July 6, 2015

Wow this week was awesome. Last Monday I got to go to Chulucanas and go visit a few of the families that I met there. It was crazy to be there 1 year later and see how everything has changed. But also how everything is still the same. One of my favorite parts was when Jake (the little 5 year old kid in the member’s house where we lived) still remembered my name. It was awesome. His dad asked him if he remembered my name and he just yelled "Elder Chocman!" and ran up and hugged my legs. It was awesome. Then we visited the pensionista and said hi to her and her family. I promised them I would be back in September with my parents. So mom and dad I hope you are ready to make a trip to Chulucanas!

 

All day Tuesday we were at the service project in a little town just outside of Chulucanas called "La Matanza" and it was a pretty sweet day. We were just translating for a volunteer group called "The Hope Alliance" which was giving away glasses to people that needed them. They were about 10 or 12 and all from Utah. But only two were members which was surprising to me haha. But I spent the whole day translating for a guy named Matt Poston and he was a really cool guy. The service we did was awesome and it was a great experience to see the people and their reaction when they put the glasses on and could finally see. They had probably been seeing blurry their entire life but when they put on glasses their faces lit up with happiness. It was awesome. Then we got back to Piura late that night and spent the night in the mission offices. It was my first time sleeping there and it was awesome ha-ha. Hot water, air conditioning, I wouldn’t mind going back for a few more nights ha-ha.

On Friday we finally got to meet President and Sister Rasmussen. They are freaking sweet. They are still adjusting to the culture and the language and everything but I can tell that they are excited to be here in this mission and work with us. And I am excited to work with them even if it is for just a few months. They have a lot of great ideas and changes that they would like to make and I am excited for it. But there are also a few missionaries that don’t want anything to change and are a little frustrated. But I have learned on my mission that things change...even at church...the only thing that never changes is the doctrine. But we are always trying to change and improve for the better. And the Lord places leaders in his church to advance His work. And I know that President Rasmussen is here to do just that.

Yesterday we found a really cool family that we are going to start teaching today. We went up to the door and the guy immediately let us in his house and we started talking to him. Well we could see that the family was really busy with things so we just set up an appointment to come back today and were going to leave. But they invited us to stay for dinner with them and everything. They have a son that is in jail and they are going through some tough times as a family but they just kept telling us that they knew that we were messengers from god and that they wanted to listen to us. It made me think of the scripture in Doctrine and Covenants 29:7, how the elect recognize the lord’s voice and his servants. Hopefully we can be good instruments in helping them learn more. Something funny about that night, they gave us a glass full of what we thought was coffee so we just left it sitting there on the table all dinner. Well at the end they told us that it was hot chocolate so we just chugged it down. But by that time it had already gone cold hahaha. But hey, better safe than sorry I guess ha-ha. Because last time I just downed like half a glass of tea without even knowing until my companion told me ha-ha. But hey I’m from Utah. How am I supposed to know about these things??? ha-ha.

Well that’s about it. Love you guys!