Fabio Florentin was baptized! He is my first and probably last convert that is taller than me.
Sorry, can't send fotos, I think my camera has a virus. It works just fine but can't upload fotos.
So I'm not sure if you have heard or seen on the news, but Paraguay went under a bit of revolution this week. There's been a lot of chaos about the presidente Lugo, trying to throw him out of office. Well they succeeded. Presidente Callan told us all to go home early that day to avoid any trouble. I'm all the way down here in Encarnacion so I haven't seen anything out of the ordinary like riots or anything. But I'm sure the elders in Asuncion are having an interesting week. Today presidente asked us to stock up on a bit of a food storage just in case things get out of hand. It's all precautionary so no te precupes, dont call the mission home or anything to find out if we are ok. Todo está bien. I was just curious if this has made the US news, Paraguay has little to no influence in the world but you never know.
gotta go,
much love y amor,
elder lafaye
Monday, June 25, 2012
Monday, June 18, 2012
A week with ups and downs
Chera á,
A week with ups and downs. Those 2 kids, Mathias and Damian, were all set to get baptized. Then we slowly started to lose Damian and then Mathias too at the last minute. Never have I before had to try so hard to get 2 niños baptized. Damian is only ten, but he is one of the smartest kids I know. It's a difficult situation, he knows the Book of Mormon is true and told us he knows that this church has the power and autoridad to baptize, but he likes his old church better. When he came to our church last week it was raining, when it rains in Paraguay our attendance goes from 90 to 30 real fast. So there were not many kids his age in the primary. He has a bunch of friends in his other church that he did not want to drop. He also did not like the idea of having to stop playing soccer on Sundays. He knows this church is true and knows he needs to get baptized, but he doesn't want to do it quite yet. Now, because he is not getting baptized, the mom who is a member does not want her kids going to different churches, totally understandable. So Mathias who still wants to get baptized will have to wait till we get the whole family. We are going to teach the dad and then all should be good. So having 2 baptisms swept from under our feet took away our animo. Sunday morning our Heavenly Father knew we needed a animo booster, and man did He deliver. We had 6 investigators at church. I have never been so stoked about the future of an area. I am %100 positive that we are going to baptize every week next change. Faith and hard work = milagros.
Fabio Flourentine will be baptized this Saturday. It's been a fight with him but our last lesson was amazing. He has a testimony of everything we have taught him. After every lesson he prays that night with mucho fe to ask God if its true, the next day when we pass by he tells us he recieved his answer and knows that priniple is true (Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith, etc.). but one day we taught him about baptism. He was baptized in another church 3 years ago and remembers it vividly. He says he knows he felt the spirit during his baptism, which en verdad I'm sure he did. He acted on his faith in Christ by following Christ in the way in which he knew how. I know God was pleased with his faith and desires to follow Christ so Fabio was able to follow the spirit. But the difference between his baptism and our baptism is that you can feel this spirit even after the baptism when you recieve the gift of the Holy Ghost. After his baptism he didn't have that same spirit or feeling. So we invited him like always to pray to ask God if he needs to get baptized by someone holding the authority of Jesus Christ. He told us he recieved his answer saying that God told him he doesn't need to get baptized again, that he has made the choice to follow Christ. As you can see it is very hard to tell someone that they did not recieve that answer from God, because who am I to tell someone what they felt and did not feel. So we had to go from a different angle and focus on the priesthood. It's like a chess match with this guy, I love it. After much prayer we felt like we should watch the movie "the great apostasy" about Wilford Woodruff. That movie was written for Fabio. After the movie the spirit was very strong, he told us "I understood completely... I need to get baptized by someone holding the authority of the Lord."
Running short on time, here's a quick run down of our next few baptisms;
Victor Trinidad was a menos activo who we have re activated after a few weeks of visiting him several times. His girlfriend and her daughter came to church the past few weeks and will be baptized this Saturday as well. they are not married so we will have a marriage this friday for them.
Bernardino is the dad of Fernando Villalba our recent convert. I love that guy. He is all set for the 30th, we are helping him drop cigarillos right now and then he is good to go, as well as 2 more of his kids.
Angel is 12 yrs old, stud. Here's the story real quick. The zone leaders, Elder Schouten and I met up in the church building and started a fast together because we needed some extra help getting a few people baptized. Less then 5 minutes after leaving the church building, a lady stopped us in the street and asked us if we are the mormons, her son wants to join our church. So we go talk to him, teach the restoration, he loves it, he is muy animado for his baptism on the 7th of june. His parents don't want anything to do with our church, but they know that if he grows up in this church he will be a good kid. The dad was talking to a friend about how terrible the world can effect kids growing up. The friend was Mormon and told him that his son doesn't smoke, drink or any of that bad stuff, so he is all for baptizing Angel, but laughed when we invited him to get baptized. Oh well, Angel will be a great example for his parents and they will join the church eventually.
Cambios is this Wednesday, I am praying that I don't get changed. I know without a doubt that we have at least 7 baptisms happening within the next month.
gotta go,
much love y amor,
elder la fe
A week with ups and downs. Those 2 kids, Mathias and Damian, were all set to get baptized. Then we slowly started to lose Damian and then Mathias too at the last minute. Never have I before had to try so hard to get 2 niños baptized. Damian is only ten, but he is one of the smartest kids I know. It's a difficult situation, he knows the Book of Mormon is true and told us he knows that this church has the power and autoridad to baptize, but he likes his old church better. When he came to our church last week it was raining, when it rains in Paraguay our attendance goes from 90 to 30 real fast. So there were not many kids his age in the primary. He has a bunch of friends in his other church that he did not want to drop. He also did not like the idea of having to stop playing soccer on Sundays. He knows this church is true and knows he needs to get baptized, but he doesn't want to do it quite yet. Now, because he is not getting baptized, the mom who is a member does not want her kids going to different churches, totally understandable. So Mathias who still wants to get baptized will have to wait till we get the whole family. We are going to teach the dad and then all should be good. So having 2 baptisms swept from under our feet took away our animo. Sunday morning our Heavenly Father knew we needed a animo booster, and man did He deliver. We had 6 investigators at church. I have never been so stoked about the future of an area. I am %100 positive that we are going to baptize every week next change. Faith and hard work = milagros.
Fabio Flourentine will be baptized this Saturday. It's been a fight with him but our last lesson was amazing. He has a testimony of everything we have taught him. After every lesson he prays that night with mucho fe to ask God if its true, the next day when we pass by he tells us he recieved his answer and knows that priniple is true (Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith, etc.). but one day we taught him about baptism. He was baptized in another church 3 years ago and remembers it vividly. He says he knows he felt the spirit during his baptism, which en verdad I'm sure he did. He acted on his faith in Christ by following Christ in the way in which he knew how. I know God was pleased with his faith and desires to follow Christ so Fabio was able to follow the spirit. But the difference between his baptism and our baptism is that you can feel this spirit even after the baptism when you recieve the gift of the Holy Ghost. After his baptism he didn't have that same spirit or feeling. So we invited him like always to pray to ask God if he needs to get baptized by someone holding the authority of Jesus Christ. He told us he recieved his answer saying that God told him he doesn't need to get baptized again, that he has made the choice to follow Christ. As you can see it is very hard to tell someone that they did not recieve that answer from God, because who am I to tell someone what they felt and did not feel. So we had to go from a different angle and focus on the priesthood. It's like a chess match with this guy, I love it. After much prayer we felt like we should watch the movie "the great apostasy" about Wilford Woodruff. That movie was written for Fabio. After the movie the spirit was very strong, he told us "I understood completely... I need to get baptized by someone holding the authority of the Lord."
Running short on time, here's a quick run down of our next few baptisms;
Victor Trinidad was a menos activo who we have re activated after a few weeks of visiting him several times. His girlfriend and her daughter came to church the past few weeks and will be baptized this Saturday as well. they are not married so we will have a marriage this friday for them.
Bernardino is the dad of Fernando Villalba our recent convert. I love that guy. He is all set for the 30th, we are helping him drop cigarillos right now and then he is good to go, as well as 2 more of his kids.
Angel is 12 yrs old, stud. Here's the story real quick. The zone leaders, Elder Schouten and I met up in the church building and started a fast together because we needed some extra help getting a few people baptized. Less then 5 minutes after leaving the church building, a lady stopped us in the street and asked us if we are the mormons, her son wants to join our church. So we go talk to him, teach the restoration, he loves it, he is muy animado for his baptism on the 7th of june. His parents don't want anything to do with our church, but they know that if he grows up in this church he will be a good kid. The dad was talking to a friend about how terrible the world can effect kids growing up. The friend was Mormon and told him that his son doesn't smoke, drink or any of that bad stuff, so he is all for baptizing Angel, but laughed when we invited him to get baptized. Oh well, Angel will be a great example for his parents and they will join the church eventually.
Cambios is this Wednesday, I am praying that I don't get changed. I know without a doubt that we have at least 7 baptisms happening within the next month.
gotta go,
much love y amor,
elder la fe
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Live the Gospel
So it's been a while since I have sent a good letter home, so I will make this one better.
Paraguay is the hottest AND coldest place I have ever been too. Weird right? 3 days in a row this week were absolutely brutal. In the winter the sun goes down at 5:30, waaay too early, and we work till 9 or sometimes 9:30. So it's a good 4 hours of piercing cold weather. Honestly it probably only gets down to 35 degrees, but the humidity of Paraguay and the rivers of Encarnacion mixed with strong wind, hace frio! (ra-uh in guarani). Before the mission I loved the cold, but this humid cold chills to the bone. The first chance I got I bought some gloves, a sweater and a scarf. Its funny to think I left to the mtc without even a jacket, I'm so glad you sent me that columbia one. Hmna Rita said she will find some ear muffs for me. She is like my mom in Encarnacion. I guess I am a real mammas boy because in both my areas there is one hermana who treats me like their son.
Your summer sounds really fun, San Diego temple, the beach, passing league football, working on the cabin, student orientation, and the election. Just make a absentee ballot for me, I'm sure you can guess who I will vote for.
Pedro is 17, when he turns 18 he can make his own decision to be baptized. he is still pureté, we are going to work on his dad. We are going to visit him with our presidente and his son. Hopefully this will show the great example of kids who grow up in the church.
We found a miracle this week, an appointment with an investigator fell so we started clapping houses on that street. We found a lady who is a member, she was baptized when she was 8 but is inactivo. She has 2 kids Damian y Mathias who want to get baptized. They have assisted the church in the past, they are some of the smartest little kids I've met. The first time we taught them they asked us when they could get baptized, so we will have a baptism for them this Saturday. We are passing by with Hmna Rita to reactivate the mom and then baptize the dad in the future.
Fabio Flourentine came to church for the second time. He is 28 and very smart, he is probably a genious that doesn't know how to use his smarts cause he didnt go to college. Every lesson with him is super powerfull. When we found him, his said elder White taught him a few times but stopped passing by for some reason. After these last 2 weeks of teaching him, he knows the Book of Mormon is true, Joseph Smith is a prophet and this church is true. His doubt is about baptism. He was baptized in another church a few years ago.
This is a bit weird but I have developed a passion for chopping wood with an axe. Wednesdays we do service for Hmna Rita chopping fire wood. not sure why I love it so much, but it's a good exercise and fun service.
So here's my spiritual thought. I was studying in Mathew 7:16-18 and Mosiah 5 today. We need to live the gospel. It is the only way to know for certain that this evangelio is from God. For every principle, from tithing to the sabbath day, we need to understand the principle, live the commandment, and then we will recieve a testimony that it is a true gospel principle. If we really know that this is the true church and want to live the gospel, we are going to have the desires to share the gospel with everyone. If you dont have these desires yet, focus on living the gospel. take every doctrine principle one by one, do your best to fully understand it and then live it. if you have these desires, share the gospel with your family friends neighbors. Randy, Reece and Robby get ready for the mission chera á. It's incredible. Mom and dad, get ready for the senior mission, I know your not that old yet haha but you two will be great missionaries. If dad can sell the gospel like he sells water, home loans and cars you are going to have a lot of success, not to mention moms loving personality and all-state teaching skills. Caitlyn, you're not off the hook either, college is the best chance to share the gospel. I started day dreaming in my personal studies of a family reunion after my mission. I can picture all of my 20 cousins and 20 aunts and uncles gathered around in our cabin as we have a family home evening guasú. (guasú = really big). I know they all can't wait to get baptized, they just dont know it yet. In Doctrine and Covenants dice, many people are willing to accept the gospel but dont know where to find it. It's a miracle that we have found the true church of Jesus Christ. What a blessing right? Out of all the people who have lived and died without even hearing about it, we have found it and accepted it. Now it's our time to help others obtain the same felicidad that this gospel has given us.
LIVE THE GOSPEL.
much love y amor,
Elder LaFaye
Elder LaFaye
Monday, June 4, 2012
Trip to the zoo
Okay, heres a few exciting/interesting events:We were teaching a hombre with a member, his son was a cabasuro, trouble maker. it was going very well. just when I started to say the first vision, I hear drip drip drip, we look around and his son peed on the floor. My companion busted up laughing, we had to end the lesson right there.
Found THE coolest 17 yr old ever, se llama Pedro. Taught him the restauration and the book of mormon the first time we taught him. He was really excited to read it and recieve his answer. we passed by the next day just to see how his lectura went, he said he read and prayed but didnt recieve his answer, so he said he was going to do it again that night. We passed by the next day and he recieved his answer. When I invited him to be baptized he answered without hesitation. heres how my invite went "we are preparing a baptism service for you on the 23 de junio." before i could continue he replied "23? ya sounds good, I can get baptized on that day. " only bad news is we passed by Sunday morning to bring him to church. he almost broke down crying cuz his dad wouldnt let him go, catolico family. pero no importa. We are going to talk to the dad and baptize him.
Sorry Robby, couldn't answer your questions, I will get them next time for sure. But I did read your letter in the box, it was the best handwritten letter I've ever read, I will frame it in my house some day.
Gotta go, much love and kisses
Elder LaFaye
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