One Year!!!

The time just keeps going by faster and faster! I don´t get it.. It´s alright though!
Ok, here´s the questions and answers..

1. What is your internet cafe like where you get to email from?
It´s really good! We´re in a different one today because the other one is closed down for some reason.. He´s probably taking his terere break. Terere is a dirt/herb mix they put in a little metal cup and they drink the water out of it through a straw with a strainer thing on the end.. They can´t live without the stuff! I don´t remember if that cyber has skype cameras or not, I´ll look next week when we go to that one.

2. Will you be able to go to a church house or a member's house that might have a computer so we can Skype? I know you probably haven't been thinking too much about this but we need to talk a bit about it.
None of the members have computers, plus if they did we wouldn´t be able to use them :( that´s one of the rules..

3. How was you most memorable experience this past week?
There was another rat in our apartment a couple days ago! I´ll tell you more about it on question number 5..

4. What was your most spiritual experiene this past week?
Seeing the power of the Priesthood.. Remember a couple weeks ago when we were in the other little city called Artigas? On one of or visits we went to see an ¨inactive¨ member. His name is Fabriciano Zarza and he´s 87 years old, he lives in a barn with a dirt floor and a couple of pigs. When we saw him, I thought he was going to die right there. He couldn´t walk or hardly even talk. His feet were all swolen and he almost couldn´t breathe.. He said one night a couple of his neighbors came over and beat him up and stole all his stuff and sold it. They hit him over the head with something, so he´s got a huge gash in the top of his head. I´ve never seen a humbler situation. He asked us for a blessing so we gave him one.. We went back this last Thursday to go visit some people there in Artigas, and we went and saw him first. He was sitting out the front of his house when he saw us coming.. He yelled, ¨Hermano kuéra!¨ (Hermano=Brother; kuéra=more than one). He got up out of his chair and went inside his little barn house to put his shirt on. He was walking! When we entered in his little patio he was laughing and making jokes with the Hermano Simeon (we had to take him with us because Fabriciano doesn´t speak Spanish.. Only Guaraní). I´ve never seen anything like it.. How just a week before, this man was on the verge of death and a week later he´s back to full health.. The Priesthood is real.

5. What was your funniest experience this past week?
The rat! I had just gotten out of the shower and was drying off and Elder Wilding yells; ¨Elder Heiner! There´s a huge rat out here!!¨ No way.. We just killed a rat like a month ago.. Well, I get out of the bathroom, and sure enough! There was a huge rat running around in our apartment! This time, we didn´t put out any rat poison.. We chased that sucker around the house til we got it! Elder Wilding nailed it with our floor squeedgie.. It was awesome! And we think it was pregnant, but we´ll never know for sure. So that was a fun night!

That´s pretty much what happened this week.. I started reading the Book of Mormon in Spanish a few days ago! I want to finish it before the change ends! I have about a month.. I´m on page 80 somethin.. Laman and Lemuel were such whiners! If I were Lehi, I would have smacked them up side the head, show them who´s boss. I´m sure everyone is droppin the cane on them in the spirit world.. If only they just would have listened to what Nefi and Lehi said.. But I´m picking up a lot more stuff this time than from the last time I read it. And I´m trying to do what Nefi taught in 1 Nefi 19:23- Liken all scriptures unto myself. I love the scriptures!

We´re trying to find the kingdom builders here.. It´s been hard because almost everyone says, ¨I can´t talk to you.. I´m Catholic¨ I think Catholicism here is different than in the States. Here everyone just worships Mary y hasta allí no mas.. They believe that Mary saves us, like she carries us to be judged or something and she tells Jesus what to do with us. I never heard that before I came here! I have friends that are Catholic at home and I´m pretty sure they don´t believe that´s how it is.. I think it´s just like that here because of the dictatorship for like 200 years made it so only Catholicism was allowed here. Paraguay got it´s religious freedom like 30 years ago. They don´t know anything else, and it seems like everyone is too scared to even LISTEN. Or to take our invitation- to ASK GOD through prayer and find out for themselves. So yeah, we´re trying to find the people that are excited to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

Anywheys.. That´s about all I got for this week! I´ll find out that Skype stuff and let you know next week.. I´m almost positive I´ll be able to use Skype this time :D
I love you!! Thanks for all your support and love :D

Elder Colby Dane Heiner
aka
Heinstein

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