I felt prompted to share a little story from this last week with you all. My companion and I had just recieved a new referral (person who wants the missionaries to visit) but it was extremely far away in our area. That didn't stop us from going though, and a 45 minute bus ride later we were in the middle of nowhere. When we got to the address we discovered that nobody was home. We decided to head back to the main part of our area thinking we had wasted most of the morning. We were waiting for our bus in the station when a woman walked up to us and asked if we had the Priesthood and if we could give a blessing to her mom in the hospital. We replied that we did have the Priesthood and would love to go give her mom a blessing.
It turns out that the lady who talked to us in the station was a
less active member of the church and had been praying to find someone
from the church who could give a blessing to her mom, when all of a
sudden she saw us standing there. If that isn't a miracle than I don't
know what is. We were in a place that we never normally are, and just
happened to be there at the precise moment that she was praying to find
us. I know that the Lord directs this work.
I have experienced many events like that described above, and I
will never be able to deny that they were miracles. How amazing it is
that because of a loving Heavenly Father, the Gospel, along with the
Priesthood, have been restored to the earth and can be found in the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I hope you all have a
great week. Love you all!
Elder Cherpeski
Hey everyone! Things have been going great here! Here are a couple of
the things we've been up to. We found 5 new investigators this week, and
a couple of them seem really prepared so we're excited to start working
with them. My comp lost his voice this for 3 days this week, so I had
to do all the contacting and talking during lessons and the comida with
members. I thought it went alright, and was a lot of good practice for
if I train next cambio. We got invited over to Thanksgiving by an
American family in the ward, but we already have a comida scheduled for
that day so it looks like we'll be eating twice that day haha. I keep
waiting for it to cool down here, but it's still hot and sunny everyday.
This week went by really fast, and I think this week will be even
faster!
This morning, we went as a zone to the Festival de los Globos (hot air balloons). It was a great time even though we had to wake up at 4:30 haha. Sometimes we don't truly appreciate the beauty in nature. I hope you all have a great week!
11/26/2017
It's too bad to hear about Peggy, but I'm sure she's in a much better place now. That is such an Andrew thing to say haha! How are my bros Connor and Andrew doing? Andrew writes me weekly, but Connor is about 3 times every 7 months haha, and doesn't respond to me often haha. But it's all good, I didn't really use email weekly until the mission. The missionaries here had been going to a park on the edge of our area to do all the contacting. Every day. It's a great place to contact, but does absolutely nothing helping us find people to teach. Everyone passing through the park isn't from our area. When I got here there was absolutely nobody to even visit, as far as potential investigators goes. They also had been spending a lot of time just hanging out with members. Needless to say I changed things up. Now we contact a lot more houses. At first my comp dragged his heels, but after we found 14 new investigators in just a couple weeks just from knocking doors he's a little more willing now. We also don't go to chill with members. We visit some every once in a while, share a message, ask for references, see if they need help with anything, and then leave. The area is in a lot better shape now than a couple months ago, and we actually have a baptism date now for the 16th of december. I think the area is just gonna keep getting better and better. When I was in divisions with the zone leaders, we found an American lady who seems very prepared to receive the gospel from knocking on her door. We were just heading home and Elder Rios felt that we should knock some doors real quick. We both were drawn to the same house, and out came a lady from North Carolina who said her best friend in high school was Mormon and that she's been to church a bunch of times. It's gonna be fun teaching in English haha! Love you dad!
12/8/2017
Hey everyone,
12/11/2017
I think I forgot to answer your question about the Mexico desserts last week. I really haven't had too many that I like. However, I had dessert tamales the other day, and they were amazing! Mine was guayaba flavored I think, and really tasty! Also some of the hot chocolate I've had was really good as well! And I'm currently sitting about 5 minutes away from the arch with the lion that he was telling you about. I got your package as well, but haven't opened it yet. I wasn't sure if I had to wait till Christmas. So is it ok to open it today? Hopefully the new Star Wars turns out good. We had that piano concert, and it went pretty well. Over 1000 people showed up, so that's something. I'll send you guys some videos in a bit here. So as far as the details for a skype call goes, you guys need to make an account if you don't have one, and send it to me by next Monday. I'll be calling on the 24th instead of the 25th since I'll be in Querétaro all day. I'm not sure at exactly what time, but next Monday I'll give you that information. It'll probably be in the evening maybe 4 or 5 your time. It's going to be nice seeing you guys and talking normally and not through email haha. It finally cooled down this week, and it's been chilly at night. I bet it'll be back to normally in a few weeks here haha. I hope you guys have a great week, and do lots of service and all that fun stuff. Love you mom!
Hey everyone! I hope you're all doing well! It's hard to think that next week is Christmas. It still feels like summer here haha. During this time of the year it's more important than ever to remember the life of Jesus Christ.
I read a talk by Elder Bednar a couple weeks ago that has changed
the way I see everything. It's about the tender mercies of the Lord.
Since that talk, I have seen countless miracles that previously I would
have written off. One example was that our fridge one day stopped
working. Everything had started to melt, there was no sound, and it
look dead. We thought we were gonna have to get it replaced, but the
next morning everything was working just fine and it has continued to
work great! Another was when we got invited to have breakfast with a
senior missionary couple. It was near the end of the month and all the
food I had left was pancake mix, so I had been eating a lot of
pancakes. When we got there the sister apologized for not making
pancakes and told us she had made omelets. That was definitely a tender
mercy haha. There are too many stories to write, but it suffices to say
that tender mercies have been overflowing my life, and I didn't realize
it until I started to look. I love you all and hope that you have a
great week! Cuidense mucho!
Elder Cherpeski
11/19/2017
Here, the goal is 12 new investigators per week to be able to baptize weekly. But nobody baptizes weekly. I'm happy if we find 4 nuevos per week. This area is so much bigger. In my last area we were in charge of 6 colonias (neighborhoods), and this area has 64. Yet, it's actually been a lot harder here. I think if I train here, we will have a bit more success. This area had gotten into some bad finding habits that I've been trying to break, but I can't completely change things until I get a new comp haha. But it's all good, we're still working hard, and hopefully the blessings will keep on coming. Tomorrow is our zone conference, and I'm looking forward to recieving some more instructions. This week was kind of crazy. I went to Queretaro for a day for the training and while I was gone, my comp checked himself into the hospital (with permission) because he had broncitis. He's doing better now, but it made things really complicated for a couple days. Everything is back to normal now though. I hope you have a great week, and keep it up with the Duolingo!
11/20/2017
11/19/2017
Here, the goal is 12 new investigators per week to be able to baptize weekly. But nobody baptizes weekly. I'm happy if we find 4 nuevos per week. This area is so much bigger. In my last area we were in charge of 6 colonias (neighborhoods), and this area has 64. Yet, it's actually been a lot harder here. I think if I train here, we will have a bit more success. This area had gotten into some bad finding habits that I've been trying to break, but I can't completely change things until I get a new comp haha. But it's all good, we're still working hard, and hopefully the blessings will keep on coming. Tomorrow is our zone conference, and I'm looking forward to recieving some more instructions. This week was kind of crazy. I went to Queretaro for a day for the training and while I was gone, my comp checked himself into the hospital (with permission) because he had broncitis. He's doing better now, but it made things really complicated for a couple days. Everything is back to normal now though. I hope you have a great week, and keep it up with the Duolingo!
Love,
Elder Cherpeski
11/20/2017
This morning, we went as a zone to the Festival de los Globos (hot air balloons). It was a great time even though we had to wake up at 4:30 haha. Sometimes we don't truly appreciate the beauty in nature. I hope you all have a great week!
11/26/2017
It's too bad to hear about Peggy, but I'm sure she's in a much better place now. That is such an Andrew thing to say haha! How are my bros Connor and Andrew doing? Andrew writes me weekly, but Connor is about 3 times every 7 months haha, and doesn't respond to me often haha. But it's all good, I didn't really use email weekly until the mission. The missionaries here had been going to a park on the edge of our area to do all the contacting. Every day. It's a great place to contact, but does absolutely nothing helping us find people to teach. Everyone passing through the park isn't from our area. When I got here there was absolutely nobody to even visit, as far as potential investigators goes. They also had been spending a lot of time just hanging out with members. Needless to say I changed things up. Now we contact a lot more houses. At first my comp dragged his heels, but after we found 14 new investigators in just a couple weeks just from knocking doors he's a little more willing now. We also don't go to chill with members. We visit some every once in a while, share a message, ask for references, see if they need help with anything, and then leave. The area is in a lot better shape now than a couple months ago, and we actually have a baptism date now for the 16th of december. I think the area is just gonna keep getting better and better. When I was in divisions with the zone leaders, we found an American lady who seems very prepared to receive the gospel from knocking on her door. We were just heading home and Elder Rios felt that we should knock some doors real quick. We both were drawn to the same house, and out came a lady from North Carolina who said her best friend in high school was Mormon and that she's been to church a bunch of times. It's gonna be fun teaching in English haha! Love you dad!
12/8/2017
Hey everyone,
I trust you're all doing well. Things have been going great here!
We're having a Christmas concert here in Leon this upcoming week. The
stake choir is going to sing, but some members of the Mormon Tabernacle
choir are going to come as well! They've been planning this concert for
months, and it's in a very nice place. It's called el foro de lago,
and everyone knows where it is. This week we spent most of our time
searching out and visiting less active members to invite them to the
concert. While a lot of the addresses were outdated and they didn't
live there anymore, we still found quite a few. One hermana said that
we were the first people from the church to visit her in her 6 months of
inactivity. She started crying and was very touched by our visit.
This week absolutely flew by. It felt like 2 days, and that's probably
because we were so busy. We've found 16 new investigators in the last
few weeks, so we've been busy teaching as well. We have a lot of people
who have a ton of potential, and now we just need to help them keep
progressing. Yesterday we went to a big public park and contacted for
about 3 hours with some other Elders. I think we contacted around 700
people or more. It was a lot of fun, but we missed the devotional, so
I'll have to listen to it some time.
The weather has cooled down a touch, but really not much. It's
going to be a shock when I go back to the states. I saw some public
notices warning about the "cold weather," and how to not get sick and to
stay bundled up. And there I was in short sleeves and sweating haha.
Sometimes I see people with coats when it's like 60 degrees haha. It's
pretty funny. The Spanish has definitely been improving, and I really
don't have any problems understanding now unless people use a weird word
that I've never heard before. For example the word "alacrán" means
scorpian. That word confused me for a while because there's another
word for scorpian, but now I have it down haha. Stuff like that. For
me now, I just want to improve my accent. The r's are the hardest, and
it's a very subtle but important part of the accent. Hopefully someday I
can nail them haha. We have changes in 2 weeks and I think my comp is
out of here. He has 3 changes here, and 2 of them with me. But we'll
see what happens. I want to train, and I think it would help me
progress the most. I trust whatever Presidente Williamson decides to do
though.
Well, if you have any specific questions feel free to ask, and I'll
answer them next week or today if I have time! Love you all, and enjoy
the Christmas season!
Elder Cherpeski
My Thanksgiving with the Garey family, and Elder Beus and his wife.
12/11/2017
I think I forgot to answer your question about the Mexico desserts last week. I really haven't had too many that I like. However, I had dessert tamales the other day, and they were amazing! Mine was guayaba flavored I think, and really tasty! Also some of the hot chocolate I've had was really good as well! And I'm currently sitting about 5 minutes away from the arch with the lion that he was telling you about. I got your package as well, but haven't opened it yet. I wasn't sure if I had to wait till Christmas. So is it ok to open it today? Hopefully the new Star Wars turns out good. We had that piano concert, and it went pretty well. Over 1000 people showed up, so that's something. I'll send you guys some videos in a bit here. So as far as the details for a skype call goes, you guys need to make an account if you don't have one, and send it to me by next Monday. I'll be calling on the 24th instead of the 25th since I'll be in Querétaro all day. I'm not sure at exactly what time, but next Monday I'll give you that information. It'll probably be in the evening maybe 4 or 5 your time. It's going to be nice seeing you guys and talking normally and not through email haha. It finally cooled down this week, and it's been chilly at night. I bet it'll be back to normally in a few weeks here haha. I hope you guys have a great week, and do lots of service and all that fun stuff. Love you mom!
Elder Cherpeski
12/18/2017
Hey everyone! I hope you're all doing well! It's hard to think that next week is Christmas. It still feels like summer here haha. During this time of the year it's more important than ever to remember the life of Jesus Christ.
John
3: 16 ¶ For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting
life.
17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
Jesus
Christ is the Light of this world. I invite each of you to try and
share some of His light with others in this season. Also, we had a
baptism this last week! Maria is super cool! Her mom joined the church
a year ago, but Maria wasn't interested. However, recently she started
coming to church again and decided to get baptized. It was a wonderful
service.
We
had tranfers and I'm going to be staying here in Leon, and I'm going to
be training! I get my son later today! I'm pretty excited/nervous. I
love you all, and I hope you have a wonderful Christmas!
p.s. I probably won't be writing next week, so I'll talk to you guys in 2018!
12/18/2017
Today, I went with some other elders to look at a HUUUGE catholic church
in my area. We were able to go look down into the crypts. It was very
eerie, and the room with la Virgen Maria made the hair on my neck stand
up. Really creepy. Anyways here's some pictures, I thought you might
like to see it.
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