We Have Two Responsibilities In This Life

To answer your questions, We made cookies, but the turned out brownies.. But, they were delicious brownies so it all worked out! We don`t have a temple in our mission, but they will be dedicating a temple in Trujio which will be the closest temple to us thus far. It`s being dedicated on 21 of this month and we will be able to watch the dedication in the stake center in which will be an extention of the temple on this day, so we don`t have a temple, but soon I will in a way be entering the temple for the dedication! 

Wow, that`s a great story of the power of prayer! It`s amazing what a little prayer and great faith can do! I have been wanting to go fishing lately also! I think there is a river here to do it, but I don`t have fishing gear  so it`s kind of a problem. 

Ezra and Flat Stanley in Bountiful

Elder Jeffery and Flat Stanley In Cusco

This week we worked hard. We tried to match last week which was hard to do. I`ve honestly not been so tired in my life! But, we continued until the end, and even though the appointments often fell through, we always found something to do. We contacted A LOT of people. It`s great to see how many people believe in Christ and have an experience of how Christ has helped them. I`m learning that the people understand the importance of the gospel of Jesus Christ, but only need to be show more and how to live it fully. It`s a hard job and a great responsibiliy. It`s OUR responsibiliy! I`m learning about the life we have here on earth and have come down to the conclusion that we have two responsibilities in this life. 

1) Learn and apply the Gospel of Jesus Christ in our lives

2) Teach others how to learn and apply the Gospel of Jesus Christ in their lives. 

It`s that simple! We love God, so we apply the Gospel. We love others so we share it! 

We have been teaching Edson still and has been assisting church every week. His doubt was about coffee. So, after church, we talked to him about the word of wisdom, and the importance of keeping our bodies healthy. He thought about it and decided that yes, he can keep the word of wisdom. I`m happy to see the progress that he is having and the change of heart. He still has a few doubts and concerns, but as he learns about the gospel, I`m sure he will forget about them, and remember why he`s here on earth. I`m glad to serve every day and learn how to appy in my own life the Gospel. I love you MOM and hope you have a great week full of more miracles! THank you friends and family for the support you give me and the help you give to the missionaries serving in your wards! Keep up the grand work! 

Elder Jeffery

Rules = Blessings Leading Us To Perfection

n the world we live in, it`s hard to see our full potential. I look at myself so differently than my Heavenly Father because I see my imperfections not my potential. Humility, Long-suffering, patience, and love are crucial to improve ourselves.

This week has been amazing. Elder Aguilar have been working so hard, and have seen results. I get so along with my companion! As we are working here in ``paradise Calca`` as we call it. 

We went to Ramon Quispe`s house this week, a less active, to see if we could teach him. He said that he had guests over so, we said we could teach him and his guests. He let us in, and introduced us to his friend Hugo Vasquez. We soon found that Hugo had a strong testimony in God and wanted to follow Jesus Christ. We challanged him to be baptized on the 27 of June. He accepted! We hope and pray to have him and Edson baptized the same day. We also taught from the many families we contacted in the street this week, two catholic families. They are both very nice friendly families, but when we challanged them to baptism, they didn`t want to because they are Catholic. That`s alright though. I pray they come to understand the importance of the priesthood authority and the message we bring to them. I am thankful to learn more about my purpose in this life every day. I`ve learned that it doesn`t matter if you are in the mission field or no, but really your attitude toward missionary work. Before, I was scared to contact in the street, and didn`t really want to, but I understand more now, and want to contact. We can gain a real desire to be obedient in this life, and when we gain this desire it sets us free. We don`t see the rules as rules but more as blessings leading us to perfection. Thank you family and friends for preparing me to serve here in Cusco, and I hope to everyone of you to understand the true blessing that obedience brings to us when we desire to obey. I love you MOM have a great week!

Elder Jeffery

Busy, Busy, Busy

Wow, honestly, you are the SECOND person to say that same thing about the baptism pic! I am LOVING THE MISSON RIGHT NOW. It´s a little different being all by ourselves here in Calca, but as me and Elder Aguilar call it, we are living in paradise ( I think that´s how you spell it? well, it´s whatever ´´Paraíso´´ is translated into in English...). We are teaching ALL of the investigators Converts and Less-actives from the other Elders´ sector that they closed in Calca, and including ALL of ours. We literally almost have filled every hour of next week with lessons, most of which we don´t know. It´s been hard work, but thats not a bad thing so, we´re loving it. We challanged a man named Edson to baptism this week for the 27 of June. His whole family, his brother and his wife, sister, mom, and dad are all active members in the church. He accepted the date, and now it´s just a matter of time and prayers to help him have a firm testimony. 

Do you remember that family that we were teaching where there son passed away recently? Well, I have been diligently trying to have contact with them, they are all super busy and never home. Yesterday, we were walking when the son of this family (the brother of the son that passed away) came to my mind. I couldn´t stop thinking about him, so we went to his house. He wasn´t there. Right when we were about to leave, a lady told us that he was down at the house of his parents. So, we went down to the house. The mother Amelia, opened the door. She told us no one was home but her. I could see that she still was not in good shape. We were with two other members who were acompaning us and I asked if she had 15 minutes to talk. She said yes and we entered into the house. She expressed the pain that she still feels. We promised her that if she let us come and talk about the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ that she would be able to answer all of the many questions she has. We set an appointment next Sunday. We are praying for her and her family that they can come to know the truth.  

I love you so much MOM and DAD and ANGELYN and MARIAH and EZRA. I learn SO many things every day in the mission, and plan coming home a MAN including the beard! (ok, there are no promises on the beard part..) I love you family and friends and hope you have an amazing week full of learning experiences. Humble yourselves before God and remember that this is a big world, with lots of people that need YOUR help. 

Hasta la próxima semana, 

Elder Jeffery

Me and my companion Elder Aguilar

Fredrick's Baptism

This week could not have ended better with Fredrick`s baptism making the end of this change perfect. The baptism was on Friday, at 4. The WHOLE day it was cold outside. I was shivering just standing outside. Fredrick asked me to do the honor of baptizing him. But, this meant that I had to enter that water... again! We had the reunion in the house of the sister Gavina. There were a good 10 members there. We had a few talks, and then started walking up the hill to the river. We had found the perfect spot. There is a waterfall that isn`t tall but wide. There are two cement barriers blocking the water so that it leaves only in one certain spot, so it leaves a pool of calm, white, FREEZING COLD, water. We got up there, took pictures together, said a prayer, and entered the water. Honestly, I didn`t even think about the water. Mom, you know that I don`t like cold water, showers or cold anything, but since we`ve had cold showers for weeks, and thinking more in helping Fredrick, I just jumped in. after the baptism, we took photos in the pool, and Fredrick looked at me and said, ´´you`re trembling`` I didn`t notice until he pointed it out that the whole time, I had been shaking from the coldness. We ran out of the water, and went back to the house. Fredrick gave the most beautiful testimony about how we found him, and how he feels more peace than he has ever had now that he has been baptized in the church of Jesus Christ. He was confirmed on Sunday in sacrament meeting. We have been praying and fasting to find prepared people to teach. On Saturday, we had set a lesson with a family that we contacted in the street. Our pension told us that they were going to have a family night for Elder Parrales because it`s his last few days in the mission. We had already set the appointment, and knew the right and obedient thing to do. The dad of the family is Johnathan. He`s a professional guitar player. He told us that he had visited with the missionaries and used to attend church but this was 20 years ago. We talked with him and his wife (his wife is very catholic) about Jesus Christ and the importance of Him. We challanged them to baptism. Johnathan accepted, but his wife Kathy no. We have another appointment with them on Saturday! I learned from this experience of the relation between Sacrifice and Obedience. Obedience many times means that we much take away a few things that we want to do, and do what the Lord wants. But, the amazing thing is that when we do this, although it must be hard, we end up LOVING to be obedient, and don`t have to think twice about it. 

Wow, you guys are entering Summer and I`m just hitting Winter! TIME GOES BY WAYYY TO FAST! I want to live EVERY moment of the mission to the fullest because the time is short and there is so much to learn.

SO, now for the sad news... Elder Cuba is leaving me :( He will be going to Puno. It`s really cold there. I will be receiving a new companion on Wednesday. We will be the only ones in Calca as they are closing the sector of the Elders that were living with us. So, it`ll just be me and my new companion. My first time only being with my companion in an apartment. I don`t know who my new companion is, but I will let you know next week!

LOVE YOU MOM!! Love you friends and family!! You are all missionaries!! Keep up the great work!

Love,

Elder Jeffery

We have the Tools

It was great to see you too!! I hope mother´s day went so great for you! Well, I really don´t have too much to say. I told you about Fredrick, and how Calca is, and that I got your package, and happy mother´s day... What else is there? Wow, that sounds so amazing to be up there in Bear Lake! It´s true. What a beautiful world we live in.

I have been learning a lot about humility. God gives us challenges and downfalls because he loves us. He wants us to to be happy and He knows what we have to change to get there. I have a lot of imperfections. We all have imperfections, but the cructial part isn´t to be perfect, but to simply be humble enough to say that I´m not perfect, and change. It´s all in the action. I can want to change, but that does me know good without trying out my faith. We then, and only then gain a testimony of why we have the challenges we are dealing with and have endured. We will and do endure many hardships as latter day saints, but we also have all of the tools to do it. We have the fullness of the gospel, church leaders, and the Holy Ghost ready to guide and direct us. I hope to apply these things in my life to improve my behavior and attitude. 

I love my family, and love the joy I can feel with them and knowing that God has such a beautiful future prepared for us. I love my MOM and everything that she has done for me to help me become who I am and always see me as who I can become. I am thankful for friends that directed me to do the right and helped me choose to serve in this marvelous work of salvation. 

Until next week Mom and family and friends, 

Elder Jeffery

My 19th Birthday

My birthday was great! They caught me by surprise, crushed eggs on my head and covered me in flour. Not to mention shoving the cake in my face after! Haha I love peruvian Birthdays! Way more exciting that the ones we have in the states!!

Fredrick, the young man we contacted in the street, will be baptized the 15th of May!! We are so excited for him, and I know that it was really God who brought him into our hands. He is so humble and willing to learn and has been learning so much from the book of Mormon. I am excited to continue watching his faith and knowledge of the gospel grow every day. 

Love you MOM and am so glad to have this sweet short time to dedicate my time to the Lord. It´s hard, but that´s alright, I like hard things. It´s amazing the joy we can feel when we really just apply the gospel, and learn to love doing it. Love you family and love reading your experiences in the growth of your testimonies. I know that the lord is blessing us and many others when we are serving him together in this work. 

Perfect plan

We went to pisaqa today, which is the second most visited place here disincluding Machupiccu. I`ll send a pic next week because this week we got home late, and have hardly any time to write. BUT tell Ezra I am so proud of him, and Harrison that I am so excited for him! I have time to tell you a story this week:

We contacted a family this week who have been suffering the loss of a loved one. We went to visit them, and they poured their hearts out to us, saying that they just want to know where there son is. He passed away just a few weeks ago. Their son is very interested in the work in the temple, and wants to know more. They are Catholic. I just think how blessed we are to know this perfect plan. It`s perfect. When we explained it to them, I realized how unique and how much sense it really makes. We hope to continue working and helping them this week. 

Love you BOTH and hope you ALL have a great week!! I am more than glad to have an Eternal Family!

Love your son,

Elder Jeffery