Deep dive into Hell

Feliz Año Nuevo a todo!!!!

Well, now it's 2026: the year that will be spent entirely on my mission! (The Blackout year, as they call it here.) It's crazy to think that next Christmas I'll still be somewhere here in Kentucky, but I'm so excited!!!

Adios amigos

On Tuesday, everyone found out their transfer info! Wow! Obviously me and Lopez are staying because of training, but half of our District are new people now! Crazy! And it gets a little crazier! Hermana Peterson is trio training her last transfer with the person she trained 2 transfers prior! And Elder Monson is also trio training as DL! So now every companionship in our District is training. Wild stuff!

I'm gonna miss Elder Reynolds, Elder Brown, and Hermana Hansen, but it's also been fun getting to meet Hermana Graham, Hermana Wright, Elder Bair, and Elder Jones!

Nochevieja (New Year's Eve)

New Year's Eve we had dinner with the Bobadillas yet again! It was kinda bittersweet since half the people were gonna be leaving. We had a lot of transfer journal signing. 

We also played a lot of fun spanish games! One of them is called "Vaso!" Where you put a cup in between 2 people and another person will call out at random times, "cabeza!" (Head) "hombros!" (Shoulders) "brazo!" (Arm). And whatever he calls out, you have to tap it "Head, shoulders, knees, and toes"-style. But at any point, he'll sneak in, "vaso!" (Cup) and then it's a race to see who can grab the cup first. It was really fun! There's videos in my album if you want to see it!

They sent us home with a cup full of 12 grapes because it's a common Mexican tradition to make 12 wishes, and then try to eat the 12 grapes in under a minute. If you can do it, your wishes will come true. If not, well... I guess you gotta find some new wishes. That's what I'm gonna have to do. (Those grapes were MASSIVE.)

El Infierno (hell)

Ok, so we have this amigo of ours who has been a Grey dot (stop teach) for a few months now. However, he still goes to church every Sunday and Noche de Hogar every week. He even likes to give our missionaries haircuts and is all around just a chill dude. So Hermana Lopez and I wanted to know what was stopping him from wanting to get baptized and learning more.

We very quickly found out why.

It's The Book of Mormon. You see, our friend (Josue) really really loves the Bible, enough that he can quote verses relating to our topic of choice right off the top of his head. 

So during our first lesson Josue had brought up something about Hell, and Hermana Lopez then acknowledged that we don't really believe in Hell. This shocked him and caused a bit more of a heated discussion. At one point he whipped out Mark 9:43, which talks about an eternal hell, and there began an awkward pause. Then Hermana Lopez said, "Well, the Bible wasn't completely translated correctly." I immediately was thinking that that was not the best thing to say to someone who really loves the Bible. And I was right, because then Josue was like, "Well maybe the BoM wasn't translated correctly!" So I stepped in before it got worse and said, "I'm sorry Josue, we need to study more on this topic." 

And so we did. That night, and during P-study the next day, I went into a DEEP DIVE about Hell. I looked through the topical guide and read as much scriptures, both in the BoM and Bible, about Hell as humanly possible. I know everything about Hell now. 

The next day, we had English Class. And Josue had a bit more time to talk after. Us both having come prepared with more scriptures, we went ham on each other. Josue was like, "You said you don't believe in Hell, but here are all these scriptures and stuff." And then we were like, "But a fair and just God wouldn't make a person suffer for eternity." And we threw more scriptures back at him.

Finally, what got him was when Hermana Lopez pulled up the Gospel Topics essay on Hell. He immediately was like, "Oh so you do believe in a Hell! Thank you!" 

He seriously just wanted to know that we believed in Hell. *face palms*

So we invited him to read it, and we figured our next lesson with him needs to be about the Plan of Salvation.

Just to clarify for the masses: we do believe in an eternal Hell, but most people will not be going there. That's for Satan and his followers. We don't have to go there because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. There is also a Spirit Prison, which is a place where many people go temporarily for the sins they haven't repented of during their life on Earth. Not eternally. God will never let his children suffer for eternity.

Fin

Anyways, yeah, we've had some good lessons this week too. And its been fun meeting the new people in our District! 

I hope you guys had a great New Year's! What are y'all's goals for this year?

Los amo!

Hermana Perkins