One Year Anniversary

Dear Friends and Family,

The 13th of July is a pretty special day for me. One year ago, it was the day I arrived in Concepcion, which was an absolutely amazing area for me. Another interesting thing about the day is that it's President Evans' birthday! This week was pretty interesting because not only did I get to return to Concepcion to celebrate the anniversary, but I got to go with President and we also celebrated his birthday! So in a wrap, it was a pretty good week.

Tuesday and Wednesday were regular work days. No special meetings, no crazy assingments, just the regular missionary life. Proselyting, eating, cleaning the house, district meeting, and sleeping. But it was sort of hard to divide our time up this week knowing that we'd only have two days to try to do all the visits for a whole week... (because we travelled out of Asuncion to Concepcion Wednesday night). All the same though, we had some pretty great experiences.

Early Wednesday morning Elder Villacreses and I did a service that almost completely destroyed me! haha. We went to dig a big pit in the house of a less active member so she could have somewhere to throw her garbage. I started the service with a little too much enthusiasm (I've always wanted to dig a hole as a service in the mission) and continued working at a rhythm that might have been a little excessive. After the service was over I was exhausted, had 9 new blisters on my hands -- four of which had popped -- I couldn't move my legs, and my fingers were stuck bent as if I were still holding onto a shovel... For the next few days after the service I hurt pretty bad... but it was totally worth it! Just make sure you guys help me get involved in heavy labor that whips me back into shape. I'm not as strong as I used to be!

After finishing up the service, showering, and heading out to work all afternoon, Elder Villacreses and I travelled into Asuncion where we got on a collectivo to take us to Santa Rosa (a small town on the way to Concepcion) to do divisions with the zone leaders that live there.

Thursday in Santa Rosa.

We arrived in Santa Rosa at 3:00 in the morning, found our way to the Elders' house, and passed out on the mattresses they had set up and waiting for us. After waking up, we headed out to work and had a fantastic day! I went out to work with Elder Staheli and wow. Santa Rosa is an incredible area with tons of potential. About 3 months ago, the weekly church attendance in the group was hovering at about 20, though it got as low as 11 or 14 a few times (including the missionaries.) After 3 months of hard work by the missionaries, the weekly attendance is now maintaining 50 with weeks as high as 65! About three weeks ago, the Elders had 17 investigators visiting church. The church is growing super rapidly there and it was exciting to be able to work there, even though it was just one day.

Adventures in Santa Rosa:

  After working, we prepared to get on yet another colectivo to head into Concepcion... We arrived in the bus terminal at 9:00 and waited... and waited... and waited... until 11:00 when the bus finally arrived. We arrived in Concepcion at 2:30 in the morning and we stumbled our way over to the hotel and slept.

Friday Zone Conference.

The zone conference went great. We had some delicious pizza for lunch, along with some icecream that was decent. The best part, as always, was listening to President talk about obedience and how the mission can improve. He's a super inspired man without a doubt!

After the conference, Elder Villacreses and I didn't have anything really to do (because our plan was to spend the night in Concepcion with President and his wife and then to travel to Chaco early Saturday morning), so we helped the local elders and hermanas to set up and decorate for a talent show that was going to be held in the Concepcion rama 1 building. We ended up staying for the talent show as well, and well... it was kind of an awkward talent show with a bunch of youth that were quite obviously very uncomfortable performing. But the best part was that "I" and R showed up! I don't know if you remember me writing about them about a year ago, but "I" is a convert I baptized who helped us teach and baptize his friends. R is I's friend that hasn't been baptized yet because he hasn't gotten his mother's permission, but when we saw him on Friday he said, "My mom has no idea that she has a future missionary in her house!" It was fantastic to see the two of them and to hear that they're still both attending church and that they love it.

Dallin & "I"

Dallin & R

 

Elder Villacreses (Concepcion talent night)

After that, the night just got better because Elder Villacreses and I got to eat dinner in the hotel with President and Hermana Evans. It's always awesome being able to spend time with them.

Concepcion hotel:

Elders Fairbanks & Villacreses

 

Weekend in the Chaco...

So, in about 2 weeks, there is going to be a HUGE temple trip for all the church units in Chaco. President told us that about 200 people are planning on travelling -- which is amazing -- but logistically a nightmare because there are only 70 rooming spots available in the church hotel next to the temple. President Evans has to interview the majority, and getting them all down to Asuncion will probably require the renting out of two double decker busses, which in total cost will about come out $8000... It's going to be a time consuming, stressful ordeal. So on Saturday and Sunday, while President did interview after interview, Elder Villacreses and I were Hermana Evans' personal assistants and we helped her fill out spreadsheets of all the members, what branches they are from, whether or not they were ready for the temple (in some places out there in the Chaco, nothing has been recorded or updated for more than 8 years...) They were long, exhausting days, but it was great to be participating in something so important!

Filling out spreadsheets in Neuland and Abundancia:

(Neuland)

That's pretty much been my week! It's been incredible; we've done a lot of great things; and, best of all, travelling from place to place and eating dinner, we had lots of time to just casually talk with President Evans. It was a fantastic week!

Love you all! 

Elder Fairbanks

Random photos from the week's travels:

"Picture of the baptisms and confirmations of the whole entire Nivacle tribe in Abundancia back in the day when it happened [the entire tribe, which already knew stories from the Book of Mormon from their oral history over the generations, was baptized]. It's up on the wall of the hallway of the chapel."

Abundancia chapel

Abundancia

  "These two little boys are adorable little Nivacle terrors that bugged us ALL DAY on Sunday while we filled out spreadsheets. The only thing they knew how to say in Spanish were: 'Dame chicle' and 'Dame caramelos,' which mean, 'Give me gum" and "Give me candy,' respectively."

 Our hotel in the Chaco:

Chaco panorama

"The Hermana training leaders that work in the areas far from Asuncion: Hermana Rolim from Brazil, and Hermana Blanco from Argentina (because I'll probably never see them again)"