New Mission President

Dear Family and Friends:

This week we were blessed to travel to Asuncion, to meet our New Mission President. They are super awesome and the changes that he has made left the missionaries speechless there.  So the thing with this mission has been a huge focus on baptism, baptism, baptism; all about the baptisms, even to the point that the zone leaders had told us that the only thing that President Agazzani really cares about are the baptisms.  And so that was what almost everyone had in mind and heart. President Wilson, thanks to inspiration, is changing this attitude with focusing on the conversion of the people, not just leading them up to the waters of baptism.  So many of us have had to repent and are working on molding our minds to the better view of the Work.  On the bus ride home that afternoon/evening, Elder Vega and I were able to have the bus guys play the video, “The Testaments” on the bus TV, so that everyone could watch it.  After it finished there were many people who shouted, saying, “Hey, have you guys another one?  We would like to watch another.”  But, we didn’t have another one.  It was so great!  Tons of people liked it. And then, Sister Jenson took the responsibility of passing out the Book of Mormon to those who wanted it.

Hey, so the Paredes’ family is doing good.  The wife has dropped smoking now and is doing great.  This Wednesday, she is going to take us to the house of her aunt so that we can meet with her. However, Saturday night her sister gave birth and she had gone to help her with that and spent the night over with her.

The Rojas family (the little kids that were just baptized) all came to church yesterday even though it rained the entire time that we were walking and after arriving at the church it cleared off and turned into a beautiful day.

It rained a ton this past week and the roads were very pretty. haha

I love being a missionary and having this opportunity to help my brothers and sisters in all aspects of their lives.  The phrase that says “give a man a fish and it feeds him for a day; teach a man to fish and it feeds him for a lifetime,” can be taught similar, “You can give men a scripture and feed him for a moment, you teach a man to study them you feed him for a lifetime.” I love you all and hope that you are studying the scriptures with diligence.

With love,
Elder Call

The bio of Dallin's new mission president:

Paraguay Asunción Mission

Sergio A. and Susana Wilson

Sergio Agustin Wilson Birriel, 53, and Susana Ramos de Wilson, three children, Centro Ward, Durazno Uruguay Stake: Paraguay Asunción Mission, succeeding President Pedro D. Agazzani and Sister Maria E. Agazzani. Brother Wilson serves as a mission presidency counselor and is a former stake president, stake presidency counselor, branch president, bishopric counselor, and ward financial clerk. Maintenance official, air force. Born in Rosario, Colonia, Uruguay, to Edgar Noel Wilson and Ines Graciela Birriel.

Sister Wilson serves as a Gospel Principles teacher and is a former Relief Society presidency counselor, ward Young Women president, institute teacher, ward Relief Society teacher, and Sunday School teacher. Born in Durazno, Durazno, Uruguay, to Saul Ramos and Luisa Elsa Ramos.

Awesome Week

Dear Family & Friend:

That is super sad to hear of his (President Packer’s) passing away, but it was time, I guess. God has everything timed out.  It is perfect, because He is perfect.

As for the week and the things that made it awesome was, first, of all on Tuesday, we went to Asuncion to eat a lunch with President Agazzani and say goodbye to him as a mission. The whole event took the entire day with the bus rides and everything, so we didn’t have time to go and work. But, at the lunch everyone was there so of course I was talking to Elder Graves and he told me the best news I have heard in my entire mission.  I don’t know if you guys remember Derlis and Sandra whom we worked with and loved with all our heart.  Well, three weeks ago they got married and baptized.  I really felt like Alma when he found his brethren coming home from the mission and hearing of their success. The news put me on a natural high for this whole week.  It was so good to learn!!!!! and see the pictures!!!! They are such great people!!!!

This week we found the Paredes family and they are sweet!! Their names are Madre-Carolina, Papa-Marcos, 18-Marcos, 16-Cristian, 12-Octavio, and 7-Ayelin. They are super amazing we taught Cristian and Octavio the first time and the parents the next time.  They have never even heard of the Mormons which surprised us and we shared leccion 3 with the kids and leccion 2 with the parents and si o si they were going to go to church but then didn’t go.  We went to talk with them to see if everything was alright and it was, only the uncle and the oldest brother asked liked where were they going or what religion it is.  Marcos responded Mormon and they asked him what is a Mormon, what does it mean and he didn’t know what or how to respond and for that simple reason they didn’t go to church.

Marcos and Ramon and Jorge were baptized this Friday and Marcos and Ramon were confirmed Sunday. While walking with Marcos and Ramon to the church, three other kids, two of which I had no idea who they were, joined us and went to church. All was tranquilo.

Well folks, there you have the report from Paraguay.

Love,
Elder Call

This is the Report

Hey all you guys,

To answer some of your questions, I don’t know what happened with Evelyn and it sucks because we aren’t sure how to help her. This whole week we have called and passed by her house and tried to be in contact with her, but we were only able to talk once and it was just over the phone. So!!!!! . . . We will see what we can do.

We have been working with an inactive mother, Rumi, that has 2 kids Marcos y (and) Ramon that need to be baptized and we have been working with her sisters Maria y Teresa and one of their kids Jorge. All of them have assisted multiple times but never with us. Jorge is 11 and has been reading a ton.  He is already in 2 Nefi (Nephi) 5 the last time we checked, he isn’t understanding it a whole lot, but it marks for one of the first Paraguayan kids that will sit down and read a book.

On Tuesday, we had divisions with the zone leaders and I went to the other area and Elder Vega stayed here. The next day, I was informed that we were going to baptize the kids on Saturday.  So we worked the entire week to achieve this and it ended with them telling us that Ramon had a really bad allergic reaction and was in the hospital and Maria had traveled to Asuncion. Well we went to visit them right after the noticias (news) and found both Marcos and Ramon playing at their house healthy as can be.  Well, we will see what we can do to help the kids.  We don’t like the mothers at the moment, but that will pass.

This is the report!

Love you all!
Elder Call

Bumps in the Road

Well, family and friends, we have hit some bumps in the road, but I will get to those because this week flew by with lots of crazy stuff.

To begin, Tuesday, after the district meeting we were walking back to the apartment to eat lunch, and that guy from I think two weeks ago, yea, the crazy drunk one, so he decided to come and attack us again and ripped my shirt but he ended up on the ground and we were able to leave.  He left no bodily damage but for that entire day it really bugged me because I don’t know what his problem is.  He is definitely mentally ill.  I tried talking to him but he couldn’t formulate any words and he just mumbled. OH well, I hope that there is help for him.

Oh and by the way, we (Elder Vega) both stayed together and everything. So, Thursday night we had a lesson in the house of the Sanabrio family, with Evalyn and it was a great, one of the most powerful lessons for some time. She decided that si o si without a doubt she was going to be baptized this weekend the 27th. We left the house feeling so good and comforted from all our fears of parental influences and peer pressures.  However this Sunday, being Father’s Day and all, even though she doesn’t have one. she didn’t attend the church and from what we were informed by Vanessa, her best friend, is that she no longer wants to be baptized and that she is easily pressured into doing what others would like her to do. Apparently, her mother does not want her daughter to be baptized otro vez (again). We will be talking to her personally tomorrow and seeing what happened and hear her story of it all.

To all the Fathers out there in the world, I appreciate everything that you do for the benefit for your family and God.  I would like to send you all to Efesisos 5 (Ephesians 5) it is a good chapter.

I love you all.  I am grateful for the testimony that I have of the scriptures and all the things that they testify to me that are true. The truth never ends.  It will continue for the eternities.  Our life here on earth, our jobs, our possessions and our hobbies will end.  Always maintain the sight over the entire map.

I love you all
Elder Call

Slick Week

Dear Family & Friends:

It has rained a lot this week.  In fact, almost every day it has rained and the streets were filled with mud and by golly this mud is just as slick as ice or slicker.  I am always slipping. I am surprised that I haven’t fallen to the ground yet.

We had divisions with the district leader and we were able to receive permission to baptize an 8 year old niece of some active members.  The father, I think would be baptized but we found out that the dad of his wife is super weird about Mormons.  He thinks we are the devil which complicates things a lot, but we will continue with that even though not sure what we can do right away to solve the problem.

We had a sweet lesson with Evalyn and her family (mom and sister).  We read “The Family a Proclamation to the World” and it was sweet to see them understand it.  This Sunday, Evalyn came to church with another friend, Liz, and it was really good.  Liz didn’t know we were Mormons until after the reunion. Haha.  The sister, Andrea, wanted to come, however, she had spent the night at her cousin’s house and slept in.

This week was really good.  We have more people fighting for us than we do against us, if only we could see all the hosts of heaven we would be able to understand.

This Wednesday we have exchanges, so the question is who is going to go or are we both going to stay?

Love you all!
Elder Call

All Things Go Well

Dear Family

So yes, after 35 years of being affiliated or knowing the Mormon Missionaries we arrived at her (Anatolia’s) house and taught her for four hours the first day and after that she wanted to be baptized. There was nothing that impeded her from being baptized, so we baptized her. Really it was a miracle to see a woman that after so much time, finally have the Spirit of God touch her heart and see the change in her.

As for the fish farm, I really don’t know what kind of fish they were or anything.

This week certainly was a highlight for the mission.  On Tuesday, our Zone was blessed to go and do the work of Salvation for those that have died or in other words we went to the Temple of God.  Monday night we spent the night in the house of the zone leaders.  We woke up at 1:30 to get ready and catch the bus that was to leave at 2:45, so we did not have much of a night to rest, but the sacrifice was and is always well worth it. The blessings of peace and love, that one feels in the ''Heaven on Earth'' is more amazing than anything that one could ask for.  I am so grateful that God has given us this Gospel in our lives and that we can share it with others.

This week we talked to Evalyn and Vanessa about why they didn’t come the week previous and we found out that it was because they had gone to a party the night before and were really tired.  On Thursday, we talked to Evalyn about baptism and she seemed very, very unsure and in question.  And this Sunday she didn’t come once again, but traveled to Nueva Londres with her family.  We came to learn that the stepfather of Evalyn is the son of Anatolia who was baptized last Sunday
.  
Anatolia is doing just fine and continues learning of the doctrine of Christ. However on Friday night one of her aunts, who has got to be getting old, got sick and was taken to the hospital for Saturday, Sunday and I do not know if she is still there, but Anatolia went there to pass the moments with her.

The Gospel is true.  It guides us in the way to have a life with lots more love and much less worry and pain.  God has always promised His children, that according to their obedience to His commandments,  the more they will prosper in the land.  If you don’t like your position in the land, look to which commandments you can keep better.  All things go well.

Love you all,
Elder Call

Another Crazy Week

Hey, Everyone!

This week was a crazy week!!!!! Where to start out?. . . . Hmmm, so Monday, we had corolacion misional (missionary correlation meeting) and then afterwards we tried finding some people to teach but no one was accepting us. So, Tuesday, we get to the district meeting and during that meeting a feeling for the first time in my mission came over me and told me that I was tired of not baptizing and that we needed to baptize.  We left, went and cooked lunch and left to look for some more old investigators after a bit of unsuccessful we remembered one old couple that had assisted (investigated the church) for quite a while but never decided to be baptized and hasn’t assisted (investigated) for a year.  Their names are Anatolia and Floretin. Anatolia has had a ton of family problems in her life and is really a super good person and she loves to talk.  On Tuesday it was raining all day and we arrived at their house wet Floretin was the only one there and he allowed us to enter and talk with him.  We had talked with him for the space of 30 minutes roughly and then Anatolia arrived and started talking. We spent the next 3 and a half hours listening to her and her doubts and want and trials and strengthening her with the scriptures. At the end of that talk she had decided to be baptized!!!!!=) What a day, we left her house tired in the mind.  We didn’t meet with her Wednesday but the other days yes.  During weekly planning on Thursday we were debating if we should help her to be baptized this Sunday or the next Saturday.  After all was said we knew that it had to be this Sunday, so here are the pictures. That was definitely the great highlight of the week.

At the baptism

haha funny story. So this morning on our way to the cyber to write you guys we stopped by at a chiparia that was stationed on the street and as I was about to hand the guy my money and in a instant my hip flies in to the station of chipa and makes a big clash.  As my hip is thrown my head turns to make sense of such confusion.  I see a 30ish year old guy flying through the air Spartan kicking me from behind. My first reaction was to chase him but after my first step, I couldn’t help but laugh at the whole situation.

Well, hey, the Church is led by God and he has given worthy men a portion of his power to administer ordenanza (ordinances) of salvation to his children.  Remember to always support your leaders in their callings and doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith.  Salvation cometh through the merits and grace of Jesus Christ.

I love you all and hope you find the peace of heart in your life.
Love, Elder Call

At a fish farm.