Email 8-27-12

Hey everyone,

Wow, this week has just flown by and I don´t understand why it’s just all blending into one continual blur of a week in one day. This last week we did divisions with some elders that are in a place called Minga Guazu. It is a place out in the middle of nowhere. We got out there and it was HUGE. We practically spent all our time walking to the places that we were going to teach. It was a really beautiful place because it had a lot of fields and stuff. We taught some people who got baptized last week. They were really simple and it was hard to teach them but they just loved church and they knew it was true and so we just had to help them understand the gospel just a little better. It was quite the adventure. I got back with Elder Ponce and we just took off working and trying to get done as much as we could. We were trying super hard to find some people that were good and were going to progress. Sometimes I hear about how it is in other missions and about how the people normally just shut the door in your face. I don´t know what’s worse. Having people shut the door in your face or letting you teach them for 2 weeks and they really never have an intention of changing their life? hahaha Its ok we will just keep battling Satan in this country until we have shut him out.

We had a sweet conference this last week with Elder Zeballos of the new Area presidency. He was super super cool. He told us his story about how he became converted to the gospel when he was 12 and he was the only member in his house. WOW. After that he was called as a mission president. He told us the story of when he had an interview with Elder Holland to be a mission president and then later when he got the call from President Erying to be a 70. It was funny because it kind of made me remember when President Callan called me and he told me that he wanted me to be a zone leader, because when he called me I thought my legs were going to give out. I can´t imagine what it would be like to talk to an apostle, wow. It was really cool because at a point in the conference Elder Zeballos was talking about how important the missionary work was and that we had a HUGE responsibility. At that point a missionary asked about if the work was so important why did Christ call 19 year old kids like us to do it. Elder Zeballos just smiled at us and told us a answer that rung true. He said that we; as missionaries, spiritually had been trained for millions and millions of years before this life to show that we were worthy and ready to become the solders of the Lord. He said that maybe our bodies were young but our spirits have had the training, it is just a matter of being able to remember and teach with that same spirit. Wow that was super cool when he said that. He also started talking about authority and keys of the kingdom. I don´t really have a lot of time to write about all that he said, but don´t worry I took good notes. But it was super super sweeet and spiritual experience.

Pretty much all this week we have been trying to follow more the impressions of the spirit so that we could find the people that were chosen to progress in the gospel. I will just hurry and write one experience. We were walking along a road and we saw that there was a guy walking behind us and so we ¨slowed down¨ so that he would come up on us. We started talking to him and we found out that his life really was a disaster. He and his wife were fighting and he didn´t know if this was really what God had in store for him all his life. He is looking for peace but isn´t finding it. We asked him if we could walk with him to his house and give him a brief introduction to our message. He said sure. We walked slowly but surely to his house. We found out that he teaches in the Catholic Church. He teaches the Youth. He said that he really doesn´t know why he isn´t finding peace and happiness in his life. He said that he went to the Catholic Church mostly because he found himself in depressive state and that was the closest church to his house. We kept talking to him and we shared with him the restoration and about the gospel. He was really interested but won´t have any time this coming week because in the school he is testing with his students so he has to correct tests and all that jazz. We set up an appointment with him as well for this next weekend.

I know that the Lord is preparing people to receive us. He is a God of miracles. If we have the faith sufficient He will guide us through His spirit to find those people that are ready to change their lives and accept Christ in their lives. I love this work. I really wouldn´t want to be anywhere else in the world. Paraguay Asuncion is the best mission in the world. Its the best mission because its my mission and I have made it the best. Love you. May the spirit be with you..... Always!!!

--
Elder Beatty

Pictures 8-20-12

Email 8-20-12

Hello all!!!!

What its getting hotter and hotter here in good ol Paraguay. This week was just full of trials and tests for me and my companion. We talked and taught a BUNCH of people. But in the end no one really was ready to progress. It seemed that by the end of every lesson we were just fighting with the people. After thinking about it yesterday my companion and I decided that it’s not anything bad. We weren´t fighting with the people, we were just presenting the message of the restoration and they didn´t want to accept the spirit and were fighting to prove that their beliefs were correct instead of allowing the spirit to touch their heart and tell them the truth. It was a very frustrating week mostly because in the end we are right back where we started.

We didn´t really find anyone new to teach nor did we really help anyone get to church, It was like the week never existed but in the end it did. We know that the Lord is going to prepare the hearts of hundreds of people for us to teach this week. We are super excited and refocused to following the impressions of the spirit and find those people that are going to be baptized. We are still working with a few people to try and get them baptized this next week.

We were going to have the baptism of 3 girls this week, but a lot of working has come in and they aren´t really interested anymore. They say that they are going to be baptized someday but they just need a little bit of time until their work kind of chills out a little. AHHHH we explained lesson three and shared some scriptures from Alma 34 about repentance and receiving blessings the moment that we complete with the Lord. But in the end, it didn´t really convince them because they had already made the decision to be baptized later, now they are hiding from us because they think that they offended us. AHHHH Paraguayans are so confusing sometimes.

We are still working with Juan Carlos. He is the dad of a family that got baptized and he is having a little trouble with stuff that has happened in his past with his dad killing someone and his brother stole his identity and ya.... stuff we have to work out before he can get baptized. He is super pumped though and is working with a few studying lawyers in the ward to try and get the permission from the government to get baptized. Keep him in your prayers. He is doing great and he has had a huge change in his life from before he knew the gospel, but still there are huge temptations and he needs to have the Holy Ghost to help protect him from those dangers. We are going to be doing some activities with him to make sure he stays motivated. He did leave with us to visit a few investigators. hahahah an investigator visiting investigators hahah ya it was sooo coool because he shared his testimony in Guaraní about how the gospel helped him change his life and the life of his family and how now they are all united and have supported each other in all their trials. I didn´t catch all of it but I didn´t need to understand what he was saying in order to feel the spirit. Its sooo cool that the spirit is a universal language!!!!!

We are also working with a investigator. Her name is Miguela. She is living with a member right now, but we found out that today she is going to move to her house again. Her house is only 2 blocks away, no big deal. But wait....... She lives in the area of other missionaries...... She crosses our limit by 2 houses, come on. So we are going to have to battle that one out with other missionaries who haven´t had a baptism in about 6 months. It shouldn´t be that big of a deal because she lives SUPER far away from the other church of those missionaries. If they were thinking about the salvation of a daughter of God instead of thinking about getting the number under their belt we wouldn´t have a problem. But in the end to tell you the truth, we as missionaries are happy when we are baptizing people, we will do whatever it takes to baptize someone just so in the end, we can be happy. Yet sad story but in the end its true. Don´t worry somehow someway Miguela will be baptized on the 1st. She loves church and she loves what she is learning. She told us that even after a year of going to the catholic church she has learned more from us in a week and a half hahahah not going to lie when she said that it made me feel good. She loves the members and Everything is going to work out that she will bring her other 2 daughters to church who are 14 and 12. In Paraguay we say something else for baptism. ÑEPYMI !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We are doing good. I wish that I had time to write all the experiences that we had this last week and all the interesting people that we taught but it’s too many. Just know that we taught a HUGE variety of religions, beliefs, and people. But in the end no one really wanted to learn more. But it’s ok the Gospel will move on!! This last week I got a cold and so it’s been a little tough having to testify of Joseph smith and then having a huge lugi in my throat, but hey, I do believe in miracles. Oh but hey it was crazy. The other elders in our ward had a baptism right, but in the end they weren´t prepared at all. They forgot their suit coats, baptism pants and everything. So I had to run to the apartments and grab everything. At the end I was dead tired and sweating up a storm. It made me remember of all those 200 meter conditioning that I had to do in college. It felt good to run, but not after 1 year of not running hahaha

This last week we have been preparing for a member of the quorum of the 70 who is going to be coming down to make a tour of the mission and get to know the missionaries. I am a little scared because we have planned an interview with him and my companion and we have to tell him the state of our zone and what we are going to do to get things rolling. This zone has been dead for a while. I´m pretty sure that everything will work out well in the end, but it’s still a little intimidating. Kind of like your going to have an interview with Christ, but not as extreme.

I just want to give a shout out to all my Spanish speaking brothers serving their missions.!!!!!!!!!

I got to bounce my comp is having computer issues and I gotta give the numbers.

Love you all and just keep smiling

Elder Beatty

Email 8-13-12

Hello everybody I hope that you are all doing well and are super happy and loving life. This last week was a bit of a change for me. Everything was hunky dory on Monday. It was the week of changes in the mission but I was sure that I was going to stay in Ybate and keep working my butt off trying to find people to teach and baptize. My companion started getting the changes around 10 15 at night. Why the Assistants waited so long to give us the changes I have no idea why. But I was just casually listening because I was interested where the other missionaries were going to go. Finally it got to my name and I kinda just stopped listening. And then Elder Clement said that I was leaving. WHAT? No way. He had to be joking. I grabbed the phone from my companion and asked him if he was joking. He said no. I thought he was, so I asked him where I was going. He told me that I was going to be going to Cuidad Del Este. Nah, I had already been in CDE before and usually the missionaries never go there twice because it’s a high vacation spot for missionaries. But He just kept going as if he was serious and that my companion was going to be my old Zone leader Elder Ponce from Zone 3 in Nemby. Nahhhhhh liar ¨Japua¨ And then he said that my companion was going to be with Elder Schone. Another Zone leader. Elder Schone was the other missionary in the Airport in St. George that left with me, remember? Ya he is a Zone leader as well. I think we are somehow related to them right? But anyway he ended the call and hung up on me. What? No way. I thought he was lying so I thought I would let him have his fun. So the next day I didn´t pack or anything because I was sure that I wasn´t going to leave that area. We had a normal day and we actually found 4 news and they all accepted fecha. And then about 6 o´clock I got another call from the Assistants that they forgot to tell one of the companionships names for the changes and so I asked again if I was going to leave because I was sure that he wouldn´t lie to me in that moment because it seemed like they had a lot to do. And So I asked him ¨ Elder Clement, You gotta be lying to me. There is no way that I´m going to CDE again.¨ He said ¨Yep you’re going and I’m not joking, hope you got your bags packed¨ Ahhh soo yes I left. It was cool because it seems like the president made huge changes in the mission. The whole Zone got changed out. Every companionship had a change. Normally we all go to the bus terminal to meet our new companions and go to our new areas. There were a TON of missionaries there. It was like the president changed every companionship in the whole mission. I got to see almost all my good friends and old companions. I learned that Elder Dockstader my old comp from Ytororo was going to Pre Franco, my first area. So I got to sit with him on the bus and talk about all the good times we had in Ytororo and how all the members and my converts were doing. It was a little depressing because I found out that some of them fell a little, but it was good for me so that I can write them a letter and pray more often for them. We got to CDE and it was almost exactly how I remembered it. With the Red Dirt that pretty much makes anything dirty in a matter of minutes, and the feeling of a lack of spirituality from the amount of evil that generates from the city. It’s pretty much like a Las Vegas Version of Paraguay. Not so much in the extreme but it’s a pretty rough spot to do missionary work. But hey you gotta love it.
My new comp is Elder Ponce from Honduras. Its seems that I am destined to end my mission with all latin companions. hahaha
We got to the new house and ditched our stuff and set out to work. My new area is HUGE. I thought that Franco was huge… This area doesn´t have a limit. it’s about 6 blocks in width, but the length goes on for maybe 2 hours by bus. It was crazy that we will probably never work out there where there is nothing but grass and cows. But I am loving this area until now. We started on Wednesday with 0 news for the week and no one who was progressing and wanting to go to church, On Sunday we had 18 people with a baptism date, 7 people in church and 5 people progressing. We are gonna have a baptism from someone that we found on the 25th of this month. The Aquino family. They have been wanting to get baptized but the elders stopped passing by and we found them and they already have gone to church and so they only need to go 2 more times. They went to church on Sunday and practically are members. Wow, I love my new area. My comp is amazing. He is a little rough around the edges in the form that sometimes we have a tough time communicating but it seems like he likes working with me mostly because he is having success now. I hope we can keep up this excitement and faith. The ward is HUGE we had 167 people in church on Sunday. That is the biggest ward in the mission. Wow!!!!!!!!! They are all excited to help us and a lot of people gave us references to people that we can teach. I have only been in my area for 5 days and already I am seeing the hand of the Lord and the blessings that come from being obedient and working hard in every moment. Ya who said that it would be easy, but I love seeing a miracle. I love you all and hope you have an awesome week because I will be having one. ITS GETTING SUPER HOT AGAIN. WHAT HAPPENED TO THE WINTER.

ROHAYHU FAMILIA, ROHAYHU PARAGUAY

eLDER bEATTY

Pictures! 8-6-12

Email 8-6-12

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

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

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

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

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

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

Rohayhu mi familia, y rohayhu Paraguay.

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Elder Beatty