Another week in Peru 2/17/14

Dear Family and Friends,

Changing areas is always hard. Something my new companion taught me is that the grieving process is necessary. We cant just always pretend like nothing happened. When I left my old area, I felt like I left my family behind. I know this ward will become my new family. I already feel like I have a few brothers and sisters here. One thing she told me was how when Jesus heard that Lazurus had died, he cried. He cried even though he knew he was going to go and resurrect him. I think many of you probablly have heard this before, but it was something really I had forgotten and touched me.

One thing that I am consistently impressed with is the ability that God has to bless the work despite our inabilities and the oposing forces of the world.

Last week there was a mob of about 1000 people who came past our street and were crashing windows, robbing houses, and spray painting everything. It was something like around 1 in the afternoon and we had just left our house to go have lunch at the house of our pension. Nothing happened to our house and nothing happened to us. But we heard the noise. Later everyone was asking us if we were okay and was telling us what had happened. Apparently there had been a really big soccer game the day before and they were all fans of the same soccer team.

This month is also the month of Carnival. So everyone throws water on everyone. They havent gotten me yet, but they have gotten my companion. I tried to warn her.. but it was too late... haha. She just kept walking. The sun is super hot so it is a little bit refreshing. I was a little bit jealous, not going to lie.

As I have been talking with the members and other missionaries, I heard of something that happened that I never knew about before. The name of the "pueblo" passed me, but everyone here in Peru remembers them. There was a small group of people that lived in a valley that was nested inbetween some mountains, and built into the mountain was a dam. The mission President sent some missionaries to preach in this little village. The thing was that no one in this village listened to the missionaries. No one. One day the mission president felt an impression to call all the missionaries out of the area. They all had emergency transfers and left the same day. The next day, a traveling carnival came to town. They set themselves up on the mountain, and all the children of the village went to play at the carnival. While all the children were up on the mountain, the dam broke, and wiped out the village killing all the people who were in the valley. All the kids were left without parents.
Everyone in Peru knows this tragic story, but only the Mormons know about what happened with the missionaries. I learn two things from this.
1) God will always warn a people before destroying them. Always. And he is merciful to the innocent. 2) Obedience. Immediately. Can you imagine what would have happened if the missionaries took another day to say their goodbyes and pack up? We should always listen to the inspired leaders of the church. I know they are called of God.


I love you all and hope that you are all finding the people for the missionaries to teach! =)

Love always,
Hermana Bendixen