Week 15 in Concepcion

Mba'echapa che gentekuéra ha che ra'akuéra,

Che avy'aiterei ko'a semanare. Aguyje peeme pe correos rupive. I'm doing fantastic down here in Paraguay with my greenie comp, Elder Smith. We've both developed a pretty strong desire to be able to communicate with the people here in Guarani (their preferred language -- though all of them speak Spanish at least as well as I do). So that's a little taste of our studies for ya'll. I was trying to say, "I'm super happy with this last week. Thanks for all your emails," but I'm pretty sure my grammar is terrible. Speaking of Guarani though, I've got a cool story: this last week we had a reuinion with our fantastic new branch president, Presidente B, and I corrected his Guarani, so that was cool. After that everyone told me, "nde valé" which basically means, "That was pretty cool what you just did there." So I was proud!

Anyways, Elder Smith and I have really been pushing ourselves lately to meet the new goals of the mission, or in other words, to work super hard to have at least 2 convert baptisms for every companionship each month. We've been working hard, praying hard, and sweating lots because summer's already started here, and we've seen lots of awesome blessings and progress, so even though we're not quite there yet, we're well on our way to the goal!

Noticias de la Semana:

As I seem to be reporting every week, I had yet another division with my Zone leader Elder Barreto. We've got a super weird relationship because as a leader, he's a super hard-nose, cane-dropping, fear-instilling man. But I get him to crack up and break that rocky facade every once-and-a-while. So basically, these divisions, we had an awesome time, chatting, talking about the mission, our investigators, life in general, and working super hard. One theme of our conversation was these changes that are coming in 3 or 4 weeks. We're both kind of stymied (that's a word right?) and honestly have no idea what's going to happen. Here in Concepcion, 4 of 5 companionships are going to finish training, I'm coming to the end of almost 5 months here and Elder Barreto has about 6, so normally we'd say "adios Concepcion." But at the same time, we're not sure that all the experienced missionaries would get taken out of Concepcion all at once so... be ready, we're expecting some pretty big changes in these next few weeks.

Another super cool thing that happened this week was references (or I guess the correct translation would be referrals). The hermana missionaries working in the center of Concepcion have been stellar at calling to refer us to people they've talked to and though most of the time, there isn't a whole lot of interest, this week we saw some miracles with the sisters' referalls. They gave us the name "C" and explained where her house was, saying that right now, she has a lot of concerns and trials and that she's really interested in our message. When they described the location of the house (something that's always difficult because we don't use street names or addresses here in Paraguay) I was pretty sure it was the house of an old investigator named I. who never progressed because she visited her son in prison every single sunday morning at 8:00, the hour of church. We went to contact the house anyways and guess what. It was Isabel's house. But when we arrived and started to teach the Restoration, her daughter (C.) came out and started listening as well. As we taught, we learned that Isabel's son is out of prison and that the whole family is looking for spiritual guidance right now. There literally never was such a perfect opportunity to explain the Restoration and invite a family to investigate the church! At the end of our first lesson they accepted the invitation to be baptized with excitement, and in our second they had the same energy and excitement. I'm super excited to see how things go with this family!

As Elder Smith and I have worked, doing our best to teach and find people who are prepared so that we can maintain at least 2 baptisms each month, we've started opening up and talking to family members more. In some situations, we've fallen into the habit of entering a house and sharing with the same people each time. This week, when possible, we invited family members to visit with us in every opportunity, and the change brought some fruit. Every once and a while, Elder Smith and I visit a member named D. to ask for referrals and to make sure she's keeping up on her prayers and scripture study. These past few weeks, she's never home when we pass by, and we're always told by her elderly father that she's gone. This week, upon hearing the same message, we asked her father, "have you ever talked to the missionaries before?" and he said yes. We conversed with him a little, and in the end, he invited us to enter and share with him -- something we've never considered before. He explained that right now, he's almost completely blind, and that he's struggled for years with an addiction to cigarettes. Again, we shared the message of the Restoration with him, and, to our suprise, he too, expressed the desire to learn more about the gospel. He even told us that before, some members used to visit him frequently to help him around the house, so we even have fellowshipping to work with him. Elder Smith and I really have been blessed lately to find people the lord is preparing.

Another awesome thing we got to see happen this week was the baptism of M., the daughter of an active member. When we first started passing by to teach and try to complete the family, she used to hide from us and pretend she wasn't home. But now, even though it's hard for her, she reads the Book of Mormon every day, comes to church on time, and seems a lot happier in general. The baptism was a little stressful because the pump to the baptismal font in our chapel doesn't work very well, so we had to empty the whole thing with a shop vac (videos of that process on their way) and then, as we carried out the ceremony, we realized that the family that promised to bring the cake still hadn't shown up yet. There was a lot of last-minute, behind-the-scenes scrambling, but in the end, it all turned out awesome, and now there's one more converted member here in Concepcion Rama 3.
The last fun thing that's been going on this week is that I'm starting to take on more cooking. This week I made some alfajores, some delicious pancakes, and stroganoff de pollo. I am well aware that those are all really simple things, but for a young man who struggles with mixing a good jug of powdered juice, I'd call it a pretty great accomplishment!

In my scripture studies this week I especially loved Moroni 9:25, the last letter we have from Mormon to his son Moroni.
"My son, be faithful in Christ; and may not the things which I have written grieve thee, to weigh thee down unto death; but may Christ lift thee up, and may his sufferings and death, and the showing his body unto our fathers, and his mercy and long-suffering, and the hope of his glory and of eternal life, rest in your mind forever."

I love this scripture because it relates so simply and clearly the hope and peace that we can all find in the church and the gospel thanks to the Atonement of Christ. I think that there are times where every single one of us feel "weighed down unto death," but thanks to the Atonement, we can let "Christ lift us up," and we can find peace even in times when we feel like there's no point in getting up and trying again. If we do our best to obey the commandments of our Heavenly father, "the hope of his glory and of eternal life (will) rest in (our) mind(s) forever."

I know that the church is true. The mission isn't always (or often) very easy, but the rewards make it all worth it!

I love you all. Thanks for the messages, the emails, the prayers, and all the support.

Elder Fairbanks

"Photos of the baptism of M. I never did realize she was that short until I was looking at this picture. When we teach people, we usually only ever see them sitting down."

M. and Elder Barreto (zone leader)

Elders Smith & Fairbanks, M., Elder Barreto & his companion

"Some pictures of the beautiful sunset we had here in Concepcion last night"

Elders Fairbanks & Smith



"My best (and first) shot at making alfajores de maizena. With luck, by the time I get home, I'll be a professional and you guys will always beg me to make them because they're delicious!"





The finished product!



"My first attempt at 'estroganof de pollo.' I'd say it came out tasting pretty good! And it definitely beat eating bread and yogurt (which is what we usually do on Saturdays when we don't have lunch."