“I Will Make Weak Things Become Strong”
Lately, Peru has been known to be quite difficult for foreign missionaries to obtain VISAs. In fact we only received ours just the week prior to our departure a month ago! Because of this and COVID we had about 110 missionaries when we arrived, and most of them were from Peru. That has since changed and the church is quickly sending the reassigned missionaries here and we are now up to 140 missionaries already and we have been told that we should get another 50 or so in the next two months! This week we welcomed three new missionaries that were serving in Bolivia, Columbia, and Kentucky and now they are finally in their assigned country of Peru. See their pictures below.
Because of the surge of missionaries, we are finding that we as a mission need to adjust quickly because we cannot keep up and that is why we asked for some help this past week. Thanks to all who responded so kindly and generously. We appreciate your support as we try to meet the needs of running a mission! There is so much to learn and so much to do that it is easy to feel overwhelmed at times, but thankfully the mission just keeps moving along.
For the Sacrament meeting today, we attended a ward in the Zamacola area in Cayma. We are always invited to sit on the stand when we arrive in any meeting and usually we are asked to say a few words which makes me very uncomfortable because I don’t speak Spanish. All I can say is gracias, mucho gusto, and lo siento, no hablo español. That makes for a pretty short talk, so I always bring a simple testimony that is written down in Spanish and I stumble through it with much intrepidation in front of the congregation with my eyes glued to the written words. It is not a real confidence builder and I find it very difficult to not be able to express myself or to know what is going on around me.
Today, as the sacrament was being blessed, I was feeling pretty inadequate as a mission leader. I make so many mistakes and I’m very inefficient with my time as I stumble with understanding Spanish, new computer programs, names of people, and locations. It is so very frustrating to feel lost and ineffective all the time. Even my home appliances speak Spanish. I finally successfully figured out how to use my microwave just yesterday, but our washing machine is a complete mystery to me! The new smart TV terrifies me and I only turned it on once and I don’t think I will do that again. Even our cars spit out Kilometers and all the gauges are in Spanish. I never know how fast I am driving, but thankfully, that doesn’t seem to matter around here!
Anyway, I was feeling pretty low when the sacrament was being blessed. I asked God, “ How can I possibly accomplish what is required as a mission leader?” I then wondered if there had been some kind of mistake. As the prayer for the bread was being said and I pondered the words, this thought came to my mind. God chose to have us use bread and water to represent his body and blood during the sacrament. He chose two of the most simple and basic of all things to represent His greatest gift to mankind. Likewise, He has chosen me to represent Him as a mission leader here in Arequipa. I am so very ordinary and underqualified, but somehow if I keep trusting and learning, He will qualify me. Then the scriptures came to my mind in the Doctrine & Covenants 1:23 where it says: “That the fulness of my Gospel might be proclaimed by the weak and the simple unto the ends of the world. That is when I realized that scripture describes me. Fortunately, there is another scripture that gives me hope as I face my weaknesses and continue forward.
“And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.”
God often forces us to come face to face with our weaknesses because it is so much easier for us to just avoid them, but this temporary and comfortable strategy only prevents us from growing and limits our potential as individuals. After all, didn’t we choose to come to earth to be uncomfortable, to gain experience, to learn? Just like Eve when she debated about partaking of the fruit in the garden of Eden and asked Satan, “is there no other way?” and he replied truthfully, “There is no other way.” So she partook, and just like her, we have chosen to partake so that we might become what our Heavenly Father wants us to become and this opens up our path to greater happiness.
Here are a few of my favorite pictures this week:
These are from the park I run in each day:
On our P-day we headed towards the hills to look around and of course we found a dirt road on the side of the volcano Chichani that reaches 6,057 meters or 19,872 feet! We were sad that we had our mission minivan instead of our Honda 4 runner from home, so unfortunately, we had to turn around when things got really interesting!
Afterward, we walked to the city center of Arequipa for dinner
