Saksaywaman (say wa´man?)

Hola a todos,

Bienvenidos a mis amigos aquí que están leyendo esto. A veces tengo que ser más original, pero me escape a veces también. Pero espero que ustedes esteén bien.

This week, it´s been busy. I have been doing a lot of stuff with tramites and other things I have as the executive secretary, but we were still able to have a family home evening and do a couple contacts. There was a new investigator in the family home evening too, so that was cool. We also had a ward activity on Saturday, it went really well, sports, some games we organized and lunch. There were some non-members that came and lots of members were there too.

Question:

Speaking of Sacrament meeting, where do you attend?

We meet at the chapel that is quite a few blocks down the street. In the 7th bus stop. For reference, the office is in bus stop ¨Santa Ursula¨ which is one more block down from the 1st bus stop. We take a bus to get there each Sunday and whenever we go to work in our sector. It´s like 5-10 minutes in bus with an average of 7ish. Normally I´m standing, but I´m wanting to talk to people more. I haven´t yet, but we´ll see what happens.

Biggest things on my mind right now, seeing as how they´re the most recently done, are. I went to Saksaywaman with Elder Fawcett and more or less Elder Bever and Elder Yangali.

It was interesting. First, we had to do a couple things, (pick up Elder Yangali´s ID card and send a letter to Lima) and I forgot the papers that say that Elder Fawcett and I are Cusco citizens. (because people from Cusco go to many, many places here free!) So we had to go back for those and the others just went since they had theirs. Then we go and get there.

We check in at the gate, the person looks at our foreign ID cards (carnés de extranjería) and we show him the papers too that say we´re Cusco citizens. Says that everything is in order and to go ahead and pass on in. (now, to imagine, it´s like a Utah trail or just a trailhead. You pass the gate and walk in, then it´s really open and you can go on this path or that path or even that other one) And we get to a big fork in the road that joins a couple outside paths to a couple inside paths (more than one gate). And as we start walking towards where we see Elder Bever and Elder Yangali at, this guy stops us (he works there, badge and all) and asks which path we´re going to take. ¨This one we´re walking towards.¨ ¨Where´s your ticket?¨ Then I remember, oh yeah, just give him your carné because you´re a citizen here and you just need to verify that with the guy, then go on. He proceeds to look at it and says it´s not good, because it says it needs to say Cusco on it, but mine says Lima. (Because that´s where I got it) I say, oh yeah, that´s what this paper here says that I have, that I´m legal here in Cusco. He insists that it doesn´t say it on my carné, so I can´t pass. I try to explain that the paper is what says I´m a Cusco person. He refuses and since Elder Fawett had just kept walking on as he was talking to me, he called the police on his walkie-talkie. I get Elder Fawcett to stop and come back with me and we go to the gate we came in at, explain the situation, and they told us to go around another way and that they´d talk with the guy.

We then enjoyed ourselves and got some awesome pictures with llamas and really big stone walls that the Incas made. It was great.

I wish I could have this turn into a story of forgiveness for the guy that was stubborn, but as of yet, I´m still working on removing those bad feelings.

But I think I can turn it into a story of ¨Missionaries aren´t perfect either, so don´t sweat it, just do your best¨ or something similar. As well as that sometimes you need to take time to heal, I´ve already decided that I want to forgive him, and that´s the first step I think, but I´m human too. We all make mistakes and we´re all not perfect. I imagine now that he´s probably in the same thing as I am, having to heal a couple wounds that people have made to him. Especially seeing as Saturday there was a HUGE festival in the place we went to, and people probably didn´t make it easy on him. So he just got all crusty from them and has yet to put the healing balm on his wounds, or they´ve just been so bad that it takes a long time.

So yeah, I´m not perfect, you´re not perfect, he´s not perfect, we´re all not perfect! Only Christ is, and He´s told us to forgive one another, because He knows that´s how it needs to be.

So let´s all be more forgiving and understanding of one another.

Have a great week!

--

Hurrah for Israel!

~Elder Fincher