this week was pretty swell. on monday we went to do a family home evening with a family of recent converts. it was getting pretty cloudy, and right when we got there, it started to rain. they dont have walls on the majority of their house, so we started to get wet and all had to squeeze into the small walled part of their house. the hermana suggested that we say a prayer, so we did. we started the prayer to ask that the weather could calm down (it was raining really hard) and before we even stopped praying, the weather already calmed down a bit. it was pretty cool.
on tuesday i went on divisions to paraguari. we realized at the beginning of this transfer that some of our investigators actually lived in the limits of paraguari, so on tuesday i went with one of the Elders of that area to show him where they lived. we went to one, and her friend was also there. we taught them and gave a Book of Mormon to her friend, who accepted a baptismal date. Elder Quispe later told me that when they went to her house, the girls mom told them that that day, the girl had gone home with her Book of Mormon, entered her house, and declared ''I'm evangelical now!'' (general term for non catholic christian churches). it was pretty funny.
also cool story from last week that i forgot to tell. on thursday we went to our limit with paraguari (which is km 56) to explore a bit and do some contacting. we worked around there, and then at 5 we had an appointment with the Aguayo family. we asked a bunch of people how to get to 54 and everyone said that we had to go back out to the route and then enter again (we were in back roads (more correctly deemed paths)). my companion thought that that would be a good idea, but i was pretty sure that there had to be a path that could take us. so we started walking, and going around twists and turns in what we thought would be the general direction towards the Aguayo family. my companion started to lose hope, and told me (jokingly) to call the zone leaders to let them know that we would get home late (implying that we were hopelessly lost and that it would take us at least four hours to find ourselves and get home). i told him that we would make it just fine, and then a few minutes later the path that we were following came out on the street where they live, just like 50 meters from their house! it was great.
on thursday i did divisions in Acahay, and we went again to the place where i had previously done an interview in pure guarani. i went with the Elder who has less time there, and we took a less defined path. we basically just went straight through a jungle, without following any path, and then through a swamp (it had rained that morning), where my companions shoe was violently ripped off by the mud twice. it was pretty exciting.
also on thursday i had my final interview with President Wilson. i didnt really talk much, he just told me that when i get home my top priority should be to start looking for my next companion, and that it doesnt matter if we fall, as long as we get back up and learn from our mistakes.
my companion taught Adilson and Sara twice on divisions, and then we taught them on saturday. they couldnt go to church on sunday cus Adilson had to work, but we're trying to focus on Sara getting a testimony so that she can have the surety to be able to get baptized.
on saturday we went to 43, where i had never gone with my current companion, and went to visit some members and old investigators. we went to a house where i had previously contacted, and a lady who i had never talked to before came out and started confessing that she hadnt read what we had left her. we were pretty confused, but we after realized that Jehovahs witnesses had visited her. but anyways we taught her and her nephew and niece and theyre pretty cool. we dont know why they didnt go to church on sunday and theyre only home weekends. we also went to visit a lady who i had contacted once with my other companion, who actually gave us lunch one sunday, and we set another lunch with her for yesterday. she gave us like a 5 course meal. locro with meat, poroto, pasta with chicken, milanesa with mashed potatoes, tortillas, and fried mandioca on the side. it was amazing. we then taught her and her family about baptism. she's catholic and she doesnt want to change, but she considers herself our paraguayan grandma and does want to give us lunch.
on sunday nobody went to church, and we went and visited most of our investigators again after church, and many werent home, and the rest didnt want to accept baptismal dates. we found Emelia again, who we hadnt found for three weeks, but she has developed a lot of doubts and has lost a lot of the understanding that she had achieved when we were teaching her regularly.
so in the end things were pretty tough, but that helped me to meditate more on the consequences of my actions, and i actually learned quite a lot yesterday about the importance of constantly nurturing our faith if we want to help in the Lord's work. if we work, but we dont constantly try to increase our faith to allow the Lord to work miracles, all our efforts will be fruitless. all success in the work of the Lord is truly a miracle, and there can be no miracles if there is not faith. and in reality there's really no endings, we're always in the middle (talk by President Uchtdorf). and since we're always in the middle, and thanks to the Atonement of Jesus Christ, no failure is final, and there are always second chances. I know without a doubt that Jesus Christ lives. I know that He is our Savior. And i am eternally indebted to Him, as are we all, yet He is willing to forgive. and I love Him for it.
Elder Woodfield
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