Hola Familia,
Well this week has been a good week out here in Hernandarias. Here are some updates of some things that are different here.
1. We have some parrots right outside the house of our neighbors that are constantly screaming. Sometimes they sound like a couple of little girls screaming, and it kind of gets annoying.
2. We don't have the purified water delivery here, so we have to put chlorine in our water to be able to drink it somewhat purified. Can anyone say swimming pool?
3. We don't have an airconditioning that works, so we end up sleeping with just fans in the middle of the summer.
4. Summer has started up again, and is getting really hot. I always know it is summer when I start sweating just sitting on the pot.....I'm not too fond of having to go to the bathroom anymore.
Well this week we got to go exploring a little bit. We wanted to get to a part of an area that was on the opposite side of where we were one day. There was no road through, so we took option B, going through the fence. We ended up going through a forest like area for about 15 minutes, finally we got out of that, walked through some fields, about 4 barbed wire fences, and finally we got to a dirt path. I've never been more glad to see a dirt path in my life.
Another day in the week we were in the same situation in another part of our area. We decided again to do the same. This time we passed a banana tree, that had a couple of ripe ones that we took off and ate. We then passed a couple of fences and fileds, and then finally got where we needed to go.
This week we tried using an anology in the teaching to help people understand. To explain that we have to be clean in the celestial kingdom, we used the following example. If you had an all white house, with white carpet, and everything, and I came over with muddy shoes, and face and hands and everything, would you let me in? Well turns out the Paraguayans would. 3 out of 3 times, they answered, yeah why not. Nothing better to completely ruin a good example than a
paraguayan. ;)
I went on divisions on Tuesday with my old companion, Elder King. It was really weird having him be my ZL now, but it was really fun on divisions. It was cool to see how much he has progressed. It was fun being on divisions with him. At night, we went to a dinner at a members house, and it just so happens that Elder Watson was there as well since they are in the same ward. I got to catch up with him a bunch as well. There were out of 4 people there, there was 3 of us that were out in Acahay.
We taught a drunk guy on lke Friday this week. We sat down and said the prayer, he apparently didn't hear the amen, because he sat there for a good minute more before he opened his eyes and looked up. Not sure if he was sleeping or what. He then wanted to say his own prayer, and proceeded to pray to Mary. He wanted us to repeat what he was saying, and we just told him we couldn't. He then had some random sobbing spurts before we sayed a prayer and left.
We taught a guy that speaks only in Guarani. He understands Spanish though, and since I can understand most of Guarani now, he speaks in Guarani, and I respond in Spanish. Kind of a strange way to teach. He is the first person that I have ever given a Guarani BOM to. Finally getting a good use out of that.
On one of the days of the week it rained a lot, and we had to go out to a campo part of our area. It was really muddy, and so my shoes got mud coming up to about the ankle area. It got really heavy on the shoes, and was useless to try and rub off. At least we know that the Paraguayans would invite us in their house anyway. (which they actually did)
We also had a lesson yesterday, where we passed by to teach a guy we found last week. when we saw him, we saw he had a book in his hands and was reading it. I told my companion, that would be awesome if that's the BOM. Turns out it was. He read 3 nephi 11 that we left him, and then read the introduction, the Joseph smith story, and until 1 nephi 3. We set a baptismal date with him in one year. In January.
We had a ton of people we had found that committed to go to church this week, so we were expecting a good turn out. Well the Lord always has different ways then us, and well, nobody came of our investigators.
I found out on divisions with Elder King, that this district that I am in now, is one of two lowest baptizing districts in the mission. Our area in Hernandarius 2, is one of the lowest in the mission. It has had about 1 baptism every 8 months or so. Well the good news is, I don't think that it can get any worse right. President sent me a letter this week saying he knows I have the faith to be able to lift the area. I am really going to have to keep working hard, and give it everything I have got. I need to get more help from my comp as well, because he is kind of already trunky. The Lord really enjoys putting me in tough situations, but honestly I wouldn't have it any other way. I have come to realize I really have needed the trials and testing that I have had in my mission. The Lord knows me too well, I think he knew that a lot of my weaknesses will only be purified with lots and lots of fire.
Well that's the gist of this week. Lots of heat, and lots of walking. We did find 17 new investigators again, and we had 22 baptismal invitations in the week. I am working as hard as I can, but I think I need to work on being more effecient as well.
I love you guys tons, and hope all is well back home. The calls are coming up in a couple of weeks. We are probably going to try and do it on the 24th around 6 (In Paraguay) Let me know when you guys can. Also, do you need the codes or do you already have them?
Lova ya,
Elder Griffin
No comments:
Post a Comment