The Office - Week 25

Hello hello. Hows it going.
We had a pretty crasy week here in the office. LOTS of stuff to do. Lots of ups and downs. Lots to be done. But it was good all in all.
Good and bad news as far as baptisms go. Good news - there was a baptism. Bad news - it wasn´t the baptisms that we were planning on. Kinda weird story. The weirder part being the good news. So Sunday went pretty good. One of our progressing investigators went to church. She thoroughly enjoyed it. The other one stayed home because she felt kind of sick/ her son was in from out of town and she didn´t want to leave him in the house by himself. Okay... Anyways. Church went pretty well. I did good and rather than falling asleep in Priesthood (the boring-est hour of every week) like one or two of the other Elders, I was able to have a good personal learning moment as I read in the new manual about George Albert Smith - good stuff. Anyways. The real excitement started right after church. We found out that there was going to be a baptism. Which was unusual. Even weirder though was that she wasn´t any of our investigators. She is a daughter of a member family that has gone to church almost every week for the last 42 years of her life. The reason she wasn´t baptized yet was because she has a mental handicap, to the point where she´s been told that she doesn´t need to be baptized. Well, without advising us or getting a proper interview from a missionary (necessary for all baptisms over the age of 8), the bishop interviewed her and allowed her brother to baptize her. I thought it was weird, but I asked the bishop and he told me that it was a special case and that we didn´t have to worry about it. The funniest part being that at the very last minute Elder Thomson was put in charge of directing the meeting, and the other two elders were put in charge of giving last minute talks. I took charge of adding more water to the font so it was more than knee deep (its just been sitting like that for a while), and scooping as many bugs and grossness out of the font before it happened. Very disorganized, but not our fault. But at least our investigator like it and she told the people there that she was going to get baptized on Friday. In the end, I double checked with the assistants, who then checked with president, and we found out that the bishop had no right to authorize a baptism like that. Oh well. The deed had been done. So we got put in charge of filling out the baptismal record and she now counts as one of our converts. lol. I think I´ve only taught a lesson with her there once before. Too bad we don´t work for numbers....haha.
Anyways, so that went interesting. The rest of Sunday turned into a minor disaster where we passed by one ladies house and got fed TONs of food. She made us try eggplant milanesa (basically breaded and then deep fried). Not too bad. Then we went to our real dinner visit and had to eat even more. We almost were sick. It was funny though because our first lunch visit was a very typical Paraguayan style meal. It made me realize how spoiled I´ve gotten here... I´m scared to go back (to the field). lol. We´ll see how long it takes me to get used to it again...
Monday was pretty normal. We did get one pretty cool visit in though. It was with one of the oldest members in all of Paraguay. Not that shes old, but just that she was one of the first. Apparently the church is sending people to see her give a presentation about the beginnings of the church here in Paraguay. She told us some fun stories, and some old books and stuff. It was fun. And then me and Elder Thomson got to translate for her the blessing that Ezra Taft Benson gave to dedicate the land of Paraguay for the spreading of the gospel. I had never seen it before. So that was cool. Got to read an old book about how mission life was way back when dad and that generation were missionaries. Super cool. We also got to teach our investigators about tithing. They enjoyed it and after explaining why we do it and about the blessings and such they didn´t have any problems with it. Then we went to the church and got to see who my posterity would be. Or as we say it here in the mission - who my ¨kid¨or ¨son¨ would be. His name is Elder Richards. From West Jordan Utah. He was actually the first name on the list of 3 people that I had given to President as possible replacements that I thought would do a good job. He´s a little quiet and shy-ish seeming, but he´s a really good kid. I thought that he would do a good job mainly because he gave back tons of left over money one month and so I assumed that he knows how to use money well and is honest and doesn´t love or live for money. lol
So he showed up on Wednesday. Right in the middle of zone conference week. Poor kid. There´s been tons to do, and then with the conferences, there are just people coming in with problems and needing money all the time. But he´s handling it well. I´m trying not to overwhelm him, but at the same time give him everything he needs to know. Its tricky. The hardest part is not getting bossy as I try and teach him what to do. Its a learning process. Its kind of nice because there are lots of moments when all I can do is sit back, watch him work and correct any mistakes he makes. Its also hard though because I have the huge to do list in my head, and I have to watch him practice while I know that I could get the same work done in a third of the time. But I think its good for me. Its teaching me patience. Its helping me to learn how to be a better teacher from kind of a different angle than I´m used to. He´s picking up really quick. I´m impressed. A lot quicker than I did. He´ll do a great job. The stress mostly just comes from me wanting to solve some of the problems that have come up in the last few weeks, and just get them done for him before I leave them on his own. But there´s only so much time... lol. Good stuff.
But yeah. Even without having to train it would have been crasy. Lots of money spent and lots of trips to the bank. Lots of needy people that are out of money because its the end of the month almost, and they are looking for any last penny then can get. Turns out that there are a lot of people who think I´m grumpy or strict or something like that. That made me kind of sad to hear. A lot of it just comes with the job. People want things from you, but you can´t just give them everything that they want because they ask for it. It is the Lords money after all. I realized too that I like to joke around with people, but that it they don´t know me very well, they think I´m serious and get all defensive. Oh well. Its nice because working as a missionary, and especially as an oficinista teaches you a lot about yourself. Its taught me a lot. It helps you learn patience, people skills, problem solving skills etc. Shows you a lot about where you can improve too. :)
Had a funny moment where on day during a zone conference some lady just walked in, interrupted the meeting and then talked with President or somebody for a second, told everybody there a little bit about herself and then read them one of the poems that she wrote. After that President escorted her to our (its not just mine anymore) office, and asked me to take down her information as a reference. So I got to talk with her for a while. We spoke in English. She´s from Argentina. Likes to travel around and just go random places. She was actually looking for a different church, but saw ours and she says the spirit told her to come in. So... we gave her a pamphlet and a Book of Mormon. Taught her a little bit. Took down her address. Probably will never see her again. Funny moment though because she was just ranting and raving about all sorts of stuff, but seemed pretty with it at the same time. Hopefully the missionaries find her house and can teach her.
Wednesday night we had a lesson with our investigators. Went over the baptismal questions. They seemed pretty determined to go through with it. It was strange because we had to meet in front of our house to teach them because their landlady hates us now and is kicking them out of their house. Mostly because of us and because they now attend our church. We told them that Satan is doing everything possible to keep them from getting baptized. Anyways, we planned it all out and got them ready for the interview the next day.
Thursday came along. We were calling people and inviting them to the baptism that was planned for Friday. All sorts of stuff. We even had less active members all pumped up. They were going to bring a cake, there were a descent number of people planning on going. But when we called them up we got the bad news. They said that they didn´t have time to do the interview. That they had to look for a new house. In the end, Satan was working hard and it was just too much for them. My companion went out with the district leader to see if they could calm them down and do the interview, but to no avail. So that was kind of sad. But they are looking for their new house and say that they are excited to get baptized after they get settled in to their new house. We´ll see how it goes.
The upside of Thursday is that we are now in a threesome. Which is awkward. But leaves openings for divisions. I think this week I´ll try and leave with the young men. But on this day I actually got to leave with Elder Short (the assistant). To none other than my first area - Moroni. Fun stuff. I was excited. I got to see a couple people that I haven´t been in touch with for over a year now. That was really cool. I thought that nobody would remember me because back then I hardly ever talked, and I was only there for 7 weeks. But there were a couple people that recognized me and it made me really happy. I think they really just appreciated the fact that I remembered them. It was awesome. I haven´t smiled so much in a while now. It was good too because I got to point out a lot of less active and old investigators houses to Elder Short. Hopefully it was helpful to him. It gets me really excited (but not trunky) to go around with Dad at the end.
Friday was our zone conference. Super good. We learned lots. And we really felt the spirit. It was great. Rather than focusing on techniques of teaching or things to do differently, we focused a lot more about the very important, but more general things. For instance, Charity. How important that is in the work. Also President taught us all about the complexities of Faith, and how profound and interesting of a subject it can be. Stuff that we will be able to apply in all aspects of the work. Some of my favorite Elders also gave their final testimonies in a zone conference setting. Its always kind of sad to see that they´re going to go. Usually they all say the same thing about how they´ve changed, that they are going to keep being good missionaries etc. But there were a lot this time that actually gave good solid, testimonies. Real testimonies. At the end, you could really just feel the spirit super strong. At presidents request, we all left in silence and it was a really special experience. The only downside being that the whole day my insides just wanted to be outside of me. haha. I was pretty sick. Ugh. But I just fasted it off, didn´t eat, took some medicine, and was able to recover not too bad. Must have been something I ate. It made it hard to focus because I needed to leave the meeting, but it also kept me from falling asleep, so I guess thats good. Turns out that I was just the first one to get it. Turns out that there was something in the food, because basically everyone that I´ve talked today is suffering from the same or worse symptoms. Its actually been quite humorous. We´re pretty used to being sick by now, but it has lead to many lost hours of sleep, or panicked running. haha. We typically refer to the problem as ¨Chivivi Guazu¨, or more simply ¨The Sheevs¨. haha. The very first Guarani phrase that I learned....lol
Anyways. Thats that. Today President Foster of the 70 is with us. We´ll see if we get to have a meeting with us or anything. Otherwise a pretty tranquilo day. We´ve had to get up early  and go to bed late every day this week with office stuff, and so I think we might just rest. Glad you had a good tranquilo week. That you´re having fun. Thanks for the letters and the support. Keep me filled in with everything. I love you tons. I hope you have a great week! The church is true, and don´t forget to be good missionaries!
Love,

Elder Humphreys