Week 51 Colonel Bogado-Tranfers-I'm still with Elder Wilding!!

What the heck?! I feel like I just got dropped off at the MTC a couple weeks ago! Not kidding. The time just keeps going faster and faster for me, it´s unreal! Tell Mark congrats on his mission call! My companion´s grandparents just got called to the Oklahoma City mission last week too! Maybe they´ll meet each other.. Alright, I´ll get on with the questions and what-not..

1. How did transfers end up?
Nothing changed!! I´m still with Elder Wilding! I´m so stoked for that! He´s a stud. We haven´t had any arguments or disagreements or anything like that, ever. We get along great! He´s for sure one of my favorite companions!

2. How has the work been this past week in Col. Bogado?
We´ve been seeing miracles.. People just have been coming out of nowhere. I think God´s been doing it to boost our confidence and to motivate us to keep working hard.
Thursday and Friday were BIG Catholic holidays here and everything in the whole city was shut down.. Except for Chipa Don Pipo :D So we ate chipa those days because we couldn´t go buy any other food.. It´s all good though! All our appointments were falling through too. On Friday we were walking down the street, right after an appointment fell, and we were heading towards 2 different people we could visit.. One lived down one way of the street and the other lived down the other. I asked Elder Wilding if we should go to the one that was closer so it would save us some time (not that we were really losing any at this point..) and he said we should go to the other. So we got to their house about 15 minutes later.. and we couldn´t teach because the lady´s husband wasn´t home. So we started walking back down the road to go to the other person.. Then we saw a new red Jeep coming towards us. My companion said, ¨Hey I wonder if that´s John..¨ John is a guy that grew up in New Jersey, but his parents are from Paraguay- they just moved back here and John was an old investigator.. And sure enough! It was John! He stopped and said he wants us to come over again! So we´re going to visit him today.. He said he´s been wanting to talk to us about something but couldn´t because he´d been working a lot. Talk about beeing in the right place at the right time! So we get to teach in English for the first time! I get to bust out my English scriptures, hopefully I can get around in them.. I´m used to using my Spanish set. So it´s going to be cool! Other than that, we´ve found a couple more Brazilians :D Last week when we were in Artigas, we met a couple part-member families so we´re going to make them all members! So we´ll be having a few baptisms this month :) So pray extra hard for us so we can help these people have an eternal family one day!

I don´t know what it was about this last week, but a few times we´ve been walking down the street and people would call us over and ask us what we thought about the ¨end of the world¨ and what we would do if we had to cast out a demon.. Or they´d just talk to us about people getting posessed by devils and voodoo and stuff like that. I think that happened about 4 times this last week. Weird! We just tell them we don´t think about that kind of stuff and that God has more power than Satan and stuff like that.
We met a member who just moved here from Encarnación about a month ago and he´s a stud! It´s hard to get him to go back to church though because he works in Argentina and is only here Saturday and Sunday so he just wants to rest. He told us that Paraguayan´s are slow to go to the chapel but are quick to go to the parties. He said we just need to be more excited when we talk about church so the people think it´s fun.. Church is legit! I don´t know why people wouldn´t want to go to church..

Argentina is growing like crazy! I think more people get baptized in Argentina than any other South American country.. Elder Wilding´s best friend is in the Argentina Resistencia mission and I think he´s had a baptism just about every week- and it´s like that for all the missionaries there! I forgot what mission Tim is going to, but he better be doing his baptism stretches! Anyways..

There´s my week! It was a great week! I´ll write again next Monday!
I love you!!
Elder Colby Dane Heiner

Week 50. Colonel Bogado

Wussup y´all! Hey! ¿La novia de Derrek habla español? Si es así, ¡ella puede traducir lo que digo! Esta semana fue muy buena; ¡trabajamos afúl con nuestro presidente de rama y ganamos su confianza en nosotros! Luego, ayudamos a algunos otros élderes en nuestro distrito trabajar en sus áreas..

Las Preguntas y Respuestas :D

1.  Is the weather starting to cool at all where you are?
El clima es un poco más fresco ahora, pero en estos últimos días hacía mucho calor todavía. Hoy por ejemplo es un poco más tranquilo..
The weather is a little more fresh right now, but in these past couple days it´s been kinda hot. But today is a little more chill..

2.  How is your laundry situation where you are at.  Are you guys doing your own laundry or do you pay someone to do it?
Hay una hermana en la rama que lava nuestra ropa- lava bien y plancha todo. ¡No me puedo quejar! Nos ayuda mucho y nos da más tiempo.
There´s a sister in our branch that washes our clothes- she cleans it well and irons everything. I can´t complain! It helps us a lot and gives us more time.

3.  Does your apartment have any air conditioning or a fan?  You said the Santa Rita Apartment had a unit in the bedroom.  Just Curious if you are able to get a break at all from the heat.
Si, tiene los dos. Tenemos aire acondicionado y dos ventiladores, entonces nuestro apartamento siempre se siente bien. Santa Rita fue tusha! Tenía aire puréte- siempre dormíamos en los 17 grados.
Yeah, it has both. We have air conditioning and two fans, so our apartment always feels good. Santa Rita was legit! It had a brand new air unit- we always slept in 60 degree weather.

4.  Is it Transfer week this week?
Si pero no sabemos los cambios todavía.. Averigüamos mañana puharevé.
Yeah but we don´t know the changes yet.. We find out tomorrow "before we eat" (Guaraní).

5.  Have you had any american type food, like Burger King or McDonalds or Pizza Hut?  Or do you have to be in Asuncion area to get stuff like that?
Si, varias veces en Asunción pero no hay restaurantes así en Coronel Bogado.. Creo que Asunción y Ciudad del Este tienen estos lugares no mas.. Bogado solo tiene chipa y empenadas..
Yeah, there´s a few places in Asunción but there aren´t any restaurants like that in Coronel Bogado.. I think only Asunción and Ciudad del Este have places like that.. Bogado only has chipa and empenadas..

Alright! That was fun! We had a great week this week! We traveled a lot.. In fact, we´re traveling right now. We´re in a tiny po-dunk town like an hour from Bogado call General Artigas. There´s a lot of members here and a mountain of people who want to get baptized, but the branch got shut down. So now they´re part of our branch in Bogado. So we´ll be having some bapitsms in a couple weeks! We´re pretty excited.

We went into Encarnación on Tuesday to do divisions with Elder White and Elder Enriquez; it was fun! Elder Wilding and I both went there and worked all day with them. They´ve been scared to work or something lately, so we went over and showed them how it was done! It was a good time. Tuesday night a drunk guy stopped us and asked me where I was from like 10 times.. "Where are you from?", "The United States..", "What part?", "I´m from the West", "Of New York?", "No, of the country! Closer to California.."  We had that exact conversation at least 10 times! And then another 10 times he said, "Here, I want you to have my rugby jersey! I´m a rugby original... Here, take it!" And he proceded to take his shirt off, revealing his fat belly.. "No really, you don´t have to give me your jersey! It´s cold out, you´ll freeze without it!", "No! I know you´re going to leave in a month and I want you to remember me because I love you.. Que me obsequies algo..." He says.. An "obsequio" is a really fancy word for gift.. "Gift me something..." That´s quite alright, this memory is enough for me! He just kept repeting himself over and over again- it was actually really funny! We ended up leaving finally, por suerte..

So there´s my crazy story for the week.. I kinda gave the watered-down version, but it was way funny! I also ate something I NEVER thought I would eat in my life.. I had to tell my companion why I was laughing so hard while we were eating our Hot Dog Sandwiches. Thanks Dad :D alright, enough said..

Conference was great! That was for sure the highlight of my week! I think my favorite talk was from Elder Holland in the Saturday afternoon session. WOW. I love that guy! I invite you all to watch it again! It´s up on the church website. I also liked President Uchtdorf´s talk and Elder Bednar´s.. Those guys are studs. I really enjoyed watching conference this year, as I´m sure all of you did! Oh, I saw a guy from my singles ward in Rexburg in the choir during the priesthood session! Weird right..

Thanks for the pictures of Damon and Rafe! I can´t believe how big they´re getting! Damon couldn´t even walk when I left.. That was like a year ago.. It feels like that was yesterday!

Alright.. It´s about that time. I gotta write President Callan now! I love you all and hope you have a ballin´ week! I´ll send pictures next week, I didn´t know I´d be doing my internet here, so all my stuff is at home in Bogado..

¡Chao!
Elder Colby Dane Heiner

Week 49 Colonel Bogado

HEY! Thanks for writing me y´all! That made this rainy p-day a little better :D I read a little Spanish in there from aunt Janna, entendí perfectamente.. ¡Gracias! And thanks for the pics to give to Alexis.. They´re sweet!! I forgot how much I love those cars!!
Alright.. This week was legit, that´s all I´m going to say for right now.. I´ll write more after the questions!

Here we go!

1. So did you "fine tune" your focus from what President Callan emailed you last week?
I feel like I did pretty well actually! I want to do it even better this week. I just got lost in the work and the whole last week felt like a day! It was crazy..

2. How was it having the assistants with you this past week?
Honestly.. It was easily the best week of the mission for me. Not numbers wise (although we had the best in the mission- pride aside), but I learned a TON! I learned to work even more diligently and how to work a lot smarter. So it was awesome! We had a baptism too :D

3. Did you have good luck finding new people to teach or reactivating less actives?
Yeah! This area is getting ready to explode.. They´re gonna have to start getting the blueprints for the chapel here!!

4. How was church yesterday? How many members were there?
There were about 20 yesterday.. But with the inactives we´re working with, we´re going to put more organization here in our little branch and get people excited about following Christ!

5. Last week you said....Chipa, "That is a whole other story". So what is Chipa?
Chipa is the most famous thing here in Paraguay right next to Mandioca.. It´s like a hollow cheese biscuit with meat, chicken, or cheese in the middle. There´s other kinds too.. I don´t really know how to explain it! Sorry.. You could google it to get a better idea :D I´ll send a picture of it next week!

6. What was your most memorable experience from this past week?
Probably the baptism.. Also working with Elder Love for 3 days. That guy´s a stud! Elder Paladines helped us strengthen our friendship with our Branch President.. He started his mission here, and now he goes home in 2 weeks! Crazy! It was just an awesome experience!

7. How is your district doing?
Really well I feel like.. Elder Wilding and I are going to Elder White and Elder Enriquez´ area tomorrow and show them how its done! Just like the assistants showed us.. It´s going to be fun!

So yeah! We were blessed with a baptism on Saturday! She was one of Elder Paladines´ investigators when he was here.. He remembered her (she didnt have a teaching record..) and went and found her again. She still wanted to get baptized! So she did, and now we´re going to work with her family :D Elder Paladines is from Ecuador and Elder Love is from Mesa, Arizona- both of them are studs! We had a great time working together and finding new people to teach. I´m not kidding, this place is going to explode! It´s not going to be easy on our part, but we´re going to make it happen! Get ready to see lots of people in white!

I was humbled this week.. It was a good humbling though. I thought I knew more than I did and it came back and bit me! Alma 26:12; 29:9-10. (I think 9-10) I saw lots of blessings this week and lots of miracles and it was because of our diligence and faith. Now the ball is rolling here and its not going to slow down! I´m excited to see what this week has for us!
Oh yeah! We found 3 people from Brazil!! I get to use Portuguese again!!! :D I´m super excited for that! We found an 18 year old kid and his 2 cousins, an older guy named Ronoldo, and la familia Manzana.. It´s a husband and wife and their little boy. I kind of felt like I was back in Santa Rita! I feel like I understand Portuguese better than I do Spanish sometimes..

I´m happy! This was an awesome week! I grew a lot and saw miracles.. I know my Heavenly Father loves me, and all of you! Share what you know! Don´t be scared! Talk to your friends about the Gospel- it´s a lot easier than stopping a stranger in the street or clapping a house, surrounded by dogs! Not only that, but it´s a commandment. :) We´re blessed when we keep the commandments Mosiah 2:41! Live it, love it.

It´s about that time, unfortunately.. I love you! I pray for you and I hope you all have an awesome week!

Chau!
Elder Colby Dane Heiner