April 11, 2011

Dear Family,

Because I was sick last week I will give you a brief account of two weeks ago first.

Then I will tell about this week. Trust me it was a fun one.

March 29th: Met the new Hermanas and the new Elder. Hermana Quartino is Urugayan. Hermana McGregar is from St.Gorge. Then Elder Weekly is from Nebraska or something like that. Hermana McGregar and Elder Weekly are both brand new.

Random information. Hermana McGregar fainted one day, so she was staying at the President´s house, and now she is going home. We really don´t understand what the deal with her is yet. So now Hermana Quartino is stuck with a local who doesn´t want to work.

March 30th: We had interviews with the President. He basically just asked if I was worthy to go to the Temple trip that is coming up. Yes I am. So he gave me an awesome book with a bunch of pictures. Elder Parker made us skip out on eating at McDonalds because we were late to an appointment. We were already late and there was no way we could have made it in time, but we left anyways. Turns out they weren´t even home. So now I really want McDonalds and I feel jipped about that.

April 1st: I would have totally forgotten about april fools if Elder Parker hadn´t said something about it. The Zone leaders tried pulling a prank by saying they were coming to our Weekly Planning Session, but we were not really expecting them.

April 2nd: Before Conference started we taught an entire lesson in English. It was really weird. This guy´s wife is a Paraguayan, but he is an Iranian who lives in Las Vegas. His name is Mir. His friend who is also from Vegas talked to us. He is a black guy named Diego. Niether of them speak Spanish. So we talked a lot about wordly things after the spiritual part of the conversation. Diego says he has a lot of Mormon friends and his brother runs a stunt school in Vegas. So he said he would give me the "Hook ups" after I get back and he gave me his e-mail.

     This is about the time I first started feeling sick, but listening to conference made me feel better. We did contacts inbetween sessions and even went home between the second session and priesthood to teach a lesson. I had to listen to the first session is Spanish, because we were with one of our investigators, and I hated it. The dubbing is super loud and annoying, and I really like listening to their actual voices. It bugged me, but I felt the spirit a lot. All the other sessions I listened in English.

April 3rd: I felt better than yesterday, but I didn´t feel great. I loved conference though.

Now on to this past weeks events!

     Monday on P-day I just felt terrible. I was feeling bad the past two days, but today it was just terrible. My head all the way down to my back was in pain and my stomach didn´t feel good. When we measured my tempurature I was 101.5º F. I called Hermana Callan and followed her instructions. I mostly layed in bed all day and I only fell asleep once for an hour, but I was in too much pain to sleep. I missed out on P-day, but Elder Bigham did exchanges with Elder Parker and he did everything for me. That was really nice of him.

     On Tuesday I still felt like dirt, but only me head hurt. I threw up in the morning and then once again after we got to District meeting. I think the bus ride made it worse. I was dead at district meeting. I rested once we got back to the house, but the only thing I had eaten in 3 days was a piece of bread and 3 gallons of water. I was feeling better though so we went out to work. The only problems were my head was hurting and I had no energy. I didn´t want to lose more time though.

     Did you know Wednesday April 6th is Christ´s actual B-day? I didn´t we sang Christmas songs all day. I felt completely better.

     April 7th. Thursday. Kayley´s B-day. Happy B-Day Kayley!

     Friday. We all decided we are Ninja Turtles. I am Leonardo. Elder Parker is Donatello. Elder Bigham is Michellangelo. Elder Soria is Rafael. I think we decided that the zone leaders are Splinter, just cuz we need a "Master".

     Saturday was really fun. So we were walking down the Main Road. We were going to meet up with a member and head to a lesson. When suddenly this guy comes out of a restaurant and stops us. He starts telling us how bad his life is and how he wants to change. He tells us he is Drunk (But I could tell he was High) and how he needs help. He lived out of our area so we invited him to go to church. After like 5 minutes of him wasting our time we are about to leave. He starts walking with us and he asks us a question. "Hey, are you guys Americans?"

     I turn only half way around and say Yes. *From this point on I knew exactly what was going to happen before it happend, I think it was the gift of discernment from the Spirit. He starts talking about how much he Hates the United States and he reaches behind him and starts searching down his pants. I couldn´t see what he grabbed but I thought it was a Gun. He takes the weapon and puts it on the back of my neck on my collar. I felt a fine point so I realized it was only a knife.

     My companion flinched because he saw the knife. He put his arms up, but then put them down again and he really didn´t know what to do. I listened to the guy tell me "The United States is in every war. I want to kill them all". He tells me exactly what he thinks about my country and then I said, "Not everyone is bad". He puts the knife down and says "Yeah, not everyone is bad... you guys are good". So he puts away the knife and apologizes for pulling a knife on me and starts hitting himself. These aren´t gentle slaps he is hitting himself pretty hard in the face and chest.

     He shakes our hands and makes us promise to pray for him. "Ore por mi... Ore por mi Alma". So we leave and start doing a contact about a block and a half away. A lady pulls up who is an investigator of the other Elders and starts talking to us. She tries to tell the guy on the motorcycle who we were contacting what she saw happen to us, but he just drove away. She tries to call the cops and her daughter checks me for knife wounds. Our member saw us and came over and the lady tells him what happened. We leave and go to the lesson and I saw a car that was on fire in a junk yard. That was really cool, I think it exploded. The lesson was good too. I think he will get baptized.

     Later that night I called President Callan (I had to because it´s Protocol). He just basically asked me if I would have any future problems with this guy. I said "no". Then he said some funny phrases like "I´m glad it didn´t escalate so you would have to defend yourself... for his sake" and "So I guess it was an ¨All in a days work¨ kind of attack?" Ha ha, The President is so funny.

Opps I am over the time limit,

Love you!

Elder Zachary James Singson

March 28

Dear Family,
(This letter was sent the last two times and didn´t work.

I want to talk about Alejandro, my very first convert. I met Alejandro for the first time a couple of days after we got here. He was smoking, but Elder Parker told him to break it and throw it away, so he did. He told me that last time the missionaries came, a week before, he didn´t want anything to do with them. Elder Parker said "We only want to share with you five minutes", so he let them in. Since then he has been struggling really hard. He still has trouble with smoking, but he´s gone a whole week and a half since the baptism. The bishop is helping with that now. Alejandro´s brother talked to a member and asked him if he knew how to help his brother, so Hno Vallejos sent us over. That just goes to show how important references are.
     Since my first lesson with him he has read a lot. He reads the Book of Mormon and prays almost every day now, but he also reads Gospel Principles, and the Liahona. When we teach him he doesn´t remember much, but when he reads it sticks. It´s amazing what he remember from what he´s read. I´m pretty sure he uses entire phrases from the Gospel Principles book. His life has really turned around. He keeps telling us that before he learned about the Gospel he was a real mess. He didn´t want to talk to anybody, he never wanted to see anybody. He was always angry and yelled at work (which I think is weird because he´s such a lovable guy, Darn Alcohol). He smoked a 20pack of cigarettes a day and about 2 liters of beer. His wife left him a long time ago and he was just miserable.
      During our lessons he would do whatever we told him to do. He came to church 5 out of 6 weeks we invited him. He read all the pamphlets and promised to follow the rules. He was just so willing. He has a lot of faith. When we told him to smoke only a certain amount a day he always completed. The only time he didn´t is when he got down to 1 cigarette, but eventually we got him to drop that too. He is just so happy now. He is buying new clothes, he washes the old ones, he had an entire Sunday outfit, he eats lots of caramels to calm the nicotine fits. His brother comes by and talks to him now and recently his wife came back. She is so greatful for what we´ve, aka the Lord, has done. She really likes the Church and has read some of the Pamphlets. She works a lot so she is only home one day a week, but I can definitely see a baptism in her future. The members are all very kind and are really helping him out a lot.
     You can only imagine what this experience was like. We were his only two friends, he didn´t even like his brother or his wife. It´s really amazing how the Gospel has changed his life. This is my purpose as a Missionary.

Well, that´s all for today.
Until next time, Love,
Elder Zachary James Singson

April 4, 2011

Hello Singson Family,
 I`m Elder Bigham, your son`s District Leader. He gave me his log-in information today because your son is a little bit sick. I`m only writing to inform you all that he is doing well, and is an excellent missionary. I am well pleased to have him in my District :)
 He gave me a little note to write you all:
 "Feverish of 101.5 F*", but still alive, Loved conference. I hope you took notes of the spiritual impressions you had.
 Love Elder Zachary James Singson Sister Singson, It seems to me that your son did send a letter last week, but it got caught up in the server, because he has a "Failed Message Report"
 You have an excellent son.
 Elder Bigham

March 24, 2011

Hello Family!

Dira-Chori is now my new favorite phrase. It basically means "Oh Crap!" or "Holy Crap!" or just "Crap!"

      Anyways, this week has been a "Dira-Chori!" kind of week. I was Über crazy week. There is not much I remember. Unfortunately for you guys out of all the stuff I experience I only remember 20% of it 5 minutes later. Only 5% makes it into my Journal and then only 1% actually gets into the emails I send. So you only get 1% of me each week instead of the lovable 100%... Well actually you only got a couple of hours with me when I was living at home... Well at least you got 100% of me when I was in your presence! Yay!
     Bad news I didn't have time to write in my journal for the past couple of days and I have it packed up in my suitcase so really you are only going to get 0.01% of me this week. Here is what I remember. Alejandro the guy who had problems with the word of wisdom got baptized! Yay. He got baptized Saturday and Confirmed Sunday. We made him a Banana bread cake, Elder Parker did at least. I bought soda for the party though. And his wife came back because He´s not a miserable drunk anymore! Alejandro is awesome! I´ll send pictures on Monday.
     I´ve heard quite a bit about the earthquake in Japan and I´ve even seen the videos of the tsunami at a member´s house. Heard about the explosion, and I hope it doesn´t contaminate the entire world, but I´m not worried. Maybe.
     It was changes and we moved houses so it´s been crazy chaotic. I haven´t written in my journal in 4 days because it´s packed in my suitcase. We started moving Monday and we are barely going to finish today. It´s hard to move when you don´t have help or time to do it. Well I lied the Elders in the district came to help us, but we don´t have that much time each day because of proselyting. Next P-day is Monday, so I´ll write more to you all then.

TTFN, Ta ta for now.
Love,
Elder Zachary James Singson

March 14, 2011

Here are the updates on the people I told you to fast for. First was Alejandro, he had problems with the Word of Wisdom or WOW for all you Warcraft nerds out there. The keyword in that last sentence is had. Yes he has stopped smoking completely since Wednesday and Drinking for two weeks. He has really made progress and if things go according to plan he is going to get baptized this Saturday. He is buying candy, and more clothes instead of beer and cigarettes. His wife came back to live with him as of Saturday. At first we thought it was just some woman, but we had already taught him the law of chastity so we were like "What?" But then he came outside and said "My Wife came back!" He is doing so well. He has read a lot of the Book of Mormon and even more of the Gospel Doctrine book. He understands and remembers more when he reads it.

     As for Alex, Karina, Yrani, and Nestor it´s not going so well. They just have so many doubts and they want us to resolve them all before they want to believe. It´s really hard and I´m not sure what to do to help them. We taught Nestor by himself yesterday and he said that he read a little bit, didn´t want to read more because "It is the same as the Bible, so I just have to read the Bible." We explained to him the importance of the Book of Mormon, which we have done 20 times already, but... and then we committed him to studying and praying about it. He said he would. Karina has read the entire Book of Mormon and she isn´t convinced. She doesn´t believe that Mormon was a prophet, but maybe the rest were. Alex wants to know when Elias will come to visit the modern day prophet. Yrani wants to know who the 144,000 soldiers from the Bible were. She doesn´t think Joseph Smith was a prophet because he didn´t tell the future and when the second coming is. It´s very chaotic in all the lessons we have taught them. They all have a desire to learn, but right now they need to drink milk, but all they are trying to do is devour meat. They can´t handle it.

     Reuben never came to church and he thinks he is getting answers from his, so he isn´t interested anymore. We are trying to teach him one last time, but he is never home.

     Sergio Brega recently had a baby and so he isn´t home, but I think he´s just avoiding us. We see people´s shadows, but nobody answers the door.

     David Insauralde moved.

Random Tidbits.     

Yesterday it was really windy and cold. Yay! I like the cold. I actually was able to sleep with a blanket for once. While we were in a lesson with an investigator he little kid pooped his pants and he wasn´t wearing a diaper, so it fell straight on the ground. The dad didn´t do anything about it until after the prayer because the spirit was too strong. I feel really sick right now. I´m probably going to throw up. Actually I know I´m going to throw up I´m just waiting for it to happen. If I use one Q-tip every other day I will run out exactly the last day of my mission.

It´s changes this week so I won´t be able to write againg till next thursday. And I´m out of time, so...

Love Ya´ll,

Elder Zachary James Singson

March 7, 2011

Hey family!

     Wow so much to tell and so little time. So i´ll try to go fast. Anyways last week I didn´t get to write about a lot of stuff. Last week we taught one of our investigators, Alejandro, and he was drunk. He is getting a lot better, but we cought him at a bad time. Anyways we gave him a short lesson and told him to go to church sunday. We went kiddy corner to a members house to ask them if they would take him. We went there and a Nissan Truck pulls up. Out comes Stake President, Bishop, and President Avila of the Seventy. Well we talked a little and then Alejandro decides to come over too. It was really funny, they were all really nice to him. He kept telling them that he´s going to church tomorrow, and he´s going to stop drinking and smoking, and were the best missionaries ever, and we´re his best friends, etc.

 

     Last week we had a special meeting on sunday. It was for new investigators and President Arnold of the First Quorum of the Seventy was speaking. We had to take a bus to get there, because it was in Asunción´s Chapel. We brought Alejandro, Alex, Nestor, Yrani, and Karina with us too. It was really good, but we didn´t get to talk to them all about it afterwards because the bus was really noisy and crowded.

     Now I move onto this week. We have to move out of our house and find a new one. I´ll tell you how that went when it happens. I don´t have a lot of time, but Yesterday was really fun. We only taught 4 lessons, one of which was good. First lesson Good. Second lesson the guy wouldn´t let us talk. He´d ask us what we believe and then talk forever about his beliefs. We tried to teach the plan of salvation, but he doesn´t think that Adam and Eve ate a literal fruit. He thinks that Eve fornicated with Satan. He contridicted his own beliefs several times, but he promised us that next time he will let US teach. Then we taught a guy who says he "Believes" the events in the Book of Mormon really did happen, and that it was translated by, Joseph Smith, and that he was a prophet, but he doesn´t want to get baptized. Why? Because the Book of Mormon has too much war and he believes that it doesn´t matter what somebody is going to do to you and your family you must submit because that´s what Christ did. Our last lesson was a guy who believes that God did not create religion, but you have to understand and follow what the Bible says... Yeah thats impossible. Where do these people get these crazy ideas?

     Tell the people for missionary month to learn exact obedience or you will not have success. And ask for references from everybody. Why? Because we got a reference from the missionaries and we taught him. Then we asked for a referance from him and we taught his neighbor, who really likes us now. Then we asked for another referance and got another lesson with a really great guy. 3 references equals 3 new investigators they were all good. Plus Alejandro was a reference from a member. Referances from members especially are critical, because they can help the investigators progress.

 

     Speaking of exact obedience we just got a whole ton of rules from President Callan. Wow he is really strict in a good way. I agree with everything, cuz that is how it should be, but I´m not going to lie... It is going to be Really, Really, HaaaarD! Before President Callan the mission was also very strict. But that was because the missionaries were bad and they were trying to catch them doing bad things. Now it´s the opposite. President Callan knows we are good and so he´s giving us more rules, and expectations, so we can be better. Following the rules is one way to have more success. 

I´m out of time, Love,

Elder Zachary James Singson

Feb 28

Hello again. It´s me, Elder Singson. I do love you guys and I would send you pictures, but I can´t. It´s not worth the risk and frankly I don´t have the time or patience for it. Someday you´ll get all my pictures and my journal entries (someday could possibly mean when I get home, cuz I don´t want to lose it in the mail, I´m still thinking about it). Well we are teaching a bunch of people, but we only have one guy with a baptism date. It rained for a week straight. Both of my pairs of shoes were wet, and one had a hole in the front so sand got in too. Elder Parker and I are always singing. He usually sings the base or tenor part and I usually sing the melody. Sometimes I´ll just start singing and he´ll just join in. Lately we´ve been singing Disney songs. It´s been fun. Have you ever had soy coffee? I hate it, but I can´t just say "Thanks a lot! You might as well just pour it down the drain" to the members. The whole situation could be avoided if they asked me if I wanted any instead of just giving it to me. There are two teams that are really popular, they are super rivals, and they had a game on Saturday. Cerro Portanio vs. Olympia, Blue and Red vs Black and White, Tornado vs King of cups. During the 90 min of game time it was a ghost town. Half of the Paraguayans like Cerro because they are really good, but the other half like Olympia because once upon a time they one the South American Futbol cup. After the game, Olympia won, the entire town went crazy, but I was told it wasn´t as bad as the World Cup.

     I´m going to actually talk more about my investigators, so you choose what you want to pray for. Since last sunday we´ve had 4 lessons with Alex, Karina, Ernesto, e Yrani. They are really good. They say that they will get baptised once they receive an answer from God. They really like the church and they are all reading the Book of Mormorn. Karina e Yrani are sisters who live with their boyfriends. They know they are living in sin and they want to get married. But... they don´t have plans until August or September. We want them to get married now, or at least at the end of this month, so they can get baptised and then in a year get sealed (so I can be there for it). Please pray that they can find their answers and that they will want to get baptised (so they will want to get married) sooner. We have taught them lesson 1 and 2. They didn´t come to Church, but they went to a special meeting for new members and investigators by President Arnold.
     All the lessons we´ve done with them have definitely had the spirit there really strongly. Elder Parker told me that one lesson (the first half of the Plan of Salvation) had the spirit really strongly when I talked. Especially when I talked about the Atonement. They all have studied into all sorts of religions and have a bunch of odd ideas, but I can see that they really believe in what we are telling them.

I can´t beleive I´m out of time ALREADY!!! ARGGGH!!! I have so much more that I want to tell you.
Since I´m out of time here are my investigators and what you should pray for them.
Alejandro=Stop Smoking and Drinking
Alex, Karina, Nestor, e Yrani=Desire to get married and baptized now.
Reuben and Isabel=An answer that the church is true and the only church on earth with the proper Authority
Sergio Brega=That he will have time for us to teach him.
David Insauralde=Earn money for a divorce so he can get married and then baptized. (Divorces are super expensive)

Thats all folks,
Elder Zachary James Singson