Licensed to drive!

Dear Friends and Family,

This last week flew by! Looking back, I really couldn't remember many things we did... so I guess this week we didn't do a whole lot of things, but the few things that we did were pretty important, so here we go!

I've mentioned before that I'm living between 2 houses right? Elder Crofts and I are always going back and forth between our house in Mariano and the house of the office elders in Mburucuya in Asuncion. Because we're living out of both houses I guess that also means that we are responsible for cleaning both houses as well... So last Saturday we spent all day cleaning the house out prepping it for changes and, more importantly, Hermana Evans' house check the following week. I thought it would take about an hour or two (working as a group of about 7), but the truth is, we worked all morning, ate lunch, and kept working till the late afternoon. We cleaned bathrooms, scrubbed toilets, moved furniture, used a floor polisher, swept our back patio, rearranged our furniture, put together a bunk bed, and a whole lot of other things. At the same time, we also carried a bunch of old furniture out from behind the house where it's been stored since I got in the mission; with all the furniture out front (old ovens, refrigerators, cabinets, wardrobes, tables, and a bunch of other old stuff we were never going to use), we drew a lot of attention really fast and before too long people were stopping and trying to buy stuff from us! We were in the middle of deep cleaning our house, but all of a sudden we had to put it on pause because people were ringing our terrible alarm-style doorbell. After standing outside and telling people what they could and couldn't have, we finally managed to get back inside to finish it all up. Best news? When Hermana Evans did the house check, it got five stars! So all our work was worth it in the end.

I've also written a lot lately about my legality here in Paraguay and whether or not I'll be able to drive. This email should sort of bring a weird resolution to all that... 

 Here's some pictures from the trip up north:

 Photos on the border in Pedro Juan:

Fairbanks & Behrens

Fairbanks & Crofts

Fairbanks & Behrens

Murphy & Fairbanks

After doing the trip (that took up all day on Tuesday) we had to rush back to Mariano because Wednesday morning Hermana Evans wanted to check our house there. We got there, did a few final cleaning things, and decided it was ready for her check. When she came, she didn't even spend much time, she checked the bathroom, the fridge, the microwave, the oven, asked us if we could get the stains off the floor (we couldn't -- they were chips in the tile) and then signed us off with another five! Our reward was a Betty Crocker chocolate chip cookie mix. You could say I'm pretty excited to cook those up!

Those have pretty much been our weekly highlights though... With all the cleaning, traveling, and other stuff weve been doing there wasn't a ton of time to work in our area, but here are a few people updates:

GOYO

Yup. We went back to Goyo again to try to see if we could get anywhere with him. We couldn't. But we had another super interesting chat! Turns out he doesn't only drink "once a year" like he said either... haha. Yet again he told us (more directly than before) that all the Germans in the Chaco are neo-nazis and that they were really bad people, elaborating that 6 years ago four of them had tried to capture and kill his wife, but he said, "I have a gun. I am fast. There are four of you and only one of me. You may kill my wife. You may kill me. But I promise that I will kill all of you." So in addition to speaking 7 languages, being a P.I., practicing Judaism, and only drinking alchohol "once a year," he's also an action hero! 

E

In divisions last week we had a great lesson with E. Last week I think I wrote a little about how she wanted to leave her husband/boyfriend/guy (and their two children) to be able to be baptized, and how we left her with the invitation to pray about what we should do. Well, this week, we heard great news: after praying about it, she really felt like she needed to stay with her family and that she would make things work. She even started talking with Anival (her husband-man) to make wedding plans! It was such a relief to know that her family wouldn't be split apart for her baptism. After hearing that good news and settling those problems we talked a little bit about the Book of Mormon. When we started talking about it, her reaction startled me. She said, "I don't really like reading it. There are too many stories. I like the dictionary thing in the back. That's a lot clearer and I can learn about whatever I want." (In spanish copies of the Book of Mormon there is a "Guide to study the scriptures" that has gospel topics, people, and words in alphabetical order with a definition and scriptural references). After hearing that, we focused our lesson on the importance of the Book of Mormon and how we can actually learn a lot from the stories. In the end, she understood really well and promised us she'd keep reading.

That lesson with E made me think a lot about the Book of Mormon and it's importance for us though. I feel like a lot of the time I read it like a bunch of stories, but as I studied this week, I noticed some things that really teach clearly how specific the writers of the Book of Mormon were when they decided what to include and what not to. For example, in Ether 5:9, Moroni said he didn't want to waste time writing scriptures about the creation that he  knew we'd already have in the Bible, but in 3 Nephi chapters 24 and 25 we have the scriptures from Malachi that are already included in the Bible (not to mention all the Isaiah chapters). The scriptures that we have in both the Bible and the Book of Mormon were probably repeated for a pretty good reason if Moroni and Mormon were so concerned about saving space. Plus in Mormon 8:35 Moroni tells us that he's seen our day and that he knows us. He knew exactly what and what not to include in his records. So I guess what I'm trying to get at is that the Book of Mormon really is inspired scripture that will bless us tons if we read it daily and diligently.

Love you all tons!

Elder Fairbanks

"This is Elder Crofts and I at the big tree where the dedicatory prayer for Paraguay was offered."

Fairbanks & Crofts

P-day trip to the zoo: