February 17, 2014

this week was pretty swell. sebastian got baptized (wooo!) but not very many people came (which just means more cake for me wooo!). his aunt (who's inactive) came and said she was gonna start coming to church again now that she had sebastian to go with and afterwards she was gonna bring her whole family (she has two kids that aren't baptized), but she didnt make it to church on sunday. sebastian accompanied us to our lessons after church yesterday (he accompanies us almost every day) and while we were walking he told us he felt different, that he was feeling super great and super happy. he also told us that right before his baptism he had started getting a fever and a headache, but when he came out of the water, it all went away and he felt like he was free from all the things in his past that he had done. we had a lesson with a couple we're teaching, derlis and lydia (gonna write about them later, they're capos too) and after teaching baptism, we invited sebastian to share his experience and his testimony of baptism. he shared his experience, and afterwards invited them to be baptized, and to get married too. after the lesson he said when i was talking to them it just came into my head that i should invite them to get married, and i did it, and we said ''yep, that's the Holy Ghost. whenever that happens, just say whatever comes into your head''

derlis and lydia are awesome. we met derlis last sunday (not sure if i already wrote about him or not) contacting houses. we clapped outside a house, but nobody came out. i saw lights on and a guy moving around inside, so we kept clapping. after a while we realized that there were two houses, and that the entrance to the house where the guy was was around the corner. we went and contacted there and he brought out chairs to sit down. he said he really respected what we were doing, and he was gonna listen to us even though he's catholic. we taught the restoration and left him a book of mormon and a pamphlet of the restoration. we went back another day that week, and he had read the pamphlet, prayed, and received an answer, which was pretty amazing. i asked elder Pacheco after the lesson if that had happened to him before (investigators reading their commitments and getting an answer after the first lesson) and he said never (he has 13 months in paraguay). he said his girlfriend also read the pamphlet and she liked it too. he also said that he wanted to go to church with us, but that this sunday he's gonna be working on his house so he's gonna come the next sunday (they're renting a house right now and building their own house nearby). we had planned to teach him keep the sabbath day holy but we were both a bit afraid (at this point in the lesson we only knew that he had read, he didnt tell us he had prayed and gotten an answer until the end of the lesson). i thought about it a bit and felt that i shouldnt be afraid, so i started teaching sabbath day. we read in mosiah 13 about how you shouldnt work on sundays and after reading and explaining it, he said that he wasnt gonna work this sunday and he was gonna come to church with us. he said he had never read that commandment before but now that we explained it that he knew it was true. they didnt end up going to church cus some relatives came over, but they said they're gonna come next week sí o sí. yesterday we went with sebastian and met lydia too (she's working and studying, so isnt home much). we taught lesson 3 (the gospel of Jesus Christ (faith repentance baptism holy ghost endure to the end)) and they accepted a baptismal date for march 8th. they're calidad.

we also had a miracle in church on sunday. a lady showed up to sacrament meeting that neither of us knew, but she was in a dress so we assumed she was a member from a different branch. afterwards we talked to her and discovered she's not a member, but she lives nearby and has always liked and been interested in the church, and she wants us to teach her and her family.

we didnt have any other investigators in church (juan wasnt feeling good, but says he doesnt have any doubts that the church is true he just needs to get better to be able to come and get baptized; fede was tired even though he said he was gonna come and gonna sleep early (last weekend was his birthday and he was up til 7 in the morning saturday night); and i'm not sure why the rest couldnt come) but a big less active family came, which was pretty swell.

also i bought a fanny pack (fanny packs are cool in paraguay), we moved on wednesday (our new house doesnt have a kitchen so we have to wash our dishes in the bathroom which is lame but other than that it's not too shabby), and my watch broke (i suppose that's what happens when i buy 10 dollar rolexes in china). it's still super hot here but this week wasnt too bad, it rained a bit friday and saturday and didnt get too hot.

cant think of anything else so here you go