September 1, 2014

so i totally started training this week. it wasnt really unexpected at all so yeah i sort of expected it. so anyways on wednesday President talked to all the trainers a bit and then we met our companions. my companion is Elder Call, from wyoming. he's 18 years old and didnt know any spanish before going to the mtc, but he's learning pretty quick and has a strong testimony. we had a pretty tough week in that we werent able to teach a whole lot of lessons and none of our investigators came to church, but we got some good contacts that we should be able to teach and help in this coming week. due to the fact that before we were only working half the week in my area we had to liven it back up a bit again.

training Elder Call is reminding me a lot of how it was when i was in training - for example on wednesday we taught a less active young man and his friend, and Elder Call bore his testimony and told how he decided to come on a missoin and the Spirit was super strong, and i thought of the first time i was able to testify powerfully in a lesson, which really helped encourage me to keep going.

but anyways on saturday we went and taught Sergio (he is still in my area). i had already told Elder Call about him and when he was studying he found a scripture that he thought would help Sergio. i helped him plan how to present and explain the scripture, and then in language study we practiced it in spanish. we got to the lesson with Sergio who realized that Elder Call was new and just started talking to him in english. Elder Call ended up sharing most of his part in english which was pretty cool. but Sergio had read up to 1 Nephi 10, and said that he doesnt have any doubt that the book of mormon is true or that Joseph Smith is a prophet. we mentioned baptism and how it should be done by the authority of God and he said well i got baptized by immersion but i dont know if the guy had authority. he accepted being baptized again, and we invited him to church on sunday and he said that he doesnt want to hurt his relationship with the people that he works with on sundays so he wont be able to go to church on sundays. he asked if we could start holding meetings on saturdays too to accomodate the people that have to work on sundays. we promised that if he stopped working on sundays to be able to go to church that God would bless him and everything would work out but he didnt show signs of changing. so yeah he's a great investigator and he has a testimony but if he doesnt show any signs of progressing more towards going to church on sundays we'll probably have to stop teaching him pretty soon.

apart from that not much exciting happened this week. we studied a ton (since i'm training we study 4 hours every day - 1 hour of personal study, 2 hours of companionship study, and 1 hour of language study) and contacted a ton to be able to add a few more people to our pool of investigators. we went and visited a few old investigators again too, with varied results.

pictures

me and elder call

August 25, 2014

this week was pretty swell. it was pretty tough in terms of numbers and i was sick all week but the weekend made up for it.

so this weekend we had stake conference. we hadnt been able to visit sergio again since the first time we visited him, as one saturday we work in my area and the other saturday in elder blacketts area, but on saturday he just came to my mind. i thought hey we cant bring him to church on sundays cus he always works but today theres church on saturday so he can come. we passed by to invite him, and later when we got to the church to wait for the bus to take us to stake conference, he had been the first one there. we went, he talked to the zone leaders a bit (who had given us the reference to visit him) and we sat down. the first few talks were about commandments and familys and stuff. one was about being self sufficient which was a theme he was really interested in. but the last talk gave the stake president and it was a great talk and sergio was quite impressed with it. when the stake president had like 5 minutes left the power went out, so then he just said the power went out but im just gonna talk louder so you can hear me. then he changed the last hymn to a well known one, told us to sing loudly (there was just a keyboard so there couldnt be any music to accompany) and he directed it. everybody sang louder than either of the first two hymns, which had had the keyboard, and it was super awesome and the Spirit was really strong. sergio liked everything and wants to keep coming and keep learning but his most stable job is on sundays.

on sunday it was gonna be a sattelite transmission from Salt Lake but at the beginning they couldnt get the transmission so the stake president spoke again and talked about the blessings and importance of going on a mission. he said something that i liked too - that the missionary work isnt the job of the missionaries. missionary work is the responsibility of every member, and the missionaries are just here to help the members fulfill with their missionary responsibilities. as he spoke, i was seated next to a recent convert who is super converted, he loves everything about the gospel and wants to keep all the commandments as well as he can. so i was next to him and just thinking ''dang, now he's gonna want to serve a mission'' (but he's married with three kids) then we went to eat lunch with them and he asked us if there was any chance that he could serve a mission. we explained that now he cant but when his kids go he can with his wife, and he said he wants to do that. also he got the Melchisedek priesthood yesterday and is super excited to get a calling.

since last sunday i was feeling a bit sick, and on wednesday everything hurt and i was super tired. we got home after walking a ton on wednesday and i told my comp that i didnt think i would be able to go out on thursday and just went straight to bed. then i woke up on thursday and felt a lot better so we got to work. now i just have a stuffy nose and a sore throat.

on friday we went and did service. kevin and edgar are just renting in my area, their house is really a lot more towards the river, but it was flooded. the water left their house already so we went and cleaned it. it was full of mud and toads, so we just threw buckets of cleanish water on the floor and swept out all the dirty water, and did that until we took out all the mud. their water wasnt working so we filled up the buckets with water from the front patio of their neighbor, whose house is a bit lower and is still full of water. after we finished edgar and his mom tried catching some fish in the water but didnt get anything. then we went and made pancakes with them.

transfers are this week. President Agazzani came to our apartment this week to bring us some new furniture and Elder Blackett asked him ''¿who's gonna train?'' and Pte answered that i am, so theres a good chance i'll start training this week. it should be a pretty great experience. i'm a bit disappointed that i wont be able to work in the other area anymore as we have some pretty great investigators there and kevin and edgar are gonna move there soon but i suppose thats what God wants. 

but anyways bye

Elder Woodfield

August 11, 2014

this week was a bit tough. nelly didnt get baptized, and didnt come to church either. she's passing through some hard times and Satan is really working against her. everything took a turn for the worse on friday, but i was on divisions in another area (we did divisions so that the district leader could do her interview) so i only heard about it.

nothing super cool happened this week so i'm gonna fill the email with a few less cool stories.

the zone leaders gave us a reference of a guy (sergio) they had talked to in their area when this transfer started, about 4 weeks ago. we looked for him and couldnt find him, but he saw the zone leaders a few more times and kept asking that we visit him. we made an effort but never found him. then on friday they called us and said alright you have to call him tomorrow at 10 in the morning and he's gonna explain where he lives. so i called him and we ended up finding him, and it was quite an interesting lesson. he's of jewish descent, was born in france, raised in argentina, and then moved to paraguay. he studied the torah thoroughly, studied with the Jehovah's Witnesses for a while (but doesnt like them cus they changed the bible) and currently considers himself adventist (not sure if i translated that correctly dont judge). but anyways 10 years ago or something he sat down in a park and found a book of mormon so he took it home. his favorite part is the guide to the study of the scriptures (basically a condensed bible dictionary + topical guide that replaces said resources in the spanish scriptures from the church) which he read from beginning to end various times. he fervently praised said guide saying it was the most complete and perfect and useful resource that he has found. he brought the book of mormon to a jewish rabbi and he said concerning the guide to the study of the scriptures that everything agreed with the old testament and was great. he said that there was evidence that somebody had left jerusalem in 600 BC but that there wasnt sufficient evidence to concretely say that it was Lehi and his family. sergio said he wants to go to church, but considers saturday the sabbath day so he has work on sundays but he's gonna talk to his boss to see if he can change his schedule. he's been to a lot of churches and likes the bible study and analysis they do but recognizes that they're all false, so he just needs to get work off on sundays and he'll come and likely get baptized.

the district leader also gave us a reference of a part member family that he was teaching but that now lives in our area. the dad is member, but his wife and kids no. the wife smokes but they all apparently want to get baptized (we havent taught them yet, just the information that we got) we have an appointment with them on tuesday so we'll see how it goes and hopefully be able to get a few more baptisms this transfer.

on sunday we went and talked to an old investigator in elder blacketts area and we were outside talking to them and then when we left an old slightly drunk guy sitting nearby said hi brother to us. we said hi back but its pretty normal that people say stuff like that (hola hermanos / hola elderes) to us so we didnt think much of it, but he called us over, said he wants to stop drinking and smoking and accepted a baptismal date, and basically everything else we told him too.

i know that this is the work of God and that there are people in every place that God is preparing to accept his gospel. there are people that every one of knows that are just waiting an invitation. we just gotta do our part and keep looking. like the brother of Jared prepared the stones so that God could touch them and make them give light, we have to do everything we can and then let God do the miracles.

Elder Woodfield

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)

July 28, 2014

on saturday we had the baptism of Cristina, and her confirmation on sunday. it was kind of lame cus only 8 people came to the baptism (her, her three kids, her sister in law, the first counselor of the branch president, and us) but we got to eat a lot of cake. Paraguay kind of shuts down when its cold, and it's starting to get a bit colder. nobody wants to leave there house. it was even worse cus she's come to all the other baptisms in the past few weeks and seen all the people in all of them and then in her baptism there was barely anybody. but everything turned out pretty well.

kevin and edgar are gonna get baptized this saturday. we havent been able to teach them a whole lot cus of weird schedules and having to work in two areas, but we're gonna visit them a lot this week and finish everything. kevin accompanies us sometimes to appointments where we need another male but i dont think he really pays attention in the lessons but igual he likes helping us.

then for the next saturday we have nelly, whos super prepared. she went to church a lot when she lived in spain, but never got baptized cus she didnt have time. now she wants to get baptized, she just has to get married. also miraculously she's divorced, cus in paraguay divorces are a huge impediment to baptisms. people often get married, get separated, and then get with someone else. then if they want to get baptized they have to get divorced and married again, and divorces are ridiculously expensive. there's another investigator who always comes to church and pays tithing and everything whos not baptized cus shes waiting for a divorce. but anyways it doesnt seem like much but its actually quite a miracle.

not a real lot of stuff happened this week, apart from that. we had interviews with president Agazzani, and the flood waters going down a bit. 

also yesterday we were out contacting and the first 5 or 10 people we talked to rejected us, straight up (which doesnt happen a whole lot here, sometimes you can do 5 contacts without anyone rejecting you when you're lucky). i got a bit tired of that, suggested another house but kept walking past it but my comp stopped and clapped. a woman came out, said she had gone to our church once on a friday or saturday cus she wanted to learn more but it was closed. she started to ask us about Joseph Smith, and then about how we do baptisms, and then about what happens with people who die without getting baptized. the truth of the words of the Lord to the sons of Mosiah rings true - suffer with patience your afflictions and you will be blessed, and be able to bring many souls to repentance.

also when we took the bus to get back to our area from interviews, i saw a member from my first area. she was a recent convert when i was there and now shes a temple worker. half my converts from that area have moved, but the other half are active still and diana is secretary of the young womens presidency! it was pretty cool to hear about everybody.

but anyways everythings going pretty normal in obrero. i feel like this week if we work hard we'll be able to see a lot of miracles, so the next email should be a bit more exciting.

July 21, 2014

the new challenges werent really what i expected, but theyre certainly new. Elder Huntsman left, as a zone leader, and normally before someone becomes a zone leader president calls them. Pte called elder Huntsman last sunday, and also told him that something that had never happened in the mission was gonna happen to me. so anyways elder huntsman and elder fonseca left obrero, and i stayed with elder blackett (who got here in obrero with me, and was in the other side), and we have two areas. more missionaries went home this change than those that arrived, so president had to close a few areas. normally when he closes, he just combines the two areas and theres just two missionaries, but this time he didnt close either area or combine them, we just work one day in one area and the next day in the other area. then next transfer, presidents likely going to separate me and elder blackett and we'll both have our own companions again, and our own areas. so technically i dont have a companion, i just go on divisions with elder blackett every day - one day in my area and one day in his.

so that also means a lot more proselyting area, a lot more investigators and a lot more baptisms (and more food in the fridge). we already have one convert together (francisco got confirmed yesterday) and four more that came to church yesterday and will be getting baptized in these weeks and a few more that came to church last week and also can get baptized.

on monday we went to a family home evening to translate for the youth visiting from the US in the house of franciscos girlfriend, and we had told her to invite him. we got there and explained a bit more about the importance of the confirmation and the gift of the holy ghost, and he said that he had had emergencies in his work but after not being able to come two sundays in a row he told his boss that he has to go to church on sundays and that hes not available to work or fill for anyone, so this week he came.

we also have cristina whos gonna get baptized this saturday, and is super gold. she lives in front of the church (in the other area) and we basically dont even teach her. we just leave pamphlets and she explains everything she learned to us. she's already in 2 nephi 3 after just a few weeks of having the book of mormon and loves to read it.

then we have kevin and edgar, who are gonna get baptized the next saturday. edgar's already been to church three times, but we've only been able to teach him once so it'll be pretty tough to get him ready. theyre a bit irreverent in church but they like it and edgar's even doing his my duty to God already (it was a requirement to be able to play in the youth soccer tournament)

then we have nelly, who came to church yesterday but is from the other area and i've never taught her, but she seems cool.

we've also been teaching a couple that was gonna get married and baptized this saturday a lot but he had a few problems with the law a few years ago and had an arrest warrant. a police officer in the branch said he could go with a lawyer and say he wanted to fix everything (cus he did) and be able to not get arrested and start his probation over, but then he fought with his girlfriend on sunday and she turned him in, so now he's in jail, which is pretty lame. but we found them when we helped that family build their house, so we're teaching a few other of their neighbors too. we basically just get to the members house, sit down, and invite everybody who's outside to come and listen. their houses arent particularly big or well ventilated, so theres usually a good number of people outside.

also last monday for the district activity we ate two of the biggest sandwiches that there are in paraguay, it was pretty cool.

July 14, 2014

benjamin got baptized this week! woo! and confirmed! woo! 

but anyways, it was a pretty swell week. on tuesday we had divisions, and i went to republicano. it was an awesome experience that made me even more sure that God knows what he's doing in sending missionaries to their missions and areas, and even in doing divisions he has a plan. we didnt really have a super productive day, we were just contacting a lot, but we got to talk to mariana (ex girlfriend of guillermo who used to live in my area but is now living in republicano with her family) and afterwards we went to talk with a recent convert, which was the cool part. he was inactive for a time as his wife was pregnant and couldnt walk much, but their baby was born and they went to church. the only thing is that he didnt want to receive the priesthood cus he was a bit afraid of responsibility, and the bishop asked us to help him with that. we went and had a super spiritual lesson, and i shared the story about when i had a cyst and it went away after a blessing, and he said he wanted to prepare himself and receive the priesthood, so that he could be ready when God needed his help. it was awesome.

we were teaching benjamin all week and then had his interview on thursday. Elder Huntsman had to do another interview too and one of the investigators of the zone leaders was gonna be interviewed, so we did divisions for a few hours - i went with Elder Ponce, one of the zone leaders, to their interview, Elder Huntsman went with one of the other elders in our branch, and his companion went with the other zone leader. everything went pretty swimmingly.

we had the baptism on friday, cus the investigator of the other elders that was gonna get baptized was gonna have her birthday party on saturday. that was a bit abnormal, but everything went well. there wasnt quite as many members as usual because a lot were working but the youth from the US all came and they did a special musical number that was cool. benjamins dad gave a talk and talked about how benjamin was being a great example for him, as he's been inactive for years and now because benjamin has always wanted to get baptized he's pushing his dad to be a good example too.

on sunday we got to church, and benjamin wasnt there and hadnt gotten there by the time church started. they did the confirmation of the girl that got baptized, and Elder Huntsman and I were a bit disappointed as that wouldve been two weeks in a row where we baptized and didnt confirm. then about halfway through the sacrament meeting we saw him and his little sister walk by the door and come in, and a bit later their mom got their too. we did the confirmation after the talks, and afterwards talked a bit with them - turns out they were a bit behind in getting ready so the mom had told them that they should start walking and that she was gonna come on the motorcycle to pick them up on the way. they ran the whole way there, crossing a fairly major street too, and got there well before their mom and she was a bit worried when she didnt find them on the way but then found them already in church. his dad got there after sacrament meeting, and we visited them that night and he said that he knew he had a great gift from God to be able to teach by the Spirit, which he had noticed when he was helping us teach benjamin, and that he wanted to be active again in the church and be more righteous to be a good example for his son and to be able to make better use of that gift which was pretty sweet too.

we've also been teaching edgar and kevin and their family. edgar is the teenager that just showed up in church last week. him and his brother came again yesterday, and theyve been going to all the church activities. their mom was sick yesterday but says she wants to come too and their dad is currently playing soccer every sunday, but the tournament ends soon so he'll also be able to come. edgar and kevin are super excited to keep learning and to get baptized. its pretty amazing how God works - even through things that seem bad God can work miracles. they used to live lower and a lot further from the church, but their house got flooded and now they live two blocks away, and we were able to find and teach them.

another crazy story - the other missionaries in the branch gave us a reference of a guy that had contacted them, and asked for me. turns out he had seen us walking in the street and thought that i looked a lot like his son, who died five years ago, so then he saw elder blackett and elder fonseca and asked them for me. we visited them and taught about eternal families and the plan of salvation and baptism, and they said they couldnt come yesterday, cus every sunday all their kids come for lunch, but that they were gonna tell their kids not to come this sunday so that they can go to church.

on saturday we went and painted the room of a convert of Elder Huntsman as a baby shower/going away present from him, as he might get transferred this week. first we sanded off all the old paint and there was a ton of dust everywhere. then we filled all the holes in the walls and painted it all. the converts brother helped us too and we taught him a bit. he's cool and says he wants to go to church and get baptized, but that he's not gonna get baptized until after his birthday (august 31) because he wants to go party on his birthday.

also changes are gonna be this week. until now i've always stayed two transfers with my first companion in each area, but this week president Agazzani wrote me and asked if i'm ready for new challenges, so on wednesday we'll see what's gonna happen, and i'll let you know next week. it'll be a shame to see Elder Huntsman go, cus we got along pretty well, but i guess thats life.

but anyways i know that this is the church and the work of God, and that he really is directing every part of it by revelation to his chosen servants, and that if we take part, we will be extremely blessed. i also invite everybody to follow the counsel that Elder Ballard gave in his conference talk (which is super awesome by the way), and get a hold of a copy of preach my gospel and begin to study it (there's one in my room thats up for grabs), and then share what you're learning with the missionaries assigned to your ward and with me, so that we can all better learn how to do missionary work.

i forgot my camera this week so theres no pictures sorry.