Blessed Week

Well, hello to all you folks back home:

Paraguay writing here.  As for the report this week, it looks to be that we had a pretty blessed week.  It started out with a good stinkin’ day of divisions with the Zone Leaders on Tuesday.  Then we were blessed with the beautiful landscape of Pindaty the following day, where we found several members that are inactive that I had not known existed.  As a result some of them came to Church on Sunday!!! Yea!!! Thursday was filled with allowing lots of people drain their emotions and feel the comfort of Christ. However, for some reason they don’t want to change yet.  But we will see what can happen. Alejandra is awesome and a super good girl but her mom is a big grumpy pants and didn’t allow Alejandra to come to church yesterday. =( As for Alan, yesterday, was when he had to go to work. He works every other Sunday.  We taught him leccion (lesson) 3 and the Sabbath day, to see if he is willing to drop his work to attend the church.   However, he wasn’t sure about that and said he has to think about it. That and he is worrying a lot about his family.  I hope that the same thing doesn’t pass with him like it passed with Evelyn who by the way is good but doesn’t want to go to church. Everything is going great and there are huge blessing to come to pass. God loves us and protects us and we can have a good attitude in every situation that we find ourselves in.

Love you all,
Elder Call

A Good Week

Dear Family & Friends:

Leongino is 77 years old and lives alone.  His family hates him for choosing to be baptized, but he really doesn’t care.  Yesterday, he escaped from his house super early in the morning so he could come to church.  He will be receiving the Aaronic Priesthood next Sunday and will be able to continue living true to the faith of our Father in Heaven.

This week was good.  However, the mission as a whole has taken a huge drop in the people of whom we are baptizing, which is sad to see.  I believe that the missions view as a whole, including mine, has taken a big whiplash with everything, but with time we will learn how to become better and then we will be back to baptizing like we had before as a mission.

The work here is going well.   We have begun working a ton more with the members, both the actives and non-actives, so that we can help their friends and family be baptized.  Thanks to those efforts, Alejandra and a young man by the name of Alan Aquino were able to attend church.  Alejandra is a good friend of a member and we have not yet been able to teach her.  Alan is the boyfriend of one of the most active girls in the branch.  This was his second time attending the church and loves it a lot. He is 20 years old and has a character muy serio (very serious character).  He thinks a lot and about four years ago had stopped going to another church because he realized that it wasn’t real (true). Yesterday, we had the privilege of teaching him the Plan of Salvation and it was spectacular.  Then at the end of the lesson he said to himself “I believe that I have found my path.”  It was awesome.  In all reality God exists He loves us and this plan, which we teach, is true.  The Spirit of God testifies of this and we have the privilege of telling everyone about it.

Love you all!
Love,
Elder Call

Scrumptious Week

Hello Everyone!

This week was nice. On Monday, we tested out the famous recipe of Dixie's Spudnuts and they turned out wonderful.  I only burned the first batch because the oil was too hot, but other than that all of them turned out scrumptious.  On Tuesday, we headed out to Pindaty for the first time in a really long time and the Family Cardoso was pleasantly pleased with our surprise visit. There has been a bit of a problem though, because we can no longer hitch-hike out there.  It takes an hour and half to walk out there then and hour and a half back, so it sucks up the time that we have to find people.  On Wednesday, we had a capatacion de zona (zone conference) where several rules where added as to what we can and cannot do.

My companion and I are getting along quite well. He is a convert as of 7 years and is super. He has two brothers younger than him and they are members, but his parents no son miembros (are non-members).

On Saturday, a man by the name of Leongino, a man of 77 years of age, was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ for the remission of his sins.  I was privileged to be able to perform the ordinance for him.  However the church is having some technical problems here and the water just quits randomly and doesn’t work, so the same thing happened this Saturday and we only had 2 tiles of water to baptize him in.  It had to be done 3 times to do it correctly.

And one more soul is permitted to enter in the kingdom of God.

Love you all!
Love,
Elder Call

Dixie’s (Nona's) Spudnuts
2 Cup scalded milk                                         1 1/3 Cup sugar
1 Cup shortening                                            4 teaspoons salt
4 Tablespoons yeast                                      2 Cups warm water
4 eggs, at room temperature                          Enough flour for a sticky dough

Put the shortening in a sauce pan and melt it then add the milk and salt and stir until warmed.  In a bowl mix 2 Cups of flour, sugar, and yeast with water and stir well.  When milk mixture is lukewarm, add eggs and then mix into the flour mixture.  Continue to add flour till you are able to knead the mixture into a soft ball.  Let rise till double.  Roll out on a oiled surface and let rest for about 10 minutes.  Cut and let rest again about 10 minutes. Deep fry - While still warm glaze.

Glaze:
1 Cup warm milk                                    2 Tablespoons corn syrup
1 Tablespoon vanilla                             1 - 2 pound package of powdered sugar

Heat milk and add corn syrup, stir till dissolved and milk is warm.  Add vanilla and powdered sugar and stir till lumps are gone and glaze is smooth.


Optional:  If you don't want to glaze you can dip freshly fried donuts into powdered sugar or granulated sugar.
Also you can make a thicker frosting and frost.

Same Area, New Companion

Dear Family and Friends:

Well, we received the news Tuesday that Elder Vega was headed out of Coronel Oviedo and that I would stay to continue the work here in this wonderful land.  So with that being said Elder Vega desired to visit and say thanks to all the great members here.  It was good.  He was a good missionary and the people enjoyed being around him.  Wednesday, I met up with an elder coming from Caaguazu and spent the time with him until my comp arrived.  My new comp is Elder Cifuentes from Colombia and has been a convert for 7 yrs.  He really is great and has a happy actitud (attitude) about everything.

 We have spent the week getting to know as many members as he can, so that he can have an idea of who lives in our area.  We ended up not being able to meet with Evelyn this week.

This week I have been reading in 3 Nephi and came across chapter 22 vrs. 13-17 and the servants of the Lord have a sweet blessing but there are many people who lose this faith/hope and begin to say stuff like Chpt.24 verses 13-18 (I think).  But yea, just remember the service given in the Kingdom of God does not go unblessed.

I love you all!
Elder Call

Oh and if you could, I would love to receive fotos (photos) of the progress of the temple every 2 weeks or so just to see how it is coming along.

3 Nephi 22
13 And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord; and great shall be the peace of thy children.
14 In righteousness shalt thou be established; thou shalt be far from oppression for thou shalt not fear, and from terror for it shall not come near thee.
15 Behold, they shall surely gather together against thee, not by me; whosoever shall gather together against thee shall fall for thy sake.
16 Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy.
17 No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall revile against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord.

3 Nephi 24
13 Your words have been stout against me, saith the Lord. Yet ye say: What have we spoken against thee?
 14 Ye have said: It is vain to serve God, and what doth it profit that we have kept his ordinances and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of Hosts?
 15 And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yea, they that tempt God are even delivered.
 16 Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another, and the Lord hearkened and heard; and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name.
 17 And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of Hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.
 18 Then shall ye return and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not.

The New Mission President

Today we received a letter and picture from Dallin's new mission president and his wife.  Here is what it said:

Dear Call Family,

On July 1st, 2015 we were called to preside the Paraguay Asunción Mission. It is a great privilege for us to serve with Elder Call here in this beautiful country.

Recently we had an all-mission meeting and were able to meet all of our fantastic missionaries. After taking a picture together, we had a training meeting and special lunch. Attached in this email is the picture we took together with your missionary.

We thank you for your support and love for this great work.

With thanks,

President and Sister Wilson

Life Goes On

Dear Family:

So transfers will be this Wednesday and it will be a coin toss to see who will be leaving the area. This week we spent contacting a ton, dropping almost all of our investigators, because they aren’t progressing and continue fighting against the Spirit.  Thanks to the tradiciones (traditions) that have been planted in their minds.  So we were able to find a bunch of new and super friendly people who all had the same excuse this Sunday, “I have to go vote, but the next Sunday, we will put our effort in going.” So thanks to elections this week many people had a great excuse to decide not to attend the reunions.

This past Wednesday, we had interviews with President Wilson which are always super good but very quick and I was able to receive a new temple recommend because I lost mine in the colectivo (bus), two weeks ago traveling to Asuncion.

The other day we talked to the mother of Evelyn.  It has been close to one month since we have been able to talk and meet with Evelyn, and her mom, Mirna, told us that she is concerned for her daughter and that she has fallen again and isn’t as happy as she was when she was meeting with us. However sad it might seem and the heartache that it gave when I heard that, it just might have been exactly what Mirna needed to see, to allow and support the decision of Evelyn to be baptized!!!! So, we will be talking more tomorrow and start sharing with her once again!!

The Church is led by God himself, who has called a prophet and given him the power to perform all of the saving ordinances of the gospel.  Only one man can possess that power on the earth at one time and his name now is Thomas S. Monson, the prophet of God in the latter days.

I love you and Life goes ON!!!! Christ is resurrected!

Love you all,
Elder Call

P.S.  We received the package.  It was an amazing surprise.  It arrived super fast.   Elder Vega was super excited to have his bottle of Mapleline.  So, thank you from the bottom of my heart and Elder Vega says hi and thank you as well.

One Year

Hello to my Mother, Family and Friends,

So, this week it finally stopped raining and Thursday, and we saw the sun.  Everybody has a ton of clothes hanging on their fences and anything else they could hang their clothes on to dry the things out.

Wow, so officially, one year has come and gone and now the life of the mission is half way over. The things I have learned greatly here in Paraguay, is that every blessing is inseparable tied to a law in heaven and if we complete the law we will receive the blessings!!!

Way too often, we as humans say to God, “Perfect, if you want me to go to church, then give me a job where I only have to work Monday thru Friday and then I will be sure that I won’t miss a single Sunday.'' Or, “if you want me to stop smoking, take away my life problems, so that I can find peace and comfort without having to rely on cigarettes, and then I will stop smoking.'' But that is the opposite of how the things work; because the blessings and miracles come after the trail of our faith. Really, the need to humble ourselves before the counsels (consejos) of the Lord is essential. If we exercise our faith, then we will become strong to the point where we will not fear.

Mom, my hernia just continues as it is, sometime bothering me, but the vast majority of the time without any pain.

I have looked into sending a package to you guys, but I have been told that to send 1 kg to the States, it will cost 450,000 Guarani’s, which is almost 100 dollars, so that isn’t going to happen.

The Paredes’ family told us this past week that they don’t want to continue or change religions because we don’t believe in Saints and don’t recite things.  We explained it all to them and they understood but still don’t want to change.

The Rojas family is doing great.  I allowed them to barrow the cartoons of Living Scriptures of the Book of Mormon and they really enjoyed them. We had planned and prepared for the baptism of the uncle, Mario, last Saturday, but he ended up not coming and hid from us Sunday. We will see what occurred there and how we can be of help.

We were able to find a family, the Arce’s, of which one of the daughters is already a member but isn’t active.  They are great and we will see if we can help get them to the Church. They are super nice and many missionaries have passed and worked with them but the last ones that had visited them were two years back.  So we will see what can be done.

I love this Gospel and all that it entails, because, it holds all the truth in the world, even to the point where Joseph Smith summed it up by saying, “Well folks, the thing is that us Mormons believe anything and everything that is true and that is what Mormonism is.  Really search for truth and learn from the greatest books on earth.

I love you all and hope for the best.
Elder Call