CRACKDOWN IN THE MISSION!!

 

Email from 9-23-2013

Hey everybody!!!

So as always it´s good to hear from you guys, it sounds like everything was going well this week, first off I want to say congratulations on blessing Karson, I wish I could have been there, but that’s way awesome, and I know that Karson is going to receive the help from this blessing, and that it is something necessary that we do for the children, because as Christ always says, let the little children come unto me, and by giving them a name and a blessing, we are helping them come unto Christ. 

That was a cool story about Ethan Cash; I know that he will be an awesome mission, when you see him wish him the best of luck from me! I know he is going to be able to help a lot of people come unto Christ, and to receive the fullness of this gospel!!! 

So dad to answer one of your questions about when the next transfers are, they are the 8th of October, and honestly my comp and I have no clue what is going to happen because there are a lot of people who have been in this zone for like 6 to 7 months, and it’s time that they have a change, so we think the two of us might stay here for one change more. But it will be interesting because there has been a crackdown in the rules, and now we won’t have transfer meetings, we will just get a call the Sunday night before telling us if we have a change, where we are going, and who is our comp. so it’s not going to be the same, and there were a bunch of other things that President Harbertson is cracking down on, even the clothes that we are allowed to wear on pday. But as you know I told you before this mission were pretty bad at following rules and so this will be good and help us a lot to receive more of the spirit, and to be more obedient to the missionary manual, or white bible, to preach my gospel, and everything. So I am not upset about the rule enforcement, and I am excited to see in what ways it is going to help us. But we will have to see. 

So the work is going good, we are teaching somebody named Veronica, her family abandoned her, and now she is living with her aunt and cousin who are members, and we are teaching her, she actually has a baptismal date for the 4th of October, and she is very excited for it. Everything is going good with her, she is 18 years old, and she really has a desire to accept these things in her life. 

We contacted a family the other day, but we are only teaching 3 of them, Yessyca, Candy & Leonardo. They are really cool, and they really like to visit with us, every time we teach something new, they get all excited and have a billion questions about it. When we left them a Book of Mormon Yessyca jumped out of her seat because she was so excited about it and couldn’t wait to start reading it, as she told us. So we are hoping a lot for them, they didn’t have the chance to attend yesterday but we are going to keep working to get them there. 

Also, one of the investigators that we have had for a lot a time wasn’t really progressing much because as he put it, he wants to do these things because he feels it, he doesn’t want to commit just because we are asking him too. So we kept working with him, and then yesterday in church he came like the last hour, and I was a little busy helping out with some things in the ward, so my comp and another elder ended up teaching him because he didn’t want to enter in to priesthood. And when my comp came to me after he said they had challenged him to baptism for the 12th of October and that he said he know it was important, and that he would pray that night to find out if that date is right for him, and so we have an appointment with him on Thursday, and we are going to see how his praying went, and I have a ton of hope for him, he is one of those people ready, but he just has a lot of doubts and questions for us, so we just keep helping him in every way possible, and he is actually best friends with Katia who was baptized a couple weeks ago. And from his personality and the things he does, as my comp described him, he is already Mormon; he just faults the baptism part. And it’s so true, but I will keep you informed about how he is progressing, keep praying for all of them it will help!!!! 

So my comp and I have been trying to find new people to teach and it’s not working really well so yesterday we got 25 members split them up, and sent them out contacting and visiting less active members, and it went really well!!! This week we are going to be in the process of contacting all the people they met and helping them out. The work really does progress when we have the help of the members!!!!!! 

But not much else happened this week, we just keep moving along and getting the things done!!!!

Honestly being a missionary is such a blessing, and being able to help people every day all day, I would not trade my mission for anything in the world!!! I feel like I have grown so much in the mission with maturity, as a member of the church, and everything!!! Every aspect of my life has changed, and I am learning the things that I know I am going to need for the rest of my life!!!!! The mission changes you and helps you understand the person that you need to be, the person that the lord needs you to become!!!  I have felt the hand of the lord in these months here in Peru, and I know that I am here for a reason, and that my job is to help other people first and then myself, but I help myself as I help others!!!!! I am so grateful for a loving family and loving friends who support me in my decisions, and helped me get to this point!!! You are all great, and I thank you so much for your influence in my life!!!! Now that you have helped me, HELP OTHER PEOPLE!!!!!!

You will feel the love of the Savior in your life as you learn to serve others; don’t be scared to do it because the lord will raise you up as you put in your part!!! I love you so much and I can’t wait to hear from you all next week!!!!!

Con mucho amor

ELDER GOASLIND