What. A. Week. I could literally write a book today about all the things that happened this last week: the stories, our investigators and their progress, and how I feel about it all. So I'm going to have to really watch myself on time... Looking at the notes I have for the week, this might be my longest email yet, so brace yourselves.
First off, the district I'm in charge of is small. Me, my comp, one companionship of elders, one companionship of sisters, and that's it. As a district leader, one of my responsibilities is to plan and do divisions with the elders in my district. Well, this week I finally got around to it (recent circumstances have made it difficult up to this point). Horqueta is about an hour away from Concepcion by bus, so Elder Barreto and I made plans to take advantage of the divisions I had planned to travel down together to do two divisions at the same time to help the two Elders in Horqueta find new investigators and have a great day full of work. What ended up happening is a long complicated story that, on it's own, could be about the length of a conference talk. But, in short, one of the elders, Elder Gomez from Brazil, had an ankle injury and didn't want to put too much stress on it -- that kind of shot a hole in our plans to have two sets of missionaries working in Horqueta at the same time. But thankfully, the Cranneys, the incredible senior missionaries in Horqueta (who are also from Washington and remind me of home) donated their afternoon and their pickup truck to help Elder Barreto and Elder Gomez travel around to do at least a few visits. I went out to work as normal with Elder Godoy, an elder who's actually Paraguayan. Working with him was a blast!
Points from the day:
At Elder Barreto's bidding I called the Cranneys to ask if they could prepare us something for lunch (I felt like we were imposing a bit, but Elder Barreto was insistent, and Hermana Cranney was SUPER willing). So so we got to eat with them, and oh my. Hermana Cranney cooks well. I've said in the past that I'm tired of pasta after eating so much here in Paraguay; After eating Sister Cranney's pasta with her delicious sauce, I realized that that's not entirely true. What we ate was super simple, but delicious. And at the end, we ate some flan (the dessert I refused to touch in the MTC) that Hermana Cranney had prepared, and it was incredibly delicious as well! The sad part of this experience is that Elder Cranney and Hermana Cranney are going to return home to Washington at the end of this change, so I'll only be able to enjoy their cooking one more time: during the Thanksgiving feast they're planning for this next P-day! (You could say I'm pretty excited)
After eating with Familia Cranney, Elder Godoy and I headed out and he showed me a fantastic day of work. One of the great experiences we had was just a regular contact in the street. The kind where we as missionaries usuallly just say: "Hi, we're missionaries, we talk about our Savior Jesus Christ, here's a card with a picture of Him. We'll pass by later when you have more time to share with you." Elder Godoy had a completely different approach (that kind of humbled me). He walked up to a woman sitting down eating some cookies and started talking to her about her life super casually. True, he has the unfair advantage of speaking Guarani. But all the same, his display of interest in her life was impressive. After getting to know her, we talked briefly about the Book of Mormon, and Elder Godoy explained to her that The Book of Mormon answers the difficult questions we have in life. He then invited her to read a list of "Questions of the soul" that he had written in the front of his copy of the Book of Mormon, and to tell him if one in particular stuck out. She pointed to number 4: "What happens to my loved ones after they pass away." After hearing that question from her, we had something to teach. At the end of the contact that normally would have been super inconsequential, she said, "I'll be in contact with you. I want to learn more." With Elder Godoy's approach, we touched a life we otherwise probably wouldn't have.
Second cool story: We were walking in a neighboorhood in Elder Godoy's area when he saw a woman cleaning up weeds in front of her house with a hoe. I normally pass people like that because when we offer help, even when we try to be insistent, they turn us down. Every Time. But when we arrived in front of her house, Elder Godoy was determined to help her out. He was rejected 3 times before offering to pull up the larger weeds by hand, an offer that she accepted. The whole time he and I pulled the weeds up from the muddy ground (it had just rained--a lot.), he chatted with her about her life. We learned that she works cutting hair, that one of her dreams is to own her own hair-stylest shop dealio, and that right now she's studying to preach in the Evangelical church. If we had tried the "traditional approach" to contacting, she definitely would have rejected us, but with Elder Godoy's super tranquilo, loving way of working, we actually got to share the majority of the lesson of the Restoration and the Book of Mormon. She even accepted the invitation to read the book and pray about it.
Going on those divisions with Elder Godoy was a pretty humbling experience for me. I learned that, though I love the people here, there are a lot of opportunities to teach and touch people's lives that I as a missionary miss and will miss, if I don't really work hard to make personal connections and really try to get to know every person I meet. It was definitely a special day for me. At the end of the day, we all reunited and ate some delicious hamburgers with the Cranneys in their favorite "burger joint" in Horqueta. Super cool day for me.
Another awesome thing that happened this week was that a General Authority came to do what was almost a "surprise visit" with my zone and the zone of Pedro Juan (where Elder Brito and Elder Silva, some of my favorite ex-comps are working now). His name is Elder Braggs and we had a fantastic time listening to him and President Evans and being there with about 40 missionaries. I haven't been in a meeting with that many missionaries in a long time!
Cool points from the day:
When Elder Smith and I arrived in the "plaza" of Concepcion where the majority of the missionaries from Concepcion, President Evans, and Elder Braggs were socializing before the meeting, the first thing President Evans said to me was, "Elder Fairbanks! How are you doing? I saw recently on Facebook that you cooked some alfajores. How'd they turn out? You're going to have to give me and my wife the recipe!" It was a super silly little thing, but it made me feel really good to know that my mission president knows me by name and has some interest in my life.
Second cool thing, During the reunion we had with Elder Braggs, at one point he called on me (by name, without looking at my name tag) to read a scripture (after only meeting me once). I don't think I stuck out to him more than any of the other 40 missionaries there in the meeting, but it was really cool to see that he knew my name without the "name tag glance." We missionaries do actually notice when people forget our names and take sneaky peaks at our plaques.
Another cool thing: I actually was assigned to direct the music for the reunion. I'm used to fumbling around on piano, so it was nice to stand up, direct tranquilamente, and sing for once as someone else had to stress about reading and playing all the right notes.
In the conference, Elder Braggs, Sister Evans, President Evans, and a few other missionaries spoke. The cool thing was that, from what I saw, the messages that were shared generally focused on what I had learned earlier that week in divisions with Elder Godoy: not every person we talk to is the same. The gospel is perfect for everyone, but if we don't adapt our teaching methods, or contacting methods to each person, maybe the gospel will seem like it doesn't "fit" them, their lives and their problems. I think my Heavenly Father's definitely trying to get a message across to me! haha.
At the end of the conference, Elder Braggs made us a promise: "I promise you all that this month, this very week, you will see miracles in the work. You will see miracles because it is God's work and he is a God of miracles and he is working side by side with each of you."
In the week following the conference, Elder Smith and I saw the fulfillment of Elder Braggs promise in many ways. I'm running short on time, but I'll see if I can't share as many with you as possible.
Miracles in Concepcion:
1. Do you guys remember when, months ago, I wrote about our awesome investigator named I? Did I ever get around to telling you guys that her boyfriend passed away in a motorcycle accident? Even though she had been very frank that she and her boyfriend had lots of relationship problems and that she would "never ever marry him," after he passed away we only had one chance to talk with her where it was plainly visible that she was suffering for his loss. Since then, knowing that now, more than ever, she needs the gospel, we've been looking for her, visiting her house, calling over and over and over, and doing everything in our power to talk to her. But she's been impossible to find. This Friday, we found her again. As has come to be our custom, we got to the house, clapped, and waited for her younger sister to come out and say, "Sorry, she hasn't gotten home yet from work." Her little sister popped her head outside, but broke the cycle, because immediately afterwards she entered the house again. About twenty seconds later, to our amazement, I. came out. She invited us to share with her, and we began to converse. Though, at first she said that she's "bien y mal" (doing good and bad), she shared with us stories from he life recently: the hospital visits, receiving the news that the doctors had cleaned out his lungs even though he was in fragile condition, seeing the doctor come, with tears in his eyes, to deliver the news, and the subsequent depression. And it became apparent that right now she's doing mostly "mal" and not so much "bien." After hearing all that (and know that at this point we still hadn't shared anything about the gospel, we'd just listened), Elder Smith asked something along the lines of: "What do you want to do to leave all these sorrows and stresses behind?" I.'s immediate response was: I want to be baptized. What followed was the most special lessons I've ever taught in my mission. It was a privilege to be there that day with her. God has prepared her for these steps she needs to take, and now more than ever, she wants to take them. At the end of the lesson, she was visibly happier, lighter, and excited for the future. It's going to be a long processs, and I don't think I'll be here in Concepcion to see the end of it, but I. will progress and be an incredible member of the church.
2. Elder Smith and I have some other great investigators as well that are starting to take the steps they need to take before baptism. Some of them are the familia A. This Saturday we visited them. We were planning on just having a regular lesson (to talk about the plan of salvation) with I. (the mother) and C. (one of her many daughter), but when we visited, some of her other children were outside. Applying the principles I wrote about last week (of sharing with all the family members possible) Elder Smith and I started visiting with the extended family and asking about their knowledge of the church. One of the daughters, L, began talking about how she's always happy to hear the "Word of God," but when we share about Joseph Smith, she doesn't care to hear any more. Trying to resolve her doubts, we asked why and opened the door for a 15 minute rant about all the terrible things Joseph Smith did, and how he's a false prophet and how she'll never believe the church is true because she's already attended twice and she's only ever felt bad being there. At first I was shocked at her reaction. Then I was mad that she was trying to destroy the seeds of faith we've been working so hard to nurture in her family. And then I was just sad, seeing that she was one of the people the scriptures talk about whose hearts are too hard to hear the whispers of the Holy Ghost. After she finished, Elder Smith and I started teaching. The words, examples, stories, and evidences came to mind almost on their own and, step by step, we answered their questions and testified of the church. At the end, L. still didn't want to hear anything we had to say, but I. and C. were nodding their heads in approval and gladly accepted the invitation to come to church to obtain a personal witness of its truth. I have no doubt that God was with us in that lesson, helping us protect our investigators. He fulfilled his promise in Doctrine and Covenants 100:5 "Therefore, verily I say unto you, lift up your voices unto this people; speak the thoughts that I shall put into your hearts, and you shall not be confounded before men;" And in the words of Elder Smith after the lesson, "I've never heard anyone defend the church like that before. We definitely had the Spirit with us."
3. This Sunday was a harder day for Elder Smith and I. During the week we had seen so many incredible things happen and we were so happy with the progress of the people we teach, but come sacrament meeting... almost none of our recent converts or investigators showed up (not even I.R., I.R. or her daughter C. -- and their phones haven't been working so we're still not sure why). But one person very important to Elder Smith and me did show up. Our recent convert, J. Since his baptism with L., it's been apparent that his interest in the church came to a quick and definite end. We've done everything we could possibly think of to get him back. We've invited him to pray, to read. We've visited with members. We've gifted him a tie. We've been patient and loving. We've told his friends to visit him and invite him personally. Everything. But no matter how much we seem to have convinced him the week before, he never shows up and it's been really sad and frustrating for Elder Smith and me. Well, this week we got our miracle. He showed up. And the best part? He showed up completely independently. For personal reasons, not even his friend I. (who hasn't missed a single Sunday since before his baptism) didn't even show up to church or invite J. It was awesome to see him in the church again!
Okay. There we go. I'm done now. I hope my descriptions of this past week have done it some justice. It really was one of (if not the) best week(s) of my mission. Our Heavenly Father has been with Elder Smith and me so closely and so visibly this week that it's incredible. It's been amazing.
I love you all! Thanks again for all you do for me. I'm doing amazing here in Paraguay, I hope you are all doing fantastic wherever it is that you are in the world.
Elder Fairbanks
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