I hit 17 months today!
I feel so old… In the mission, at least! I don’t know if I mentioned this before, but here in the Misión Perú Lima Norte, half the mission has less than seven months here in the mission! Of course, time doesn’t mean much here — a missionary that only has one month can do miracles if they work with the Spirit — but normally there’s a mix of greenies and experienced missionaries, and you don’t see that here! (I’d only consider a missionary “experienced” if they have more than eight months, because by that point you know just about everything basic that you need to know and just work on improving.) This isn’t a bad thing, but it’s interesting!
Anyway, the first big thing that happened this week was cambios! I left Año Nuevo after 4.5 months there and now I’m in Industrial, Zona Comas, with Elder Davila:
He’s pretty cool, and because we’re always together I’ve gotten to know him pretty well in only a week. He’s a hard worker and likes the mission, but it’s also kind of difficult for him at times because he misses being in his house.
The next cool thing is the area: It’s really easy and I showed up just in time to baptize! Elder Davila and his other companions worked hard here and have a lot of success, so I show up and we already had a baptism this Saturday, and other baptisms are falling out of the sky! I show up and in my first week we have two investigators that suddenly tell us, “Hey, I want to be baptized”! I guess I’m just so awesome that the people want to be baptized when I show up!… Nah, just kidding! I feel bad that I basically show up and steal all the credit for someone’s hard work, but it’s a nice break after 4.5 months of hard work without a whole lot of success (Not that I’d change the success I had for anything else! I’m happy that I’ve done a lot of good in Año Nuevo, and I’m especially happy that Yeferson and Camila got baptized and that a few other people that I started teaching are progressing!)
Anyway, last Saturday, the 4th, a man named Alberto was baptized, and it was cool to see! He and his wife are great people, and even if I don’t know them very well I’m happy that I could be here for their baptisms (His wife, Fanny, is getting baptized this Saturday!). Sadly, I don’t have any pictures except for this one:
… because we had a couple of things happen and didn’t manage to take more! EVERY..SINGLE..TIME..! I don’t know why, but every time there’s a baptism something happens! Anyone that is or has ever been a missionary knows that the baptisms are some of the most stressful days for us! This time, we found out that the baptismal clothing that the ward had provided didn’t fit Alberto (He’s really tall and super thin — he has an incurable illness that makes him weak) or the person that was going to baptize him! So we had to run from the chapel to our house to get our baptismal clothing, and obviously the baptism started late because of that!
Then, when all that was good, we could’ve taken some pictures, except that my companion’s a little sick and he started having trouble with his chest, so after the actual baptism we left so he could get some air. Sooo… Yep. But at least we’ll have more the next time!
And then I also have another first for service projects: Mixing cement and making a floor!
Another strange, only-in-Peru service project! (Seriously, they do everything by themselves here!)
So it’s been a great week and it seems like this next week will be even better (And hopefully more interesting, too!)
— Elder Schroeder