Hello family and friends!
I´m just gonna get right into it, sorry if it´s all over the place! For one, I taught someone who had lots of questions about gays and the church this week. That´s a hard topic in English, let alone Spanish! It was interesting for sure. That same guy also laughed at my testimony haha. It really hurt my feelings at first!! But then I remembered the verses in 3 Nephi 12:10-12 and I got pumped that he laughed at it. I was in the exact same position as Christ himself!! So that was actually kind of a cool experience. Two other people have laughed at me during lessons, but that´s just for my Spanish, so we´re all good there haha. We had a mini-lesson with this lady that´s on the way to our pensionista. She´s a member, but she´s like 90 years old and never comes to church cause she´s pretty much immobile. We were teaching her and her Catholic son. I´m pretty sure she can´t even hear or understand or anything. So I was just sitting next to her while Elder Guerrero talked, and every once and a while we would make eye contact and I would just smile at her. Then, she started holding my hand! Like interlocking fingers and everything! I was honestly wondering if it was against mission rules! Haha I just let her do it though. She was like rubbing my arm and back and everything! It was really awkward, but just a cute old Peruvian lady doing her thing! One of the biggest victories this week, I learned how to have warm showers! It was a hidden switch! Dang, I´ve got to go already, but for the spiritual thought of the week, read Judges Chapter 7! I have thought of the story of Gideon so much on my mission and how it relates to me and my vocabulary specifically haha. This mission isn´t about me, it´s about the Lord and his work!
Love you all and have a great week!!
Elder Hart
Hey everyone,
It´s been another insane week! Where to even start...I´ll just describe what it´s like here in Chimbote. It smells like fish all the time, they have American names with Spanish accents so it´s super weird (for example, Jeyson, Steyci, Randy, all in Spanish accents), we eat every meal at a recent convert´s house and it´s so good! I love the meals here, they´re by far my favorite part of the day. It takes people longer to say Hart than it takes them to say Elder. Elder Haaaart. And they sound like they´re gagging when they say the H hahaha. The mormon effect is real here just like in the states! You can tell when someone is LDS. Also, I shut down the toilet system!! No one told me you couldn´t flush toilet paper here hahaha! They had to have a crew come to our apartment thing and fix it, I was super embarrassed!! Haha never again though! It's kind of frustrating cause I feel like people don´t take me seriously because of my Spanish. It´s the same in the US though, like when there´s a Latino that doesn´t speak great English I feel like we automatically assume that they don´t know what they´re talking about. But I know the Holy Ghost will testify of my words when I bear pure testimony! I´m a pro at waving off taxis...little hand shake, little not, pucker the lips a tiny bit and you´ve got it! Dang, I´ve got to go, I didn´t have a ton of time this week. But this is the Lord´s work!! I know that if I give 150 percent the Lord will bless whatever meager 5 loaves and 2 fishes I give him!
Love you all!
Elder Hart
Hello friends and family!!
Wow this has been such a crazy week. I´m going to be perfectly honest...it´s been by far the hardest week of my life! Haha I´m pretty much on the brink of tears all day! Not all day, but sometimes. My companion is Elder Guerrero from here in Peru, he speaks a tiny bit of English but not very much. I was so excited to come on my mission and make relationships with people, and that aspect is going to have to wait because I can´t make relationships with people I can´t understand haha! It´s good though, I can understand Elder Guerrero more than others. Most of the investigators, haha pretty much nothing. Just depends on the person. There are lots of old people here that just mumble and talk with really thick lisps, it doesn´t even sound like they´re saying words! Elder Guerrero is a good missionary though. He´s only been out three months but he´s a good teacher and he´s really persistent. It´s embarrassing when someone says something and look at me expectantly and I realize they just asked me a question and I had no idea what they said. But just having a sense of humor is key and realizing that I have two years to learn this, not five days! I´m learning now more than ever what it means to be humble. I thought I knew before, but not even close! I think it´s giving up every thought, every pride, every moment, everything to the Lord, so you can take His name, His priesthood, His work, and His gospel! The more complete the exchange, the better! Haha I´m learning to give up every last bit of my pride here in Chimbote, my first area. Also, the power of testimony (Alma 4, last verse) and the story of Enoch! Moses 6, verses 31 and 32, and Moses 7 13. I´ve thought a lot in those scriptures this week! It´s crazy here, so different! There are dogs that are just chilling on the roofs, barking to their hearts content. I have no idea how they got there! My first door I ever knocked on, a guy came to the door who was drunker than drunk. I´m an 18 year old kid from an ultraconservative family. I´ve never even seen a drunk person in a movie. It was so wild! I wanted to cry and laugh and run away all at the same time. Also, in one lesson we taught this week, the lady we were teaching just started breast feeding her two year old daughter right in the middle of the lesson! The family and Elder Guerrero seemed fine with it though, so I just went with it. Haha it was crazy though! Thank you for all of your love and support! I need your prayers, but more importantly the people here need them!
Love you all!
Elder Hart
 |
| Our room |
