We had a really busy week! It all started off with P-day and a great District meeting with the Zone Leaders. They came to pump us up and do a division. Elder Castellaw and I then took the Zone Leaders to Loma Plata to do a division. I worked for the day with Elder Staheli from Utah! He was trained by Elder Bridge right before me. It was kind of cool to have a division with my "brother." We had a great day, and found a couple new investigators, and also set a couple of baptismal dates. They went home Tuesday night.
Wednesday Elder Castellaw and I decided we didn't have enough investigators, so we spent the day contacting. It was a long day, but very successful. Thursday through Saturday was a bit of a long stretch,when we had 20 teaching appointments fall through, 8 of which were on Saturday. We worked super hard, and by the end of the week set the high for new investigators in a week for both of us!
With all that contacting, we had a good amount of time on foot to talk and get to know each other well. Elder Castellaw and I have also focused on eating more fruits and veggies, and have been focusing on one Christ-like attribute a day. It has really helped us stay focused on our purpose.We're not here for fun and games, to be peoples' friends, or just to visit. We are here to help people change their lives to be happier. Many of them don't see it. It's kind of like a mountain. If you're at the bottom, it doesn't look like there is any reason to climb it... It just looks like a challenge and a lot of work. When you don't climb the mountain, you never get to see the view. Those that have climbed a mountain know how beautiful it is, and want to bring that experience to others. We have climbed that mountain, and are spending 2 years to try to get others to climb it too. It is hard to change our lives and climb this mountain on the way to Christ, but it's what he wants of us. For that reason there is so much rejection, but for that reason we always leave every day. All week we stuck with it, stuck with it, stuck with it, and in the end,. we got to see the blessings. In church,we had a total of 17 people, which was our goal for the change. Many of them investigators. I promise you all that as you stick with what you are doing to follow Christ, it will be hard. It may not be fun. But it will definitely be worth it, and after you will see the blessings. We had a great week, great Sunday,and are hoping to do it all again, maybe with a baptism. We'll see what the next week brings up! Have a great week, I love you all!
Pictures:
1With my old companion Elder Castro at Zone Conference!
2 Street contacting in Luque.
3 We found a street called Chicago in Loma.
4 Making some Paraguayan food called mbeyu. We didn't know how to cook it and neither did the family we were making it with! hahaha
5 Our local hospital.
6 This is an alfajor,one of the most popular snacks here.
7 The Zone Leaders came for divisions, and I went with Elder Staheli from Utah. (Elder Bridge trained him too!)
8 Me with the Zone Leaders. (The other is Elder Cornelio from Peru.)
9 A kind lady gave us some mandongo (cow intestine) to eat,and thankfully gave it to us in a tupperware container. It didn't really look cooked properly. hahaha
10 Elder Castellaw makes the drinks; I make the food. The smoothies are pretty good!
11 Here's a Huge spider on the side of our house!
12 Samu'u trees are dangerous!
13 The "Rotunda" is the biggest landmark here in Loma Plata.
14 We eat a lot of fruits.
15 French fries? More like French toast!
16 The rotunda at night.
The following are emails forwarded from Elder Castellaw:
April 23, 2013 Snakes Magee
Ayyyoooo so this week was litty!
Started off with our Zone Conference in Asuncion so we had that nice long 8 hour bus ride there and back but the conference was well worth it. Always great to talk to President and see other missionaries. He high key loves the Chaco so that's hype. Here is a pic of the missionaries way out here together.
Loma Plata is doing well and slow and steady growing and we are finding more and more each and everyday. Its not easy because we have literally no help from members or other leaders because there aren't any yet here. I am the current Bishop and my comp is the first District President so we just gotta do everythingggg but it's awesome because I am learning so much and its helping me a lot to grow and really have responsibility.
This Sunday was Voting Day in all of Paraguay so like no one in the whole country went to church.... Butttttt we did have one investigator who is 10 years old, rides his bike, alone, 6 kilometers to come to church and he is the true MVP of the week. It was great having him come and progress more and get him closer to baptism, and specially good cause it would have just me and my comp if he didn't come! haha.
We learned how to make this stuff called m´beyu and it wasn't that good but fun to make. Fun to get the hands dirty a lil bit.
Other than that the Chaco stays doppeee and hot and lots of snakes now so it keeps us on our toes.
Rohayhu!
Elder Castellaw
Yooooo whats guccciiiii!
This weeks was probably one of thee hardest weeks I have had as a missionary so far, but I can look back and truly see the blessings that were received and the outcome of having 17 people in church on Sunday, 5 of which were investigators. God really does give us tribulation and hard times to see if we stay strong and keep having faith in Him, or giving up and let the hard times beat us. It was a true testimony builder this week for me as a missionary and knowing that Heavenly Father truly does bless us and that hard times never stay.
So this week started off super great with having the Zone Leaders come to our area from Asuncion to help us work in our area for the day. We split up and taught a ton of great lessons with the investigators we have and then we found a solid number of new people that day. They also gave us a strategy that could work here in finding new people, cause without members or anyone its hard to get references or anything. So it means a little different way of working and finding the people that God has prepared for us. And so the next day we put that into action and we got our area divided up and we worked the full day in one section and solely put that time into finding new people. And it super worked out and we found 11 new people in one single afternoon which was so hype. So those first 2 days of the week we had about 20 new people and going well.
And then we got put to the test, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday everything went south and we had a ton of appointments fall through: people weren't home, they were busy, literally anything that could have happened happened. And we felt like we were walking around all day with nothing good going. We were passing by anyone and everyone and just trying to get into lessons and invite our investigators to church. Straight up kicked my butt and I was like bruh this is hard.
Then Saturday night when we got home we knew we needed to put all the faith we had and pray and ask that our work and diligence would pay off and we would have some people come to church the next morning. Specific prayers for each person, family and investigators. And then we waited. Sunday morning came and we were calling everyone to try and get them up but in Paraguay on Sunday literally everyone and their dog turns their phone off Saturday night for Sunday. And I'm like yo let's go and get these people and wake them up. So we dip and pass by 2 or 3 people and get them up and then we high tail it back to our church in case anyone showed up.
We get there and yooo Julie and her son Esteban and her family came and were waiting. And then Carlos Colemon and his family came. Then Perla and her daughter came. Then we had Jose and Angel come walking in. And one more to top it off, Lucia Arrua rolls up her on her moto and we like yooo the church is full. Honestly one of the greatest feelings and Sacrament Meetings I have had in my life just us all being in that tiny room together. The Spirit was so strong and it was great. Felt like a family.
I know that God gives us tough times to test us and we just gotta stay faithful and get through those tough times. And if we put our full confidence in Him, He will bless us.
Super litty tiring rollercoaster of a week but by far one of the best weeks here in Paraguay.
I love you all so much and thank you for the support. Praying for you always.
Rohayhu
Elder Castellaw
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