Dallin's Blog (Paraguay Asuncion North Mission): Conferences Start Again

Dear Friends and Family,

As a missionary, talking about going home is kind of a taboo, but at this point, my moment of return is getting close enough that it's almost impossible to ignore any longer... The interesting thing is that I feel the same as always. I'm not "trunky" or tired or lazy or "dead" like I've frequently heard I would be getting towards the end of my mission. There are moments when it starts feeling real that I'm going home soon and I start freaking out a little bit, but those moments pass just as quickly as they come. More than anything else, right now what I feel is excitement for the work here. We had a fantastic week and the next one should only be better!

Tuesday brought the first zone conference of the change. For the past 3 changes, President hasn't had us attend most zone conferences (except for the ones in faraway places like Pedro Juan or Concepcion) to give us more time in our area. But this change, thanks to combined conferences, there will only be five and President has asked us to attend and teach in all of them. The first zones to cross off the list of conferences were Luque A and Luque B. The conference started in the stake center in Luque at 10:00 in the morning. The way up was a little unique because instead of travelling with President like we always did in the past, we just grabbed busses from our area to get us there. The conference itself went well. Elder Villacreses and I trained on how to use effectively the "new" flexible schedule we received a few months ago. The Sister Training Leaders trained on how to have an effective companionship study. President trained on how we should be studying the scriptures personally, and "the doctrine of goals and accountability" (that was a pretty interesting training). And Hermana Evans trained on how to treat ingrown toenails and reduce stress. All in all, a good conference.

"Saying goodbye to Elder Pistorius, my 'grandson,' in the Luque zone conference"

We started setting up divisions with zone leaders a little late in the game this change because the calendar of zone conferences and trips wasn't done yet, so we had to hit the ground running with divisions on Wednesday and Thursday this week.

On Wednesday I headed out with Elder Castro from Peru. We had a great day working together, found a very interesting entrepreneur named F who sells homemade air fresheners. We spent probably about 45 minutes listening to him talk about stories about famous rich people that ran good businesses, how he tried to commercialize the mango here in Paraguay (which is actually a really good idea), and a lot of random stuff like that... He reminded me a little bit of Goyo, just more worried about money and businesses than werewolves and Nazi Germans in the Chaco... Another noteworthy lesson from Tuesday was a lesson we had with N's daughter L. In the lesson, L promised that she was 99% sure she'd make it to church on Sunday, but the cooler part was that, out of nowhere, N's other son M, who has never been interested in listening to us, sat down and told us he wants to learn more about God. He said that the reason he hasn't sat down with us earlier is that he's not going to join the church for his mother or for social pressure, he just waited "for the time to feel right." We taught the both of them about the Book of Mormon, and they got really excited to read it! M is a security guard and driver for the Columbian Embassy, so he promised that on his free time at work he'll read it.

Elders Fairbanks & Villacreses on divisions with Elders Castro & Perez

Thursday was a great day that started out a little rough. I woke up sick. My throat hurt, my nose was plugged up, and I felt a little achy all over. I can't afford to waste any of the few precious days left in my mission on sick days though, so I decided to get up and "sweat it out" with a good "leg day" routine. I pushed myself pretty hard (though not much harder than normal) and after running stairs for two minutes, my vision started going a little dark and I felt faint. I had to finish the workout though, so after a brief rest, I did my last minute-long wall sit. Standing up from the wall sit, I could tell something was definitely wrong. I felt super weak and lightheaded, so I ran inside, drank a few gulps of water, and layed down in bed thinking I'd rest until I felt better. Half an hour later when I realized I probably wasn't going to get feeling much better any time soon and that I had to get ready for divisions with the zone leaders, I started getting ready to shower and... threw up all the water I had just drunk. Throwing up kind of freaked me out (because I haven't done so for years) but when I called the mission nurse to see if I was dying, she assured me that I had probably just overworked myself and that I'd be fine, but to call her if I got nauseous again. I didn't and felt a lot better after that, but it was a pretty big scare! But anyways, pretty soon after that, the zone leaders arrived and we all headed out to work. I spent the day with Elder Reyes (CA, U.S.A.) and we had a fantastic morning. I decided to take us to a part of the area that Elder Villacreses and I have never really visited, but where we've recently felt we need to explore. We contacted four houses in that sector. We were received into every single one of those houses, had a total of four lessons and four new investigators. All before lunch! And we also found a less active family that wants to attend church again and that has a 10-year-old son that needs to be baptized. If that's not a sign that we need to work in that area, I don't know what is!

Elders Fairbanks & Villacreses on divisions with Elders Reyes & Grey

PEDRO JUAN TRIP

Thursday night, we travelled into the office and got ready to get on the bus that would take us up to the border. Once the hour arrived, we headed out, and saw our bus leaving... so we had to chase it down and hop on later. Luckily, our awkward pursuit and random stops and flashing lights called the attention of the driver pretty quick.

We arrived Friday morning at 5:50 a.m. slept a little, and headed out with the zone leaders to work. I had a great day working with Elder Pace (from Arazona) as Elder Villacreses worked with Elder Passos from Brazil. Another interesting thing that happened Friday was that I finally got to take "the BOMB," the pill series that cleans all the parasites you've collected over two years of eating poorly prepared food and drinking dirty water. It didn't do anything to me though. Supposidly, the BOMB only sends you to the bathroom and wrecks your stomach if you have parasites, but I've felt completely fine ever since, so either I've been super lucky to never grab a bug, or I have a super strong stomach that already killed them all. Either way, it was a relief!

We did the zone conference in Pedro Juan on Saturday and it went well just like the conference in Luque. Nothing too new or interesting there.

Saturday night we hopped back on a bus and travelled in to Asuncion with Hermana Evans. Normally, she would just wait and travel with President, but Travis Evans was just made a priest in the Aaronic priesthood and it was going to be his first Sunday blessing the sacrament -- something she didn't want to miss.

We arrived in Mariano at 4:30 in the morning, an hour earlier than usual. That colectivo must have been flying! So we got 2 hours of sleep before having to get up and go to church. Church was our moment of truth. Here in our mission, investigators need to attend 3 times before being baptized. M1 had 4 attendances already, so she was golden for her baptism this next saturday the 19th... but M2, her boyfriend has only attended twice, so we were super nervous that he might not come and that the baptism/marraige would fall. I was especially nervous because the 19th will be my last opportunity to see the investigators I taught get baptized. So the moment of truth arrived.... and M1 and M2 came! They were the only investigators that came, which means that a lot of the other investigators that we're excited about didn't make it, but knowing that I could finish my mission up with a double baptism made it hard to be disappointed.

The week ahead is going to be a busy one. It may honestly be one of the most stressful, busy weeks of my whole mission with divisions, conferences, and wedding planning all on top of our regular proselyting activities, but there's no other way I'd rather finish my mission. My fingers are crossed and my prayers are offered that this baptism will go through!

Love you guys! I'm looking forward to hearing from you next week and seeing you again just a few days after that!

Elder Fairbanks

"I found out who the letter last week was from! It was from two of the adorable kids that I taught swim lessons to the summer before my mission! It was, without a doubt, one of the sweetest, non-missionary-work-related surprises of my mission."

"Also, it's now required that there be no graffiti from past missionaries in our houses. The commandment is to sand it off, throw it away, or paint over it. So here's some pics of our most recent house cleaning project!"