Email 11/26/12

Hello all,

Well OLLLOO. Happy Thanksgiving to all. I hope that you had a week full of lots of food and fun games and visiting with the family. I sure did have an interesting week more in the sense of things that I got done and things I couldn´t get done. So we found out on Wednesday that the medications that Elder Martinez was taking really weren´t doing anything for him and he needed to take stronger medications and rest even longer. When the doctor told me that he would have to rest for even more time, I was like. O no..........

It’s been a real struggle for me to really learn how to serve and love a companion. I really just wanted to get out and work and not have to worry about my companion. I think that the Lord has really given me a kick in the pants this last week in realizing that I need to treat all people as I would treat Him.

I was sitting there reading a book and I started to think about trying to picture as if Christ was lying on the bed and was suffering, what would I do to help Him? I had to answer myself that I would do anything that He asked me to do.

Then I started reading in the Bible about being called of God and I was reading in John 14 or 15 and it says that we should love each other as He has loved us. Wow. It was practically like a spear into my heart that I need to change my attitude and that I need to learn to just serve others out of the joy in knowing it would be what Christ would do.

I know that now is the time to learn to be humbled and work in the vineyard of the Lord. I love you all and I’m grateful for your prayers and for your love.  
Elder Beatty

Email 11/19/12

Hello everyone,

Really there is little to report this week that went by. There was a bit of an adventure that we had on Thursday. So Elder Martinez and I had to go to a religious convention while our Mission President was talking. We were going to act something like the APs so that he could have some help if he needed anything done. We got to the school and we set up a cool table with some materials about the church with lots of pictures about the family. It was actually looking to turn out super awesome. The main portion of the convention had just ended and now came the time when the people could go where they wanted to go and listen about a few of the presentations. There was us, One about the Coran, One about the Toran, One about the Bible, and another crazy set of scriptures that I had never even heard of. It was like some sort of flower child group that was based on God and the Nature of the earth. It was really weird. hahaha but when all the people started coming our way my comp just couldn’t take it anymore. He had had a slight fever with diarrhea and nausea. When all the people started walking our way my companion just started throwing up. He looked totally miserable. So what happened after that was that the president and I took my companion to a doctor’s office and we started figuring out what was wrong with him. To find out that he has Bronchitis. Well dang. The doctors said that he would have to rest for up to 4 days without any activity at all. Well that really isn´t what I as a missionary was wanting to hear. For the last 4 or 5 days I have been in the house reading my scriptures and Preach My Gospel, while taking care of Elder Martinez. A few days ago I was thinking that the Lord probably got him sick so that I would learn to love more and to give more service because right now my comp doesn´t even have the strength to get out of bed. It was a little rough for me at first because I am trying to make sure that our investigators can still keep progressing even though I am not visiting them and that they don´t lose their excitement to get baptized as well as I was trying to keep the Zone running by myself and make sure that we finish the month out strong with lots of baptisms. It was very very taxing on me emotionally. I learned that I can´t do it all by myself. I have to do all I can and then learn to rely on the Lord. So that’s what I did. I make phone calls to all our recent coverts and investigators to make sure that they went to church. We got 3 people in church and all of our recent converts went as well. Wow it was a huge miracle. I offered a very very long prayer of gratitude after hearing that they had gone. I know that it was a blessing of the Lord and that I needed to continue to show my faith through the small actions that I can do. I know that its the Lords work and that He will make up for what we can´t do physically if we have the faith to believe. Other than that I am doing good. Just lots of meditating and receiving of revelation as to what we can do to find more “news”. I love you all and hope you have a super awesome fantastic week.

rohaihu che familia

--
Elder Beatty

Email 11/12/12

Hello all,

Wow it just seems like the other day I was writing a letter and it seems like there is nothing new to talk about. Really we are just continuing in the work of the Lord and we are baptizing and teaching everyone we talk to. This week really was a huge test for us but we saw so many miracles. First off we came back from Asuncion on Monday night and we got home super super late because of traffic in Asuncion. We still had to get up the next day and do miracle diviones with our new district leader but we were both dead. I went to an area called barrio 4 that is super close to Franco, where I first started. We had an awesome day. We found 7 new people and we put them all with a baptismal date. Really and they were all pumped to go to church and to know if what we were sharing was true. It was a very very long day but it was full of miracles. The next day we went to a member’s house and we made some burritos. Wow those were so good. The member bought the pork that we were going to use and then during studies we slow cooked it in a sweet sauce that we made and then we took it to his house and ate it later. It tasted just like those burritos from Cafe Rio. The Barbecue Pork ones. It was lucky for us that the Paraguayans don´t really like sweet meat and so they didn´t want to eat much more and we got to take a ton home. AHHhh it was super nice hahaha

Really the whole week, we were working super super hard to just find some “news”. It’s starting to get really really hot here in Paraguay. Like it’s the kind of hot that makes you wonder what you’re doing in the sun. We kept diligent and asked references from everyone, we changed the way we were doing contacts, we asked references from the members, we used tons of new ways to try and find “news” but really nothing worked. We were super discouraged during the whole week because no matter what we did not even one person would let us in their house. I guess right now in CDE there is a huge crisis in the sense that there is no money. Before, what would happen was that all the Brazilians would come into CDE and spend all their money buying cheap goods and the Paraguayans would get the benefit. But now I guess that Brazil has put some huge strict border control and that the people have to pay a teriff on the goods that they bring into Brazil now so pretty much the whole city is becoming deserted and no one is working. I would think that this would allow a great opportunity to come for us in that it would wake up people´s thoughts about what is going to happen to their family in the future or what could they do to control what’s going on. Perfect pitch for the gospel right? But really this whole week I think we talked to over 1 thousand people just in the street and clapping their houses with no luck at all. We did have miracles when we found a few people though. When we found those people, really I would say a prayer of thanks to God for giving us that one person to teach.

After finding that one person I learned a lesson that really I don´t find the people, neither does my companion. It’s the Lord that guides us and He is the one that leads us to those people that are prepared. It took me a whole week of suffering in the sun and on my feet to come to realize that this isn´t my work. I could go for the rest of my mission not finding one single person because I would be trying to do it my way instead of the Lord´s way. I made a promise that I would have more faith in what the Lord can do in HIS work as long as I put in all of my part and try will all my might, mind, and strength to find people to share the gospel. I am truly grateful that I was able to learn this valuable lesson.

The whole week we were teaching our two diamond investigators Liz and Fulgencio. They were just sooooo awesome. The whole week we were calling members every single day and reminding them of the baptisms that we were going to have and trying to let the members all know Liz and Fulgencio. Saturday came and they both got baptized. Our ward mission leader who is a stud set up an awesome dvd presentation with a projector about baptism and had some videos about when Christ was baptized. While we were changing our clothes he had a talk going on by Elder Bednar about how really the journey is only beginning and that we need to continue on the path. We ended up having maybe about 35 members there. It was an awesome baptism and Fulgencio and Liz were sooooo happy. I baptized Fulgencio and another Member Baptized Liz. I am so grateful for the blessing that I have had to come to know them. Really they have shown me that all we need to have is a desire to become closer to Christ so that he can effect a great change within us. On Sunday they both got up and bore their testimonies. Fulgencio couldn´t even talk because he was so astounded by the spirit. After church he received the Priesthood and is going to receive a calling in the Sunday school presidency. Liz is going to receive a calling in the Primary. Wow, Isn´t being a missionary awesome. Just saving souls and making people happy. What could be better?

I know that Christ lives. We don´t have to see Him to know Him. All we have to do is take those little baby steps of obedience that will help us to come to know Him how He really is and really what His purpose is for us. I invite you all to try and be a little bit more obedient this week and see if you can tell the difference in your life. I promise you will be able to come to know our Savior more and that you will be able to feel peace that comes by the spirit. I love you all and hope you have a super awesome week.

Elder Beatty

Email 11/5/12

Wow it seems like just the other day I was writing an email about the same things that I have planned to write about but we will see how it goes. I know that sometimes these messages just get repetative but what can I do. It’s the mission hahaha. So I don´t think that I told you guys about changes really because we didn´t end up getting them till later on Monday. Elder Martinez and I ended up staying together here in CDE. Ya I’m alright with it. I guess that there must be something that I still have to learn from him so that I continue with my personal progression here in the mission and continue to prepare me to be the son of God that He wants me to be. Really in the whole zone there was only 1 change so it was super boring. It wasn´t anything special so we just kept working and kept trying to find new people. On Thursday we traveled out to a place called Santa Rita. It is a small city were pretty much everyone that is there speaks Portuguese. We went there so that we could do diviiones with the elders that are there. They are struggling really bad and so we wanted to go and see if there was anything that we could do to help them find some people to teach and have a little more progression in their area. Our diviiones went ok. We got a lot done and we taught lots of new people. But was a little sad to get the report at the end of the week and find out that really they didn´t teach much more after we left or find anyone else. Its moments like that when I have to ask myself what is really going on with those missionaries and what can I do to help them have the desire to just work and help others come unto Christ. Well we are going to keep praying and trying to receive revelation.

Other than that we have just been trying to find a whole bunch of “news” so that we can have more and more people to baptized. We have had two investigators and we have been working with them a ton to make sure that they get baptized. With them they are diamond investigators who come to church all by themselves and just love learning about the gospel and I know that they are going to make some awesome converts. We have their baptism all figured out for this weekend that is coming. We are going to try and get the whole church to come so that they can feel the support that the ward members have for them and that they are super pumped for their decision to get baptized. Really it’s so cool to see the difference that there is between someone who really wants to accept the gospel in their lives and people who really aren´t interested. The people who really want to come unto Christ and repent are like a sponge. they just seem to suck up every single little bit of information that they give you about how to get closer to Christ and how to repent while the people who really aren´t interested just kind of want you to convince them and show them new stuff but aren´t interested in changing anything.

Right now we are in Asuncion because we came to have a leadership meeting with President Agazzani. Really right now he is focused on changing a lot of the mission culture and so really we just sit and he tells us all the stuff he wants us to change and so we really haven´t had any super spiritual moments with the President in our meetings yet like how it was with President Callan, but I know that it’s ok. Change is good and you got to start somewhere if you want a change to come around. I´m just really tired because we had to stay up all night to catch our bus and we didn´t sleep and now I have to head back to CDE with a 7 hour bus ride that feels like a boat. It’s going to be loads of fun.

Really this last week I have had a huge change in my mission. I have really felt the powers of repentance working through me as I decided to more fully commit myself to becoming and doing what my Heavenly Father wants. I know that really it’s the change for the best that we can have and it’s the change that will allow us come unto Him someday and He will tell us good work and that our mission is done. I love you all and hope you have a super fantastic week. Sometimes there are some things that one should be the best at. I want to be the best at repenting.

Elder Beatty