Ok, before starting, I am letting you know that I had my whole letter written, then my computer broke down and it all erased...So this will be the summary.
The heat has officially arrived, and it is caused my companion and I to by sweet sombrero hats which we proselyte in. We look awesome. This week has been a very fatiguing one, given that we have had only 1 normal night of sleep due to traveling, exchanges, and daylight savings time. But I have come to realize that it is like that here, we have the biggest zone in our mission, the other areas are all between 2-5 hours away. But I love it, its great to be here. We are in the middle of nowhere, and it is a privilege to preach the gospel among my beloved Paraguayos.
Conference was great! It is like the Superbowl of the mission. We were able to bring a few investigators to see it. 2 of them are progressing really well towards baptism right now. They were a referral from our recent convert. They are getting mixed in with the members well, they were telling everyone about their baptism, so that was really cool. It is always a good sign that investigators like the church when that happens. Another investigator that attend is the 17 year old niece of an active member family who is now living with them. She has a very limited understanding of Christ, but feels good at church and also is progressing towards baptism. We continue to work with the boyfriend of a less active member. We went to teach him last week, and felt inspired to teach him about the Book of Mormon, something we had already taught him. As we finished reading the Introduction, we came to the last paragraph, which basically explains what the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon means: that Jesus Christ is the Savior, that Joseph Smith is a true Prophet, and that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the Kingdom of the Lord on earth. As we read it, I felt a strong impression to ask him if he had come to know that Joseph Smith was a Prophet. He is a timid guy, so I did not expect anything big, which might have been a lack of faith on my part. He responded by explaining that when we watched the Joseph Smith movie, he felt a peace in his heart that he had never felt before. He bore testimony to me of the truthfulness of our church. Wow, what a powerful thing to hear! What would have happened if we would have never followed up on the video we saw? We followed that by reading Mosiah 18 about the baptismal covenant, and committed him to be baptized. It was a testimony builder to me that the Lord, by the Spirit, works miracles. Be it the miracle of being inspired to ask a question, or answering someone about the truthfulness of this work, it is by that same Spirit, and is the only way to learn spiritual truths.
Crazy story of the week goes to my companion, who while leaving a lesson, had his head down and ran into a wire fence, which gashed his eye very badly. We were far from the hospital and it was way hot, so we had to make a huge walk to the hospital to get it checked out. I felt so bad, because the sweat from his forehead would enter into his cut, and he would say how bad it hurt. It is healing slowly but surely. I consoled him by saying that it would be a cool scar (because I love scars), to which he responded, "Ya I'm not a fan of face scars" ha ha he has a great attitude. He always seems to be able to laugh off the tough things. I am learning a lot from him.
I did a division with Elder Miner, my MTC companion. It was great. Though Joseph would like to know, he says hi!
Today we had our Zone Training, Elder Sorrell and I taught our zone about teaching skills and diligence. I love Moroni 9:6, it has become one of my theme scriptures of my mission that keeps me going when I feel like I have nothing left. I invite you all to read it again and put goals to be more diligent and dedicated in whatever calling or responsibility you have as a member of the church.
I got transfers today, and I will be staying here with Elder Sorrell for my last transfer. Time is flying by. I am working hard and taking advantage of every opportunity I have to preach the gospel here in this short time as a full-time missionary. I loved Elder Hollands message from conference. The Lord needs us to serve him forever. He has asked us to "leave our nets" forever. I know that even though they say that the mission is 2 years, it is forever. I am excited to leave it all in the field and come home with nothing left. Because that is the only way to do it, any other way wouldn't be fair, would be right.
I love you all! Keep us in your prayers.
Until next week,
Elder Babcock
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