Week 38 - Kennedy - Up coming Baptisms, Rejections, Monkey, Flooded House

This week was great, we had 2 people in church on Sunday, and D. is going to get baptized this Saturday! Also, W. is still on track for the next Saturday. He´s 20 years old and already married, a miracle here in Paraguay, because people almost never get married by themselves.

Also, we´ve been able to find quite a few people to teach this week. We talked to just about as many people as normal, but most the people who rejected us rejected us hard, but it was worth it, because there was even more people who let us in than usual. I´ve heard that this is supposed to be a dificult area, but it´s Paraguay, all the areas are awesome here.

I saw a monkey this last week for the second time, it was chained to a post in someone´s yard, I´d always thought it would be cool to have a monkey as a pet, but he just didn´t seem super kid friendly to me. Maybe it just depends on the monkey. I still need to see a wild one.

Also, in church, there´s someone who knows how to play the piano, so that´s awesome.

One other thing I´ve noticed is that every person that I´ve heard of that has really been touched by the gospel didn´t really follow it until at least their second time hearing about it.

We also had another rainstorm, and we didn´t have water or lights when we woke up, and water started coming in our back door, so that was exciting.

Elder Bowles

Dad-Tell Brett that if he doesn´t go to Paraguay Asunción North, he needs to send his call back and ask for a new one.

 

I was on a division with the district leader when Elder Johnson contacted the reference, and we came back the other day and she said we had to come back later when her man wasn´t there. And she wouldn´t even go inside to ask him, she just assumed he didn´t like the missionaries. The women here don´t ever give their maridos chances to be nice, it´s kinda sad. She needs to at least talk to him, because they´re not married.

 

Really one thing that I´ve noticed lately is that if you have faith that God will give you success, he will help you. Also Alma 26:27 is great, a nice quote from Ammon about missionary work and life in general.

 

Julia- I have no idea how big the stake is. The zone has 20 something missionaries in it though, my last stake had about 10 wards/branches. The people don´t accept service here really all that much, they just laugh at you when you offer and then let you in their house. For me, I like studying the scriptures, paying attention to where I am (chapters) in the Book of Mormon or the Bible, so that I can remember exactly where all the stories are so I can find them when I need them. You could also tell Dad to rob you a Preach my Gospel, because it has a whole chapter on effective study and other cool chapters as well. 

 

Kami- That sounds fun kidnapping people.The Hermana Madariaga sends candy to us for our birthdays, and members here have already asked me when my birthday is, so if I´m here for it I think they´re gonna do something for me (his birthday is April 1st, if anyone here wants to do something).

 

Mom- Elder Peralta, who got here 4 weeks ago, from Peru, is 18. A crowded MTC is no fun. Super long lunch lines, and it is hard to find computers to write your family. More missionaries are going to have to be trainers more than once here because of the influx of missionaries.