I'm starting to get more used to things in Aregua. I'm less lost as we walk around from appointment to appointment, and I'm starting to get better with the names of all our investigators and menos activos. We've got a lot of work to do here in Aregua "C," and the next few weeks are going to bring a lot of excitement!
First off, lunches here in Aregua are the best. We have lunch with members every day, and sometimes we eat lunch with other elders too, so we always have fun chatting. This last Tuesday, we ate with Hermana S. She's a really cool member of the church whose husband isn't baptized (yet) and who's son is on a mission in Chile. She cooked some delicious rice and chicken, and the best part was that she had fresh, homemade grapefruit juice. On top of all that, she taught elder Silva and I a good amount of Guaraní. The coolest part of all of this though is that her husband recently accepted the invitation to listen to us (the missionaries) teach about the church. He's accepted a baptismal date and is one of our best progressing investigators.
My favorite part of working with the familia S though, is that I can really see the blessings they're receiving from having a missionary in the field. Their son is out serving the Lord in Chile, and now his own father is finally accepting the gospel. It really brought me peace this week to realize that while I'm out here, far away from home, the Lord is taking care of my family too.
Some exciting news we received this week: We get to go to the temple on the 29th of March! That week is going to be crazy. We're going to start out in the temple and wrap it all up with General Conference. Elder Silva and I are going to be on fire and spiritually supercharged!
This past Thursday, I had divisions with my district leader, Elder Seguin. He's a cool Peruvian who knew my trainer, Elder Rodríguez, before the mission. What a small world! It was a great day, made especially great because we got to start out with a service project: cutting down a tree... with a machete. It was hard work because it was super close to the power lines, but we got it taken care of with only minor scratches (it had spines). As we worked throughout the day, I was really pleased to see that I could communicate easily with Elder Seguin. He had no problem understanding me, and I had no problem understanding him. Granted, there are still tons of words I don't know, but I think I've finally reached that point where I am comfortable communicating in Spanish!
I was surprised coming into the area Aregua "c" because I learned that we don't have a single recent convert (someone that was baptized in the last year). In Villa Hayes, we had 14 recent converts to stress about. But here, the two converts the area did have moved away. For Elder Silva and I, that just means that we need to start working hard to baptize. And we're doing it. Right now we have 5 or 6 fechas for April. On top of that, we have a family of three who are looking golden for baptism. I'm still rough with names, but next week, I'll give you guys the report on all the people we're working with.
Quickly, to wrap up, I'd like to share a scripture that's been on my mind lately. Here in Aregua, we have a family we're teaching that has a rough history, and they're having a hard time getting over the past. Elder Silva and I have been working and praying really hard to know how to help them. As I've pondered the situation, Docrine and Covenants 64:10 came to mind: "I the Lord will forgive whom I will forgive, but of you it is required to forgive all men." As President Uchtdorf once said in his talk "Stop it," when it comes to the Lord's doctrine on forgiveness, "there isn't much room for private interpretation." We are expected to forgive all people, no matter whether they accidentally offended us, or if they intentionally caused us problems. I love that as a missionary, learning things to teach and share with other people, I keep getting small reminders from the Lord to improve.
I love you guys! Keep praying, keep reading the scriptures. The church is true!
Elder Fairbanks
And some answers to Mom's questions:
1) Is it feeling cooler yet?
It started getting cooler the beginning of last week, but then it got hot again and it felt even hotter than before! The good thing is that all the Paraguayos we talk to say it will really start cooling down in April.
2) What's your apartment like now? Do you have warm water? Is it clean?
Yes! My apartment is actually pretty "chuchi." It's not big, but it's very clean, has hot water, and air conditioning. To be honest, it actually makes me think of a hotel room. It's comfortable and very clean.
3) Do you do as much walking in Aregua as you did in Villa Hayes?
It's actually pretty much the same: between 7 and 10 miles a day, generally. This week, my total mileage hit a little bit above 1050 miles in total. I don't think I'm going to hit my goal of 6400, but it's fun to see the numbers add up.
4) As far as standard of living goes, how do Aregua and Villa Hayes compare?
There are some really poor areas in Aregua, where the houses are basically just wooden shacks. But even the most humble houses have electricity and often satellite dishes (Elder Silva was shaking his head about that the other day). So on average, I'd say the standard of living is about the same.
5) Have you seen any monkeys yet? And do parrots fly around wild in Paraguay?
I have not seen any monkeys, but parrots do fly wild. I asked some locals about that and they said stores don't sell parrots unless they're trying to rip you off because they aren't hard to get your hands on in the wild. So far on my mission I've met at least 10 house-pet parrots that have been trained to speak--more than I saw in my whole life before the mission! haha.
 |
| Elders Silva & Fairbanks - ready for P-day soccer in Luque |
No comments:
Post a Comment