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