Our 75 year old miracle named Carlos/ Bella Vista: Round 3...

Monday, April 18, 2011

Hello to all!

First things first, I wanted to officially apologize for not being able to write a letter last week. Things were beyond crazy. We had to go out to a different area during the middle of P-day to do a baptismal interview and help set up everything for their baptism, which took a long time. Then after traveling all the way back to our area late, we realized that my companion left his phone back in their area, so we had to ask a bunch of random people here to use their phone to call the AP´s, to figure out our number, to call it, so that we could arrange how to get the phone back. Then we tried to do Internet and the cyber here did not work. Long story short, we were not able to write last week, we did not even write President Madariaga. So, I hope you can forgive me, and let it be known that I will write every single week that it is possible haha.
Big news is that we got changes this week, and I am staying for my 3rd change here in Bella Vista A, and am still with my trainer, Elder Olson. Double luck right there. I love the area and my companion, so I am really excited. Another bonus is that Colligan is staying in Aregua still, which is in the same zone, so the luck still continues!
On the contrary, I got pretty sick these last 2 weeks and threw up a few times. I think it was from the meat we ate from our lunch appointment, I am not sure. I also sprained my ankle really badly playing basketball at the church for our morning exercises. And to top things off, yesterday after putting on my new clean sheets for my bed, i opened up the blanket and about 25 dead ants came out...not positive about how that happened, but I have had a bunch of weird bites on my hands that I get in the night, so I bought a bunch of stuff to cure the problem, and hope it works. And there is tons of mosquitoes here, and Dengue has been a big problem. I sure hope I don't get it.
Elder Foster of the Second Quorum of the Seventy came to our mission this last week. Everyone was really scared because last month Elder Foster of the First Quorum came and made some great changes to the mission, along with scaring everyone (in a good way haha). Elder Foster talked only to the DL´s and ZL´s, and so my companion went and told me that Elder Foster talked about the importance of working with members, and Ward Council to improve our wards and the people we teach. Its true, its the members responsibility to help the missionaries find and teach the people that are ready to change and improve their lives, so as members of the Church, lets help the missionaries find those who are ready!
Speaking of members, I know I´ve said it many times, but I am in the coolest ward ever here. We had 179 people in church, which was average attendance for the ward, but I am almost positive is the highest in our entire mission. I love the members here and the people I have been blessed to work with. I know that it has been a tender mercy of the Lord to be in this area, with a great companion, great members and people to teach, and to be in the best mission in the world. Its overwhelming at times, because of how great it is to be here, and so I am trying my best to enjoy every moment of it and help others come unto Christ.
We have an awesome investigator named Carlos. Last week, he found the other Bella Vista elders randomly and said "I know that the Book of Mormon is true. I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet. I want to be baptized." hmm... What great news it was to get that phone call from the others (because he lives in our area, so we are teaching him). So, we go there practically every day. He knows a lot about the church, and we have had a lot of "big lessons" about the earlier days and history of the church, which has been a new experience, but good at the same time. He has gone to church many times in the past, went the last two weeks, and is planning on getting baptized this Saturday. There is still a few things we have to figure out and help him with to meet this goal, it is not set and stone yet, but our President is supposed to come tomorrow to meet with him. He is 75 years old, and I don't think he has much more in the tank. He has a great heart, and always tells us that he wants to be baptized so he can receive the Holy Ghost, and feel its guidance in his life. Its been a great couple weeks teaching him, I will make sure to let you know how everything works out!
Like my mom said in her letter to me, "It's a great day to be alive. It's a great time to live on the earth. It's a great time to serve. It's a great time to share the gospel." I am beyond grateful to be here in Paraguay and to be on a mission. Its been an incredible 5 months (yes how time flies), and I can`t wait to see what the future brings. Thanks for all the prayers, keep me and the people here in them. I love you guys, and hope you all have a great week.

¡Hasta Luego!
Elder Babcock

Love the Splits

Well this week was just absolutely fantastic! Tuesday a few priests from the ward went on splits with me and my compañero. Yeah it gave me a lot of confidence in Spanish, and it provided me the opportunity to practice completely in Spanish. My comp for the day was David Lara, he is preparing for a mission, but still is super timid about bearing his testimony. I tried my hardest to help him feel comfortable, but also try to encourage him to try so he could learn how to do a contact. We contacted in the streets when we feel like we need to talk to a person, or we go knocking doors. Its pretty fun for me to try and find new people to teach. And on splits, we did. We had a lesson with a new person, the difference with this lesson, is that my comp from the barrio doesn't know the leccions. Anyway it was an opportunity to teach the complete first lesson. I guess i have improved a lot, cause she accepted a return visit and hopefully understood what the heck i was saying, cause it really is the most important message in the world. Another experience that i would love to share is that this week we had a great spiritual experience. We have an investigator named Ricardo, we have been visiting him for a month or so and we only platice (discuss) outside his house. We really wanted to enter his house and talk to his whole family. So yesterday we asked if we could teach with his family, he said he doesn't think they wanted to, we just asked if we could sing a hymn. He said yeah, with whoever wanted to. So we started singing families can be together forever with just us and him, and eventually his whole family joined. I shared my testimony of my family and realmente en como podamos ser una familia eterna (and how we can really be an eternal family). It was really special, we said a prayer and left feeling super good. They loved it and hopefully we can have more lessons with his family. I'm loving serving a mission and am so grateful for all the opportunities i have already had. Thanks for all that everyone has helped me with in my life to be able to serve a mission. I love you all and pray for you every day. Please pray for the people we are teaching and for the people that are being prepared to open their doors to the missionaries. Love

Taylor's First E-mail from the MTC...One week in

what a crazy week. i only have 14 minutes left to email i will write as much as i possibly can. so the first day when i got here there was my host that took me around and showed me everything. we went to my room, dropped off my stuff, and i went straight to class. they throw you right into the work. i dont spend any time in my room, our classroom is basically our home. so the first day was really chaotic, but i felt really good about being here. most of the other days have been the same, we usually wake up (always at 6:30...) and either shower first thing or go to gym or do our service project once a week. i wake up at 6:30 every morning and the first couple of days it was no problem. i was surprised that i wasnt dead tired. but then a few days in it started getting harder to stay awake in class. i havent fallen asleep in class once, but when i am that tired i cant really focus and i dont get much out of studying. our class time is split like this... if we have 8 hours of class a day... 4 hours are spent with a teacher in the room. those 4 hours are split in 2 hours of learning about church stuff, and 2 hours about language. then the other 4 hours are split up with about 1 1/2 hours of companionship study (going over PMG basically) 1 1/2 hours of language, and 1 hour of personal. conference was good. i was really looking forward to it because everything else here is crazy and i thought it would be relaxing. which it was but we had to sit in really uncomfortable seats all 10 hours of it. i am not very good at retaining information from conference like stories and topics and whatnot, but i felt like my testimony grew. johns bedroom was in the same building as mine and so every night when we got back to our rooms at 9:30 i could go hang out with him until 10:15. that was really cool i loved seeing john here. i see landon smart at all my meals too and tevin cullimore is in my building too on my same floor and he makes me laugh every night. my companion is a good guy he is really proper and likes to follow the rules exactly. that is not how i am... but its good. hard, but good. there were 9 people in our district but one got moved out cause he knew spanish too well. there is one kid in my district who is really funny his name is elder memmott i call him mammoth cause he kinda looks like the mammoths on ice age. he makes me laugh a lot. he and his companion are going to peru and just got a letter saying that their visas wont be coming when they thought they would so they will be here for at least an extra week (originally it was 3 weeks here total for them, then the peru mtc for 5). i am working on my testimony and i learn more every day.
Love you all,
Elder Millet

La Mision y Conferencia

Lesson of the week... What a blessing we don't have hot water. It was eighty five degrees in the night last night with who knows how much humidity. Sheets felt like the xray blanket thing the dentist puts on you. After exercise in the morning, i took a shower, felt soooooo good nice and freezing. Problem is the towel doesn't dry :) Its been a pretty fun week Really nothing crazy, except i learned how to make gorditas, i want to cook mexicano when i return... its super good. Anyway its fun to teach new people that have never heard of the gospel and are open to the message. Cant believe it has already been six weeks here in Mexico... and i have another six in this ward. Its a great ward now that i am getting used to everyone. So this week was of course... conference. It was fantastic. Things i missed (Sleeping in and waking up to waffles ...(I celebrated and made a banana pancake)...and bacon and the family. Cafe Rio after priesthood session (I had a mango which was good, but no Cafe Rio) and sleeping in the sun on the carpet for like the whole day) things i didn't miss ( the messages of conference) ha ha cause i was awake and actually paying attention. It is weird to think that six months ago i was riding home in the truck with my dad after taking a four wheel adventure ride and thinking "I have plenty of time to enjoy before my mission." yeah it went quick. New elders came in from Utah, i have improved with language and with being comfortable in my environment, things are still tuff, and i still don't understand everything, but I'm working on it. Weird food... i just came from a house where we had soup, with the spinal cord bones of i think a pig but not really sure, and we sucked the cooked marrow out of it, not too bad, but not fantazzy. Fantastic foods. Gorditas, but they are super fattening, i have probably gained like five pounds but they are heavenly. there are a lot of different types. First you have maseca or corn flour but really good, make a dough and press them into a cookie shape, cook them on a platter and cut a slit in them kinda like a coin purse, and you stuff whatever you want in them. They are delicious. There are also gorditas of sugar, kinda like a really fattening really tastey cookie. One talk that i liked this week was given by Henry Erying in Saturday morning, "Preach my gospel... and if necessary... use words." First is that this is a great principle for me, don't speak the language to well but through service and example, we can communicate that we a representative of Jesus Christ and here really to help the people, temporally and also in coming unto Christ. Not only are we serving but "Join with Him (Jesus Christ) in serving." He is with us, he is always there to help us... and the promise "a Man can not give a crust to the Lord, without receiving a loaf." I love serving and when i serve, especially in small things like helping a grandma or such, i feel blessed to be a missionary. Service is a principle of giving, In one talk it was said, "How great is it to meet your needs and to reach out to help someone else to fulfill their needs" But i think even more of a Christ like thing to do it to help someone else meet their needs, and to have faith enough to know that God will provide for your own needs in the future. Missionary work is pretty good, I'm hoping it continues to get better. Pray for the people of Matamoros. Thank you

Photos from Mexico

My Companion; My area; My apartment; My Mission President

MTC at last

Today has been a really crazy day. The first thing I did was go through tons of different check points. They are really efficient here. Then we went to our lass and had introductions and expectations and just talked for about 2 hours. I love our teacher, she seems really cool and spiritual. She just returned home form a mission 6 months ago. There are 9 Elders in my district. 5 of us are going to Oaxaca. The others are going to Peru and I think Bolivia. My companions name is Elder Pederer, he is from Canada. He is awesome and we get along well. He wasn't sure he wanted to serve a mission when he was 19 and so he waited 2 years. He is now 21, has a strong testimony and is ready to serve. We went to dinner where I saw Brett Grant and John! It was the highlight of the day. We went to a meeting with all new missionaries and the MTC President talked to us. We then had a role play session where investigators (actors) came and we were told to listen to them and find their needs. It was great! One thing is "I can't chew gum!" Oh, well.

Remember the Vision ...

Monday, April 4, 2011

Hello to all!

This week was incredible to say the least. I have had so many spiritual opportunities that I dont know where to begin, but I guess I will try! As many of you probably saw, General Conference came around this weekend, and it was spectacular to say the least. We went into nearby Luque to the stake center to watch all 5 sessions, it was what we like to called the missionaries "spring break". I saw all of the sessions (in English, which was a blessing), except for Sunday Morning, because there were complications with the connection and so everyone watched a re-run of Sat. Morning. I guess I will just have to wait for the Liahona to come out to read those. However, what an incredible conference weekend it was. I particularly enjoyed all the messages of the First Presidency (President Monson's talk in Priesthood Session especially), Elders Holland, Christofferson, Anderson, Grow, and Nelson, just to name a few. Some of the main themes I noticed (even though Elder Holland powerfully expressed that they are not given topics, but however are guided by the Spirit) was the importance of families and temple marriages, and living up to our personal spiritual potential. Conference Weekend is such an incredible opportunity each of us have to improve our lives: to understand our strengths, weaknesses, and reflect on what we can do to better ourselves and our families. I know that President Monson is the living prophet of God, and that in this very day God speaks to his children (also Elder Holland talked about, what a great talk, I cant stop referring to it). I had a great experience learning many new things, and my desire to improve my own life and the lives of others has been improved as well. The bad news is now we have to wait another 6 months!
Also this week, we made our semi-annual mission trip to the Asunción Temple. It was a very spiritual experience for me personally. I love temples, and the true importance of them. The work done in temples is sacred, and provides to us the necessary saving ordinances of life. I really enjoyed the experience, but at the same time am sad that I have to wait another 6 months (for the temple too) to go again.
My comp is zone leader and shared a cool thing to our zone, which was 3 things to do to be happy on the mission: 1st- look for a reason to smile. 2nd- look for blessings. 3rd- remember the vision. I have been trying to incorporate these things into my mission, and have already seen the blessings and happiness I have felt because of doing those things. Also, he said to look at your plaque often, and who you are representing. I love that suggestion, and always try to remember that.
We taught many lessons this week, two of which I wanted to share: first, we taught a 17 year old kid named Emelio. His parents left him at a young age, and has been through many hard times with depression and suicide. He attends the local Catholic church and enjoys it, but has an LDS friend that is a great example to him, and wanted to talk to the missionaries. He lives with his Aunt, and she wouldn't let us meet at his house, so we went to the nearby plaza in the Villa Policia and taught one of the most powerful lessons of the restoration with him. Even in the middle of a busy park, we were able to testify and teach with the Spirit, and he accepted a baptismal date, and I feel really good about him. He has the desires to better his life, and I know that if he puts in the sincere effort, he will receive his answer and know what to do. Second, we have been working with a 12 year old girl named Soledad, who lives with all members and goes to church every sunday, yet hasn't been baptized and hasn't yet understood its importance. We went in and read Alma 34:30-33 (if you have time read these) and genuinely taught to her needs. The Spirit was so strong, and she committed to baptism at the end of this week, right before changes. I hope she too puts in the work to know for herself, and prepares herself for that special day.
I love the mission, I have never been so happy in my life. I love my companion, he is a great friend and example for me. It is already as if we have been friends for a lifetime, yet its only been a couple months. I have been blessed to have such an incredible companion, and love him so much. I love my area in Bella Vista. I love the language, and the work. I love my family, I know that we can be together forever. I love my friends, and the examples in my life. Thanks for all that you do, I wish I could spend an hour and talk to each one of you and thank you for what you do, but since that is impossible, I wanted to publicly thank all of you for the love, compassion, service, and support. Keep me and the people here in your prayers. Lets all remember the vision, and the plan that God has for each one of us. Lets live up to our potentials and do what we know to be right and true.
Until next week,
Elder Babcock