Week 94~~New Companion

Welp, its pday again.. I swear the weeks go by faster and faster! I saw Elder Guevara in the office on Wednesday, he was on his way home with all the guys from his group.. It`s crazy to think that he`s done already! I remember when I was put with him, I had about 5 months in the mission and he had about 7. The both of us were still really new! I can`t believe its been more than a year since we were companions. Well....

QUESTIONS:

1. So I have already heard through Elder Johnson's mom that he was transferred. I am sorry you couldn't be with Elder Johnson longer. You two seemed to get along really well. Are you still in Ypane?
Yeah, I`m still here! I miss Elder Johnson though :( Whenever I`ve gotten a new companion I`ve always done ok with the changes, and I`ve loved all of my companions.. But it`s been hard without Elder Johnson! The first couple mornings were really hard because I was so used to him there, even though we were only companions for 1 change. He became one of my best friends, so its hard now that he`s not here anymore.

2. Who is your new companion? Where is he from? Are you training?
Well.. I don`t know him yet! haha I`m training! My new companion is still in Mexico waiting on his visas.. So right now I`m with a local missionary from Ybaté! It`s really close to Lambare. His names Elder Ortellado. He`s awesome! He just got done with EFY so he`s pretty excited to go out and do missionary work. It`s nice having a local missionary as a companion because he can connect better with the people here. Its been good! I thought he was like 20 when I first met him because he`s a big kid, but no.. he`s only 17!

3. How is Diego doing? Did you meet with him anymore last week? What about the older couple that you met that gave you the star fruit?
We havent been able to meet with Diego yet this week :( He`s been really busy, but we have an appointment with him tonight! I hope it pulls through. And the older couple, the Caballero´s, are doing well. They still havent come to church yet, but they always let us in to share with them and they give us food! haha and gasified water XP They gave us home made guava jam.. It`s pretty delicious. But guavas don`t really taste that good fresh off the tree. They actually taste a lot like pumpkin.. You eat the seeds too and they`re just like chewing on grape nuts, only bigger. The home made juice isn`t that good either.. Only the storebought kind.

4. What was your memorable experience this past week?
Probably changes.. I remember sitting there right before all the nubes came in.. and they were all.. Latins. Exept for one! But hey, it`s about time we get some color up in here! I wish all these guys would have come in a year ago! I feel like the work goes a lot better with them.. they already have the language down, which helps us yanquis, and the people here warm right up to them! Everyone thinks that the Americans are spies! Pfft..

5. What is your temp. up to in Paraguay these days?
The other day it was 43 degrees celcius.. and 100% humidity. So it`s pretty hot right now. I can`t even imagine how nice the weather is in Idaho right now! Nice and cold!

Well, that`s pretty much my week.. We`ve been working on a couple families, trying to get them back to church. Yesterday was a good day at church, the 4 of us missionaries talked about missionary work. I talked about some stuff from Preach My Gospel and used some verses from D&C. I shared an experience I had in Miami.. I remember walking down the street one day, knocking doors, and I was going to the door of this one house and saw a lady sitting on her front step. She was on the phone so I waited for her to finish. I could tell it wasnt a good phone call, so I asked her what was wrong. She told me that it was her sister who had called and told her that their dad was on his death bed, and she was worried about her dad going to hell because he hadn`t been "saved" yet, and that he didn`t want to accept any religion. I was able to bare a small testimony of the Plan of Salvation with her, telling her that I knew her dad wasnt going to burn in hell, but that she would see him again after this life in the spirit world. I hope what I said to her gave her some peace of mind.. I used the scripture in D&C 100 that talks about how the Spirit will give us the words that we should say.. I was just a 17 year old kid when I talked to her, I didn`t do anything, I just opened my mouth and the Holy Ghost was able to give me the words she needed to hear.
That`s how it is.. All we have to do is open our mouths and they will be filled with what we need to say. And the more we learn from the scriptures, the easier it will be to share the Gospel.

I love you!! Have a ballin week!
Elder Colby Dane Heiner

Bad news.. The USB port on this computer doesn`t work. Sorry! I`ve got pictures though, don`t worry! Until next week!

Week 93 No Mom's, No Rules!

 Ok.. So I still do have rules, but we say that a lot here. I liked the emails I got! And the pictures! I can´t believe that Drake´s already 25! He looks good with his new family :D I´m excited to meet Nicole and Grace. And Damon looks like a little man-child! There´s a word for that here.. Bevo. Bebe varón, it really means man child.. Alright, here´s the questions n stuff!

QUESTIONS:
 

1. How has your week been this past week? How is Diego doing?
This week was a little harder, a lot of appointments fell, but Diego is still a stud! He didnt go to church yesterday though, but I think he´s gonna go next week. He speaks Portuguese too! We talked a little bit in Portuguese last night and I realized how much I had forgotten! I think I´m gonna study it in college.
 

2. How was church? Did you give any lessons or talks?
It was pretty dang good. I didnt have to do anything really. Just sit back and enjoy the classes and talks! Elder Johnson and I got a picture with the Stake President yesterday. President Benitez- he´s awesome! He talked about the talk that Elder Ballard gave about the bee´s and how they all work together just to make a half kilo of honey. Then he related it to missionary work! He told all the members that they need to set up teaching appointments with their friends that come to play soccer on Wednesday nights. It was pretty sweet! He said that if they do that, the ward and stake will grow. That´s how he was baptized! Then he went on a mission, etc...
 

3. Have you had some good discussions with any investigators this past week?
Yeah, we found an older couple last week that are really nice. They gave us a big bag of Carambolas (its a star-shaped fruit) so we could make juice. They love us! They showed us their huge Catholic bible with all the pictures of the popes and of Mary and all this other stuff, and we taught them the message of the Restoration and about the Book of Mormon and invited them to be baptized.. The lady said that if its God´s will, she´ll do it. I guess she almost died a few years back and she feels like God gave her a second chance, and that her and her husband are in debt to him.. Wow! I´ve never heard a Catholic talk like that! They always say, "Si Dios quiere.." or "Puede ser.." which really means no..

We also had a good visit with Diego last night.. We talked about the Atonement and shared a lot of scriptures and bore testimony. It was a really good visit and I think it helped him a lot.. You can tell he´s had a rough past, so he´s ready for the comfort of the Gospel!
 

4. What was you most memorable experience?

Every month we have a zone meeting where we get together and talk about goals and mission changes and announcements and all that stuff, and we had one last week that was awesome! The zone leaders called some of the members in and had them talk to us about how we can work better together. We split off into groups and they shared some ideas that we can do with them! It was pretty awesome.

We did a reference activity with a famliy, the Notario´s, that was really cool. I remember something that Bobby from Caaguazú told Elder Shaw and I that we could do to get references.. Like good ones! We shared a little about the story of the brother of Jared and read the verses when God touched the rocks so that his ships could have light. After we read that, we had everyone write down 3 or 4 names on little slips of paper, then we made them into little "rocks", then we had one of them say a prayer to help them know which "rocks" were ready.. Then they each picked out 1 "rock". The dad picked out the name that he wrote down of one of his neighbors, then the son picked out the name of one of his friends that just so happened to be the son of the family that his dad picked! Then the mom picked out a family that she wrote on the paper. It was cool because Elder Johnson took all the "rocks" in his hands and shook them like dice and put them on the ground. So it was interesting to see that they each picked out a name that they wrote.

 

 

5. Is it changes tomorrow? Do you think you and Elder Johnson will get to stay together one more change?
I have a feeling like I´m training again.. I dont know though. But I´m almost positive that Elder Johnson is gone because he´s already been here for 6 months. That would be awesome if he could stay! But 6 months is pretty much the longest time you´re in an area here. Sometimes its longer, but I think he´ll be going :( But this next change is only 5 weeks long because of all the changes in the MTC, then the change after that is a normal 6 week change. And then...... You know. :D

Well, that was pretty much the week I had! Enjoy the pictures!

I love you!!
Elder Colby Dane Heiner

 

 

 

 

Week 92~~ Coming Home a week Earlier then planned!!

I never know what to say in the subject box anymore! But I have been here for a while, so... I guess thats what happens.

QUESTIONS:

Here's a few that we have been wondering about since Christmas~

1. What did you end up doing on Christmas? What did you get yourself for Christmas?
We just had a normal day.. Down here they celebrate Christmas on January 6th.. They call it Majic King day or something like that. Basically, they use Christmas Eve as another excuse to get wasted, not work, and just play soccer all day.. But I got myself a nice beach towel for Christmas. It has a lion family on it.. It`s pretty majestic. You`ll see it in a few months :D

2. What did you do for New Year's?
We went to a lady`s house in our ward and had dinner with her and her son. Her son I guess just wants to smoke weed all the time and listen to music. It was a fun night with them though, not to mention she told us like a thousand times about how content she was to have four missionaries at her house. "Qué contenta que estoy!!" hahaha.. Then she offered us apple flavored wine. And we taught the Word of Wisdom..

3. You had mentioned baptisms how did those go?
Yeah, three people got baptized a couple weeks ago. It was a good service, probably the best organized that I`ve been to down here. But one of the guys that got baptized is drinking again :( We went by to see how he was doing yesterday, but he was drunk and started yelling, so we left.

4. Has your mission ben effected by the wave of new missionaries coming out yet?
Not yet.. But... (number 5)

5. Has your mission president talked about the impact this will have on your mission at all?

(Will some of you be asked to stay longer to help train or will they send some missionaries home a little early to make room?)
I guess we all go home a week early! So I will have been a missionary for exactly 2 years. I`m not really sad over it.. It`s only a week. So yeah, that`s what I know for now. I don`t know if you`ll get a new travel plan or not..

6. Were you able to go have some fun like you talked about in last week's letter?
No, not yet. There`s a member here that served his mission in New Jersey that wanted to take us fishing, but it was gonna be way too expensive so we dicided to stay home. But we`re gonna try to find something. But yesterday, we climbed a mango tree at a members house and we could totally see the river that separates Paraguay and Argentina.. And for that same family, we made corndogs! And they loved it. They`d never had anything like it..

7. What was your memorable experience this past week?
We had interviews! That was a suprise. They called us the day before and told us to be in Ñemby. Then later that night, I guess President and the asistants when over to our house with Elder Althoff and Elder Lumpkin and flipped. Our house was pretty messy.. I`ve been living out of my suitcases ever since I got here. So has Elder Althoff. So the front room looked like a mess.. We also didn`t have study desks so that didn`t help either. We`ve been calling the office elders the whole change trying to get the stuff and they were "really busy" so they couldn`t get it out to us. After President came, they had the stuff out in a few days. They were hesitant on sending us more beds too when I first got here, then we told them that two of us slept on the floor.   Tomorrow President is coming back out with the asistants to do another check up. They took pictures the last time because they want to do a presentation now on bad pensions and stuff. They`re coming back tomorrow to take the "after shot" and now everyone in the mission is going to see our messy house.  Not very cool for us.  Whatevs!

Other than that, we had a pretty good week! We found a lot of new people to teach, with hopefully a couple baptisms coming up. We`re teaching this one guy named Diego that`s pretty cool. He`s super sincere and honest, which is very rare. He`s always there when he says he`s gonna be there, and if he didn`t read or pray, he tells us. We invited him to be baptized on February 16th and he said yes! He`s a stud.

Elder Johnson and I got matching water jugs last week.. Its what they use here to pour water into their tereré. I`ll show you how they do it when I get home.. But the jug has like this sick tiger print on it, with my name etched into it, and Ypané 2011-2013, and... A buffalo head..? I don`t know why the guy put it on there, but whatever. Its still pretty cool though! It was only like 20 bucks. Also, Elder Johnson is trying to convince me to go to Arizona to run track. He`s a runner too and ran in college.. I think it would be fun, but I`ve eaten too many empanadas and oily noodles.. I don`t have the body I used to have. I`m hairy and I`ve kinda got a gut. We`ll see what the Lord wants me to do though.

Mom sent me 2 new toothbrushes and some new toothpaste and stuff like that a while ago.. I started using one of the toothbrushes 3 months ago, so I might start using the other one now.. I still have lots of toothpaste too.

Welp, I`m gonna go jump on a bus to go buy groceries! And buy some empanadas for breakfast!

Love you!!
Elder Colby Dane Heiner

Week 91

Its another week down.. Can´t believe it! It was a good week with some fun times! I love this area!

1. How was your New Year's Celebration?
It was good :D I was able to sleep through the fireworks! Now, they dont do fireworks like they do in Melba, but EVERYONE AND THEIR MOM plays with fireworks here! Kinda like Whistling Pete´s and M-80´s and stuff.. All. Night. Long. But like I said, I was able to sleep through it :D

2. Do you have bapism's lined up.
Kind of.. We have a lot of investigators, just no one that´s committing. But, I´m used to it..

3. What was your most memorable experience this past week?
Probably yesterday.. It was a good day! Still lots of Catholic and Jehova´s Whitness rejection, but we still taught some golden people too!
Two stories:
#1 (this ones a chunk of coal right now, but he´ll be a diamond soon) We went to teach this guy we found a few days ago. He was there and I´m pretty sure he´ll accept the Gospel.. His brother (the chunk of coal) was also there, and he started speaking to me in Portuguese! So I spoke back! He was just doing it to be funny, but it´s really annoying. There are a lot of Paraguayans that say they´re Brazilian because they don´t wanna admit they´re from Paraguay. So then he started speaking to us in Spanish, which was fine, obviously, and just talked at us for like 20 minutes because he was drunk.. "I don´t let anyone in my house unless they´re Nazi´s or spies!", "You mean you don´t let Nazi´s or spies in your house..", "Exactamente.." (that´s a common error here, they always get their words mixed up.) Then their OTHER drunk brother came over and started talking at us. So now there´s 3.. 1 sober and 2 drunk.. The 2 drunk ones were arguing because they both wanted the floor. So the one that was speaking in Portuguese, the first one, grabbed his brother to throw him in the creek! (We were about 10 feet above a creek, strait drop off..) Then he told us that we can´t fool him! He knows all about the Bible and God and stuff.. "If you guys are spies, its not cool unless you´re spies for Jesus. So go be Jesus´ spies..." He says.. So we told him to not drink on Wednesday because we´re going by.. So we´re gonna help all 3 out. There´s the short version of that story, I left a lot of stuff out for the lack of time..
#2 (another chunk of coal, turning to a diamond..) Right after that whole scenario with the drunk guy kuera, we went to another guy and had the most spiritual lesson I´ve had in about 8 months. We taught this guy named Victor like 5 days ago, he started out as a contact in front of the Catholic church, now he´s humbling himself a little. He still doesnt wanna pray, but he´s getting there. Alright, so we got to his house and we saw the Book of Mormon open to where we marked and we thought, "yes he read!" But he didnt.. So we read 3 Nephi 11 with him, well just a part of it, and the Holy Ghost was super strong! We were explaining everything and testifying like crazy and I could see the change in his face as we were there with him. He says he wont get baptized even if God tells him, but I know he will.

4. Do you have some pictures for us?
Yeeeess

It was a good week! It flew by. We´ve decided that we wanna have more fun! We see pictures of other returned missionaries here and they had lots of fun on their missions! But we dont! We can only get together as a district once a change. So we´re nice and bored for the most part.. So tonight, we´re going to a members house to make corndogs! We´re getting crazy!! Whoaaa bro watch out! Seriously though, I wanna have more fun. :P

Drake and Nicole look great in those pictures! I cant wait to meet her and Grace! I like the Hummer they took. And was Dad wearing my old suit??! Nice work ya old fart! And happy birthday in 3 days!! You´re the man!

Welp, I lost my train of thought..

I love you!!
Elder Colby Dane Heiner

~~PICTURES TO COME~~