Our Fabulous Fast Sunday

Today was our first Fast Sunday in Peru. It was awesome! Saturday afternoon we had a nice lunch of egg sandwiches and we broke our fast today with a nice pot of Almost Pasta Faju.

I woke up surprisingly early (6:50am) Sunday morning and I decided that since I had the time, I was going to try and look nice. So for the first time since I’ve been here, I broke out the curling iron and the blush and got to work. I listened to a John Bytheway talk (The Best Three Hours of the Week) while I got ready and church hymns were playing in the other room. The sun was shining and we even had time to walk (30 min) down the hill into Banos for church. 

I can't figure out how to turn the picture...sorry!

   Creeper SideNote: I was singing church hymns while we were walking to church and I was so caught up in what a great morning I was having that I almost didn’t notice the 3 creeper men who were driving super slowly beside us while we were walking. We said hello and I went back to singing my hymns, and the men kept driving right next to us calling to us and saying who knows what. It was rather unnerving and I wasn’t a fan…after a few silent prayers and what seemed like forever, the creepy men drove off and left us alone. But on the other hand.... we looked super cute, can you blame them? Just kidding :)

My mom made this dress for me before I left!

So we get to church and have a lovely meeting. The three of us had talked about whether or not we’d bear our testimonies and in what language we’d do so. We decided to make it a goal to be prepared to bear it by next month’s Testimony meeting. Well guess what. I have sort of a confession that you musn’t judge me for. I don’t believe I’ve ever borne my testimony in Sacrament meeting. Like ever. And if I have, I sure can’t remember it. Sure I’ve given dozens of talks that have all ended with my testimony and when I was Relief Society president I bore my testimony hundreds of times for different occasions. I’ve also done so at Girls Camps, Youth Conferences, small social settings etc. Just never during Fast and Testimony meeting. Weird huh? Last night I was trying to figure out why I hadn’t done so yet. I’m not terribly afraid of speaking in public, so that didn’t really add up.

But I did realize a subconscious fear I had. All those other occasions I had borne my testimony gave me something to base my testimony off of, a starting point for it if you will. So I knew how to start, what to testify of etc. I had always heard that your testimony shouldn’t be a “Thank-imony”, or a story time, or a confession, the list goes on and on. I think that I’ve always been afraid that if I did get up during Fast and Testimony meeting, I’d do one of the aforementioned “No-No’s” and be judged for it. Which isn’t a good excuse at all, but it’s the best I could come up with.

Well then it’s a good thing that my Spanish is still so basic that I couldn’t do any of those if I tried. All I know how to say are the basic, simple truths that I know to be true.

So, when there was an awkward lull (after the whole bishopric and both sets of missionaries had already gone), I hopped up and took my way to the stand. I bore my simple testimony and sat down. Not sure exactly what I had said, or if any of it made any sense, but I felt good. A little ironic that the first time I bore my testimony in Fast and Testimony meeting, and I didn’t even do it in my own language? Yes, definitely. But I think it was exactly what I needed. I was able to bear testimony of the basic, simple truths that I knew with all my heart to be true. Going home and bearing testimony in English sounds like a BREEEZE. I don’t think I’ll ever have a problem with that again.

As soon as I sat down, several others made their way to the stand and there wasn’t a single other awkward lull from that point on!

I had noticed that Miguel (who speaks English and Spanish) was smiling/laughing the whole time while I was up there, so I was anxious to ask him afterwards if what I said made any sense and why he was laughing.

He told me that he understood me perfectly and that I “spoke like a real Peruvian” and that he was smiling/laughing because he was in shock. He said he had no idea I could speak Spanish like that! That was pretty comforting to hear. Although I’m pretty positive that I didn’t speak perfectly.

Also, after church, the bishop asked if we’d like callings in the church. I told him that I’d love one…but I don’t really speak Spanish. He said, not to worry, we’ll put you with the ninos. Haha so stay tuned for updates on that. Also, the Relief Society President wants us to go visiting teaching. Awesome, no? I’m so excited for all of these and other recent developments that I simply don’t have time to write about now.

Ahhh such an awesome day. Doesn’t get much better than that.

Hope yours was too!

-Elia

Also, so I don’t forget I’ll try and remember what I said here. (Is it bad to do that?)

Buenas Dias Hermanos y Hermanos!
Mi espanol no es Bueno… pero quiero compartir con Uds las cosas de mi Corazon y yo se que puedo hacerlo con la ayuda del espiritu.

Creo en Dios, mi Padre Eterno y en su hijo JesuCristo. Yo se que JesuCristo es mi hermano y mi amigo. Yo se que me conoce. El sabe mi nombre y las ganas de mi corazon. Sabe cuando tengo miedo y cuando tengo gozo. 

Yo se que el Libro de Mormon es la palabra de dios y puedo estar cerca de Dios cuando lo leo.  Yo se  que mi familia puede estar juntos para siempre. Creo en el Espiritu Santo.
En el nombre de JesuCristo..Amen.

And I think that’s about the jist of it! Feel free to help with my grammar and sentence structure, because the people here are too nice to correct me when I say something wrong...so I'm afraid I'll never learn!