Elder Crofts and I just wrapped up another wonderful week here in Paraguay! To give you guys a brief overview: We worked in our own area Saturday and Sunday (and had some pretty great experiences there), and then we got sucked back into the world of zone conferences and life in Asuncion, where we've been all week since!
Like I've said, last week, Elder Crofts and I had the opportunity to work in our area the majority of the week. As we came towards the end of the week, we got to continue with that trend and had some pretty interesting experiences.
On Saturday afternoon we were visiting a woman that lives down by the river. Her family is very poor, her husband is an alcoholic, and she recently had a baby (in addition to the other 4 children she has to take care of). We were starting off a pretty good lesson with her, asking her about how her personal prayers have been going, and didn't get much further than that because we were cut off by a blood-curdling scream emanating from their house. Immediately, everyone bolted towards the house. There was fence-hopping, screaming, crying, and basically just chaos. Elder Crofts and I didn't know much what to do after the initial shock and adrenaline wore off, so we stood there, confused, trying to piece together what had happened. Had the drunk father attacked one of his daughters? Had someone snuck into the house and tried to grab one of them? Was there a wild animal on the loose? What added more to our confusion was that the reputedly drunk husband started flipping a refrigerator out of the house end-over-end. Once he had (quite violently) removed the fridge form the house he grabbed a big hammer and just started smashing it to pieces. I figured he had gone into a drunken rage and, after scaring his poor daughter half to death, started destroying things. But as it turns out, the refrigerator was somewhat defective; one of their daughers opened it to grab some food and it shocked her (literally gave her an electric shock) bad enough to produce the scream we heard. The father was just destroying the fridge in a violent act of revenge or something like that... Once we were sure everything was alright and that their daughter was going to be okay, we asked if there was anything we could do to help, but the family said they were fine and that we should pass by another day... It felt weird to leave a lesson on such an odd note. But for the moment, there was nothing more we could do, so we left. We'll see how they are this next week.
For me, this Sunday was an especially fantastic day. I mentioned last week that I've been trying up to step up and offer more sincere prayers. On Sunday during sacrament meeting, I feel like the blessings from those efforts sort of just started rolling in! Partaking of the sacrament and listening to the talks, I felt the spirit so strongly and received some pretty specific personal revelation about some of the things I can work on to be a better missionary. It was a fantastic way to start off a fantastic week. To make the day even better, we at a yummy lunch and had some great teaching experiences as well!
Remember the cute little family we found by the river? E and N? We found them again on Sunday afternoon and had a great lesson with them about the gospel and how it could bless their family. They seemed genuinely excited to go to church with us the next week, so we'll see how things go with them.
Another cool thing was that we finally visited a referral we were given over a month ago but could never visit. Her name is V and she lives next to one of the solid investigators we have named E. Because of our respective schedules, Elder Crofts and I have never been able to visit her house when she was there, but on Sunday afternoon we found her! She only had a few minutes to share, but in that window she sincerely expressed to us her desire to attend the LDS church again (she started investigating years ago, but didn't have anyone to go with, so she kind of fell off the wagon). After the short, spiritual lesson, Elder Crofts first words to me were: "She's getting baptized." An opinion I strongly support. It sure is great to start seeing the work progress in our area!
On Monday morning, Elder Crofts and I had to put a pause on the regular proselyting work and head into the office to pick up a Seventy named Elder Batalla for a mission tour. He was sent by the area presidency (or something like that) to do zone conferences with the whole mission. We divided the mission up into three conferences on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. On Tuesday, we were in Concepcion (more on that later) and on Wednesday and Thursday, we were in the mission office.
Elder Crofts and I actually had the opportunity to drive Elder and Sister Batalla up to Concepcion. Being completely honest, I napped for a large portion of the trip, but it was really cool to chat with a General Authority!
When we got to Concepcion, Elder Crofts and I went to the chapel in Rama 1 where President was doing interviews (he went up early). While there, I got to talk to Elder Reyes and Elder Sierra, the missionaries serving in Concepcion 3B, my old area. They told me all about Familia Encina, Elias, Idalino, Julio, Luis, Rene (a man I started teaching that got baptized after I left), Marta, familia Santacruz... everyone. I was SO HAPPY with all the news they gave me. Seriously. For one of the first times in my life I could completely relate to what Alma and the Sons of Mosiah felt after preaching for so long: "And behold, when I see many of my brethren truly penitent, and coming to the Lord their God, then is my soul filled with joy..." (Alma 29:10) All of them are doing as well as, or better than they were when I was in Concepcion. It was a pretty small thing, but the chance I had to check up on all those people I love and miss so much ended up being a pretty special experience. I hope I can go back to visit all of them before finishing my mission.
After that, we went to three big zone conferences three days in a row. I learned tons, played piano for one special musical number, had to teach a small portion (between 5 and 10 minutes) on my own (which was actually super scary for me -- but the Lord helped my through it and it turned out well), ate great food, and loved the opportunity to hear Elder Batalla and his wife share.
Looking back on this week, it's definitely one for the books! I struggled a lot trying to find concise ways to express here in this letter how wonderful and special this week has been (honestly I didn't say half the things I wanted to), but simply put: it was one of the best!
I love you all and hope you guys have a great week!
Love,
Elder Fairbanks
Addendum: Dallin had requested a while ago that we send him a hair trimmer in his next package--which we did. He received it last week. In a separate email, he wrote: "Sorry Mom. I've totally slacked with my photo taking this week. I promise that I'll be more snap-happy from here on out! Here's a photo I took today with Elder Behrens' phone on a trip today to see if I'm finally legal! I'm not. But in the pictures, I'm rocking a new haircut I gave myself with the trimmer you sent me. So yup. I got the package. I haven't had a ton of time to dig into it with all the conferences and stuff we've been up to, but I did manage to get myself a haircut--which is a story all on its own. The trimmer works perfectly, but you sent me with comb numbers 1, 3, and two number 4s. So I didn't have a number 2 to cut my hair and you know how I am...When I'm excited about something, I can't wait to dig into it. So with Elder Behrens' and Elder Parada's votes of approval, I cut the sides of my hair with a number 1. When I was halfway done, Elders Zaugg, Crofts, and Murphy walked in and started freaking out, saying that I had made a terrible decision and that all my hair was gone, and how I looked bald, and that Elder Batalla would have to pull me aside to correct me. But they didn't have faith in me like I have in myself. So I locked myself in the bathroom, cleaned myself up and, in the end, they all agreed that I did a good job and that it looked fine.
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| Elders Behrens & Fairbanks |
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