I really want to thank you all for writing me here in the mission. It means a ton and I really appreciate reading all the great messages and things you have to tell me.
This week I had two divisions (splits); one with Elder Alvarez from Peru, and one with Elder Rios. I always get nervous for divisions because having to re-adapt for a day to the teaching methods and personalities of other elders is kind of daunting, but they both turned out great.
With Elder Alvarez, we taught two investigators we've had for a long time named C and L. We almost dropped them a long time ago, but they started getting better and then... stopped getting better. When we went to visit them, I was planning on dropping them unless I felt that they were ready to progress... And after teaching Lesson 1 about the Restoration of the Gospel and Church of Jesus Christ, I was amazed how well they understood and I knew we shouldn't drop them. So in the next few weeks, we're really going to work with them a lot to prepare them for their baptismal date on the 19th of March.
Something I've learned here in the mission is that you never stop learning. As soon as you get good at one thing, you learn that there's something else you have to work on. In this transfer (my first out of training) I've gotten a lot better at daily planning and at contacting people, but in the divisions I had with Elder Rios, I learned that Elder Parada and I really need to start focusing on teaching with members! Every once in a while, we do contacts with our convert M, and we plan to teach lessons to our progressing investigators with members. But we don't call members on a daily basis to see if they're free to teach with us. Elder Rios said we should be able to teach 4 lessons with members a day, so we're going to be putting in a ton of work on that front!
This Wednesday we visited a part of our area that I've never been to before. I don't know what the barrio is called, but it's basically a settlement of houses in the middle of a gigantic field of grass. We didn't have time to teach out there, and we weren't able to get any good contacts, but I fell in love. The area is so beautiful and there are so many houses that probably haven't seen missionaries pass by in months! This barrio really seems to me to be a field "white, already to harvest." These next few weeks, we'll definitely be working out there a lot.
We actually had a baptism fall through this week too. We've been working with a young boy named S and this Friday he had his interview and... Elder Rios told us that S isn't ready for baptism. The reason: He hadn't prayed yet to know if the Book of Mormon was true. Moral of the story? When church leaders teach things, apply them. S was crushed when he learned his baptism would have to be postponed, but if he had kept his commitments, he could be a baptized member of the church already. When you know you have something you need to do or work on, do it! "Don't procrastinate the day of your repentance" (I think that's how the scripture goes).
Spanish update: This week, I finally had that moment everyone promised would come when you realize "Hey. I can speak Spanish!" I'm not fluent yet, and I still don't understand everything, but I am really starting to understand grammar and how to form sentences. After giving a talk yesterday in sacrament meeting, I even had a Paraguayan RM come up to me and tell me that my Spanish really is great for the time I have in the mission and that I don't really have much of the "gringo American" accent. So that made me feel pretty good.
I love you all! Remember that the Gospel is true!
Elder Fairbanks
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| Elder Fairbanks is hot! (Note the sweat-drenched shirt): "Me with my Paraguayan summer gear (sombrero piri and a palm fan)." |
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| "You wanted a foto of my plaque, right? Well, this is a friend we made last night in our house... I might have screamed a lot, but we eventually got him taken care of. It's a real shame I can't send videos because this foto has a great one behind it." |
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