Triumph in the Midst

Hello World!

This week was... something else. I suppose that spending last P-day in/near the temple required that the Adversary make daily life feel as far from perfect as possible, and he tried really, really hard. Let me break this down:

The mother (Hna. Rolòn) of our 10 year-old Investigator (Yanina) bore a testimony the week before last in our fast and testimony meeting, and during that testimony, she said that her daughter would be baptized this Friday, which we had planned, but at the same time, we thought maybe it wouldn't happen because we still had a LOT to teach her before that day, and we still had to do a baptismal interview, AND Hna. Rolòn is practically never at home, so we figured we wouldn't see each other every day. Well, our beliefs concerning all of that changed of necessity when she bore such a testimony.

That was actually a cool moment, and I realized that the Spirit works through others quite often.

Well, we had to meet EVERY DAY after that. Lesson on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and then a baptismal interview on Thursday, and then the baptism on Friday, and we also had to bake ourselves a cake for the baptism, find baptismal clothes, and fill the font. Sound impossible? It gets better.

Miraculously, all the lessons go through, she has the baptismal interview, we promise her a banana cake, and bake it. Done, done, and done. But, upon having baked the cakes (yes plural, we made two) and arrived at the chapel to fill the font, we discovered something wholly unholy: no one drained the font since the last baptism (which was at least four months ago). It was fetid, disgusting water... So, we had to drain it all, clean it, and then fill the font. No biggie, right? Wrong!

The pump to drain the font needs to be full of water in order to actually pump water out, and whoever screwed in the bolt where water is put in did it with a wrench, which means we can't unscrew it to put water in without a wrench. We don't carry wrenches on us.... Nor did the chapel have one... That was an awkward moment.

Well, that was solved eventually when the Branch President just so happened to show up with his car fixing tools, which include wrenches. We felt blessed. Nevertheless, the baptism was to be held at 8:00 sharp, and we finally got the pump working at like 6:00. So, we then play the waiting game; or so we thought!

I was asked to play the piano for the Primary Program which was held yesterday, and I'd accepted, which means that I also accepted to practice with them on Friday, at 6:00... So, I'm playing all of these different primary songs for the very first time while a choir of kids backs me up, and I can't even swat the mosquitos that are feasting upon the me. That was very stressful.

Finally, the font drains and we clean it out, but now we have to fill it, and it's already 7:15.... So, we scramble together a hose to help fill the font faster, and then we wait some more, but members are getting anxious as we get closer, and some families leave once 8:15 rolls around and we're just screaming that we're only ten minutes away. Not only this, but the Branch President, who was the only other priesthood holder there at the time and therefore absolutely needed to be one of the witnesses, starts to leave...

Nevertheless,

Yanina was baptized! We had everyone seated and ready to go at 8:30, and we had ourselves a lovely little baptism. In the midst of so much trial and difficulty, the work of God moved on. That built my testimony a lot, and Yanina was confirmed the following Sunday as her mother made the last Sacrament Meeting attendance necessary to officially be considered Active status. 

It just goes to show that although the work may move slowly at times, and although there may appear no possible way for it to be accomplished, if we show faith by putting in all our efforts towards success, God will help us and everything will turn out as it should.

Speaking of the primary program though, it went incredibly well! Lots of little ones came to church to help out, and they really sang loudly for all of the songs. I was really praying for help on the whole piano side of things, and that went well also. So, on the whole, we have success!

Look forward to some emails of Photos!

Tiny Post

Just kidding.

Okay everyone, ready for the five minute wonder? I hope you are:

• Last week:
• We had 40 different lessons and found over 10 people we legitimately expect to baptize within the coming months.
• We set a baptismal date for this upcoming Friday.
• We created the single greatest Noche de Rama activity that there has yet been over the face of the earth. It was great.
• We discovered some great things about the poorest area of our area and just met some interesting people.
• This Week: (Including today)
• We expect to have a baptism Friday!!! Yay! (Of a 9 year-old named Yanina. Her mom is reactivating).
• I'm hoping to cook something awesome (I'll keep you posted).
• I cleaned and then stood on the top of the Asunción Paraguay temple! It was awesome.
• We hope to have another few investigators with a baptismal date.
• I'm going to play the piano in a Primary Program.
• Good things will happen!

That's pretty much what's going on thus far. I'm going to write a real email next week though, so worry not. I actually got attacked this week with family emails (which is a very, very good thing. Just don't expect a response until the week after.....). I love you all!

-Elder Harris

Extra!

I just thought I'd show you my entire Zone! This is all of us (except for four of us, but they are office workers, so they're just different). This was just today at a restaurant called El Peruano! I hope you enjoy it!

 

 

Posted by Taylor from email in which Shelby asked to add this.

 





 

Another Post

Hey guys, I'm so sorry I didn't post anything last week! But, lots of stuff has happened since then, so I'll have a lot to talk about (especially since I can't upload pictures right now). Also, I want to share some Guarani with you this week!

General Conference! It was simply amazing as many of you know. I loved it, and it has such a different perspective if you're a missionary. There were a lot of talks this round about member involvement in missionary work, but not just missionary work, in Home Teaching and in working with Less Active Members or Inactive Members. They were things I really wished my Branch leaders had heard so that they would get really involved with the work, because things are going slow with the Branch and what we really want is to pick things up.

Before I go back to General Conference, let me talk a little about my Area. It's a little sort of suburb-ish thing in Ciudad Asunciòn Norte, but it's really poor. Most people lump it together with another area nearby and call all of it Zeballos Cuè, but it's actually locally known as Viñas Cuè, and it's fairly close to the center of Asunciòn Norte (20 minute colectivo- that means bus -ride away). 

Anyways, within our Branch boundaries, we have on record about 1,500 members, but our weekly church attendance lays somewhere around 75 or  85. That's a huge problem. So, we changed all of our goals to mean increasing number of people attending sacrament meeting, because over the past two decades really, the baptisms have been rolling in, but the Branch hasn't grown. Ever. So, since they started the kick to focus more on helping inactive members reactivate, baptisms have gone way down, and I'm kind of glad about that just because some of the people who are active weren't baptized under the best conditions as far as having a real, tangible testimony goes. And one reason why so few remain active for long, as far as they say, is because no one visits and so they grow to feel like no one cares. Which brings up the issue of Home Teaching, Visiting Teaching, and visiting Inactive members. Those things don't exist super well here, but when we finally got out and visited some inactive members with the Branch President, they wanted to reactivate. It was really cool.

Anyways, it means that Conference felt really inspired for my situation, but no one goes to sessions other than Sunday morning because it's all in the Stake Center and it's not part of the culture. So, it was just a bunch of missionaries and a few small youth (not a single soul from our Branch) up until Priesthood session when  few people come or Sunday Morning when a good chunk of the Branch comes. So, the moral of the story is for all of you Utahns, you have easy access to all sessions and a pretty strong culture of actually watching it! Don't take that for granted. I still love you all though!

Other than General Conference, we also had Stake Conference, which was important because the Area Authority, Elder DiGiovanni, came to speak to us, and he asked that we gather all less active and inactive members into the Stake Center. They even printed invitations for us to give and arranged for a free colectivo to pass by a certain spot in Viñas Cuè so that everyone could have an easy time going. We didn't have one single Investigator or Less Active Member with whom we're working show up. That was a really frustrating day just yesterday. The work has been really slow this past week. We have three Investigators that have been taught everything necessary for baptism, but can't be baptized for various reasons (two need to get married and one needs parental permission). It's also become hard to find a new solid investigator, and so everything just slammed into a standstill in the way of Investigators. But, the fact that a lot of less active members didn't come either just makes me feel like I did nothing for a week. It's frustrating.

However, God will provide, and I am doing my part. I need to improve in a lot of ways, but Elder Yauney and I really are working hard and trying to make progress. There's the giant hand of Agency though that continually is giving us sweets and then turning around and slapping us in the face continually. It gets fun after a while!

Okay, this sounds way too hopeless. In reality, I fully believe that this Branch will grow and become more than it now is and that I will get to be a part of that process. I'm happy over here even though it an emotional rollercoaster and my comp and I are having just tons of fun. So, please don't worry about us over here!

I have something very important to tell all of you though, so litsen up!

You can all send me things! The missionaries have all gotten all of their packages, so there's not a worry there. However, my telling you this so late means that you would need to send a Christmas package soon, so I thought I'd take all of the work out of it and send you a list of stuff I either miss or actually need! Send it all to the address I posted in the first post! Here's the list:

The only candies I really want are these, and I care not how many I receive, so if all of you just so happen to send me some, that's wonderful. ;)

-Skittles

-Starburst

-Rolos (Possible Resse's Peanut Butter Cups, but the other three are more important).

If it will keep, I want some canned Tomato Sauce. The stuff they have here mostly looks brown and just doesn't taste right... If you think it can last a plane right and 6-8 weeks of travel, send me some! Not too much, but a couple of cans.

Pens! I'm running out fast. Mostly crappy ones, but if one or two of you has found a cool pen you want to give me, I'd love that too. If you can find any, it'd also be cool to have a few color changing pens that include the colors blue, green, orange, and purple. I need those colors specifically.

Small Amounts of Money..... It's kind of dumb, but if you could slip it into a package... I just realized I don't have much money for cool recuerdos, like buying anaconda and crocodile skins and then getting people to make me stuff out of them (that's popular amongst missionaries here).

100% Cocoa Powder, the highest they have here is 50%. Also, if anyone could send me some holiday-cooking spices (nutmeg, cloves, cream of tartar, ginger, etc.) Not brown sugar, we've actually started making our own. But I want to make myself holiday goodies!

And yeah! Send it to the address I first posted! You guys can coordinate with who's buying what in the comments section..... I feel selfish posting this, but if it so be that I am, then I am! I love you all. The gospel is true; I see it every moment of every day. I'm so glad to be here.