Peruvian Christmas

Hello family and friends,

Merry Christmas! Christmas in Perú, what an experience.  The traditions are a little different.  For example, they really only celebrate the 24th.  They stay up until midnight that night and eat dinner when the clock strikes 12:00, then go out and celebrate and drink alcohol until the wee morning hours.  And there are lots and lots of fireworks! We didn´t do the partying bit, obviously;), but we did do the eating part! Holy cow we ate so much.  I was the fullest I´ve been in a long while.  And we went to bed at 10:30 like normal...but those fireworks woke us up so fast. We sprinted up to the roof (where everyone hangs their clothes to dry) to take pics.  It was a fun little Christmas.  

Speaking of Peruvian traditions: they have some fun beliefs about coldness.  There´s a story here about some guy who played soccer, then went to take a cold shower and it killed him.  So never take a cold shower after exercising! And there´s a variation of that story where he stuck his head in the fridge and died.  So never put your head in the fridge after exercising! A common one is the drinking cold things when you have a cold.  Never drink cold things when your throat hurts! Or eat ice cream! I take cold showers after exercising every morning, so thank you all very much for your prayers of protection.  They´re working.

I read something in 3 Nephi that I liked this week.  It says, "And their hearts were swollen with joy, unto the gushing out of many tears, because of the great goodness of God in delivering them out of the hands of their enemies; and they knew it was because of their repentance and their humility that they had been delivered from an everlasting destruction."  Then thinking about this verse, in light of what Pablo says in Corinthians that, "For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death."  What a day the day of the resurrection will be! Or maybe a lot more than just one day.  Hope and happiness and joy and rejoicing and gratitude! That´s what makes Christmas so special, obviously.  The birth of the one who makes that all possible.  He resurrected, he lives, and he guides his church! His gospel was restored and is being restored every day.

Sorry for the shortness of the email, the time has gone fast today! Keep the updates coming, I love reading them! Sports updates would be especially appreciated;) And pictures!! Love you all, feliz navidad y año nuevo!!

Love, TannerAnd there are lots and lots of fireworks! We didn´t do the partying bit, obviously;), but we did do the eating part! Holy cow we ate so much.  I was the fullest I´ve been in a long while.  And we went to bed at 10:30 like normal...but those fireworks woke us up so fast. We sprinted up to the roof (where everyone hangs their clothes to dry) to take pics.  It was a fun little Christmas.  

Speaking of Peruvian traditions: they have some fun beliefs about coldness.  There´s a story here about some guy who played soccer, then went to take a cold shower and it killed him.  So never take a cold shower after exercising! And there´s a variation of that story where he stuck his head in the fridge and died.  So never put your head in the fridge after exercising! A common one is the drinking cold things when you have a cold.  Never drink cold things when your throat hurts! Or eat ice cream! I take cold showers after exercising every morning, so thank you all very much for your prayers of protection.  They´re working.

I read something in 3 Nephi that I liked this week.  It says, "And their hearts were swollen with joy, unto the gushing out of many tears, because of the great goodness of God in delivering them out of the hands of their enemies; and they knew it was because of their repentance and their humility that they had been delivered from an everlasting destruction."  Then thinking about this verse, in light of what Pablo says in Corinthians that, "For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death."  What a day the day of the resurrection will be! Or maybe a lot more than just one day.  Hope and happiness and joy and rejoicing and gratitude! That´s what makes Christmas so special, obviously.  The birth of the one who makes that all possible.  He resurrected, he lives, and he guides his church! His gospel was restored and is being restored every day.

Sorry for the shortness of the email, the time has gone fast today! Keep the updates coming, I love reading them! Sports updates would be especially appreciated;) And pictures!! Love you all, feliz navidad y año nuevo!!

Love, Tanner

Missionaries and Dogs

Dear family and friends,

A solid week here in Chimbote! The highlight was Pablo´s baptism.  And there were no craft presentations to get in the way!  It was a great experience, as usual.  It´s always kind of fun trying to really grasp the meaning of what´s actually happening.  We know it, but I don´t think we really understand! At least I don´t yet.  Things of eternal significance happening right before our eyes! Saving ordinances performed by restored priesthood authority! I always try to wrap my mind around it, especially during those ordinances, but I´ve yet to really grasp it.  But it was a great experience, and the confirmation on Sunday sealed the deal!

One funny thing: we´re working with an investigator named André who believes that the Book of Mormon is true, but isn´t sure about Joseph Smith.  He just believes it because it talks about Christ, I think.  We always take it for granted that if they know the Book of Mormon is true, they´ll automatically know that Joseph Smith is a prophet too, but these things are so new to investigators that they don´t make that connection so easily! A little challenge we´re dealing with.

Sometimes as a missionary you feel like a huge scary dog.  Just because of the fact that as we are walking the streets of Perú, there are so many people that take one glance and cross the street! Haha they are so scared of us! That´s one thing I´m looking forward to when I get home: being able to catch people by surprise and start up gospel conversations with them.  In a white shirt and tie, everyone already knows what´s coming!

What an unbelievable time of year Christmas is.  I have come to appreciate it so much more these past two Christmases.  It´s so strange; I always knew the "true meaning of Christmas" and all that, and always tried to remember, but it´s just different being away from all the commercialism and submerged in what really matters.  My love for the Savior has grown so much! I think they´re things and feelings that just come with experience, so I still have a way long way to go, but my feelings for Christ and Christmas are different now.  We sang Joy to the World today in our Christmas devotional; in Spanish it says, "Rejoice, Jesus was born.  Savior of the world.  And every hear shall turn to him to receive their king." I just found myself smiling while singing.  He lives!! It´s so unbelievable.  I can´t even describe it.  

Have a MERRY CHRISTMAS!! Love you all!

Love, Tanner

Darn Craft Presentations

Dear family and friends,

Another week has passed us by, and Christmas is almost here! The #iluminaelmundo campaign is in full swing here in Peru which is a pretty sweet thing.  The video is the exact same though, and for some reason the mission office sent us the English video instead of the Spanish one.  So every time we show the video to an investigator or member, they´re translating the scriptures at the end.  But it always brings a good spirit anyway! 

Today for PDay we did a little shopping and found some ties for 9 soles, or 3 dollars! So I definitely splurged on those 3 dollar ties haha.  There are some real perks to Perú! 

We were going to have a baptism this Saturday, but...there was a stake relief society activity that took up the whole entire stake center!! And of course, it was a CRAFT PRESENTATION!! Man oh man was I frustrated.  We´re going to put off performing a saving ordinance for a 74 year old man for a CRAFT PRESENTATION?? And not only a 74 year old man, but one who´s been real hesitant about getting baptized.  We were always talking about how it was such a sacred, serious thing, and then we change the date on him at the last minute.  He was all good with it, and we´re doing it this Friday instead, so there shouldn't be any problem.  But lesson learned, the time is come and is far past to ask for a copy of the stake calendar of activities.  

We´ve got a few others that are super close too! They´re so good! We´re teaching three people -- Ana, Flor, and André -- who are reading the Book of Mormon and praying to feel of it´s truthfulness.  Still a few struggles in the coming to church part, but we´re working with it! The problem is finding.  Haha President Rios "burned" us (Latin slang that also kinda works in English) saying that we should feel dejected and worried for our key indicators this week.  I´m pretty sure the connotation doesn´t translate exactly, because he´s a very nice man...but we are pretty stressed about it! The goal for new investigators is 8 a week, and we´ve found 2, 3, and 1 in consecutive weeks.  Dang I feel so motivated to just get to work and knock every door in Bellamar, but I´m pretty sure there´s a better, more effective way, one that requires lots more patience and love, but equal diligence.   What´s that way, you ask?? .....I don´t exactly know either.  Yet!

Two quick thoughts from this past week: an understanding of the godhead is so important in conversion! Understanding who we are praying to, and who will give us the answer to our prayers.  Understanding who Jesus Christ is, which of course leads to faith in him, repentance, baptism, etc.  Understanding the personage of spirit that will teach us the truth.  If an investigator doesn´t understand that, how will they be converted?? Work to do there.  Also, we often feel that we aren´t being blessed despite our best efforts.  However, "being blessed" and "having an easy life" are certainly not the same thing! In fact, they may be opposites!  Heavenly Father ALWAYS blessed and blesses the righteous, even if their life isn´t always exactly easy.  Thanks for listening to my spiritual though. :)

Have a super good week!

Love, Tanner 

PDay Activities

Dear family and friends,

I usually come into these email sessions fairly prepared with what I´m going to say.  But not today! This may be lots of rambling, so buckle up!

Mmm...we went to the Christmas devotional yesterday! We could only go if we took an investigator, and luckily one of ours was able to go! His name is André, the guy we found last week.  We had a great talk beforehand about the Holy Ghost and the role it plays in our conversion, and just really invited him to pay close attention to his feelings and thoughts as he read the Book of Mormon, and as he listened to the talks that night.  As I listened, I was going, "Oh yes! Yes! That´s so true, this is so perfect for him!" Afterward, we asked him how he liked it.  His answer? "I mean, yeah, anything good is from God right?" He was...less impressed than I was.  It´s so interesting how we can, as members of the church, be so impacted and feel the spirit so strongly as we listen to the bretheren speak, while others just don´t seem to feel it! Or maybe just don´t recognize it.  I thought it was super interesting.  And he kept refering to President Eyring as "the brother" haha.  He´s a great guy though, we´ll see how he progresses!

A few other people: a guy named Pablo is getting baptized this week! He´s been listening to the missionaries for a while now, and all his family got baptized a year or two ago.  He was just always afraid to commit! We had a sweet talk with him this week, with his returned missionary grandson there present as well, and just talked about the doctrine and blessings of baptism.  Two lessons learned there: 1) emphasizing action without teaching doctrine rarely works, in any circumstance, and 2) investigators understand a lot better when the teacher is someone they love.  So his grandson taught him about the gift of the Holy Ghost and the remission of sins, and BOOM! December 10, Pablo´s getting baptized.

We also are teaching this girl named Ana who, when left with the commitment of reading 3 Nephi 11, read to 3 Nephi 17.  The first time in my mission that that´s happened! So that was sweet.  She just works a lot...darn work.

One of my favorite activites here is going to the mall.  We go kind of often, to buy cleaning supplies for missionaries and on many P-Days.  There´s a Burger King there that I love so much.  I didn´t even like Burger King that much in the states! But a good old "King Pollo" with a "Cono Relleno" always just hits the USA spot.  We also play soccer with the members on most P-Days.  I love sports.  I love watching soccer, and playing FIFA.  I love running around.  But it´s pretty humiliating playing soccer with 13 other super good latinos.  Pretty humiliating...and they get competitive too! And show their frustration when it goes through my legs! Which is most of the time haha.  But it´s okay, I just imagine playing basketball in a church gym and it makes me happy again.

But that is all for this week! The work goes on! Transfers came and went with no changes, so we´ll look forward to six more weeks with Elder Fernandez in Bellamar and see what we can do to hasten the Lord´s work! Man the time goes fast.

Love ya lots!!

Elder Tanner Hart