Hola a todos!
End of transfers is approaching rapidly, which means that pretty soon the office is going to start prepping for that. In about a week or so, we'll start having office meetings, working on the transfer board, and I'll get to know where everybody is going WAY before they do. It feels almost devilish...Oh the valuable secrets I will hold...
We actually had some neat lessons this week which were really interesting. On Tuesday, we had a short lesson with a guy named Angel who we got into contact with ringing apartment bells, which is absolutely bonkers we actually secured a lesson with him. Ringing bells almost NEVER works, but we got a new friend out of it! He's definitely an interesting guy, very spiritual, but not a big believer in organized religion and pretty set in his ways. I'll spare you the details of some of his more strange beliefs, but that's pretty much the gist of it. We had a good talk about the Book of Mormon and prayer, and invited him to come to church, and he came! Before such sat outside the temple and talked a little bit more about our beliefs and he expressed his thoughts about them, some were positive and some were negative. He did seem to enjoy church, though! And he told us he might have a friend who is interested! We'll see where he goes from there. We have to pass him off to some other elders because technically he's not in our area, so maybe he'll progress with them? Who knows!
Speaking of church, one of our members invited a young kid to sacrament named Marco who's 16 and LOVED the meeting and everything about it. We got his number and we were texting and he basically told us, "this week I can't, but next week I really want to learn more about your religion." Let's GOOOOO. He's a super awesome kid, with a good heart, and I can't wait to see how he progresses.
We also had a neat experience this week with a less active family. We decided randomly to visit them since we were in the neighborhood, and we showed up right as the father came home. They invited us in, and immediately were like, "we need to be better about coming to church." They explained how their little son has autism and he gets overstimulated in the meetings, and so it's super hard to go. We shared a quick lesson with them and the Spirit was super strong in the house. We told them that God notices their sacrifices and understands their difficulties. The mom was tearing up a little bit and told us that we were an answer to her prayers, that we came to comfort and bless her in her time of need. She was super sweet and her kids were hilarious, and wouldn't you know it, on Sunday the were in the very back pew, all playing together. It was a really cool sight to see overall. It made me super happy.
In other big missionary news, we got a new Preach My Gospel! For those of who don't know, missionaries study from the PMG manual to help them improve in their missionary efforts and to help them understand their purpose as missionaries. It's about 20 years old and super outdated, but we recently got a new edition! Our mission has been reading a chapter every day and discussing over zoom at the end. Already I can tell it's super inspired. One of my favorite quotes from the chapters we've read is, "Repentance is much more than exercising willpower to change a behavior or overcome a weakness. Repentance is sincerely turning to Christ, who gives us the power to experience a “mighty change” in our hearts. It includes humbly yielding to the Spirit and submitting to God’s will. As we repent, we increase our commitment to serve God and obey His commandments. We are spiritually born again in Christ."
I love the part that specifically says that we can't overcome things on our own. We need Christ by our side. I'm still trying to figure out how exactly to do that sometimes, and any suggestions would be appreciated. But I do know that Christ gives us strength through our humility. Repentance truly is a change of heart in every sense of the word, and I'm so grateful for the gift of repentance in my life.
¡Cristo vive! ¡El Libro de Mormón es verdadero!
¡Os amo!
Elder Ritter
Fotos (sorry I've been so bad with Fotos recently)
Tried ceviche for the first time. It was gas!!!! Peruvian food is so good
