We just wrapped up another pretty busy week down here in Paraguay. Elder Crofts and I did some divisions, ate some good food, got sick (Elder Crofts -- don't worry mom) and hit the road again with a pretty crazy trip...
Saturday.
President Evans shot me a call and told me that Elder Crofts and I would need to make an emergency trip up to the Chaco to pick up a missionary that's been pretty sick for about a week now. But then, after thinking it over, decided to send two driver-licensed missionaries instead (as my documents are still pending). Elder Crofts ended up traveling up to Chaco with Elder Zaugg, the financiero of the mission, and I stayed back in the office to hold down the fort with Elder Behrens. It was a pretty non-remarkable day, but it was fun to talk with Elder Behrens and he kept me occupied with some office tasks to help streamline the migration process for new missionaries. We spent practically all day working on office stuff, but when we finished, we had about half an hour of time before we needed to be home, and Elder Behrens had a list of people to visit, so we headed out to do a little bit of proselyting.
Highlight of our proselyting time: Elder Behrens as the mission secretary has some special privileges. He can drive, he has access to transfer information and flights, makes international phone calls, and has a smartphone (FYI: President sort of wants to keep that on the down-low, so mom, you might want to edit that part out before publishing this email). We were taking advantage of his smartphone to locate some of the referrals, but not succeeding in our quest to find the people (google map's addresses aren't super updated in Paraguay). So we stopped and asked an elderly woman for directions. She, noticing Elder Behrens phone, began to instruct him step-by-step on how he could open a "special app" that would take him right where he needed to go. Despite his protests and attempts to explain that google maps hadn't been able to accurately take him where we were going, the woman gave him the "idiot's guide to google maps" and, satisfied with her evening's service, strolled off. It was pretty funny watching a Paraguayan woman try to teach Elder Behrens how to use a smart phone. (NOTE: we did end up finding the house, but no one was home, so we contacted.)
Sunday.
Elder Crofts and I finally got back to Mariano! I was looking forward to another day to get to know my area better and to teach our investigators, but after sacrament meeting Elder Crofts had some bad news: He was suffering from an upset stomach, back pain, and a pretty severe headache behind his eyes (from our rudimentary understanding: some key indicators to dengue). We ended up having to spend the day resting in the house.
Monday.
After hearing that Elder Crofts was feeling sick with those symptoms, Hermana Evans immediately scheduled him a doctor's appointment to test him for dengue. He was feeling much better when we woke up, but we went anyways just to be sure. We travelled to the hospital with another elder who had an ingrown toenail and I actually got invited into the "surgery" by the outgoing family doctor: doctor Pallela. After watching him dig into a missionaries toe with scissors and removing the ingrown toenail... I think I can pretty much cross any future in medicine off my to-do list; I was feeling pretty queasy. Elder Crofts' test results: He's fine. By the time he got the results he was feeling well enough that we new he didn't have dengue, so the doctor figured he just had some strain of the flu or something like that.
Tuesday.
We went to another zone conference today. It went smoothly and without any hiccups (aside from the fact that Elder Crofts and I had to catch and release a bird that had accidentally flown into the chapel and was knocking itself senseless on all the glass windows), and afterward I went on divisions with an Elder Perez from Trujillo, Peru. He's a pretty new missionary, and a pretty good one too. We ended up visiting the family of a woman I found with Elder Barreto in divisions a week or two ago and taught them about how the gospel could bless their lives and help their family overcome some personal problems. In the end, they were very accepting and gracious and invited us to come back another time. It's weird having to do divisions and guide missionaries around an area I hardly know myself, but it's great to see that, working together, we always seem to find someone who's ready to hear us!
Wednesday.
Have you guys heard about a world-wide training broadcast for missionaries? Whether you have or not, it was a pretty cool thing. Elder Crofts and I, in preparation for a large road-trip we've been planning, headed up to the office to gather necessary supplies and ended up watching the broadcast there with President and Hermana Evans and all the office elders. It was a great broadcast that taught some great things about how we can be better missionaries and teachers.
One of my favorite points discussed was the question, "How can a missionary increase his persuasiveness as a teacher of the gospel?" Responding to the question, one of the General Authorities present (I'm thinking Elder Bednar) said something along the lines of: "Missionaries aren't the real teachers, the Spirit is. If missionaries want to better convince investigators of the truth of their message, they need the Spirit with them in abundance. And the best way for them to have it is to partake of the sacrament weekly, truly repenting of all their sins." Here in the mission, sometimes we get so focused on the scriptures we use, the questions we ask, or our teaching methods, that we often forget that if we're striving for the Spirit and doing our best to repent of our mistakes and to be holy vessels in the hands of the Lord that "(we) may always have his Spirit to be with (us)." (Moroni 4:3) It's such a simple truth, but hearing it in that conference really stuck out to me. I'm definitely going to be stretching myself to make the Sacrament ordinance a more meaningful part of my week!
Another interesting part of the conference was that the General Authorities announced some schedule changes for all missionaries around the world. Our schedule will still include all the same basic building-blocks (personal study, companionship study, planning, lunch, dinner, and proselyting). But now, with many of those tasks, we as missionaries will have the chance to decide where they'll fit into our schedule, giving us more agency as to how we spend our time. One of my favorite explanations for why was that after the mission, our lives aren't going to be so perfectly structured. Some of us will have jobs, some will be studying, and all sorts of stuff. If we can learn to be flexible with the essential things here in the mission (prayer, daily scripture study, church attendance, regular goal setting and planning), we shouldn't struggle so much after the mission trying to find significant time for each of those things.
After learning all that cool stuff in the broadcast, Elder Crofts and I needed to ship out... once again to Pedro Juan on the border of Paraguay and Brazil--this time, to do divisions with the zone leaders there (something we couldn't manage last time.) We got on the bus at 11:00 at night (after waiting for a long time) and spent the whole night shivering and trying to get to sleep in the too-well-air-conditioned bus.
Thursday.
Elder Crofts and I finally arrived in Pedro Juan, tired and cold. We didn't get to rest much, though, because it was early morning, and we needed to get divisions started. I ended up heading out with Elder Silva (yes, the Elder Silva from Peru that was my comp about a year ago) and we had a great day. We didn't have lunch, so he cooked us a delicious dish from Peru called "Arroz chowfa" (sp?) and spent the rest of the day visiting investigators, less actives and talking to people in the streets. Elder Silva is still just as amazing now as he was a year ago and I enjoyed learning from him as we taught, walked, and visited. Definitely a day well spent.
Friday.
Yet again Elder Crofts and I got on a bus, but this time, to Concepcion. We have a zone conference here tomorrow (Saturday), so we got here early, ordered the food for the conference, set up our stuff in our hotel (after paying WAY too much for a taxi to take us 3 blocks -- we didn't know where the hotel was and the taxi driver wouldn't budge on the price once we got there). And now we're doing cyber in the same computer place I used for the 4-and-a-half months that I worked here in Concepcion. Man I missed this place!
But anyways, that's been my week. It's been a little crazy, and I'm really sick of bus rides, but I've learned a lot, and made some good memories. Hope you guys are still enjoying the cold North American weather for me!
Love,
Elder Fairbanks
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