This week was probably one of the craziest weeks of my mission. Between struggling to prepare investigators for baptisms, preparing for zone conference, practicing piano with the district choir for our district conference (district as in a group of branches of the church, not a group of missionaries), and about a thousand other things, Elder Smith and I had a pretty busy week!
But before the overview, some investigator news: (FYI, this week was a great week overall, but we're seeing lots of roadblocks with our investigators. Just so you know!)
Well first, our golden Braziguayo (Brazilian + Paraguayan in Spanish) C took the week off. He traveled to the land of his ancestors (Pedro Juan, a city on the border of Paraguay and Brazil) for the week, so we haven't been able to teach him any more, nor could he come to the district conference we had this Sunday. Kind of a bummer, but he still sounds super good and he said he'd be back today, so we'll be working with him this week no matter what!
"I" is a young mother with many problems. She has a rocky relationship with her boyfriend, so she doesn't want to get married. But she loves him, so she doesn't want to leave him either (ugh--why are relationships so complicated?) Anyways, Elder Smith and I are really thinking that she might progress if she can fix things with her novio, so we were super excited to invite her to the district conference to listen to president Evans speak. But... when we called her to invite her, she said that she is 6 hours away in Asuncion, taking care of -- you guessed it -- her boyfriend in the hospital because he had an accident. We'll be checking up with her and her boyfriend this week when they return as well.
"A" has me and my comp both worried right now. He's still watching conference talks and church videos, and he tells us he's still reading his Book of Mormon, but he's coming to church less and less and this Sunday, he walked out halfway through the conference (right before President Evans spoke, dang it) and never came back. We'll keep working with him, but we're both kind of concerned that he's hit a roadblock in his progression.
The good news, though, is that two investigators got baptized this week! They are the friends of "I," the son of a less-active family that we helped reactivate and complete by baptizing their children (including "I"). Anyways, he's been a pretty awesome missionary already by inviting a bunch of his friends to the chapel. This Saturday we got to enjoy the first harvest of the work he's helped us do by baptizing J and L. It was not an easy road to baptism, though. We visited them almost every single day last week to make sure they were reading the Book of Mormon (because it's essential to conversion), teaching them the things they needed, etc... The problems started hitting on Friday when we wanted to do the interviews. J and L were only free between 2 and 4 o'clock, the exact timeframe that I had to be in the center of Concepcion (an hour walk away) to interview two of the Hermanas' investigators for their baptisms. Long story short, it was really scary because Elder Barreto had to find their houses, hunt down their parents to get signatures we needed, and interview them without our help. Good news, they got it done.
The day of the baptism was no less stressful. We told everyone that they needed to be at the church at 3:30 (even though the service was to start at 4:00) because "Paraguayan time" is worse than "Mormon Standard Time" and "fashionably late" by far. But we miscalculated because our investigators and their families ended up getting to the chapel at 4:30 anyways. It was stressful. But we saw miracles, and it turned out to be a pretty good service!
Zone conference with President Evans was a really great experience too. He really emphasized the new mission goals that he's put for us and explained that we can be like Nephi who, when asked to build a boat -- something difficult -- asked, "Where are the materials I need to make it?" and didn't say, "But I don't know how to build a boat!" The new mission goal for baptisms is 150. In my time in the mission, we haven't even half-met that goal. But President Evans says it's possible, so we, like Nephi, will "go and do as we've been commanded," knowing that the Lord provides the way to obey His commandments. Again, President also stressed the importance of the Book of Mormon. He, and some of the missionary leaders he brought with him from Asuncion, bore powerful testimony about the power of the Book of Mormon in our lives to answer the questions we have and to bless us, and our investigators with the conversion that we all need and want. He extended the invitation "not an order, but almost" for each one of us missionaries to read the Book of Mormon again cover to cover before Christmas. I'm super excited to see what these next few months bring in the mission!
Like I've mentioned, this week was also district conference. The talks were great, especially President Evans which, again, was about the importance of the Book of Mormon in the lives of all the members in the church. (I really wish A would have been there for that one). But for me, the most significant part was that I was the accidental piano player for the whole conference of all the members in Concepcion and the surrounding cities. There was a piano player assigned, but I guess he didn't show. So after I played the piano for a special prelude music number we've practiced, I was volunteered to keep playing and to sight read the songs of the program. Scary. But after getting through the introduction of each song, it wasn't all that bad because the roar of 300 Paraguayans each accidentally singing their own harmonies to the piano has the miraculous power of masking a pianist's mistakes. I sure was grateful for that!
Some verses that really stuck out to me in my studies this week were Alma 8:9-10 "the people of the city of Ammonihah... would not hearken unto the words of Alma. Nevertheless (he) labored much in the spirit, wrestling with God in mighty prayer, that He would pour out His Spirit upon the people who were in the city; that He would also grant that he might baptize them unto repentance." What I love about Alma was that he wasn't just a 10:30 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. missionary. He was a 24/7 missionary, a missionary that prayed, begged, and worried for his investigators when he was alone, not just when he left the apartment to preach. It's really easy sometimes to get home and think, "Ok, now I can rest a little." But truth is, in each moment of every day I need to be concerned for, praying for, and sacrificing for the people I teach so that God grants "that (I) might baptize them unto repentance."
I love you all! Thanks for all you do for me and for writing each week. The Book of Mormon really is the best book ever if you have problems in your life (and we all do). So if you're not reading it now, you should!
Elder Fairbanks
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| Baptism day for J & L |
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| "I was trying to take a picture with my camera's face fixer option, but it wouldn't even recognize my face as a face to make it prettier... Wonder why? |
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| Elders Smith & Fairbanks |
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