Week 71- "I AM..."

 June 25, 2012

I am the hope of Israel.

I am Zion’s youth in Latter-days.

I have been called by a Prophet of God.

I have been endowed with power from on high.

I have been set apart by the Priesthood authority of God.

I am one of 52,000 full-time missionaries.

I wear a black name tag everyday.

I am a representative of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I am a Christian soldier.

I am a defender of truth, helper of the hopeless. I stand in holy places.

I fight for righteousness.

I am a full-time missionary.

I am a Mormon.

We have seen a lot of miracles here in Piribebuy this week. We had a training meeting with President Madariaga and he called us to repentance (in a kind and loving way). Basically, he encouraged us to work towards our daily and weekly number goals and be more diligent in accomplishing them. He gave us a lot of pointers that we are excited to implement into our area. It seems like we just rush from place to place, teaching, contacting, finding, yet we never have enough time.

Santiago came to the ward baptism we had on Saturday and church on Sunday, even though we weren’t able to teach him this past week. Although he has been an “eternigator”, I think he is ready to get baptized. He has a few doubts and fears, especially about being completely submerged in water to get baptized (you may laugh but here in Paraguay, baths do not exist, and only the rich have ever been in a swimming pool. Occasionally people swim in streams or the river, but they never really swim with your face under water and therefore, many have a great fear about putting their whole face in the water). We will see what can be done to build his faith.

The baptism was for 8-year-old Benjamin, whose dad recently became the new Elder’s Quorum president. We are very excited about that, because our branch has been without one since I got here! The baptism was great, with missionaries being the main show. We gave talks, sang a duet, led the music and provided the refreshments. We are working on helping the ward members become self-sufficient in this aspect- so it’s not just “the missionaries” responsibility. We are not a one-stop baptism organizer, despite what the members might think!

Beatriz did not go to church last week and we learned that she had recently started a new job. She has been looking for work for months and finally found something she loved, cooking food. We were really worried about her, because she is a new convert. She told us she would talk to her boss about not working on Sundays. Sunday, we were sitting in Relief Society and in she walks! It was such a happy moment! After class, we found out that she had quit her job so she could keep the Sabbath day holy! Wow, I was so impressed with her! She is a really strong convert, one of the strongest I have met and I continue to be inspired by her.

We had a cool Family Home Evening with the Valazquez family. We used candles to represent the authority of Christ. We lit one that represented Christ when he was on the earth and then he gave it to his Apostles (we lit other candles). When the great apostasy came, we blew out all the candles and we sat in the room in darkness (spiritual darkness) and then when I was reciting the First Vision in Spanish, Hermana Greer lit a candle, as Joseph Smith later restored the Gospel and the authority to the earth again. It was really cool. I love the restored Gospel and I am so grateful to a loving Heavenly Father that it is on the earth again.

In church, I gave a talk about unity in the branch. I basically dropped cane. That is a missionary term for “called them to repentance”. My companion said it was good, although none of the members complimented me on it. Lol. Well, we are supposed to tell them what they need to hear right?

The weather changes a lot lately. Half of the week it’s super freezing and the other half is pleasant and all you need is a light sweater.

Love you all!

Hermana Brittner

PS. I love EFY (Especially For Youth)!! I am so excited Taylor is going to Santa Barbara! Just today I was telling my companion how awesome the cafeteria is there. Lol!