Semana Santa

Well the tradition in Paraguay for Easter is a little bit different than in the US. They celebrate it in a week called "Semana Santa," it's a catholic tradition so unfortunately it is what they all celebrate here in all parts. They pretty much just eat the food they call Chipa. It in the shape of a donut, but is just the flour from mandioca, with Paraguayan cheese. It is actually pretty good, but they’re a little too obsessed with it here. On Tuesday after our district meeting, my companion started feeling sick. We stayed in the house pretty much the entire week. Unfortunately our phone stopped working at the same time, and so we were completely out of contact with everyone. We were in the house Tuesday until Saturday. 5 days of staying inside. It was kind of a frustrating experience, but if my companion isn’t feeling good enough to go outside, I can’t really tell him that we need to go out and work. Needless to say, I got a good amount of studying done. I read the entire April ensign that had arrived that Tuesday. I also am about to finish the new testament…. I’m in Revelations…. And I started the Book of Mormon again, and I’m in 2nd Nephi 20 or so. I also reviewed two chapters in Preach My Gospel. So pretty much it was good to study, but I didn’t have the attention span to be studying the whole time, so I also felt like we just wasted a lot of time. This week was the least lessons that I have taught in the mission, 10 lessons in the whole week… not so great. Well about the lessons that we did teach this week… We were teaching two younger guys that are members of the seventh day Adventists. We had some pretty good lessons with them on last Sunday and on Tuesday as well. On Tuesday we got to their house, and they said that they had read and prayed, and that they didn’t feel anything. We explained the importance of praying with faith, and that we have to have a sincere heart. My companion invited them to do a prayer on their knees, and they accepted. I felt kind of awkward, and was kind of wondering why my companion was doing that since they had already prayed. I was feeling anxious when we started to pray. Then when they prayed, I just felt a feeling of peace come over me, and the thought popped into my head: “¿porqúe no confias en mi?” (why don’t you trust in me?) It was something that kind of surprised me, and I was thinking about it a lot afterwards. I had not put my trust in the promise of the Book of Mormon that anybody can receive a testimony of the book. I had a lack of confidence, and it had been replaced with anxiousness and fear. It really helped me to realize that I have to trust more in the lord. That I have to have a better confidence in the Book of Mormon, if I want others to come to know that it is true. Yesterday we passed again, and they had their brother come out to “listen” as well. They just wanted to argue with us and try to prove us wrong, and of course with both of us having good time in the mission, and both knowing the Bible pretty well just retorted their scriptures with other scriptures in the Bible. We weren’t getting anywhere more than just defending against what they were saying with the scriptures, and so we both started just sharing our testimony, the only thing that they can’t argue with. They still didn’t want to understand, and just couldn’t understand the fact that they can only know if they ask God. I felt such a strong desire to help them understand what we understand of the gospel, but the hardened their hearts and didn’t want to listen to what the spirit wanted. Well changes are coming up again in a week and a half or so. Meaning that I will not be writing again until Thursday. I’m not sure on the whole calling yet, but I’ll let you know when we find out. Love you guys tons, and hope that you have a fantastic week. I’ll talk to you later. Love, Elder Griffin