TEMPLE TRIP

Tues., 10/24/2017 (Neuland/Paraiso)

We had a very busy week this week. It's been kind of crazy. Sorry for writing on a Tuesday, but I can explain hahaha. Last Monday we got a call from one of the counselors in the mission presidency, asking us how the planning on the temple trip was going (at this point we hadn't heard anything about said temple trip)...... Well, needless to say, we got to work. They had a list of names for sealings and we had a list of 9 or 10 recent converts that they wanted us to take to the temple, one week later, meaning yesterday. Abundancia also had a list of names, and they have all of the District leadership in their area, so we spent the week on the phone with Pte Colman (one of the counselors in the mission presidency), on the phone with the Abundancia Elders, and on the computer. The records of marriages, names, families, kids, honestly whatever you can find on the church records for people, needed a few changes, plus the Branch President's (credit?debit?) card got blocked, and many more details. Let's just say it was crazy and we didn't teach very many investigators this week. We were told that if we could get the members from Neuland and Abundancia to the temple, we could go too and, we wouldn't have any responsibility in Asuncion other than help out a little. We'll get to that later. How it all worked out is we had 46 members in total that came on the trip. We had to send a truck to get a handful of members from Paraiso. We then fit everyone from Neuland and Paraiso into a small van and got to Abundancia Saturday night (oh and the Branch President didn't go so Elder Castañeda and I were the leaders) where the counselors in the mission presidency were there doing interviews and paperwork. They talked with all the members for a while then everyone went to the school there to sleep. Elder Castañeda and I stayed with the Abundancia Elders. Sunday we had church, and we prepared all 3 meals for the Neuland members. A lot of the members from Neuland didn't have the Priesthood, so we had 4 people sustained and ordained so that they could go to the temple. Monday around 8 a.m. we set off on the 7 hour or so ride to Asuncion. We got to the hostel (there is a place kind of like a hotel at the temple since many people have to visit from way far out) and went inside to meet the other people to let President Evans and the Office Elders know we were there, since we were told they were handling that part. Well.... nobody was waiting for us and they had space for 30 people, not 46. We were alone (Elder Castañeda and I, Elder Starks and Elder Salazar from Abundancia, and Elders Whipple and Parker from Loma Plata, who didn't have members but thankfully went along) but got right into action. It was a lot of work, but we got the members situated, fed, and we let them get rested for the later afternoon hours. We went to go eat Lomitos because we were all hungry. There was a ciber really close to the temple so we tried to go and write home, but it didn't work so we obtained President's permission to write today. We slept at the house of the Office Elders. Today we got up at 5, rushed to the temple, and got the members all ready, helped with recommends, and thankfully got all 4 families sealed and a bunch more did baptisms for the dead. We got to be there for the sealing session, and Elder Castañeda and I got to be the witnesses for 2 families: Fm Gomez from Neuland and Fm Paclusi from Paraiso. The temple was PACKED since it is closing this week, but that was cool because I got to see a bunch of missionaries from the earlier days of my mission we were all doing sessions. Due to our situation with helping out, w missed the last session, but we are going to the temple tomorrow, so we will be going home tomorrow night. It doesn't stop there! So we got everything done, and still hadn't written y'all, so we had the colectivo that took us all to Asuncion drop us off near the only ciber that we knew about BUT before that, some little kid had some kind of medical problem and wasn't breathing right so we detoured to a hospital. We waited there for a little while, then decided to have the other members go home and we write home while they're treating the baby. Hopefully he will be ok. It has honestly been a really busy week everyone, but it was fun, worth it, and we are going to the temple tomorrow.

For those who haven't been to one, temples are really cool and really important. They are where we make important promises with God, and where we receive a lot of blessings. I encourage all of y'all to think more about temples and go to them more! We spent the whole week focused on the temple, and it was a great blessing for me, especially seeing the members being sealed as families forever. Speaking of that, I love my family, and everyone else reading. Have a great week! (USB wasn't working, so no pictures.)