Dear Friends and Family,
This week was, hands down, one of the best of my mission. I've learned so much about being a better person and missionary, and I feel like I'm really progressing with my Spanish, with my teaching skills, and with mission life in general.
First off, for those of you who have heard about my dog... It's still with us and it's still happy following us everywhere. Elder Parada and I have been concerned about his safety though (walking the streets in Paraguay is not a safe pastime for dogs for many reasons: cars, other dogs, etc...), so we've started leaving him locked up inside the gate of our house. He cries a lot, but he's safe. The good news is that we've actually found someone who wants to adopt him: one of our investigators named Maria. The best part: she lives very far away from our house, so after we deliver the dog (who we still haven't named) there, chances are very slim that he'll ever be following us again.
The coolest part of this week was an area-wide missionary broadcast we had with Elder Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. As far as I know, all the missionaries in Chile, Paraguay, Argentina, and Uruguay were watching this broadcast live together, which made me kind of happy because that means my friends Elder Galbreath, Elder Bruneel, and Elder Jones were probably watching it as well. Basically, the broadcast was incredible. Elder Bednar was in a stake center in Buenos Aires, Argentina with somewhere around 800 missionaries, and instead of sharing a prepared talk, he just asked questions and let the missionaries ask him questions about missionary work, teaching with the Spirit, etc... and it ended up being one of the most spiritual meetings of my life. I wasn't actually there with Elder Bednar, but I feel like I really got to know Elder Bednar and his wife -- they are both such incredible people! In that broadcast, one of the most important things I learned was that we as members of the church often teach the First Vision wrong. We're always saying "Joseph Smith entered a grove of trees to ask God which church was true." While that's accurate, we should teach "Joseph Smith entered a grove of trees to ask which church was true so he could know which church to attend." Joseph Smith prayed in faith in the grove, and that means that he prayed with an intent to act on what he received. That's something that I need to apply more as a missionary, but also something that our investigators really need to understand. They shouldn't ask out of curiosity, they should ask because they want and are willing to change their lives according to the answer they receive. I learned a ton more than that, but that was the biggest highlight.
This week, I saw another small miracle: "the 9:00 miracle." Elder Parada and I were teaching as usual this Thursday, but our last lesson of the day (at 8:00) fell through and, as it was dark, there was no one to contact in the streets, and chances were slim that we'd have a lesson. I was really tired, and honestly, I really wanted to just call it quits, go home an hour early, and relax a little. But I knew that God expects more of me than that, so I suggested that Elder Parada and I visit a woman we contacted earlier that week to see if she was available... She wasn't. Neither were any of her neighbors. At that point (about 8:20 pm), I pretty much gave up. I thought "Ok, I've done my best. I'm sorry, but I'm going home now because walking around the streets for the next 40 minutes isn't going to do us any good." And we started heading home. On the way home, though, we passed by some youth sitting down chatting, and I thought, "Well... I still want to do everything I can to be a good missionary, so why not contact them?" And we did. They were four teenage boys who were about 16 years old, and they seemed at least mildly interested in our message. We chatted a while, fixed a lesson for the next week, and finished by asking them if they knew any houses that were up for rent close by (because we really want to find a better house than the one we have). Turns out, they did, so we headed over to check it out. Long story shorter, we checked out the house, asked around, found the owners, chatted with them, and then finally went home. We got back to our house exactly at 9:00 and in that last hour of the day, we contacted 7 people, got two references, set a lesson for next week with four potential investigators, and possibly found a better house to live in. If we hadn't put in the little extra effort, we wouldn't have received any of those blessings. The Lord really does magnify our efforts when we try to do what's right. We'll never be able to "pay Him back" for the blessings He gives us.
I also had a transfer with an awesome elder named Elder Barrios this week. He's from Guatemala, speaks English pretty well (though we generally spoke in Spanish together) and I really learned a lot from him. We ended up spending a lot of time talking about the mission and how sometimes it's hard to stay excited about the work. We ended up discussing two scriptures: Matthew 10:39, and Matthew 11:29-30. Matthew 10 basically says, "He that seeketh his life shall lose it, and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it." I've always loved that scripture and interpreted it as, "When we stop looking for ways to try to make ourselves happy, and instead spend all our time trying to serve others and do what Christ would do, we find real happiness." Elder Barrios augmented that thought with Matthew 11 which pretty much says, "Take my yoke upon you, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light." As we understood the two verses, basically, as missionaries, if we spend our time trying to be happy, even if we're trying to find happiness in baptizing or teaching lessons, we'll always be missing something. The only way to really find happiness in the mission is to stop looking, and to go to work. In the end, turning to the Lord, and consecrating oneself to the mission will be a lighter burden than trying to do everything on your own, even if you're an obedient successful missionary.
We had an amazing lesson this week two with an investigator named L that we've been teaching for months. We've almost dropped her a lot of times, but she really is keeping her commitments and reading the scriptures, looking for an answer. The problem is that her parents are inactive members, and her mom is telling her to stop going to church. Since early January, she's been ready for baptism. She has all the lessons, she's attended church more than 5 times, all she's lacked is the answer. Well, this week, we read Alma 32 (about the experiment of the seed) with her and it was amazing. Elder Parada and I hardly had to teach her anything. At one point she said, "I've definitely felt a change in my life from reading the Book of Mormon and going to church." And later, after reading verse 28, "If it should so be that is a good seed, or that the word is good because it is beginning to swell my soul, yeah, it begins to be delicious to me" (forgive the spotty translation), she said, "I think, maybe I've had my answer for a long time, but that I'm looking for a big grand sign." There really is no feeling in the world better than having in investigator that truly is progressing and beginning to be converted to the gospel! If all goes well, L is looking golden to be baptized in March!
I love you all, keep working hard, doing your things, and keeping me posted with what's going on in your lives!
Elder Fairbanks
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