In the mission, we talk about having or finding "gold" investigators. These are those who have sincere desires to find the truth and who have the faith to act on those desires. These are those who we believe will be baptized. It's a common theme out here.
So far, Sofía remains and will just about forever be gold, and this week we did some good work with her. She feels something about us, about the church, about the Book of Mormon. She says she just loves the peace that she feels with all of these things that she just hasn't found in a long time. Yet, she is unwilling to just leave behind all of her past life of Catholicism. She keeps praying for an answer as to whether or not to be baptized, but still isn't comfortable with the idea. So, this week, we read in D&C 9 with her, and issued an invitation to make the decision. Decide to follow what she has felt from God's messenger and then, when she has really honestly made the decision to do this thing, pray and ask if it is the correct decision. Do something definitive! She accepted. It was a powerful moment.
Another thing in that theme, silver and gold are forged in furnaces and THIS IS ONE! It's hot here! What's more, people are saying that this is a pretty mild summer. I come home at ten 'o' clock at night and check my little clock which tells me that it's 94 degrees farenheit in my room! And that's during the cool part of the day. At midnight, if we don't have Air Conditioning in our room (which has happened a couple of times), it'll stay that temperature the whole night.... The day is even worse. Not only that, but it's humid. My house is maybe a quarter mile away from the Rio Paraguay, which is huge, and breeds mosquitos. Not only that, but this land locked country also sports weather that is ridiculously unpredictable, meaning that there was a five minutes TORRENT of rain yesterday, while before it was hot and sunny, and then two hours later, it came back, only to leave again after half an hour and never return. It's pure evil.
Therefore, in this furnace of affliction, I will emerge a brilliant, pure, gleaming silver (I prefer silver to gold) beacon of manliness! It's true. We even do morning excercises to assure that that will occur. Actually, we have a full weight set in my apartment. Kinda random.
No, the real way that silver ties in here is with these babies!
You see, there are the five recuerdos of the Paraguay Mission, 1 Palo Santo (wood carvings that are really cool) 2 Ñandutí stuff 3 Aopo'i ties and shirts 4 Cool Leather Tapas to put Scriptures in, and 5 Filigrano: the art of taking pure silver and doing really cool filligree with it.
You can guess which I enjoyed purchasing today.
The funny thing is, it's super cheap. There were pure silver ear rings there that were less than five dollars. Pures silver rings with really intricate designs for MUCH less than twenty dollars. It was awesome. I spent most of my recuerdo money, but at the same time, all the women folk in the family got gifts, so no complaints.
And yeah, there's more about this week too:
For example, the third picture I'm throwing in here is pure honey, which was harvested out by the border between Bolivia and Brazil. Some might ask, "Elder Harris, that's almost 3 days journey sometimes, and that honey is one of the most expensive things purchaseable here, however could you procure such an item?" To which I would respond, I got it for free and without asking for any. I came to Paraguay, and have bought honey without money, and without price.
I've told you about some people who are of the Chamacoco tribe, yes? Well, they live up there, and there are still a couple who didn't move back up for the summer. An 18 year-old in one of these families, named Dani, just up and gave us that bottle because his mom had just come back from up there and brought back some of the WILD honey that they harvest personally from the mountains up there. I kid you not, two boys go out, look for a GIANT nest, chop down the tree, bring in some smoke, and take the nest away after emptying it of bees. They harvest the honey and don't do a whole bunch to it. They had so many funny stories about the adventures of doing this work, and then they mentioned mountain lions. I, jokingly, asked if they had ever run into Pumas (you know, the really scary, black as night jungle cat), and they have. They say it's really dangerous. I wish we had missionaries out there so badly!!!
But yeah, I might make some mint tea to put that stuff in. It smells super strong though, so we'll see how it is used in the end.... I might just crowdsource its use. ;)
In the gospel this week, I've really just been noticing the weakness of man versus the strength of God. Everything speaks to our dependence on the Atonement, on the Holy Spirit to lift us up and guide us, on our necessity of God in every day. I've seen so many times that it is humility and absolute faith in God that gives any success or happiness. Dependance and utter trust and reliance are the only way. Every bit of our life and self that we leave to our own strength will not bring us peace, or happiness, or meaning. If we center ourselves around our Lord and Saviour, then we have happiness, but that is the only way. He is the only Way. I testify of that humbly in His own name.
Amen.
