Alright so I know last week I told you I would do better to tell you about the investigadores before they get baptized.... but miracles happen.

So Freddy and Blanca are hijos of a part member family. Their parents are less active. We have been teaching them for almost a month now. They have been wanting to get baptized for a few weeks now but their challenge was getting permission from their parents. The parents didn't want them to get baptized because that would mean that the parents would have to go to church with them, and they work on Domingos. We have visited the parents several times but we didn't have any success trying to get them to come to church with the kids. But on Thursday we received permiso from the dad, so on Friday we had Elder Bowers and Knudson come and do both of the interviews. Knudson finished Freddy´s super fast in 3 or 5 minutes. Bowers took a while with Blanca. While we were waiting for them to finish  the neighbor kid sits down by Blanca to see what they were doing. Next thing I know I hear Elder Bowers teaching him the restoration and the commandments. When they were all done he introduced us to Fernando and said he wants to get baptized.
So we talk to Fernando´s mom, turns out she is a less active member also. She was cool with it so she signed the registro, 2 baptisms became 3. Elder Knudson from Argentina said "what do you call it when someone fouls you when you make a basket? AND ONE!"
So the baptism went great, except the cake was a little burnt. So I bought all the kids alfajores. Kind of like a twinkie or ho-ho, only 10 times better.

We had a stake conference by satellite on Sunday for everyone in Paraguay and Uruguay. Speakers: Sister Reeves from the relief society, Elder Anderson, of the 12, and President Monson, prophet, seer and revelator. It was awesome. Espescially because we had 5 investigators there to listen to him. You can always bank it on the prophet to convert someone.
I felt really bad for Sister Reeves. She and Elder Anderson gave their talk in Spanish  Pres Monson had a translator. Anderson´s Spanish wasn't bad, but it wasn't fluent like the guy who conducted. Sister Reeves sounded like a 3rd grader. She tried really hard, but was very nervous and a little emotional. I was kind of embarrassed to be one of the few Americans in that room, thinking to myself  "I hope I don't sound that bad". But the message she wanted to get across was good. Although I understand everything and can say just about whatever I want, I still sound like a gringo. I have lost hope of one day being able to roll my r´s. But on the bright side the first time I listened to the Book of Mormon in Porteguese I understood about 80%. Just speaking will take a lot of practice. In my area right now the majority of the people speak 3 languages, Spanish, Guarani and Porteguese.

Wednesday is cambios and it looks like Eder Salinas is going. This has been the fastest cambio ever. Salinas and I had fun and we worked hard. I hope he takes this ánimo to his next area and tears it up. Everyone is telling me that I will probably train a newbee, so vamos a ver. It will be interesting to be on the other side of the training program. I feel like I just got trained, but I also feel like I'm ready for a new challenge.
I have learned a lot on how to look at numbers and decide how we can become better missionaries and baptize more people/families. This last change we taught 200 lessons, found nearly 100 new investigators, and extended 120 baptism invites. In the end came up with 4 baptisms. We are going to work better with the members to find people instead of on the streets. That way for the next 6 weeks we will find 100 new people and baptize 100 new people. The baptism rate of references we receive from members skyrockets above that of people we find on the street.
Yesterday a member brought his friend Reuben to church. We taught him yesterday, golden. He is a stud and has the desires to change and get baptized. His date is for the 29th. This week for the 22nd, we have José María and María José. They are twins. Their dad is great, he wants his kids to get baptized but is not sure if he wants to quite yet because he was baptized in the Catholic church. We brought José and Maria to church yesterday and they liked it. A little boring for them because they are 9, but they will love the primary more. So they are all set to get baptized this Saturday, hopefully we can get the dad for this week with them or for the next. I am really striving 100% to keep up the the mission standards of excellence  bautizar cada semana. With faith and hard work, it can be done.
With Elder Bowers on divisiones
random stuff:
I went to the world's biggest black market in Ciudad de Este last pday. Bought some pretty cool stuff, a night stick, a tazer, bronze knuckles, some x box games that haven't come out yet, and a super strong flashlight. I have heard you can get everything there, even a baby, but I didn't see any.
That happy smile I had last week about having bikes is now completely gone. These bikes are garbage, I have blown through 3 tires and had a few other repairs that are burning my pocket. On Saturday I took it to a bike place to get a new tube, 5 minutes after riding away my pedal fell off. It's just been a headache. I wish they gave us all motos or scooters. Besides the cost and the headache, they have been pretty helpful. We can visit more people across town now.

Gotta go. Any questions? Anything you like or don't like about the letters I send? I was reading some of Tyler's letters and they are very spiritual so they were fun to read. I will try to add some more of my spiritual experiences in the future.

Any ways, hasta luego

Elder LaFaye