Week 3 in Villa Hayes

Dear Family and Friends,

I have some bad news... This week, my camera broke. It was literally the worst possible timing too. I took some pictures of lunch this Saturday (pancakes, for those of you who are wondering). Then Elder Rodri­guez and I did some proselyting before returning to our home to prepare for M's baptism. Then we went to the church. When I pulled out my camera for pictures... it wouldn't turn on. I have no idea what happened, but my camera is as dead as a doornail.

But don't despair, Mom. Things have a way of miraculously working out here in the mission. Elder Rodriguez owns 4 cameras. One doesn't work; one has a weird memory card; and two others work. One of them is the one Elder Rodri­guez prefers, and the other one was kind of just sitting around. Turns out, I had $60 left over from the flight down here (which converts to 300,000 Guarani­)--almost exactly what Elder Rodri­guez wanted to sell it for. So now I have a new, Sony 20 megapixel camera and the pictures should keep coming... except that today I'm having a ton of trouble loading them on the computer... We'll see if I can figure this out.

Anyways, a lot of cool things happened this week!

First off, I had divisions again. My comp went up to work with our district leader, so I was put with his companion, Elder Barrios. We went to lunch with a member and talked for a while, which was cool, because I understood pretty much everything she was saying. She has one son that is an RM (he ate with us), one daughter in Peru on her mission, and one son preparing his papers right now for his mission! After talking about our families and stuff like that for a while, they asked how long I've been here in Paraguay: 2 weeks. They were pretty surprised. They said that I speak Spanish like I've been here for 3 or 4 months! So I don't know if they just spoke very clear Spanish or if I had the gift of tongues for an hour or so, but that felt really good. Overall, Spanish is still as hard as ever! haha.

I have a little bit of bad news too... alfajores here cost 1,000 Guarani­. Do you know how many American dollars that is? Its almost exactly 20... cents. Alfajores are 5 for a dollar here. I am going to get soooo fat. I don't get very many opportunities to shop though, and when I do, I only buy 2 alfajores. One for me, one for Elder Rodri­guez. So I'm at least sort of maintaining my health... haha

Cool stories this week... hmmm. Well, I had my first baptism! And when I say that I don't mean that I attended my first baptismal service here in the mission. I mean that I actually baptized someone (in Spanish too--that part was kind of tricky). I have some pretty cool pictures of it, but I cannot, for the life of me, figure out how to load them onto the computer with this new camera! (Sorry, Mom; I'll keep trying!) Anyways, the guy we baptized is 16 years old and is ready for the gospel in his life. I don't know why he chose me to baptize him (he knows elder Rodri­guez waaay better). Maybe it was because I'm American and it's cool to say that you were baptized by an American. Or maybe our district leader encouraged him to let the greenie have a chance to stretch his wings. Regardless, it was a really cool opportunity! We're having our next baptism this week and we may have three more in December. The work moves on!

Also, apparently the gospel really does have the power to change people's hearts. This week, Elder Rodri­guez and I taught two people who demonstrate this pretty well. One is the father of one of our investigators (a young boy named K). Apparently, before I came, this man used to argue and argue and argue about doctrine and the missionary message. But now, after hearing all the lessons and reading from the scriptures every visit we have with him, he's much more agreeable. He even gave us a ride home from out in the country the other day. In Elder Rodri­guez's broken English: "I don't know how happened, but I love this man."

Our second story is about the husband of one of our investigators. (I wasn't here for the beginning of this story either.) She told Elder Rodri­guez that her husband hates that she is talking with the "Mormons" and that he gets super angry when we visit. Well... this week, we stopped by and he was the only one home... So we sat down and talked with him for a while. His wife showed up and we proceeded to teach a lesson. At the end, Elder Rodri­guez extended the baptismal invite (the typical "if you pray to know that these things are true and the answer is yes, will you follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized...?" This man, who "hates" the church said yes. Now he's one of our new investigators!

I'm seeing my mission change the lives of people right in front of my eyes. Hopefully, this opportunity I have to share the gospel with everyone I meet changes my heart too!

Funny story:  I let it slip that I have a 16 year old sister and some of the teenage guys here in the branch have started calling me the Spanish word for "brother-in law." haha.

Those are my stories for this week! No disgusting food, nothing too weird.

I'm doing well down here in Paraguay. Though, the other day, I had a really hard time because I felt like I can't speak Spanish and that too much is expected of me. I mean, for goodness' sake, I'm starting to take the lead in teaching lessons! haha. Being completely honest, I felt really overwhelmed. But Elder Rodri­guez talked to me and said something along the lines of: "Don't worry about the Spanish. When you tell people, 'Sorry, I don't speak Spanish well,' you make it true. You speak Spanish well enough. Worry about opening your mouth, not about what to say, because the scriptures say that if you open your mouth, it will be given to you to know what to say." He was right. It's time for me to be gutsy. Who cares if I conjugate words wrong every now and then, or speak like Yoda sometimes? (Another one of Elder Rodri­guez's favorite English phrases is "Yoda no!") It's time for me to open my mouth.

That's pretty much all this week... So, until next week, Adios!

Love,

Elder Fairbanks

Since Dallin wasn't able to upload the pictures of his first baptism in Paraguay, here's another special baptism day in his life--from December 2004.