Letter from June 18

This past we had a baptism!  Erika was baptized and confirmed this weekend and as always it was a great experience to witness her baptism.  I don’t think I have told you, but her parents passed away many years ago when she was just a little baby in an accident.  She lives in a village a little outside of Cerro de Pasco with her brothers and sisters and her uncle.  She has been attending church and seminary for 4 weeks straight without missing a single day!  Her uncle wants to be baptized as well, so we are hoping that everything goes well so that he can be baptized this coming weekend.  He has all the desire to do it. We just want to make sure that he is well prepared, because there are a lot of inactive members here.  It’s one of the big challenges in Perú.  I also had a one of the happiest experiences of my entire mission this week. We were here in Cerro de Pasco at a medicine store, (because one of the missionaries was a little sick). As we were standing there I heard someone behind me say my name.  As I turned around I saw Samira, the girl that we baptized with Elder Conde in La Oroya.  You probably remember the family of Abraham, Dina, Catherine, Samira, and Sebastian, the ones that were married and baptized in December.  Well it was so great to see her, because it has been 6 months since they have been baptized.  We talked for a few minutes and she mentioned something that made me so happy.  She told me that since the day that I had left their family hasn’t missed a single day of church.  They have been completely faithful.  Abraham is preparing to receive the Melkesidek priesthood and Sebastian is now 8 years old. She said that their family still hasn’t baptized him because they want me to go to La Oroya to baptize him.  The good news is that it may be possible now because Cerro de Pasco is only a few hours from La Oroya. I will be talking with the President today to see if it will be possible.  During the conversation she also mentioned that they are preparing to be sealed in the temple and this next month they are planning on going to the temple again to do baptisms for the dead.  As a missionary that has to be the best thing that I can hear in the mission.  As I told you, a lot of people go inactive here, because the church isn´t quite as strong here as it is where we live, so as a missionary that is one of my biggest worries.  It really helped me to see that what we are doing as missionaries can have a huge affect on other people, and on their generations.

In other news I gave a talk in church yesterday. There were about 50 people there.  I can say that I am getting more comfortable up there giving talks, but maybe it was because the number of people was small.  The good news is that we are starting to excite the members more and they are starting to work more with us which is great!  I know we will be seeing more results with their help.  I love you all very much and appreciate your support.  Keep up the good work!

Elder Riggs