May 30, 2011

Hiya Family!

Things are finally starting to look up. Let me tell you why.

     This week on Tuesday we had zone conference with President Callan. Since Obligado is 2.5 hrs away from the Stake Encarnacion we had to get up at 5am to get there by 8am.  Fortunately to make up for the loss of sleep, I took a nap on the bus. Anyways we arrived and there was a lot that happened. I don´t have time to tell you about all I learned and all the changes that were made, but here are the things that I liked most. The thing that had the most impact on me was the talk President Callan showed us that Jeffery R. Holland gave in the MTC in Provo. He talked about what the disciples did after Christ´s Death and Resurection. After Christ had left, his disciples were unsure of what to do, so they decided to do what they knew how to do best and they went fishing. They had no success. (Elder Holland goes into detail of what happened and how they had felt and it was really beautiful, but I don´t have time to tell the long version.

     After a long night of failure they were told by a man on shore to cast their nets on the other side of the boat. Well... out of despiration they decided to try it. When more fish than they could handle almost sink the boat John the beloved says to Peter "It´s him". Peter jumps ship and decides to swim to shore to get there as fast as possible. On the shore Christ is waiting with a fire for their breakfast. After they had eaten bread and the fish they had caught Christ asks Peter, "Simon, son of Jonas, Do you love me more than these?" referring to the fish, the nets, the boat, etc. Peter says, "yes I do". Well to make a long story short Christ asks Peter 2 more times and when Peter says Yes to each time Christ then says "Feed my sheep". 

     Elder Holland gets more emotional and talks about what Peter probably had been thinking and what Christ meant by his simple question. What was Peter at this time? He was a Disciple of Christ. He was already asked once to leave his nets and become fishers of men. If we love Christ more than the things of the world we will find his lost children and bring them unto the fold. We are not missionaries for 2 years. We are missionaries forever. Just like Peter we can´t go back. After Baptism we can´t go back. After a calling we can´t go back to the way things were. We are changed forever. We need to change forever. We always need to progress and become better. We are disciples of Christ for ETERNITY. From this point on I will always remember this phrase. "Do you Love me more than These?"

     Anyways. There are a lot of changes that President Callan made. Like no more Pday on thursday after the change. Pday will forever be on monday. There are a lot of others too, but I can´t think of any right now. I have been writing to President Callan every week about my companion. While we were eating Pizza (almost as good as US Pizza) President Callan pulled me aside and asked me more specific questions and then told me he wants to talk to both of us and he knows how to take care of it. So after the meeting we had a good talk with the President. Elder Ayola already felt a desire to be better from the messages at Zone conference, but the talk with President Callan made it all more urgent. I really hope that this has been a mighty change in his heart. I know it was in mine.

     We are going out and working every day. I shared my candy with the members and now it´s gone. They are going to close the Rama if the attendance doesn´t increase. We had a good talk with the members. I gave a very spiritual talk about missionary work and bringing your loved ones, friends, and neighbors with you into the Celestial Kingdom. Attendance was doubled. 20 to 44. Don´t play with Paraguayan children because they will never leave you alone after that. I finally finished the BoM is Spanish. We had a miraculous contact Sunday that we wouldn´t have had if we didn´t change plans. 

     His name is Carlos. It was late and dark and we wanted to get home on time so we just walked right by him, but he stopped us and said "Hey! Aren´t you guys going to give me a Pamphlet?" It turns out that his ex-girlfriend is a member and he really likes how good she is. He says that he´s technically Catholic, but he doesn´t like their false traditions. He says he doesn´t like the Adventists church either because on saturday they are saints, but come midnight and they are demons. He accepted a baptismal date in the street. He says he´s going to come on Wednesday to Noche de Rama and he even offered to bring food. He is also going to come to church on sunday. I am positive that this guy is going to be our next baptism.

I am happy because I´m not wicked.

Love,

Elder Zachary James Singson

May 23, 2011

Dear family,

Since that Pastor said that the world is supposed to end Last Saturday... I guess we all died and haven´t realized it yet.

Since we´re dead this letter might not make it to you, but I´ll try sending it anyways.

     First things first. You can´t teach a Latino to sing. Especially if they want to learn the Bass part for the hymns. I spent two hours last P-day trying and it´s just not possible. My district is composed of 4 missionaries, and we live so far away from each other that Pres.Callan said to only have District meeting every two weeks. This week was District meeting. Elder Richards is District leader and Elder Monterosa is his companion. All we did was watch a video on how to teach better and then we had to leave. I say we because I did exchanges and went with Elder Monterosa to Natalio Diez. It´s a 2 hour bus ride and if you miss it you have to wait 2 hours. So we were kinda in a hurry to get out of there.

     Elder Monterosa is from El Salvador. On the bus we only talked about all the crap that Elder Ayola has told us. It´s funny to talk about, but it´s annoying to listen to in person. Elder Monterosa in cool though. This is his last change so he is Trunky (A play on words with the Latin slang for Tranquilo. Instead of saying Tranquilo everybody just says Tranqui, but for missionaries Trunky means they are ready to pack up their "Trunks" or suitcases and go home). Anyways Natalio Diez is really poor and not as nice as Obligado, but they actually have active members so they have thier own Church Building. I met an American from North Carolina. She´s from the Peace Corp. I also talked to one of their Recent Converts about Anime for a really long time. Elder Monterosa asked a girl that they always talk to to add him on facebook. He did it to annoy his companion because Elder Richards likes her, ha ha.

     Next day we hopped on a bus and got back to Obligado. I did splits with Elder Richards and we talked for a while. He´s from Utah and he only has a change more than Elder Monterosa. He is Blond so he gets hit on by girls, aka Snakes because they make a hissing sound when they call to people. Oh yeah the reason we did Exchanges in the first place is because Elder Richards had to interview Soledad for her baptism. Anyways we were asked to sing at a funeral. All of us went to the Catholic funeral of Hermana Presentacion´s Aunt. She is the only member in her family, so it was weird. Poor misguided people. They put bread and water in a bowl under the casket. Weird. Elder Ayola bought an I-pod, so now he wastes all our time playing with it. I try telling him we need to work and he´s breaking the rules, but he just tries justifying what he does, so I hope President Callan can fix him.

     So Thursday we went over to Hna P´s house for lunch and apparently Soledad went to hang out with a class mate she knows from school. Turns out that this friend is a Prostitute. Hearing that made me very worried. I didn´t know the entire story, so I was worried all day. Don´t worry though when Hna P told her she said "Oh! Well it looks like I´m going to be avoiding her from now on". Then we went to work in our second area Trinidad. We taught a family who wants their daughter to come to church so she can get sealed to them. Now apparently we have to teach her every week because she was never taught the retention lessons. I don´t like the idea because she is attractive and somewhat of a Snake. Anyways we went back and taught Soledad and everything was good again... Somewhat.

     Friday my companion and I did "Service" for Hna P all day. In other words, my companion didn´t want to work, so I helped Hna P all day, talked, and stuff; and Elder Ayola watched tv. Soledad´s boyfriend came over and stayed the night and Hna P´s house because he lives far away and he is going to baptize her. I openly objected to the idea of the two lovers staying in the same house, but nothing bad happened... as far as I know. Salvador is preparing for a mission and Soledad was getting baptized the next day, Satan is already working hard, so why would you invite this kind of temptation. I was upset.

     Saturday I met Salvador and he is almost as short as Soledad. We made preperations and made cake and stuff. I was angry the entire day because I´ve tried to work hard in my last two areas and I only got one baptism, but with a Macanero of a companion and no work we got one anyways. What could have happened if we actually worked at all!¿!? Salvador is 20 he looks 28. He acts really mature, but he is really prideful. Soledad in not so mature and obsessed with Salvador. When the two are together it´s like the love you would see in a high school romance. Together they are not mature at all. It´s going to be really hard for them when Salvador leaves on his mission. I hope it all goes well.

     Church this week was good. Soledad got confirmed and people actually came this week. Yay. While we were waiting for lunch at Hna P´s Salvador came over and talked with me. He must think I´m competition or something because he tried one upping me the whole time and he wanted to arm wrestle. I am weak. I traded all my physical strength for spiritual strength. After I finally agreed to Arm Wrestle with him, I knew I didn´t stand a chance anyways, but then Soledad came to watch so I just gave up and let him win. Whatever. I am sooooo DisAnimated. We took an hour walk to visit Los Colonos to teach some less actives. Then we came back and Elder Ayola watched "The Chronicles of Narnia Prince Caspian" or whatever, and I talked to Hna P.

I´m done now.

Thanks for your Packages I received them right before coming here to write you guys.

Tell Gma and Gpa "Love You¡"

Sincerely bored out of his mind,

Elder Zachary James Singson

Soledad's Baptism

Alejandro's Baptism

May 16, 2011

Dear family,

 

    Ok this Saturday one of our investigators (One of 3) is going to be baptized. Her boyfriend, who is preparing for a mission, is coming over and baptizing her. It´s going to be cool. Soledad got kicked out of her house cuz her dad doesn´t like this religion. He says that she´s changed (for the better) and he doesn´t like it. Her mom was supportive until the Dad banned her from the house. She is living with Hermana Presentacion and her daughter Bibiana (they are good friends). Shows you how important references are. References = Baptisms and strong converts. Anyways because we eat with Hna P everyday we also teach Soledad everyday. Sometimes we get on iffy topics like Polygamy, but I think that Soledad knows that the church is true, so I think that she´ll be fine.

Monday:

     We had Family Night with Hna P. We watched "The Work and The Glory". Then they wanted me to teach them a bunch of hymns, so we sang a lot before going home.

Tuesday:

     We watched "Joseph Smith the Prophet of the Restauration" with Soledad. We made Chipa Guasu with Hna.P (Bleh Gross). 

 

Wednesday:

     I lost my voice. I don´t know where it wen´t, but I almost couldn´t make any sound. Which made it hard to teach. Somehow Hna.P got on the topic of Polygamy. I tried to say that Polygamy is a big reason the church is persecuted and it is important to know that it happened, but you don´t need to worry about it. Unfortunately they wouldn´t stop talking about it. So I told her you have your agency, you don´t have to do it if you don´t want to so don´t worry about it.

     Finally we got to the real lesson which is The Law of Chastity and it actually went very well. Thank Goodness! Her boyfriend has taught her well.

    

Thursday:

     We celebrated Mothers day because the Branch President is visiting his mom and wouldn´t be there for actual mothers day. We had a barbique with Rice, Potatoes, Salad, Chicken, Sausage, and Mandioka. The kids performed a dance for the Mothers and they wrote poems and stuff. Elder Ayola was on the computer playing with his music the whole time. I found Pamphlets in German and I was reading them. I like German, but it´s hard. I asked some German members what words meant and apparently they have lots of rules, so I will have to take a full course to really understand. There are a lot of similarities to English though.

Friday:
     I finally got to use my Puzzle to teach the Plan of Salvation! Yay! I tried to teach the Plan of Salvation in an awesome way to Soledad, but I was very disanimado because of the vast and various ways that Elder Ayola breaks the rules. The lesson was ok, but I wasn´t sure what to say because I lacked the spirit. I felt unhappy all day. Wickedness really isn´t happiness.

Saturday:

     We went to a place called "Los Colonos" located far away near a Soy field. There are lots of Members who live in this town, but all of them are inactive because its "far from the church". So we taught lots of lessons with Inactive Members and their friends. I was happy it was a good day.

Sunday:

     It´s Mommies day here in Paraguay, so we ate Barbique at Hna. P´s house. Because it was Mommies day that meant there was a lot of drunks. It is also Independence day for Paraguay. That meant even more drunks. But it´s not just any Regular Independence day, it´s the Bi-centennial, so there was even more drunks. Not even kidding it was drunk madness. After English class we stood of the roof of the Chapel building and watched all the chaos. It was crazy. Then we went to Hna P´s to have cake and we taught Soledad, but this time we focused on the subject. Everybody Participated and it was an awesome lesson. I felt the Spirit and it made me happy.

     From here on out I´m going to take the iniciative and try to help my companion stop breaking the rules. I hope it all goes well. I´m done being a bad missionary.

Love you!

Elder Zachary James Singson

May 9, 2011

Ok. Here is more info about my trip to Obligado this week. First we had to take a taxi to the terminal and we got there at 8. Then I had to get on the bus because it was leaving, so that´s why I couldn´t get my Easter Package. The bus ride was 6 hours long. There was a rest stop that is ridiculously expensive, but the lake is beatiful (the first clean source of water I´ve seen in Paraguay). I slept through most of the trip, but they played the movie 7 pounds in Spanish and it was really distracting. I ate some cheese Chipa, the only good chipa I´ve ever had, I don´t like chipa. I talked to Elder Parker on the way too.

     Well when we finally got there we had to wait 30min for the Zone leaders to come and 10 more minutes for our companions to arrive. After my companion came we had to wait an hour for a bus to leave to our area. The bus ride was 2 hours long. We talked a lot and I learned a lot of things about my companion. After being with him for a couple of days I´m pretty sure most of the stuff he told me are fabrications, but I´ll give him the benefit of the doubt. He´s a good guy though. I´ll try not to judge too quickly.

     So Elder Ayola is 26. He was late to go on a mission because he was in the air force. He is a black belt in Judo and he studied Kendo until his Schitzophrenic Japanese Teacher Killed a robber with his Katana. He runs a buisness or something (sometimes things get lost in translation). His parents are Arabic so he speaks that, as well as spanish, a little bit of English, and even Hebrew.

     My house is a disaster. It looks like it hasn´t been cleaned since the first missionaries moved in. That´s what you get when you have two Latino´s in one area. I swear, I haven´t heard Any good stories about two Latin Companions. Anyways we are going to be spending Pday cleaning out all the junk that the previous Elders left behind. It smells like rat poop. It would be an awesome house if it was just clean.

     The members are few and the area is big, but I´m going to keep on going and try and find some families to baptize. That´s what this ward needs a good strong family. So on friday we took the mail to a lady and taught her while we were waiting. We hopped on a bus and said "hi" to two families in Trinidad. We waited two hours for a bus and got home exactly at 9:30pm. Did I mention I can see the Milky Way, but not the road in front of me? Yeah it´s that dark, but I found the flashlight dad gave me.

     Saturday we taught a girl who is going to be baptized in two weeks. Her father is against it, but she says she just knows it´s right. Her name is Soledad. She is dating a guy who is preparing for a mission, so I hope that doesn´t effect her activity in the church. She told us that she feels peace and warm inside. We explained that what she is feeling is the spirit, but I´m going to find good scriptures to share with her about that. She had a dream where she and another guy was dressed in white and the entire world around them was chaos, but they were totally tranquil and unaffected by what was happening around them. I´m pretty sure that was a dream from God about future events in her life... That is If she gets baptized and everything. The rest of the time was spent downloading skype and preparing for mommies day.

     Saturday night we went to a members house. This guy is 30 yrs older than the girl and they have 3 kids. I just hung out with the kids while Elder Ayola talked to the members. We ate pizza with them and then we got home late cuz we had to walk.

     Sunday there were only 20 people in the church, and 10 of them are children. It´s quite sad.

Well I´m out of time and the computer is giving me a headache, so...

Love ya,

Elder Zachary James Singson

May 5, 2011

Zac got transferred again. He is in Obligado

Dearest family,

     Today I will tell you about last weeks events. Next P-day I´ll give more detailed information about changes.For now all I´m going to tell you is this.

     I got changed¡ Good luck finding me on Google maps in the future. So Lucerito 1.1 and 1.2 are now one area. Elder Parker went to Encarnacion and I went a little further to a place called Obligado. My new area includes Trinidad and Capitan Miranda, so I have to cover 3 cities and help 3 branches. Fun. Anyways this place is beautiful and there is a huge community of Germans¡ Wie heiss du? My new companion´s name is Elder Ayola, he is from Columbia, and he is 27 years old. Wow. Anyways there is a lot of things I could say about him, but I don´t have tons of time. I´m not sure what to think about him yet anyways. So I´ll tell you more later.

 

     Ok now down to buisness I hope that was enough information for you guys. So last week there was a schedule change so we did everything half an hour early. Which was good because it gets dark at 5:30pm and nobody is outside and they won´t answer the door. Now that it´s getting colder people are just going to start ending the day earlier. Then 3 days later the schedule changed back to normal for some reason. That sucked because we are just walking around form 8 to 9 doing absolutely nothing¡ Around 7pm it starts turning into a Ghost town.

 

     In Lucerito we had an awesome investigator whose name is Ramón Peréz. He is 23. I am positive he will get baptised, especially because he finally came to church on sunday. Before he didn´t really want to. We have taught him the Restoration, the Plan of Salvation, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and he liked it all; But for some dumb reason he was afraid to go to Church. I think it´s because he was worried that we would make him to wierd stuff. He used to go to the Catholic church so I can see where he got that idea. He is praying and reading the Book of Mormon to find out if it is true. The day before we left Elder Parker and I taught him the Law of Chastity, so he could receive an answer. He said that he would talk to his girlfriend and would try to obey it. He is really progressing. He promised us that he would still go to church and talk to the Other Elders after we leave. He is awesome. So we took a picture exchanged emails and we´ll facebook each other in a year and a half.

 

     One day we were outside and it rained really hard. It came out of nowhere and the wind was so strong it rained sideways. We went inside a mechanic´s metal gazeebo thing and we still got soaked. The lightning was so bright it was blinding and the thunder was so loud it made the metal roof shake and dogs bark.

 

     I withdrew money for my new shoes, but I didn´t order them before I went to my new area, so now it´ll take forever to get them. I made a wallet of pass along cards, but then Alejandro wanted it, so then I tried to make a new one and it just isn´t as good. There is a picture of Jesus on the front and a Book of Mormon on the back with "La Iglesia de Jesucristo de Los Santos de Los Últimos Días" in gold on the back. It has a pocket for money, change, and a secret pocket behing the Picture of Jesus. When you open it there is a picture of the temple too. It´s cool.

 

     Fast Sunday Elder Parker and I went to eat with a guy who has a calling in the stake as a secretary. Soon he is going to to get sealed to his wife and baby in the Temple. Anyways we come over and they prepared enough food for an army. I was hungry, but they just wouldn´t stop giving me food. I ate 3 pieces of meat about as big as Marisa´s fist, some roast beef, rice, salad with potatoes, Mandioka, Bread, Sausages, and pear juice that was actually quite good. I was so stuffed it was hard to move. They even tried giving us more, but I couldn´t handle it. Anyways later it was the Cerro Vs. Olympia game so we only got 2 lessons with less actives, cuz nobody was interested. By the was Alejandro has been drinking more and I´d like you to pray for him. He always drinks when he feels alone and I don´t know how to help him, because he won´t go visit with the members. The members are always visiting him, but he still struggles. You can tell when he is drunk because he doesn´t wear a shirt. A investigator named Exdi Jaime a 60yr old guy has been visiting him more so I hope that helps. Exdi will probably get baptized in a 2 weeks if he goes to church this sunday.

 

     It kinda sucks that I got transferred because I had so many good investigators. We found at least 12 people who I am sure will get baptized.

 

     So what´s the deal with Osama Bin-Laden? I was told that he´s dead, but that´s all I know. President Callan told us, for security purposes, that we can´t tell people that we are from the US. If they persist we have permission to lie. I wanted to say I´m German, but that won´t fly in my new area. Where should I be from? I want your opinions¡

     Well I am out of time. The last thing I want to say is that my house is a disaster and I need to go and clean it now.

 

¡!¡Love ya´ll¡!¡

Elder Zachary James Singson.