on Sundays. So he stopped playing professional and joined the Church! A cushy job like that isn’t easy to give up — He had sponsors and fans and everything! — but he did it to join the Church and be obedient! Awesome!
As for the weather, well… It’s hot. Every day I wish it would be cloudy, because when it’s not I’ve got sweat stains where my bag strap is and I’m constantly using my shirt sleeve to keep the sweat out of my face. And heaven help anyone near me when I lift up my arms!
This week was awesome because I had some really cool experiences on Saturday and Sunday. Saturday morning I wasn’t feeling so great — I was really tired because the night before (New Year’s Eve / New Year’s) involved a lot of really loud fireworks at midnight that went on for 15 MINUTES! I didn’t sleep very well and Elder Terrones was a little grumpy too, and I just felt really down about everything — our lack of success, being sick, and, most importantly, not knowing if our lack of success was my fault somehow or just a trial to go through.
I didn’t really know what to do about all of this, so I just prayed; all morning, for almost 30 or 45 minutes, I just prayed for SOMETHING to let me know what to do about, well, everything. And then, while I was showering, I remembered a scripture in the Book of Mormon. In a part of the Book of Mormon, Alma, the prophet, was having trouble in the Church and didn’t know what to do, so he prayed to know what to do. I looked it up during my personal study and found it: Mosiah 26:13-14:
“And now the spirit of Alma was again troubled; and he went and inquired of the Lord what he should do concerning this matter, for he feared that he should do wrong in the sight of God. And it came to pass that after he had poured out his whole soul to God, the voice of the Lord came to him.”
I read it and realized that I’d prayed like Alma — with everything I could. And what’s interesting is I received the impression to look for the footnote for “Revelation, Divine.” There, I again felt I should go to a scripture listed there: Doctrine and Covenants 6. And here I received my answer. I read D&C 6 until verse 35. And then I started crying, because it was EXACTLY what I needed to hear:
“Behold, I do not condemn you; go your ways and sin no more; perform with soberness the work which I have commanded you.”
Right when I’d been feeling like I was failing my Heavenly Father, like I was messing up, He told me, plain and simple, that I wasn’t; I just needed to do what I’d been told. And even more importantly, He didn’t condemn me for when I mess up or when I can’t talk to people because what I did was enough.
What was really cool was what happened with that later. We lost the keys to our cuarto (AGAIN!) and thought they might be at the house of one of our recent converts, Danitza. We went there and the keys weren’t there (Because they were actually in our cuarto!) but we talked to Danitza and she admitted to us that she really felt like no one understood her. So I shared my experience from that morning, and SHE cried, because she realized that Heavenly Father DID understand!
And, of course, Sunday was spiritual because I got to baptize Hermana Roxanna! I’ll share the details next time, because I don’t have any more! Until then!
— Elder Schroeder