June 15, 2015 ~ Week 50

Last week I mentioned about an event we had this past Saturday called the Noche Blanca and I mentioned that we would be having 2 of the 9 investigators baptized on behalf of our work.  The activity went great and a lot of members from the 3 different branches showed up and even one of our Mission President’s counselors showed up.  We had some opposition from Carlos and Belen’s mother during the week, but with the Branch President’s help, the concern was resolved and they were able to be baptized on Sunday, rather than Saturday during the Noche Blanca. This is the Lords work and not Elder McCooks so He wanted them to be baptized not on Saturday at this district activity but the following day on Sunday after church.

His will was completed and I may never know why He wanted His two children to enter his kingdom on Sunday and not Saturday, but nevertheless it happened.

The photo I sent of me and Carlos after his baptism you will notice in my shirt pocket below my plaque that the area’s cell phone wanted to get in the water as well, thankfully it still functions normal.

This Saturday the temple in Trujillo, Peru will have a cultural service before it will be dedicated the following day the 21st of June 2015.  There will be 3 sessions.  So it will be another white weekend!

My room did not have water this past week so we only showered like 3 times this past week at our pentionista’s house.

Elder McCook

Words of the week: bautismo-baptism
                                templo- temple

June 8, 2015 ~ Week 49

This past week we finally had a family home evening with this one less active 25 year old.  We planned on it just being a normal appointment but we showed up to her house at 7pm and she bought Inka Kola and cookies and chips.  The Elders Quorum president and his wife were suppose to accompany us so we sat on the couch and waited while the less active host whipped out a black paint can and painted the floors black with a mop.  I have never seen this Peruvian technique in my life and it was a little confusing but we couldn’t put our feet on the floor because in "10 minutes it would dry."  The less active host went off to go get herself ready so we waited on the couch for the Elders Quorum President to show with our feet in the air.  We waited for an hour till he showed up.

This Saturday my zone is planning on having 9 baptisms.  We are going to called it Una Noche Blanca and 2 of our investigators will be baptized so please pray for Belen and Carlos Zenteno and all of the other investigators for this Saturday the 13th.  Belen and Carlos are a cute brother and sister that are 13 and 10 years old.

Y asi es.

Chau

Elder McCook

words of the week: white night - noche blanca
                               family home evening - noche de hogar
                               cookies - galletas

June 1, 2015 ~ Week 48 pictures

The Latina sisters that we pention with said that if they learned how to speak English in a month we would have to buy them pizza.  The month flew by and they lost.  So they made us pizza

Package sent to me from my family.

A picture taken this morning of my district before the sister on my
right had to leave for her new area.

June 1, 2015 ~ Week 48

This past week we had one lesson in particular that I would like to mention. Carlos Valencia, is an adult that is around 20 years old and is studying in the university over in Mollendo.  We first found Carlos a couple of weeks ago outside as he was hand-washing his car outside of his house.  A few of our appointments fell through but when we went this past week, he came outside his door before we even knocked on it.  We were able to share with him a message of the restored church.   He agreed that we could come back the next day to watch the Restoration movie with him because he has got this huge 60 inch TV.  As we came back the next day to watch it, it turns out that his family came over and the TV was occupied.  Seeing the sweet dashboard TV screen he has got in his car we gave it a shot to see if the DVD would function.  We seated ourselves inside the car and the DVD worked.  During the introduction of the 20 minute movie, if you have even seen it, a leaf falls on the ground.  Well Carlos turned up his Bass so loud that as the leaf hit the ground it sounded and felt like Optimus Prime gave a left hook to Megatron, and as Joseph Smith’s brother was putting the blackberries into the bucket it felt like Megatron was punching right back.  It was so sweet.  The short 20 minutes passed and Carlos wanted more so we are going to his house today to go and watch the 1 hour movie of the restoration with him.

oh yeah, happy 11 months to me.

Elder McCook

Words of the week: José Smith - Joseph Smith

                                 la resturacion - the restoration