IF THERE'S NO SUNSHINE IN THE SKY YOU STILL GOT TO DO EVERYTHING YOU CAN TO HAVE SUNSHINE IN YOUR SOUL!

Hola hola familia y amigos,

HAPPY FATHERS DAY DAD!!!  It sounds like you had a good fathers day at home.  I hope you got some good apple pie haha.  Here we ate cake at the family Iglesia´s house to celebrate it. 

Well, this week had its obstacles.  First of all, it rained and rained and rained.  It started last Sunday and has rained on and off (mostly on)  every day since.  But yesterday and today it's just rained the whole day without stopping.  But I´m ok with it.  I have patience and we can still work alright with rain or no rain.  Yes, it slows things down a bit and makes it A LOT harder to bring investigators to church but it's all good.  If there´s no sunshine in the sky you still got to do everything you can to have sunshine in the soul! :).  

This week was also tough because it looks like our investigator, Pablo, may not be able to progress and follow through with his baptism.  Yes, he still wants to get baptized but we talked to him last week and after his uncle found out that he was going to get baptized he´s been impeding him from going to church. He said that even though he's twenty years old he is still living under his roof and by his rules and he prohibited Pablo from getting baptized.  We were just going to do it without telling the uncle but now he told  Pablo that he doesn't want us to come to the house anymore and he doesn't want him to go to church anymore.  And although Pablo is really sad about it, he is submisive and obedient to his uncle and aunt although  they have him always working like cinderella and hit him sometimes.  It really makes me sad but he said he was going to try to convince them to at least let him go to  church again but we will see how that goes. 

As far as things go with Karina, she stills has no permission for baptism and is still ¨grounded¨ by her parents so we did not see her at all last week and she was not able to go to church on Sunday.  But we are kind of in the dark on how things are with her but we are supposed to have a visit with her tonight so we will see how that goes.  And all the new people we found last week that we thought were solid, didn't come to church (probably due to the rain) but we will find out what happened with them this week.  And on top of it all, I wasn't really working in my own sector too much this week because I had to go on divisions with other missionaries in other pueblos 3 times this week to do five baptismal interviews.  Even though it took me away from my sector for most of the week, I was more than fine with it because the five baptismal interviews were all for my district and just interviewing the people and seeing their excitement for baptism and the excitement of the missionaries in my district really cheered me up. 

The one thing that has kept me from getting down this last week is Raquel.  She is getting baptized this Saturday no matter what and she is way excited to do it.  Her excitement and her spirit have really helped me to keep my animo up even when it seems like almost everything else is going wrong.  Also, we have two other investigators that we've had for a while but are starting to progress faster.  They still have a ways to go til baptism but I think we might be able to get them in the water before the cambio ends :).  But I´ll keep you updated on them.  

Also, yesterday we were able to bring the sacrament to the home of the man diagnosed with stomach cancer.  He is doing better and we were able to bring him the sacrament in the hospital yesterday so that made me feel good.  We were also able to bring the sacrament to Irma in her house yesterday.  Before she was baptized it was already really hard for her to go to church because her husband is rarely there and she has to take care of her handicapped son but since her comfirmation, it seems like her husband has now completely abandoned her.  She hasn't been able to come to church since her comfirmation and she has seen her husband like twice in the last two months and only for a day each time.  So she's basically trapped in her house taking care of her kid and is only able to leave to buy food and essentials on the corner store next to her house. Due to this, she's kind of sunk into a depression but she is continuing with her reading and prayers and knows that she has been blessed by God to receive His restored gospel in her life and she was overjoyed to receive the sacrament from us yesterday.  

Well, thats about all I got for this week.  Oh, and yes, I have both yours and grandmas packages and I´m excited to open them both tomorrow.  My first birthday in the mission.  Wow, the time really does fly by here.  It flies by way too fast.  Well thank you all for the birthday wishes and everything, it should be good because we have interviews with the president tomorrow.  And I´m sure that next week's email will be better and cheerier because the rain should be letting up but even if it doesn't, we will still have a baptism next Saturday :).   Ok well I love you all and have a good week.  Oh and have fun in Peru Abbie!!!  Be safe and good luck with the spanish!  Oh and have fun there with the soccer world cup craze.  Chile won their game today and everyone was going crazy jaja.  Ok now 

I´m done.  Chao!!!

Con cariño, Élder Harper :)