Email 6-15-12

Hello all,
 
This week was changes because we are getting ready for the new Mission
President that will be coming here the next week.  It’s crazy to think
that President Callan is leaving.  He is truly an amazing witness of
Christ.  I don´t have doubts that he will be called to be in the
Quorum of the Seventy.  He really has changed the lives of hundreds of
missionaries and hundreds of Paraguays through his service.  I will be
sad that he will be leaving and some missionaries won´t have the
chance to get to know him as a loving mission President that he is.
He really does love the Lord.  In his last testimony he said that he
would truly give his life for this gospel.  I feel the power of his
testimony in his words and the love that he has for me.  Sometimes its
hard for us to imagine that someone that loves us would chastise us.
But I love President Callan.  He has set the example of what this
mission should and will always be.  LA GRAN MISION DE PARAGUAY!!!!!.
 
 My new companion is Elder Mairena.  He is from Honduras.  
Really he is truly amazing.  He has a love for seeing miracles.  Which
I don´t have a problem with because I like a good miracle too.  It’s
kind of like going to the DQ and getting a triple chocolate Blizzard.
It just makes life better and even sweeter!  He is really helping me
with my Spanish.  After of a year of not having a Latin comp your
Spanish really starts to go downhill.  But he has been really patient
with me and my capabilities.  Always the week of changes is a little
crazy when it comes to trying to get things rolling.  I was a little
nervous having Elder Richards leave because I had only 5 weeks in the
area and I had to plan and guide and everything.  That is very short a
period of time.  But we have been chuggin along and trying to keeping
moving forward.  It was great because on Wednesday we went to the
terminal and I got to see a bunch of the old elders that I got to know
as well as Elder Bingham.  They are all doing great and baptizing a
ton so it will be awesome to see that progress.
 
This last week we saw a bunch of miracles.  We were walking on
Wednesday in the morning right after elder--------`op sorry I got to go
my comp didn´t do the numbers for the zone and I don’t have time to
finish writing.  Love you all and hope you all have an amazing week.
 
--
Elder Beatty

Email 6-18-12

Hello everyone,

Wow what a week of miracles and loops and stuff like that.  Things that just make your mind go crazy.  Things that just make you wonder if that stuff really just happened hahaha.  No, we had an amazing week.  I´m so glad that I was able to help Elder Richards finish out strong here in Ybate.  The crazy thing is that we dropped Sergio on Monday.  We went to his house and we made a list of blessings that he would receive to be baptized in the Church of Jesus Christ and a list of blessings to not be baptized in the Church of Jesus Christ.  On both lists he put remission of sins and eternal life.  WOW..... (something didn´t click somewhere) So he tried to explain to us how he could justify putting it down on both lists.  We pretty much laid a spirit bomb in his heart.  We brought out a ton of scriptures shattering all his hopes of justifying his answers.  After all was said and done, He said that right now he didn´t have any desires to be baptized.  So we dropped him.  It was a sad but an optimistic moment.  I figure that God has someone else in mind that we need to find right now.  On Sunday as well, 2 of our investigators dropped us and we dropped 2 and so we were left with 1.  Jorge.  He didn´t go to church this last Sunday and so his fecha fell for the next week ahhhhhh  It was turning into a lousy father’s day. haha 

                                                           

But really this last week we started with pretty much NO investigators.  It was kind of depressing to look at our plans and to not really see anyone who was ready to progress and so we just decided that it was time for a new start.  We left after a super awesome spiritual district meeting on Tuesday and started working.  We went and tried a less active house that we had never met before.  We clapped and they let us in and the son´s girlfriend was there for a visit and so we taught them lesson 1.  She is golden.  We invited her to be baptized on the 6th and she said ¨ Oh that’s plenty of time to read this book and prepare myself to get baptized.¨ WOW....... 

We also were passing by a another less active family that we had never been able to find before and it was like 830 at night right before we were about to go home.  We clapped the house and they were there.  The girl who is a member had her boyfriend there.  We taught them lesson 1 and we gave him the Book of Mormon.  As soon as we gave him the BOM he started reading it.  He couldn´t even wait.  We put fecha with him for the 6th.  The girl came out to us afterwards and told us that she was planning on marrying him and that they were living together.  But they weren´t living in our area AHHHHH but it’s ok we got a sweet reference to pass on to the other missionaries. 

And yesterday we had the APs call us and ask us who was going to get baptized in our zone this next week, because we didn´t have anyone in the plans to be baptized.  I had to call all the companionships and ask them who was going to be baptized that week.  A lot of them needed a little bit of a kick in the pants to get their faith going.  We helped them realize that even though they don´t have anyone in their plans to be baptized this week the Lord has someone in His plans.  So we left and were trying to find some more people. 

It started raining yesterday.  We found 5 people yesterday IN THE RAIN and they are all ready to progress and have a change in their life.  At the end of the day we were trying to find a reference in the pouring rain.  We clapped the house and the mom comes running out and tells us to come in right away.  We didn´t know if there was a guy in the house but we went in anyway so that the women wouldn´t get wet.  We asked if the reference was there.  The women said yes.  She went and woke up her son.  William.  He came out and was super happy to see us.  He was an old investigator from a different area.  He had already gone to church 5 or 6 times and already knew about Joseph Smith and the BOM.  We invited him to be baptized this SATURDAY!  He said that he didn´t know but was going to let us know. 

WOW I will never doubt again in my mission that there are people all around us who can be baptized that same week.  I know that anything is possible through the Lord.  All we have to do is have faith and get to work.  The Lord has plans for us and we are going to complete them.  I know that this is the Lord´s work and nothing is going to stop it all I need to do is hang on for the ride.  I love you all and hope you have an awesome week!!!!

Rohayhu

--
Elder Beatty

Email 6-11-12

Hello everyone,

Wow what a week it has been.  This week has been really interesting as far as investigators and experiences and everything.  It was SUPER super COLD this last week.  Everyone thought that they were going to die from the cold and so they all went into their houses and didn´t want to leave.  It was a little tough to find some people to talk to but we still managed pretty decently.  The big trial this last week was Sergio.  The 37 year old lawyer that is super close to being baptized.  We visited him every day.  I went with another Elder on Tuesday and we watched “The Testaments.”  That movie about when Christ comes to America.  It was super powerful.  At the end Sergio couldn´t even talk or say anything.  We asked him how he felt.  He just couldn´t say anything.  We knew that the Spirit had testified to him super strongly about the Book of Mormon.  We told him that God really only has one invitation for him, and that’s to come unto Him, to be baptized and be cleansed.  We invited him to be baptized.  And he said NO.  He said that in his life right now he was trying to be a good person and that he didn´t feel the need to be baptized.  AHHHH!!!  So the next day we passed by with Elder Richards and we talked about doing the will of the Lord and not being prideful.  That those that do the will of the Lord will be blessed and enter into the kingdom of God.  We asked him where we could find the will of the Lord,  he said that the will of the Lord is found in the scriptures and latter day prophets.  So we gave him Moroni 8 that talks about infant baptism, because earlier he talked about how his baptism was valid because he had faith that it is.  That it doesn´t matter who gets the baptism done just as long as you believe in it.  So we left him with Moroni 8.  We came back the next day, which was Friday,  we had been planning to baptize him on Saturday,  We passed by and we asked him if he had any questions about what he read.  He asked us when the age of accountability was.  We told him that it was when we turned 8 years old.  We asked him if he thought that God wanted him to be baptized.  He said yes.  Then we asked him if he would be baptized on Saturday (WE HAD LOTS OF FAITH)  After we asked him that he just kinda looked at us and said, ¨I know that we talked about doing the will of God and being humble and stuff like that,  but putting that aside I have something called free agency¨ AHHHHHHH!!!! hahaha  He said that he wants to announce his baptism and a bunch of other stuff like that.  hahaha WOW  Elder Richards told him that he was leaving soon, and that he knew that Sergio would be baptized before he left.  Wow.  We invited him to come to church but in the end he didn´t end up coming.  We have decided that this week is do or die with Sergio.  He knows the truth.  He has gotten his answer from God.  It’s just up to him whether to accept that or not. 

Other than that we had a pretty good week.  We got Jorge to church hahah good ol Jorge.  He is a 24 year old guy.  It was super funny because we did divisions with one companionship this last week and so I went to visit him with another Elder.  We went and Jorge let us in and said ¨ hey I have a secret but you can´t tell anyone!!!¨ He put on a Beanie that covered his face.  ¨ I´m Spiderman¨ hahaha it was just super funny to see this 24 year old guy doing stuff a 14 year old would do.  He is just so cool and super sweet.  He is still waiting for his answer to come from God that the Book of Mormon is true, but he went to church and loved it.  So pretty much he is going to get baptized haha. 

We also were teaching a guy called Walter.  He was the guy that just kept wanting to find peace in his life but doesn´t want to change churches.  So we passed by and invited him to go to church and he said that he would come.  Sunday morning we got a text from him that he couldn´t come to church.  So we thought we would go by anyway and just act like we didn´t get the text.  So we went by his house and said ¨hey are you excited to go to church¨ he just kinda looked at us.  We told him that we would wait for him while he gets ready.  He showered and then we headed off to church with him.  He was there during church and it went really well.  After church we were talking to him and he was just super iffy, didn´t really know if he wanted us to pass by anymore and so we asked him if he wanted us to come by at all.  He said no.  So I guess we will be seeing a little less of Walter.  But he will get baptized don’t worry. 

Other than that we are just looking for new people to teach and seeing miracles.  I know that this is the Lord´s work.  Nothing will stop it.  I know that we are just a small part of what God uses to bring His children to the knowledge of the truth.  I know I’m blessed.  I love you all and hope you all are sharing the gospel with someone.  Helping them come closer to Christ.

Rohayhu

Elder Beatty

Email 6-4-12

Hello all,

Well this week really has been a wild ride of craziness and miracles.  The guy who was supposed to get baptized this last Saturday; didn´t end up getting baptized.  He said that he was too worried about not being ready.  He wants to get to know the church better, go more often and receive more answers that this church is the true church.  He had an awesome experience at church the week before.  We talked to him about the atonement and what it means for us.  We talked about how we need to remember Christ and His sacrifice.  We told him that through the atonement we can remember Christ.  That it is a sacred time for us to reflect on our personal relationship with God.  We invited him to pray during the sacrament to get his answer if this was the true church.  We went to church, the classes weren´t too weird and off topic, the music wasn´t too bad, but the spirit was super strong.  He said that he prayed during the sacrament if this was the true church.  He said after that, he had an intimate experience with God.  That he received his answer.  But, the problem is that he wants more answers.  It’s crazy because we are on our knees every day asking God what we should do for him because he has been taught everything and knows the information.  We figured that this Sunday would be his ¨Test¨ because it was probably going to rain.  FYI When it rains in Paraguay, nobody does anything.  Everyone just sits in their houses and waits for the rain to stop.  If you leave your house everyone thinks you’re crazy.  We decided that this would be Sergio´s test; to go to church in the rain.  We went to go find an investigator that we had taught earlier in the week to bring to church but he wasn´t there.  So we started to head to the chapel and it starting pouring rain.  We got about three fourths of the way there and we stopped to see if the rain was going to stop.  And who should turn around the corner, but Sergio, walking in the rain with our good member friend Edgar, and heading towards the church.  It was a sweet testimony to me that we need to keep fighting and praying to help Sergio be baptized. 

Also another sweet miracle that we had was that we found a guy this last week named Jorge.  He is a 24 year old guy who has a lot of friends who are returned missionaries.  We weren´t able to really talk with him this last week because he was sick every day.  We didn´t know if he was going to end up coming to church.  We passed by with a member on Monday.  A youth that just loves going to church, his name is Ki Kin.  KiKin invited Jorge to come to church, but after that we didn’t see Jorge during the week.  We woke up Sunday to have a text from Jorge saying that he was getting ready to go to church, but he wouldn´t go if it was raining.  WE didn´t think that Jorge would end up going to church, especially when it started pouring.  When we got to the church we went in and he was sitting there singing with the priesthood holders.  HE CAME!"!!!!!  He said that right when he was getting to leave his house it stopped raining.  He said that it was a sign that he should go to church.  He also said that when he got to church it started raining again.  He said that he felt that god told him that the church was where he should be going.  So he said that he would come to church next week, rain or snow. 

We have a lot of other people that are progressing and are planning on getting baptized this month.  We are super excited for the success that we are going to see this month.  Now we just have to help all the other missionaries in the Zone have the same faith and excitement.  We actually had today a leadership counsel.  Usually it is only with the ZONE leaders but this would be President Callan´s last time to talk to us as missionaries in a group and so he invited all the District leaders as well.  It was super amazing.  We talked a lot about the goals that we have as missionaries and about faith.  About showing our faith to the Lord.  The only thing that I have to say is that President Callan is going to be in the quorum of the seventy.  I know that he is!!!!.  He is so amazing and spiritual.  He knows what it takes to get things done.  I am so thankful for him and his desire to help missionaries learn to be obedient, love the Lord, and help His children. I am so grateful to have known him.  He really has changed my life and my mission.  I´m glad that I can help the new president see that we as a mission will be obedient and work hard in the vineyard of the Lord.  I know that it is what the Lord wants us to do and He will bless us as long on we continue to do His will.  I love this work.  I love the mission.  I love the Lord.  I know that I am here in this mission, with this calling, with this companion for a reason.  The Lord prepared me before coming to this world to be who I am supposed to be.  I know that the Lord will help us fulfill our callings and find blessings in our lives as long as we stay obedient and love Him.  I love you all and hope you have a super fantastic week.

ROHAYHU PARAGUAY!!!!!!

Elder Beatty