August 27, 2012

Anyways this will be a short email because of malfunctions of Paraguayan Technology. It ate up all my time.

     Tuesday we didn´t have district meeting because wednesday we had Zone Conference. It was Presidente Agazzani´s First and My Last. The New Area Seventy was there too, Pdte Zeballos. I had to Pee and he talked an extra hour! Anyways they didn´t really tell me anything that I haven´t heard before, but they made My Group give our testimonies because we are leaving. Oddly enough all of my group was present except for Elder Chatterly who went home early for schooling. I felt the spirit in a cool new way. I was hot before I got up but then I cooled down. My mind was calm, cool, and clear, so I actually got to say what I was thinking instead of just having words fly out. Then my body started to get all Tingly. Especially my hands and feet. That was cool.

     Lunch was not cool. They basically just gave us sandwhiches and kicked us out. GET TO WORK! Worst Zone Conference lunch ever. I could have made a sandwhich. After we got back at 3 we ate for real and then we had Mission Correlation with our new Mission Leader Rodrigo Segovia Returned Missionary Extrodinaire. That was cool I guess.

     Thursday we saw Yamil run away and hide from us. We made eye contact before he ran, so I am done with this kid. We will just give him a cake for his birthday with a note saying "Salvation is Personal don´t let your friends screw yours up" or something like that. Later we went to talk to Bernabe and he said "I don´t have that much time, but then he talked our ears of for an hour before we were even able to share anything.

     Friday I tried making Brownies for a Noche de Hogar, but everything was going wrong and to top it off the District Leader Called and said I need Baptismal Pants. So I stuck it in the oven and turned it down to the lowest setting, but when we got back 15 minutes later they were burnt. No smoke, no fire, but it ruined the brownies. That´s ok the Noche de Hogar didn´t end up working out anyways. It got really cold.

     Saturday was freezing cold. We went with a member to contact his reference, but she wasn´t home. Niether was Teresa who told us to come back later and then she wasn´t there. Paí-Ñu 1.2 was going to have a baptism, but the guy couldn´t make it because he came late from his trip. He didn´t show up for church sunday either. Miguel also wasn´t home, but it was because his Uncle died and he went to visit his family.

     Sunday we got the new Bishoprick and Not Many people were happy. It´s still cold.

I´m out of time, but I love you!

Elder Zachary James Singson

August 20, 2012

Hi Family, or at least whats left of it.

     It seems like your lives are just as crazy as mine. At least we are united by this common bond. This is what happened to me this week. Monday I bought some Caramelos for Miguel to help him quit smoking. He said he wasn´t going to be home, so we took them to his house, but we ended up staying and teaching him in his daughter. Vanesa is just like him. Doesn´t talk, doesn´t understand, doesn´t really do anything, but she says she likes it. Now I am thinking about teaching the entire family and Baptizing them all! Fwa Hahahahahaha!!!

     Tuesday we had a "Zone Capacitation" instead of District Meeting. It was dumb because we had to take two buses to get to the Stake Center, then everybody else came late even though they are closer, then nobody had the keys to get in, then we had to take another bus to go to a different capilla. We wasted so much time. All though I kind of enjoyed it I didn´t really hear anything I haven´t heard before. We finished at 2 ish and got back to our area at 3. Elder Ackerman ran out of Money, so I had to pay the 3 buses back for the both of us. 9 Buses! 20 Mil!

     When we got off the bus Elder Ackerman jumped off while the bus was moving. He would have been fine if he was facing forward and if he didn´t plant both of his feet. He didn´t get hurt, but it made me laugh. After Lunch we went to Yamil. He seems like he is doing good now and wants to come back to church. One of his Non-Member friends even sat down for part of the lesson and listened. I noticed that he came after the first prayer and left before the second. 

     Unfortunately while we were teaching a less active family to help them come back to church the Hna Aguilera showed up and ruined the whole thing with her non-stop tears and non-stop talking.

     Wednesday we happen to get lunch from the Flia Morinigo for the first time on the same day that the Priesthood activity was going on. It was a good lunch, but they had Asado at the church and nobody told us about it until after. Later we went to get the clothes and it started to rain. Luckily the clothes didn´t get that wet. Then while we were teaching Miguel and Lidia about the plan of salvation the power went out. We taught the rest by candle light. They said they understood, but I`m not quite sure they did. At least I made it very clear that if You Keep God´s Commandments You Will Be Happy! That was understood by all.

     Thursday we went back to Yamil at 3 and from there we just had one lesson right after the other. I liked it because I didn´t have to walk a lot and we didn´t get bored. Next was Felipe a recent convert and we watched "Monte Del Señor" so he could learn about temples. Then we went to Flia Irala on one side of our area then ran all the way to the other side to teach Miguel. We watched "Jose Smith: Profeta de la Restauracíon". We were mostly watching it for Lidia, but their two daughters also watched... At least in Part. Andrea had to take care of her baby and Vanesa had to take care of her puppy that is suicidal. They seemed to always be absent for the most important parts. Lidia liked it though and she said she will pray about all of it.

     Friday we had a Mini Miracle at the beginning of the day, so it made me feel better about walking around "De Balde" the rest of the day. Elder Ackerman saw a lady outside and he said that we contacted her once and she said that we could come back but she was never around. So we contacted her and her husband wasn´t there. We were about to just leave her with a Pamphlet and leave and suddenly she says that she has a Book of Mormon that two of her students gave her and she really liked it but when she moved here 2 years ago she lost it. So we gave her a Book of Mormon and read her the last two Paragraphs of the Introduction and invited her to pray about it. She said she will and that we need to come back on a Friday when her husband will be home. I see a Baptism in her Future. She will definitely be a future convert.

     Saturday we had Mission Correlation at 6:30 but Charly showed up late. We had an appointment at 7:30 with Miguel, so we just left the Progress Form with the other Elders and left. Miguel was the only one home, so we watched a movie about Revelation. The story of Oliver Cowdery. Miguel has had a hard time with the Prayer and I think this helped him a lot. Since somebody gave us Salad at lunchtime I used ranch and then we bought a pizza to use the rest with. It was really good, but now I´m out of Ranch. Dang. Anyways the Dueña saw that we had ordered a Pizza and she said that she is a Gastronomer (My own invented word for a person who studies gastronomy) and she will cook stuff for us if we tell her in advance and all we have to do is pay for the Ingredients. I wish I knew that sooner. I´ll have to take her up on that.

     Sunday was the worst. They called Rodrigo Segovia (a returned missionary) as Ward Mission Leader, but he probably won´t be as good as Charly. It turns out that Charly was never the Ward Mission Leader he just filled in the calling while being 2nd counselor. He was the Most Faithful Ward Mission Leader Ever and it wasn´t even his calling!  Next sad thing was the Epic Fail when we tried to watch a movie with Yamil and his friends and other Jovenes. We planned the activity before hand and they even announced it in church, but literaly nobody showed up except for a couple of people that came early to seminary.

     Miguel came to church, but he wasn´t home when we passed by at 6. Then as we walked back home on this very disappointing day of nothing we got a call from Elder Call and he says that we might not have a Bishop anymore. Ugh! How are we supposed to work with the ward when there is no Bishop!

I am still happy though, just a little crazy. ;P

Love Ya´ll,

Elder Zachary James Singson

August 13, 2012

Holas Family,

     This week was pretty uneventful until the Final Day, so I hope I don´t repeat myself too much. On Monday we ate at Real with Elder Villalba because he was finishing his mission. Then Tuesday after we received the Changes we also ate at "Masters Pizza". Elder Cristaldo is leaving and an Elder Carroll is replacing him. Elder Call replaced Elder Villalba. They are both new, so I didn´t know them.

     Wednesday and Thursday all we did were contacts all day. Because of the endless walking I also had an endless hunger, so throughout the day I went to Every Empanada Stand in Paí-Ñu to see who had the best. I like the ones across the street from the Church best. We tried to visit Mirna and again she isn´t home. Then we also went to Miguel´s house because he said he should be back from his trip on Thursday, but his house was dark the windows were open and nobody was home. We kinda thought that maybe they had Moved Randomly, Got Robbed, or maybe even abducted by aliens. It was just weird.

     Friday we finally met Elder Call when we went to Mission Correlation Meeting. We got to talk a lot with him because the Ward Mission Leader never showed up. Elder Call is from Idaho. He is pretty Tranquilo and Funny. He likes video games and Potatoes. Mostly we just talked about mission experiences so I don´t know much about his life.

     Saturday we ate with the Flia Cantero for the first time since I´ve been here. Elder Ackerman said that it was because one time Elder Villalba said that their Rice was "Sempiterno" (aka Everlasting). Well Elder Tyler thought that was funny, so he told them, but they obviously got offended because recently (The very week after Elder Villalba left) we got lunch from them again. Well since we were close to the other Elder´s house we ate with them.

     Next we ran out of things to do again, so we just watched Legado with a recent convert so he would sacrifice a little more to go to church and not just let any inconvenience get in the way. It went well because he came to church on Sunday even though he had a doctors appointment.

     Sunday was the best day. Miguel showed up out of nowhere at church, so I was happy. The classes were very spiritual and that made me happier. During the sacrament meeting they asked a recently sealed member, Junior Morinigo, to bear his testimony about his experiece. It was very touching and that made me even more happy. After eating good food after church with the other Elders and I was at a spiritual and physical high.

     So we went to Miguel´s house and did as the Zone Leaders told us and we tried to commit him to a baptismal date this weekend or the next. It didn´t work. Not even after watching the Parable about the 10 virgins and making him say a kneeling prayer to ask God for the answer. It was obvious that he felt the spirit really strongly, but it was obvious that he was scared of something and didn´t know what to do. Fortunately he told us what he was thinking so now we can help him overcome. I think there is something he is still hiding, but he has come to church 5 times and he says he wants to get baptized, but he doesn´t feel ready yet. I think that What happened next will solve the entire problem.

     Next Lidia, the uninterested Evangelical wife, who was present for the lesson started telling us about her problems and was asking for our help, so We taught her. She basically understands everything, but she still unsure about the Restoration, but we committed her to reading the Book of Mormon and to Pray with Miguel. We Promised her So many blessings and she definitely felt the spirit aswell. Now I think they can progress together and in time will get baptized together. I felt super happy.

     After I that hour and a half long lesson we went to the bathroom and I got a feeling like we should visit Carlos Ledesma (a Recent Convert). We visited him and he was feeling Disanimated and we happened to come at the right time. We shared with him and he said he felt a little better. Next thing I know I get a prompting to visit Yamil who has been hiding from us since two weeks after his baptism. Now we have an appointment with him on Tuesday and His friends are all going to come to the Capilla after Church next week and we will watch The Prophet Joseph Smith movie. Non of his friends are members so I am also thinking of inviting the Youth so they can all be friends. They really need the Gospel.

I feel like finally things are looking up again in this area.

Love You Family,

Elder Zachary James Singson

August 9, 2012

Last Monday was the Paraguayan "Dia de la Amistad", but I thought it was dumb because absolutely nobody was friendly to us. So after failed attempts of visiting people we decided to buy a Pizza and celebrate. Fortunately I had enough money to do a small amount shopping because I ran out of money because it´s the end of the month. Tuesday we pulled out money, but since we couldn´t go to the supermarket I decided that if I get hungry I´ll just buy empanadas during the week. We went to our cita with Mirna, but she had to leave to go to Luque again, so now I feel like she will never progress. Stupid work, it´s always getting in the way!

     Wednesday it got really hot again. I hate the BiPolar weather. It made me sweat a lot and the last hour before we went back home the power went out. We had to do planning in the dark and it was really hot and we couldn´t use the fan. We went to Miguel, but his wife says that he has to work really late this week again. Why can´t any of our Investigators stick around long enough to Progress?

     Thursday after Plan Guasu we did Divisions with Elder Geary. I stayed in Paí-Ñu with Elder Geary and Elder Ackerman went with Elder Cristaldo. Besides talking a lot nothing happened. I was surprised because usually some really crazy stuff happens while we are on divisions, then after all the strangeness we usually get a miracle. Well we found some people, but I could have done that with Elder Ackerman.

     Friday we ate with Paí-Ñu 1.2 at our house. Afterwards we ended the exchanges and returned to normalness. Randomly the Assistants called us and asked if we knew an Hermana that could serve as a Local Missionary during the next change, so we gave them the number of Noelia who just happens to be preparing for a mission. But she has to be ready by Tuesday and I don´t know if she works. I was really hungry all day, so at every empanada stand I bought food to eat as I walked.

     Saturday we ate with the Paí-Ñu 1.2 Elders again in our house and then they showed us a house that has gone up for rent in their area. Elder Ackerman wants to move there, but I just don´t want to deal with the Hassle. I can endure in our defective house.  I´ve had worse. There was a football game during the afternoon and everybody said "come back later I´m watching football". It was lame because the game wasn´t very important and nobody seemed excited about it, but they used it as an excuse anyways. We had Mission Correlation at night and Paí-Ñu is on a crazy rollercoaster of Good and Bad. Ay yay yay.

     Sunday 115 people came to church. I was surprised because everybody was there on time. There was a lot of people for the Priesthood meeting. Miguel came, but then when we tried to make an appointment with him he said he is going to travel after church and he won´t be back until thursday. Ugh.

     In the Gospel Principles class we were talking about charity and while reading the lesson I thought "How are we ever supposed be like that?" I felt the Spirit a lot and I felt that one day I´ll reach that level of Charity.

     Testimony meeting went over 15 minutes because of all the testimonies. When I bore my testimony the spirit was so strong that it began to shoot out of my ears while I was speaking. Elder Villalba bore his last Testimony in Paraguay and he will be leaving this Thursday. Crazy.

I have Three New Goals for my Bucket List. I have chosen these based on promises from D&C.

1. I want to be so full of Joy that I will faint (Like Ammon). I think I got pretty close when the Spirit was shooting out of my ears.
2. I want to see the Vision of The Celestial, Terrestrial, and Telestial Kingdoms.
3. I want to see Christ Face to Face in a Vision.

All three could possibly happen at once.

July 23, 2012

This week was a walking week and very tiring, plus it warmed up again so I was always hot. Mirna left to Lambare with her mom while she is doing her Lawyer stuff, so we didn´t get to talk to her.

     Monday after we passed by Miguel, who wasn´t home, we decided to explore the area. Later after looking at the map we discovered that we had done at least half of our contacts in Villa Anita. Looks like we´ll be giving them a lot of references tomorrow. On Tuesday we went to have interviews in the office with Pdte Agazzani. 3.5 hours for a 10 minute talk. He didn´t even try to get to know me. All he said was "You have little time left. If you want to end your mission with more baptisms you need to do this..." I´m not offended or anything, but I thought it was a waste of time for information that I already know and have been doing. At least we got to eat at McDonalds afterwards. Then when we went to visit Miguel we discovered more good news. His wife bought him glasses! Now he can read! Yay! He wasn´t home, but we gave her a pamphlet so that he could read it, ha ha. ;P

     Wednesday I finally got my Birthday package. Our lunch appointment fell, so then I ate a bunch of candy. Bad decision. It made me feel bad later. The candy disappeared before Saturday. On Thursday during Noche de Barrio I handed out all the Warheads and watched all their silly reactions. That is true fun. I wish I could have recorded it all. I laughed until it hurt. Carlos Ledezma, a member that we usually leave with to teach, got mugged and now doesn´t have a cell phone. It was in the middle of the city, so now I´m never going to bring valuables around at night.

     Friday they cut down the giant mango tree in front of the capilla. We had nothing to do, so we walked around Capilla Del Monte (A place where there is only 1 house on each block and a forest in between each). Surprisingly there are a lot of members who live there so we made a bunch of appointments for Saturday. Then on Saturday we had to sacrifice some of those appointments so that we could teach Miguel and have "Mission Correlacion". When we taught Miguel he asked us to move his fecha back more because he doesn´t understand anything yet. That was the plan becuase he really isn´t ready, but I was kinda surprised he remebered his baptismal date. He really does want to get baptized.

     Sunday Miguel came to church by himself again. Yay! I gave a talk about the importance of Members doing Missionary work. They all "paid attention", but I don´t think they "Paid Comprehension". It´s hard to apply what you learn if you are hearing, but not listening. Then after church we taught Miguel and we finally got him to say an entire prayer by himself. It took much patience and rephrasing to get him to understand. Did I mention about how happy I was that he has glasses? Yay! One of the recent converts who Elder Ackerman baptized isn´t coming to church anymore. We talked to Carlos about why and he said that Church is Boring and he says he doesn´t like me because I don´t talk to him or something. When we taught him I talked the entire time! I don´t get it. We will have to work with him this week.

This week was kinda slow, so that´s all I got.

Love Ya!

Elder Zachary James Singson

July 16, 2012

Hola Familyo,

     This week has been a good one. I forgot to bring my journal with me so some of this information will be incomplete. On Monday after the Pday had ended we went to teach Miguel. He and his wife were there, so we decided to watch the Restoration hoping that he would strengthen his testimony and his wife would get some amount of interest to actually listen for herself and not just to support her husband. I don´t know if she changed, but I know that he felt the spirit. I´m not sure how to get him to express himself yet though, but it will come with time.

     Tuesday we finally started teaching Mirna, the reference of the Hna Aguilera. I felt so happy that we are teaching her with them in their house. Unfortunately we didn´t get to finish the entire lesson. We were about to teach the Apostasy when her kid came over and said that the baby woke up. Dang Satan. She likes learning, but I´m not sure she is listening for more than just pure curiousity. That´s going to change though. Even more unfortunate was that after she had left the Hna Aguilera began to tell us her life story and cried for nearly an hour straight. I´m calling her Ms.Waterworks from now on because I seriously have no Idea where all that water came from. It was like she had sat on a hose and she was a sprikler. Fortunately we had the excuse that it was almost nine o´clock and we had to go home or she would have just kept on crying. I´m not even sure why she was crying.

 

     Wednesday we had the fortune of finishing the restoration and we even watched the restoration movie, so the Hna Aguilera wouldn´t change the subject so much. She really liked it, but she had the question. What happens to all the good Christians that follow God and don´t baptize in your Church? Luckily that´s the Lesson 2 the Plan of Salvation so we made a cita for Thursday.

     Thursday we taught lesson 2 to Mirna and I finally got to use my puzzle from Missionary mall for the first time in a long time. She said that she really liked the way that I presented it too. I asked her what she knew about the plan of God and she said that we live on the earth, we die, we get judged, and we go to heaven. I filled in those puzzle pieces and we talked about because of the apostasy most people don´t know the complete plan of God, but because of Revelation given to Prophets we know the Entire Plan of Salvation. She really liked that. Then we filled in the rest of the Puzzle and she said, "I have always believed this even though I never have really learned about it. I know God is a just God and now I see that your God is just".

 

     Unfortunately, again, The Hna Aguilera had to talk too much and would distract the lesson from it´s current course. She talked about Temples, Baptisms for the dead, Marriages in the Temple, Outer Darkness, The fall of Adam and Eve (The Deeper Doctrine) and all the deep doctrine that she didn´t need to know yet. Mirna said that lesson 1 was something she had never heard of before and that we were practically overloading her hard drive, but then with lesson 2 The Hna Aguilera was trying to shove all the information that she knows down Mirna´s Throat. I could see her trying to process it all and I tried to cut off Hna Aguilera several times and return the basics, but She would continue on the course she was on. One of these days we´ll have to teach Hno and Hna Aguilera how to teach an investigator in the correct way. Hno Aguilera isn´t that bad though (He is the Patriarch).

 

     Later on we also watched the Prophet Joseph Smith at the church with a bunch of Jovenes and Miguel. I don´t know what else to do because he needs new glasses, so he can´t read the Book of Mormon. He really liked it and he came by himself.

     We finally had a "Consejo De Barrio" on friday, even though only half of the people showed up, but we did get to eat sausages afterwards, so that was cool. On Saturday we were walking to a lesson and we saw Miguel walking with one of his friends. He said that he was going to the "Cancha" to play Volley. We thought nothing of it till later when we were in somebody´s house and we saw him walking back towards his house. Sunday we asked him what happened and he said that they were all drinking and he wanted to escape from temptation. That was sooo cool, because the reason he started talking to us is because he wanted to change and now we can see that it´s sincere. He hasn´t drinken since we started teaching, but smoking is going to be a little harder for him. 

 

     Saturday we also taught a random Noche de Hogar with the Flia Cristaldo. We were invited that evening and we prepared something for that night. Turns out that they had a surprise investigator for us. It was kinda crazy because Charlito is "Cabezudo", but I think that she felt the spirit. She is the Girlfriend of a Non-member brother and they think if we get her first then he will eventually turn to the Gospel as well. Crazy conversion stories abounded in the lesson.

     Sunday Miguel came to church by himself and on time. I don´t think he is quite prepared for his baptismal date, but he is definitely progressing. I think he and Mirna are our "Golden Investigators" for now. There were many people that didn´t come to church because of the cold, but there was still 80 or something. Felipe, a really funny recent convert, says he wants us to move in behind his house. I want to if we can break our contract with the current house. It is so much nicer than ours.

What a good week, And Yours?

Hit me up on Dear Elder! Love,

Elder Zachary James Singson

July 9, 2012

Now officially begins the reign of the Agazzani, The Reign of Argentina!

     Last week we wrote our first Letter to Pdte Agazzani. It was strange. I didn´t know what to say. On Monday we ate at Real to celebrate me and Elder Henrie´s B day. Tuesday was fun though because we went on Divisions with the Zone Leaders after the District Meeting. I went with Elder Marple to Villa Elisa and Elder Durrant went with Elder Ackerman to Paí-Ñu. It was a crazy and very tiring day. First we had a random lesson with a Pentecostal guy. He was good and receptive, but his schedule will make it difficult for him to go to church. Next lesson was with a guy who was super slow. I don´t know why but he had no idea what we were talking about. With a simple question like "Do you believe in God?" he didn´t know what to say. After that we went to a guy who has a baptismal date to make sure he´s progressing with Keeping the Word of Wisdom.

     Then we went to talk to Edgar Pavon and his Mom to see if she would give her kid permission so he can get baptized. This was the hard part. She is like a wall, no emotion. We had brought 3 members with us to help Hna Mara (Friend of the Mom), her daughter, and Diego (Friend of Edgar). 

Basically Elder Marple did a quick and simple lesson 1 and asked Edgar to share his testimony. Honestly Edgar´s testimony sucked. I think he was scared of his mom, but he didn´t say more than 3 words at a time. Anyways to make up for it the Hna Mara gave her testimony and said that the church will help her son, then Her daughter cried when sharing her testimony. Next the Hna Pavon said I don´t think he knows enough yet to make a decision and I destroyed her doubt with Acts 2 and that we have to act on faith and not depend on knowlegde. The spirit was so powerful, but she said "We´ll see": UGH! No human could have denied the spirit!... Unless... SHE´S A ROBOT!!! AAAH!!! ROBOT INVASION!!!

     Anyways the next lesson was just as interesting. We were teaching an investigator, the Hna Fernandez, with a Recent Convert and at the very end of the lesson her drunk husband comes in and Elder Marple made the mistake of saying "Que tal Hermano?". The drunk husband runs to his room and yells "I´m not your brother I´m Athiest!" and then he slammed the door. Less than a second later he opens the door and yells "AND I HATE THE UNITED STATES" and slams the door again. Then repeats the same action and yells something random for 2 minutes straight. Then suddenly he comes over to us and says "I Just Want To Find Peace, Don´t you teach that in your church?" Of course we said yes and we gave him a lesson 3 pamphlet and told him to read it when he is sober. He talked for another 5 minutes about nonsense and then he joined us for the Prayer. The Hna Fernandez was really embarrassed. Fun Huh?

     Wednesday I turned 21 and going back to my area I discovered that our lunch appointment had been cancelled. Of course it happened on my birthday. I didn´t feel like cooking so we ordered a pizza instead. We visited a lot of other appointments that Elder Durrant had set the day before, but just like lunch, they all fell. We did kinda celebrate my birthday with the Flia Estigarribia Martinez. The Hna Made us all sandwiches and Sebastian, her son, made us Juice. I don´t like celebrating birthdays when you are new in an area.

     Thursday we went to meet the Pdte Agazzani and his wife for the first time. It started to rain, but I don´t have an umbrella and Elder Ackerman gave his for 2 Hermanas to use. So I was soaked. It was interesting meeting the new Mission President. He is really different from the Argentina Prototype. He is very young, 43, and new so I don´t know what to think of him yet. After getting back from the meeting in Asuncion I was surprised when we left with a Member, Carlos, and we taught 3 lessons with the little time we had left.

     The rain from yesterday made it freezing cold. Friday we had an appointment in the Church at 3. I decided that we should go early just in case they came early. Turns out Carlos was preparing a surprise for my birthday. I discovered them. We ate pie-ish substance and hot chocolate. Then we got to know his friends who want to learn more about the church. They are all jovens, but that's ok. Later we went back to the church to have Mission Correlation Meeting thingy, but Charly (The ward mission leader) didn´t show up and he didn´t answer his phone, so we sat outside of the Capilla pointlessly for 30 minutes.

     Saturday I woke up with my socks on, but my feet were like Icicles. We had lots of appointments, but ended up teaching only 1 lesson in someone´s house and 3 in the street while contacting. Sunday I was surprised because Miguel, an investigator that they taught on Tuesday, was waiting for us to take him to church. He actually came! That was fast. He said he really liked it. Next week we are going to bring all of Carlos´ friends too. I´m glad to see that 100 people still come to church even though it´s cold.

     It was impossible to teach because Cerro and Olympia were playing. That would be like Real Madrid and Barcelona, so nobody wanted to listen to us. They were out in the cold watching the game. The only time I´ve seen so many people outside when it´s cold. Anyways Cerro won and the Olympistas are all going to be bitter. Not fun.

I love you always,

Elder Zachary James Singson

June 25, 2012

Haldo Fmly,

This week not much was accomplished. Why? It´s because I got changed, so I´m going to finish in this new area.

I´m now in Pa´í-Ñu with Elder Ackerman and he only has one change in this area. With the new Mission President coming in I don´t think Elder Ackerman will be going anywhere. He´ll probably leave this area in 3 changes. Elder Ackerman was Elder Villalba´s companion once. I say this because Elder Villalba is in Pa´í-Ñu 1.1 and we are in 1.2. What a coincidence.

     Because of all of the chaos and because Paiñu is very campo (Foresty, the first time I´m outside of the city) I´m just lost and confused. Supposedly I´m outside of Fernando de La Mora/Asuncion, but I can´t tell. Today when we went shopping we had to take 2 buses and went far out of our area to shop at a supermarket. It took a long time and it didn´t help that some crazy person on a moto crashed into a bus that we were going to board to get back home.

     The mission has told us to not talk about the Paraguay "Empeaching" it´s President because there has been lots of "Civil Unrest" because of it. I don´t know anything so I couldn´t tell you anyways. Basically the people are worried that they will make paraguay a dictatorship again or something.

     I don´t know what to say. I´m lost and I don´t know anybody besides a few Jovenes that like to teach with us, but we have no-one to teach. Nobody even introduced me as the new missionary in church. I´m just going to be the Unknown Elder.

My shoes fill up with sand and there is no asfalt. We walk around all day, but nobody wants to talk to us. It´s really cold one day and then hot another. There are lots of trees, More than there are housed and people.

I wish I could tell you more, but I can´t. President Callan is Leaving. Pdte Agazzani is coming in.

That´s all I got. Love Ya!

Elder Zachary James Singson

June 11, 2012

Hello Crazy Family,

The weather has decided to be just as crazy as you guys. One day it´s hot and the nexts is 30 degrees and then hot again.
Fun Fun Fun, NOT.

So here´s the weak, or the Week... Who knows?

     Tuesday after District Meeting I did divisions with Elder Graham and Elder Dominguez went to Libertad with Elder Escoffre from France. We talked to a bunch of people, but nobody wanted to talk to us. We taught Joel and Leticia the  Word of Wisdom with Manu, a member who also had that problem. It was really good because Joel said that his parents also drank and smoked, but when he was born they stopped because they wanted to show him a good example, so now Joel wants to do the same thing. It was cool.
     Elder Graham doesn´t have a coat, so I gave him my Paraguay one. He wanted to buy it off me, so I made him buy me Ice Cream and Pizza Hut. Yum Yum

     Wednesday we reunited with our companions. Lots of walking. Lots of lessons, but nobody wanted to progress, they don´t want us to come back another day. How unfortunate for them.
     Thursday we talked about The Gospel of Jesus Christ, JaM Sandwiches, and the need for a Mediator. Afterwards we tried to visit Jose Carlos, but his mom has become possesed and is now totally crazy and won´t let us talk to him. She has been using Secret Combinations with her family and friends to try and turn Jose against us. It hasn´t really worked, but we can´t talk to him. CURSE YOU SATAN! YOU STUPID CLEVER SERPENT! The rest of the day we copied the Pioneer Children and sang as we walked, and walked, and walked, and walked.

     Friday it was so cold that I thought I was going to die. I couldn´t leave my cave of heat to go exercise and I wore my thermals for the first time. Ugh. And nobody wants to talk to us. Because of the cold we haven´t had many new investigators.
     Saturday we went with Manu to watch the Restoration with Joel and Leticia. Manu brought his laptop becuase they don´t have a DVD player. Leticia and the kids weren´t there, but that was actually good because the laptop´s sound isn´t very loud. Joel really liked it. While I was walking the strap to my bag broke. Luckily we were close to Hna Ojeda and she used her sewing machine to fix it right up. Yay Sewing machines!

      Sunday Joel and Leticia came to church, but didn´t show up until after the Sacrament was passed. Xiomara didn´t want to go to Primary, but after they ditched her there she didn´t want to leave. She cried after church ended. They are supposed to get Married Friday and Baptized Saturday, but now that Joel is working his crappy job I don´t know how we are going to do that. Also Leticia needs to pull out her "Cedula", so they can get married, and hasn´t done it yet, so we might have to push the wedding back a week. I hope not because if I get Changed I won´t be able to see it all happen. *SOB* :´(

Well that´s it.
Love You!
Elder Zachary James Singson

June 4, 2012

Dear Family,

I´m Tired. Physically, Spiritually, Emotionally, & Mentally Drained. What a week.
The difference between partaking of and not taking the Sacrament is great.

     On Monday we taught a good family. Andres and Nora. They have 3 little girls and their names all start with A. They say that they aren´t searching for more truth in this very moment, but we only talked a little about the restoration and I´m pretty sure that they will change their minds. Unfortunately they only have time Sunday and Monday, so we have to try and find them today!
    Tuesday was good because in District meeting I got a boost in animo when I saw that half the numbers were from my area Alone. Hard work, Yay! After lunch we went over to Jose Carlos´ house and talked to him and Manolo. Surprisingly when we asked what tithing is he told us perfectly what is was, why we pay, what it´s used for, etc. So I´m guessing his mom is just insane and doesn´t want him to get baptized for Ignorant reasons. We also talked to his friend Manolo about the Book of Mormon and he said he would read and pray. The biggest obstacle really is just their Crazy Catholic Moms.

     Wednesday was Awesome! Really just the last 2 hours were. We were rejected all day, dropping and getting dropped by many investigators, doing thousands of fruitless contacts, and walking walking walking for hours. Ugh. After all the rejection we went to a Member´s House because he was going to a lesson with us. Didn´t happen. His super catholic mom came over and his wife refused to stay alone with her. Ugh. So the day just seemed like a big waste... Until...
     We went over to Joel and Leticia´s house and we reviewed the Plan of Salvation with them to see what they remembered, but with a little twist at the end. We talked about Temples and Sealing and all that. They always have wanted to get married, but every time they saved up they had to use the money for something else. Now they are going to get married on the 15th of June and then Baptized on the 16th! ¡Crazy, Huh? They didn´t even resist, they just said "Ok, What do we have to do?" I´m so happy. :D

     Thursday was just as bad, but without the good. We planned everything at night so we could get Jose Carlos and Manolo to Seminary to make more friends and learn more. Also we were going to take Joel and Leticia to Branch Night, so they could watch the Restoration with us and get to know the members and play a little football. Well, seminary and branch night got cancelled because of the rain. Or should I say light mist. IT WAN´T EVEN A SPRINKLE. I hate that. So all we were able to do is talk to Joel and Leticia and walked around Aimlessly the rest of the day.

     Friday we finally got a member to come with us to a lesson. We haven´t had many in the past weeks and I´m sure the Zone Leaders are going to want to do Divisions. We taught Joel and Leticia the importance of the Book of Mormon and Manu, our Member, Bore his testimony. Xiomara their daughter is becoming more and more of a nuisance/distraction during the lessons and it makes it hard for the spirit to be present, but at least the members are helping.

     Saturday we started off with talking to our Japanese friend Henichiro. He talked my ears off about all the knoweldge he has. To bad his knowledge isn´t going to help him. Hopefully my Elder Dominguez can figure out how to help this guy because I´ve tried so many times and it just seems to get harder each time. Later we taught a guy named Jorje Garai. Last time he seemed really receptive, but this time he was hardening his heart against us. I was thinking, "Dang, we´re going to lose him!" But towards the end I just did a Spirit Bomb with a testimony that Softened him back up to invite us back next week. That was good.
     At Joel and Leticia´s we taught the Law of Chastity to help them get motivated even more to get married. Also for future reference with thier kids in this Immoral and Wicked world.
     We started our fast and sure enough it was the day when everybody was offering us food. They never do on other occasions and I THINK they do it on purpose.

     Sunday was the Stake Conference, and in Paraguay that means no Sacrament (NOOOOOO!!!! NOT AGAIN!!! How much more must I suffer the burden of my sins?), but fortunately that means President Callan will talk and that is super good for investigators and members alike. It was raining in the morning and we were worried that Joel and Leticia wouldn´t come, but we had the blessing of The Branch President picking them up for us.
     We called Jose Carlos at 7:30am and he said "Call me back in an hour I hardly didn´t sleep last night." Probably because he had a sleep over at Manolo´s house. We called at 8:30am and a Girl picked up the phone. We asked if Jose was there and she said in a normal voice "Who may I ask is calling?" and I said "His friends the Missionaries" and then she said "Oh, the Mormons..." Then she started talking like a druggie and was trying to get us to go to her house to Drink and Smoke Marijuana. We called several times hoping that Jose would answer, but she always picked up and wouldn´t give the phone to Jose or wake him up for us. FREAKING SATAN!!!! I HATE YOUR STINKING GUTS!!!! YOU AREN´T GOOD ENOUGH TO EVEN HAVE GUTS!!!
So that sucked.
     The rest of the day was walking and no luck, but at least Joel and Leticia had a good time at the Conference.

That´s all folks!
LVoe,
Elder Zachary James Singson

May 28, 2012

Mine Family!

      Hola, There is so much that me and my companion do during the week that I will only be able to write about the Progressing Investigators and their/my trials. Starting Monday after Pday ended we went to Joel and Leticia´s house. Joel was just about to go to the hospital becuase Lucas had gotten worse. We offered to tag along and give him a blessing. And the brownie points keep building.
      Tuesday the Zone Leaders called and said that nobody was going to baptize this week in all of Asuncion, so they asked us to do a special fast and gave us permision to Baptize anybody that has come to church at least once (If they are repentant and will continue faithfully). So we started our fast and went to give a new baptismal date to Jose Carlos for this Saturday. He accepted, so we taught him the Word of Wisdom and the Law of Chastity. The only other person we taught that day was a guy who had Dengue.
     Wednesday it rained. Bleh!

     Thursday we went with the District Leader to go to Jose Carlos´ Interview... He wasn´t there. How embarassing/frustrating and his phone is broken so we couldn´t call him. We decided to pass by later to set up another interview appointment and we wanted him to get to know the Jovenes better, so we tried to get him to Seminary at the church. We were walking to his house and on the way there we found him and his friend Manolo carrying the gas (for their stove) to get it refilled. We carried it for them so it would be faster. After they got back with the gas Jose`s mom made him go buy bread from the supermarket, so we didn´t get them to church before seminary ended. But we decided to at least teach him tithing in the church before he left.
     The happenings of the rest of the night would make for a very long story, but to make a long story shorter... After the lesson Jose said that his friend, Manolo, wants to get baptized this Saturday. We told him that he has to wait until he has a testimony about the Book of Mormon (Besides that he doesn´t live in our area and it would be hard to get permission from his parents). Jose was very upset and he didn´t want to get baptized without his shadow. We wanted him to get baptized and then get the priesthood after his birthday in June to Baptize Manolo, but he didn´t want to. He decided that he wanted to wait util they could get baptized together. I´m not sure that Manolo even wants to get baptized or if Jose is just pushing him.

     Friday was very upsetting. We went to Jose`s to teach Manolo, so that they could both get baptized by the 9th of June. They weren´t there, but then the mom called us over and said that she wasn´t going to let Jose get baptized anymore. Another Long Story Short... Jose didn´t understand tithing and when he explained it to his mom she understood less. Now she thinks that we are trying to take their money. We will resolve this all in due time, but for now this really killed my "animo".

     Saturday is when we started seeing the Miracles of the fast. First we taught Adilson about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and invited him to get baptized. He said that he was going to visit his parents and wouldn´t be back till the end of June, but he would pray for the answer. He has always understood, but he lacked faith, but now that he says he is going to pray and ask to see what he should do, That´s progress.
     Later we found Joel and Leticia. They are all back in their house. Yay! Lucas still needs some studies done, but he doesn`t have to go back to the hospital. Their two year old daughter Xiomara stopped being shy and played with me. We talked about Miracles and Faith from Ether 12. We invited them to church and they said they would come.

     Sunday we went to Joel and Leticia´s house at 8:30am to pick them up and go to church. They had just woken up, so the mom had to get ready. It took forever, but we made it for the last 15 minutes of Sacrament Meeting. They were going to go to the hospital at 10, but then they decided to stay for the Gospel Principles Class. They were going to go at 11, but then they decided to stay for the Priesthood/Relief Society as well. It was great. They all loved it. Even Shy little Xiomara made friends in Primary. Joel said that he want to come every sunday (More often if it were possible).
     After that we ate asado with Pdte Texeira (Stake President) and a bunch of other rich people. Rich people are boring and lame. Sorry to say it. Maybe it´s just rich Latins. I´m always hearing about Members moving to the United States (Especifically Utah) and I always wonder "What happened to building the Kingdom where you lived? Utah doesn´t need any more members!"
     Later we taught Joel and Leticia about the Plan of Salvation (because in church we found out that they had lost Lucas´ Twin Brother). I think they felt the spirit and that is the most important thing, but I don´t think they understood much. 
     Lastly we taught a Sergio´s (Member) girlfriend, Claudia (Investigator). Everything went well until the very end when we asked her to say the prayer. She didn´t want to, so I guess when my companion insisted she got so embarassed, nervous, and/or emotional (Who knows what was the cause) that she started to cry! I hope she still will want to talk to us after that experience. I found it very strange myself. I didn´t know what to think.

Anyways I got the Package today finally. Tell the ward thanks for the candy. I´ll try to use all the stuff you gave me, but nobody here reads English.

Love,
Elder Zachary James Singson

May 21, 2012

Dearest Family,

     I guess I´ll start off introducing you to my new companion. His name is Elder Dominguez, he is from Peru, Marisa is taller than him (Yay For Marisa!), He talks really fast, and he has a year and two months in the mission. He is a good missionary. To sum him up, he is just an obedient version of Elder Yaringaño. Apparently he is 24 and he studied law before coming here. He has one younger brother and sister. His Mom´s side of the family are all members and his dad´s side is the opposite... Including his dad. How sad.
     He is good, but he is very judgemental about everyone. It has made me wonder if I was that bad. I´ve realized that I´ve come to love the people more because it bugs me that he judges everybody so much. The Assistants have taught me to always think the best even though there is no remote chance that it´s true. For Example: We clap a house and we see people inside, but they don´t come to the door. Instead of saying anything negative Elder Clement would say "Aw Elder. What am I thinking? Friday at 7pm is the only time that Paraguayans have to do family home evening. Sorry For Bothering You! We´ll come back later, so you can keep feeling the spirit, love, and unity in your home." I´ve been doing something similar hoping that Elder Dominguez will eventually copy me.
     He is very animated, he is a good teacher (except he seems nervous and talks way too fast without pausing), he is obedient, persistent when talking to people (which annoys the heck out of people), etc. Good guy.

     Anyways here is my week. Monday after Pday Elder Fale called his parents on the church phone because they couldn´t figure out how to use Skype. Then we visited a couple of people. Tuesday we just visited people and then at night we ate our last Pizza together. He only visited his favorites and he talked to me all night about what the heck he was going to do. We had a good run.

     Wednesday Elder Dominguez came and discovered he left his key to the lock to his bag in his other area so he bought a saw blade and cut them off. That was fun. We ran out of gas, so we made microwave hamburgers for "Breakfast". After studies and Lunch we went to Jose Carlos and Destroyed his so called Doubt. We read the Parable of the Pearl of Great Price and why he should leave the Catholic Church because even though it´s "good", ours is the only true church. We gave him a new Baptismal date for the 2nd of June.

      Thursday we taught a guy named Jose Olavarieta. He said he´s talked to the missionaries before, but he doesn´t remember anything. He kept talking about that he wants Peace. Thankfully through the true Gospel of Jesus Christ, that´s exactly what he´s going to get. We taught him lesson 1 (The Restoration) and gave him a Baptismal date for the June 9th.
     We also went to a family that Elder Fale contacted with Elder Schone. They were awesome. Joel is from Cuba and his wife is Paraguayan. They have two kids a little girl named Xiomara and a baby named Lucas. They are new to the area, so we have the perfect oppertunity to bring them to our church, so they won´t have to make any huge changes in religion. We taught them lesson 1 and gave them a Baptismal date for the 9th. They will so totally get baptized.

     Friday we taught Jose Olavarieta again, but this time he started putting out excuses. He said he is going to go to Argentina for a month because of his job and when he comes back he is going to return to his old church. We talked about the Book of Mormon as evidence of the only true church, but I don´t think he gets it very well. Hopefully he reads and prays, so that he understands better.
     After that we taught Edgar Gonzelez who is a Director of Cameras for the news or something. At first he said he was Catholic, but we taught him lesson 1 and he even accepted to be baptized if the got an answer. We couldn´t give him a date though, he wasn´t ready. We taught 5 lessons total.

     Saturday we tried to help Adilson increase in faith, so talked to him about coming to church, reading, and praying. We gave him a list of questions that the Book of Mormon answers (they are called Soul Searching Questions) and invited him to church. He said he has football practice at 11, but could come for one hour.
Later we taught Jorje. He is a little paranoid. He said he doesn´t like chruch, but after teaching him he said he would come. 
     Then we went to Manuel and Evelyn´s house to take Emmanuel to a lesson, but Evelyn´s Brother was there, so we taught him instead. He is Catholic, but he has experience with lots of religions. He has read the Book of Mormon and even Jesus the Christ, so we focused on praying and following the will of God and not depending on our own knowlegde.
     After the lesson we didn´t have time to teach a lesson to Joel and Leticia, so we decided to take Manu to al least invite them to church tomorrow. When we got there Joel came out and he said that he just got home and that he was going to go hospital. Lucas has some (Spanish word I don´t understand) problem and Leticia was with him at the hospital. They obviously couldn´t go to church, but we were there for them to offer our help, council, and prayers. We gave him a Chapter in the Book of Mormon that could help them (Ether 12 Faith and Miracles), Manu bore testimony about prayer, because his son had the same problem, then we left.
     What a miracle. If Evelyn´s brother wasn´t there we wouldn´t have been able to talk to Joel.

     Unfortunately nobody came Sunday. 4 people said they would, but it didn´t happen. Oh well, next time ¡Si o Si! So I gave a talk comparing playing the piano to sharing the gospel. If the missionaries (the right hand) work with the member (the left hand), then the spirit works with us (Singing the words) and the Song (Gospel) sounds really good and people will more happily receive it.
     I guess I was kinda dropping the Cane because after talking for a bit the spirit took over and I bore a powerful and frankly a quite unexpected testimony. From this Testimony I discovered that I really love the People and it Hurts me when they reject the Gospel. That I can´t imagine life without the Gospel and how they have no idea that they aren´t happy. That like the sons of Mosiah I desire that no one should perish and suffer endless torment because they don´t have the Gospel and that we are the only ones who know about it and we have to share. I said a lot of stuff and it made me cry. Just thinking about the way I felt makes me get teary eyed. Everybody commented to me about how awesome my talk was afterward.
     After Church we went with Manu to visit Lucas and Leticia in the Hospital. I think that we have tons of Brownie points with this family now, but better is that a member is involved too. We ate a big lunch with the Flia Romero and Flia Grau. That was fun and yummy. Rice, Mashed Potatoes, Chicken, Beef, and Mandioka. It was all really good.
     We went to Jose Carlos, cuz he didn´t come to church. He says stayed up late watching movies, so he slept in. He wants to come, but he wants his friend, Manolo, to come too. So we focused on Manolo and his needs and his doubts. We invited him to read the Book of Mormon, Pray about it, and Come to Church to know it´s true. He says he´ll come, but he doesn´t talk much. We gave him a soul searching question scripture and left.
     Then the Stake President Texeira invited us over. He was present in the Sacrament meeting. This was the firstfruits of my talk. They gave us sandwhiches and 4 references and shoes. They even made plans with us about doing a family night with their references. We are going to try working harder with the members now.
     We talked to a bunch of drunk people before bed. The End.

That´s all I have time for, Love Ya´ll!
Elder Zachary James Singson

May 14, 2012

Hello Family!

We already talked two days ago and I don´t have much to say anyways, so I´ll briefly explain the events of this week.

     Monday we had our District Activity at Libertad´s church. We each payed 25mil Guaranis and a part member family that literally lives next to the church made us Asado. It was really good, but kinda dumb because we ate before we played. Nobody could really run. It´s kinda funny though. I am the comic relief of sports. When I try really hard I can´t do much, but when I mess around I seem to score a lot. I totally wasted everybody in football. I ate more than everybody, but I could still run ha ha.

     Tuesday after District Meeting we did divisions with the Zone Leaders. I went with Elder King (From my district in the MTC) to "Ka´abuy Rary". His area is super chuchi. A member picked us up from district meeting and drove us to his house to eat lunch with him. We ate Ñokis de Mandioka, my favorite. We had an awesome day. I like going to other areas on divisions. Everybody else´s areas seem better than mine, but whenever I come back from divisions a miracle always happened in our area so it makes me feel better. We taught a lawyer with a 4 story house who loves to read the Book of Mormon. We had 7 lessons. We taught a guy named Nestor, who is totally going to get baptized he just needs to recognize his answer, and by himself (without the missionaries asking him to) he read 10 chapters in Mosiah. He even remembered names like Limhi, King Noah, Ammon, Etc. He was able to apply the story to his life and learn from it too. He is so cool, I want to be his friend on Facebook.

     When I got back on Wednesday I was upset to discover that Elder Schone ate all of the Charges we bought (Literally, Around 20 little candy bars). Who can eat that much candy in one day? But Elder Fale told me about an awesome family he found. They were teaching an old guy and his wife. He had absolutely no interest, so they were just going to leave after teaching half of the lesson. They said a prayer and handed him a Pamphlet and said "Will you read this", he said "I don´t really care about your teachings, but if you give it to me I´ll read it." 
     They handed him a Restoration Pamphlet he turned it to the back and saw the Book of Mormon and said "Is this your Book?" When the missionaries said yes he ran into his house and came out with a copy of the Book of Mormon and said with his tears in his eyes "I´ve been reading this book for years, but I never knew where it came from". He had a change of heart and they made a return appointment for Saturday. ¿¡What a Miracle RIGHT!?

     Wednesday and Thursday I basically followed Elder Fale around to a bunch of appointments he made, but nobody was home. Friday we tried teaching people, but it didn´t work out. Saturday the Flia Gehrmann threw a "Go Home" party for Elder Fale. Sunday was just normal, but nobody made Elder Fale speak. I sucked it up on the piano, but now I have an Idea for my next talk. Today Elder Fale had his out interview and we ate at McDonalds.

That´s all I got, Love Ya!
Elder Zachary James Singson

May 7, 2012

Dear Family,

This Saturday, the day before Mothers Day, I will be calling you on Skype. I will call around 2pm my time, so you have to figure out when that will be.

See Ya Soon!

     This week was a little slower than most. We didn´t get money this monday, so we didn´t do Shopping. Thankfully I had enough to buy a Pizza for 20mil (around 5 bucks) with Barrio 4 in their area. At night all we ate was Mate Dulce Con Leche. It isn´t as great as everybody makes it out to be. It´s just hot milk with a hint of Coconut and plant flavor... Yum?

     Tuesday it was "El Dia de Trabajador." The funny thing is that the people that work the most work on this day... Us. Nobody gave us anything for being awesome workers! We did do shopping though. Elder Fale decided that he just wanted to live off of Paraguayan Tortillas all week. It`s just flower, milk, cheese, eggs, and maybe meat if you have it, mixed together and fried. After eating it twice I was already sick of it.

     Wednesday we met Andy and his mom, Regina, for the first time. His mom is an English translator and is actually member even though she doesn´t appear in the ward list. They are cool.

     Thursday was great because it was Zone Conference. Once again I felt the spirit the strongest during practices, but it kept building until it was Testimony meeting. Mine must have been really good because Pdte Callan told me so. We ate Milanesa and Mashed Potatoes again. I wanted Chinese food though. *Sigh*

     Friday we called Jose Carlos and passed by his house (Which is really far) 5 times. He just disappeared and we don´t know what happened.

     Saturday we ate lunch with Andy, his mom, and his Grandpa. We are going to make them food next time because it appeared to us that they sacrificed themselves for us. We´ll make them tacos. We tried to teach Adilson, but he had to leave to San Bernadino (Paraguay) to play football and that was also why he didn´t go to church sunday. Nobody gave us Asado, but I guess that´s because 5 de Mayo is the Mexican independence day.

     Sunday hardly anybody came and Jose didn´t come. Ugh. Now we have to move back his baptismal date again. ¡Jose! ¿Where did you go? Hna Grau finally came back from Utah. If I knew she was going to stay there for 3 months I would have told her son to send us our address, so she could visit. But they kept saying "She´ll be back soon". That was specific.

Kinda Boring Huh. I had a really good Zone Conference though and Elder Fale is officially "Trunky".

Love Ya,

Elder Singson

April 30, 2012

Dear Family,

     First off, I have yet to receive the latest information on the status of "Mother´s Day Calling". We will probably hear about that this zone conference on Thursday, which will probably be President Callan´s last Zone Conference. How sad.

     Last Monday I got my hair cut really short. Almost a buzz cut. I forgot how much I like it being this short and the little maintenance it requires. I feel lighter too. This Tuesday when I went to district meeting I had to carry three heavy packages for Elder Graham and Elder Hill. That made me tired. Then it rained all day.

 

     Wednesday it rained too. Fortunately, we were able to get some amount of work done. After an hour long history lesson by Jose Carlos of what made Paraguay the sorry state that it is in, we taught him the importance of church attendance. Attending OUR church. I hope he understood it well. It was well enough though... for now. We also gave a blessing to Hna Sanchez who´s appendix exploded and had to undertake complicated surgeries. I believe that made the day a bit more meaningful.

     If all went according to plan, Thursday was supposed to be the best day ever... but it wasn`t. We were going to have an awesome lesson with Jose Carlos and the Youth of the ward, then they were going to play Football. At least Jose Carlos went to play Football, but it was 9 when he got there and it takes a half hour to walk home. I hope he made friends.

 

     Friday we taught him The Plan of Salvation. He didn´t ask any questions so I am worried that he didn´t comprehend. I am sure that after he reads the Pamphlet we will end up re-teaching him though. After that we went next door and taught Flia Navarro and Claudia! Woo! First time in Forever! Her baby is cute and chubby.

     Saturday we taught an amazing new investigator. Adilson Steger. He is amazing First of all because he was there waiting for us even though we contacted him and made the appointment a week ago. He even told his friends that he had a prior engagement and couldn´t play football in the morning. Second reason is because he Read the Pamphlet and The Book of Mormon where we assigned him to read. Third of all he re-read it, so he could understand better. Fourth, he understood what he read. He even looked in the back for definitions of terms he didn´t know, Like Apostasy. Fifth, he understands Priesthood Authority. Sixth, We hadn´t even taught him yet. Seventh, he asks really good questions. Eighth... ETC. Need I say more? He will definitely get baptized.

 

     The rest of the day couldn´t kill my animo... even though the plans all failed. We took 1st counselor President Soliz to a lesson and she wasn´t there, so we visited a less active family. Everybody was busy except for Rumi who turned 18 that same day, so she didn`t have to do anything. She was hitting on me the entire time. We have never really even talked before and she asked me to take her to The United States when I go home, Find her a job, Let her stay at our house, Help her get into school, Help her become a Citizen, Teach her English, etc. She might as well have asked me to marry her, if that´s not what she had already implied. I was weirded out.

     Anyways, Sunday we went to church hoping that our previously made arrangements to get Jose Carlos to come to church would pull through. They didn´t, but he still came. Woo! He came half an hour late and we left during sacrament meeting to bring him in. He also brought his shadow... or friend Manolo. They really liked the meeting. They had to leave afterwards, so we decided to stay for Barrio 4´s sacrament meeting (Because we missed our chance to take the sacrament when we went to get him).

 

     Saturday it was cool, nice, weather. Sunday it was FREEZING. In one day I went from short sleeves and basking in the sunlight, with a cool breeze on my back; to Coat and hands in pocket, hoping that the wind won´t blow and find it´s way in through my barrier of warmth. Because of the Cold weather nobody is outside and nobody really wants to talk to us.

Let´s pray for miracles!

Love,

Elder Zachary James Singson

April 23, 2012

Dear you guys,

     This week was a rainy one. Not much to tell apart from the two Exchanges that we did. The first one happened on Tuesday after District meeting. I stayed in my area with Elder Hill. No offense to Elder Graham, but Elder Hill is funnier anyways. We walked around all day. We probably talked to 100 people and were only able to get 2 lessons. People in the city are always colder that in the country. That was fun, but nothing really important happened.

     On Friday we did divisions again and this time with the Assistants. I stayed in my area with Elder Clement (a newer assistant) and Elder Fale went with Elder Henriquez (from my District in Lucerito). Elder Clement is a good teacher. It was raining really hard all day, but it's obvious to me the level of obedience this guy is at, because the level of blessings is much higher. We taught 6 lessons in the rain. That´s more that we get when it´s dry. We also gave 4 people Baptismal dates. Unfortunately, due to the unavailability of them all they fell, and we haven´t been able to teach them since - but the seed is planted.

     The first awesome lesson we taught was in the morning to a Young Couple. The spirit was felt. Elder Clement taught in a way that they understood everything. He taught the entire lesson with Scriptures from the Book of Mormon, and I was there to back him up with my testimony. Rodrigo and his wife accepted Fecha for 12 de mayo. Unfortunately, they moved on Sunday. Now another set of missionaries is going to get an awesome baptism.

 

     The second awesome lesson was to a guy who at first didn`t even want to talk to us. Thankfully Elder Clement was persistant and we got in. The guy had a harder time understanding, but he was very receptive. By the End of the Lesson he said, "I was waiting for your visit". This guy works as a security guard, so he doesn`t have a lot of time and he doesn`t always have sundays off, but I think if we get him to church a couple of times he is going to get baptized. When we invited him to get baptized on the 19th of May he said "why not".

 

     The third awesome lesson was to a guy who was smoking outside his house, but he let us in. He is a cop and actually is friends with a recent convert who is also a cop. When I told the story of the first vision he said "I felt something in my heart". He only lives here on weekdays and goes to visit his wife and son on weekends, but For Sure we are going to pass the reference to the other Elders, so he can go to church with his wife. We´ll keep visiting him while he´s here though.

     The other 3 lessons were good, but the people just aren`t ready yet.

     Saturday after we changed back we also had a miracle of our own when Jose Carlos said that he got an answer and wants to be baptized. He will be baptized May 12. He still needs to be taught some things and come to church, but I think he gets it.

Baby it´s cold outside.

Love Ya!

Elder Zachary James Singson

April 16, 2012

Hello Family,

First I would like to say I did write in my Journal Happy Birthday to Kayley, I just forgot to say it in the Email. Now that you are all here. I wanna wish you a Happy Birthday Kayley April 7th, Micah And Dave April 10th.

Now that that´s out of the way lets talk about me.

     I got punched! So the story behind this is, District meeting was canceled on Tuesday due to Interviews with President Callan on Thursday. Because District meeting was canceled we had to come up with a new plan. We decided to look for Former Investigators over in Area E Blue. I took a photo of the map so we could find the houses easier. It was raining and we were walking to the first house. Unsure of it`s location I was about to take out the camera when a random guy walks up to us. He was a short little guy, maybe 5´6´´. His hair was long and dark. He was scroungy and his clothes were dirty like he had been working in construction. 

     Not wanting to take out my camera in front of him I said "Hola Hermano". He responded saying "Hermano No Hay!" and then started cursing us or something similar in Guarani. It was clear he was on drugs. He stood there flipping us off for about thirty seconds repeating the same thing tirelessly, so Elder Fale said "Lets just go". Turning to walk away I said, "Nos Vemos Hermano". I saw out of the corner of my eye that he was winding up a punch. I was holding my umbrella in my right hand and I didn't really have time to do anything else mid stride, so I just flinched.

     It didn´t hurt, but I was surprised that a guy attacked me for no apparent reason. If anything I should have punched him for flipping us off and cursing us in Guarani, but that´s not very Christlike. After the impact of his punch Elder Fale Yelled "HEY!" and the little guy ran. He was following us for a while, but whenever we crossed paths I closed my umbrella holding it in my left hand ready for any future encounter. 

     I think Micah used his Birthday wish to bring this misfortune upon me because the day didn't end there. Next we went to get lunch from the Hna Sanchez. After grabbing the food we were walking back to the pension when a drunk guy came up and started talking to us. At that point I was suspicious that anybody was going to punch me and it didn´t help that this guy was drunk. Fortunately he only wanted to talk. Unfortunately we couldn't shake him off for an hour. He kept talking non stop. Afterward he said "I really like talking with you guys". Elder Fale said in English "He really likes talking at us". By this time our lunch was cold.

     It rained all day, so there were little lessons, but there was at least one good thing. We got our shower fixed for free and I got to take a warm shower to end the night. "All´s well that ends well" right?

    Unfortunately for readers the rest of the week was not as eventful. Wednesday it rained, so there was no point in drying my shoes. I can´t even step on wet ground without my shoes getting wet now. Yet again I got to take a warm shower.

    Thursday was good though. We went to the office at 12:30pm for our interviews with President Callan. It was the longest interview I've ever had with him. It was super spiritual. He told me the reason the General Authorities and to a lesser extent Mission Presidents are able to sacrifice so much is because they are filled with the Love of God. He said for a person to be filled with this love they must focus on the Atonement of Jesus Christ and sincerely repent. You must have a desire to Align your will with God´s. Your will is really the only thing he can´t take from us, so when we give it up that is when we truly receive him in our lives. This powerful testimony had us both teary eyed. There is so much I need to apply.

    Because we didn't eat Lunch we went to McDonald's afterward and ate until we were full.

     Friday was the 13th so naturally I had to have a supernatural battle with Jason. Afterward we tried teaching Jose Carlos, but we kept getting off topic with all his questions. He lives on a main road so there is always a lot of noise because of Traffic. We tried cramming too much information in that little 15yr old brain of his.

     It rained again. Saturday we waited 45minutes for our lunch cita to get home. When we called him he said "I´m on my way", but he could be on the plane coming back from China for all we know, and because we had an appointment at 2 we just went home and ate. Unfortunately our appointment had to leave. Good news is we got some Asado. A random guy that just got exported from the us invited us to talk to him and his friends. He talked to us in English, but we responded in Spanish so everyone could understand. They may have potential.

   

     On Sunday I gave a talk about Missionary Work.

That`s it, Love Ya´ll,

Elder Zachary James Singson