Flight to Peru 6/2/12

Dear Familia,

I made it to peru!! It is very different here but it is AWESOME. I still only have a thirty minute max and trying to get used to this new keyboard. haha. but I will do my best. My last week was good. an *investigator* we had, miguel, is gettin baptized. It was really a cool experience. My teacher shared the real story of what happened with him and him not being able to read. He promised him he would be able to read if his son read to him every night and by the time he was done he would be able to read. He was fluently reading by Alma 7 or something. Really cool. My other teacher also told us her conversion story. She has been a hard investigator because she is extremely catholic, but we finally got her to read from the book of mormon and pray. I had arranged a really cool arrangement of Creo en Cristo [I believe in Christ] for sacrament because they asked elder armstrong and i to do a musical number. We had it awesome but apparently you cant play and sing at the same time during sacrament [which makes sense] But we ended up just having sister mortenson play how its written, and sang unison, and split into parts like we practiced. It turned out probably better, because the spirit was really there. Which is always the best. I also played piano in priesthood and they will prob have me here in peru also. Love music. yesterday was pretty crazy, waking up at 2 and traveling all day long. I had bought a spanish and english BOM the night before just in case I could share some gospel with people on the way. I felt like I should write my testimony in it as we flew so I did. We ended up having a delayed flight for like an hour in miami (sorry dad I could have talked to you longer would I have known.) But on that flight I was already getting a taste of not being able to speak english haha. But The man that sat by me spoke english and was going a mission trip for his baptist organization, just to visit with people and do service. I decided I wouldn´t bring up our church until the end of the flight. But we talked religion at the begining a little too and about Christ. He doesn´t really have a religion but just considers himself a christian. He seemed really spiritual. Finally about mid way through the flight he asked me what we thought of the BOM. I told him about Joseph smith and how it came to be and a lot of what we believe. He was set on the fact that the bible has everything we need. This is true, but the BOM just presents it so much more clearly. Anyways I taught him on the plane, and told him what the book of mormon was about. What it all came down to was I told him he would only know if it is the word of God if he read it and prayed about it. At first he didn´t accept the book, but i told him i really wanted him to have it and I wrote some chapters I thought would be good to read and he committed to reading and praying about it. I told him to do it all with sincerity, especially when praying about it and no matter what answer he gets, to follow that answer. He also told me about his beliefs, and everything he was saying was true, All religions have some truth, we just have the full truth. I was surprised how similar his belief was to ours. We talked about the spirit and he has definitely felt the spirit. He admitted it was the spirit that prompted him to ask me about the book of mormon. I thought that was really cool. I wish i would have asked him why the spirit did that. I know it is because the spirit testifies of truth and wanted him to receive it. But I am worried he thought it was to try and prove me wrong or something haha. I´m not sure. But I really believe he is going to read and pray about it and research more about the church. I gave him lds.org and mormon.org so he could get our doctrine rather than others speculations. We were pretty much friends by the end of the flight and I really wanted the best for him. It turns out the woman on the other side of me was a missionary for the catholic church. So interesting how that all worked out haha. 3 missionaries and 3 different churches all sitting by each other. Today has been a really chill day in Peru. The MTC here is nicer than I expected. My companion doesn´t speak hardly any english. Which is way good for me. He seems cool though. Rachels email is like zitterdoodle at Gmail.com or something, check my email for it. I only have 3 minutes left, but I miss you all and loved hearing your voices last night. Tell max I love him too. Have a great week! Elder Hurley