Wow what a week. The week of Changes YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA... hahaha I left Pre Franco and that area. I am now in an area called Ytororó. It is on the opposite side of the country in Asuncion next to Argentina. The first week of changes as always is a little slow and boring. First you don´t know your comp, second you don´t know the area, you don´t know the people, and in my case this change… I had no money to buy food. Living off of crackers for 3 days........ What an experience...... especially in the Jungle hhahaha. No but it all turned out really good. We left from Cuidad Del Este at like 1 in the morning. I got on the bus and sat next to an Elder named Elder Beckett. He is from Roy and guess what?... He knows Ramsey... heheh small world eh.... but anyway we just talked most of the time on the bus because its nearly impossible to sleep because the guy who is driving the bus is a little drunk so he just weaves back and forth on the street.. Its like trying to sleep on a Disneyland ride. hahahaha but it all ended up good. We got to Asuncion at like 6 in the morning. We waited until 8 and there were a ton of missionaries there. I saw Hermana Hubbard and Elders Edwards and Marple. They were in my district in the MTC and they looked great. Its crazy because Elder Marple is Training..... WOW..... What a legit missionary. I met my comp there in the Terminal also. Elder Van Mondfrans. He is from the Salt Lake area and has about a year and a half in the mission. He is pretty cool. The first day was a little hard of course because we aren´t used to each other and so it was a little quiet. I guess something happened because we started talking about super smash brothers and we talked about that for about 5 hours.... I think we have something in common hahaha No but really he is a great missionary who loves the work. He is just a little bit more quiet than the companions I have had before so that will be a great adventure as well as a learning experience for me. The first 3 days we were together we walked and walked and walked and walked. Elder Van said that this was the most walking that he has done his entire mission. We went and tried to visit ALL the investigators that they had before which is like 7 or 8 every single day and none of them were home every single day. He told me that it was a test from God to see if we were going to keep working and doing our best to teach and find people and that it would pay off the next day. Finally we got some success when we met with these 2 girl references that we got from the ward and we invited them to be baptized. They were super awesome because they had a TON of questions. One thing that I’ve learned is usually when someone has a lot of questions it means that they are legitly interested in what you have to say and teach. We invited them to church but they said that they didn´t know if they would come because they were going to a 15 year old birthday party and it was going to be late when they got back and so they didn´t make any promises but it was ok. We also visited Jorge. A guy who has made HUGE changes in his life. Mostly with the word of wisdom. He has stopped drinking, smoking, and doing drugs in the last 3 months and is now coming to church. It’s been crazy to me to see the faith that this man has put in God. He is reading the Book of Mormon and praying to know if its true. I still don´t know why he hasn´t got his answer. That is our main focus this next week with him; to help him recognize his answer. We also have Benancio. He is dating a member’s daughter. He is a super legit 18 year old kid. He also has a ton of good questions. He is coming to church and praying with his girl friend’s family and it’s great to see his progress too. I think that he wants to believe the things we are teaching are true but he just needs to have that trial of his faith first. So this last week we did some service too. We went to dig something like a latrine or something like that. It had to be six feet wide and six feet deep and all we had were some crappy Paraguayan shovels. One had a handle of a tree limb that gave my hands a ton of blisters and the other didn´t even have a handle. We got down pretty deep with just those two things actually. About 4 and half feet. I was proud of myself but my hands sure did hurt from that stupid tree branch. It’s been really cool for me to see the way that Elder Van teaches. He really focuses on baptism and why it’s important. He will just come out and say that we have to have the authority of God to be baptized in the right way.. and if its not with the authority its not valid. It is a testimony to me; because before, I would be scared to say that to people, but because he is teaching with the spirit, the people understand him and know why its important. The ward here is pretty good too. We just got anew bishop put in. The ward has been without any really good leadership for about 4 months. To me its surprising that the ward has gotten along all by itself without any leadership. Elder Van said that since the bishop has been put in he has seen a new excitement in the members about the work in getting more people to come to church. The bishop has been giving us a lot of stuff to do with him in trying to get the ward better. I can´t wait until we can get this ward up to 100 people. It will be great to see the chapel full for once.
We had a FHE with the bishop´s family yesterday. It was all about having a change of heart, and that repentance shouldn´t be something that is easy. It should be something that hurts and takes time. If we don´t suffer and feel in our hearts that we truly want to change, then we haven´t repented. It was great to see that example because we all go through times like that in our lives were we think we can just change and everything will be ok. No its not like this.... we have to show to God that we are willing to give all that we have to him. We are willing to submit ourselves to His will by making a change of heart. By making our desire His desire. When we can gain this vision, to do what God wants us to do and repent to make ourselves what He wants. That is when we have a change of heart. It won´t be easy.... But it most definitely will be worth it.
I love you all and hope you have the spirit of the Lord with you in all things. I hope you all are striving to attain this change of heart so that we can all have more love for those that we are serving, even if we aren´t on a mission. May this holiday season bring peace and happiness to your soul.
les amo muchisimo.
Elder Beatty
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