Hello all!!!!
What its getting hotter and hotter here in good ol Paraguay.
This week was just full of trials and tests for me and my companion. We talked
and taught a BUNCH of people. But in the end no one really was ready to
progress. It seemed that by the end of every lesson we were just fighting with
the people. After thinking about it yesterday my companion and I decided that it’s
not anything bad. We weren´t fighting with the people, we were just presenting
the message of the restoration and they didn´t want to accept the spirit and
were fighting to prove that their beliefs were correct instead of allowing the
spirit to touch their heart and tell them the truth. It was a very frustrating
week mostly because in the end we are right back where we started.
We didn´t really find anyone new to teach nor did we really help
anyone get to church, It was like the week never existed but in the end it did.
We know that the Lord is going to prepare the hearts of hundreds of people for
us to teach this week. We are super excited and refocused to following the
impressions of the spirit and find those people that are going to be baptized.
We are still working with a few people to try and get them baptized this next
week.
We were going to have the baptism of 3 girls this week, but a
lot of working has come in and they aren´t really interested anymore. They say
that they are going to be baptized someday but they just need a little bit of
time until their work kind of chills out a little. AHHHH we explained lesson
three and shared some scriptures from Alma 34 about repentance and receiving
blessings the moment that we complete with the Lord. But in the end, it didn´t
really convince them because they had already made the decision to be baptized
later, now they are hiding from us because they think that they offended us.
AHHHH Paraguayans are so confusing sometimes.
We are still working with Juan Carlos. He is the dad of a family
that got baptized and he is having a little trouble with stuff that has
happened in his past with his dad killing someone and his brother stole his
identity and ya.... stuff we have to work out before he can get baptized. He is
super pumped though and is working with a few studying lawyers in the ward to
try and get the permission from the government to get baptized. Keep him in
your prayers. He is doing great and he has had a huge change in his life from
before he knew the gospel, but still there are huge temptations and he needs to
have the Holy Ghost to help protect him from those dangers. We are going to be
doing some activities with him to make sure he stays motivated. He did leave
with us to visit a few investigators. hahahah an investigator visiting
investigators hahah ya it was sooo coool because he shared his testimony in Guaraní
about how the gospel helped him change his life and the life of his family and
how now they are all united and have supported each other in all their trials.
I didn´t catch all of it but I didn´t need to understand what he was saying in
order to feel the spirit. Its sooo cool that the spirit is a universal
language!!!!!
We are also working with a investigator. Her name is Miguela. She
is living with a member right now, but we found out that today she is going to
move to her house again. Her house is only 2 blocks away, no big deal. But
wait....... She lives in the area of other missionaries...... She crosses our
limit by 2 houses, come on. So we are going to have to battle that one out with
other missionaries who haven´t had a baptism in about 6 months. It shouldn´t be
that big of a deal because she lives SUPER far away from the other church of
those missionaries. If they were thinking about the salvation of a daughter of God
instead of thinking about getting the number under their belt we wouldn´t have
a problem. But in the end to tell you the truth, we as missionaries are happy
when we are baptizing people, we will do whatever it takes to baptize someone
just so in the end, we can be happy. Yet sad story but in the end its true.
Don´t worry somehow someway Miguela will be baptized on the 1st. She loves
church and she loves what she is learning. She told us that even after a year
of going to the catholic church she has learned more from us in a week and a
half hahahah not going to lie when she said that it made me feel good. She
loves the members and Everything is going to work out that she will bring her
other 2 daughters to church who are 14 and 12. In Paraguay we say something
else for baptism. ÑEPYMI !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We are doing good. I
wish that I had time to write all the experiences that we had this last week
and all the interesting people that we taught but it’s too many. Just know that
we taught a HUGE variety of religions, beliefs, and people. But in the end no
one really wanted to learn more. But it’s ok the Gospel will move on!! This
last week I got a cold and so it’s been a little tough having to testify of
Joseph smith and then having a huge lugi in my throat, but hey, I do believe in
miracles. Oh but hey it was crazy. The other elders in our ward had a baptism
right, but in the end they weren´t prepared at all. They forgot their suit
coats, baptism pants and everything. So I had to run to the apartments and grab
everything. At the end I was dead tired and sweating up a storm. It made me
remember of all those 200 meter conditioning that I had to do in college. It
felt good to run, but not after 1 year of not running hahaha
This last week we have
been preparing for a member of the quorum of the 70 who is going to be coming
down to make a tour of the mission and get to know the missionaries. I am a
little scared because we have planned an interview with him and my companion
and we have to tell him the state of our zone and what we are going to do to
get things rolling. This zone has been dead for a while. I´m pretty sure that
everything will work out well in the end, but it’s still a little intimidating.
Kind of like your going to have an interview with Christ, but not as extreme.
I just want to give a
shout out to all my Spanish speaking brothers serving their missions.!!!!!!!!!
I got to bounce my
comp is having computer issues and I gotta give the numbers.
Love you all and just
keep smiling
Elder Beatty
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