9/14/2011 Letter from Peru MTC

Family,
3 weeks down, 3 more to go.
My Latino companion is gone.  They woke us up yelling and turning on the lights at 4am as they left for the airport.  As annoying as they could be at times, they could be spiritual giants when they needed to be.  We will miss them even though we are glad for the peace and quiet.  We get new Latino companions today.

SO this week was one of the hardest weeks of the mission.  Me and my companion set out Saturday on the streets of downtown Lima.  There were not a lot of doors, so we tried contacting from the streets.  This was a rather wealthy part of Peru so the doors we did knock on were very nice.  We spent the first hour getting doors slammed in our face with people saying ¨soy catolico!!!¨ I could see my companion was taking it hard.  I started feeling discouraged as well.  A couple hours in, we had gotten into one house and taught a lesson that ended in a lady committing to nothing and not scheduling a revisit.  This was hard on both of us.  We trudged along as people would shout from buildings and on the side of the streets (translated) ¨Go worship the devil somewhere else!¨ and all manner of swear words.  My companion gave me rough translations but I could tell basically what they were saying.  We continued walking and I happened to see 2 white tourists.  I immediately went up to them and asked if they needed any help since they looked lost.  They couldn’t speak Spanish and began walking away.  I then asked in English.  They turned around yelled NO and said a couple other sentences in French, or some other language and stormed off.  3 hours passed and we felt like failures.  We knocked on an old lady’s door.  She shunned us pretty quick and was about to slam the door when her grandson asked who it was.  He was a 16 year old boy, Jose.  We asked if he wanted to hear from us and he agreed.  I taught him about the restoration and showed him a picture of when Jesus visited the Americas.  He was so interested.  He agreed to read a few chapters in the Book of Mormon and to come check out the church with us.  We escorted him to the church and he met with one of the members who worked out to pick him up from church the next morning.  The smiles on my companion and my faces were easily noticed.  The 3 and a half hours of rejection was forgotten by this boy’s desire to come to church.  We are so happy for him.  My companion is now in Mexico, and I will never see Jose again, but knowing that we helped him begin to change his life is amazing.  After we all got on the bus again, everyone had a similar story.  Door after door was shut in their face but because these Elders are so strong each one came home saying it was a great experience because of the one or two families or people they taught.
Being a missionary is hard.  You can’t coast.  Every second has to be devoted to learning the language and listening to the spirit.  It is so obvious the spirit is your companion.  And it’s more obvious when you don’t feel the spirit in a lesson.  When the spirit is there, miracles happen. 
I am so glad I am a missionary.  The Language is coming so fast.  I have been studying Spanish for 6 weeks and can basically teach any gospel principle.  The everyday language is difficult but the lord has prepared us with what we need to know.
Love you all.  Shout out to Ms. Hagar!
Elder McRae