Living in the now

Hello!!! Buenos dias!!! I just want to say first things first, THANK YOU FOR THE EMAILS! More than you all know, I love getting emails and letters. It makes me feel like a normal person, and a little closer to home. Thank you!!

Funny moment of the week. Man, this one kills me. So we were teaching one of our recent converts, Pedro. He was my first convert in the mission, and I just love him to death. He´s a sweet, old 69 year old, and he´s just so funny. A few days ago, we went to teach him, and when he answered the door, he was wearing this funny, huge sweater, which was tucked into these huge, baggy sweatpants and his socks were pulled up super high and the bottoms of his pant legs were also tucked in. I´m sorry if I´m a jerk, but I really had to try hard not to laugh. So just keep in mind, I already had the giggles a little bit. Okay, so then we started teaching. He has a hard time reading - he can read just fine, but he just doesn´t do it. So we started with the first chapter in the Book of Mormon, and were just going to read that and the first 4 verses of the next chapter. In chapter 1, the prophet Lehi receives a commandment to leave with his family from Jerusalem because it was going to be destroyed. And in the first 4 verses of chapter 2, it just basically says that they left and took only the things they needed. verse 4 says "And it came to pass that he departed into the wilderness. And he left his house, and the land of his inheritance, and his gold, and his silver, and his precious things, and took nothing with him, save it were his family, and provisions, and tents, and departed into the wilderness." The point of reading that was so that he could see the importance of the family, because that´s really all he took! He left everything else. So I asked him something like, Hno Pedro, what did Lehi bring with him? What is the most important thing? Or something like that. And he says "La comida, no mas" THE FOOD. He said THE FOOD. I literally could not stop laughing. I was trying so hard to pull myself together, because obviously we shouldn´t be laughing at the people we teach, but that just killed me. Every time I think about it, it makes me laugh. I think, if that´s what people are getting from my message, I gotta change something. Hahaha he´s funny. He´s the best, but sometimes, those Peruvians...

So once again, this week has flown by. I can´t believe that it´s week 6 of this transfer. The sad thing about that is that I will probably be changing areas next week...it´s really hard for me to imagine being somewhere else. I have come to love these people so much. When I think about some of the goodbyes I´ll have to say, I get a little misty-eyed. It will be really hard, but something that my companion and I have been working on is "being where our feet are." If that makes sense. Living in the now, doing all that we can now, and focusing on what needs to be done now. That applies to missing home, thinking about stuff like transfers..all of it. Something that has happened recently is that we have set baptismal dates with people, but they´re all in December, when I probably won´t be here. At first I thought to myself, Well I don´t want to ask them to get baptized now because I won´t even be here to see it! But that´s not what we´re here for...I don´t ask these people to get baptized just to "get another baptism," so that I can enjoy it. These people get baptized because they believe that what we teach them is true. We ask them to get baptized because we know that what we teach them is true. Whether I´m here in Surco or somewhere else, the Lord is guiding His work. It will continue with or without me. That makes me think of something that I heard recently...One of the dear friends I´ve made here on the mission goes home next week. She bore her testimony in the Zone conference we had last week, and she said "He aprendido que no estamos ayudando en esta obra, sino El Señor nos está dando esta oportunidad." We´re not helping in this work, the Lord is giving us this opportunity to do the work. It´s really interesting. But it´s true. So I´m trying to keep that in mind as my time here in Surco comes to an end.

I´m out of time, but all is well here. I am super happy and we are getting lots done down here for the Lord. Or, he´s giving us lots of opportunities to learn and have some pretty amazing experiences.

I hope you are all well! I love you! Thank you so much for the support! HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

Mucho amor,
Hermana Scott