Note from Mom: First off, it's Dallin's birthday tomorrow (12/6). So here's what we sent his way this week. His little sister took most of these photos of some of Dallin's nearby family & friends:
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| Family & friends |
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| Some great young friends and the best middle school science teacher in the universe |
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| Wonderful calculus & seminary teachers |
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| Long-time summer boss (and his "running" joke with Dallin) |
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| Great family friends and some fun friends from church/school/choir |
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| One of Dallin's favorite young men and the cute little sister to some good friends |
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| Two extraordinary men: Dallin's high school choir director and his swim coach (and some friends) |
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| Extraordinary regional youth choir director, a cute neighbor who often invited Dallin to play soccer or football in his front yard, and the two cute blondes are a friend and an awesome sister |
Dear Friends and Family,
Elder Schmidt and I wrapped up another pretty great, pretty long week super full of adventures and stories. Seriously, looking back on all the things we did, It's hard for my brain to compute that that all happened in just a week... but I'll do my best to tell as many of the good stories as I can!
First off, Elder Smith and I saw a pretty cool, specific miracle this week. As ya'll probably all know pretty well by now, we've been house hunting a bit. It's tough! Especially here in Asuncion because if you find a house up for rent, it's either too small, to expensive, or out of our area. We've had no problem finding houses, but finding suitable houses (especially considering that hermana misioneras are going to come back to this area in a few months) is a completely different question/problem.
This tuesday we decided to change our approach to the house hunting dealio. Instead of leaving the house and just asking everyone if they've seen any houses for rent, we first, looked at our area map, second, decided more or less where we would prefer to live (being close to the chapel and centrally located in your area is the best), and third, prayed saying basically "ok. We need a house. We've looked at our map and thought about where we'd prefer to live, and now, we're going to leave, visit that area, and do everything we possibly can to find a house there (while we proselyte). Please help us find the house we need." We went out to work, and found about 8 potential houses. They ranged in prices from 1,000,000 guarani's to 2,300,000 guaranis (which is too much). A few were really small, one was too expensive for our budget, one was literally a garage (the woman selling it said "oh but don't worry, lot's of people live in garages nowadays."), and one was perfect. An independant apartment in the second story of a building. Enough space. Clean. Working shower and lights. Within our budget. And with a bonus unconstructed 3rd story from where we'd have a fantastic view of asuncion's skyline. We called the mission office as soon as possible and what we last heard from them was "we're working on the paperwork right now, but it's almost a for-sure move." So that's the miracle of the house!
On wednesday, we had a wonderful experience... I was, out of curiosity, looking for the circuit breakers in our house. In my quest, I stumbled across a big metal box stuck to the wall. I figured "that's gotta be it!" so I unskrewed a screw that was keeping it shut and opened... pandoras box.
So first, you need to understand that the church is VERY protective of the sister missionaries and that right now, I'm living in the ex-house of the sister missionaries that worked in Moroni. In every single sister missionaries' house there is a super crazy alarm system installed to protect the sisters... do you see where this is going yet? I had unknowingly opened the box with the brain of the alarm system, and the alarm wasn't happy about it and started shrieking at an incredible volume immediately. I had no idea what to do! I figured that all of paraguay was hearing the alarm, and I had no idea how to turn it off. I didn't have a code, I didn't know where the cuircut breaker was to shut of the electricity or anything...
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| "The gigantic alarm for the sisters that almost gave me a heart attack" |
So I started a frantic search for the actual circuit breaker (and ironically found it in a cavity in the wall directly below the alarm-system-brain) and immediately shut all the switches off... and the alarm kept going. It had an indepentant power source, so it kept going on for a few minutes until we located, and disconnected that power source. After the alarm finally turned off I was literally shaking because it scared me so bad! So now I have a testimony that hermana missionaries are very well protected.
On thursday we actually got to do a division with the assistants. It was a really cool experience because we only ever see the assistants when they are doing training meetings or official business for the mission, and generally the mission steriotype of the assistants is that they're super serious all the time. That steriotype is pretty much completely wrong. Elder Crofts and Elder Bickley are super hilarious, they've been comps for like 7 months now, so they're super used to each other and always joking.
I got to go out and work with Elder Crofts and we had a great day visiting people in an area a little more receptive than Asuncion (which was nice) and he gave me lots of pointers about how to be a better leader and how to work in my area. The most striking part of the divisions for me though was that we went to a "coordinacion misional" (a meeting with the ward mission leader of the unit) and it was my first meeting of that kind here in Paraguay! The ward mission leader asked about all the investigators and took notes of all the things the ward had to do to help them out, and chewed the missionaries out when they weren't specific enough. It was a really awesome experience to see such a well-developed church unit here in paraguay, and it really gave me hope that someday, all the districts and branches here will be strong wards and stakes.
On saturday, thanks to the help of Elder Schmidt, we had a really great finding expereince. We had been walking around all day. From lesson to lesson. From house to house. Literally every single one of our planned lessons fell through. We really didnt' have much more to do but walk around on the streets talking to all the people we met. But Elder Schmidt had a different idea. He suggested "why don't we just try to serve the next person we meet. " We had nothing better to do so I was game, and we left on the hunt... And found an elderly man pulling up weeds on his sidewalk a block away. At Elder Schmidt's suggestion, we walked up, and without a word (and without asking for permission to help because the answer is always "no.") we started pulling weeds with him. That small act of service led into a conversation, and in the end, he invited us in to share with he and his wife. We were able to share the message of the Restoration of the Gospel, and left them with the book of Mormon, and the invitation to read it. It was a super spiritual, and humbling experience for me because 1. that family would not have let us in if we had just walked up and said "hi were missionaries, can we help you, or share a message about Jesus Christ?" and 2. because the suggestion came from the new missionary I'm training right now. Maybe he doesn't speak spanish perfectly yet, maybe he doesn't have the experience I have in the mission, but he followed the spirit, and we had a great experience. It was really cool for me to see that desire to serve and love the people in my new comp and it helped me realize that though I'm the "senior comp" this guy has a lot to teach me.
I've been thinking a lot lately about prayers and the blessings that God gives us in response to our earnest petitions. The experience Elder Schmidt adn I had this week house hunting really taught me a lot too. It taught me that "God... on whom (I am) dependent for (my life) and for all that (I) have and (am)... doth grant unto (me) whatsoever (I) ask that is right, in faith, believing that (I) shall receive." (see mosiah 4:21) I've really gained a testimony here in the mission that God will grant us many great blessing if we have the faith to ask specifically for those things we need.
The church is true, the mission is great, and summer is on it's way!
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