I wish the Olympics were in Peru...

Dear family and friends,

Another week has passed! A few of the events from the week:

I had an interchange with an elder named Elder Cruz on Saturday.  He reminds me so much of Hayden! Just his sense of humor and mannerisms, it´s pretty weird.  Except he´s from Texas and is slightly darker than Hayden.  So I spent the day remembering my brother and getting a kick out of Elder Cruz´s jokes.

I introduced my companion Elder Ricse to smarties this week (or as he calls them, "Inteligentitos").  He´s a big fan haha. 

One big challenge we face in Perú is lack of education and just ability to understand.  Many of these people work in fields and just don´t really have much of a capacity to understand gospel doctrines! I was thinking about it this week though, and wonder if it´s not more of a blessing that way.  In Europe and the US, I´m sure more people are capable of understanding, yet fewer do!  I´m reminded of the scripture in Mosiah 3, verse 15 I think.  Something about "because of the hardness of their hearts, they did not understand."  Humility can lead to understanding! I´ve got to keep praying and searching for the way to help all the humple people here get to that point and understand the restored truths of the gospel.

That being said, we´re working with a person here who has a marraige and baptism date for August 27th! Her name is Flor and she´s been investigating the church for over two years now! She just hasn´t ever been brave enough to marry the guy she´s living with.  Even though they have two kids and have been living together for 20 years.  But now she´s gonna take the leap of faith! Pray for her that she can stay excited and keep reading The Book of Mormon to strengthen her faith!

The Olympics.  Oh, the Olympics.  How I miss them.  They´re not really a big deal here, but that just makes it harder when I catch a two minute glimpse of someone´s tv.  The next time the Olympics roll around, I´ll be 23, married, with one kid and another on the way.  Calling it;)

To finish, I just wanted to testify of Jesus Christ.  I love something that Neil L. Anderson said in the missionary worldwide training, that thanks to the restoration, we know more about Christ than anyone else.  I love being able to testify of Him every single day, and seeing Him change people´s lives when they humble themselves and come unto Him.

Talk to you next week!

Love, Tanner