Letter from April 9

Here in Peru they celebrate what is called Semana Santa, or the holy week, it was this past week.  It’s what the Catholic Church celebrates and its pretty big here. It’s a week to remember Jesus Christ and His life and sacrifice.

Well things are going amazing here in Huanuco. As i mentioned we finished up last month very well in the zone and President has just informed us that he will be sending 4 more missionaries to the zone, we will now have 18 missionaries here in Huanuco.  It’s going to be awesome!  As far as my area, it’s the best! We had the Baptism of Saul this past week.  He lives with his Aunt and Uncle, his uncle is an active member of the church.  Saul is 16 years old and was baptized on Saturday!  Now with the help of the bishop he should be receiving the priesthood soon!  Now we are going to work with his aunt that isn’t a member, because she came to baptism and it seemed like she really enjoyed it.  We will see how things go.  We also have been working with Evelin, she has been slower in accepting to be baptized, but I think this week will be her week.  If not this week, I’m positive it will be the next. A miracle also happened yesterday, it almost seems too good to be true. There is a lady that I have seen in church 3 or 4 times, and I  thought she was a member, but yesterday I felt that I should ask her.  Well to my great surprise she told me that she wasn’t a member.  We visited her later that night and she mentioned to us that she had been attending since 2010, but never was baptized.  Her daughter was baptized in 2010. We challenged her to be baptized April 22. She mentioned some of her doubts and worries, but accepted the date to be baptized.  She said that the missionaries have only come to her house one time in the two years that she has been attending. I was pretty excited about it, because this week we had very little time working in our area, but the Lord always provides!

This week was also a little weird because my companion left yesterday. He is heading to his house.  It was a little sad for me to see, because he was a great companion and taught me a lot.  I am going to take advantage of the time that I have left because as you all know it goes by very fast... Now I’m just awaiting the arrival of my new companion, I don’t know who it is, he should be getting here on Wednesday.  I hope you are all well!  Enjoy your week and keep me posted on how things are going.

Elder Riggs