It’s been awhile and WOW a lot has happened (También - Me Voy por los Estados)

Sorry for not writing this group email in so long!! You’ll see why throughout this email because yeah it’s been pretty crazy.

Okay so starting from 2 weeks back: We finally moved apartments!! After staring at that falling ceiling for 4 months and stuttering our steps trying to write down every “for rent” sign we passed by they moved us into a 4th floor apartment that feels like a MANSION (even though it just has 3 rooms, a bathroom, a kitchen, and a living room). We may be living with literally every spider in Perú in there but it’s all good, just helps me conquer the fear of spiders.

Last Sunday everything went CRAZY. We were looking for a particular family that we had an appointment with (literally searching for them in a market) when we realized that almost all the streets are empty except for the markets which are PACKED, then a member who speaks English ran up to us and told us that the US is entering into a state of emergency, quoted Donald Trump for a good 5 minutes, then told us the President of Perú is starting a quarantine for at least 15 days. About an hour later we got a message from Hermana Strong telling us to drop everything and print off a list of groceries that they sent us (included in another email) and then go buy it all immediately (on a SUNDAY). We went to the one super market there is in our entire zone called “Precio-Uno” and it was like a war zone or an apocalypse movie. Then we got a message telling us to go straight to our homes right after we bought our groceries for safety and from there they finally told us that we are entering into quarantine!

From there we’ve been in quarantine this whole time, only leaving to eat lunch at our pension and MAYBE visit a member of the church or a super reliable appointment - one of which we got to visit an older married couple with whom we had extended a date to be baptized!!

Then, last night, we got a panicked call from our district leader telling us to write down TONS of numbers, and that we had to call them and that the mission president is going to call the entire mission right then. In which, he told us that sadly, all of the foreign missionaries (me, as I’m foreign to Perú), will be returning to their own countries, spend 2 weeks in quarantine in their own houses, and then be reassigned to finish their missions in the U.S.

I know, HUGE turn of events in just this little time. I’m quite honestly still not sure what to think but I am extremely sad that I have to say goodbye to all the people I’ve come to know and have helped come closer to their Heavenly Father. Of course I wish I could have more time here, and if it had been possible to spend my entire mission here, but nevertheless I know that God has called me to serve here for this time, and that my mission in the US will STILL be the mission that he has called me to serve in from that time on. I’m excited for all that’s waiting for me in the future, and extremely grateful for the experience I’ve had here and the progress I’ve made. All this does is help me and everyone trust more in Him and His plan for us!

Always remember that He loves each and every one of you. That He knows you individually and personally, more than anyone else possibly ever could - even yourself. I know everything is pretty confusing and crazy right now but as long as we remember it’s all in His hands and continue in faithfulness, we will experience His promised blessings of peace and joy in this life, and the life the come. I love you all!

Elder Pollock

Elder Pollock, How do you know the church is true?

So Elder Pollock, How do you know the Church is true?


That is a FANTASTIC question. Okay so it all started when I was born. Nah mentiras - pero tenemos un miembro que hizo eso en un noche de hogar y Elder Mamani escribió en su agenda ¨HELP ME¨ to have me end it which was fun. Anyways, testimony time:

I can definitely say now that I know this church is true. (I´m going to go on a little bit of a funky trip here about some truth and SO sorry if it´s a little confusing)

As you already know I was raised in the church, or as I like to say I was raised in the knowledge of the truth. And I don ́t say that meaning that I´ve known that it´s all true since mi juventud, rather that I am really grateful that I was raised in the church so I can have all the knowledge and experience in it I have now. The only way that anyone can for a surety that something is true is from the very source of truth itself, that being God. All that is truth in this world comes from Him. All of the laws of science come from him. All material has been proved in the creation to obey these laws of science, or rather these laws set by God, and will continue to obey him forever as they have already seen their period of testing. The question is, how do WE know about these laws that they obey? Well, over a ridiculous period of time we have been on this Earth and we are a curious people, and so, we conduct EXPERIMENTS. Through time and trials we have repeated these experiments and have continually tested until we came to the knowledge of these laws, the knowledge of these truths set for all material to follow.

We do the EXACT same in order to find out for ourselves the truths of the gospel. Even as Alma invited the poor and lowly in heart among the Zoramites: But behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than ^adesire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words. (Alma 32:27)

  

This experiment can be a little difficult for people, it was a little difficult for me, because the results aren´t the familiar physical change of color when chemicals are added to substances, but rather they come in a way that we can exercise our faith in Him. Feelings and thoughts. I personally would LOVE to have an angel appear right before me and pronounce that THESE THINGS ARE TRUE, and hey, if it happens I definitely wont be complaining, but I am satisfied with this: As I have lived the commandments of God, I have experienced the promised joy and peace, the promised blessings spiritually as well as temporally, and I know that they are good and of God because of these experiments. But what´s more, I´ve followed the invitation that we give to every single person who we meet. I have prayed to God, the source of all truth, and asked him about the truthfulness of this church. Honestly, I´m still trying to understand exactly how he speaks to me (as the prophet invited us in the recent video: How do we hear Him? Try to hear him 1. Stronger and 2. More frequently), but I can tell you that he has answered my prayers. He´s allowed me to know as I´ve testified to these people that these things are true by the testimony of the Holy Ghost. Those moments which I can only describe as a swelling of the heart, an indescribably peace and feeling of joy. I hope that you have been able to have them too. Also I´m well out of time but I hope that you have an AMAZING week and that maybe this little message will strengthen you even more. I know that we will have a real long time to lift each other up and strengthen each other :) Stay Safe please!!! I am constantly praying for you and I hope you´ve been able to feel the power of those prayers. Nos Esperamos Pronto!!

Elder Pollock

"Elder Chicken Party"

- Elder Pampa´s nickname for me that has become common tongue for my entire zone

Another awesome week as a missionary of Jesus Christ!

One night Elder Mamani and I were DEAD tired, and we found ourselves in a family home evening with a recently reactivated member family, after watching a few church videos and sharing a message it was already 9:10 PM - almost time to head home - and the family put on ¨Joseph Smith: The Prophet of the Restoration ̈ , which if we watched it would put us well over our time limit for visiting a family. We just decided to say a prayer, get up, and go out proselyting as we should even though it was really tempting to stay those last 20 minutes and watch, and within 2 minutes we found an old reference that we had been looking for the past 4 weeks! That truly showed my companion and I the importance of obedience in the mission!!

This week we extended a date for Mari-Luz to be baptized!! We were really excited, until 2 days afterwards we found out that she up and moved back with her other family. BUT she left us with a message to send the missionaries to her home over there so she can continue down the covenant path and that she´ll come back and attend church here next summer as well! Also on this front, our little zone of 16 Elders we already have 21 baptismal dates for the month of March!!

This week has been FULL of finding new people to teach for Elder Mamani and I, so much so that it´s felt like a whirlwind trying to keep up and visit them all! There is one in particular named Fred, a reference who we have been looking for the past 5 weeks with no success - UNTIL YESTERDAY! We were walking in between citas and Elder Mamani just had the prompting that we should pass by for him, and there he was! He told us that this entire time his intercom has been broken and that he´s been waiting for us this entire time and that he want´s to be married with his wife (a member) for all time and eternity and do all he can to reach that point. He has a TON of faith in Christ, he has already turned around his life from rock bottom and truly is a seeker of the truth, and we are so happy to finally guide him to it.

How are you all doing? Let me know if there´s anything that you all need or that I can pray for!

Elder Pollock (or as all the Elders here lovingly call me, Elder Chicken Party)

OH and how could I forget, WE WENT TO THE ZOO TODAY!! ACTUALLY NATURE - there is literally NO greenery here in San Martin and most of my mission and I missed it oh so much. Aquí tiene algunas fotos:

1. Thank you for the Valentine´s Day package fam!!

2. A ¨Brown Bear¨

3. Mi Compi y yo, disfrutando la naturaleza

4. REAL old part of a Book of Mormon in braille they found in the offices

5. We also found Dr. Pepper in a Supermarket near the offices (We went to the offices for E. Mamani´s visa). I was very excited!