Buenas a todos!!!

This week was long, but full of awesomeness. We found families!!!  There is nothing more rewarding than finding a family to teach, with a mom, dad, and kids. I know families are the fundamental unit in God's plan. The gospel is the key to having a successful family!  We brought a mother with her two daughters to church last Sunday, and it was so awesome to see how fast the girls warmed up to the other youth. They later told me that they loved the church and they met a few friends from their school, and were asking if it would be okay if they came next week. I obviously said of course, every week they can come!  We also have been finding many people through the ward. I know that this work is not ours, and that the members have such a powerful influence in missionary work.  The majority of the people that come to church are because they have a friend that invited them. Who are their friends?  The members!  We are also their friends, but I have found that when people see us they either want to run and hide, or come and fight. When we invite others to come unto Christ and to come to church, we are doing a work that has eternal consequences.

I know that this Christmas season, we have such a great opportunity to minister to those around us. The 22nd of December is going to be a super special sacrament meeting!  Who are we going to invite so they can participate in the celebration of our Savior?  This Christmas season we should understand that the best gift we can receive is the gift of giving. I have learned being here in the mission, that it is probably more enjoyable for me to give to others and see the smiles on their faces, than to receive something for myself.  Nothing can replace that feeling for me, knowing that I could at least bring a ray of sunlight in the life of another child of God. We may not have very much, we may not even know what we can give, but I know we can always help others. I know that if we stop thinking about ourselves, and we start thinking about other people, that Christ will be able to work miracles within us and we can receive the best gifts this year from Christmas. We can feel the love of Christ through acting Christlike, and acting as the savior does.

This last week we also had a historia familiar activity where I was able to help some of the recent converts make the family tree, and to take some names to the temple!  I was proud of the Familia Castro, because I already helped them get quite a bit of information from their family, and I could find the documents of marriages and births. I am so excited for them, and I can't wait until we will have the chance to take their names to the temple.  Also, Diego Vega blessed the sacrament for the first time last Sunday!!  How cool is that?!  I am so proud of him and the faith he has in Heavenly Father, he is already such a great leader in the church and is going to learn so much.

Today we went to the top of the mountain next to Valle Sol, it was pretty dope. A little tiring, a little sketchy, super duper fun rolling down the sand dune on the way down from the mountain. We made out district flag, with our names and put it at the top of the mountain, that way Gran Chimu will forever remember us.  I love the mission so much!!!   I love the gospel!!   I know this is the true church!!   I feel it, I know it, and I can't deny it.  I love you guys!

Buenas tardes a todos!

This week was my first week with Elder Ramirez! Nuevecito en la misión, from Arequipa! He is super excited to get down to work and to help bring more almas to Christ. It is super awesome to see someone so excited and start out strong. I definitely have to stay on my toes, which is a little stressful but it is a great challenge.

This week we got to participate in a Conference with Elder Falabela, which was awesome. From the Seventy, he taught us many things about how we need to really listen to the people and show them that we care and love them. That we must show the members we really want to do all we can to serve them, as well as the investigators.

I started reading the new normas por un discípulo de Jesucristo, and it looks like lots of things have changed. I am not sure yet what all has changed but I am excited to see where the mission is going to go with these new changes!!

I am super stressed out because we are in the process of trying to get two couples married, so please pray that it will all come out smoothly.

I love you all!

Love,
Elder McGreer

So this week was the last week of the change and we had to say goodbye to Elder Pacheco.  However, I am staying in Gran Chimu!  Which I am super happy about.  I fell in love with this ward and I am so excited to keep working and bringing more almas unto Christ here. I will also be training my new companion! I don't know who he is todavia, because tomorrow I will be meeting him, as he is fresh out of the CCM. I am super excited yet a little nervous, I hope he gets a good first impression of the mission. I spent all night last night scrubbing the room from top to bottom, however that room is a pain in the butt to clean and keep clean.

We got to go to the temple this week with the members and recent converts!!  It was a super cool experience. I got to do temple baptisms which was super cool, to be next to the recent converts and getting baptized together with them was a super special feeling that I don't want to forget. I am so grateful for the blessings that we have in the temple. The temple is a safe haven that I am sooooo grateful for.

I also finished my shoes this week with la Familia Inuma, and I am super happy with my nice fake Nike shoes that will get lots of use. They are so awesome! I can't wait to start my shoe business when I get back. I am learning how shoes work, and you all better watch out because I am gonna make bank on these shoes.

Also this week was the cumpleaños de nuestra Mamá Rosa!!!!!!!!!  We went for a little bit to wish her a super happy birthday, and I am so grateful for the service she does for us. She makes us breakfast, lunch and dinner every day and always makes me laugh, and I feel like I'm at home in the pension with everyone. She is the best ever, and I am super happy por conocerla. I don't know what I am going to do when I need to say goodbye to this ward, because I fell in love with everyone here. Everyone is the best in Gran Chimu, and I am so excited to be training a new missionary in this awesome ward.

I love you all!!  I hope you are doing great. Peru is the BEST and I absolutely love it here!

Buenas tardes familia! Esta semana fue muy bueno. Tuvimos el bautismo de nuestro amigo y hermano Diego!!

This week Diego got baptized after two weeks!  He has so much faith and trust that if he follows Christ, that Christ will heal him and give him the strength he needs to overcome the disease that weighs him down. He honestly has set such an amazing example for me. We had to teach many things and he accepted all the commandments and committed to living them the first time hearing of them. Honestly it surprised me how fast everything was. I know that this is not my work, but the work of the Lord that has prepared his children to return to Him.

Diego is also already friends with all the JAS in the ward! We brought him to a noche de hogar, and he just fit right in with everyone. He is even going to go to all the activities and is super excited to participate with the members of the Church.

This coming week we will have the opportunity to go to the temple with the recent converts and to help them with their historia familiar to do baptisms for the dead! I am super excited to get to go with all of them. There are lots of converts here in Gran Chimu.

We also had our zone conference this week, where I was a little worried the whole time because I was concerned about Diego and his baptismal interview. We also learned that there are some super exciting things that are about to happen.  In December, all the missionaries will get to go to the plaza de armas aqui en Trujillo to do a little Christmas performance, so I am super excited for that.

Cambios are this week, and it is likely Elder Pacheco and I won't be together another change, so it should be interesting what is going to happen. I really hope I don't leave Gran Chimu, I will be super sad if that is the case.  I love it here so much.  I love Peru.  The mission is the best!!!  The spirit is so strong all the time.  Jesus lives!!!!  Joseph Smith was his prophet!  The church is restored!!  I love you guys!!

Buenas dias todos!!

Disculpe que por los dos semanas pasadas que no pude escribir, fuimos al templo y nuestro pday cambio de lunes a jueves. Pero todo normal ahora. Espero que no me extrañaban tanto jaja

We got to go to the temple last Thursday!!!  It was so awesome. It was definitely about time that we got to go back there, the last time I went I was with Elder Baque in my first area Los Robles! The spirit you can feel in the temple is definitely a feeling you can't get anywhere else. Es un lugar ùnico. I really love going to the temple, and I definitely look forward to going there often once I return home. Take advantage of the blessings you have! If there is a temple close by, go there and do some temple worship!!  There is not a better place to be. We can receive direction, comfort, and just enjoy being in the Lord's home.

We also had stake conference this last week, and it was powerful. The stake president and mission presidente focused a lot on the home. That everything needs to be founded in the home. That kids must grow with the knowledge of the commandments of God, that the first time they hear about the Law of Chastity or Word of Wisdom should come from their own home so when the temptations come, they already know whats up.

We also had a miracle this past two weeks. We found Diego, who is 20 years old. He has epilepsy, where he can pass out or have a seizure at any random point. He was super sad because he said he has done all he could to get rid of his disease, but came to the point that the only person that can heal him is God. When we went to teach him, the spirit was just so strong. I was extremely impacted by his faith, that if he turns to God that God can heal him. I decided that when we started teaching him, that we needed to teach the Plan of Salvation. When I got to the part about the resurrection, the spirit was extremely strong and I couldn't control my tears. I shared the story of Grandpa McGreer, how my whole life when I knew him, he was always in a wheelchair, but had a lively spirit. He always wanted to go on adventures, play in the park, play fetch with his dog Magic, but was restrained by his disease. I shared my simple testimony about the resurrection, that someday all our bodies will be restored into its perfect form without blemish, and that there won't be a single hair on our head that would be forgotten. I felt a great appreciation for the Plan of Salvation, and I felt like Grandpa was there with me helping me say the words Diego needed to hear to have comfort that everything will be okay with his disease. I felt my body get warm and as if a hand was resting on my shoulder comforting me. Diego will be baptized this Saturday. I invited him to be baptized after the second visit, and he put all his faith in the things we have taught him. I don't think I can ever forget that experience where I felt so much love for my own family, for another person, and that someone like me could be the instrument to bring another soul unto Christ. Diego is also known on the street, and was inviting all his friends and buddies to listen to us to get them to come unto Christ as well. He is being a better missionary than us. That also reminded me of Grandpa because every time we went to his house there was always someone random there that I didn't know before haha

I love you guys. I hope everything is going well and are enjoying life to the fullest!

Love,
Elder McGreer

Buenas tardes, esta semana me canso pero esta bien porque es la obra del Señor.

This week we got Vasco baptized!!!  It was a little bit hectic, but we got it done. We went to talk with the mom to get permission and all to baptize her son, because her other son is a member and always brought Vasco along with him! So we went, and the condition to get him baptized was we had to have a room filled with toys. It was a little bit weird of a request, but it was for the moms sister who is special needs, and needed something to distract her while we did the baptismal service. So we got that room filled with all the toys we could find from the guarderia, and we got that boy baptized!!!  It was a rewarding experience.

Also, we went to the municipalidad for our investigadores Cristian and Maria. We are currently in the process of getting them married, so we had to go get the partido de nacimiento for Cristian and see if they qualify for marriage. That was a long day but we got it all under control for now. We are hoping that the 25th they will get married, so keep them in your prayers.

We also have overall just been working super hard this week to find as many people as we can. We have been leaving a lot with the JAS (Spanish for youth group) for them to show us their family and their friends, and we have been finding lots of people that way. It is also way fun because the JAS here is awesome and make missionary work a blast.

Something that has struck me this week has been Mosiah 27, the story of Alma el hijo. For me, it is crazy how him and his friends went off and were the vilest of sinners. They committed some pretty serious sins, and then the angel appeared to them because of the prayers of his father. While I was studying it, it impressed upon me how Alma repented and changed, and later became one of the greatest missionaries that we have to record. Because of him, we have the account of many amazing and sacred conversion stories that gives us the the spiritual strength we need to make it through these days. However, how did Alma repent? He was knocked out for two days and to nights, but the first thing he said when he woke up was I have repented. How does a man so wicked repent just like that? I didn't understand. The consequences of his actions were still there. Many still fell away from the church because of him. All of a sudden he sees and angel, goes to sleep, and now he's repented?  I learned that repentance, we often feel that it is a long process and a burden. We feel we have to earn forgiveness. It takes the same amount of time to say I will change and MEAN IT in order to repent. Often times where we struggle is the meaning it part. I know, that if a man such as Alma el hijo can repent and change from all of his wickedness, that it is never to late for us. Rarely I believe that we will get the title as one of the vilest of sinners. I know because we can be saved from the depths of hell, and be wrapped in the arms of His everlasting love. I know repentance is a vital part to our learning here on this earth, and we can do it everyday to receive the blessings of heaven. I know it is true!

I love the mission, I love Peru. I honestly am super content here. Maybe I will rent myself a little cuarto when I am done with the mission hahahaha I love you guys! Hope y'all have a great week!

Buenas tardes mi familia, mis amigos, mis conocidos, vecinos, profesores, novias que nunca tuve, la conferencia general era una experiencia tan inolvidable que estoy muy emocionado por el siguiente vez que tendremos la oportunidad a escuchar al profeta.

I loved general conference!!!  I definitely noticed a huge theme in repentance, and shunning the adversary. I am so grateful for the lessons taught, and wonderful examples we have in the scriptures such as Moses who can withstand such great forces from the adversary and triumph in the glory of our heavenly nature as children of our Heavenly Father. I learned so much, that we must constantly repent and build our defenses against the enemy who desires to destroy our souls. I know that it is not easy, and never will be easy, but we have the responsibility to get on the side of our Lord and Savior and represent His name with glory and power in all that we do. In our actions, thoughts, feelings, and words. I love the prophets and apostles that we have and their divine revelation that they relieve specifically for us in these times.

In between sessions today, we finally baptized Yarixa!!!  It is a crazy story. So we heard the other missionaries were going to have a baptism in between sessions, and Yarix just needed to get in the water. When we found out we could get her to General Conference, we asked her if she would be willing to get baptized in that moment and she said yes lets do it!!!  We have been fighting for a while because her parents did not want her to get baptized at all, but would let her come to church. Well since she now is 18 years old as of a month ago, we don`t need permission and the work of the Lord was not obstructed. It was a powerful service, but what was the most powerful was her beautiful testimony that she bore after that touched my heart. To see her faith, and strength in the gospel when she feels so alone and no one in her family supports her, really showed me the example of the type of person I need to be.

True integrity to stand alone when the world is against you. I know that is true because the world is against us. The world doesn't want the work of the Lord to continue. The world is ever change, and as the prophetic words of Russell M Nelson is that it will soon be impossible to survive spiritually without the constant nourishment of the gospel. We are in a war, a war of good and evil and we need soldiers of righteousness. I invite all to ponder this general conference, and to repent. Make the changes in your life. Every one of you are sinning and may not even know it. Find that sin and change. Become closer to your Heavenly Father. Allow yourself to be humbled unto the dust and not let pride impede your repentance. Make amends with those you have done wrong. Talk to the bishop if you need to. Don't justify sin, for woe unto those who call good evil and evil good, for surely we cannot wait until that last day to say we will repent. We just cannot do that. Change NOW. Do it NOW. Don't hold off the blessings that await you. Forgive and forget NOW. As I have been putting this process in practice myself, I know it is true and am a witness that when we give our all to the Lord that He truly can heal our lives and change the way we think, feel, and act only if we let Him.

I love you all and hope you have a fantastic week!