Jamie's Letter January 31, 2011

Well, this certainly has been a week of ups and downs. But overall it's been up :) I am very grateful to President Chipman that I got the opportunity to talk to you. It was really good for me. I'm excited to here more about the funeral, the celebration of Grandpa's life. I have been doing pretty well. The members here found out, and they have been very kind to me. After church on Sunday I had many of them give me big hugs and wish me peace. I had one hermano tell me how greatful he was that I was here on a mission, and that I was a great example to the members here. I know that I am where I am supposed to be. It made me feel better, knowing that I have a little family here in Peru to physically give me the hugs that I can't receive from you. I know that Grandpa is happy, and that he lived a good life. When the members asked me if he was a member, I was so happy to be able to reply that "yes, he was. He was faithful until the end." So much of the missionary I am is because of him. I am so proud to have his name, and to be able to represent him and the rest of our family to the people of Peru.

My other happiness-on Sunday, Daniel was baptized! I am so happy for him! He's the only member of the Church in his family, so we're really trying to work with the other members here to reach out to him. After his baptism, he looked so happy. He was just smiling. He bore his testimony, saying that there weren't words to describe how he felt, and that he knew that the Church is true. It was so cool!! It was cool to me too to see that through some of my efforts, I was able to help someone come unto Christ, through baptism. He'll be confirmed in Church on Sunday, and I'm sure that will be another awesome experience.

Today has been a good p-day too. This morning, we got together with our zone. I asked my zone leaders if they could give me a blessing, mainly because I'm congested some, and because of this, Hna Lopez insists that I rest. I feel bad resting though, because I want to work! But she told me that if I don't rest a little bit now, I'll have to rest for a long time later on. And I just felt like I could use a little bit of extra divine help. I asked Elder Wilding, from Texas, to give me the blessing, in English. He's been in Peru for a long time...16 months, I think? Anywho, he had a little bit of a hard time remembering the words in English, and the words were kind of choppy throughout the whole blessing, but I felt the Spirit so strong. I felt like I was doing what I needed to be doing, and that even though the words weren't anything spectacular, the strength that came from the blessing was going to be. It was a great experience for me. I am so grateful for the priesthood in my life.

We're still working on helping investigators to church. On Sunday, we had 6 investigators show up-most of them didn't have baptismal dates, and the investigators that do have baptismal dates didn't show...we have some work to do, but I know that the Lord will help us.

Well, this letter is a lot shorter than all of the other ones I've sent, but I just want to thank you for your prayers and support. I love you so much. This Gospel is true! Give everyone my love this weekend.
Hna Williams