Elder Eli Child in Peru Lima South: What a wonderful work!

I feel so happy, grateful, lucky, and blessed to be in the Lord's service! This is an incredible work, and we see miracles every day out here as we work to invite people to come unto Christ. A few of those:

Juan got a baptismal date! He's not grown up believing in Christ, and he's so excited to now center his life on that, and he is so motivated by wanting those blessings for his daughter as well. Where his daughter is at, there aren't missionaries, so the responsibility of teaching her about Christ and the Church has kind of fallen to him, as we're teaching him those same things. God works in mysterious ways, and He finds ways to work miracles for His children, no matter what part of the world they may be in.

This week we had an incredible mission-wide multi-zone. I was very impressed about how we need to treat Facebook as sacred ground when it's used for missionary work. We were helped on how to work more effectively through social media and to contact our referrals promptly; it's exciting to see how the work is going to continue to progress through more and more exciting methods. That multi-zone also included some rule adjustments that I think will be very helpful for our missionaries to stay more consecrated and focused on the work.

We had a visit with Travis this week, and I think the guy might be the most humble and repentant person I've ever met. His family are all diligent, very active members, but he's been a little bit off-track for a few years. He's now preparing to get his patriarchal blessing, get the Melchizedek Priesthood, and get out on a mission, and hearing just how strongly he wants to turn his life around gave me new understanding about the Savior's power to change lives. He's there for us, and no matter how far we've gone, His grace is sufficient for us to turn it around. I know that's true.

Stake Conference was yesterday! It was absolutely wonderful. The visiting Area Seventy at one point, completely impromptu, had the entire two zones of missionaries present go up to the front and sing Called to Serve, and the Spirit was palpable. I got to play the piano for the missionaries-only session of Conference, which was incredible in its own right. My testimony of the power of my calling and the importance of this work has been fortified immensely. I'm so grateful to be here.

I've been studying humility this week, and I've definitely been called to repentance; it's been awesome. Here's one interesting insight: We should never think of how good we need to be as a bar to clear. If there was a bar, the only one to clear it would be our Savior, and if we ever are thinking about how we've done "enough," our thoughts aren't focused in the right direction. Rather, what the Lord asks of us is our absolute everything, and our thoughts ought always to be focused on how we can give Him more. This doesn't mean we should be dissatisfied though. We can be overwhelmingly happy and content if we are progressing, instead of being impatient with our imperfections.

It snowed like 2 inches, and the entire city is shut down, and we aren't allowed to drive