Dallin's Blog (Paraguay Asuncion North Mission): Week One in Concepcion

The long bus ride from Aregua to Concepcion, Paraguay

Dear Friends and Family,

This week may have been the craziest of my mission so far! I got changes, said goodbye to all the people I loved in Aregua, traveled, and since then, I've been trying my best to get to know my new area!

Well... first off, the district meeting where I got my changes may have been the scariest one so far. I wanted to stay in Aregua to help the people there so much. But, at the same time, I was really ready for a change of scenery. When my zone leaders called Elder Smith and I to stand up, my heart was pounding super hard, and then I heard the news that I've been expecting since I started my third change in Aregua: "Elder Fairbanks.... se va. Elder Smith... se queda." After that, my life became a blur of visits, goodbyes, and packing. Basically, I spent all day Tuesday saying goodbye to all the people that have touched and changed me in Aregua.

Wednesday morning we went to the chapel in Luque at 5:00 in the morning, and then I just had to wait... I still didn't know where I was going or who my companion was going to be. I just had to wait... for hours. The first van from the office passed by. They didn't call my name. Finally, about an hour later, the second van passed by. I was supposed to get on that one, but there wasn't room, so I had to take a taxi with another missionary to Mariano, my first zone. Finally, at about 10 in the morning in Mariano, I learned that I would be hopping on a two-story bus to take a 5 hour ride to Concepcion. The bus ride was awesome. I got to see a ton of Paraguay from the front seat of the second story of the bus. I kind of felt like I was flying. The bummer was that the bus had a big television right in front of me and the 3 other missionaries I was with that was playing a super violent movie the whole time. To ignore that, I spent most of the 5 hours looking out the windows or browsing my scriptures.

Finally, at about 7:00 at night, we got to Concepcion and I met me new comp, Elder Brito, a Columbian who just finished his training in the mission. He seems like a really great guy. He worked really hard with his trainer, Elder Kincheloe, and really loves the people here in this area (Concepcion 3 B).

Since then, I've just been working as hard as I can to get to know the area and the people here. It is the smallest area I've had so far on my mission, but there's still a lot going on and a lot of things I have to remember. Elder Brito is a great teacher though, so I'm learning stuff really fast. I already know how to get to the houses of 5 ot 6 investigators, the district president, the other missionaries, and the chapel. So even after less than one week, I'm already sort of confortable in my area.

Something that kind of threw me off though was that on Saturday, after working with Elder Brito for only two days, we had divisions with our district leader and his comp. I went into their area with our district leader, Elder Barreto, a missionary from Brazil. I had a blast working with him. He's super funny and a really hard worker. Plus, he started teaching me a little bit of Portuguese! He laughed for almost half an hour because of my poor pronunciation, but now I have a basic understanding of the Portuguese alfabet and pronunciation.

Then, on Sunday, we had a branch conference. It was weird to be in my new branch because here, they have a piano player already! The music wasn't the best I've heard in my mission, but it was kind of nice not having to stress a ton about poorly sightreading songs I've never played before.

As an addition to the branch conference, we also had a "rescue" activity where all the other missionaries and branch leaders from all the different branches in Concepcion met in our chapel to head out and visit all the less active members in the branch. In the activity they split all the missionaries up and put them with local branch members to be guided around. I was put with the mission leader from Rama 2 (we're Rama 3) and with only 3 days in my area, I had to guide him around to two different less-active families. To my surprise, I was actually able to do it without getting lost. So that was a pretty cool deal

Recently I've been working my way through the New Testament to get to know it better. This week, as I read in Luke, I was struck by a part in the passage about the temptations that Christ had in the desert. In Luke 4:5-7 it says:

"And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it. If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine."

When I read that passage, I realized that Satan was offering Christ something that He already had. Christ created the world. He is the Lord of all the world. When Satan tempted Christ, he was lying and offering something he didn't posses. Here in my mission I've noticed that the devil tempts us the same way all the time. He tells us that we'll find happiness by disobeying the Lord, when really, the only way to be truly happy is to obey the commandments. When we listen to temptations telling us "You'll be happier if you sleep in today instead of reading your scriptures" or "You'll be happier if you drink this alcohol," we're not receiving happiness that lasts; we're losing it. The only way to really be happy is through obedience. It's not always easy to be obedient, but I know that if I want a happy, successful mission, that's the only path for me!

"Hermana L. owns a "dispensa" (basically a small, one room, street grocery store) and she sells beer bottles that were refilled with orange soda.... a photo opportunity that was too great to pass up..."

"Goofing off with Familia R."

"Last lunch with 'Hermama' Andresa, the woman that's taken such good care of me and my comps here in Aregua. For my last day, she cooked all the missionaries of Aregua lasagna!"

"Selfie with my Argentine friend, Elder Perez."

"Cultural Hall of the chapel in Aregua."

"Familia S. Hermana A. S. was another "hermama" I had here in Aregua. With Elder Silva, I helped baptize her husband. Their son, J, is on his mission in Brazil right now and I've heard some recordings of him speaking. He's been speaking Portuguese so much that he can hardly speak Spanish! haha. I love this family so much. I'm going to miss them tons. And their grapefruit juice. That was the best."

"Familia S. This is the young woman who has cancer. We've had some ups and downs with this family, but they've been a pretty important part of my life in Aregua, so I had to stop by and say goodbye. The coolest part though? When I first got to Aregua, A. (the young woman) had just barely found out that she had cancer. And this week when I said bye, she had just barely received the results of her MRI or CTC or whatever scan back and there are no cancerous growths! She has to do 2 more rounds of chemotherapy just to be safe, but from the looks of it, she beat cancer!"

Elder Smith & Dallin with Familia R.

"More with Familia R & Elder Smith."

Youngest son of Familia R., Josiahs.

"The R's other son, whose name escapes me now..."

"The whole Familia R together!"

"More goofing off with Familia R."

"Us and Hermano R."

"Hermana L. I really love this woman. She's had a really hard life: she wasn't ever legally married to her husband, and he died of a sickness a few months ago before she could convince him to seriously investigate the church or at least civily marry her, so she's felt really bad for a long time knowing that she can't be sealed to him. Even though she's been through tons, she's one of the most faithful members and has helped us a ton teaching lessons to her daughter-in-law, M, and her sister, T."

"Familia G! My favorite family from Aregua (I know I shouldn't have favorites...) We got their daughter baptized, taught them tons about the scriptures and church attendance; we've blessed their mother, and done so much with them. They taught me a little Guarani, made us mate dulce (and taught us how to make it), and so many other things. I am going to miss this family TONS."

More Familia G.

Elder Fairbanks and Familia G.

More with familia G in Aregua.

C.G, "one of the funniest people ever."

"Familia R. This family has fed us, let the familia R live with them, has washed our clothes, and has basically been awesome to us. They are super funny people."

"Familia M. Hermana M is the one who chewed me out for never stopping by again... haha. But I really grew to love them. I'm sad that I won't be in Aregua to see D, their daughter, get baptized. But I really did enjoy my time with them!