WEEK 29 - Good Stuff happening in Puno!

February 18, 2018

WEEK 29 - Good Stuff happening in Puno!

Not much news from Peru this week. It must have been a fun P-Day for Connor because whatever he did, he did not have much time for a letter. Hoping this won't be the case many more times. Even the pics don't have much explanation.

This was about all I got from Connor:
Our investigator, Carlos got his answer about The Book of Mormon. He has read, prayed, read some more and prayed some more. We also taught him the principle of the fast. He promised to fast and pray for his answer and he got it. It's been a long process for him but he has worked so hard for an answer. Good news is he will be baptized about 100% likely on Mom's birthday.

While that was AWESOME news, I knew that in 7 days time - more had to have happened.
So I went on a search for SOMEONE who knew what his week was like.... and TA DA!!! SUCCESS thanks to my treasured missionary mom connections!!

Connor's sweet companion Elder Duron DID send a letter home this week so I lucked out and got a sneak peek into their week.

1.) So here is Connor's 29th week according to ELDER DURON.

....There was a lot of work done this week, we finished all the discussions with our investigator Carlos and he received his answer about the Book of Mormon this week and he is set for baptism this next week. Our investigadoras are so faithful here it's amazing to see.

This last week our investigador Gustavo (16) couldn't make it to church because he had to take care of his mom, but he came thirty minutes early, brought the bread for sacrament and asked the bishop to forgive him and he showed up the next week with a suit and tie! He's a great kid!

Our other investigator, Nilton, fell of the map, but this week we went to his tienda and found him. He's been helping his family cook during this crazy week. We talked to his member friend and he said that he was crying because he wasn't able to see us, he's such a stud. Whenever we would give him an assignment he would do it right away, but this week we are able to meet with him and should have his baptism for this Saturday if everything goes smoothly. I'm so proud of our investigators and their desire to follow the example of Jesus Christ.

Crazy story for this week, the traffic has been super bad this entire week with the Candelaria. Anyway, me and my comp were in a moto about to turn right and this other moto cut us off and we ended up flipping over onto the side walk. It was so crazy! Our driver left so quick and was about to throw hands with the other dude, it was so close to happening, but we ended up helping him lift his moto taxi and then we went on our way.

I love being here as crazy as it is, love you guys hope to here from ya.

Elder Duron

YIKES!!!!
(OK this is not really me!! Ha ha)

FROM LISA: If you want to see my face after I read the last paragraph it may have looked something like this??? Maybe that explains why Connor didn't say much?

ALSO IF YOU WERE WONDERING WHAT CANDELARIA WAS/IS here is what I found online:

Every year at the start of Feb. Fiesta de la Caldelaria: is celebrated in Puno, South Peru. This is a festival full of culture, dance and music which brings together the catholic father and Andean religion in homage to the Virgin of Candelaria. The Virgin represents fertility and purity, is the patron saint of the city and is strongly associated with pacha mama (Mother Earth). It is this common factor in both religions that brings them together for the festival. It is the biggest event in Peru and the third biggest event in South America after the Rio de Janeiro Carnival and Canaval de Oruro in terms of colorful artist costumes and culture. The festival has been celebrated since 1960. Depending on the year there can be as many as 50,000 dancers and 15,000 musicians taking part. Preparations for the festival begin as early as the start of Dec

Elders Jensen and Clancy

2.) Here is Connor's 29th week according to Elder Jensen

While Connor is not mission companions with Elder Jensen, they sure had fun together this week as they were on what missionaries call "Exchanges" or "divisions" (In Spanish). This is when you switch companions for a day or so. Looking at the pics and trying to piece together what happened in the week, I can see that most of the pics Connor has included this week must have to do with Elder Jensen's blog post namely, the garbage on the hill.

Elder Jensen's Monday post;

Played some sports and some guy stole my wallet out of my backpack (on the bus ride back) (Connor was able to help Elder Jensen by lending him some money before Elder Jensen's Momma could send him another bank card. How frustrating to have your wallet stolen!!! And super complicated when you are in another country!! Ugh!!)

Elder Jensen's Tuesday post:

We had a really good lesson with our investigator J...we taught him in front of our pensions house and whenever I am there sometimes I feel like I'm in coastal California because there's some grass and a few trees and sometimes there's a little fog and because of the lake it sells like it too. Just to explain to all of you how teaching lessons outside here is like, while we were teaching him a herd of sheep came by and was eating grass like 2 feet away from us. Pretty cool, also distracting. We also taught a girl names D in our chapel....After that lesson we went to the center and met up with Elder Clancy and started divisions. I'm his district leader and I do divisions with him and his companion at least once in the change....

Elder Jensen's Wednesday post:

We (Elder Clancy and Jensen) woke up on time and went for a jog. I have concluded this about Puno....It's super pretty on the outside and super ugly on the inside. I say that because we went jogging to the top of this hill and we could see the city and Lake Titicaca and it was super pretty. However, we tan back down under this garbage-filled bridge pass half-constructed houses to Mama Shrylay's house to have breakfast. SHE MADE US FRENCH TOAST WITH REAL MAPLE SYRUP. Yeah enough said! It was delicious. It was a good break from all the chicken and rice we eat every day.

So before I posted this blog entry, another week has gone by (Lots going on in my family this week - sorry!) and Connor eventually wrote about this week IN SPANISH!!!! Yes, the whole entire letter in Spanish. YIKES. I did my best to put it all into Google translate and share it here however, I'm sticking with the previous posts b/c there are some cool and interesting details, but here is Connor's week from his POV:

Tuesday Feb. 6th - We had our meetings in the morning and everything was quiet. Then we went to pick up the keys of someone in our neighborhood for classes at night. In the afternoon we left our clothes with the pensioner and then went to the chapel to teach an English class! Then we had correlation at 6 and advice at 7. At 8 we started divisions with Elder Jensen and Elder Tiza and we went to sleep.

Wednesday Feb. 7th - Today I was with Elder Jensen in my sector. In the morning we went running and then we ate with Sister Shyrlay! In the morning we studied for a long time because we did not have any scheduled appointments. We also went to the doctor for Elder Jensen. In the afternoon we went to contact on the way to the lake. We contacted someone who told us to come back later. We went to the lake and bought chompitas to take during the week. They are cute :) Then we went back to Brother R's house and we had an appointment about how to pray and how we can talk to our Heavenly Father and really that is one of the most important things we have. It was very good.

In the evening we finished divisions and I returned home to sleep.

Thursday Feb. 8th - Not much happened on this day. We had an appointment with two new investigators and one who is named H is probably going to progress!

Friday Feb. 9th - I think I sent letters on that day but I'm not sure. Our investigator Carlos invited us to eat but later he could not come but he brought us something. He is the best! When we had our appointment with Carlos, he told us that he received his answer! It was the best!!

Saturday Feb. 10th - On Saturday we had an appointment with H and it was so good. He understands everything and wants to learn more! Elder Duron also wanted to cut his hair and it was nice. We went to find Nilton and he told us he was planning to come to the chapel tomorrow. It was chevre. In the evening we had another date with Carlos and then ultra (?) invited us to eat and it was the maximum!!

Sunday Feb. 11th - We went to the chapel early and at 9 (when the sacrament meeting begins) there were literally 15 people ... and then 133 came to the chapel ... welcome to Peru. Gustavo also came in a suit also and it was the maximum! but Nilton did not come

Love ya fam!