Then cousin Jake gets his call to Indonisia!! YEAHHHHH!! Give me the deets! When does he leave? That`s so awesome! I`m so excited for him! Way to go man!!
Haley gave me a pretty good update on the boys! I`m excited to meet them! I know I`ve already seen Damon, but He`s just a little man child now and I haven`t been there for any of it.
QUESITONS-
1. How is Elder Ashton? Where is he from? Why will he only be with you for two weeks? Is that when changes are again and you will get a new companion?
He`s awesome! We`ve been working well together. He`s from Gunnison, Utah! But yeah, only 2 weeks :( President emailed him today and said that he`ll be gone at changes.. Well, that means I will have had 12 companions on the mission:P But I like Elder Ashton, he`s cool. We get along really well and we kind of have the same sense of humor, so that`s nice with companionship unity, even if it is for only 2 weeks. I think he`s gonna go be a zone leader... hahaha
2. How is the work going in Ypane? Are you seeing progress there?
Yeah, little by little! We`re getting the stone rolling here with the members. Everyone was excited because 7 investigators came to church yesterday! So its the perfect time to ask the members for help.
3. Have you had any fun ward functions or parties or any that are coming up?
I guess the Primary`s gonna have an activity on Saturday.. But we wanna do an activity with all the adults and investigators, but the bishop`s not too excited about it so we just have to keep pushing.
4. Do they celebrate Valentine's day? Is it like it is here flowers, chocolates, dinner, dancing?
No.. The way they celebrate here is just like any other day, just more. They drink and play their music loud and play soccer every day, and when a holiday rolls around, it`s just an excuse to do even more! There`s not a whole lot of romance here, or sentimental gifts or anything like that.. Everyone just says, "igual no mas!" Eat drink and be merry, for tomorrow, we die... And it will be well with us..
5. What was your most memorable experience this past week?
We had a great week! Well, from Friday till now we`ve just been super blessed. Elder Ortellado was pretty excited to go home, so when Elder Ashton got here, we got to work! We found some really good families this last week. So it was good!
6. How has your testimony been strengthened this past week?
Every time I fast, my testimony grows! I love it.. We did a special fast this last week as a zone for all the investigators that already have been to church, and at first I wasn`t too excited. Then we got to church and we had investigators waiting for us! It was pretty sweet. Their baptisms are still a couple weeks out, but yesterday helped a lot! We had some good meetings and some good messages about the Plan of Salvation.
On Saturday we were walking down this little dirt road and heard the snake call, but we new it was coming from an old guy so we looked back. He waved for us to go talk to him so we did.. Then he said, "Why did you guys just keep walking by? Why didn`t you stop and talk to me?" I told him it was because we thought he looked busy and we didn`t want to bother him, which is really how I felt.. Then he said, "I`m never too busy for God! Where`s your church and when can I go?" So we told him, and he said he was going! And I thought, "Yeah right, he`ll never go.. If I had a dollar for every time I heard that......" So as we got to church yesterday morning, we saw the blue Mercedes-Benz that that was at the guy`s house the day before.. What the?! He came!! We walked in and he was sitting in the priesthood class and he was wearing a nice shirt and tie! And he stayed all 3 hours of church! He loved it! He told me companion (because he knew it was his first week here in Ypané), "I`m the first soul you`ve saved here!" and invited us over to teach him more about the church, so we took our ward mission leader with us.. He told us about his life, how he was in the military and worked for the police after that.. He has 6 kids and they all have really good jobs. 20 years ago when he was still a cop, he had a 3 story house in downtown Asunción and lots of money and cars, but he still wasn´t happy, neither was his family. From there, he had some family problems and decided to leave, so he left his family with the house, the cars, and the money and moved back out here to Ypané where he was raised. He said he didn`t even have money for a bus ticket for him to get out here. Then he said that the Lord gave him back everything he needed; a house, a job, a car, and other things like that.. He was living in front of a baptist church a few years ago and the pastor convinced him to go and get baptized, so he did. He said he did it because he felt like he was indebted to God.. But from there he had problems in that church and left, and that he still feels that emptiness. So he started praying, asking God for help, for somewhere to go.. some kind of direction. A few months passed by and he was sitting out in his front yard talking to his son-in-law, and he saw Elder Ashton and I walking down the dirt road, and took that as a sign, so he called us over... And here we are now! His name`s Maximo.. We`re going to help him find the truth!
Welp, I`m out of time! Love you all!
Elder Colby Dane Heiner
Ok, you`re not going to believe this.. There`s not enough room for me to plug in my card reader! Ahh!! What the heck! There`s a ledge right next to the USB port, so it doesnt let me plug it in! And on the back, the chord for the monitor is in the way.. Freak. I have pictures, I promise! Next week, I`ll make sure I get a good computer! I`m so sorry!!
**The Blog Site is finally allowing me to upload pictures. Since Colby didn't get to send any today I will go back in the files and see if I can find some that I have been wanting to upload.**
