I've returned to Huancayo! I'll certainly miss Huánuco and my old companion, Elder Moss. We had a ton of fun the month and a half we were together and saw some of the most memorable miracles in the work. He knew how to act according to the Spirit. Luckily, we're from the same group, so I´ll see him again. I left a lot of good friends back in Huánuco...I´ll send pictures.
The climate here changes so rapidly the best you can do is flip a coin in the morning to see if you should bundle up or wear a short sleeved shirt. The work appears good here. We're working with a Columbian family whose accent is almost as foreign as mine...it's like learning another language. In fact, when the little girl in the family first got here, she told her teacher she knew three languages: Columbian, Peruvian, and Spanish. We're also working with a young man who wants to get baptized after visiting the church once...we started teaching him after! His mother wants to return after being inactive for a long while.
I've pondered a lot this week on knowing Jesus Christ. Perfection is easy to dismiss as something lacking personality...we love the idea that our imperfections make us unique. Yet I doubt we could maintain that opinion were we one of the original apostles of Jesus. We would find, I believe, the very personality we've always longed to find- the combination of strength, sincerity, and love. Sometimes I catch a glimpse, and it transforms me. He is the example I would follow as far as it takes me. We hear the story of his suffering so much we build a barrier between it and our emotions, just as our favorite story loses some of its flavor after the hundredth time. I'm beating my fist on the barrier, on seeing the friend I've adored for so long beaten down in such knowing dignity, such endurance and determination. His apostles must have wanted to scream at the soldiers, tell them how quickly this man could destroy them all. It must have been too much for so many of them...I´m guessing the stress and worry took over Peter´s mind so much that he wasn't even thinking when he denied Him. The after-effect must have mentally crippled him, for he knew Jesus Christ, and he knew exactly how indescribable His personality was.
We ponder on the sadistic violence of that time and wonder on how they could do such a thing to Jesus. Yet that was their culture back then. Ours is one of sarcasm, mocking, and cynicism, and we seem to use it just as cruelly against Him. We curse in His name, parade comedies of Him on modern television, blaspheme and joke because those are our tools. We yet crucify Him. I think we send the spear in his side when we doubt His love or His wisdom in our suffering. As Elder Bednar taught in this last conference, "He may say to us, 'Ye never knew me in the last day', if we do not take steps to know Him in this life." I want to recognize and appreciate every aspect of His perfection at the end. I want to know Jesus Christ. In the name of Him, my perfect friend and brother, amen.
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| Elder Moss and Elder Burt |
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| Elder Burt with Carlos |
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| Elder Burt with Melvin |