Email 8-6-12

Presten's former Young Men's leader passed away suddenly this week...

Wow, Shayne......... Send my thoughts and prayers to his family. He was an amazing man and an amazing example to me. He truly showed me what it meant to give service to others even when you really didn´t want to do it. He respected and loved everyone. The Lord needs him to preach the gospel with the righteous in the Spirit World. I can only remember those experiences that he always gave me to help me grow. I know that those spirits of the dead are close to us, and are guiding us. They are praying for us. I love him for his example and his service to me as a young man.......

Hello everyone. I am hoping that this week I will be able to send a letter a bit longer so that you can see what’s happen in our area. I forgot to mention in my letter last week, or well I didn´t have much time, in Paraguay the President of the Republic, or president of Paraguay, about 5 weeks ago was removed from office for bad conduct. We won´t really go into many details, but he was a ex-Bishop in the Catholic church and so a lot of people really dogged on him for what he had done before he took office. But anyway, one day after a long day of almost no success me and my companion were walking to go do a interview for someone who was going to be baptized. We weren´t really too happy and so we thought hey, let’s to clap the ex-Presidents house. Yes the ex-president of Paraguay lives in our area cool huh. So we went and we started talking to his guards outside with their machine guns and all. We were just chatting and they thought we were spies sent from some church to steal money from the people in Paraguay. hahah little did they know what we live off of..... But we were just talking but then all of a sudden they started getting antsy and ready for something. It’s like the house was going to be under attack, but they didn´t let us know anything about it. We heard the door open to the house and we heard footsteps, and then the huge gate in the front opened and out walked the President. Lugo was his last name. We just looked at him for about 10 seconds and he looked at us. It was kind of weird at first. But then he did a military salute, soooo we did the same. hahaha He came over to us and asked us who we were. My comp said that we were missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ Do you know it? The president looked and us and said ¨Of Latter Day Saints, yes I know it very well¨ and that was it. He walked back into his house. hahaha I felt bad that we didn´t invite him to listen to us or come to church because I was in need of some brown pants hahaha I was more or less shocked to think that we actually just talked to the president. Normal day as a missionary of Christ.

But as for this week we really have been looking for some miracles. Epifanio is doing great. We have been visiting with him and he has an interview to receive the priesthood next week whooooooooo. He is reading a ton in the Book of Mormon and the other reading material from the church that we have given him. He really likes to learn, and better yet he really likes to understand what he is learning. We have really seen a progress in his understanding ability. He is always smiling and always happy to see us. I know that someday he will make a great Elders Quorum president whoohooo. We have been trying to work with him and the apartment complex where he lives. Trying to get to know some of the families that live next to him. We have scheduled 2 family home evenings with him and his neighbors for this next week so we will see how it goes.

Also this week one of the members has been struggling. Edgar. He is a member that we usually leave with so we kinda needed him. Edgar has a depression problem and so when things are going to great for him he just shuts down and sleeps. This will normally last for a period of about a week. But we need him and so we have to pass by, wake him up and make him spiritually sober. Its a little bit of a test of strength for me because he is a big guy. I would guess maybe about 250 pounds. He doesn´t want to get up when you try to get him up so usually I have to drag him out of his bed to get him out of it. Its a struggle but we have been getting him out of bed and he is progressing. But its always a laugh for me becuase I am practically wrestling against this huge Paraguayan guy. We have really been focusing on working in the poorest areas that are close by. The missionaries have practically destroyed everywhere else and so we are having a tough time trying to find people to teach. But this last week we went to a super poor area. It was kinda rough at first because we were only finding people that could speak Guarani. But we kept looking and talked with everyone and we found some really good people that are looking like they are going to progress. Going back to this poor area helped me remember truly how blessed I am. I would take a picture for you guys to send it but I’m scared that if I show my camera down there we will get robbed for certain.

Well I gotta go. I love you guys and hope you have a Super Awesome Happy Week

Rohayhu mi familia, y rohayhu Paraguay.

--
Elder Beatty