I'M HERE!!!! Week 2 here in Peru does not feel like week 2 it feels like month 2 haha. Man where do I begin and how do I describe all that has been going on? Well let's start with there are only 3 Americans in this mission and I was the first and only for about a week so that was weird. I was the "Gringo" of the mission. I'm settling into things SUPER well and I know 100% that it is by the power of our loving father in heaven that I have been able to be confortable here. The altitude is actually 12000 feet which is insane but again, miracles are real and I haven't had any problems. The food is also pretty much the same, just a ton of rice and potato type stuff. There is this thing called Lomo Saltado that is soooooo good!! They also are attempting to launch facebook and well... I am one of the only one with previous experience with it sooooo... it's been a pretty cool experience being involved with it all. I also have settled in pretty nicely to being a Zone Leader but mainly because it isn't much different than District leader just with more stuff added on. We have the same roles as district leaders because there are no districts so we are just District and Zone Leader combined.
Our area (we call it a sector) was composed of 2 wards and a branch. A recent change in our entire house ended up leaving us with the 1 ward and branch. What I mean by changes in the house is that we were living with missionaries who were doing MTC but finished and went to different areas and then an Emergency transfer took our 3rd companion and sent him to one of the wards we had so that's how we lost the ward. Over all the people here are either prepared or predetermined to deny us. We are receiving a ton of references from people who are putting their OWN information in on the church website so these people are asking to have the gospel in their lives. It's awesome!!! The unfortunate part about combining that with being a Zone Leader is that we have to do everything by Taxi or walking so we sometimes are super booked trying to help out the rest of the Zone that we don't have a ton of time to contact but hey, balance right?
I had recently talked with an Elder today actually about conversion and what that means. As someone who has grown up in the gospel you could say I had taken for granted the joys of the gospel and just thought that was something that comes with life. What I realized in the mission is that no matter how you grew up or what influences you have around you, YOU NEED A PERSONAL CONVERSION. It is literally a necessity to be able to achieve all that God has in store for us. How? Well I wish I could tell you but it all stems from faith. Without faith, we are nothing and without actions, faith is nothing. So how can we as humans bring to pass our own personal conversion without serving a mission. How can we #starttoday to mold ourselves (not change) to be who God needs us to be. We already have what we need; we just need to adapt, overcome, and convert.
Love you all and wish you all the best of luck in the 2020 recovery period. God is here for us and wants you to let him in!!!
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Elder Walters
A few insights from Mom...
There are a couple of interesting facts that wasn't included in the above message, so I thought I would add a couple of things.
1. Elder Walters left the US and arrived in Lima, Peru around midnight. He joined a few other Elders and then they spent the night with the Assistants. Next morning he was off to Cusco all by himself. He was the first American back into this city.
2. He didn't experience any altitude sickness, Cusco is at 12,000 feet. Infact, they went on a 2 mile run the next day.
3. The mission President wants the missionaries to be active to help with the mental struggles of COVID restrictions. So they went and played volleyball with another Zone. If you didn't already know, this is Elder Walters favorite activity. After the match a few other Elders heard E Walters likes to run so they challenged him to a race. LOL
4. He lives on the top floor of an 11 story building and has an incredible view of the City.
5. They have a personal chef to prepare breakfast and lunch. They walk to this man's home and he serves them their meals.
6. He was made Zone Leader and they asked him to help start finding teaching opportunities by using Facebook.
