Dallin's Blog (Paraguay Asuncion North Mission): Another Week in Concepcion (#13)

Dear Friends and Family,

Elder Smith (Che Memby) and I had another great week here in Concepcion. Yes, that means that we didn't have transfers. Really, almost no one in Concepcion had changes this change. Of the 10 missionaries in Concepcion, only one left: Elder Behrens. And he left to the Chaco... He's going to be writing some pretty interesting emails; keep an eye on him.

There were some other changes in changes though. Every change, the assistants call the zone leaders to tell them who the new zone leaders are, who the district leaders are, etc... and well. I was fired as a district leader in Concepcion. Now, I'm in charge of a small city called Horqueta about half an hour from here. Not quite sure exactly how that's going to work yet, but I'm super excited because it means that I get to be the district leader to the awesome senior missonary couple, the Cranneys, right before they return home (this November). Super excited about that!

I said this week was "great," and I stand by that, but it doesn't mean that it wasn't without challenges. This week we saw some really sad things happen to some of our favorote people here in Concepcion. First off, we have a new investigator I think I've talked about a little bit named "I." Well, if you don't remember, she was awesome, but didn't want to get married to her boyfriend. Then her boyfriend was in an accident and she had to take care of him in the hospital in Asuncion. Sound familiar? Well, this week, we passed by her house and her mother informed us that her boyfriend (the father of her one-year-old daughter) passed away in the hospital, and now Isabel has to work in the Frigorifico (the gigantic meat processing plant here in Concepcion where EVERYONE works) to take care of her daughter. It really is a super sad/terrible situation. Work in the Frigorifico is hard; the hours are terrible; and from my experience here in Concepcion, if an investigator works there, baptism is pretty much out of the question because the horario is indefinite. The only definite thing about it is that you work every day longer than you were scheduled to. Ojala we can find "I" and teach her. She needs the gospel more than ever!

We also have some sad news about A. I don't know his personal history super well, but I know that he has a duaghter about a year old and that he can never see her because he was separated from his wife. Well, this week we stopped by to check up on him and found him... a little tipsy. He had seen his daughter in person that day and the pain of knowing that he couldn't be with her drove him to alchohol. The cool thing is that he's a super level-headed drunk; when we talked to him he said super levelly, "Sorry, guys. I'd invite you in, but right now I'm not going to understand anything. Can you pass by tomorrow?" But the sad thing is that he's got a few more pretty big obstacles in the way of his baptism.

The saddest news I've got is something that happened while I was on divisions (yet again) with Elder Barreto. We stopped by the house of an amazing 15-year-old recent convert of ours that attends church every Sunday and does everything she's supposed to and we were re-explaining the commandments like the law of chastity, the law of tithing, and the Word of Wisdom. After we finished explaining the Word of Wisdom, we kind of jokingly asked, "Hey, you got problems with tea? Coffee? Alchohol? Smoking?" It was all super light and fun, but when we said "smoking" her face fell, and we knew someting was wrong. In the end, she confessed to us that in school some of her friends invited her to try something... and she was introduced to illegal drugs. After the lesson, Elder Barreto, who studied to be a police officer before the mission, told me that if she gets addicted and uses regularly the drugs she's tried, he gives her, at most, 3 more years of life. We're going to be working with her tons, doing our best to convince her to ask for help, and to leave it all behind. We even called President Evans to ask what we can do to help her. So we'll be working with her a lot.

This week wasn't all super sad trials though! We actually had some really great moments. One of those was in a lesson with the Hermano S. He's the father of another one of our recent converts, J. Normally, our lessons with the family are crazy because Hermana S is always mad at her husband (because he's addicted to his phone) and no one pays attention. But that night, it was just us and Hermano S. We talked about the gospel, reading scriptures, praying, and his responsibilities as a father. In the end, he said, eyes moist, "Every father wants his family to be happy. I don't think they'll listen to me, but I'll try to read scriptures, attend church, and pray with them." It was a really special moment and we all felt the Spirit pretty strongly. His family is passing through some pretty difficult challenges right now, and they could use the support of a strong family head.

Once Friday hit though, Elder Smith and I sort of became slaves to a wedding Elder Barreto was planning for two of his investigators. We got the baptismal interviews done and then spent hours helping with the decorations, preparing the music for the event, stressing, and lots more. Weddings are hard! But in the end, it was a really special day as well. The two getting married are the parents of three young teenage girls: B (15), Y (13), and B (11) ) that are absolutely incredible members of the church. Elder Barreto reactivated them about three months ago, and since then, they attend church every Sunday, attend seminary, go on visits with the sister missionaries in Rama 1, and all sorts of stuff. They aren't from my area, but all the same, they're one of my favorite families here in Concepcion. It was a really happy day to see them there with their parents finally united as a family as members of the church.

Going through this week, I was reading the Book of Mormon and thinking a lot about life and the problems and blessings I'm seeing here in my mission. I know I've shared it before, but I re-read this week on of my favorite verses of all scripture: Helaman 10:4:

"Blessed art thou, Nephi, for those things which thou hast done; for I have beheld how thou hast with unwearyingness declared the word, which I have given unto thee, unto this people. And thou hast not feared them, and hast not sought thine own life, but hast sought my will, and to keep my commandments."

This week as I read, what stuck out to me was "and thou hast not sought thine own life, but hast sought my will, and to keep my commandments." As I read, I realized that that's kind of the whole point of repentance -- to put our will in alignment with God's. And then I realized, that there is a diference between being obedient, and really repenting. If we are worried about just keeping the commandments, we're missing part of the picture. God doesn't want us to just obey him. Laman and Lemuel were capable of that. He wants us to want to obey him. Nefi was blessed in this scripture because he didn't seek his own life, but because he sought the will of God. He got to the point where his will was the same as God's will. And that's what our Heavenly Father wants from each of us. He doesn't want grudging obedience, he wants us to love the commandments. He wants our hearts to change to desire to do His will. I'm far from perfect when it comes to desiring to do the will of God in all things, but I'm learning and finding more pleasure each day as I work in His service.