Week 49: Cambios y muchas cosas mas!

Buenas Días Todos!

This week was incredible! I had some great experiences and some great strengthening moments this week. So to start out with, Elder Escobar and I had a change on Martes! But they didn't tell us in the changes meeting so the zone leaders called us at 11:30 at night and told us that Elder Escobar had a change, but within the zone! As well as Elder Glover, one of our zone leaders. So basically, everyone just got moved to a different area within the zone, it is kind of crazy. 

My new companion is Elder Villagran from Colonia, Uruguay and has 6 months on the mission. He is super cool and I'm super excited to work with him! He also speaks fluent english because he lived in Farmington, Utah for a year and in New Zealand for a year! We teach very well together and work super hard! We are always talking to someone and we were super blessed for our diligence and were able to find a ton of new people! Inlcuding a reference from Madrid, Spain! We also found this family that has been going to church for months now in La Molina, about 2 or 3 hours from San Juan de Lurigancho. We found them and now they have a baptismal date for the 14 of September! Their names are Sara, Valeri, and Fabiana, and they are all awesome! 

Well, thats about all for this past week! 

Que tengan un buen semana!

Elder Potter

Elder Potter and Elder Villagran

Week 48: Cambios! (Changes)

Muy Buenas Día a todo! (Very good day to all,)

This week was a really good week! We reached all of our goals and had some great lessons with our converts and the less actives that we are working with right now. We were able to rescue, or reactivate, 2 sisters this week. It makes me happy to rescue people and bring them back to the church that have gone a stray for a little bit. 

Also, this week, today, in about 1 hour, I'm going to know if I have a change. Ive been with Elder Escobar for 2 changes and I have 3 in total in this area, so its very possible that I have a change. I have learned a ton in this area, Los Manzanos, and have grown to absolutely love the people here! There's nothing better than serving the Lord! 

Also, this last Saturday, we did an open doors activity for the ward and investigators and it was sweet! 3 wards participated, ours, Canto Chico, and Viñas. Each youth group prepared a Peruvian dance to perform and it was super cool! Then the Stake President, Pdte. Garcia, spoke and then there was food! It was definitely a success and now we are going to have some good lessons this week from the referrals we received. 

Elder Escobar and I are super excited for this week! 

Espero que tengan una semana exitosa y llena de felicidad! (I hope you have a successful week full of happiness!)

Elder Potter

Week 47: Joy of the gospel and birthday surprises

Buenos dias,

Well, this week was quite the week. We had many of our friends in the chapel yesterday to partake of the sacrament. Elder E and I were very happy yesterday about the success that we had, well, the success the Lord has had through two of His servants. There are 25 recent converts of one year in our ward and it has been hard to juggle them all and help them all progress, especially because many of them were inactive before Elder E and I came. Only about 30% of them have been attending, but yesterday we had 50% of them come! We have been working very hard with them and we have finally been able to see the hand of God in their lives! We also had more than 12 less actives come yesterday that we have been working with! It was so great to see them all there renewing their covenants. It made me very happy. 

Many times we forget about the blessings and purification that only come through sincere repentance. I will be honest, before the mission I didn't understand repentance and the true importance of the Atonement. Of course I knew of what it consisted, but I didn't truly understand it. I didn't truly understand the Godly joy that one feels when they truly repent of their sins. Before the mission I didn't understand very well how the mercy and justice of God worked. I still have much to learn, but I now know that we receive forgiveness through the mercy provided by Christs Atonement and repentance. I am so, so grateful for the chance that our Heavenly Father has blessed us with every day to repent, to me that is one of the biggest signs of His love for us. I know that our Savior lives.

Changes are always good to progress, and I think I might have a change next week, but I am really going to miss Juan Javier, his birthday was yesterday so Nancy and Julio planned a "surprise" birthday party for us.  Fue lo máximo! It's been a blessing in my life to share the gospel with my best friends, they truly bring joy to my life. The promise in DyC 18 10 to18 (something like that) is true, I can bear testimony of that.

Well, I hope that you have a great week! I hope that you feel the Spirit in abundance and I hope that you can go to the temple and recieve blessings there. Love ya lots, for my birthday present go to the temple!

Love, 

Elder Potter

Elder E and Elder Potter

Elder Potter and Brother Fuentes

Julio, Elder E, Juan, Elder Potter, Sisters, and Nancy at the surprise birthday party for Elder Potter and Juan

Birthday Party preparations

Fun hats and ties for the party

Juan eating his cake with Elder Potter watches

Elder Potter enjoying his birthday cake

The Elders, The Sisters and Nancy

Elder E, Elder Potter, Juan, and Julio

Week 46: El Valor del Conocimiento (The Value of the Knowledge)

Buenas Dias todos!

This past week was very crazy and a lot of things went on! This week we had a great training from our zone leaders, Elder Brimhall and and Elder Glover, that they had received from President Erickson about conocimiento, or knowledge. It was so good! It really motivated me to study the scriptures and words of the prophets even more than I am now. There is a great scripture in Doctrine and Covenants 131:6 (and many others) that says a man cannot save himself in ignorance. And it is so true! We cannot be saved if we do not have a knowledge of the commandments that are written in the scriptures (in the Book of Mormon, Bible, Pearl of Great Price, and the words of living day prophets). I've gained a strong testimony of the scriptures on my mission and I know that they are the words of God. 

Also, Julio was baptized on Saturday and confirmed on Sunday! It has been great to see the changes that he has made in his life. It is amazing what a knowledge of the commandments can do to a person when that knowledge is put together with the Atonement of Jesus Christ and repentance, baptism, and the gift of the Holy Ghost. I know this church is true and that its the only church and gospel that will lift us the eternal life with our families. 

This upcoming week should also be really great! Sister Samudio, Beatty and Carrasco are going to have a baptism this week and we are all working hard and trying to work even more diligently. Diligence brings success when its mixed with obedience and a desire to do good. 

Well, that is about all for this week! ¡Que tengan un buen semana!

Con mucho amor, 

Elder Potter

Elder Potter, Julio, and Elder Escobar before Julio's baptism

Elder Potter, Julio, and Elder Escobar  We went and ate after Julio's baptism. We had Salchi Papa (it is french fries with hot dogs, it sounds super lame and plain, but its super good how the prepare it jaja).

Eating after Julio's baptism with the Sister Samudio, Beatty, and Carrasco.

Elder Potter, Elder Escobar, and Juan - a great convert and friend. We went to see Juan's family that lives on the hills.

Hurtado, Savaleta (2 families that we are reactivating), y Cordova (the bishop and his family) after a Noche de Hogar (Family Home Evening)

Gigantic hamburguesa Peruana that I ate. It had a fried egg, french fries, 2 patties, bacon and a bunch of other stuff on it.

Week 45: Otra Semana Excelente! (Another excellent week)

Buenas Dias todos, 

This past week was great, we've had a lot of success with one of our investigators, Julio that has progressed a ton! Julio is a lot different from the majority of the other investigators that I have taught. The majority of the people in Lima, especially San Juan de Lurigancho, do not live in luxury at all, they are all very humble and don't have a lot. But Julio is different, he has lived a very "temporal life" you could say. For almost the majority of his life, until we knocked on his door, he found happiness in temporal things, but he never found a fulness of joy. It has been an amazing experience to watch him change, to see him leave behind so many worldly things and in the process seeing him find true joy in the gospel. His parents never really taught him about the commandments, so when we taught him he realized that he had many things to fix. And he fixed them! He called us on Saturday and told us that he wanted to be baptized in that moment! We couldn't baptize him in that moment but his baptism is scheduled for this Saturday! One of the greatest miracles of the mission is being able to see someone understand the Plan of Salvation and apply it in their lives. 

We also had a super awesome training by President Erickson this past week about the importance of the Holy Ghost in our teaching. It was super good and I learned a ton about how the Holy Ghost testifies about the truth to those that we teach, it was really good. 

Also, there is only about 3 more weeks of this change and Elder E and I are starting to see many of the "fruits of our labors", we have had a lot of less actives coming to church as well as investigators. 

Elder Potter

Elder Potter at the dirt track he runs every morning

Dirt track in San Juan de Lurigancho