Email 10-25-11

Yeah new companion, WHOOOOOOOOOOO party

My new companions name is Elder Rios and he is from Argentina.  I can't really remember what the name of the city was but it’s all good.  He is pretty cool he played on a volleyball team for his province before he left.  I guess that is kind of like a state or something like that.  So ya he was pretty professional back in the day.  But like all missionaries that was before we all gained our own personal guts.  Yes, yes I do admit I have kind of rounded out in the midsection but hey, what can a guy do when all you do is eat fried tortillas and manioca (a type of potato) all day.? :D

This last week I learned something really cool I think.  I have really been focusing on questions of the soul that can be answered with the scriptures.  I have learned that we have a choice between the liberty and love of the Lord or the captivity and power of the devil.  I have also learned that little children can't be persecuted for their sins because of how they do not have knowledge between the good or the evil.  This was the same with Adam and Eve while they were in the Garden.  They didn't know whether anything was good or bad.  We learn from the Book of Mormon that Adam being cast out was part of the plan of God.  Satan thought that he was going trick God but no, that is impossible. That is simply why when they partook of the tree of good or evil they were cast out only to fulfill the plan of God.  They were as little children not knowing good from evil.  It gets a little complicated from there but I hope you get the general idea.

This week has passed by really, really slow.  I'm not going to lie.  I do miss Elder Hewitt a lot.  We could just talk about anything anywhere at any time.  I do feel that we are going to be good friends after when I get back.  It’s crazy to think of the relationships that you can form here in the mission; not only with the people of Paraguay, but with the great young men that you get to serve with.  There is a lot I can learn from both my companions and the people.  It’s going to be a great adventure.  

This last week I have been focusing a lot on my faith.  Not just my faith in myself or in my speaking abilities or anything like that; but I have been focusing on my faith in that through God anything is possible.  He can get the people to church that need to come to church.  He can give an answer to someone looking for an answer.  It’s great to feel that warm comfy feeling the Holy Ghost can bring when we know that God is going to help us at whatever moment we are ready for Him.  But, first we have to live worthy to receive the spirit.  This last general conference I believe it was Elder Ballard or Elder Packer; they gave the many statements of "if" we do certain things then we can have the spirit.  Yes, what he says is true that "if" we stay true to our values we can receive more help and guidance from the Holy Ghost.  But for me, and probably maybe for a good majority of us, this is based on the knowledge that we have right now of the gospel.  These statements should no longer be "if" statements.  It should be a matter of "when".  We know what we need to do.  So why not just do it.

I love you all and hope you can have the spirit of the Lord with you this next week in your families and jobs and friends.  I wish you the best.

Les amo a mi familia, para siempre

-Elder Beatty

Pictures 10-25-11

Can you say "awesome" tie? haha

pictures 10-17-11

Email 10-17-11

That is so sad about Sam.  He was such a hard working guy and he knew the importance of family, but you know what?  It's true that we are blessed with knowledge beyond understanding.  Even though we don't have to understand all the deep doctrine of what is going on in the spirit world as long as we stick to what we know through the scriptures and the prophets we know that all will be well.  Sometimes we have missionaries here who get caught up in the deepest doctrine and worry about the stupidest things and it causes them to forget the simple doctrine that makes the gospel of Christ so beautiful.  Please give Uncle Dean and Aunt Marsha a hug for me.

(Presten was quite the story teller this week... some of his analogies really crack me up!)

Yay guess what? Elder Beatty just got his first baptism.  Whoot!! Party!!!  And yes,  it was a party!  Braulio Ramos was baptized.  He is a great guy and of course one of the best converts I have had so far :D  He was such a great learner and was ever eager to gain the knowledge that we were so eager to give him.  He was the best because we never had to drag him to the font.  From the beginning, when we asked him to be baptized he nodded and said “Yes, I will.”  From then on we led him hand in hand towards his first step to God.  What a great moment it was when he came out of the water and I could see the look on his face as he knew that he was clean.  As we climbed out of the font he asked me.  “How can I get that feeling again?”  I told him that he could have that feeling every week on Sunday when we partook of the sacrament.  A huge grin overtook his face as he tried to explain to me the feeling he had at that moment.  He was speechless.  As he stood there searching for words I put my hand on his shoulder and looked him in the eyes and told him that the feeling he has now, he can continually feel as long as he did all the things we had asked him to do.  Keep the commandments, come to church, etc.  

Not everything went off without a hitch.  You will notice the pictures of the melted bowl.  We attempted to make a cake for his baptism.  We forgot that we were making a cake in a plastic bowl over the top of an oven that was heating up.  After a while,  as I was mixing it all together I noticed that the bowl was sliding to one side. The bowl was melting to the top of the oven.  I thought, oh the bottom is melted; but I can just pull it up.  But as I pulled up the bowl the whole thing just fell right out alllll over the oven and floor. Great..... Me and Elder Hewitt just looked at each other and laughed.  It’s ok because we weren't going to eat any cake anyway.  We of course had other problems.  As we were prepping to get everyone to the baptism, the phone stopped working.  We couldn't get a hold of the bishop to buy empanadas for the baptism or get a hold of the ward mission leader.  We also could tell that Satan was at work the day before when we had Braulio's interview.  His sister who is very close to being asked to be baptized said that she wanted to come but can't because she has work.  We only told her every day for the last 3 weeks that his baptism was at this time, this day and she needed work off.  All she would say to us is that "Oh that’s way too far in the future I don't know if I have work."  Ahhh, then just ask for it off.  So we ended up changing the baptism to 2 hours earlier than it was planned and so not any members could come.  But it was actually really spiritual.  Braulio's sister and "special ed" brother could come.  She was crying during the baptism.  I hope it was tears of joy..........  But after all the stresss.... (I can see why missionaries come home with less hair) Elder Hewitt said that this was his easiest baptism.  AHHHH hahaha...

I also had to give a talk this last week and I thought I would just share some funny insight about what I was talking about.  I was giving a talk about hope.  If we have hope, we believe that God will fulfill His promises and that through faith AND hope we can receive blessings of the commandments and such.  I saw everyone was confused so I gave an example of the bus system here.  It is very, very unreliable. So I began that all of us have spent time waiting for a collectivo (bus) and sometimes it doesn't come and so what do we do?  We get mad.  But let’s say that the bus driver is God and the bus is blessings.  That bus is always going to come, we just have to be doing what we need to do to wait for it. I don't think that it helped out my talk very well.  I’m sure translates kind of funny.  (LOOK OUT! God is driving the bus and the blessings are COMING........ :D)

We have changes this week.  I am sure excited to get a new comp but still nervous as any guy would be.  It’s like when you’re planning on changing your toothpaste, you never really know what’s going to come out of the tube; but you sure hope it will make your teeth clean.  It most likely will, in some way or another.  Elder Hewitt and I have had a great run together.  He is a good missionary who has taught me to teach the people just being myself and to teach the needs.  It’s not worth it to baptized people only for the sake of getting a number. We baptize because it’s going to change people for the better.  We teach because it’s going to make us better teachers and its going to help the investigator understand what our purpose is.  Not to drag people to the font to brag about how many baptisms we get, not to become a leader and show off to people,  but to actually see the change in people in that they are happy in the choice that they made to be baptized.  Those are the people who will go to church no matter what happens.  It’s great to see this kind of change.  I have seen missionaries who are good missionaries but they think they are fulfilling our purpose in just purely baptizing people and never seeing them again.  We need to work hard enough so that the people know what they are doing. Knowing the importance of the steps they are taking towards God and eternal life.  We have used a good example of enduring to the end. Our first step is baptism.  That is like buying a house.  But if we don’t continue to go to church and keep the commandments it’s like buying that house and never doing anything with it.  You don't have water, light, beds, food, nothing.  You’re better off living in a tent in the Jungle.  

We all have taken that first step.  Some have taken more steps than others.  I hope that we are taking our steps with our eyes open and not blindly being dragged by someone.  The more we understand  what we are doing the more blessings we will notice that we receive and the happier we will be.

I love you all and hope you have the best in all you do.

-Elder Beatty

Email 10-10-11

Hello all I am sorry I haven't gotten back for a while I hope you all are doing well and I wish you the best.  I hope you like reading my emails because I have to be quite frank…  I like writing them (sometimes) :D

This last week we have been keeping busy finding good new investigators.  It’s hard sometimes when you get into the “people finding” mode.  It’s like the people can tell you are in “people finding” mode because they see you coming and for some reason they know you are going to come talk to them so; of course, they just book it in the opposite direction or something like that.  I haven't quite figured out how they do, but I will someday.  We have a funny one.  We were walking towards this guy and he saw us coming so instantly he began to observe a side view mirror on some random car to make sure that it functioned properly.  We walked up and asked him what was wrong with his car and he said that it wasn't his car.  Then we said ya we understand sometimes people don't want to talk to us it’s ok.  hehehe got ya!!  

We also have this other game that we have been playing lately.  So pretty much every girl in this country thinks she is hot stuff.  And all the guys seem to agree also.  So whenever there is a girl walking on the street it must be the rule of thumb that if you are a guy you have to check her out no matter how old she is, no matter how old you are and no matter how far away she is.  We; of course, can't look at the girls and so we look at the guys who are checking out the girls and we give them the face of disgust.  So yes; of course, after they are done looking at the girl, their attention goes to the two weird dudes walking around with white shirts and ties and what do they get?  The face of disgust!!  Of course they feel like idiots because we caught them looking at the girl in the wrong way.  HAHAH this is always good for a laugh or two when the sweat is starting to get into your head.  

Braulio is coming along great.  I love every time we come out of a lesson from his house with him and his sister.  They always tell us that whenever we talk to them and when they understand they feel this fire.  This love.  This peace that they never want to lose.  They are a special family that is not like the rest of the people here in Franco.  They have a Down syndrome brother who is probably about 45 years old.  He has prepared them; through his challenge, to accept the gospel.  Because of him, his brothers and sisters are more prone to feel the spirit.  They are more prone to love, they are patient and they are spiritual.

He has a baptism date set for this 15th we are really trying to get him to it and I think we will make it. This last Sunday we took him to church for the 3 hours.  He thought it was pretty long but it’s ok because everyone still thinks that sometimes.  We couldn't walk him back to his house and so the ward mission leader a man named Irala said he would ride the collectivo home with him.  We passed by Irala's house later that day to find out that Irala and Braulio had talked for almost 2 hours about the church. They had lunch, they watched a video about the testimonies of the 12 apostles.  Ya go Irala!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh ya we were walking from the bus stop before church with Braulio and he had his bracelet on which had a cross.  He asked us if he had to take it off.  We told him that it was up to him and that if it helped him feel the spirit more then he could keep it on, but we told him to listen to the spirit and do what it tells him to do because the spirit never lies.  Guess what?  He took it off just as we were getting ready to take the sacrament 2 hours later.  OHHHH YYAAAAAA!!!!!!  

This last week; as Elder Hewitt's time here in Paraguay is coming to a close, I have really had to step up to the plate.  It’s been a lot of fun going back to the way I was in my 3rd week when I was learning really fast.  I feel the same way now because I am doing a lot of the work, but I don't mind.  It is helping me grow and gain a new perspective on things that are here in the mission and how you will need to handle different situations with different companions.  We have been having a lot of trouble with the members lately.  There is a lot of drama that goes on and of course all the members think it’s the job of the missionaries to fix everything.  We have shut down a lot of people who want help with ward problems.  We tell them that we are only here to preach the gospel not to solve their personal problems.  That’s what the bishop is for.  So that’s been kind of rough. 

I have been thinking a lot about how we are all blessed to be here.  We often take for granted who we are, who we are blessed to have in our families, our talents that so often we forget to improve, our knowledge that we have of the simple truths of the gospel and the joy it can bring into our lives if we just  allow it to bring about this change of happiness.  The gospel is simple.  Have faith in Christ, use this faith to repent and be baptized, keep the commandments and endure to the end.  How easy is this?  We often times in the heat of the busyness of the day forget what true happiness is.  Prayer, repentance, family, the gospel, these are things that we can use to actually bring love into our lives and feel closer to God.  We don't need a fast car, a great business deal, lots of friends (but this is nice) hehe.  We have all that we need.  Our families and the gospel of Jesus Christ.

I love you all and hope you the best this coming week.

-Elder Beatty

Email 10-3-11

This is just a fast note to go out.  It’s a quote that I found by Elder Holland just giving people something to think about for this next week.  

Christ will run to you, and is running even now, if you will but receive the extended arm of His mercy.  

To those who stagger or stumble, He is there to steady and strengthen us.  In the end He is there to save us, and for all this, He gave His life.  However dim our days may seem, they have been a lot darker for the Savior of the world.  As a reminder of those days, Jesus has chosen, even in a resurrected, otherwise perfected body, to retain for the benefit to His disciples, the wounds in His hands and in His feet and in His side-- Signs, if you will, that painful things happen even to the pure and the perfect.  Signs, if you will, that pain in this world is not evidence that God doesn´t love you.  Signs, if you will that problems pass and happiness can be ours.  It is the wounded Christ who is the Captain of our souls, He who yet bears the scars of our forgiveness, the lesions of his love and humility, the torn flesh of obedience and sacrifice.  These wounds are the principal way we are to recognize Him when He comes.  He may invite us forward, as He has invited others, to see and to feel those marks.  

I hope you all enjoyed conference.  

I watched conference at the Stake center in Cuidad Del Este.  It was in Spanish so it hurt my head by the time I was done but I think I still got some good out of it.

Love you all and wish you the best.

-Elder Beatty

Email 9-26-11

Hey Everyone! 

I figure that it’s a good thing that I’m not keeping track of how many weeks I have been on the mission.  That can be a good thing, in that I’m not really preoccupied with time.  Ok a quick rundown with what has happened last week.  So we just finished with district meeting and Elder Tyler our district leader decided to do last minute exchanges.  WOW! Ok, so I had to run home and pack up a nights worth of stuff, I forgot a ton by the way, and then just run off and go do changes with Elder Lamb.  I guess it was a good thing that they didn't live too far away.  It went pretty well.  We placed; I think 3 baptismal dates and invites and I dropped cane on a drunken guy, who didn't want to change, for his wife to come back.  So all in all; besides not getting any sleep and forgetting all my stuff, it went well.  We passed by Pablo's house again and we talked about them getting married in order for them to be baptized.  They said that now, really wasn't the time for them to get married.  This is mostly due to the fact that Pablo really doesn't want to stay with this girl.  He only is, because he had a baby with her, and one of his old ex's is back and wants to get back together and ahhhh.  It’s hard sometimes because you know that they know that they need to baptized and change but when they don't want to it’s pretty crushing.  Oh well, we have prepared him for the missionary someday who will baptized him.  We found new people through a guy named Brajulio.  I guess that he was going to commit suicide and he just happened to pass by us on the street and we went to his house and taught about repentance and then he didn't.......... WOW!! how cool is that?  Anyway they have a date for the 15th of October.  I really hope we can get this baptism so Elder Hewitt can go out with a bang from his mission.  He really liked teaching them, so that all went good.  We were teaching them for about 1 hour, now let me explain… it’s hard for a Paraguayan to stay that focused for an hour.  They were doing the missionary lean towards us THE WHOLE TIME.   That was something awesome.  The spirit was super strong.  

I guess one cool thing that happened today was that we got on a bus to head further into our area and guess what? It was the wrong bus and we ended up about 15 miles in some other direction that we didn't want to go at all.  It was chill and kind of not chill, because when you’re on the busses here, you are pretty much scared for your life.  Oh well, that’s how it goes.  But it was cool getting to see some more of Paraguay and an area that I didn't know at all.  I guess tomorrow we have a cool conference in Asuncion so all the trainers and all the leaders have to go.  I'm excited because I should see Elder Marple, Varney, Edwards, and Hermana Hubbard there.  It will be good to see my old buddies from the MTC.  I forget how much I miss those Elders and Hermana and how much I pray for their success.  They have become like family to me here.

We have really been focusing this last week on finding people and it has been awesome.  I truly feel like a missionary now; because we are talking to EVERYONE.  I still get a little heart drop when we come up to someone but it’s been good for me and my language skills to have to talk to people.  It’s also good because we are starting to get to know people in an area and we can establish a foothold to start the missionary work in the area.  It’s actually been pretty fun when we make a competition to see who can talk to the most people.  Usually Elder Hewitt kills me though, just because he can talk better.  Don't worry, I’m getting there though.  I’m not gonna let a little competition throw me out of my groove.

I think one thing that I really want to talk about is the upcoming General Conference.  It’s been really great for me preparing for this coming conference.  I have been reading a lot of the conference issues of the Liahona.  Yes, in Spanish!  It’s helped me realize that these men and women have searched, prayed, and given much time to choosing the topics on which they are going to be giving to us.  One thing that I can give to you all as advice for this coming conference is that as you listen; if you really want to pay attention and be able to stay awake, as I will desire to do, listen to these people with the intent to do what they tell you to do.  I know it’s hard; believe me, I’m not gonna lie when I say that I was the most avid conference listener/snoozer before my mission.  We can ALWAYS search for that little bit of revelation that was given to that speaker just for us.  When we listen, we must listen as though it is God himself speaking to us because through the mouth of His disciples will come His will.  I will hope that I can have the opportunity to attend this General Conference as I listen to our prophets and leaders in the church and their words that can help us not only better ourselves in coming closer to God but to search for true happiness.  I love you all and hope the spirit of the Lord is with you.

Elder Beatty