Address

Mailing Address:
Elder Gabriel George
Peru Cusco Mission
Av. de la Cultura 2417
Frente de Urb. Santa Ursula
Capilla Mormona
Cusco, Peru

E-mail
gabriel.george@myldsmail.net



Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Time - A Precious Gift and Saving a Dog

January 26, 2015

Well another week down in the life of Gabe the Missionary!!!  It is so weird - time in the mission - I know that I have said this before but time really is one of the most weird things that Heavenly Father created.  It is also one of the most precious gifts we have been given!!  I have learned that more in the mission than ever before.  Time is one thing that we can never get or give back!!!  I have this week, decided to be a more dedicated missionary and use my time more wisely.  And when I have time with someone I want to really help them.  I want to do everything in my power to make every moment count!

So first off my new compy.  Well, his name is Elder Osinaga as you know and yeah.  This week I found out that he doesn´t really like America or Americans for that matter.  That's a bit of a problem that I can't really change about myself.  We are trying to work through that.  He doesn´t like talking to me because while we were in the office in Cusco this week the secretary told us that I am the senior companion.  He doesn´t like that very much considering that I am not fluent in Spanish and he is Latin.  Oh well we are just working as co-companions for now.  I just told him that we are are just going to be co-companions and that has been helping.

So this week we were in a house with a family and the lesson was going great.  We were feeling the spirit.  We were teaching this family's children about the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Faith, repentance, baptism, holy ghost and persevering (i.e. also known as "enduring") to the end.  PERFECT!!  Then the mom asked us how she could feel the spirit more.  Normal, right?  Wrong!  She proceeded to tell us that she has seen four spirits - but bad spirits.  Great!  NOT!!  We are both pretty new missionaries and didn´t exactly know what to do.  We just sat there in silence for a little bit.  We then said a prayer with all of the family and finished the lesson.  We talked about how we could give her a blessing.  This was a good way to finish up.  We gave her a blessing and went on our way.  This Sunday she was at sacrament meeting (she is a less active) and she told us that she has been feeling better and hasn´t had any problems since our visit!!  We were really happy.

Later that day we went to an appointment and we passed this dog that was on this cement column and he was really stuck.  He was whining and whimpering but we had an appointment and couldn´t help him.  So after we taught the restoration to a teenager(it was awesome),  we were walking to a member's house and this poor dog was just really, really, sad still stuck on the column.  I told my companion that I was going to save that dog.  Even after what the terrible dog species has done to me I still have pity on the poor helpless things.  It was a fairly big dog and I had a pretty hard time lifting that little guy up.  The coulmn was about 7 feet tall.  But I saved that little dog.  That is a really lame story you would have to be there to know how awesome it really was!! (Side note:  All we are really sure of is that he saved a dog!  We have no idea how exactly but we will take his word for it that it was awesome!!)
  
 So sometimes he sends us these random pictures and leaves it up to us
 to figure out what they are.  I am pretty sure that the ones with him in it are the 
ruins he was talking about.  This one does not look like it was taken on the same
 day.  Maybe our cute friend Kenzie Irvine will it and be able to shed some like on it! ;)
Got a message from Kenzie, Thanks cute girl!!  This is what she said,  "Hey I 
can tell you where he is!!!!  I'm not sure about the last picture because that could be anywhere
in Puno but he's in Sullustani!!!  It's where they would bury their mummies!!!!!
Today was P-day and we went to some ruins.  They were pretty cool.  Not much to say about them but they were cool.  Who knew that a bunch of big rocks stacked up on top of each other could be so dang cool!!!

Anyway, that is my week in a net shell (We suppose he meant nutshell but net shell makes us smile!)

Love always

Elder George

Thursday, January 22, 2015

Lost in Puno!!! New Companion!! An Infected Bite!

January 20, 2015

What a week!  It really has been a different week!   We had changes this last week and I got a companion named Elder Osinaga.  He is also form Santa Cruz Bolivia and we are from the same group - - like we were in the CCM at the same time as each other.  We get along pretty well but, he is a little different and I sometimes let him get on my nerves, which I have no idea why because as I have previously said, I am working on patience (tee hee - he spelled it "patients" but I corrected it).  But yeah, it is a work in progress.

This week was an adventure.  I was with Elder Thacker for Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday because both of our companions were coming to us from somewhere else and both of our companions were leaving.  So we traveled back and forth between his and my sector on all of those days.  It is a little far and we were using "combies."   That is the busing system down here.  I really have no idea how the combies work.  Elder Thacker is suppose to know how they work so I would just get on whatever bus he told me to.  He told me that this one bus was the one that would take us to his sector.  So we got on and it was defiantly not going to our sector.   But he said that he had faith that it would get us there.  We were on this combie for about 20 minutes when finally we were the last ones on and the bus stopped.  And then they told us that we had to get off and we couldn't ride anymore.  We were lost!!!!!!!!!  In Puno ALONE!!!!!!!!!  Haha!  We waved down a taxi and told him where we wanted to go.  He just started laughing and told us that was a really long ways away.  We told him we know and explained the situation and he thought that it was really funny.  He drove us there and then didn't charge us because he was a member and a really good guy.  We saw him driving around the next day and he pulled over and asked us if we were lost it was really funny.

My new companion is a good guy.  While he was in Puerto, his last sector, he was in the jungle and got bit by a insect, and it is really infected.  He cleans it every night but it is really bad. I told him that we needed to go to the hospital but he said no.  So I just messaged the Zone Leaders and told them about it, in English so he couldn't understand.  They told me that President and Hermana Harbertson would be in Puno on Sunday and we should have them look at it.  So on Sunday they looked at it and told us that we would be going to Cuzco in the morning.  What a bummer really.  All day P-day we were on the bus.  Kind of sucky for us, but, oh well.  We couldn't go to internet cafe yesterday and that is why we are writing today.  He got his blood drawn and we might have to come back in a few weeks if it is really bad.  It has been an adventure.  We were told to pack for 5 days but will be traveling back to Puno tomorrow.

We are working hard and things are really coming along........yeah.  This is pretty much my week!!  Not too much happened really.  I think that the members will start helping better because at the conference they got a hammer thrown down.  They were reprimanded.  So hopefully we get a little more help from the members.

Love Always
Elder George

Monday, January 12, 2015

I Love Puno! I Get to Stay & Elder Cueto Goes to Cuzco

January 12, 2015

The changes are in and Elder Cueto is going to Cuzco.  He is going top be the Leader of the Zone there.  I am really happy for him.  He is really excited for this change.  I think that it will be good for him and his family and all the things that are going on in his family.

This week was really good.  We continue to work as hard as we possibly can!!  The success will come, I know that it will.  We feel a little hopeless sometimes when every appointment falls through and people are a little rude, or mean, but we know why we are here.
Elder George in Puno, Peru


We continue to work with Maritza, Bryan, Diago, and Family Farfan.  Maritza has a boyfriend who doesn't like the church at all and so that makes our job lots harder.  We try to visit her, but she is always at her boyfriend's house.  We will continue to try to help her and not lose her.  Bryan is a son of a less active member and we are working with the whole family to re-activate them as well as baptize Bryan.  The lessons are sometime a little bit crazy because Bryan has a really hard time paying attention.

Diago is also a son of a less active lady.  His mom's name is Evodocia.  She is a really awesome and sweet lady who really loves the missionaries but just lost touch with the church after "her" missionaries left.  That is really sad to me; when someone doesn't have any friends in the church and that is why they leave.  We are working on getting her friends in the ward and re-activating her, her daughter, and her son.  Diago talked with his dad during his Christmas stay with him and his dad put a bunch of bad stuff in that little kids head.  It is sad to see that too. We continue to pray and help him.

Family Farfan are AWESOME!!  The mom of the family heard the lessons when she was 17 and went to church for 3 years but was never baptized.  She told us during the first lesson that her husband was a little different and would never accept the church.  We told her that we were up for the challenge.  She told us good luck.  We met her husband in the second visit and he is awesome!  He works in the tourist industry and his English is just about perfect.  We visit with him lots right now because his wife and 2 kids are traveling so he is really lonely.  He does sometimes think a little differently but he is so awesome.  He told us the other night that something is different when we are at his house.  Afterwards we had a AWESOME lesson about the holy ghost and how he could have that all the time in his life after baptism.  He would help our little branch so much.

This week we were walking down the street at night, it was raining, and what do you know, Elder Cueto stepped on a nail.  Went right through his shoe and into his foot.  It was a bummer really!!!  Bad way to start the week.  He couldn't really work hard because of all the walking that is necessary so I ended up with other missionaries all week.  We taught and did all the normal missionary stuff.

Don't quite know what to say about this goofy looking pic!
We switched pensions for the month and maybe forever.  She is so awesome.  All her food is sooo good.  I feel 234563474536342 times better.  I am hardly ever sick now and, well yeah, it is WAY BETTER!!

We are having a special conference this week and the missionaries all know what is happening.  They are combining wards here to make stronger branches and a much stronger stake.  This kind of thing is really exciting when you are a missionary - it is kind of big news.  Like if there was a news station for missionary's this would be at the top of the list!!!

I never thought that I would come to love this place as much as I do.  It really is incredible what the Lord can do with a heart of a person when we let Him.  He can completely change you if you willing and allow Him to.  That really is the key, you have to allow him to change you.  I studied chapter 6 in Predicar Mi Evangelio  (Preach My Gospel) this week.  It has definitely become my favorite chapter.  The attribute that I am going to try to master in the next 2 years is Paciencia (Patience).  I know that it is almost impossible to "master" the attributes of  Christ but I am going to try and work on all the rest of them along the way as well.

We had a Reunion of the Zone today and they kind of put us all in our place.  I thought that I was a really obedient missionary but they showed me that there is always something that you can d to be better.  They say NO chatting though e-mail with anyone.  That made me a little sad but this is a rule from the Prophet and I want to be the most obedient that I possibly can.  President Harbertson told everybody that this is a really important rule for him so I am going to OBEY.

"Y yo debo obedecer" (. . .For thus had the Lord commanded me and I must obey. Amen) 
2 Nefi 33. 15

I love you all and hope you had as splendid a week as I did!!  No dogs this week but dogs are literally EVERYWHERE!  They just live on the street and eat garbage.  They are really ugly and so very annoying.  I will be happy when I get home where our little dogs are clean and I can snuggle up with Annie and Meisje.



Elder George

My Miracle, Internet Glitches, and Changes in a Week

January 5, 2015

We have a little problem.  I was just finishing up the long email when something happened in our little Internet cafe and my email was lost.  I will write as much as I can with the time that I have.

This week has been pretty good.  We have begun seeing the success that we wanted to.  Not teaching as many lessons as we want to but we are doing good.

This week we were a little scared for sacrament meeting seeing that it started at 8 in the morning.  We thought that nobody was going to come.  We have been looking for opportunities all week to just serve.  That was one of our goals this week and we have not passed up one person that needed help and not stop to help.  We had talked about how we would receive blessings if we helped everybody that we saw.  We didn´t see a ton of blessings this week and so we were feeling a little ¨down¨.  We showed up to church 20 minutes early and no one was there - the church was locked.  NO ONE!  Then the president of the branch showed up with his family and we had 11 people for the opening song.  Right before the sacrament everybody showed up and we ended up having 66 people there for the sacrament.  That is a BLESSING!!  The most we have had before that is 51.  It was a little testimony builder that we are never forgotten.

We have changes this Monday and I am pretty excited.  I love Elder Cueto but I am ready for a change.  We are just really, really, different.  And to be honest he is more ready for a new companion than I am.  And he is not afraid to tell me that!  A little discouraging, but life and the mission goes on!!  Ready for a new start.

There will be a better Email next week sorry about the short letter you can thank the great country of Peru!!!;)

Love Elder George

Christmas in Peru!! ♥♥

December 29, 2014

What a week really!!!

Before the mission I had thought that Christmas in the mission would really suck and be really sad.  I know I was wrong and I probably had one of the best Christmases of my life.  It was really that good!!!!  I had one of the funnest weeks of my mission and kind of gave me that greenie spark back.  We worked really hard on Christmas Eve and we taught 3 new families and had a total of 6 lessons taught.  That was a new record for us.

CHRISTMAS DAY WAS THE BEST!!!  It was just like any regular day in the morning really, but later it got so good.  In the morning I woke up at 630, worked out, and had a pretty regular morning - didn't really think anything of it.  Studies and all that jazz.  But after a really good lunch we had the opportunity to go to the orphanage and just serve the little kids there.  A lot of the kids are really really naughty but what can you expect; they don´t have any parents.  It was really sad.  But some of the other kids are just so cute and innocent.  One of my favorite little girl about 5 years old, her name was. . . shoot I forgot her name but it is in my journal.
She made this the best Christmas EVER!
  She just sat on my lap and hung out with me.  She took out my wallet and looked at all my little pictures that I had.  She thought that all my sisters looked the same and she said that my parents looked really nice.  She said that Sierra is really pretty and that I am lucky to have a best friend that is a girl because girls are better than boys.  That made me laugh really hard.  I just smiled and told her that I was pretty lucky.

The days following were not the best.  Appointments fell through but it didn't even matter.  Christmas reminded me why I am on a mission.  I am here for my wonderful family.  For my really good friends.  But what I am really out here for is for Jesus. He has blessed me with the life that I have and with the atonement.  When I was studying, I read about the atonement and realized, that sometime we have to do things that we don´t always want to.  I love the mission, but sometimes I have to talk to a family in the street and don´t really want to.  But I just remember that Jesus didn't really want to perform the atonement, but he did it because he loves us and that is what I learned this week.

One of the Floating Islands

Reeds
Elders Cueto and George on the Floating Islands

We got to go to the floating island and village this week.  It was a cool experience.  Life is different when you live on a lake.  You don't live the same.  So the islands are not really islands but a bunch of reeds all bound together in a big group.  But it works!!  I don´t have lots of time so I will write more about this next week

I love you all and thank you for your prayers and love.  Hand written letters are awesome!!!

Love Elder George