Email 4/22/13

Hey everyone,

Wow this week just seemed to fly by in comparison to what I just went through the last week here in Leopardi. It’s been a little rough for me to get used to the area but we are still chuggin along finding two or 3 people every day and helping them come unto Christ. My comp is truly amazing. His name is Elder Ratliff he is from California and he has about 4 months in the mission. He is just super super pumped to be working with me. My first day here I told him that we were going to be inviting everyone to be baptized. He was a little scared at first to hear that announcement but really he has just taken that invitation to heart and now he has a desire to invite everyone to be baptized. Really it was so cool to be able to see that develop in him. It was so long ago that I had that desire come into my heart that I had pretty much forgotten what it felt like. One day we were walking home after having taught a guy for about 10 minutes and inviting him to be baptized at the end and he accepted. Elder Ratliff was just describing how he was feeling. ¨I feel like I really understand what my purpose is. I thought that I could only invite people when I thought that they were ready to be baptized, but now I understand that I invite them to be baptized because they aren´t ready. I must challenge them to use their faith. I feel something deep inside me that really I am helping others come unto Christ. I like it.¨ Really it was just so super awesome to have that experience with him. It is all so true. I have seen many types of Paraguayans here in Paraguay. The majority of them are always scared to take that step of baptism because they don´t know what it means right now, but being able to see the power of our testimonies in helping those people feel peace and then accepting the invitation to follow Christ. It has helped me come to understand that truly I do nothing. This call as a missionary came to me because I was worthy and because I had already been chosen to leave. Inviting someone to be baptized brings this feeling that is pretty hard to describe. It makes me get all anxious and knowing that I will be helping someone to come unto Christ through their own covenant.

This week we had tons of miracles. I left on Tuesday to go to an area called Villa Anita to help a missionary called Elder Carrillo. He is a cool elder From Mexico although he makes me think of a Tongan because of the way he looks and talks hahahaha he thinks it’s funny that I say that to him. We really had quite the day. We started out the day a little late because of some of the stuff that we had to do after the district meeting but finally we got out of the house and we started working. In about 5 hours we found 8 people and we invited them all to be baptized and they had accepted. It was just so amazing to see the change in Elder Carrillo as we invited people to be baptized only after having taught them for about 10 minutes. I told all of the missionaries that we need to change our focus in the district to more on Baptism and how it is our purpose. They all really didn´t think that it was possible to be able to put someone with a baptismal date only having taught them for about 10 minutes. Well we did it with eight people and all of them were excited to come to church and to know if the BOM is true. Really it was such a great day that in the end we bought Lomito Arabe to celebrate. We were super humbled to know that the Lord had used us that day to help others come unto him. It really helped Elder Carrillo as well see that there are tons of people to baptize in his area and all that they need to do is just invite them to make that step. We are passing through a rough time in the district with the missionaries in that they have not been focused on baptizing and have been focused too much on all the problems that are going on with the members. They have gotten a little lazy and a little disobedient. It’s been a little hard for me to gain their confidence because they just think that I am here and that I’m going to be leaving soon so that I’m trunky. It’s a process that is taking a little longer than I would like, but I have divisions planned for the following weeks with those missionaries so we will see what happens.

We are going to have a baptism this next weekend. It is going to be such a huge miracle. We had this kid named Enrique who came to church to just kind of know what it is. He liked it so much that he just kept coming. Elder Ratliff and his old companion had talked with him but really hadn´t set in a good time to teach him. He came to church last week we put him with a baptismal date and we couldn´t find him all during the week. We got him to church on Sunday and we announced his baptismal. He is just super super pumped to do it. We went in and taught him after to church to really see how was his desire to be baptized. He said that he wanted to do it. He didn´t really know why he needed to but he felt a desire within himself that he needed to do it. We went over all the baptismal questions to see if he had a testimony. We taught him all the commandments and wow he was just beaming by the end of the lesson. He was just so exited. It’s going to be an interesting week to try and teach him because he is going to be working and going to school but we are going to fast and pray for him so that he can maintain his progress and be baptized on Saturday.

We were able to see some other miracles as well with being guided by the hand of the Lord. We are finding lots of people who want to follow Christ. We just have to help them take those necessary steps to come unto him. I am loving the mission right now. I think more than ever I am learning the power of a testimony of the truth as I work here in my area with my new companion. He is still having difficulties with the language but he is using his testimony to help others. We aren´t asking how is your knowledge, we are asking, how is your faith. I love things here. The ward is very very tough but we are working with all our hearts. I love the mission and I love you all and hope you have a super awesome week.

Les quiero.

Elder Beatty

Email 4/15/13

Dearest family and special friends of Elder Beatty,

I just wanted to thank you for your love and support for Presten.  Presten will be flying into St. George on May 23rd @ 11:00 p.m. and Bishop Ellerman has given us the go ahead for Presten to report his mission on May 26th @ 1:00 p.m. at the Hurricane Stake Center (677 S. 700 W.)  Presten would love to have you there.  Thanks again for all you do for our favorite missionary in Paraguay!

Hey Everyone,

So I got some crazy news for this week. I GOT CHANGED. Yes I got taken out of Nemby. I´m in an area called Leopardi now. It’s a area in the Stake of Fernando de la Mora. It’s mostly city. city city city. It’s been a little bit of a rough change for me because I am just so used to working in areas that are a little bit more rural. I was a little bummed to find out that I would be leaving Nemby to come here to end my mission. Why couldn´t I have just stayed in Nemby where all the members know me and that I can just relax and have success and end my mission with big parties and asados and everything would just be perfect.

I was able to receive some revelation about it on Tuesday night while I was packing in that usually my whole mission I said that I wasn´t going to get trunky, that I was going to stick it out to the end and do all that I could to help others come unto Christ. Well here is my chance. I am in a new ward and I don´t know anybody so the Lord is just telling me that I have a decision to make. I can sit back and relax or I can hit it hard and tear it up in a new area for 5 weeks. I have decided that I am going to destroy this area. My comp just finished his training and so he is still learning some stuff, but overall he is a good obedient missionary and is ready to learn and work hard.

We have already started seeing some miracles this week. We started putting everyone who would listen to us with a baptismal date. It was so awesome to see so many people who are willing to come unto to Christ.

We also had another huge miracle. We were at church and we were a little bummed that we hadn´t gotten any of our investigators to church and then we found out that some young man had come in and was all dressed like a member with a shirt and a tie. We found out that he wasn´t a member. So we put him with a fecha for 2 weeks. It was just so cool to see the Lord’s hand in helping us overcome our problems and keeping us excited.

We haven´t found anyone to baptize this week but we are working a ton with the members and the area notebook to try and find someone this week that will be baptized on Saturday. We are going to do it and my comp is right behind me. Really he said that this last 3 days were the best that he has had in the last 5 months and so he is really pumped to just start working and seeing some miracles.

We are going to have at least 2 more baptisms by the end of this month. We don´t know who they are, but we are going to find them. We have been having some fun with the members because we don´t know who is going to get baptized but we tell them that someone is going to get baptized. They ask us what their name is. We tell them. Miligaros. Or Miracles. They are like oh that’s a really nice name hahaha

Its been great fun for us to keep working with positive attitudes and to just work your guts out hoping that the Lord will bless you with the power to bare a testimony. My comp is Elder Ratliff. He is from California. He is a bit taller than me so a lot of people I can imagine are a little scared of us. We found a good number of people this week. We are still trying to find that one golden family that we are going to baptize. We are going to find them si o si.

Other than that; really there isn´t much going on. Our area is Huge. Really sometimes at the end of the day I feel like my feet are going to fall off. But it’s all going good. We are going to start planning a little bit better so that we don´t have to walk so much.

I think that the biggest lesson that I learned this week would have to be how to have a positive attitude. Really we talked about it in church as well that we aren´t here to suffer. Suffering is only a side effect of an eternal progress that we are receiving from a loving Heavenly Father. It’s the way that we learn what things are the most important.

I often times think about the times in my mission when I was the happiest or when I was more focused. The times that made me more happy were after a time of hardship or trial, because I came to realize the love and dependence that I have on Him. I know that He loves me and that He is only trying to help me become the man, husband, and eternal being that I need and want to be. I love Him. I love you all and hope you have a sweet week because I’m going to. Love you all again.

Rohayhu paraguay ha che famila avei

Elder Beatty

Email 4/8/13

Ollo....

Hello family and anyone else who may be interested in what this Elder has to say. This week was such a huge progress for us in our area and I´m feeling a lot better in regards to how my attitude is towards my area.

So first things first, Tuesday, we started out with a huge capacitacion. We had all the missionaries (28) come so that we could share with them the information and spirit that we had felt from our monthly meeting that we have with President Agazzani. It started all well and all the missionaries seemed to be in good spirits. We started the meeting and we began to talk about the weekly planning, that has been the focus of President Agazzani for the last little bit. We did a really sweet example to help the missionaries understand the importance of having specific plans. I think it was a thing that I learned from Mrs. Clyde in the 1st grade. She had us all make a list of instructions on how to make a Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich. Then she told us that really she had no idea how to make one. We did the same example with the missionaries. A lot of them just took for granted that I already knew how to make a sandwich and they didn´t write down instructions very well and so the sandwich come out very very wrong. It was a funny activity and was great to show the missionaries that we need to plan better and have more specific plans so that we can leave the house and know exactly what to do.

Everything was going well until they started asking us a ton of what if and how questions. They were all creating problems with their plan session that weren´t really problems at all and they wanted us to answer them. In the end my companion was trying to answer all of the missionary’s questions and help them for every single specific situation that they would create in their minds when finally I just stood up and told them really how it was. That we aren´t here to create problems, that President has received revelation about how we need to plan, that we need to do it better and we need to start now, that we could create millions of what ifs and when’s but in the end it doesn´t change what President wants us to do. I told them to just plan better, and follow the steps. A lot of them starting giving comments about how we shouldn´t be so harsh on them and that it’s hard to plan with plans that President have given them.

I felt a lot like Nephi listening to his brother’s just whine about how hard it was to go back to Jerusalem or that it was impossible to build a ship and cross the sea. I just told them that the case was closed and that we were moving on. A lot of the missionaries got mad at us, and didn´t want to take any more notes or listen to what we had to say. I felt sad because they can´t seem to see our vision, they don´t want to open their hearts and accept the things that we have been instructed to tell them to help them complete with their purpose. It’s kind of like throwing water at a rock, no matter how much water I throw, the water isn´t going to enter into the rock.  I have come to understand the difference between being a sponge and a rock. I need to be the Sponge. I may not understand everything in how, when, or what. But I understand what is expected of me and I’m going to follow council and instructions from my leaders. So yeah, that was a great learning experience for Elder Beatty

A youth just moved to our ward about a month ago from an area a little far away called Lambare. He is about 20 years old and is preparing to go on a mission. This week we just caught our area on fire. Almost all of the people that we are teaching are progressing. We were able to visit them all many times this week and they are all having some sort of progress towards baptism. We have around 14 people that we are teaching right now. It has been a huge change from the last 3 weeks where really we have just been trying to find someone who was willing to progress. We had 2 investigators come to General conference. The rest didn´t end up coming because it was threatening to rain. We are super super pumped with some of the stuff that is going on in our area. We are going to have around 6 baptisms this month and it is just going to be awesome. My comp and I are really coming together and we are starting to get our pace going with some of the areas that we have been working in. I´m excited with how things are going. We are going to find out today if I will get changed out of the area for my last change. I hope not, we have some great stuff going on in our area right now.

So real fast, I want to just share some of the thoughts that I have about the General Conference. After being able to reflect on the conference and what I had learned and felt. I came to the conclusion that really I didn´t learn anything new. They all for the most part focused on relying on what we already know to be able to overcome our trials. I feel that I have been strengthened and raised up from the sad feelings that I had this last week. A lot of times as a missionary we have goals about what we want to become and where we want to go and accomplish. The thing that is the hardest part is to actually go out and make the change. I felt a great love and strength come from the words of the prophets to keep going towards completing my goals, to keep trying even though it’s hard. I had a feeling that God really does love me and is interested in my life and in where I want to go, what I want to do, and who I need to be. I know that the men that talked to us are special witnesses that He lives. They say that they are witnesses because they know with a perfect knowledge that He (Jesus Christ) is real. We also can come to know that He is real, by living His commandments and doing His will. That is how we will come to know Him. I love you all and hope that you have a super awesome week.

Rohaihu

Elder Beatty

Email 4/1/13

Wow what a crazy crazy week that we had as a companionship. I don´t even know where to start. Well first off we had some crazy stuff going on because it was the semana santa or the Holy week. EVERYONE during this week decides to just go out and to visit all the of the family that they have in the chaco or the desert. It was super super crazy on Wednesday to see everyone just packing their bags and getting ready to travel to all sorts of crazy parts of Paraguay. I would just look at my companion and think wow what are we supposed to do if all the people we are supposed to be teaching leave and go to some crazy place. We made the best of things with what we had.

I did divisions with a brand new missionary from Argentina on Tuesday . We actually had a really really awesome day. We found 4 people and put them all with a fecha bautismal. The younger missionary was really really pumped because I made him put all the people with a baptismal date and no one denied him. It was a little funny because he told me that everyone he thought was going to reject him but in the end they all accepted and were excited to come to church and all that jazz. We had a good time and at the end we ended up buying some lomito arabe. It’s kind of like a taco but tons better. We passed the night by talking about the mission and just how it is being a missionary. It made me remember all those times that I spent as a younger missionary not really understanding anything and just trying to struggle through my little area in CDE. It made me feel really good that I could help a younger missionary have a better perspective and hope for the future in his area.

Sometimes that’s all we need as human beings. We just need someone who can always come and pick us up no matter how bad we are. A lot of times its our faith in Jesus Christ, it’s our hope for the future and what he can help us achieve that just keeps us going.

So Tuesday was pretty much an awesome day. Wednesday didn´t turn out so hot because we changed back and everything and then I started getting a little sick and then by the middle of the afternoon I was just plain dead. We kept working but really I was just in another world. I had a fever and was dealing with some diarrhea. We are thinking that it came from our lunch on Wednesday, but towards the end of the day I was feeling better, but we really hadn´t accomplished anything. I thanked my companion for helping me and putting up with the stuff that I always have going on.

On Thursday we went and did a weekly planning with one of the companionships in the zone that is really struggling. We decided that it would have been better not to tell them. So we showed up in their house and were able to see how they were really doing. It wasn´t soo great. We helped them as best we could and helped them put some specific plans and all that jazz. They were more excited about the work when we left then when we got there. It was a little funny to think about doing some surprised visits. When I was a younger missionary I always dreaded the fact that the zone leaders could show up in any moment and I wouldn´t know why, I was doing exactly the same thing that I had dreaded a year ago. It just made me chuckle to myself.

We did still have a little bit of a frustrating week in that people really weren´t very open to us. You think that people would be more open to talk about Jesus Christ and His gospel during the week of His death and resurrection but really it was surprising how many people rejected us. Sometimes we just seem to be so focused on the worldly part of Easter and the chocolate and all that stuff that we tend to forget the real reason that we have Easter, to remember Christ.

I love you all. Sorry that the message is really short, my mind just really isn´t into writing today. But I hope that you all have a super awesome week.

Elder Beatty

Email 3/25/13

Hello everyone,

I´m sorry but this email is looking to be a short one. Not because I want it to be, but mostly because of the content. The last few weeks we really have been struggling in our area. Sometimes it’s a little hard for me to accept. Being a Zone leader and having so much experience as a missionary, you would think that it should be easy for me to baptize every week and to be consistent. I don´t know why and I haven´t found the source as to our trouble here in our area, but we just can´t seem to get any progress out of anyone. Every week we go out and work and coordinate with the members and find people and put them with a baptismal date and all that jazz, but in the end, really no one wants to change. It was really hitting my companion hard this last week because he felt that we weren’t doing anything, that we were just wasting our time. I told him that we weren´t wasting our time. That we were doing the right thing in inviting others to come unto Christ and that we just have to learn that everyone has their agency. I feel that now in my mission I am progressing the most because I am learning to become more like Christ is. There is always that classic saying that in trials and pain one comes to know a man of angustia and pain. I have made a promise to myself to make these last 2 months the happiest that I can possibly make them. The Zone is doing awesome. This month we have baptized 25 in total and we have tons of people lined up to get baptized this next month. All of the missionaries are happy and they just love the work. We are leading them in every way and helping them become the best that they can be. I feel that the Lord is guiding me and that He is helping me become better through all my experiences.

This Sunday I was sitting during the sacrament and really had an experience that fortified my faith. There was a youth that was talking about being more humble. She really is just a simple 16 year old girl that has great intentions to do the will of God. She isn´t super super profound in her talk but it helped me come to realize the power that the Lord has in our lives. She talked about that we ought less to pay attention to our own knowledge and capability and recognize more the greatness of God and our dependence on him. Every single person in the world from the smartest to the poorest, from the more popular to the hermit, from the leader to the follower, we all have a great reliance on him. In his eyes we are all equal. I think that is why I love the temple so much. Sitting in the Celestial Room; I can´t see who is rich, smart, poor, or famous. Everyone has been made one in His eyes. I pray that the Lord can give me those eyes to see things in His way, to be able to see all our brothers and sisters the same. That is also how we need to see ourselves. We often times beat up ourselves for not being the best or that we aren´t as capable as others are, so we have the desire to be like someone else. I often times have experiences with people here in Paraguay when I tell them that I want to be a musician. They very very rapidly ask me who I want to be like, who I want to sing like and questions regarding that. I usually ponder and then decide to answer them. That really I don´t want to be like anyone. I want to be me. The Lord has given me a talent and I want to use it how he wants me to. We all have a destiny to follow. As we stay focused on the things that are more important we find true happiness that come through being established on principles of good and truth.

Another sweet spiritual experience that I had was after a lesson when we taught a guy that didn´t understand hardly any Spanish at all and we struggled to teach him in Guaraní,  we invited him to be baptized and he just slammed us and so in the end we kind of left a little bummed. After being able to reflect on the lesson I felt a sweet feeling of happiness knowing that I have the truth in my life. A lot of the times we always try to focus on what we know, or how much knowledge we have. We ought less to focus on how much we know, and more on how we feel about it. So often after being a member for a good amount of time we often forget really how amazing the restored gospel principles are. Our soul really rejoices in the knowledge of the truth.

We are having some problems with a few missionaries in our zone;  more in the aspect that they really aren´t willing to invite people to be baptized. I think that this has been a constant fight for many many missionaries. They are always afraid to invite people. They think that they aren´t really ready or that they aren´t going to say yes. We talked to them about not being the judges. There is a scripture in Doctrine and Covenants that talks about how every man, women and child that is old enough, must be baptized. We told them that we as missionaries are not here to judge people if they are capable of enduring to the end, or if they shouldn´t be baptized. We have been commanded by the Lord that we must invite ALL our brothers and sisters to take this step. I think that the meeting that we had with them went very well. We will see how their week goes out the next week.

I´m happy!! I´m so tired, but I’m so happy. Reading some of the events in my journal from the last year I have really come to see how much I have been growing and how much I have come to be a soldier of the Lord in proclaiming His gospel. I love it. I love you all.

--
Elder Beatty

Email 3/18/13

2013.Mar.18

This week I’m not gonna lie seemed to just crawl by. It all started out on Tuesday. We did divisions with the Assistants and we were learning more about how the mission is going and what the president is wanting us to change as a zone. It’s a little frustrating at times because we have a super super super huge zone and the overall space of the zone is fairly large. We have been working with the District leaders a ton to try and help them understand what they are suppose to do as leaders in guiding their districts. One of the Districts leaders is my old Companion from CDE Elder Martinez. He is doing well and we are on the same page as far as what we want to accomplish. The other 2 district leaders are new and they are super excited for what their districts can accomplish but still they are learning as far as what they are supposed to do as District leaders. The Assistants told me that there are TONS of new leaders in the mission and that it’s not just something that we are struggling from. They said that in the next 3 changes we have a total of 60 missionaries going home and a good majority of them are district and Zone leaders and so right now they are trying to get the new leaders capacitated as to what they are supposed to be doing. It’s not a bad thing to have a change in leadership because it always brings in new ideas, but the mission is going a little down because of all the NEW leaders that we have. It’s not that they are bad leaders; it’s just that they are still learning how to do it. We are really trying to help our district leaders become the best in the mission so that they can have confidence in their own ability to receive revelation for their missionaries and to help them stay focused and happy. We are progressing, maybe not as fast as I would like, but we are progressing.

Also I wanted to thank everyone for the birthday wishes. I had a great birthday. We were doing divisions and it really just started to pour the rain. Like it wasn´t one of those little normal rains that we get every so often. It was one of those pouring rains that just seem to get everything wet no matter how safe that you think you are. We Taught a good amount of lessons and we found a really really cool family that was going to come to church yesterday, but their baby son got sick and so they couldn´t come. We are going to keep working super hard to make sure that they keep progressing towards their baptismal date. I had a good birthday. A lot of people where giving me cake and at the end of the day Elder Knudsen told me that my area was the bomb and that he didn´t want to leave because of all the super legit members and investigators we had. hahaha This whole week we never really had a day that was super super amazing. We just kept chuggin things out and working hard every single day. Sometimes I feel like I am playing a football game we just get 3 or 2 yards every single play. It’s a cloud of dust and then 3 yards, another cloud of dust and then 3 yards. It’s a progression, but it’s one that isn´t very fun. hahaha Nah we have our moments when we laugh and have a good time. Elder Velasquez is a good missionary and is really focused on what he wants. Sometimes I feel that he thinks that I´m not the type of missionary that he thinks a zone leader should be, super strict, direct with the missionaries, chastising. I feel that we are progressing as a companionship, but he still has a lot to learn about being a leader and changing his attitude according to the situation that presents itself. I have been sharing with him some of the leadership stuff I learned before the mission. It’s been helping a little; we will see what happens in the future.

We are having some problems with 2 of our investigators in that they want to get baptized so bad, they have all their lessons and they have all their assistance at church but in the end it all comes down to problems with their spouse. Their spouse doesn´t want to get married or doesn´t want to support then in their decisions. It’s been really hard for me to work with them because they haven´t formed a great relationship in their own personal family. They don´t want to accept that they have a comment even after having 4 kids with their spouse. We have been inviting them to read the BOM and to Pray and all that jazz but they just don´t want to do it. It’s been hard to keep our investigators from losing their hope for their spouses. They have been trying to keep on a happy face and trying to keep coming to church and all that jazz, but in the end they know that they aren´t members yet and that they are losing blessings from living in sin. We are really working with the members to make sure that they can maintain their progress in the gospel, but things are getting rough. It’s one of those times when I have to accept that others have their free agency. It seems that we have countless experiences with these problems. Every single time it seems like a surprise to us. You think that we would learn how to handle situations like this. But I guess it just goes to show how much we have come to love these people that we want them to keep progressing, but there are just little things that are stopping them from taking that progress of baptism. Keep them in your prayers, they need it.

We were sharing with a member the other day and we were watching a video from the Mormon messages and it was talking about seeing the best in people and seeing how they can become instead of how they are right now. The man on the video said something that is sooo true. He said that the world is cruel sometimes and we tend to react badly to the things that happen to us. We tend to react in the way that is most easier, or to get mad, or to blame. But in the end that there are more ways to be good, than to be bad. But, that doesn´t make it any easier. We have to make that decision now to do the right thing or to say the right thing when everything seems to be going down in the dumps. I have a huge testimony about that. Sometimes as a missionary so many bad things happen to us that it’s not even funny. An investigator doesn´t read, or doesn´t come to church, or pray. Or people just deny us and don´t let us teach them, or our companions aren´t what we really want them to be. And the thing we do most of the time is react in a negative way. Its sooooo easy. But in the end I have learned that true happiness comes when we stay focused on the goal of who we are trying to become. We are true followers of Christ and we will continue to follow his footsteps. It’s not going to be easy, but it will be worth it. I know that this is true and I’m sure that you do to. Sometimes we just have to be reminded about what is more important.

I´m super grateful for the gospel. it is the things that brings us peace and joy. I know that Satan is always trying to sneak in and make us take a fallen path. Sometimes it seems so appealing or harmless what he wants us to do but in the end we can see that it isn´t worth it. Satan works hard to make us as missionaries depressed and to feel like what we do doesn´t matter or that we aren´t having any success. But I know that God is happy with every single one of His missionaries for their work and their effort. Sometimes when we aren´t having success we seem to start blaming ourselves and that we aren´t good enough that’s why God isn´t blessing us with baptisms. I know its not like that. God is so thankful and happy for us His missionaries. I have grown and developed into someone totally different. I am so thankful for the opportunity that the Lord gave me to really come to know who He is, and what His purpose is. I AM HIS REPRESENTATIVE, AND I LOVE IT. I love you all and hope you have a super awesome week, because I will be.

Rohaihu haé che familia.

--
Elder Beatty

Email 3/11/13

HELLO EVERYONE.
Thanks for the birthday wishes!
Wow I feel so old. We have been having a joke between all the missionaries in that I am just the super old fart in the mission now. Even the sister missionaries start jumping in on it but then I just have to remind them that really they are a lot older than I am haha its all fun in the end we get a few good laughs out of it. We are just moving along and having to work, work, work. I won´t really be able to rest and have fun on my birthday because we are going to have to do some divisions with the assistants and I will be going to their area, but it’s all good. I will be able to just smile away and everyone will be super confused as to how this missionary is so happy.

This week was a little bit more of a test for me and my companion. We are still struggling with finding some good people that are actually going to progress. We had a huge miracle that happened yesterday in church. We were sitting there and we were getting ready to take the sacrament and a couple walk in from outside so I grabbed my companion and pulled him out right when they were getting ready to take the sacrament. We started talking to the couple and they had come from Cuidad Del Este and they were sharing with the missionaries. They were going to get baptized but they just moved from CDE to here in Nemby. Wow. They couldn´t stay for all of the church but they were just curious and wanted to know where the new building was that they wanted to come to. The dad is from Italy and the mom is Paraguayan. They were both super super nice. I guess the dad just got mugged the night before when he was in Fernando de la Mora and he was pretty beaten up but he was smiling and just glad to see his friends the missionaries. We are going to start pàssing by for them this week and we are hoping to get them baptized the next week. We are going to have to help the dad stop smoking but he said that he has gone down from 3 to 1 pack a day. So I bet we can give him that finally push to help him stop smoking. It was a great miracle that helped us raise our spirits from the problems that we had that week.

So other news as to what had happened this week is that on Tuesday we had a meeting with all the missionaries in the zone or 28 missionaries and President Agazzani gave us a call and told us that he was going to be coming and participating in the activity with his wife. AHHHH Our main focus in the meeting was to help the missionaries understand that they need to make changes in their attitudes so that they can complete with the vision of baptizing more people. We had a sweet activity that I learned from the Leadership Academy that focused on having a vision and putting goals and plans and executing the plans to complete the vision. It was a really really good activity and all of the missionaries said it was fun and edifying. During the meeting it was a little harsh because we have the biggest zone of missionaries and we aren´t baptizing enough people. President got up and invited everyone to repent and to change how they look at their areas and their investigators. In the end it was a good meeting. A lot of the missionaries were excited to leave to have a change in their vision. We are hoping to start working more with the district leaders so that we can maintain that attitude during the whole month and not let it die out. It has proven quite the challenge trying to make sure that 28 missionaries keep on baptizing but I have learned a lot about how to be a good leader; a leader that inspires and motivates through example and love. It’s been hard to get to this point because sometimes it’s just soooo easy to just tell missionaries to work harder, and then they get frustrated with you and they don´t want to follow. Sometimes I have to meditate really what I need to do to help a specific companionship. It’s always cool in those moments because the Spirit becomes our guide.

We traveled like crazy this week because the missionaries had a ton of surprise baptisms so we are just running around like crazy doing interviews. After being here in Nemby and having to direct so many missionaries I have learned a very very powerful lesson with being a missionary. It’s not just a matter of doing missionary work and having success. In the end it’s trying to become a missionary of Christ. Loving the people as He loves, giving as He gives, teaching as He teaches, and being guided as He was. It’s been a real challenge. After I completed a year in the mission I haven´t really learned much more in aspect of doing the missionary work, but for the last 10 months I feel like I have been in a greater learning channel and that is to become a missionary like Christ. It’s hard. But in the end it is what brings more satisfaction and joy in the work. I may be having trials and other problems with the work but I feel like it’s because the Lord wants me to become more like He is. I think that that is what matters most. We will be more able to help others as we raise our own possibilities. I love the mission. I thank you all for your birthday wishes and for your prayers. I love you all and hope that you have a super awesome week.

Elder Beatty

Email 3/4/13

Hello everyone,

The time just seems to pass by faster and faster. This week was still a tough one but really in comparison with the week before I feel much more confident in what the Lord has done to help us. Yeah I know that my last letter was a little low and depressing but I am looking at it more like a refiner´s fire. We go through problems and difficulties so that we can learn to rely on the Lord and what He can do for us. A lot of times we as members believe in Christ, that He exists and that He is a person. But, we often times forget to believe Christ, or in other words, believe in His power to heal, to free, to help, and to save. I have really gained a personal testimony of that power. Not only by seeing it work in the lives of other people. Missionary work is hard. Sometimes we joke around when we are with lots of other missionaries about what we thought of the mission before we got here. Oh dang its going to be so easy. Go out, learn a new language, eat some cool new food, see some crazy things, teach some people, and baptize. Yeah good luck. Really in the end missionary work comes down to what it is called..... WORK..... It’s not easy. And it wasn´t meant to be easy. But in the end it is supposed to help us learn to believe Christ. As we continue through our trials humbly and doing the will of the Lord, we are strengthened. We find peace that comes from an everlasting fountain of truth and light. Yeah things aren’t getting any easier here in our area but I am becoming stronger. Its comes down to a quote that I have written in the front of my agenda.

“That which we persist in doing becomes easier for us to do, not that the nature of the thing itself has changed, but that our power to do is increased.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

I can´t even begin to describe how this statement is true. Not just in a worldly sense but also in a spiritual sense. If we have problems with the commandments and we try and try and pray and do all we can to overcome our problems, the Lord will bless us and strengthen us so that we can have the power to overcome our problems. Try reading the last verse of 1st Nephi the last paragraph. It gives a great description of what I just explained but it is scripture.

Other than that very emotional part of my letter we have been keeping rather busy with other zone leader part missionary stuff. This week we had changes. It’s looking like I am going to stay in my area for another change and work with Elder Velasquez. He is a good missionary and really wants to see more success. He is overall happy most of the time and is very flexible in things to change. We are going to change a few things in how we are working this change but I feel that we are going to really have a successful change together. We had a good amount of changes in the Zone. We got 2 more missionaries so that brings us to 28 missionaries in the zone. We have the largest zone that I have ever heard of….. ahhhhh. Those 2 more missionaries are being brought into Nemby. So we are going to have 6 missionaries in our ward. 2 Elders and 4 sisters. AHHHHHHH The ward is really excited to keep working and we are hoping to just explode Nemby. Other things that we had going on this week was that we did divisions. I went out of our area and worked in a small distinct little area. I would like you to imagine that little town off the movie “Cars”...Radiator Springs. Yeah it was like that. The missionaries that are out there are really good ones, but have been struggling finding people, hahah as you can imagine. We got out there and tore it up. We found 8 news and we put them all with fecha. We taught roughly 10 lessons. It was a little tough because there was a ton of people out there that only spoke Guarani and so we had some problems in teaching them. Really I don´t know if you can imagine trying to teach someone who only understands Guarani and I can only speak a little Guaraní. We talked about baptism. We would use lots and lots of pictures and hand motions, along with the limited 25 words in Guaraní that I know hahahaha We put them with a baptismal date and I don´t know how, but they went to church. hahahahah so that was just a great day. My comp and the other missionary didn´t have too much success in our area but it’s ok we just love looking for miracles.

We had another crazy day on Thursday we found out that a companionship had to be moved out of their house. And we had to do it in that moment. Wow we were running around like crazy trying to find some people to bring a truck and help move all the stuff as well as take out the air conditioning. In the end we got done around nine and we had to run home to get back before nine thirty. We got it all done but it sure was crazy. Other crazy stuff was that as we were sharing a little bit with a family, the dad is an X bishop, we were finishing up the lesson and the dad turned to me and grabbed my leg and told me that I was going to be a future apostle. Wow 2 people in two years telling me that I will be an apostle. Yeah Sure. hahah Those moments are always weird because you don´t want to laugh at their comment because they are being serious but it’s very very hard to be like yeah sure I’m going to be one. hahaha.

It’s just weird the stuff that goes down in the mission.

In the end we are doing good. We just keep moving along and keep trying to do the Lords will and to find His chosen people. I just love it here in the mission. It’s hard but it’s great…Just like a sugar cube. I love you all and hope that you have a super awesome week.

Elder Beatty

Email 2/25/13

Sounds like it was a rough week for Elder Beatty, but the testimony at the end is priceless!  Thank you for your prayers and love and support!

Hello everyone.

Well, really I feel like this week I just have existed and not really done anything. This week was a little harder for us. We spent the majority of the week just looking for people to teach. We started out the week really really excited and we were pumped to just go out and find some new golden people who were going to be baptized. We were doing pretty well until Wednesday.

Really to tell you the truth I went on divisions to another area on Tuesday and so I wasn´t in my area. They had found 2 people and put them with a baptismal date and so I came back and we were pretty excited to start working. We went and visited first our investigators that were supposed to get baptized next week. We talked with them about the sacrament and why it is just such an important thing in our lives to show our faith and to be cleaned of our sins.

At the end of the lesson the dad just kind of starts sending us some weird signals. He kept on saying stuff about how his family is not to happy with us coming by and that he doesn´t want to have any problems within his family. It went on like this for about 10 minutes when finally I just felt that I needed to ask him if he wanted us to come back or not. He spilled the beans in that his wife and daughter have been talking a lot with their neighbors and that the people have been telling them not to let us come by and not to listen to us because we are only here to steal their money and to make them go to jail and all sorts of crap. He said that he didn´t believe that it was true but that his wife did and that his daughter did as well. That the rest of his family says that it is his fault that we keep coming by and visiting them. He said that he wanted to avoid any conflict with his family and so it was just better that we didn´t come back.

 We talked with him about how he felt while he was reading the Book of Mormon and going to church and praying. He said that he felt great and loves what we teach him. We asked him if he felt that those feelings he felt came from God or from Satan. He said from God. So we told him to ponder in his heart if really GOD wanted him to stop listening to us or if he should stop. He said that he felt good but he didn´t want to have problems with his family. That it’s better if we just forgot the whole thing.

At the beginning of the experience I felt a lot of Anger, anger towards the people who lied to this man who was simply trying to find God and be obedient. Then after seeing that I couldn´t convince him to keep listening to us and to be baptized I felt Sadness. I felt that really this child of God was going to lose so many blessings that come from the Gospel. After attempting several times I finally bore my testimony of the greatness of God and that God loves him and wants him to be in his church and I asked him if we could come back. He said no.

I was torn apart that my testimony had no affect on his heart at all. I left that lesson very very heartbroken and discouraged. I got to the point where really I questioned my testimony and if I really was doing the right thing. The rest of the week was a disaster. I really wasn´t focused at all the rest of the week. Everything just seemed to spiral down into a never-ending disaster of problems. We were supposed to have 10 baptisms in the zone this week and tons of the missionaries lost their focus and we only had 4. The Assistants were all up in my face because so many baptisms fell and my comp as well was depressed because I was depressed and everything was just dead.

For the first time in my mission I didn´t feel like doing anything and didn´t know what to do to get out of this hole. We got to church and no one had come to church and we had a super super small attendance at church. Everything was going down until we sang the first song in the sacrament meeting. We sang “Choose the Right”.   I really didn´t pay too much attention because I was so preoccupied with how pitiful my life seemed like.

During the sacrament I wasn´t all that focused either until I realized that I still had the hymn book open to that same song. I looked down and began to see the words. The whole song is about doing the things that the Lord asks us to do. It was about being obedient. It doesn´t mention in the song that everything will be all songs and roses and happy days, but it does say that the Lord will bless us.

I realized in that moment that I had a decision to make. I could decide to be happy. Sometimes it’s hard to realize that the Lord gives people their agency even when they reject something good. President Callan would always say that the Lord is going to give us our agency even if we kill ourselves. It is exactly that way. After reflecting on the words of the hymn I really came to realize the love the Lord has for me. I realized that everything is true that I had testified earlier that week. After taking the sacrament the words of a famous scripture came to my head. ¨ And if you shall bring but one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my father¨ That one soul that matters most that I bring unto Christ is my own.

I HAVE a testimony of this work that it is the glory and work of God. I KNOW that I am important to Him........ I have much of my life to live still but I WILL do His will and I WILL follow Him so that I can be with Him someday. I will continue to testify of His divinity, His love, and that He lives. I will invite all to come unto Him and be transformed as I have been transformed. I LOVE HIM, The Prince of Peace, the great Jehovah of the earth and heaven, the Savior of the world.

I am grateful to Him that I can be His servant and do His will and help all people find His light and love even in the darkness of this world. I hope that we can all find a new desire to follow Him. He was perfect, and we too must become perfect. Only by following Him we can find that path that will lead us to an Everlasting Glory.

Rohaihu

Elder Beatty

Email 2/18/13

Email 2/11/13

We have a friend who is teaching a lesson about Paul and wanted to ask some questions, so we used her questions for this week!

Hey Family and Friends,

Wow another week has come and flown by. Its been insane how hot it has been this last few weeks. We have gone about 3 weeks without rain and its really starting to get to my brain because of how hot it is getting. I know that there are a lot of people praying for rain as well. I know that it really isn´t that big of a deal, in the end I don´t know why I pray for rain because it makes the missionary work harder. Maybe I should just learn to take things as they come and not hope for things over which I have no control hahaha ok problem solved.

This last week we had another baptism of a daughter of a family we are teaching. The mom and all the rest of the familyw ants to get baptized but the dad doesn´t want to stop drinking and doesn´t want to get married. We are still working with the dad about his problems. He is reading the BOM and loves sharing with us but when it comes to coming to church he just can´t because he wakes up on Sunday with a huge hangover from how much he drank the night before. The mom was a little sad during the week knowing that her daughter was gonna get baptized without her but during the baptism and during church the next day she was as bright as the sun. She could feel the spirit as to what her daughter had done. That it was the right thing. We are praying and fasting a ton for the dad so that he can change.

Here are my answers for the questions you sent:

--Could you relate an example of challenges that missionaries sometimes encounter on their missions?
 A lot of challenges that missionaries face down here in Paraguay is not learning to interact with the people. People have a specific way of existing and living life. We can´t expect to invite people to do something when we can´t imagine ourselves in their own shoes. So many missionaries are scared of getting rejected and not having any success, when really it just comes down to loving the people and adapting the way that we teach to the needs of the people. When we can learn to teach people the gospel in such a way that they will want to be a part of it, there will be a tremendous amount of growth in the church. People will stay active and want to participate in the gospel.

--Has anything specifically happened to you that has been especially challenging as you have attempted to share the
gospel on your mission?
One thing that has been very hard for me to overcome as a missionary has been the temptation of idleness. Starting my mission I found out that it is very very easy to just go throughout the day seeing all the cool sights and just soaking up the culture and meeting new people. It was hard for me to really come realize the purpose as to why I was there. I wasn´t called in come into Paraguay to be a tourist. I was called to bring people to salvation through the gospel of the Lamb. After a year in the mission I came to fully realize the importance of my calling as a missionary and how I have such a huge influence on the lives of the people that surround me. If I will just thrust in my sickle with all the might, mind, and strength, I will be able to see miracles every day.

--If so, how did you overcome or deal with the particular challenge?
Well in the end it was with the help of one of my companions. He showed me really what the mission is all about. We didn´t get any baptisms, but we worked our butts off. We were happy because we could come back at the end of the day and say that we had given our all for the Lord. That we had testified to everyone and we had invited everyone to hear this great message of the gospel. After working with that missionary not only my mission was changed but my perspective on life. I have been called to fulfill a great purpose. I cannot give up, I cannot wait, and I cannot be altered in my attitude. I will complete with the Lord and His calling. I love the mission. I love it because I have come to realize that being a missionary is more than just leaving your home and carrying a missionary plack. It’s about loving what you’re doing and loving it because you love the Lord.


--How did this challenge affect your ability to share the gospel with others?
I was in the world and I was of the world. I wasn´t truly focused in what was MORE important. I could feel that with time my testimony was growing and that I was helping others come unto Christ, but not in the most productive way. I was too prideful to let go of my own desire and surrender myself to the will of the Lord. Sometimes as people, we don´t like to hear the words, surrender, or lose, or submit because it show signs of weakness. But if we surrender, lose and submit ourselves to the Lord, we will come out victorious.

--What do you do if you have troubles getting along with your missionary companion?
It takes lots and lots of prayer. And it’s all about your attitude. We can wake up thinking that we have to grin and bear it (our day) because our companion is a jerk. Or we can wake up and make the decision to grin and change it. We have to learn to really love and to become united in purpose. Yeah, we may have differences and we may not get along, but in the end we are serving the same people for the same reason. It’s all a matter of being able to give up what you want for sometimes the sake of showing love. I have also learned that it’s not enough to say that you love someone. You have to show it as well. Simple acts of service to your companion will help you forget your own problems and form a love for him or her.


Well, that's it for now.  Hope you all have a great week!
Rohayhu
Elder Beatty

Email 2/4/13

Well wow another week has come and gone in a flash. I got 15 minutes to try and squeeze in all the details from the week. Sometimes I feel bad because I am not really taking any pictures to send home to you guys, but then I realize that I don´t take pictures because I don´t have time. We are working too much and finding too many people that I don´t have time to take pictures. In a sense it’s a good thing, and a bad thing. So don´t get mad at me mom for not sending any pictures. It’s just because I am working so gosh dang hard hahaha.

So this last week we had another baptism. Wow, it was probably one of the hardest baptisms I have ever seen, heard of, or imagined. So we have been teaching this older Lady Named Alva. She is the mom of a recent convert in our ward. She is super super nice. She used to be a helper for the fathers of the Catholic Church and so she really has a good knowledge about the bible. At first she really didn´t want to listen and said we could go and read to her from the bible because she is blind.

So we started going and reading little sections out of the bible with her and soon we started teaching her the restoration of the gospel. She really liked it a lot. We had to teach it a little slow because she was just super hardcore in the bible. But in the end we asked her to pray to God to see if our message was true. She did and she got her answer that yes, it is all true. Wow, that was easy. So we continued to teach her. It was great because we could have some recent converts help us in teaching her because they lived in the same house. So there really weren´t any problems with teaching her. She did have a problem with modern day prophets and how she thought that there weren´t any more prophets. We asked her to pray about it, she did, and she got her answer. Wow, that was easy.

So her baptismal day finally came. So you have to know that about 5 years ago Alva had a brain tumor. She had to have surgery to get it out or she would die. So after they took it out, she came out of the surgery practically blind and was a little crazy. So Try and picture this, Trying to put a blind half crazy lady in the water. She was scared to death of the water because she didn´t want to drown. Technically I don´t blame her. If I was blind I would be scared to death of drowning.

So we wanted to have a member baptized her but really we didn´t think that a member would be able to handle this one so I was elected. I helped lower her into the water and she was practically grasping onto me and plugging her nose. She would just hunch over and was waiting for me to say the prayer. So she thought that I was going to put her into the water in the front. So the first time I completely surprised her when I threw her over backwards that her legs came popping out. Wow she was mad when I got her back out.

She didn´t want to do it anymore. She said that she didn´t want to and that she couldn´t do it. So I tried again but we were going to do it her way. So I said the prayer and tried to help her kneel down in the water, oh by the way we had filled up the font to where there was only 3 inches before it was overflowing. So when I tried to push her under front way she wouldn’t even budge.

Ok… so this time I just closed my eyes and said a prayer that this would be the time that I would get her. So I told her we would do it one more time, and that we would go in front way. So I said the prayer and I threw her backwards. While she was under I had to check her feet to make sure that they went under as well. She was good. I brought her up. Boy was she mad at me. I helped her get out of the water and then I saw her back in the Sacrament room. She had calmed down a little bit and when I told her that there was a cake waiting for her after she was happy.

Wow....... That was probably the craziest baptism that I have seen. She really didn´t want to do it anymore. But we got her in whoooohooooo. Really I was able to see the power of prayer. The whole week I had been praying that there wouldn´t be any problems with her baptism. And ya it really didn´t end super super super spiritual, but hey we got the ordinance done. I know that sometimes that’s how we can see things in the world. The Lord wants us to do something and we try our best and sometimes it doesn´t go as best as we think it will, but in the end the Lord will help us complete His commandment. I love you all and hope you have an amazing week.


Rohayhu Paraguay ha che familia avei
Elder Beatty
--

Email 1/28/13

January 28, 2013

Hello all,

This week has really been an adventure of the whole zone because it has been changes. It’s always a sweet adventure when we have new missionaries that come and its always a sweet adventure to see what happens with them when they get in their areas. We still have the biggest zone and it’s only gonna get bigger as President sends more sister missionaries here in Nemby. AHHHHHH Sometimes I feel like I am turning into my own mission President and that I’m gonna be able to open up my little own mission down here in Nemby if he keeps sending us more and more missionaries. hahahah No its good. It’s always great to be able to meet more missionaries. I hope that they like it here in Nemby and just keep going with their mentality towards baptism. So that is pretty sweet that Jesse Katzenbach is gonna be coming down here. He lucked out in that he is going to come when things are getting cold so that he doesn´t have to suffer very much. Tell him that he is gonna be coming down to the best mission in the world. Where the people are the “bomb” and just love being baptized. hahahaha

So me and my comp got separated. Ugh. I thought for once that I was going to be able to stay with a companion for more than 2 changes that I actually got along with. He got a call from President Agazzani to go to the office to work as the missionary that is in charge of the records. Ya it was a huge surprise to him and he was a little bummed to find out that he was going to leave. We had just got the ward turned around and the zone baptizing and now he has to leave. It was a little bit of a sad day on Wednesday when we went to the bus terminal and had to say goodbye. I got my new companion there as well. Elder Velasquez. He is a short stocky baseball kid from Guatemala. Yes they do play baseball there. He is a cool guy. Funny story is that when I went out to CDE my first change he was in the zone and I was his zone leader. We did divisions once and we learned a lot together. I told him that he was probably going to be a District and zone leader some day for his attitude towards the work and for his baptisms. And it was funny when I learned that he was gonna be my comp and he was gonna be the Zone leader with me. So I guess that I was just seeing the future when I told him that. hahaha jk. Well this week has been one super super full of adventures and awesome people.

So we headed out on Wednesday and we had decided and had set some goals as to what we wanted to accomplish as a companionship this change. We decided that we wanted to baptize every single week starting next week. Well ok it was fine by me. We left our first day and we found 5 people that are super super cool. It was a weird experience because when we started talking to those people they really weren´t very interested and didn´t want to hear our message and when we left their house they had a baptismal date and wanted to come to church. Ohhh yeahh the spirit is the teacher. We had a sweet experience in that they actually came to church as well. The two kids that came are Jose Maria, and his little bro Lucas. Jose is on course to be drafted as a professional soccer player in Paraguay. So that will be pretty sweet. He said that he has a lot of dreams and wants to do lots of great things in his life. He said that we had helped him see that if he doesn´t do what God wants him to, he is never going to complete his dreams. It was sweet to see his faith. He had a bunch of soccer training commitments that he had been given to do on Sunday but he decided to come to church instead with his bro. He loved church and wants to come again. He says that every single time that we come to teach him he feels super good and he wants to get baptized super super bad. Ok sweet.

We also had a super sweet experience this week in finding a family. We are starting to work in a part of our area that is super super far away from everything. We had found some pretty sweet people out there when I was with Elder Hugie so we decided to start putting in a bigger amount of time to work there. We went out and one of the people that we had found dropped us. Their dad said that we were liars and that he would get all beat up if he joined our church. Wow, harsh. So we were a little sad because we lost a good investigator. While we were deciding what to do I looked over and saw a guy that looked pretty angry walk into his house. I decided to go over and see why he was so angry and to see if I could help him. One thing is that with Paraguans when they are angry or offended it is very very difficult to get them to leave their houses so I knew that I couldn´t be the one that was gonna get this guy to leave his house, it was gonna be the spirit. So we clapped the house and he sent out his two kids to see what we wanted. We asked them to go get their dad. So he didn´t want to let us in but somehow we got in and we started talking to him. We talked to him about the family and about the restoration of the gospel. Really it was such an awesome lesson. We started out just teaching him, and by the time that we had finished the lesson there were six people there listening to us. It was awesome. Really I had no idea how we did it. We invited them to be baptized and they all accepted. At the end of the lesson when we were about to leave the guy stopped us and said ¨hey right now thanks to you guys I feel soo much better, I don´t know why, but I am super super glad that I let you into my house to share with my family, when are you gonna come back.¨ Wow, we told him that he was feeling that spirit and that he will be able to always feel that with his family if they live what we will teach them. He was super super pumped to share with us again. We haven´t been able to find the guy again but I know they will get baptized. I know from that experience that it is the spirit that will guide us and help people feel the truth of our message. We need to teach them in such a manner that they can understand what we are teaching and that they can understand the importance of what we are teaching. That is why we can´t be lazy in our teaching. I know that if we follow the prompting of the spirit He will guide us. He will let us know what to say in the precise moment that we need it and He will guide us to the people that are being prepared by the Lord to accept this grand gospel message. I love the mission. I love this area. I love the work and I know that we are gonna have great and large amounts of success in this area with my companion.

I love you all and hope that you have a super super deduper week. Love you all.

Elder Beatty

Email 1/21/13

January 21, 2013

Wow this week has been crazy. I think that I stepped foot in my area to work maybe two days but really this has been the best week that we have had so far as far as the progress of our investigators and teaching good new people. But before all that I got some questions to answer.

1. Tell us about one baptismal challenge you made this week. Why was it special? So one crazy baptismal challenge that we had this week was that we were on divisions with some other elders and we were on fire. In less than 3 hours we had taught 4 people and had taught 3 lessons. We had found and taught this one family about the restoration of the gospel and they were super super interested and wanted to know about the true church. We invited them to pray and ask about it. They said they would. Then we began to talk about baptism and the reason why we are baptized. It was so amazing to see the light go into their eyes when they actually came to understand the doctrine of baptism. That they could be cleaned of their sins and enter into the path that will lead them into eternal life as a family. We read a scripture that is in Doctrine and Covenants section 35 verse 19 I think? Its the one were the Lord is inviting someone to be baptized. It says something like this. The hour of your freedom has come. Arise, Repent and be Baptized and you will receive the gift of the Holy Ghost which is the greatest gift that you have every come to know. Wow it was a sweet baptismal invite. The family was like ¨yes of course we will be baptized¨ It was a sweet lesson that helped the other missionary raise up his confidence.
2. Do you see many insects or bugs this time of year? Yes there are tons and tons and tons and tons of mosquitoes. Don´t worry mom I am using repellant. Right now is the season when people get something called dengue. It is a disease carried around by the mosquitoes. It’s called the bone crushing disease because when you have it, it feels like your bones are getting crushed. I hear that it is miserable. Pretty much all year around there are bugs because it’s always hot. There is a way cool grasshopper here that looks like an Indian warrior in the sense that it is all painted bright cool looking colors. I will try and get a picture of one. What is the pesky-est? I would have to say that the bug that is the worst would be the fruit flies. There are always always fruitflies all over our faces in our ears and they get super super annoying when I am trying to teach someone.
3. What is your favorite lesson to teach to investigators? I love teaching people lesson #1. It is the lesson about the restoration and then inviting them to be baptized. I love teaching them and asking questions to help them come to the conclusion for themselves that they need to be in the gospel to be saved. Also that they need to know if our message is true and that they need to be baptized again so that they can repent. We usually end up teaching lesson one about 3 or 4 times a day and so good thing it’s my favorite. I would have to say that my other favorite lesson is the Keeping the Sabbath day holy.

Wow so this week we had a huge conference with the zone. It is something that we have started doing when president Agazzani came to the mission. Hey I’m sorry I gotta bounce. We ran out of time because we got a call from the Assistants. I love you guys and hope you have an amazing week. I´m loving the mission!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

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Elder Beatty

Email 1/14/13

Wow what a week. I am still as exhausted as ever but we are still chugging along. Sometimes I have to joke around with my companion that I am getting so old and tired that he has to buy me a walker to scoot around in. Really my companion and I are doing great. We have formed a great bond of work and understanding. It’s been a great change from what I have seen in the mission before. I feel that right now we are working as a great team and we are going to get tons of things done. We have already accomplished a ton as far as getting the zone moving. I know that we are going to continue seeing a change as we continue pushing and getting things done according to the revelation and goals that we receive and set.
As far as other stuff that has been going on this week. We had interviews on Tuesday. It was a super super crazy day. So we had district meeting from 10 thirty until noon. And then the interviews started at one and ended at eight. The whole time we had to be there and trying to keep the missionaries busy and focused. It’s crazy when you have 26 missionaries in your zone trying to keep them all focused on things that are important. We were able to share with them a few things and ideas that we have to help the zone get going. But I think in the end it was a great thing that we had the interviews with president. A lot of the missionaries came out and they were a lot more focused and felt better and ready to work harder. I just love president. He just has this type of attitude that is super super contagious. He can help pretty much anyone bring the best out of themselves. Finally at the end it came to me. I wanted Elder Hugie to go last but I am supposedly the Senior companion of the two so I had to go last. I had a really good talk with President. It’s been great to form this relationship with him. I feel that he really trusts my opinion and views on missionaries and how the zone is doing. He talked with me about some of the missionaries and what is going on with them so that we can help them have more success and then I was able to ask him a few questions. I asked him what was his purpose in sending me to zone 3. He told me that it looks like the Lord trusts me to be able to handle the largest zone in the mission and to get it baptizing again. It made me feel good to know that President, and the Lord trusts me enough to send me out here. A few other things that we talked about were that I am probably going to be ending my mission here in Nemby. President said that he is probably going to leave me here so that I can finish hard and finish strong without having to worry about going anywhere. It was a great talk that really helped me build my confidence and raise my spirit. I really just love this Argentinean man so much. He has so much love and fire in him.

So other things that have been going on in the zone is that we are starting to get things rolling as far as baptisms. So far in the month of January every district has been getting a baptism and until this point in January we are the zone with the highest amount of baptisms. We have lots of people in our plans to baptize the last few weeks of this month. We are going to keep getting the missionaries excited to keep on baptizing through this month.

One other thing that has really touched me this last week is that I have really been focusing on listening. I have decided that listening is one thing that I need to better before I end up coming home. Elder Hugie is helping me learn to listen more so that I can let the spirit guide me. Really Elder Hugie is a great missionary. He is focused and he loves the people. I have really enjoyed my time with him so far and hope that we can keep working together the next change. Well that is all I got folks I hope you have a great week. The gospel is true and I love preaching it.

Rohaihu mi familia

Elder Beatty

Q & A 1/7/13

 here are some Q and A.

1. How frequently do you have a zone conference and what are your duties at those? We have zone conferences about every 3 or 2 months. It’s a time when all the missionaries in the zone can come together and get taught by us and the assistants and from the president and his wife. Really it’s been a huge difference in the attitude that I have towards those conferences. What I usually end up doing at those conferences is directing what is going on with the program and the practices that we will end up doing with the missionaries. A lot of them are coming from areas that are a little far away and so they are a little lagged from the traveling so we have to try and make sure and keep the attentive and alert during the meetings. Usually we think of some cool activity that is related to the practices or subject we will be talking about so that the missionaries can get out their sleep or wiggles. I really do love those conferences. They always turn out to be an experience very very spiritual. I know that President Agazzani receives tons of revelation on what we should do and the conferences are a way that he can guide and help us.

2. How frequently do you eat with members? Well the game plan is that we eat with the members every single day. I wouldn´t have to say that it’s the best thing for us. But really we don´t go to the members house for the food. It’s not that big of a deal the food. The reason why we go and eat with the members is so that we can gain their confidence and help them do their own missionary work. Missionaries are not the ones that are supposed to work. The members are called to work as well and the missionaries are called to teach. We eat lunch with the members to help animate them to share the gospel with their friends. Do you prefer that or cooking on your own? Hmmmmm..... I actually like eating with the members more. Not because I hate cooking or that my food is terrible it’s more that the company is always better. We feel like we are creating more bonds with the people as we go and share their culture. As sketchy as the food can be you never want to offend a Paraguayan by not eating it.

3. What is it like there when it rains? When it rains here there aren´t any drains and so the roads become rivers. The stone that they use here on the roads are already super super slick, and once they get wet, it is super super easy to fall on them. When it rains here during the summer like right now it’s always a super super hot sticky rain. It’s like you’re walking around in the sun while it’s raining. It really isn´t very fun at all because then your cloths stick to you super bad and you have to deal with it all day. What we do if our books and stuff get wet is that when we get home we bust out the iron and we iron our books to get all the water out of the pages. People really just shut down. Schools, work, everything. Nobody really likes the rain here, but they don´t like the heat either. Really Paraguayans are a super super picky people. I can´t wait to really show you and explain to you how they are some day.

4. What was a funny thing that happened this week? hmmmmmmmm............ We were walking to an appointment and we were going to meet a member there because there is no guy in the home. So we were already late and we were flying down the road and we were going and all of a sudden some guy jumps out behind and says, put your hands in the air- I have a gun. I guess that when he said that I flew around and grabbed his stick that he was using as a fake gun and threw it like 20 feet away. It was the guy that was going to help us. It was more funny in the fact that he scared the crap out of us but that I scared the crap out of him when he thought that I was gonna kill him hahaha good times.

5. What quality or characteristic do you most admire about your companion? ohhhhhh good one hahahahaha Nah I think that right now the things that I like most about my companion would have to be that he is just super chill and laughs at all my jokes. He is super good with all the other missionaries and helps them know how to relax even when things aren´t going super super well. He is really good at that kind of stuff.

Have a good week!

Elder Beatty