Transfer to Encarnacion

Encarnacion, Paraguay-looking across the river to Argentina

So to save time I'm just sending my letter I write to Prez Callahn to
you guys. Writing in Spanish takes a little longer so I don't have a
ton of time to write. I'm now in Encarnacion! It's the very bottom city
of Paraguay, borders with Argentina. I can see the Argentina city
across the river, pretty cool. My new companion is Elder Devin White
from Logan Utah. This area hasn't had a baptism in a while, but I'm sure
they have been planting seeds like crazy, now its time to harvest and
reap the benefits. Sorry i didn't write much, I will get more in next
week. Hope you all were spiritually and chocolatly edified for Easter
weekend. Love you all a ton.

Elder LaFaye

Elder White, First Counselor Beto, Me

Hola Presidente,
Estoy muy animado para trabajar aqui en encarnación. Elder White es un
bueno misionero y muy obiediente. Vimos mucho milagros este semana
pasado y estoy seguro que vamos a ver mucho exito este cambio. mi
compeñero me dijo que estaba plantando muchos semillas, ahora el campo
blanco está ya para la siega. tenemos fernando, tiene 20 años. vino
los ultimo dos domingos y esta muy animado para bautizarse el 21 de
abril. nos dijo que quire aprender todo ahora para prepararse a servir
un mision. tiene muchos amigos en la iglesia que ayuda mucho. despues,
tenemos fabian, él es demasiado curiouso de todas las iglesias,
siempre tiene preguntas de cada religion. leó el libro de mormon hasta
helaman, va a terminar esta semana. solo problemo ahora es que él no
piensa que tiene que bautizarse otra vez. él no aceptó la invitacion
porque piensa que su bautismo era una ejemplo de fe y no importa si
era verdadero. vamos a hablar mucho de la autoridad para ayudarle.
estamos trabajando con un menos activo quien esta viviendo con una
mujer. estamos ayudandoles para casarse y despues ella puede
bautizarse.
estoy estudiando en el libro de mormon donde alma regocija en su dios,
quiere ser como un angel para predicar la palabra a todos en la
tierra. es interasante que él dijo que este es un pecado. aunque sus
intenciones son muy muy buenos, él tiene que ser contento con lo que
Dios le dio. me gusta este parte porque puede aplicar este principio
en mi mission. a veces quieremos más que tenemos, pero Dios nos ha
dado todo lo que nesecitamos para tener exíto.
Gracias por todo,
Elder LaFaye

General Conference was AWESOME

amigos

A cutting-down-a-tree-in-rain-and-lightning
service project.

Conference was AWESOME. I thought there was no way it could get better than the last one, but I was wrong. I loved how every talk was about families, and especially how the book of mormon can help our families. I was re-reading some of the notes I took, I can't pick a favorite but here's my highlight reel:
Prez Monson's story of the marines in WWII
Bednar's story of the conversion of his father
Eyering's talk about overcoming trials
Anderson's story of the 3 kids who survived Haiti
I can't wait till the conference liahona comes out. In the mission, general conference is like the super bowl and the liahona is sports illustrated, but even better because its twice a year!

There are so many things that happened that i need to tell you, sorry if my letters and been short. I can't write fast enough to tell you all everything. So here's short summaries:
The temple was amazing. b-e-a-u-tiful (jim carey voice). I did endowments and baptisms for the dead. I felt like Alma baptizing thousands in the waters of Mormon. I understood the video pretty well but the talking part was near impossible cuz the guy helping me mumbled with a paraguay accent. I just mumbled confidently so I sounded like I knew what I was saying. God understands mumble, if not, the intentions were just.
Witnessed a pig die, never want to see or hear that again!
Cambios are this Wednesday, I think I might be leaving but I will find out tonight.
We almost missed a conference session after some extraneous events. Collectivos (buses) take super long because they are always stopping and going to pick people up. The only way we could make it to Paraguari in time was to hitch hike. So we threw up the thumb and after much rejection a pickup truck stopped, we hopped in the back and got off at Ita after 20 min. Walk for a little while longer and a semi truck stopped by, hopped up in the cab and he took us to Paraguari for another 20 minutes. It was pretty sketchy at first but we saved 5 mil and gained a sweet Paraguayan experience.

dormiendo en el collectivo

I recieved the notice for my package, so I have to pay a bit and then I will recieve it next week.
Randy Reece and Robby, because I'm rediculously nice I want to buy you guys a soccer jersey. Olimpia (black/white), Cerro (blue/red), or Guarani (black/yellow). cual quiren? Guarani is just another under dog like Cerro. Olimpia is like the Yankees of futból.
An investigator gave me his trompo, a giant spinning top that you throw with a rope. it is the coolest paraguayan toy ever, but super hard to throw. I'm going to master it by the time I'm done here.
Out of time for now, but I love you all, hope your doing great. Dad you really know how to attract people to crash in to you, but I hope your burns feel better pronto. When I get back I will get in line a week in advance for the next hail damage storm and by a sweet civic or something so no worries. Por lo menos we got a free flat screen with the car.

Oh, this week I encourage you all to watch some of the conference talks again on the computer, maybe some of the ones I highlighted. But there's many more about families that are perfect for family home evening.

much love,

Elder LaFaye

Ryan turns 20!

 

Hoooollllllllllllaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

Thanks for the birthday wishes, I hope your enjoy my cake. I would choose german chocolate as usual but most of you dont like the frosting so go for the vanilla or whatever you kids without good taste eat these days.
Last week we did email on Tuesday due to the temple trip. But yeah having your bday on a pday is the best. Wake up, work out, eat, study, write families, shop, and then sleep the hot hours of the day away. Yes the siesta is huge here, you can't find anyone in the streets and all the stores are closed from 12 till 3 or 4, its rediculous.

Congrats on the cub scout calling mom. That is the perfect calling for you, you always made cub scouts fun for us. Treats, games, and pine wood derby cars is really all I remember from those years though.

When I read where Bracken is going, I had that feeling of "that's exactly where he should go" kinda thing. He will do great there. I can just picture Mark Bennett in a 5 gallon cowboy hat haha. I cant believe Keaton and Ian are coming home already, que rapido pasa el tiempo. That's awesome that Tyler is going to sing in general conference, I'm super jealous. I cant sing for beans but I still wanted to go.

Caesar's baptism

We ended a bit of a streak for not having an investigator in la reunion this Sunday. Caesar was a former investigator with 2 asistencias, we dropped him back in December because he became somewhat lazy and stopped coming to church. Recently we picked him back up again and he still has the desire to get baptized because of his testimony of the Book of Mormon. It was great to introduce him to the mission president at church. I'm not sure how much he got out of the talks but he liked the presidents testimony at the end. Due to general conference we will prepare a baptism service for him this Friday. Yeah!
Another investigator almost came but had to go to the hospital for his knees. He is excited to go to general conference this week though.
We have really focused on finding families this week. We found an amazing family yesterday. The dad is studying with the testigos de jehovah, the mom is evangelico, and the daughter is catolico, but are all really open to learning about which church is true because there is a lot of confusion among them. My heart was pounding as i gave the first vision, the spirit really testified the truth to them, it was one of the most spirtitual lessons of my mission. The dad could really relate to Jose Smith and his situation saying he has had these same questions and wants to find out for him self. He told me I planted a seed in his heart and has this desire to help it grow and see where it takes him. He says he is a dificult person to find, por eso missionaries have dropped them before after teaching 2 or 3 lessons a few years ago.
We visited Hmna Flecha otra vez este semana. Her faith amazes me every time I go there. Since she is blind I am going to order a book of mormon audio and buy a cd player to help her read.
I am reading the book of mormon like crazy trying to get on track to finish it antes Junio. Reading out loud has helped my spanish so much its incredible.

Estamos un poco mojado pero el fuego adentro nuestros corazones nos da las ganas para trabajar.

con mucho amor,

Elder LaFaye

Started teaching a clase de ingles

lomitos despues el templo

Hello!

We didn't have any investigators in church, but I am very confident we can bring one to district meeting this week. Miguel Nunez has made a lot of progress with the palabra de sabaduria. He has dropped alcohol completely but is still smoking a few at night. Last week it seemed like he was going through some pretty bad withdrawls and couldn't walk at all nor stand up from his bed, but is fighting through it. His knees have always been super bad, por eso he uses a palo to walk. Last Domingo we gave him a blessing de salud and now he is walking like a champ. He knows this miracle is from God and is so excited to be baptized. We have tried to get a moto for him but the only member with one has been inactive for almost 2 months now, for the past month he has told us he would run to church if he could. We have taught him everything and he has a good relationship with our presidente, so I am very confident he will be baptized.
Not sure if I have mentioned anything of Eber Gonzalez recently. He was our best investigator after coming to church twice in a row, but he got drunk with a buddy and tried to steal a moto from a cop... not very smart. So we visited him several times while he was in the carcel, super humble and tiene las ganas para cambiar su vida. I love the guy to death, but when he drinks he is a completely different person. He had a court date and the Juez sent him to the Pen in Asuncion for who knows how long. From some members we hear its like a living cemetery in there, (basically exactly like the Panama prison from the show prison break for those of you who have seen it), highly recommended show btw. So keep him in your prayers because he is a really good person who just got caught up with the wrong friends and doing bad things.

Por conversos recientes, Familia Reyes are doing great, Nery is excited to recieve the socerdocio mayor next week. we gave him a list of scriptures to look up to learn un poco mas de este socerdocio y darle mas animo. We visited Antonia Flecha this week, she is old and blind so I want to find an audio libro de mormon for her. Even though her family doesn't give her much support, she has faith like the brother of Jared. The sociedad de soccorro are trying to bring her to church at least once a month.
We are visiting more menos activos with nuestro presidente, not sure how much progress we are making with them but we will keep trying.
Just studied in the book of mormon the part where Alma and Amulek go and baptize a full in his hometown. Me encanta este parte because it really relates to our situation here as missionaries. We are both rubios and blanco y té, but if we use the help of the members, we will have much more success.
We started teaching a clase de ingles every Miercoles. We are not the best teachers but we speak english pretty well so they don't know the difference. I actually really like teaching, its pretty fun. Last week we got a new investigator out of it so vamos a ver.
Elder Bowers and I are great. This week we had a rough companionship inventory en la calle, but after talking through it we are better than before. We are still working hard teaching by the spirit, and we are very confident to see some more success at the end of this change.
We went to the temple today, it was amazing. We did endowments and then some baptisms for the dead. I felt like Alma baptizing a thousand souls in the waters of mormon, tan pudette. It was super hard to do the endowments in spanish though.
My diet doesn't really change, neither of my companions cook very much so I usually make pancakes and omelets in the morning, for lunch either pasta, rice, baked potatoes, lomitos (burritos), or just bread and jam. usually too tired to make food at night so we just sleep. But I actually really enjoy cooking, not for a job though because when I cook something tan riquisimo I want to eat it right after.
Oh and happy super late birthday randy, perdoname for forgetting but you cant get mad cuz i bought you a pretty sweet soccer jersey. and whats the latest scoop, tiene una linda novia ya? Reece? Coming up on 16 pretty soon, I'm sure the girls are lining up at the door but do you have any early picks?
Alright so this week I really want to encourage you to do your home teaching. This is one thing we lack in Guarambare, only a few members really go out and fulfill their callings, and when they do they see a lot of success and can definately see a difference in the familias they visit. Just bake em a few cookies, visit for 20 minutes, share a message from the Liahona, and if your really up for the challenge invite them to make a small commitment for the week according to your lesson (do more service for uno a otro, give a libro de mormon to someone, invite someone to church) algo asi. sincillo pero poderoso.

gracias por todo,
les amo muchisimo!

Elder LaFaye

Miguel Nunez sus sobrinos

6 months out

6 months is crazy, I cant believe a quarter of my mission is over!
Thanks for the shoes! My rockports are still rockin but the inside is rubbin away so I re-inforced them with mole skin. Looking forward to the peanut butter haha. Oh I actually found some pb in Asuncion! I stopped by a huge food store down there and came across some, but the paraguayos make it super sugury instead of with salt, so i do miss the good crunchy american stuff. I bought a camera here for about 100 bucks, its pretty legit. I could have waited and bought a 20 dollar one in Cuidad de Este but I didn't want to wait. I guess Cuidad de Este is some kind of import city so everything is super cheap.
So my companion is Elder James Bowers from Wyoming. He has about 14 months in the mission so he speaks a little better than me. Elder Skyler Schone was my trainers name, he is the man. I learned so much from him. When he finished my training he was called to be a zone leader in Asuncion with only 7 months in the field, that's almost unheard of. But cambios are April 4 so i could leave then or stay in guarambare. i love my little town but i do like change so vamos a ver.

Todavia haku here, don't think it will cool down till May :( but im slowly getting acustomed to the humid heat. Good job with the Rubiks cube and science olympiad teams mom! One kid on the streets was playing around with a Rubiks cube thinking it was impossible to solve. I forgot most of the pattern but I solved one side in under a minute and gave it back to him. (think i busted his brain a bit).

Bien hecho con su nuevo trabajo papa! and i think reece has officially beat my record in long jump, way to go man. robby if you do everything dad tells you to your are going to get ripped up like rambo in no time. randy, walk on basketball would be sweet, just make sure I get court side tickets. Benjamin feliz cumple año! haha good job with the 80s theme Caitlyn, send me some pics if you've got some.
Thanks for praying for Miguel, he has dropped alcohol and cigarettes completely, but is going through some crazy withdrawls and can barely stand up.

Alright so I'm super excited for this weeks challenge for you all. For family home evening do whatever you need to do to feel the spirit: sing your favorite hymns, pray on your knees, listen to church music in the background, anything. Then think of around 5 people you would like to the missionaries to go visit. (or however many you can think of). Then of those 5 pick 3 who would be most likely to progress and accept the Gospel and circle them. Then of those 3, choose one person whom you think is the most ready/likely to be baptized and put a star next to them. when done all of you give your papers to the missionaries with names, phone numbers and addresses if you have them. Missionaries absolutley love references, they should report back to you how the contact went, but if they dont just ask them. Have fun and suerte!

Tambien any news on my patriarchal blessing? Do you know how to get a copy? Also if you could ask bro Cook or Tenney how to get my priesthood line of authority, that would be fantastic!

Oh and those of you who are friends Johanna Valdez on facebook, she is awesome. (i think her name is paula or something of fb). But she is like my little sister down here. Feel free to ask her any questions, just type whatever into google translate first or ask randy.

les amo,
Elder LaFaye

Working with the menos activos

Bi-tu-go-pio!

Not a great week for us in Guarambare. We didnt have any investigators in the reunion. Our best investigator quien tiene 2 asistencias just went to the penitentionary in Asuncion for robbing a moto. He knows he needs to turn his life around and knows that the book of mormon is true, when he gets out he told us he wants to be baptized as soon as he can. But for now he has a lot more time to read the Book of Mormon.

We are working a lot with the menos activos right now. We went around with our presidente to a few menos activos this week but we are planning on doing splits with presidente and the first counselor this week. we want to get them more active in home teaching so they can get the other priesthood holders more involved.

Nuestros conversos recientes are doing great. Familia Reyes were out of town when presidente Callan came, they were really looking forward to meeting him too. We have taught them the charlas, and Nery Reyes is preparing to recieve the socerdocio mayor at the end of this month. He always loves to share his testimony, he is going to be a great teacher.

Right now I'm studying in the end of Mosiah. I love the story of Alma the younger when talking about arrepentimiento. I still need to improve on getting my investigators to read un parte del libro de mormon in the first lesson, so i will focus on this as well as getting them to pray on their own. I was reading through my notes from the mtc and the first day i learned that in the first lesson your goal should be to help them read some of the book of mormon, pray on their own, give some thought on baptism, and help them recognize the spirit. Once I can get these 4 points down, I think our first lessons with nuevos are going to be much better in the long run.

Elder Bowers is doing a good job as district leader, always thinking of how we can improve our weaknesses. I went on cambios con Elder Vasquez in Ita this week. It was great to have a latino comp and work in a new area. I always enjoy change, when I don't add change I tend to fall into a routine, but change always makes me work harder. Adapt, Improvise, and Overcome!

Gracias por todo,

les amo
elder lafaye

A New Companion

How pé,

Gherson Reyes was baptized and confirmed! We decided to baptize him on tuesday before cambios so elder Schone could be there. The Reyes family are fantastic, still coming every sunday, paying tithing, participating in elders quorom, and even visiting menos activos. We have to in plan still because they didn't come to church last week. Ever Gonzalez has 2 asistencias but is still drinking and smoking, he wants to stop so we are going to keep working with him to drop them. Right now we are working with a lot of new investigators with only one or two lessons taught so far. We did some service for one of our members last saturday cutting down a tree, IT WAS HUGE! I hoisted up my companion with a rope and then he hacked away with a machete for about 45 minutes, it started pouring down rain and thundering about half way through to make it even more fun. He gave us some good references so we are going to go teach his sobrinos with him.

I had intercambios con elder Nelson from Saint George, we had the funniest lesson I had ever seen. We were at this guys house, 25 yrs old, who we taught once with elder Schone. when we were about to start the lesson he said he didn't want to pray because he didn't like my new companion. elder Nelson was a little confused and asked if there was something he did, or something he could do to fix it. He said no, not even God could help him, he just did not like him for some reason. He kept saying things like no me gusta, no me cae bien. It was like this for a good 5 minutes trying to figure out what was going on and what I should do, I was about to tell him we can come back tomorrow with my other companion elder Bowers and hopefully he would like him. Then he just started busting up laughing saying it was all a joke.

My new companion Elder Bowers is doing a good job adapting to the new area, he is very obediant and is excited to be a district leader. He's from Wyoming and has a sister serving in Washington. It's a whole new experience for me to switch companions and go from the training schedule to the regular missionary schedule, but I like it, more time to go out and work.
My health is great, my shoes are a little beat on the insole so I'm trying to look for some new ones but cant find any in guarambare.

Sweet, I hope you have all started the book of mormon. Here's some other ideas while your marking it.
Go through and really focus on the atonement of Christ, faith, repentance, baptism, recieving the holy ghost, and enduring to the end.
Write references. Every time possible try to think of another verse in the scriptures that is related to the one your reading and write it down. By the end its amazing to see how many connections and examples of different principles there are.
You can read through it and look up every footnote, cirle ones you like and circle the word in the verse and draw a line through it with a light yellow marker or something. it looks awesome.
just remember the key is to mark like crazy, dont mark too much as to lose the advantage of highlighting, but have fun with it. :)

Gracias por todo,

con amor,

Elder LaFaye