Email 9/24/12 Poem style

Sorry that I don´t have any new pictures but literally I have been spending the last 4 hours trying to find a computer to write and finally we found a place that is open. Sometimes here in Paraguay people just don´t feel like working and so everything just shuts down. I don´t like it. But you all will be graced in this moment with a poem slash story that is penned by the famous Elder Beatty

I am a missionary

Six thirty the alarm sounds off. I get onto my knees to pray,

I feel like I was just doing the same thing, but after a long, hard yesterday

The prayer is finished my day is looking to be great

Because I know the Lord and I have some miracles to make.

Next we have our exercises, they won´t end up being too rough

Until I look down and notice the large roundness of my gut.

I get out a good amount of pushups and a pathetic group of crunches

And I make the same promise I made before, to hold back on the munchies.

With the exercises done and my obedience complete

Now comes my favorite part, when the shower and I get to share a nice treat.

I turn on the water and wait for the steam to show

But it doesn’t come. It looks like the hot shower is a ´No Go´.

I jump in and out shivering and yelling like a girl

I think ´´someday I will have that hot shower even if I have to kill´´

In the end all is well and I am squeaky clean

I get dressed and put on my tie; a glimpse of how clean it used to be is but a dream.

Seven Fifty hits I got ten minutes to eat

I open up the fridge; It smells of old nasty rotten meat.

I go to scan the shelves on the door

It looks like a preboiled egg is the choice, I couldn´t ask for more.

I kneel down to pray to start my studies for the day

Because it’s the Spirit that will show me the Lord´s will and way.

I scan the scriptures, open Preach my Gospel, my heart and mind ready to learn.

I feast upon the words of Christ and my heart begins to burn.

I learn of powerful missionaries and how they came to be so,

Their examples and love have helped me so much to grow.

Nine comes & me and my comp begin to pray

Knowing that how we study the next hour will make or break our day.

We finish up our plans and do a practice or 2

Man I just never get tired of the restoration, don´t you too?

Ten o’clock hits, time to study some Spanish

Sometimes the words roll of my tongue more like a dead fish.

Ten thirty hits and finally it’s time to preach the gospel.

I think how lucky I am, I don’t have to ring a doorbell.

We trudge through the bright sunny streets

Talking to every child of God that we just happen to meet.

My Book of Mormon is worn and dirty, the cover is worn off,

But the words contained within are billions of times better than what Shakespeare could have ever thought.

We teach a few lessons here and there looking for the chosen children of God.

Some people try to hide, to lie, or even to dodge.

We continue working, testifying and praying,

Because there is someone out there who, for us, is waiting.

Finally we find them, those people God has prepared.

Those who are humble and have faith beyond compare.

We teach the gospel of the lamb, with power and authority we testify.

The spirit touches them and we see a light of hope come into their eyes.

We leave the lesson flying on a spiritual high

All we can do is smile as we leave the house saying goodbye.

We open up our agendas with a miracle to write,

In that moment the sun has never shined so bright.

We look at our schedule to see what’s next on our plate

Then with a feeling of horror we realize that we are late.

We begin to run, the people all around us staring in a gaze,

Ya I know I should run in the Olympics, but those were the good ol days

Ya I’m sure it is a strange sight to see

2 dudes in ties running as if they’ve got somewhere to be.

We got to where we needed to go

Huffing and puffing as if we just participated in a P90X workout show......

We clap the house our hopes high and our faith strong

When a little kid comes out and tells us that his parents aren´t home.

We realize that not everyone is prepared or ready, but will be someday

We turn, take a deep breath and then continue on our way.

The day is over and tiredly we crawl back to the house

Hoping that returning we don´t find our ¨pet¨mouse.

Returning to our knees we thank God for the miracles of that day

And again we ask the guidance of the Spirit to come our way.

We plan for the next day and close with a prayer

I can’t think of a word that rhymes with prayer.

I fill records and have 5 minutes to write the events of the day.

And then yet again I find myself on my knees ready to pray.

I crawl into the burning sheets and curl up into a ball

Some habits just don´t seem to go away at all.

Sleep overtakes reality, I dream of preaching the word.

The alarm goes off and again I enter into the world.

For some, the mission is the same, day after day

But for me, I like it. That’s how I want it to stay.

This is the Lord´s work I am His soldier faithful and strong

I know if I am an instrument in His hands nothing can go wrong.

The gospel is true it changes and prepares us spiritually

For that one day when we hear the master say ¨blessed are ye, come unto me¨

I hope that you all enjoyed this little story that I wrote. Really we can´t describe in words all the feelings and events that happen in the normal day of a missionary, but you can all be assured that they are feelings and experiences that not only change us as people, but help us prepare to be men and women for eternity. I love the mission. I really wouldn´t change this time for anything. I know why the Lord wants 19 year old boys to preach His gospel. I love the Lord, I love my Father in Heaven, and I love you all too. I hope this story touched you. I hope you all have a super fantastic week and just keep swimming. haha

Rohayhu PARAGUAY.......

--
Elder Beatty

Email 9-17-12

Hello everyone. Firt I have to ay that I am orry if you can´t read thi. My keyboard from outh america i borken and o there are a fe key that don´t ork. But i kno that really if you have a deire to read hat I am riting you ill have the tength to keep readying.

I didn't want you to have to read the entire letter like this so here is the "translated" version... (Kelli)

Hello everyone. First I have to say that I am sorry if you can´t read this. My keyboard from South America is broken and so there are a few keys that don´t work. But I know that really if you have a desire to read what I am writing you will have the strength to keep reading. This week was really really hard for us. We had a meeting as a Zone on Tuesday where we got to share with all the missionaries what our vision was as a zone and as well as what President Agazzani wants us to do and complete. It was super super good. We talked a lot about who we are and what we have to do as representatives of Jesus Christ by inviting everyone to repent and be baptized. The missionaries left way excited to work and invite everyone to be baptized. After the reunion that we had, me and my comp decided to go to a place called Zanta Rita. Its about 1 hour away from CDE. The missionaries are really struggling there and aren´t finding success and we feel like we need to do something. So we left our area without anybody to teach and we went and worked with those missionaries.

We got there and “oh my heavens” : Everyone only spoke Portuguese. ahhhhh it was so hard for me because we just kept talking to everyone and no one would let us in because we didn´t speak their language. But it was super cool because at about 5 o’clock me and another elder we said a prayer and asked the Lord to bless us in finding 3 families and to teach 6 lessons in 4 hours. We had the faith and so we set off working. We did it!!! We found 3 families and we invited them all to be baptized. It was a huge miracle and we were so happy to know that the Lord was watching out for us and really that He was guiding us to those people who were ready to accept the gospel. Side note... Those three families went to church on Sunday as well and are super pumped to get baptized whooooooohoooooo the only really sad rough part about when we went there was that there were only 2 beds and there were 4 missionaries, so me and my comp ended up sleeping on the floor. I made a vow to myself when I got up that I would never sleep on the floor again while I am here in Paraguay. hahahah It was terrible. hahaha

Other than that, really this week a just a huge week of tests and diligence. My comp and I work super super super hard every day getting references from everyone and being super persistent in trying to get into houses to teach but really no one lets us in. It was a little discouraging for us because we didn´t know why it was happening if we were working super hard and being obedient. But the Lord blessed us on Saturday. We found 5 families and found 19 people in total. We invited them all to be baptized and they all accepted. It was an awesome day and we knew that the Lord had blessed us and had given us the blessings after we had been diligent in working and finding people. I know now that really the Lord is ready to bless us in the moment if we continue being obedient and trying to complete our duty.

One thing that has really been bugging me here in Paraguay is that always people are talking about how they have faith to move mountains. They believe that really faith can move mountains. I was pondering about that this week. There is a scripture in the Book of Mormon that says that the Brother of Jared did move a mountain. But I was thinking that really there isn´t a need to move a mountain in my life. Then something popped into my head that maybe those mountains that we need to move are the trails and weaknesses that we have had as human beings. Maybe the Lord put those mountains within us to test our faith. It was really an inspirational moment for me that really I do have faith to move mountains because I am making those changes in my life. I am living the gospel and overcoming my weaknesses.

We were sharing with a guy this week and he said that he didn´t deny the existence of God but more or less he didn´t accept it either. It was interesting because he started talking about the more and more knowledge that we get the more and more that we feel inside that God doesn´t exist. hahah It just made me laugh when he said that. Really?? It’s because he doesn´t have a testimony. He can´t “study” to gain a testimony. Try to explain how you know that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. Try using logic to try and explain how you know. It’s impossible. Everything depends on if we are ready to receive an answer through the Spirit, that what we feel and know is true. Really I can testify that I know that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. I know through the power of the Holy Spirit. I invite you all to receive this same testimony instead of relying only on knowledge.

I love you all and hope you have a super awesome week

Rohyahu

Elder Beatty

Email 9-10-12

2012.Sept.10

HELLLLOOOO

Ahh I’m kinda mad at myself. I had a bunch of stuff that I wanted to send to you all and I wrote it down so that I could type super fast, but guess what? Its back in the house and I’m super far away ahhhhh Its ok I´m gonna remember to bring it the next week si o si. hahah

This week has been a week of tests for me personally. Not only I had tests personally but as a companionship we feel that God is testing our diligence. We got back super super late from the conference that we had with the other zone leaders on Monday. It was fun traveling with the other zone leaders because we just messed around and took a ton of funny pictures but we sure felt it on Tuesday when we woke up and it felt like my head and feet weighed 20 tons. ahhhhhhh

The conference was super cool. We talked about what is our purpose as missionaries. Really who we are and what we should do as servants and representatives of Christ. We went on Tuesday to go to district meeting and then we did divisions with some other elders. I stayed in my area and we saw a huge miracle.

We were just walking along and we contacted a guy that was just sitting in the shade holding his little baby. We went up and shook his hand and he told us to sit down right away. We found out that he just got back from Argentina. He was Paraguayan but just got back from being in Argentina for 8 years. Wow. hahaha he talks with a funky Argentina accent hahaha We asked if we could share a message of Christ with him and his wife. His wife is from Argentina as well and she talked with a funky accent hehehe. We talked about the restoration with them and the blessings that come from living it as a family. We found out that the wife has never been baptized and almost got baptized on Sunday, but some complications came up and they couldn´t do it. We invited her to be baptized on the spot and she accepted. She has a ton of good questions about why there are tons of religions and how she can know which is correct. She is going to read the Book of Mormon and ask God if it’s true. It was crazy because she had never thought to ask God before.

Really this whole week it has just been getting hotter and hotter and hotter. I can´t imagine what it is going to be like in January if we are already feeling this kind of heat. I’m not too excited for it but I’m just going to keep moving forward. On Wednesday we were talking with a member who is a lawyer and we have an investigator who can´t get baptized because he needed to get permission from the government because he was on probation. We have been trying to get this permission for over 5 weeks. We talked to the lawyer and he told us that he didn´t understand what the problem was but now he did and could get us the permission the next day. Wow we thought it was a miracle. On Thursday he gave us a call and told us that he had the permission in his hand. We headed over to his house and called President Agazzani and asked him if the permission was valid. He said that it was and that we could baptized our investigator whoooooooooooohooooooooooooo We were so happy.

We got everything ready and on Saturday he got baptized with his 8 year old daughter. Wow it was just sooo coool to see the miracles that are willing and ready to come our way. We didn´t know on Wednesday if we would have a baptism or not and it looks like it was time for this guy to get dunked. We were super happy and grateful for this man. Juan Carlos gave up drinking, smoking, playing soccer on Sundays to get baptized. He has lived like a member without being a member for 4 weeks. It was something super special when he got baptized. He values his baptism and he just loves having the Holy Ghost hahahah.

I guess one little funny thing that happened after church yesterday was that We were getting ready to leave and we were shaking everyone’s hand and just saying goodbye when I shook the hand of this old lady. I´m telling you this lady if you looked at her you would think that she was a witch doctor or something crazy like that because the way she dresses looks and talks just says it all. She didn´t let my hand go, and she pulled me in real close and looked me straight in the eyes. She closed one of hers and she said that someday I was going to be an Apostle. hahahah “wow” !!!  I thought I was going to pee my pants. I thought she was going to kiss me or something worse. But wow I really feel like she is prophesying or something so I guess I better get ready. Apostle Beatty hahaha ya right!

This last week I was reading a little bit in James and I was reading the part right before James1 5 where Joseph Smith was inspired to ask God. But right before that part it talks about suffering our trials and challenges. It talks about how we have trials to help us learn how to be patient. I really do understand that after this week. We have just talked to so many blasted people. Our area is huge so we never talk to the same people twice but I feel that really no one wanted to accept us this week. The Lord is just testing our patience and diligence. I really feel that the Lord loves us. He wouldn´t give us any sort of test, trial, or affliction unless it was going to help us come closer to Him. I´m trying to help other missionaries come to understand that so that they can continue to push through their trials instead of just dying. I know the Lord will give us the strength that we need to push through our trials. I love you all and hope that you have a super fantastic week. The gospel is true, and because the gospel is true the church has to be true. Trust in the fruits of living the gospel and you will see. You are all in my prayers

Rohayhu

Elder Beatty

Email 9-3-12

Hello everyone,

Really this week was a week of miracles. So I don´t know if I had talked about a girl that we started teaching on Sunday in my last email. We met with this girl that has been coming to church for like 3 years and the only problem that she had was that she wanted to get married with a 17 year old member so that she could get baptize… ya not gonna happen. But we started teaching her on Sunday and we found out that she wants to change her life right. Well who is better prepared to help people change their lives through Jesus Christ than the missionaries that He sends to people. Anyway so we placed a baptism date with her for Saturday. Wow. We really needed to cover a lot of material to see if she really had a testimony of the church that it was true and all that jazz. We started with things on Tuesday. We taught the law of chastity, the word of wisdom, tithing on Wednesday, and follow the prophet on Thursday and then after that was her interview. Wooooooohooooooo she passed and yes she got baptized on Saturday. It was kind of weird to think that about a week ago we didn´t even know that she existed and then we helped her get baptized. It really was a miracle to show that God is preparing His people no matter where they are or what they are doing. God knows what they need and He will prepare them in their own due time. She is a great young lady. She is a little shy but she has a strong testimony that the church is true. That it is going to help her find a lot of people and joy in her life. I’m thankful to my Father in Heaven for the opportunity that I had to get to know her and help her take these steps in her life to have a better life through the gospel.

Other than that we just have been working super super hard in an area that missionaries have never entered in before. Mostly because it’s super far away from the church but its soo cool going to a place where the people really haven´t even heard of the missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ. It’s like I am just opening up a whole new country to the gospel. We are teaching a TON but we are still looking for those people who really are prepared to enter into the kingdom of God here on the earth. It’s cool because the people really just let us come into their houses and we just teach them. It’s cool because we are teaching like 50 lessons a week and I feel like I am just biding my time to find that one golden person that is going to progress in the gospel. I guess that is one thing here in Paraguay I haven´t really ever thought about. People here will let you into their house really without denying you. Ya there are those people who will flat out tell you to go away, but about 80 percent of the time the people will let you in and let you teach, but in the end they really have no intention of changing their life. Sometimes it’s a little frustrating because we get into people´s houses and they are soo cool and seem so prepared, but in the end they say that they don´t want to change religion. AHHHHH but I know that the Lord is just testing us to see if we will be diligent to find those people who will accept the gospel.

I went and did divisions this last week and I went to a place called Barrio 4. It was right next to Presidente Franco,  where I started my mission. It was cool because I got to see a lot of the stuff that was familiar to me when I started my mission. Lots of memories and lots of trials hahahaha We taught a ton in Barrio 4 but in the end we really didn´t find anyone that was prepared. We found a few people who are interested and the missionaries are going to keep working with them to help them develop a greater interest.

One cool experience that I had this last week while I was reading the scriptures was when I was reading about the faith. And there was a reference that lead to 1 Nephi 17 I think, when Nephi is building a ship, and his brothers don´t believe that he can do it. At first I was like what? How is building a ship talking about faith? But then I found a sweet scripture Where it says something like this, ( I’m translating) Why are you murmuring against my father, and to do what the Lord has commanded me. Why does it seem like something strange that the Lord would command me to build a ship....... It’s because his brothers were doubting his capability........... If the Lord told me to command this water that it would turn up and be dry land, it would come to pass. If the Lord has such great power, and has worked so many miracles unto the children of men, how is it that He cannot teach me to build a ship? whooohooooo When I read that it was super cool because really the Lord has such power and can work so many miracles if we have the faith in Him. I had to change the phrase a little bit. ¨If the Lord has such great power, and has worked so many miracles unto the children of men, how is that He cannot teach me, Elder Beatty, to baptize every week? Yeah it was sooo cool and I felt that really if I build my faith the Lord will help me accomplish that goal. I know it’s not only talking about helping me become a better missionary but it can apply to any aspect of life. The Lord can teach us to be a better husband, a better student, a better son or daughter. ONLY if we show our faith to Him, He will be able to help us accomplish the goal.

One funny experience that we had this last week was that we contacted a guy who was super catholic. We started talking about why there were so many churches today really if there is only 1 God. He said that it was a good question and that really it was based on the interpretation of the scriptures. He said that in the end we should all come together, drop our differences and worship God. We started talking about the founders of churches and how the churches are based off the beliefs of the founders and in the end he asked us who founded our church. It was super cool because my companion and I answered at the same time.... Jesus Christ...... BOOOOOMMMMM It was so funny to see the look on the guys face. He was going to say something after we answered him but the answer that we gave him really just struck him dumb. And then he started giving us the usual catholic beliefs about how the church is founded on Peter instead of revelations blah blah blah. We didn´t teach him but it was super funny to see the look on his face when we told him that the church we represent was founded by Jesus Christ.

Here is a random fact in the life of Elder Beatty…….practically every day since I have gotten to this area I have eaten rice, eggs, and hotdogs for lunch.  YUM YUM!

Well everyone I’ve got to roll. We came to Asuncion for a leadership council and I’ve got to take a 6 hour bus ride back to my area so that I can sleep. I love you all. The gospel is true and really nothing could ever be so sweet and precious in our lives than to live the teachings of the Savior and be blessed by living the commandments. I know the gospel is real. It tranforms us into people that the Lord wants us to be. I love you all and hope you have a super fantastic day.

Rohayhu

Elder Beatty