Elder Arnold (of the Seventy) . . .

Monday, February 28, 2011

Well, another great and busy week in Paraguay!

Started things off great with a division with my good buddy Elder Colligan! A few months ago, great friends. Now in Paraguay as companions for a day. We had only been here a month, and had the whole day in my area to work and teach. It started off pretty loco when we visited a recent convert named Juan Bautista (yes John Baptist, great name). We shared our scripture and were leaving when the daughter came running for us and asked if we could give a blessing, because Juan´s wife was really sick. So Colligan did the oil, and I was able to give my first blessing here, all in Spanish. It was a pretty scary experience, given that I dont know the language perfectly yet, but it was really spiritual and I enjoyed it. After that we continued our crazy day by visiting a member that decided that the Book of Mormon isn't true, and tried to bible bash us about it...weren't expecting that one. Then we went to another member lady who had gotten in a fight with a neighbor and had all these bruises and cuts, and was missing a tooth. we had planned the day being a lot of quick spiritual thoughts and short lessons...that just shows that as a missionary, no matter how long you´ve been here or how much experience you have, things happen that you cant prepare for. That's when you just pray for the Spirit, and for help from up above. It was a great day though, one of the best here.

The weather in Paraguay is crazy. In a matter of days it went from 105 and humid in our area, to flooded, muddy, cold, wet streets. This country is so unpredictable every single day, and I´m loving the opportunity to grow and learn. Speaking of that, I got a haircut on Monday, and just asked for an average cut, nothing big. However, I walked out of that hair cut place with the shortest hair I´ve ever had in my life. You live and you grow, and i´m hoping my hair somewhat grows back soon.

So the big news here in Luque and in the mission this week is that the area president is here...President Arnold of the Seventy...He came here and interviewed all the Zone Leaders, including my comp. Basically he "dropped cane" on the mission, and everything will be different soon (in a good way). Supposedly our mission has the reputation of being a high baptizing successful mission, but at the same time a very disobedient mission. Its sad because its true, so many elders here waste their two years away, and I am glad he came and has put the mission back in order. Some bad news is that I might be leaving this area, because they are thinking about going back to 2 zone leaders everywhere, which leaves me to go somewhere else. I hope not, but I'll be happy wherever I am. Also, we had stake conference, where the president of the area (Arnold), mission (Madariaga), and temple (Yudall) all talked. There was 998 people there, the church is really strong in my area. I love the Luque area its awesome.

I wanted to thank my mom and my family for this book they sent me. It included each of their testimonies, and then songs, poems, scriptures all about our Savior. I had a really spiritual personal study this week where I had a bunch of questions, and so I prayed, and then read in that book. I usually am not a big cryer, but this one really got to me, and so I wanted to just say thank you to my family for everything, I love them more than words can express.

I read in DyC 31 3-5 (sorry this keyboard is limited) which talked about the mission call of Thomas Marsh, and it is a really cool section, especially for those serving right now or will serve in the near future. Verse 5 says "Therefore, thrust in your sickle with all your soul, and your sins are forgiven you, and you shall be laden with sheaves upon your back, for the laborer is worthy of his hire, wherefore, your family shall live." There are limitless blessings to those who choose to serve the Lord. It is a privilege and an honor to be here in Paraguay. There isn´t anywhere Id rather be then here serving and helping others find Christ. I recently completed 3 months in the mission, which isn´t much, but I can honestly say I love the mission in every aspect.

Thanks for the letters and emails, keep in touch. miss you all and love you guys. pray for me and the people of Paraguay. Ciao.

Con Amor,

Elder Babcock

I'm pretty sure I've gained 11 pounds

Hey family and friends and whatnots.

How is normal life treating ya? All things are under control here. We taught in Finnish again this week and it was still really rocky but much better than last week. From day to day you do not see any progress but you can really see the difference from one week to another...Its kinda like when i was growing my hair out and it never seemed like it was growing but than i would look at a picture and notice the difference. That is how i am learning Finnish... one tenth of an inch at a time!

I saw brett grant in here this week. Haha it was great to see the guy and got me pumped for when tay mil will get here. me and tay will only have like a week lapse but i will work hard to see my brosky.

Man i have been here five weeks. that is so weird to think. Theres a saying in the MTC that the days are like weeks and the weeks are like days. ha and it is really true. I am almost half way done here and it is finally dawning on me how much more things i need to learn and do. It seems like you have a ton of time, but you really dont and so when yall come, work like a mad doggg.

How are things going with Housten, is it a good fit and do you guys think you could keep it up for the next 2 years? lemme know. I sometimes feel like me and dad are sort of doing the same sort of thing. Something hard and lonely but nontheless important and necessary. Its helps me to know that i have parents with so much grit.

I am wearing my glasses in class now and would like it if someone could send me some chums (that thing that goes on old people glasses). any kind of chums would work.

Also, (im lookin at sisters/andy/friends here) if you ever see any cool or funny little stickers, you should send a few my way. I want to sort of pimp out my tag (on the backside of course). Ive seen some pretty interesting stickers here, and mine is pretty boring.

Also. Get ready for this one... I dont want that much junk food sent to me. There is so much here from everybodys packages and the english elders leave so often that we have a small mountain of junk food in our room right now. so im pretty set. Now dont get me wrong.... still send starbursts and/or skittles but i dont need so much of the other stuff. Maybe just something healthier i can snack on... I am saying this cuz i am pretty sure i have gained 11 pounds. Im not used to eating everything i want and gaining weight!! its madness. Its cuz we barely do anything physical here, whereas back home i was movin all day. So thank you, i do love getting packages.

This week i drew a picture of me and andrew going on the pirates of caribean ride. haha i miss my bro. i drew the part where the skull is saying dead man tell no tales and then you drop down the big hill... haha i look at it when i get homesick.

So ya i miss you guys and stuff. Thanks for the letters.

Love you all.

Vanhin Merkley

Andale

Wow... There is more snoop dog than Spanish, more dogs than Mexicans, and more culture shock than anything. That really sums it up, i really did fall asleep to someone blasting rap, and woke up... at six thirty to someone playing snoop... Nothing like a mission right? Anyway i got in on Monday at about three thirty, after waking up at two thirty in the morning, my mission president picked me up and we went to his house. Super nice house and everything and for our first dinner... Costco pizza and cheesecake. Nothin like reminding you of good ole home. My mission president is great, really just hung out with him for the night and then we met some other missionaries and headed to bed at the mission office. A good night of sleep and in the morning we went to get our visas and make sure everything was good with the government... it was... and i met my new companion, his name is Elder Islas, From Mexico, has been here for almost a year, really a pretty good first companion. We rode a bus for 5 hours to our area... its called matamoros, ward Buena Vista II, and its only about 5 minutes away from the border. I live in Ehido viente? something similar to that on calle 3. Anyway its a pretty good place to start my mission I've heard. I get to ride a bicycle, although i haven't bought one yet so I'm not riding yet. For being so close to America, i don't get mail that often, I hear about once a month, maybe two months. All mail goes through the mission home and then they have to pack it up here or just wait for a transfer if i go down there, so it will take a while. and my companion doesn't know if there is a mail place here to send stuff so well just see how it woks out... keep sending though, i need the love. First Sunday here, everyone just kind of laughs at you and kinda frustrated when you don't understand them, kind of frustrating but its something to motivate you. The ward is good, about forty people or maybe fifty but its all good. i love the food, I'm trying to get used to the climate... it feels like I'm drinking a glass of water at all times cause of the humidity. We have met a few great investigators hopefully they will get baptised soon, we have been knocking on fences like crazy and sweating it out, its really hard work. And I'm sure you read the news so i wont touch on anything like that. But hey there's nothing wrong with a little snoop dog! Our house is super small, when i got there i was like.. really? and we shower with a bucket... no roaches which is good, just bed bugs and ants. But then we went out knocking on doors, and i saw other people living conditions... we live pretty well where we are. Anyway its just super hard work... i hope all is going well with everyone at home... i miss you... i miss understanding things haha

Elder Rhodes

The Angel Kid and the 50 lb guayava bag . . .

Monday, February, 21, 2011

¡Hola!

Well, I had a pretty interesting week, a lot of ups and downs. Overall, it was a good opportunity to learn a lot about myself and about the mission. Saturday morning our ward had a missionary activity, where each elder in the ward went around with a bunch of youth in the ward and invited less/inactive people to come to stake conference next week in Luque. It was interesting going around with a bunch of crazy little kids, and I was pretty nervous because I didn´t have my companion right there in case I didn´t understand something. However, it went really well, and we committed a lot of them to come. The ward here is incredible, I have been ridiculously blessed to start the mission here, I hope to stay for a while.
On Monday night we did a Noche de Hogar with a family in the ward that is less active, which went well. But things weren´t as fun after it got over. We ended up having to carry this huge duffel bag full of guayavas (little apple fruit thing) at about 9 PM, walking with an old lady at her pace, about 4 miles from one house to another. When we were turning on to her street, after the long walk, the duffel bag ripped out because it was too heavy, and all the guayavas spilled and exploded on the ground, leaving them useless. Oh man, that wasn´t the best experience of the mission, but all we could do then was laugh, so we did. Gotta love service!
This week I had one of those cool missionary story experiences. We had planned to visit this family (Alberto y Antonia) later in the day, but for some reason we were on a street somewhat near their house. We heard some little kid yelling at us (in front of their house) and we just kept walking because kids yelling at us happens all the time. However, he kept yelling so we decided to go down and see what was up. As we got near, we noticed that Alberto y Antonia were home, which was a miracle because they are never home and are near impossible to find, but are super golden. So we asked them if they saw some little kid and they said that they had no idea what we were talking about...We looked all around but there was no kid in sight. So we told Alberto y Antonia if it would be alright to come by in 30 minutes because we had an apt. with a nearby investigator. When we returned and we were within eye view of their house, but still far, we saw that same kid again. And once again, when we got closer, he was no where to be found. The cool thing was that we were able to put a baptismal date with the family there, and if we would have gone by later they would not have been home, because they were about to leave. It was a great experience. Olson and I call that kid "The Angel Kid" because he was the little angel that led us back to our great family.
I have had many ups and downs this week with a lot of things, and have learned a lot about the mission, other missionaries, and myself. It bugs me when elders here are only focused on numbers and could care less about the people. I love studying in Preach My Gospel, especially about Teach People, Not Lessons. I have really focused myself this week in improving my ability to connect better with the people here, and serving them. I really do love the mission and have been so blessed to be in Paraguay. I know that there is a reason I was called here, and I hope that I can magnify my calling and be the best missionary I can. Serving a mission is a great experience, and I am excited to see what happens.
Thanks for everything, love you guys. I love hearing from you all through the emails, thanks for taking time out of your busy schedules to write me it means so much. Pray for me and the people here!
-Elder Babcock

Winning the lottery

2/15/11

Hello all. How are you. This week has been good. On thursday we talked finnish for two whole hours in class, and we all understood most of it. So ya its pretty cool, but then i heard two of the teachers speaking to each other and i understood 1 out of every 50 words so that kind of brought me back to earth. haha. We are going to teach our first lesson in Finnish this week. Its pretty scary but awesome at the same time.

I have been getting a lot into four square this week. It is soo fun, anyone who is reading this and is planning on going on a mish i say to you now: play four square. it is boring at first but after a few goes it gets way intense. There is a rivalry between the Finns and the Argentines. haha its pretty funny. They live in our same building so we are always talking trash when we see them, haha.

There was a talk this week about complete obedience and how we need it to reach our full potential. And i agree that obedience is good and all that but the way he was saying it kinda bothered me. But then our second counsy was talking about it after and he said make sure not to let the pendulum swing the other way, it is important to keep your personality and not completely deny yourself. And i thought he was spot on, we need to find the balance between not being selfish but still watching out for ourselves.

The days here are long and i am always tired. I sometimes get in moods where i just do not want to be here. but they do not occur very often anymore. I have already been here 4 weeks and so when i start getting annoyed i just keep telling myself: 8 more weeks til Finland. 8 more weeks til Finland... and it usually goes away. Finland will be hard, but the adventure of being there will make up for a lot of the hard stuff.

I got the families package (and kates). Thanks it was awesome. Getting mail is like winning the lottery, but getting a package is like winning the lottery twice. Everyone here loves their posti. I also got dads usual valentine which is always sweet. Thanks.

All in all. Everything is good here. Companionship is getting along, were teaching well, were learning. I am reading the BOM like a mad man. we have a goal for 18 pgs a day which takes me forever but i am really liking it. The Finnish is slowly coming as well.

But thanks for the letters and dear elders, I love them (*refer back to the lottery comment)

Kittos. Love you all.

John Merkley

MEXICO!!!

Hola como estan? Estoy aqui en Mexico! After a fairly long morning and a few plane rides I made it! It's pretty sweet here, had some snacks with the President, he's super great. But yeah I made it and it looks like I'll meet my trainer mañana and yeah so its all good! It's weird everyone speeks spanish here, kinda interesting... oh well haha love you so much and I'll write you on my pday which I dont know when is. love you soo much!

Phone calls & Flights

Shaun called home on Friday and gave us the message that he is actually leaving for Mexico on Monday. The phone call was short and sweet but stated he would be leaving SLC at 6:00 am on Monday. So today, (Monday) around 5:00 am, through the miracle of 3-way calling (twice), we were able to get all of Shaun's siblings & parents on the phone at one time and visit for a while. We spoke of excitement, nervousness, anticipation, sadness that he couldn't say a proper goodbye to John at the MTC, and exhiliration that he will actually be on Mexican soil later today.

Then around 10 Am today, surprise phone call came from Shaun while he was laid over in Dallas. The Lord works in mysterious ways and today was no different. Shaun's traveling companion's mother just happened to be in Dallas visiting her daughter when the 2 missionaries were scheduled to fly to Mexico. So mother & daughter came to the airport to see her son during the layover. She allowed Shaun to call home as well as send a parting photo of the 2 companions. Much gratitude for this mother to allow this to happen - there's no doubt in my mind that angels are among us. What a payday for a parent to see this...