Hey family and everyone else. How goes it. Thanks for the letters. Glad your weeks went well. Mine was pretty tranquilo for the most part. Kind of crasy that I'm back writing again. The weeks just keep going faster...
I'd say that the highlight of this week was probably right after I signed off last week from my letter. Less than a half hour after finishing, Elder Foster got out of his meeting with President and the assistants. And, thanks to Elder Short and his mercy, we had the opportunity to have a small conference with Elder Foster just as office Elders. Super cool experience. Not something that you do every day. Have a personal one on 8 with a general authority. So that was his exciting. He asked us questions about our views on the mission and how we can improve. We got to give our feedback directly to him and president. Cool to have someone take our opinion into account. Then he gave us some time to just ask questions. We asked doctrinal questions, what its like being a GA, how we can be better missionaries etc. Anything we wanted basically. It was legit. He is super knowledgeable, and knows how to listen to the spirit. However, one of the things I really liked was just how normal he was. Nothing mean or scary, or somebody with super human spiritual powers. He was just a normal guy that has been doing his best to keep the commandments, do whats right and be a good servant of the Lord. He was still easy to get along with, knew how to laugh and have fun. Just a genuinely great person. So that was just a really awesome experience.
That afternoon I got to go back to one of my old areas just for a little bit to go and pick up some more Indian goods. My favorite part was actually just the fact that once again, the members remembered who I was. And it wasn't because while I was there I was super goofy or getting into trouble, but just because I was there, doing my job and trying to help out the people and the ward. Sometimes it is hard to see the fruit of your labors. I think that's why so many people define success on the number of baptisms that they get. But it just makes me really happy to see the effect that you can have on each and every person whether they be members, converts, or people that never even get baptized. Just being able to bring the gospel and share the love of Christ is a really special gift and calling.
Sunday was interesting as always. I think my favorite part (besides when our iqqnvestigatqorqs qwqqshoqweqdq qupq qqqQ) was probably when qqqq the guy giving the talk said "If somebody asks me if I love the Bishops storehouse (he runs the one here), or my family more, I tell them that its an easy question. Obviously, I tell them... that I love the storehouse more." Wait. What? Okay. Little bit wierd... Oh well. By the way, the Q's are Elder Robert's fault. He's being lame. And and don't like him. He doesn't like Canada. Thats alright though. We burnt down the whitehouse. So there USA. ha. Jks. Thats mean. Canada is full of love and charity for our neighbors.
Anyways. Sorry about that. The week continued to go well. We had a lot of animo to work after the zone conference, Elder Foster combo from the week before. We were still sick for the next couple of days, but fortunately it wore off little by little. All good now. I did forget to wish Carmen a happy birthday last week. Bad me. Hope it went well! While I'm on the topic, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Emma. And Mackenzie? HAVE GOOD ONEs!
Regular week in the office. More training. He's learning quick. He won't even need me soon. Its still not fun being in a trio though. Super hard to teach effectively. Somebody always doesn't get to say everything that they wanted to. Got to do an out of the ordinary run to the hospital to pick up somebody that got a biopsy for stomach problems. Fun stuff. I really like when we get to take part in the sick missionary stuff and see all of their results and hear about all of the cool stuff that they did to them. haha. Thursday was a holiday and so it was really boring here in the office. However, we got news of our new assistant. And it was none other than... Elder Cerpa. The old Financiero, and my office "dad". Crasy. Wasn't really expecting that one. Scary thought too because thats the second old oficinista back in the office. Hopefully I'm not next. lol. But we really like having him around. Hes a good guy, funny and easy to get along with. Friday was a little crasy because everyone needed the van, but we made it work. The office is great right now. Everyone is really tranquilo, obedient, and not the same "up in your face" kind of people that we have seen in the past. Good stuff.
Tuesday we did service. Painted a wall. Got paint on my favorite pair of pants. Oh well. It was worth it. The people really appreciated. We also got to have birthday cake and such for our investigators birthday.
The weather here has been all over the place. Lots of rain. Thankfully its finally starting to cool down which is great. They say it will be a really long winter this year, and I'm excited. Hopefully I don't have to take that comment back later...haha
Yesterday we went to do the interviews that we wanted to do last week. And... they were out of town. Unreal. I just don't know. I really hope to be able to see at least one baptism before I leave the office, but I just don't know if they are really ready for the extra responsibility yet. Church just seems to be second priority, and if they aren't going to be in it for the long run, we really don't want to push them. But we'll see. We're going to go and try and catch them at home tonight. See if maybe the baptism can be done tomorrow after church or something. That meant that I went on a miny division for the night. It was interesting. We stole a guys cigarettes and told him that smoking was bad for him, did a lot of walking and got eaten to death by mosquitos. Everyone is really scared about Dengue after the disaster last year, so hopefully I can get by safe for another year. Wish me luck. The only part that was really interesting about the division is when we ended up getting together with a couple of the youth. It got me excited to hopefully be going to a ward where there are a couple more youth. The youth are the strength of the church here in Paraguay. They're also the easiest and funnest to get along with. Made me sad that my youth is kind of past now, but oh well. New stage of life. Kids, don't let your teens get away from you - fun stuff.
Today was pretty tranquilo. Nothing special to note. Hopefully a baptism coming up at some point, but it looks like the one we had planned for today will fall through. Praying for a miracle, but we'll probably have to wait a week or two more. My time here in the office is coming to a close. Weird feeling. Its a really fun experience here in the office and I've learned so much. Once again, sad to see how the time has gone by so rapidly. Lots of good memories though. This week I have to get together everyones pictures and the like. Try and remember the good old days.
Thanks for the letter. I really liked it this week. Nice work on the lesson. I really enjoyed hearing about the mission stories. Those are always really fun to compare. The font here is really not that bad. But when nobody drains it, it collects bugs, and the first steps in knock all the dirt up off of the floor. And the water is almost always a kind of greenish color. But I'm sure it could be worse. lol. Always crasy to hear that life is moving on. Realistically, I didn't even hardly realize that it was a leap year day. haha. Weird that people would celebrate something like that though. Here, there are rarely celebrations, and when there are, its usually just drinking and fireworks. So probably for the better that we didn't. lol.Sounds like a fun day. Hopefully the shots and the like are going well. Having fun with the arts. And the foods. And the skiing. Good stuff. How exciting. I've never had a stake mix up. Could be CRASY. Glad to hear that I should make it back in time for the temple. Hopefully they take their time and don't get it done early or anything. haha.
Anyways, I gotta run. Times up and I'm still in my nasty Piki-volley clothes. Still got lots to do! But I hope you have a great week. You're the best. Keep doing whats right and enjoy doing it. Missionary life is great! Still miss ya though. Suerte!
Elder Humphreys
No comments:
Post a Comment