Nov 23 - Ayacucho

Hello All,

The baptism of Sister Susana was great! It was interesting because all three of us participated. My companion supported her neck and head, I held her legs down, and our mission leader baptized her. We put a chair in the font and sitting down, we sumerged her in the water and right back up. It was an interesting experience and definitely something that I will never forget!

Her faith that she has is soo amazing! After her baptism she bore her testimony and I could feel the spirit so strongly. We are now working on her son who is 15. He is a little tough to work with but little by little he is coming along. Susana will be a convert that I will never forget. Now in total I have had 20 baptisms in the mission!

I hope that you guys have a great thanksgiving! Here it doesn't exist, it is just another day of preaching the gospel haha. I'm looking forward to Christmas so that I can talk to you guys again. Until then, I send lots of love!

I love you soo much and a lot!

Elder Johnson Baby

Nov 16 - Ayacucho

Hello All,

This week we have the baptism of Sister Susana!! We are planning me carrying her down into the font and my companion saying the baptism prayer or vice versa. It will be interesting to see how it goes, but we have faith that everything will be great!

Her faith is amazing! She has two kids who are both a little difficult to deal with. They are not willing to bring her all of the way down to church and so she does it herself. She tells us that her son helps her out of the house and she does the rest. She wheels herself to the street, takes a taxi, and then we help her get out of the church. It is so humbling the faith of the people down here. I will definitely apply all that I have learned when I get back to become more faithful and humble in everything I do.

We also found a new investigator named Ruth Mendoza. She is great as well. She doesn't have any religious background and so she is willing to accept new ideas such as the restoration. We were teaching her and then all of the sudden she said she wants to be baptized. It is so uplifting to find people like that. When I put myself in their shoes I don't think I would accept the message. If two young adults came to our house and tried to preach to us, I think that I wouldn't accept it. What a blessing that we have to be in the church!

Send greetings to everyone. I love you all sooo much! and a lot!!

Elder Johnson Baby

Nov 9 - Ayacucho

Hello All,

This week has been great! We have the baptism of Susana all planned out for the 21st of November. She has been such a testimony builder for me to see her faith building. This week we walked in as her 14 year old son took her purse and some money and then left. She has two kids that are both rebels and don't obey her. Despite all of the trials that she is facing, she always reads her Book of Mormon and goes to church every Sunday. We will see how we can do her baptism, it will probably take 3 or 4 of us but we are excited for it! [She is in a wheelchair]

[We mentioned some of the summer youth activities like trek and asked if such things happen in Peru]
Here in Peru there is no thing such as trek, but they do FSY (EFY-Especially For Youth program). It is also interesting the focus on family history. The family history consultants of the ward are kids. This is because they know how to use the technology better than the adults. It is awesome to see the excitement of all the youth as they hasten the work of the temple!

I hope that all is going well for you guys! The time really is going by soo fast and next thing we know we will be watching replays of all the Survivor that I have missed haha! Until then, I love you soooo much and a lot!!

Elder Johnson Baby

Nov 2 - Ayacucho

Hello All,

This week has been awesome!

Yesterday we found a new investigator. His name is Edy and he is the brother of our mission leader. He talked with missionaries before but never progressed because he was into parties and alcohol. All of the sudden, he came to church and contacted us telling us that he wanted to change his life. We asked what was the motive behind this change and he told us that it was his mother. He wanted to change so that his mother would feel more secure. It just goes to show the influence that parents have on the life of kids. He is now working towards stopping drinking and has the goal to be baptized! What a blessing to be able to teach him.

Susana is also working well towards her baptism on the 21st of this month. It is amazing because she is in a wheelchair due to paralysis, but takes a taxi to get to church every Sunday. She sacrifices soo much to be able to keep the commandments of God. It just humbles me that before the mission I didn't have the desire to go and the church was 5 minutes away walking. The people here are so humble and truly disciples of christ. Such an amazing experience to be able to here with these people teaching them the gospel of Jesus Christ.

I hope that you guys are all doing well. It is crazy to hear all of the people that are going on missions [we mentioned that Mickel Wall just got her mission call]. It seems like the people who are leaving, last time I checked, were in young mens like 16 years old. It is also starting to dawn on me that I am going to be coming home very soon. The mission has passed by so fast and I have had such a great experience.

I love you guys sooo much and a lot.

Elder Johnson Baby

[I asked about whether or not he gets snow in his area since they are in the mountains]

I don't get any snow here haha. In the mountains we can see it but down in the valley where we are there is no snow. Christmas here is like 80 degrees and sunny haha just a bit ironic.