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