“Shall we not go on, in so great a cause?” -Joseph Smith
July 16, 2012
Wow, wow, wow!!! This week was full of miracles! It was definitely the best week of transfers/changes and I only hope I have time to write about all of it before time runs out.
Well we had 7 investigators at church and 2 other potential investigators! It was so cool! They just kept coming and coming. Our ward mission leader said the investigators were about to outnumber the members. Not quite true, but almost. Not quite a good thing either.
Let me tell you a little about this week and the investigators:
July 16, 2012
Wow, wow, wow!!! This week was full of miracles! It was definitely the best week of transfers/changes and I only hope I have time to write about all of it before time runs out.
Well we had 7 investigators at church and 2 other potential investigators! It was so cool! They just kept coming and coming. Our ward mission leader said the investigators were about to outnumber the members. Not quite true, but almost. Not quite a good thing either.
Let me tell you a little about this week and the investigators:
---Ruben and Lela. Well you already know all about them. We have been working with them for months now. They are a cute young couple. We taught Ruben and Lela the word of wisdom with Ruben’s brother, President Valazquez, and they accepted the two week challenge to live the Word of Wisdom and they have been living it ever since. They have stopped drinking coffee and alcohol and their baptism is set for next Saturday. The only catch (there always is one) is that Ruben has an alliance to a Saint who he thinks healed him and doesn’t want to be unfaithful to him. He is also worried about sinning by getting baptized twice. We are working on those doubts.
---Marium and Jorge. We found Marium while visiting a less-active family. She had just moved here from Caacupe and she had been to church once there. She really wanted a Book of Mormon which we willingly gave her and she has been teaching her son to read from the church pamphlets we gave her. She is really cool- a young mom with 4 boys. Yesterday, we walked with her and her kids to church. Unfortunately, her husband didn’t come. But get this- my companion a while back was contacting someone on the bus, when this man named Jorge came up to her and asked her for a pamphlet to read. He got off before she had a chance to get a good address from him and wanted to go look for him. A few weeks later, he came up to her again when she was on the bus and told her we had already shared with his wife. Turns out it was Marium. So we met both of them at separate times and they both showed a lot of interest. They aren’t married and Jorge is really hard to get a hold of because he works two jobs but we have plans to see him this week. They also have a son Eduardo who is of baptism age!
---Luis and Liz Mabel- We are dropping them because they are not doing what
they need to in order to progress. It is really sad because we love them so
much and we can see how the Gospel would change their life. They also don’t
have permission from her mom to get married and they aren’t willing to fight
for it. Maybe in the future...
Hopefully that didn’t bore you. But here is the coolest story ever! We are working in a new area, a little farther out and we were contacting, as we always are. I saw this older man, wearing a huge cloak, flip flops and an old baseball cap that says, “Fight dengue!” He was pretty scruffy looking and unkempt. I figured, ‘why not’ and went up to talk to him. We told him a little about our message and invited him to come to church. He didn’t seem to understand anything we were saying and we figured it was because he speaks mostly Guarani. The mission leader who was with us explained how to get to church in Guarani and we didn’t think twice about it.
Well, Sunday comes around and we get out of the first hour and one of the members says that a grandpa is here and he was looking for us. We couldn’t figure out who it could be and then we saw him and realized it was the guy we had contacted. It was easy to recognize him because he was wearing the same clothes as when we contacted him. His name is Juan Leon Marin. How cool is that? He just decided to come to church. He had his nephew drive him to the church and drop him off. It just goes to show that you never know who could be interested in learning about the Gospel. You can’t judge based on appearance or anything. Everyone deserves the opportunity to learn more and choose for themselves. So open your mouth and share the Gospel! You never know who is ready and prepared to hear it!
Something else that happened yesterday which was really cool, one of the members who is related to Ruben and Lela, had them over for Family Home Evening. The member’s husband is also a non-member and she talked about how we all need to let Christ into our hearts and follow him. It was cool and an awesome lesson because it was given out of pure love for her family and her desire to see them follow Christ. Hopefully we will see some good progress because of it. I have realized that following Christ is so much more than saying that you have faith in Him. It is changing your life and repenting and agreeing to live the commandments of God that will help you become more like Him. Words are cheap but when our actions show that we are followers of Christ- that’s when we become like Him.
Some funny Paraguayan ways-
---The advantage to being so tall here is that when the strange men try to kiss your cheeks, as is the custom here, they can’t reach your face. Unfortunately, my companion doesn’t have that same advantage :)
---The average reading age is 8 or 9 years old. If you ask someone younger if they can read, their parents will look at you like you are crazy and say, “Are you crazy? She’s only 5!” Lol.
---Walking down the street the other day, one of the Paraguay young women, Johana who was going out with us, starting laughing. “Do you know what that little kid just said in Guarani?” Well, of course I didn’t. “He said, ‘what a big woman!’ looking straight at me. Bahaha.
Tonight is transfers/changes and I really hope there aren’t any. My companion is finishing her training program with me tomorrow and we will see if we stay together!
Well, off to buy some souvenirs!!
Love,
Hermana Brittner
Hopefully that didn’t bore you. But here is the coolest story ever! We are working in a new area, a little farther out and we were contacting, as we always are. I saw this older man, wearing a huge cloak, flip flops and an old baseball cap that says, “Fight dengue!” He was pretty scruffy looking and unkempt. I figured, ‘why not’ and went up to talk to him. We told him a little about our message and invited him to come to church. He didn’t seem to understand anything we were saying and we figured it was because he speaks mostly Guarani. The mission leader who was with us explained how to get to church in Guarani and we didn’t think twice about it.
Well, Sunday comes around and we get out of the first hour and one of the members says that a grandpa is here and he was looking for us. We couldn’t figure out who it could be and then we saw him and realized it was the guy we had contacted. It was easy to recognize him because he was wearing the same clothes as when we contacted him. His name is Juan Leon Marin. How cool is that? He just decided to come to church. He had his nephew drive him to the church and drop him off. It just goes to show that you never know who could be interested in learning about the Gospel. You can’t judge based on appearance or anything. Everyone deserves the opportunity to learn more and choose for themselves. So open your mouth and share the Gospel! You never know who is ready and prepared to hear it!
Something else that happened yesterday which was really cool, one of the members who is related to Ruben and Lela, had them over for Family Home Evening. The member’s husband is also a non-member and she talked about how we all need to let Christ into our hearts and follow him. It was cool and an awesome lesson because it was given out of pure love for her family and her desire to see them follow Christ. Hopefully we will see some good progress because of it. I have realized that following Christ is so much more than saying that you have faith in Him. It is changing your life and repenting and agreeing to live the commandments of God that will help you become more like Him. Words are cheap but when our actions show that we are followers of Christ- that’s when we become like Him.
Some funny Paraguayan ways-
---The advantage to being so tall here is that when the strange men try to kiss your cheeks, as is the custom here, they can’t reach your face. Unfortunately, my companion doesn’t have that same advantage :)
---The average reading age is 8 or 9 years old. If you ask someone younger if they can read, their parents will look at you like you are crazy and say, “Are you crazy? She’s only 5!” Lol.
---Walking down the street the other day, one of the Paraguay young women, Johana who was going out with us, starting laughing. “Do you know what that little kid just said in Guarani?” Well, of course I didn’t. “He said, ‘what a big woman!’ looking straight at me. Bahaha.
Tonight is transfers/changes and I really hope there aren’t any. My companion is finishing her training program with me tomorrow and we will see if we stay together!
Well, off to buy some souvenirs!!
Love,
Hermana Brittner
PS Happy 10th Birthday Jenna Brittner!
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