Bienvenidos a 2019!!!
- Glynis Neves
- Jan 7, 2019
- 2 min read
Peruvian celebrations for the New Year! A very special baptism. A jungle storm.
Glynis here - A very happy New Year to you all! Unfortunately, there were no pictures included in Jacob's email this week, so you'll all have to just imagine him in the pouring rain of Iquitos! Still, he sounds good, and we are so grateful for the lessons he's learning and the opportunities to teach that he is having. Thanks for all your support!
Feliz ano nuevo a todos!!! Happy New Year!!! I hope all is going well at home.
This week was pretty interesting. It all started of with New Years. Let me tell you, it is a lot different in Peru. One tradition, which is kind of messed up, if you ask me, is that here in Iquitos every household makes a life size doll of themselves, and they stuff it with dried banana leaves. They dress it up, just like real life, and they give them names. Then, right at midnight, they set fire and burn them! At midnight, on New Years, the city was filled with life-sized human dolls on fire in the streets! Also, they LOVE fireworks. I had the "lovely" surprise of waking up to explosions right outside our window at midnight. Because we live on the third floor, we had a good show! Seriously, New Year's was crazy! Luckily we were in our home at night and not outside, because basically everyone was drunk, and they were wandering the streets playing with fire. The drunks love to approach the missionaries and mess around with the, so luckily we were inside.
This week we also have some good news! We are going to have another baptism on Saturday. Do you all remember the boy Alexandre, who was going to be baptized last November? Well, upon explaining his situation better to the President, we were given permission to baptize him! We gave him the good news, and he was so happy. His smile was so genuine! We committed him to keep reading his Book of Mormon up to his baptism. He's so excited. It's pretty great to see!
In other news this week, my companion and I were walking down the road when we got hit with a jungle storm! It started raining out of nowhere! Basically, we were swimming to our appointments! Funny, huh... not quite! But, the miraculous part of all of it was my scriptures didn't get wet at all, SOMEHOW! So, that's really good news!
We are also finding some new families. We found this one sister named Yoli. She invited us in to chat. We went in and she introduced us to her husband and three children, one of whom has a mental disease. We decided to teach them the Plan of Salvation. We testified to them that upon following the gospel of Jesus Christ, they can be together as a family forever. We also testified that they can be resurrected in a perfect form. The mom started crying and told us that she wants that so badly! Seriously, the people here are prepared to hear the gospel!
That's about it for this week. I'm having a great time, and I am learning a bunch.
Que la fuerza les acompane! (May the Force be with you)
Elder Neves
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