August 3, 2015

Well this week was pretty crazy. Went by slow at first but finished great. Last week was "independence day" in Peru so it was a pretty rough two days here haha. Lots of people drinking and partying and being off of work. And you would think that with them being off of work it would be a great opportunity to meet the missionaries and let them in their house and hear a message of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. But no. I think that is the last thing on their to do list when they are on vacation haha. But we worked hard and tried to talk to everyone we could.

So last week we went running to the sister’s room one morning so that a sister could sign some papers. Well they live about 3 miles from us. We made it without even one heart attack haha. But the funniest part was when we came back there was a dog that followed us all the way from their room to our room. It was pretty funny. I named him Calichín. He followed us around that whole day. But then disappeared. Freaking Peruvian dogs. At least he didn’t try to just attack us for no reason like the other ones.

So I don’t know if you guys remember but a little over a month ago I wrote you about a work visit that I had with elder Abbott in Pueblo Nuevo. Well this week I had another one with him but he came to my area in Paita. As we started we were talking about the things that happened in the last work visit and the funny things that happened. Then he told me something that really lifted me up. He said, "Do you remember the family that we contacted when you were with me last time?" and I honestly didn’t remember haha. But he explained to me who they were and how I told him that we should go talk to them. Then I finally remembered and he said, "yeah, they are getting baptized in two weeks." who would thought! Haha that was something that I really needed to hear. To know that someone that we talked to over a month ago is now going to be baptized was an awesome feeling. I didn’t think much in the initial contact, but I guess you can’t judge people by a two minute contact in the street.

But the true highlight of last week was when the assistants called me on Friday morning. Now to explain the setting a little bit without going too into detail, I have been really stressed out because my companion is going home and is pretty much just indifferent about everything. So after about three weeks of that I was pretty stressed out and was just laying on my bed thinking about everything that was going on. Then the assistants called…they said, "hey Elder Chapman Hermana Liliana is getting married today in Talara, are you going to go?" Well I basically said that there was no way that President was going to give me permission to go to Talara for a wedding. But they told me to call and ask him. So I did. And he said yes!! Holy crap that was the highlight of the last two and a half months since I left. Nobody there knew that we were going to show up. Me and Elder Mendoza traveled together and got there a little earlier so we went and bought the wedding present. An 8x10 picture of us with their whole family the day they got baptized. When we got to the wedding at the church they were signing the papers so we just stayed in the door and kind of hid ourselves. Then when they started their first dance Hermana Liliana looked up and saw me and Elder Mendoza and started smiling really big and crying. Everyone there was so happy to see us. But I don’t think anyone was as happy as I was to be there haha. It was great to see my big Talara family. I love them so much.

That’s about it.

PS. if I wouldn’t have extended I would be coming home next week. Wow. Luckily I extended!! And don’t even start a countdown. I don’t want to hear it haha.

Love you guys!