Elder Smith and I had another great week here in Concepcion. It's starting to get hot again... which is scary because even though the temperature is nowhere near mid-summer temperatures, I'm already starting to sweat tons and need lots of water. It's going to be a hot December, January, and February this year in Paraguay!
I started off this week in a pretty unique manner -- in divisions. Normally divisions are done on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and sometimes Saturdays. But this week, I got to enjoy a division with Elder Barreto that started Monday night after finishing our p-day preparations. It was a great division, especially because I had the chance to prepare the district meeting with the help of Elder Barreto. (It really is hard to come up with lesson ideas that keep a group of 19 and 20-year-olds focused for much time) and I'd say that district meeting went pretty well. This week, I talked about how if we dont work here in the mission "looking forward to the fruit" (Alma 32:40) of our work (baptisms of converts) then we might just be working to work, when we should be working to help people progress towards baptisms. Reporting great numbers each week doesnt mean anything if it doesn't help us reach the mission goal of 2 baptisms each month for each companionship!
After making my way through district meeting, Elder Barreto and I had a great day of working and conversation-ing as normal. Part of those conversations was a discussion about languages. Elder Barreto confessed that he's probably too impatient to learn English, so I challenged him to a language exchange, saying that I could learn Portuguese faster than he could learn English.... Well long story short, he didn't take it the way I thought he would (by getting pumped up about learning Englsih); he just said, "I curse you to never, ever, ever, be able to learn Portuguese." So if I don't ever learn it, that's probably why!
After finishing divisions, I was reunited with my "son," Elder Smith, and we went to work in a part of our area called Santa Maria. As we visited some of the investigators and less-active members we know in that area, we were also contacting and we came across a super nice man named A. He welcomed us in and invited us to start teaching him, which we did. The problem was that I had greeted him in Guarani when we walked up, and that convinced him that Elder Smith and I actually speak and understand Guarani... which we don't. So when he had questions about what we taught, he would ask in Guarani! When we said, "Sorry, we don't understand," he just went on to ask another question in Guarani. I think he ended up asking some super confusing questions about the doctrines in the book of Revalations in the Bible (he really did know his scriptures), and I just had to say, "Lo siento, che nañe'ekuaai guaranime. ikatu japaha ñembo'e ndive?" (Sorry, I don't know how to speak Guarani. Is it alright if we come back another day and finish with a prayer?). And that's the story of my first lesson in Guarani.
My second lesson in Guarani was about 2 hours later when, contacting again, Elder Smith and I were invited to share with a family. We sat down, offered a prayer, and started teaching about repentance. Luckily, this family was kind and honest from the getgo and said, "Lo siento, ndaikuaai Español." (Sorry, we don't know Spanish). The cool part though is that, with my super rudimentary Guarani (mixed with a generous amount of Spanish), I was able to explain that we'll come back another day with someone that knows how to speak Guarani, something we're planning on doing this week. So we'll see how that goes.
Turns out, that here in Concepcion, Elder Smith and I have contact with even more people that pretty much only speak Guarani than I've ever really imagined. One of our favorite families is the familia E. Before I got here, they reactivated in the church (after 12 years) and I've had the privelege of teaching and preparing 4 of their children for baptism. They really are a special family, but they really don't do much Spanish either, so mainly we have to communicate through their children. This last week, we were teaching a lesson when their inactive oldest daughter (about 24 or 25 years old) walked in and I felt like we needed to share with her and see why she wasn't coming to church. In the end, she told us that she knows it's a bigger sin to go to church and not keep the commandments than it is to avoid the church and not keep the commandments. Using Alma 41:10 "Do not suppose, because it has been spoken concerning restoration, that ye shall be restored from sin to happiness. Behold, I say unto you, wickedness never was happiness," we explained that if she really wants to find happiness in life, she'll never find it outside of the church breaking commandments. It was a really special lesson because her parents (including her father, who has dealt with an addiction to alchohol) testified to her (in Guarani) that it's the truth and that now that they're attending the church again, he's much happier. She didn't attend church this week, but hopefully in the future, we'll be able to help her come back and find the peace she's looking for.
Investigator News:
This week was another complicated week for investigators because for some reason a lot of them are traveling or sick, but there are still some cool things that happened.
First off, our investigator C got even cooler, because in addition to being an incredible investigator that reads his scriptures and is studying dance, he is a red belt in Taekwando. We couldn't teach him this week because he was at a competition in Asuncion. But all the same, pretty interesting!
We saw a pretty big tender mercy with the father of V (our recent convert) this week. In a lesson he told us "after seeing these changes in my son, I've made up my mind to join the Mormon church, but next week I'll be traveling to Pedro Juan to get a job there. So I don't know if I'll be able to right now." First off, Elder Smith and I were super excited because he wants to be baptized. But the best part is that he's going to be in Pedro Juan, the new area of my ex-comp, Elder Brito, who became a great friend of Hermano R (V's dad). If things turn out well, Elder Brito should be able to keep working with Hermano R as he works 5 hours away in Pedro Juan! Cool stuff.
We also wrapped up the week in a great way on Sunday. This week, I was assigned to give a 15 minute talk on member visits with the missionaries. The cool part, I was less scared preparing a talk in Spanish this weekend, than I was a year ago preparing my farewell talk in my native language. The mission really does change you. In the end, I actually only had 3 minutes to talk because some of the speakers before me took a very long time. But hey, still a cool experience.
The best part of the day though was a branch council meeting we had after church. Last week, we got a new branch president here in Concepcion rama 3 named Presidente B. He's awesome. He's already reorganizing the branch and doing everything he can to help us missionaries out, get to know our investigators, and help the branch in general. As I sat in that meeting, I felt the spirit testify so strongly that God was happy with what we were doing to talk about the progress of His little branch here in Paraguay. It got me excited to keep participating in meetings like that the rest of my life in the church!
After those experiences and having one of the best (and only) branch council meetings I've had here in Paraguay (the wards and branches here are still working on establishing those habits), I couldn't help but think about how blessed we are to have the church and how much the church blesses us. Recently, I read in Alma 27 about the reunion of Alma and the sons of Mosiah. My favorite part is in verses 25 and 26 when Alma returns to the camp of all the Lamanites who repented and changed their lives and shares with them the story of his conversion with the sons of Mosiah. The story Alma shared "caused great joy among them" (the people of Ammon). That's what the church is for. To help us meet together to talk about our spiritual experiences, to love one another, and to look out for the people that have fallen away. The church really is such a perfect organization, and I'm so grateful to be a part of it!
Love you all! Thanks for everything you do for me. Have a great week, and don't forget to read your scriptures!
Elder Fairbanks
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| "The church right now is under a little bit of repair work -- the granite plates on the front were stained and nasty, so there's some super cool, roughly put-up scaffolding on the front. Thought you'd enjoy that." |
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| "A little friend that we found in our house (but didn't kill - we just gently let it back into nature next to our house)." |
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| "These are daughters (and one granddaughter) of the familia E. I promised them that I would take photos with them a week ago and print them out, so here I am doing my best to keep my promise." |
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| More with the daughters of the E family |
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| "This is the pyramid of the mission goals that President Evans himself drew for us in the zone conference! Kind of cool." |
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| "These are my proselyting tapas (scripture covers). On the front, they have some of my favorite scriptures, scripture stories & church paintings. On the back, they have maps and pictures of metal plates and scrolls to be able to show people in lessons where the records were written and on what medium. I'm super excited to use them!" |
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| "Starting divisions Monday night with Elder Barreto and his kid, Elder Saavedra." |
Here's a video of Elder Barreto and I practicing the himno del la mission before district meeting:
"In the first attempt (below), I messed up badly enough that I got completely off track (I was reading the notes off a tiny copy). So I stopped to apologize and his sarcastic, "Hay que borrarlo no mas" reaction makes me laugh every time!
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