We have been teaching Hermanita Celia, who is a lady 73 years old confirmed. We have been teaching her, and we noticed something - she has Alzheimers as mentioned last week, and of course she forgets everything pretty easily. However, when we taught the gospel to her, she remembers everything. HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE? We taught her Joseph Smith, Book of Mormon, Word of Wisdom, Law of Chastity, Sabbath Day, and she remembered it all super well. She had an entrevista with another elder and she passed it just fine. It shocked my companion and I, considering she doesn't even remember our names. We came across some opposition too, because she has 4 kids. The oldest was fine that she gets baptized, but the rest were not. They were upset because they felt like she isn't capable of making her own decisions considering her condition and that they weren't going to permit she gets baptized in the Church of Jesus Christ because she is Catholic and believes en la Virgen de la Puerta. We went to her house and her kids were going to take her to Trujillo on Saturday all day so she wouldn't get baptized. We visited them on Friday, and we asked Celia if she really desires to get baptized. She stood up and yelled, "I am a grown woman, I am my own boss and make my own decisions and there is no one that can tell me what to do. I know this church is true, and that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. Let`s go right now so I can get baptized" Wow, when she said that my companion and I could feel the spirit so strongly. We went to the church that very instant and filled up the font. There wasn't anyone at her baptism, but it was one of the most spiritual experiences I have had.
My companion shared the baptism of Jesus, and we watched the Bible video in her baptism of when Jesus was baptized. It impacted me because Jesus was the lamb of God, without sin, without blemish, perfect in every way. John obviously was not perfect. A rect man, but not by any means perfect. Pondering the doctrine of baptism, entered into my heart profoundly was that Celia is a daughter of God, and that Heavenly Father truly loves her deeply. He sent me, someone not perfect by any means, with lots of sins, to baptize this lovely woman. I know that Celia, after her baptism, is clean without blemish. She understands the Gospel. I will never forget such an experience.
Besides that, I also almost got involved in a gang fight this week. We were in the Plaza de Armas, and we saw 4 dudes running. Like that was weird. I saw that three of them were chasing the one. At first I thought they were messing around, then I saw them take him to the ground and started kicking and punching him hard in the face. When I saw that I was like oh CRAP they are going to kill him. I started going towards them without thinking and yelled HEY QUIT IT and yelled back at my companion to call the police but my companion didn't even notice that I was heading over towards them. Thankfully, a grandma broke up the fight and they went walking away peacefully from the poor dude. BUT WHAT SCARED ME is that these 3 dudes, had 17 others dirtbags keeping guard and watching what was going on. When they finished beating the dude up, this gang of like 20 dudes went walking away like nothing happened. I gave the poor dude some water and some other bystanders also helped him out. The crazy thing is that this all happened IN FRONT OF THE POLICE STATION. And they didn't even do anything! LIKE WHAT. Now I know that one dude must've done something because 20 dudes don't come after you for no reason. The dude had the excuse that they wanted his cell phone, but if that was the case, maybe 2-3 dudes would jump you but I don't think 20 would be there. Afterwords, I was thinking, and was like man this world is such a tough place. We need the gospel, we need more people who can follow its precepts and can be righteous. That we don't stoop down to this level of low.
Today we went on a beautiful hike to an awesome lake. It was so cool. THERE ARE WILD TOMATOES. I went crazy eating lots of wild tomatoes. We also saw some awesome owls, and clean water which was a first in my time here in Peru. It was super pretty, and I put on lots of sunscreen and still got sunburned.
Love you guys!!
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