August 4, 2014

kevin and edgar got baptized wooo! their parents came to their baptism, but didnt come to church on sunday. it was a pretty busy week trying to finish teaching them everything they needed to learn. it was a bit tough, for various reasons, but we managed to finish everything. we almost lost the baptism on wednesday, when their mom walked in front of the church and saw some kids doing stupid teenager stuff and she didnt want to let them come anymore, but thankfully we were there with a missionary that got home last week, and he was able to calm her down, and convince her that if she wanted her kids to grow well the church was the best place for that. then on friday we went to visit her with a young mens leader so that he could explain a bit what they do in young mens. there were a bit more members than last week, but it could still improve a bit. kevin said after his baptism that he felt ''super happy'' and edgar said he felt ''stupendously tranquil''

we werent able to teach nelly at all this week, but she still came to church. we talked to her there cus we werent sure about her baptism for this week (shes living with her boyfriend) but she said that she's either gonna get married this week or move out until he wants to get married so that she can get baptized this week. it's gonna be a bit tough to get her ready (kevin and edgar we could visit every day cus they live one block from the limit where our two areas meet, nelly lives a lot further away so we can't do that with her) but she's definitely got the desires and is gonna do whatever it takes. she's stopped drinking, is reading a bunch in the book of mormon, and has come to church every sunday since we found her.

in other news, follow up on the lady we contacted last sunday that i wrote about - we got there (again with the RM that got back last week) and she came out and straight up said that she didnt want to get baptized and she didnt want to listen to us. we testified a bit and as alberto (RM) was testifying of how the gospel had changed his life she said wait a sec im gonna open the gate. we went in, she was still a bit tough but we were able to teach a good lesson. at times she brought up unrelated horrific stories that she had seen on the news and asked us why stuff like that happens. but anyways she didnt really want us to come back again but she said that she was gonna read in the book of mormon and maybe show up to church one day.

in this transfer elder blackett and i set a goal to baptize every week. we already had cristina, edgar and kevin, and nelly, so 3 out of 5 (we didnt include the first week, even though we did have a confirmation that week) weeks were already set. so this week we had to look a lot for people to get baptized in the other two weeks but we didnt find anyone new that was able to come to church this week. on sunday i was a bit disappointed and feeling lazy, so i didnt really want to contact. (we have to do 5 contacts every day) we were just walking around going to the appointments and then around 6 i thought wait, if i want help from the Lord to baptize i have to do what he's told me to do. so then we started contacting like crazy and clapping in almost all the houses. the first few werent that great, but then we found a guy who seemed really interested and we set an appointment with him, and then for our last one we got to like an apartment building and just clapped in front. my comp commented me that there had been someone on the second floor that had gone away, then there appeared two people. the guy asked us what we needed and we said that we were missionaries. he said he was gonna come down then he just opened the gate and told us to come in. he already went to church once with a friend in another city, so we put him with a baptismal date for the last week of this transfer, the week 5.

also another cool story that was really cool but then didnt end up so great. we went on monday to take our clothes to the lady who washes our clothes. earlier with elder huntsman i had contacted the house in front, and when we went the kids were all outside in the street. i felt we should talk to them and at first i didnt want to but then we went and set an appointment to come back. we taught the girl and her friends, (her name is milagros (miracles in english) which was also pretty coincedential, considering how the lesson went) and were explaining baptism. she said she had already gotten baptized, and i asked '' if i punch you, will just my hand have sins or my whole body?'' she answered the whole body and i explained that she needed to get baptized by immersion to be completely clean of her sins. she immediately responded that she wanted to get baptized, and started asking all her friends that were there how they got baptized and telling them that they had to get baptized again. we had invited her previously to go to church but had never taught her and she said that now she wanted to go and wanted to get baptized. we went back for the appointment and her mom came out and said that she was catholic and was going to stay catholic.

another story, we were walking down the street and we heard someone calling us, we turned around and saw someone that elder huntsman and i contacted a while back but had never found again. he said he wanted us to come to his house and that we had been passing at the wrong times of the day. we had a pretty good lesson but he didnt end up coming to church - we're not sure why but we're gonna try to see why and get him to come the next week.

in other news its pretty dang hot over here again. paraguay seriously has maybe 15 days of winter scattered throughout the winter months in between a lot of summer.

pictures:

my two favorite things that i've found in this area

baptism (edgar and kevin with their parents, and with us and the district leader and his comp)