Monday Tioyacu!!! Tioyacu is a tourist attraction that we went to which has like a ton of fresh water pools to swim in... But we didn’t go swimming. Aalso there are a lot of cool areas to take pictures so it was nice to go see some sights. We then had a barbecue which was delicious. I found an alligator named Hank that a took a picture with, which was enjoyable. After returning home we took a nap and then went to work like normal. Then that night the whole zone came to the house to sleep because we were going to Tarapoto the next day bright and early for a training with the President. So needless to say me and Brown and the other gringos stayed up all night talking in English and making the Latins angry. The training in Tarapoto was all about using the doctrine of Christ to protect the baptismal dates, which is something I need to utilize more in my area because our dates keep falling. Also we talked a lot about strengthening the branches and wards. Which I feel also was directed towards me because my branch is now down to less than 45 in the chapel. We are trying real hard to fix all the years of problems in this branch. But that night my companion and I found a complete family of 5 that also have 2 older sons. Which was a nice blessing. On Wednesday as we were searching for inactive members we realized that almost all of them have moved away. My area has had the church for almost 20 years now and the directory has never been revised haha. Its OK because through our searching we are finding families and learning the area more. So we found 2 more families on Wednesday so we are focusing a lot on the families which is the goal of the mission so I hope that through our efforts to focus on these families we will be blessed and get them baptized.
Friday was my companion's birthday so that was fun eating the cake from Hermana Blunck and smacking a egg on his head before we ate our rotisserie chicken. Then the next day happened to be Elder Cruz’s birthday so with the zone leader's phone I called my Mexican taco and wished him a happy birthday and learned that he did baptize the three families I left in Lima so that was a little birthday gift for me. On Saturday we searched for everyone of the investigators and found a few. We found a natural spring in our area that has pure water which was tasty. Then came Sunday, Seth's birthday which I hope was wonderful, and being that is was the 2nd Sunday of the month we as missionaries had our talks to give. As I talked about membership support in the missionary work many eyes lighted up and through the talked about references that my companion gave the few members that were there in the chapel started to offer their help. I hope that they will continue with this excitement for the work. Not a single investigator came to church so we will not be baptizing this change, but we plan on having a lot in the water in November. In the afternoon we taught a man named Gerges who is the husband of a very active member. He has rejected the missionaries all his life and has recently started listening to his wife. So I bolted over there with the Restoration movie that he wanted to see. And we taught. This man was so strong in his beliefs he would not hear a word he was talking nothing more than blasphemy and me and my companion bore the strongest most power testimonies in this world and through this man's own agency he chose to deny it. I was so heart broken. All of the prayers and the words. But I know that through that same agency he will one day accept Joseph Smith as a prophet and come to the truth. We do not convert people the spirit does. Our job as missionaries is to teach and to invite them to know for themselves and if we do that then we have done all we can do and the rest is for the will of the lord.
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