New Year, New Hair, New House

"Rainbows for Emma"

Hola familia y amigos!

What a week. My first full week of missionary work in 2016 sure was full of... challenges and surprises! haha. But the good news: Elder Rodríguez and I finally resolved the house issue! (I'll get to that in a bit).

But first off... I'm pretty sure I have split personalities. You guys all knew me before the mission. Would any of you use the word "quiet" to describe me? Or timid? Can you picture me sitting awkwardly not knowing what to say? Because that's basically my life here in Paraguay. I can't even count how many times I've been called "callado" or how many times I've been asked: "Porque eres tan callado?" Before the mission I had trouble knowing when not to talk. Now, I can sit patiently and quietly for a very long time without feeling the urge to open my mouth... Hopefully, as I get a better grip on the language, my personality will start coming back to me a little!

But life really is good down here in South America! I finally got Elder Rodríguez to get a haircut with me -- I really needed it -- and man... we look pretty good! haha. At one point, I feared for my life because the elderly gentleman cutting my hair started using a straight razor to cut the hair around my ears, but he did a great job and I didn't lose a drop of blood! Afterwards, Elder Rodríguez told me that my hair is super short on the sides and that President McMullin might "bajar la caña" (basically, that means "to chew someone out") when he sees me next. It must be okay, though, because President McMullin visited our branch again this Sunday and he didn't say anything to me about my hair!

"New hair!"

Finally: The resolution to "The House Problem"

"New house!"

Remember the house I talked about about last week? The one that was an answer to prayer? Well, it's our house now. I still believe it was an answer to prayer, but getting this house wasn't all sunshine and roses! First off: Raul. He's our "dueño" (or the owner of the house). At first, he seemed like a super great guy. All smiles and friendly conversation. He said the man living in the house would be out by the 4th and that he'd pay electricity and water and he'd put in an air conditioner and all those wonderful things, but...  Elder Rodríguez and I have decided that Raul is a liar. The 4th passed, the 5th passed. and we got more than halfway through the 6th of January before the man finally started moving out. And another thing: Raul told us we could meet with him Tuesday night at 8:30 to finalize everything and to see if the house is actually ours. Being the punctual missionaries we are, we showed up at 8:24 and waited... for over an hour for him to show up (after calling him 3 or 4 times and receiving "yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm on my way" as a response each time). We finally got everything worked out and it was decided that the house is ours, but Raul changed the plan again. When he spoke with the office elder in charge of houses on the phone, he explained that he'd pay water (water hardly costs anything), but that we'd have to pay electricity... What happened to paying water AND electricity? Don't know. Maybe he forgot? haha. We were finally able to move into the house starting Thursday night at 8:30, but we had to finish Friday morning because it got too late. We're still not completely settled in, and the house still has a few problems (the shower doesn't have hot water, the toilet doesnt flush unless you fill up a bucket and dump it in the toilet bowl, etc...) But Elder Rodríguez and I should be happy there!

Other cool news: We have a new branch president. Our old president was President Antonio Rojas. Our new President is President Fabian Rojas, his 28-year-old son. It will be interesting to see how things work out because President Rojas has been the branch president of Villa Hayes for something like sixteen years! But yeah, Sunday was great because President McMullin showed up. I'm so impressed with him. I think he's becoming a personal hero of mine, so when he took a few seconds after sacrament meeting to ask me how I'm feeling in the mission I felt super special! haha.

This week's been a kind of hard week for me personally. Especially with the move, I've felt really overwhelmed and I feel like I'm not as good a missionary as I could or should be. I make so many mistakes when I teach and talk to people, and I still have trouble contacting. With all those things on my mind, I found a lot of comfort in the scriptures. I don't know why I read these stories in particular, but I read about Moses. He felt like he wasn't a powerful speaker, but instead of making him a powerful speaker The Lord made Aaron his spokesman. In 1 Nefi 4:17-19, Nefi wishes that he were a better, more righteous person. If these men -- prophets who spoke to our Savior -- had weaknesses and sometimes felt like they couldn't talk, or like they weren't doing their job well enough, then I'm in good company if I feel that way every once and a while. I just need to remember that the Lord promises to turn our weaknesses into strengths as we trust in him (Ether 12:27). If I do that, before long, I'll be a successful missionary that speaks Spanish perfectly!

That's all for this week! As always, I love you all! Thanks so much for the love, support, and emails!

Elder Fairbanks

And a little bit extra from last week (in response to some of Mom's questions):
NOTE: I typed almost all of this message up last week, but the storm got so nuts (lightning was striking really close every couple seconds) that the owner of the cyber turned off all the computers to protect them.

We have A LOT of lightning here (it's actually thundering right now as I write this). I love the crazy weather here.

Elder Rodríguez and I are almost guaranteed to part ways next transfer. Chances are, I'll be staying in Villa Hayes. My new companion might even be the new zone leader (Elder Keltner's companion is a zone leader and he goes home this transfer). But beyond those guesses, I really have no idea what's going to happen.

As far as animals go... there are a bunch of parrots. They are common enough that ordinary people can get their hands on them as pets without a large financial sacrifice. There are also lots and lots of toads! Geckos are pretty common -- they can usually be found on the walls of houses. The other day I even saw a little frog! It was really fast though and escaped into the darkness before I could scare it out of our kitchen... haha. I'm really crossing my fingers to see toucans and alligators. Toucans are really rare, and alligators are just cool!

And a few more questions answered (from this week):
The work is great! I'm way more comfortable in Paraguay. I understand how the colectivos (buses) work and I know our area pretty well. I just need to focus on teaching. I need to learn to ask inspired questions and how to converse in Spanish. The cool thing is that I'm already participating in lessons pretty much like a normal (not new) missionary!

I am healthy and happy. A little stressed at times with the language at times and with my capacity (or lack thereof) to learn, but I am improving, and I see the blessings of the Lord in my life all the time. The mosquitoes are still biting, but I worry about them less. Apparently there are plug in things you can buy that, according to sister McMullin, work better than mosquito nets. I'm going to look into those this week sí o sí.

Also, a member family (familia burgos) gave me a hat of my own! So now I'm not dependent on Elder Rodríguez for sun protection.

Other good news: An elder in my zone told me today that he has packages and letters for me and Elder Keltner in his house. I'm super excited for that!

"New responsibilities"

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