Dallin's Blog (Paraguay Asuncion North Mission): A normal missionary again

Dear Friends and Family,

This week Elder Crofts and I finally got back to our area, and the truth is, we pretty much had a completely regular work week!

The first thing we did when we got back to our house in Mariano (after over 2 weeks) was clean. As Hermana Evans has been putting a large emphasis on cleanliness lately we figured we should be good examples and have a clean house. We're not super sloppy people, but it's kind of hard to keep things tidy when you repeatedly have to leave your house and all the messes in it at a moment's notice. We got the house nice and clean though! It's small, but now it's a lot more cozy.

We did have to go back to the office once, though, for concilio (a big meeting President does at the beginning of each change with all the zone leaders of the misison). We had to teach a little on the importance of developing good teaching skills. It's kind of hard to teach people how to teach well when you don't feel like you're a very good teacher yourself, but in the end, it went well. And we got a great hamburger lunch, so no complaints!

Back to our area:
Like I said, we finally got back to have some real proselyting time in our area and we had some pretty great experiences. I'd say the highlights of our week started on Tuesday: We were walking down in a poorer area right next to the river, passing one of the abundant fish restaurants there when a man (named D) stopped us and asked if we could give him one of our "Bibles." He said that he'd heard a lot about our church and that now, he's on a search for the truth and he'd like to know more. We set up a visit with him, got his phone number and continued on our way. Later that day, we passed the same fish restaurant again, and we were approached by another person curious to learn more. This time, it was a young, very pregnant mother. She explained that she's a family member of D, the restaurant owner, and that she and her husband (E and N, respectively) would like to learn about the church as well. We set a date to pass by and teach her there at the restaurant later. So far we've had a lesson with E, a separate lesson with D (who had tons of really good questions about the church -- so many that we didn't really have time to start a lesson after answering them all), and then another lesson with E and N. The lessons all went really well -- they understood, were willing to pray with us, and accepted the invitation to come to church. After not working in an area or finding investigators with potential in a long time, it felt so good to teach them. Really cool experience -- made cooler by the fact that we taught all three of those lessons on top of the cool boardwalk-type second story, tropical-looking shelter part of their restaurant overlooking the river. One of the coolest places I've taught lessons in my mission!

Fun side-notes:
This week we cooked in our house every day, and actually ate some really good meals! We had chicken Alfredo, chicken stroganoff, and on divisions an elder named Elder Osterloh (who was a chef before the mission) cooked us some amazing enchiladas and tacos. I was surprised how well we ate without member (or fast food restaurant) help.

Today at about 10:00 Elder Crofts and I are going to go on a road trip with President to do interviews in Pedro Juan. We'll do divisions tonight with Elder Silva and Elder Villacreses, so I'll get to see some familiar faces and hear a lot of Portuguese!

As we were in our area for most of the week this week living like normal missionaries, I had time to have some of the highest quality scriptures study I've had in a while. During one of my studies I read through Jacob 5, the longest chapter ever! -- but this time, I stayed focused and actaully understood the whole chapter really well! In the end, it starts talking about how the Lord of the Vineyard will call servants and that they'll all work together to bring the trees back to their natural fruit. I realized as I read it that those servants are missionaries (and members that work to share the gospel -- of course). This is the last time the Lord with nourish his vineyard and I get to be a part of that process. My favorite verse -- after reading myself into the story -- was Jacob 5:72. There it says "And it came to pass that the servants did go and labor with their mights; and the Lord of the vineyard labored also with them." As I go out and do my best to teach, the Lord will be there working with me. I'll never be alone. Not going to lie, it's not easy to be a missionary. There are a lot of hard days, a lot of physical, spiritual and emotional challenges. But in the end, no matter how difficult it is, the Lord will always be at our side supporting us and helping us do what we need to.

It really was fantastic to get back to my area this week! I'll see you next week with some fun stories from the border and hopefully some good news about D, E, and N!

Love you guys!
Elder Fairbanks