Who Do You Love?

Familia y Amigos (Family & Friends):

The question of the day comes from the last chapter of the Gospel of John:  Do you love me more than all this? Being a missionary is a humbling experience.  So much of life we lose focus of the things that really matter and are blurred by the whirlwinds of normal life, filled with all sorts of things.  I love the questions of Our Savior, Jesus Christ.  They really pierce deep and cause a lot of contemplating in our own lives.  But there is always a great promise to all of us who have fallen short.  We can repent.  We can change.  We can decide to put God first and we can show him with our actions, that yes, we love him and want to help him. Study the scriptures.  It all starts with the word of God, the seed that becomes an arbol (tree).

Matias we had a hard time finding him at his house, but we finally got a hold of him Friday and had a good lesson about baptism and our need of being baptized. He still wants to learn more before accepting a date for sure about being baptized.  He was not able to come to church this Sunday because he had a birthday party somewhere in the campo (country) like 4 hours away.  They seriously take birthday parties serious here in Paraguay.

Isla, his friend, had finals Thursday, Friday and Saturday and we were not able to meet with her at all this week but we are looking forward to talking more this week and helping her progress in life.

The Vera family: I believe we dropped them yesterday, but we have not said it for sure, but I believe so =(

Other than that, we do not really have anyone progressing, so I hope you all are doing well and staying true to the standards of God.  This work is important and can only be extremely effective if everyone helps.

Love,
Elder Call

Progress

January 19, 2015

Dear Family and friends:

This week was a week of not a whole lot of success, but we made some good progress with some new people. On Tuesday, we had divisions and I went to the area of the zone leaders for the day.  I was with Elder Hampton, from Lehi, Utah.  He was so cool we worked our butts off that day. So hard, it made Elder Hampton wake up in the middle of the night super sick. Poor guy, but anyways that was super fun in Painu.

In the mean while, Elder Davis and Elder Veliz, the zone leader, found some great success in our area also. They gave Hugo, the friend of Belen, a baptismal date for the 31st of Jan. and found a family that I have not met yet, but we have passed by their house several times, but I guess this family was golden enough to convince Elder Veliz to lend out his own triple set to the family because we are out of Book of Mormons.

The Barrios Family, traveled to Argentina to take care of the mom of the wife, so we were not able to visit them=(

With Hugo we have had a hard time finding him because the contract of living in the house of Belen is almost finished and her parents want him out. He did not end up coming to church yesterday because it was raining and him, Belen and Gabi did not want to walk in the rain.

Por Fin, we found an antiguo investigator named Matias. We had been looking for him off and on since my first week here. He is really great but he has a few weird beliefs not really relative to religion. Things like the Holocost did not really happen and stuff like that, but he is super good.  He is beginning to grasp the message that we are teaching. And best of all, even though it was raining, he came to church and not only that but he brought along one of his friends named, Isla.  She was super genial (genuine), also, full of questions and super nice.  It seemed that they liked it a lot.

The Vera family sadly is falling through our hands.  The dad does not want to give up drinking and is no longer interested in the message that we have. The daughter, Vanessa, seems to know that this is what she wants to do, but she does not want to do it alone and the mom won’t go against her husband. Sadly, I do not know what else to do.

And, that’s all folks.  Have a good week and remember that the Gospel has been restored to the earth and to mankind once again.

Love you all!

Love, Elder Call

Keep the Commandments

January 12, 2015

Dear Family and Friends:

Here in Leopardi everything is going just fine and dandy.  Well, the family that was going to be baptized this coming Saturday decided to not come to church Sunday so they are postponed a week. Their work (job) has intensified and they are not arriving at their house until nine thirty or ten o'clock at nights. This entire week we have only been able to contact them through telephone and their daughter Vanessa. I do not know if Marcelo is willing to quit drinking beer.  But we are going to work with them more this week and hopefully help him feel the Spirit and the need to raise his family in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Hugo and Mirta Barrios:  We were only able to catch up with them in their house on Wednesday.  We explained the Plan of Salvation well to them and they love what we are teaching them. I love this family so much.  They are so amazing and prepared to hear the gospel. They always read what we have given them to read and explain it perfectly to us when we ask them about their reading. Mirta told us that the knowledge and understanding of the Plan of Happiness has helped her feel so much more at peace with everything that has happened to her kids and what is happening to her parents. They, however, did not attend church yesterday either.

However, a different Hugo did attend. He is living in the house of a recent convert named Belen.  He is treated as a cousin and at first was super closed and did not want to talk to us at all, but we are prying into him. Haha!  No, but he is really good and we have only shared scriptures and stuff like that with him which has been fun.

Last Thursday we had Zone Conference at the ward building by the mission offices.  We received really good information on that we need to use the BOM more in our lessons and always be referring to Jesus Christ because He is the center of everything that we have.

Sometimes, we as humans, in our lives justify what we do!! For example, taking a family trip that requires the breaking of the Sabbath Day.  It is a good thing to have recreational family trips with the family, YES, but Our Father in Heaven has asked us to make this Day Holy, partake of the Sacraments and serve those around you.  We learn from the Story of King Saul in 1 Samuel 15, that to obey the Commandments of the Lord are what goes first.  Do not justify what you are doing just because it is good.  I believe it was Elder Dallin H. Oaks that gave the talk on “Good, Better and Best.”  The best thing that you can do is KEEP THE COMMANDMENTS OF GOD.  Please, never forsake the blessings that come from keeping His Commands.

I love you all and hope the best for your week.

Love, Elder Call

Medical Update:

Hey Mom!  So the only thing that Hermana Agazzani said is, “Did you get the notice?” and I said, “yes.”  She said, “Great, are you  alright with waiting a little while?” And I said, “Sure, why not?  That sounds just fine.” She said, “Perfect. We will talk later.”
Love you, Mom, no need to worry, I have like 14 other moms down here taking care of me.
Love you and Dad tons.

Love your son, Elder Call

Just Amazing

Happy New Year!

Well, this week was just amazing! HOT, but amazing.  This week I have had the opportunity to get to know my new companion. He is from Phoenix, Arizona and did a little bit of everything. He loves to ride motorcycles.  He rode in supercrosses and every year would go up and ride from Island Park to West Yellowstone.  Also, he raced in the Baja 1000 a couple of years ago.  He only has four months left on his mission, but really is not trunky, which is awesome because that means we are able to work well.

Leopardi is awesome!  The people here are generally very nice and allow us to teach them. The Church in Leopardi is a ward and has four missionaries that share the area.  The other two missionaries, Elder Tejada and Elder Beynet, helped three people this past Saturday make a covenant with the Lord, their God.  The members here are super nice and helpful in the work and help others learn of the Plan of Salvation.

We have several great people that are investigating the Church:

First and foremost, we have Marcelo and Romana Vera and their children Vanessa, Sofia and Juan Carlos.  Last week, Marcelo and Vanessa came to church and this week Romana and Vanessa came to church.  Both weeks all the kids came with their parent.  At first it appeared that Marcelo was the one that had the most interest in the church but now the role has shifted to Romana.  Mainly, because Marcelo does not really want to give up his alcohol but we had a great lesson with them yesterday about the commandment and he committed to not drinking anymore alcohol!!! YES

Second, we have another Vera family. But just the kids Adrian, Nati, and Hugo are being taught. They have not come to church yet, but they are cousins of an awesome girl named Andi, that was baptized two years ago and is waiting for her mission call. Their mom is the main thing that is impeding their progress in the search.

Third, the Barrios family!!! Hugo and Marta they are such a great couple that we found on Tuesday. Hugo is doing something that I almost have never seen on my mission.  That is he is actually reading the Book of Mormon where we ask him and then reads more. This Saturday, we found out that they were in a car crash when their oldest child was 7 years old.  Cinthia, their seven year old died. Sad, sad story=( Marta was devastated and said that she went into a bad state of depression and that if it weren’t for some sisters from the Church of Jesus Christ that she would have killed herself. Her husband, Hugo, dealt with his pain by working a lot and was hardly ever home because his work was his medicine for the situation.  They did not end up coming to the church this Sunday, but I am pretty sure that they are going to come, like it, and be baptized.

God lives! He works miracles through those who have faith in him and has given us his Son so that we can return to His Rest.  I love the Scriptures.  In the Holy Words of God, you can find the answers to all the important questions of life.

I love you all and hope that you are opening your scriptures everyday instead of reading this Blog.
There are much better stories found there.

Love,
Elder Call