Dog Bite

Hello to all!
Things are just "tranquilo-pa" here. Its super rainy and my feet are freezing, but all is well. I had a pretty great morning today, I will end with that at the end of the letter.
I am enjoying getting to know this new area. I did a division in a neighboring area, and we worked so hard all day but got rejected and rejected and rejected. Our very last visit, we clapped at a house, and a great 18 year old kid let us in, and accepted an invitation to be baptized. It was great to see that the Lord tries our patience and diligence, we just have to be obedient and have a good attitude about it!  We have a good little teaching pool right now. We had 4 investigators in church that all attended for their last time to technically be eligible for baptism, 3 are sons of a lady who was less active for a long time, but has been reactivating and they are all looking good. We are teaching a lady who has been really depressed and is trying to overcome Word of Wisdom addictions. We went by to visit her, and her neighbors said that she had moved, so that discouraged us a little bit, but we got in touch and turns out she hadn't moved. She went to church yesterday, and is also preparing, so that seems like it will be a great day. She has a lot of faith, not the faith that is believed or said, but actually put in practice! I was really proud of her desires to change by making it to church!
We are working hard, I am enjoying my new area a lot. My companion is going home in a few weeks.  He has a lot of great qualities that I am trying to acquire. I am trying to follow his steps and be a good leader like he is. Our zone is kind of struggling right now with progressing investigators towards baptism, but I hope to be able to help so that those weaknesses become strengths.
Funny story of the week has to go with a contact I did yesterday. A guy was sitting outside of his house up to nothing, and a big focus of our mission is finding future priesthood holders, so I decided to talk to him. We got talking, the normal conversation starters, when he starts talking bad about our temple in Asuncion, and that "we put it up there to show how rich the United States is, and that he hates all Americans". He said a lot of really bold and offensive stuff not only about Americans, but about God, religion, etc. Things went downhill fast, but we testified and tried to help. Sadly, he rejected us pretty good. So on our way out I am turning to walk away when his little yappy dog (kind of like Mia) jumps up and bites my calf haha. I just had to laugh the whole situation off and know that things would get better. Even though its important to talk to everyone, that contact went down as probably the worst contact ever.
This morning, since we are right next door to my first area and there is a member there that makes famous Guampas and Bombillas (cup and straw to drink Terere and Mate), we got permission to go there because my companion was looking to buy some. We clapped, and they recognized me quickly and all looked so happy. It was awesome to catch up with them, I realized that it had been about 9 months since I had seen them! They were feeling generous, they gifted me a really fancy Bombilla. They live right by a couple, who I had baptized back in July. So we clapped at their house, and I got to say hi to her for just a second, because he wasn't home. She said that they are doing fine, He is the Elders Quorum President (exciting huh!), and that they are preparing well to go to the temple in July-ish with me! I felt so happy to see that they were doing great, and still preparing well for the temple. I really love them and cannot wait for July time.
I am loving the mission. It has been flying by, and I have been trying to just catch all the good moments. I wanted to quickly share from 2 Nephi 32, I was reading in it this morning. I really like verses 3 and 5 that talk about how the Spirit tells us ALL the things we need to do. What a great promise! The Lord, in all his wisdom, has left us with such a powerful gift that will guide us always, as long as we are worthy and obey its promptings. I am especially thankful for the Holy Ghost and that at the age of 8 my parents taught me the importance of baptism by "water" and by "fire".
Thanks for all the support, keep us here in your prayers. Love you all!
Until next week,
Elder Babcock