Elder Jake Moss: Festival Food & Letzi's Baptism!

What's up Family?! How are you all? Things are great here....we had a baptism and interest from more investigators. Letzi got baptized on Saturday! She is great and is setting the example for her parents Omar and Paolo. It was so cool to see a baptism with all the members. La Oroya might be a bit confused with a couple things but they are very supportive of baptisms! Elder Solorzano and I were so happy about that.

Last P-day we hung out with Elder Campbell and Elder Bruno....we ate pacca manca. Pacca Manca is sweet potatoes, potato, weird beans, lamb meat and chicken that they cook in the ground. And it comes with this sweet tamale called a humita. The best food here! It costs 13 soles and we have to drive about 20 minutes to get it. It's awesome to eat cultural food and not just rice. After lunch we hung out at the fair and went shopping. They always give Elder Campbell and I the gringo prices so Elder Bruno and Solorzano ask for us so we can get a better deal. Tuesday a member kept us busy for an hour talking to us and to Sandra and Abraham....which I loved talking to them! Wednesday we visited less actives with President Mejia. We met with Letzi to help her prepare for her baptism. Thursday we had divisions. I went with Elder Campbell....Love that Kid....we've become really good friends. We did service in the morning to help clean up a trash yard basically. We spoke English during the day and visited a member. Marcavalle has some really cool members. And then finished the night at a members house doing a FHE and making "funfetti" cake from the states that Elder Campbell had! Their house is so nice. They are a young couple and they reminded me of my parents. It was hard to leave their house...Haha. Later Elder Campbell and I burned his one year shirt.....that was fun to do! Friday Letzi got interviewed by the ZL's and she passed. But then things went downhill....we wanted to do the baptism together with the other Elders because they were having a baptism also. So Elder Solorzano called President Mejia, who then called President Henderson. President Mejia didn't understand and he thought Letzi was going to get baptized into Marcavalle branch. He misunderstood that we just wanted to do the baptisms together. It's all good, we fixed it and had the baptism.

We had a good week! We have changes this Wednesday......AGAIN! Most likely none of us will go, possibly Elder Bruno. But La Oroya truly is a tough area, lots of challenges with members and not much support. It's hard but I trust the Lord, and I know he will watch out for the members and our investigators here. Elder Solorzano and I are trying and praying and being examples. It's a tough area but I love the challenge.

Reflection of the week: I have realized that in the mission there are hard times, but you have to pick yourself up quickly You can't allow a bad day to bring you down. You need to keep smiling and move on. Friday was a really hard day for us, but we didn't dwell on it. We picked it up and taught 25 lessons, had some great contacts and worked hard. I love it here in Peru and I'm truly so happy. I love the Lord's work and all of you! Thank you for everything! Ciao! #doitforjesus

Elder Moss