Email 7-30-12

How the Fire Department saved the baptism....

Hello all

I´m sorry but it’s going to be a short one.

WE HAD A BAPTISM!! So Epifanio got baptized this last week. I’ll tell you really fast because I don´t have a lot of time.

We met with him every day. He was super excited to get baptized and we met with him and everything and the interview went super well and everything was good. So when Saturday got there we called our ward mission leader to see if he was going to get everything ready and he said that we shouldn´t worry about a thing and that everything was going to be fine. Ok cool.

At 1 we had to go do an interview in another area for the District leader and that went well and the guy is super cool and was going to get baptized, all that jazz. We got back and we still had about 2 hours before we needed to go pick up our clothes and Epifanio.

We were trying to get a few lessons in when the ward mission leader called us. He said that he didn´t have the key to get into the baptism font. Oh dang we still need to fill the font and we only have 1 hour before the baptism dang!!!!!!!

He came and picked us up and we went and got our clothes and everything and sped over to the church. We got to the church and opened the door to a very lovely surprise. The water from the last baptism 4 months ago was still there and it was NASTY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What to do? We only had 1 hour to drain the font, clean it, and fill it back up again.

We turned on the pump to get the water out and it was going super super slow and so me and my comp grabbed 2 buckets and started scooping out the water bucket after bucket after bucket. We did that for 25 minutes without stopping and we got all the water out. We were sweating up a storm because we were flying as fast as we could.

We cleaned the font in 5 minutes and then we put in the hose to get the water coming in and we were like whoohooo the water is coming. But we looked and there was no way that we would have the font filled in 1 hour… let alone 3 days. The water was just trickling in. We were so scared. All the members were there and Epifanio was there and ahhhhhhhhhhh!!

What to do? What to do?..................... Who has water????????????? THE FIREMEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We called them and at first they thought it was a joke and so they didn´t come and so we called and called and finally they came and filled the font in 2 minutes and we had the baptism. It was awesome and everyone was happy. THE END

ROHAYHU

Elder Beatty

Email 7-23-12

Hello all,

Wow what a week. I don´t know where to begin. It’s amazing to me to think about all the trials and miracles that we have seen this last week. I just love seeing miracles. There is a feeling that we get every time we see the hand of Lord in my life. After every single miracle I have decided that it is a moment to remember. Those moments that can´t be explained. I just sit there and close my eyes. I soak in the feeling. The spirit, the heat, the smell, everything so that sometime when my life isn´t going so well I can look back in my mind’s eye and relive that moment. It has really helped me to see that my life is full of miracles and that even though the moment may be hard, in the end there is always a blessing and that moment when it feels that heaven is touching your heart and makes you want to fly. This last week was a good week of development for Epiphanio. We have been teaching every day for 10 to 15 minutes so that he can stay spiritually strong. We watched on Wednesday The Testaments with him. It was amazing. He was super happy and couldn´t describe the feelings that he felt while he was watching the movies. It made me super thankful for those people who created the movie because I know that they were inspired from God in making these movies powerful. But we had a moment that scared us this week with him as well. We were inside and we just got done reading in the BOM with him and we were about to end when someone rang the doorbell. Oh well that was normal. So he got up and went to answer the door and who should it be...................... His old Girlfriend that dumped him but now returned................ NOOOOOOOOOOOOO when we saw her I just looked at my companion and a look of fear and doubt was on our faces. We didn´t know what to do. She came back........ It was one of those moments when you can´t believe what is happening and your dreams and goals just went in the toilet. Kinda like a movie when the good guy ends up dying...... YOU THINK TO YOURSELF.... NOOOOOOOOOOOOO it can´t happen. He has to live, he has to win. That’s how we felt. I can´t really describe it in another form. That night me and my companion prayed for probably half an hour just pleading with the Lord that He could work a miracle with him and his girlfriend so that she would leave again. So we came back the next day and we had felt that we needed to teach to Epiphanio the Law of Chastity. So we went and rang his doorbell and his girlfriend answered the door. ahhhh..... But Epiphanio wasn´t there. She was sleeping and came to answer the door. We asked her why she was sleeping so early and she said it was because she was going back to Encarnacion. WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO yaaaaaaaa We haven´t been able to pass by his house to see if she has left yet but we are pretty sure that she has already left. We weren´t able to get Epiphanio to go to church because he was super super sick. But my companion asked him if we should announce his baptism at church and he just looked at us for a moment and then put his hand on my comps shoulder and said ¨Don´t worry, it’s practically done¨ WHOOOOOO yeahhhhhh........ We were so happy to have him say that. IT WAS LIKE THE SUPER HERO THAT REALLY DIDN´T DIE AND CAME BACK TO SAVE THE DAY!!! So that’s what is going on with Epiphanio this week.

Other than that this week has been an adventure of just trying to find new people to teach. We have been trying and struggling with all that we got to try and find people to teach. We have run into some really interesting people. We have found some new people but we are still looking for that golden family that the Lord has waiting for us. We just have to keep working and trying to find it following the impressions of the spirit.

I love the mission. I love seeing all these miracles in my life and I know that the Lord will always bless us if we are obedient and if we are putting in ALL of our part. I love you all and hope you have a fantastic week.

Rohayhu mi familia

Elder Beatty

Email 7-16-12

Hello all,

Wow this last week really has just flown by in a blur. It’s incredible to think how fast the weeks are just flying by. It’s just a weekly focus of who am I going to get to go to church and be baptized and before I know it I have to do it all over again. But I love every second of it. This last week didn´t turn out as super fantastic as we were hoping it to be, but we did see lots of miracles in our area and in the Zone. It’s been a bit of a struggle for the missionaries because it’s been getting colder and the Paraguayans get really really shut up in their houses and don´t really want to talk when it gets cold, but we have been blessed because of our diligence. We got Epiphanio in church again. Except this week he came with a suit and a tie and shoes and the whole gig. It was so cool to ring his doorbell, super weird, and see him walk out all pumped and ready to hit the drada. We were a little worried during the week because we weren´t able to really meet with him often to make sure that he was progressing and reading. But we met with him on Saturday and we taught his son that was there for a visit. We invited them to come to church and the son wasn´t too excited, but when we asked Epiphanio if he was going to go to church, he was ¨yes for sure I am going¨ Wow I just love this guy so much. He is always smiling whenever we are there and just loves the stuff that we are teaching him. It is a huge testimony to me that the Lord can work a mighty change of heart in anyone. Three weeks ago when we started teaching him I wouldn´t have though that he was going to be progressing and going to church, but I was wrong. I won´t ever doubt again the power of the BOM and going church and the large influence that it has on the people. We had a lot of trials this week as well. We found some very very good people who were going to progress and had a baptism date but they fell because of the pressure of their friends and family. It was super sad to see that these people would drop the spirit of the Lord over their friends that aren´t leading them to do anything very good. But I know that we planted the seed and that the Lord is going to help us recover that loss, and give those people the spirit so that they can return and continue progressing in the gospel. This last week I was studying a lot the atonement and how it works in our lives and I found some killer quotes that I want to share with everyone.

Elder Packer.

When we are ragged, or harrow, up or tormented by guilt and burdened with grief, He can heal us..... Though we do not fully understand how the Atonement of Christ was made, we can experience the peace of God which passeth all understanding.

Elder Scott

*We see ourselves in terms of yesterday and today, our Heavenly Father sees us in terms of forever.

*Although we might settle for less Heavenly Father won´t, for he sees us as glorious beings we are capable of becoming.

*The gospel of Jesus Christ is a gospel of transformation. It takes us as men and women of the earth, and turns us into men and women for eternity.

Elder Bednar

I witness the reality and divinity of a living Savior. Who invites us to come unto him and be transformed. We can be spiritually prepared and cleansed from sin. Immersed in and saturated with His gospel, and purified and sealed by the Holy Spirit of Promise. Even Born Again.

Wow. Who doesn´t want to come unto Christ and be TRANSFORMED. We are progressive and beautiful beings to the most wondrous and powerful Being in the universe. And He loves us and only asks us to come unto Him through His beloved son Jesus Christ. I know that this gospel transforms us into the men, women, fathers, wives, and children of God that our Father sees us capable of becoming. It is but an invitation that comes from Him in every moment. He yearns for our happiness and love. He is forever watching, and forever loving. There is only one thing that is stopping us from coming unto him, it is ourselves. The Lord will give us our agency even if it kills us. But, he does not give up the fight. for that he sends loving family members, parents, teachers, and people of the world to work as His hands. To inspire, lift up, and carry forward His name. I love Him. And I know that He loves me.

I know that He loves us all and will do whatever it takes to give us that little peace of happiness that comes from being transformed in the gospel of His Son.

Rohayhu familia y Rohayhu Paraguay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Elder Beatty

Email 7-9-12

Hello all,

I´m hoping that this letter can turn out to be a little bit longer than the one that I previously wrote. This week was a huge week of tests for what it seems to be the whole mission. It’s been incredible how we have been able to continue this last week. There were a lot of missionaries who had it worse than we did but we continued to be active and happy.

This week was really really cold. I love the cold. I’m just soaking it all up, but the Paraguayans they don´t seem to do so hot in the cold. We really struggled this last week in trying to find new people that can progress. I have never talked to so many people and clapped so many houses in my entire mission. To me it’s incredible that we could have talked to as many people as we did and didn´t find anyone. One day I kept track of how many people we had talked to. We talked to 83 people. That’s not counting the houses that we had clapped. It was incredible. I can´t come to understand how or why we couldn´t get any lessons in. We had the desire and we had the smile and the spirit but no one wanted to let the missionaries in.

It was a little frustrating as well with the people that we did find because we would invite them and then the next day they had talked it out between the two and decided to stay in their religion. I couldn´t understand what we were doing wrong. We were testifying, studying, obedient, listening, and inviting, but no one wanted to make those steps in their life that would help them come unto Christ. After thinking about it one night when I couldn´t sleep. I finally figured it out.

Satan is very very strong. He creates opportunities that are false and tries to lead us to a false sense of security and happiness that can´t last. I have to have the spirit. When I testify it has to be like a waterfall feelings on the hearts of the people. They can´t deny that I don´t teach well enough, but they can´t deny their feelings. Me and my companion were talking a little about how a lot of people have faith, but a lot of people have faith that isn´t real. That is where Satan comes and leads us into the darkness, the blind leading the blind. They can´t see what’s in front, but the person leading promises blessings and happiness.

I have been having a hard time emotionally this week because of this. Lots of our brothers and sisters are blind spiritually. They have been led away by a deceiver that will do whatever it takes, even miracles in our eyes, to lead us away from the truth. He uses forms of temporary happiness and lies to guide us into misery. This is sad, but very true. We all must look up to the light, look to the one that will teach us his truths and guide us in the darkness. We must clasp to the Iron Rod and never let go! We must show our brothers and sisters what the truth is and where it lies and bring them to the Rod to guide us to the tree of Life!

We had the chance this last week to meet our new mission president. Wow, He is amazing. I can´t even really describe him. He is 43 years old and very very humorous and has a zest for life. He knows that we will have success. He knows that this isn´t our work and that we are only the hands of the master as He guides and brings His followers into His fold. He truly is going to help this mission so much in the form of helping missionaries complete their potential. We are an obedient mission. That is a fact. Now we just need to learn now how to help the people come unto Christ and know this is a better way. He came here with all of his family. We got to meet him in the center and heart of Asuncion. It was crazy how many people and buildings are down there. I wanted to go to one of those areas super bad. I loved the feeling. The church down there was super awesome as well. It was like 5 stories high and you could look out over all of Asuncion. It was super cool.

I had to lead the meeting that we had with the new president. Everyone came up to me after and asked if I was nervous. I guess that when I got up to lead my face got super red because I was nervous. Well ya....... I was.............. haha. But really I know that we are going to do amazing things with this new president. He is going to help us a lot.

We found a family this last week that is super super super humble. We got to their house and they let us in right away. We walked past their gate, if you can call it that, and all of their beds were outside their house because inside was only 1 room and it was only big enough for the baby so that it didn´t have to sleep outside in the cold. When we walked in I wanted to cry. I saw that all the kids were playing with broken cars, and broken dolls. They ran around barefoot and with hardly any clothes on. The mom was tired from working 18 hours and the dad was half drunk. I truly had to bite my lip and struggled to hold back the tears. This family has so much suffering. I have to ask myself why. But I know that someday not in this life everything will be set right. That is the reason why the Savior came to the earth. To pay for all the unright, the unjust, and unfair conditions of the world. We can and will have a better time. We must look forward. If we get drowned in our conditions here, there is no hope. I want to challenge you all to look up. To find love and hope in the being that is unchanging and forever loving. Our Lord and Redeemer Christ.

Rohayhu

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Elder Beatty

Email 7-2-12

Hello all,

Sorry that I wasn´t really able to get out all the information in my last letter. My comp was having a few problems wrestling with his computer and so I had to run and put in the numbers before we ran out of time. But all is good and dandy now. This last week was incredible. My companion and I both had colds this entire week. It was miserable. I can´t explain how my head felt while I was trying to teach the first vision. I felt like my head was full of balloons and bouncy balls. But really we saw so many miracles this last week.

First off on Saturday we were both SUPER SICK and we were just working and walking and suffering but in the end we had a super awesome lesson with the Piccinini family. They are so awesome. They are still struggling to try and understand that this is the only true church. But we are helping them little by little. The son is into drugs and the other son is super rebellious. We passed by on Saturday and we talked about keeping the Sabbath day holy. We talked about the suffering of Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the cross. The only thing that Christ asks is that we remember Him and that we do that through the sacrament. They were all speechless. The spirit was super strong. They all said that they would go to church the next day. So we came on Sunday to pick them up from church because the son recently left from jail and can´t leave his house and so we needed to bring transport. So we got there and they were all sleeping. My comp didn´t really want to bug them but I knew that the Lord had sent us there for a reason and so I went into the house and I woke them all up. They said they would come to church and gosh dang it they were going to come. We got the mom, the daughter in law, the granddaughter, and the son to come. We didn’t get them all to leave their rooms and get up but I felt good that the Lord blessed us and that we are going to get the rest of the family in church.

We also saw a bunch of miracles through the week. We were trying to find a guy that we contacted who was super ready and so my comp and I  went and spent maybe about an hour just looking for his house and we were about to give up when we found it. We clapped it and he let us in. About 2 weeks ago his girlfriend dumped him and left him with his 2 sons and she ran off with another guy. We talked to him about the family and how God wants us to be together. He told us that also his girlfriend/wife had 2 abortions and was super sad that he didn´t get to have these 2 children with him. We told him that his kids are still waiting for him. Even though he didn´t get to see them here, he will see him after death. He started crying and wanted to know how it was possible. We shared the restoration with him and he said that he was going to read and pray and be baptized. It was such a huge miracle. We haven´t been able to find him to verify on his reading but we are going to keep looking for him so that we can help him make this progress in his life.

We have been inviting everyone to be baptized this week. Its been a huge testimony builder for me to know that even though I’m sick and I don´t feel like working I just have to suck it up and suffer. My companion told me a story about it one night when we were planning after a very long trying day. That one of the seventy was in the MTC in Argentina. He looked at all the missionaries and told them that he was going to pray every day for the missionaries that they would have a super hard and trying day. That he was going to pray that they would suffer and struggle. Of course all the missionaries were super confused why a special witness of Christ would pray for such a thing. And in the end he explained that it was because in the next life when we sit down at the table with The Father, and Christ and Joseph Smith and all the prophets we will have experiences to tell them. If we just expect to come on the mission and for everything to be hunky dory we don´t grow, we don´t progress. We suffer, to help us come closer to Christ. I am only beginning to understand the mysteries of God and the plan that he has for every single one of us. I know that He loves us. He would never let something happen to us unless He knew that we could win and come out victorious. I love you all and hope you have a huge smile ¨sonrisa tucha¨ always. The church is TRUE!

Rohayhu

Elder Beatty