Week 9 in Concepcion

Dear Friends and Family,

This week we got some pretty exciting news from our zone leaders. All the zone leaders in the mission had a meeting with president last week where he made some pretty big changes to the mission. First off, When President McMullin was our chief, the mission goal of baptisms was 72 in a month and, as far as I know, it's not a number we ever reached. President Evans set a new goal... 150 baptisms in one month. Now, it's been a while since I had my last math class, but I'm pretty sure 150 is a lot more than 72. He believes that we're capable of it, though, and he's going to be showing us how in these next few months. I'm really excited!

Another thing President mentioned to the zone leaders is that we should change the way we teach the Book of Mormon. We always teach, "The Book of Mormon is a book of holy scriptures, like the Bible... etc... etc... It was written in the Americas.... etc.... another testament of Jesus Christ... etc..." -- all the important stuff. Now, President Evans wants us to present it in a simpler manner: "Do you have a family? Do you love them? Do you often struggle to find peace and happiness with your family? Well this book, the Book of Mormon, tells a story about a family a lot like yours. This family had problems. They had rebellious sons; they lived a large portion of their lives in poverty; but they overcame these problems and were able to find peace as they trusted in the Lord and followed his counsel. We know that if you read it, you, like this family, will learn things you and your family can do to be happier together... etc..." 

This week, talking to a new investigator, Elder Smith and I had the opportunity to present the Book of Mormon that way and man. It made a difference. The woman we were teaching, a young, single mother named I, with a child and relationship problems with her ex-boyfriend, really seemed legitimately excited to read and learn what she can do to be happier personally, and to help her baby daughter grow up to be a happy person as well. Elder Smith and I have some pretty high expectations for her; it's very possible that she'll be baptized in the coming weeks.

But here's some of the latest news and progress with some of our main progressing investigators:

We found yet another great new investigator named L this week. We shared the message of the Restoration with her and she was excited to finally understand why there are so many churches in the world today. We left her with a Book of Mormon and she promised to read it but said, "You guys have to make sure you come back later to explain these things to me again." L really seems like she might progress. We tried to have another lesson with her this week, but she was busy with family activities. She also explained to her mother what we taught her, and from the sound of it, her staunch Catholic mother wasn't very happy about it. But we'll be stopping by again tonight, so we'll see how that goes!

A is kind of worrying us lately. We visited him this week and he explained that he hasn't come to church for the past two weeks because in the last sacrament meeting he attended, the messages weren't prepared well enough, and he was offended that the church would let people "teach so poorly" from the pulpit. Well, the messages weren't the best. And maybe they weren't delivered perfectly, but I know the members who spoke well, and they really were doing their best to share a meaningful message. We'll see what happens this week with A.

I think I've talked about C before... But if not, he's a super awesome 14-year-old, Brazilian dancer. He was a referral from a girl in the branch who used to dance with him. He's an incredible investigator. Every time we leave him a chapter of the Book of Mormon to read, he reads it. And when we visit him again, he can summarize what it is that he read and what he learned from it. He still hasn't come to church yet, but he has permission from his Catholic mother to be baptized "if he's sure" that it's the right decision. We'll be seeing lots of cool things with him.

This week I did two divisions--first with Elder Harder, an older missionary that only has a change-and-a-half left, and with Elder Behrens. They were both great divisions where I learned a lot and had a lot of fun. Elder Harder reflected a lot about his mission and said that towards the middle of his misson he got a little lazy, but now that he's getting towards the end, he's realizing that his two years are almost up and that he doesn't want to waste another second. My division with Elder Behrens was great too. He really does work hard, and we also woke up at 4:30 Saturday morning to clean and fill the baptismal font for a baptism he was going to have, and then to go to a service project at 7:00 where we helped lay a concrete floor in a house. The most surprising part of that division for me though was his house. It was CLEAN. I clean regularly in our house, sweep, do the dishes, make my bed, etc... but Elder Behrens' house was SPOTLESS. I kind of felt called to repentance, so this morning I spent over an hour cleaning, and I'm going to go back after we finish our p-day activities to deep clean with new cleaning supplies I plan on buying. Cool experience.

Last story from the week, yesterday Elder Smith and I were teaching a lesson to a young, intelligent, receptive young man named M. He seemed to have interest about the church and the Restoration, but then, after we started teaching, his father came and started listening and basically said, "Hey, I'm Catholic. I appreciate what you guys are doing, and you guys are always willing to come and share. But I don't want to listen to you." Now, he didn't use those words because Paraguayans are super nice and respectful, but that's what he meant. So we tried to wrap up our message and invite him to pray to ask God which church He wants him to attend. In the end, the father just said, "Sorry, I'm a Catholic and I don't plan on changing any time soon." I left that lesson kind of frustrated -- we went through a bunch of work to explain that we can ask God and he will tell us what we should do, but the father wasn't willing to do that. Elder Smith noticed that I was kind of put out after the lesson and said something along the lines of, "Hey, being a missionary is like golfing. Sometimes you're driving on the straightway and the ball goes far, but other times, you have to hit the ball out of the sand and it only travels a little way. The important thing is that we gave it our best swing to get the ball in the right direction." I don't know about you guys, but I love that analogy. Maybe after our lessons, our investigators won't quite get where we'd hoped they'd be. But each lesson is a swing that helps push them in the right direction.

That example kind of reminds me of the story of Abinadi, Alma, and the people of Limhi in the Book of Mormon -- a story I've read again recently. Abinadi only convinced Alma, one person, that his message was true -- not exactly the progress a prophet would want or expect. But with time, Alma baptized "four hundred and fifty souls" (Mosiah 18:35) in the Waters of Mormon, and later, "king Limhi was desirous that he might be baptized; and all his people were desirous that they might be baptized also" (Mosiah 25:17). In the end, pretty much the whole group that Abinadi taught was converted -- his work was the foundation for the people that followed afterwards. Hopefully my work out here that doesn't quite feel so successful can be the same!

Love you guys. Sorry for the super long letter, there's just a lot of fun stuff happening lately!

Love,

Elder Fairbanks

"Elder Smith & I on our way out the door today on p-day."

P-day with Elder Smith II

"A panorama of our chapel. Have you guys ever seen a chapel with its own bridge before?"

Because it wouldn't be p-day without yet another photo of Elder Barreto (Brazilian zone leader extraordinaire)

 

"Me with a liter of wild honey from the chaco that I bought from Elder Behrens' neighbor (it's super delicious)."

"Pollo Sensacion is a restuarant that does fried chicken like KFC and delivers it to your house until eleven at night for less than a dollar... We're going to be eating a lot of that.

"Elder Smith with a caricature I did of him while we were waiting to start English class."

"Some Guarani I learned from our english class students before we started teaching english. It means, 'We are two missionaries of the church of the Lord.'"

Mate dulce selfie

Just after 4:30 AM with Elder Behrens - baptism day prep

Elders Fairbanks & Behrens - cleaning the chapel on Saturday.

Elder Behrens cleaning the font early Saturday morning for a baptism.

"Me drinking my favorite Paraguayan drink, 'Mate Dulce,' with my comp when we passed for some cold weather."

"While we waited for the baptismal font to fill up, I practiced, 'La Himno del la Mision.' I hope you like it!"



"A few weeks ago, I was the photographer for the birthday of Kiki's oldest sister. Here are some photos of the family. The funny part: Kiki is smiling in each one because of the kid mode on my camera. The front screen plays a cartoon to keep little kids focused--works like a charm."