Monday, April 28, 2014

Things continue to go a bit slow. We were about to have a Ward Mission Leader this Sunday, but the Stake President came to the Ward, so it slipped through the details. Next week he will be sustained and set apart. A sister from the ward will be leaving to Spain for her mission this week. The Stake President said a lot of things in Sacrament Meeting about reverence in Sacrament Meeting, the importance of Sacrament Meeting, and why we need to keep the Sabbath Day holy.

Elder Peralta is teaching me Guaraní. (Che añe'ẽgua guaranípe.) Practically everyone from Paraguay speaks Guaraní. Bro. Gonzalez in the ward and his son who served in Honduras speak Guaraní. Turns out Bro. Gonzalez lived about 10 blocks away from Elder Peralta in Asunción.

One of the daughters of the Vallejos and her family will be moving out this week to Corrientes. The other Elders of Pablo Nogués might end up moving in to where they were living. (Photo)

If every member is to be a missionary, the manual for missionaries "Preach My Gospel" should be a part of one's Gospel study. There are many misconceptions about the Church. The best way to fix that is for every member to declare what they know to be true and how they came to know it. There are not enough full time missionaries to do that. It seems to me that if we are not ready to share the Gospel, we are not really converted to the Gospel yet.

Monday, April 21, 2014

We found some new people this week. One was a reference by a member through the mission offices. We talked with a family she lives with, and turns out the wife is a sister of a member who was baptized along with her family four years ago.

Elder Chriss had his birthday, and we ate a lot of cake all week. Sunday was the despedida where all of the people leaving give their testimonies. Elder Ñancupil, Elder Carvajal, and Elder Allen are going home this transfer.

Transfers are today and Elder Chriss goes off to Campana near Zárate. My new companion is Elder Peralta from Asunción, Paraguay.

Monday, April 14, 2014

There have been a number of robberies to missionaries these weeks. The missionaries from the Cabaña ward were robbed a few weeks ago during companion exchanges with one of the zone leaders, and since one is district leader, he has to use our phone to call his district every night because they live with the members next door to the neighbors we live with. They were robbed again yesterday, but they didn't have anything. Other missionaries from the zone had their cellphone stolen in the Church building during conference, and then they had the phone they were borrowing from a member stolen this week. Things are getting crazy.

We haven't had many lunches from members these last few weeks, and this week we had no one except the Bishop on Sunday who always gives us lunch. A member who lost his wife a while ago married a convert a few days ago. One of his sons is a returned missionary from Honduras and is in the ward.

President invited us to some form of barbecue at the Mission Home today. There were hamburgers and board games.

We've been kind of freaking out for not having very much success in our area, but President told Elder Chriss that he is genuinely happy with what we're doing and that we shouldn't take things as hard as we were. He said that there are areas that he is concerned about, but ours is not one of them.

Monday, April 7, 2014

This week has been difficult. We're having trouble keeping in touch with the few new people we've found, and we're having trouble finding new people. Nearly all of the less actives have moved out of the area. We're doing almost everything that we know to do, and we're getting better, but it still is sometimes very frustrating. We didn't have any investigators go to Conference with us, nor any less actives. Even still, the Gospel is true so we will keep going knowing that nothing can compare to it.

Every family should have a Preach My Gospel, and it should be a subject of family study. We have now received instruction from Church leaders in conference to do so. I said in an earlier letter that Preach My Gospel help strengthen testimony and helps one share the simple and most important truths of the Gospel, but I failed to express what was declared so clearly in Conference, that every family should study from Preach My Gospel. The missionaries will be thrilled and the Work will move forward with a new urgency.

We live with members and they had a cat who gave birth to two kittens a few weeks ago. I forgot to say anything about it. Cats are evil, but kittens are reasonably cute. They fell asleep in a dust pan once.

Monday, March 31, 2014

Last Monday we went to Tortugas (a mall in Tortugitas) and had Subway. (In the picture: Elder Chriss, Elder Garrett, Elder Lopez.) We've been contacting a number of less actives, and they seem to be receiving us well, even families that had thrown all of their books at the missionaries telling them they don't want to hear anything about the Church.

We almost got robbed in the street. Two people came up to us and asked us what time it was, and Elder Chriss said he didn't have a watch, and then they started saying "Give me your cellphone! Give me your cellphone!" Meanwhile one had their hand in a position that made it look like he had a gun, but it was obvious he didn't. Elder Chriss denied that we had one and we started opening our bags and showing them that we only have books. He offered them a Book of Mormon, but they rejected it and went off. He did actually have a cellphone and I was carrying almost 200 pesos. YOLO

I got really sick Saturday night and woke up to two rounds of throwing up. The first time it was brown, and the second time it was tan. Sunday morning I developed a fever, so I stayed in bed after consulting with mission leaders. The fever broke but I still feel like throwing up. It should pass soon.

Elder Damitz