A Bible, A Bible, We Have Got a Bible and We Need No More Bible

Church. In Peru. Always an adventure... even more so today than most Sundays.

In Sunday school we studied 1 Nephi 19-21 and were talking about how Nephi was commanded to make the two sets of plates to keep the record on and what not. Miguel is our awesome teacher who knows his stuff and does a great job teaching the lessons.

I was following along with the lesson pretty well until… the arguments broke out. (when Peruvians, and most other people I suppose, get riled up, they speak much quicker making it hard to follow). The high councilman (our 24ish year old single friend) and our Relief Society President started going at it! I couldn’t tell what they were arguing about, but other members were piping in their two cents as well. By this point, Miguel had kind of given up. He seemed to be in shock and a bit disgusted with his class.

Turns out that they were arguing over the importance of the Book Of Mormon!! Our Relief Society President straight up said that she has the bible and that’s all she reads because it’s all she needs. She says the Book of Mormon is a nice book, but she doesn’t read it. And guess what? A lot of the members were right there with her! Our high councilman beautifully explained what was taught by Tad R. Callister last General Conference with the dots on the chalk board. He explained that with just the bible there are endless amounts of interpretations, but when paired side by side with the Book Of Mormon, there is only one possible straight line of truth. I also heard the 8^th article of faith thrown out there and a couple of good scriptures that supported our cause.

But Ooof. Talk about crazy!

Afterwards in Relief Society, the RS President (Hermana Sephora) got up and said somethings that I didn’t quite understand. But then an AMAZING young sister in our ward (26ish years old, R.M. and Single… seriously boys, why have you not snatched this woman up??) got up and bore sweet witness of the Book Of Mormon. She is one of the fastest speakers in the ward, but her words spoke right to my heart and I knew that what she was saying was true.

So it seems that our ward is struggling a bit. Not to mention that we don’t really have a Bishop, because over a year ago he was called to be the Stake President and nobody has accepted the calling to be the bishop since then… and this man had a baby two days ago….

We've Got Work to Do!

So pray for our little Banos ward…there Is work to be done!

On a brighter note, the sister missionaries have asked us to come teach investigators with them! How cool is that? They just want one of us at a time, so on Thurxday I will be a mini- missionary and I’m rather excited to see how that all works out here!

I also have a new friend (27 year old, single, non-member Esthel) who we met on a bus ride home. I have a really good feeling about her and if I ever see her again (which I intend on making happen) I will invite her to church and ask her if she’d like to take the discussions in my home. That’s my plan, how cool would that be?!?

Ahhh…. In other news, I love Peru and I love life!

-Elia