Dallin's Blog (Paraguay Asuncion North Mission): Week 4 in Aregua "C"

Dear Friends and Family,

This week was without a doubt, the best, most eye-opening week of my mission. Unfortunately, that means a ton happened and I'm going to struggle keeping this e-mail focused. Here we go anyway!

This week started off in pretty much the best way possible: in the temple, the house of the Lord. This adventure had a pretty rough start, though. First off, Elder Silva and I are both relatively new in the mission. That means that neither of us knew how to get to the temple in Asuncion. Luckily, we took a bus to Luque where we met some other missionaries who were also going to the temple and who knew where they were going. The problem was that they were all wearing their suits... Elder Silva and I had dressed up nicely: we had polished our shoes, put on our nicest ties and slacks and were super excited But seeing the other elders, we thought, "Uh oh... were we supposed to wear suits to the temple?" When we got to the temple, we got our answer. Of the 30 or 40 elders ready to attend that day, Elder Silva and I were the only ones without our suits! Our district leader had forgotten to tell us that we had a "capacitacion" (or training) with the president before entering the temple. In meetings with President McMullin, you always bring your suit. If you want to know how we felt, open your Book of Mormon to Alma 36:15 and you'll find a pretty accurate description. Elder Silva and I were sure that President was going to chew us out big time, but when our time came to enter the temple, he looked at us both, gave us both hugs, and told us to enjoy or time in the house of the Lord.

After going through the temple, President and his wife treated all the missionaries to Pizza Hut. Thinking that we wouldn't be getting lunch in Aregua that afternoon, I ate my fill (and when I say "I ate my fill," I mean it; pizza isn't a very common lunch here in Paraguay). On top of that, I was wrong about not having lunch later. So, when we got to Aregua, before getting to work, we went to eat with a member. It's hard to eat on a full stomach, but if the mission teaches you one thing besides humility and spirituality, it's to eat what's put on your plate.

Going to the temple in the beginning of the week really set me up on a spiritual high for the rest of it. When Wednesday rolled around, I studied an amazing talk called "Consecrated missionary" and it felt like my mind was opened up and I understood all the doctrines and principles in a way that I never have before. Later that day, in "noche de barrio" (basically mutual), we got to watch a devotional with Elder David A. Bednar. And, again, I felt like my mind was being opened up to understand the simple doctrines of the church in a way I never had before. It really pumped me up and got me excited to work hard as a missionary!

Along with the spiritual theme for the week, another more frightening theme began to develop; Elder Silva and I started eating a ton. I'm not exactly sure how it happened, but on Tuesday, we ended up eating three lunches. One of those lunches was pig's feet -- one of the more interesting things I've eaten in my life. Incidentally, pig's foot is as easy to eat as it sounds... Side note: By Saturday afternoon's session of General Conference, I got pretty sick. Good thing that Elder Silva was studying to be a doctor before the mission. He was able to tell me exactly what was going on (too many new foods this week) and he assured me that I'd feel better by morning--which I did (after resting for the remainder of the day).

Something that missionaries do every week is plan for the next week. This week's planning session was especially awesome because FINALLY Elder Silva and I are planning to have baptisms! This weekend, Brother A. S. (the father of a missionary) and A. G. (a nine-year-old daughter of some awesome ex-less-active members of the church) are both getting baptized.

After finishing our planning session, we got to work. As we went through the day, we ended up in a fantastic lesson with the Familia S. They have a 20-ish-year-old daughter with cancer. We read in Alma 32 with them about faith and planting the seed to know if it's good, and they all understood really well. The coolest thing is that their youngest daughter, L, who is usually pretty opposed to our teaching there, asked us a ton of questions and seemed, to Elder Silva and I, to be asking out of a real desire to learn the truth. Elder Silva and I ended up explaining about the Book of Mormon and how the Lamanite and Nefite nations are the "other sheep" Christ mentions in Juan 10:16. When we mentioned that, she turned to the scripture in her Bible, read it with a confused look on her face, put a bookmark on the page, and said, "I'm going to ponder this scripture this week." It would be the greatest thing ever if we could bring this family to the faith in this moment when they most need to feel the love and support of their Heavenly Father.

That night, Elder Silva taught me a powerful lesson about faith. We finished our lesson with Familia S pretty late and had to run (literally) in a vain effort to make it to a dinner we had planned with a non-member. At first, I was reluctant to do anything. But after Elder Silva offered a prayer asking that we could make it to the dinner on time, I decided to give it a shot. So we started running... until we got to a car, where Elder Silva asked if we could get a ride to the "avenida" where our dinner was. Turns out, that's exactly where the driver was going! We ended up taking the trip that would normally be 30 minutes walking in less than ten (we ended up getting to dinner just in time). Afterwards, Elder Silva explained (quite proudly), "Faith is a principle of action and power. If you want to see God's blessings in your life, you have to act or, in this case, ask."

As most of you know, this weekend was General Conference. This time, I had the pleasure to listen to it all in Spanish. It was a really interesting experience because, while I understood the talks, the topics, and the stories, the words of the General Authorities that are normally so powerful, eloquent, and compelling, were just words. Words that I understood, but lacking all the beauty I'm used to in Conferences. In a way though, it was a blessing, Instead of being able to listen to the talks, I actually had to focus and look for the message God has for me in each talk. It was an amazing Conference, and there were a bunch of things that I learned that I'm going to try to apply to my life here as a missionary. But I'm also really excited for the chance to review all the talks again in my native language!

I love you all, thanks for all you guys do, and remember that the Lord is always waiting eagerly to give us a hand. All we have to do is reach out to Him!