Week 90 - "Another Wonderful Week" - May 22 - May 27 (Primavera)

Great Letter from Jonah this week.  I just love his perspective on being grateful for what we have and how truly blessed we are.  And also another piece of advice: Just go serve a mission you won't regret it!

Hello! This week has been so great and was full of work and walking..but it totally paid off! We started off the week with this great activity called ''Capilla Abierta''...I honestly don't know how the title is in English..maybe Open Chapel or maybe just Open House...not sure. Anyway, it was organized by the Area, which means the same activity is being done in every chapel within Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Perú. So its a very well put on activity that the Bentley's have been doing in our mission for the past couple months. Last Saturday, we got to do it in our own chapel and it was so great! There were guided tours with all the members and their auxiliaries and then a reference table with a bunch of free things to take home. It was really cool because several people (about 100) went through the church that had never seen inside before. It really helped us to get to know people that were interested in the Gospel as well, and we are starting to visit some of the people that went through and were interested enough to leave their name, number, and address. We have been visiting these people and also the secretaries and because of it, we have found a few different families that are now progressing well. During the activity, we were in charge of talking to everyone in the streets and trying to get them interested in the activity. It was SUPER FUN!! We were going nuts, trying to catch the people before they would run away... hahaha it was probably pretty funny to watch because someone people really didn't want to talk to us, but we would sort of chase them down and everything, but yeah, anyway, we had a great time.

Later on in the week, we were able to have 2 different interchanges. First, we were with Elder Argueta and Elder Parkinson, and we had a great time. With Elder Parkinson, we found several potential investigators and also taught some of the people that we have met in the highly damaged area from the mud slides. People are still without homes in some places and are still cleaning up all of the mud and dirt. Its crazy how much dirt has been here in Trujillo, and its even crazier that its still here. The next time you feel like complaining about how slow the wi-fi is in your room or that they got your order mixed up at Chipotle....just be grateful that your house hasn't been full of sewage mud for 2 months and that you live on dirty mattresses on the concrete floor. There's a lot to be grateful for :)

Anyway, the next day, we had another interchange with Elder Ledesma and Elder McKamey. With Elder Ledesma, we were heading to an appointment that we had taken out with Elder Parkinson the day before and we thought that it was just going to be this 15 year old kid, but we found out that it was this whole family of 5 and that they are really willing to listen to us and try new things. We taught a small lesson with a part of the family and were able to gain their trust quickly and we're really excited to go back tomorrow. Hermana Yanina, the mom, reminds me of Mom haha, she is a strong believer in having her kids stay very active, and she does everything she can to hold the family together tightly. Hahaha, she was the first mother I've met here that also has the ''one hour of screen time'' rule in the house. They should be a wonderful family that hopefully can get new answers to the questions they have always had.

After our interchanges, Elder Nuñez and I are always really happy to be companions again because its a little more than 2 days that we don't get to be together. Don't get me wrong, I love doing interchanges, but its always nice to meet back up with my best friend.

I love you all so much! I'm so happy here and I'm enjoying every second of every day....even when its hard and maybe things don't go how we would like them to go, at the end of the day, I'm always so grateful to God that I can be here in Peru to teach the restored gospel. There has been NO decision in my life more important or of more worth than deciding to serve as a missionary. If you are considering, thinking about, questioning, or even doubting going on a mission, I invite you to just go. There is nothing better, I can promise you. I love you a whole bunch!! Have a wonderful week!

Week 89 - "No Time" - May 14 - May 20 (Primavera)

Hey, so I love you so much!! We have a ward activity starting in about 20 minutes, so I'm sending pics and writing this small thing. 

On Wednesday, we had an interchange with Este, and with Elder Klossner, we had a wonderful day. First of all, we were given a wonderful reference and were able to contact it quickly, and it seemed as if she had been anxious to see us. She came up to the missionaries and asked for other missionaries to come to her house because she was struggling with depression for 3 years now due to the death of her mother and wanted answers that only the Plan of Salvation can give. She ate up our words and felt the Spirit strongly as we testified that she would not only be able to see her mother again, but also hug her, and hold her hand again, and live with her forever, with a resurrected body. It was a very touching moment to see that she had clearly heard that for the first time. Elder Klossner always seems to teach everyone the importance of loving everyone, and he really helped me during the interchange to live in the moment and act out of love. Such a cool experience with this hermana (Sandy).

So today, we went with Pres. and Sis. Marble to Otuzco (hour and a half away from Trujillo), to go see a baptism of two Elders because today was our Pday! It was so much fun!!! Most of the pictures are from this morning and afternoon. Anyway, we had a great time with them, and it was really cool just because that was the first time that they have ever done something with the office missionaries on Pday since they've been here, so it was way fun to spend almost the whole day with them! I love you so much!

Office Elders

Traveling to Otuzco

Week 88 - "Hello" May 7 - May 13 (Primavera)

So just a quick note from Jonah this week but we were able to spend a nice long hour on a video call with him for Mother's Day.  We had such a fun time visiting with him.  Arin and Kelsey were here to let him know that he is going to be an uncle in November!  He looks great and looks so happy.  He talked about his companion Elder Nunez and we were able to visit with him.  The funny thing was he did not want to talk about coming home or on what day he will be finished with his mission.  The funny thing was that he didn't want to hang up the call either.  Such a great missionary - We love him.

Hello!!! We went to lunch today and took forever...haha we always take a while at McDonalds just so we can savor it. Pretty sad huh? I used to hate McDonalds. Yeah, last week was nuts, but still it has been busy because of the interchanges and just getting out and proselyting every day. We were pretty wiped by Friday night, its always to have a time to relax a little more. Yeah I get pretty good sleep..on a normal day I get anywhere from 7 to 8 hours of sleep which is great. Occasionally it'll be like 6, but that's pretty rare, maybe once or twice a month. We try to not work in the room. But sometimes we have too haha. I'm doing great! Honestly, I'm probably less sick than at home haha, I've only had to stay in because of sickness like twice in my whole mission and one time it was on a Pday so it didn't even count. A lot of people get colds and stuff but I've only had a cold maybe once on the mission. And I only had the Nacho Libre squirts at the very start of my mission. We had a great week, on an interchange with Elder Rios, we found a really cool family that used to receive the missionaries about 4 or 5 years ago, but then their evangelist family members told them that they were liars and from the devil (not an uncommon thing to hear here haha), and so they stopped. But we surprised them the other day and their 21 year old son let us in. The mom was actually pretty upset that we were let in, but then we had a great small lesson with them and we are excited to come back this Tuesday. Also, Hoyjaní showed up again and is planning on coming to church Sunday with her daughter. She has a baptismal date for the 28th of this month.

Elder Babbel