Week 74 Mba' erejapota che socio kuera!!

What´s up peeps! HEY!! I didn´t know Jeri Lynn got her call!! Where is she going?! Tell her I said congrats!! That´s way exciting :D Welp, I´m still down here in Paraguay.. For almost a year and a half.. Wow. I´ve been thinking about my mission a lot lately and everything I´ve done here. I´m so happy I came! I´ve changed a lot and I feel like I have a good direction of what I want to do with my life. I don´t have any regrets or complaints of how the mission has been for me. I´m sure I havn´t baptized or helped as many people as other Elders have, but I´m very content with the change that I´ve seen within myself. I´ve found the secret of happiness.. Are you ready? Live the Gospel. Not just on Sundays, but every day of the week. There it is. I didn´t understand why the church has so many "rules" before I came on the mission, but now I know and understand. Thanks to modern-day revelation, we have the commandments so that God can bless us! Members of the Church don´t have vices, we don´t do stupid things that put our life in danger, we live the commandments... And God blesses us for it! Like Mosiah 2:41 says, we´re "blessed in all things, spiritual and temporal.." I´m glad we have the commandments! :D

QUESTIONS:

1. How are Venancio, Ramon, and Fransisco and his girlfriend progressing this past week? Have you had some good teaching moments with them?
They´re doing great! Well, we can´t find Ramón.. I think people that served in Latin countries understand how it is a little better. For example, you go and clap their house for the 2nd or 3rd appointment, the lights are on, the door is open, you hear people talking... You clap again and they realize that someone is there! They look out the window and see the missionaries, and tuck their head back behind the curtain or hide in the corner thinking that we didn´t see them.. Then they send one of the women out to say, "Mi papá no está..." , "Bueno.. ¿Puedes preguntarle cuando va a estar?" And they go back to ask!! Then come back to say they just got in the shower.. So yeah, we havn´t found Ramón for over a week..

2. Is Venancio still getting baptized on the 22nd?
Heck yes he is!! He´s a stud! I´ll keep you posted on him.

3. Did you get your air conditioner installed yet?
No not yet.. Our landlord said he´s gonna do it, but I´m tempted to get a chisel and a sledge hammer to do it myself!

4. What was your most memorable experience this week?
Umm... Haha. We went to a members house for lunch and we were enjoying a nice bowl of Paraguay soup with a bone it it.. And all of a sudden, the sister who gave us the food started beating her younger brother.. I dont know what the poor kid did to deserve it, he´s probably the most chill kid in the branch.. But she ripped his shirt off of him and was slapping his back. Not to mention she probably had him by 3 inches and a good 80 pounds.. The weird part though, is that they didn´t make any noise.. It was like they were fighting at a museum or an art gallery or something. Or it was like watching the TV without sound.. Haha. So she went back in the house and I sang the words "when there´s love at home.." to my companion. We couldnt hold it in haha we were laughing pretty hard. Then the sister came back out, all out of breath, and said, "Hows the food Elders?" There was no apology or anything haha. Crazy stuff.

5. How is the branch doing?
It´s good.. It´s growing! A lot of the inactive and less active members are starting to come back :D Everyone is getting fired up to do missionary work! We´ve been giving more service for the members and they´re warming up to us a little bit more.. Everyone thinks we´re so serious! So we´re gonna spend more time with the members this week to show them you can have fun while you share the Gospel! I´m gonna show the Spanish speaking Elders in Idaho whats up when I get back.. Splits!

6. How are things with you and Elder Whaley? Are you guys still getting along?
He´s a stud.. I´ve learned a ton from him! He´s a way good example and I feel like I´ve progressed a lot spiritually with him.

7. Is your branch president still supportive and excited with what you are doing?
Yeah he´s always asking us when we need his help again! We haven´t really needed him lately because we haven´t really found any new investigators.. But yeah, he´s a stud branch president!

8. Are you walking around with your machete's looking for service? Ha!
No.. We went one day and just started sweeping out front of the house of one of the member families and they ended up giving us lunch.. It was pretty cool! They lightened up a lot with us!

We found a family of 5 people this last week! Well, they found us! We just had an appointment fall and were walking up the street, all of a sudden a drunk guy starts calling us over to his house. Normally we wouldn´t have gone, but we decided to! So we got there and found out that they almost got baptized a year ago but the missionaries were moved out! They don´t know what happened to them. They had been drinking some wine because it was the wife´s birthday.. But they´re way cool! They love us! They have 3 younger daughters, I think the oldest one is like 11 or something, and they were way excited to see us! So we´re going over tonight to celebrate the youngest daughter´s birthday! She´s like 5 I think.. They´re awesome!

I´ve been studying more in the Bible lately, looking for evidences of the church that Christ formed.. For example, Christ´s church should declare divine authority, it should have prophets and apostles.. There should be no paid positions, and other things like that.. I´ve got a list of about 24 things like that that I got from the returned missionary of our branch.. It´s legit! So I´m gonna finish that today.. I think the most important thing though, is asking God through prayer. You can have all the evidences in the world, and it still won´t be valid without the confimation by the Holy Ghost.. Like it will never be good enough without an answer from God. Pray. Ask.. and be willing to follow the impressions of the Holy Ghost!

That´s my two bits! This week was bomb! And this next week is going to be better! :D
Love y´all!!
Elder Colby Dane Heiner